Krond Heights and Goblin Deeps part 6: Halflings, with Bugans at a Glance

 Halflings

The halflings of the Krond Heights followed human explorers from Brandobia and Eastern Brandobia into the mountains, settling in the congenial river bottoms while their tall companions took the sunnier middle heights. Brandobian society has always looked down upon non-humans, and the halfling hope was to find homes that would allow them to start anew. They did so, but not in a way that was expected.

In the mountains, the kingdom of Kruk-ma-Kali began long before it’s “official” inception in 22 IR; the goblins took the abandoned K’Ran’dan city of Gold in 15 IR, and began expanding into its nearby valleys soon after that. They quickly subjugated the halfling communities, and were on the verge of destroying them when certain halflings came to the goblin chiefs with a proposal: Leave us our settlements in peace, and we will provide you food and fealty. The goblins, loathe to do the hard agricultural labor, saw the advantage of having a client-race, and agreed. The result is that halflings are mostly unmolested, and have even thrived as a useful client of the goblins.

 

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Harfoot Halflings

The standard halfling of the Krond Heights is a Harfoot, or Stout, halfling. As such, they do not have the ability to Hide in Natural Surroundings, and instead have a free mastery die in Blacksmithing. Because of the heavy tribute due to the goblins, halfling and bugan BMI in the Krond Heights is rolled on a d12p (maximum 20), not a d20.

***

 

A few rules govern the halfling and goblin interactions. Fear of execution, and a general lack of fun (most of the halflings don’t fight back), are the levers that keep goblins in line. Any crime against a halfling that is judged against the goblin results in the goblin’s execution. Goblins may still strike halflings at will, but any severe injury or maiming (much less killing) may be reported by a halfling to their overseer, or to the superiors of the goblin in question. If the goblin is found guilty (as they sometimes are, especially if there are several witnesses, or if the goblin is politically inconvenient), then the goblin is simply killed. This applies to halfling women, as well, and rape by a goblin tends to get the halflings up in arms. While it is technically illegal for halflings to kill goblins outside of formal challenges, more than one goblin has been lynched by an angry mob, with few repercussions on the mob. Goblins are allowed largely unrestricted petty theft, though major thefts may, again, be reported and result in the goblin’s execution.

Halflings who strike a goblin are considered to have challenged the goblin, even if the strike is in retaliation for something. Halflings who don’t want to challenge goblins must endure their beatings without retaliating. Such informal challenges are relatively common among goblins, and can result in a beating, provided no weapon is drawn. If the halfling wins, he is often challenged by another goblin as soon as they are able (a number of days equal to the halfling’s fingers is standard), and again, repeatedly, until the halfling is beaten or, more rarely, until the local goblins don’t dare stand against him. Some rare halflings enter the goblin ranks this way, and there are even small cadres of halflings who function within goblin society, with halfling sergeants answering to goblin captains.

Halflings are also limited in the weapons they are allowed to keep, more strictly than the humans are by the giants. They are allowed no armor, though padded jackets and the like are not considered armor. They may have knives, daggers, clubs, staves, and slings. They also have a number of agricultural tools which may be pressed into service as a weapon, such as flails, mauls, axes, and scythes. There are even some pole-arms, such as bills, fauchards, and guisarmes, though these are not handy for halflings, being too large.

 

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Halfling Sized Weapons and Tools

Halflings make use of a number of tool-like weapons that are sized for their diminutive frames. When a Large weapon is resized for halflings, reduce its effective reach by 1 foot per 5 feet of length (in addition to the halfling’s own penalty), reduce the damage die size by 1, increase the speed by 2, and remove the +3 to damage. Thus, a halfling using a medium-sized scythe would see it do 2d4p damage, with a reach of only 2 ½ feet; -1 foot for a halfling sized weapon, and -1 foot for being in the hands of a halfling. A halfling-sized long spear would do 2d4p damage, with a 9 foot reach; the spear’s normal 13 foot is reduced by 3 for being halfling-sized, with another 1 foot penalty in the hands of a halfling). In no case can the reach of a weapon exceed three times the height of the wielder; a halfling using a 10 foot spear needs to be at least 3’4”.

***

 

Like the humans up the mountains, the halflings grow grains, vegetables, and raise herd animals. In the Omdal river valley near the city of Tin, these animals are most often sheep, with some llamas and goats; near Gold and the other lands that drain to Lake Vrasten, these are almost exclusively llamas, though some goats are also kept. Grains near Tin are wheat, barley, and rye; near Gold, they grow far more rice. The vast majority of this food is taken by the goblins, with the halflings receiving only slightly more than subsistence levels of food, which they stretch as far as they can.

The official religion of the halflings is that of the Shackler; they are reminded that they are slaves of the goblins, granted extraordinary freedom by the beneficence of their masters. The Shackler’s priests inform them, again and again, that they can be wiped out at their master’s whim, and that only their continued usefulness makes them worthy of slavery, not death. Attendance at four services to the Shackler each year is mandatory, though, aside from the summer solstice, there is flexibility on which services a halfling attends. All must attend the summer solstice festival, and the individual beaten is always some criminal from the year before, or a priest or anointed follower of another religion. Being anointed to the Shackler affords a halfling a degree of protection from goblin predation, though it results in social opprobrium from most halflings. “A very useful halfling” is a common phrase to describe such a one, and variations in tone can make that a statement of true approval or deepest scorn.

More respectable halflings follow The Home Foundation, the House of Life’s Fire, Church of Everlasting Hope, or The Founder’s Creation. Becoming anointed to one of these is dangerous, as the priests of the Shackler may use them in the summer solstice ritual, but they align more closely with the average halfling’s values. There have been attempts in the past by the Face of the Free to begin a cult in the valleys, but they have been stymied by the average halfling’s willingness to “not upset the apple cart because of a few bad apples”, and the goblins’ willingness to slaughter villages who shelter dissidents.

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Bugans at a Glance

 

Ability adjustments

-3 Strength

-1 Wisdom

+2 Dexterity

+1 Constitution

-2 Looks

-1 Charisma

 

Bugan Pros:

One free purchase of Hiding, Sneaking, and Listening

Harder to hit: +4 to defense

Hiding in Natural Surroundings (in the Krond Heights, they have Blacksmithing, instead)

Low Light Vision

+10% to Observation when scent is involved.

 

Bugan Cons:

Size small for HP and Knock-backs.

Short stature means they move at ½ the speed of humans.

-1 foot reach with weapons

Native Goblin Language (must purchase others).

 

Preferential Talent Access:

May purchase the following talents at 50% BP cost:

*Blind-fighting, Pain Tolerant, Poison Resistant, Tough as Nails, Crack Shot, Greased Lightning (for slings only)

 

Fighter 30

Ranger 35

Barbarian 40

Thief 25

Rogue 50

Assassin 45

Mage 75

Fighter/Mage 55

Fighter/Thief 25

Mage/Thief 50

Cleric 40

 

Bugans are halflings with significant goblin blood, but raised in the halfling and bugan communities of the Krond Heights river valleys. Though their reactions are a touch slower than a standard halfling, they have better (and bigger) ears and noses, and large eyes that drink up light on dark nights. In their own communities, bugans have relatively few social problems, and are treated as any other halfling might be; outside of the Krond Heights, bugans whose goblin blood is revealed find most races react to them more negatively.

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Short entry this week, because next week will be about the Hoar Frost Giants and, if I think there's room, Her.

Krond Heights and Goblin Deeps, part 5: History of the Krond Heights, and Humans

 History

According to the Hoar Frost Giants, they have ruled the Krond Heights since the War of the Gods, nay, since the Fall of the Titans! Their might cowed the land, and none dare stand before them! The dwarves, who were here before, they fell because they sought to unseat the giants from their rightful place! The goblins creep beneath their feet, and the men, whom the gods favored, now kneel to the mighty kings of the Hoar Frost!

The facts are not quite so clear as that, but there is truth in what they say. The giants of the Krond Heights have never been seriously challenged for supremacy. Their politics and internal wars aside, they have long lived on the mountain peaks, with only one clear challenger, and She is content to let them play their games so long as it does not interfere with Her contemplations. When the K’Ran’dan dwarves held sway underground, some thousand years ago, they did not challenge the giants seriously, only win temporary victories that were wiped away as the giants shifted against them. The Helvetians who once lived in the hills did not challenge the giants, but brooked no interference with their lives. With the fall of K’Ran’da came the gargoyles, who moved into the Helvetian ruins, but they lacked the might and organization to seriously challenge giantish control.

Those who served the giants shifted as time went on, as well. Ogres have remained largely constant, but orcs are relative newcomers. Prior to the dissolution of the empire of Kruk-ma-Kali, hobgoblins were common in the mountains, spilling out through the Odrill Hills to harry Brandobia. After that, most of their population shifted south, to Norga-Krangrel. The human inhabitants were primarily small, isolated groups of Dejy, western relatives of the lowland Bylenjy, until approximately 60 B.I.R. (Before Imperial Reckoning, the Kalamaran Standard; Year of the King 421 by the Brandobian standard).

Trade between Brandobia and the nascent Eastern Brandobia had expanded to the point where the Krond Heights were being heavily explored for settlement and resources, both by human and halfling explorers. This put pressure on the hobgoblins, who began to gather in numbers, avoiding the poor settlers and natives, in preparation for war with Eastern Brandobia.The giants, who had been weakened by a recent ill-advised adventure (wherein several clans competed and failed to kill a dragon), allowed the smaller races two giantish generations, nearly eighty years, to establish themselves. Giantish recovery and demand for tribute coincided with the rise of the empire of Kruk-ma-Kali, meaning there were no troops available to defend the settlers’ descendants; Eastern Brandobia was in turmoil, and Brandobia herself had no blood to spend on a few hundred scattered settlers contending with giants. Faced with the rapaciousness of the goblins and the violent whimsy of the giants, the humans submitted to the giants, while the halflings fell under goblin rule. When Kruk-ma-Kali’s empire fell thirteen years later, the hobgoblins moved south, away from the Krond Heights and towards their current range in Norga-Krangrel.

The Brandobian settlers of the Krond Heights integrated with the Dejy natives, and were absorbed into their lives and cultures; while Brandobian words and grammar survive, muddled, in the language, and Brandobian skills in the culture, much of the lives of the humans proceeds at a Dejy pace, regulated by the seasonal migration of alpaca, llama, and avledor. From the east, north, and below came orcs, filling much of the vacuum left by the hobgoblins; the modern orc of the Krond Heights is a mix of sn’orc blood from the north, gray orc blood from the Netherdeep, and common orc stock from the Sanakir and Shashyf Hills. The orcs quickly fell into the service of the giants, after contending briefly with the capritaurs and gargoyles.

 

Human Highlands, Halfling River Bottoms

 

Humans

The humans of the Krond Heights are the mixed descendants of Brandobian explorers and Dejy natives of a stock closely related to the Bylenjy of the Shadesh West. They speak a difficult language, mixing Brandobian and Dejy vocabulary and grammar in ways that will cause masters of either language to cringe. In many respects, their culture and technology resemble the Dejy of a thousand years ago, before the coming of the Brandobians; their stone or wattle and daub houses look the same, they raise the same mix of llamas, alpacas, and avledors, and their clothes are even the same. But a few new grains have been brought in, and they have kept the Brandobian skill of smithing with heat and iron, not the cold copper working of the Dejy.

Most human villages will have several families, but less than one hundred people. The different families will work different crops at different altitudes, then combine and share with the families responsible for herding and those who work the fruit orchards and vegetable gardens. Trade between villages with a single overlord is encouraged, allowing certain specialists to be more widely scattered; not every cluster of houses needs its own smith or potter, and mages are thinly scattered. Trade also encourages familial bonds between villages, so there is usually a cousin or an aunt or a second cousin three times removed who married your brother’s wife’s cousin.

 

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New Proficiency: Yodeling (2/4 BP)

Yodeling is a technique of using varying pitched calls to make oneself heard over extremely long distances. For 2 BP, one can understand yodeled information, provided one speaks the language being used. For 4 BP, one can also communicate by yodel.

By making a Musician (Singing) check, a skilled yodeler can be heard for one mile per mastery level, under ideal conditions (relatively clear, with rock faces and other objects to reflect the sound). Communication by yodel is a slow process, typically taking ten times as long as a normal conversation, and save by speaking in code, there is no way to conceal the information conveyed.

Prerequisite: None for 2 BP version; Musician (Singing) at novice or better mastery for 4 BP version.

***

Relatively few “free” human villages exist; almost all owe fealty to a nearby giant. Depending on the giant, what this means can vary greatly; some giants merely take a portion of the harvest, others insist that the humans explicitly support a certain clan of ogres or tribe of orcs, and some install overseers to rule over the village and ensure the giant gets their fair cut. Ostensibly, the giants protect their human thralls from the goblins, orcs, and other humanoids, but this is largely notional; owing fealty to one giant makes a village a target of another, and there is little a giant lord will do to protect his thralls from an orc or ogre who abuses them. The closest to comfort that a giant will offer is that if a village is raided, he will avenge the insult to his property; hoar frost giants give new meaning to “cold comfort”.

Humans of the highlands are not allowed swords, long bows, crossbows, or any spear over about 6’ in length; longer spears may be allowed, until a giant, or, more likely, one of its shorter servants, chooses to take offense. Humans are likewise not allowed shields or metal armors. Padded and leather armors are fairly common, however, and the humans are fond of brigandine, using pieces of metal (often copper, sometimes iron) sandwiched between two layers of leather. To giant eyes, it’s not metal armor, but it gives a bit more protection than studded leather (roughly equivalent to ring mail; if made with copper instead of iron, reduce its DR by 1 and weight by 5 pounds). By law in most giant territories, human mages must be apprenticed to giantish masters, and earn any further training from them. A mage might self-train from time to time without issue, but advancing too far without returning to their master will arouse suspicion.

 

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Sidebar: Humans and Giants

Humans (and orcs) serving giants are in an odd position; there are many things they can do better than giants, simply because their scale is so much finer than that of the giants, and there are many things they cannot do well because giantish scales are so much grander. A human making a giant’s bed must contend with twenty foot blankets. Mending clothing is not work for a seamstress, but a leatherworker, as thread will never hold together their massive clothes. Humans are valued for detail work, human smiths for their ability to make weapons suitable for orcs and ogres, and human mages for their alchemical precision, as well as their ability to be coerced into work the giants don’t want to do, regardless of their suitability.

***

 

A peculiar mode of transport is often used in the winter and wherever there is snowpack. While some use the snowshoes common to the Shadesh West, also common among the mountain villages are skis. One ski (often the right, for a right-handed person) will be large and relatively wide; perhaps five or six feet long, and half again as wide as the boot. The other ski is shorter, only one or two feet longer than the foot it is attached to. Often, when travelling uphill, this shorter ski will be wrapped in leather or fur, to provide traction, while a long pole will be used to provide balance and additional leverage. On the downhill, the skier will put their weight on the longer ski, leaning back and using the long pole as a rudder, and the shorter ski for balance.

 

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Sidebar: Skiing

The people of the Krond Heights use asymmetrical skis, which work well with the rugged, rocky, terrain. In skis, any snow-covered terrain that is less than Open becomes one category easier. Additionally, skis allow jogging, running, or sprinting speeds to be maintained indefinitely on a downhill.

There are difficulties, however. Fighting while in skis provides an additional 2 point penalty to attack and defense, in addition to the penalties caused by any protective clothing that might be worn; removing the larger ski is usually fairly easy, taking only 10 seconds or so, but the smaller ski is often tied more tightly, requiring 15-20 seconds to remove, plus any time one must take to remove gloves or mittens. Bindings of either ski can be cut, requiring only 3 seconds per ski. Skis are also relatively heavy; the longer ski can be another ten pounds of weight, the shorter another five or six, and the pole is at least four, which can add considerably to encumbrance and thus to fatigue.

Downhill skiing is also difficult to manage balance. At 10 feet/second or less, proficient skiers do not need a Feat of Agility. At 15 feet/second or more, a Feat of Agility v. d20p is necessary to maintain balance; this is checked when accelerating to that speed, or every few minutes, as determined by the GM. Every 10 feet per second above 10, the d20p adds +1 (so, +1 at 20, +2 at 30, etc.) Failure on the Feat of Agility either increases speed by an additional 5 feet per second, requiring another Feat of Agility (at a possibly greater difficulty), or the skier can choose to fall, taking damage as if they had fallen a distance equal to their current speed in feet per second. If the Feat of Agility failed by fewer than 10 points, the fall is considered an anticipated one, and so effective speed is considered 10 feet per second slower (thus reducing fall damage). Remember to adjust falling damage for the landing surface! Non-proficient skiers must check at any speed above 5 feet per second, and the opposing d20p increases by 1 per 5 feet per second above 5 (so, +1 at 10, +2 at 15, +3 at 20, etc.). Symmetrical skis (not used in the Krond Heights, but used elsewhere) add 2 points to the Feat of Agility roll, but require the failure to be within 5 points to have an anticipated fall; not having a ski pole (or two poles, for symmetrical skiers) provides a -4 penalty to the roll.

Proficiency with skis is 2 BP. Not all natives of the Krond Heights are proficient with skis, but those who pursue it require only 1 BP. A talent for skiing, Adept Skier, confers a +2 to Feat of Agility checks resulting from skiing. The first purchase of Adept Skier is 5 BP; every subsequent purchase is 3 BP more expensive than the last. Giants, in particular, are avid skiers.

***

 

Influence from the giants has made the humans embrace a rather odd version of the Emperor of Scorn as their chief deity; to the humans of the highlands, the giants are their natural superiors. They hate the halflings who abase themselves before the goblins. They hate the orcs and ogres who lord over them, but most do not resent the giants. The giants, after all, are their betters. They are stronger, wiser, live longer, and are more resilient. They are master smiths, and a human can only hope to be apprenticed to them. The giants have a strong musical tradition, much moreso than the wailing that human music produces. The Emperor of Scorn anointed the giants as his favorite; the humans are lucky to serve so illustrious of masters.

Or, at least, so goes the official line in the giant-held villages. Priests of lesser deities -- the Home Foundation and the Church of Life’s Fire have long-lost congregations in the Krond Heights -- hold to their own sacred concepts, and whisper their truths to their congregants, and a balance between the racial superiority doctrine of the Emperor, and the love of home, hearth, and field of his opponents, is the reality on the ground. It leads to an open disdain of halflings and those humans who live under the sway of goblins. Half-orc infants are exposed. Orcs and ogres are lesser than humans, but valued by the giants for their brute strength; they cannot match what humans can do, who, likewise, cannot match what giants can accomplish.

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Next week, we do the halflings! And maybe toss in the goblin-halfling hybrids, the bugans!

Krond Heights and Goblin Deeps, part 4

 

Peoples of the Goblin Deeps

The land beneath the Krond Heights is filled with passages and galleries; some natural, others carved by goblins, worms, or dwarves. There are thousands of miles of these passages, and they change yearly as the Kalamaran plate shoves north against the Brandobian plate, causing earthquakes and collapses. That some dwarven tunnels still exist is a testament to the engineering skills of the long-gone dwarven kingdom.

 

Bugbears - Above the land, the bugbears toe the goblin line, serving as semi-loyal vassals overseeing their aboveground operations. In the dark beneath? Bugbears are the horror that human stories make them out to be. Their keen senses let them operate well in an absence of light; they may not see you, but they hear and smell you. Despite their bulk, they move quickly through all but the most restrictive goblin tunnels, capturing the unwary and dragging them into the still darkness to be devoured. They wear no armor, carry no shields, and make no sound. For weapons, they use daggers and short blades, or broken half-spears with a blade and a shaft they might use to crush a windpipe. When slaves disappear without a trace, it is the darkness that took them.

 

Dragon - Not Dragons. Dragon, singular, which is more than enough. Chezzedreth, the White Dragon of the Krond Heights, resides on the Terrace of Infinity. Last active four years ago, in 559, she had spent the previous five years decimating the hobgoblins of the Odrill Hills in eastern Brandobia. Given six years of activity, it is suspected she is asleep in some concealed lair, but none have dared venture to the terrace to find out.

 

Dwarf, Ragged - Some dwarves still live in the halls of their ancestors, abandoned these centuries by their kin. Twisted by centuries of darkness and slavery, the “Ragged Dwarves” are not the robust warriors who clash in the Ka’asa, but goblin-tongued and pale, their beards scraggly and their skin grimy with lack of care. They lack a dwarf’s skill at arms, since the goblins will allow no weapons of war for them; instead, they prefer daggers, poison, and magic. 

The thousand that remain are clannish, used as slaves for the work goblins do not wish to do; largely mining and household work. The goblins love the ability to tell a dwarf to pick up their filth or clean their tools, nevermind that most goblins under the king have never seen a dwarf save their slaves. It should be noted that the Goblin King seldom trusts dwarves near him, not even those crushed under generations of slavery. 

When left to their own devices? The ragged dwarves plot murder and rebellion. Their twin gods are the Emperor of Scorn and the Guardian, an unlikely pair to say the least, but a ragged dwarf will tell you that he has no blood, only hatred of the goblins. He has no breath, only a yearning to be free. When they are able, a ragged dwarf will slay a goblin, but opportunities are few.

 

Goblins and Wargs - The Goblins of the Undermountain are a rich, vibrant society of vicious little bastards. Goblin male society is based on dominance challenges and knowing one’s place in the hierarchy. If you are superior to another, you are free to treat them in any way you please, and must accept the same from your betters. Don’t like it? Don’t want to be pushed around by Glob anymore? Challenge him. Fight him. Pay an assassin to cripple him before the fight, if you can afford it. Or suck it up, buttercup, because it doesn’t get any better from here.

Every goblin male knows his place, and he knows the place of most of those around him. When goblins interact with strange goblins, there will be tests of will and intimidation, and perhaps a few dominance fights as roughly equal goblins sort out who is tougher. Goblins don’t see any shame in acknowledging a superior, but subordinating yourself to another who is not your superior is not only shameful, it shames everyone beneath you. Dominance fights do not need to be lethal, are sometimes informal, and are frequently the subject of betting and a source of entertainment.

Non-goblins who are not slaves may join in goblin dominance games, creating their place in the hierarchy. They may not necessarily win the perquisites of superiority; a goblin who defeats his captain becomes captain, while a bugbear who defeats a captain simply can’t be ordered around by him anymore, and will receive deference from that captain’s inferiors. Orders from above will still flow to the captain, unless the captain’s chief wishes otherwise (and the bugbear is willing to follow orders). Many wargs hold goblin rank, even if it’s simply because a snarl with hackles raised from four hundred pounds of sentient wolf is enough to make most goblins back down.

Female goblins are held as chattel by male goblins, but create their own dominance hierarchies, with the added element of favor of powerful males. The favor of a chief or king can be a powerful weapon in the female harems, and it is one that is not easily dislodged without incurring disfavor on the malefactor; a she-goblin might injure or scar her rival, but unless it is done very subtly, then it is likely she will suffer fatal consequences for it.

Below them all are slaves. Slaves cannot take part in dominance games, and goblins see no reason to accord them the degree of fair play they do other goblins (paying an assassin to cripple your opponent before a dominance challenge is seen as fair play by goblins). A slave who challenges or talks back to a goblin will be turned upon en masse and beaten, if not killed. There are rare instances of slaves surviving that and pulling themselves out of slavery, but it relies, to an extent, upon largesse or calculation from goblins with command of sufficient forces to subdue the slave. A single human warrior might be able to subdue five goblins, or maybe even a whole eight from a work group, with luck and a broken chair leg. But he’s unlikely to be able to handle the forty goblins a captain can easily send against him, or a pair of wargs who decide to join in the fun.

In smaller groupings of goblins, this is often enough to consider. But when thousands of goblins get together, as they do beneath the Krond Heights, the society develops differences to deal with the great concentration of people. In smaller gatherings, goblins most often issue orders directly, but in the Kingdom, orders are issued in the name of a superior. If Glob orders Biznak to do something in person, Biznak may decide that he doesn’t need to listen to Glob and challenge him for dominance. So, Glob will not issue an order in his own name. He brings orders from his captain, Grizzle, and if Biznak wishes to fight Grizzle, well, he’s going to have to believe he can take a captain. Goblins serving as another goblin’s mouthpiece will carry some emblem to “prove” that, though many goblins will not, necessarily, know whether or not a given emblem really belongs to a specific leader. The rare chaotic goblin sometimes takes advantage of that, carrying emblems of captains or chiefs who do not exist, or that were stolen from their rightful holders.

This affects the goblin economy. While the goblins do not mint coins, they do have a fine sense of value, and trade bars of metals, hacksilver and hackcopper, and various trade goods within and between tribes. The dominant goblin offers a price on the goods, with the lesser goblin challenging the price in an imitation of goblin challenge etiquette. Lesser goblins will still argue a price, and attempt to get the best value, often in the name of their own superiors; “Grizzle would not like if I sold it for ten ounces of silver; you must give me twelve, or he will beat you for your insolence.” The goblin so implored might respond with his contempt for Grizzle, the worthlessness of the goods, or the worthlessness of the salesman, until they come to an agreeable price. Prices tend to be within a fair range, as using status to take advantage of one goblin may excite his superiors. Stealing through status can work, but only for so long before the superiors stolen from decide that they’ve had enough.

Many goblins also form interpersonal bonds, in a way not dissimilar to human friendships and marriages. There is always an awareness of hierarchy, but protocol might be suspended between friends, especially in intimate pairs. The goblin awareness of hierarchy is such that the superior will not elevate the inferior above his station; making a weak goblin a sergeant under you is an invitation to have that goblin killed in a dominance challenge by those who are his actual superiors. A vastly inferior goblin may, however, be protected from his superiors by his friend or lover, as the more powerful goblin may make it clear that he would be displeased by mistreatment of his friend. No particular shame is attached to these sorts of relationships, though a high-status goblin who played the lesser in a relationship with a low status goblin might lose face.

Since access to she-goblins is a perquisite of rank that a goblin might share, male goblins who prefer male lovers can obtain a surprising degree of power by offering access to secure loyalty; their own lover is loyal through emotional bonds and patronage, while other useful goblins are kept loyal through access to she-goblins. Some goblin males also amass wealth by selling access to she-goblins they have control of, regardless of their own preferences (and, indeed, there are secret cults of the Vicelord dedicated to just this).

Wargs, it should be noted, are far less common in the Goblin Deeps. Some live in the cities, but they do not see as well as goblins in the dark, and the stinking, dank closeness of the endless tunnels does not suit their hunting style nor their comfort. Wargs who venture far underground are almost always close companions of a goblin, and that goblin is most often on a mission from an aboveground chieftain.

 

Kobolds - Kobolds under the Krond Heights live in isolated sections, most in the north of the range. Indeed, they are frequent pawns of the Great Queen spider and the Lady of the Webs of the Broad River Valley (see The Valley Lands in Shadesh West). They worship her, make great use of poison, and even ride spiders into battle (they can fit on huge spiders, but more often use gigantic spiders). A kobold abroad in the tunnels may be from a primitive tribe that barely ekes out a living, or might be an agent of a powerful hag, their weapons dripping with poison, and perhaps a few spiders along for companionship. It is not clear if the Lady of the Webs has designs upon the tunnels of the Krond Heights, but her envoys ride massive spiders, and command respect even from the Goblin King.

 

Morlocks - The Morlock fungus is ruthlessly destroyed wherever it is found by goblins, leading to a minimal incursion of morlocks into goblin territory or the Krond Heights. On the western side of the range, near Cosdol and away from centers of goblin power, they have more hold, partially because there are far more available victims for their addiction. At least one major colony is able to raid the P’Bapar Pass not far from Coniper Gap. There are also occasional outbreaks of morlock violence when enterprising goblins attempt to cultivate the fungus as a narcotic, either for sale or as a means of slave control. More often than not, either they fall victim to their own supply, or their clients become addicted enough to gorge on it and begin an infestation on their own.

 

Muscheron - The fungoids have vast farms beneath the Krond Heights, and trade extensively with the goblins. In decades past, the goblins attempted to subjugate them, but were unable to match them; the fungoids reproduced quickly, and the spores of their elders crippled the goblin forces. Rather than expend their forces on the mushrooms, the goblins came to trade. Lower goblins live on a diet heavy in mushrooms, and goblin communities produce a vast amount of organic waste. Some goblin communities began to trade their waste for edible mushrooms, sweetening the deal from time to time with other useful items made of metal. Vermii, too, trade with the Muscheron, but their robust constitutions extend to an ability to ignore the spores of elders. As the conflict between the vermii and the goblins grows, the vermii are finding the muscheron useful as a means of disposal; dump a body with the toadstoids and it will be composted in a day or two.

 

Orcs - The Gray Orcs of the Netherdeep roil beneath the relatively settled areas of the Goblin Kingdom. While they establish occasional outposts in goblin territory, the goblins root these out as soon as they are discovered. Periodically, ranging from several times in a year to several times in a decade, gray orcs will explode into a goblin or muscheron settled area and wreak havoc until they can be contained and driven back. It is not known what drives these incursions. Did the orcs simply happen to dig a tunnel that created a new avenue of conquest? Are they being directed by someone else, being used tactically to remove defenses, or even act as cover for some other scheme? The goblins and muscheron do not know.

 

Troglodytes - Sleestacks largely live beneath the layer of Netherdeep known as the Goblin Heights, and so are not common. However, they do exert significant pressure on the Muscheron, who they regard as food, which can cause some instability in goblin trade with the mushroom men. Some goblins have established trade with individual troglodyte leaders, but such trade is always tenuous, at best, as the trogs don’t have much that the goblins want; goblins are more likely to trade weapons in exchange for military aid or intelligence, than actual goods. Goblins who suffer from anosmia are often pressed into “sleestack relations”, and may even rise in status because of their ability to tolerate troglodyte stench.

 

Trolls - The lightless tunnels hold many places for trolls to live and hide, and bountiful food. Both goblins and muscheron will organize troll hunts when their predations get too great, though most such hunts will only kill one or two trolls, scattering the rest into the darkness. While troglodytes and even bugbears might be enticed into working with the goblins as shock troops, they detest trolls; while they can easily be induced to attack a target, they cannot be convinced to not attack their “allies”. Vermus, on the other hand, are less concerned about collateral damage, and have been known to ambush and chop up a troll, depositing their bits in places that will cause difficulty for the goblins.

 

Tunnel Hags - The tunnel hags are the sad remains of the dwarven empire. The oldest date from that era, and were, indeed, part of how the dwarves controlled the vermus population. Over the centuries, more tunnel hags have been created from the ragged dwarves, and many are dedicated to destroying the goblins. While all standard hags are spellcasters, not all tunnel hags are, though all have innate magical abilities, and many have picked up some sort of magic through the centuries. Because of their mutual distrust, most tunnel hags work singly or in pairs, often with a pack of lackeys. Those that are not part of the Vermii War are pushed to the fringes of goblin space, and are often found among the grey orcs, worshiped as demigods for their ability to remove fear.

 

Vermii - The vermii of the Goblin Kingdom are different, more driven, than the vermii of aboveground kingdoms. Ages ago, they were the allies of the dwarves, serving as scouts and waste disposal. Their population carefully controlled by the dwarves, they were prosperous and well-fed. In Ratmen mythology, the Time of the Dwarves is remembered as a golden age, and goblins are known as the ones who destroyed that. Today, the vermii wage war on the goblins, believing that the removal of the goblins will bring about the return of the dwarves, and the return of lives of plenty.

Being ratmen, the Vermii War is not one of armored blocks of spearmen facing each other in a tunnel, but one of assassination and theft. The ragged dwarves aid in this, and spread the myth of the Golden Age of Dwarves, while directing the ratmen against targets and leading them to raid stores of food. They spread dissent and encourage the goblins to kill each other, sabotaging supply and communication lines, leaving the goblins vulnerable to other foes, or taking advantage of calamities to cause further chaos. Their efforts will likely never destroy the Goblin Kingdom, but they have checked its growth on many occasions.

 

***

 

That concludes the first section of the Krond Heights book (sorry I'm a day late; have been having a seriously weird few weeks, and they will stay weird for a while). Next week, we'll take a look at the aboveground areas in more detail. Same Hack Time, Same Hack Channel!