Adventure Aids (Maps, notes & Usefull Information)
[Sblock=Maglubiyet, Goblin Deity]
Maglubiyet
The Mighty One
The Lord of Depths and Darkness
Greater God, Goblin pantheon
God of Depths, Darkness, War, Discipline, Rulership
[sblock=general]
Symbol: Bloody axe
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Shaman Alignment: LE, NE
Worshippers: Goblin and hobgoblin tribes, especially warriors and chieftains
Race: Goblin, hobgoblin
Sex: Male
Preferred Weapon: Axe (battle or hand, one must be taken at 1st level)
Domains: Earth, Darkness, Protection, Destruction.
Abilities to God's clerics
Control Undead at 1/2 level. rounded up 10
+2 on Diplomacy checks with goblins or hobgoblins
Holy Days: New moon of Luna (ritual beheadings)
[/sblock]
[sblock=Notes]
Goblin (and more rarely hobgoblin) witch doctors worship Maglubiyet
Temples are in natural caverns when possible, shrines made to look like cave mouths.
Maglubiyet's goblin hordes are locked in perpetual war with Gruumsh's orcish legions on the Martial plain and battle plains of Acheron
[/sblock]
[sblock=Background]
Maglubiyet, the Lord of Depth and Darkness, rules over his people with iron fist. Unlike the orcish tribes, all goblins and hobgoblins worship Maglubiyet first, though they may also honor other gods. Maglubiyet keeps a watchful eye on his servant deities, lest one of them usurp his power. Maglubiyet's shamans and witch doctors keep order within the tribes, but rarely lead them directly -- they prefer to guide, rather than rule.
Maglubiyet demands human (or demi-human) sacrifice from his people on each new moon. These sacrifices are always decapitated with a single axe blow, followed by a burnt offering of their heart. After success in battle (regardless of the phase of the moon), sacrifices will be offered up from prisoners that have been captured. Dwarves and gnomes are the preferred victims, but orcs, humans and elves are also welcomed.
[/sblock][/sblock]
[sblock=Pecking Order of the YAR-Gock tribe]
The Pecking Order of such Lawful Evil Society is:
1. Mogur
2. The Ruthless Ogre, Personal Super elite Bodyguards, the tribe's High Priest of
Maglubiyet (The Mighty One, The Lord of Depths and Darkness).
3. Witch Doctors and Shamans.
4. Hired Hobgoblins, Bugbear Slavers and Elite Goblin Warriors (Including Wolf riders).
5. Ordinary Goblin warriors.
6. Female goblins.
7. goblins-imps
8. The old, crippled, and sick.
9. Slaves and prisoners.
[/sblock]
[sblock=Yar-Gock Tribe's current status]
1 Leader (The Mogur)
1 Ogre
1 High Priest (Male Witch Doctor & Shaman)
4 Bugbear prison guards. *1 one party member [They are known as [The Gnome head banger, The Dwarf hunter, The Elf Slaver, The Human Slayer]
4 Hobgoblins (Hired Guards)
5 super elite guards (1 Hobgoblin fighter, 4 goblins fighters)
2 goblin witch doctors 2 (2 male) *2 party members [Also Function as healers as well]
1 goblin shaman 2 (1 crazy female)
5 goblin elite guards (Fighter) [2 miners, 2 stone masons, 1 wolf trainer]
16 Goblin males (warriors) [7 miners, 2 Weapon smiths, 5 fishermen, 2 carpenters]
27 females. *1 Party member [3 brewers, 4 chefs, 5 weavers, 2 tailors, 3 miners, 3 leather workers, 2 potters, 4 underground farmers]
38 goblin imps.
6 sick and old. [2 miner, 2 warriors, 2 crippled]
[/sblock]
[sblock=Notes on Goblin Culture]
The concept of privacy is largely foreign to goblins, thus the tribe shares communal sleeping quarters, except for the High priest and the Tribe’s chief. Goblins have no concept of monogamy, all adults in the community share in communal marriage, with the alpha male (The Mogur) having first choice from all available mates. Pair bonding is unknown but affection is not, and his favorites may form an unofficial harem.
Children, the inevitable result of such casual carnality, are frequent – the average female goblin is pregnant about once a year from the age of ten to thirty five – but child mortality is high. A goblin lucky enough to avoid death from hunger, disease, or violence lives some 50 years.
While females usually are for producing goblins-imps, The males engage in hunting every day, sometimes bringing down prey as large as a deer but more commonly concentrating on small game such as rabbits, camprats, and birds.
The Small ponds near their caves supplies fish, mussels, crawdads, water-bugs and other edibles. The Yar-Gock tribe formerly brewed a fishhead beer, but the only goblins who knew the art perished in an unlucky raid and all attempts to rediscover the trick by trial and error have proved disastrous, foul-smelling failures, undrinkable even by a goblin.
Females goblins dig tubers, collect nuts, acorns, and wild grains. All these are throwen into a huge ever-boiling cauldron filled with goblin-stew – a mess of boiled bones, bits of rat, edible plants, and anything left over from previous meals.
All goblins like this stew, Hobgoblins and Bugbears turn their noses up at it.
Most goblins goods are foraged and stolen but they do make garments and leather goods (such as pouches, slings, belts, and thong), Crude weapons and simple tools.
Goblins are fairly skilled at mining, their work is not up to dwarven standards, but adequate for their needs.
Burial customs don’t exist. “grave goods” in other cultures are quite practically recycled for use by the living. Bodies are left for scavengers. Hence, adventurers never stumble upon “lost tombs of the goblin-king”. The idea of carefully locking away dead bodies with useful stuff is incomprehensible and only a proof that all other races are quite mad.
Every goblin obtains some valuable personal items and the Mogur allows even money (but not too much). The goblins can trade among themselves for items they craft.
Most of the treasure goblin skirmishers and adventurers find are going to the Mogur, he then splits a low amount as trophy for them to keep.
Goblins tend to lie for prophet and cheat, and struggles about prices often occur.
[/sblock]
[sblock=Goblin Town and the Surrondings]
The cave complex was originally a set of simple natural caverns cut into the stone of the hill by an underground river (A remnant of which still flows through the caves, providing a source of drinking water). The history of the place is unknown to the Goblins, The goblins claimed the abandoned mines and caves a year ago.
List of rooms: (check the map)
[sblock=#1]This large chamber, shaped like an inverted triangle is the heart of the complex, the place where the goblins spend most of the time. Cooking, childrearing, socializing, eating, wrestling contests, sleeping, lovemaking, and many other activities. If the Mogur decides to call a meeting of the whole tribe, here is where it convenes.
Three passages lead off, one to east, one to the west and one to the south, all to several exits. In addition, a secret door is hidden in the middle if the west wall, it is barred, all the goblins know it is here but dare not open it … yet. The walls of the room slant inward, rising to meet in a small circular area, an obvious trap door fills the circular area but, as it is 60 feet above the floor, no goblin has ever yet succeeded in reaching it.
The room other features include a stone chair carved into the north wall, a midden-pit in the north-east corner, and the former channel of the underground river along the west side. Other stuff and goods include: cups, bowels and plates, one large cocking kettle, metal buckets, few barrels of various sizes, half a dozen woven baskets, and fishing nets.
Near each entrance stands a makeshift barricade of woven branches that can be shoved across the passage to keep any trouble in case of attack.[/sblock]
[sblock=#2] This small room is now home to the tribe’s super elite warriors, who serve as body guards for the Mogur. The room is empty except for soft furs used as sleeping pallets by the guards. There is an empty cell at the back of the room.[/sblock]
[sblock=#3] The goblin leader’s room. He has ruled the tribe for six years now, no goblin except for the super elite guards, the ruthless Ogre and female wenches is allowed into this room. What’s inside the room is an enigma to you.[/sblock]
[sblock=#4] The walls of this ancient chamber are decorated with cave paintings – animals, humanoid and monsters, crowded together in black and red ochre. All the quiet painted eyes staring out from the walls give the others goblins the creeps, and they avoid this place whenever possible. Adulthood ritual of young males takes part in here.
The goblins constructed an altar to Maglubiyet over here, apying tribute to him once a month.[/sblock]
[sblock=#5] The walls of this room are covered with bizarre charcoal drawings. A straw pallet and stone bowl complete the furnishings of the Ogre’s den.[/sblock]
[sblock=#6] The passageway has been widened by scraping the north wall, creating a long, thin room. The exposed wall is a seam of high-quality flint, used by the tribe for spear heads, stone knives, scarpers, and other cutting tools.[/sblock]
[sblock=#7] this small room serves as a watch post to protect the side door, three goblins and one hobgoblin are posted here, and one is a designated runner. Usually at night, the guards are engaged in mock-combats to hone fighting skills or gambling with dice made of animal bone. At the end of the room lies a kennel consisting four wolves.[/sblock]
[sblock=#8] Partially shielded from view outside by a screen of thorn trees, the cave mouth is 8 feet wide and 6 feet high. The angle is such that direct sunlight rarely shines in. Goblins know that going through the main entrance (area 15) are sometimes watched, so when stealth is important they use this exit. This is the route by which bodies are carried out of the lair an dup the hill, where they deposited in the old ruined tower for scavengers.[/sblock]
[sblock=#9] An oddly shaped room formed by knocking out the walls of two sets of parallel mineshafts, this place is where females goblins withdraw when they have work to do that would be ruined by the jostling in the large chamber. Typical tasks are weaving, grinding acorns into a paste, dressing the kill brought back by the hunters.[/sblock]
[sblock=#10] children’s playroom, when children would be nuisance underfoot, they are banished here, most of their time is spent in play. A deep shaft in the back allows a cool draft of air to waft up from below, and from time to time an inattentive or unpopular child falls to its death somewhere in the darkness below.[/sblock]
[sblock=#11] Shelf – Mostly used as storage, in times of need this raised ledge doubles as a refuge and guard post. Raised about 7 feet above the level of the passage floor, it is large enough for a whole goblin patrol to lie flat and ambush unwary trespassers as they pass below.
At all time a 60 feet hempen rope, pot containing 3 vials of oil and a number of empty barrels lie here. Just past the shelf is the point at which the underground river once emerged. The weeping wall is so called because drops of water still seep through and bead on the passage side. The channel thorough which this stream once flowed clearly runs from this point north and west until is eventually reached the flooded room (area 16). It looks like a well-worn footpath three to five feet wide and about a feet deep.[/sblock]
[sblock=#12] The Flint pit is another excavation site left behind by the long-vanished miners. This pot is bell-shaped, being wider at the bottom that the top, it is about 12 feet deep, with short horizontal shafts or alcoves 4 feet high, 2 feet wide and 10-12 feet long running from the bottom to all directions. This place is a guard-post, with guards in the bottom quickly climb up the knobby sides to the top when they hear something.[/sblock]
[sblock=#13] Wounded, sick, ot dying goblins are exiled to this out-of-the-way chamber so as to not infect their fellow. Tose who recover rejoin the main community in area 1. the rest join the corpses on the hill top.[/sblock]
[sblock=#14] Slave Pen, the tribe’s slaves are shackled in this dismal cave, which stinks even by goblin standards. The shackles are tribal treasure from the distant past that keeps the slaves hobbled by both ankles. Four slaves are currently present here.
Two kobolds do general chores, a blinded dwarf who advices in stonework when the tribe needs to do mining but otherwise is kept busy with the most menial of tasks for the smallest scraps of food. and a lamed bugbear, who is inspected to be from a rival tribe, the tribe captured him by lucky chance, finding him lying weak and weaponless with a broken leg in a pit trap they’d set for a wild boar. [/sblock]
[sblock=#15] The main entrance is a wide, open cave mouth, brightly lit throughout most of the daylight hours. The entrance is obvious fro outside, and indeed, from some distance away, it appears an a hollow eye below the crown of the hill. A path leads down the hill to join the road, and another winds its way around the hill to the pond beside the waterfall on its western side. Unlike the rest of the cave complex, the floor here is sandy, and the walls and roof are composed of a sand stone outcropping. From time to time, an animal attempts to lair here, invariably ending up in the goblin's cooking pot. Travelers bedding down here for the evening are summarily ambushed, usually preceded by scouts who creep out the side door and sneak around.[/sblock]
[sblock=#16] This room, fed by underground streams, serves as a water source for all goblins in the complex. The water behind the shelf near the entrance is between 8 and 10 feet deep – deep enough to drawn those who don't swim. There is a submerged shelf along the north wall, the water is only 1 feet deep here and can be easily waded. Around the corner, the narrow shelf rises to just above water level and hugs the east wall of the passage.[/sblock]
[sblock=#17] The lower passage, the passage slopes down – still accompanied by the subterranean river - here into the darkness. The ledge meanders on around the bend, ending only ehwn the river vanishes into the rock once more. A knotted rope 60 feet long lies coiled at the end of the passage, securely tied to a stout peg driven into the stone floor. This can be used to safely navigate the secret entrance, the underwater tunnel between this spot and area 19.[/sblock]
[sblock=#18] The upper passage is a dry passage that slopes gradually upward from the little underground river, twisting and turning until it ends in a dry, bare room. A sleeping pallet marks the tribe’s high priest home, with few other personal items. The floor is covered with pentagrams, protective circles, and other arcane insignia incised into the stone.
No one knows why, but every time a goblin enters this room, the skin prickle and imagines of movement in the eyes corners gives the creep.
Any goblin who is not a witch doctor or shaman avoids this place like the plague.[/sblock]
[sblock=#19] Above the waterfall there is a secret entrance to the goblin lair. It cannot be seen at all from the ground, due to the overhanging lip of the waterfall that empties into the small pond on the west side of the hill. For those who make the 40 foot climb, they see what seems to be a small simple cave with a fast stream flowing through it.
The goblins navigate the submerged passage using the knotted rope in area 17.[/sblock]
[sblock=#20] The whole tribe knows of this well hidden secret door in the west wall of the communal room. When opened in the past, it revealed stairs curling down into darkness. No goblin who has ventured down the stairs ever returned and since two tribe leaders who went down vanished the goblins avoid the lower levels at all cost … for now. [/sblock]
The Surrondings:
[sblock=The Hill] The site is a solitary knoll rising from the edge of the marsh, surrounded by trees and covered with scrub and brambles except for the top third, which is bare grass studded with wild flowers. The foundations and fallen stones from the ruined tower crown the knoll. The knoll is honeycombed with caves, only the uppermost of which are inhabited by the goblins. Few animals live here other than rabbits, voles and ferrets, but the hill top is home to many butterflies by day and crickets and fireflies by night.[/sblock]
[sblock=The Pond] This small lake is fed by the underground river that spills out of the goblin cave in a 30 foot waterfall, draining in turn into the Misty marsh.
Its rather murky waters are full of fish (catfish, gar, bass, sunfish, perch) and other pond life such as mussels, turtles, crawdads, frogs, waterbugs, while the reeds along its banks are thick with birds (ducks, herons, swallows) and insects (mainly dragonflies and mosquitoes). Some goblin scouts reported to see dangerous huge snapping turtles and occasional crocodiles.[/sblock]
[sblock=The misty marsh] the marsh looks Impassable to the goblins, these flooded fields of streams, standing water, and hummocks of reeds and tall standing grasses are reported to be home of horrors by the goblins who ventured merely to the outskirts of the marsh.
Such horrors include leeches, crocs and snake like creatures. Birds, frogs, bugs and water mammals such as muskrats live here also, the marsh lies in a frequent fog. [/sblock]
[sblock=The Howling woods] This name was given by the goblins to the forest that lies around the hill to the north, south and west. The woods are home to wildlife and game such as deer, squirrels, birds and wild pigs. A weird cat is reported to be the chief predator in those woods, every night a frighten howl can be heard among the woods. [/sblock]
[sblock=The Fields] Some tilled, some filled only with weeds and grass, these are used by the villagers of Ardeche. The meadows are home to rabbits, field mice, moles and small birds. From the top of the hill, goblins spot the villagers that bring their livestock to graze in the meadows by day. By night packs of wild dogs wanders the area. [/sblock]
[sblock=The village] Ardeche is too far for the goblins, no goblin has ever ventured so far from the hill, the human settlement is too dangerous, but caravans and wagons from and to the village are ambushed once a month by the tribe.[/sblock]
[sblock=The Ruined tower] Haven't explored yet by the tribe, they are suspected to be a place of fear and magic, the ruined place seems to contain inside room that waits to be explored. [/sblock]
[/sblock]
*Attached - Goblin Town Jpeg Sketch and a more detailed Excel file of the place.
