Campaign Help - Against the Goblinoids

[AnthonyRoberson]

Had the first session of my brand new 3.5 campaign Saturday night. It went well. The PCs were ambushed by a gang of goblins that they subsequently chased back to their camp and destroyed. Later on, while working as caravan guards, they drove off a small group of hobgoblins. The area they are adventuring in is fairly isolated and contains a small human village a dwarven mining community and a small community of gnomes. It's a mountainous region with a large, dark forest nearby.

Here's my problem. How can I explain the presence of the various goblinoids and their aggressive attacks? I have thought about having a 'dark force' of some kind that is motivating the goblins, but is that too hokey? I'm just a little brain dead and need help coming up with some plot threads that will keep the PCs busy for at least a few levels.

 

[Hand of Evil]

As the area is a "mountainous region with a large, dark forest nearby" the simple answer is to have an passage to the underdark somewhere. This could be a stronghold of hobgoblins to something more but it will lead the players to greater adventures.

You can also use them as something as simple as someone wanting the cheap land prices and using the goblins to run off people. Another idea, is to use goblins to weaken a border and then have an army drive in from somewhere else.

I use an idea I stole from the Dungon Keeper computer game, a demon known as a dungon heart is formed underground and draws goblins and other evil creatures to it and then expands outward, increasing its power by increasing the size of the dungon. The heart is vampiristic in nature feeding of life forces and pain.

Hokey? Maybe but if it works.

 

[DMScott]

Well, goblins don't traditionally need a lot of incentive to attack isolated communities, but if you want to link to something bigger one option I personally like is from the Book of Vile Darkness. One of the Malign Sites listed is the Goblin Pits of Io-Rach, where goblins and other creatures are mutated into bigger, stronger, more brutal versions through various evil practices. It's just outlined in a few paragraphs, kind of begs to be expanded into a big dungeon adventure. The goblin raiders can be either looking for components needed for the mutation pits or perhaps trying to carve out a niche somewhere away from whoever's experimenting on goblins. Heck, have different raider groups with different motivations - that'll keep the players guessing for a while.

 

[arwink]

1) You can always pull a switch on the Pc's halfway through. The goblinoids are attacking caravans and local villages because they've been driven from their homes by the dark force, and they need the dwarves iron and ore in order to reclaim their homeland. if the PC's go investigating the reasons behind the raids (or stumble accross it), they may find themselves negotiating trade agreements for the humanoid tribes (cause dwarves aren't trading with goblins on their own) or fighting alongside them against something darker and more dangerous.

2) Even easier - it's because of other adventurers. Goblinoids have their own gods and alters, and some band of adventurers have just broken into the goblin settlement and stolen their most powerful and sacred artifact. Goblinoids start randomly attacking people in the region in revenge for the theft, specifically targetting adventuring groups and merchant caravans that may be transporting the sacred item.

3) Culture shift. The main cheiftan of the goblinoids was old and frail, tough enough to retain his position but canny enough to avoid open war with the other races in the mountains that would erode his people's strength and bring the dwarves wrath down upon them. Unfortunately, he's dead and there's a younger, dimmer, more agressive cheiftan in charge. He's pushing the tribes towards open war in an effort to claim the mountains and carve his name into the history of the goblinoids. In the meantime, the townsfolk are panicing that something darker and more dangerous is driving the goblins so they keep sending the PC's off on missions in search of something deeper and more complex behind the creatures raids.

 

[AnthonyRoberson]

WOW - Thanks!

Thanks for all the QUICK responses! ENWorld has to be one the best online communities ever. Arwink, I'm especially fond of the idea about the new goblin leader trying to make his mark in history. Now I have to get to work...

 

[Wynter Wolf]

how about maybe a greater barghest leading the humanoids in the area??

 

[Beelzebub]

I thought I was the only one who stole the dungeon keeper idea. You should have seen the looks on the players' faces when they saw a disembodied green hand backhanding an imp.

 

[Softwind]

The Forgotten Realms setting add-on Book, Silver Marches, gives a description of a "changing of the guard". The city of Everlund had been plagued for a long time by trolls, until recently. Now, the trolls have been replaced by giants. (Great change, huh?) The reason the giants came down from the hills is because of the on-going battle against orcs that the Everlundians have been waging. How does this relate to this thread? Well, the pressure brought to bear upon the orcs by the Marches residents have forced them high into the mountains, where the giants used to live. The giants, somehow forced out by the orcs, come out of the hills and into the lowlands, thus displacing the trolls. And so it goes. Cause and effect.

Taking an example from above -

Creature X (let's say, Ogres) have moved into the normal stomping grounds of the goblins. For awhile, there was tension, but no blows. Until the goblins started breeding like rabbits. All of a sudden, the thought trickles into the brains of the ogres that if this doesn't stop, *they* will get pushed out of this nice area they found. So they assault the goblins, slaying them in large numbers. The remnant flee far away, until they come to an isolated valley/mountain/whathaveyou, ripe for the picking.


I did something similar in my campaign. Isolated valley, gnomes, dwarves and halflings only. The occasional attacks of orcs and goblins all of a sudden multiplies in intensity by 1000%. Characters are forced to flee the only place they have ever known, and find themselves in another part of the world somehow (I may actually post the adventure logs someday). They have just recently found out that a mysterious force was using the monsters to gather slaves for mining, and that this mysterious force now has it's eye on *them*, but for what purpose, the PCs don't know.

Just look at the monster description, and think about the fact that many of the staples of roleplaying (goblins, orcs, kobolds) are 1)cannon fodder and 2)breed like rabbits. Population density max is hit, they all come spilling out into the surrounding countryside, are decimated back to near-extinction level, they retreat for a few years/decades until they are again a numerous race, and it starts all over again.