Converting original D&D and Mystara monsters

[freyar]

Leaving the rest out works for me. How's this for a start?

Goatlings originated as slaves of a demon lord who later fled the Abyss. Modern goatlings have associated with other Material Plane goatfolk long enough to have become mortal beings, typically with some humanoid ancestry. They haven't forgotten their origins, though, specializing in calling and binding outsiders and draining their lifeforce to power goat magic. Goatlings are mistrustful of strangers, keeping their civilization hidden behind a great veil.

 

[Cleon]

Leaving the rest out works for me. How's this for a start?

Goatlings originated as slaves of a demon lord who later fled the Abyss. Modern goatlings have associated with other Material Plane goatfolk long enough to have become mortal beings, typically with some humanoid ancestry. They haven't forgotten their origins, though, specializing in calling and binding outsiders and draining their lifeforce to power goat magic. Goatlings are mistrustful of strangers, keeping their civilization hidden behind a great veil.

A fur-covered creature like a bipedal goat with humanoid arms and torso. It is clearly more than a beast, for it has clothes and equipment.

An ancient, mysterious race who live hidden in hills and mountains. Goatlings were originally created as slaves by the demon lord Bielgorna. They eventually rebelled and fled from the Abyss to the Prime Material Plane. The original goatlings are immortal extraplanar outsiders incapable of breeding. Through associating with humanoids, they learned to create native outsider goatlings who could reproduce themselves, albeit without the originals' immortality. It is these modern goatlings who are described in this entry. Some goatlings mingled with other races, leading to the creation of new goatkin races. Those who associated with halflings and dryads produced the ovinaur and caprine races, while others produced goatfolk. It is unknown what Prime Material lifeform contributed to the creation of goatfolk, but orcs or goblinoids are a lead suspect.

Most goatlings are isolationists, obsessed with the fear of being discovered by Abyssal fiends who will enslave or destroy them. They hide their civilization behind veils of magic and go to great length to suppress knowledge about them among non-goatkin.

Goatlings speak Common and their own language, "goatspeech"[ kozajęzyk ?], which they share with ovinaur and caprine. They often speak additional languages, usually Abyssal or one of the dialects spoken by their goatfolk cousins.

 

[freyar]

I like that! But you need a comma, not a period, in that first sentence: "An ancient, mysterious race who live hidden in hills and mountains, goatlings ..."

What's kozajezk mean precisely?

 

[Cleon]

I like that! But you need a comma, not a period, in that first sentence: "An ancient, mysterious race who live hidden in hills and mountains, goatlings ..."

I used a comma in an earlier draft but kept on changing it as I swapped bits of the wording around.

Are you fine with adding it to the Goatling Working Draft with the aforesaid comma change?

What's kozajezk mean precisely?

Well koza is "goat" in Polish and język is "tongue" (the organ as well as "speech/language"), so I glued them together to make "goat-tongue".

I have no idea whether it's good Polish or not, but I'm not sure that matters.

 

[freyar]

Please, add away! We also have tactics in post #924 upthread.

No, I don't think we need good Polish. That works for me!

 

[Cleon]

Please, add away! We also have tactics in post #924 upthread.

No, I don't think we need good Polish. That works for me!

Updating the Goatling Working Draft.

 

[narayan]

These goatlings are a very neat race. I'm curious, what book sources or stories are they from exactly?

 

[Cleon]

These goatlings are a very neat race. I'm curious, what book sources or stories are they from exactly?

The one we're currently converting are from Bruce Heard's Goatmen of Kavaja, while the original AD&D Goat Man was from the Savage Coast Monstrous Compendium Appendix.

 

[narayan]

The one we're currently converting are from Bruce Heard's Goatmen of Kavaja, while the original AD&D Goat Man was from the Savage Coast Monstrous Compendium Appendix.

Was Goatman of Kavaja an adventure?

 

[freyar]

It was actually an online article, I think written for Bruce Heard's blog or maybe the Piazza web site.

I just went back and looked, and I can't believe it, but we started work on the goatfolk over 3 years ago!