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MY PLAYERS, YOU DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE TO STAY OUT THIS TIME.
JUST DON'T READ ANY SPOILERS OR I'LL MAKE EVERY DAMN ONE OF YOU WATCH DIAMOND NINJA FORCE. DON'T THINK I WON'T.
Long story short:
The party in one of our games picked up a goblin they took prisoner as one of the fighter's followers. The party's cleric of Sarenrae saw it as an unusual opportunity.
One of Sarenrae's domains is Fire.
Take a wild guess what the goblin latched onto.
Anywho, the goblin, Geep, has taken to wearing vestments cut out of burlap sacks and marked with poorly drawn iconography. He's been sneaking off to a corner of the fighter's followers current base in Kaer Maga, building an effigy of Sarenrae(visualized as a fearsome female goblin whose head can be set on fire for rituals or whenever Geep is bored or whenever Geep is breathing) and painting(poorly) pictograms all over the walls of some of the ruined buildings nearby as a sort of holy book as he understands the faith(remember, no writing).
He doesn't exactly have a good handle on what Sarenrae is really about, but he's getting there. Unfortunately the Sarenraen priest currently babysitting him in lieu of the actual party's cleric is a 13 year old former street urchin, who while good is hardly going to curb this goblin's more gobliny tendencies all that much beyond guiding him towards a CG alignment.
Geep is eventually going to start preaching to the scattered goblin populace in Kaer Maga.
So what sort of nuanced belief system would goblins that actually converted to Sarenrae's worship develop? What sorts of rituals? What sort of taboos?
What tactics would such Sarenrae followers use?
What punishments would they dole out to the wicked? There's already one Geep is planning on dishing out:
Geep plans on visiting divine justice upon the man by defecating in small bags, placing them at his doorstep, and setting them on fire.
He's going to work his way up from there.
He's a goblin.
I'm thinking a new mythology involving Sarenrae driving barghests back into the darkness might develop, something to drive a wedge between the goblins and their old roots. Could this lead them to lean away from wolves as their favored mounts? If so, what might take their place?
And what would replace The Goblin Song?
"Goblins bite and goblins smite?"
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I love it.
For what I remember: Sarenrae is all about the merciful execution of justice and defense of the weak. She's a fire wielding, flying, sword chopping angel of doom to the irredeemably evil. Seems like someone a gobbo could enjoy working for, honestly.
Taboos: Same as normal goblin stuff, no writing (steals your soul), no horses (stomp you into paste), no dogs (barking and teeth). Maybe an aversion to water, even more than normal, since Fire is all shiny and holy, Water would probably be her antithesis in greenskin ideology.
Rituals: get stuff, burn it. really, it's pretty simple, they're still goblins, remember.
General beliefs about the sun...it's a super-goblin-lady who makes the day shiny, lights things on fire with beams of sun-energy, and chases away the night. In general, if not for the whole "light things on fire" aspect of her divinity, I don't think they'd stay attentive for long.
Redemption and mercy...not really concepts they understand. perhaps with some serious indoctrination, or the instruction that all "executions" need to be authorized by the biggest priest around, would get them to not just light their enemies on happyfiredancedance.
sounds great, BTW. not too long ago I played a goblin druid of Gozreh, who was also a little pyro. he was the star of our RotRL campaign!
-t
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Dogslicers already have a scimitar-esque curve to them, so the weapon imagery is pretty close.
I could see this goblin having a fondness for shiny metals that resemble the color of the sun, including gold (which he can't afford), brass and bronze. Wearing a shirt made of polished copper, brass and bronze coins and metal scraps could make him 'glow like fire' while dancing around the bonfire.
Scraps of red, yellow and orange cloth would also work, but he's unlikely to be able to keep them clean for long (and, he should learn pretty quickly, many ragged and indifferently-clean flapping strips of flammable cloth aren't the safest things to wear while dancing around fires...).
If he has an anti-water agenda, it could get pretty dire, with him setting out pans of water to evaporate, as offerings to the goddess (water hides underground, to stay away from the sun!), which could annoy (or endanger!) people who were planning on drinking that water... He would obviously still have to drink water, although he might prefer to drink only warm water, or water that he has set out in the sun, 'to burn the darkness out of it.' He might even consider ingesting water a necessary evil, and feel shameful when doing this, trapping him in a cycle of self-loathing, and leading to him engaging in some sort of self-mortification, or perhaps seasoning his water with bitter-tasting herbs, just to reinforce that it's 'bad.'
The associations with fire, dancing dervishes and whirling scimitars would absolutely captivate him, and he'll attempt whirling dances, only to get dizzy and fall down a lot, as well as endangering anyone around him with his fancy 'scimitar' (dogslicer) or tangling himself up in a whirling scarf of red linen, since he'll have no clue that *male* dervishes don't wear the same outfits that female dervishes sometimes affect, and sometimes be seen in a veil, or trailing a scarf, recognizing only that 'fire-dancers wear this.'
He may pick up ranks in Heal, as a result of attempting to branch out and embrace other practices of Sarenrae-worship, although his number one 'never fails' remedy for most wounds is to cauterize something, or use heat to 'sweat sickness or poisons out of the body.' He wouldn't just cauterize actual wounds, but might believe, as medieval leech-users did, that applying leeches to other parts of the body was helpful in and of itself. By applying tiny hot coals to the arms, he would claim that his treatments are 'burning out' the sickness or the aches and pains or the infirmity or 'inflaming the passions' to strengthen one's love-life. Any benefits would, of course, be purely psychosomatic, and some 'cured' patients might just claim that 'Yes, the headache went away! Thanks Geep!' rather than submit to yet more of his 'hot coals to the underside of the arm' treatment.
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He may pick up ranks in Heal, as a result of attempting to branch out and embrace other practices of Sarenrae-worship, although his number one 'never fails' remedy for most wounds is to cauterize something, or use heat to 'sweat sickness or poisons out of the body.' He wouldn't just cauterize actual wounds, but might believe, as medieval leech-users did, that applying leeches to other parts of the body was helpful in and of itself. By applying tiny hot coals to the arms, he would claim that his treatments are 'burning out' the sickness or the aches and pains or the infirmity or 'inflaming the passions' to strengthen one's love-life. Any benefits would, of course, be purely psychosomatic, and some 'cured' patients might just claim that 'Yes, the headache went away! Thanks Geep!' rather than submit to yet more of his 'hot coals to the underside of the arm' treatment.
I really enjoy reading your stuff!
I can think of another reason he'd learn Heal... for all the times he falls into the fire wearing his long flowing scarves and catches on fire!
and ummmm
'inflaming the passions' to strengthen one's love-life
I do NOT wanna know just where he plans on sticking that red hot coal, thank you very much! I feel frisky now, thank you for the inspiration. No I do not need you to actually complete the ritual to inflame my passions! *scuttles away in terror from the gleefully grinning maniacal goblin, while holding my hands protectively over my nethers*
I have to admit, I love these ideals. In one of our current campaigns, we have a female Gold Dragon Shaman from the 3.5 PHB2 that has one of these little guys as a pet (read useless except in actual RP) so I'll call her attention to this thread for future reference. Hmmm, now that I think about it, I wonder how he will react to my character's Nightmare when they finally meet. Fire=awesome, horse=horrific, flaming horse=????
As for your goblin, perhaps he should take a note from a paladin and learn to smite.... gnomes....
Mmmmmmm Smite Gnome, best power, EVER
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I have to admit, I love these ideals. In one of our current campaigns, we have a female Gold Dragon Shaman from the 3.5 PHB2 that has one of these little guys as a pet (read useless except in actual RP) so I'll call her attention to this thread for future reference. Hmmm, now that I think about it, I wonder how he will react to my character's Nightmare when they finally meet. Fire=awesome, horse=horrific, flaming horse=????
lol I can see it now! Poor little goblin goes schizoid, develops multiple personalities (would that be goblinalities?) and goes into a coma!
As for your goblin, perhaps he should take a note from a paladin and learn to smite.... gnomes....
Mmmmmmm Smite ELF, best power, EVER
Fixed that for you! :)
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Oh man, awesome stuff guys. :D
The water hang-ups, misapplied Sarenraen fashion, and psychosomatic healing arts are definitely going to get some play. Anything to add to this guy's "I'M HELPING!" M.O.
Now I'm certain he's going to patch together one of those WAR-style goblin caps out of some stolen dress with gold trim.
Bringing the matter of honesty and its importance to Sarenrae into the discussion, I'm now seeing it becoming distressingly common for Sarenraen goblins to be overly brutally honest, with no filter and a side helping of Too Much Information.
As for your goblin, perhaps he should take a note from a paladin and learn to smite.... gnomes....
Funny thing is, the gnome fire-blooded sorcerer almost went nuts with rage when the fighter and cleric took the goblin under their wing. One of the conditions of Geep's parole is that he has to stay at least 100 feet away from the gnome at all times.
It's really strange how much those two have in common, now that I think about it.... IQ and hygiene seem to be the greatest differences at the moment.
With his anti-water campaign it's even better for him to not to wash - it's my religion, stupid!
With the right amount of... grime, his little scales will get all shiny-shiny after polishing them!
Of course, since he is a goblin to start with, he would have never taken washing into consideration in the first place, but now it even underlines his devotion!
Will he go as far as to propose a ritual of cleansing - involving hopping into the holy flames of his goddess to burn the darkness out of him/future converts?
Oh, so much fun!
Ruyan.
Redemption and mercy...not really concepts they understand. perhaps with some serious indoctrination, or the instruction that all "executions" need to be authorized by the biggest priest around, would get them to not just light their enemies on happyfiredancedance.
I am afraid that Sarenite goblins could start equate redemption with lack of responsibility. Or it might appeal to goblins' sense of irresponsibility by teaching them legit way of minimalizing responsibility in a socially accepted manner.
Funny thing is, the gnome fire-blooded sorcerer almost went nuts with rage when the fighter and cleric took the goblin under their wing. One of the conditions of Geep's parole is that he has to stay at least 100 feet away from the gnome at all times.
It's really strange how much those two have in common, now that I think about it.... IQ and hygiene seem to be the greatest differences at the moment.
Could the goblin start worshipping fire-wielding gnome as avatar/angel/herald of The Great Winged Firelady In The Sky? Or at least request gnome's help with larger fires?
In our campaign we have a homebrew LG goddess of fire and marriages. The goddess appeared to a goblin as a massive burning carrot and he fell to his knees in awe and horror, seeing such a massive vegetable that was also on fire. The goblin eventually became an inquisitor with a flaming, flaming burst heavy repeating crossbow which he starts firing (randomly) at the slightest whiff of “hair-easy”. Claiming things like “only the guilty burn” or “female horses fertilizes their eggs in the mouth’s of the male horse”.
In our campaign we have a homebrew LG goddess of fire and marriages. The goddess appeared to a goblin as a massive burning carrot and he fell to his knees in awe and horror, seeing such a massive vegetable that was also on fire. The goblin eventually became an inquisitor with a flaming, flaming burst heavy repeating crossbow which he starts firing (randomly) at the slightest whiff of “hair-easy”. Claiming things like “only the guilty burn” or “female horses fertilizes their eggs in the mouth’s of the male horse”.
LMAO! That is amazingly funny.
I ask this with some trepidation, but ...
Have you posted this question on the Ask Kyra Sief Al Kiraan All Your Questions Here thread?
This thread makes me want to throw an outcast goblin into my game. Maybe one with a semi-high intelligence. I mean, it's gotta happen at some point right? That would get him booted out, wanting to read books and all. :)
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This thread makes me want to throw an outcast goblin into my game. Maybe one with a semi-high intelligence. I mean, it's gotta happen at some point right? That would get him booted out, wanting to read books and all. :)
Assuming goblins are like every other race in existence, being told that reading is forbidden has *got* to inspire some of them to seek it out, specifically for that reason...
Blah, blah 'reading steals the words from your head.' There's got to be a goblin who hears that and thinks, 'maybe I can just do it until I need glasses?'
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Redemption and mercy...not really concepts they understand.
Perhaps not, but the lil' guy probably would go out of his way to free his brethren from the evil influences that others place upon his own kind. That is not to say that he won't decide that a few goblins are incapable of "salvation," though. He should be defending himself against the inevitable, absolutely. What he should be more concerned with, almost on the obsession/psychosis level, is taking out the source of evil influences. Like a leader of a goblin clan that is forcing them to do stereotypical evil little goblin things, or perhaps a lich or dragon that is using them as a tool for their evil deeds.
If a goblin is able to change his perspective of existence and believe in redemption in mercy, even to the slightest extent, he may wish to spread that to other goblins whenever he gets a chance.
I'm currently playing a Kobold Priest of Sarenrae that follows the same concept: underdog in life that has a very stereotyped racial opinion from dang near every corner of the world.
Well I've narrowed it down to two class choices. The Goblin will either be a Rogue or a Druid.
I figure a Druid can be explainable because Goblins live in nature, even if he does decide to revere fire (possibly). This would also allow him to have a companion animal to use has a mount.
My more likely choice is to go with Rogue. This would be explained by his difficulties in "regular" society causing him to stick to the shadows. It would also allow him to steal more books.
I considered Monk solely for the idea of him jumping around like Yoda, but I think that could be accomplished by a Rogue as well. :)
Any opinions?
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Well I've narrowed it down to two class choices. The Goblin will either be a Rogue or a Druid.
I figure a Druid can be explainable because Goblins live in nature, even if he does decide to revere fire (possibly). This would also allow him to have a companion animal to use has a mount.
My more likely choice is to go with Rogue. This would be explained by his difficulties in "regular" society causing him to stick to the shadows. It would also allow him to steal more books.
I considered Monk solely for the idea of him jumping around like Yoda, but I think that could be accomplished by a Rogue as well. :)
Any opinions?
Depending on the party make-up, a Bard could be a justified and balanced addition as well. Instead of singing and playing instruments, just use things like Comedy & Oratory. I don't think anyone could build an argument for a goblin being incapable of telling a captivating story or two.
Depending on the party make-up, a Bard could be a justified and balanced addition as well. Instead of singing and playing instruments, just use things like Comedy & Oratory. I don't think anyone could build an argument for a goblin being incapable of telling a captivating story or two.Well I've narrowed it down to two class choices. The Goblin will either be a Rogue or a Druid.
I figure a Druid can be explainable because Goblins live in nature, even if he does decide to revere fire (possibly). This would also allow him to have a companion animal to use has a mount.
My more likely choice is to go with Rogue. This would be explained by his difficulties in "regular" society causing him to stick to the shadows. It would also allow him to steal more books.
I considered Monk solely for the idea of him jumping around like Yoda, but I think that could be accomplished by a Rogue as well. :)
Any opinions?
I remember there being a goblin bard in the early parts of Rise of the Runelord, and they focused on Singing.
I mean, really. Why play a Goblin Bard if you aren't going to sing their catchy tunes? ;)
Um guys remember that goblins have no inherent int penalty and a massive dex bonus. Not sure goblin paintings and such are going to be crude. At +4 dex goblins make elves look clumsy. If it weren't for the illiteracy thing I could see a goblin making for an excellent dervish dancer Magus build.