A goblin, much like the
monkey goblin I did a few months ago, this is
a good character from a race that is usually quite evil. We have to take a look
to her past to explain why she would be different from ninety percent of her people. Quick, hardy, and intensely aware, but also lacking in physical
strength and book smarts, class choices for this character were still pretty
open. The harrow reading really helped string together the pieces of
information from the random rolls to make a coherent character.
Signifier Card:
This card represents the character itself. The Peacock usually shows a sudden
shift in attitude or a societal change. Although with the original base rolls,
I was going to go with a character born outside of a goblin tribe and their
traditional evil. With this card, it seems more like he would have been part of
something evil and changed his ways.
Card One: The
first card which shows where the character comes from further backs that up.
The Paladin represents strength in the face of adversity. Never backing down,
even if it means hardship. So the character comes from a place where he had to
take a stand for what he thought was right and suffered for it.
Card Two: The
card that tells of an important event in the character’s life is The Uprising,
which can mean the overthrow of a leader. It also speaks of defeating something
much more powerful than oneself. For this I’m going to mix the conflict and the
circumstances of birth. His mother was taken by force, and in this case I’m
going to go with the leader of the tribe as the perpetrator. The conflict is
that he killed some non-humanoid creature, I’m going to make that creature
somehow bound to the leader but not evil in its own right so the character can
feel bad about killing it since it was being forced to serve the leader.
Card Three:
The Avalanche shows us an ability the character might have. It’s a dexterity
card, but it means unthinking, unreasoning disaster. This card really helped
cement the class for this character. Unthinking, unreasoning really just
screams barbarian rage, and with the unchained barbarian’s rage feature
allowing for dex based barbarians this fits oh-so-well.
Card Four:
Where the character is going is told by The Publican card. It shows fellowship
and a place of refuge. With all of these things that have changed for this
goblin to become good and outcast from his clan, it shows that he finds
acceptance even outside of his clan.
Goblins aren’t known for long lasting relationships. For
the most part goblin babies are born when two goblins just can’t keep their
hands off each other. The fact that Broog’s conception came after the goblin
chief forced himself on her mother, has always been a source of shame to the
one parent Broog ever really knew. But
like most goblins, Broog was raised by the tribe in the most savage of ways,
without knowing the truth of her parentage.
Like most of her race, after surviving the
goblin-eat-goblin world of the brood-pens, she matured quickly. Frenetic rages
were the evidence of her brutal upbringing, and she became a well-respected
warrior in her small tribe on their tiny island in the steaming sea. Her people
fought for their hardscrabble life, but it was theirs. They were rarely
disturbed by other humanoids, seeing as their home served very little strategic
value.
Broog learned of her mother’s shame when the chief once
again tried to force himself on her. Although this time her mother escaped the
ravaging, it left a mark on Broog. The chief was feared, especially since he
somehow cowed a pseudodragon into being his protector. From the moment Broog
knew the truth, however, her inner fire wouldn’t let her rest until she dealt
which Chief Grymegoot.
In the dark of night Broog stole into the chief’s cave.
The Pseudodragon never knew what hit it when she snuck in and snapped its
serpentine neck. However, a small shriek in its death throes gave the chief
all the warning he needed to prepare for the attack and he fended off Broog’s
uncoordinated assault. The young goblin was beaten back and forced to flee,
running right off a rocky cliff and into the misty morning tide.
Washed ashore on one of the other islands in the
Ironbound Archipelago, Broog was without family, without a tribe, and for the
first time felt something she’d never felt before, regret. The poor
pseudodragon had done nothing to her and in her struggle with Chief Grymegoot
she saw that he kept a small clutch of eggs near his bed. Like her mother
this creature just sought to protect its young and she had murdered it.
Set adrift, not just physically but spiritually, Broog
questioned everything about her existence. The small rocky outcropping that
passed for an island left her alone with nothing but her thoughts. Days turned
into weeks, and weeks into months as she managed a life on the island. Game was
scarce but not impossible to find. But mostly she longed for something to feed
not just her stomach, but the empty part in her heart.
One hunting expedition she came across a small black cat
with gray stripes. It was the biggest thing she’d seen on the island in a long
while and she hoped to have a big meal, but the cat was just too quick for her.
She became frustrated and almost lost herself to the rage when the cat told her
to just calm down if she wanted to keep playing. Broog fell and hit her head, her only thought that cats don’t talk.
The cat, whose name was Fitterns—although Broog took to
calling him Mittens—was not really a cat but a small celestial envoy known as
a silvanshee. With no one else to talk to, Broog took to communing with and
eventually taking Mittens as a kind of mentor. Mittens on his part, a servitor
of the Empyreal Lord Eritrice, attempted to teach the young goblin the finer
points of debate. Broog, however, ended most debates frustrated and trying to
club Mittens over the head with something.
After five years on the island Mittens told Broog it was
time to move on. Broog was initially confused, but the silvanshee explained
that there was much more to the world than just this island. And even though
goblins were reviled in most places, Broog’s purpose was to go out and be a
part of that world. Mittens counseled getting control of her rage and learning
to use her words for she would be tested time and again when people refused to
look past who she was.
The next day Mittens was gone, but a small fishing boat
was grounded on the shore. A fisherman and his son were gravely injured, having
lost control of their boat. When Broog approached, the man weakly tried to fend
her off to protect his boy but fell over in the process. Broog took it in
stride and pulled the boat ashore, she bandaged and tended to the wounds of
both humans and for a fortnight nursed them back to health.
When the man was well enough to move he expressed his
thanks, but also his confusion. He was even more so when Broog replied in Skald, his native tongue. The Ulfen fisherman was in her debt and he took her back
with him to the small island his clan lived on. Again there was trepidation,
but when he explained he and his son would never have survived without the
goblin’s help, Broog was warily accepted into the village.
Thus Broog made her first foray into the world outside her
island. She lived and worked with the Ulfen. She used her inner rage to train
with their berserkers, an odd sight to say the least. Broog knew her destiny
was to go out and be more, but she was only a goblin and people hated goblins.
Her self-doubt was almost crippling, she feared she would never be more than
just a goblin. The son of the fisherman, however would forever see her as a
hero and when he became one of the clan’s storytelling skalds, he would sings
stories of her.
When the fisherman’s son came of age and it was time for
him to make his own way in the world and explore, he convinced Broog to come
with him. She would make her way into the larger world with the boy’s help
and she might just have a chance of showing people that a goblin can be more
than just a little machine of destruction.
And there we have goblin who is both less than and more
than a goblin, the story of Broog. What class would you have chosen for this
character? Why does this does this goblin choose to worship Eritrice? How did
you interpret the harrow reading?
Like Broog your characters can be so much more than just
a stereotype of their race. If these character help you think beyond the
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