Character 55 - Broog Toothnasher

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.

Harrow Interpretation

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.

Broog Toothnasher

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 average please consider donating to my Patreon. Looking for more from the CRB? Come find me on Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, and Twitter. My inbox is open for questions and comments on all platforms.