Goblin Games
August 24th, 2010
Hello, and welcome to a very special Grave Plots. What’s so special about it, you ask? At the risk of sounding a little immodest, me. As you were probably made aware of in yesterday’s Dark Designs, Josh and I switched articles this week, allowing him to talk about the design elements of our most recent .pdf release The War of the Goblin King, available here. While I was heavily involved in writing up the final draft of the adventure, most of the actual design of the adventure was done by Josh, so it seemed more appropriate that he be the one to talk at length about what that was like. Besides, now I get to take a break from writing about design theory and just pump out a fun adventure outline. So, are you ready? Let’s do this!
As this week is all about The War of the Goblin King, it seems only appropriate that this week’s Grave Plots be related to that adventure. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, you might want to, as you probably won’t get much mileage out of this article if you don’t.
On the surface, it seems like it would be hard to really make much more out of the adventure, as it most likely ends with Yarrick dead, his ambitions thwarted, and his barghest allies—one of the major sources of his successes to date—are either dead or fleeing. All in all, probably a good time for the PCs to pat themselves on the back for a job well done and head to one of Springdale’s many fine taverns for some good drinking and wenching, not the impetus for the start of a whole new adventure, let alone some kind of crazy goblin-centric campaign.
It wasn’t always this way, however. Originally, The War of the Goblin King was designed to be a trilogy. Our slower production schedule made this relatively unfeasible, however, as we would either have to devote three straight months (more like six, really) to this single adventure line, or else release the adventures at a rate too slow for DMs to actually make much use of. So, we made a few changes at the end and wrapped up all our loose ends. It seems like the simplest way to get more adventure out of Yarrick’s pro-goblin crusade is to undo those changes, opening the way for further adventure.
Gauroth’s Master Plan
In this adventure hook, Gauroth is far more than simply Yarrick’s ally. The barghest is instead a wizard of no small power, and the actual mastermind behind the recent goblin uprising. Though, as a barghest, Gauroth can pass for a goblin when he wants to, and could probably have taken Yarrick’s position as the supposed goblin king, Gauroth was confident in his ability to control the upstart goblin, and decided that he would be better off acting as Yarrick’s “advisor” rather than his master… at least publicly.
When the PCs finally make it to Yarrick’s throne room, Gauroth is still there, and still joins the fight, but he doesn’t stay there long. When he is first damaged in the fight, he decides the battle isn’t really worth the risk, and teleports away after telling Yarrick that, if he survives, he should meet Gauroth to the south, in the lands near Reyvault.
It’s important to note here that even though Gauroth is a relatively powerful mage (probably 7-17 wizard or sorcerer levels on top of his status as a greater barghest, depending on how long you want this campaign to go on), it’s important to the longevity of your campaign that he not simply slaughter the PCs in the fight. This can be done in a variety of ways, but the simplest and easiest answer is that Gauroth simply isn’t prepared for a fight. He can either have most of his spell slots used up for the day (he’s a busy barghest, and doesn’t spend all his time babysitting Yarrick. He may very well have fought off adventurers at one of his other strongholds earlier that day), or just favor utilitarian spells and “buffing” spells, because he prefers to have his minions do his fighting for him.
Once the PCs have dealt with Yarrick, their adventure has really only just begun. The goblin king was but one of the barghest’s many pawns, and his plots and schemes as a whole are only moderately affected by their loss. Most PCs will probably decide to take up the cryptic clue about Reyvault, unless they suddenly find themselves with something more important to be doing.
When the PCs arrive in Reyvault, they probably aren’t surprised to discover that the town is suffering from some grisly night-time murders. These murders aren’t quite the same as in Springdale, however, as they leave corpses in their wake: grisly, brutally savaged corpses. PCs may make the connection between the claw and bite marks on the victims and the natural attacks that the barghests possessed, but even if they don’t the locals have their own opinions about the source of the murders, which can help springboard the PCs in their investigation.
The local priests and clerics are virtually united in their belief that the murders are the work of an upstart sect calling itself The Earth Daughters, an all-female temple of nature worshippers which moved into the town only a few weeks before the killings started. What the local priests won’t tell the PCs (but the Earth Daughters are quick to point out, if asked) is that their temple has been especially popular due to the fact that they offer their healing services for free, rather than charging, as do the other temples in the area.
The local guard-captain is concerned that the perpetrator is actually the town’s mayor, who has been making some strange and unaccounted night-time disappearances lately, and who could certainly stand to be a little more concerned about the deaths. As it turns out, however, the mayor is simply having an extramarital affair, and doesn’t particularly appreciate the PCs meddling in the matter.
The truth is that a den of werewolves has taken up residence in the nearby woods, not far from the town’s largest logging camp. These werewolves, much like Yarrick and his goblins, have been tricked into worshipping Gauroth as a deity, and the PCs find a statue of his likeness atop a crude stone altar in the werewolves’ den. Gauroth himself isn’t here, however: he only directed Yarrick here because it was his closest stronghold, and Yarrick doesn’t share his ability to teleport. Gauroth checks in once a week or so, mostly leaving the werewolves to their own devices because all he really wants from them is to create panic and instability in the nearby town.
After dispatching the werewolves, the PCs may find themselves facing a bit of a dead-end, as there are no direct hints to the barghest’s location, and even if they stick around Gauroth leaves more or less immediately upon realizing that they have dispatched yet another of his outposts. During this time, allow the PCs to largely take a breather from Gauroth, tossing in a couple of “filler” adventures that don’t directly link to Gauroth. While they pursue these adventures, however, Gauroth discovers their triumph at Reyvault and determines that they are, in fact, enough of a problem to require dealing with. He sends out a number of assassins, and the PCs soon find their heroic efforts complicated at every turn by wave after wave of enemies sent by their barghest foe.
Ideally, the PCs capture and interrogate one or more of these assassins in order to find out Gauroth’s location and put an end to the attacks, but if your players are more of the stab-first-and-ask-questions-never type (as opposed to the stab-first-and-ask-questions-later type, which is actually possible with spells like speak with dead) you can provide them with less-and-less subtle hints. Eventually you may have to fall on old clichés like an incriminating note in the pocket or some exposition about how they should never have crossed Gauroth. Alternatively, perhaps one or more of the assassins is out to capture the PCs, rather than kill them, and they shortly find themselves imprisoned in one of Gauroth’s strongholds, forced to escape and maybe just destroy the place in the process.
The campaign finally comes to a close when the PCs track Gauroth to his real stronghold, located on one of the lower planes (someone who had the right to use Planescape planes would probably suggest Gehenna, Hades, or Carceri, but I certainly won’t), an impressive tower of pure basalt. From here Gauroth has been plotting and scheming to bring the players’ home world under his direct control, but thanks to the PCs’ meddling he’s been having trouble getting past the early stages of his plan, which involve destabilizing the local governments by inciting violence from the goblins, werewolves, and other demi-humans (in fact, having the PCs stumble across a few more of Gauroth’s schemes along the way couldn’t hurt). Here the PCs storm the barghest’s fortress, which is filled with devious traps and fiendish guardians, then confront the scheming shapechanger himself in an epic confrontation.
Iblig’s Crusade
Alternatively, you can still get a surprising amount of mileage after the adventure without changing the ending—at least, not very much. In this version, Gauroth was just another barghest, and dies alongside Yarrick at the hands of the PCs. Unfortunately, however, Yarrick was more than just a power-hungry goblin who had strong-armed the others into serving him, however. His message—that the goblins were sick of being pushed underground by the humans and other “surface races” and that it was time they got the respect that they deserved—survives his death, and though the PCs may be able to slay Yarrick, his ideals prove much more difficult to destroy.
The PCs should leave the abandoned keep feeling like heroes, without any concern about loose ends. In fact, the whole thing probably works better if the PCs kill every goblin in the keep, leaving no survivors. The point is that, after the dust settles, and the PCs have gone off in search of ale, wenches, riches, or just the next big adventure, the goblin menace rears its ugly head again.
Iblig could be a goblin from the keep. A lowly lieutenant, perhaps, or even a stable-boy. A large number of goblins were residing in the tunnels below the keep, and if fighting broke out they almost certainly fled, so it’s unlikely that the PCs really are able to exterminate the goblins down to the last man, woman, and child. Alternatively, Iblig may not even have been at the keep: Yarrick had the attention of a wide number of other goblin clans, and word of his decimation would spread like wildfire through the goblins’ underground warrens. The more vicious and bloodthirsty the PCs, the fewer goblin survivors there are, the more they will fan the flames of racial hatred in the goblins’ hearts. Iblig could very well be the leader of another clan, perhaps even of several clans: the important thing is this: Iblig is Yarrick’s replacement.
Give the PCs a little while before implementing the next phase of the campaign. Let them try their hands at a few more “filler” adventures, stuff unrelated to Yarrick or his successor. Every now and again, have someone recognize the PCs as “the heroes of Springdale,” just to keep the event fresh in their heads.
Then, suddenly and without warning, Iblig strikes. Whether it’s due to a better intelligence than Yarrick, or simply because Yarrick’s martyrdom gave Iblig the kind of popular support that Yarrick was trying to win through his daring raids, Iblig doesn’t continue Yarrick’s war of terror and attrition. Iblig knows that in order to win the war, he will have to do more than just sack a few towns: he will have to actually take and hold surface territory, carving out a goblin kingdom of his own. While the PCs were off having filler adventures, he was training goblin soldiers (giving them enough class levels to be a reasonable challenge to the PCs, because, well, otherwise this is going to be a pretty short campaign) and putting people in strategic positions. Then, similar to Yarrick, they perform brutal surprise attacks, crippling their targets. Unlike with Yarrick, however, these attacks happen simultaneously at several key cities and fortifications across the land, effectively giving goblins control of a large section of the country in a handful of days.
Iblig goes about fortifying the goblin position, and within a very short period of time the goblins are well-defended and in a position to keep much of their holdings. Loyalists to the human regime are either killed or imprisoned, and goblins patrol the streets, keeping order amongst the populace. Laws are passed preventing non-goblins from carrying weapons, armor, or spellbooks, and generally trying to keep them from being able to rise up against their new goblin overseers.
Worse yet for the PCs, as “the heroes of Springdale” they are specifically targeted, and wanted posters with their names and likenesses begin cropping up all over goblin territory, with rather impressive rewards attached. While the PCs may very well be inclined to simply cut their losses, they find themselves being approached on all sides by hopefuls who are certain that, having defeated the goblins in Springdale, the PCs are the only real hope for defeating them now.
The PCs must then move into what is now goblin territory, acting as resistance fighters in an ongoing campaign to overthrow Iblig and cast the goblins back into the underground tunnels where they belong—or, dice forbid, they may actually stop a moment to listen to the goblins talking about the injustices they’ve suffered at human hands, and attempt to resolve the whole situation more peacefully—either way, the campaign will probably have run its course by around level 12 or so, as you begin to stretch the realms of believability when you have level 20 goblins running about. Unless, of course, it turns out that Iblig had some help from a fiendish friend, in which case the PCs might slowly see the real goblins being replaced by twisted and tainted demonic versions, perverted by Iblig into goblin super-soldiers in order to help solidify his rule. In fact, it may even turn out towards the end of the campaign that the goblins themselves are having second thoughts about serving under Iblig, and while they may still hate the surfacers for their mistreatment, they may just be willing to team up in order to get out from under the clutches of their mad ruler’s lower-planar allies.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s Grave Plots. Join me next week when I… well, I won’t really be in this column, actually, so, uh, join me next week when I’ll instead be Josh Zaback, with the normal Grave Plots fare. Until then, may you always find a way to make your sequels.