[Anomylous]

I interpret "goblins don't lie" as meaning that goblins will not knowingly make false statements, maybe because they're psychologically incapable of it. So if a goblin says something, you know it's true to the best of zir knowledge.

However, that still allows for all kinds of subterfuge in the form of misleading half-truths, etc.

Because it's a really good story, I want to tell the tale of a goblin character I once played:

The character was originally an NPC, the chief engineer of a mining operation, which had accidentally set off a volcano and thus royally peeved everyone in the vicinity, whose livelihoods were more or less wrecked.

The main player party had been tasked with figuring out who was responsible for the volcano and bringing them to justice. I was coming into the adventure late, so the GM handed me the character concept and said "here, build this guy and give them a run for their money". I was one of the most experienced players at the table, so I managed to pull some pretty good tricks (like getting one of the especially munchkin-y players to step within range of a Sleep gas bomb), but ultimately got caught and brought to court, with the Elf King and Dwarf King both in attendance (and of course when those two team up, you know it's serious!).

My character knew that the remnants of his clan, who had survived the eruption, were fleeing for their lives. He'd stayed behind to try and essentially cover their tracks, to buy them more time to escape. So him ending up being interrogated was a Bad Thing.

At the trial, the GM decided that the player characters would be the ones to cross-examine my goblin. They, being relatively young and inexperienced, asked a lot of questions vague enough that I could dodge them, implying that my tribe were simply innocent victims of the eruption like everyone else. However, the longer this went on, the more impatient the Elf King and Dwarf King grew... any minute, they'd take over the cross-examination and they would ask questions I couldn't evade. Things were looking bad for my goblin and his tribe.

However, meantime one of the players was growing bored...

"This goblin's clearly guilty. I cast a 5-die lightning bolt at him!"

The GM, surprised, looks over at me, and says "Okay... are you going to dodge?"

I think a second, and say "No."

The wizard made his roll. The goblin went up in a haze of electrical smoke. The entire party of PC's got imprisoned, but the rest of the goblin clan (maybe) got away...