Dag's Dicount Henchmen: Goblin

[martinl]

"Dag," said Yvor flatly, "that's a goblin."

"Sure is!" replied the bard breezily, "But it's OUR goblin for now."

"I don't know why we let you handle recruitment Dag, I really seriously don't know."

"It's because you're hoping for anther awesome dog like ... Oh. That was too soon, wasn't it. I'm sorry. ... C'mon Yvor, hold it together. Don't cry in front of our goblin."

Greg the Goblin

62-point "Half Orc" Agent

The goblin who goes by the name of Greg is a low key local celebrity in Town, which has its share of "half-whatevers" but few out and out greenskins. However, Greg's Red Star Tribe is loosely allied with the king, at least for the moment. Greg has an official pass, signed by a real baron, that lets her move around town with the freedom, if not the trust, granted any other citizen.

Some think she is a hostage, some think she is a spy, others a diplomat. Greg claims she is just seeing more of the world while waiting out an undesirable bethrothal ("That old geezer doesn't have anther winter in him!"). All of these things are somewhat true. However, from the delvers' point of view, her main characteristics are that she is quite willing to go on delves involving rival goblin-kin tribes and won't betray folks who pay her (up to 25% less than normal) and treat her fairly.

Greg's real name is "Grag," but she finds the human version of her name smooths interactions with the pinkies. If this makes most of them think she's male, she doesn't particularly care.

ST 11 [10]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 11 [11]
Damage 1d-1/1d+1; BL 24 lbs.; HP 11 [0]; Will 10 [-5]; Per 11 (12 hearing) [0]; FP 11 [0].
Basic Speed 5.00 [-10]; Basic Move 6 [5]; Move 6
Dodge 8 ; Parry 9; Block 9 (Does not include DB1 shield)

Advantages
Acute Hearing 1 [2]
Charisma 1 [5]
Night Vision 9 [9]
Rapid Healing [5]
Resist Disease 5 [5]
Resist Poison 5 [5]
Speak & Write Common [6] (Native language is Orcish)

Disadvantages and Quirks
Appearance Unattractive [-4]
Code of Honor (Stays Bought) [-5]
Curious (12) [-5]
Gluttony (12) [-5]
Sense of Duty (Red Star Tribe) [-10]
Skinny [-5]
Social Stigma (Savage) [-10]

Androgynous and uninterested in clarifying her gender [-1]
Calls most PC races "Pinkies" [-1]
Long twitchy nose [-1]
Ashamed of her "night blindness" [-1]
Likes Dogs [-1]

Skills
Bow – 11 [2]
Brawling-11 [1]
Climbing-10 [1]
Diplomacy-11 [4]
Hiking-10 [1]
Holdout – 10 [1]
Interrogation – 11 [2]
Knife-13 [4]
Shield - 12 [2]
Spear - 10 [1]
Stealth-10 [1]
Streetwise - 10 [1]
Survival, Woodlands - 10 [1]
Survival, Urban - 10 [1]

Equipment

$325, 23.1 lbs (No Encumbrance)

Boot Knife 1d-2Cut (C,1)/1d-2imp(C) $30, 0.5 lb
Canteen. Full. 1 qt. Water. $10, 3lbs.
Coins. $22
Ratty (Literally made from ratskin) Leather Armor (DR 1) – Body, Head, Feet $83, 9.9lbs
Long Knife 1dcut/1d-1imp (C,1) $120 1.5 lb
Pouch (has coins). $20, 0.2 lb
Small Shield (DB1) $40, 8 lb

Notes:
Grag's code of honor just means she's unwilling to betray an employer, provided the employer stays within the terms of the employment contract by treating her decently. Sending her off the solo the ogre will have negative consequences.

Grag is a little on the wimpy side in combat, even for a goblin. Using her as a torchbearer, back-line mage bodyguard, archer (get her a bow), or other support role is recommended. She won't agree to an employment contact as a "warrior" – she has first hand experience with dungeons and knows better.

Savvy delvers will use her to help negotiate and interrogate various orcish-speaking folks. Merely having her an an interpreter can cancel out up to 3 points of reaction or skill penalties when dealing with goblin kin, as she speaks orcish and understands goblin-kin culture. Note that her appearance and social stigma do no apply to dungeon monsters, but her charisma does.

The politics of the Red Star Tribe's relation to the King is up to the GM – it can be background detail, it can be part of weird dungeon politics, or you can set up an orcish horde WWII in the campaign background, with terrible Stalinist Red Star goblins as "comrades" of convenience against the even worse "Hooked Black Cross" hordes bent on eradicating the pinkies completely.

[johndallman]

Indexed under "Diplomats." Don't neglect her keeping-a-lookout-at-night abilities, she's really good at that.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Indexed under "Diplomats." Don't neglect her keeping-a-lookout-at-night abilities, she's really good at that.

Good point. I was amused to give her Night Vision 9 AND a quirk about being "night blind" (most goblins have infravision).

[Flyndaran]

Those are very different advantages. Night vision will allow reading maps in the dark. Infravision allows knowing what's too hot to touch.

Human kids have to be taught not to touch anything on the stove, because "you don't know if it's hot". Imagine some poor goblin parents that don't know they can't just assume their kid won't touch the glowing "hot" object.

Maybe has a burn reminder of such "foolishness".

[martinl]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Those are very different advantages.

Yes, but goblin-kin are notoriously flexible in the ancestry department. If Grag's tribe has any other half orcs (and I'm sure they do, since I made them up) she is not particularly noteworthy in that department, and NV9 is easier for the players, since it is an advantage some of them are likely to have.

And yes, despite the "Goblin" billing she is technically a half orc with minor modifications, rather than an DFRPG:Monsters goblin.

[Kromm]

It isn't nuts to say that some versions of Night Vision represent not eyes capable of "image intensification" that amplifies visible light, but rather eyes that augment visible light with near-infrared light, as many real-world night-vision devices do. The degree to which amplifying visible light and augmenting it with near-infrared play a role in a specific instance of Night Vision is too fussy to matter in the DFRPG . . . it's all just "you have smaller penalties for partial darkness." And no, if your Night Vision augments with near-infrared, that doesn't mean it will do anything useful in total darkness; lots of real-world night-vision devices that do this still need moonlight or at least starlight to be effective.

Infravision is just the extreme where "amplifying visible light" contributes nothing and "seeing in the infrared" contributes everything. It extends beyond the near-infrared. It is not Detect (Heat) or anything of the kind. It is game-speak for thermal imaging.

So really, our goblin friend here just has a bluer frequency response: more visible, less infrared. Given that this kind of thing is actually a continuum, it isn't especially bizarre.