Goblins

*A small group of goblins attacked the party while they were camping overnight on Day 70/71 - see Zoom 2021-02-11 21:00.
*The village of Roubank was also attacked that night.
*The next night, an army of several hundred goblins prepared to attack the fort at Roubank, but with no means to assault the walls, they trashed the village and departed to the SouthEast - see Zoom 2021-02-18 20:00
* Over the next week or so, we came across many instances of dead goblins parties, killed by local clansmen, wolves (totem? werewolf?) or even apparently, by other goblins.
==Necromantic connections==
See also: Shadow Warriors
Onwen's notes in Legend 1 - Dwarf Goblin Wars - The Mirthril Gauntlet say: "The Goblins seem have used Necromancy, could they be the source of Necromancy arising in the North?""
However, he also notes: "Goblins fleeing North ties in with the rumours of Soratan offering them shelter"", and yet the Wild seems to have been opposed to the undead.
==Info from Goblin raiding parties/armies==
===From Day 75 - Fleet of Foot ===
Hedrick Forestlore: “The vermin spoke no language that we understood, and so in the end we had to resort to arcane means of understanding. Even then, they said very little of coherence, they talked about the great void as some place of great comfort and peace, their home. It kind of felt as though they had been ripped out of the void to return here and were not happy about it, or prepared.”
Hedrick: “It is difficult to tell I know, but we have noticed that there are both male and female goblins around some looking quite old and frail, but no children. The rabble that they are, are frightened and lashing out wildly. If it wasn’t for the damage they have caused, I would feel sorry for them.”
Tein Crossguard: “Remember though, one of them mentioned Soratan.”
Hedrick: “Oh yes, forgot that, what was it he said again Tein?”
Tein: “That Soratan had promised them eternal safety in the Void, then just went back to babbling about how lovely the void was and wanting to return there.”
Tein: “At the time, we wondered whether the Goblin was referring to Saratak, but nowadays I am not so sure.”
Hedrick: “I suspect it was just confused babbling from a creature obviously terrified out of its wits.”
===From Zoom 2021-03-04 21:00:===
The holy symbol type of thing that some carried is a simple piece of wood with a cross piece of stone. They could be charms or good luck symbols – but definitely not magical or Avatar carriers etc.
When the Shamans interrogated the captured goblins, they used mystical methods for communication – no common language was found.
The party discussed the contradiction of timelines: The Dwarves supposedly annihilated the goblins well before the Time of Change, and yet the document showing the Elven treaties mentioned the Goblins (who refused) which must have been around the Time of Change.
...
3 days further on to the West we found about 30 goblins that appeared to have been killed and eaten – by goblin-sized teeth. The party presumed that the goblins had resorted to cannibalism.
===From Days 72-75: Back Towards White Beach:===
Eli Nightshade (the leader of the humans): “Yes we got news last night that Roubank had been hit by these so called Goblins, we had problems of our own though. A large number of them simply appeared out of nowhere on the edge of one of our camps a couple of days ago, caused fucking chaos.”
Eli: “We have been hunting them down ever since, before they can cause too much more damage. They are pretty weedy things but seem to come in large numbers.Criose..”, Eli nods towards the Maratasen, “..tells us that it is pretty much the same across the plains East of the North River.”
Criose: “The Goblins just seem to appear, form up into bands of varying size and then head out to cause mayhem. They do not seem to have any strategy other than banding together and setting off to kill things. Our shamans have interrogated a number of prisoners and get no sense out of them, they babble on about the void and wanting to return to it – which we are happy to oblige.”
Thorn Shadowsoul (another human): “They arrive with no supplies, do not seem particularly to have strong leadership, there is the occasional shaman type that they congregate around but even then their ability for cohesive action is limited. What you encountered at Roubank is typical, they can act ordered for a while but just cannot maintain it.”
There follows a discussion around the Goblins, where they have come from, what their goals are and so on and so forth, but it is obvious that the clansmen know nothing more than the party. Other than the fact that the Goblins are dying in huge numbers out on the plains and in the woods.
==Abilities:==
They have only been observed to fight or moving at night. Their standard weaponry seems to be darts and spears.
Some individuals clearly have spell casting/shamanistic abilities including totems - a bat totem was spotted and killed by the party.
==Legendary creatures???==
The goblins do not appear to be covered by the GSOV - and as a race that apparently went extinct before the GSOV was cast, they can't have departed with the rest of the Legendary Creatures through the portals that Soratan created. So their reappearance is an anomaly.
==Background Info==
They are mentioned in Background info as being an extinct race:
on the whole Elves were simply regarded as another extinct race, like Goblins and Krakens.Background
The information about Hightower states that the Dwarves have been accused of causing their extinction.
The appear in A Strange List as the only race mentioned who refuse to agree a treaty with the Elves. One should note that the Elven treaty with the Dwarves only extended to within the Dwarven borders, so maybe a connection between the extinction of the Goblins and the treaty can be inferred.
==Elder Race - not???==
Along with the Dwarves, the Goblins are not considered to be one of the Elder Races, though if they are a later arrival, this is not commented on by Q’RanDay 49-57 – Centaurs