Goblins & Trolls

Nefarious Elementals

"In my professional opinion, I'd say that the only thing worse than being violently dismembered by a troll is being pranked to death by goblins with a grudge."

— Calico

I

t's a scenario as old as adventuring itself; one moment you're taking a stroll through a well trodden road, and the next you're suddenly being robbed of your magic items by a mischief of skrunklies with knives.

Or perhaps you even encounter an absolutely hulking elemental under a bridge demanding you pay a toll, a troll toll, if you will. The troll toll is also magic items.

These are more related than you think, and if you wanna do the whole adventuring thing it's probably best you learn how to deal with them. Some of this information is actually the reason I'm still here right now writing the book you're currently reading.

I know these are dramatically different styles
but it'll make sense just let me cook

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The Skrunklies

If there's anything you take away from this chapter, it should be the gist of goblins. You'll see them a hell of a lot more often. Essentially, they're fae elementals who live only to vibe and cause chaos. There's not really a limit to what element they can represent but, unlike trolls, goblins tend to lean closer towards a more literal interpretation.

Their appearance actually remains pretty consistent regardless of the element. A small, big eared humanoid with various features related to some element or concept, most notably with a sort of "mane" that covers most of its upper body. I've never actually seen a goblin's shoulders so I assume they don't exist.

The most important thing to know about goblins is how their heads work. They're intelligent, but not in the traditional sense. A lot like crows, actually, stuff like tool-use, puzzle solving, skill learning, all at about the same level as children. This would actually make them a bit more dangerous than kobolds, but this is countered by their extremely lax nature.

You can actually befriend a goblin pretty easily as long as neither of you are hostile. The last thing you want are goblins with a grudge against you 'cause that shit basically lasts for life. From the stories I've heard they not only try to kill you, but will do so with increasingly violent pranks.

While they do live in groups, a single goblin isn't nearly as dedicated to one as a kobold would be. I actually know a guy who adopted a Loot Goblin and trained it to be his squire, it can fight and everything.

If you encounter goblins out in the wild then this is about it. However, if your encounter is anything even remotely related to an armed mischief threatening you with highway robbery, then you my friend have stumbled upon a potential leader.

You see, goblins don't talk on their own, they can only mimic words that you teach them. They probably don't even know what the words mean, only that making specific sounds leads to specific outcomes. So if you encounter goblins that speak to you then someone or something trained them to do so. Sometimes by a person like you and me with rather nefarious intentions, but most of the time the leader is a troll.

"I'll never forget the first time I ran into goblins. It was several years ago when I was still learning the whole ranger thing, I didn't have a party at this point so I was a pretty easy target. I got jumped by around 4 or 5, maybe even 6.

I'm pretty sure they were nature goblins, they had a sort of berry bush look to 'em. At the time I could swear they were talking but it was really just the same few phrases in the exact same tone and cadence.

I actually ended up unionizing them. The troll leading them was a mean one lemme tell ya, the little guys didn't deserve that treatment. I wonder how they're doing now. With any luck they're probably vibing in peace."

— Calico

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Elemental Hulks

To oversimplify, trolls are purely magical creatures with the ability to evolve into an elemental. Although, these evolutions use a very liberal definition of "element". They're more like concepts, really. Unlike goblins, trolls are pretty aggressive towards people who encounter them out in the wild so I highly advise that you keep your distance.

So you might be wondering, how intelligent are they if they're essentially just upgraded goblins? Very. They can actually speak, in fact. Now, I haven't exactly held a conversation with one aside from the both of us exchanging threats of gratuitous violence but I'm confident that you can reason with them if the conditions are right.

There are several ways to identify a troll in a pinch. If you're lucky, it'll just look like an elemental and that's it; if it's unclear what you're looking at then take note of its anatomy. Regardless of the evolution, trolls consistently have:

• A hunched back
• Large teeth with at least two tusks
• Short, stubby legs
• Large arms the length of its entire body
• A stance/walk resembling a gorilla
• Is at least twice your size
• The party's wizard is wondering if anyone else feels those weird vibes

Another solid way to tell if you've encountered a troll is if they're surrounded by goblins and/or loot. It's kinda their default state of being.

You'll rarely see a troll that looks like this since it evolves so quickly, its just a baseline. I've only ever seen it once which is why I'm able to record it here.

Magical Strengths

The magic of trolls and goblins shows up in a few ways. Firstly, they constantly need a source of magic in order to function. Goblins have an easier time with this since they're so small, the ambient magic around them is more than enough. Trolls, however, need to go out of their way for it. This is more often than not done by consuming magic items. A rare piece of equipment alone is enough to fuel them for about a month. Because of this need, both trolls and goblins have a sort of "loot sense" that allows them to find said magic items.

Secondly, trolls have a downright insane level of healing. Going as far as being able to reattach a severed limb or just regenerate a completely new one within a matter of minutes. I've heard rumors that if you behead a troll and wait long enough it'll soon be two trolls you need to deal with. Goblins don't have it nearly as good, but as long as nothing is severed a goblin can heal completely with just a long rest. It's pretty wild.

"The troll though was a different story. Once the goblins recognized that I wanted to try and help them they led me straight to the hoard. I actually thought it was a Runeclaw at first, but its head was nothing like a bear's. Also the mane was made of fire so that was probably another hint.

I was only vaguely aware of how trolls could heal and knew nothing of elemental counters, so it was pretty lucky that the troll's element was so obvious. Their camp was near a small river, or at least I remember it being pretty small since I was able to quickly soak both myself and my blades just before the troll charged me.

Obviously I ended up winning, but I will admit I got pretty fucked up in the process. The rest is history. That encounter was one of the reasons I started writing this journal actually, huh, time flies when you're an adventurer I guess."

— Calico

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"Kobolds just go for anything shiny, goblins though know exactly what they're trying to get. Goblins aim for practicality, if their definition of practicality was 'Can cause bodily harm', they're after your magic items, equipment, artifacts, trinkets, doodads, gizmos, and gadgets. Your money will be safe, but at what cost?"

A Symbiotic Relationship

There's really only one way to describe the relationship between trolls and goblins. You know how some people are able to train crows to find them money? It's that. Trolls will amass themselves a tribe of goblins, teach them how to steal magic items from passing travellers, merchants, and adventurers alike, and then chill on the massive hoard of loot they collect from it. Sometimes it's done by befriending the goblins, other times it's through threats, or maybe just the promise of protection, but it works all the same. The elements of the two won't always be matching so that's probably something to prepare for.

So basically yeah the bit in the beginning wasn't just a generalization they
literally just do the highway robbery thing.

Oniran    Wilderness      Ranger's Handbook for Beasts & Wildlife      Goblins & Trolls

^{Reading Time: 12 min. (2500 words)} The Official Goblin Encounter Music

Table of Contents

Goblins

Trolls

• Combat Strategies(Sidebar)

• Potential Loot(Sidebar)

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Bonus Lore

Nobody actually knows where they come from. There's theories, of course, like forest goblins popping out of flower buds, fire goblins excavated from lava, trolls being evolved goblins, trolls spawning with a mischief from the get-go, all of them just popping into existence from thin air, maybe they even came from dungeons, I've heard them all.

That being said, we do know that their elements very much depend on where they are. You won't see a fire goblin in the forest or a bush goblin near the mountains, but at the same time they're super weird so it usually isn't that cut and dry. This is only for goblins though, trolls don't adhere to this rule nearly as much.

Naturally there are exceptions to the "Goblins take a literal interpretation of their element" rule. Obviously there's the loot goblin I've mentioned multiple times, but I've also seen some weird shit, I'm talking honey goblins, dungeon goblins, arcane goblins, bug goblins, elf goblins for some reason, etc. Goblins are just more consistent than trolls.

Goblins make great minions and will listen to you if you meet one of two conditions: They like you, or you can kill them. Trolls are the latter.

A lot of dungeoneering parties will enlist the help of a loot goblin when going on dungeon crawls. They're particularly useful for runs with a more get-in get-loot get-out focus, especially for higher level dungeons to maximize both safety and profit.

Although a rivalry is much more common, goblin tribes will sometimes join forces and effectively double in size and strength. Especially if they're elemental counters since an alliance would let them compensate for their weaknesses.

A goblin's default state of being is simply vibing. They would much rather chill on their own than having to work in a big group, they only do so out of necessity. This makes them the complete opposite of kobolds. There's actually a popular theory that this is one of the main reasons goblins and kobolds don't get along 99% of the time.

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Combat Strategies

The most important thing to do in order to fight them is indentifying what element they are.

The consequences of not doing
so or getting it wrong can very easily be fatal.

The first thing you need to know is that all goblins and trolls fall under 3 elements, Nature, Fire, and Water. Sometimes they can fall under multiple, maybe even all 3, but you just need to identify one of them and you'll be good.

For the most part, the ones with single elements should be easy. For hybrids, if you encounter something like a sea monster then it would be nature and water, something arcane or magical in general would be fire and water, and one that's just a big walking mountain or volcano would be nature and fire. I can't think of an example for all three but at that point you don't even need to guess.

So why do you need to know their element? Well, trolls are functionally immortal thanks to the healing factor so 90% of the time your weapon will do about as much damage as slapping it with a mug of room temperature ginger root mead. The only way around this is to use its elemental counter to cancel out the regeneration. I'm sure you can piece together what this means, water beats fire, fire beats nature, and nature beats water. Since they absorb magic, if you use the same and/or countered element you'll end up making the troll stronger.

Once the regen is cancelled, you have a small window of time to damage it before they can heal again, the key here is that any damage you dealt during that period won't heal. A fight with a troll is one of endurance.

Important thing to note however, magic alone won't get the job done. A magical fire and a regular fire are not the same thing. While magic might do a little damage in a pinch, you run the risk of making it stronger.

Because of this, I'd highly recommend only using alchemical items to counter the elements. Do whatever you gotta do to get the job done, oils, tinctures, elixirs, brews, bombs, tipped arrows, hell even just a handful of dirt, a bottle of water, or a lit match. Just be prepared for the fight.

Once you have this down it's an easy enough process as fighting just about anything else. Oh and also this applies to the goblins cause they'll probably be fighting you too.

Know the element and its counter, cancel out the healing, do your damage, wash rinse and repeat.

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Potential Loot

The Hoard

They say the bigger the challenge, the greater its reward. A troll hoard is no exception. Depending on how long that troll's been doing its thing you might stumble upon a pretty sizeable collection of magic items of all varieties. Just take care if you decide to haul them back to town, will ya? You probably don't wanna be accused of theivery by any recent victims of goblin robbery.

Magical Blood

Goblin and troll's blood is also an extremely valuable magical component for healing salves and potions respectively. But you only have a small window of time to collect it if you want to maintain its potency. If this is your goal I suggest you pack a good number of bottles and vials before you go troll hunting, sealing the blood with a cork should keep it fresh long enough for you to find a potion brewery.

Regenerating Hide

Similar to the blood, if you can quickly harvest and preserve the troll's hide you may be able to fashion it into a set of regenerative armor or shield. Strength wise it's about the level of leather and the speed of regeneration is anywhere between an hour to a day, depending on the skills of whoever crafts it. If this is something you care about, I'd recommend a craftsperson who's also skilled in magic for quality assurance.

Little Buddies

And if, for some reason, you're the type of adventurer who considers companions as loot, goblins make great little buddies. Little guys, if you will. In addition, I'd imagine it's not impossible to form some kind of business relationship with an open-minded troll.

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Master Jontaro

Jon

       

While I would love to go on an adventure, writing them is enough for me.

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