Thursday, June 14, 2012

700 posts and a hobgoblin

Some elves and dwarves fail to learn the lesson of the doom of Man and seek knowledge and power at any cost. Hobgoblins are the twisted remnant of elvish or dwarvish mages who were corrupted by their contact with the Outer Dark, bartering their souls either all at once or piecemeal, until they were transformed into something more--and less--than what they had been.

HOBGOBLIN
AC: 2 or better
HD: 5+
Attacks: claw (1d6)
Special: spells (as Magic-User of level equal to hit dice); chilling laugh (causes paralysis with fear in beings 4HD or below on failed saving throw)

Hobgoblins have lairs in creepy locales, dark plots and sinister henchmen (villainous elves or dwarves, cyborg monstrosities, demons, or umber hulks are possibilities). All hobgoblins are mad to one degree or another (feel free to roll on a Palladium rpg insanity table or the like). Sometimes their madness dilutes their evil purpose, but it also increases their unpredictability.

If brought to zero hit points, hobgoblins will often explode--messily.  They will reform by the next new moon unless their soul is found and destroyed.  Their souls are always kept hidden but generally close by.  They have the appearance of insects or other crawling things molded from congealed shadow--inky black, confection-sticky,and unpleasant in texture. These souls can be destroyed by fire or magic, but possessing one affords a means to leverage a hobgoblin to do the possessors bidding.



And that's 700 posts, folks.Thanks for reading!

11 comments:

Gothridge Manor said...

Congrats Trey on 700. Here's to many more.

The Happy Whisk said...

700 posts. Holy crap on a cracker, Batman. That's very cool.

The Angry Lurker said...

Congrats on the 700 Trey, you're a prolific genius!

Sean Robson said...

Now, that's a hobgoblin! It reminds me a lot of The Hobgoblin from Finn Family Moomintroll, which I read as a very young child; a sinister, black-cloaked figure who wore a magic top hat and rode a black panther to the moon to search the craters for a giant ruby.

After that, the slightly-tougher-than-goblins hobgoblins of D&D came as a tremendous let-down. Your version made me feel seven-years-old reading under the covers again. Thanks.

And congratulations on your 700th post!

Pierce said...

Grats! Also I love me some hobgoblins.

Unknown said...

Off topic; I mention you and this blog in my video, but in a good way.
http://thegrumpycelt.blogspot.com/2012/06/grumpy-rpg-reviews-request-and.html

Gus L said...

Congratulations on that impressive volume of ideas.

Also nice beastie, are these Hobs related to you goblins that use captives as slime pool mulch? If so how?

Mr. Blue said...

Grats. Also, that is great hobgoblin imagery. The art is good too!

Nothing quite like a messy hobgoblin explosion.

Trey said...

Thanks guys. It does seem surprising to come this far.

@Sean - Thanks! That's exactly the sort of stuff I wanted to pull in.

@GC - Thank you. I'll have to check that out when I get home as my work nefariously blocks video.

@Gibbering Mouther - Only in the similar name, so far as is known. :)

@Blue - Yeah, Filip (Clone-Artist on deviantart) did a great job.

Chris Kutalik said...

I'm heading toward 700. Do ever wonder like I do, how in the Seven Hells did I manage to write this much about roleplaying games?

Trey said...

I have that same thought sometimes. At least I do comics and the occasional movie thing. I marvel at you guys that can do as much rpg commentary as you do.