The Beast Fears Fire - Grims

Grimgoblins [Malevolence 3]

Impulse – Wreck all the things.  Grimgoblins, or grims (usually “grims” or “what does that goblin think he’s doi- AAAH MY BODY!”) don’t come out of the Underworld without a good reason.  Good reasons in the Underworld are bad news on the surface, just so we’re clear, and grims give a good impression that there is more going on down there with goblins than meets the eye.  Other goblins are definitely afraid of them, definitely do what the grims tell them, and emphatically do not talk about them or what agency they might represent.  It doesn’t help investigators that, whatever this agency may be, grims are no better at serving it than any goblin; it does, however, certainly help the rest of the world quite a bit.

Some people think that grims are a link between goblins and the next most populous class of underworldly denizen, the ghouls.  Grims resemble ghouls a fair amount; pug noses, pointed ears, coloration that manages to be both ashen and lurid at the same time.  Grims also have a weaker version of the earth necromancy that necroleptes possess, though, where necroleptes magic is pervasive and a fact of their being, grims actually have to put effort into their witchcraft, which they do with all the sadistic glee and heed for larger consequences you’ve come to expect from goblins.

Harm – Injury 4 or Injury 2 and Peril (Held, Shaken, Buried, In the Air).  Grimgoblins aren’t the most imaginative combatants, given their capabilities.  Giant headstones rear out of the ground and terrible speed, launching victims, or toppling onto them.  Fissures open full of reaching skeletal hands to drag you down.  The earth spews forth its bones which animate to poke and bite and club you.  Grims especially like to knock their victims down so they can stomp on them.  They wear iron-shod, hobnailed goblin boots and are naturals at the stomping.  Grimgoblins are a supernatural force, so facing off against them, usually, requires dealing with their earthbending first.

It’s waving its arms…
When you face a creature that is also a supernatural force and is trying to supernatural the hell out of you, face Malevolence.

On a Hit, you manage to hold off its magical assault well enough to face it any other way you choose.

On a Hard Hit, you turn the power back on its source and it suffers Harm as stated.

On a Miss, you suffer Harm as stated or a Moderator Hard Move.

 

I feel the earth move under my feet.

Grims, if anything, have less respect for the plans and works of their own kind than the do for surface dwellers.  They are terrible to other goblins, and, even for goblins, lack any sort of patience or self-discipline.  Once they choose a path, they are bound attempt it again and again unless they get distracted.  They are prone to violent temper tantrums, and if the other sorts of goblins weren’t utterly terrified of them, they would probably hate them.  Other kinds of goblins are utterly terrified of them, to the point that a goblin ordered by a grim to immolate themselves while singing a happy song will do so.  Goblins are incapable, or, at least, they seem incapable of resisting grims.  Whether this is some personal power grims possess or if this is a function of what they may represent is a piece of information no one has.  On the occasion that grims leave any goblins alive when they return to the earth, they order them to never speak of what happened.

Grims are capable of finding just about anything in the earth with their necromancy, specific bodies, locations, buried treasure, but they generally cannot be induced to give a fuck.