The Beast Fears Fire - Ruegoblins

Ruegoblins [Violence 2]

Impulse – Make the grass grow.  Ruegoblins are the horticulturists of the goblin world, goblin farmers.  Sort of.  They are a sort of counterpoint to hobgoblins, where the hobs keep goblins housed and clothed, rues keep them fed.  Rues are the goblins with the longest and most contact with humanity, and it is because of the rues that people tend to depict and imagine goblins as green.  Rues steal and scrounge human tools and clothing, observe human farming and generally try to copy their techniques.  Unfortunately for humanity, rues caught on to the ancient notion that blood sacrifice was an important part of agriculture, and never outgrew it, so rues are the hunters of goblinkind as well as the farmers, and hunting to a goblin means anything with blood in it.  Humans were once the most powerful form of sacrifice back in the day, and the rues remember that sort of thing, even if they never quite understood why.

You can tell rues from other goblins by the fact that, regardless of their other attributes, rues are always some shade of green.  Other goblins can also be green, but you can tell rues further by the flowers growing out of their scalps, scattered in their hair and the bitter aroma they constantly give off.  They are generally better clothed than most goblins, too.

Harm – Injury 2, Peril (Capture).  Ruegoblins are unabashedly physical and their form of combat is very athletic and almost suicidal in its courage.  Flying kicks and tackles, body blocks, head butts; rues usually carry farming tools with them when they go hunting, but with the exception of rope darts, set snares and the odd bow or sling, they don’t really use them.  Rues attempt to subdue their enemies and prey and take them back to their gardens for sacrifice.

We’ll Build a Better Garden.

Rue gardens are as accidental and chaotic as anything you can expect from goblin workmanship, but, as usual, the reality defying bloody-mindedness of goblins combined with the actual power of blood sacrifice and the underworldly influences on any area where goblins settle combines to make a kind of haphazard and ultimately dangerous magic.  You can find just about any significant herb, fungus or flower in a goblin garden, if you look hard enough, and can convince the rues that sacrificing you to it is not worth the trouble involved.  Rues aren’t much different from common goblins in temperament until they start fighting, and you can convince them to trade with you.  They especially like freshly taken organs from, well, just about any animal (humans are best, to them.  Just saying.), and will usually deal, though it’s probably easier to go to your local goblin market for that stuff.

Since Crickton is sort of the cradle for unarmed martial arts, some people have taken to adapting the rue’s particular fighting style.  Goblin fist focuses on a lot of long-range strikes and full-body leaping attacks.  It’s considered fairly effective for those with the athletic ability required.  Goblin fist makes much more extensive use of rope darts in terms of related weapon styles than the rues usually do, and some folks think that’s not such a good idea, as the rues are almost always watching, and one of the few blessings of the rue hunting and fighting style is that they tend to forget they have those things.