At a Glance

• Home: A deep cave with hidden stairs and communal tables
• Leader: The bone-crowned Goblin Chieftain
• Guide: A polite hobgoblin with a spiked wooden cudgel
• Challenge: Identify which member of the line is “goblin”
• Secret word: Meriwether
• Possible relative: Grimblewaith

A Family, Not a Single Shape

The Goblin Family includes many peoples who use different names—goblins, hobgoblins, brownies, redcaps, and others—but regard themselves as members of the same extended Goblinkind. Outsiders often focus on physical differences. The family’s defining riddle asks visitors to look past them.

The Hobgoblin Guide

At the cave entrance, Roddy and Grimblewaith meet a stout green hobgoblin whose resemblance to Grimblewaith is immediately noticeable. He carries a wooden cudgel decorated with scattered spikes and taps one foot rapidly while maintaining impeccable hospitality.

He leads the travelers through a concealed stairway to a long table crowded with goblins, food, stone flagons, and more family members than the cave’s ventilation system was designed to support.

The Goblin Chieftain

The chieftain is the largest goblin present, with red-and-green skin, a rotund belly, bulbous features, and a crown made of bones. He alone may use a dragon-sized flagon, carved in the shape of his own face.

The Family Riddle

Members of the family announce their individual kinds, drink together, and shuffle positions. The chieftain then asks which one is the goblin. Roddy chooses a single figure and fails.

Grimblewaith answers correctly: all of them. Their different labels do not exclude them from the larger family. The answer is said to be obvious only to Goblinkind, and the assembled relatives notice that Grimblewaith shares their appearance.

Grimblewaith Finds a Family

For the first time, Grimblewaith sees a possible explanation for the identity that others have reduced to “Whatsit.” The family welcomes him with a goblin hug and invites him to remain while Roddy carries the final clue back to Jackdaw.

The chieftain reveals the last portion of the Great Secret: Meriwether. Combined with the elven and dwarven clues, it exposes ELM’s true name.

Chronicler’s note: The Goblin Family’s definition of kinship is admirably inclusive. Its definition of personal space is less advanced.

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