In-character e-mail discussion dramatized

Sypheros 3. The party has rested after returning to Castle Granis, and as the sun sets beyond the craggy hills of central Droaam and the goblin work-teams finish the day's work on the trench, the party gathers in the meeting room to discuss strategy.

Grim
Whilst we will be paying the blacksmith his 1sp / day, there is absolutely no way that we will be paying Kardash. Actually I'm toying with the idea of taking such umbrage at his insulting dealings with one of my representatives, that I may well remove him from power in Garduk.

How many goblins is Castle Granis capable of accomodating as a standing army, without conditions becoming too cramped? If I were to deal with Kardash I would need somebody to take his place - Valdash, would you prefer to remain at the castle or return to Garduk and be Chieftain there?

Valdash
Goblins are small and don't much mind cramped conditions, but if we had many more warriors we'd need to start buying in food to support them.

As much as I like living in a castle, I am the rightful ruler of Garduk. If you can help me defeat Kardash and let me become chieftain there, then my father will rest more easily in his grave.

Grim
And finally I want to decrease the amount that we are taxing the village tojust 2 goat. One fifth the amount they were paying under Jalahand. Life should be more comfortable for them than it was previously as I want them to have a reason to fight for us.

Valdash
They'll certainly be pleased about that.

Ug
As nice as all of this castle building is, I don't feel that it is anything other than temporary. What is really needed here is to start bringing nature to this desolate land. To do this I will need to start investigating why Droam is so barren. I suspect that the land is magically scarred. I know nothing that could have caused it and its position between two verdant lands (Breland and Eldeen Reaches) makes me suspect that it was once far more pleasant.

I'm sure the rest of the party will understand this, after all, even blessing the land and converting large patches of rock to clay has not yet yielded even a tangible benefit in the life in the area (something I'm acutely sensitive to). How does Grim propose to keep a standing army without an increase in the productivity of the land? As a gatekeeper I am not averse to fortifying the land against Xoriat or training up an army to suppress aberrations in the area, but all this will come to nothing if the very ground we are building on is dead.

I am also beginning to think that Grim's approach to training goblins into a traditional army to defend us is probably misguided. I agree with martial training, but I think we need to start spreading our goblins out. Once those under us become proficient they should leave the castle in groups. They will then find other goblin groups, who they will direct to our castle, whom we will train up and then send out. This way we should be able to increase the martial proficiency of the entire population far quicker. Into these goblins we must instil the Gatekeeper knowledge: that is the awareness of Xoriat, it's threat and a martial way of life. This way we increase the theoretical size of our army, strengthen the entire area against the threat of aberrations and give the goblins a sense of power and community which will directly undermine other warlords. It also reduces the strain on the land of having one army in one place.

I expect that most of the groups we send out will fight new groups of goblins they meet, which will be an ideal way to show them what our training can do for them. We will stress to the groups that they are only to kill when not doing do would endanger themselves, that they must always ensure that survivors will know to whom they owe their prowess and to seize the best land and women for themselves. The latter may sound evil, but it is entirely as nature intended Goblins to function.

That said, I will immediately start taking goblins on regular ventures out of the castle, to practice raids against stray animals and small threats, start teaching them about the gatekeeper way and look for promising ones to send off to train as Druids or Rangers. Any useful animals I find I will attempt to persuade (or failing that dominate) to return to the castle with me. The secondary aim of these raids is to help me get a better idea of the land, the location of particularly desolate or verdant patches and old dhakani ruins. I stress to all goblins the importance of the nature of the world through a Druid's eyes: the fragility of civilisations, the brutality and beauty of nature. Naturally I expect most of them to latch onto the unforgiving and crueller sides of the natural world, but as a Druid I endorse this.

Grim
It's quite simple really; I'm planning on removing Kardash from power in Garduk and instilling Valdash as the village chief. I will then take X number of goblins back to Castle Granis to bolster our small force there. The food for them will come from Garduk - after all the area has been supporting them until now. I'm not planning on increasing the numbers of goblins we have available to us, just moving them around so that they are of more use to us.

Sorry, I don't agree with you on this. When in a position of weakness, make sure you fight your battles from positions of strength ~ Tsun Tsu - The Art of War. How long do you think a group of say 10 goblins would last wandering around this area by themselves? That wandering monster that we fought last night would have slaughtered a group like that in about 3 rounds (after all it had 3 arms and a bite attack.) We know that our enemy vastly outnumbers us, no matter how much more powerful we are than the average goblin, enough of them will simply swarm over us. It's hard to cast spells when 50 goblins are sitting on top of you, holding your arms! Once we've dealt with Jalahand then we can start spreading our forces - before would be stupid. Speaking of Jalahand; if we take command of Garduk we will have a larger "army" at our disposal than he has. So we could theoretically take the fight to him.

And, only kill when not doing so would endanger themselves? That's rich coming from the druid who killed an ogre unnecesarily and who keeps a rat that infects anybody it bites with a slow, lingering death. Nice.

The argument lasts long into the night but no agreement is reached. The goblin blacksmith tinkers with the ballista. Zurga practices magic and accidentally makes her familiar glow in the dark. Down in the dungeon, Jalahand's ogre lieutenant plots bloody revenge on his captors. Far to the south a battle-wagon laden with doors stops for the night. Eventually all those who need sleep decide to get some. Somewhere in the distance an owlbear hoots. What plot hooks will the next day bring?