Player: Ron
Race: Goblin (Hill Goblin)
Origins
Srugz was born into the Durbuluk, a tribe of hill goblins far from what most would call civilization. He was raised to be the successor to his tribe’s wise one, Snatbilg, a hedge wizard who led the tribe with brutality and bravado to mask his lack of art. As Srugz learned more of the world and was exposed to outsiders, he became dissatisfied with Snatbilg’s leadership and resolved to challenge him for his role as leader.
Predictably, Snatbilg was well aware of Srugz’s feelings and set a trap for him. On the night of the summer solstice, Snatbilg demanded a sacrifice of five young goblins, saying it was necessary for the tribe to continue to be in the favor of the Dark Trio. Unable to bear the thought of this wasteful, hateful act, Srugz challenged his mentor at the height of the ceremony. They fought through the night, each having moments when they were nearly victorious before being driven hard back on their heels.
As the fight was drawing to a close, with Srugz having nearly beaten the older goblin, he began to waver. His vision began to swim, his head to loll, and he fell to his knees before the great bonfire he had helped kindle. Snatbilg had arranged for Srugz’s food and drink to be drugged; he struck him down, beating him viciously with his gnarled shillelagh before having him dragged off and tied up in one of the wise one’s huts.
Snatbilg gloated to his people, telling them of the horrible death he had in store for his apprentice and how his sacrifice would be the culmination of the night’s ceremony, with Srugz being cast into the fire at the break of dawn. This disturbed some of the goblins, who had no love for Snatbilg’s cruelty and had hoped their lot might improve under Srugz’s leadership. While the wise one and his circle were celebrating their victory, one of the other goblins snuck into the hut, hastily tended to Srugz’s wounds, and released him, telling him of Snatbilg’s plans.
Srugz stole meager supplies and set off with no destination other than “away” in mind. He wandered eastward for nearly a week before running into a river, and, reasoning that he might find a settlement if he followed it, proceeded downstream, supplementing his waning rations with fish and river plants to stave off hunger.
A few weeks later, he found his way to a moderately sized village and found employment with a local wizard, Thalia the Binder, aiding her in her research and acting as a runner in exchange for a place to sleep and the opportunity to learn from her. He was happy for a time, having found a more just society of laws where people were not subject to the whim of a vacillating madman. In addition to his work for Thalia, he began working as a scribe, copying records for the village council. He came to worship Madeera, believing that she and the order of her laws represented the polar opposite of the society he had been raised in.
One night, as he was taking his ease in the Sniveling Civet, the local drink hall, he heard people at a nearby table talking of a goblin warband wearing the symbol of a flaming mountain — the mark of the Durbuluk. He left that very night, leaving only a cryptic note for Thalia, his teacher, warning her of the danger she might be in.
Since then, he has wandered southeast, continuing farther away from his homeland until, on a misty, moonlit night, he came upon a crossroads…
Srugz is cheerfully superstitious and stubbornly loyal; sincere praise leaves him completely flustered. His long nose shows signs of having been broken several times and now has a pronounced bend to the left, and he wears a necklace of mismatched buttons for luck — if he finds a button on the ground, he will pick it up and add it to his collection. He lives in fear that, despite his attempts to put as much distance as possible between himself and his homeland, agents of Snatbilg will somehow find him.
There’s a price on his head, but he has allies. The ordeal left him with one oddly specific fear.
The Gloaming
Srugz’s road hasn’t formally crossed into the party’s yet — the last anyone’s heard, he’d wandered onto a misty, moonlit crossroads somewhere southeast of his homeland, a goblin still putting distance between himself and Snatbilg’s reach.
By Session 4 he had fetched up in Marin’s Hold and put his letters to use: he is the goblin clerk who trails Castellan Vane about the Reeve’s keep, writing in a book, and the one who handed over the party’s half-reward for Ravenloft and entered the Castellan’s hundred gold for the Bittermold job in escrow. That same morning he was at the refugee tent by the gate at the Castellan’s side, writing each arrival’s name and home into a ledger. (Andrew confirmed after the session that the Castellan’s goblin is Srugz, and that the red-bearded man with him at the gate was Castellan Vane.) He has not yet been played.
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