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Digger Goblins 5/11/2014 3:42:13 PM
When goblins move into a neighborhood there are a few things you can expect, namely pie traps, lower property values and the occasional pet being shaved and painted blue. But the danger doesn’t stop when that’s done. Depending on what kind of goblins you have, you might have to deal with brick walls on major roads, catapults firing moldy cabbage and the odd explosion.
Digger Goblins
Along with warriors and builders, diggers are among the most common goblins, a fact few know. Most people will never see a digger goblin regardless of how many are present. This is not because diggers cause less trouble, but because they spend so much of their time underground in land so barren that few bother to visit. Diggers can be recognized by their shovels, pick axes and hammers, and the orange safety helmets they wear because of union rules (it's an open question where they get them). Diggers can’t see in the dark any better than other goblins, so they always keep a supply of torches, lanterns and candles on hand.
As their name implies, digger goblin excel at excavation. They can tunnel through dirt and rock with their tools, although the resulting tunnels are seldom large, clean or comfortable. While diggers are no larger or stronger than other goblins, they make excellent progress through the ground by virtue of the overwhelming number of goblins they can put on a task. Diggers come to the surface only when they have to for food and water, often letting warrior goblins bring them supplies.
Oddly enough, diggers have no interest in obtaining gemstones or precious metals. Their sole reason for going underground is safety. A goblin aboveground is at a serious disadvantage against their larger and stronger neighbors, but the situation is reversed below ground. Here the advantage belongs to the goblin. Low tunnels force men and elves to crouch down while the smaller goblins run free, and the tunnels are too narrow for siege weapons. Few animals will willingly go underground, and cavalry can’t enter at all. And that doesn’t even take goblin traps into account. Diggers are fond of throwing stink bombs, and once dumped 5000 pounds of monkey dung on a dwarf expedition (nobody knows where they got it and nobody wants to know). This goes a long way to improving the odds goblins face in a fight, and few races dare follow them underground.
While digger goblins can do hard work, they’ll take shortcuts when they can. They look for existing cave networks to settle in and expand on. Barring that they will settle for city sewers, where they make a constant nuisance of themselves. But unoccupied caves are rare and hotly contested (a literal statement when it comes to dragons), and city inhabitants throw them out of most sewers. Diggers far prefer abandoned mines.
Diggers regularly send out scouts to investigate nearby mines and determine if they are played out. Goblins will swarm into a mine within a week after it is exhausted and the miners have left. Few people care that they move in since the mine is now worthless, one of the few times goblin activities don’t provoke a backlash. In the rare event that the diggers later discover an untapped ore vein they will immediately try to cover it up. They will go so far as to abandon a mine if it has considerable mineral wealth still in it, for the risk is too great that someone will try to retake the mine if the news gets out.
Once digger goblins have found a cave or abandoned mine they work hard to expand it. They dig out rooms for houses, workshops and storage areas. Mine tailings are turned over to builder goblins for making walls and houses above ground. The diggers also make extra entrances, for goblins know too well that other races could attack in enough force to overwhelm them, making a hasty exit a necessity. The population in these mines can swell to enormous numbers as the diggers make room for other goblins, and it’s common for a mine to have a thousand inhabitants. More than one intrepid explorer has found out the hard way that an old mine entrance led to a goblin horde.
Digger goblins seldom take a direct part in battle, but their influence is still felt. Diggers make so many tunnels and emergency exits that goblins can pop up from almost anywhere in their territory. This allows warrior goblins to come up behind enemy lines and inflict serious damage on supply depots and cut lines of communication. Given enough time and plenty of diggers, these tunnels can extend for miles and go under enemy cities. Indeed, city dwelling people across all of Other Place have to deal with goblins coming through these tunnels into their sewers and basements.
Diggers can do far more damage on those rare times they are outraged. Given time diggers can tunnel under enemy fortifications, destroying the foundation and causing city walls and even castles to fall. They don't do this often, for it takes months to dig such tunnels and goblins rarely stay angry for that long. But there are desolate places in the wilderness where old castles were once rules by cruel bandit kings or evil wizards using dark magic, and they are now nothing more than piles of broken bricks with empty tunnels beneath them.
