The Market of Hork

Orc King by Mananedo on Deviant Art

The dwarves who originally shaped the caverns into what is now known as Hork were typical dwarves. The public areas were made into grand halls. There are several locations around the city of Hork where this is easily seen. The largest hall is easily accessible by the residents and visitors of the city. Those who live in the city just call it The Market.

It can be assumed what the hall was used for by the dwarves, and readily apparent what it is used for now. The wide hall stretches for nearly a half a mile. There are places where the sides stretch out over a hundred feet from side to side. Some sections are only two stories tall, while towards one end the roof raises to accommodate ten layers of balconies. Most of it goes up four stories.

Once, the grand dwarven hall marked some of the clan's achievements. The orcs have by organization, and by mishap have transformed the carvings and paintings on the walls. And most of the depictions are hard to see because of the layers of shadows. Torches and lanterns are placed around the hall, this is done for some items to be seen, but it also creates places of shadow where only those who can see in the dark are welcome. There are even corners where those who have dark vision are unable to penetrate the inky blackness without help. The dwarven art decorating the walls, balconies, and ceiling are still visible in places, or can be discerned with careful study. In one way or another almost all the art has been altered to meet the new owners' aesthetic.

Many items are bought and sold in The Market that are considered illegal in the surface cities. The only reason these items are not bought and sold openly is for discretion: it usually is best for the purchaser not to be seen buying some things. There are some shops who operate openly that are regularly watched by tribal spies. For example, it is known that Tat, a goblin ranger, sells herbs and other components to Hita, a female orc adept, who specializes in making poisons and lives in a darker corner of The Market where the ceiling is low.

The Market is not the only market located in the halls of the orcs. What sets this market apart, besides its size is the general acceptance of its location between the tribes—physically and politically. No tribe openly owns The Market. Tribes might control some of the business taking place in The Market, but their control does not extend beyond their business operation. The groups who maintain a stronger hold in The Market are the thieves' and trade guilds.

The Thieves' Guild

One of the strongest, if not the strongest, factions in residence in The Market is the thieves' guild. Most of the activity of the guild is in providing protection, especially for the businesses not owned and ran by orcs (which there are surprisingly many). Within the city this level of protection is different than what most civilized races think of.

From Deviant Art

Orcs believe in the rule of the strong, and this applies to the running of business. A business without protection will be destroyed by those who choose to come and take what they want. If you're unable to protect your goods, then you should lose them. That is the natural law, and part of the code of law within the city. The thieves' guild is one of the stronger organizations providing the desired protection to successfully run a business.

Trade Guilds

There are many different trade guilds in the city of Hork, just like in every other city of the world. The difference here is the organizations have a stronger level of providing protection. Like every guild, they have the responsibility of training those who want to learn the trade. Every trade guild also has a contingent who are trained warriors who work as guards protecting the guild hall and member businesses.

The first is what most are familiar with: the advancement of the trade by growth, training, and protecting trade secrets. They almost all have a system of apprenticeship, journeyman, and masters. The guilds are growing slowly because of the nature of general orc society, there are few masters who are orcs. Those masters who aren't orcs keep a low profile out of need to ensure their own safety.

Protection is the other major activity of the trade guilds. Some find it easier to hire out the protection from either the thieves' guild or by contracting with other groups. There are a number of mercenary guilds willing to sell their services. Another option that is used, but not as much is obtaining tribal protection. Only a few openly use tribal protection because of the associated political costs usually applied. Another option used is independent protectors.

Unhoused orcs and extended visitors are the main force of independent protectors. These individuals and groups usually only work in limited areas, because along with providing protection for their clients they still have to provide their own protection. This sometimes leads to limited contracts. Some of the more savvy merchants are willing to hire parties as guards because they usually don't have to make the final payment. One example of an established hired protector is the wizard Fafth, a half-elf wizard who provides protection to the two spice merchants located outside his home (neither of which is orc).

Disturbances in The Market

Strength rules, and thus fights break out on a regular basis. For the businesses, this means securing your business as best as possible to minimize the impact to your establishment and goods, and self. The regular fighting that takes place is the main reason the merchants hire guards. There are city guards who have their own responsibilities.

The guard who are assigned to duty in The Market are usually from one of the main houses, so it is expected there are split loyalties when they are performing their duties to the city. The duty of the guard in The Market is not to maintain peace, but to make sure any mess made is taken care of. How it is cleaned up is usually left to the discretion of the guards on hand.

When cleaning things up, if there is something to profit from, without causing additional complications (like the fight was with an established priest or if those involved know the rules and set guards while they pilfer the fallen), the guards will step in a take care of what is left behind. Usually the parties involved are held accountable. The victors of fights, which usually means there is a body on the ground and they are still standing, are required to take care of the remains. This can be done personally or by hiring someone. Most the time there is a goblin, Backack, who arrives when fights break out. When the loser isn't dead (meaning they are still conscious), they must make amends for damages.

From Lord Of The Rings

A Couple of Points of Interest

The Market Bar

Ran by an old veteran orc, Negrut, the Market Bar is a place where orcs are accepted and any non-orcs, who are not brought to a table by an orc, can expect to be forcibly removed by another patron.

The Squeeze

Non-orcs find a more welcoming experience at a bar located in an out of the way location along the main hall of The Market. The small passage leading back into a common room gives the bar its name, and there is no sign marking its location. The passage is narrow and creatures of large size are unable to make it into the common room and have to wait for a friend to bring them something to drink.

Backack

This goblin makes his home on the second level of the market near the middle. He has as a wide range of informants throughout the hall to let him know about fights and other events that he may profit from. He has the ability to quickly arrive to take care of the remains for a fee. He also has a network to make a profit from what he collects.

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A Breath of Fresh Air by Janek Sielicki for the Cypher System, Adventure Review

I've talked before about the differences between strategic and narrative role-playing games (RPGs). Some systems lend themselves more to one than the other. Sometimes it comes down to the adventure being played.

There are adventures written to be a series of combats, emphasizing the strategic aspects of the characters being played. Others, like A Breath of Fresh Air by Janek Sielicki for the Cypher System has combat, but is designed to give the players an opportunity to dig into the characters' personalities.

A Breath of Fresh Airhas the party facing challenges that are more than just overcoming a number of combats to achieve their goals. Some of the ideas are familiar to what narrative players are used to, but with a nice twist.

The party is positioned to put themselves into the hands of fate. They're faced with overwhelming odds and an escape route presents itself (a standard play for one-shot convention style games). They just don't know what is in store for them by utilizing the opportunity.

This leads the party to be in an environment they cannot survive in for a long period of time. With the timer set, they have to figure out how to communicate with creatures they're not familiar with. Then, as they come to understand the position they are in, they must take actions which could have serious consequences.

Using this adventure as a one-shot or in a campaign has the potential of impacting players and characters in future play. A Breath of Fresh Air will have most players, and characters, questioning their choices as they start to learn about their predicament and the possible consequences of what they decide on doing.

For the standalone adventure, that is the part affecting the characters. In a campaign setting you now have characters who have faced a situation most people don't have to ever face. This gives the players the opportunity to role-play out the impact on their characters in future adventures. The characters will have something to look back on, see what they've done before, and use it as a significant part of their story.

For those who are familiar with ethical dilemmas, A Breath of Fresh Air establishes one nicely. It is well placed in the setting. The options are their within the framework of the game, which makes this a more acceptable location of delving into the underlying theme.

This has been a fun adventure leaving the players, and the game master, thinking afterwards.

A Breath of Fresh Airis written by Janek Sielicki for the tier two characters in the Cypher System and distributed through Cypher System Creator at DriveThruRPG (link to adventure on DriveThruRPG).

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Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn, Adventure Review

Sanctuary is a city of intrigue. Plots are thick, sometimes thicker than blood. But, most plots that are put into motion in Thieves' World involve the spilling of blood. And you just found yourself entangled in a plot.

Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn is an adventure for the Thieves' World setting on the Open Gaming License of the D20 system written by Owen K.C. Stephens for Green Ronin Publishing. This adventure is designed for starting characters and works well for players who are new to the setting. It is roughly eighty pages long and includes great information for expanding the adventure into the campaign setting and continuing the players and characters on to other adventures. But first, they have to solve the mystery.

The party is waiting at the Vulgar Unicorn, a famous dive, one evening when they find they have been thrust as the primary suspects in a murder. I'm sure you are surprised to hear that part based on the title of the adventure. The party is given the opportunity to clear themselves of blame by helping to discover who is behind the murder and why it happened. The adventures sets the characters off into the city tracking down clues.

There are a few set scenes with a number of interlude encounters for the players. The interludes are designed to give experience to the characters and the players. For the characters the encounters help provide the experience needed to advance the levels so they are ready to take on the set encounters where major combats occur. By the end of Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn the characters should have gained several levels.

The player experience for the encounters help to introduce them to the city of Sanctuary, its districts and feel. Depending on how the players decide to interact with the encounters helps to determine how well they do in other areas in this adventure and in later games. There is some great information about setting up contacts and building relationships with non-player characters in the city. At the end, if you want to continue in the setting there is information so you can take it several different directions.

There are pre-generated characters available. These are good tools for players who haven't seen the differences presented in the Thieves'' World Player's Handbook (review of Player's Handbook). But, if you have a good group of players who want to bring in characters of their own creation, they would also work.

After going through Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn I found I liked it. The information was well presented to give the introduction to a location that has been part of fantasy reading since the late 1970s. I read those books then and I know this gave me more of a desire to check out the setting. I know the setting of Thieves' World and Sanctuary are not for everyone, in fact I would not recommend this setting for young players. Sanctuary is a dangerous city full of thieves, drugs, prostitutes, and other vices. It is gritty gaming where many times survival was counted as the victory.

Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn was written over ten years ago. So, it uses the D&D 3.5 base of rules. Even with its age I think if you like the grittier style, you should check it out.

Sanctuary is a place of plots. There is always fighting taking place, but it might be a fighting of the minds, or just being able to survive. You might just be looking to make it through the evening earning enough coin to get some food and a place to hole up for the night. Later, then, that may be the time for your own plots.

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A Help for Maintaining Pace in an RPG Adventure

In a conversation with some game masters (GMs), we got into a discussion about some of the issues we have faced over the years. Most of the issues GMs face with in their groups are temporary ones based on the mood of the players and how people are responding to the events in their daily lives. There isn't much we can do as a GM about those issues, but provide a good game. There are different elements in a good game and part of that is the pacing of the adventure.

Every good story, game, movie, book, has good pacing—how well the story moves along from beginning to end. In the more traditional tabletop games this is done with the mechanics of the game, and some of the same basics apply to Role-playing games (RPGs). However, because RPGs are designed to give players a wider range of options the pacing of the game becomes more about the application of the mechanics and not just the mechanics being used.

Application of game mechanics is a balance between player and character wants. There is a balance needing to be struck between what the characters know, understand, and would consider acceptable, against those the players have. Players have another level of knowledge based on the mechanics the characters are playing under.

Players are not always trying to metagame or manipulate the game mechanics for their advantage, even though we have all met those players who will squeeze the rules (I believe this is the main reason rulebooks keep getting thicker). Everyone has a natural disposition to look at the situation they are in and try to make it better. The GM then has the responsibility to allow a level of manipulation without overtaking the game completely.

Curtailing some of the manipulation of the mechanics helps the game's pacing. This allows players, and thus characters, to move from the mundane events to the action-packed ones.

This doesn't require creating a new mechanics on top of your game system. And, the idea I have for you doesn't have to be applied every time. You can apply it in a general sense and then allow the circumstances in the game to direct you easily to the times you find you shouldn't apply it.

Create situational responses that allow a single check for the group.

From Spreadshirt

For example, the party is carefully making their way through the pirate's castle on the alien world to rescue the young son of the merchant prince. The long empty hall has couple dozen closed doors. The first party member steps up to the first door and declares they listen at the door to determine if there is anyone on the other side. They don't hear anything, so they step aside and the next member repeats the action. Because the second party member doesn't hear anything either, they step aside for the next member of the party. And, this continues until somebody in the party hears something, or everyone has pressed their ear near the crack of the door. Then, they move on to the next door.

This level of action becomes tedious.

Creating a situational response before the adventure begins can allow this encounter with the doors to move quickly. The players decide which character is best for listening at doors and how the rest of the party is acting during that encounter with the closed door. Everyone understands the character who has the best chance of hearing something is listening for the entire group—if they don't hear something, no one else will either.

When the party enters the hallway with this pre-planned setup the GM can have already determined at which point the "party" hears something. This allows the story to move past the mundane action and get the party to exploring the rooms, or moving down the hall, quicker and easier.

This concept of group rolls can be applied to other actions. If you find there are times where your game slows down because everyone is taking the same action to confirm a result, hold a quick chat with the players and see if that would be a good situation to apply a single roll for the group.

One of the GMs in our discussion says he allows a bonus to the party for doing these types of rolls. This gives the party an additional reason to go with a single roll. Another GM told how he applies this same idea on his own. Whatever the result of the first character attempting to do something is, it becomes the result for the rest of the party. I think that might be a little extreme for my group. However, I must admit I can see where in the past if I had taken this action, it would have been a good thing.

There are times when the group roll doesn't work. Those times are usually obvious during play. We also allow players to repeat the action if they can give a good, in-character, reason for doing so.

In preparing adventures I can use this setup to create a much faster paced game. For checks that are made by the GM, instead of waiting until the time of the action I can have predetermined some of the information the party has gained. When I have done this it has worked well and allows for a more during a game session.

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Creating Villains, Large and Small

After reading the articles about creating backstory for a location a person asked about how much work should go into creating a villain. I felt like I have been giving the same response to questions like this so I first talked with some other writers I know.

I know everyone is looking for the magical piece of information that makes creation easier. But, they gave the same advice I had at the start—you put in as much as you need.

The problem becomes the question, how much is needed? You can't really ask another person how much is needed while you are working on your creation. You go until you think you have enough to run your encounter, adventure, or campaign. There are some thoughts that can provide guidance.

How big your villain needs to be helps define how much information you need about them.

If this is the villain of the encounter, they don't need a lot of background information. These might be the henchmen of a greater force, or they might be the group of bullies on the space station. These are the bad guys you are throwing into the adventure to move through an encounter.

If you a working on a villain that is manipulating the kingdom the campaign of multiple adventures and months of gaming is based around, you might want a little more about this villain. This one is going to be a driving force, directing all sorts of conflicts with behind-the-scenes maneuvering and manipulations. The depth of their story is going to help drive the adventures and encounters the characters will face. It will therefore also direct how the characters develop.

Villains have personalities.

They are characters in your game. Non-player characters (NPCs) ran by the game master (GM) should be built out as much as needed so they can be played to their best effect. Again this goes back to how often, or how long, the NPC is going to be used. Those expected to have short lifespans in the game shouldn't take you long to put together what's needed. The emissary of the Krogon fleet who keeps interacting with the party over the next half dozen game nights probably should have more work.

The villain is the hero of their own story.

This is a writing tip that works great. The evil king, pirate lord, superhero villain, or even the orc raiding the village are all motivated to action for a cause. Sometimes that cause is to not starve, for others it is bringing order to the universe. No matter who they are, they are doing what they are doing for a specific reason and they see themselves as the main character of action. Sometimes the motivations are noble, other times they're not. Again, larger motivations drive greater action. This means the henchman may not have a great reason for what he is doing, but the queen probably does.

Be willing to advance your villain.

NPCs can and should advance like your player's characters. When creating advanced or leveled encounters I like to start them at the beginning and work them up from that point. This works for creatures that are larger, or those that can gain levels. For those characters who are going to be involved over longer periods of play, I start with what is needed and advance them as needed.

A friend ran a campaign where are nemesis was a mage. We encountered him early on and continued to run into him. He kept thwarting us and slipping away. The wizard started out as a low level encounter and continued to advance as we did. This allowed for a series of encounters with the same character that were always challenging and not over powering. The same can be done for many character types and monsters.

Villains don't have to be absolute evil.

Many villains in a story are only villains to the heroes. This goes back to their motive. When the villain happens to be of a different faith, political faction, foreign government, etc. they are acting in their interests the same way the heroes will be acting in their interest. In our own history many wars have been fought where both sides claimed they were fighting on the side of the same god.

The hardest part is determining if you have enough information to run your villain. You can't ask your party if they think there is enough information, but you can probably find someone else that can look it over. If you can't do that, you have to make your best guess. Of course, you can add to encounter on the fly.

Take notes and be willing to change what is needed to make the encounter, adventure, and campaign work. If they do happen to kill your villain before reach the climax of the storyline, consider their sibling, cousin, close friend, or second in command.

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Railroading the Game Master

I have seen a number of articles about how game masters (GMs) are railroading their players down a specific path during a game. Players are lamenting how their creativity is being stifled. They are telling stories of how their characters are being forced to do things they wouldn't do because of how they want to play them. How the fun is being driven out of their playing experience because they are not playing, but following directions.

Okay, I can agree with those issues.

However, in many of the articles, not all, the player start out gnashing of teeth on justified ground. Then, they creep to the side, little by little, until the real issue they are wanting to talk about is how they are not getting their way in the game. It really had nothing to do with railroading the characters and more to do with getting their way.

I have played in games where the players were pushed along a specific path without choice. We had a game I was playing in where several of the players started their action with, "What do I do now, GM?" (GM was not their real name.) The session went short, the game fell apart, and the adventure was never continued. In fact, that person never GMed a game for us again.

There is a flip side to this issue. There have been enough articles out about how GMing a role-playing games (RPG) is about ensuring the players have fun. And, this is a serious concern for GMs who want to create the right experience for their group. Then you have the players scattered about who think the only way they can have fun is when everything in the game goes their way. Instead of being railroaded by the GM, the GM is railroaded by the player.

I am saddened to say I did this a couple of times in my younger years. I remember pushing new GMs around (not physically) to get what I wanted to happen in an adventure. A group of us even did this in an AD&D tournament—we killed a lich with a lightning bolt. I knew it wouldn't work, but the GM was inexperienced and we pushed through the encounter at a rapid pace so we could get the result we wanted.

I have also had this experience while running adventures. I have been told I was unfair because I didn't allow the player to do a particular action they wanted to do. Another time players complained I was favoring other at the table (interestingly enough there were two main groups at the table and the accusations was asserted going both directions). These are acts of trying to get a personal agenda approved by the GM without consideration for the other players around the table, including the player behind the screen.

Yes, the GM is also playing the game. They have a different role than everyone else, but they are playing the game as much as every other person around the map. As a long time GM, most of the time I have as much fun running games as I do playing a character. So, when they say it is the responsibility of the GM to make the game fun for the players, they are including you—the person running the game.

When you think the GM is railroading the adventure, please, take a step back and consider what they have worked up for the adventure. Maybe, the series of encounters they have worked up requires certain aspects of the current encounter to happen. When you work at forcing an issue, is it for making the game better, or making your character stronger, and you feel better? Be willing to let the sequence of action go for a bit to see what your GM has created. You might enjoy the outcome.

This also goes for running games. Are you forcing the game a certain direction for self-gratification, or does the event really need to turn out in a specified way? Many times, I have found there are other ways of dealing with a twist I wasn't expecting by introducing another twist the players weren't expecting. Here are a couple ideas I have used.

My antagonist was killed in an encounter which was not supposed to turn lethal for anyone, it was to set up the rivalry. The party was smug that they had figured out who the villain was early in the adventure and were able to thwart them. They didn't know anything more about the villain, at the time I really didn't either. But I soon discovered, as did the party, he had an older sister who was not happy about the party of adventurers who had killed her little brother, which set everything in motion again with some minor alterations.

Most parties never make sure all of the rivals are dead. I wanted to keep a certain personality so he stabilized and didn't die. Another group found him "robbed and dying," so they helped him back to health. They even supplied him with some basics to get him back on his feet. I stole this idea from the Clint Eastwood movie "Hang 'Em High."

There are times when GMing you really need something to happen in a certain way. You may have to nudge the encounter some for the outcome you need. I have seen it work, if you work with your players to give a short narrative. I have had complaints. A little diplomacy and a promise for future satisfaction is usually enough to get people to go along.

I have noticed when doing this sort of action in favor of a character, or the entire party, no one complains. The party is on the verge of defeat when a patrol from the nearby city shows up to save them.

Of course, the story is about how the party and the characters on the adventure. Nobody wants to keep hearing a story about how the heroes all died. But, at the same point, it becomes a much better story when it is told how they were on the verge of defeat, and then succeeded. Or when they thought they had an easy win, which turned out to be the catalyst for a greater and grander encounter.

Railroading a game from any perspective, is a selfish move to gain advantage for one or a few people over everyone else involved. Keeping that in mind might grant some insight to how others are playing and why they are doing what they are doing. Keeping it together as a group, party and GM, can lead to some greater sessions of role-playing and combat. You might not get the great magic, or experimental starship you think you deserve, however, give it time and let it develop. There is probably a good reason why the lure was thrown out. Be okay with chasing the bait for a while and see where it leads you.

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Getting Adventure Ideas from Other Media, GM Advice

Some of my game books,

I was talking with a woman who told me she wanted to start a role-playing game (RPG) campaign in a science fiction setting, but she didn't want to have it based on any of the movies, television, or books already out there. That is a tough call when you are writing something new, because so much of what we do is influenced by everything we come in contact with. Eventually, we got to an understanding that she already had a design on the campaign she wanted to run, she was looking for a system that didn't push her game into a preconceived setting. For that, we were able to come up with several ideas. Our conversation got me thinking about being influenced, or overly influenced, when developing an adventure or campaign.

When you are writing something for publication, you have to be careful you don't draw too much from an existing work. I am not talking about plagiarism, which is bad and a whole other topic. What I am talking about is coming up with something that is influenced so much by another person's work that your work comes across as a blatant copy. Luckily, when you are writing for your own enjoyment, or your own game, you have a lot more leeway.

some more,

Because you are writing adventures for you and your group, you don't have to worry about the copyright laws and royalties. Those are for works you are trying to make money on, or, you are putting out into the public setting for self-promotion. If you do put anything out there, remember to give credit where credit is due.

Dive into your library of stories and see what you like. Also find out what your group likes. Most of the RPGs have sections with additional reference areas, especially for games focused on some of the "smaller" genre areas (like Big Eyes Small Mouthand Lucha Libre HERO—link to review). They give these reference lists to help you come up with ideas. You can even lift one and write it up for your group.

If you are running a space opera and you want to do a train robbery, why not draw off Firefly to flesh out your ideas? That was a great episode of cross genre work. Even if you write your adventure to follow the same storyline as the episode, your adventure is going to turn out different. You have different characters than they had in the show. Even if you are running the same characters, you have your players running them. More than likely, they are not going to do the same things. People, players, are great at coming up with something new.

more,

I remember a writing assignment where a group of us were given the same topic, and the same source materials to create a document. This was a technical writing exercise, but even then, everyone came up with something different. The same thing is going to happen to you when you work on developing the same plot for your group. It's going to be different. This happens with the storyline you are creating because of new twists and turns you put in, or there is going to be differences because of your players.

Any game master (GM) who has been playing for a period of time has ran the same adventure more than once, usually with a different group of players, but at least with a different group of characters. These reran adventures turn out differently. When Top Secretcame out with their GM Screen it included an adventure, Rescue the President. This adventure is designed for one or two characters. Because of the limited number of players I ran that adventure over twenty times to get everyone in our gaming club at the time through it, who wanted to. Every game was different.

I've done this in more recent times, rerunning old adventures for new groups of players. If you have some old adventures you liked GMing, offer to run them—it is a lot of fun to do them again. If the games are older ones your group played, most people remember the ideas but not the specifics. Even this last week I offered to run a group so a friend could introduce his children to RPGs.

If a published adventure is going to go differently when it is ran with new groups, and by different GMs, your adventure will not be the same as what was originally created by someone else.

and more.

You can give credit to where you have gotten your ideas from. If your players liked the adventure, they will probably like the source material also. This gives you another link with your friends you are gaming with.

If your players already know the source material, you can tell them up front what you are doing. I have seen this work really well because the players know the basic storyline, but they usually want to make the corrections they thought. This can make for some fun gaming sessions.

Don't be shy to give it a try. If you think someone in your group is going to steamroll the adventure because they know it, add a twist to the plot. Let them think this is where negotiations are going to work, just like in the episode you watched, then, have commandos bust down the doors and kill the lead negotiator. Now they have something new to deal with. RPGs are about having fun. Creating adventures can be fun. And, when creativity feels like it's running low, let others help with what has already been created.

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The Goblin Enclave, In The City

Goblins from Narnia

A few months ago I started giving information on my new Machiavellian campaign. The starting of the campaign is in a city, and as described in the last post, the city of Castanis updated to include some of the changes we want to work with (more on the city's development in the last article on an example of culture development). One of the earlier articles was about some of the size and power bases of the city. Mentioned in passing in the article is the goblin enclave, which has drawn some additional interest. So, I present some expanded information about the enclave. 

Goblin Enclave

A small area of the city, in the run down district known as the Grotto, has become the protected area for a small tribe of goblins. The residents of the city have come to call the area the goblin enclave. It is ran like a miniature goblin kingdom by an older goblin with rumored powers. The area is well protected and only a select few are allowed an audience with the goblin king.

The goblins of the enclave live in a more orderly fashion than goblins are expected to. It is said this is partly because they are more civilized, a concept the goblins are promoting, while others say it is because of their leader, who rules by absolutes. Whatever the reason, because the goblins behave themselves (sort of) and live in an area of the city more "civilized" residents don't want to live, they have been tolerated, enough so they have been able to establish some worthy businesses.

The goblins are known for maintaining a mushroom garden of varieties sought after by gourmets, and wizards. It is also suspected they grow other varieties with more unreputable abilities. No one else has been able to provide the fresh fungi within the city. The other varieties are tightly controlled and are only traded with those who have established themselves with the goblins.

The enclave controls a small area of the Grotto and provides the area around them with a certain level of protection which keeps the area "clean."  The Grotto is known as the slums of the city, but the area around the enclave is an area even the locals warn outsiders to stay away from, unless the intruders are disliked. Very few city patrols enter the grotto, and the goblins patrol their own area. Known residents are generally left alone (many of whom pay for the added protection so they are left alone by outsiders). At night, unknown trespassers are not tolerated. First the goblins will be forcibly warn or escort intruders away. If resisted, the goblins will use whatever force they deem necessary to secure their home. The clean part of the operation has been no one has ever found the remains of intruders who chose not to leave.

In the past there have been further inquiries into missing individuals, but to no avail. This led to a street war with a band of dwarves. The fighting escalated quickly, and ended quickly. The dwarves found themselves outnumbered and were driven out of the enclave's area. Those who didn't make it out of the area were taken care of as part of the cleaning operation. The leader of the dwarven group petitioned for the city to do something about the goblins, but were not successful with their legal arguments.

Goblin from Harry Potter

To gain more acceptance into the surrounding society some goblins are now working in other local businesses. They are careful not to expand too far away from their protected area, for those who do become part of someone else's cleaning operation. This newer group of working goblins try to present themselves as more civilized. They usually dress better and clean themselves up better than their cousins. Some have even taken up some of the adventuring classes.

The leader of the enclave is a skilled rogue who has been infected with lycanthropy, werewolf. Only a few of the goblin elite know this fact. His infection has helped in establishing the enclave and protecting it. One of his advisers is a wizard who came to the city a short while back. The wizard wanted a place of protection where he could study some of the darker arts. The enclave has provided him protection for helping them. It is said this wizard is the one who brought the spores for the mushrooms the goblins now sell.

It is also rumored at least one of the neighbors of the enclave is undead. It is also said there are other denizens from the underdark living around the enclave who are manipulating the goblins for their own ends.

Goblins living in a group have always been a scourge to towns and villages. Now in a major city the goblins have learned how their own racial traits can be used to make gains in a different way. They may not be the most skilled merchants, the smartest adversary, or wisest choice in a time of need. But they have a certain level of cunning, making them dangerous when they have established themselves in a new environment.

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