Gurik Cha'ahl

Gurik cha'ahl, a name meaning 'ghost people', are goblins born with some visible deformity and cast out of their mountain villages as children. They resemble ordinary goblins apart from whatever flaw marked them for exile.

These are not brave fighters and never will be; they survive through cunning, deceit and stealth. A gurik has a 70% chance to move silently and uses natural cover so well that casual observers have only a 25% chance to notice it. Watching carefully adds 30%, and a moving gurik adds another 30%, so a careful watcher spots a moving one 85% of the time. Silent movement works in any terrain, but camouflage needs at least a little cover.

A silently moving gurik gives the party -4 on surprise; a heard but unseen gurik gives -2. In a fight it tries to do as much harm as it can, or grab something useful, and then flee. It avoids even fights and stronger groups, preferring to pick off lone hunters and stragglers. Only rarely do several act together.

Each gurik lives alone in the forest. Some dimly recall their early childhood, but most were abandoned too young to remember. They know they look like goblins, though, and have come to hate goblins fiercely, delighting in hurting them. They trust nobody, not even one another, lumping other gurik in with goblins, and cooperate only when a large goblin force invades their woods. Other creatures they attack only for food.

In their territory gurik cha'ahl are predators and scavengers. Among nearby folk they serve chiefly as a bogeyman that mothers invoke to frighten children into behaving or going to sleep.