13th Sage: 13 Curious Things that Goblins Do

by Jonathan Tweet

Keep large bugs as pets, sometimes very large ones and often edible ones.

Ferment food in holes in the ground, a treatment that nicely softens bug exoskeletons.

Worship ecstatically, even violently, in front of shapeless idols.

Mark family relationships with stylized scars.

Cut mementos off the bodies of the dead before burning or burying them.

Inflict corporal punishments communally, as a sort of sport or pastime.

Play a few different games on the ground using dead bugs as pieces.

Play a sport called grab-stick, in which everyone tries to wrest a cudgel from the player who has it, while that player uses the cudgel rather freely.

Farm mosses, lichens, and fungi, as well as more typical roots and tubers.

Run amok in small groups, especially when stress levels in the community are high.

Heed countless superstitions and interpret everyday portents of the future.

Use an array of questionable ingredients to concoct medicinal poultices, creams, pastes, and elixirs.

Fight duels bare-handed, with the loser becoming the slave of the winner.

Carry a variety of dangerous diseases that do them little harm, notably moon fever.

Strictly forbid cannibalism, which is strictly defined as eating a goblin of your own clan.

Count poorly.

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