#Chaglu

[shadesofmauve]

Basil the Oracle briefly visited a plane of utter destruction, and in the split second of deciding how Chaglu would respond, I spontaneously invented goblin cosmology.

The layers of reality lay over each other, right? Like sandwich fillings. Basil visited another of the many sandwich fillings.

No one has ever visited the Breads of the Universe. In fact, goblin philosophers differ over whether the universe actually HAS breads, or if the sandwich can be filling all the way down. Goblin philosophy is a popular contact sport. Onlookers — who usually don't know or care what the argument is about — place bets, shout additions, and occasionally throw things. There was a really fantastic philisophobrawl going on once when a random goblin walked by while eating a sandwich — wrapped in lettuce.

The fight had to stop while the participants all pondered the implications.

[shadesofmauve]

First completed art since the thumb brace came off: Chaglu and Princess Shredder! Just a goblin who knows her dinosaur is the Best Boy.

(Male dinosaurs have fancier plumage than females. Princesses are the fanciest people around! Ergo, Princess Shredder. Chaglu knows. She's seen a picture book once).

I did this sketch before I had to stop most art. It would've looked very different if I'd been able to finish it in April! Since then I've transformed my palette, gotten more confident with watercolor, and discovered the magic that is a rose red + phthalo green. I used three* paints for this, and none of them were blue).

*Okay, also white acrylic gouache, because I really shoulda figured out what I wanted to do with Princess's eye before I started painting it. Instead I re-did it. Twice.

[shadesofmauve]

We got in way over our heads. Chaglu went down despite two healers helping -- but they revived her! And then the big barbarian that had been wailing on her FINALLY missed, for the first time, 3x in a row.

"Its because I'm skinnier now because I have a lot less blood!"

"That's definitely how that works."

"It's an advantage!"

"YOU LOOK LIKE A FUCKING RAISIN!"

[shadesofmauve]

It's Princess Shredder and Chaglu!

(My partner said it needed a banana for scale. Chaglu has never seen a banana.)

[shadesofmauve]

Chaglu just chatted knowledgeabley with a druid about healing herbs, which put the druid in a better mood.

Me: "I helped!"

E: "With diplomacy, even!"

Me: Sketching a wiiiide goblin smile: "Party face!"

E: "...so. much. face."

[shadesofmauve]

We were traveling along and heard a horrible commotion. Two scythe constructs had gone haywire and were attacking a farmer. We dispatched them and revived the farmer, who told us he'd just purchased them from a traveling salesgnome.

Chaglu asked, "What about that thing, what's it called, where when the seller sells you something and it turns out bad, you go find the seller...?"

Basil helpfully suggested, "Warranty?"

"No..." Chaglu brightened. "Revenge!"

[shadesofmauve]

Game night, and we fought goblins for the first time! Chaglu is SO EXCITED.

She's fighting OTHER GOBLINS! She might impress them! She could become goblin famous, the only kind of famous that matters! She might earn an epithet, like her friend and hero, MADLEGS!

"But you're killing them, they can't tell anyone if they're dead!"

Chaglu's not worried. "The ones that ran away when we surprised them -- some are still watching! Those are the SMART goblins."

[shadesofmauve]

I finished this in December and forgot to post it! Behold, what Chaglu absolutely did NOT do (but absolutely considered) when the house they were camping in was surrounded by kobolds.

Princess Shredder is probably glad she didn't.

[shadesofmauve]

The goblin word for monsters of the ooze, slime, and pudding type is "hauk-puh," and comes from the sound of hawking a loogie.

Common as a Second Language

Chaglu comes from an isolated goblin tribe, and has only been in 'civilization' a few months. Her Common is solid, but she's missing a lot of vocabulary. She substitutes with direct translations from Goblin, which is a very literal (and occasionally onomotopoetic!) language.

Jerk Bee (wasp)

Slug-in-the-rock (shellfish, in this case river mussels)

Dance Stabber (rapier). (The goblin word for 'stab' or 'stabbing thing' mimics the sound of a person being stabbed.)

Murder Bird (raptor-type dinosaur)

[shadesofmauve]

Lem: "The kobolds are happy to meet at your earliest convenience."

Chaglu: "Where's that?"

Laure, laughing: "The first toilet you find!"

Chaglu: "From what direction?!"

Laurel: "From whatever direction you start in!"

Chaglu: "That's a horrible way to give directions! We're never going to find them!"

[shadesofmauve]

Our party is spending significant time around another goblin for the first time since the game started. Grit showed up with two clerics who'd been divinely sent to aid us. He is impressed by Princess Shredder and Chaglu, but not that much more impressed than he is by the Champion's riding cow.

Basil had Grit serve breakfast, which turned into a whole cultural digression about what that means among goblins --"serving food" to another goblin means they're the chief, they're sick, or you're really into them. Sure, we're goblins of the world, we know how other races behave, so Grit serves the others... but not Chaglu. Thankfully. Because that would be weird.

But then she saw him serving the half-orc cleric he arrived with, and that is *not* this whole "waiter" thing the humans and elves do. He served her that breakfast in *Goblin.* and the cleric didn't notice a damn thing.

Chaglu didn't say anything, but she's now a bit invested in the one-sided romance drama.

[shadesofmauve]

Ooh, goblin and goblin dog info in the remastered PF2e monster manual! Let's take a look!

EXCUSE ME?!

Goblins HAVE a word for goblin dog. It sounds like the most common sound (sort of a grunt-squeak) a goblin dog makes! Just because the monster manual writers are too racist to learn goblin doesn't mean goblins don't have a word for something.

(Since I've been playing Chaglu I've developed Strong Opinions about Goblin, which is a beautiful and most importantly beautifully-straightforward language, with a lot of compound nouns and a high degree of onomotopeia)

((Because I decided it does, that's why))

[shadesofmauve]

Chaglu: "What's bingo?"

Gwen: "It's like gambling, but only for old people."

Chaglu, impressed: "Oh... do you have to be very wise to play it?"

Our party has returned to Amity's home town, only to discover that her favorite dive bar has a new name and management. She asked the bartender about it.

"Oh, yeah, the old place went outta business."

"How could it have gone out of business? That place had all-you-can-drink bingo nights!"

[shadesofmauve]

We're swimming through the murky water of a back entrance to a young black dragon's lair, using potions of water breathing. Visibility is horrible.

Gwen remembers that Amity has a tail.

"When we get out of here, Amity's going to have to have another of those conversations about boundaries she keeps having to have with party members."

"Yeah, and for once, it won't be with Chaglu!"

[shadesofmauve]

We found an unused cultist robe while investigating a cult lair! Chaglu told Basil to put it on.

Ratfolk Basil, looking at the human-sized robe, said, "I don't think it'll fit..."

"Just put it on!"

He did, finally getting his snout out of the hood while the robe piled up on the floor.

Chaglu lifted the skirts, ducked inside, and boosted him onto her (ridiculously strong) goblin shoulders.

"See? We're a cultist!"

(The biggest problem is that when Basil feels like he's losing his balance, he tries to use his tail. Really messes up the line of the robe. The second biggest problem is that Chaglu can't see.)

[shadesofmauve]

We've met a sentient Magic Mouth in a wizard's tower. Gwen offered it a drink (Chaglu had to hold Gwen up so she could poor it in the mouth). The mouth had never been offered a drink before! It's name is Leonard!

Chaglu has never seen anything like this. She asked Leonard, "Do you have other parts?"

Amity whisper-hissed, "You can't just ask someone if they have other parts!"

(It's okay, Leonard doesn't mind. It doesn't know if it has other parts, either!).