Nikhiroh Krizhkingu, exiled Spear under the Cinderclaws Banner of the Kraombuzh Legion

 Hobgoblin soldier druid in the Circle of Dreams 2/rogue 1

Size:  Medium

Height:  6 feet, 1 inch

Weight:  280 pounds

Strength 12 (+1)

Dexterity 14 (+2)

Constitution 13 (+1)

Intelligence 12 (+1)

Wisdom 16 (+3)

Charisma 12 (+1)

Armor Class:  14

Hit Points:  17

Hit Dice:  3d8

Speed:  30 feet

Passive Perception:  13

Senses:  Darkvision (you can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray)

Initiative:  +2

Attacks:

Quarterstaff:  Melee +3, 1d6+1 or 1d8+1 bludgeoning

Whip:  Melee with reach +4, 1d4+2 slashing (finesse)

Unarmed:  Melee +1, 2 bludgeoning

Pike:  Melee with reach +3, 1d10+1 piercing (heavy, two-handed)

Carrying Capacity:  180 pounds

Push/Drag/Lift:  360 pounds

Proficiency Bonus:  +2

Armor Proficiencies:  Light armor, medium armor, shields (druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal)

Weapon Proficiencies:  Clubs, daggers, darts, javelins, maces, pikes, quarterstaffs, scimitars, sickles, slings, spears, whips

Skill Proficiencies:  Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Religion, StealthExpertise

Skill Bonuses:  Athletics +3, Acrobatics +2, Sleight of Hand +2, Stealth +6, Arcana +1, History +1, Investigation +1, Nature +1, Religion +3, Animal Handling +3, Insight +5, Medicine +3, Perception +3, Survival +3, Deception +1, Intimidation +1, Performance +1, Persuasion +1

Tool Proficiencies:  Dragonchess set +2, herbalism kit +2, thieves' tools +4Expertise, vehicles (Iand) +2

Saving Throws:  Strength +1, Dexterity +2, Constitution +1, Intelligence +3, Wisdom +5, Charisma +1

Languages:  Common, Druidic, Goblin, thieves' cant

Equipment:  

Armor:  Hide armor 

Weapons:  Pike, whip, quarterstaff

Tools:  Dragonchess set, a set of bone dice, thieves' tools

Adventuring Equipment:  Burglar's pack

Clothes:  A set of common clothes, set of fine clothes

Meaningful Items:  Druidic focus (incorporated into staff), an insignia of rank, tiny travel altar set-up (artistically decorated little bowl; fake ten-faceted black diamond; four tiny bones inscribed with miniscule runes tied into an eight-pointed star; little hearth in which fires can be lit; miniature stand with miniature headsman’s axe on top, crossed sword and handaxe, white-tipped flail, and red-and-yellow whip on bottom; little black claw; necklace of blue and white crystals made to look like ice; small spikes for animal heads with eyelids removed and mouths open; small wineglass; tiny tall clay pot painted with a stylized bird; two tiny carved antlers; wooden block), a trophy taken from a fallen enemy (broken wooden toy chicken)

Animals:  Dwarf reindeer (use donkey) with pack saddle and saddlebags

Sneak attack  +1d6

Saving Face.  Hobgoblins are careful not to show weakness in front of their allies, for fear of losing status.  If you miss with an attack roll or fail an ability check or a saving throw, you can gain a bonus to the roll equal to the number of allies you can see within 30 feet of you (maximum bonus of +5).  Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Balm of the Summer Court.  At 2nd level, you become imbued with the blessings of the Summer Court.  You are a font of energy that offers respite from injuries.  You have a pool of fey energy represented by 2d6 (druid level).  As a bonus action, you can choose one creature you can see within 120 feet of you and spend one of those dice (half your druid level) or less.  Roll the spent dice and add them together.  The target regains a number of hit points equal to the total.  The target also gains 1 temporary hit point per die spent.  You regain all expended dice when you finish a long rest. 

Wild shape. Twice per rest, maximum 1/4 CR, no swimming or flying speed for 1 hour (half your druid level).  You can't cast spells, and your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of your beast form.  Transforming doesn't break your concentration on a spell you've already cast, however, or prevent you from taking actions that are part of a spell, such as call lightning, that you've already cast  You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so.  However, you can't use any of your special senses, such as darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense.  You choose whether your equipment falls to the ground in your space, merges into your new form, or is worn by it.  Worn equipment functions as normal, but the DM decides whether it is practical for the new form to wear a piece of equipment, based on the creature's shape and size.  Your equipment doesn't change size or shape to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can't wear must either fali to the ground or merge with it.  Equipment that merges with the form has no effect until you leave the form.

 (physical abilities, skill and save profs, creature's if higher, hp and HD, any other specials)

Favored shapes:  

Reindeer

Large

Armor Class 10

Hit Points 13 (2d10 + 2)

Speed 50 feet

Strength 16 (+3)

Dexterity 10 (+0)

Constitution 12 (+1)

Senses:  Passive Perception 13

Charge.  If the reindeer moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a ram attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 2d6 damage.  If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

Actions

Ram.  Melee weapon attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit:  1d6 + 3 bludgeoning damage.

Hooves.  Melee weapon attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one prone creature.  Hit: 2d4 + 3 bludgeoning damage. 

Goat

Medium

Armor Class 10

Hit Points 4 (1d8)

Speed 40 feet

Strength 12 (+1)

Dexterity 10 (+0)

Constitution 11 (+0)

Senses:  Passive Perception 13

Charge.  If the goat moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a ram attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 1d4 bludgeoning damage.  If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 10 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

Sure-Footed.  The goat has advantage on Strength and Dexterity saving throws made against effects that would knock it prone.

Actions

Ram.  Melee weapon attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit: 1d4 + 1 bludgeoning damage.

Mastiff

Medium

Armor Class 12

Hit Points 5 (1d8 + 1)

Speed 40 feet

Strength 13 (+1)

Dexterity 14 (+2)

Constitution 12 (+1)

Skills:  Perception +6

Senses:  Passive Perception 16

Keen Hearing and Smell.  The mastiff has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit:  1d6 + 1 piercing damage.  If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 11 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

Cute Mouse

Tiny

Armor Class 10

Hit Points 1 (1d4 - 1)

Speed 20 ft.

Strength 2 (-4)

Dexterity 11 (+0)

Constitution 9 (-1)

Senses:  Darkvision 30 ft., Passive Perception 13

Keen Smell.  The cute mouse has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

Actions

Bite.  Melee weapon attack: +0 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit: 1 piercing damage (finesse?)

Seven-Headed Mouse

Small

Armor Class 12

Hit Points 7 (2d6)

Speed 30 ft.

Strength 7 (-2)

Dexterity 15 (+2)

Constitution 11 (+0)

Senses:  Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 13

Keen Smell.  The seven-headed mouse has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

Pack Tactics.  The seven-headed mouse has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the secen-headed mouse's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.

Actions

Bite. Melee weapon attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit:  1d4 + 2 piercing damage. (finesse?)

Giant rooster OR partridge

Large

Armor Class 11

Hit Points 19 (3d10 + 3)

Speed 50 ft.

Strength 14 (+2)

Dexterity 12 (+1)

Constitution 12 (+1)

Senses:  Passive Perception 13

Actions

Beak. Melee weapon attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit:  1d8 + 2 slashing damage.

Spell Save DC:  13

Spell Attack Bonus:  +5

Cantrips:  

Druidcraft

Casting Time:  1 action

Range/Area: 30 feet

Components:  Verbal, Somatic

Nikhiroh draws the rune meaning “to make”, leaving behind a pattern of green light which draws itself into cor throat as co speaks in the tinking words of the fey the one gift someone nearby always wished they would receive without knowing what co is saying

Duration:  Instantaneous

School:  Transmutation

Attack/Save:  None

Damage/Effect:  Control

Whispering to the spirits of nature, you create one of the following effects within range:

You create a tiny, harmless sensory effect that predicts what the weather will be at your location for the next 24 hours.  The effect might manifest as a golden orb for clear skies, a cloud for rain, falling snowflakes for snow, and so on. This effect persists for 1 round.

You instantly make a flower blossom, a seed pod open, or a leaf bud bloom.

You create an instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as falling leaves, a puff of wind, the sound of a small animal, or the faint odor of skunk. The effect must fit in a 5-foot cube.

You instantly light or snuff out a candle, a torch, or a small campfire.

Frostbite

Casting Time:  1 action

Range/Area: 60 feet

Components:  Verbal, Somatic

The rune meaning “frost” etches across the target’s skin directed by Nikhiroh’s motion as co tells the less pleasant members of the fairy courts that co has brought them a new toy

Duration:  Instantaneous

School:  Evocation

Attack/Save:  Constitution save

Damage/Effect:  Cold

You cause numbing frost to form on one creature that you can see within range. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 1d6 cold damage, and it has disadvantage on the next weapon attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.

The spell’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).

Spell Slots:  3 1st-level

Spells prepared:  5

Favorite Spells:

Animal Friendship

Casting Time:  1 action

Range/Area: 30 feet

Components:  Verbal, Somatic, Material

Nikhiroh’s staff traces the rune of friendship in the air in swirls of comet-like red and green as co asks the fairies in their own language to make a formal introduction between com and the target, culminating in co covering cor face with the top of cor staff before playfully revealing it

The same actions can be performed with cor hand, but in that case, the casting ends with co tossing a morsel of food through the center of the rune

Duration:  24 hours

School:  Enchantment

Attack/Save:  Wisdom save

Damage/Effect:  Charmed

This spell lets you convince a beast that you mean it no harm.  Choose a beast that you can see within range.  It must see and hear you.  If the beast's Intelligence is 4 or higher, the spell fails.  Otherwise, the beast must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you for the spell's duration.  If you or one of your companions harms the target, the spell ends.

At Higher Levels.  When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can affect one additional beast for each slot level above 1st.

Charm Person

Casting Time:  1 action

Range/Area: 30 feet

Components:  Verbal, Somatic

A hand extended as if for a shake happens to take the form of the rune for friendship while a sussurrus words in the tinkling language of the fey calls two snowflakes to settle in the target’s eyes which widen with joy

Duration:  1 hour

School:  Enchantment

Attack/Save:  Wisdom save

Damage/Effect:  Charmed

You attempt to charm a humanoid you can see within range.  It must make a Wisdom saving throw, and does so with advantage if you or your companions are fighting it.  If it fails the saving throw, it is charmed by you until the spell ends or until you or your companions do anything harmful to it.  The charmed creature regards you as a friendly acquaintance.  When the spell ends, the creature knows it was charmed by you.

At Higher Levels.  When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 1st. The creatures must be within 30 feet of each other when you target them.

Faerie Fire

Casting Time:  1 action

Range/Area: 60 feet (20-foot cube)

Components:  Verbal

“It’s time to have a party, my friends!” in the speech of the fey

Duration:  1 minute (concentration)

School:  Evocation

Attack/Save:  Dexterity save

Damage/Effect:  Debuff

Each object in a 20-foot cube within range is outlined in blue, green, or violet light (your choice).  Any creature in the area when the spell is cast is also outlined in light if it fails a Dexterity saving throw.  For the duration, objects and affected creatures shed dim light in a 10-foot radius.

Any attack roll against an affected creature or object has advantage if the attacker can see it, and the affected creature or object can't benefit from being invisible.

Goodberry

Casting Time:  1 action

Range/Area: Touch

Components:  Verbal, Somatic, Material

The rune for “meal”, when traced across the palm of the hand with a staff antler’s tip, springs up into the brown stems of a berry-bunch when accompanied with a few whispered words asking the fey for a morsel from their enchanted table 

A sprig of mistletoe can be used instead of cor staff

Duration:  Instantaneous

School:  Transmutation

Attack/Save:  None

Damage/Effect:  Healing

Up to ten berries appear in your hand and are infused with magic for the duration.  A creature can use its action to eat one berry.  Eating a berry restores 1 hit point, and the berry provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day.

The berries lose their potency if they have not been consumed within 24 hours of the casting of this spell.

Healing Word

Casting Time:  1 bonus action

Range/Area: 60 feet

Components:  Verbal

A warm, low chuckle carries farther than it has any right to, lightening the spirit and causing wounds to scab over and shrink as a smile breaks across the target’s face

Duration:  Instantaneous

School:  Evocation

Attack/Save:  None

Damage/Effect:  Healing

A creature of your choice that you can see within range regains hit points equal to 1d4 + 3 (spellcasting ability modifier).  This spell has no effect on undead or constructs.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the healing increases by 1d4 for each slot level above 1st.

Ice Knife

Casting Time:  1 action

Range/Area: 60 feet (5-foot sphere*)

Components:  Somatic, Material (drop of water or piece of ice)

A slight motion of the wrist curls the rune meaning “victory” into a sweeping throw with Nikhiroh’s staff and the knife comes flying from between the crystal atop it 

The same motion can be used without cor staff to fling a drop of water or piece of ice which will transform in the air into the knife

Duration:  Instantaneous

School:  Conjuration

Attack/Save:  Dexterity save

Damage/Effect:  Piercing and cold

You create a shard of ice and fling it at one creature within range.  Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d10 piercing damage.  Hit or miss, the shard then explodes.  The target and each creature within 5 feet of it must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 cold damage.

At Higher Levels.  When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the cold damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.

Speak with Animals

Casting Time:  1 action (ritual)

Range/Area: Self

Components:  Verbal, Somatic

Nikhiroh draws the rune meaning “hearth-talk” in the air and speaks to the animals as its frosted form slowly melts away

Nikhiroh sets up the altar, with the wooden block in the center, the weapon stand to the right, and the spikes with the heads on the left, and the little bowl atop the block, with the fake diamond and the necklace within it.  Co pours iris petal water into the bowl from the wineglass and a thin mash of boiled fennel from the tall pot.  This is followed by blood from Nikhiroh’s tongue and also from the severed tongue of a songbird.  The four ingredients are mixed together with the claw in the left hand and the antlers in the right at the same time.  Then the star of bones is placed atop the bowl like a lid or filter and the mixture drunk.

Duration:  10 minutes

School:  Divination

Attack/Save:  None

Damage/Effect:  Communication

You gain the ability to comprehend and verbally communicate with beasts for the duration.  The knowledge and awareness of many beasts is limited by their intelligence, but at minimum, beasts can give you information about nearby locations and monsters, including whatever they can perceive or have perceived within the past day.  You might be able to persuade a beast to perform a small favor for you, at the GM's discretion.

Thunderwave

Casting Time:  1 action

Range/Area: Self (15-foot cube)

Components:  Verbal, Somatic

Weaving a cold blue glow in the shape of the rune of surprise in the air, Nikhiroh tells the fairies a joke and the rumbling laughter of both co and they explodes, shaking the very air

Duration:  Instantaneous

School:  Evocation

Attack/Save:  Constitution save

Damage/Effect:  Thunder

A wave of thunderous force sweeps out from you.  Each creature in a 15-foot cube originating from you must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d8 thunder damage and is pushed 10 feet away from you.  On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and isn't pushed.

In addition, unsecured objects that are completely within the area of effect are automatically pushed 10 feet away from you by the spell's effect, and the spell emits a thunderous boom audible out to 300 feet.

At Higher Levels.  When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 1st.

Physical Description

Age has brought a creamy paleness to Nikhiroh’s once deep-persimmon skin, granting that skin color so prized by hobgoblins a comforting distinguished appearance, and has revealed the ghosts of a shameful ancient elfin ancestor once hidden by cor hair’s youthful blood red in the form of highlights of lavender mist and tea green, now visible against a background of pale platinum.  Co often wears cor hair gathered in a very hobgoblinnish topknot, severe, tight, and perfect.  These highlights extend into a thick beard that frames cor broad face.  Nikhiroh’s cherry-shaped nose, a Uranian blue untouched by the elderly creaminess of the rest of cor skin, draws the gaze of any looking upon com away from the soft twinkles of cor gull-grey eyes above it or the merry dimples decorating cor rosy cheeks like the depressions left by frozen dew.  A droll little mouth draws up in a wide smile beneath that nose, friendly but unable to fully shake the last dregs of its martial appearance, its resemblance to a lethal longbow.  Co holds tight in cor teeth the stump of a pipe, and the smoke of it encircles cor head like a wreath, which combined with cor mastery of sly little winks and a twisting of cor head, lets those around com know that they have nothing to dread.

Nikhiroh is fat, with puffy cheeks and a little round belly that shakes when co laughs like a bowlful of jelly, but touch or careful inspection will quickly reveal that the fat floats atop a foundation of solid, lean muscle, the kind of muscle born from disciplined strain given exactly as many calories as needed and not one more.  It is clear that Nikhiroh has indulged comself in feasting only since being drummed out of cor legion and that co looked quite differently in cor youth.

The long points of Nikhiroh’s ears bear four piercings.  Tiny papyri flap from the upper three sending prayers to the gods as they move with the wind or the momentum of cor face, while the bottommost of the four holds two turtle-dove feathers.  Nikhiroh often looks like quite the peddler, with a bundled sack upon cor shoulder rather than a proper backpack.  Whether wearing cor commoners’ clothes or on the rare occasions that co wears cor old finery, Nikhiroh wears cor armor underneath, in the hobgoblin style, red against green.  From cor first appearance in the city, Nikhiroh has displayed cor chosen profession proudly, and does to this day, washing off the ashes and soot that tarnish cor clothing only rarely, though the stylized spear and dangling medallion that mark cor former rank of Spear in the Cinderclaws banner is kept gleaming and bright amongst the dark.  Luckily, few if any know what it means.

Personality

Easygoing, open-minded, wise, comforting, generous, kind, and humorous, Nikhiroh treats cor exile as though it were an extended vacation.  Something of an epicurean in cor old age, a wise man experienced in the ways of the world, a seasoned and wily strategist, lies beneath cor jolly exterior.  Although co appears hedonistic, Nikhiroh’s life philosophies are about living life to the fullest and choosing your own destiny.  Co is a firm believer that everyone has the power to create their own destiny.  Co appears laid-back because co understands that there are things in life co cannot control, but co also believes that a person is fully responsible for the parts they can.

Despite cor general demeanor, Nikhiroh remains at heart a hobgoblin, practicing strict discipline (amidst the hedonist feasting and boisterous celebrations) and believing deeply in honor.  The biggest differences between com and more typical hobgoblins, honestly, are twofold.  Firstly, Nikhiroh gleefully shucked comself of the grimness of cor race once they chased com from the ranks of cor legion.  Co sees no reason whatsoever for austerity and seriousness ~ if you are not enjoying what you do, then why are you doing it? ~ and Nikhiroh finds almost everything enjoyable if approached with the right mindset  Secondly, they approach other peoples not with the mere extension of honor that honor itself demands, but with a central compassion for their sufferings and pains.  In this way, it is not merely about giving nor suffering insult but in bringing some respite from the chill of sadness, some gift to brighten an overcast and snowed-in life.  

Nikhiroh despises excuses, believing strongly the hobgoblin adage that untruths weaken the one who speaks them.  Ironically, co was exiled from cor legion as the result of something the other hobgoblins perceived as an excuse (that excuse being compassion).  However, taking responsibility and accepting one's punishment are also virtues in both hobgoblin culture and Nikhiroh’s individual ethics.

Nikhiroh is fascinated by the times when atcha ("honor obtained through glorious deeds") and muut ("honor obtained through doing one's duty") conflict and contradict.  After all, it was just such a moment that saved Nikhiroh’s life when cor nocturnal activities were discovered.  The act of sneaking deep into an enemy town without being noticed even once was seen as deserving of great atcha but as a grave and unforgivable loss of muut, leading to a sentence of banishment rather than death.  Atcha alone cannot sustain a hobgoblin's place in society,after all, and those who seek it at the expense of muut will inevitably find their failings catching up with them someday; as the saying goes, "A blade without a hilt cuts its wielder".

Nikhiroh, however, honestly doesn’t see comself as a cut by a blade without a hilt.  Cor heart has given com a new duty, a different and broader muut, accountable to all of the mortal races and not just to one particular banner of one particular legion.  Cor loyalty (another hobgoblinnish virtue) is to all of mortalkind first, cor close friends and chosen family second, the city in which co lives third, the realm that city exists within fourth, and only then to the traditional hobgoblin hierarchy of clan, hobgoblins as a whole, and all goblinoids.  The one concession Nikhiroh makes to the idea that co has been cut by a blade without a hilt is a hidden readiness to jump at any chance that presents itself to bring these seven obligations to common purpose.

Nikhiroh doesn’t much want recognition and platitudes for the gifts they give and the help they provide.  Hobgoblins believe that it is better to do a less glamorous job well than a glamorous job poorly, respecting skill greatly, and this is yet another ethic co has brought with com from one life into another quite different from the first.

Nikhiroh shares most hobgoblins’ intense distrust of the practice of written histories and written material more generally.  After all, how can you be certain who actually wrote those things?  However, perhaps due to the ancient shame of that elfin ancestor, co has rejected the prattling tales of hobgoblin loremasters that blame “the fey trickery of the elfs” for the destruction of their ancient empire.  In fact, Nikhiroh is quite fond of the fey races, especially the elfs and gnomes sprinkled throughout the city in which co lives.

Nikhiroh is particularly fond of tea, dragonchess, and listening to music.  Co has even founded a music night for the Adventurer’s Guild, among whom co is very popular, involving singing and the playing of instruments.  As a druid, co has shown comself to be a skilled naturalist with knowledge of a wide variety of plants and their effects on the human body, though misinterpretation of some plant characteristics led com once to accidentally poison comself, teaching com to approach cor study of herbs with some amount of caution.  Nikhiroh’s favorite thing to drink is a peppermint green tea in the hobgoblin style, with a strong bitter and astringent flavor full of sharp spice, softened with a good dose of halfling brandy distilled from a combination of manadrin oranges and sugar plums.  Co prefers to pair this treat with pepper-cookies and caramelized pastries spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom, and anise, filled with almond paste.

Probably as definitive of Nikhiroh's character as cor twin loves of tea and gift-giving is cor sage advice and wisdom.  Nikhiroh is known by cor lovers, family, and guildmates for cor sometimes cryptic proverbs and lengthy anecdotes.   Closely related to this wisdom is Nikhiroh's affinity for spirituality.  Co constantly advocates maintaining the balance between elements and devotion to a wide variety of gods and spirits.  A rumor persists that Nikhiroh has traveled throughout the Outer Planes.

Though an honorable person, co is not above a spot of pilfering as co has occasionally pocketed perfumes from local temples and shrines.  Co also demonstrates respect and appreciation for all cultures, which is a rarity among hobgoblins.

Despite cor age, Nikhiroh can be quite suave and dapper when the need arises, often flirting with people of various genders.  Many of these have been older but some have been much younger, such as the bounty hunter Jun.

Nikhiroh rarely holds grudges and does not always care much about cor own welfare.  On several occasions, people have attempted to mug com; on every occasion, co did not fight back, but instead helped and gave advice to the mugger.  Co chalks this attitude up to a hobgoblin proverb that co continues to endorse:  “The lone wolf starves, but the pack feasts.”

Spirituality

Nikhiroh is a kind of a mess, theologically speaking, though co only allows cor truly intimate inner circle of chosen family and friends to see that.  The exhortations that co often voices to maintain devotions to many gods, primal spirits, and saintly petitioners are honest, and deeply heartfelt, and Nikhiroh puts in the same effort they exhort others to maintain.  However, cor understandings of and relationships with the divinities (particularly, as opposed to the spirits and ancestors) are deeply heretical.  This heterodoxy is born of the difficult cultural position co finds comself in.  The idea of breaking with the gods with which co was raised rends Nikhiroh’s heart, threatening the very fundaments of cor identity, but at the same time co approaches life and the world very differently from the hobgoblins amongst which co was raised.  This paradox itself is the cause of Nikhiroh’s idiosyncratic understandings of the gods.

All of this means that Nikhiroh considers Skiggaret, the bugbear god of fear and messenger of the goblinoid gods, to be cor personal god.  Skiggaret receives cor initial and continuing prayers in the moments when co find comself playing with cor miniature travel altar pieces, arranging and rearranging them in an endless parade of arrays and formations reflecting cor ponderings and worries.  Unusually amongst the worshippers of the goblinoid gods, Nikhiroh offers cor own blood to them (and to the pantheon co has cobbled together from deities worshipped by cor lovers), dripping a few drops upon the tiny block co carries representing the headsman’s mound dedicated to Maglubiyet that is the center of a goblinoid war camp’s religious life.  Normally, worshippers of the goblinoid gods only offer the blood and life of beings they find objectionable on that mound.  Nikhiroh has turned penitential, punishing sacrifice into gifted, maintenance sacrifice.  It’s rather a neat summation of cor entire outlook, really.

However, though Nikhiroh would have a hard time admitting it, Skiggaret nor any of the other goblinoid gods can be honestly said to sit at the center of cor reverences.  That honor, if we’re being honest, goes to the Traveler, a god who came to Nikhiroh by means of cor lover, Joulupukki.  Shifters like Joulupukki tend to worship the Traveler because of its associations with change and chaos and the breakdown of civilized order; they see the first reflected in their own bodies and the second in the pulsing of their wild hearts.  But when Joulupukki told Nikhiroh about the Traveler, the old hobgoblin heard instead a philosophy of self-determination, self-creation even, that spoke deeply to com as one who had been forced from everything they’d known and thrown into a strange world, groping at finding cor own self.  The Traveler had brought this upon com, co decided, and the entire point was to define who co was comself.  Also, gifts.  This whole thing had started with the giving of gifts; surely the giving of gifts was where it should lead?

The Cinderclaws banner of the Kraombuzh Legion maintains its own Academy of Devastation, where it teaches future Cinderclaw devastators something quite distinct from the arcane magic utilized by the devastators of other banners and other legions.  Under the watchful eye of a trio of goblinoid priests ~ a bugbear devotee of Grankhul and two hobgoblins, followers of Nomog-Geaya and, of course, Maglubiyet ~ those young hobgoblins who can hear and speak to the spirits are taught to invoke two fey monarchs, the Queen of Air and Darkness, ruler of the Unseelie Court, and the Prince of Frost, ruler of the Winter Court.  The blizzard walks before the Cinderclaws Banner as vanguard, the winter wolf ahead of that as scout, and mountainsides tumble and trees throw themselves to the ground in supplication in order to trap their foes.

That is where Nikhiroh trained, and that is where Nikhiroh formed the bonds with the fey that co draws upon to this day.  Though co no longer functions as a soldier in the Kraombuzh Legion, and though co seeks to forge new understandings and relationships to the divine, Nikhiroh cannot ~ will not, refuses to ~ stop praying and making offerings to these five deities who sit at the heart of cor magic.  Grankhul, co hopes, might be approached as a patron of beauty and sensuality and parties, particularly those kept secret until their subject enters the room.  Perhaps even a romantic deity, hunting those special someones with which one might want to spend a beautiful or loving moment.  The Prince of Frost could use some of that energy, his heart of ice punishing the world for taking his lover away.  Perhaps by healing the one, Nikhiroh could rehabilitate the other?  Though the Queen of Air and Darkness typically exhorts her worshipers to illusion and murder, Nikhiroh offers her sacrifices for her help as co sneaks throughout the city giving gifts and doing nice things without being seen, thanks to the darkness she grants com.

Nomog-Geaya, that most hobgoblinnish of deities, presents quite the riddle to Nikhiroh.  By all rights, co should fear invoking him, as co is discharged from cor legion and cor banner, forced into dereliction of duty.  But it is exactly that sense of duty that has brought com here.  Nikhiroh might have left behind the life of a soldier, but the values of a soldier are still cor values, and those values come from Nomog-Geaya.  All of this leads to very confused, and confusing, prayers.  Though Maglubiyet, as described earlier, does receive offerings from Nikhiroh on a regular basis, co finds that co would much rather some other of the goblinoid gods replace him.  To this end, Nikhiroh has taken to worshipping the relatively obscure goddess Kikanuti, patroness of a small offshoot of the goblin race, incorporating her and her corn-spun teachings into cor magics, particularly as they involve earth, fertility, and/or water.

Nikhiroh’s lovers, as well as the cosmopolitan nature of the city, have exposed com to gods co had never before encountered unless their statues were being chained, their temples vandalized, and their priests dying in pain and fear.  As a result, three new gods have joined Grankhul, the Queen of Air and Darkness, the Prince of Frost, and Kikanuti in patronizing Nikhiroh’s magical practices.  Olentzero has spent many hours spectrally telling stories of Ulutiu, father of the firbolgs and the one of their parents to remain living after Annam All-Knowing slaked his cuckolded rage upon his wife.  This patron of arctic dwellers, glaciers, and polar environments has only deepened Nikhiroh’s focus on the magics of ice and snow, and the beauties of a fluffy white landscape.  Meanwhile, Nikhiroh thinks of Joulupukki’s Balinor as racing across the land beside Grankhul, assuring the bugbear of the bounty of nature and the lack of need for it to be seized with furious desperation.  Co likes to think of the two of them in a triad with Kikanuti, actually, and often finds comself musing upon their romance.  Finally, cor wife, Nana Annalinya has told com of the elfin god Gadhelyn, whose focus on independence and outlawry seems to balm the wounds of cor exile and cor ethics while indulging also in the kinds of feasts that have covered Nikhiroh’s military muscle in jolly fat.

The door to Nikhiroh’s home is beautifully and ornately carved, a replacement for the older, plain, door and a wedding-gift co and Nana Annalinya received from a friend.  It represents the five deities of house and home and family Nikhiroh worships, with a scene honoring Meriadar the Patient One, the mongrelfolk patron and god of tolerance, meditation, and arts and crafts filling the left lintel.  On the other side’s lintel, the carvings depict and honor a third of Joulupukki’s gods, this one being Boldrei, the Sovereign of Hearth and Home, the one who stands watch over the house to keep it safe.  Above it all, the elfin god Alobal Lorfiril revels in hedonistic pleasure, with food and drink and entertainers and (most importantly) good friends.  Finally, upon the door itself, the hobgoblin god Bargrivyek (whose focus on cooperation is here being used to forcibly reimagine him as a protector of the unity of the family) embraces the eflin goddess of music and enchantments, Ye’Cind.

Sexuality, Romance, Intimacy, and Family

Nikhiroh finds comself attracted to any and all genders, and in cor case it might actually be a case of being attracted to the personality rather than the body.  Though co can occasionally be something of a flirt while out and about, co tends to find romance in much more domestic ways ~ coming around with gifts for dinner and whiling away the hours at cor intended’s, for example, is serious wooing on Nikhiroh’s part.  Co sees no problem with casual connections, but doesn’t pursue them, leaving them to happen only if the other party(s) make it happen.  On the other hand, e is always eager to add more people to cor very large family, whether they end up moving in or remaining out-of-the-house sweeties.  Nikiroh tends to be rather vanilla, uncertain what people see in other forms of sex.  That being said, co can be quite serviceable as a service top (or bottom, though it’s harder), as cor biggest interest is in seeing their partner(s) enjoy themselves.  The two exceptions to this vanilla-ness are in the realms of ecosexuality and objectum sexualis, both of which gain enthusiastically eager yeses from the hobgoblin (though in the latter case, “sensualis” might be a better term, as it’s more of an aesthetic appreciation turned up to 11 thing than it is a desire to have relations or form a relationship with the object).

Nikhiroh has built a large and nonmonogamous family for comself, with a wide variety of lovers, six of whom live with com in an old manor house known as Korvatunturi, including:

Joulupukki, a male swiftstride shifter with a goat-like heritage.

Khwaja Firuz, the Five-Day King.  On the run from a usurping army, this gnomish man’s face is perpetually covered in soot, and he dresses himself in bright red clothes and a felt hat.  When not engaged in some scheme or another designed to get him his throne back, he likes to dance through the streets while singing and playing a tambourine.

Zukwaorti Pyetmi-Knaakt, a female kenku who met Nikhiroh as the hobgoblin was freeing her from slavery at the Imperial Court and delivering her back to her parents.  A couple of years later, Zukwaorti found Nikhiroh again and they struck up a romance.

The agender kobold Beltznickel mostly only leaves the confines of Korvatunturi some hours after dark, thoroughly disguised, especially the face, which nay sometimes covers with a hideously ugly mask, around which hangs a black or brown robe with a pointed hood adorned with little bells.  With the general presentation of a very masculine farmhand woman, nay often equips nunself with an ample sack about the shoulders, a much smaller sack of ashes at nix belt, and a long hazel switch enchanted to have some kind of charm effect in it as well as a sting.  Nay walks with a limp because of a childhood injury and sometimes rides on a giant white lizard.

Olentzero, a genderfluid firbolg ghost whose tribe was asked by a very old, nearly blind cleric to throw him off a cliff to avoid an encroaching ?? religious crusade.  Having obliged him, the firbolg tripped on the way down and died themselves, leaving only Olentzero to survive them.  E was found by a fairy who gave em eir name, bestowed gifts of strength and kindness on em and handed em to an older childless elfin couple living alone in the woods.  E turned into a very strong person and charcoal burner who was also good with eir hands, carving wooden toys that e carries in a big charcoal bag to give to children.  E died saving children from a burning house a few doors down from Korvatunturi and the fairy who had found em as a child granted em a peaceful undeath to continue to bring joy to children and people.

Nana (meaning “goodwife” in elfish) Annalinya Marssyca Suarambaya Krizhkingu, an elf and the only one of Nikhiroh’s lovers to have wanted a legal tie to their relationship, becoming cor wife.  She tends to wear high, light riding boots with a low heel and semi-pointed toes whose polished and shined leather reaches to her knee and which have a decorative tassel at the top of each shaft, with a "v" notch in front.  Above this, she wears 12 short red petticoats beneath a bright colored plaid dress made of worsted wool, the hood of which is large and round but not smooth.  Rather it is corrugated; that is to say, it consists of a series of rolls nearly as large as a human arm, passing over her head sidewise, growing smaller toward the back until they terminate in a big button that is embellished with a knot of green ribbon.  The hood’s general appearance is not unlike that of the familiar, pictorial beehive except that the rolls are not arranged spirally.  Other than the hood, the fashion of the dress is quite simple, with a wide yoke across the shoulder, and it fastens at the throat by a huge ornamented brass hook and eye, from which hang a short chain of round twisted links.  Her arms protrude theough vertical slits at the side.  A large, straw bonnet floats atop her pale pink hair, with a broad, white ruffle of lace hanging from its edge, several inches beyond the front of the hood.  The lace waves back and forth like the single leaves of a great white poppy, as she has a tendency to nod emphatically in her discourse.  In her left arm she usually carries a large basket or bag.  Her countenance is keen and nervous, but benignant.

Nikhiroh has fathered 15 children ~ that co knows of ~ among all of these lovers except for Olentzero (none of the children have yet reached adulthood).  In order from eldest to youngest:

Rudolfa (half-hobgoblin, half-gnome daughter), who made a pact with a strange entity calling itself the Beauty of Spring and is now going down the path of the warlock

Stekkjarstaur (half-hobgoblin, half-elf son), who likes to harass sheep, but is impaired by his stiff peg-legs

Giljagaur (half-hobgoblin, half-gnome son), who often hides in gullies, waiting for an opportunity to sneak into the cowshed and steal milk

Stúfur (half-hobgoblin, half-shifter son), who is abnormally short and steals pans to eat the crust left on them.

Thvörusleikir (half-hobgoblin, half-kobold son), who steals and licks wooden spoons; despite this, he is extremely thin (because that’s all he will eat)

Pottaskefill (half-hobgoblin, half-kenku son), who likes to steal leftovers from pots.

Askasleikir (half-hobgoblin, half-kobold son), who often hides under beds waiting for someone to put down their bowl, which he then steals.

Hurdhaskellir (half-hobgoblin, half-shifter son), who likes to slam doors, especially during the night, waking people up.

Skyrgámur (half-hobgoblin, half-elf genderqueer), a child with a great affinity for similar to yogurt.

Bjúgnakrækir (half-hobgoblin, half-kobold son), who hides in the rafters and snatches sausages that are being smoked.

Gluggagægir (half-hobgoblin, half-elf son), a snoop who looks through windows in search of things to steal.

Gáttathefur (half-hobgoblin, half-kenku genderqueer), who has an abnormally large nose and an acute sense of smell which they use to locate leaf bread.

Ketkrókur (half-hobgoblin, half-gnome son), who uses a hook to steal meat.

Kertasníkir (half-hobgoblin, half-elf genderqueer), who follows children in order to steal their tallow candles and eat them.

Noellali (half-hobgoblin, half-elf daughter).

The first thing Rudolfa asked of her mysterious patron was to make her young sister a playmate to prevent her from being lonely.  Rudolfa built a doll out of snow and then the patron brought the doll to life.  Named Snegurochka, the artificial child has been adopted into Korvatunturi as the grandchild and helper of Nikhiroh and Nana Annalinya.  It has grown to like a local shepherd named Lel, but its heart is unable to know love.  It often wears long silver-blue robes and a furry cap topped with a snowflake-like crown.

History

Born with a blue nose, Nikhiroh grew up receiving a certain amount of deference from other hobgoblins cor own age, and the adults raising com extended certain extra privileges cor way.  In early childhood, the gave com the false idea that little, if anything, would ever go wrong in cor life.  Consequences and ill luck were for other people, it seemed.

Nikhiroh’s father, Wodeukai, served the legion as an Iron Shadow.  Not even hobgoblins are immune to parental hopes, and Wodeukai harbored his own, namely that his child would be selected to join him in his service behind the demon mask.  To that end, he often engaged in stealth games and childhood exercises with Nikhiroh, as well as drilling into him the values of loyalty and service.  The hardest lessons were those that sought to eradicate any egoic need for recognition as a reward for Nikhiroh’s actions; co was taught that satisfaction came from within, from doing what needed to be done for the good of the legion as a whole, and from doing a good, thorough, and skillful job.

When it came time to start training, co started with everyone else cor age.  This was the first time co faced difficulty, as co could never seem to concentrate, always getting distracted by things no one else saw, reacting to invisible experiences, and just in general paying more attention to random things than co ever did to the instructors.  This naturally led the devastators of cor banner to take notice.  Being war druids, they easily noticed and understood the signs: Nikhiroh could sense the fey spirits of the land around com, hear what they were saying, and respond.

It was further evidence that Nikhiroh had a destiny, yet more indication that co was superior to the rank-and-file hobgoblins that made up the legion.  Co delved into cor studies at the Cinderclaws Academy of Devastation, learning how to bark orders at the chaotic fey and tame them, or at least intimidate them into doing what co wanted.

Nikhiroh ventured out on cor first sortee rather young, just a couple of years earlier than most devastators.  It was a great honor, but co wasn’t quite ready yet.  Hobgoblin discipline had done more to steel the voice co used to yell at the fey then to steel cor joints and bladder.  Battlefields are loud and frightening, even without the risk of death or wild-eyed foes hacking desperately at your flesh, and it’s worse for one who deals with the fey.  Battlelust and blood taking wing liberated from the confines of flesh tend to send many of the fey into a panic, rushing and running around and chattering incessantly, loudly, mixing their own fears and worries in with the necessary battle reports and ferried messages.

Overwhelmed but gifted in the ways of magic, Nikhiroh managed to not fail at holding the line and advancing tactical objectives, but nor did co manage to excel in cor first real test.  Then came the decisive moment.  An adult hobgoblin soldier stumbled to cor side, took one look at cor, and said, “Looks like there won’t be much atcha to you, child. Ha.  Your blue nose will earn more if I can say that I tried in vain to save you because of it.  Relax, child, I’m doing you a favor.  You’ll be remembered better this way than doomed to a life of mediocrity.”  And she raised her blade, stepped forward to plant it between Nikhiroh’s ears, and suddenly fell to the side glassy-eyed.

Fearful child-eyes glanced to the line, spinning with the betrayal of so many of the values co had learned at cor father’s feet.  A gnome, blond hair shining above gleaming plate, planted her mace upon the ground with a thud whose volume was a clear indicator of her strength, as was the dead body between them.  “Garl’s sniffling nose, you’re my height!  These brutes put their children on the front line, do they?  General Rotlissi be damned, I won’t kill a child, I just can’t . . . .”

She smiled to herself, and reached into a bag at her belt.  A small wooden duck, obviously hand-carved, with uneven wheels for legs revealed itself in her hand.  “Take this, young ‘un, and run, lest any of my comrades not be as resolute in their mercy as I.  No child deserves to be here.”

The duck dropped into Nikhiroh’s unfeeling hand; co almost dropped it from numbness.  A slight turn of the shoulder, the tiniest lift of the foot, began a motion quickly aborted.  Cor mother fought three tieflings at once some ways down the line, in that direction.  The tears began to flow, drops of water dripping upon Nikhiroh’s hands.  The Academy had taught com what to do with drops of water.  Co salvaged what little momentum remained from cor near-cowardice, spinning cor body a full circle round, and unleashing an ice knife spell that pierced through that gleaming armor.  The gnome was dead, and Nikhiroh had never felt more hobgoblinnish.

For years thereafter, the scene played out in cor dreams and behind vigilant eyes when co was given watch duty and floating above the scrolls and tools of the Academy when co was supposed to be studying.  That one hobgoblin had torn asunder Nikhiroh’s trust in the virtues of cor people, and that one gnome had shown com what compassion was.

Many years later, the Kraombuzh Legion was besieging a human town which lay nestled in some foothills.  The devastators of the Crimsonclaws banner were stationed upon those foothills, to aid their visibility and so as to better direct the weather fey in furtherance of the hobgoblin cause.  Nikhiroh, thus, was positioned to see young humans tearing through the streets looking for shelter.  Memory came of that first battle, of the fear that co had felt and of the suicidal kindness that unnamed gnome had shown.  An idea followed sorrow in cor breast.  That night was the first night that co snuck from the barracks in the midst of the stars’ own darkness and crept to the town of victims to sneak past its walls and leave little gifts for the children there whose parents had perished in the battle.  Which ended the next day with a hobgoblin victory.

This swiftly became a habit for Nikhiroh, a way to soothe the children the Legion was in the process of conquering without sabotaging said conquest.  Every night of every siege, or even of every battle great enough to spawn war-camps, co would sneak out, give gifts to newly-orphaned children, and sneak back into cor bed.  No one noticed these efforts, for two full decades.

Until one day, they did.  An Iron Shadow followed Nikhiroh into a town, witnessed what co was doing, and reported it to the priests of Maglubiyet before the full command staff of the legion.  It was decided after many hours of discussion that the ability to sneak in and out without being seen was truly glorious, with a great reward of atcha granted to Nikhiroh, but that to do so without furthering the war effort by means of assassination or sabotage was a grave dereliction of duty that cost com much muut.  For the former, Nikhiroh should be praised and killed for the latter.

After a night or two chained to a pole and occasionally scourged, Nikhiroh was finally informed of cor sentence: exile from this or any hobgoblin legion.  Two Iron Shadows rode com out, a few days’ ride from the battle, and left com in the wilderness without mount or food.

Nikhiroh stumbled into the city a week later, and began building comself a new life.  Overt compassion and a gregarious nature that can be born only from discovering the joy of food cooked for flavor rather than austere nutrition went a long way to overcoming the fear and prejudice many citizens felt upon facing com.  Taking a job as a chimney sweep and joining the Adventurer’s Guild to fulfill cor nostalgic needs for escapades and combat ensured com enough of an income to settle in on, with extra for small gifts to be given anonymously to children all throughout the city.