Needing help with a bit of a reversal

[Aleolus]

So, in the game I'm running, my group is going to encounter a goblin tribe in the near future. This tribe has information the party will need (and yes, the party will know that the tribe knows the information). I realize the party has the option to be intimidating and aggressive to force the tribe to tell them, but in case they try being diplomatic, I need a couple of quests the chieftain can give them to 'earn their trust', so to speak. My party is three characters who will be level 5 when they encounter the tribe, if that matters. In addition, the game has had a heavy focus on wilderness survival up to this point. In fact, this tribe will be the first NPCs the party has encountered the whole game up to this point.

[Jay R]

Just a problem that requires adventurers more than low-level goblins.

The goblin tribe is being raided off-and-on by a group of ogres.
There is a nearby owlbear family making hunting too dangerous.
If the PCs have a cleric and the goblins don't, then a haunted graveyard with zombies.
They want to protect their village from the semi-annual velociraptor migrations, due next week.

[Gruftzwerg]

If you want a diplomatic sidequest, why not some kind of peace contract with the other humanoids in that region (assuming Humans here). Maybe they want the hunting rights for a region, so that they don't get raided by other humanoids for doing so (hunting).
You could use some random encounters on their way forth and back. So the quest's focus ain't the killing. Imho a good way to give your players some more social encounters without overwhelming them.

[pabelfly]

What about a mission to help the goblins sell trade goods to another village? You could also add some social encounters to help the goblins negotiate their trade deal with merchants at that city

[Aleolus]

Some of those are definitely good ideas, though I will say one of the main points when I was building this game is that there are no 'civilizations' here, other than this tribe of goblins. A few intelligent creatures, but no cities, towns or anything of that sort. I came up with this campaign while semi-watching Survivor years ago, and kind of built it around that idea, of the group being dropped into an area with little or no resources other than what is around them, and they have to survive, while also accomplishing challenges that are sent to them by the people who put them there occasionally.

[Nelfin]

If the tribe doesn’t have much tools and if you have a crafter in the party, they could ask a water tank, or some hunting weapons or trap, or some teaching for improving their hunting techniques, farming techniques.

Or your party could propose to tell the tribe about other civilizations, how others live, how they could improve their daily life. That could be asked by the tribe since they should be surprised to see intelligent beings.

[Kol Korran]

Hmmmm... Some ideas:
1. The Hungering Maw:
The tribe makes regular sacrifices to "an entity that ever hungers, old and shapeless, an oracle of many voices!" Which resides in an old crumbling temple. Only lately The Hungering Maw grows more demandning, and more maddened. It may have asked for increased sacrifices, or perhaps a specific problematic sacrifice (The chieftain's son/daughter?) Or it may have eaten the last shaman!

The goblin leader asks the party to try and understand what upset the ancient god, and how to appease it ((or deal with it?).

In my basic idea, the entity is in fact a gibbering mouther that has fed enough to grow to a large size (makes it more effective, and suitably scary!) Possibly with some actual oracular/ divination powers, though perhaps not fully controlled (Perhaps it ate the remains of a powerful oracle/ divination tool once, and some of it "stuck"). But on reflection, you can use other monsters- a crafty young dragon, an oddly intelligent Otyugh, and other creatures.

As to what made it change it's behaviour? Perhaps it's appetite grows with size/ confidence, perhaps it is... Pregnant? And perhaps there is some other entity (A clever imp? A hag? A cruel fey? The ghost/ allip of a cleric from the ruined temple?) Who manipulates it for their own end/ revenge/ amusement.

2. The maddening webs:
A spider themed adventure, with a "mad scientist/ ex-shaman" motif- lately hunters go missing, when they try hunting in a certain part of the forest, and the region has more webs in it. Some prominent goblin also went missing, and the goblins are worried.

As the party explore, the meet various spiders, and spider themed creatures, led by araneas. Only instead of the araneas being halfling-spider hybrids they are goblin-spider hybrids, and the goblin parts are those of the missing hunters! There is something... Wring about them, partly mad, deranged, and they speak of the "master" who "made us better". The part may also meet ettercaps who are glad for "more experiments for master!" And try capture party members alive, and tun away with them.

The party finally gets to a site with old demonic spider themed motif, and a central spot, with a broken old semi-artifact of spider demon or such. There they meet "the master", a disgraced student of the old goblin shaman, long ago thrown from the tribe for their weird experiments, who activated this site and is determined to "make them see! I WAS RIGHT! If I can only perfect the process..." Who has turned himself into a... Drider! (Goblin themed instead of drow themed). Cue boss monster fight!

3. "Lay me down at the bottom of the river!" The nearby stream/ river/ lake has grown dangerous. A powerful fey or hag lues goblins and drowns them in (perhaps then creating undead/ zombies/ plant creatures from them?). Various water fey, such as Nereid, or green/ sea hags to use (Or both? And odd pair?) The party needs to deal with the problem.

4. The pact of fur, blood, spear & fang:
This idea draws on some goblin specific cultural themes, and is more of an investigation/ diplomatic mission:
Goblins have a special relationship with worgs, and worgs are intelligent. There is a pack of worgs who sometimes hunt through the goblins grounds, and the goblins host them, converse with them, make pacts and such. Some worgs at times join the goblins for a time, or goblins join their packs. And on very specials occasions, long time goblin and worgs friends, undergo a special ritual transforming the duo into... A barghest champion, for both sides, symbolizing the epitome of worg-goblin relation and bond!

But... Something has gone wrong in the last ritual, which either broke the ceremony (leaving both goblin and worg friends malshaped/ distorted/ otherwise damaged) or created a monstrosity (A barghest with some strange templates?). In either case, the two sides blame each other, and distrust one another. The part is recruited to investigate the worgs, and find hints that someone else sabotaged the rituals... Perhaps the barghest champions are needed to keep some threat at bay?

I don't have an exact idea as to what this may be, but it may be related to the previous ideas.

5. I don't know where to put them, but when you mention goblins, and with the above ideas touching on madness/ something going wrong, I thought of... Dolgrims. (If you don't know the monster, they are an Eberron monster, which is basically a mash of 2 goblins to one body). Can be added to the various ideas, I just love these malshaped buggers!

Good luck!

[Aleolus]

I very much like the first one, I think I'll go with that. A 5-6HD Gibbering Mouther should be reasonable for a party of three fifth level characters, and the whole idea of the goblins worshipping it explains why they haven't tried to get rid of it themselves. Thanks a lot!

[Kol Korran]

I very much like the first one, I think I'll go with that. A 5-6HD Gibbering Mouther should be reasonable for a party of three fifth level characters, and the whole idea of the goblins worshipping it explains why they haven't tried to get rid of it themselves. Thanks a lot!

Well, if you like the gibbering mouther idea, may I suggest further reading?

A loooong time ago, I started a little project about often maligned and rarley used monsters. I sought to explore them, and make a place and role for them. Both in the game world, and the gaming table. And part of that was thinking up how to build encounters, adventures, and even campaigns featuring them in a more interesting and engaging matter.

The Gibbering Mouther was one of those monsters. I mostly invested in it as a creature of horror, and a very unique battle/ challenge. Some of my ideas revolve around similar themes to my suggestion above.

If you are interested, scroll down the following thread till you reach the two posts about the gibbering mouther (I can't use the code to link from this device). Pardon my English there- I am not a native English speaker and some of my grammar there (and probably here as well), includes mistakes.

Good luck!

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?81051-Monster-Compedium-for-the-maligned-forgotten-amp-misunderstood-monsters&p=13411526#post13411526