TEXT: a dozen goblins and orcs • page 1
  A Dozen Goblins and Orcs © 2020 Philip Reed, all rights reserved. 
  Artwork by fantasy-stockart.com, used under license.
  As a gamemaster, you’ve no doubt already made use of 
  both goblins and orcs many, many times in your game 
  sessions. These ubiquitous humanoid monsters are the 
  go-to monsters for many of us (I know I’m guilty of drag-
  ging them out quite frequently in all sorts of RPG plan-
  ning), and that means we can never have enough new 
  ideas for how to use the beasts in an adventure.
  Within these pages are a dozen different goblin and orc 
  encounters. These encounter ideas should prove useful 
  if goblins and orcs are as common in your world as they 
  are in most fantasy campaigns.
  As with many of the entries in the A Dozen . . . series, 
  A Dozen Goblins and Orcs exists for one reason: To 
  inspire you, the GM, either when planning for a game 
  session or when you find that the players have strayed 
  from your carefully-crafted adventure.
  NOTE: As roleplaying has branched from its origin point 
  over the last few decades, everyone has developed 
  their own look and feel for these classic monsters. From 
  terrifying to bumbling and kinda silly, both goblins and 
  orcs can fill as many different roles as any “human” or PC 
  race. The best suggestion I can make is that you treat 
  goblins and orcs as best fits your personal tastes.
  a dozen 
  goblins and orcs
  by philip reed
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 2
  anatomy  
  of a 
  creature
  using the creatures
  1. The orc or goblin’s classification. 
  2. Each creature includes a single illustration.
  3. An opening block of text that may be used 
  as read aloud text when introducing the 
  creature to the player characters..
  4. The creatue/event description, that is 
  freeform and very open to interpretation. 
  My goal with each and every creature de-
  scribed within these pages is to provide 
  you, the GM, with an idea that you can ex-
  pand to suit your campaign. 
  NOTE: Goblin vs goblinoid. The two are inter-
  changeable; something that is a goblin is – for 
  the purposes of this text – also identied as 
  goblinoid or a goblinoid.
  The dozen orc and goblin descriptions that follow are 
  each more an encounter idea than they are a detailed 
  non-player character. At times, the orcs and goblins 
  have been named, but the most important part of each 
  is the story ideas that the gamemaster should take as 
  inspiration when preparing an encounter to throw at 
  the players.
  As with all of the entries in the A Dozen . . . series, the 
  pages of this PDF exist for one reason: to spark the 
  gamemaster’s imagination and to give the GM just 
  enough of an idea to make it something new and dif-
  ferent during the session. The last thing I would ever 
  want to do is force a GM to follow anything exactly as I 
  have written it. Please always take my ideas and change 
  them to fit your needs.
  When sitting down to craft an encounter, regardless if it 
  is inspired by one of these pages or an idea of your own, 
  you will need tools to both inspire you and to record 
  your planned encounter. The various PDFs in the A Doz-
  en . . . series are, I hope, the tools that inspire you. As to 
  those tools to help in recording your planned encoun-
  ter, you may use a notebook, index cards, a computer 
  file, or anything that works best for your needs.
  If you’re in search of somewhere to record your encoun-
  ter ideas when designing a dungeon, I’d like to direct 
  you to one of my own books: the Dungeon Crafter’s 
  Sketch Book is a collection of blank graph pages that 
  also includes several random tables to give you ideas. 
  The book is available in two editions – hexes and squares 
  – and in PDF and print-on-demand. Please check it out!
  1
  2
  3
  4
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 3
  orc scout
  “I am Gulm Noradd, scout and warrior of Clan Noradd. My 
  people are dying, falling prey to the magical sickness of 
  Mage Rot, and I now journey to Fort Dragonteeth to bring 
  back a cure before the arcane illness kills my tribe. I do not 
  wish to fight. I only desire to safely traverse this desert and 
  return swiftly to my people with the cure that will save 
  them all.”
  If pressed, Noradd explains that his people were sub-
  jected to the sickness after they opened a sealed dun-
  geon chamber. The orcs failed to heed the warning that 
  was inscribed on the door that they smashed open, 
  and within moments the magical sickness had infected 
  those orc explorers who were there.
  Within hours of the group of orcs returning to their vil-
  lage, Mage Rot had infected the majority of the orcs. The 
  sickness weakens those affected by its magic, reducing 
  all statistics by roughly half and stripping them of the 
  ability to do much more than moan, cry, and suffer in 
  extreme agony.
  Gulm Naradd was away from the village when the sick-
  ness swept through it, and on his return he managed to 
  learn of the plague without falling to its magical power. 
  He now races to Fort Dragonteeth to buy healing po-
  tions that will eradicate the sickness and restore the 
  health of his people. Will the adventurers help him in 
  his mission, or will they see him only as another orc?
  You encounter the orc far from its companions as you and the creature are both walk-
  ing through the desert. It stops and waits for you, waving a friendly greeting as you 
  close the distance. “It is dangerous to travel these wastelands alone,” the orc says. 
  “Would you mind if I join you in the trek across the desert?”
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 4
  goblinoid assassin
  Armed with a hand crossbow, several daggers, and car-
  rying a few healing potions, you and your companions 
  gain the initaive on a creature calling itself Geets Stord 
  when exploring the dungeon.
  “Hired to murder you I have been,” the goblin proclaims 
  when pressured. “Murder you I will,” the beast screams as 
  it struggles to escape. The goblin is fast and dangerous, 
  clearly having been through terrible events in the past; 
  you notice that it has a prosthetic leg under its robes 
  and the thing is capable of moving quickly and silently. 
  Whatever you and your friends do, you must not allow 
  Stord to escape or the goblin will find a way to perform 
  its assignment and kill each member of the party. The 
  goblin is alone and will do anything it can to escape.
  “The master demands your death, scum, and Geets will do 
  all that he can to please the master.”
  The goblin is insane, having been left alone in the sub-
  terranean world for so long that it no longer knows 
  what the upper world looks like. The player characters 
  aren’t even the target of the assassin; Geets Stord failed 
  in his mission several years ago and has since then 
  trailed any who enter the dungeon. Stord has killed a 
  handful of adventurers over the years, each time certain 
  that these are the ones he has been tasked with mur-
  dering. If the party uses magic to search the monster’s 
  mind, they find only that the goblin was brainwashed a 
  decade ago and spells cast long ago have erased what 
  memories the beast may have once had.
  You’re certain that something has been following you for the last few hours, a crea-
  ture unknown sticking to the shadows and hiding behind the rocks and cavernous 
  twists and turns of the labyrinth. Working as a team, you and your fellow adventurers 
  manage to outwit your stalker and catch a glimpse of the goblinoid before it hides.
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 5
  goblinoid brute
  The goblinoid brute stands over ten-feet tall and is 
  a screaming, snarling monster of a beast with an ex-
  tremely low intelligence. The brute is manipulated by 
  pure goblins who teach the brute from an early age that 
  it is a lesser form of creature that exists only to serve and 
  protect those true goblins who are better than it.
  A goblinoid brute is a figher more skilled with fists, 
  clubs, and makeshift weapons than it is any form of 
  crafted weapon. Brutes wear little or no armor and they 
  have been trained to fight until they collapse; the brute 
  wants nothing more than kindness from those goblins 
  it has lived with its entire life and will do anything to 
  earn pleasant words and encouragement.
  A goblinoid brute is rarely alone, often part of a larger 
  group of goblins that are on a raid or otherwise plan-
  ning to kill someone. The brute follows the others with-
  out question, attacking when told to attack.
  If the adventurers encounter a goblinoid brute on its 
  own, the creature will seem shy and nervous, too scared 
  of strangers to react with anything but fear. If the party 
  of heroes shows the beast kindness and treats it well, 
  they may be able to convince the monster to trust them.
  A goblinoid brute on its own has likely been abandoned 
  by its family of goblins. The nasty little beasts enjoy tak-
  ing a brute that has disappointed them into the forest 
  and leaving it to die without them. Goblins are cruel, 
  twisted monsters.
  The goblinoid brute will never fit in with society, though 
  such beasts can be cared for and nurtured by those 
  gentle and patient enough to help an abandoned 
  brute. The brute’s memory and intelligence are limited, 
  though, and the beast may forget its friends and com-
  panions if it is separated from them by more than a few 
  weeks of time.
  Your night of rest is interrupted when a large, angry beast rushes from the woods and 
  attacks. It’s a goblinoid of some sort, but not one that you or your companions recog-
  nize. Almost as if a goblin were bred with a giant. Whatever it is, it may be slow and 
  stupid, but it is obviously strong and a threat that must be handled.
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 6
  orc warrior
  Towering and threatening, the orc warrior is afraid of 
  nothing and will put everything it has into killing the 
  party of adventurers when it encounters them. The orc 
  is part of a larger force and there’s a chance that the 
  sounds of battle will attract other orcs to the fight. If the 
  PCs do not defeat the monster within 2d3+1 rounds, 
  another 3d6 orcs join in the fight.
  An orc warrior is taller, stronger, and more dangerous 
  than the typical orc the party may have confronted in 
  the past. These monsters wear heavy armor and strike 
  out with the twin axes that they carry, each one of which 
  would be a two-handed weapon for your average hu-
  man or dwarven warrior. The orc keeps the blades of the 
  axes sharpened and ready at all times, and a small num-
  ber of the monsters use magic axes in battle.
  Unlike some other orcs, who may be willing to talk and 
  negotiate with the heroes, the orc warrior is driven to 
  kill all who it meets and the monsters will rarely engage 
  in conversation. If the group does manage to convince 
  the warrior to talk, it will be grumpy and mean, and the 
  slightest offense will push the orc to drop all of its resis-
  tance to its desire to kill everyone in the group.
  Those who study the culture and history of orcs say that 
  warriors are a special bloodline of the orc race. Their an-
  cestor, the great orc king Ushnar Olodagh, was cursed 
  and always in a bloodthirsty rage to the point he some-
  times killed other orcs if no suitable opponents were 
  nearby. That rage courses through the blood of the orc 
  warriors that live today, and they are proud to continue 
  the battle of Olodagh to all they meet to this day.
  The orc spots you at the same time that you see it, but you haven’t chance for more 
  than a shout of warning before the creature runs toward you and the others. Axes 
  swinging wildly, the orc attacks without even taking a second to ask itself whether or 
  not it is skilled enough to take on an experienced group of heroes.
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 7
  goblin delver
  The goblin introduces himself as Glob Blozz and says 
  that he is a dungeoneer, an adventurer who has ded-
  icated his life to exploring the tombs, labyrinths, and 
  subterranean lairs of the known and unknown world. 
  Blozz is experienced, having visited a few dozen differ-
  ent dungeons in his many years as a delver.
  “The thing is asleep, but it takes only one wrong move to 
  bring disaster down on us all,” Blozz says as he continues 
  digging into the rocky soil of the passageway. The gob-
  lin treasure hunter has followed leads to this spot and is 
  certain that a chest of gold is buried several feet below 
  the surface. “You help me get this out, and deal with that 
  thing if it wakes,” the goblin says, “and I’ll share the riches 
  with you. Even split for us all.”
  The goblin motions again to the corner where the party 
  can see a sleeping creature made of stone. Those who 
  possess knowledge of monsters and elemental beasts 
  recognize the sleeping monster as a xorn, a powerful 
  monster that can move swiftly through solid earth and 
  stone. The planar monsters are an uncommon sight, 
  and it is unknown what could have brought it to this 
  particular dungeon.
  The monster will, of course, awaken long before the 
  goblin manages to recover the treasure chest. He will 
  yell for the heroes to fight off the monster, insisting that 
  he has almost reached the chest. Blozz is a liar, though, 
  and the instant he grasps the chest he will do his best to 
  escape and abandon the adventurers.
  As you search the dungeon for treasures, you come across a fellow adventurer – a 
  goblin - who is digging in a small chamber. The goblin turns to you and raises a finger 
  to its lips, the look in its eyes causing you to halt in your tracks. “You’ll wake it,” the 
  goblin says to you. It points to a dark shape in the distant corner and then returns to 
  digging the hole for what purpose you do not know.
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 8
  orc cavalryman
  A skilled and experienced fighter, Wrug Farfu has spent 
  years with his warboar, Grunt. The pair share an arcane 
  bond, a connection that allows them to communicate 
  through telepathy which makes the pair far more dan-
  gerous than the usual orc cavalryman. 
  This magic bond exists for one reason: Farfu’s earrings 
  have been joined to Grunt’s mind through sorcery, and 
  for as long as the orc wears the earrings, the two know 
  each others every thought. This makes them effective in 
  battle, allowing the two to operate as one. 
  In game terms, the link grants Farfu bonuses to attack 
  and defense when mounted, as the warboar moves 
  quickly to adapt to the orc’s every thought.
  When traveling across the plains, the group accidentally 
  comes to close to an orc encampment which leads the 
  orcs to send out their cavalrymen. The 1d4+2 orcs – all 
  on warboars – are led by Farfu, who screams orders at 
  those beneath his command while doing all he can to 
  slaughter the interlopers.
  Farfu and his orcish underlings have no interest in tak-
  ing captives; they wish only to kill those who would 
  dare to approach the orc camp without permission.
  If the party defeats Farfu and his group, the orc’s ear-
  rings may be claimed by one of the PCs. The earrings 
  detect as magical, but uncovering the power of the ear-
  rings will require research and careful study of the item.
  “Death to you and your kin!” The creature’s shout is your first sign that the day is about 
  to get interesting. A charging warboar, with orc rider, approaches fast and you have 
  only seconds to prepare for the monster’s assault.
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 9
  goblin catapult
  The goblins, 3d3+1 in number, are clearly not strong 
  enough to easily move the catapult on their own. Ob-
  servant adventurers will notice the thick straps dan-
  gling from the front of the war machine, each broken 
  and useless. Once, perhaps recently, these straps clearly 
  connected to a beast of some sort that was no doubt 
  pulling the catapult.
  How the goblins respond will depend entirely on how 
  the party engages with the situation.
  Combat Encounter
  If they choose to attack the goblins, the heroes gain the 
  surprise and may each attack once before the action 
  shifts to standard combat rounds.
  The goblins are armed with short swords, daggers, 
  slings and stones, and wearing leather and padded ar-
  mor. The creatures are goblin soldiers with some expe-
  rience in battle, but they are not the most-skilled or the 
  bravest of fighters. If one of their number is killed, the 
  other goblins will seek to escape.
  Non-Combat Encounter
  A group of heroes who attempts talking, rather than 
  fighting, will find that the goblins are receptive to trad-
  ing information. The group is hauling the catapult to a 
  nearby town to trade it for food and medicine for their 
  people. Their home, a goblin village a few days’ ride 
  away, has been stricken by illness and the goblins wish 
  only to help their people.
  On the road far from town, you come across a group of goblins who are trying to push 
  a catapult out of a hole of thick, nasty mud. The beasts are so wrapped up in their task 
  that they fail to notice you or your friends, which gives all of you time to carefully study 
  the situation and to act as you feel best fits your needs.
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 10
  orc archer
  “You won’t escape,” the orc screams at you as it fires a 
  third arrow. “You’ve terrorized us long enough, and I’m 
  going to show the others that you are no match for us. We 
  will put an end to your abusive ways and free ourselves 
  from the evil hold you have on us!”
  The orc continues screaming as it fires arrow after ar-
  row, the beast constantly talking about how it will do all 
  that it can to free the orcs from some unknown power. 
  If the party chooses to fight, the orc will be easily slaugh-
  tered since it has no companions. Searching the body 
  they find bow and arrows, a few bits of jewelry, and a 
  letter demanding the orc go to Castle Clawshank.
  If the group tries to talk with the orc, they learn that its 
  name is Zugarod Ortguth and the creature thinks that 
  they are from Castle Clawshank, a nearby fortress that 
  grew from the rocky soil overnight several months ago. 
  The orc’s yells as it keeps firing suggest that the castle 
  appeared magically and that those within the castle 
  have been forcing the orc and its people to work in the 
  mines beneath the castle.
  Can the party convince the orc that they are wanderers 
  and not from the castle? And if they do convince the 
  orc, will the adventurers investigate the situation and 
  seek to free the orcs from whatever masters rule this 
  strange, magical fortress from another world?
  An arrow strikes the tree directly in front of you, followed by a second that almost rips 
  through your skull, the narrow miss whistling in your ears. You drop to the ground, 
  grabbing your weapon and scanning the tree line for any sign of the source of the 
  attack. In the distance, you spot the orc as it draws a third arrow from its quiver.
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 11
  goblinoid terror
  The goblinoid terror is unnatural, created by the dark 
  magic of goblin warlocks who force their victim to 
  submit to the will of a cosmic power of unimaginable 
  power. The goblin warlock who creates a goblinoid 
  terror gains complete and total mastery of the wicked, 
  strange monster that must obey every mental com-
  mand of their new master. What the cosmic horror that 
  executes the transformation of the victim gains is un-
  known, though some sages speculate that the strange, 
  otherworldy power wants only to inflict as much suffer-
  ing on the universe as possible. If this is true, the trans-
  formation of a victim – which can be goblin, human, 
  elf, or any intelligent race – into a goblinoid terror must 
  bring the cosmic being great joy.
  Goblin warlocks who control such terrors use them as 
  guards, ordering the monsters to stand watch and pre-
  vent any intruders from entering the warlock’s domain. 
  If the party encounters a goblinoid terror, they can be 
  certain that a goblin warlock is close by.
  In battle, the terror is unwilling to back down. Even if the 
  creature’s limbs are hacked from its body, it will thrash 
  and lash out, trying with every ounce of strength that 
  remains to attack the intruders who threaten its master. 
  The transformation cannot be undone by anything 
  short of the will of a god or goddess. It is better to kill a 
  terror and release it from misery than to let it live.
  The monster rises from its haunches from the cavern floor and screams, tossing a 
  half-eaten head to the side as it grabs its spear. The beast is a goblinoid of some sorts, 
  though you do not recognize it . . . and there’s no time to chat with your companions 
  and compare notes as the terror lashes out with the spear.
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 12
  goblin slasher
  Goblin wizards and sorcerers manipulate the unborn 
  creature when it is in its mother’s womb, using their 
  twisted spells and rituals to transform the soon-to-be 
  goblin into something taller, stronger, and more dan-
  gerous than the typical goblin fighter or warrior. From 
  birth, the goblin slasher is trained by the tribe’s best 
  warriors and those that survive the training grow to be 
  as tall as elves, as sturdy as dwarves, and as dangerous 
  as the most violent of orcs and ogres. 
  Sages estimate that only one in every hundred or so at-
  tempts by the goblins to bring a slasher into existence 
  succeeds. All of the failures – either when the pre-birth 
  rituals go wrong or the beast dies in training – are 
  a small price to pay, the goblins say, to allow the few 
  slashers that do exist to join the tribe.
  The goblin slasher, in addiiton to being faster and stron-
  ger than most goblins, also possesses an intelligence 
  greater than all but the most powerful of goblin spell-
  casters. The monsters use this intelligence in battle; 
  slashers make excellent tacticians and are sometimes 
  ordered to lead others of their tribe into battle.
  A very small number of goblin slashers – maybe one in 
  every hundred or so – reject their tribe and choose to 
  live the life of an adventurer. Such slashers have a hard 
  time fighting off their training and conditioning, easily 
  falling into a battle rage when provoked. Slashers who 
  have left their tribe find it hard to fit in anywhere, mov-
  ing from city to city in search of a better life. Eventually, 
  such creatures often return to their life of evil, frustrated 
  that the world never accepted and welcomed them.
  Its sword dripping with blood as it turns to face you, the monster kicks the body of 
  the slain elf out of its way and raises its sword in a threatening gesture. It is a goblin 
  of some kind, yes, but one that is taller and looks far more aggressive than those you 
  have encountered before.
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 13
  orc shocksword
  Hoknuk Bog has dedicated his life to commanding 
  squads of orc warriors in battle. As a shocksword, Bog 
  spent years of his life as a gladiator, working the arenas 
  of the above and below ground cities that allow the bar-
  baric and violent gladitorial sport to exist within their 
  boundaries. Only the most evil and cruel of city states al-
  low gladitorial arenas these days, and Bog is recognized 
  as a champion in many of them.
  The adventurers accidentally encounter Bog and his 
  troops when they are on a transport assignment, moving 
  the orc tribe’s meager treasures to a new hiding place as 
  far from the towns and villages of man as they can man-
  age. Though the encounter may be an accident, Bog sees 
  it as a threat and reacts instantly.
  There are 2d6+2 orc warriors under the shocksword’s 
  command, each one of which was trained by Bog and 
  loyal to their commander. Bog orders two of them to stay 
  with the cart, and leads the others to intercept and attack 
  the PCs who, he believes, are after the tribe’s riches.
  Can the party convince the orcs that they have no inter-
  est in the chests and that the encounter was purely acci-
  dental, or will they be forced to fight the orcs? If they do 
  engage the orcs in battle, Bog is the equal of any three 
  orc warriors and carries a magical two-handed sword 
  – that he is strong enough to use with one hand – that 
  grants him a +2 to attack and damage rolls. His shield 
  is also magical, acting as a healing device that instantly 
  heals him by 1d4 points every round he is in battle.
  You and your companions are traveling across the land, your minds on your destina-
  tion and daydreams consuming your thoughts when you encounter a band of orcs. 
  The monsters are transporting chests, a handful of them drawing a small cart and 
  under the command of one larger, taller orc.
  
  a dozen goblins and orcs • page 14
  mutated goblinoid
  This strange, twisted monstrosity was created during a 
  planar accident several years ago when seven different 
  goblins were melded into one as they tried to activate 
  a magic portal in the dungeon. The goblins, unskilled in 
  the ways of magic and planar gates, were unfortunate-
  ly smashed together into the walking, breathing thing 
  that now lives in the dungeon and cannot escape.
  The beast has little intelligence, unable to do much 
  more than sleep, eat, and wander the passages of the 
  dungeon where it is trapped. 
  The planar energies that created the thing prevent it 
  from leaving; the mutated goblinoid feels itself growing 
  weaker and weaker every step it takes from the gate. It 
  now stays as close to the planar gate as it can, traveling 
  away from the portal only to find food. If the PCs en-
  counter the beast, the gate cannot be far away.
  The planar gate is a well in the center of a large chamber 
  in the dungeon. The well, clearly crafted and not natu-
  ral, is filled with a black, thick liquid that is harmless to 
  touch, but anyone foolish enough to drink the strange 
  liquid will grow very sick.
  The portal connects this world to a demiplane where 
  the black liquid covers the majority of the flat, unusual 
  world. Small islands – each only a few square miles in 
  size – dot the landscape which itself is no more than a 
  hundred or so square miles in size. The demiplane is cir-
  cular in shape, with all of the edges touching the infinite 
  depth of space. 
  The mutated goblinoid is a danger only because it is an 
  unintelligent monster that attacks anything it considers 
  to be either a threat or food. The party will have to de-
  stroy the monster if it spots them.
  The monstrosity before you is a warped, grotesque beast unlike anything you have 
  ever seen before. The creature turns to you, sorrowful eyes staring at you, unblinking 
  and piercing. It opens its mouth, showing yellowed and jagged teeth, no sound escap-
  ing its lips as it tries to speak.
  
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