Army of the Goblin Lord

The Army of the Goblin Lord (the one who later called himself Reiss) was a military organization comprised of many Goblin tribes who had united under said Goblin Lord.

Overview, Composition, Strategies

Untypically for regular Goblin tribes, the Goblin Lord's army often used black armor and forged weapons, instead of scavenged and rusty equipment. This alone made them more dangerous opponents in comparison to the usual ragtag tribes who barely clothed themselves.

The Goblin Lord himself was a powerful Necromancer but also relied on other [Shamans] and had them control his Undead of all races available (from Zombies and Skeletons to Ghouls and Draugr). On the say-so of Az’kerash, Reiss implemented strategies where undead goblins were bracing the regular goblins so that they had a higher fighting value. The Goblin Lord himself didn't wish to waste Goblin lives, so he tried to crush the enemy with his undead fodder, and use exploding Undead and surprise strategies against unsuspecting enemies.

The army tames Shield Spiders to use in battle and serve as mounts for some of their leaders, likely thanks to the Ghostly Hand and Broken Spear Goblins it had absorbed, which were two tribes known for doing this. Notably, Reiss and Eggsnatcher both rode giant Shield Spiders, and Reiss reanimated his mount after it perished.

While the army was always mostly regular Goblins, who were often drilled into a semblance of professional soldiers, the core of it was a very large troupe of Hobgoblins, although those were only seen in larger numbers the more the story progressed. This speaks towards many of them being recently up-leveled Goblins.

Detachments - Chronology

A vanguard of the Goblin Lord's army attacked an outlying village near Liscor. This group was eradicated by the just-reformed Horns of Hammerad under Ceria Springwalker, as well as Griffon Hunt, the Halfseekers, and Liscor's City Watch. Their equipment quickly put Liscor on higher alert.

Another warband of the Goblin Lord arrived at Esthelm and stormed the unprepared city, killing many, but were then attacked right in their rear by the Flooded Waters Tribe under Rags' command, who had different ideas on how to loot the humans. As a result of this confrontation, Esthelm was mostly destroyed but still inhabited by the civilians who were spared by Rags.

An even larger vanguard/warband of the Goblin Lord's army peacefully passed Liscor in an appropriate distance, and refrained from attacking the well-fortified city. This army also went to attack Esthelm, but Toren crippled their ability to control the Undead. Now they only had some hundred Undead under their control and couldn't storm the city before reorganizing and reinforcing their forces, which gave the defenders time to also prepare. In the end, the siege of Esthelm's ruins was thwarted thanks to Ylawes Byres and his Silver Swords, together with the Redfang Elite Warriors, most of whom died during the battle.

Main Army - Chronology

Reiss had been a member of the Ghostly Hand Tribe which specialized in Necromancy. He also lived for a long time in exile and studied under Az’kerash. He eventually returned and took over the tribe by killing the [Shaman]-Chieftain of the Ghostly Hands. The other [Shamans] followed him afterwards. Reiss continued to conquer more Goblin Tribes in Southern Izril, among them the Broken Spear Tribe and many smaller ones.

In black: The Route of the Goblin Lord's Army through Central Izril (Artistic rendition)

He was destroying the (Gnoll) Stone Spears Tribe when he was surprised by the arrival of the Gnoll-Drake army under Zel and Ilvriss who had followed Ryoka to the Stone Spears. In the middle of the battle, Zel realized that the Stone Spears were decimated and gave up on killing the Goblin Lord narrowly avoiding losing his own life to an exploding, undead goblin.

Pallass and Esdras Coalition Battle

As the Goblin Lord gained in power, Izril began to make their own moves to suppress the army. Two armies were sent out, each about 10,000 strong. One was from Pallass and the walled cities led by Thrissiam Blackwing, and the other was from the Esdras Coalition led by Garusa Weatherfur. These armies formed up together thinking that they were there to hunt the goblins, but the Goblin Lord attacked first. He picked off scouting parties over a few days and left them buried as undead under the snow. Once the armies were sufficiently surrounded, they attacked. Reiss included his exploding undead in the assault as well. He also blocked outgoing message spells during the assault. With the use of undead and ambush tactics, Reiss was able to deliver a constant attack for multiple days. Even with this, though, the two armies surprised him by committing half of their army to a deep strike at the Goblin Lord. When the strike led by Garusa was about to succeed, the Goblin Lord's master had to intercede. He killed Garusa as well as a large swathe of the strike force then raised them all as undead. With half of the army dead, it was simple for Reiss to clean up the rest. He destroyed both armies but captured Osthia Blackwing to get information about his master, Az'kerash.

Battle Near Invrisil

After winning this battle, the army moved north past Liscor and into human lands. The army continued to attack weak targets and pillage the loot throughout the north as they headed near Invrisil. They participated in one battle against 5,000 humans where they used 8,000 goblins near the city. The Goblin Lord personally slew the enemy commander and his army continued north-east around Invrisil and towards Tremborag's tribe. The humans did not recognize this plan, however. Magnolia Reinhart gathered an army of 40,000 soldiers at Invrisil that was headed by Zel Shivertail. Other humans involved in the fight included Lady Bethal's Rose Knights, Lieutenant Gershal of Vaunt, Captain Salvia, and some servants of Magnolia's.

The battle was carried by its high level combatants on the human side and the Goblin Lord's undead on the other. Where General Shivertail and Thomast went, the humans did well, but other areas slackened with the increasing pressure of undead. Magnolia sent in her servants to create opportunities, but the Goblin Lord would occasionally counter them with [Deathbolts]. At one such moment, he hit Reynold and the pink carriage with a [Deathbolt] and charged the carriage to try and capture it for himself. Once the goblins made their move though, Magnolia launched one of her prepared traps. She had two war golems buried and waiting for the Goblin Lord to move and he was forced to use his lieutenants to counter them. With this, both sides were able to get away and remake plans. Zel flew directly to the Goblin Lord using the pink carriage using his defensive Skills along the way to create a thin line of humans on the right side of the battle. The Goblin Lord tried to escape, but Zel's battle prowess and Magnolia's directions saw the goblin quickly caught and cut down. The Goblin Lord's side did have another trick up its sleeve though with Az'kerash's ability to teleport his minions to the battle. The Necromancer caught Zel in a wall of bones and summoned his five chosen to kill Zel. Magnolia attempted to destroy the dome that Zel was captured in, but only managed to open up a temporary hole that one of the golems could get through. The odds were stacked against him and Zel managed to kill one of the chosen, Oom, but when Az'kerash teleported in himself, Zel finally fell. Zel put up a last bit of fight causing The Necromancer and his chosen to flee. With his last moments, Zel gave a name to the Goblin Lord and the newly named Reiss ordered his army to withdraw.

Tremborag's Mountain

After killing General Shivertail, Reiss' army proceeded as planned around Invrisil and towards the powerful tribes in the north. There he met Tremborag and Garen Redfang both whom refused to join his army. The two sides came to blows with the Mountain City Tribe and Redfang Tribe taking up defensive positions in the mountain while the Army of the Goblin Lord attacked from the outside. Reiss set up the battle such that he would assault the mountain from the front while setting a kill zone at the back where he would destroy and fleeing goblins. He used his exploding undead in the narrow corridors until Tremborag and Garen's side backed up to fight in more open areas. This battle was interrupted though, when 30 gold or named rank adventurers came in on a sabotage mission including Elia Arcsinger. These along with a large army were brought by Tyrion Veltras to deal with the Goblin Lord's Army and others in the vicinity. In terror at Elia Arcsinger, all of the goblins fled.

Flight towards Liscor

They fled from the mountain down south as the adventurers and army herded them together with the Flooded Waters Tribe goblins to head back towards Liscor. The human army was not kind to the goblins leading them on a deadly pace where they would be shot at if they slowed. The remaining chieftains met and while they shared in misery, they had different ideals. Rags refused to fight at Liscor planning to flee, so Reiss tried to [Deathbolt] her to not ruin his plans. In response to this, Pyrite cut off Reiss' hand with a thrown axe, and a battle broke out. After the dust settled, Rags and Pyrite had been lost, and Garen fled leaving just Reiss and his Army of the Goblin Lord remaining on the trail to Liscor.

Destruction at Liscor

Days later, the army finally arrived at Liscor. When they got there, they were met by the walls of the city, but before they could reach them, the army met another hodgepodge group of goblins that would fight against them. This included the Redfang Elite Warriors as well as cave goblins and other groups of goblins that had some allegiance to Erin Solstice. The battle was heavily in the Goblin Lord's favor, but more forces continued to join the other side. First the goblins had come, then came Pawn and one hundred painted antinium, the adventurers from Liscor joined in, and Laken pretended that his trebuchets had misfired by hitting the back of the Goblin Lord's army. Rags came back to fight and Garen joined the battle again too. Az'kerash had to once again take hold of Reiss to stop him from being killed by the Redfang Elite Warriors, and Garen was the one to fight against The Necromancer when he did so. Garen defeated Az'kerash in their duel heavily injuring himself and Reiss in the process. Once Tyrion saw this, he sent his army forth to crush the goblins either into Liscor or against its walls. Reiss turned around in the end to stop the human army, but was pierced through and killed. With the Goblin Lord dead, his army was destroyed.

Members

• Reiss - Goblin Lord (Deceased)
• Snapjaw - officer, [Eater]
• Eater of Spears - officer (Deceased)
• Noface - officer, mage (Deceased)
• Eggsnatcher - officer, [Beastmaster] (Presumed Deceased)
• Illbreath - officer (Deceased)
• Raiding party near Liscor: Several Hobgoblins, one among them with chieftain-rank enchanted equipment. In total 200-300 well-armed goblin soldiers.
• Vanguard that perished during the Siege of Esthelm - first just many hundreds, but reinforced before the battle to become an army of thousands:
  • Leader/Commander, riding a tamed Shield Spider (killed by Grunter)
  • Head [Shaman] (killed by Toren)
  • Two Junior [Shamans] (killed by Badarrow)
• Main Army at the Battle of the Stone Spears: Thousands of Goblins, elite unit with over a hundred Hobgoblins in heavy armor

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