Draft:Goblin King

Omega 0.90.4

The Goblin King is the unique ruler encountered on level ten of the Goblin Caves. His death advances the Oracle's quest sequence; his head and axe have separate uses.

Encounter

Symbol	HP	Hit	Armor	Damage rating	Experience
K	32	18	10	32	500

The king starts hostile and greedy, follows intelligently, uses normal melee and a missile attack, and has no innate immunity. The table's experience is the death award when the player has line of sight, not the Duke's separate reward.

He occupies a generated position in the final cavern, not a fixed local coordinate. The ordinary final-level generator stops placing him after cave completion. His fixed possession is Goblins' Hewer; ordinary additional treasure is selected separately.

Death and quests

Normal death drops his possessions and creates the Head of the Goblin King. Because he is a unique creature, this head is not subject to the ordinary common-monster one-half corpse chance. Cave completion is recorded at death; an unoffended Oracle calls the player back.

Take the head to the Duke while at Commoner rank in his quest line. It is consumed for promotion to Esquire and 100 experience, after which the Duke requests a Holy Defender. The axe is not consumed by that head delivery.

Strategy

His low HP invites a decisive attack, but a damage rating equal to his HP makes prolonged unprotected melee a poor bargain. His lack of innate physical immunity means ordinary successful weapon damage can work. Use the dungeon's available terrain and a suitable ranged option when trading close attacks is too costly.

As a greedy creature he can be pacified by a sufficiently valuable gift under the ordinary gift rules, but pacification does not record his death or produce his head. It can help an escape; it does not finish either quest.