Warbal Bumblebrasher

Warbal was the first NPC the party ever spoke to. She was standing at the front of Breachill's monthly assembly in pristine scholar's robes, silver jewelry understated against green skin, visibly anxious in the way that people are when they have been holding themselves together too long. She'd been watching alarm fires burn on the horizon for weeks. She knew something was wrong with her people, and she had done what she always does: dressed well, composed herself, and gone to talk to the humans.

The Ambassador

The Bumblebrasher tribe has lived for several generations near Citadel Altaerein, eventually moving into the keep itself after the Hellknights abandoned it. They are not political creatures. They are survivalists who found a defensible home and kept their heads down while the wilds of Isger↗ did what the wilds of Isger do.

Warbal is the exception the tribe made for itself. Wide-eyed and book-hungry from childhood, she had spent her early years devouring every tome the departing Hellknights left behind: protocols, histories, legal codes, territorial maps. Education of a peculiar kind, entirely self-directed, deeply impractical in the ways the tribe needed, and completely beyond what the tribe could give her an outlet for. The mismatch expressed itself as a long-running low misery she didn't have words for until her older cousin Helba put a name to it.

Helba, who would become the tribe's chief, recognized the problem before Warbal did. She went to Breachill herself, leveraged a connection through a half-orc bard and tailor named Torash who still visited the goblins occasionally when he dared the journey, and arranged an unprecedented thing: a formal ambassadorship funded by the Breachill town council. The tribe would provide crafted goods; the town would fund an advocate who could speak on goblin behalf in all related civic matters. The job was created for Warbal specifically. She moved into town immediately, took up a modest council-funded flat, and spent the better part of her stipend on books and occasional travel to other Isgeri towns. She has been Breachill's face of the Bumblebrashers ever since.

What She Does

The ambassadorship is not honorary. Warbal attends every relevant council session. She advocates for goblin interests in town matters, explains goblin behavior to humans who are still carrying memories of the Goblinblood Wars, and explains human behavior to goblins who are still working through their suspicion that humans are fundamentally unreliable. She understands the scale of what she is trying to do. It does not paralyze her. She is good at this.

The result is that the Bumblebrashers have not simply survived in Isger's wilds. They have a formal trade arrangement with Breachill, a civic advocate with council access, and a reputation, however modest, for being people worth dealing with. The townspeople who know her have grown impressed with what she has built, one careful conversation at a time.

Book 1

When the party was assembled at the Call for Heroes, Warbal was the reason the mission existed. She had observed the distress signals burning atop the citadel for weeks, spent weeks trying to reach Helba and failing, and finally appeared before the council because she had run out of other options. It was not a dignified position. She was frightened, and she managed it with the same composure she applies to everything else. She answered questions, offered what she knew about the citadel's layout and the creatures that had moved in since the Hellknights left, and waited.

After the party rescued the Bumblebrashers from Calmont's siege and cleared the Cinderclaw occupation below, she returned to the tribe. She has been at the citadel since.

Citadel Altaerein

With the Bumblebrashers formally granted permanent residence, Warbal's role shifted. She is still the tribe's ambassador to Breachill, the formal voice that navigates human civic systems. She is also now the administrative counterpart to Helba at the citadel itself: the one who handles what Helba doesn't care to handle, which is paperwork, agreements, logistics, the careful work of making sure the arrangement between the tribe and the party actually functions over time rather than fraying through inattention.

When Nadira proposed training the Bumblebrashers as guards for the citadel, Warbal was the one who formally accepted on the tribe's behalf. She pledged, in the precise language she has learned to use in council chambers, that the trust would not be squandered. Frazzle trained them in stealth. The results were good. The tribe is genuinely proud of it.

She also provided Frazzle and Theo with an official travel letter stamped with Breachill's seal before their journey to Elidir. The letter was the kind of document that makes militia patrols ask questions instead of drawing weapons. It was not a small thing to arrange, and she offered it without being asked.

Voice

Warbal speaks with the deliberateness of someone who learned language largely through books before she learned it through people. Her word choices are careful. She does not reach for the imprecise term when the precise one is available. In formal contexts, she is polished in a way that tends to surprise people who expected a goblin to be otherwise, and she is aware that this is exactly the effect she is working for.

In private, she is warmer, more direct, and slightly wry about the amount of performance the job requires. She does not perform her warmth. The diplomacy is strategic. The loyalty to her people is not.

She carries a religious symbol of Desna↗ alongside her books. This is not surprising for a Bumblebrasher; the tribe has always had a relationship with the Goddess of Travel, though it has not always been an explicit one.

Statistics

AC 15  |  HP 20  |  Speed 25 ft.

Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +5  |  Perception +3

Str −1, Dex +2, Con +2, Int +2, Wis +0, Cha +3

Skills Diplomacy +8, Goblin Lore +9, Nature +5, Religion +5, Society +7, Survival +3

Languages Common, Goblin

Items Book: History of the Bumblebrashers in Isger, religious symbol of Desna, scholar's robes

Goblin Scuttle ↺ Trigger: a goblin ally ends a move action adjacent to Warbal. Effect: Warbal Steps.