The Squeaking Goblin

[ArmlessTigerMan]

From the 1934 Doc Savage novel, The Squeaking Goblin.

 

(picture from the cover of the Bantam paperback, by James Bama)

 

Character sheet: https://www.herogames.com/files/file/659-squeaking_goblinpdf/

Background: The Squeaking Goblin dresses up like the ghost of a long dead mountain man, murdering members of a Kentucky family that is involved in a feud.  He typically strikes from a distance with what appears to be an antique muzzle loader rifle.

 

Appearance: Dressed like a frontiersman from a previous century, clothes made from deerskin and hat made from a raccoon.  The Goblin carries what looks to be an antique rifle, powder horn, pouch of bullets, and a knife.  Also "...the dead, immobile grayness of the face. The sunken holes where the eyes should have been, the rigidity of the mouth, gave it a corpselike aspect."  Basically he's Daniel Boone as a zombie.

 

Motivation: 90 year old spoilers: 

Spoiler

The Squeaking Goblin is secretly Chelton Raymond.  He's found out that an ancestor of the Raymond clan had left a fabulous fortune in trust to be divided among the surviving family in a hundred years, and it is just about time to disperse the funds!  He's decided to kill of all the other Raymonds to keep the fortune for himself.  When not out sniping his relatives, he incites the deadly feud with the Snow clan so that the Snows will kill Raymonds for him.

 

Equipment: The Goblin carries what appears to be a very old rifle.  However on close examination it has been quite recently made.  There are vents along the barrel which seem to perform a function similar to a suppressor.  Instead of suppressing the sound the weapon, the rifle emits an unearthly squeak when fired.  And the goblin is adept at hitting people in the head with the rifle butt.

 

The disappearing bullets are a wonder of modern chemistry, bullets that evaporate after they hit the target leaving no trace for any ballistics examination.

 

The goblin also carries a portable 'diving hood' as well as a small tank of compressed air for breathing.  He uses this to dive into nearby bodies of water (oceans, rivers, etc..) to make his escape after he snipes his target.

 

Skills: The Squeaking Goblin is extremely patient, tracking his targets, and skilled at setting up situations where he can evade capture after he takes his shot.  He displays a high degree of athleticism in these escapes (extra running, leaping, swimming.)

 

The source of his custom rifle and disappearing bullets are not explained, so I have assumed that he made these himself.  In his secret identity he is known as a player on wall street.  

 

The Goblin also seems to luck into occasions where he can shoot people just as they are about to info dump to our heroes.

 

Campaign use:  A pretty standard Scooby Doo-style rubber mask-type villain who turns out to be one of the npcs that have been underfoot this whole adventure!  

 

Encounter Design: The examples from the book fall into two categories:

 

The Goblin shoots an npc and makes his getaway.  This should result in our heroes chasing after him, making tracking and other skill rolls, perception rolls, etc...

 

Later, as our heroes endanger his plans, the Goblin will start to target them.  Give the players a chance to roll perception, Danger Sense or the like to spot the lunatic dressed up like a zombie Daniel Boone just as he is drawing a bead on them.  If they spot him, they will no longer suffer negative DCV modifiers for being surprised out of combat.  They can also put their levels in DCV, dive for cover, etc...  So the Goblin will most likely miss.  If we assume the Goblin can get off one shot per turn - one phase to reload, one phase to Brace and Set, leaving one phase to shoot (at spd 3), this can become a game of cat and mouse with the players trying to sneak up or flank the Goblin as he reloads and gets back into position.

 

Crunching the numbers for sniper shots:  In the story there is really only one example where we are told the distance from the Goblin to the target.  When he pops off a shot at Doc Savage (who spots him at the last second,) the Goblin is 150 yards away.  That equates to 137 meters, which is a -10 modifier for range.  Also, the Goblin loves to take headshots, which is a -4 modifier on a surprised (out of combat) target.  In his favor, the Goblin usually sneaks up on his target (surprised, out of combat) who will then be at 1/2 DCV.  

 

For most normal npcs this will mean DCV 2 (DCV 3 halved, rounded up), with a cumulative -14 penalty to hit.  (-10 for range, -4 for hit location.)  The Goblin has  +5 levels vs range modifiers, +4 levels vs hit locations, and +3 levels with rifles, so now he is effectively at -2 to hit.  The Goblin has 5 OCV, vs a target DCV of 2 and a -2 penalty, so he needs 12- to hit.  If we assume that the Goblin will Brace (+2 OCV vs range modifiers) and Set(+1 OCV), he will get his headshot on 15-.

 

If the Goblin is drawing a bead on a pc with DCV of 6, his roll for a surprise out of combat headshot would be 14-.  However, if the PC became aware of the Goblin before the Goblin can take his shot, that attack roll would become 7- (target gets full DCV, headshot penalty becomes -8 instead of -4).  Of course if the Goblin were in danger of being captured he might use non-placed shots to slow his pursuers down...

Edited December 24, 2024 by ArmlessTigerMan
moved picture to top, add clarity to sniper example for Normal npc.

[ArmlessTigerMan]

Just to add that The Squeaking Goblin is a terrible title, and a horrible name for a villain.  Got the book in a lot from ebay twenty-something years ago and never read it, because the title is just bad.  Was it meant to be evocative or creepy in 1934?  Why call the bad guy a goblin?  Well, here is a paper on the use of words like 'goblin' to refer to generic supernatural creatures: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0048721X.2014.886631#d1e163 . 

 

It may be too late to give Lester Dent notes, but I'd probably go for a title with alliteration, like The Phantom Frontiersman.  The Gibbering Ghoul?  Still workshopping that alternate name.

 

From Bronze Icon, a look at probable inspirations for the story and characters:  https://bronzeicon.com/stories/1934-08-the-squeaking-goblin/

[DentArthurDent]

This is great!

 

The squealing rifle reminds me of a banshee.

[GDShore]

In all likelyhood Dent didn't choose the title. Some idiot at the publishing house most likely did. When you are cranking out a book a quarter little details (like name) slip thru the cracks and sometimes as a writer you just get ticked off at your publisher and give him 'crap'. Like a title that is crap. 

[BigJackBrass]

I might change it to "shrieking".