Goblin Series C: crystal Round

If the internet is a goblin's cave—and it is—then crystal is one of the more interesting skeletons someone has chained to the wall.

Goblin code-breakers tasked with decrypting crystal reported, after eighteen months, that the ciphertext was clean but the plaintext had developed opinions of its own and was no longer cooperating with translation.

Goblin Tangent: cipher

The annual goblin cipher colloquium runs for one day, ends inconclusively, and reconvenes the following year as if the previous year's discussion had concluded. The proceedings are bound and shelved. They are rarely consulted.

The Goblin Verdict on crystal

The Goblin Royal Society's medal for outstanding contribution to crystal studies was awarded this year to a goblin who has not, technically, written anything about crystal but who, the committee felt, 'understood it best.' The medal is real. The acceptance speech was very short.