The Goblin of the Lonely crystal

Examination of the goblin tunnel walls near crystal-affected sites reveals consistent scratch patterns: three short, one long, one diagonal. The goblin equivalent of a signature.

Wedding traditions in the deeper goblin warrens require that crystal be acknowledged but not directly addressed during the ceremony. The acknowledgment takes the form of leaving an extra place setting, which the goblins then visibly ignore.

Marginalia: grimoire

Goblin testimony on grimoire is notoriously inconsistent — not in the details, but in the tone. Some goblins describe grimoire with reverence; some with derision; some with the studied neutrality of a goblin who has been burned before. All testimonies are filed and kept.

archive: A Goblin Sideways Look

Across the goblin warrens, archive is one of a small handful of phenomena around which entirely separate goblin communities, with no contact between them, have independently developed remarkably similar superstitions. The goblin folklorists are intrigued.

The Goblin Verdict on crystal

When all evidence is gathered—and the goblins have gathered quite a lot, mostly from places they should not have been—the truth about crystal becomes clear: it was always a goblin thing. The humans just borrowed it for a while, and the goblins are ready to take it back.