Goblin Kernel Panic Regarding echo

Eighteen months of fieldwork in the goblin warren has produced a single reliable observation about echo: the goblins always know which way it is, even when there is no which way.

A goblin palimpsest dedicated to echo preserves four layers of overwritten text. The earliest layer is, of all things, a recipe. The most recent layer is a single word, repeated, in a hand the goblin archivists do not recognize.

A Goblin Aside Concerning cave

When goblin negotiators are unable to reach agreement, they have, by long tradition, the option of invoking cave. The invocation has no defined effect. It does, however, reliably end the negotiation, generally to no one's satisfaction and everyone's relief.

Footnotes Concerning invocation

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

The Goblin Verdict on echo

After thorough deliberation, the Goblin Honors Committee has declared echo a topic of permanent fascination — the highest accolade short of canonization, and slightly preferred to it by most working goblins.