Hobgoblin Interdiction Team

Story so far

The Hobgoblin Interdiction Team is the Iron Tangle's accident response service, and its structure is the reason it never worked. Per Growler Gary, a cart is normally crewed by a repair team of five hobgoblins and driven by a pair of transit security gnolls, with a second team added when the track itself needs work; Jumping Jen-Jen was one of the drivers. Their advertised purpose is grand — "when it comes to cleaning up a crashed vehicle on the tracks, nothing works better, faster, and more efficiently" — and in the rare case of an accident on the Tangle, one of their carts is supposed to be dispatched immediately.

In practice the corporation running the Tangle has little trust for hobgoblins and requires gnoll security to escort the vehicles at all times, which is why the Interdiction Rapid-Response Railway Repair Cart can only be started by a pair of gnolls at two consoles eight feet apart. When the ghouls came, the drivers died and the ten rapid-response carts at Station 75 sat unused and dustless in the back of the yard while the hobgoblins took their own battered auxiliary carts out instead — carts with no portal, and therefore no way to clear a crashed train. Their armoury and repair shop were stripped by looters, their corpses lie among the gnolls they hated, and the system's kill attributions show the two halves of the service spent some of the massacre killing each other.

Appearance

Seen only as corpses and empty facilities — chewed hobgoblin bodies among gnolls, stripped hob-lobber crates, and ten unused carts under dust.

Role

The rail system's wreck-clearing service, destroyed by the infestation and crippled beforehand by its own employer's rules.

Relationships