The Dead Walk

When there was such a person who could talk the old folk in the graveyard into moving, he used to be called a wizard.

• the Finnish Literature Society archives; collected in Rovaniemi, 1935.

The supernatural story archives of the Finnish Literature Society have a lot of stories about dead people. In Finnish folk religion, the dead walk the earth, either as spirits or undead bodies risen from their graves. There are lots of ghost stories where people’s spirits hang around after they’ve died, but also stories where the dead are very physically present.

For example, there’s several instances of a story of an old gravedigger. Everyone thought he was too old to be able to do his job, but somehow the dead always got buried. So some of the locals sneak up to the graveyard and find him sitting down and taking his ease, while dirt flies out of an open grave: he had the dead doing his digging for him. Making the dead work was a key part of Finnish magic.

One of my favorite kinds of story is one where someone insults or makes fun of the dead, and suffers horrifying consequences. Again, there are several versions of this. In one of them, a man is passing a cemetery and opening a bottle of liquor. He gives a shout to the graveyard, something like “does anyone else want some?” He’s then terrified to find the dead climbing out of their graves to get the drink they’ve been offered, and flees for his life.

In Goblin Camp, we already have several kinds of spirits. If you cut down a tree or kill an animal, you can see the spirit leave its body and head for the river to make its journey to the underworld. Your camp may also be visited by spooky death-folk, on their way to the same destination.

Now, with the Combat Update nearly upon us, we’re very happy to introduce a whole new enemy: the grave-folk.

We’ve seen spirits before, but these undead are very corporeal. They’ve risen from their graves and they’re coming for your camp. Where previous enemies targeted your goblins, the grave-folk are driven by an unreasoning rage, and they’re going to take it out on your buildings.

Luckily for your goblins, the grave-folk aren’t terribly agile: they have the Shambler trait, which means they take double damage from all weapons and other dangerous objects.

The Combat Update will be out soon, and it will include new ways for your goblins to defend their camp, but also some new enemies to threaten it. So look out for the walking dead!