The boots looked like something a fancy hobgoblin might wear—well-stitched, with thick soles, heavily decorated with teeth. I slid them over my gnarled toes. The first time I invoked the boot’s magic, it was an accident. Grink wouldn’t stop yammering about some shiny rock he found. I swung my foot in irritation, and the moment the boot connected, his jaw snapped shut, silent as stone.
After that, I didn’t take them off. A goblin who can make others shut up earns a kind of respect in the warrens. No more snickers when I tried to speak, no more jeers at my crooked nose. When I walked into a room, the chatter died down. I rarely even had to use the boots anymore.
One day, a bugbear librarian came to the warren. A strange place for a bookworm, but this one was peculiar: her eyes sharp, her tongue sharper. She sought books we didn’t know we had, hidden under piles of junk and bones. When the younglings got restless, she kicked one into silence without breaking her stride. I watched, impressed. She wore boots just like mine. “You know these are wasted on you, don’t you?” she said, pointing at my feet. I said nothing, but I didn’t take them off either.
In the end, it wasn’t the librarian who took them. It was a fellow goblin, faster and craftier than me. He stole them while I slept, leaving me with cold feet and no silence to command.
Gobstompers
Wondrous Item (Boots), Rare (Requires Attunement)
These boots have 3 charges. As a bonus action, you can expend one charge to make an unarmed strike against a creature within your reach. On a hit, deal damage as normal and the creature cannot speak until the end of your next turn. If you hit a goblinoid with this bonus action, the boots regain 1 expended charge.
The boots regain all expended charges at dawn.
Check out last week’s item: the breakfast club.
