Pinned
Piglins offer things of use in exchange for gold. They give you boots enchanted to allow easy passage over the land of souls that they avoid. They give you iron, gravel, fire charges, and obsidian, a quiet but clear message (just in case you need to go home). They give leather, arrows, string, basic supplies to keep you going. They give the same blackstone they've built their homes from (in case you might want to build a home here too).
Piglin know how to brew potions. They have bottles of water and fire resistance potions and they'll offer both to strangers that pay. They grow nether wart in the ruins of their homes. There is no natural nether wart to be found in the nether. Only what the piglins grow, and what can be found in the gardens of Fortress. It is the base of all potions, one of two essentials that must be farmed.
The other essential is blaze powder. Piglins must have some, they make potions after all, but they have no farms for it. Not anymore.
But there are fortresses. Fortresses built around blaze spawners. Fortresses with gardens of nether wart. Fortresses that were built and than abandoned. Chests with scraps of supplies left behind.
These fortresses are made of bricks. Netherrack bricks blocks, holding strong after all these years. These bricks aren't found naturally in the nether outside of fortresses. You can craft them yourself, or you can get them from one other source.
Piglins will offer you netherrack bricks. They have them. You won't find it in their bastions. But they will offer them all the same. They still remember how to make them. Maybe they used to build with them, once, a long time ago.
Piglins will wander into fortresses, but they do not call them home. Wither Skeletons do. Wither skeletons infest the fortresses, roaming around as if this is their home.
Piglins will hunt hoglins in groups, but there's no inherent hostility. Their children play together regardless of their parents quarrels. Hoglins are food, but not an enemy. Wither skeletons are not food. Yet Piglins are hostile to wither skeletons without provocation. A wither skeleton is known to be dangerous, is known to be a threat. A pest infesting a stolen home.
When offered gold, Piglins will give you many items. Things to keep you going, to help you get home, to help you stay where you are. But in that list, they will also offer netherrack bricks and ender pearls. Oddities in the lineup. Both have their uses, but both also send a message (if you want to go where they did, here's a hint, a helping hand. perhaps in hopes you will find something there they could not, or perhaps in hope you will manage to come back safely. whose to say).
