Kobold Storytelling

Around a half eaten carcass and surrounded by old bones, a circle of newcomers listen to Chief tell the stories of the tribe’s recent expansion. Most of the tales center around a figure depicted in the mural on the Southern wall. It shows a dragon-man tossing a boulder off of himself (the very stone block that lays in the middle of this room) and roaring. His words, in barely legible Draconic, are “The sky cannot kill me!”  

“Thems bigguns been comin’ here for two hands a days1, bringin’ nice meats and tasty beers n help us’n’s celebrate grown’ big n strong. Thems killie tha’ ogre monster tha kept us small! We boss of them stairs up now, and this whole place!

“We have more rooms fer livin’ in, an’ our very own Dragon named Smithy an’ his best friend th’ Glad orc! Our Dragon is so clever tha’ he made hisself almost look like a man an’ he goes inta town an’ takes th’ human’s shirts!”

Here the Chief points proudly to a pile of human shirts.

“Smithy has biggun minions too. A scary demonlady thing an’ a real dwarf! An’ th’ Glad orc. Th’ Glad orc made us tha’ nicy-nice2 song on th’ wall o’er there.”

The Eastern wall bears a song written in Common. “It’s raining, it’s pouring/The old man is drunk/He fell down and broke his head/And now I have a new bowl!”

“We be brave when they go down th’ scary stairs into th’ deep dark. We tells them about th’ ghost wind. It creeps up on you and you die! Buts they go anyways, so some of us go too. We all get so many shinies! Some die. It is sad. But many more wanta go fer th’ shinies! Such beautiful metals!

“Our Dragon Smithy chase away th’ ghost wind! An’ fights skelingtons, wiv our help. We gets short bows and arrows, an’ a sword an’ gold. An’ scrap metal, a’course. Down in th’ even deeper dark are dead-alive humans! We not be down there much.

“Much better to be up here! Wiv th’ beer and th’ meat! An’ now there are so many more of us, fer havin’ a better party an’ servin’ our Dragon Lord Smithy!  

“Vinra, you already made a good start on servin’ Smithy wiv maken tha’ human long legbone club. Tha’ll be so funny to beat a human in th’ face wiv! Even a  dead-alive human tha’ won’ get th’ joke.”


1. “Hands of days” is a term  from the Deltan in the Bobaverse, written by Dennis E. Taylor

2. “Nicey-nice” is a term from the trolls in The 10th Kingdom, a TV Miniseries that aired in the US on NBC in February of 2000.

O’ahu Players Expedition 1, Play Session 1

Adventuring Troup:

  • Fela the fighter
  • Mugi the Man-Ape
  • Kelvyn the thief
  • Lucia the halfling
  • Braum the cleric
  • Olg the high Orc

On tenth-day of Week 19, a group of adventurers wandered into Hullbeck in response to the call for heroes to come fight the recent surge of monsters after the earthquake split the ground of the cultivated forest to the west. Finding that another group of adventurers had already undertaken that endeavor, they asked about other troubles the locals might be facing and heard grumblings about a Goblin Labyrinth that might have taken up cattle rustling to the north, and a possible dragon sighting to the northwest above the mountains. Deciding those rumors were too far away to trouble with, the adventurers bought up all the fighting animals and equipment they could and went to lend their aid to the brave souls facing the death wind in the cultivated forest.  

On the way to the wood, the group came upon a flower emitting the most awful stench, which seemed to be attracting a swarm of insects from the trees on the horizon. Noting that discretion is the better part of valor, the party left the insects and the flower to one another and continued on.

Following a cart track into the forest, they came upon a cart and donkey, idling near a semi-hidden stairwell. Though the donkey was placid and calm, the cart bed was caked with an alarming amount of blood. The stairs too had layers of dried blood on them, some of which may have been almost a week old and some of which was quite fresh.

Venturing down into the bloody dark, Mugi discovered several bored kobolds, who spoke neither Common nor sign language. A rudimentary conversation was had through gesture when neither side seemed inclined to attack the other. Backing out, the group decided to explore the “rent” in the forest floor described to them by the townsfolk. After shouting down into the hole in Common, kobolds shouted back a reply in Draconic. The cleric, Braum, was able to translate the greeting for the group, as he speaks the dragon tongue.    

The party decided to camp at the entrance to the stair, hoping to catch the other adventuring party as they return to town. Or perhaps catch the monster that butchered them and left their blood all over the cart and stair, Lucia pointed out.

In the first watch, they instead found two more kobolds coming the join the enclave already living below the forest floor. Given that one of these kobolds spoke Common and seemed friendly, they elected to travel with the little lizard people down into the dark, in search of answers.

Chief, the kobold leader, and the other kobolds of this tribe had recently had the good fortune to come into the service of a Dragon Lord names Smithy. He tells the story of recent events to the two new members of his tribe, and the adventurers lining the back wall and hallway of the tribe’s nesting room.

The friendship with this new flock of adventurers was quickly cemented with bags of wine passed out from the adventurer’s packs. Inquiring after the first adventuring party to come through, they learned that there were more levels going down into the deep dark, where Dragon Lord Smithy was currently braving dead-alive humans and worse horrors with his friends. The group decided he was better equipped to fight such horrors than they themselves were. Rather than return to their camp on the surface, the troupe elected to spend the night partying with the kobolds. They learned several new songs, and a bone drum technique.   

The bleary early morning of first-day of Week 20 found the adventurers back on their way to town. There had been some debate about liberating the donkey, but ultimately it was decided that the donkey would stay where he was. Remembering the horrid flower from yesterday, the party found the spot and discovered that it had been eaten down to the ground. They dug up the root to sell in town.   

Stumbling back into town, the group immediately rented rooms at a local inn and took baths. They then sought out Onida, the local Sage (though she prefers the term Seer), and sold her the flower root. They learned that she was planning on leaving for an errand up The Gleam tomorrow, and secured permission to join her, with the intention of investigating the goblin rumor.