[Koboldquest] Prologue: Tunnel patrol duty

There you are, the remnants of hatchling #157. You have managed to survive the 12 years to near adulthood, after all the other hatchlings in your 'litter' had met with death by various means. Mohikor, died at the hands of goblin raiders; Ingatz blew herself up while mixing up an alchemical substance. X'ix choked on an overdry elfish wafer; they and all your other 'hatchmates' had gradually perished.

But you knew your group was special, the remaining seven (and nine heads) of you. (The PC Party and Serk, a female kobold scout.) As standard for your group, you had been assigned guard duty in tunnel #2341, one of the myriad tunnels of your tribe which you were assigned to patrol.

Except that the tunnel was strangely silent. Kobold miners would traditionally use their tail slaps to communicate to each other that all was well. Now it seemed that the two miners assigned to #2341 had not been... slapping their tails much. Was it yet another industrial accident? Had one of them slammed a pick where they were not supposed to? Were those nasty goblins about again?

Whatever the reason, you had been assigned to find out, which was preferable to giant lizard dropping duty. (The other choce)

As you passed the spiked ball trap another of your tribe had put up, being careful not to trigger it, you are quite near the end of the tunnel, about 80' away. It was cold, and dark, but then, so was everything in this part of the Underdark. Serk, a ranger, muttered to herself. There was a certain smell present, like rotting flesh mixed with mint, that your sensitive noses picked out. She otherwise seemed bored. You had seen circumstances like these often. "Maybe they just got drunk on mouldbrew," she said, yawning.

Let me know marching order. You may place Serk as you wish, otherwise I'll assume she's at the front. The tunnel is about 10' wide. Dweibolds please indicate which head is speaking by (H1) or (H2). No meta-gaming please.

Lok-Nar, male zweibold fighter 1

*Lok-Nar proudly stepped up in front, or as close to the front as Nah'l and Miki would let them. They aren't very ambi-ambo- Ambishness, dolt!, Nar chastisted Lok mentally. Lok always got words wrong, not like Nar. They're not very ambishness. They don't want the queen's favor. I do. Then I'll get tasty food, and prisoners to torture... And you'll be eaten alive by a giant lizard if you don't keep your eyes front! Nar snarled again, jerking Lok out of his reverie.*

"We'll take the front. If they're not drunk, then we can smash what drank them!" Lok said proudly. Nar smacked his hand into his forehead, then returned to gripping their heavy flail. The hand cannon was loaded, but firing it in the tunnels was usually a Bad Idea, so Lok always waited to fire until Nar told him to. "Or we can just scare them if they've fallen down drunk," Nar pointed out with his "impeccable logic."

"I'll guard the rear incase of ambush," Miki offers. "If something is hiding in these tunnels we don't want them sneaking up and making a snack out of our... less martially trained... hatch-mates *snicker*"

Of course chances are if we run into anything it will be infront of us and those oafs at the front can take care of it... no sense risking my neck over some fool miners. Miki offers a toothy grin and moves to the rear, acting alert, eyes scanning every little nook and cranny and brandishing his longsword threateningly. I wonder if we could get away with wandering off somewhere then reporting in later that they tripped and broke their necks or something... probably not. Ah well, at least this gets us out of the mines, I suppose.

Kadan wastes no time responding, talking while he loads and winds up his crossbow. "I may not be martially trained, but my worth will be proven." Kadan accents this with a twang as the loading mechanism on a crossbow sets into place.

"However... The fact that I am without armor means I would be most effective in the middle of the group where my more "martially trained" brothers and sisters can get hit fi- I mean, protect me." Kadan slinks towards a location in the middle, of the group, a hint of a grin visible through his robe hood.

Taden looked around carefully, then down to his badger, Target. They exchanged nods, and then he announced in a strangely brave way, "I um...me think I be best in the middle. Very middle..." he trailed off, then spoke quietly, "Target, you want go in front of me?" he nodded, "We be safest there and stay out of way of...nasty things."

He was, of course, not refering to Goblins, but to that green mold that grew sometimes. He didn't trust it. It probably ate Kobolds and that was the real reason for all the problems...at least in the middle he'd not be eaten first or last.

As you proceed further down the tunnel, there's an overpowering smell of rotting meat. About 30' later, you spy a corpse of the kobold miner, or what's left of it. The entire lower half is gone. You're still too far to see exactly what did it. "Oh dear," says Serk, realising it isn't mouldbrew that's responsible for the silence. The tunnel ends about 50' away from the front of the party, and you spy the back of the other kobold miner. He seems to be looking through a large hole in the wall about 3' in radius... and then you realise the kobold blood on the ground of the tunnel behind the rather still body. The body jerks forward, like a rag doll being dragged. "S... something is trying to pull it through the hole!" says Serk.

Still waiting for Ferrix and Lefferts to state their positions.

"Get out here, you coward!" Lok cries loudly, trying to startle the creature in dropping the body. "We have something for you, a nice flail to sink into your ugly head!" Nar adds. Lok-Nar's blood sings with the thrill of potential combat.

Zort catches up to the rest of his hatchling and takes a position
just behind the leaders. He tries to look past the leaders to see if
he can see what has grabbed the miner or if there is any sign of
any other missing kobolds.

Kadan crouches next to Lok-Nar, closing an eye as he aims his crossbow toward the cavern hole.

"Yesss, let's see what's ya got - besides that body, I mean."

Taden stayed back. Not that he was afraid or anything. Of course not! He was...guarding. Yes. Guarding the others while they performed other duties. Deciding it was for some reason a good idea, he assisted the others in taunting, "Um...uh...YEAH! You come out and stop eating un-tastey Kobold!"