Area 3: Tribute of the Night Woods Kobolds
Work in progress:
Over the past decade, the kobolds of the Night Woods a dozen miles away have sent yearly tribute to the dragons of the cave, both out of fear and a certain sense of worship.
The tribute initially were captured maidens from the surrounding villages, but that had the unfortunate side effect of bringing a group of adventurers down on the kobolds, ensconced in the night-like reaches of their darkened woods. Although the Night Woods Kobolds survived the adventurers, thanks to a booby-trapped false dungeon complex of ancient rotting trees, they realized they had to come up with something better. Ironically, that's when one of the kobolds sent along to accompany the previous tribute brought a message from the dragons: send more kobolds.
It turned out that the kobolds -- with their abject willingness to serve as slaves to the dragons, and their fanatical willingness to overlook a kobold here or there being eaten when one of the dragons felt the need -- were the gift that keeps on giving as far as the dragons were concerned.
Most of the time, the dragons ignore the kobolds, but the kobolds perform all the sorts of minor duties a massive dragon is unable (or unwilling) to perform on their own: Cleaning of scales, patrolling the corridors for intruders, trap creation (and building and testing and resetting), sweeping up all but the most impressive remains of slain enemies and even occasionally serving as the dragons' emissaries to the outside world (which is not a task the dragons would admit to needing, but which has sometimes happened despite that).
Each year, a dozen more kobolds from the fecund Night Woods tribe are selected via a trial of champions, and each year, they make their way into the caves. By the next year, many of them are dead, but despite that, the numbers of the surviving tribute grow each year, bolstered by the kobolds beginning to breed, using the side passage of their cave as an egg hatchery, each end guarded by an array of poisonous caltrops (CR3, large monstrous scorpion venom, DC 14 Fortitude, 1d4 Con/1d4 Con).
The nascent tribe is today a dozen adult kobolds (all Warrior 1 with 4 hp, unless otherwise noted), two children and a pair of eggs that have survived the less-than-ideal conditions. The tribe is ruled by First From the Forest, a Lawful Evil male kobold fighter 4/sorcerer 1/dragon disciple 3, who is in the process of turning himself into a half-green dragon. His aide and the tribe's "high priest" is Dragon Speaker, a Lawful Evil female kobold adept 6 with a weasel familiar.
Should the kobolds hear anyone in the complex, they will sound a gong -- formerly an adventurer's steel shield -- to alert the tribe and runners will head to alert the dragons. (Negotiating the hazards between their lair and the dragons' takes some time, and is one of the largest sources of attrition amongst the kobolds.) The kobolds will then meet the intruders en masse, with five warriors carrying spears and a second rank carrying slings and spears, who will fire at intruders until the first rank has been cut down, and then switch to their short swords. Dragon Speaker will lend support in the form of scorching ray, cause fear and burning hands while First From the Forest wades in with the second rank with his breath weapon, Talon, his +1 gnomebane spear (the tip of which glows with a sickly green light on command), and his masterwork sling.
First From the Forest does speak Common, however, and if confronted by a party of clear overwhelming superiority, will bargain for the life of the dragons, kobolds or himself. (When all else fails, it'll come down to saving himself.)
The kobolds have no treasure in their lair -- all treasure belongs to the dragons -- only the bare necessities for living as well as stolen or makeshift brooms and tools used for developing new traps and maintaining old ones and for keeping the complex clean.
A small barricade blocks off the entrance from the tunnel into their cave, requiring kobolds on the far side to let visitors in, or a noisy process of dismantling the debris to create a way in. The barricade provides cover for the kobolds. Except when all the adult kobolds are out dealing with intruders, two kobolds man the barricade at all hours. (If the adults are away, the child kobolds reconstruct the barricade from the inside and hide in the passage with the eggs.)
The cave below the kobolds' lair has been used to dispose of waste since First from the Forest first dumped the body of the only other kobold of his generation to survive their year as prisoners of the dragons after accompanying maiden prisoners into the cave. His fellow did not agree with First's brilliant plan to start their own tribe here in the complex, and thus had to die.
