Good kobold dungeon ideas?

[Emerald Hawk]

My party of four 3rd level characters needs to retrieve a stolen item from a group of kobolds and their black dragon queen, and I'm looking for ideas. I have a DDI subscription so I'm interested in recommendations of any good adventures I have access to.

Creative traps are a plus, as my players latched right on to the fact that kobolds are a trap loving race. Previously I've had problems with getting traps on the battlefield right. If the players can see them right away, they just walk around them and shove enemies into them. Such traps feel trivial and not really dangerous. On the other hand if the players can't see the traps, when they blunder in to one it feels like a cheap shot. After this happened to one character, the rest of the party just stopped moving around and the remainder of the fight was kind of static. They're all fairly new to the game, and no one thought of making perception checks or other creative ideas to spot hidden dangers.

Oh, and I'm planning on using the new essentials young black dragon as the kobold's queen. I know how dangerous it is, so I may make one or two very minor tweaks.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

The Kobold Death Maze is a very nice little nasty example of the old Tucker's Kobolds type scenario with a nice twist at the end, lol. Doesn't match your plot line exactly (there's no dragon involved), but it is a good place to mine some examples. It will cost you $3 though. Still probably well worth it. I haven't run the thing but it is an all-out "lets make this as deadly as we can" kind of situation. I think you could run some 6th level PCs through it and they'll have to be sharp to survive. It will surely give kobolds a bit of extra respect in 4e

 

[Chronosome]

I recently ran a kobold dungeon for my group and had a lot of fun coming up with trap ideas for it.

1) The biggest hit was what I called a "spider feeder" -- a 10'x10' spring-loaded trap door hidden by dusty ground, which acted as a catapult to send a triggering hero up 10' into a web-covered ceiling while reveaing a 10' pit beneath them. The PC was then forced to make a choice -- make a skill check to disentangle from the webs and fall 20', or remain in the web? One turn later comes the deathjump spider. Oh, and where's the door? Now it's a 10'x10' wall dividing the battlefield (disabled with a single Thievery check or two attacks to cut ropes). That was fun.

The fun of designing was getting into the kobolds heads and thinking of how they'd use their home environment and nearby materials...

2) The kobs had another trap I called a "zombie pusher", which they had originally created to keep undead from a lower level from climbing up to theirs. Turns out it conveniently doubled as device to propel intruders from their lair into the zombies' domain. Picture it as a hidden bundle of thick logs wrapped in rope attached to a dark high ceiling (conveniently covered by webs). It activates by tripwire, swings down to slam into PCs and knock them down 20' into a nest of zombies.

Hmm..what else?

3) Slime-coated slopes. The kobolds laired in a cave complex that had a fetid pools of water accessible by mutiple tunnels. They coated the 40' descending slope of one such tunnel with cave slime. If, during a fight, creature were to fail an Acrobatics check after being pushed into a bit of the slime, they would then slide 8 squares and splash into a big pool of possible filth fever. They'd then have to spend about a turn swimming and coming back around to the battle's main chamber. Get a disease, lose a turn. Good times.

Anyway, those are three. I hope they serve to inspire. I got my inspiration from staring at the dungeon map and thinking -- who do these kobolds live with? What's nearby? What do they know about their home that their intruders wouldn't? What qualifies a trap to them?

You've got a black dragon to work with...that's a big something. Perhaps a trap give intruders' presence away to that dragon sooner than they'd like? Fun with acid?

As for "cheap shots", I say go for it. Kobolds are shifty little turds. They're all about cheap shots and you should push that feel. Keep the DCs for passive Perception fair, let them know that rolling Perception is an option, and all will be well.

I've babbled on enough -- please share what you come up with!

 

[Rune]

Ooo! Kobolds are fun! And, potentially much more challenging than their levels would suggest. Remember to keep them non-confrontational whenever possible--hit and run, strike from concealment, get someone else to do it, attack while the enemy is trapped, etc.

And don't forget that kobolds are as short as they are mean. Their tunnels should mostly be only three feet tall (which would mean most PCs would have to squeeze to move through them). Couple those tunnels with secret alcoves or secondary tunnels and the PCs will be easy targets whenever they move from one chamber to another.

 

[aco175]

There is a second level dungeon for free on Wizards site from when 4E came out that has kobolds and a dragon in the end, can't remember what it is called though, it was something that had the look of a module they were going to print but did not. I liked the idea that the dragon was new to the area with the kobolds, goblins would make a good switch. They had a underground tomb with several other rooms not explored or reclosed by them due to undead scattered about. A few encounters had some ledges on the walls that made for good tactics. I bet most of the encounters could remain as is with 3rd level characters

 

[Mouseferatu]

Way back in the mists of time, I did a module for MonkeyGod Enterprises called "The Hero Snare" that was based entirely around the "kobold death trap dungeon" idea.

It's not easy to find these days, and it was written for 3E, but if you can find a copy cheap somewhere, I think a lot of the ideas could be ported over to 4E with a modicum of effort.