Kobold plot

[Gilladian]

A while back, my players "made friends" with some kobolds, taught them to buy chickens instead of stealing them, etc...

Here's the official background write-up on the situation:

North of Shadybrook along Elk Run a small series of kobold families have laired for decades. They tend to be fairly innocuous, only raiding once in a while, mostly stealing small animals from the edges of farms or picking off stragglers from herds of pigs in the woods. There are perhaps a dozen of these small 8-20 kobold groups, and they are even known to occasionally help a lost or benighted human in the area - perhaps seeing this as their way of reducing a likelihood of being killed when they do raid and thieve. They have neither an organized leader nor any intergroup cohesion.

Recently one group of Kobolds has been taught to buy chickens from a local farmer (by the PC druid). The farmer (Will Pardow, aka "Old Will") is getting concerned. For a while in the summer, the kobolds bought lots of chickens (2 a day) but now are down to 2 a week, and local hunters are complaining again about their traps getting raided. Several of the farmers are also short on their pigs. Old Will is concerned the kobolds are reverting to their old ways. He asks PCs to investigate. Then the kobold trader shows up. He's wounded and reports that "other kobolds" are attacking his family. They ran out of silvers and tried to steal from the others. The others are retaliating and winning. The kobold whines that these are "bad kobolds" and begs for help. This kobold would be happy if all the other kobolds were simply killed so they could take their lair (their lair is in some "nice caves") but if the PCs can settle the fight and find some way for both tribes to "get" more silvers, everyone will be happy.

I had the idea that one possible solution for the kobolds would be to discover that they can pan/mine for gold in the local streams/caves. My players are all now 6th level, so I'm not interested in a "kill the kobolds" solution... I want a few ideas I could work up into a somewhat complex roleplay scenario... but as usual, I can't quite put them together myself. Anybody want to suggest something?

 

[Slapzilla]

Sounds like a prime opportunity for a kobold to rise to the occasion and be a leader. But how to do it and still allow the players to be players... Hmm. Driving the nasty group out without killing them all is what you are trying to avoid, right? But conflict can lead to that.

A common enemy, perhaps a Gnoll troupe led by a druid has begun infiltrating the area and is actually to blame... just now need to prove it.

How about the trader being a big ol' liar an just wants the "nice caves" for his family and has made another family into the scapegoats. (BOOOO!)

Perhaps these raiders are being pushed by other kobolds with a secret agenda, one that involves consolidating power and finding out what the humans will let them get away with as they amass an army!

Could the raiders be simply hungry? Raiding is what they know, so that is what they do, right. Teaching a group like this how to fish would be tough, but setting them on patrol to protect the rest in exchange for food might work out, eh?

Keep us posted.

 

[Gilladian]

So far, what I'm thinking is that group A (the one the party is familiar with) has tried to go steal silver pennies from group B. Group B is led by a tough old bird female kobold who ain't about to be pushed out of her place by some squawky little "human-friends". So she pushes back, hard.

Group A (the trader) get their butts handed to them, but not quite killed. They run to their human friends for help.

At the same time, goblins from the north-west start re-infiltrating the area. They're the ones who are actually raiding the farmers. They WANT the farmers to kill off the kobolds, so they can move in. They intend to mass their troops and attack Shadybrook (the local human village where the PCs are based); the PCs killed one group of goblins a while back and this will be an excellent 'revenge" attack.

So just as the PCs get off in the woods visiting feuding kobold tribes, the goblin raiders show up. The PCs are good, but a hundred goblins might be too much for them to handle! They'll have to band the two or three groups of kobolds together and all drive off the attacking goblins.

This gets the kobolds on the good side of the townsfolk, reminds the PCs that goblins can still be a threat in large enough numbers, and gets the kobolds working together. We'll see...