”Elder, you need your rest,” suggested the witch doctor as Chungotlus came to the end of Autumn and began telling right from there into Winter. Chungotlus simply scowled at the younger kobold and asked pointedly, “Do I tell you which herbs to mash up into foul tasting drinks? Step aside.” With little grumbles of protest the witch doctor withdrew so that the old kobold could begin speaking again. “Now... where was I before I was rudely interrupted... Ah yes, a grand festival was held in celebration of the very first caravan the camp received...”Dogs ran around barking at the Merchant’s oxen and caged animals amid the tumbling, cheerful music of the camp kobolds. There was reason to sing and be merry, afterall. The supplies that they could buy from the merchants might give them the edge they need to turn their little camp into a thriving settlement.
Nanomage, being an older kobold with a head for numbers, had been appointed the trader previously and she shuffled her way over to the merchants to make trade. All manner of fine carved and decorated items were available, painstakingly created in other settlements. But Nanomage had her orders of what to buy. “Rock,” she requested pointedly as she handed over a bundle of wooden bow bolts. The merchants agreed to this without complaint.
“Metal?” was the next order of business. The traders were able to provide a bar of iron, a bar of brass, and a bar of platinum that was too expensive for the little camp. A barrel of beer and an anvil rounded out the trades and then Nanomage told the merchants, “No more trade. Sing now.”
All the while, Sen sat by watching proudly as her fine foods were sampled by the merchants and then hurriedly loaded onto the wagon. The food, she was proud to know, was delicious and well valued by these envoys from a large kobold settlement. The traded items were set carefully aside and the celebration began in full.
The next day amid hangovers and full stomachs the Blades and the Stalkers once again formed up to go out hunting. Splinter began to offer a joking taunt to Corai, but a single cross look was all that was needed to convince him to leave it be. The kobolds had not exactly ended up with the right weapons, but all were either too hung-over or still too drunk to really notice.
Indeed, it wasn’t too much of a problem for Corai who had ended up carrying a crossbow into his hunt. He came upon a hamster woman and using the bow like a machete, smashed the beast into the ground without receiving so much as a scratch.
Nix, as Nix so often did, ran off away from the hunting group and spotted herself an even greater prey. The monster bounded and leaped about, it’s face appearing like that of a horrific spider’s, with six arms that swung clawed hands. For only a moment, Nix hesitated and looked back towards the others, but they had fallen so far behind during her sprint. The spearbold darted forward and began to stab at the beast, hissing out in challenge to the larger animal. Each thrust of the spear was blocked by an arm, breaking bones and splattering ichor onto the battlefield.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Blades and the Stalkers had returned to the camp. After a moment or two of talking cheerfully about the brief hunt, ***** asked, “Where Nix?” Promptly the hunting party reorganized and charged back out to help.
Drix, with his long hunter’s stride, caught up with Nix and offered his help smacking at the beast with his crossbow as he snarled out challenges. “Caught up?” joked Nix as she smacked aside a singing claw with the butt of her spear.
The cuts began to add up and the beast slowed, stumbling for a moment and allowing the two kobolds to lay into it with everything they had. Soon Kalras arrived as well, slicing off an arm and a leg as though she was working the butchery. As the final hisses and cries came from the beast, Drix pulled back his bow and slammed it’s head back. The beast twitched and shivered for a moment before stopping.
After the hunt, Kriss and Jableerus Winterdirge were walking back to the camp. Kriss eyed Jableerus for a moment with something close to suspicion, but this quickly melted away as she became distracted in the song she was humming to herself. As Jableerus turned to go to the training hut, Kriss asked helpfully, “Need spear? Kriss make.”
Jableerus considered this a moment, looking dark, mysterious and brooding. He then nodded and responded, “Kriss make good spear. Thank Kriss.”
Kriss smiled and bounded off to go take care of that work confident that there wasn’t anything weird going on with Jableerus anyway. Probably just in one of his moods.
Karak was out working in the field planting strawberries in the fertile land. He took his time of it, moving from space to space methodically. There would be drink to be had. “Valk!” he called to his wife as he worked. “Make barrel, bring berries!” He set back to work, humming softly to himself. Then, for a moment, the light from the top of the pit above him was blocked. He glanced up, expecting to see his wife pulling some kind of a trick, but instead he saw a horror beyond imagining...
”And I think that’s quite enough for tonight...” finished Chungotlus with an amused grin on his face as he looked between the gathered pups. “The hour grows late and I’m sure you have chores to do.” Immediately the little kobolds began to clamor for a finish to the story, just a bit longer, pleeeease.
Chungotlus sighed an exaggerated sigh and nodded, “I suppose it isn’t the end of Winter yet... A little more perhaps.”Karak yelped in fear and darted backwards as the horrible beak struck down towards him. The beast was ten times his size with a wingspan that blotted out the sun. Giant feathers fell as it ruffled itself and let out a terrifying shriek.
Of course, by this time the other kobolds in the camp had taken notice. Amid a flurry of fur, shouts, and weapons, the kobolds readied themselves to face this horrible giant eagle. “Form up!” shouted Splinter desperately as he beat a spear-thrower against his buckler, having not had enough time to properly locate his normal weapon. Indeed, most of the kobolds were wielding things unfamiliar to them against this gigantic threat.
The kobolds charged shouting out a battle cry and beating weapons against bucklers. With a caw of rage, the eagle beat it’s wings and took off into the air. None of the kobolds had time to pause and look into the farming pit to see if Karak still lived, insteading charging after the monster in the sky. Splinter, glaring up into the rain-filled sky, fit a spear into his spearthrower and hurled it with a grunt of effort.
Perhaps he ought always to have been a spearthrower. Perhaps he simply got lucky. Or perhaps Chlombujrer Rapiddelights smiled upon him that day. The spear flew true and struck the beast in the leg with an audible crack and it tumbled for the earth.
A crater abruptly appeared where the fowl beast landed...
Chungotlus paused to look about at the listeners with an amused grin on his face. “Get it? Fowl?”
Immediately there came a groan of annoyance at his pun and shouts for him to continue.A crater abruptly appeared where the foul beast landed, throwing up dirt and stones at the kobolds who were nearest. Scruffy was nearly caught underneath a wing but with a yelp and a scrambling swing she knocked the monster with her spear thrower. Renewed cries of vigor filled the air and the kobolds charged the downed target. Scruffy took the monster’s attention, dodging back and forth to avoid it’s strikes while Zim scrambled beneath it and stabbed up into it’s stomach. All the while, Splinter continued to hurl spears into the melee from a short distance shouting all the while, “CHARGE! KILL!” The eagle tried it’s best to find kobold flesh, but it was hampered by a multitude of cuts and the spear sticking out of it’s right leg, the very spear that had brought it to the ground.
At the onslaught of kobolds, the eagle attempted to fly away, beating the kobolds back and nearly knocking them over in the process. Shouts of anger came from the hunters and spears began to fly. The only one who could hit the beast, however, was Splinter. Two spears found it’s body, one clipping a wing badly enough to bring it down to the ground once more.
Scruffy, Zim, Nix, and Higginpaw were ready when it fell this time. They took care not to be where it was due to land. As it scrambled to stand the kobolds fell in upon it, blood spurting and feathers flying in all directions. Soon, it was no more, with Nix standing atop it, her spear stabbed through it’s wing as the final blow.
The warriors panted as they tried to recover their breath, glancing around to ensure that everyone was in one piece. Somehow, all had gotten through without a scratch. Pats on the back and shouts of celebration were called around to all as they working together returned to the camp. Upon returning, the civilian kobolds let out a whoop of cheer from the sight of the massive corpse.
“No go hungry,” mused Valk with her arms tightly held around Karak who seemed to have made it out of the pit safe and sound as well. With great effort the monstrous beast was dragged to the butchery where Sen, Taz, and Kalras cut it to pieces with a gusto. All the while Splinter stood by bragging of his excellent shooting. Nix, the Eagle Slayer and ‘bold of the hour, was content with sitting to the south of the camp where Aseaheru and Drakruldus were hard at work building.
While the warriors were gone the fortress had not slept. Aseaheru, Drukalakus, and Karak had been hard at work creating the new dining hall. “Old hall be nest,” explained Drukalakus as he worked with the clay gathered from the nearby mountain side. “New hall bigger. Better.” He gestured over to where the doorway was going to be. “Statues on walls.”
Aseaheru stood by an earthenware statue he had apparently been working on. After making the general shape with the clay, he had begun to carve finer features. All would be able to see why it was important to bring someone well versed in clays. “Kalras,” pointed out Aseaheru helpfully as he continued to carve little earrings in her ears. “Friend Karlas love earring.”
In the middle of the camp, Clover and Zim were working together to decide what exactly to use the bars of metal for. “Machete!” suggested Zim cheerfully for the seventh time in the past hours. Clover responded with enthusiasm, as she had each previous time this decision was made. “Iron machete good!” she responded as she stoked the fires that would set the blade.
“And brass?” asked Zim as he lifted the more or less worthless metal. After much deliberation Clover snapped her fingers and cheerfully called out, “Statue! Brass statue! For hall!” The two nodded conspiratorially at this and set back to work.
There was an air of excitement and charge about the camp, for the temperature was rising. The river had come back to it’s regular running self (Jrodluthis The Drink of Crabs be praised!) and they had survived the winter. Great things were in the works and their first victory had been attained. All of the kobolds who had fought the giant eagle wore a feather as victory and a feather was even baked into the clay of the new dining hall. All signs pointed to a bright future.
I experimented with a slightly more wandering, prosier style this time so it's a little bit long. Hope you like it! Let me know if you've got comments or if I've made some mistakes! Issues of people equipping the wrong weapon actually happened. Oops. That's what I get for trusting Individual Choice.
Also, here is Sen's list of relationships as per request:
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Topic: Non-Running Kobold Community Camp and Questions About A New One (Read 24130 times)