Kobolds

Kobolds

Kobolds are craven reptilian humanoids that worship evil dragons as demigods and serve them as minions and toadies. Kobolds inhabit dragons’ lairs when they can but more commonly infest dungeons, gathering treasures and trinkets to add to their own tiny hoards.

Strength in Numbers. Kobolds are egg-laying creatures. They mature quickly and can live to be “great wyrms” more than a century old. However, many kobolds perish before they reach the end of their first decade. Physically weak, they are easy prey for predators. This vulnerability forces them to band together. Their superior numbers can win battles against powerful adversaries, but often with massive casualties on the kobold side. Tunnelers and Builders. Kobolds make up for their physical ineptitude with a cleverness for trap making and tunneling. Their lairs consist of low tunnels through which they move easily but which hinder larger humanoids. Kobolds also riddle their lairs with traps. The most insidious kobold traps make use of natural hazards and other creatures. A trip wire might connect to a spring-loaded trap that hurls clay pots of flesh-eating green slime or flings crates of venomous giant centipedes at intruders.

The Lost God. In addition to the dragons they revere, kobolds worship a lesser god named Kurtulmak. Legends speak of how Kurtulmak served as Tiamat’s vassal in the Nine Hells until Garl Glittergold, the god of gnomes, stole a trinket from the Dragon Queen’s hoard. Tiamat sent Kurtulmak to retrieve the trinket, but Garl Glittergold played a trick on him, collapsing the earth and trapping the kobold god in an underground maze for eternity. For this reason, kobolds hate gnomes and pranks of any kind. Kurtulmak’s most devoted worshipers dedicate themselves to finding and releasing their lost god from his prison-maze.

Winged Kobolds. A few kobolds are born with leathery wings and can fly. Known as urds, they like to lurk on high ledges and drop rocks on passersby. Although the urds’ wings are seen as gifts from Tiamat, the Dragon Queen, wingless kobolds are envious of those gifts and don’t get along with the urds.

Kobold dragonshields are champions of their people. Almost all dragonshields begin life as normal kobolds, then are chosen by a dragon and invested with power for the purpose of protecting the dragon’s eggs, but once every few years a kobold hatches with an innate version of the dragonshield’s abilities. In either case, a dragonshield is skilled at hand-to-hand combat and bears a shield made of dragon scales, as well as scars from desperate fights.
Dragonshields know they have a place of honor among those who venerate dragons, but—being kobolds at heart—most of them feel unworthy of their status and are desperate to prove themselves deserving of it. But they also have the ability to rally in the face of certain death, inspiring others to follow them into battle.

Kobold scale sorcerers have an innate talent for arcane magic, making them highly valuable members of their communities. These sorcerers typically fill the role of advisor, and when threatened, a scale sorcerer lashes out with colorful magic.
A scale sorcerer who resides in or near a dragon’s lair may serve as that dragon’s diplomat and mouthpiece—anticipating the dragon’s needs, issuing commands to others on the dragon’s behalf, and reporting information back to the dragon. Such scale sorcerers often wear artificial wings, which are a sign of their draconic office. Scale sorcerers are just as awed by and respectful of dragons as others who venerate these mighty creatures, but they know that duty requires them not to fawn over their master at all times. They also understand that their frequent proximity to their dragon master means they would probably be the first to die if their master became angry or displeased, so they frantically maintain a balance between adoration and terror in their behavior toward their master.