Kobold
Kobolds are one of the most resourceful, industrious, and tenacious races to ever plumb the reaches of the Underrealm. Hidden away beyond labyrinthine tunnels and countless traps, kobolds manage to do more than just survive in the deadliest realms known to explorers, they thrive.
Never has a race of creatures been so perilously underestimated. Countless adventurers' tales describe kobolds as cowardly weaklings easily dismissed by any who encounter them. If kobolds were truly such a pitiful race, however, they would have been exterminated ages ago. Those few survivors of an actual kobold attack tell of devious warriors emerging from the darkness, sometimes through the very walls, in relentless waves of sadistic ferocity and lethal ingenuity.
Standing just over 2 feet tall and weighing around 40 pounds, average kobolds are physically weak but fast and agile. Their thin and wiry frames make kobolds well suited to moving quickly and fighting within the cramped tunnels of their lairs. After hatching from its egg, a kobold grows quickly, reaching maturity around the age of six. While the lifespan of an average kobold might be shortened by violence, accident, or disease (in that order), particularly wise and wily kobolds can live up to an astonishing 20 to 140 years.
Ranging in color from dark, rusty brown to reddish black, the toothy scales that cover kobolds' tough hides are similar to those of an iguana or another large lizard. The scales that cover kobolds' short tails are very fine and slightly lighter than the rest of their mottled hides, giving them a smooth, "naked" appearance. While primarily used for balance, kobolds often use their highly flexible yet nonprehensile tails to wield specialized weapons.
Kobold skulls are often described as being doglike due to their long snouts and sharp teeth. However, many of the characteristics of a kobold's head are more accurately defined as displaying rudimentary features of dragonkind, forward-facing nostrils, ear holes, a forked tongue, and two short, keratinous horns sprouting from the top of the skull. Kobolds' remarkably sensitive, glowing red eyes allow them to pick out the smallest details from their
surroundings, even in pitch-black caverns. However, intense light such as bright sunlight or is difficult for kobolds to tolerate and causes discomfort and disorientation. Kobolds also rely on
their acute sense of hearing to detect approaching danger and to pick out familiar sounds that help them navigate the confusing maze of tunnels surrounding their tribe's lair.
Kobolds can eat just about anything, plants, animals, and even intelligent humanoids, cannibalistic kobold tribes are common. Despite an omnivorous diet, kobolds do not possess differentiated teeth, they are all short and pointed. Interestingly, a kobold loses and grows new teeth throughout its entire life, taking anywhere from two to three years to completely replace an entire set of fifty-four. Kobolds often save their teeth, strung on necklaces or other adornments, as an impressive demonstration of their age.
As a relatively small and physically weak race, kobold society revolves around survival. Virtually every aspect of all kobolds' activities contributes toward the tribe's survival in one way
or another. As such, all kobolds serve their tribes by filling at least one of several predictable roles.
Kobold trapmakers not only create deadly devices that guard against intruders, they also design contraptions to catch or kill animals for food. Fanners cultivate mushrooms and edible
plants as well as carnivorous, poisonous, or dangerous vegetation that serve as barriers or deterrents against invasion. Miners extract precious metals, minerals, and gemstones from the
earth while carving the intricate tunnels and chambers that form the tribe's lair, its outlying defense, and mazelike escape passages. Animal handlers capture, raise and train the tribe's guardian creatures while also tending small herds of lizards, centipedes, or other domesticated animals and vermin.
The warriors of a kobold tribe, of course, play the most proactive roles in the tribe's collective effort to survive. Kobold warriors constantly remain active and alert, verging on paranoia. Tne needs for constant watchfulness is such that a warrior caught sleeping or distracted while on
duty faces a death sentence. Kobold executions usually take the nerve, wracking form of forcing the condemned to test the effectiveness of newly created traps. The execution continues until either the condemned kobold is killed or he has sprung or avoided three traps. At that point, the kobold emerges either as a corpse or an exonerated hero worthy of praise
and respect from the tribe.
While survival of the tribe is paramount, for an individual kobold self, preservation remains top of mind. Because of this "better you than me" mentality, patrols and warbands actively recruit even the weakest, most incompetent, and dull-witted kobolds. That way, when encountering a superior enemy, the clever, swift, and strong kobolds can safely retreat while encouraging their
less-apt companions to "hold them off while reinforcements move up." This explains why the caricature of the bumbling kobold remains so prevalent, those are the ones most adventurers actually see.
As Kurtulmak teaches, fleeing from certain, probable, possible, or perceived danger is acceptable intelligent behavior. Most kobolds quickly come to the realization that "I don't
have to outrun a dire bear, I just have to outrun another kobold." Particularly clever kobolds discover that tripping or incapacitating another kobold often makes it even easier to get away. Survivors of these when push comes to shove situations become envied by their more fleetfooted peers for their ingenuity and superior escape tactics.
The only exception to this cowardly trend arises when a kobold warband encounters a group of gnomes. All kobolds share a vitriolic hatred of gnomes and, unless outnumbered, ferociously ambush them on sight, fleeing only if the tide of battle turns tragically against them.
Kobolds rarely mate for life. Typically, a romantic bond between an adult male and female lasts no more than a few months, often culminating in the female laying a single egg. Kobolds of both genders remain fertile throughout their adult lives, with females capable oflaying around a half dozen eggs over the course of a year.
Kobolds are partially ovoviviparous, the embryonic kobold develops inside its egg for two months before its mother lays the egg and another two months before hatching. Once laid, each egg is carefully collected in a central nursery where caretakers and an array of traps keep
them safe. Once an egg has been moved to the nursery, neither parent takes much interest in its welfare, a task left to the caretakers. A typical clutch of eggs for a tribe of two hundred kobolds ranges anywhere from twenty to fifty.
Upon hatching, kobolds are fully formed and somewhat self-sufficient, able to derive nutrition
from just about anything they can chew, but aren't strong enough to fend for themselves against predators. During the first six months of life, hatchlings form powerful emotional bonds with their clutch mates, other kobolds who hatch within a month of one another. The intense rivalries and friendships developed between clutch mates are the strongest in kobold culture.
Hatchlings quickly develop motor skills and a rudimentary understanding of the Draconic language. Also among the first things taught to hatchlings are fundamental survival skills, ranging from rock throwing and digging holes to running away and hiding. Kobolds' natural talents for trapmalcing are also fostered at an early age. Kobolds learn to use simple weapons, such as slings and spears, as soon as they're coordinated enough to survive the learning
process. Caretakers note each hatchling's particular skills and aptitudes, or lack thereof, watching for that first spark of sorcery, gift for trapmaking, skill with a weapon, or any other trait
that could pigeonhole where a kobold might fit into the tribe.
By age two, a kobold may petition to leave the nursery by enduring a private ceremony known as the Blessing of the Pit. Presided over by a care taker and an Eye of Kurtulmak, the simple ritual requires the kobold to cross a pit constructed with a variety of hazards. Pit dimensions and contents vary from ritual to ritual as determined by the presiding priest. How the young
kobold leaps over, climbs around, drops down to navigate through, or otherwise circumvents the danger is irrelevant-the end result being what's important. By successfully reaching the
far side, a clever or capable kobold earns the Blessing of the Pit and the right to join the rest of the tribe as a juvenile. Failure to cross the pit invariably results in the unremarkable death of a, particularly clumsy or dull-witted kobold.
The Eye of Kurtulmak who presides over the ceremony assigns the young kobold's first role in the tribe. The assignment usually follows the suggestions of the nursery's caretakers but might differ depending on the presiding cleric's whim or the immediate need of the tribe. If an entire warband has recently been slaughtered, the nursery produces a surprising number of
new warriors. Non-warriors aggressively seek out apprenticeships in accordance with their assigned roles, trying to impress would-be mentors with demonstrations of talent or capacity for a chosen vocation. An apprenticeship might last anywhere from six months to several years, terminating when the student demonstrates a higher degree of skill than the master at which point, their roles are reversed. A significant number of kobolds often those without any noteworthy talents or ambitions become miners. Fortunately, few races possess a greater
inborn proclivity for mining than kobolds.
The unrivaled industry and skill of a kobold workforce produce a remarkable amount of gold, iron, coal, and other valued substances in a stunningly short time. Governments and crafts guilds often secretly employ kobolds for just this reason. Kobolds most commonly mine in
one of two ways, as dictated by threats within those regions and the ambitions of their leader. Some skittish kobold miners venture far from their lairs, yet avoid lingering around large deposits of precious metals and gemstones for very long, as too many other races seek such treasures. When encountered, these miners usually extract a few cartloads of these valuable substances and then hurry back to their lair. Alternatively, more ambitious kobold tribes
covetously guard precious deposits and mine them until depleted. Rather than hoarding such wealth, such tribes usually tum their treasures toward currying the favor of more powerful allies, like derro, troglodytes, and deep-dwelling dragons.
Working in tandem with miners, tunneling crews are charged with exploration and crafting defensive mazes around a tribe's lair. They often employ trained or magically controlled burrowing creatures, such as dire badgers or thoqquas, to speed their efforts.
Budding warriors are assigned to the tribe's constabulary, the leastrespected role in the warrior caste, where they gain additional training with weapons and simple tactics. By the time a kobold outgrows her first set of teeth, she is considered old enough to join a patrol. Some
kobolds, eager to see action before their third year, attempt to collect or claim other kobolds' teeth as their own. In order to join, a kobold must prove herself worthy by defeating and taking the place of a superior. Such challenges rarely prove fatal, but the grudges they often produce frequently end in accidents in the field.
By the onset of adulthood, a kobold usually settles upon a vocation, although this role commonly changes several times over the years depending on the fluctuating needs of the tribe. At this point, a kobold focuses on honing skills in order to increase their standing in their caste and value to the tribe.
Age and ability are the two most attractive qualities a kobold can possess, warranting larger shares of food, safer sleeping arrangements, better weapons, and gear, and increased interest from the opposite gender. An adult kobold's life consists of perpetual jockeying to gain more of all of these. Kobolds usually meet their end in combat, during a cave-in, or in a messy accident involving a newly installed trap. In order to avoid attracting scavengers, and not wanting to waste perfectly good meat, the remains of a slain kobold are usually cooked and eaten. Hunting parties use the bodies of kobolds who died of disease or poison as bait. Tribal heroes and those few kobolds who live long enough to die of old age receive the honor of being burned on a funeral pyre after they've been stripped of particularly valuable items and gear.
RPG Datasheet
Kobold
Volo's Guide to Monsters page 119Much of this section, by necessity, ties into the Dungeons and Dragons Role Playing Game by Wizards of the Coast. Any non-original material that is found herein remains under the ownership of the originating author and is not intended to violate any laws. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of any person, living or dead or undead, real or fictitious, male or female, religious or atheist, bald or full head of hair, stubbled or fat-bearded. No people or animals, other than the author's sanity, were harmed in the creation of this article. Please wash your hands after going to the washroom. For entertainment purposes only.
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