Kobold

TOC

Statistics
Terrain: Any Land

Frequency: Common

Organization: Clan

Activity Cycle: Night

Diet: Omnivore

Intellegence: Semi 2-5

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Number Appearing: 2d20+DM Option

Armor Class: 8

Movement: 6

Hit Dice: 1/2 1d4

Thac0: 20

Attacks per Round: 1

Damage: 1d4 or by weapon -2

Special Attacks: Backstab +4

Special Defences: none

Magic Resistance: none

Size: S 3' tall

Moral: Unreliable 2-4

XP Value: 7

Description
The Kobolds of Nasman are likened to giant rats. They are everywhere. They hide in the darkness of abandoned basements, root cellars, sewers, brush piles, ruins and overgrown tangles of forest.

Kobolds are also somewhat rat-like in appearance, having long snouts, beady and suspicious black eyes, and short dingy fur that smells of wet dog, rotten produce and excrement. They stand about 3 feet tall and have a rather brittle bone structure, likely from malnutrition. Their teeth, however are quite strong and needle sharp and their jaws are strong enough to crack bones.

Combat
The kobold arsenal is mainly comprised of clubs, crude spears, hurled rocks and their own teeth and claws. They may also (30%) utilize scavenged weaponry, though they usually need to have seen the tool used as such beforehand. A kobold armed with a sword or ax is mighty in his clan and the weapon will be brandished and exclaimed over as the kobold faces any who challenge him.

Being constantly harassed by their larger tribe-mates, human weapons hold a particular draw to kobolds, representing the means to overpower their tormentors. These weapons all tend to be used as clubs (bows and crossbows are generally used as musical instruments) with the edge only sporadically making contact with their victim, or as stabbing weapons with which kobolds are masters.

Backstab
A kobold attempting a backstab attack in mele with a piercing weapon get a bonus of +4 to his attack AND damage rolls. Fortunately this degree of martial tactic is rare among the species and represents one of great cunning and vendetta.

Wound Infection
Due to the foul nature of their lifestyle and habitat, anytime a kobold attack breaks the skin there is the danger of infection. This danger amounts to 10% for every open wound received and 30% for every bite received. A character with the Healing or Herbalism proficiency can bring this down to 20% total if the wounds are vigorously cleaned with boiled water and poultices applied. Being treated by an Alchemist negates infection entirely.

Infected wounds fester and itch with a burning intensity that causes the afflicted to suffer -1 to Dexterity, -2 to Constitution, and -4 to Surprise and Initiative rolls. This condition last 1d4 months or until successfully treated by an Alchemist or other healer.

Ecology
Scroungers, scavengers and opportunists, the kobold can be found in almost any setting or location that has adequate food (anything vaguely organic), water (the more stuff in it the better) and shelter (tight spaces and dark shadows). Living predominately underground, a local tribe can go for years without being detected by the humans who share their ecosystem. When forced to the surface, kobolds are shielded from sight by their natural camouflage and their slinking paranoia and stick to the shadows wherever possible.

The Kobold Den
The kobold domicile is called a "den" and houses the elderly (those yet uneaten), the infirm (those yet uneaten) and the infantile (also those yet uneaten).

The den will usually be strewn with little and debris, vaguely organized by material or usefulness (as perceived by kobolds). Kobold have a strong sense of self and ownership, however, so much of the refuse is actually refuse. Individuals will keep as many items as the can keep on their person or as much as they can personally defend. To this end, the den is divided into personal sleeping areas by knee-high walls of stones and trash and are marked with the owners urine if he or she must leave their treasures behind.

The Clan Chief
The chieftain of any clan will be the strongest, intelligent, charismatic or otherwise compelling member of the clan. He or she will have their own cell apart from the rest of the tribe and possibly bodyguards who reside just outside his door (or flap or dead cat or whatever). This private chamber (hole in the wall) will house the brightest metal, the shiniest stones and the freshest (most rotten) food. The paranoid chief will rarely leave his hoard except to threaten and harass the others into giving him more.

The Overlord
Occasionally a den may be manipulated or threatened into serving the purposes of group or individual of another species. This Overlord may be anything that is more intelligent than the kobolds who serve it and will have statistics consistent with others of it's species.

Sociology
Kobolds have no real social structure to their clans except as is similar to the pecking order of chickens. Their technology advances about as far as piling broken crates and refuse to construct shelter, though they are known to steal various hand tools which they put to work in ways that the tools were never intended to be used.

Kobolds exhibit an obsessive compulsion towards metal and semi-precious and precious stones. The smooth, hard surfaces are pleasing to their touch, and the shiny glint captures and holds their eyes like a hypnotist's pendulum. A kobold will do anything to obtain this treasure, so long as it stays within their sight. Passing from view, the object of the lust falls prey to their amazingly short memory and distracted nature, being completely forgotten until the object is seen again. Once returned to the forefront of their minds, the bauble takes on mythic proportions in the kobold's mind where it is remembered as having been their treasured possession, and the one who now holds it, a despised thief. This false memory then drives the kobold into a vicious fury wherein the perceived thief becomes the target of their hatred and is set upon in a gnashing blood frenzy. This frenzy only dies with the death of one of these combatants, assuming that no other kobolds were around to witness the affair. Any kobold within screaming distance comes running to join the fray, driven mad by the screeches of their kin and the smell of fresh spilled blood. In such a scenario, the resulting mound of flailing kobold claws will continue, even in the killing of their own, until only one remains. This is as much a blessing as a curse, for while it spells doom for the poor soul who taunted the kobolds, it also ensures a sharp thinning of the kobold masses. Due to their squalid living conditions, kobolds are virtually impervious to disease and free of predation. Their nature, then, is their only natural enemy.

Kobold & Human
Kobolds may dress themselves in mocking mimicry of the humans that they watch with such curiosity, but rarely for long and never out of modesty. They will cover themselves in the winter months with the furs and skins of larger animals. These are usually poorly cured (or totally un-cured) hide capes, held closed with sharp sticks, bones or knives.

Humans have begun dealing their own blows to the kobold population, arranging extermination parties who hunt the kobolds through sewers and alleys, swamps and caverns. While not entirely effective in terms of genocide, these extermination parties do serve to keep the kobold menace to a pestilent level in the areas surrounding human villages.

With their intricate and largely un-mapped sewers and their dark and hidden surface passages, the lager human cities find the task of extermination much more difficult. Certain enterprising cities have careers dedicated to kobold extermination like the chimney sweeps and rat catchers of the more provincial towns. These Sewer Rangers are a shrewd and hardened lot, and can be detected by scent within three city blocks when on the surface. For this reason they tend to form their own guilds and take up residence together near the sewer entrances.

Art and Culture
Kobolds do actually have a sort of culture, or at least artistic expression, in the form of pageantry. They love to mimic human behavior in pantomime, acting out their last battles, which end in uproariously comical deaths or, in the case of really accurate portrayals, another blood frenzy that wipes out most of the kobolds in attendance. Sometimes the subject portrayed is nothing more than a funny walk, or a cart tipping over on someone, or the self-important behavior of a local ruler or magistrate, anything that the kobolds catch onto as funny or mystifying. This form of mockery is also regularly used to taunt their opponents, but only when their opponents are cornered or vastly outnumbered.