Kobold diplomacy and cuisine

The next morning, having been rescued, and at least partially healed, the former kobold prisoner told us (well, told Buckthorn) that the local kobolds and mites had been waging a war for some while now. A sacred statue had been stolen by the mites and our surivivor was part of a recapture effort. Luckily for him, we had secured the statue, and since it was worthless to us, we would be willing to return it to the kobolds.

The kobold lair was quite close to the sycamore. The lair was mostly uncomfortable cramped. We were mostly surprised when chief Sootscale smashed the holy statue we had delivered to him. He beseeched us to take arms against his shaman who was the instigator behind the mite-kobold war, and who had seen the tribe much reduced from their glory.

At this point we had several options. We could have just killed them all. No kobolds would mean no kobold threat. Or we could meddle in kobold internal politics and kill either the chief or the shaman. Given that we had been hoping for a diplomatic solution all along, killing every kobold (except maybe Buckthorn) was out. So we agreed to help the Chief to introduce a few feet of steel to his warmongering shaman.

We fought a bit against the shaman and his bodyguard. Aware of our last scuffle in constricted spaces, I took the front. That way, I could at least do something this time. This time it was Dragan who decided to circle around to see if there was an usable back door. There wasn't for anyone of his size.

After the shaman had had his discussion with our steel (or rusty iron, but I digress...) we looted his cave. Chief Sootscale wanted everything the shaman had touched out of his cave, and given that some of the junk there was valuable, we volunteered to help. Later in the evening, our packs heavier than they had been when we arrived, a party was had. The kobolds were happy to be rid of the shaman and the mood in the lair was rather friendly. I was somewhat curious about the meat they served us. But chose to keep quiet about it. Turns out the meat wasn't the shaman's corpse as I had feared. Instead it was their last captive mite.

During the evening and next morning a tentative treaty was struck with the kobolds. They could keep their lair, and the surrounding lands, and possibly even trade of some sort could be had after we have driven the bandits away.

The shaman's diary was rather odd read. But Buckthorn did translate the story to all of us. I listened only partially, but it appears that the shaman had been first born a gnome, then reincarnated as a kobold, and had been killing local kobold tribes because of something – malice maybe?.

Nevertheless we returned to Oleg's and reported our success. Restocked and headed out again. There was still a stretch of land unexplored in the west. So another outwards expanding circular sweep was made. Nothing much was found. Some taztlwyrms (spelling?) with nice shiny loot, an animal (local, fey-dog-cat-thing) in a pit-trap – rescued and let go, and finally the menacing fortress of the staglord – seen from the distance, not yet explored.

Another trip back to Oleg's and now, some preparations need to be made for raiding the bandit's keep.