Cross is an important center in Stormreach. It is adjacent to the Marketplace, and it links many of the important districts of the city. It has also become a fiercely defended home away from home for many displaced refugees from Cyre. Dannel’s Pride is the Cyran ward, and its residents have invested everything they have left into preserving a little piece of the old country here in Stormreach. Anything that threatens that effort is likely to attract their opposition and raise their ire.
Now, the tenuous peace of the area is threatened. A plague of petty thefts, emptied food stores, missing pets, and pilfered strongboxes have led the people of Dannel’s Pride to one conclusion: kobolds. This conclusion was confirmed by the deaths of some of the pests. (Most inhabitants view them as a larger and more annoying form of rat.) The thefts and problems continued unabated after the first few kobold killings, and in fact, they seem to be escalating.
Determined to put a stop to the damage and the desecration of their efforts to preserve what remains of their home, the people of Dannel’s Pride sent their militia out to patrol the streets at night. They also pooled enough money to hire some additional help to deal with the problem. The trouble is, apart from a few small entry tunnels into their cellars and pantries, they have no real clue where the kobolds are hiding and nesting. Some investigation coupled with some tunnel crawling would seem to be in order.
TWISTS AND TURNS
Only one of the following pieces of information is true.
- The kobolds are not as stupid as the people of Dannel’s Pride assume. Their leader is actually rather intelligent and regards his tribe as a sneaky, hidden gang. The trouble he is causing for Dannel’s Pride, and by extension the additional work for the area gangs and militia, is at the behest of the Bilge Rats, who are seeking to undermine the Storm Hammers so that the Bilge Rats can more easily deal with their other enemies.
- The kobolds are being dominated and controlled by an unliving force from out of the Mournland, an avatar of despair and self-destruction that has been drawn to Stormreach to put an end to the Cyre enclave in Dannel’s Pride. It is acting through the kobolds to undermine and demoralize the settlement before it moves directly or acts through stronger servants. Use a wraith or a dread wraith to represent this spirit.
- The kobolds don’t exist. Those claiming to have killed some kobolds are lying. Instead, Cadroc (page 30) and his group of young adventurers have been stepping up their dungeon games by plundering people’s “treasure rooms.” Cadroc and his group store everything that has been stolen beneath the Rubble Warren. Cadroc’s group members are sworn to secrecy, because they know just how much trouble they will get in if they are found out. If this carries on too long, though, a child might get hurt.
- Cadroc met the kobolds beneath the Rubble Warren, and the kobold tribe and the children’s adventuring group have formed an unlikely play group. The kobolds asked the children to keep their special secret, but the children let slip choice information about their parents’ houses and businesses that the kobolds later used to their advantage.
SMALL TUNNELS
The crawlspaces and tunnels beneath the Rubble Warren and throughout much of Dannel’s Pride are only large enough for children and Small creatures such as kobolds and halflings. Larger folk seeking to enter the tunnels, let alone fight in them, find themselves cramped and subject to a –2 or –4 penalty to all their actions, depending on how cramped the conditions are. Small or smaller characters and creatures are unaffected.
Cadroc’s “adventuring” group has explored the tunnels and crawlspaces beneath Dannel’s Pride and decorated the tunnels with colorful chalk drawings of monsters and heroes. They also constructed “traps” for make-believe adventures in the tunnels. All of this can make exploration down here unusual for adventuring parties, and Cadroc and his friends could make very good guides for uncovering the kobolds.
UNUSUAL TREASURE
Although kobolds find glittery, shiny things irresistible, the items they have looted from Dannel’s Pride are likely to be mundane. Upon breaking open a locked chest in the kobold warren, one is as likely to find a particularly tasty glazed ham as a fistful of treasure. When generating treasure within the kobold tunnels, roll on the following table. 1d6 Result 1–3 The treasure is a jumble of mundane items such as pots and pans. 4–5 The treasure is made up of tasty food items stolen from a pantry. 6 Determine treasure normally.
CONCLUSION
With the kobolds confronted, their true master (if one exists) is revealed (and perhaps destroyed), and their intent is made clearer. The characters earn the gratitude of Dannel’s Pride and, by extension, a warm reception from other refugees from Cyre once the word gets around.
If a puppet master of some sort was pulling the kobolds’ strings, this mastermind will be forced to act more directly. Kobolds are good at stealth and sneakiness, and their elimination as pawns means that any follow-up is likely to be far more brutal, direct, and dangerous to the people of Dannel’s Pride.
Kobolds have a high birth rate and mature quickly. Thus, it’s never a sure thing that they have been eliminated. After a short while, the thefts and problems start all over again, and the goodwill that the PCs earned from the people of Dannel’s Pride vanishes because the refugees believe the job wasn’t properly done.
To regain their respect and perhaps earn a new reward, the characters need to venture into the tunnels and crawlspaces beneath the ward once again, only this time their little enemies will be ready for them and looking for revenge.