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View Full Version : I love kobolds...



Ashiel
2010-10-19, 02:10 AM
So I'm sitting on OpenRPG and writing, when a few of my players get online and start chatting. I'm running a persistent world, and one of them has had their first character get captured by a mini-BBEG in a 2nd-3rd level adventure. So he has rolled up a monk and decided he wanted to go on a short adventure with a few of the others. So we got a barbarian, a monk, and an archer of sorts.

So I didn't have anything planned, so I let them decide what they wanted to tackle, out of a list. Wilderness, kobolds, orcs, exploration, etc. One of them, who only knew kobolds from 4E said "Kobolds! We'll hunt the kobolds!"

Anyone here feel compelled to grin/facepalm/snicker just a little bit? :smallamused:

NOW: Let me go ahead and note that my players and everyone in this persistent world begins with an exceptionally good bonus to their starting hit points, 'cause we don't play around. We're playing Pathfinder and you get double your starting HD before applying con, so wizards get 12 + Con, Rogues 16 + Con, Fighters 20 + Con, and Barbarians 24 + Con. Keep this in mind.

So my buddy Felix - who was sitting out - said "Hah, you're all gonna die.", and when the leader of the little raid (the 4E guy) asked why, my buddy Felix noted that the kobolds are terrifying little guys, and said he would watch.

So the adventure was soon underway. A coal mine which had dug into some kobold tunnels and had miners go missing. Simple and sweet. The mine owner, Mr. Sigfried Vandercleft mentioned that they hadn't dared explore the tunnels they dug into after the men went missing, but they found tracks. Offering a thousand silver pieces (100 gp) to whomever could go inside and make certain the kobolds were driven away, the party was off.

Man they weren't getting paid enough...

So they make it a little ways into the tunnels, and it's cramped and pitch dark. The ceiling's only 6ft high off the floor, and the walls around barely spaced enough to walk through in some places. They're entering into the kobold lair to hunt these kobolds. So they find an odd trap (which was fairly obvious) which was a bunch of thick wire cords attached to pitons in the walls creating a lattice-work of 4-5 inch wide square holes. The trap wasn't damaging in the least, but made movement in a pain in the butt (unless you were small then you had to make balance checks to navigate through the holes without falling down or getting entangled).

So they've seen no kobolds after coming through the trap, laughing at the trap's lack of effectiveness. They come to two tunnels and take the right tunnel. One of them has a bull's eye lantern and spots four kobolds about 50ft down a narrow 5ft wide tunnel, taking cover behind an overturned barrel which was about as tall/wide as a dwarf. Each of them were wielding little crossbows. So the barbarian who's the first to see them breaks into a charge!

Mistake #2 (The first was going into a kobold den)
The barbarian makes it about 20 feet from the kobolds and the floor collapses out from under her. Sneaky little buggers. So not only does she take 2d6 points of falling damage, but she then has to make a reflex save to avoid this barrel (they're pushing) on its way down the pit. So then the barrel hits the bottom of the pit and bursts open, filling the pit with oil. Kobold #4 tosses a flask of oil + fire. Barbarian BBQ!

So the hallway fills with smoke and the barbarian begins climbing out of the pit as fast as she can WHILE ON FIRE, and slips and slides a couple times due to a bit of dice troubles. So then the party's archer fires at the kobolds and misses, so they all scurry into little tunnels they have to crawl into (a halfling or gnome could fit in them too, but...), escaping the party. So they have to rescue the Barbarian who's climbing out of a 20ft pit WHILE ON FIRE, narrowly managing to douse her at 2 HP (remember that thing about the HP?).

So they abandon going down tunnel #1, and the barbarian says she cannot go on without some rest. So the monk who took no damage decides he's going to explore the left path, while the archer looks after the barbarian in room #1. So the monk gets shot out from at one of those little holes in the walls the kobolds were moving through, and deftly dodges the bolt, and feels pretty confident, and keeps going. SWOOSH!

So he finds pit trap #2 and takes 10 points of falling damage, and fails the acrobatics check to lessen it on the way down. So he stands up, realizes a sense of deja vu, and then dodges the barrel on the way down. Splatter! and of course, here comes the fire. VOOSH!

So is slammed by like 6 fire damage, and he leaps to the walls and starts scrambling up. He has to clear 20ft in 1 round, and he's moving at 1/2 his speed, and that's with a -5 penalty to move faster. So he biffs his first check out of 2, and so he burns an Action Point* to try again, and manages to roll amazingly on both, but then at the top of the pit he is burned for more damage, dropping him to 0 Hp. Realizing trying to douse himself would drop him to -1, and not dousing himself was going to continue his fire damage, he runs down the hallway as fast as he can calling his friends for help and makes it to within their LoS as he succumbs to the -1 HP followed by more fire damage. He is rescued with a waterskin and dragged out to safety.

"Maybe we should try goblins next time." he remarks. :smallbiggrin:

Final Tally: Two CR 1 pit traps. 4 CR 1/4 Kobolds. Two barrels of expendable oil in a 10ft radius (part of the kobolds' NPC gear, filed under expendables).

The players did get a good bit of experience for causing the kobolds to flee the first encounter, and for surviving traps. :smallbiggrin:

Action Point*: My group uses Action Points. Every PC has one at 1st level, and gains an additional action point every 5 levels (5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th). By burning an action point, you get another action (standard, move, or swift) and refill every 8 hours. I've been using these pre-4E release, for those that are curious. I never liked the Eberron/UA action points 'cause they didn't really make anything more action-y. They just added a random bonus, whereas action points let you preform combos and other rule-defying tricks.

SilverLeaf167
2010-10-19, 02:39 AM
We're playing Pathfinder and you get double your starting HD before applying con, so wizards get 12 + Con, Rogues 16 + Con, Fighters 20 + Con, and Barbarians 24 + Con.
NITPICK ATTACK!
Wizard's only have d4 for a hit die, not d6! :smallbiggrin:

A lot of people are fooled by the kobold's low CR and over-all pathetic stats and looks. Remember, the CR doesn't include the traps... which can often be quite cruel, because it's almost impossible to hit them back.

My players are just plain stupid/silly/funny with traps. Empty hallway with a door at the end? They spend a lot of time searching the whole hallway with traps. They find nothing, with quite good rolls, and think I was just fooling them. They touch the door, and a small portion of the walls near the door smash on the rogue. He succeeds on a Reflex save, taking no damage.
"Whew, that was close!"
He pokes the door again. Rolls a 1 on the save. Massive damage. Instant death. Luckily, the crazy granny they had just met was a powerful druid and Reincarnated the rogue.

Sorry if I got out of topic, but you didn't really have any question.
What if this topic was about funny stories about traps?

ranagrande
2010-10-19, 02:43 AM
NITPICK ATTACK!
Wizard's only have d4 for a hit die, not d6! :smallbiggrin:

The OP said Pathfinder, so it really is d6.

Gavinfoxx
2010-10-19, 02:43 AM
Anti nitpick: I think PF wizards have D6 HD.

Curses, Swordsaged!

SilverLeaf167
2010-10-19, 02:46 AM
Oopsie.
Nitpick sowwy.

Anti nitpick: I think PF wizards have D6 HD.
NITPICK ATTACK!
It's anti-nitpick. With a hyphen.
Now I'm happy again.

Zen Master
2010-10-19, 05:34 AM
Sounds like a tremendously fun encounter - I think I'll steal it and submit my group to it.

Coidzor
2010-10-19, 05:41 AM
Kobolds are why dwarves invented tower-shields.

And gnomes.

Lev
2010-10-19, 06:54 AM
Good recap, pretty nasty adventure that will be sure to make adventurers rethink their strategy... humbling, I like it!

PopcornMage
2010-10-19, 07:00 AM
Is anybody else thinking of this thread title as if a guy from a spy movie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldmember) were saying it.

panaikhan
2010-10-19, 07:12 AM
Kobolds are cool.
The group I was Dm'ing for all remember the kobold attack I put them through.. though to be fair, the kobold leader was a Dragonheart Mage.

After the party managed to kill most of the other kobolds, they decided to spare the leader with an offer to join them (they didn't have an effective spellcaster at the time).