NOVEL WEB Chapter 52 - Kobolds
Dungeon Day 58
With Drax and Dena staying behind at the village along with his two D-ranked teams and two mini-bosses, Dan wasn't too worried for their safety. Instead, he had looked into dealing with the kobolds. They were the last weak area outside of the gnolls that he needed to conquer. The only thing that had held him back was the lack of D-rankers. He knew that monsters would start to target the kobolds once he conquered them, and Dan would have to make sure he left some defenders behind. So, after waiting two days in order to make five new D-ranked teams, Dan finally decided to conquer the kobolds.
After taking Dena and Eagle the Hawk away from the village, Dan replaced them with another ranked team. The druid was going to be the one doing the introductions as usual, but this time, Dan also sent Chomp the Worm with her. He knew that the kobolds resided underground, so having something that could target them directly would be good. Dan honestly doubted that the kobolds would give up as easily as the village had. They had a proper military force and no doubt believed themselves to be capable of defending against most threats. So, he imagined that he would have to flex some of his power in order to get them to cooperate.
Leaving from the southern part of the village it only took the party a few hours or so to make it into kobold lands. The terrain changed from a rather forestry environment and slowly became a much more rocky outcropping. Rocks began to jag out of the ground with large piles of boulders strewn about. Overall, the area was much more treacherous and hilly. Now, it didn't mean that there weren’t trees about, as there were a couple here and there, but nowhere near the same forestry environment that could be found in the rest of the zone.
Watching from the sky, Dan could easily spot the two massive stone structures that contained the entrances to the kobold's and gnoll's caves. Both of them grew from the stone around them and were rather imposing compared to all the other boulder piles around them. If Dan had to compare their entrances to anything, it would probably be like a hanger-sized hole big enough to allow an airliner through. Much like he had seen before and had been told, both entrances were heavily guarded and structured.
However, having taken a look at the gnoll's entrance first, Dan had to admit that the kobolds were much more prepared in their defense. Whereas the gnolls focused more on ground defenses by having many spike walls, trenches, and all sorts of detritus strewn about. The kobolds had created more structural lines of defense. Things weren't seemingly put all over the place and followed a coherent plan. They had towers with archers manning them and even alcoves attached to the cave walls with a couple of ballista-looking things on them. Dan had to admit that he was genuinely impressed, even if such defenses wouldn't do much against his monsters.
As Dena approached the first defenses of the cave, Dan nudged Eagle the Hawk to land on the druid. He couldn't really see through Chomp’s senses like he wanted and wanted a good view of the goings-on with Eagle’s eyes.
The party stopped in front of the defenses, and Dan could tell that the kobolds seemed rather weary of the beasts standing behind Dena. The kobolds were small creatures standing maybe two to three feet tall, with a few bulkier ones standing up a little bit taller than that.
Much to Dan’s earlier surprise, they weren't all red. He didn't know why he had the idea that all kobolds were red, but it was far from the truth. They came in all sorts of colorations: red, blue, green, orange, purple, and a couple of others. In a way, it made sense. The little lizard folks were descendants of dragons, so their coloring should match their ancestry. In this particular case, all the kobolds in front of the party were shades of brown or grey, showing they probably descended from some earth or stone dragons. Aside from their color, other things they had in common were their short crocodile-like snouts and the fact they stood on two raptor-like legs and used thin raptor-like tails that were half of their height to balance themselves.
As far as differences went well, outside of their pigmentations, with some being lighter colored than others, the two main differences were with their horns and scaly skin. Their horns came in a wide variety of types: short, long, twisting, straight, curving, or a mix of any. Additionally, it wasn’t uncommon for them to have more than two horns. Now, as for their skin, well, from Dan’s view, it seemed to mostly depend on what they did. The archers looked to have much smoother skins, with only patches of rough, bigger stone-like scales growing in certain places, usually the feet, elbows, and back. Meanwhile, those who seemed to deal in closer combat had much denser scales all over. These scales, though bulkier, somehow didn’t prevent them from wearing some basic armor, but not always. Even so, it was impressive that with the number of kobolds missing armor, they all still looked like a proper military force.
While they stood there, a commotion was clearly happening within the ranks, and eventually, a kobold who had to be in charge came out to meet with Dena. The kobold was one of the bulkier and wore chain mail armor. Other than armor, the kobold had a simple sword on his waist and a tabard showing a sword stabbed into and across a chunk of rock. Also, the kobold was a male, as his snout was slightly larger than the females, or so Dan had been told. Either way, the kobold came to a stop in front of Dena and quickly addressed her.
“Druid, it is nice to see you again. What brings you to our warren once again?” The kobold's voice was a bit squeaky, like how you expected a goblin's high-pitched voice to sound, but with some gravel added on there as well, which gave it a hint of seriousness.
“Captain Uldu, I wish to meet with Lady Diba if it isn’t too much to ask,” Dena responded calmly, giving a quick bow.
Uldu answered, suspiciously eyeing the beasts, “What do you wish to speak with her ladyship about? Perhaps these beasts? Have you brought them to assist us in our war?”
Dena smiled and nodded as it was technically the truth.
“Very well, follow me, though your beasts must wait outside.”
“Would it be possible to bring in the hawk?” the druid asked as the kobold turned around to walk away. Still, he nodded, and she followed.
Walking into the warren, Dan was once again impressed by the kobolds. After the main entrance and its many defenses, the tunnel stretched forward a bit longer before it took a turn downwards. Slowly but surely, the tunnel got smaller and smaller until it went from its hangar size to a much more normal size. Meaning it could now almost fit two average-sized humanoids.
Through the tunnel, they ran into other defenses built into the wall. These were mainly kill rooms that would allow the kobolds to attack any invading force without suffering much damage in return. Eventually, though, the tunnel opened back up once again, and Dan found himself in a large cave bustling with activity. Smaller tunnels veered off this large area, and many kobolds could be seen darting in and out of them. The place was barely lit, and it was then that Dan was happy he had given Eagle the Hawk Night Vision.
Looking at the cave in amazement, Dan appreciated how the kobolds used any space. The walls were filled with stairs leading into rooms and other tunnels, allowing the kobolds to truly maximize the amount of area they had available. However, looking around, Dan also saw that the kobolds weren't all fighters. Though he did see some warrior-looking kobolds walking around, many more seemed to be of much more simple crafting backgrounds. They all worked neatly and efficiently to help run the warren, but it also meant there were fewer warriors to fight off the gnolls.
Eventually, Uldu took them to the back of the large cave and through a tunnel that opened up into a larger space that was obviously some sort of throne room. The room was guarded by a dozen or so soldiers that formed a line in front of the small stone throne. A few guards stood in front of the two tunnels that left the throne room, but none actually guarded the entrance Dena had come through. The room itself followed a simple layout and was separated into two areas. The area where Dena and Uldu were was on the lower end. Steps led up to and separated them from the raised area that held the throne.
After a few moments of waiting in the plain stone room, another kobold wearing simple brown robes came from the tunnel on the right and shouted in a much squeakier voice than Uldu’s.
“Now presenting her Ladyship, Lady Diba Snix!” After finishing his presentation, the kobold bowed, and a female kobold with the smoothest kobold skin Dan had seen so far came in. She wore nice-looking caramel-colored garments made of a nice, smooth-looking material. These garments went well with her grey-spattered skin, which made her look like she was a mix of many different stones. As her ladyship walked in, Dena and Uldu bowed, with Dan nudging Eagle to give a slight bow of her hawk head.
Her ladyship eventually sat on her stone throne and spoke up in a shrill voice that made Dan wish he couldn’t hear.
“Captain Uldu, please rise and tell me why you have brought our friend, the druid, here before me again.”
Uldu slowly rose, never actually bringing his head upwards but always staring down at the ground, answering firmly and unworried.
“Yes, your ladyship as you wish. I have brought the druid here as she wishes to speak with you regarding the war and her willingness to assist with some new and mighty-looking beasts.”
“Hmmm, I see. Very well, Captain Uldu, you are dismissed,” Diba said and waited for Uldu to slowly back out of the room before finding it in herself to speak with Dena. “Friend Dena, please rise and do tell me about this additional assistance you wish to offer.”
Now, it was when things began to get interesting. Dena rose, but to the lady's surprise, instead of staring at the ground, her eyes met the supposed noble. This seemed to anger the kobold a bit, but she didn’t say anything. As for Dena, well, like usual, she smiled and spoke.
“Yes, your ladyship, I come because I have found a new master to serve. This master is powerful and commands many powerful beasts. Naturally, I spoke of your and your people's plight to my master, and they offered to help. However, their help comes at a price.”
Dena’s answer definitely made the kobold uncomfortable, but from what Dena told Dan, the kobolds knew they were on the back foot. There were around 2000 kobolds, meaning they outnumbered the gnolls two to one. The problem was that this number added all the kobolds, which was wrong as not all of the kobolds were warriors. In truth, only around 600 of the kobolds were warriors, with maybe another 200 to 300 being able to actually perform somewhat decently in combat. This meant the kobolds were outmatched in combat since one gnoll could easily fight two kobolds. So, in the end, her ladyship knew that they were only holding on by a thread since the gnolls hadn’t mounted a full-on attack just yet. Thus, it meant she, at the very least, had to ask in the hopes that the price wasn’t too high.