Mikmek was anxious to get back to his tribe with the statue, but the group wanted to explore first the area and continue documenting the region. The hills around the Old Sycamore were rugged, and only thanks to the savvy of Gam'el'gar, they could navigate the maze of canyons and ravines without getting lost.
In one of the ravines, the group encountered a strange creature, an 8 feet tall bizarre half-bear, half-owl monstrosity, that was feeding on a prey, apparently a deer. Kii had read somewhere about these strange creatures, called Owlbears. In wizardry circles, it was believed that they were the result of some deranged wizard's experiments. The creatures were dangerous and extremely aggressive, so the group decided to give it a wide berth. Nevertheless, Kii mentioned that young owlbears fetched a high price in the cities' markets, and he also remembered that, during the interrogation of some of the captured bandits, one of them had mentioned that the Stag Lord kept a horrible pet, a mix of owl and bear, called Beaky... but from what Kii had read, Owlbears were feral and impossible to truly domesticate...
During their exploration, the group was caught by a thunderstorm and got quite wet. That night they slept again in the Mites' lair; only Cardot's coughs broke from time to time the silence in the caverns: apparently they had found a safe place to sleep, at least for the moment.
In the morning, Mikmek led the group to the entrance of the Kobolds' lair. A fallen sign reading "Oaktop Silver Mine" leaned against the side of a narrow opening in an outcropping of large boulders that emerged from the weathered face of a hill. When the characters approached the entrance with Mikmek they saw a cage made of branches and sticks with a Mite and a Man in it! When the man saw the characters, he started shouting: "Help! Please help me! My name is Rufus Seadwell and these monsters have kidnapped me!"... Things seemed to start getting interesting...
The group told Rufus to calm down, and that they would soon rescue them. He did not seem very pleased when the characters followed Mikmek into the kobolds' lair. As they navigated the small tunnels, several kobold guards joined the group and escorted them to the common room of the kobolds. There they met Chief Sootscale and most of the tribe; the Chief seemed confused and unsure on what to do, and the heroes requested an alliance in exchange for the Statue of Old Sharptooth.
Just as the Chief was reluctantly accepting the deal, a strange purple scaled kobold made his appearance. Four tough looking kobolds came with him, and he had the vestments of a shaman... This was the strange interloper shaman that the Sootscale kobolds feared and that had started a war between the kobolds and the mites!
 |
| Tartuk, the Kobold-Gnome Shaman |
A tense discussion started in which Tartuk, the purple scaled kobold, tried to intimidate the tribe and to force them into attacking the group while the characters tried to convince the kobold that they should revolt and that they could help them get rid of the shaman. After several minutes of discussion, the negotiations ended abruptly in violence; the group had managed to convince many in the tribe that they were powerful enough, so Tartuk tried to escape, but Am managed to grab him and pin him to the ground.
As soon as the heroes gave him the statue, Chief Sootscale destroyed it and the kobolds started dancing and hugging each other, some of them even daring to kiss and hug the strangers that had saved them from Tartuk's tyranny.
In the loot of the tribe, the group found Svetlana's ring, which had been robbed by the bandits, then by the Mites, and finally by the kobolds. They also found Tartuk's diary, which told his sad story:
Tartuk was not born a kobold—he was
born a gnome. He was killed in a fight against a group
of ogres who were tormenting his village, but his
accidentally heroic sacrifice was enough to give his village
a chance to defeat the ogres. The village, sorrowed by
Tartuk’s death, unanimously voted to restore him to
life—so they decided to use a scroll of reincarnate that had
sat in the village treasury for years. In an ironic twist of
fate, poor Tartuk came back as a kobold.
Scandalized, the village didn’t know how to react.
born a gnome. He was killed in a fight against a group
of ogres who were tormenting his village, but his
accidentally heroic sacrifice was enough to give his village
a chance to defeat the ogres. The village, sorrowed by
Tartuk’s death, unanimously voted to restore him to
life—so they decided to use a scroll of reincarnate that had
sat in the village treasury for years. In an ironic twist of
fate, poor Tartuk came back as a kobold.
Scandalized, the village didn’t know how to react.
Tartuk did—he hadn’t meant to give his life to save
the village (he’d actually been trying to surrender to
the ogres and offer to help them destroy the village in
return for sparing his life, but the ogres crushed him
before he got his offer out), and now they’d turned him
into one of the most hated of monsters—a kobold! The
fact that his new scales were the same deep purple as his
hair in his previous life served only to ensure Tartuk’s
shame. Enraged, he fled into the woods, only to nurse a
deep grudge.
into one of the most hated of monsters—a kobold! The
fact that his new scales were the same deep purple as his
hair in his previous life served only to ensure Tartuk’s
shame. Enraged, he fled into the woods, only to nurse a
deep grudge.
He found a tribe of kobolds, joined them,
used his magic and manipulative lies to rally them, and
led his new army in an attack against his old village. The
resulting battle was furious, and only Tartuk survived.
That was fine with him.
used his magic and manipulative lies to rally them, and
led his new army in an attack against his old village. The
resulting battle was furious, and only Tartuk survived.
That was fine with him.
Since then, the mad kobold has drifted through several
River Kingdoms, periodically haunting towns and
murdering gnomes he finds and at others insinuating
himself into kobold tribes, taking them over from within,
and then driving them to extinction by forcing them into
wars they can’t possibly win. The Sootscales are but Tartuk’s
latest project. He has used a combination of lies, magic, and his
favorite tool—a non-magical statue of a devil—to seize
control of a tribe. He’s become quite skilled at convincing
tribes that the statue is magic and that it will curse the
entire tribe if the chieftain doesn’t follow its commands—
commands, of course, that only Tartuk can hear.
Tucked into the back of the journal is a single scroll of fly;
his journal indicates that when he grows tired of his life,
he intends to use the scroll to fly up as high as he can,
effectively committing suicide when the spell expires in
5 minutes and leaves him at a height of nearly 2,000 feet,
well out of the safety range for the spell’s expiration.
After the short battle, the group negotiated with Chief Sootscale an alliance with the kobolds tribe, which was sealed during a kobold ritual in which the characters had to dance, eat some musty mushrooms and share hugs with half the kobold tribe... The main points of the (verbal) agreement were, more or less:
1. In exchange for weekly shipments of food and adequate mining tools, the kobolds would provide the silver they obtained in their caverns.
2. Chief Sootscale demanded Tartuk's magical bracers, the masterwork metal shield and the magical crossbow bolts. He gave the rest of the tribe's loot to the adventurers in payment of their help on ridding the tribe of Tartuk.
3. Tartuk's tribe was to be decided by Chief Sootscale...
4. The Chief agreed to accept the adventurer's ruling in future problems with neighbours and also agreed to stop attacking any merchants, in exchange for the adventurers' protection.
5. Finally, the Chief also agreed to lend the support of some of his brave warriors in a future assault on the Stag Lord's fort.
Rufus Seadwell demanded that the kobolds should be punished for having held him prisoner. The adventurers argued with him that the kobolds were not the main culprits, as they had been pushed to these bad decisions by Tartuk. Still, Rufus Seadwell was not convinced, so the adventurers agreed not to receive any reward and offered him his unconditional freedom. The merchant still seemed a bit unconvinced, but seeing he would not gain anything more reluctantly agreed and left the Kobolds' lair.
The characters then discussed with Chief Sootscale about the surrounding lands. The kobolds had knowledge of the location of the Stag Lord's fort and of a field with many fangberry bushes, and the Chief agreed to provide them with a guide.
With the feeling of a difficult negotiation satisfactorily concluded, the adventurers stayed that night in the Kobolds' lair, and took part of their strange celebration of their liberation from Tartuk's machinations.
XP:
- 100 (exploring the Old Sycamore hex)
- 400 (completing the quest The Sacred Statue of the Kobolds)
- 3200 (defeating the Shaman Tartuk and allying with the Sootscale tribe)
Total this session: 3700XP
Total campaign: 17,180XP
Loot:
- On Tartuk:
i. Tartuk's personal journal.
ii. a magic wand (wand of Magic Missile; 28 charges).
iii. magical bracers (Chief Sootscale obtained it during the negotiations).
iv. masterwork cold iron sickle.
v. a magic scroll (scroll of Fly).
- Kobolds' Loot (piled in Tartuk's quarters together with all sorts of worthless shiny objects):
i. 500 gp.
ii. masterwork metal shield (Chief Sootscale obtained it during the negotiations).
iii. 7 magic crossbow bolts (+1 flaming crossbow bolts) (Chief Sootscale obtained them during the negotiations).
iv. a pair of magic boots (boots of elvenkind).
v. a leather bag with 400gp, a plain brass wedding ring (Svetlana's), and a pouch containing magic dust.
Time Passed:
- 2 days.
The time now is 10th Gozran (April), in the morning. The group is in the lair of the Sootscale kobold tribe, in the old Oaktop Silver Mine.
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