The Claiming of Kobold Keep
An entry for the Status Shift transformation contest, being run by skiesofsilver and xerox2.
_The COBOLD or KO-BALT is a beastly Creature, like a Lizard made to walk on two Legs, about of a height with the human Stomach. They have not much Strength, but are wily & clever with a fondness for Traps & other Mechanisms, & by means of this contrive to serve a great Nuisance to Travelers and Frontier-folk. Their notable habits are in Wandering, making no permanent Home but moving always in service of their drive to Theft, being the second such habit, & having eternal Thirst for claiming unattended foodstuffs and Valuables of all kinds... _
...One especial Quality of the Ko-balt is that in no place has there been a report of Dragons without the smaller Creatures being known prior, thus the common Opinion that the two be linked, though the precise Means be not clear. Prevailing thought holds the lesser beings are Servants or Slaves by main strength, furnishing the Hoards of the greater in exchange for their own Lives...
-- A Most Wonderful BESTIARY OF THE NEW LANDS, That Newcomers and Other Worthies may be Well Prepared for Their Dangers, by Artur Garilantus, Esq.
Warchief Kosuk was skirting the bounds of his authority merely by being so close to the human structure. Any attack on it would be his command by right, but there would be no hope of success breaking into the stone walls of the core structure while the defenders fired from safety in towers, and it position on a semi-regular caravan trail where the forest gave way to plains would see any siege discovered and broken within weeks.
With nothing else of interest in the area, that put Wanderchief Etiss in charge, and he was too cautious for Kosuk's taste. He'd demanded the hunters give the fort a wide berth, and instructed the scouts to prioritize stealth above all else. Etiss wanted a long, slow reconnaissance, and an ambush set well away from any interference.
Kosuk, by contrast, was eager to get things moving. He was new to his role as Warchief, and young for it; a quick success would put down some of the grumbling. So he'd taken a contingent of his best with him, and put himself in direct sight of the fort. The humans had done a lot of work to clear the land around the fort, but they had their own prejudices. The fort's sightlines were clear of trees, and the hard-packed dirt of the road wouldn't hide a grub, but the fast-growing grass off the road would make fine concealment for a crouched kobold with Kosuk's greenish-tan scale color, if they moved with care.
Kosuk was still evaluating the fort in the afternoon sun when a series of colorful explosions began blooming somewhere over the plains, off in the direction the road lead. He signaled his twelve-kobold gang to fall back to the trees, unsure of what had caused it.
Before long, the humans had exploded into a flurry of activity. Shouts rang out from the fort, and the gates of the wooden annex opened to reveal a troop of humans perched perilously atop the enormous four-legged creatures they favored so much, which rode out towards the explosions. The rest of the humans weren't remaining still, either, lining up outside the fort. A few figures covered in metal, that confused him until he worked out that they were more humans fully encased, atop horses with even more. Others on foot, some with spears that reached half again their height, some carrying strange, clumsy rods that Kosuk recognized must be the 'smoke-sticks' he'd heard of, that could drive a sling-bullet an inch into the hardest tree.
There were dozens of them at least, maybe even a hundred. It was a shocking display, nearly the size of Kosuk's full tribe. And he could still make out movement on the towers.
With a shout, the humans assembled outside the fort began marching down the road, following the lighter horse-riders towards the explosions. As they left, Kosuk realized that had to be most of the fighters the humans had. The fort couldn't be large enough for more to be comfortable. Not with how big they were.
This was the time to make a play, Etiss's instructions be damned. He picked the fastest two kobolds he had with him, and ordered them to make their way back to home camp and collect anybody they could find - especially the Builderchief and the Spellchief. One remained in place, to catch new arrivals and relay the plan.
With the rest, Kosuk crept forward, trusting the grass to shield him and his gang as they looked for a way in.
After the chink in the armor had been found - a slit window facing the forest, too close to the ground, impassable for a human but a comfortable entry for a kobold - the rest of the assault had been a foregone conclusion. There had hardly been twenty humans left inside the fort, and most of those keeping watch towards the plains. A human's strength didn't survive a spear to the back, nor could it save him from being surrounded.
The quick elimination left crucial time to plan for the humans' return. Spellchief Gomi reported, after a bit of work with a corpse, that the explosions had been a form of human signaling, and had indicated a wealthy target being attacked by orc raiders.
Kosuk, Gomi, and Builderchief Odek worked out their ambush - how to lure in the humans when they returned, when to strike - and began work. Gomi set up the bodies on the walls to pass quick inspection, Kosuk hid his up his warriors as best he could, and Odek had the most crucial role, creating the traps that would give the kobolds the decisive advantage.
As evening shadows stretched low over the ground, Kosuk looked out along the road and saw the human forces returning.
Three ox-drawn wagons formed the lead, moving in a way that suggested great weight. The humans on foot followed behind, their forces reduced by a third or more, working at smoke-sticks as they marched. Behind that were the horse-riders, sometimes coming forward to take a new smoke-stick and leave the old behind, sometimes riding back to defend. Finally, at a healthy distance, orcs.
One of the horse-riders moved to ahead of the wagons, and cried a signal to the fort. Spellchief Gomi ordered the kobolds to begin operating the gate mechanism. The humans, invigorated by the sight of safety, hurried forward, and the orcs finally gave up their case and loped away.
The wagons were clear in the courtyard and the footsoldiers passing through the gate when the trap was sprung. Builderchief Odek had not been given much time to work, by the standards of his profession, but the sticky, flammable, and hot-burning tar that sprayed over the human soldiers was an ancient and highly respected solution to such urgency. The weighted, fire-resistant nets that came after were of a newer vintage. The spear-wielding kobolds that followed were almost an afterthought.
The tally was light, for a fight of that size: five dead, four likely to follow in the coming days, and thirteen wounded in less serious ways. Most of the damage had been done by the horses, which were too large to net, strong enough to kill with panicked flailing, and not as restrained as the oxen.
The prize, once they had stopped things burning, was more than worth the cost. The remains of the wagons were almost stuffed with treasure: gold and silver, copper and aluminum, in necklaces and coins, bangles and ingots, wires and sacks of dust and all the other forms they could take. Some sparkled with gems, others were finely wrought, some impressed with sheer mass.
It was, in short, a worthy tribute for even the largest hoard.
The trouble, in this case, would be transporting it thereto. Even divided among all the kobolds of the tribe, there would be simply too much weight to carry. The field-sleds sometimes used for similar purposes would not suffice. The wagons were destroyed beyond use, and even if they hadn't been, the nearest dragon's lair was past terrain too rough for them. Abandoning any of it, of course, was unthinkable.
The tribe's four chieftans deliberated on the matter through most of the night, ringed by curious kobolds.
Wanderchief Etiss proposed clearing the treasure out piecemeal, sending small groups to deliver tribute and return to carry more, but the danger of repeated, constant, small-group trips (not to mention the political problems of deciding who would get to deliver what when) put that out of contention quickly enough.
Builderchief Odek claimed he could devise a way to haul it all at once, through some contrivance or another. After all, weren't there the wagons left to work with? Even as useless as they were, they could serve as templates. Pressed on details, he could not provide answers, simply claiming that it was the way of the Builder to adapt to problems as they came.
Spellchief Gomi suggested calling another tribe to help. The Spellweavers had strange ways to talk to each other, separated by days of travel though they may be, and even a lesser portion of that trove would be enough incentive for any tribe that answered. The prospect of giving up what they had earned rankled, though.
Warchief Kosuk, outside of an idle suggestion to move the treasure by relay which he himself dismissed by pointing out that its combination of low speed and high visibility made it too vulnerable, restricted himself to critique. The problem at hand did not lie within his skillset.
Ultimately the discussion wound to a loose detente. Odek would start work on his device, Gomi would hold off on calling for help, and the debates would continue.
Little enough happened for the next few days. The debates continued coming to no firm resolution, Odek set a small hut over the destroyed wagons and their contents before working on duplicating them, Etiss stripped the usable meat off the corpses and set about preserving it, and Gomi retreated into studies of the human fort and his own mysteries.
Kosuk himself found a great deal of work to occupy his time. Refortifying as much as possible, devising and drilling defensive routines, investigating the human smoke-sticks... The fort was theirs for the moment, but the cavernous hallways reminded him always that it would not remain that way against a forewarned human attack.
All the while, his thoughts circled around the pile of treasure. He'd never been party to a tribute large enough that the dragon's favor extended below the presenting Chief, though he'd seen it twice: once from a Builder's mine that struck a rich vein, once from a Spellweaver's obscure but apparently valuable stolen artifact. This find was grand enough that it could run to the lowest member of the tribe. The thought of being known as the chief that presented such tribute was almost dizzying.
And behind that, eagerness, to finally uncover the question of the dragon's favor. What would happen, when he was taken to commune with such a mighty creature in the deepest privacy of her own den? Morsels of wisdom, a gift of strength? Was it different for every dragon, every kobold? Nothing he could imagine seemed sufficient to provoke the thrumming tension of his anticipation, or the enigmatic responses of those who had undergone it.
Kosuk ignored the hut over the treasure at first. He had quite enough to worry about. Soon, however, he found it irritated him with every glance. He'd made the call to attack, the treasure was his. Why was it being hidden away from him like that? He channeled the energy into his work, trouncing sparring partners with ease and carting barricades around with new strength. Along with his vigor came a renewed appetite, and he found himself sneaking into the stores for extra rations.
He couldn't distract himself entirely, though. He drifted around the hut in his spare time, he suppressed the impulse to tear it down, and he found himself arguing most strongly with Odek during he still-ongoing chiefs' councils.
Finally, one day, Kosuk watched as Builderchief Odek shooed another Builder out of the shed, and something about the scene struck him as odd. It took a moment to realize that Odek was larger than he had been before, stockier and taller, though it was well hidden by a developing stoop.
Fury kindled in Kosuk, and he shoved his way past the Builder and into the shed. He barked a challenge at Odek - at the interloper who had dared to try to steal Kosuk's treasure - and the Builderchief snarled back. Kosuk leapt forward, Odek met him, and the two began to wrestle and snap at each other on the soot-blackened floor.
Odek was the larger after his growth, but Warchief Kosuk was in his specialty, and the Builderchief out of his. And Odek's advantage was not so great as Kosuk had feared; apparently he had been getting larger as well. Insinctively, each worked to keep themselves closer to the treasure than the other. Kosuk recognized the tendency, and took advantage, baiting Odek into leaving himself open. The Builderchief crashed to the ground, dazed. Kosuk knelt atop him, teeth at Odek's throat, claws poised to rip at his stomach.
Odek went limp, relinquishing all claims. Kosuk removed the immediate threat. The Builderchief wriggled, something rising from between his legs.
Two hungers swept over Kosuk, one familiar, one new.
Odek's first duty, afterwards, was to fetch food as much food as he could carry. His second was to rebuild the hut, larger and sturdier.
Warchief Iskal reported a sighting of the first human counterattack almost exactly two weeks later. Kosuk left to deal with it alone, soaring on newly grown wings. The humans had come to eradicate kobolds, and were wholly unprepared to be strafed with dragonfire. For the service, Iskal was granted favor. It was cheaply earned, but then, Green-Kosuk-Of-Stone-Walls was new, and a degree of licentiousness would be expected for some time yet. The warmth in Kosuk's belly pooled outwards, and she curled atop her hoard, dreaming of tribute and new life.
...the Egg Bounty laws, though widespread, were rarely invoked honestly. So common were fraudulent claims that one magistrate, after declaring their penalty would henceforth be death, was still obliged to execute two scoundrels attempting to pass off kobold eggs before other 'eggers' finally deserted his jurisdiction. Some even speculate that not a single genuine dragon's egg was ever rewarded....
- A Legal History of the New Land Colonies, Mattim Juste