The group was on a small window of time, unbeknownst to them, before the 5 AM wake up and hunt for the party breakfast bell was going to ring. That and the kobolds at the top of the stairs had already slept earlier and were on guard watching (listening) for anyone sneaking up. They are immature, young, but work wonderful in swarms and packs, learning to work together to overwhelm and take down any foes they come across. If the group had waited one more day to finish them off, they were going to be even larger and have the ability to climb.
All good and the end battle was fantastic.
Write up follows:
The group was in the Great Hall and a check for “lizards” with Merica’s helm revealed none in range at this time. The group did not want to hit the hall to the basement until they were sure, 100%, that they weren’t being foolish and not checking any place behind. So the party went first to the long hall on the east wing and took the time to look. The kobold swarms had triggered the trap in here, a series of spears that had swung down from the ceiling on a gantry. However based upon the height, it was safely assumed that the spears would have passed over the kobold-lings without issue.
A look about the hall showed nothing else of interest except for the two archway openings to the south – one which led to the chapel and the other somewhere else. The party wasn’t sure they wanted to explore in detail as it was already after 2 in the morning and we assumed the kobolds were sleeping now but wouldn’t be sleeping all night.
We know we had the armoire at the top of the 2nd floor steps in place along with a heavy footlocker to slow down the kobold’s advance. We guessed there were fewer than 150 of the critters left but no way of knowing for sure. We talked of getting to the 1st floor stairs to the basement area and dragging another table over there to block that off – keeping the 2nd floor armoire as a 2nd place fallback. No matter what, we were going to stay together and focused – not giving the kobolds a chance to surround us or to escape.
Without knowing exactly where they were, we needed some intel. Were they in the basement? For this, Dizzy was willing to take a walk down the hall to the basement stairs and look around. Carefully and quietly he made his way to the corner, and then around again – there were 6 of them at least sleeping on the floor up here. Quietly he backed away and to the group.
Now that we knew where they were (and guessing the rest were downstairs) we wanted to give the east wing a solid once over. We hit the chapel first. The original markings and tooling was all Odin, however the All-Father had an orcish casting to his face and body but that made sense since this was an orcish keep at one point. Since then, there had been some repurposing of the place to include the markings of Frey. However, Frey was depicted in many of the crude pictograms as short and tailed like a lizard. Most likely how the K’Morat kobolds see the god of sunshine.
We gave the place a solid once over, discovering there was a stone headed axe under the altar which we took. A few candles were lit and a short offering to Odin was made, mentioning Frey just to be safe. Feeling better about ourselves we left the chapel and went to the Long Hall to the last room on the right.
It was once a music room and in the center was a harpsichord that was slowly falling apart under the ravages of time. Lord Gurunts was aghast, commenting on the sheer expense of the harpsichord and how pissed off his castle musician was going to be – once again blurring the gap of 123 years between his life and his now unlife. As for the rest of the room, most of it had been plundered but there was still a dulcimer on the shelf and from its condition, it was apparent that the kobolds had been maintaining it and most likely playing it. Weird.
With all the obvious places checked out, we went back to the main hall and decided that we’d make a change. Dizzy and Sybil had gone into the old aviary and looked through the holes on the bottom of the door with their infravision, attesting that there were still kobolds sleeping up near the top. They then went back to the Dining Room hall and took their time walking down to the corner and around while Thalin stayed in the aviary and watched quietly.
There were 7 of the kobolds up here, lying down in a spaced out 15’ area along the area near the top of the stairs. They seemed bigger than they had been yesterday which also worried the group. We guessed there were more on the stairs but didn’t know for sure. What the two thieves did know was that the kobolds might look like they were sleeping randomly, but they did note that none of them were “facing” the exact same way as any of the others – giving them 360 degree view of every approach to the steps should they awaken. Neither of them liked it and they backed up again down the hall and back to the group to let them know that “sneaking” down there was not going to be the answer.
Meanwhile Thalin continued to watch from his dark vantage point and after the two thieves left, the flare around the kobold’s eyes in the infravision range let him know they had opened their eyes. The closest one lifted its finger and tapped the ground with a claw twice, slowly and deliberately.
Fuck.
The elf got up slowly, noting MANY heat signatures creeping their way up the stairs to the landing, and then raced across the aviary back to the party who was just getting the difficult news from Dizzy and Sybil. When Thalin let us know that the kobolds were up and had been waiting for US to come to them, we left the great hall, ran down the eastern wing and took the stairs to the second floor. We took up a battle line at the armoire with Sybil standing on the box to sling and Merica at her side to support her – the front was Einar, Lord Gurunts, and Hjalgrim with spears out and ready.
The sound of racing cicadas grew louder and then the wave of kobolds hit the stairs and charged towards us. Flasks of oil went flying and set some of the back rank on fire then sleep spells shot off. Spears swung and arrows flew and kobolds died by the singles, pairs, and four count. But they were older and bigger, they hit the armoire and from the back, others were actually flung forward where they hit the top of the steps and clambered up to the barriers surface in an effort to push us back.
Through it all we also had a look out the door and the other wave of kobolds, at least 40 of them, hit the Bailey and charged for us. Dizzy and Percy pulled up the ladder while they massed under the Solar and started to climb on one another.
Hjalgrim had another bad run of luck and struggled to avoid falling into the mass while Einar and Lord Gurunts hit the kobold front again and again, spears slamming out in sweeping waves knocking the younglings free. Sybil was slinging until she was forced back where she fell with three of the kobolds on top of her. Merica grabbed one of them off of her, body slamming it into the ground and crushing its face while another struggled to EAT the halfling’s fingers off her hand!
Einar had Bruce circle around and join the struggle as Sybil, Merica, and two..no now three! Kobolds rolled and struggled and grappled with one another. The giant Bat only added to the chaos as the Halfling and the dwarf were going wild trying to keep from being eaten.
The kobolds were hitting hard but we noticed that there weren’t as many as we feared and their numbers were whittling away as our hit points dwindled. The pile outside was disrupted by dropped rocks and burning oil but Thalin suggested we let the group amass and get closer to the top and pick off the outliers.
The battle was wearing us out and the kobolds actually had Sybil’s fingers in its mouth, chewing on them as she screamed and bashed and twisted. Hjalgrim was getting healed from Percy and the press of kobolds was barely held. Einar had been raging, his spear slamming out in cracking waves back and forth. And then the decision was…let’s push the 220 lb heavy assed armoire DOWN the steps and onto the kobolds packed on the other side of it.
Brilliant.
It tipped over and crushed a dozen of the kobolds on the other side, and then rolled down the flight where it got hung up on the corner wall. The three heroes hit the stairs with weapons flashing while the rest of the party finished up the few kobolds still at the top. With the armoire once again as a barrier, they faced off again against a dozen kobolds and hit them hard.
As for the group outside, a well-placed set of spells and burning oil collapsed the pile, killing many of them and the remaining 20 charged out of the Courtyard and back into the keep – heading in our direction. The group relined themselves on the stairs, almost out of spells and equipment, and then struck out at the last wave of kobolds who hit the barrier. We were bleeding out fast, painful wounds were rampant and then Lord Gurunts fell!
And since the plan worked once, we decided to do it again. Before Einar’s raging strength finally ended, the barbarian half-orc shouldered the rickety armoire and send it crashing again down the stairs where it rolled over a dozen of the kobolds killing them. We then tore into the last of the ankle biters and with a flurry of spears and swords and finally killed off the last of the kobolds.
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