I. The Stolen Lands : 1.8 An unexpected alliance with Kobolds & going to war with the Mites

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Chief Sootscale or rather... former Chief Sootscale
Barwane was getting deeper in the tunnels with Napkik on his side, crossing numerous Kobold individuals, young and old but also many warriors in arms. The gnome was suddenly wondering if it was such a good idea to have come here all by himself in the end. The galeries were surprisingly well tended and it seemed a lot of them were not from the original mine but actually created by the Kobolds. He did his best to keep track of the path they were taking into the labyrinth of corridors but he suspected his guide was making it as difficult as possible on purpose. They finally reached a big room where he was introduced to an extremely tall male Kobold that happened to be Chief Sootscale, the official leader of the tribe of the same name.
The gnome listened carefully and silently his story until the end, preventing himself to interrupt him and that was probably the hardest part for him.


Entrance of the old mine and Sootscale tribe's lair
He did not spend more than few minutes in the Kobolds lair, but to his friends, it seemed like hours. They were getting ready to rush in when finally Barwane came out, apparently unharmed and quickly walked through the bush to join them in their hideout.

The gnome summarised his conversation with the Kobold leader. Sootscale was a war chief with a very well established authority on his people until a new individual named Tartuk came to the tribe and captured all the attention. He was a shaman of great power and he brought to the tribe a new god to worship called Old Sharptooth. Tartuk installed a sacred wooden statue of the divinity in the Chief's cavern and sat there and started to act as he was in charge. He started to force people into weird rituals involving sacrifices and foolish actions that led to many wounded and even some dead Kobolds. But a few weeks ago, the statue disappeared, or was stollen as the shaman said and it was a terrible blasphemy committed by infamous Mites.

It was tough for the gnome to contain his excitement and he really did his best to explain the whole thing but he unfortunately he ended up saying "so I said we would help Sootscale and now, we're at war with the Mites !" leaving his comrades speechless for a short moment. And suddenly the conversation went south, with the Heroes arguing with each other about how Kobolds were in no way better than Mites, and that may be they should exterminate both parties and all, while trying to keep their voices down as heat was going up. In the end they agreed on Barwane's plan to meet with the Kobolds and gage both Sootscale and Tartuk before they march on the Mites lair.

Please be introduced to the almighty lord Evgeny !

The atmosphere was quite electric in the crowded hearing room. The Heroes were towering above the small reptilian folks amazed by such impressive guests. Perched on a stage Tartuk was staring at them with an exaggerated distrustful attitude, puffing his chest to show how important he was. Near the shaman but at ground level Sootscale looked anxious about what was a stake for him as a war chief. Barwane started to speak as he was the only one knowing the draconian language among the Heroes.



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