Chapter 2 [https://squirrel.dogphilosophy.net/Installment002-TR.png]
Sages who study the lore of living beings write of a concept known as "quorum sensing". "Quorum" is an Elvish word referring to a sufficiently large gathering of people for a purpose. In the lore of nature, "quorum sensing" describes the means by which certain creatures can instinctually feel whether their population is an appropriate size.
Kobolds are small creatures in a world filled with both natural and supernatural threats. In addition to cleverness, cunning, and often a symbiosis with more powerful entities for protection, kobolds naturally rely on their numbers for safety. A natural tendency to maintain a tribe's population at a level sufficient to avoid being wiped out by dangers - but not too large to feed - is a survival trait for kobolds.
The Mighty Shangrook Tribe had just experienced a drastic loss of population. This situation created a very insistent natural mandate. Further, Mighty Shangrook had declared that the tribe was to be restored. The usually-trivial and largely ignored matter of which role any individual kobold would play in the egg-production process suddenly became the most obvious and urgent matter of attention, and the productivity of other chores was substantially reduced for some time.
Mighty Shangrook had waited with draconic patience during the time that the carrying-out of Mighty Shangrook's other commands was temporarily slowed. Had there been any human-ish observers, the uncouth mammals would have found the clumsy obedience of frequently...entangled... kobolds trying to perform assigned tasks to be hilarious.
Days later, the subtle rising scent of gravidity signaled that population-restoration was successfully underway, and things returned mostly to their previous normality. A now more clear-headed tribe devoted some effort to preparing nests in the incubation chamber.
Mighty Shangrook had declined to direct the pairings during this time, instead declaring "Mighty Shangrook shall have all the knowledge of this invasion". In obedience to this, every surviving kobold had promptly come in turn to the Chamber of Lesser Memory to describe what they had observed of the invaders. Squiggles had remained for the entire knowledge-sharing in order to provide his perspective from his familiarity with humanish culture, and Elder Advisor Ikkailiktit had been there carefully writing down everything the various individuals and pairs of kobolds were reporting.
Squiggles was making himself useful in the incubation chamber as the nests were arranged to take best advantage of the volcanic warmth, and to ensure that when the gravid ones came to give the eggs, the incubating eggs would be well-organized for when Mighty Shangrook called for them to be brought to the Chamber of Creation to be treated. Mighty Shangrook's centuries of experience in the arcane and alchemical mysteries of kobold-breeding would ensure the hatchlings were healthy, and would develop and mature much more quickly than they had in the New Frederickton tribe. Squiggles speculated idly about the impending hatchlings as he worked and tried to sort out the distracting and jumbled memories of the previous days during which he had made his own contributions to the rebuilding of the tribe.
In his own estimation, his knack for understanding interpersonal behavior was probably partly due to his lineage from the New Frederickton tribe, especially when the interpersonal behavior of humanish people was involved. He suspected his talent for remaining quiet and unnoticed when necessary to avoid disturbing people was also partly heritable, so these two traits might be found among some of the eventual hatchlings. He wondered how they would mix with heritable traits from some of the others. For example, Elder Advisor Ikkailiktit had a keen presence of mind, and maintained a remarkable degree of agility and flexibility despite the age-greying of her scales. She had unfailingly kept transcribing what the line of kobolds were telling them as they reported their experiences with the invasion, and was even able to simultaneously annotate Squiggles' interpretations of these reports on the same scroll without pausing. She hadn't even slowed down much nor made very many mistakes when she and Squiggles ended up close together during the transcription and they began to...
"Squiggles shall stand in the presence of Mighty Shangrook in the Chamber of Creation!" came the reminiscence-interrupting shout of a blue-scaled kobold with a stripe of silver down his back, who sprinted through the incubation chamber. Zlitch was three generations of Mighty Shangrook's efforts to create a lineage dedicated to speed and endurance, and was a favorite messenger. Message delivered, Zlitch dodged through the chamber and down a different tunnel to find whoever the next message was for.
Squiggles immediately ran to find Mighty Shangrook, his admiration of the past forgotten. There was work needed in the present.
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The Chamber of Creation was a cavern dedicated to the direct subjugation of reality itself to Mighty Shangrook's will. If Mighty Shangrook had been any lesser being, it might be described with simple words like "workshop" or "laboratory". These words were wholly inadequate for Mighty Shangrook's arcane and alchemical works, whenever Mighty Shangrook sought constructive amusement there.
The chamber seemed to be altered on every occasion that Squiggles had ever visited it. Today, the walls were dominated by a complex glass and metal apparatus which seemed to be piping a fuming alchemical concoction into rectangular clay tubs along the walls, and some sort of spiraling arcane pattern that Nart - a kobold with black eyes, scales of shifting shades of grey, and a short white feathered crest - was carefully drawing in chalk on the floor under the direction of Mighty Shangrook, who pointed out any mistakes that needed to be corrected with one talon. The other talon held the Orb of Ineffable Potency. Glurk, with scales of alternating azurite-blue and malachite-green and who looked larger than she was due to slightly longer than normal limbs, climbed among the tubing of the alchemical apparatus to ensure everything continued working as Mighty Shangrook expected.
Grishk, the flame-orange one with the long teeth and claws and the prominent gold-tipped spikes along her back, was already standing inside a smaller circle extending from the arcane pattern near the edge. She stood tall and stiff, but couldn't help hopping slightly with excitement.
"Squiggles shall stand before Mighty Shangrook there," decreed Mighty Shangrook, pointing to another circular outline next to Grishk. Squiggles rushed to take his place as sounds of more running kobold feet approached the chamber. A rhythmic clinking of metal pieces chimed along with the footsteps as a black-striped sandstone-brown kobold loped into the Chamber of Creation wearing pieces of recently-improvised metal armor scavenged - with permission! - from Mighty Shangrook's Lesser Hoard and reworked into something that covered a few of the more vulnerable parts of a kobold's body. Mighty Shangrook considered armor to be some sort of joke, and felt repurposing it as a crafting material for members of the Mighty Shangrook tribe to play with was the best use for it.
"Tokked shall stand before Mighty Shangrook there," Mighty Shangrook directed, indicating a space a bit further around Nart's pattern on the floor, just past Squiggles. Tokked's mouth gaped happily at the honor of being named directly by Mighty Shangrook, revealing his two prominent fangs as he clanked happily to his place. Those fangs were 9 generations of development including subtle transmutation magic applied directly to the egg in generation 5. It wouldn't have been quite so challenging if the goal had simply been venomousness.
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As Tokked took his place, one more set of footsteps accompanied by quiet but maniacal giggling drew near, only to be interrupted by a meaty thud and a grunt. Squiggles turned to look as the blood-red kobold - who had apparently not been watching where she was going - picked herself up and hissed angrily at the corner of the chamber's entrance that she'd bounced off of. She had an oddly puffy appearance due to her scales sticking out slightly, as though they were trying to contain more than her actual body. Her eyes were the same polished specular hematite color as Mighty Shangrook's.
She made angry complex gestures at the corner of the entrance and opened her mouth as a sparkling silver glow began to build in her throat.
"Mighty Shangrook's Lair shall not be damaged."
The newcomer slammed her jaws shut, sending silvery sparks squirting through her teeth to dissipate into the air with small crackling sounds, and her head snapped around to respectfully focus on Mighty Shangrook. A moment later, the rest of her body turned itself to face the same direction.
"Ergesh shall stand before Mighty Shangrook there," prompted Mighty Shangrook, who pointed to a final place along the outside of pattern on the floor. Squiggles noticed that the four of them who had been summoned were each standing in front of an identical set of complex shapes in the chalk markings as Ergesh ran to take her place. Squiggles sniffed as a faint scent like the air after a lightning strike reached him.
Nart joined the curving chalk line that he was drawing smoothly into the rest of the pattern and stood back, looking to Mighty Shangrook for approval. Mighty Shangrook inspected, and nodded, prompting a moment of excited hopping from Nart.
"Mighty Shangrook's work may now begin."
Glurk jumped down from the apparatus. Squiggles cringed, expecting an injury from the height she'd jumped, but her long legs absorbed the fall and she sprang immediately back up to run towards a shelf of small clay jars. As she gathered up four of them, Mighty Shangrook began to explain to the kobolds who had been summoned what was to happen.
"Your blood shall be offered to Mighty Shangrook," began Mighty Shangrook. Grishk nodded enthusiastically and immediately slashed a long gouge in her forearm with a sharp claw. She held it out proudly, drawing an aggravated shriek from Nart as blood spattered across the edge of his meticulously-drawn pattern on the floor.
Mighty Shangrook suppressed a sigh. Yes, there is definitely such a thing as too much loyalty.
"Mighty Shangrook does not require all of the blood."
Glurk hurried to collect some of Grishk's blood into one of the jars, then set the jars down to pull out some handy first-aid supplies,and bandaged Grishk's self-inflicted injury.
Nart cleaned up the blood that had interrupted the pattern and began redrawing the damaged portions with an annoyed snort. Grishk hung her head in contrition as Glurk prepared a much more appropriate set of bloodletting equipment and extracted some blood from each of the others into their own jars. The jars were handed off to Nart, who carried them to the center of the arcane pattern on the floor with dance-like steps as he carefully avoided touching any of the lines. He set the jars down and carefully arranged them on the floor, then dance-stepped his way back out. Mighty Shangrook watched, and gave a small nod of approval.
"All who stand in Mighty Shangrook's presence shall remain still."
The kobolds all froze obediently where they stood while Mighty Shangrook leaned over the arcane pattern on the floor and deftly manipulated the Orb of Ineffable Potency. Then, Mighty Shangrook held the orb directly above the jars, and began a chant that reverberated through the chamber. A cloud of multicolored sparks flowed from Mighty Shangrook's mouth and across the pattern, which lit up in shifting rainbow colors spreading from the middle. Squiggles felt a moment of dizziness when the glow reached where he stood. He experienced an odd sensation as though he was in a very small space. His vision blurred and he seemed to be looking at the ceiling of the chamber through a small opening, and then he was back in his place. He found his attention focused on one particular jar.
The vibrations of the chant ended, and Mighty Shangrook made a small gesture with a talon. Nart dance-stepped his way back through the pattern to the center to place stoppers in the top of each jar and then gathered them up to carry them back. He placed them reverently before Mighty Shangrook for inspection. Mighty Shangrook's great head was lowered above them. Mighty Shangrook inhaled their scent, and considered.
"Mighty Shangrook's experiment has begun successfully. All present are praised."
A long and slightly deafening squeal of uncontainable joy erupted from Grishk's throat as she hopped from foot to foot with excitement. Tokked stood even straighter and taller, clattering as his trembling rattled pieces of his makeshift armor together. Ergesh cackled maniacally and her eyes rolled madly as they tried to agree on which direction to look.
As for Squiggles, he simply felt contentment to have contributed to Mighty Shangrook's satisfaction.
"The four who were summoned shall now know Mighty Shangrook's purpose for them."
Mighty Shangrook ignored the increase in the pitch of Grishk's ongoing squeal of delight and continued.
"Long has Mighty Shangrook rested and contemplated, but now Mighty Shangrook has been troubled by interlopers."
Grishk's squeal finally stopped and she bared her long, sharp teeth.
"They have harmed that which is Mighty Shangrook's. They have disturbed Mighty Shangrook's works. They have been destroyed for their transgressions, but if trouble has come once to Mighty Shangrook, then trouble may come again. Mighty Shangrook shall not permit this."
If indignity was a liquid, the amount of it coming from the kobolds present in the chamber would have drowned them.
"Mighty Shangrook shall turn the plans of these interlopers, these adventurers, against Mighty Shangrook's troubles. Of you who have been summoned, Mighty Shangrook shall make a force to find these troubles, and slay them. You shall be as the eyes and teeth of Mighty Shangrook."
"The first trouble you shall deal with is the machine that brought these adventurers to Mighty Shangrook's lair," Mighty Shangrook explained to the eager kobolds, "The hunters of the Mighty Shangrook tribe say it still waits outside. It shall be as tribute to Mighty Shangrook. You shall bring its treasure to Mighty Shangrook's hoard."
"And kill it!" Grishk blurted out.
"I think if it is tribute for Mighty Shangrook, we aren't literally supposed to slay it," Squiggles explained. "Am I correct, Mighty Shangrook?"
"Squiggles is correct. This is why Squiggles shall be as the voice of Mighty Shangrook. Grishk shall be as the talons of Mighty Shangrook. Tokked shall be as the heart of Mighty Shangrook. And Ergesh shall be as the breath of Mighty Shangrook."
A silence fell as the enormity of the honor and responsibility became apparent to the four to whom it had been given. Even Ergesh's giggling stopped. Mighty Shangrook patiently allowed some seconds to understand, then prompted them.
"Do Mighty Shangrook's Troubleslayers have questions?"
Grishk, Ergesh, and Tokked shook their heads in frantic obedience, the vigorous motion making Tokked clatter and Ergesh's resumed giggling waver.
Squiggles thought carefully and worked to find the words for what he meant to say. He was firmly determined that if he was to be as Mighty Shangrook's voice, he would do it well - or at least as well as someone who was not the actual Mighty Shangrook could.
"We...I...Mighty...," Squiggles stuttered. He closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. "We are as Mighty Shangrook but we are not Mighty Shangrook. We would be ashamed if we could not prevent loss or damage of Mighty Shangrook's Troubleslayers from the dangers we will face. Will our mortal strength be enough?"
With the talon that was not holding the Orb of Ineffable Potency, Mighty Shangrook tapped the floor in front of the jars of their blood.
"While the Troubleslayers please Mighty Shangrook, even death will not stop them."