Five days ago, the evening the group of kobolds walked into the clearing of James’s dungeon.

I, Ssylasss head of the tribes scouts, stepped out of the trees into the clearing, the taste of mana was strong in the air. My nestmate Cedrisss, and my mothers nestmates hatchling Sseths, joined me a moment later. We crossed the clearing tasting the air as we approached the unnatural opening in the mountainside. It seems we have indeed located a new dungeon, as we had hoped we would when the taste of the mana strengthened. After a few moments I started directing Cedrisss and Sseths to make camp. Sseths, that bumbling hatchling grabbed more wet wood than dry as usual, but at least he managed some. The mana concentration around the tribes nests had been poor when he was still in his egg. The raw mana rocks are poisonous when you are too close for too long, but not enough of them and the mana isn’t strong enough to help develop the tribes eggs into good hatchlings, troublesome things.

I sent Sseths to go catch dinner, he may have wet wood in his kindling, but at least he has good aim with his sling. We will investigate the dungeon in the morning, it may be bright as day in the opening, but none of the tribes trust dungeons any more than we can fly. Cedrisss started trimming three of the straightest green sticks Sseths had brought to use as spits for dinner, a much better use for them than kindling for the fire. The moons had just cleared the trees by the time Sseths returned with three squirrels for dinner, I waved him over to Cedrisss so that they would get spitted properly, if I had Sseths do it more than likely we would be hungry tonight. The squirrels cooked well enough, Sseths had first watch just like he usually did, if he had a different shift it was almost certain he would be asleep before it was time for the next shift. Cedrisss had second watch, if Sseths failed to stay awake, at least I would not have to take official notice.

This dungeon it seemed had not started making its own creatures yet, at least we were not attacked during the night. The tribes on this side of the Spine hadn’t encountered a dungeon in many hands of generations, although the few that have traveled from the eastern side of the Spine have encountered, and been sheltered by orcish blood dungeons. What we have seen from the entrance of this dungeon isn’t anything like what they have described. Even if it is not a blood dungeon, as long as we can settle the tribe in the rich mana of the dungeons surroundings, the tribe will prosper. Cedrisss put out the morning fire, as we prepared our weapons to investigate the dungeon. The cry of a griffin made me bring my spear up to jab at the possibly diving predator, fortunately for us it decided that we would be a rather thorny meal, and flew on past.

Sseths, Cedrisss and I made our way to the opening in the mountainside, in front and to the left side of the opening was a large clear door, although the only real indicator was one of those elvish door handles. To the right side of the opening in the side wall was another elvish door handle, I tasted the air and besides the taste of mana I couldn’t taste any other being just yet. I had thought this was a new dungeon, but unless the dungeon itself was elvish, it was also possible that this was an old dungeon the elves had forgotten about, but had made a deal with previously. I turned to Sseths and told him to check out the side door, I had to smack him up the back side of his head when he complained. Sseths has never understood that in order to become a senior scout for the tribe, he has to survive identifying possible traps and hazards, just like the rest of us.

Cedrisss and I watched from a hand of paces away as Sseths opened the side door and looked in sniffing and tasting the air as he did so. As the door opened I could taste the scent of elf and wolf beast-kin, it had been less than a hand of days since they were here. If the elves came in force to take this dungeon the tribe would suffer, we would have to do something to prevent them from being able to influence the dungeon summons any further than they already had. As Cedrisss and I were pondering the scents the air within had brought to us, the door started to close by itself. Sseths launched a stone from his sling as he jumped back towards Cedrisss and I, in turn we leaped forwards spears at the ready to stab whatever had started to close the door. After a moment, the door reopened all by itself, it was plain that there was no one there, I hissed in displeasure and smacked Sseths up the back of the head for the second time this morning.

The three of us entered the room, I paused to kick the stone that Sseths had slung and bounced back near the door, into the doorway so that the door would not close fully. The stink of the elf and wolf beast-kin got stronger as we neared the strange looking beds by the door. I turned to Cedrisss and Sseths and told them to despoil the place and make sure that the elves and their friends would not be comfortable staying in this place again. As they went about it, I poked the various different items in the room, and found some drawers that had elvish eating tools and some knives, those were worth keeping. I took a handful of the items and stuffed them into my bandolier, it wasn’t easy making sure they wouldn’t stab through the pocket and into my scales, but I managed. The items I couldn’t fit in my bandolier, I gave over to Cedrisss, so far we had not managed to gather much from this dungeon, but at least we got something.

After I passed off the items to Cedrisss, I told him to come with me as I opened the partly closed door. Sseths was still despoiling the room, getting ready to defecate on the bed of the wolf beast-kin, no beast-kin with a half working nose would sleep there when he was finished. I called out to Sseths and said to him, “keep despoiling the room for a while and when you are done, set it on fire”. Sseths for once grinned at the order and replied, “it will be done, Ssylasss.” I nodded, then turned and headed back out into the main entryway, and then took Cedrisss over to the larger clear door, it was time to see what new tricks this dungeon had for us.

I opened the clear door on the left side of the entryway, looking in, there appeared to be no traps of any kind, also it seemed the elf and the beast-kin had not entered this hall previously. I asked Cedrisss to hold open the door as I walked down the hallway to the door at the other end. The door at the end of the hall refused to open like the one that Cedrisss was holding open, there must be some trick to it, if only I could figure out what it was. The sun had risen almost two hands further into the sky when I finally asked Cedrisss to come help me try and open the door, as the door he had been holding open closed and he left the vicinity of the door, the door that had refused me entry all this time opened with an easy turn of the handle. If I was just a hatchling again I would have roared my frustration to the skies. The trick was so simple, and yet so completely opposed to the way the tribe thinks, always have a clear line of retreat. I am not sure that we should allow the solution to this trick to corrupt the training of the hatchlings, I would have to leave it to the elders to decide.

Cedrisss and I tasted the air of this new chamber, and like the room to the right of the entryway we could smell a faint trace of elf and beast-kin, also timber wolf, some birds and a few bats. I let out a hiss as I took in the room, the even overhead light was an annoyance, no shadows to hide in if we were attacked. On the other side of the room was yet another door, this one different in that there was no handle, and it looked like it might slide into the wall. I waved at Cedrisss indicating that he should join me in investigating this new style of door, the door we had entered through closed itself behind us, and as we approached the new door, it slid soundlessly into the wall. As was the normal methodology of the tribe scouts, Cedrisss and I, scented the room before we entered, to our annoyance we found the scent of the elf and wolf beast-kin here yet again.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The room was empty except for some strange piece of art on one side of the room, the scents of the elf and beast-kin were strongest there, Cedrisss and I started to make our way over there when we smelled a lightning strike. Cedrisss and I spun and lunged with our spears so fast that our tails almost collided. As our spears passed close to the open doorway they both were struck by lightning and the strike burnt the wood of our spears slightly and forced us both to drop our spears. I hissed in pain and frustration, this was a true trap, much more sudden that what I had heard from those who had travelled from the other side of the Spine.

Cedrisss and I quickly learned unlike a true lightning strike, these although very painful were not lethal, and if you were just far enough away stung severely instead of putting you on the ground shaking. It took the both of us some time, but we manage to retrieve our stone tipped spears. Besides the art piece there wasn’t anything else in the room and there didn’t seem to be an obvious way to disable the trap, so we threw our spears out of the door and then we ran and leaped through the open doorway, getting shocked in the process. At least we were out, this dungeon obviously had new tricks that none of the tribe had seen before. Despite the very un-tribe like way of thinking required to get out of the traps and tricks, it may just perhaps end up being worthwhile.

Sseths was waiting for us when we came back out, he wasn’t able to burn the room entirely but it was certainly not fit for those prissy elves and their friends. We still had a couple of hands of daylight remaining, so we restarted the campfire and sat, Cedrisss started telling Sseths about the dungeon rooms we had entered and the lighting trap we had encountered. I pulled a new shaved lamb skin out of my bandolier and reached for a stick from the fire. I then wrote a message for the chief and the elders. The fact that this dungeon had traps, even though they were strange ones was good for the tribe, also that it did not seem inclined to use monsters or summoned creatures that might attack the tribe if we moved the village here was also good for the tribe. It was nearly nightfall by the time I had finished my message. I rolled the skin up and told Sseths it was his responsibility to get the message to the chieftain and the elders, and that he had to leave now. He complained about having to leave at the start of nightfall, and it would be almost the middle of the night before he arrived back at the village, I raised my hand to smack him again, but didn’t have to as he ran off to avoid my further displeasure.

The tribes ogre would help get the tribe moved here as soon as possible, the potential as a training ground and as a good environment for the tribes nests made moving the tribe here an easy decision in my mind. I suspected the elders would see things the same way. Cedrisss and I caught our own squirrels for dinner, I took first watch. The night was quiet and I didn’t see anything of interest, nor did the dungeon appear to make any changes to anything where we could see or hear it. When I woke the next morning, Cedrisss reported a quiet shift as well. We had a quick discussion before the sun had risen a hand into the sky, and decided to get a head start on collecting wood for the tribe. Assuming that Sseths didn’t stop to sleep on the way back it is likely that the tribe would get here near midday.

The morning was quiet as we went about our self appointed task, we had no desire to enter the dungeon again until the tribe joined us, and even then, not until we had finished setting up the village and the nesting chambers again. It was about a fingers width until midday when the first of the tribe came out of the trees, and soon thereafter the rest had entered the clearing followed by the tribe ogre, who knocked a small tree over as he did so. I hissed in pleasure, the tribe would now finally be able to prosper, those prissy elves and their friends would face the full might of the tribe if they returned.

Five days after the kobolds moved their village to the clearing in front of James’s dungeon, five leagues to the south-west of the clearing.

Serena stopped by one of the forward scout who had returned, obviously they found something, hopefully Serena will tell me it is good news. By the look on her face as she turned back towards me, it was highly unlikely that it was good news. I raised my hand signaling the rest of the group to stop and wait whilst I hear the report from Serena. Serena took a moment to catch her breath, then said, “Felipe, the good news is that Timoteo didn’t get us lost, the bad news is that it looks like a tribe of kobolds have settled in front of the entrance and are working to completely close off access. To make matters worse, they have an ogre with them.” I put my hand over my face and groaned, this was going to be complicated at best, and almost suicidal at worst. The bloody ogre alone would take at least four of us to handle, let alone a full tribe of kobolds. At least Ramirez back in Soria would get a full report from Dimitri and Ronaldo who I sent back with him for an extra pair of eyes, and to protect the device.

If we weren’t able to get past the tribe and over to the dungeon our mission would certainly have failed at minimum, or all of us would have been killed at worst. A few gnomish and halfling villages occasionally were able to succeed in trading with kobolds without getting killed, and fortunately we still had our pair of unhappy gnomish sappers who had a chance in Hades of being able to trade with the tribe, but we would have to see. I rubbed my face for a moment then turned to our gnomish sappers and asked, “Either of you traded with kobolds in the past or at least know some of their hissing tongue?” They looked at each other for a moment then almost as one said, “Nope.” I just about groaned again, this mission was getting more complicated by the moment.

I looked over at the pair of gnomes my brows at least half furrowed whilst I considered my meager options, at our current location it was unlikely that the kobolds would sniff us out just yet. It wouldn’t be too much longer before they started sending out regular hunting parties and patrols though, it is a fair bit of work keeping an ogre fed. I asked the gnomes, “Is there a standard parlay sign of some kind that we can use, anything like that at all?” The two of them shared another one of those looks that I was quickly coming to hate and then the elder of the gnomes, Rhys, replied, “Not really, the only symbol used for parley and trade is a line drawing of a kobold hand. Even then, the group using the symbol had better be strong enough to fend off an attack by the group they are attempting to parlay with. An attempt by a weaker group to parlay with a stronger group of kobolds will only end with their heads on their village palisade.”

This situation was definitely getting more thorny than I would have liked. We were likely going to have to send for reinforcements, and build a fortified camp of some kind to withstand the kobolds if we were going to want unfettered access to the dungeon. I turned to Timoteo and asked, “When you and Dimitri came out this way previously did either of you notice a good place for a fortified camp?” Timoteo replied, “about a half league closer to the dungeon from our previous camp, about two and a half leagues from here the is a small pocket canyon that we could use, it would probably fit fifty or so people. The problem is there isn’t a source of water so it would be a poor place to survive a siege.”

I took a breath and sighed, saying to the group, “It will have to do, Timoteo, lead the way to that canyon, Serena, signal Erik and Lief, I want them to head back to Soria for reinforcements, despite this dungeon seeming both benign and somewhat intellectual. Who knows what will happen if the kobolds manage to influence it, or perhaps even more worrying if they manage to join additional tribes to monopolize the dungeon entirely.” She looked almost grim as she nodded and then made her way up a tree to signal our human pathfinders.

We had a good three full candle marks before nightfall, and we made good time to the pocket canyon. It was as Timoteo had described, a fairly secure location, but with no source of water. We made a camp for the night, keeping a close watch to see if the kobolds might have detected us. The night was quiet and uneventful. Shortly after dawn on a beautiful cloudless morning, we were finishing up the leftovers from the pervious nights dinner when we were startled right off of the ground by the sound a sharp crack followed by a peal of thunder. Then there was a sharp high pitched buzzing that continued with a rumble. I shouted to Karl who had been keeping watch from a tree just outside the canyon, “Karl, any idea what on Patria was that?” After a moment he shouted back, “None, but I think it came from the area that the kobolds are setting up their village in front of the dungeon entrance.” I had a sinking feeling in my gut, somehow I knew the situation either just got worse or more complicated.