BoH: Beginner's Luck

This is the first adventure of the Band of Hatchmates.

The Beginning
The kobolds are all members of the Yipping Claw Tribe. While at home in the Lazy Hume mine, each person is doing their own thing. Gix is reading and practicing sorcery, Zefkak is showing off his fierce combat skills, Sneaklock is scurrying about the mines laying traps, and Zazus is daydreaming instead of mining. Their daily routines are interrupted when a messenger from the neighboring Shady Bark Tribe appears.

Messengers are rare. The last time one had been seen it was because a party of "heathen adventurers" had ransacked a northern tribe and slaughtered most of the inhabitants. Gossip travels quickly in the mine. Grubface, the messenger, speaks only to the leader of the tribe, the All-Watcher, and then hasitly departs.

Later on in the day, after the communal meal and prayers to Attor, the four kobolds are summoned to the All-Watcher's chambers. He explains that the messenger was sent by his cousin Kosj-Skull, leader of the Shady Bark Tribe. ''"The gods are testing us. It seems my simple cousin has found a piece of the Vigored Litrix. The fabled Dragon Armor." ''

It was a story they were all familiar with, from when they were wrymlings. "A dragon made a kobold a suit of armor, one that granted him amazing power. But something happened and the great kobold hero disappeared, his very name erased from history." The specifics (why the armor was created, what happened to it, who was the dragon, etc) were all unknown as well and the story would vary from tribe to tribe. But it was thought to be just that, a story.

The All-Watcher tasked the four kobolds with traveling to the Shady Bark Tribe and inspecting the helmet. If it was indeed the mythic armor, it would be the find of their lifetimes. If it was not, then they would return to the mine. So the Band of Hatchmates packed a few meager belongings and set off into the night.

The Tomb in the Woods
After a few days travel, the party makes it to the Shady Bark Tribe. They are greeted warmly by Kosj-Skull the simple, who has been working on some sort of flaming catapault trap. Kosj-Skull regales them with the tale of how some of their best hunters were out collecting animal bits when one of them fell into a sinkhole. That hole turned out to be an ancient cavern where a beautiful red scaled helm rested on a stone slab. Before the hunting party could collect the helmet, a large spider dropped down and devoured one of their mightiest warriors. The rest fled for their lives. In Shady Bark lore, a red helmet was worn by the legendary hero. Not sure of what to do, Kosj-Skull sent work to his closest cousin for advice. And that brought the party. If they would go and slay the spider, they could claim the helmet as their own.

Agreeing to his more than fair terms, the band of hatchmates set off to the hidden cavern. They find it and some kobold corpses. The party carefully descended down into the cave and discovered it was actually a tomb. Weird glyphs covered the walls and there were pictures of fire and dragons. There was indeed a large spider down there as well. With some well aimed crossbow bolts and frost magic it was quickly dispatched. While Gix claimed the helmet, Zefkak broke some urns and caused an undead kobold to attack them. They slaughtered it and closed the tomb with a large stone slab so another undead kobold couldn't reach them. Then the party made a hasty retreat back to the Shady Bark Tribe.

A few days were spent with the tribe, which gave the kobolds time to hone a few skills and get to know their neighbors. Gix tried on the helmet and had a vision. Sneaklock and Zefkak learned some things about trapmaking. And Kosj-Skull was told that the helmet was not the Dragon Armor. It was a secret the band of kobolds would keep to themselves.