>>5339763You have determined that the best course of action with your admittedly-limited forces (yourself, twelve members of the Reptilian Master Race, a few dozen kobolds of varying combat capability, ten Bogbarri, four Drow, and your small collection of monstrous ‘pets’) is to stage a lightning-fast attack upon a single Dwarven company town. These fortified structures have been set up by the ‘corporations’, centuries-old commerce kingdoms, on land leased from the humans below the mountain proper. They rise up like artificial mountain-peaks, and tunnel deep into the mountain as the dwarves extract your ancestor’s wealth—YOURS, by right!—from the stone. They are incredibly defensible, but host relatively small contingents, and the dwarves’ famous greed and secrecy means that they communicate little with their rivals, and are loathe to request aid from other mammal-folk in the area lest they seek recompense in mineral wealth.
“Do not underestimate the dwarves, Superior One,” you were warned by the Thief.
The Thief is the foremost scout of your retinue, and well-trusted by you despite his ignoble history—the history which earned him his name and a gruesome brand burnt into his otherwise-fine Silkscale features. He well knows what he is talking about, too—your last effort to scout the dwarves involved sending him with a contingent of kobold. They did not all return, and he was badly-injured in the effort. He still wears the magical cloak you gifted him to help protect him from a recurrence.
You considered his council a you and your newly-acquired allies return to the kobolds’ mountain home in Bloodrise. You ruminate on it still, wondering if you are being too reckless—and, since you cannot very well back down now, what you can do to shore up your forces and mitigate the risks inherent to this undertaking. This is not your first battle, but this IS your first war. Though you suspect many forget it for your size and Presence, you have not even seen the dawn of your second decade yet.
“The kobolds are most experienced at these sorts of raids,” notes the Bastard, your chiefmost lieutenant and partner in draconic meditation.
You had left him to supervise those very same kobolds while you were away, recruiting bugbears and black-elves. By all indications, he did an excellent job of maintaining discipline while you were away.
“They could form the bulk of the invasion force, and lead the charge,” he says.
