Goblin Gear: Kobold Angelship Part I

Part I of this article

Adam



Unhuman Wars



Angel Cartel

        Centuries ago, many goblin-kin tribes made into wildspace.  By far
the

most successful of these tribes was the Angel Tribe, a tribe of kobolds

(1).  The Angel tribe origins are a mystery, but some historical records

indicate that they were first encountered in Realmspace and quickly

spread to Greyspace and Winterspace.  They had a small base in Refuge by

4200 OC on a small city block they leased from the Arcane.  By 4250 OC,

the Angel Tribe had become the largest kobold tribe in wildspace.  Only

the elves had a larger fleet than the Angel Tribe.  After 4250 OC, the

Angel Tribe ceased to grow rapidly and its fleet size stabilized.

        The secret to the Angels' success was in their attitude.  When they

first took to the spheres in their first porcupine spelljammers, they

were much like every other goblin-kin tribe in wildspace.  In other

words, they were pirates and raiders.  After suffering several defeats,

the kobolds retreated to a small asteroid or lifeworld that they came

across.  When they arrived, they discovered a stranded blue skinned

giant, who begged for mercy.  Not a particularly cruel bunch, the

kobolds spared the Arcane's life and were willing to return him to his

home once the issue of a reward was brought up.  In gratitude, the

Arcane explained the principles of commerce and trade to the kobolds.

Though most of the lessens were lost on the less than bright kobolds,

they took many of those lessens to heart.

        What the kobolds realized was that they were physically weaker than

most of the other races of wildspace, orcs and ogres were not.  Such

creatures were capturing countless merchant ships and raiding towns and

villages everywhere.  Because of their raids, they took a great amount

of booty, most of which was useless to the creatures and most often

tossed aside.  If the kobolds could offer goods the orcs did need in

exchange for those that they would discard, the kobolds could turn a

profit.  Though it took over a century, the kobolds eventually won orc

and ogre respect as merchants and black market dealers in stolen wares.

Though considered disreputable junk merchants and black market dealers

at best by the rest of the wildspace communities, at least kobolds

weren't hated or attacked on sight by humans or elves.  Even orcs and

ogres were reluctant to attack them, in fear of losing valuable trade

partners.

        The kobolds became the Angel Tribe after the development of the

angelship, which became the backbone of their fleets.  The ancient name

of the tribe has been lost to the ages.  Later still, as splinter tribes

developed as the kobold tribe grew larger and expanded to many spheres,

the whole became known as the Angel Cartel.  The Angel Cartel held the

majority of such ships and were the only nation of kobolds at the time

capable of building them.  Some were lost to other races and rouge

kobolds over the centuries, but the majority remained firmly in the

hands of the Angel Cartel.



Angelships

        Once the kobolds have secured their first trade routes, they began
work

on a new design of ship.  Working with the Arcane, the Angelship was

developed after decades of hard work and hard coin.  The ship served

their purposes well, as it was a squat but broad trade ship.  Most were

trade ships and bulk cargo carriers, but a few were converted to

warships to defend other angelships or serve as mercenaries.  They were

named angelships because they appeared as angels when viewed from above

or below in bad light.  Some angelships were decorated with feathered

wings and a human-like figurehead for a ram.

        The ship had a strong keel that ran down the bottom of the craft,
with

thick  gunwales curving up and out from that keel.  Wings were added to

increase the ship's stability and maneuvering capabilities.  The wings

were constructed from kindori rib bones, used for the frame, with a thin

wooden bottom and a top typically made from the skin of brown scavvars.

The wings were strong enough to support quite a bit of weight overall,

but excessive amounts of cargo caused them to sag or snap off.  The

common practice was to use the wings as sleeping quarters for kobold

crewmen, who would curl up in the numerous cubby holes.  The skin top of

the wings were sometimes cut in places to air them out.

        The lowest level of the ship, between the main deck and the keel,
was a

very narrow space where much of the ship's cargo was stored.  Most

angelships had cargo doors cut into the sides of the gunwales, allowing

access to this area.  While those doors offered easy access to the

cargo, it ruined the ship's ability to land in water.  Thus, most

angelships could not land in the water.

        The interior of the angelship had few rooms.  The kobolds had a
strong

sense of community and pack-like instincts, so individual quarters were

unknown.  Separate rooms were assigned for basic functions, such as a

galley, mess, and bridge, but quarters for captains, helmsmen, and

officers were unknown.  The leaders of the ship slept together in the

forward most chamber, directly behind the metal-tipped blunt ram.  In

battle, they would be found in the bridge, behind their quarters.

        Because their main role was as trade ships, angelships were rarely

heavily armed.  The kobolds added enough weapons to deter pirates and

scavvars from attacking their vessels, but far too few to fend off a

determined warship.  Instead, the kobolds relied upon their trade

agreements with pirates and sheer tenacity to get them through.  Rich

kobold captains would sometimes hire a wizard to help protect his ship.

In the rare instances that the kobolds would build a warship angelship,

they would triple the number of weapons and plate their ships in metal.

All such ships would have several wizards and shaman aboard to provide

magical support, including hired human mages.  Because they were painted

black and often cloaked by darkness spells, these warships became known

as nightangels.



The Fleet

        The size of the Angels' fleet varied greatly from decade to decade,
but

after 4250 OC, it rarely fell below 400 trade ships and sometimes

numbered over 500 trade ships.  There was a considerable fluctuation

from year to year as ships were lost to pirates or disaster and new

ships were built to replace them.  Once the nightangel had been

developed, the kobolds kept about 50 or so of the ships on hand as

escorts and mercenary ships to protect their merchant fleet.  Once the

Unhuman Wars began, many trade ships were lost to elvish raids to

destroy orcish and ogre supply lines.  Many survived by pulling out of

the war and refusing to trade with orcs and ogres, but by that time the

war was over and the Great Hunt had begun.  Those few kobolds that

managed to hang onto their ships were forced to join the orcs and ogres

in exile at the edge of Known Space.

        The actual number of ships in any given sphere was fairly small, as
the

kobolds were highly dispersed over most of the Known Spheres.  Many

small fleets were sphere traders, travelling from sphere to sphere to

unload particularly "hot" goods on unsuspecting buyers.  Locally, each

fleet had a great deal of individual freedom and thus were virtually

autonomous from each other.  Most individual fleets held their own trade

routes and traded with certain orc and ogre tribes.  Tribal fleets

sometimes competed against each other, but rarely did they come to

blows.



Society

        Many wonder how the Angel Cartel, with fleets dispersed across
dozens

of spheres, could keep the various tribes together.  The answer was

two-fold.  First, the Cartel had a central headquarters in the thorny

branches of the lifeworld called Bramble.   Inside the branches, the

kobolds held a small city, nestled inside of a gigantic, curled leaf.

The secret to the city's importance was that it was the only place where

kobolds could build their angelships.  It served as a trade center for

the kobolds, where they could unload anything for sale in other

spheres.  Even the Arcane kept open an office at the city, advising the

kobolds and skimming a healthy profit off their clients.

        Secondly, and most importantly, what held the vastly dispersed
tribes

together was a common cultural heritage.  Almost all of the kobolds in

the Cartel could trace their lineage back to the original kobold tribe.

Even space-bound dwarves were impressed by how strongly the kobolds held

their heritage.

        Kobold society centered around their tribes, to the surprise of
many.

Tribal pride is first and foremost among kobolds, and with many ways to

achieve that pride.  The most common method is through wealth, which the

kobolds flaunt through well-built and well-decorated ships.  The kobolds

were cagey enough to avoid becoming targets for pirates, preferring fine

but dingy weapons, rich tapestries of tribal histories, clothes,

expertly-trained animals, and a well-fed tribe.  Many tribes paint the

insides of their ships with intricate pictures of life in wildspace,

space creatures, and lessens for kobold children.

        A typical tribe held a monopoly on the junk trade in a given sphere.
A

tribe would hold a number of trade ships, usually 5-40 ships.  Each ship

would be owned by a single clan, who owed fealty to a great chief.  As

the Angel kobolds considered wit and skill in trade as more important

than brute strength, the great chief would be the richest kobold in the

sphere.  To enforce their will over the other clans, the great chiefs

each kept a nightangel to protect their home asteroid or outpost.  Such

outposts were cluttered with piles of junk and stolen merchandise, which

they try to sell to anyone that shows up.  While the quality of such

goods were often in question, the outposts were popular ports because

one could find almost anything for sale with no questions asked.