The moon cast a ray of light on the surface of the still lake, illuminateing the shore to the left and right of the soldier who stood at the waterline relieveing himself. He laced up his trousers and began to turn but paused a moment to stare at the water. He didnt remember those reeds being so close to the shore a few moments earlier but dismissed the curiosity and continued his turn back to the camp.
And paid for it with his life as a well thrown knife sailed into his spine and droped him like a sack of potatos. The reeds came closer to shore, five figures emerging from the water and tossing the reed breathing pipes aside. The five figures were two feet tall at the most with reptilian skin yellow eyes and dressed in leather armors fitted with various straps and pockets. The kobolds knelt in a semi circle as they smeared special paint on their faces to better blend in with their surroundings as well as secureing throwing knives, hand crossbows and a surpriseing amount of gear for such small creatures.
The leader, a kobold slightly taller then the rest but still under three feet began to draw in the sand with a dagger.
"Our mission is simple, this camp is a key supply depot for the opposition and the boss wants it dismantled. We also have reports that one of their senior intelligence officers is present tonight and that he possesses a detailed map of their troop movements to our northern and eastern flank so listen up".
The leader quickly drew a rough sketch of the camp in the sand denoting for of the seven buildings with circles and pointing to each building and a kobold in turn.
"Klick, move in from the southeast and disable their transports" he said pointing to the first kobold on his left.
"Meeks, your at the armory make sure everything inside is destroyed when you bring the building down" he whispered pointing to another kobold.
He repeated this for the last two kobolds sending them to destroy a food storehouse and the make shift barracks where most of the camps garrison was slumbering at the moment.
"I'll take the centeral building and snatch up the intel then mark the building for our catapaults, wait for my smoke before you start the light show, get in destroy and get out" the leader said quietly looking at his squad to make sure they understood, and indeed four reptilian heads bobbed in acknowledgement and scattered in several directions.
Trinzick Shadowclaw, leader of the seventy second kobold special forces is good at his job as are the men who serve under him for he takes nothing but the best into the field. His tribe had endured far more then most kobold clans, being forced to adapt to life in a land beset in a seemingly endless war. He had studied the methods of "warm blood warfare" and had adapted it to the point it was fit for a kobold which resulted in the creation of the group he affectonatly calls "The Kobold Commandos".
The army he served, a rag tag group of orcs, trolls giants...you name it had grown to a size that quickly became feared by most and respected by the rest.
The guards in the camp were probably expecting trouble from orcs and gnolls or some such, probably in massive numbers too!.
But nope, just five little kobolds heavily armed and well trained under the cover of darkness...
Trinzick shimmied up a nearby tree and pulled out the hand crossbow at his side. He slid a specially fitted bolt into the launching slot, this bolt end being fitted with a grappling hook and special high strength wire. He aimed carefully and pulled the trigger, the hook sailing over the heads of the unsuspecting and landing on the room of the central building. The tree was much higher and farther away from the command building which was just dandy with Trinzick. The kobold took a deep breath and slid on a pair of rip proof gloves and grabbed the wire, a tiny space in the palm of the gloves provided a special surface for the wire to slide along thus allowing the kobold to zip down the wire quickly and quietly. Trinzick landed lighty upon the roof and dropped into a crouch, his dagger in one hand, a freshly loaded hand crossbow in the other, he waited with a held breath...
No alarm came, no sound of suspicion...nothing just a drowsy camp below. He scampered to the center of the roof and looked down the hole left uncovered for the suns rays. The officers chamber was virtually empty except for one sleepy scribe and a man decorated in war medals and fullplate who faced a wall map of the current conflict. The officer turned and sat at a desk not far from the map and began to scribe orders and updates to the frontlines. The orders took less then four mineuts to write and when the officer stood to double check his orders with the wall map his jaw fell open when he beheld to blank wall.
The officer began to scream at the scribe startling the man from his slumber, and had the officer simply looked up he would have seen the orders dissapear onto the roof. Trinzick snickered as he carefully dislodged the fish hook and wire from the corner of the map which he used to pry it off the wall and quickly rolled the map up, secureing it in a water proof case at his side. He quickly reached into his satchel and placed a bowl on the roof, filling it with a variety of liquids most of them flamable and one or two magical substances as well. He stood back and dropped a tindertwig onto the bowl and a colume of bright orange smoke roared into the sky.
The camp was coming alive at that moment as the officer screamed and ranted about being robbed. The soldiers began to muster and gather their battlegear the camp suddenly alot noiser then it was a few moments before. Trinzick stood crouched on the roof looking to the southeast and counted a breath of three seconds...
An explosion rocked the camp as a blast of fire rose into the sky spewing hay bricks and dirt across the camp, the sound of horses and oxen mixed in with the commotion.
"Transports done...." Trinzick whispered
Three more explosions rocked the camp a few heartbeats later as the other kobolds detonated explosives within their respective targets. He grinned and wiped a tear from his eye as the enemy below stood looking around in confusion, the commanding officer clearly beside himself at the suddeny chaos in his camp. Trinzick moved to the wire he used to get to the roof and simply shimmied back up it to the tree, dislodgeing it from where he had secured it to a branch.
The explosions had an unintended but acceptable side effect. When the armory was destroyed it spewed barrels of alchemists fire into the air which landed hard and shattered causeing dozens and dozens of smaller blasts around the camp and started two dozen seperate fires in the process.
As Trinzick watched the camp burn he didnt turn in alarm or lash out with his dagger as one by one four tiny figures took up various spots on nearby branches.
A few moments later one of the soldiers did glance up at the tree, having thought he saw something, but his eyes only beheld a branch swaying in a slight breeze.
The kobold commandos were gone...
Captain Trinzik Shadowclaw.
