In the bosom of the Earth - An underdark civilization quest

Teams: Kobolds under dragon oversight were traditionally organized into work teams. You have retained the core of this system. This is the basic building block of your civilization. Each team dedicates itself to a task, coordinating together for maximum efficiency. Teams usually form and die with their members, being mostly uniform in age. This means you'll need to renew them as time goes.

Units: Unlike teams, units last beyond their members' lifetime. An unit is built out of shared expertise and training, while being refilled from promising members of the general population. Units can be assigned to some regular tasks, but can also undertake their own missions as well as train to specialize further.

Projects: When dragons still led them, they would give their kobold followings sets of objectives to distribute among their work teams. Having lost their overlords, kobolds have to set their own goals, but the organization to progress through them has remained. Each project either concludes after a number of successes or gives a repeating benefit for each success.

Successes: When a team or unit is assigned to a project, you roll a 10 sided dice for it. On a 8 or 9, it contributes one success. On a 10, the team hit a lucky break and produced a critical success, contributing 2 to the project advancement. More specialized teams have bonuses to their success threshold. Successes are needed to progress through projects.

Kobold teams: As they work on projects and the fascination gains on them, kobold teams go through three stages. First are the young teams, still free to work on anything. Then teams become fascinated by one school of projects, and can only work on it, but get a bonus of one to their success threshold. Finally, teams become obsessed by a single project and continue to work on it or its extensions until they die, with a bonus of two to their success threshold. Teams advance one stage when they reach a critical success on a natural 10.

Obsidian dwarf teams: Due to their stubbornness, dwarven teams are limited in how they can be reassigned. Once they start a project chain, they remain on it until they achieve a success, at which point they have proven themselves enough for their pride to let them take another task. They benefit from a bonus of one to their success threshold on any turn after the first being stuck on a project chain. Obsidian dwarves' affinity for research also increases their success threshold by one on School of Knowledge tasks.

AN: this is my draft rule system. It'll probably evolves as it gets playtested, and I may move away from it if it proves to be too hard on planning... Or let you alter it for quest reasons. I'm taking feedback on this because it's going to be pretty integral to the quest.

Here it is! Your new home. After a long meandering journey during which you collected every errant team of your tribe as well as your dwarven allies, you have finally reached your target. Kobolds crowd around the yawning edge of the abyss falling from this part of the underdark's first level down into the Cathedral. Through the darkness, you can faintly see the colorful light of its crystals reflecting on the water droplets of the streams falling into the opening.

For any other tribe, dropping straight down the hundreds of meters that can separate underdark levels would be utterly inconceivable. Thankfully, you have a plan. It will only work once, and you can't expect to go back up this way, but you know the tunnels streaming out of the cathedral, so this is no worry to you. As your teams organize a makeshift camp to rest your tired feet, the heroes of the hour get to work.

Magical know-how is what your people have focused on preserving in your long exile since the loss of your draconic teachers. Without their guidance, your understanding of the deep theory behind the weave has degraded with generations, but with Kobold and Dwarven heads put together, it will be enough for one great undertaking. Sure, this ritual may be cobbled out of working pieces of smaller spells and wardings, but your enthusiastic bearded friends assure you it will work. While Kobolds alone would shy at this hatchet job, your allies reveal in this creative cutting and pasting, as they respect the weave and its power more than the specific forms taught to them.

Curious children trail after your wizards as they circle the gaping maw of the Cathedral, young kobolds and dwarves mingling together, drawn in by the light show of the temporary magical inscriptions being used to support this Working. Older tribespeople pass the time getting your baggage train ready for the descent, or resting in shifts as your teams are prone to do in the underdark's absence of day and night cycles.

Finally, your wizards congregate back at the edge of your camp. The Working is ready. Colorful lights stream from the stones they engraved all around the edges before circling down into the darkness. A kobold child who strayed close to the group of sorcerers gets to test their magic, throwing a stone into the depths and watching it descend slowly as a feather would. The magic is weaved and it is time to go.

With all your baggages strapped tightly together and your people woken up from their rest, all that's left is to take a leap. Going down in small groups, kobolds and dwarves alike launch themselves into the enchanted pit to drift down to the Cathedral floor. As they touch down, teams get to work clearing the landing area for the next wave of arrivals in a display of organic coordination typical of kobolds. Finally, the last of your people land, your wizards closing the drifting procession as they unravel their Working.

The sight that meets your tribe is breathtaking. The crystal covered walls of the Cathedral rise up in the distance all around you, the soft multicolored lights emanating from them filtered through a circular veil of water coming down from the edges of the cavern's opening. Your landing zone forms an island of sort in the middle of it, the opening large enough for the flowing water to fall around the peak of the center landmass, which juts out from the uneven ground in a rough hill. Rivulets of water sparkling with the crystals' reflection drift into a spider web of channels down the rocky outcropping's slopes before pooling into the lowest parts of the cavern in a circular lake. Even from a distance, you can see enough shallows and fords to know you will be able to cross it. On the other side, vegetation seems to flourish in the silt accumulating on the waterfront. Tall mushroom stalks supporting thin wide brimmed tops and smaller bushes dot the shores in pastel blues and greens. As water makes itself sparser, the undergrowth makes way for a soft plain covered in short plants broken up by sparse wide trunk mushrooms and clusters of sharp translucent crystals. In the far distance, the plain ends on the sloped walls of the cave edge, where rough rock and more numerous crystals rise to form the Cathedral's walls as flora gradually fade.

Yet there is only so much time for sightseeing. So much needs to be done to make your new home the safe haven your tribe believe it can be. Time to get to work!

As is traditional since the loss of guidance from your draconic creators, young kobolds about to pass into adulthood are brought together as the Assembly of the New. Together with advisory speakers from each team and unit, they will decide the allocation of your force until the next assembly. Unused to this neocracy and very much inclined to the opposite, your dwarven friends seem to tolerate it as the price of cooperation and send dwarves on the cusp of apprenticeship as their delegation, though they sit apart from your youths due to their much longer lives. The Assembly gathers at the top of the central hill, finding it an auspicious place to sit on while it plans your future in your new home.

What tasks do the Assembly of the New decide to allocate the tribe's forces to?


First cycle planning

Might

[] Map the cathedral: You only have a vague idea of what's out there. You need more information on the land you're settling. A scouting party could let you explore some of the more distant parts of the cavern. Each success will let you map one area.

[] Hunt small game: The hillsides of the central outcropping seem to have small animals burrowing into it and skulking around the water shallows. It should be easy hunting in terrain you can already see. One success for one food unit.

[] Hunt medium game: The mushroom forest is likely to play host to species of larger animals you could hunt, and the lake shore will attract them for drinking. A larger expedition could hunt across the water and come back to you with enough to feed your tribe for some time. Two successes for three food units and one trade goods unit.

[] Hunt large game: Recollection from old tales suggests the Cathedral's plains are inhabited by wandering herds of large grazing animals. Securing some of those would provide for the whole tribe for cycles. Three successes for five food units and two trade goods units.

[] Train militia: If you want to be ready to defend your new territory, you'll need some training. You have a few experienced fighters among your tribe, but no organization to take advantage of it. Drilling your existing teams will ensure you have the core of a fighting force. Each success gives you one militia rating.

Influence

[] Seek inhabitants: You haven't been in the Cathedral in a long time, and others could have settled in, or simply use it as a stop in their wanderings. You could check for the best areas much quicker than you could map the cavern. One success to meet any potential inhabitants.

[] Search for neighbors: Other tribes are likely to live around the Cathedral. It'll be a long trip, but you can equip a few of your people and send them on their way to make a tour of the likely locations and make contact. Two successes to find your close neighbors if any. One team max.

[] Build a small shrine: The central hilltop is the perfect symbolic place for a shrine commemorating the end of your long errance. You don't have much to build it with, but it should be enough to be a statement and can always be expended upon later. One success to build the shrine, two successes to start a service.

[] Organize celebration: Organizing a festival would give your tribe something positive to start their settlement on. It's an occasion to bring all its disparate groups together, which will both inform you about their differences and help smooth them over. Automatic success with one team, but will require having found one food this turn.

Growth

[] Fish the shallows: Your tribal records speak of bountiful fish in the central lake. It should provide quite a bit of food within easy reach thanks to the shallow waters. But you have to be wary of overfishing now that you are staying in place. One food unit per success, can deplete if overfished.

[] Check on your kelp seeds: Last time your tribe passed through the Cathedral, it seeded a kelp ecosystem into the lake, both as an edible plant and as a way to foster fish growth. It's a hardy crop and you should be able to get a full harvest without endangering its ability to recover. It's not the most nutritious thing but it is within easy reach. One success for a food unit.

[] Check on the forest gardens: Your tribe also seeded various food bearing mushroom trees, bushes, mosses and roots through the forest surrounding the lake. They've had time to grow and by being careful about what you take, there should be plenty in the future. It's also an opportunity to introduce some quicker growing species into the ecosystem for next cycle, now that you are sticking around. Two successes for three food units and an improvement to this action next cycle.

[] Identify woody growth: If you want to build permanent shelter or quality tools, you'll need material. Some mushroom trees can provide sturdy wood. You'll need to locate the best place to start a logging operation. One success to find out the ideal location.

Knowledge

[] Take inventory: Teams in your tribe came to the Cathedral with baggages containing various useful products. They're used to managing those autonomously but it may be useful to have an inventory of what you can access, either for your use or for trading. One success to unlock that knowledge.

[] Document fauna and flora: Seeking food may be your priority, but more general knowledge on the plants and animals you seek may prove useful. You might also find some more exotic species for medicinal or trading purposes. Document one biome per success, require a hunt/ or farm mission in the same biome.

[] Gather old lore: Your people carefully curate lore dating as far back as their time under their dragon creators. But it is all fragmentary, distributed among your tribe's population with little understanding of the greater meaning. You can attempt to put pieces of lore together to discover ancient secrets. One lore point per success.

[] Initiate new wizards: With knowledge of magic firmly in your hands, it should be possible to train up a new unit of magic wielders to assist you. This is a lengthy and difficult process which will result in a full team dedicating itself to supporting your new wizard unit. Three successes to turn one team into an unit of wizards. One team only.

[] Explore leylines: The Cathedral has powerful flows of magical energy converging into it and feeding its luminous crystals. Investigating those currents would make it easier to tap them for your use, and ensure you know about any dangerous surprises they may hold. Gain insight into local geomancy with each success.

Units
- Wizards

[] Assist a task: Wizards have plenty of useful spells and should be able to offer some kind of support to anything your tribe is undertaking. Time to put them to work. Pick a task for your wizards to assist.
-[] Write in: the task assisted

[] Learn a specialization: There are a multitude of ways wizards can help your tribe, and specializing into one of them would help deploy its full potential. Each success will let you specialize further, giving bonuses to assisting some tasks or unlocking new wizard only actions.

AN: It's finally done! Sorry for the long long wait, everyone. Figuring out the system has been a struggle and the writing wasn't forthcoming either. I hope it's not too awful to write plans for.