<div align="center"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Getting Started</span></strong></div><br/>Alright so, what next? First things first, I'd like each of you to use a post below to detail your character; in addition to the stuff you put together for the recruitment, I'd like...<br/><br/>•<strong>Descriptions:</strong>What does your character look like, how do they act, what do they carry?<br/><br/>•<strong>What would other characters know about them?</strong>You're all part of the same tribe, and it's not a large tribe, so it's likely that you're all pretty familiar with each other, even if you're not necessarily intimate. Basically think, "how would other characters describe mine?"<br/><br/>•<strong>What are your connections to the other Sootscales?</strong>Including the PC's - again, you are all part of the same tribe. Keep in mind that kobolds generally don't see themselves as having familial bonds; they're communally hatched and raised, rather than having any sort of parent-child relationship, and even those hatched from the same clutch are simply an age group together. Feel free to work it out with each other.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Chief Sootscale</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="floatleft">(https://i-h1.pinimg.com/564x/50/58/fe/5058fe53e445c70040ead493ce8949d7.jpg)</div> Chief Sootscale has been in power over the tribe for al ong time, at least as long as any of <em>you</em> have been alive. He's led ambush raids against the mites, against human trespassers, and even once a band of gnomes, whose skulls decorate his throne room and whose daggers he wears in his belt. The recent troubles are taking their toll on the chieftain though; his scales, once a glossy black are now greying, and he hasn't been sleeping; he hasn't even been visiting his concubines! More and more he's been delegating to Tartuk, especially now with the rumors of a curse after the mite's audacious raid.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Tartuk, the Shaman</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="floatleft">(https://i-h1.pinimg.com/564x/3f/a0/20/3fa020e2a406c9c36ac91bcb005d4e97.jpg)</div> Tartuk is an outsider, a wanderer who joined the tribe just two years ago; with his magical ability and his talking bird and his connection with the devil Old Sharptooth, he easily bested the tribe's old Shaman, Nooknik, and took his place after a quick sacrifice to Sharptooth. Tartuk acts oddly for a kobold, besides being purple; he rarely joins others at mealtime, and he seems absolutely repulsed by the idea of mating (even just for fun!) he also mutters to himself a lot in odd languages. But then, shaman are weirdoes like that. Since the theft of Old Sharptooth, he's stepped up the pace of sacrifices, trying to appease the devil before anything worse can befall the tribe. </div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Meepo, Chief Engineer</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="floatleft">(https://i-h1.pinimg.com/564x/6c/f6/bf/6cf6bfcc91e6a89a17838f34431d5ca2.jpg)</div>Meepo is the one who keeps the traps in the lair in working order, devises new ones, and generally oversees the mining. He's ancient by kobold standards, and will happily bore your earholes off with tales of the glory days of the Sootscales (Of course, he's so old he remembers all the other names the tribe has gone by, which occasionally gets a rock chucked at him by Chief Sootscale.) After that raid on the gnomes, Meepo's been doing a lot of experimenting with the weird metal-and-wood object he took from them; finally, a use for all the led the tribe has lying around! Of course after he blew his left eye out of its socket, the rest of the tribe has taken him to be senile; still too useful to sacrifice just yet.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Thrix, Eggwarden</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="floatleft">(https://66.media.tumblr.com/ab2af0de0429cdbaa5216c22e2bb4c17/tumblr_pi4lucDWSV1utyn51o1_540.png)</div>Thrix is known for two things; being unusually fertile (she's produced up to three eggs at once!) and being - by kobold standards - insane (She actually seems to enjoy melee combat.) Taller and stronger than the average kobold, she claims to have genuine dragon ancestry. She's a favorite of the chief, and her prolific gift and her way around a deadly war-shovel has earned her a place as eggwarden; at least five mites lost their ugly little heads trying to get past her into the clutch chamber.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Shriketongue, Court Poet</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="floatleft">(https://66.media.tumblr.com/693c073d9f7c4965065d1257d5043778/tumblr_pi4lucDWSV1utyn51o4_540.jpg)</div>One of Chief Sootscale's eccentricities is that, after hearing about a similar practice among human kings, he decided he needed a court poet to sing songs of his greatness. Everyone had to give it their best shot, and as kobolds are generally not the most musically inclined species, it was a shitshow of a talent show. Poor Shriketongue (he used to go by the name of Leepp, but when Chief says you're Shriketongue, well, you're Shriketongue) is a small and frail example of the kobold race, which is saying something indeed, but he really does have a lovely singing voice. It's taken about three years for the stockholm syndrome to really kick in, and he's actually a fawning admirer of the chief now.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Nerrix, weaselkeeper (unemployed)</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="floatleft">(https://66.media.tumblr.com/500848dd0149a44ce38f4d95fb9d1d85/tumblr_pi4lucDWSV1utyn51o3_1280.jpg)</div>The Sootscales used to keep a trio of large weasels as mounts, trackers, and hunting beasts. And Nerrix raised them himself. Trained them, broke them to the saddle... and then watched as the rest of the tribe shrugged and ate them in a stew. Sure, sure, the tribe was hungry and they <em>were</em> just weasels, but Nerrix misses them, and is actually pretty resentful of the outcome. he's of late started a whisper campaign against Tartuk... and another whisper campaign suggests that Old Sharptooth might be "deciding' that Nerrix is soon to join his weasels. </div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Nakpik, Lair guard</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="floatleft">(https://66.media.tumblr.com/19fc0c30970d3b3d88bab5197b985519/tumblr_pi4lucDWSV1utyn51o2_1280.jpg)</div>Nakpik was once a forager. It was a good life, she thought, getting out of the caves now and then, seeing the stars, feeling the wind on her scales, and then laughing her tail off when a boar got its head stuck in one of her traps. Since the foraging parties have stopped going out though, she's been stuck on guard duty. Which is much more boring, but at least she's not Shriketongue, right? She's become a sort of unofficial head scout; probably due to her being one of the only foragers who's actually still around. Currently her role is to loan out the Sharp Poking Stick for use against Uurgl</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Uurgl, captive</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="floatleft">(https://i-h1.pinimg.com/564x/10/5a/24/105a248f9183487a2aadb859ed4ec54b.jpg)</div> Uurgl isn't  member of the Sootscales. He's not a kobold, either. He's a mite that was either captured or left behind in the raid, depending on who you ask. Whatever the case, he's currently trapped in a cage of sticks and sinew just outside the Sootscale's lair, where he can be tormented by the bright daylight (it's making him sprout hair!) and serve as a warning for any of the other tiny blue freaks that want to mess with the Sootscale. His current role to the tribe is casual torment; every now and then Nakpik loans out her favorite sharp poking stick for her tribemates to prod the gremlin with. Bound to be sacrificed any day now, probably.</div></div><br/><br/><strong>Current Events</strong><br/>As we open our game, these are the situations that face the Sootscale Tribe<br/><br/>•<strong>Hunger:</strong>A while ago, foraging parties started going missing in their forays into the forest's verge. In response, Chief Sootscale sent out a small war party, which also did not return. Rather than risk more kobolds, he's decided to keep foraging close to home, but pickings are slim; even the fish in the Shrike River have been getting scarce. The tribe still has a small store of tubers and a bit of weasel left, to compliment the remaining grubs, but that'll only last a little longer...<br/>•<strong>The Mite Raid:</strong>A bunch of these awful ugly blue things recently rampaged into the Kobold's lair, killing several, and making off with a prodigious amount of loot - including the totem of Old Sharptooth.<br/>•<strong>Old Sharptooth:</strong>With the effigy gone, a new curse has been visited on the tribe; the last sacrifice lost all his scales and turned blue and saggy, like a mite! Worried that this might spread, both chief Sootscale and Tartuk have declared that the effigy must be retrieved.<br/>•<strong>Politics:</strong>...Specifically, Chief Sootscale wants the effigy brought to him, while Tartuk wants Old Sharptooth delivered to<em>himself</em>. Usually the chief and the shaman work together, but maybe there's something else going on there...<br/>•<strong>Tallfolk:</strong>Lately something has been going on with the humans; oh, there have always been tallfolk crossing the land this way and that, but they'd been pretty uncommon. Lately though, there seem to be more of them, and they seem organized. This sounds dangerous; the center of such activities, if there is one, is currently unknown.<br/><br/>Will your characters seek to address these problems? if so, which? Or perhaps this is all a lost cause, and they want to go start anew somewhere that isn't cursed? or maybe take over the tribe for themselves? it's all up to you!