"More Than A Fool"

Observers Guide to Kobolds #2

Art & Crafts, with Illustrations!

Fig 1:

Kobolds are a very kinestetic species; the sense of touch being very important to engage with their art & crafts. Colours are appreciated, but are not as important due to their poor eyesight. A lot of their wearable crafts also server dual function as a fidget toy; helping control the species natural high anxiety and energy when focus is desired.

Fig 2:

a) Statuary and self representation is mostly used in instructional art, and funeral markers. This piece is the latter, and a rare example of a hollow marker with a piece of the owners bones inside.

b) Assorted glass, gem and painted stone beads. Most kobolds will have at least a small collection of interesting small stones, and do not discern precious gems from common stones. As long as it catches the eye, it goes in the bag.

c) Decorated sling shot. Shot from slings will often be re-used if successful in their first conflict, and will be decorated with various iconography to convey their luck or battle prowess. This example depicts "bloody teeth" possibly depicting a kill.

Fig 3:

a) Common storage pot. Pottery is a well practiced skill in Kobold communitys, with labelling often being a primitive braille- allowing important vessels to be found even in the dark.

b) Drinking flute. Due to the misalignment of the top and bottom of this flute it seems that it was an early piece fault by the creator rather than an intentional design choice.

c) Eating plate/low bowl. Kobolds do not require cutlery, as their teeth and claws are often of utility enough during meals. plates and bowls will over time be worn down by a flurry of scratches, requiring new crockery to be made.

King (Queen?) Salmonids

Just let them kiss Nintendo. You can make it a valentines day special mission and everything.

Observers Guide to Kobolds #1

Tools, with Illustrations!

The first hole a kobold will make is a small burrow in the soft loam or sand. They use their tough nails to dig a hole big enough to sleep in, and hide in. Familys and tribes will make a burrow-village of connected tunnels.

Next the kobold will find a suitable strong rock, one that can be knapped like flint, and they will break a sharp line along one side to give it an edge. This tool can be used and made when there is little to no wood or metal available, and whilst heavy and not the most effective, it can break down materials the kobolds nails cannot or would take months of scratching to achieve.

If metal and wood are available, the kobold can start to make mining and digging tools that humans and dwarves would recognise. Crude and humble they may be, with shafts of bone and heads of scrap copper, but they perform their task well.

Grilled Plump Cap

Plump caps must be the Dwarfen equivilent of the humble potato; full of every nutrient you need, and you can make booze out of it!

I always imagined that they'd have a nice starchy taste, somewhere between a sweet potato and a chestnut mushroom.

Also, turns out you CAN make wine from 'shrooms irl! apparently it tastes a lot like normal grape wine.

Made using PetMate, a free PETSCII art maker thing!

(might have to click pic to get rid of any blurryness)

WoD’s Demon: the Descent took this idea and made a really interesting game with it. It has more in common with the Matrix than Supernatural and the many takes on faustian bargins and trying to blend in with humanity as a kind of celestial-robot running off the tracks are brilliant!

the reason i love the comparison between angels and machines (robots, transmission towers, trains, computers, etc.) is that it gets to the heart of what angels essentially are: divine machines. they’re mechanisms through with the divine is able to act, created with a purpose and “happy” to fill it simply because they were made to do so. they have more in common with a machine programmed to run on algorithms and make calculations based on input commands than they do with humanity, even if they bear a human visage - an attempt by the divine to help bridge the gap. angels do not need to be eldritch monstrosities to be terrifying, because they are already alien to us simply by being angels. for an angel to choose to deviate from their purpose and achieve free will is to fall because in order to have free will they can no longer be an angel, because an angel is defined by its purpose. much like the stories we tell of robots that gain sentence, only to discover that they can never truly be human, but neither can they go back to being a machine, angels who fall become something else entirely, purposeless and adrift and alone. it is a tragic sacrifice.

Just say no!

A fun spoof of an old soviet era poster, I think the origional was trying to tell people to not drink booze with meals? Anyway, I like the whole Elves Vs Dwarfs Dorf Fort has going on and I tried to capture the low graphic nature of the game in a different way to the previous PETSCII/ASCII ones.

I actually like salad, but as part of a meal, not the whole thing itself.

KSS KYUR MUB MUB KA MUB BLI SKA

The endlessly endearing Mr. Mub Mub, as voiced by the irrepressibly energetic @baronharkonnen (SpeakerD)

I love how genuinely alien the Xenians and other aliens are in half-life, from their biology to their mannerisms to their speech quirks. SpeakerD does a fantastic job of conveying the true alien grasp of social interactions in a way that is both funny and very empathetic.

The species in HL also have some interesting means of making art too, which is what I tried to get at here. I like to think if Mubby wanted to make a self portrait, it would look a little like this.

Spinnin' boys

Husban (@xx-k1tsun3-k1d-xx) and me doin' a spin on our buns.

Goblin!

Goblins in Dorf Fort have a rough time of it. Their society is cruel to them and Armok knows the players are too. They can often be capable of great things when introduced to society sans all their coded baggage, I've had my fair share of great goblin citizens in my forts.

Made using PetMate, a free PETSCII art maker thing!

(might have to click pic to get rid of any blurryness)