Kobold Ale

I ran an AD&D 1st edition campaign back in the late 1990’s that started with "U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh". After that the players went to a modified “U2: Danger at Dunwater”.  These two adventures went back-to-back so the player's characters needed some rest.  They retired to the nearby village of Nine Oaks (map below).

Nine Oaks Village 1999

There was just one problem with Nine Oaks, the Wayfarer Inn was all out of its signature Longspear Ale. It seems the last couple of shipments never made it to the Inn.  Desperately thirsty, the characters are enticed to track down the missing ale.

Kobold Ale

The missing ale was, in fact, stolen by a clever tribe of local kobolds who needed it to keep their big, dumb ogre friend happy.  The kobolds had adopted a lone ogre to protect them from being shaken down by the local hobgoblin tribe.

The map for Kobold Ale is below.  I actually borrowed much of the outline of the kobold tribe from “B2: The Caves of Chaos” by Gary Gygax.  Since the caves were not going to be in this campaign I wanted to make use of bits of it. I added a bunch of giant spiders at the bottom of a garbage chute in the kobold lair and the aforementioned ogre.

Kobold Ale Map 1999

It was a fun, one-session side-trek for the player’s characters.  They never felt in real danger but the Kobolds were clever enough to keep things interesting.  In the end the players made a deal that the Kobolds would return the ale if the adventurers took wiped out the annoying giant spiders.