kobolds are a legal gray area
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Mattin has a friend in Westcrown, they are almost the same person but with a slightly different accent. Every arena owner in Ostenso is direct competition and sometimes they send retired gladiators to attack each other; there can be no camaraderie there. But there's no competition with an arena in another city, so it's possible to just be friends and talk shop. 

This friend has a big house and is letting Mattin (and several servants and bodyguards) stay as guests. Mattin and his friend are currently touring the menagerie, which at this time is mostly kobolds.

"A toast to Kobolds, a legal gray area!"

"Yep, proclamation only mentioned humans, halflings, and orcs. Have you seen the rates these days, I can get twenty halflings for one kobold!?" 

"For all the good it does you, next week you'll have zero kobolds zero haflings." 

"You're lucky to have thousands of them here; much better than the sewers back in Ostenso, all we have are rats."

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So you gotta think about these things. This time she's managed to bully five other kobolds into going along with her schemes. The idea- and she's only repeated it so many times it got into toecounts- is that they raid the place, free the other kobolds, free the big monsters, wait for them to kill the guards - and then steal everything.  And later the humans will think the big monsters got loose. This is a clever plan.

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It starts out pretty well. Alecka causes a door to open into the building, lets herself into a disused closet, and opens a tiny window that looks over the gardens [Doors to Everywhere]

Then she causes a guard to trip on his rounds. [Accident]

The guard is then taken to the kitchens, to be treated, and in the ensuing shouting, the other five kobolds climb up a rope and squeeze through a tiny window. 

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Tix, the smallest kobold, runs off when she's not looking.

Two others noisily start fiddling with a brass candlestick, and knocks it over.

She gets her remaining four kobolds under control with a whispered scolding, and they continue. 

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There's better security on the monster wing, but mostly on the outside- not from the side of the residence. There's still a guard, though. 

But Alecka is very smart.

[Charm Person]

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"Heysoldier! Wanna be my friend?"

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"We're sneakinginto the monster place. Bestfriendsforever!"

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No Plan Survives First Contact With the Enemy. Or on this case, the Enemy’s amicable guest who is also in the monster menagerie room. Well, more like that guest’s squad of rather formidable bodyguards. 

Martin doesn’t hear anything, and continues his conversation. 

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This ranger, who would rather be leading an expedition into the forest to bring back captured monsters like he usually does, has sharp senses and the paranoia of someone who knows what an ‘assassin vine’ is. He hears a hushed conversation outside the door and steps away to investigate. 

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With the guards' key to the monster cages, nothing can possibly go wrong.

Alecka and her cadre are let into the wing with a rattle of a well-oiled lock, and

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“Kobolds?” What are these critters doing here? Does this guy just let them wander the grounds unattended, or are these from outside? 

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"Scram!" (in kobold, which has a distinct vowel sound dedicated to it)

 

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Alecka does that twist in what's going to happen, the thng she knows best- and Haritz trips over his own feet, and falls on his face. And then she tries to get he door open again, as the other kobolds run off, all in different directions.  

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Down he goes!

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The monster menagerie wing is now open. Cells line the walls of this long hallway, most are empty but a few have an assorted creatures within. 

The cell full of kobolds has two finely dressed men standing right in front of it, chattering about politics. Standing besides them, three more of Martin’s personal guards, rugged men in light armor. 

There are other cells, though, closer to the door and less guarded. The most promising one has some sort of horse-sized giant scorpion in it, missing a couple legs.

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The main door's too heavy for a small kobold that always bullies other people into doing her fetching and carrying. Let's create some more chaos instead.

Alecka runs to the scorpion's cell door, and unlocks it, pulling it open.

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Some monsters can be trained to only attack on command. Others instinctively attack anything that approaches and so have to be put under a sleep spell, restrained, and then taken to the arena. Giant scorpions are in the second category. 

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“Truly? They’re using the old arena for trials? Not even executions, just dull and bloodless paperwork? No wonder the people are rioting.”

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Ow. Went down hard, head is spinning a bit, but he can still shout a warning. “Kobold!”

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“SCORPION!”

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Well then. Mattin and his friend both shout at the same time, “GUARDS!”

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Let's open some more cages, we can still succed here.

"Bix!"

The kobold looks up, she throws the key, and Bix doesn't even consider catching it- just dodges, and runs in another direction.

"You fool!"

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Alecka runs to pick up the key again.

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