This module adds the Korrik entity to the game, a playable kobold-kin with an alternative low-tech metalworking style, focussed on a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Warning: No graphics. Proceed at your own peril.

Description

Korriks are cousins to kobolds - They have the same stature, carnivorous diet, and propensity to skulk and steal. At that point however, Korriks diverge physically and socially. The most significant difference is the quills that sprout from the korrik’s back. Used for defence and for display, korriks can articulate these spines for communication and, with a brisk flick, can launch them at unsuspecting assailants. They are also oviviparous - females carry eggs for most of their development, unlike kobold’s tendency to “set and forget”.

While kobolds may be observed banding together for mutual defence, they are ultimately singular and untrustworthy of each other. Korriks on the other hand are more evolved on the societal level - They are beginning to band together communities, diversify skills, worship deities and form leaderships. Emerging from their cave hovels en-mass for the first time, the korriks are on the precipice of their bronze age - Will you lead yours into a thriving future?

Gameplay

Upon embarking you will probably notice that you can’t bring an anvil, nor assign any smithing skills. Korriks have a chalcolithic understanding of metalworking and thus have a totally different metalworking flow based on lost-wax casting and will involve wax working and ceramics.
First you will need to have a model to base your cast off of. This can be any existing craft, weapon or clothing you have.
A potter will make a clay mould of the item, using a unit of wax and clay. The wax is then recovered, usually.
At the new Crucible workshop, a metalworker will pour molten metal into the mould. Usually they’ll have to destroy the mould to retrieve the work within.

Korrik crucibles can’t reach the kind of temperature needed to melt iron, nor have they worked out how to (intentionally) make alloys. You will be limited to making works from lead, copper, gold, silver and tin.

Korriks are also obligate carnivores meaning you can’t rely on plants to sustain your camp. They also have poor livestock options as they can only tame creatures smaller than them - Attempts to domesticate wild aurochs when you’re four feet tall don’t tend to end well. You will have to rely on hunting and fishing to get food. That said, korriks do know some useful properties from plants, especially the funny feeling you get when you eat fruit that’s been sitting in the sun for too long, so keep that in mind.

Since korriks can’t use crossbows you’ll need to find other ways to do your hunting. Your military has been renamed to encourage you to utilise them for this role, and korriks have high enough natural endurance that persistence hunting with melee weapons may be viable. It also encourages you to think of game in a broader sense, including those that build towns and walk on two legs and have shiny stuff . . .

Inspiration

Korriks were inspired by a single piece of now-lost fan art in the very original Kobold Camp mod for 40d. Depicting a kobold in a feathered headdress with a macuahuitl, I reinterpreted the feathers as dreadlocks or spines and from there the korrik was born. A few other themes were born out of that thread that made it into the korrik’s character - that thieving wasn’t a case of insatiable or animalistic greed but a test of skill for courtship or coming of age. Rather than overwriting the existing kobolds I felt better to make a new creature that encapsulates this idea of a more evolved kobold-kin variation.

Known Issues

• The labour menu allows you to assign skills that you shouldn’t have access to. I can’t do anything about this so I ask that you try to constrain yourself to the spirit of the mod - Limit your stonework, don’t build mechanisms, don’t farm, etc.
• Korriks can make slings and bows but this is affected by the current uniform problems. If you can equip some slingers effectively let us know!