TBK Glossary (Patreon)

I gave the kobolds their own words for a lot of plants and critters, so I have a little glossary of the ones we've met so far (and a few we haven't met yet). There are no real spoilers, so I thought you might like to have it! They're mostly in order of when I wrote about them, but I'll try to organize it more later, and will probably include it in the book.

Beasts

Stun moths/jiyun - the grubs are a tasty treat that make your mouth tingle slightly, but the powder on the wings of the metamorphosed adults can paralyze animals, making them fall into patches of bloodmoss, which eat them and grow flowers the stun moths pollinate

Ironfang rats/Fuergar - everywhere - rodents who can chew through stone with metal teeth

screechers/Janjio - bats with huge mouths, no eyes who screech to paralyze and then eat their victims

Woshi/salamander - white, eyeless, fairly common around water, mildly poisonous slime, range from a few inches long to up to ten feet, swim around with mouths open, eating everything. Sometimes kobold pups try to keep a baby as a pet for a little while.

Lopo - tentacled monsters that hang from the ceiling, looking like stalactites, until they pull their prey up into their mouths (think layers of teeth like a sandworm). Only have one eye, which mainly detects light and movement, no detail. Multiple tongue/tentacles with barbed tips. They’re gray, and can extend three or four times as long as the lopo’s body.

Lanma/ Jack - appears as a small blue flame in the darkness. Can make a crackling or knocking noise. If they’re treated with respect and given offerings (high-ki items), they may lead lost travelers home or miners to rich ore deposits. If they’re attacked, they absorb all light, then lead the creature or traveler to their doom as they try to chase after them or run away.

Yanchong/rockworm - a slug-like creature that can spit acid that causes metal and stone to crumble. Its slime is so sticky that it picks up some of the fallen rock, which forms a sort of armor. They can be covered in all kinds of stone/metal, providing them with different levels of resistance.

Jiachin/stone grub/beetle - Grubs that burrow into stone,

Haiz/Stinger - electrical jellyfish living in the deep waters

Hoyi - four-foot red ants, can literally spit flame and cook anyone they bite

Binyi/Ice lizard - very rare, long neck, crocodile-like head, lurks around water, very aggressive - ice breath and freezing bite. Scratches will infect people with ice ki that causes hypothermia and eventual death.

Plants

Rougu - deep brown mushroom with a rich, meaty flavor. A favorite of many kobolds.

Yumao - dark green moss with feathery fronds and brown nodes. Makes a good soup. Easily confused with duyu

Duyu - dark green moss with feathery fronds and red nodes. Poisonous (vomiting). Easily confused with Yumao

Mogu - black mushrooms with bright red gills Poisonous in quantity, but works as a stimulant in small quantites

Fulan - a rust-like powder rot that can infect many types of moss and lichen. Patches of this are burned as soon as they’re found, since they can spread and render an entire level barren

Weiba - edible powder gathered from the yumi plants (pollen - think cattail pollen)

Toufa - a dark brown fungus with hair-like spore-dispersal stalks. Edible. Looks similar to Kobold’s ear when peeled

Kobold’s ear - a dark brown, triangular fungus that looks slightly fuzzy. Looks similar to Toufa when peeled. Edible.

Jiao/pepper moss - mainly used for spice, though it is edible. Most kobolds throw it away because it’s too spicy, but some eat it raw.

Jejing/Cleansing moss - used for wounds, and smoked to cleanse bodies, strong but soothing to kobolds

Bloodmoss - a plant, but with animal-like abilities. When a creature falls into its grasp (usually after being paralyzed by stun moths) it poisons them, then feeds on their corpse. It produces flowers on which the stun-moths feed. (These are the only flowers in the mountain.)

Firemoss - rusty red, commonly found near water. pound on it with a flat rock to quickly turn into a dense, fibrous paste, which produces a gelatinous goo. Usually, a female would heat this goo until the last of the fibers separated from the liquid, creating the ‘oil’, a few drops of which would then be combined with fresh moss to create torches