Lurking Nightmares: Kobbolins

Kobbolin Bully by Jacob Blackmon

One of the most common threats encountered by delvers traveling through The Dream are kobbolins. These tenacious and surprisingly resilient beings seem capable of surviving almost anywhere, including inhospitable realms like the Aspect of Fire and even lethal pockets of Nightmare.

Like beastlings, who make their home in both The City and the Aspect of Forest, kobbolins combine a generally humanoid form with several animalistic features, including bat-like ears, reptilian skin, and muzzles with both canine and feline characteristics. Unlike beastlings, kobbolins are remarkably consistent in form; rather than adapting their features to mimic creatures common in their environment, kobbolins are instantly recognizable wherever they are encountered, with only minor variations in coloration and fur texture.

Sages in The City have debated whether kobbolins are truly creatures of Nightmare at all, or simply an incredibly rare and adaptable type of mortal being. Kobbolins often display consistently violent tendencies when encountered by delvers and there are vanishingly few of them to be found with the walls of The City, but they have also shown themselves to be open to reason and cooperation from time to time. Scientists and philosophers who believe kobbolins are nightmares often point to the fact that no other mortal creature can live long within the turbulent and deadly Aspect of Nightmare. Others believe kobbolins to be the next true mortal evolution, descending from beastlings in the same way that beastlings descended from humans.

Kobbolins themselves have provided little insight or input on the debate. In extremely rare circumstances, kobbolin mercenaries enter The City, accompanied by delvers who encountered them during their excursions, but no kobbolins are known to have taken up permanent residence. This further muddies any study into the kobbolins’ true nature, as some take this as a sign that, like most nightmares and other unstable dream elements, kobbolins simply disperse without a strong will and imagination to anchor them. It is equally possible, however, that kobbolins merely have a disdain for the quiet and stable life of The City and wander back into The Dream when boredom takes them.