Non-Player Kobolds (NPKs)

Non-player kobolds (NPKs) comprise the majority of characters in any "Kobold Quest" arc. Interactions with Protagonists by NPKs are exclusively determined by the author.

## Command

#### Queen Lustre

   Queen Lustre is the Queen of Kobolds, and is ostensibly in charge of the K.S.S. Cornucopia in some capacity. As a highly-ranking member of the Kobold Federation, she rarely, if ever, interacts with the crew, instead choosing to spend her time on the ship enjoying the luxuries her wealth affords her. These include food, entertainment, and her choice of companionship.

#### Captain Kobold

   The exploits during Captain Huckleberry "Huck" Kobold's tenure have made him arguably one of the most famous and sometimes infamous starship captains in history. The highly decorated Captain Kobold serves as the commanding officer of the Alcalon-class expedition ship K.S.S. Cornucopia, where he serves Kobold Federation interests as an explorer, soldier, diplomat, and time traveler.

## Administrative

#### Custard Apple Kobold

Custard Apple is a short, round, bespectacled kobold almost as wide as she is tall, giving her the appearance of a short-sighted water balloon. Reassigned from the hatchery as part of the "It's Ok To Not Be Ok (But Don't Stop Working)" program to improve morale, Custard Apple enjoys nothing more than trying to cheer people up. Her methodology, however, which consists of singing (badly), cooperative word searches, and reading aloud awful romance novels (with frequent interjections and commentary) invariably fails. This consequently, and ironically, plunges her into deep depression.

## Research & Development

#### Lemon Kobold

Lemon is a member of the Cornucopia's Research & Development team. She is currently the only researcher assigned to the "RagDoLL" initiative, investigating alternative materials to create simulated life constructs. Lemon is known to battle bouts of short-term memory loss, which apply almost exclusively to misplacement of her uniform leggings.

#### "Pink" Roseapple Kobold

Roseapple Kobold - known to close friends as "Pink" - is a xenostudies focus on the Research & Development team, dealing primarily with the technology, cultures, and languages of non-kobold "alien" species. While a recent development has seen her talents focused on a top-secret project involving an artifact of unquantifiable power, Roseapple's method of researching alien species more typically consists of various enthusiastic "physical interactions" - for which she displays surprising stamina.

#### Red Pepper Kobold

Called "Red" by his friends (and "Pep Pep" by his great egg-mother), Red Pepper is a member of the Cornucopia's Research & Development team. While his official role in the department is the maintenance and operation of the "Cortex Vortex" (the neural recoding installation), Red's workstation is in close-enough proximity to the front admittance bay that he's unofficially the department liaison as well. His classic concert t-shirt is a gift from the medical department staff, given to him after he awoke naked after an accidental dosage of medusabold venom - the details of which are still unconfirmed.

#### Redcurrant Kobold

A senior member of the Cornucopia's Research & Development team, Redcurrant specializes in causal-comparative/quasi-experimental research. Temporarily without an official assignment from the Hierarchy, Redcurrant is currently pursuing a course of study of the effects of high concentrations of biochemistry-altering serums on pheromone production. As her handiwork is well-known to "accidentally" become spontaneously airborne in the lab environment (turning her co-workers into impromptu test subjects), she is rarely seen without her precautionary black gas mask.

## Communications

#### Pitaya "Tay" Kobold

SCO Pitaya Kobold is responsible for supervising operation and maintenance of the Cornucopia's deep space transmitters and receivers, as well as encrypting and decrypting secret message traffic and the distribution and safe storage of such secret messages. He was recently reprimanded for decoding a *very* private video message sent by Queen Lustre to a former paramour and saving it for "personal use."

## Genetics

#### Nutmeg Kobold

Like Gooseberry, Nutmeg is assigned to the Genetics Department, and has similarly devoted herself to a curriculum of "self-modification" with gene therapy of her own development. Nutmeg's efforts have borne the fusion of kobold genetic structure with that of terrestrial mammalian stock, particularly that of rodents of the genus Sciurus. While her intentions were to widen her hearing frequencies and improve reaction time, the benefits were accompanied by a light layer of fur and pointed ears, as well as a strong and persistent desire to locate and hide large nuts, leading to her eventual banning from the Cornucopia's Arboretum.

## Security

#### Chief Master Sergeant "Niq" Uniq

CMSgt Uniq Kobold directs the capstone and pinnacle levels of Enlisted Professional Kobold Security aboard the Cornucopia, and is responsible for two senior enlisted leadership courses through in-residence and virtual programs of instruction. However, she is rarely able to make it through an instructional session without being summoned to intervene in one minor crisis or another. The propensity of the Cornucopia's populace to create mayhem, and the frequency with which they do so, often makes "Niq" privately question her desire to see the stars... if not for the ample opportunities to "relieve stress" with her selection of willing subordinates.

#### Senior Master Sergeant "Kurra" Kurrajong

SMSgt Kurrajong Kobold is most comfortable managing the personnel records for security trainees and cadets, including monitoring all cadet compensation actions, fees, subsistence, and equipment funds. While she prefers not to interact with few (any) other passengers aboard the Cornucopia, she is often called upon to muster personnel who liaise with the Security team for joint missions - willingly or otherwise - due to her ability to quickly "achieve unit cohesion" with a few brusque words.

#### Master Sergeant Kola

Master Sergeant Kola Kobold oversees cadet life cycle, personnel actions, medical and physical compliance, and commissioning. She prefers a strictly regimented schedule, including a wake-up two hours before the Cornucopia's artificial daylight is activated to participate in group PT with other members of the Security team. Like SMSgt Kurra, Kola prefers to keep mostly to herself - but life aboard the Cornucopia rarely affords the Security team much downtime, due to the propensity of the crew - or commanders - to manage themselves straight into chaos.

#### Sergeant Tiggermelon

Assigned to the diplomatic security detail, Sergeant Tiggermelon Kobold and his team are primarily responsible for escorting various VIP dignitaries and political emissaries visiting the Cornucopia to meet with Queen Lustre. While the practice of maintaining a standing diplomatic security detail is atypical of a Kobold Federation ship's crew, visitors seeking an audience with Lustre arrive so frequently - and the individuals in question are so noteworthy - that Tiggermelon's squad rarely sees more than a couple of days of downtime before being assigned to accompany a new arrival for the duration of their "diplomatic negotiations."

## Medical Staff

#### Doctor Papaya

    Papaya is the attending Physician in the Cornucopia's Urgent Care bay, specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation, organo-anesthesiology, and obstetrics and gynecology. Papaya's configuration of physical attributes - unusual even by "medusabold" standards - allow her to see in both the visual light and infrared radiological spectrums and from many angles simultaneously, for rapid diagnoses of physical ailments.

#### Nurse Salak

    Salak serves as the nurse practitioner assigned to the medical office in the primary gymnasium installation aboard the Cornucopia. He specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation, and trauma and subacute care.

#### Pineapple Kobold

Pineapple acts as the Medical Bay's receptionist and informatics specialist. In addition to overseeing and maintaining medical records on every one of the Cornucopia's many hundreds of occupants, Pineapple is responsible for ensuring every department on the ship remains well-stocked in one of the most critically important supplies: lollipops.

## Clergy

#### Sister Coconut

A devout nun of the Temple Of Truth's Almighty Light and Blessed Sensation (TOTAL-BS), Sister Coconut Kobold's role on the Cornucopia is one of ministry and altruism, seeking to bring hope and comfort the disenfranchised and disillusioned. Having taken a vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the subsequent assignment to the Cornucopia could almost be seen as a cruel joke played by a superior minister... but Coconut quietly relishes the many "challenges" present aboard the ship (including navigation, due to blindness since an early age).

## Catering

#### Thyme Kobold

Thyme Kobold is one of the longest-serving representatives of the UKCC - the United Kobold Catering Collective - aboard the Cornucopia. As the ranking Food Service Specialist, Thyme takes it upon herself to ensure the many hundreds of kobolds serving aboard the ship have access to a variety of palatable and relatively-fresh meals as alternatives to the prepackaged rations and live protein supplements. Her culinary skills produce meals ranging from simple homestyle vegetable lasagna to blackened marjoram chops and fresh greens and cherry tomatoes with a homemade red wine vinaigrette (the Captain's choice).

Her labors of love often keep her on-site in the communal cafeteria long after the younger kobolds have punched out, but she prefers the (usually) quieter hours of the early evening.

#### Peppermint Kobold

The presence of Peppermint Kobold at the entrance of the communal cafeteria is a recent development. It is also secretly a last-ditch attempt by the Cornucopia's senior nutritional overseers to curb the practice of "duping" - the submission of a generic crew number and a genetically-altered strand of hair or a scale - to circumvent the usual biometric scanners that are used to monitor and regulate food consumption. As live "rations" are expensive to raise and maintain, the system was put in place to control both costs and encourage moderation in consumption... until a black-market trade of "dupe kits" began circulating onboard.

As the source of these kits has yet to be uncovered, the door-based biometric scanner has been disabled. Peppermint's sole duty is to visually verify that a kobold's given crew number matches the biometric reading captured immediately in front of her kiosk, then manually activate the entrance. This duty is neither challenging nor particularly intellectually stimulating, leaving Peppermint a great deal of time to catch up on her favorite series of romance eBooks, "Fae Creatures and How Not To Be Seduced By Them."

## Occult Studies

#### Yoshino Cherry Kobold

A registered member of the highly secretive "Ancient Order of Kobicrucius" (AMOK), Yoshino Cherry Kobold has devoted most of her adult life to study of the elusive mysteries of existence and the universe. Yoshino is aboard the Cornucopia pursuant to her research into a mysterious apparitional phenomenon often described as a "big rainbow panda" that manifests itself to break the fourth wall.

## Cargo

#### Akebi Kobold

Akebi Kobold is assigned to the Cornucopia's primary cargo reception bay, where he acts as the Second Shift Supervisor. While he finds the work fulfilling enough, he's always dreamed of leaving the Cornucopia to pursue a life of adventure and exploration, perhaps gem collection. His best friend Sparkleberry has told him he looks like a celebrity, though he just can't place which.

#### Liquorice Kobold

Honing her already-considerable strength through lifting and tossing techniques absolutely contrary to OSHKA standards ("Hydraulic lifts are for quitters!"), Liquorice spends her days as a Material Handler in the Cornucopia's primary cargo reception bay... and her nights managing - and participating in - an underground no-holds-barred fight club. Under the stage name "The Topless Terror," she is notorious for managing to shred what little costume she typically wears - often before brawlers even make any physical contact. Liquorice has unusual stamina, often forgoing her scheduled rest period to shop at the Kinky Kobold ...and seems to draw energy based on proximity to its purple proprietor.

## Merchants

#### Madame Aubergine

Kobolds are naturally hormone-driven creatures, and a large populace in close proximity without an outlet for such urges has spelled catastrophe for more than one space voyage. As such, the kobold hierarchy has ensured all vessels over a certain crew size include a range of entertainment venues, consumer outlets, and "therapeutic personnel" with the express purpose of satiating the physical needs of the crew. Madame Aubergine Kobold is a well-respected manager of one such consumer product outlet, "The Kinky Kobold," located in the Cornucopia's main Station Shopping Center. Kash or Kredit only, no trade-ins.

## Engineering

#### Pumpkin Kobold

A relative newcomer to spaceship maintenance, Pumpkin Kobold was recommended to the Spacefleet Academy, and immediately assigned to the Cornucopia upon graduation. Pumpkin's primary responsibilities include maintenance of the ship's navigation systems and power generation equipment. Naturally talented, but unused to interactions with strangers, Pumpkin can be easily distracted when having to interact the Cornucopia's thoroughly unusual populace.

#### Durian Kobold

Durian Kobold's presence on the Cornucopia is a mystery... and to no one more so than Durian. Content with a life of diligently cleaning out air vents in a self-designed Mopsuit™, the circumstances that led to their insertion into the Cornucopia's vast duct network remain unclear. Unaware of the transfer to an intergalactic vessel until long past the point of no return, the kobold was inevitably detected by the ship's anti-sabotage scanners, whereupon Durian was caught, decontaminated, recorded... and released back into the airducts to continue cleaning in a more official capacity. Because someone has to do it!

## Maintenance

#### The Corebold

The entity known as the "Corebold" is an anomaly, its appearance on the Cornucopia - and the details surrounding its residence inside the ship's reactor core matrix - both remaining a mystery. Based on the appearance of remnants of a maintenance uniform, technicians that have observed the entity have theorized that it may be a former Core Scrubber that was accidentally sealed inside the fuel network during the Cornucopia's conversion from kobo-fission to kobo-fusion several cycles ago. This seems highly unlikely, as the individual would have received a dose of kobo-radiation sufficient to reduce it to quarks.

No one has simply asked the Corebold about any of this, as when its presence was reported to the Chief Maintenance Officer, all personnel were instructed to "get back to work" or face summary demotion to "space-walking the hull looking for dents."

#### Radish Kobold

    Even a ship as technologically advanced as the Cornucopia still has a need for maintenance personnel. Radish Kobold is a member of one such maintenance team, assigned to manage the sprawling grounds of the Station Shopping Center. Originally intending to join the Security department, a lack of available openings forced them to accept a second choice of assignment. Radish's primary responsibilities include the upkeep of plumbing, refrigeration and electrical repairs, and heating and air conditioning system maintenance, to keep one of the busiest areas of the ship running smoothly.