This mine has an over 90% safety margin!/ "How in all the Holies you manage that??"
Meet the supervisors./ "These are Kobolds!"
Yep, best damn safety inspectors and supervisors we've ever had! -- The New Guy
Everyone knows that the world of Alfarell was made for Dragons and Dragonkind. Fortunately, after centuries of irreconcilable differences, the Dragons have deigned to share their world with smaller intelligent creatures. Fortunately for Dragonkind, the other intelligent creatures were willing to talk.
Unfortunately for the Kobolds, just about everyone viewed them as minor pests at best and vermin at worst.
Given that they were a species destined to end as a brief, crunchy squeak... it was inevitable that they evolved a unique survival strategy. Instant reincarnation. The only issue is waiting for muscle strength to catch up to the needs of the moment. Many newly hatched Kobolds report how they died before they can walk again.
It was the Humans who figured out how useful Kobolds were in geologically unstable mineshafts. Humans weren't always able to achieve an even footing with D'varuv settlements, or Gnomish burrows. Or any Draconic hoards or high-hollows. Humans barely got along with other Humans, but they did find amusement, then sympathy, and then understanding with Kobolds.
The species both liked shiny objects, turning up where they didn't always belong, high levels of comfort, and the ability to have an easy way to do things.
They didn't just get along. They synergised. A love of good food and shiny objects meant plenty to bond over. The Koboldish concept of community property was a stumbling block, but tools were tools at the end of the day.
At any rate, they had a unique approach to safety testing - test it to failure, and then rebuild it better. The only surprising factor in it all was how well the Humans adapted to disaster reports from the mouths of newly-hatched babes.
[Photo by Aleyna Çatak on Unsplash]
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