A kobold is a small mythical creature, like a gnome or a fairy. More information than you could wish here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KoboldJJ's use of the word here sounds like an extended meaning - just a little magical type creature, and not a mine-dweller as in the old meaning of the word.
Now sprites I understand.
Ok, it's "sprite" then. I checked for possible translations but none of the given (e.g. pixie, gnome, goblin or imp) seemed to match properly. As "kobold" was sugested also for those creatures said to be residing on ships I chose that. But am I to assume "kobold" is not a regular BE word?The tricky point is that the German word "Kobold" also has different meanings or connotations, so it's hard to guess which may be represented by which English translation.jj: