I was in a game where we all played kobolds and lived in a old mine, except during a winter food raid on the local gnomes we managed to break into the mayor's house and steal the treasury. When they demanded we return the safe we swapped the gold for lead, then they sent adventurers who we bribed with a gold bar each and the knowledge they had been lied to about the number of kobolds they had to fight.

In the end we ended up bloodlessly annexing the gnomes and putting them under "oppressive" restrictions and tax burden that ended up better than before we took over accidentally exposed former mayor's massive embezzlement (In character we still don't understand what he did wrong, we see it as dragon behavior) which started a pattern. We would scheme and plan evil things but end up being a net good for the area and because our party face was adorable as a sack of kittens no one noticed that both of the planners are evil as fuck