Werelock spurred her mount toward Alegate at the head of a cavalry force like nothing the north had ever seen. Every rider’s voice chanted her war song. She planned to drink golden ale from the famous brewer-duke’s skull by nightfall.

Over the course of three centuries, Werelock the goblin bard had been in four nations. She learned to be a proper goblin in the skinless gecko’s nation. She was dwelling within the goblin-nation of the north when Vigorous Confederacy took over and forced Werelock to obey Law. Later, she had travelled among the dwarves, and seen the riches they have.

In one of the dwarven cities, she joined a thriving society of expatriate entertainers. There was an inner circle to this society that remained loyal to the goblin nations. Many were diehards who hoped for a resurgence of the old northern goblin nation. Some were growing the number of true-believers by stealing children from other nations and raising them to be loyal to the memory of that nation. Werelock had helped train one of these — an elfish girl — to beguile with song.

When Werelock’s home nation began its attacks on the north, three members of the inner circle left to join the first attacks. Their names had been Blottedscorpion, Beguiledscourge, and Tunneledhates. Those attacks had dashed themselves to pieces against the defenses of Alegate. Werelock had watched this from a safe distance.

Now, dwarf fortresses were beginning to fall. Werelock knew it was time to get involved when Lady Vileweaver of Grippedmenaces sponsored an attack. For a millenium, Lady Vileweaver and her wife had ruled one of the largest dark fortresses in the south. Lady Vileweaver was famous for personally killing nearly as many as the skinless gecko had. Lady Vileweaver’s rule had the enthusiastic popular support of her people.

Lady Vileweaver had assembled an army of over three hundred goblins and mosters. At its head she had set a young goblin hero. Werelock arranged to accompany the force as Lady Vileweaver’s chronicler.

The force had sung Lady Vileweaver’s praises from Grippedmenaces to Alegate. The victory-ballad was already written.

Werelock looked forward to hearing it after the battle, while she sipped legendary brew.

The screeching of beak dogs had never been heard in Alegate. Beak dogs are gorilla sized, two legged things with powerful beaks and many-colored hides. In evil swamps, packs of the things hunt like wolves. In the hands of the beast trainers of Grippedmenaces, they are fearsome cavalry mounts.

On the third day of spring, 1058, the army of Grippedmenaces arrived with ten dozen beak dogs. On the back of each was a goblin warrior. With this cavalry force strode two score towering trolls, wooly and horned.

Before the force was out of the southwest forest, the entire pack of trolls was gathered around the stone hatch to the south tunnel. Each was competing to be the one that broke the hatch.

Bracing for Trolls

Alegate archers rushed to the barbican and south towers. The locks on the hatches and stone doors of the secret tunnels were double-checked. Engineers were ordered to the catapults. The heavy infantry rallied in the clay delvings.

With forty trolls in the field, no one expected the hatches or gate to hold for long. Dwarves herded the livestock from the main courtyard to a makeshift animal pen in the clay-delving barracks.

Meanwhile, Argus the broker and Ecroh the goblin mason rushed to the barbican courtyard to brick up the mine cart ramp. If they could get those ramps blocked before the goblinite gate was breached, the west drawbridge could be raised and the invaders would not be able to get past the barbican courtyard.

As for the south tunnel, the trolls were beating on the stone hatch like maniac drummers. Dwarves started bricking up the south tunnel. If they could block the tunnel before both the hatch and the stone door were broken, Alegate might be able to keep the invaders on the surface.

Hammermoral at the Portcullis

The Hound

Hammermoral was the son of a son of The Unreasonably Violent Dog. Hammermoral had been trained as a war dog. He had been the companion of Ibu, last of Alegate’s human mercenaries, who had been killed in the Fire Siege of Spring 1056.

Hammermoral had survived that battle, but bore scars. He had suffered an arrow wound, and it had been a gelding blow. The Unreasonably Violent Dog’s great-grandpuppies would not be sired by Hammermoral.

When the lead beak dog riders charged between the arms of the lava moat, Hammermoral charged out under the goblinite portcullis to meet them before the portcullis could be lowered. Hammermoral was brave, and trained for war, but he could not have hoped to prevail against the mass and powerful beak of a single beak dog. Now he stood against five, with riders.

But even outside Alegate’s defences, Hammermoral was not beyond assistance.

Hammermoral’s Hope

Five goblins rode their hopping beak dogs into the narrow space between the arms of the lava moat. They were being been forced into single file by the narrow bridge.

At that moment, the first defender reached the barbican tower: Dastot the ranger. Dastot was the ranger who had long worn the dented copper helm. The dent had been made by a gray langur in 1052. During the siege of 1054, she had been far afield when invaders arrived. She had managed to survive, and at the end of the battle was still shooting despite multiple wounds.

Now Dastot was the leader of the ranger squad.

Dastot saw the lead rider — a goblin wearing someone else’s scalp on her head — and took the first shot of the battle. The iron bolt struck the scalp-wearer in the heart. The goblin’s mount continued to hop toward Hammermoral. Before the goblin’s heart stopped beating, Dastot’s second shot hit right beside the first, and also pierced the heart.

The dead goblin’s beak dog did not care. It charged for the hound…right into the line of cage traps. A silver cage closed around it, and it could not reach its prey.

The second beak dog was also caught in a trap, but its rider leaped from the monster’s back, and landed on Hammermoral’s side of the traps. The goblin evaded Hammermoral’s bite, and grabbed the hound by the leg. Hammermoral was whipped around by this leg, wrenching the joints. Then the goblin hurled Hammermoral toward the hot lava moat. Hammermoral flew helplessly.

Dastot shot the third bolt of the battle, and it skewered the assailiant’s lung. Hammermoral landed short of the moat with stunning force.

The third goblin and his mount were caught in silver traps.

As the fourth rider’s beak dog carefully made its way across the narrow bridge, Dastot sent her next shot at the rider. He saw the bolt coming, and threw himself to the side to avoid being hit. The iron bolt missed, but the rider fell into the lava with a splash. Gobs of lava landed on the grass outside the moat, and the third wildfire of Alegate began.

That beak dog charged into the traps, and was caught.

The fifth rider’s mount was caught in a trap. The fifh rider climbed over the triggered cages to reach Hammermoral, who was ony then struggling back to his paws.

Dastot shot the fourth bolt of the battle. It struck the fifth rider’s iron helm, directly on the tree-sigil of the skinless gecko. The helm was not pierced, but the goblin’s neck was viciously whiplashed, and the goblin fell to the ground.

More Alegate archers and rangers arrived in the tower, and killed the fifth rider with copper and bronze bolts.

The Rest of the Iceberg

While the defenders had focused on the five leading riders, many more riders, armed with bows and crossbows, had gathered beyond the moat. They launched a volley at Hammermoral, who was hit multiple times. Hammermoral was too wounded to attack or flee. The bleeding hound laid there, watching the riders across the moat reload.

Hidden by the smoke, hammermoral dragged himself back into the barbican courtyard, and the goblinite portcullis was finally lowered.

The Track Is Sealed

Argus the broker and Ecroh the goblin mason finished blocking the mine cart ramps in the barbican courtyard. They hurried down to the clay delvings as smoke rose outside the walls.

Builders vs. Breakers

Plan “A”

When the stone hatch broke, the builders had not gotten the wall built. They had not even gotten the materials to the work site. These trolls were able to break down barriers very quickly, and only the first stone door stood between the builders and the breakers.

Plan “B”

To buy time, the plan was changed to build a wall closer to the cart-tracks. This would mean abandoning both the south and southeast tunnels, but it put one more stone door between the defenders and the invasion. It also meant that blocks did not have to be hauled as far to the work site.

The builders hauled the blocks to the new, closer job site and got started. As they worked, the trolls hammered on the first stone door, and quickly broke through. This larger group of trolls smashed down barriers much faster than the trolls in the siege of Autumn 1055.

The builders again found themselves with an unfinished job, and only one door between them and the trolls. It was a race they could not win.

Plan “C”

An alert went out for all civilians to abandon the clay delvings, and go to the stone delvings or deeper. The civilians flooded to the stairs as the sound of trolls beating at the second stone door reverberated through the clay delvings.

It was not long before the second door was broken, and the first troll stepped onto the mine cart tracks.

A desperate stratagem was considered: knocking a hole in the wall of the old hospital, so that the trolls would find themselves facing Alegate’s resident werebison. It was still a short time before the full moon, though, so the timing would be difficult. Also, that plan would result in an infectious werebison rampaging inside the fortress. The idea was discarded.

Uncertain which way the invaders would turn, the heavy infantry split into two groups.

Wildfire

A speargoblin found a momentary gap in the fire-front and advanced to the ash. Much of the invading cavalry followed his lead past the flames. Those who made it through moved toward the goblinite gate.

By getting past the fire, the invaders exposed themselves to the defenders in the towers. Bolts flew in from the barbican tower ahead of them and the south tower on their flank. A catapult hurled a great lump of mica at the invaders, but the aim was poor and it splashed harmlessly into the pond beyond the moat.

The invaders continued toward the goblinite gate. The engineers, though they were protected by the goblinite portcullis, saw enemies getting closer and lost their nerve. They were civilians, without the discipline of military training. They abandoned the heavy weapons and fled for the downward stairs.

The archers and rangers kept shooting and inflicting casualties. Their quivers were nearly empty, and soon they would need to return to the ammunition stockpiles.

The cavalry reached the goblinite gate, but could not breach it. All the trolls who were not fleeing from fire had crowded into the south tunnel. Beak dogs are powerful fighters, but do not have trolls’ talent for undoing the works of dwarves.

The cavalry milled about before the gates until some accident of combat set the grass under their feet alight. Those who could moved away from the flames, and smoke began to choke the defenders in the barbican tower.

Battle in the Halls

The First Victims

The invaders chose to continue directly north. The only thing between them and the main tunnel was one more door.

Two luckless dwarves, a fisherdwarf and a planter, had been in some remote part of the fortress. They had not heard about the clay delving evacuation. They came to the abandoned main tunnel, and continued about their business. They stepped through the very door the trolls were approaching. They only realized the danger when they came face-to-face with a tunnel full of trolls.

Before the civilians could react, the fisherdwarf had been gored terribly by a troll’s tusk. Another troll bucked its head into the planter with bone-crushing force. The planter flew back through the door and landed in the main tunnel.

Through the door, the planter saw the trolls looming over the dying fisherdwarf. A war dog, drawn by the fighting, charged the trolls from the mine cart tracks. The trolls turned to face the dog.

The dog would only be a momentary distraction for the trolls. The planter, with his last ounce of strength, shut the door on the terrible sight and locked it.

The trolls began to pound on the locked door. The injured planter lay there, the drumming of the trolls reverberating in his chest. Then hard hands grabbed him. These were the hands of Escott, chief smith of Alegate. Escott dragged the planter quickly toward the lead stair. The planter would need surgery, but as long as the invaders did not reach the hospital, he would survive.

Into The Main Tunnel

The trolls pushed their way out of the constricting south tunnel. They spread into the wide, abandoned main tunnel. The first thing they saw to destroy was the door to the north tunnel. It was unlocked, but most of them gathered around to tear it off its hinges anyway. A single troll wandered east, toward the abandoned workshops.

Goblin warriors began to arrive in the main tunnel from the surface. The first one was limping. He had climbed a tree to escape the flames, and sprained his knee when he leaped back down. Some of the goblins behind him had burns or bolt wounds. The ragged group of goblins started to move west, toward the crypt and stair to the Drowned Langur.

Bad Time for a Drink

Deler, the dwarf who had killed the giant bat in 1055 with her steel morningstar “Ordersounded”, was returning from the stone delvings. She had gone down to the Drowned Langur to refill her brass flask, reasoning that she should be fully supplied for the wait in the crypt.

On the way back to the crypt, when she reached the top of the stair, she saw goblins in the tunnel. She raised Ordersounded, braced her steel shield “Thinnails”, and charged into the mob of singed and wounded invaders.

Ordersounded crushed skulls, and Thinnails blocked every attack the goblins made. Even when surrounded, Deler was dominating the fight in the main tunnel.

Trolls abandoned the north door and stomped toward the melee. Deler continued to fight, stepping back into the mine that led to the crypt. The dwarves in the crypt rushed to join her.

Deler missed a block, and caught a spear-thrust on her helmet. Her helmet was not pierced, but it staggered her long enough for a troll to get hold of her.

The troll pinned her to the wall. Another troll began to tear pieces of armor off her body. By the time Commander Meng arrived with the two squads of heavy infantry, Deler was dead of multiple wounds.

Armored Assault

The troll that had gone toward the workshops peered into the mason’s workshops, and the two squads of heavily armored Alegate infantry charged. The troll barely had time to register the threat before it was dead.

The closely-packed heavy infantry burst into the main tunnel and made quick work of the scattered groups of goblins and trolls. When they met at the entrance to the south tunnel, they charged straight in.

A group of riderless beak dogs had formed a pack and found their way into the south hatch. They were seeking prey within the dwarf fortress.

The beak dogs were a new challenge. Dwarves could not fight them toe to toe, for the beak dog would use its greater size to bowl the dwarves over. Or the warrior would be clamped by a powerful beak, and unable to maneuver.

In the confines of the south tunnel, though, as soon as a dwarf was knocked to the ground or clamped, another dwarf would strike the occupied beak dog with adamantine or steel. The defenders slowly overcame the pack of beak dogs, and pushed their way to the south hatch.

Fighting In The Ash

Disarray

The surface had been ravaged by fire. The invasion force was scattered. The young goblin hero who had led this attack was dead, his body burned to ash. Some squads of cavalry where trapped on the west side of the fire and could not get back to Alegate. Most of the trolls, some soldiers and a pack of beak dogs had disappeared into the south hatch. There was a cluster of cavalry still trying to get through the goblinite gate. A growing number of riders were fleeing to the south.

A New Target

When the first few dwarves climbed to the smouldering ash above the south tunnel, the invaders focused all their hate and frustration on the small group of dwarves. Arrows, cavalry, unmounted goblins, loose beak dogs, and a troll turned their way.

In the open field, the leading Alegate infantry was hard pressed. They severed limbs and pierced organs with their fine steel and adamantine weapons. But, outside the tunnel, the defenders’ small numbers were a problem.

One-armed Ezum, the macelord who had lost his right arm to the werebison, was caught by an enemy mount’s beak. It pinned Ezum, while the rider — and the other beak dogs nearby — struck Ezum repeatedly. Ezum took quite a beating before his comrades could assist him. Ezum’s fine steel armor kept him alive, though, and he survived.

More Defenders Arrive

After the rest of the heavy infantry climbed out of the south tunnel, the defenders were still outnumbered, but they were better able to keep each other from being overwhelmed. They overcame the initial rush of attackers, and began to advance across the ash. But it remained a difficult fight.

Curo, whose nose had been torn off by The Roc, got tangled up with a speargoblin and they both fell into a murky pond. The pond had become a swamp full of spent arrows, fallen branches, and the big chunk of mica thrown from the catapult. Curo killed her opponent, and then began to drown while she tried to find a way out of the watery, debris-filled pit. She eventually managed to climb out of the pit, gasping for air.

Werelock the Goblin Bard Attacks

Captain Adil, named for the deity of mountains, had been a member of Alegate’s military since the early days. When the infantry had grown enough to justify a second squad, he had taken command of the second squad. He was so fond of his original iron battle axe that he never upgraded, even when godmetal became available. He had named his iron axe “Daubshot”. The skill with which Adil wielded that axe made up for its primitive material.

Werelock the goblin bard knew nothing about Adil’s storied past, but she could see Adil needed to be eliminated. Adil was targeting the beak dogs. In three swings of Daubshot, Adil severed a beak dog’s head, disemboweled another, then severed another’s leg. Adil then rammed a fourth of the large creatures. Adil became entangled with the beak dog, and they both fell to the ground.

Werelock spurred her own beak dog forward, and it clamped Adil’s torso in its vice-like beak. Adil kept fighting; he slammed his shield into a macegoblin’s eye, then buried Daubshot in Werelock’s mount’s hip. But then the shaking began.

Werelock’s beak dog shook Adil like a dog would shake a rat. Adil’s armor held, but the violent movement brutalized Adil’s torso and torqued his spine. Werelock jabbed her spear at the trapped dwarf repeatedly. Adil’s armor held, but he was suffering further wrenching injuries from the strikes.

Adil’s torment ended when axedwarf Rulac arrived, fresh from having cleaved the head from a troll. Rulac’s adamantine axe flashed, and Adil fell to the ground. The beak dog’s severed head still had its beak loosely around Adil’s chest. On the back swing, Rulac buried her axe in Werelock’s chest.

Adil had too many wrenched joints to stand. He yanked Daubshot out of the dead beak dog, and watched Rulac and the rest of the heavy infantry drive the invaders from the ashen field. Adil did not know who the rider had been, nor did he care. It was just another invader who had paid the price for trying to take Adil’s home.

Only a quarter of the riders survived to return to Grippedmenaces. With them were less than half of the trolls, and a dozen extra beak dogs that were returning without riders. Many of the returning soldiers and monsters bore burns or bolt-wounds.

Lady Vileweaver calmly watched the wrecked army’s return. It was the cost of doing buisness. Young heroes, old chroniclers, and eager solders came cheaply in a vast dark fortress full of commoners who believed Lady Vileweaver’s legends. Perhaps she would send another attack. Perhaps she would wait a few generations first. There was no limit to the number of years or lives she could spend to get what she wanted.