Blackdirt the murderous, wearing her fingernail and tooth baubles, beheld Alegate for the second time. A year ago, she had broken into a hidden stairwell and personally invaded a secret dwarven-chamber. But then her cowardly commander called the retreat back to Quickghouls.

This time, they were back, with a larger force and more determined leaders. Commander Conjuredemon was here with two brothers. They knew their mother had come with the invasion last year and not returned. Blackdirt gave them a detailed account about how the Alegate dwarves had killed their mother in a forest ambush. She invented gory details that got the brothers’ blood boiling. They would not retreat so easily.

Blackdirt had not seen the ambush, of course. She had been up on a distant ridge when that happened. But the facts did not matter to Blackdirt. She just needed bloodthirsty leaders to get an invasion organized, so she could come along to perpetrate her hobby.

Blackdirt was here with new comrades, too. The fools next to her last year had gotten themselves killed. This year, Blackdirt knew better than to work with amateurs. This time, she was grouped with two proven dwarf-killers: Fatehorror and Terrorchasm.

Fatehorror had been in Alegate last year, too. When a dwarf named Ònul jumped out of the castle, Fatehorror had taken her out with his silver halberd. He still carried the bright halberd, and his ear was decorated with a new dwarf bone ring.

Terrorchasm had been here way back in 1054, when some other city had sent the first attack to Alegate. Terrorchasm’s squad had caught some dwarf scout named Kozi out in the woods, and killed her. He was back with a new copper whip.

Blackdirt did not know or care if the goblins next to her would survive, but she knew she would. Soon she would be sporting new trinkets made of dwarf!

The Jammed Portcullis

The first thing to do, when an army comes from the southwest, is to shut the goblinite portcullis.

Just six months ago, trolls had attempted to smash down the portcullis. The trolls had been dismembered, but the bodies had not been removed. The fortress had been busy with other work through the autumn and winter, and now the goblinite portcullis was jammed open by six month old troll carcases. They could not be removed quickly.

Commander Meng knew that if he stationed heavy infantry in the barbican courtyard, the soldiers would run out of the fort as soon as they saw the enemy, and be overwhelmed in the field. Without the portcullis or heavy infantry to defend them, any archers in the barbican tower would quickly be overwhelmed.

Alegate’s defenders needed a new plan.

Commander Meng’s plan was to evacuate the barbican and raise the west draw bridge. The rangers would be stationed in the south tower. The invaders would be forced to move through the narrow goblinite gate and down the cart ramp. The heavy infantry and full-time archers would be waiting on the tracks below.

The Warrior Duo

A pair of wandering warriors — a speardwarf and a crossbowsdwarf — had just finished their stay at the Drowned Langur when the invaders arrived. They were on the east side of the lava moat when the goblin army arrived.

Warriors by the lava moat. The speardwarf (brown) was panicking. The crossbowdwarf (green) was making her way across the half-reconstructed cage traps. Detritus left over from the autumn siege was still scattered around.

The speardwarf was paralyzed by panic. The crossbowdwarf, however, marched resolutely around to the west side of the trench and backed northward. As she moved, she sent bolt after bolt at the advancing army.

The first two bolts were blocked by copper shields. The third found its way past a pikegoblin’s shield. The wounded pikegoblin turned and fled in terror.

The crossbowdwarf’s plan was to leave Alegate to its fate, and convince the invaders that she was too dangerous to pursue. But the vanguard squad of invaders broke off from the rest of the army and charged her. A short distance ahead of the rest was a ferocious-looking, gray skinned, heliotrope-haired goblin. She had fingernails hanging from her ears. On her hand was a weird device, like brass knuckles but made of teeth. She moved faster than her comrades, as she was not encumbered by armor or shield.

The crossbowdwarf had just enough time to load a last bolt before the gray goblin reached her. She launched the bolt into the gray goblin’s gut, then tackled the goblin. The crossbowdwarf bit the goblin on the neck, ripping her throat. While the goblin struggled to breathe, the crossbowdwarf stood, braced her shield, and received the charge of the rest of the squad.

Blackdirt the murderous, first invader to breach Alegate, watched her bloody-mouthed killer stumble back before the assault. Shortly after the crossbowdwarf was slain, Blackdirt succumbed to suffocation.

The crossbowdwarf’s death shocked the speardwarf back to his senses. He leapt directly across the lava-trench and assaulted the vanguard. As he fought his last battle, the rest of the invading goblins rushed up the east side of the trench, each racing to be the first through the gate.

Invaders crowd at the goblinite gate. Several are caught in cage traps. The bodies of the crossbowdwarf, the speardwarf, and Blackdirt the murderous lie west of the lava trench. The rangers in the south tower sent crossbow bolts into this mass of troops.

Fighting on the Tracks

Left: the first invader (g) down the ramp encountered a trio of war dogs (d). They mauled the invader badly, splattering goblin blood on the colorful undergrowth. Right: the next invaders down the ramp killed the dogs. The mauled squad leader wound up in the corner, too wounded to move. The stone doors to the north were solidly locked.

The stream of invaders was thinned by the venturi effect of passing through the narrow goblinite gate. They followed the cart tracks until they came face-to-face with Alegate’s massed defenders.

Alegate’s massed defenders charge. If you look closely, you can see someone pushing a minecart eastward on the north track, behind the charging soldiers. He must have been deep underground when the siege began, and was just now arriving at the clay delvings. That explains how he missed the “take cover” memo.

Bolts and arrows flew from each side, then a crush of heavily-armored dwarves and goblins slammed into the invaders. The invaders were knocked back by Alegate’s greater numbers. Then more invaders arrived to join the press, and the advance slowed.

Soldiers in the middle bashed into friend and foe alike in their effort to attack and avoid attacks. Some on each side lost their footing and fell to the ground. The superior Alegate armor protected the defenders from being hurt by these falls, but the defenders quickly accumulated injuries. The melee slowly moved eastward, leaving a trail of blood and invader bodies.

Alegate’s archers were ordered to stay back, and let the heaviest-armored troops do the fighting here.

Alegate’s four adamantine weapons — two axes, a sword, and a spear — all took part in this battle. The swinging axes and sword severed or sundered bodies whenever they struck unarmored flesh. Some times, they cut even through metal armor. However, every thrust from the sword and spear punched through armor as if it was not there.

Taking back the Barbican

The dwarves and goblins of Alegate fought their way up to the barbican courtyard. There, Fatehorror, the silver halbard-wielding slayer of Ònul, was slain with a bronze longsword.

The defenders pressed on to the cyan-stained goblinite gate, and there the advance stopped. The defenders and attackers were massed on either side of the goblinite gate. The gate itself was half-full of old troll carcases. Whenever an attacker tried to step onto the pile of troll-carcases, they were slain by the massed weapons of the defenders. Whenever a defender tried to push through, they were forced back by the mass of attackers, but their armor kept them alive.

It was a stalemate.

The archers were ordered to take positions in the barbican tower, to shoot from above.

Conflagration

Outside the barbican, the mass of invaders was harried by bolts from the south and barbican towers. The invaders could not shoot back through the fortifications, nor could they force their way through the contested gate. Occasionally an accurate bolt would slay an invader. So died Terrorchasm, the dwarf bone wearing killer of scout Kozi.

Mostly the bolts would strike armor, or the target would see the bolt coming and leap aside. One such agile goblin was Dreadfulmuck the speargoblin. She succeeded in evading a bolt. However, her leap took her straight into the lava trench.

Dreadfulmuck landed in the waist-deep lava with a splash. The splash sent blobs of red-hot lava up onto the east bank, where it lit grass on fire. Goblins shoved each other in an attempt to get away from the flames. Dreadfulmuck used her last desperate burst of strength to scramble up onto the west bank. She collapsed there, and the lava clinging to her legs ignited the grass on that side of the trench.

Dark smoke rises from the Dreadfulmuck’s body and the grass fires. On a completely unrelated note, that minecart pusher managed follow the battle all the way to the surface, pushing the cart through the gore. He left the cart at the magma dumping station before heading down to safety. Thank you, brave laborer! Please do not try that again.

Fire, Smoke, and Confusion

The thick smoke blocked vision. The smoke rolled into the barbican tower, blinding the archers. The rangers in the south tower continued to take long-distance shots as the vagaries of wind and smoke allowed.

The invaders caught in the grass fire moved away when they could. Some were so blinded by smoke that they did not know which way to flee. Others had been injured by bolts, and could not crawl away quickly enough. The invasion force began to loose cohesion, and the pressure at the goblinite gate eased.

One of Alegate’s archers, the big human named Ibu who had used his bronze shield to save his comrades a year ago, left the tower and joined the press at the gate. He stepped bravely onto the corpses. A swordgoblin caught him with a sideways slash across the abdomen, and spilled Ibu’s guts. Ibu had been wearing his favorite leather armor instead of the standard alegate steel.

Ibu died there, but Commander Meng climbed the bodies and took Ibu’s place. Meng cut down the swordgoblin, and leaped onto the smoldering ash outside the gate. A handful of  dwarves followed him onto the ash. They had experience fighting on burned-out terrain.

The grass fire burned in an expanding circle. Smoke poured through the gate and fortifications, but fire did not enter the barbican. Hot spot-fires burned where clothes or a body’s fat had been ignited.

Commander Meng and his group found themselves in a quickly-changing battlefield. The shape of the battle field evolved as fire turned grass to ash and climbed up tree trunks. Shifting smoke would alternately hide, reveal, or blind warriors.

Some of the scenes that occurred in the confusion:

• A hammerdwarf, who had been surrounded by smoke, suddenly found a clear channel between himself and an enemy bowgoblin. The bowgoblin shot at the dwarf. The dwarf caught the arrow on his shield and charged. The smoke closed again before the dwarf could reach the bowgoblin.
• A swordwarf was suddenly charged by a soot-covered, naked goblin. The goblin had been part of the invasion in 1054. Since then, this goblin had resided in in a wooden cage outside the barbican. The cage burned, allowing the singed goblin to escape. The goblin chose to attack his captors instead of flee. The sworddwarf killed him quickly.
• A crossbowdwarf left the smoke-filled tower to walk through the gate. At the same time, an enemy axegoblin found his way through the smoke and ran into the gate. The crossbowdwarf was a skilled wrestler, and managed to pin and kill the axegoblin on the troll-carcases. The crossbowdwarf stepped out onto the ashes, and immediately took an arrow to the arm that broke the bone and tore an artery. He barely escaped with his life.
• A crossbowgoblin backed toward the chasm east of the spreading fire. The dwarves in the ash were trapped on the west side of the flames, unable to reach the crossbowgoblin. The crossbowgoblin launched bolts at the dwarves whenever the smoke allowed, slowly backing before the flames. When the fire reached the chasm edge, he dove into the river and swam downstream. He almost escaped to the south, but the rangers in the south tower saw him and shot him many times.

Commander Meng’s experience in the smoke. He was wielding his adamantine battle axe and his steel shield, “Bitebusted” (“Nitigstal” in Old Dwarvish.) At one point, a swordsdwarf, dodging an invader attack, blunders into Meng. At another, he has an argument with Atír, a hammerdwarf. Finally, the blast from a falling tree throws debris, and Meng is injured by a flying, severed goblin head. He had to crawl south through the ash, to the secret hatch, to escape.

Smoke from burning trees puts a stop to the rangers’ shooting.

As trees began to fall, the defenders abandoned the field. Some could not get back to the barbican due to smoke. They had to wait until the fire burned past the south secret hatch, and descended that way.

Commander Conjuredemon had no choice but to return to Quickghouls in defeat. Alegate had beaten him. Most of the army was dead, including the two brothers who had come with him. He had more brothers back home. Perhaps he would gather them, and find some easier place to take.