The Great Siege of Spring 1055

An assault three times larger than Alegate had seen before.

Blackdirt was a goblin from the dark fortress Quickghouls, south of the jungles. She was fond of making trophies from those she murdered. She wore an earring made of a goblin’s fingernails, and jewelry on her hand made of another goblin’s teeth. The fingernails had belonged to a bard. The teeth had been a doctor’s. Blackdirt was in the vanguard of this invasion. Most of the force was armored with metal and carried weapons of war. Blackdirt was no soldier, though, and wore none of this. She was ready to fight with her bare hands. She wanted some dwarf bits to add to her jewelry collection. On Blackdirt’s right was the nine-fingered archer Blottedscorpion. She was ancient, and had been born in the jungle fortress Dreadlesson back in 21, before the jungle titan had destroyed it. Blottedscorpion had lost part of her hand to a giant dingo. Despite this, she had written many books over the centuries. Most of those were written while traveling in dwarven lands. She carried several of the books with her. On Blackdirt’s left was axegoblin Tunneledhates, in chainmail of dull iron and bright bronze. Tunneledhates was a vagrant who had met Blottedscorpion on her travels in dwarven lands. Now that the war was on, Tunneledhates was looking forward to taking some of the weath she had seen on those travels. There were 117 more servants of the skinless gecko right behind these ladies, eager to sack Alegate. Under their tree-crested helmets, they were a sea of purple and red hair, with vicious faces of grey and green.

Part of the invasion force, moving through the forest.

One of Alegate’s archers was walking in the southeast forest when the enemies arrived. With the archer was her war dog and a few fortress cats. There was no way she could reach the barbican before the invaders caught her. Fortunately, the secret tunnels had been prepared. Evading arrows from enemy archers, she and the animals made it through the southwest hatch. Three invader squads (the invaders were organized into groups of ten) pursued the archer, but were stymied by the now-locked hatch. Alegate’s archers were already in the barbican tower, and started sending bolts at the enemy. The goblinite portcullis was lowered to block the barbican gate. The invaders started to take casualties. Blocked by the gate, the enemy squads began to spread out, and look for another way in. A squad of Alegate archers was sent from the barbican tower to the northwest tower, to cover that side of the fortress. That squad, taking the initiative to find the shortest path, eschewed the safe route across the courtyard. Instead, they foolishly climbed up through the barbican tower’s roof hatch. Each tower had a hatch like this, as it had been necessary to get to the roof during construction. These archers, with their dogs, planned to walk across the tower roof, along the top of Alegate’s wall, and then down into the northwest tower’s roof hatch. Dwarves are sure-footed creatures, and normally this would not have been dangerous. But it is dangerous when the fields around Alegate are crawling with enemy archers. Arrows and bolts flew up from below, and dwarves and dogs crashed into each other trying to evade the threat. None fell, but some took moderate injuries from the incoming missiles. One of the archers responded by stepping out to the edge of the barbican tower’s roof and shooting back. He launched one crossbow bolt (a speargoblin blocked it with his iron shield), and was answered by a swarm of incoming projectiles. His attempt at dodging sent him slipping from the barbican tower roof, down among a mob of enemies. He died on a copper pike. Alegate’s forces were not the only ones to suffer from foolish bravery. One of the enemy crossbowgoblins, Cursebrass, jumped up, grabbed hold of the fortifications, and shot through to hit a dog. He then climbed to the roof, reloaded, and began sniping down through the roof hatch, hitting another dog and a puppy. One of Alegate’s defenders managed to shoot back up through the hatch and catch Cursebrass in the leg. That sent Cursebrass tumbling off the edge of the second-story roof. He landed among a group of Alegate rangers who were rallying in the barbican courtyard. One of the war dogs grabbed Cursebrass and held him down, while the rangers beat the enemy to death with the butts of their crossbows. During this distraction, another enemy, Crazedspiders, managed to scale the wall and get to the barbican roof. The sniping through the hatch resumed. One of the defenders, a human named Ibu, lifted his bronze shield overhead and charged up the steps. The human, bigger than a dwarf or goblin, used his great mass to bowl Crazedspiders over and strangle him. But the mad acts were not yet done. One of Alegate’s heavy infantry, an axedwarf named Ònul, leapt down from the barbican wall to assault the invaders outside. She fought in a martial trance, parrying and striking with admirable skill. But the enemies drove her away from the fort, and overwhelmed her beneath a bayberry tree. Peach-faced lovebirds fled from the tree as the fight devolved into a biting, punching dogpile. Ultimately, Ònul was slain with a silver halberd. After the insanity at the barbican, the siege settled into a quieter state. A dozen squads of enemies roamed the forests west of Alegate. Alegate’s archers took shots from the towers when they could. A few enemies were captured by Alegate’s snares. The enemies found the hatch to the northwest tunnel, and about half the besieging force gathered there. They managed to get the hatch open, and descended into the rally-chamber below. Fortunately, they could not force their way past the stone door to the clay delvings. The enemy forces were scattered. It was time for a counter-attack. The squad of non-dwarf heavy infantry was kept in reserve. Commander Meng took two heavy squads to the south hatch. The last heavy squad went to the southwest hatch. There they waited for the enemies to split into defeatable groups. Alegate’s defenders dined on the provisions in their packs, and drank from their flasks while they waited. Commander Meng’s two squads were the first to climb to the surface. They would ambush the three squads in the forest, then climb the western ridge to ambush the three squads near the southwest hatch. At the same time, the last squad of Alegate’s heavy infantry would burst out through the southwest hatch so that the enemies would be surrounded. That was the plan, anyway. While Commander Meng’s troops were still gathering, one of his soldiers, Stodir, got too close to the enemy. He was spotted. Stodir charged, wielding his bronze whip. The enemy had been undercounted — there were forty of them standing against Stodir. Stodir wounded many of them, but before the rest of Alegate’s troops could help, he was overcome with exhaustion. He was struck in the head by the nine-fingered archer Blottedscorpion, and beaten to death. A moment later, Commander Meng arrived with his twenty heavily armored dwarves to fight the forty invaders in the forest. The years of training paid off. The invaders began to panic as they saw the horrible violence of war, but the dwarves stayed focused, and found joy in exercising their expert deadly skills. The invaders were mostly well-armed commoners in search of fortune, but the dwarves were professional military. While the invaders might fight for a few minutes before slowing to fatigue, the dwarves killed, and killed, and killed before they began to slow. There were too many dramatic moments to list here. Some highlights:

• When sworddwarf Athri’s blade was turned aside by her foe’s tree-crested helm, she grabbed her foe’s helmet, tore it from her enemy’s head, and stabbed him in the face.
• One-armed Ezum, who had lost his right arm to the werebison in 1053, was struck in the left wrist with a scimitar. His copper gauntlet saved his hand, but the force tore the tendons in his elbow and he dropped his morningstar. Ezum fearlessly bit his assailant. The swordgoblin fell to the ground, and Ezum kicked him to death.
• Commander Meng led the charge. He struck down enemy after enemy, until even his prodigious endurance gave out and he could no longer stand. The soldiers he had trained stepped over him and continued the fight.
• The nine-fingered archer Blottedscorpion’s 1,034 year life was ended with a steel morningstar. She had survived attack by giant dingo, but not her decision to attack Alegate.

After the epic battle in the forest, in which Commander Meng’s forces had defeated twice their number at the price of one death (Stodir,) the heavy infantry needed rest. Several were injured. Some were too tired to stand, and lay on the ground in the blood of their defeated foes. Some leaned on their weapons, panting. They needed a reprieve before the pincer maneuver at the southwest hatch. Unfortunately, the battle at the southwest hatch had already begun. The invaders had managed to force their way through the lock. Also, there were sixty invaders coming down the ridge from the northwest, headed straight for the ambush-site. Commander Meng’s two squads dragged themselves best they could toward the battle at the southwest hatch. The first invader down the hatch was axegoblin Tunneledhates, the vagrant who has been mentioned before. He descended directly into a steel war hammer wielded by Atír, the hammerdwarf. Atír stepped over Tunneledhates’ body, and a close quarters stairwell fight began. The dwarves were trying to fight their way up, and the goblins were trying to fight their way down. Meanwhile, Commander Meng’s squads, still winded from the ambush in the forest, crested the ridge and saw the backs of the two squads of invaders gathered around the hatch. Commander Meng’s fatigued soldiers attacked without mercy. The enemies at the southwest hatch were all slain. Around this time, the remaining six squads of invaders knew they were beat. The saw the slaughter in the forest, and could hear still more comrades dying on the ridge. They fled north and west, hoping to escape with their lives. With these fleeing survivors went the murderous Blackdirt, with her fingernail and tooth jewelry. Atír reached the top of the stairwell and bumped fists with Commander Meng.