The Troll Siege of Autumn 1055

Trolls!

Cursesloths The Ranger gazed up the hill at Alegate. She had organized and led this force all the way from distant Menaceplagues. She was confident Menaceplagues would succeed where Quickghouls had failed. The fools from Quickghouls had brought no trolls. Cursesloths’ army had dozens.

She was confident that today was the last day she would be called Cursesloths The Ranger. After this battle, she would be Cursesloths The Overlord Of Alegate!

Menaceplagues is a dark pit, in the shadow of the mountain where the dead walk.

On the fourth day of Autumn, two dozen trolls stormed out of the southwest. They were great, wooly beasts with horns and tusks. Each was four times the mass of a dwarf, and had been driven into a violent rage by its goblin masters.

Behind the trolls marched an army of nearly a hundred goblin soldiers. These were well armed, and many were metal-armored. The tree-sigil of the skinless gecko was emblazoned on their helmets.

Among these goblins were two dwarven warriors, who had been turned to the old goblin ways. One of the dwarves even wore a victim’s skull as a crown.

The watchdogs in Alegate’s towers brayed the alarm, and archers rushed to the barbican tower. Heavy infantry rallied in the courtyard. Soldiers stationed in the deep barracks began the long journey up the stairs.

Out in the forest, beyond the range of Alegate’s archers, the mighty trolls broke open the stone hatch to the southern tunnel.

Among the trees (O), trolls (T) crowd into the southern tunnel stairs (>).

Trolls flooded into the moss-and-mushroom floored chamber beneath the south hatch. The clay delvings resounded with troll fists on the stone door.

While half the trolls descended the southern stairs, the other half rushed the barbican’s goblinite portcullis. They ran into accurate crossbow fire from the barbican tower. As leading trolls took injuries, most of the trolls turned and fled south. Some were caught in snares. A couple of the bravest rushed right up to the goblinite gate beneath the archers.

The first charge on the barbican falters. Blue exclamation marks flash on trolls who were overcome with panic. An occasional crossbow bolt can be seen (/ for intact or ≥ for broken.)

The archers shifted their aim to the trolls right beneath them. It is a rare bolt that can pierce a troll’s brain or heart and kill it quickly, but these trolls were hit many times. Between the pain and blood loss, their efforts to smash the goblinite portcullis faltered.

The way beneath the barbican tower is stained cyan with troll blood. Also at this level is the stockpile of white stones that will be used by the barbican catapult when it is ready. A practice-catapult sits in the stockpile, for training. Shad (α) swim in the river among lost arrows (/) and fallen branches (-). Over the years, the sand at the edge of the river has become blood-saturated.

While Alegate’s archers were trying to put down the pair of trolls beneath them, several trolls rallied in the forest and attempted a second rush. Some fell along the way with bolts in their legs. Three made it to the goblinite gate, but they were bleeding from multiple bolt wounds, and were not in any shape to finish destroying the gate.

That’s when the trolls that had gone below-ground managed to smash through the stone door to the south tunnel. The way into the clay delvings was open. That group of trolls climbed up to the surface and joined the rest of the trolls. This combined pack of trolls made a concerted third charge at the portcullis, and could not be stopped. They began pounding on the portcullis mightily.

Behind the charging trolls, enemy infantry descended into the south tunnel.

Alegate’s heavy infantry was busy during this time, too. Three squads of Alegate heavy infantry took position on the mine cart tracks. These thirty soldiers expected to be outnumbered 3 to 1. Commander Meng kept his own squad in the barbican, ready to face the trolls when they broke down the portcullis.

An increasing number of trolls were wounded by bolts from above, but most of the trolls were still dangerous.

Invaders flood into the south tunnel (red circle.) Alegate heavy infantry gathers on the cart tracks (blue circles.)

When the enemy reached the tracks, Alegate dwarves and goblins, in heavy armor, pushed into the narrow south tunnel like a piston. The clay walls were splattered with red.

The battle in the south tunnel was a new experience. The enemy could not use their superior numbers to surround the defenders. The defenders, with superior armor, weapons, and skill, overmatched the foes before them.

A warrior, no matter how fit, can only swing a weapon and evade attacks for a limited time before fatiguing. In an open field battle against greater numbers, the element of fatigue could decide battles.

In the south tunnel, this was not a problem. A defender would defeat an opponent or two, then a fresh soldier would step around them to continue the push. This cycle got the Alegaters through most of the fight.

That cycle stopped when speardwarf Desli got her turn at the front. In her had was an adamantine spear, and she demonstrated for the first time exactly what these weapons could do.

No armor could stop it. Every strike pierced an organ or severed an artery. After this battle, many invader suits of armor were found intact, except for a single distinctive hole in the helmet or breastplate.

Fatigue was not a problem for Desli. Where her comrades had expended significant energy on each opponent, she had only to thrust once or twice. She led the rest of the way to the surface.

Desli’s kill list in Autumn 1055. This does not include enemies she disabled who were later finished off by another soldier. At the end of the battle in the south tunnel, she wasn’t even winded.

When Desli reached the stairs, the enemy soldiers on the surface fled. The defenders emerged from the broken hatch and pursued.

Meanwhile, the goblinite portcullis was battered, but still held. Once the goblin soldiers were gone, the portcullis was raised and Commander Meng sallied forth, his squad behind him. In Commander Meng’s hand was Alegate’s original adamantine weapon; the battle axe.

Trolls, in addition to being large, are ferocious fighters. When Meng stepped into reach, multiple trolls tried to gore, bite, and swat him. He evaded or blocked all these attacks, then cut an arm from one of the trolls with a single swipe of his adamantine axe. As Meng’s expert soldiers joined the fight at the gate, that pattern continued.

That fight drifted south into the forest. Once the gate was clear, an enemy macegoblin, separated from his unit in the confusion, rushed through the portcullis into the courtyard. Alegate archers charged down from the tower to fight this macegoblin. The macegoblin was surrounded, but he used his armor and shield to advantage. He fended off the swinging crossbow-butts, and even badly broke an archer’s arm. But in the end, the archers tackled and strangled the warrior.

Troops returning to Alegate, after pursuing invaders over the western ridge.

Cursesloths The Ranger escaped with her life. Of her original force, less than two dozen goblins, three trolls, and the dwarf with the skull-crown survived to return to Menaceplagues.