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Journal of Thrakha'zaguul.
Chapter 17: Nemesis
Granite, 256
Of all the monsters we have encountered in these savage lands: a were-mammoth! may be the most terrifying yet. It ambushes and destroys some peasant haulers clearing the field from the tigerman-battle. The Dragon Society warriors and other ranged warbands are called on to sting it from range and finally put it down.
Slate, 256
The yearly clan-council is called. The orcs cheer their victory over the nemesis dwarves. Clanmates! I remind. Enjoy your victory, but remember: our warbands were pushed to their limit by these mere two squads of dwarven scouts. This year we must expect a real dwarven army. Next time we will be outnumbered: a grim century of battle hardened dwarves, a two-dozen of metal golems, and a swarm of war-beasts from the deepest undergrottoes! The clan-mates consider this, but say: We will prepare, and we will destroy them, or die.
We need more fortifications! Speak the archers: Extend our ring of sentry towers to overlook all the sites for dwarven camps, and Firehawk and Ilena will lead our rangers to rain death upon them. Unless more of those javelin-snipers arrive.
We need more barbed wire! Speak the tinkerers: Bleed the beetles, and jabberers, and cave-crawlers, and surely our troops can prevail against weakling dwarfs without their pets. Except that the Golems and Weapon-lords may walk through easily without harm.
We need more cannons! Speak the gunners: Add more Orcs to our heavy weapons squad, and the strongest Golems will be scrapped in no time. Except we only have a hundred cannon-balls, and must craft or trade for more quickly.
We need more warriors! Speak the warbands: Assign veteran Talata a new squad, with every remaining Uruk and strong Orc, and issue them fine pole-hammers to crush Dwarven armor. Even if the Dwarves bring five-dozens we will match their numbers on the field.
Make it all so, I command.
Felsite, 256
The enthusiasm of the clan-mates is fine, but what we really need to defeat the dwarves once and for all, is more of the blue adamant metal from the deep-caverns. Dohon and Broken-Mind know this as well. Their warbands escort a detachment of miners and masons to the cavern floor, and hold off swarms of mummys and deep-ogres while workers secure the quarries, and work quickly to extract the ore.
A raptorman invasion! Raptormen will try to pick locks, so we draw them to the locked back-door under a hail of arrows and spells. The second-rank warbands under Talata and Trak'Ruhn charge, once the enemy are wounded and depleted. The veterans are not needed and have some time to recover from their mission to the depths.
Work continues on the fortifications in the Deep Caverns, on a road to protech approaching caravaneers, and mining and processing the adamantine ore throughout the summer.
Galena, 256
Drums in the darkness of the Crystal Cavern again. Miners delve some overlooking halls to get a look at strange and alien Hiveguard warriors, locked in mortal battle with a Forgotten Beast. We leave the crystal cavern gate shut.
Human bandit traders arrive on the top-side, but with automatons on their trail. We want to rescue the humans, to trade especially for steel, bullets, and cannonballs. We move out to the west where we can fight in a perfect situation, alongside the Human guardsmen, and using the outer curtain wall to screen the warbands' approach from enemy snipers.
A second squad on the east had ambushed and killed the Human trade guildsman, and were sniping our guard-wolves from very long range through the open gate. There is nothing to do except either to shut the gate and doom the humans, or else to charge down the sharpshooters in a long run across the open plain. The warbands regroup and attack: Huscarl Dohon draws and dodges the enemy fire, while the clanmates sprint to victory.
Limestone, 256
Workers are ordered to dig a large water cistern which will later be used to obsidianize the second adamant quarry, which is mostly flooded in magma. Masons are dispatched to study the remaining core of our first adamantine spire and determine if it is safe to mine more layers from it. The masons found that it was in fact hollow, and through their windows they observe bottomless eerie pits, and terrible shadowy shapes below! But before we can decide on a course of action, we are summoned to battle by the war-horns of a great dwarven army. The quarry is left sealed today.
Timber, 256
The Dwarven General has come. Meph the Mysterious, founder of the great Dwarven mills, inventor of the deadly Golemforge, master of gunpowder and welder of strange metals. His cursed runed mithril blades have slain Orcs by the dozens in a thousand strongholds across the world. In this battle he appears, having taken the name Amost Cilobanam, "Town of the Aged Roofs," a moniker perfectly calculated to be so inane as to confuse his enemies with terror.
The Dwarven army is too vast to defeat in a straight battle, but Dohon and Broken-Mind make it clear that simply surviving this terrible siege is not an option. They pledge that it must be rent and broken. The General's bodyguard are elite rangers, including a deadly javelin-armed sniper. Firehawk, Ilena, and Gwathlobal lead their archers and sorcerers through the network of tunnels to conduct hit-and-run attacks on the Dwarven melee camps. They eventually find a position where they can destroy most of an axedwarf detachment.
Orcish broad-head jagged arrows are not the weapon of choice against the hard skin of golems, so our small detachment of cannoneers and heavy mechanized crossbows take position in the western tower. They don't have enough volume of fire to destroy the whole squad but they get about half of the Golems riled to a furious anger and these move forward to storm our back gate.
We slam the gate shut and split the Golems from the main Dwarven force, isolating about a dozen of them inside our courtyard. With the gunners stinging them with darts and draining their strange mechanical fluids, the warbands spring into action, swarm the metal monsters and gradually wear them down.
The General's squadron begins to move -- but rather than preparing to flee, he seems prepared to lead his remaining beetle javelin cavalry on a final attack, accompanied by an elite melee guard. Our best ranged squads are still busy pinning down the remnants of other scattered squads, but the warbands seize an opportunity to move out and engage the Dwarven infantry separately, while the javelineers are still screened around the corner of the fort. Broken Mind duels the Dwarven priest spearlord to a standstill, while the rest of the warband engages the remaining dozen longsword-dwarves. Huscarl Dohon and Mavj calmly pincushion a deadly Legion Dwarf with arrows, staying out of range of his steel zweihander. Finally the squad rallied to the side of the Warchief and dispatches the spearpriest.
Several casualties in this battle including one dead and several badly wounded by the spearpriest, but it is too late for rest or retreat. The orcs must rally and turn to catch the General just as he turns the corner, so that they only must stand one deadly volley of javelin fire before closing to melee. Even under just one volley, several orcs in the vanguard go down, but it seems they are saved by fine armor, and by the ferocious charge of the second wave of orcs.
Moonstone, 256
We hunt them to the last Dwarf and Golem, hoping to clear the field in time for our home caravan to arrive safely, but it is too late: Winter has fallen.
Poll
5 (38.5%)
Author
Topic: Ghoshash Snazaga, "Cleaver of Ignorance," a ¤MDF Orc Fort¤ tutorial (Ch 22) (Read 105262 times)