On the ledge overlooking the entrance to Igrishilrom"Okay everyone... This is it. What we have been training for. Is everyone ready?"
Dewsif looked around at the assembled dwarfs. He couldnt see the faces behind the copper helmets but everyone seemed ready, some responding with a grim nod to his question. "Some of us where down at the farms when the alarm was sounded. They will join as any minute now but the goblins might be faster. Mafiawhale? Your people ready?"
Said dwarf, who had been on patrol and was the one who had spottet the enemy, hefted his crossbow and turned to his squad. "Of course. The moment they climb the ledge they get some good old copper in the face."
There where a few tense minutes of waiting. Vorus managed to arrive in the meantime but ShadowHammer, Guylock and one of the fresh recruits where still missing. Everyone hoped that they would make it in time, but the goblins where faster. A single goblin climbed the slope and looked at the assembled dwarven warriors. Mafiawhale had his crossbow already trained on him and pulled the trigger. To his horror, nothing happened beside a slight crunching sound from his weapon. Not a second later, the same sound was heard from the direction of Alev, who countered the ensuing silence with a loud curse.
The goblin just looked puzzled at the militia and was quickly joined by a few others from his squad. Dewsif stared at the goblins coming at him and waved his battle axe in their direction. "Forget the crossbows. CHARGE!"
This threw the greenskins off. They expected a ragtag bunch of slaves, who would tremble at the mere sight of them, not what looked like a military unit in full plate armor.The battle quickly devolved in a viscious melee and the valiant defenders slowly managed to drive the goblins back. Some of the dwarves might have been wounded, but the attackers hat already lost half their number.However, a tragic event was in the making on the side of the battlefield. Alev was running along the edge of plateau to get to her comrades, when a goblin leaped up at her, his iron axe coming down at her. In the last moment, she managed to bring her crossbow up to block the attack. While the strike was blocked, she lost her footing and tumbled down the snow covered slope, her attacker right behind her. They traded blows for what felt like hours, always dodging and blocking, until the goblin got lucky and landed the first true hit. His axe came down again on Alev and again she wanted to block it with her crossbow, by now marked with the impact of numerous strikes. This time however, the axegoblin was anticipating this and aimed at her right hand.
Alev nearly dropped her weapon when the heavy axe dug into her right hand, lodging itself into the gap it struck in her copper gauntlet. In spite of the pain it caused her, she pulled her hand back and her opponent closer, before planting a viscious kick in his gut. The goblin fell, pulling her with him and dislodging the weapon in the process. Not waiting for the greenskin to regain his facultys, Alev hammered the butt of her silver crossbow on his face, knocking teeth lose and bashing his nose in. In his desperation, he struck one last time, the axe finding a gap in Alevs platemail and digging deep into her flesh. She screamed in pain and rage and with her last ounce of strength, she brought her broken weapon down on his skull again, finally caving it in and killing the foul creature.
But she was bleeding badly and drawing breath was becoming problematic. With her still whole hand, she pulled her helmet off to be able to breath better and rolled to the side. For a short moment, she looked up to the sky. The small ember of the sun desperately trying to burn trough the snow the wind carried trough the clear day. Then a shadow fell on her, another goblin had arrived, his hammer held high. She looked at the sun for one last time, dimly aware the hammer was coming down on her. Then there was only darkness.
The Log of Idek3rd Hematit - 661 - Second EntryWe achieved a hollow victory today. The goblins brought only a single squad to attack us and if you had asked me a year ago, it would have been more then enough to bring us down. The militia didn't see it that way and killed all but one of them. Still, while we are ecstatic that we brought down a full squad of greenskin warriors, the death of Alev and the recruit Lòr adds a bitter taste to the plump helmet wine we drank to celebrate.
Some others of the new recruits where wounded and Doctor Skull is tending to them at the moment. At least it looks like they will all make it, even if with a few scars.
We brought the bodys in and stored them in one of the unfinished rooms of the housing project until a proper crypt can be build. Beyar and Walrus asked me, if I still thought that gold was wordless for us and after trying to guess the meaning of their request, I nodded.
Most of the population already threat Alev and Lòr as fallen heros. It seems they will be buried in a fitting manner.
We will sort everything else out in the coming days. Especially the malfunction of the crossbows is troubling. Apparently the cold was to much for the mechanism. However, for now, we will drink
Notes:
The weapons bug Toady mentioned in the devlog? Yep, its bad. Very bad. Most of the battle was people punching, biting, kicking and scratching each other. Only Dewsif seemed to attack with his axe now and then, which brought him a quite impressive amount of kills (or makes him an evil killstealer).
I dont know if the unwillingness of the marksdwarves to fire bolts instead of charging in is related to that bug. Im still trying to find that out.
Special mention should go to Vorus, who was the only one not tired at the end of it and managed to knoch down three goblins which where then killed by Dewsif.
Total killcount:
Dewsif - 7
Mafiawhale - 1
Alev - 1
All dwarves, except for some of the very fresh recruits, entered the battle in full copper platemail, with chainmail below.
Considering this bug, Im scared of the forgotten beasts. If anything appears that can't be killed by punching (which is 99.99% of them) we are royally screwed.
The next time at the Fell Peak: Humans, burials and mutterings of maddwarves.
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Topic: The Fell Peak [Community Fortress] - platinum blunt weapons for everyone! (Read 13031 times)