I want to share a story with you about Atis Lettershake. Atis was not a brave dwarf. She was drafted in 225, trained, and scored three kills two years later: two nameless goblins and Ngerxung Fienddrunken the Faithful Stroke of Affliction, a hero unto the vile creatures, all stripped of their weapons and thrown into the dark pits at the bottom of Rakeglaze, bones broken by the fall, and all but helpless as she cut them down. It was not for five more years that she scored another kill, and that a lowly kobold - and even that foe had been fought off more often by one of Rakeglaze's masons than by her. Indeed, she had been negligent even in her training, being the only of the city's seventeen swordsdwarves to yet reach the title of champion. And now, combat was forced upon her. If one word could describe her military career, it would be 'empty'.
On the 14th of Moonstone, 237, goblins from Ngokang Sokrox, "The Curse of Strength" laid siege to the settlement of Rakeglaze, four squads of goblins - two units with archers, one of axegoblins, and one of macegoblins - advance, emboldened by the the lone dwarf killed earlier that year, the first such casualty in almost half a decade. With the settlement's formerly busy surface now quiet, the goblins took a chance that the city had been weakened from the inside, and struck.
Unib Mansionlabor was the first to mobilize. He was the youngest of Rakeglaze's military, proficient with his crossbow, but still a mere child compared to the seasoned marksmen that made up the city's elite guard, each with a dozen years hard training and twenty or more kills to their name. He scrambled to the guard tower that overlooked the ponds north of the city, where half of the invaders had massed. The tower was massive, built to be able to accommodate a dozen or more archers, and with a wide view of the lands north and west; but inside was only Unib.
Stozu Matooslem was the first to fall: marching between a pair of lakes that formed a natural chokepoint, his foot landed unluckily on a pressure plate hidden beneath a patch of basalt pebbles. Two large, serrated blades shot up from the ground, severing his left arm in two places and decapitating him. As if in a final act of defiance, his foot wedged itself into the trap's innards, preventing it from properly resetting.
Undeterred his companions pressed on, as Unib began to shower them with bone bolts - he had not yet felt he earned the right to the city's supply of metal ammunition. He loosed half his quiver, and only half found their mark: half, but enough. One bolt found its way to a goblin's leg, sending him to the ground, and two others to a second goblin's chest, killing him in short order. Amidst the hail of fire and with no way to retaliate, the three remaining turned, and fled from whence they came. In his tower, Unib lowered his crossbow as the goblins ran (and limped) out of range, two kills to his name and with a new-found confidence.
Shortly after the military proper entered the fight: the elite guard lay in wait for an advancing unit of bowmen, opening fire once they turned the corner of the walled-off outdoor archery range. Five goblins fell dead, barely returning three shots.
Further to the north, Atis Lettershake, the true subject of this story, entered the field in pursuit of the goblin wounded by Unib. He lay unconscious and slowly bleeding, just out of the marksdwarf's range. It was a simple duty - simple, and with little danger. Atis finished the dwarf's work and began to return, interrupted as an iron arrow whizzed past her. The second unit of bowmen was but yards away, four archers with a wrestler each for protection.
Adrenaline rushed. A second arrow was loosed, striking her in the right wrist. She dropped her shield and howled in anger, hardly feeling the pain, and charged. Arrows flew past as she wove around an alder tree, before locking into combat with the first of the eight goblins. Twice she swung, more blind than anything; she had not trained with her sword for so much as a single day. An arm and a hand flew skyward, belonging to different sides of the same goblin. That done, Atis rammed the goblin with all of the force she could muster, sending him flying as he crumpled into an unmoving heap.
She then averted her attention as a second wrestler approached. They grappled briefly, but Atis greatly outclassed her opponent in this regard, quickly freeing herself before opening her opponents neck wide. She then charged the bowgoblin that had been protecting, stabbing him once before throwing him into the pond they stood next to.
As she turned, one of the goblin arrows found its mark, working through a joint in her iron greaves and lodging itself in her lower leg. Undeterred and unslowed, she hurled herself foward, slicing through two more wrestlers before finally turning herself towards the bowmen. Now without their guard, the two could only watch in horror as a final arrow glanced off her chestplate, and she cut them down.
Atis turned back towards Rakeglaze to rest, but a careful reader would notice, as Atis herself had not, that only seven goblins had fallen. The last, Zom Stasostdospo, had hidden behind a tree, and was missed in the confusion. As his enemy turned her back, he peered out once again and took careful aim - the shot miissed. Atis saw the arrow fly past and spun around, thoughts of rest pushed from her mind. Miss. She forward one last time as the goblin took aim, both tense with the understanding that the small, metal projectile in Zom's hand would determine which one of them would die.
Miss.
Atis slammed into the goblin and knocked it to the ground, instinctively reverting to her training in grappling. She grabbed the goblins foot and stomped down, snapping the knee with a loud crack. The goblin passed out. After staring at her still opponent for a moment and catching her breath, Atis put her sword through its chest.
The last of her own foes vanquished and with the elite guard quickly pushing towards the final unit of goblins, the axegoblins, Atis could finally rest. For her actions in combat, she was granted a modest tomb among those of the city's mayors, not far from the masoleums of the city's greatest defenders, and just past the nobility. From that day on, Atis was not simply empty, but the Reign of Emptiness.
(I embellished the combat log slightly. hopefully nobody minds.)
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Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 5965903 times)