Cog’s Journal, 14th of Obsidian, 307Just when I thought we’d make it the rest of the way through the year without any more craziness:
A veritable army of goblins has shown up on our doorstep. They’ve also brought a squad of trolls. Our military has full steel weapons now, but only a few steel breastplates have come off the line so far. Hopefully skill will make up for this. It looks like the groups aren’t well coordinated, I’m expecting to see the trolls and a squad of spear wielding goblins before the rest of the army shows up.
Everyone is restricted to being inside in case of archers and the military will be setting up to ambush the first group once they come through the gate.
Events of the 16th of Obsidian, 307Derm the Soulchopper waited patiently inside the gate with the entire military. One squad stationed to the left of the gate, the other to the right, just out of sight of the invading army. The first to arrive were the trolls. Two enthusiasts running ahead went through the line of traps. One was caught, the other right behind him continued in to the compound straight towards the hammer squad. The hammer dwarves tore into the troll and easily dispatched it.
Then disaster struck. The fight with the troll had moved the dwarves closer to the gate. A third troll came around the corner, saw its fallen comrade and turned to run. Shorast Isoneral the hammerdwarf shouted “We’ve got the on the run, CHARGE!” And he ran out the gate after the trolls. Several other hammer dwarves were close on his tail. Derm heard a loud crunching sound outside and ran over to the gate.
Shorast Isoneral was on the ground with blood pouring out the side of his head. His skull was looking somewhat misshapen and he was on the ground unconscious. Fortunately the troll was dead. A quick glance confirmed, the first squad of goblins and several more trolls were almost to the gate. “To the gates everyone! Cover Shorast, he’s not dead yet!”
And with that, the entire military charged out the gates, straight into the approaching squad of goblins. As they approached, Derm watched in horrified surprise as Shorast rose to his feet and charged the goblins as if in a trance. But he hardly had time to watch Shorast as he charged into the mass of goblins. He swung his axe with great precision, each attack easily severing any limb that got too close to him. The squad of goblins quickly fell to the better armed and armored dwarves.
As the last goblins fell, Shorast came out of his daze and began staggering towards the gates. Derm the Soulchopper quickly took stock. As usual the hammer dwarves were slightly more battered than the axedwarves, but that was probably a simple factor of experience. Before he could catch his breath, Derm heard a sound from around the corner. The next squad of goblins had already arrived! And the third wasn’t far behind either. Curse those goblins for pulling them out of position!
There was only one choice. “CHARGE!” yelled Derm the Soulchopper. And with his axe in hand, he charged before any of the other dwarves had a chance to react. But they were close behind him, he could hear their feet. Once again, he waded into a swarm of lash and sword wielding goblins. His axe was biting off arms and heads as quickly as the appeared. Like a breaking wave from the terrible ocean, the dwarves tore through the goblin army until none remained except the few spry goblins who were running across the desert far faster than the dwarves could travel.
Derm the Soulchopper took stock. One of his axedwarves was bleeding severely from the eye; he hoped the doctors could save it. Many of the soldiers were bruised and slightly bloodied but it wasn’t anything that wouldn’t heal in a day or two. A bit more coordination was going to be necessary in the future though to keep dwarves from charging out without orders like that but the battle went very well considering no dwarves were killed.
(OOC): Derm the Soulchopper is like a machine. Every time he swings his axe, another goblin limb goes flying. Most of the other axedwarves are similar. There are actually arms on top of the walls in several places.
@dermonster: I’m not 100% sure if this is his title, but this is the full entry on his nameplate:
Dwarven: Derm the Soulchopper, Ushatimik Adilngegdol Kosh, Military Overseer
Translated: Derm the Soulchopper, Basementchucked the Walled Depression of Slaughter, Military Overseer
Quite the mouthful but it feels appropriate. By the way, Derm the Soulchopper is credited with 9 goblin kills in the latest siege.
@breadbocks: Glad you enjoyed it, the new combat logs make things much more interesting and graphic! The cage trap worked just fine on the test. I’ll be doing my best to assume that they don’t work though; I think it makes things far more interesting if the military takes care of these larger threats.