15th Galena
"Is that
all the ammo we've got left?" I said, horrified.
Peregarrett sighed. "I'm afraid so. The marksdwarves have some stuff in their quivers of course, but once it's gone it's gone. There's three goblin prisoners in cages that we haven't stripped, one of them might have another stack of usable bolts I suppose."
"Did you melt down the arrows?"
"Yeah, but I only managed to get a couple bars out of them. There isn't nearly enough metal in Soaplanterns to kit out a squad. I'm sorry, Mr Madushkubuk."
"Well, thank Kovest you got us to kill those elephants then," Ushrir said, coming up behind us. "Let's get 'em butchered so we can start making bone bolts."
"Is anyone out there now who shouldn't be?" I said. "No? Close the gate then." I prayed ogres weren't powerful enough to break bridges...
The bowmen were the first to arrive. Endok held his squad back until the last possible moment, wanting to expose them as little as possible to the elite bowman's fire.
The dwarves rushed up onto the wall and began to fire.
So did the elite bowman.
Endok staggered back and fell off the wall, landing harmlessly on his back on the ground below. He was in too much pain to get back up again. A hauler rushed to grab him and drag him below to where Dr Kosotham waited anxiously.
The goblin bowman got Bembul next, nailing her in the upper body. Someone shot the cave crawler out from under him, but Bosa sprang away unhurt. He was a good dodger. A bolt grazed his left hand but did no real damage. He raised his bow and fired, hitting Bembul again and breaking a rib. She screamed in agony and slumped onto the wall.
Amante stepped forward calmly and stood over the unconscious Bembul to return fire.
Melbil got hit next, in the upper body, dangerously close to the heart. He stumbled, gasping for breath.
The bowman squad deserted their leader now that his mount had fallen. Bosa rolled back and forth on the ground, easily evading the storm of bolts from the dwarves who as yet remained unhit. They were mostly novices; with Endok out of the picture he had little fear of them.
Unfortunately for him, marksdwarf-Muthkat was almost as good as Endok.
"Yeah! How do you like
that, crundle breath?"
Bolts peppered the ground, and Bosa.
Incredibly, the hardy goblin began to crawl away, dragging himself over the rough ground by his one working arm. There were seventeen bolts in him when he finally bled to death, almost out of range.
The second squad, the swordsmen, were now at the gate. But they had no more ranged attackers, and they couldn't get in. As long as Soaplanterns' gate held, they were not a threat.
"We're out of bolts," Amante said breathlessly, coming back down the ramp with the badly injured Bembul in her arms.
Only three of ten dwarves had been injured in the shooting, but all three were serious injuries. And worst, Endok was down: our legendary bonecarver. The only other bonecarver of skill was just four years old, and I doubted anyone would be able to explain the concept of a crossbow bolt to him in words he could understand. Two dwarves with a little carving experience volunteered to have a go at making some bolts.
At least we had plenty of raw materials for them to practice on...
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Topic: Ubenudil, Soaplanterns - Soapmaker's Guild Fort (Read 56928 times)