A deep reverberating call echeoed throughout the mountain pass, followed by yet another, the bellowing of a war horn sounded the start of battle. Thum thum thum, the war drums of the goblins replied with their booming bass drowning out the clatter of goblins scrambling into the fortified positions of the fortress walls. Though the dwarves sabotaged the drawbridges, spanning the man made chasms on either side, the goblins managed to drop the portculis of the gate house blocking the adventurers way. Goblin archers took positions along the ramparts and crenelations of the two story walls. It would be a hard faught battle for the orthodox tactics of professional soldiers, but these warriors were anything but orthodox.
With only space for four men abreast they narrowed their formation down to three men abreast, with each man of the vanguard carrying a rectangular sheild that when held aloft would cover them from knee to neck. The rest of the vanguard carried large round sheild held inter locked over head protecting them from the hail of black fletched arrows.
Those skilled in the use of heavy cross bows set achors in the side of the mountain slopes for archers to climb, from their high perches they fired down onto the goblins manning the walls. They selectively pinpointed the most skilled members of the enemy and with the sun to their backs, they were practically invisible in the blinding glare.
Calderus made use of slingers to hurl bottles of alchemical nightmares over the walls of the keep, occasionally pitiful wailing screams of an agonizing slow death could be heard piercing the air. He could be seen frantically scribbling notes when one of his concoctions struck one of the goblins on the wall, his face a terible visage of curiosity and sadistic pleasure.
What few mages Havmal had managed to muster were to valuable to be put into direct combat, but without their support he did not see a way to take the fortress with out major casualties. It was a classic conundrum of warfare, to starve out the enemy in a prolonged seige or to attept to storm the defenses. Only one could not starve out goblins, if they ran out of food they would just cull their weak and throw them into the cooking pots. For creatures so close to the intelligence of other civilized races, their cruel barbarity was far beyond the possibility of civility. Havmal had but one choice to make, they would have to assualt the gate house and destroy the portculis, a decision he did not take lightly.
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Havmal waded through the rearguard who were waiting with bated anticipation, they moved awkwardly in place not wanting to become conplacent in the long wait for their turn to assualt. It wasnt long before Calderus spotted the familiar brown mrobed maniac he was searching for, the man was hunched slightly scribbling notes in his large leather bound tome of notes and research. "Calderus, do you have anything in those satchels that can destroy that damn gate" Havmal barked lifting up the man by the scruff of his robe. He was greeted by the familiar terrifying smile of a mad man lost in his work.
An already face splitting grin seemed to grow even more sinister, "I believe I have just the thing" he stated in an amused tone. The alchemist reached into one of his many stachels and produced a firery red orb the size of a small mellon, it emitted a soft red glow and was warm to the touch. "What the hell is that thing" Havmal inquired looking at the suspicious orb teemeing with arcane power. "Hehehe, a little something I picked up from an old friend, just gotta get it to the portculis" Calderous chuckled. Havmal weiged his options for a moment as he palmed the crimson orb, "alright, lets see what you've got up your sleeve" he sighed in frustration as he bolted up the center of the formation.
He ran forward ducking under the cover of their shields cradling the orb in his massive arms, a few arrows sliped through the small gaps between the sheilds harmlessly embedding in the thick wolf hide armor, it's fur like steel. He bellowed for the men to cear as he hurled the orb into the portculis, the air thumped once, the men could feel the shockwaves in their bones. Followed by a flash of fire and flame, like a small sun, the orb of liquid flames burned through the laticed bars of the portculis. Metal fell and dropped as molten slag leaving beind a smoking puddle.
A cheer erupted as the vanguard spilled into the courtyard proper with Havmal at the lead his axe carving through goblins, each swing severed a limb or head from a group of stunned goblins. Several figters of the vanguard let free their battle crys drawing the focus of the gobins onto them selves. Those weilding Zweihander or great axes fell upon distracted mobs of goblins with a brutal efficiency. Mages scoured the battlements with flames and blasted them with lightning, screams of terror erupted from the goblins only to be cut short. Slingers lobbed more terrible creations into the rear of the enemy lines cauing chaos, one goblin struck by a glass bottle shrieked in horror as he slowly watched his flesh being eaten down to the bone.
The battle was a symphony of wholesale slaughter punctuated by the ringing of steel and the wet splaterings of blood.