After the burial, we headed back towards the camp, took another nights rest and headed out in the morning. Try as I might we had not found my vector, which I found frustrating. I had even climbed down the hole the deepstalker had dragged me in, in the hope it slid down there but no cigar. None of the guns were fully functional, we had tried. Nevertheless, we brought the weapons tot he dwarven engineers and I told them all I knew about gunpowder, the firing mechanism and guns themselves. The engineers eye's opened in wonder as they got to work on the guns. Thorik being the explosive maniac that he was couldn't stay away from the weapons. He had reg's completely mangled gun and his drum magazine of bullets. He was particularly interested in the bullets themselves and the gunpowder that was used to fire the rounds. Being one of the scout teams however meant that he did not have a lot of time to spend analysing either of them.
We headed out towards the roads again, I had been given another knife. Having only a single weapon was dangerous, especially if you use one as small as a knife. We used the same formation as we used the previous day. We headed down the roads, mind occupied with random thoughts I followed only partly paying attention. Kardol froze after a couple hours of walking, he made a sign with his hand. I recognized it, darkspawn ahead. A dozen of them, few enough that we would risk taking them on to push deeper into the roads. The melee fighters moved up front, meaning everyone except me and Korma formed a line. Korma was behind them, I would cover the rear and keep Korma out of trouble.
The four dwarven warriors grabbed their shields, Kormik putting away his two handed weapon in favor for a shield and sword. They formed a shieldwall and stepped towards the spawn, i glanced down the corridor. One alpha hurlock, the rest a mixture of hurlocks and genlocks. No other threats visible. Should be an easy enough fight, the dwarven warriors stepped forward, Korma initated the battle with a wellplaced bolt whisteling through the air, smashing through the Alpha's metal helmet. The metal crumpled beneath the force, shattering the spawns skull. The other darkspawn scrambled to get themselves ready, Kardol and Thorik each threw an axe, one burrying itself in the chest of a genlock the other glanced off a hurlock shield. The dozen darkspawn had been reduced to ten. They snarled as the charged at us.
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The dwarves calmly lowered their shields and readied their weapons, Korma had enough time to release another bolt, downing another darkspawn before they reached the dwarven shield wall. The spawn crashed into the shields, the dwarves refused to budge. With a quick strike from each of them three spawn fell to the ground motionless. Half a dozen left. The dwarves shoved with their shields, sending a few of them tumbling backwards. With some of them off balance theys truck quickly, another two darkspawn fell. Korma managed to release another bolt, ripping through the chest of the furthermost darkspawn, killing it instantly. The remaining three darkspawn were quickly outnumbered and outmatched and taken care off. The whole fight lasted perhaps thirty seconds, the dwarven warriors smoothly taking care of an enemy group that outnumbered their own force two to one. Truly an elite force.
They wiped their weapons clean, performed a quick check over the darkspawn. Making sure they were truly dead, we moved on. It took us another half hour to come across something interesting, another group of darkspawn. Larger than the last one perhaps twenty of the creatures. More importantly they seemed ready to charge an area themselves. The darkspawn were occupied, growling in their own strange language. They were preparing to assualt whatever it was that was down that corridor. Kardol made a series of signs with his hands, we would wait for them to charge whatever it was they were attacking. Then follow them in and take care of both the spawn and whatever else it was that lurked in the cavern behind it. We nodded and prepared ourselves to follow their charge. After a few more minutes of what I assumed was planning the darkspawn readied themselves for the attack.
A charge with who knew what ahead.