Journal of Boing Dalkamzefon
1st Obsidian
Our marksdwarves fortify the battlements, just above the breach point. They will rain steel downward upon the invaders as they enter the death-tunnel, for the less of them that run through our corridors the better our situation. Once they are weakened and crippled the militia shall run them down and spill their blood into the swampy earth.
However after I confined John Dough to the operations room he has slept and does not carry out lever-pulling commands. I do not wish to clutter the room with additional dwarves so I let the military warm up and prepare while he dozes. He will be disciplined appropriately after the battle if indeed he is not torn into many pieces.
The entrance to the tunnel now sees daylight but the slope is too steep for greenskins to enter and we have not yet caught their attention.
Our only concern is one of the goblin leaders that rides upon a giant bat, for he is able to swoop and attack us although TehKeen's ballista should provide adequate insurance.
Finally John Dough wakes and mans his station. It is good that he is well-rested at least, for his failure to operate the levers during the battle itself may have been catastrophic.
The militia-dwarves standby at the end of the tunnel. The marksdwarves remain posted at the top of the ramparts. TehKeen's ballista is loaded and ready to fire, and I order the miners to carve the tunnel upwards and expose it to the surface. All hands are as prepared as they may possibly be.
Cythereal and Tarezax are tasked with the brave duty of baiting the greenskins and luring them into the fray. Alone they clamber up to the surface, their weapons at the ready.
The war party's flank spots our dwarves but does not appear to sound the cry of alarm, thinking our forces a mere distraction. A mounted goblin axeman rides forward on his fish-monster steed, and I note that the beast has already tasted dwarf blood for beard hair pokes extrusively from its maw. Close behind, another follows - riding on one of the colossal beak-monsters that Minty has termed a jabberer, for its cacophonous bellows. Just then, a crossbow bolt sails downwards and strikes the fish-beast in the leg, causing it to cry out in pain as its rider attempts to hold on.
The horde is alerted and I order the squad to fall back into the tunnels that they may better defend themselves. However perhaps they mis-hear my shouted order from the ramparts and instead attempt to escape further southward. Cythereal is chased into the trees to the south by the jabberer while Tarezax moves east, perhaps in an attempt to sight the rest of the greenskin force.
In retrospect my plan of using them as a lure should perhaps have been rehearsed with more urgency but it is too late to alter that now.
Nonetheless it appears many invaders, including the troll war-party, move toward the tunnels. Cythereal continues in an attempt to outpace the jabberer chasing him but he does not return to the safety of the fortress. I contemplate his plan. Perhaps he intends to tire out his pursuer although I suspect he will tire much faster.
Bolts continue to rain down from the fortress towers and disable a small number of the enemy's forces. A few descend downward into the tunnel but only briefly and they leave almost as soon as they enter. Perhaps they are clever but they are greenskins and so I doubt it.
Before he can return to the safety of Gemclod, Tarezax is killed and eaten by a jabberer.
His armour and steel shield did not protect him although I suspect the plaster cast on his weapon arm may have had something to do with it. He has failed to perform his duty even though an inability to even consider retreat may have been a virtue in some other battle.
It seems that many greenskins pool around our walls and cower under our marksdwarves even though none of them attempt to breach the fortress itself. Repelex's shooting is exemplary and Potato Jones tries to follow but fails to hit anything.
At last I see one goblin riding a fish-beast disappear into the tunnel although he moves slowly. It is possible that he intends to scout out the passageway and report to the larger force. The ballista is well-hidden and its appearance should not be a concern.
Tentatively he rides forward and I order the ballista to be fired but it is not.
Fortunately it is not necessary.
As the goblin's steed moves onto the trigger, the serrated blades flash outward and spin across the walls and floors - moving with a quickness and lethality unparalleled by any other dwarven creation. Though the intruder attempts to evade them he succeeds only briefly before being caught off-guard and sliced brutally down the midsection along with his mount.
The blades retract back into the walls as if they were not there at all and only blood and bodyparts remain, seeping into the red sand to mar it forever.
Hearing the screams, two trolls from the surface rush downward into the tunnel. Doubtless they suspect that their goblin comrade has entered battle and requires their assistance. They charge heedless across the bridge, and neither one has time to react before the spring-loaded blades strike out again and carve them asunder.
Thick blue troll blood soaks into the sound as their remains tumble forward. One is quickly and mercifully beheaded but the other's legs and horns are shorn off, its body and face slashed and mangled before the final decapitating disc tears across its neck.
The third and fourth trolls that attempt to brave the tunnel of death similarly do not make it more than a few strides into the trapped corridor, each being hacked to bloody pieces within mere moments. The fifth, however, is luckier.
It storms through the tornado of blades, but not unscathed. Its body is mutilated, a dozen deep gashes scoring the surface of its skin, fierce lacerations that ooze fluid even as its hand-stump gouts thick blue blood. The beast howls in pain, stumbling forward but unable to see, for ichor fills its face and blinds it to everything but the need to push forward.
It is lined up with the sights of the ballista and I order it fired but TehKeen remains on his 'break' and does not fire. I suspect that his prior experience with ballista operation has had no sense of urgency about it.
In the troll's injured state it is no match for Minty's axe and goes down without a fight.
The marksdwarves meanwhile report that the greenskins themselves have been falling back.
Already the final goblin rides away over the hills to the east. Knowing their massive losses in the tunnel of death, it appears they choose wisely to withdraw rather than attempt to break through our defenses. However, I am skeptical. It is never this easy and when last I suspected the retreat of goblin forces it cost us Enzer.
Cautiously, I order our military up to the surface.