Dwarven Rifleman Series: Diaries of a Dwarven Rifleman

by Michael Pearce

  The city had a low wall dividing it from the fields. It appeared to be ten to fifteen feet tall, varying with the rise and fall of the land. Past the wall were more of the low stone buildings that they had become accustomed to seeing, and as the ground rose along the side of the valley the slope was cut into terraces. Some of these had buildings butted up against the hillside, others had arched gates leading underground. With their spyglasses they could make out people moving, but whether these were Baasgarta or Braell they could not tell. Most likely it's a mix of both, Engvyr thought.

  The refugees were funneling into the city through several gates in the low wall, crowding into the streets and moving through the arches into the underground.

  “Looks like quite a bit of the place is mined back into the hills,” Taarven noted.

  “Yeah... Gonna' be fun digging them out of there,” Engvyr said, “And that's a whole bunch of Braell. Don't know how they're going to figure into things, but I doubt they're going to make it simpler.”

  As sunset approached and the refugees outside the city began to thin out they could see Baasgarta directing large parties of Braell outside of the city. When it became apparent what they were up to Engvyr began to swear softly. They were digging defensive earthworks and trenches, and the dwarves were all too familiar with the effectiveness of such when properly defended. With the large crews of dwarves at work the defenses began to take shape with remarkable speed.

  Supplies and people moved in and out through the night. Taarven and Engvyr kept a cold-camp where they could keep the city under observation, sleeping in short shifts with one of them always watching. While it was hard to make out details the overall impression was of orderly efficiency. By first light activity had begun to taper off.

  Dawn revealed the completed defenses and Engvyr was impressed. Over the course of the night a veritable maze of parapets, berms and trenches had sprung up. Studying the layout Engvyr saw that the works, while extensive, were far from perfect. There were interrupted lines of sight here and there and the overall layout wasn't optimal, but it wasn't bad. When those defenses were filled with determined defenders it was going to mean a hell of a fight to get to the city beyond.

  “They moved the last of the Braell into the city just before sunrise,” Taarven told Engvyr, who had been taking his turn to doze. He started to say that if it came to a siege, as it surely looked to do, it was foolish to take so many of the Braell into the city. Then he realized why the Baasgarta had taken their slaves with them. They were a resource. He shuddered and mentioned his thoughts to Taarven, who shrugged.

  “On the bright side,” Taarven said with dark humor, “The longer the siege lasts the less we'll have to worry about the Braell getting in the way...”

  “That's not funny,” Engvyr said.

  Taarven heaved a heavy sigh and leaned back.

  “No, it surely is not, but Maker take me if I can see an easy answer to that problem, except to break the siege as fast as we can manage.”

  “Lord and Lady grant that much,” Engvyr said fervently.

  An hour after sunrise the sounds of a distant battle drifted to them, lasting perhaps fifteen minutes before stopping. The rangers looked at each other and declined to speculate as to the outcome, but they saw evidence soon enough.

  At midmorning the Baasgarta army began to arrive and disperse into the defensive works, filling them from front to back.. As more of the army arrived they were passed through the lines to fill the next ranks of defenses. So the ones with the most rest will be the first to be engaged, Engvyr thought, a good tactic.

  Wagons came out of the Baasgarta city and moved among the trenches and berms distributing supplies. More firing broke out, much nearer this time, and died away after a few minutes.

  “Good news is it doesn't look like we'll have far to go to let our people know we've found the city,” Engvyr commented.

  “Speaking of which it's about time for us to head out and report before they can see all of this for their own selves,” Taarven said.

  They left their observation point and began to work their way south towards the approaching dwarven army.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “Nothing guarantees that you don't know what's going on better than the certainty that you do...”

  From the diaries of

  Engvyr Gunnarson

  “So in the end our mission was kind of a bust, I guess,” Engvyr said, finishing his report, “Seeing as the army caught up with us and all.”

  “I don't know as I'd say that,” Captain Gauer replied, “If nothing else you've filled in the map some and gotten us an idea about how the more remote Baasgarta settlements are situated. Anyway, Torvaald and Brekke are still out there somewhere, north of this valley we think.”

  They had found the Dwarven army less than a league from the city and driving the Baasgarta back. Now their forces were digging in their own defenses well out of reach of the Baasgarta heavy crossbows, which meant their rifles couldn't reach them either.

  “Anyway, the Eastern Force should be arriving tomorrow. The engineers will have some thoughts about taking this place down quickly. Get some food and shut eye; siege-work isn't a job for Rangers, but I'm pretty sure that we'll be able to find something for you boys to do tomorrow.”

  That proved true, as the two rangers discovered at first light.

  “Gear up, boys,” The Captain shouted, waking the sleeping rangers, “The Baasgarta are on the move. Let's go!”

  They rolled off their cots and dressed for action. Rather than repairing to the mess tent bowls of stew were brought to them as they dressed, so they sat on their bunks and shoveled it down as the Captain addressed them.

  “The Baasgarta forces are assembling inside their defensive works. It looks very much like they intend to meet us on the field. Since by now they have to be aware of what a very, very bad idea that is, either they are suicidally desperate or they have something up their sleeves. Anyone care to place a bet as to which it is?” he asked rhetorically, “Right. Me neither.

  “So what we are going to do is have a look up their sleeves, so to speak. Taarven and Engvyr, you'll go up the northwest side of the main river valley. Sergar and Gimli, you'll go up the east side. The rest of you will follow behind and peel off to check out the branch valleys, half on each side. Settle that among yourselves but let me know.”

  “When do we pull out, captain?” Gimli asked.

  The Captain gave him a flat look and said, “I have people saddling your ponies and seeing to your packs as we speak. Does that answer your question?”

  The rangers ate faster as he continued, “Two days travel out, then straight back as fast as you can. Naturally if you find a surprise get back and let us know.”

  “What about the southern approaches, Captain?” Engvyr asked.

  “The army is going to cover that. Time to get moving, people!”

  There was an increasing clamor building up from outside, soldiers rushing here and there in ordered chaos. From the sound of things the Baasgarta weren't going to keep the Dwarven forces waiting for long.

  By the time the rangers were mounted and moving the battle had been joined. Baasgarta were pushing forward behind metal pavises and engaging the dwarves with their heavy crossbows as they advanced. The dwarves actually had a tactic to deal with this; there was a practical upper limit to the weight of a shield that could be maneuvered effectively in these circumstances. Each company would focus its volleys on a single shield. With each volley three pounds of lead would slam into each shield every two seconds. Often the shock of this would tear the shield out of the carrier's hands and the next volley would slam into the gap before the shield could be righted. Either that or the expert fire focused on the center of the shield would simply hammer its way through the metal after enough volleys struck. Then the company would shift fire to another shield. It was effective but relatively slow, and in the meantime the crossbows were producing casualties on the dwarves’ side despite their
own wooden pavises.

  The Baasgarta were pressing outward on a wide front, with a large reserve waiting near the gates to move out to exploit any weaknesses in the dwarven lines. As the sun rose the two armies were fully engaged, hammering at each other with the Baasgarta slowly creeping towards the dwarven lines.

  The rangers skirted the outer edge of the conflict and headed north, riding through the abandoned plantations. Not far beyond the battle they came to a bridge over the river and half the riders peeled off and headed for the eastern side of the valley. Taarven and Engvyr's group rode through the plantations to the wooded slope and moved along the edge of the forest.

  Within a league the first valley branched off to the west and a pair of rangers peeled off to check it out while the rest forded the stream that flowed down to join the river. They had only gone a few hundred yards when a horn sounded behind them. They pulled up and glanced at each other as the horn sounded again. They looked back and within moments the two rangers shot out of the mouth of the branch valley and rode hell for leather to the south, blowing frantically on their horns. Seconds later Baasgarta cavalry boiled out of the opening and charged after them.

  Engvyr swore softly as the mounted goblins poured out into the valley, thousands of them bearing down on the rear of the dwarven army only a few thousand paces away.

  “Well, that's one sleeve accounted for,” Taarven commented.

  “So, do we head back?” Engvyr asked uncertainly.

  “There’s still another sleeve to look up, I think,” Taarven said.

  “Looks like we won't have to wait for that one either,” one of the other rangers said pointing north.

  They turned in their saddles to see infantry spilling out of the next branch valley a half-league ahead and turn towards them. The rangers watched and rank after rank of Baasgarta emerged. So far the cavalry, several thousand strong, were ignoring them and heading south, but with the goblins bearing down on them from the other direction they couldn't stay where they were for long. By the time a third regiment marched into sight it was time to go.

  “Follow me!” Taarven told them, and bolted for the river. They rode after him, heading not for the bridge but for a calm section where their ponies could ford the river. As they plunged into the icy water the lead for the pack pony came loose. One of the other rangers downstream made a grab for it but Engvyr yelled for him to leave it. Likely the beast could fend for itself well enough. Lunging up the west bank they turned south and spurred their ponies to a gallop. Engvyr was able to see some of the action around the city as they approached. The dwarves on the northern flank of the siege were turning to engage the cavalry and hammered them with volley after volley. Hundreds of the mounted goblins and their ulvgaed went down with each crash of the slug guns, but thousands more came on.

  It would have been a massacre if the dwarves did not, out of habit, build their siege-works to account for enemies at their rear. Instead of slamming into the spike covered berms the cavalry force wheeled aside, racing along the fortifications. The gunners took a horrible toll on them, but each cavalryman had a light repeating crossbow and as they passed along the dwarven lines they emptied them as fast as they could fire before wheeling away to reload. The light, un-aimed quarrels individually weren't much to worry about, but the dwarven gunners were showered with them and inevitably, by blind luck and sheer weight of numbers, they were having an effect.

  If the cavalry can take the beating long enough, Engvyr thought, then they can peel away just as their infantry arrives to hit the earthworks. That's going to get ugly in a hurry...

  Once they were well clear of the battle with the cavalry, the rangers turned and forded the river and rode into the dwarven camp, right up to the canopy where the dwarven commanders were directing the battle, shouting to alert them to the approaching infantry.

  The commanders immediately dispatched two of the rangers to get the supply train to move south, away from the battle on the flank. Two more were sent to the infantry to the north with instructions to reorient the defensive works to face the flank attack. Engvyr and Taarven were sent to find the commander of the 4th Heavy Infantry, the unit the cavalry was engaging, and tell them to prepare to pull back.

  They rode their sweating ponies across the camp and dismounted, leaving them. They jogged between the berms and into the trenches, working their way towards the fight. Before they got to their destination they had to borrow shields to hold overhead against the rain of quarrels. Engvyr and Taarven found the commanders in a dugout crudely roofed with logs and gave them the order to begin pulling back.

  The officers consulted briefly then came back to the rangers.

  “Tell command we'll need support from the Battlemages; something to allow us to break off without getting hammered. We'll blow retreat when we need them, but we’re going to be in real trouble if they aren't ready.”

  “Battlemages standing by when you blow retreat. Got it.” Engvyr said.

  “Give us a quarter hour if you can,” Taarven told him as they ducked out of the shelter under their borrowed shields and raced away down the trench. They made it back unscathed and relayed the request. Other runners were sent to the Battlemages and the two rangers were instructed to grab some food and take a breather. There was half a cold ham, some cheese and bread in the command post and they munched on that while they rested.

  “Here we go,” said one of the officers after a few minutes and moved into position to view the battle on the northern flank. Some of the other officers joined him and the two rangers came with them, pulling out their own spyglasses.

  The cavalry had just come back for another pass, this time with their infantry at their heels to hit the dwarven lines as soon as they had softened them up with another hail of quarrels. The retreat sounded and as the oncoming cavalry began to fire, their mounts suddenly found themselves charging headlong into knee-deep mud. The results were catastrophic as ulvgaed went down en masse and those following crashed into them. Volleys slashed into the suddenly stationary cavalry. The ulvgaed, panicked, snapped at and trampled each other. The floundering beasts and goblins blocked their own infantry from advancing.

  The dwarves of the 4th Regiment rose from the trenches and performed a fighting retreat, each rank firing a volley then moving back. The cavalry was massacred wholesale, their bodies forming a temporary obstacle to the infantry following them. The 4th moved behind the newly reoriented flank defenses and were ready to resume fire well before the Baasgarta infantry could close with them.

  “I thought that might come in handy,” an officer said, “I've had the mages working on it ever since the cavalry came into view.”

  Engvyr nodded. He was familiar with Battlemages and their uses from his time in the regiments. Big effects like this had to be used sparingly lest the mages 'burn out' from fatigue; if that happened they would be useless for hours or even days.

  The day wore on and the battle seemed stalled along the front, neither side able to gain a concrete advantage. The battle on the northern flank however, was not going as well. The cavalry's repeated attacks had weakened the 4th, and they were slowly being pushed back as the day wore on.

  One thing that seemed to be in their favor was that the Baasgarta either weren't using their battlemages or they didn't have any. Late in the afternoon one of the command staff, a captain, approached the rangers.

  “I need you to go talk to the battlemages, see if they can detect any workings on the Baasgarta side. I'm starting to get the feeling they're saving them for something particularly nasty. Also ask them if they have any sense what has happened to Eastern Force; we need them and they should be here by now.”

  They found the Battlemages a little down the slope from the command post. Many of them sat or stood, eyes closed. Some were resting, the others... well who knew what they might be doing? Catching the attention of a mage that didn't seem busy at the moment they motioned him over and explained the commander's concerns.

  The mage frowned
and said, “There’s definitely some magery going on over there.”

  He indicated the city with a jerk of his head.

  “It's deep inside the city though, and it's focused there, not out here. We've been trying to suss it out but it's different than anything we've dealt with before. I don't know what we should be expecting but I doubt we'll like it. As for Eastern Force, well, hang on a few minutes and we'll try to see what's what.”

  He went over to a group of the standing mages and interrupted them with a touch on the sleeve. He spoke to them, gesturing to the rangers and then to the command area. They nodded and they all moved into a circle and closed their eyes. Engvyr looked at Taarven, who shrugged. After a few minutes the mage returned.

  “Eastern Force is going to be late,” he told them, “The Baasgarta apparently broke a dam in one of the branch valleys and the flooding has slowed them down. I'm not sure how bad it was but I doubt we can expect them before midnight.”

  The rangers relayed this to the commanders.

  “This is not good,” Colonel Oakes said. He was the leader of the 3rd rifles and in overall command. “They're still pushing us back from the north, and they've brought their reserve to bear there as well. If something doesn't happen soon they're going to roll us up.”

  They'll break the siege, Engvyr thought, and if they push us out of the fixed defenses it's going to get ugly fast. The truth was that they had gone into this fight outnumbered more than two to one. Generally when attacking you wanted to out-number the enemy, but the dwarves had been forced into the fight before the remainder of their army could get there. Their superior training, discipline and weapons might still have carried the day, but with the forces that the Baasgarta had brought down from the north they were now outnumbered at least four to one.

  Engvyr and Taarven were sent forward again, this time to see how the 4th was holding up. They had much less far to travel this time. The situation, they found, was desperate.