by Dean Henegar
Lilixzisilerpicazant’s Order of Battle for the Invasion of Hayden’s Knoll:
Troggs: 3500/3500.
Razorbunnies: 400/400.
Giant Bats: 250/250.
Deep Gnomes: 250/250.
Deathicorns: 100/100.
Dark Cowls: 100/100.
Troll Warriors, Elite: 50/50.
Hypogean Reinforcements:
Troggs: 5000/5000.
Imp Warriors: 1000/1000.
Giant Bats: 250/250.
Imp Mages: 5.
Pox Hydra, Elite: 1/1.
Her family had come through with a sizeable number of reinforcements, and if they had given Zipp a similarly sized force to use against Bharga’s Crossing, she could see why her father would be concerned about the other families. The Zisilerpicazants were one of the more powerful clans, but with this many troops on the surface, her family holdings in the Hypogean realm would be vulnerable. To supplement her forces further, Lilly considered thinning out the garrisons she was keeping in Ironloch, but with the zone recently being conquered, Ironloch had a decent chance of rebelling against her rule unless she kept a garrison in place to suppress the population. Should she further draw on the garrison troops to add to her order of battle, a rebellion would become unavoidable.
“Karbo!” she yelled out, getting the troll’s attention. “I believe we’ll reinforce the initial invasion with the dark cowls. I don’t think they’ll be quite as effective on the surface, but I want to take out the garrison quickly,” she ordered, feeling the pressure to move things along. Thankfully, her brother had already started the war, so she didn’t have to worry about restrictions on the size of her invasion force. Her only real restriction was on how many troops she could ferry across with her flying creatures while the gnomes repaired the bridge that separated the zones.
Lilly looked on as the first flight of fifty bats flew into the swirling portal as an advance force. The remaining two hundred swooped down, and each grabbed a trogg with its clawed feet. Lifting the troggs proved too much of a strain for a single bat, even with its six-foot wingspan; her bats would need to double up to lift each stout trogg. She should have tested this out before, but measuring the lifting capacity of a giant bat wasn’t something she had thought of. Now her initial strike would consist of only one hundred troggs, making the support of the dark cowls even more important.
Drifting slowly toward the portal, her dark cowls resembled an open umbrella. Gasses in their body gave them the lift they needed to float. In their natural environments, the creatures would drift over their unsuspecting prey before dropping down and latching onto their heads. Either through suffocation or blood loss from the thousands of needle-like fangs that lined the creatures’ mouths, their victims would quickly expire. Typically, the creatures were ambush predators that lurked at the top of a cavern, hidden in the darkness. Here in the surface world, she worried their slow speed would make them too vulnerable. Still, she had to fight with what she had, and until the bridge was repaired, she could only use flying forces or creatures light enough for her bats to carry.
The rest of the army waited impatiently to see if the bats survived to return for another load of troggs. Her deep gnomes were near the portal, lined up with the gear and supplies they would need to effect repairs on the bridge. Once the transition point garrison was focused on her invasion force, they would march through and begin their task.
Her razorbunnies were still looking for forgotten bits of flesh on the bodies of Ironloch’s defenders. The bunnies were tough to control but so cute that she had always kept them in her army. She had spent a lot of her own resources to breed the pony-sized creatures specifically to ensure that they always had a bright-pink coat. Their signature tooth-filled mouths were now cracking through the defenders’ bones to get at the marrow.
Waiting for the swarm of bunnies to finish their meals, the deathicorns would feast on the leftover bones, which represented their main form of sustenance. Lilly was curious to see if she could find one of the deathicorn’s distant surface world relatives, the unicorn. They were supposedly similar in appearance, save for having a white coat instead of the blending dark grays and blacks of her beasts. The horn of a unicorn was said to have healing properties, while the horns on her creatures wept a toxic mixture that would kill anyone they gored. She used the deathicorns as shock cavalry, preferring them to the skittering death spiders her brother favored.
The last of the bats and dark cowls were through the portal. Now all she could do was wait.
Chapter 18
“Corporal Young, there’s some activity over at the transition point!” one of his privates yelled as he knocked on the NCO barracks door.
The corporal yawned once before jumping out of his cot and pulling on his boots. In the few moments those actions had taken, someone on the battlements began to ring the alarm bell. Strapping on various pieces of armor as he went, Young rushed out the door. The main barracks, as well as the rest of the garrison, was a hive of activity. Soldiers swarmed out from the garrison in the same state as Young, equipping themselves even as they ran to their stations. Above in the towers, several of the privates were gesturing toward the glowing transition point.
It was a short run to the battlements for Young; the fort protecting the northern transition point wasn’t very large. The fort’s four walls were made from logs and stood only around ten feet high. A narrow walkway running along the wall afforded the soldiers inside an elevated position to fight from. Flanking the main gate were two fortified towers that housed the transition point’s scorpion battery.
Reaching the battlements, Young looked out toward the transition point, which was several hundred yards away. The swirling portal was on the opposite side of the chasm that split Hayden’s Knoll from the neighboring zone of Ironloch. At one time, a stone bridge spanned the gap, but it had collapsed long ago. He hadn’t anticipated any threats coming over from the portal, given that there was no easy way to get across with the bridge down. He had never considered an attack by flying creatures, and high command hadn’t sent any warning orders about it, either. A swarm of bats the size of a man winged their way toward the fort, leaving him with little time to act.
“To the walls, men, and get the scorpions into action. I want one man of each squad to head into storage and gather more javelins. It looks like we’re going to need them. Give me one squad per wall, with Fifth Squad holding in the barracks as a reserve,” Young ordered as he moved to the wall closest to the approaching bats.
The last of his men were already filing out of the barracks, responding to his commands. A legionnaire could go from sleeping to ready for action in very little time, and they would need that speed given the fifty or so giant bats flying toward the small fort.
“Tharkos, form your warriors up behind the gate and get the pathfinders up onto the wall to help,” Young said to the leader of the dwarven allies assigned to help defend this critical point. Ranged weapons would be needed against the flying creatures, and the pathfinders had powerful multi-shot crossbows.
As the bats closed to within javelin range, Young saw a second and much larger force begin to flap its way out of the transition point. These new bats had paired up, each group carrying some kind of humanoid creature in their claws. A flight of javelins went up toward the first pair of approaching bats. The creatures weren’t smooth in their flight, their jerky movements making it hard for his soldiers to lead them correctly. Still, a half dozen of the first flight of javelins hit. The weapons, thankfully, had no trouble piercing the giant creatures’ furry hides. The bats that had been struck dropped down from the sky, the wounds generated by the javelins making it impossible for them to fly even if they weren’t fatal.
Taking their place on the wall closest to the approaching creatures, the section of five dwarven pathfinders assigned to the fort began to engage, their crossbows able to fire twice before needing to be reloaded. The two volleys from the pathfinders finished off another seven bats
before the creatures reached the fort. The engineers were just now beginning the laborious process of loading the scorpions; it would be a while before they could contribute to the fight. Drawing his sword, Corporal Young readied himself for the fight.
The bats swarmed the wall closest to the transition point, zeroing in on the soldiers stationed there. Clawed feet grasped at the men as the soldiers struck back with their shortswords or javelins. A bat’s claw grabbed onto the man next to Young, and with a quick thrust, Young’s sword pierced through the bat’s leg, causing it to release its hold. The soldier didn’t suffer any permanent damage, as the steel plates of the lorica segmentata armor kept out the creature’s sharp claws. Unfortunately, before the soldier could recover, another bat swooped down and grasped onto him. This time, the claw closed around the man’s face. Before Young could react, the claws drove deep into the soldier’s neck and face. Blood sprayed from the wound with a force that made clear the soldier wasn’t going to make it.
Knowing he was needed to command the garrison and not get caught up in an individual fight, Young made his way along the narrow walkway and toward one of the towers housing the scorpions, seeking a higher vantage point from which to direct the fight. The towers were only five feet higher than the walls of the fort, but that was enough to give Young a good feel for how the fight was progressing. The first wave of bats was only focused on one wall, and their swarming attacks were overpowering the defenders there. Young had been too caught up in his fight and hadn’t realized until now that the bats had been focusing not just on the wall but specifically on the dwarven pathfinders and their deadly crossbows. All five of the pathfinders were down, along with most of the squad of regulars assigned there.
The bats didn’t have everything going their way, though; the soldiers on the other walls used their javelins to good effect, picking off bats one after the other. By the time Young’s last defender on the wall had fallen, the first wave of bats had been cut down to only twelve. His reserve squad rushed from the barracks and began to climb onto the now-undefended battlement.
“Corporal, the scorpions are loaded and ready. What do you want us to hit?” one of the engineers asked. Young looked at the dozen remaining bats of the original force, all of which were attacking his reserve squad as they tried to fight their way up to the battlements. Looking out toward the transition point, he was shocked that the second wave had almost arrived.
“Hit them! Hit them now!” he shouted, pointing at the much larger swarm that was carrying additional attackers toward his walls. With a loud clack, the scorpions went into action. Both machines scored hits with their first shots, and the results were devastating. The powerful bolts penetrated each bat they had targeted, dropping them from the sky. With one of the bats taken out, it appeared that the second of each pair was unable to carry the burden of hauling the humanoid creature on its own. Without a care for its passenger, the uninjured bat would drop its cargo and then flap its way back toward the transition point.
A second volley from the double-armed scorpions launched out, taking down another pair of bats that also dropped their cargo. The humanoids, which were now revealed to be something called a trogg, dropped to the ground, dead or seriously injured. As long as the troggs were out of the fight, Young was happy. He could always send a section out later to finish off any wounded creatures. The scorpion crews went about the task of reloading the machines even as the first bats carrying the troggs reached the fort. With his reserve squad still contesting the wall, the bats moved over to the courtyard to drop off their deadly cargo. This proved to be a poor decision, as it placed the bats and their trogg passengers under the javelins of the entire fort. As fast as the men could throw them, javelins rained down on the invaders. Many of the bats were forced to drop the troggs from an unsafe height, injuring them before they even entered the fight. The dwarves were waiting for the troggs when they landed, their axes and hammers making short work of the unprepared creatures landing in front of them.
With the combined fire from the walls and the stubborn defense of the dwarven warriors, the garrison was holding. Since they could only land in a small area of the fort, the bats and troggs were cut down by the score. Movement out of the corner of his eye caused Corporal Young to duck as first one and then a second muffled scream sounded out. Turning, he saw that the two engineers manning the scorpion next to him were struggling with what looked like a black leather blanket draped over their heads. When Young tried to help the engineer nearest to him, a row of eyes opened on the creature, the blank, dead stare of the monster causing him to pause. The engineer’s muffled screams became a gurgle as blood and other fluids began to drip down from the blanket-like monster covering his head.
Dark Cowl, Level 22.
Corporal Young had no idea what a dark cowl was, but he knew he had to get it off his engineer. Wedging his sword under the creature, he sawed his way up, the hide of the beast feeling and cutting like thick leather armor. The dark cowl offered no resistance to his efforts, content to continue feeding on his engineer. As his sword worked farther toward the top of the dark cowl, the creature finally expired, going limp and ceasing its efforts to constrict on the engineer’s head. He glanced down in horror at the body of his soldier. Small holes penetrated the engineer’s head, neck, and upper torso where the creature had attached itself. Blood leaked from the wounds, and the top of the engineer’s head was beginning to dissolve from the acidic slime that coated the bottom of the monster.
Young ran over to the other engineer, who had collapsed on the ground, and cut that creature off as well. There was no saving the second engineer, so Young stood once more to see what was happening with the fight. A dozen men around the walls had dark cowls wrapped tightly over their heads. Several of the creatures had been cut down; they looked slow and didn’t even try to avoid attacks directed at them. The only soldiers who had been caught were those who didn’t see the attackers coming. Young had no idea where these things came from. He only knew that they weren’t native to this zone or any of the nearby zones.
The fight wasn’t going well. With the unexpected attack from the dark cowls, his men had lessened the pressure on the bats, allowing them to drop more and more of the trogg creatures into the courtyard. The dwarves were being pushed back but were giving it to the troggs in the process. While the dwarven allies were not as disciplined as the legion, Young had been impressed with them and their abilities. As the numbers turned against them, the dwarves were beginning to take casualties. Without any more reserves, Young could offer nothing to the defense other than his own blade. The only forces missing from the fort were his section of scouts, who were out in the field, though at least one would be keeping an eye on the fort. Standing orders from Colonel Raytak were to have a force of either scouts or pathfinders out on patrol at any given time. If the garrison was attacked, they were to gather intel and report to Holdfast, not engage.
Looking at his blade, Young noticed that the acidic secretions of the dark cowls had eaten away at the metal, leaving it dull and pitted. Not trusting the weapon, he picked up one of the large scorpion bolts to use as a spear. A quick glance at the other tower revealed that the engineers there were all down. With nothing else to do but fight, Young climbed down the tower and entered the swirl of battle.
***
“The garrison has fallen,” Scout Jurgen said quietly, stating the obvious to the scout next to him. They were hidden in a stand of trees a hundred yards south of the garrison. They had good cover and shouldn’t be spotted by any of the enemy until they began to push out from the garrison fort. Jurgen had sent one scout back as soon as the fight started, wanting to make sure word of the attack reached Holdfast. Now, with the fort having been taken, it was time to send another. The scout next to him nodded before backing away slowly; he would keep low until the enemy was well out of sight. After he was clear, the scout should make good time back to the town. On his own, Jurgen could only wait to see what happened next as he tried to get a
n accurate count of the enemy’s forces.
Over the next hour, the bats continued to ferry over the humanoid creatures—called troggs—from the portal, dropping them off to reinforce the ones that had taken the fort. They had opened the gates, and several work parties of troggs were stacking up the dead outside of the fort, which gave him a good idea as to the kill ratio between the garrison and the invading army.
Across the chasm, the transition point continued to spit out a stream of gnomes carrying building materials. They were working efficiently on repairing the bridge. It looked like whoever was in command of this army had planned well. Sections of the preconstructed bridge were laid down and secured in place by the industrious creatures. They had spanned about half the gap so far, and Jurgen guessed the invaders would have a makeshift bridge completed in another hour or so. He had given up on trying to keep a tally of the gnome workers; there was too much movement into and out of the portal to get an accurate count. If he had to guess, there were at least a hundred working on the repairs.
Another flight of bats emerged, this time carrying something other than the troggs they had been ferrying across so far. Jurgen couldn’t believe his eyes at first since it looked like each pair of bats was carrying a pink bunny the size of a pony. He had never seen anything like it. These creatures were identified as something called a razorbunny. A score of the creatures was eventually dropped off just outside the fort. For a moment, they nosed about the piles of bodies before spreading out and sniffing around.
The troggs inside the fort had ceased piling up the dead, and from the size of the piles, Corporal Young and the men had given it to the invaders even if they hadn’t been able to stop them. Dead troggs were piled up twice as high as the legionnaires and their dwarven allies. Also, a pile of dead bats and the creepy dark cowl creatures were stacked even higher than the troggs.