Explorer's League, Part 2

Quig should be savoring the success of his expedition; a quick march to the coast to the waiting ship and they’d be back home with their new-found wealth and status and his new “partners” would hopefully be satisfied and off his back. They had gone deep into the mines of Car Gwylin, cleared out what remained of the unusually large vermin and found the hidden and sealed treasure chamber. With the knowledge of the runic traps his old second cousin had passed along, opening it safely was a trivial matter and the riches within did not disappoint.

Yet Quig’s nights remained sleepless, despite the comfort all dwarfs felt being deep in an underground hold. His dreams turned again and again to destiny and power and he felt almost as if his hold on his old self, his reality, were slipping. Fulgria’s voice (or was it another?) spoke to him nightly and urged him towards the pillar of magic they had observed on their march in. He knew consciously that these desires were unwise given the circumstances, that he should be happy with what they had gained, but he could not quiet his mind and the whispers would not stop.

He was still struggling with this inner conflict when they emerged from Car Gwylin, expecting to return to the trails that had brought them in. He expected a difficult argument with Bolgrum and Gimri should he give in to his feelings, for he knew they would not agree to this change of plans. He summoned the stubbornness that is within every dwarf and decided to hold on, to stay the course. This decision lasted mere moments before the new landscape around him changed everything.
No longer were they in a forested mountain valley. No longer was this world even in any way recognizable. A haze of smoke was about them along with the smell of brimstone and a light rain of ash from the dark and churning clouds above. Before them was a rugged landscape of sharp-edged dark rock, without apparent end or sign of vegetation. Here and there, cracks in the ground glowed with volcanic light and in the distance the silhouette of a mountain, barely distinguishable, was in the midst of a full eruption with flame and lightning stabbing into the sky near its crest.

Many of the dwarfs at his side uttered curses and oaths of protection. None could immediately comprehend what had happened while they were underground.

Quig knew though. He could still see, beyond the burning mountain, the pillar of magic. He knew now that his destiny was unavoidable and that there would be no return to the life he knew before.
He turned to his cousins and the rest of the League, steeling himself and using his most commanding tone. “My fellow Explorers, calamity has befallen these lands. This is the work of foul magics! Look around well, for the path we sought is gone. The only road for us all now leads onward! We must reach the pillar and control the magic or we will ne’er see our homes again!”

At first, there was silence, but then Bolgrum stepped forward. “I will follow where you lead, Quig. You have led us true thus far.” Gimri soon joined him and added, “We must all stay together and fight together, we will need all our strength, for I fear the abyss has claimed these lands.”

Nods and grumbling agreement spread among the group. One by one, the seed of determination grew within them. Any hardship would now be endured, any travails suffered, to find a way back to their kin and holds.

They marched forth, their treasure kept near the center of the column with the Ironguard, while the Mastiffs and their handlers scouted ahead. The terrain they found hostile in the extreme, with geysers of flame periodically shooting out of cracks in the ground along with the exhaustion brought on by the choking air and constant heat. With each league, a few were injured, some severely enough to require transfer to the carts. Should this continue, some would have to stay behind.

That afternoon (as best as they could tell time) they came to an area of charred brambles and stumps that might have once been a forest. There they decided to camp and rest for a few hours. Quig chose a good defensive position as always, with a good part of the access to their camp passing through an area where the ground itself seemed to burn constantly.
They had seen a few winged shapes flying overhead and all were on edge, expecting an attack. They were not to wait long before the alarm horns were sounded.

The first to be seen were the gargoyles, no doubt a scouting force, but soon from the eastern flank came word of abyssal riders on flaming steeds and Quig’s beard hairs stood on end as he felt the increasing concentration of powerful magic in the vicinity.

The cannons and sharpshooters were arranged as before in the center. This time, Bolgrum was on the left with the Ironguard and the treasure, while Gimri took the right with the Ironclad and most of the Mastiffs, hoping to stop the abyssal cavalry. Through his ranging glass, Quig could see forming up ahead of them a host of Elves, but it quickly became clear that these were not the usual variety. Though he had never encountered one, he had heard of the Twilight Kindred who had fallen to shadow in ages past, now traffickers with demons and other terrible nightmares from beyond the world.

He briefly wondered if they had something to do with the events that had befallen the League, but realized it mattered not. He could sense that they had power with them, power which his full destiny would require. Quig felt an almost physical gnawing hunger unlike he had felt before as the power of magic grew around him. The sense overwhelmed him for a moment and he “felt” the minds of the two crone sorceresses across the battlefield. He realized they could sense him as well. He knew not how this was possible, yet he did not question it.

Suddenly, he saw the elven line advance, quicker than he liked. On the right flank, he saw the mastiffs released as the Abyssal riders galloped towards the Ironclad, clearly undaunted by the terrain that gave his own dwarfs pause. Another moment, as Quig was about to give the order to open fire, saw the entire center of the battlefield cloaked in shadows such that the elves and some of the riders could hardly be seen.

“Volley Fire! Volley Fire! Reload and fire at will!”

The dwarf line thundered at the enemy as cannons, hand cannons and rifles all opened fire, while mastiffs bounded ahead to disrupt the enemy formations. The Explorer’s League was well-trained and now experienced, with great confidence in their cannons and rifles. Nevertheless, their first volleys hardly made a dent in the enemy lines. He watched as the enemy grew swiftly closer and realized that not only was the shadowy veil affecting the accuracy of his dwarfs, but many who had been shot still marched ahead. He understood that the magic of the crones was at work.

He shouted down the line a message to Gimri to focus the mastiffs on hunting the crones and hoped it wasn’t too late. In the center, a group of Gargoyles attacked one of his cannons, keeping him and the crew quite busy as they barely fought them off. Arrows rained out of the sky onto his sharpshooters. He watched his mastiffs consumed by fire, then run over by both groups of Abyssal cavalry. He saw the Ironclad charge into one group of cavalry and focused the Ironwatch and his entire battery onto the other. He felt momentary relief as he realized these riders were not invincible when one after another finally fell to the combined and withering fire of the dwarf line.

In the center, he saw Bolgrum commit his Steel Juggernaut to slow the Twilight Elf spearmen marching on the sharpshooters and cannons, while half the Ironguard also moved to support the center.

Just then, Gimri came charging in from the right flank to clear out the Gargoyles. Quig thought things had been getting out of hand until then. Now it looked like the League would hold. He turned to rally his Sharpshooters and refocus his cannons on the archers on the hill just as some of the Elves Bolgrum hadn’t managed to block charged the battery from the front, while a hidden Elven Assassin slipped a blade into Quig’s back, having run through the Mastiff screen on the right flank with hardly a pause.

Bolgrum fell attempting to hold the middle. The Ironguard fought valiantly against the wicked Elves, but facing the equivalent of five regiments to their two, even these mighty dwarfs eventually fell, giving up the Leagues’ treasures, though only after a long fight. One group of Sharpshooters and one cannon remained holding the center, along with the Ironwatch Rifles and Gimri. The Ironclad had fallen to the Abyssal cavalry, but the riders in turn had been felled by the last shooting from Gimri and the combined battery.

The Ironwatch also managed to do in Quig’s assassin, but found themselves in combat with yet another supernaturally quick and lethal elf who danced among their ranks, dodging shots and slicing throats.

While the Ironguard yet survived on the left flank, Gimri managed to punch a hole through the Elven center, routing the last of their archers there and allowing the rest of the Explorer’s League a route of escape. The battle was lost, their treasure lost, but there was still a chance they could survive. They took what wounded they could and running and stumbling tried to put as much of the broken ground and haze between themselves and the wicked elves as they could….