Elvenshore: 01 - The Dwarves of Elvenshore (9 page)

We keep our formation good and tight

But it’s only bedbugs and mosquito’s we fight

We’re Cazz’s army, so we’ve been told

If we are strong and brave and bold

He’ll award us each with a pot of gold

Sarchise climbed
up to
the
top of the
tree and watched them go.  He still marveled at the distance on could see from the watchtower tree there. He came down and organized patrols for the day.

The sat here for days and watched two more armies pass through on their way deeper into the Westwood.  Runners went back and forth between the armies and the reports were all the same.  No spiders to be found.  Sarchise was not used to sitting and waiting out in the woods.  He was used to moving and observing and then, when enough force could be brought to bear, attacking. There he sat, going out on many patrols to keep boredom away. It was almost with a sense of relief when one of the patrols reported contact with the enemy.

They were observed from a far distance when they were coming back.  The scout on top of the watchtower noticed that the patrol was carrying two warriors.  Sarchise sent out help to the patrol, by the time they got back to the outpost, there were four dwarves being carried. They placed the dwarves by the base of the tree where the healer did what he could for them.  There were
no cuts or stabs, but there were
a lot of spider bites. Karl was the human that had been attached to the patrol.  He was the first to report.

“Baby spiders, just as big as a hand, thousands of them.
  Weapons were useless against them, so we sat there kicking, slapping and stomping.  They would bite every time they got on you.  It didn’t do much until we started getting four or five bites each, then you started to feel it. 
A great headache and dizziness.
The more bites, the dizzier you got.  Warriors started to go down, but we didn’t know how to retreat, if we stopped and turned, they would have been up our backs and would have taken us all down.  So we slapped and stomped till our hands were bleeding and our feet were bruised.  Finally we could see an end and the rest of the spiders fled.  Twelve had fallen, and the rest of us were too sick to drag them out, so we waited until most of the dizziness subsided. When we started back everyone was able to walk, but then they started dropping.  We could carry a few, but when more than half were down we would stop again until we could all walk.”

“Were you followed?” Sarchise asked.

“Don’t know, I don’t think so, the spiders left in all directions, I don’t think that they were going to regroup.  They were not smart, just babies.”

“Do you have the strength to take me back to where they attacked you?”

Karl shook his head. “No, the
others had to carry me for a while.”

“So we can go again,” Turning, Sarchise shouted, “Hemlot, get together a
stretcher party and a hundred warriors, we have found the enemy!”

They retraced the steps of the patrol.  They saw where they had paused.  They had paused many times, which made Sarchise think that he should have let Karl rest more than he had. He seemed ok as he was carried back to where the battle took place.  As they approached they could smell a thick sickly odor of spider ooze. They came across mounds of dead, crushed spiders.  They were ankle deep and you could see where each dwarf had stood. 

The ones that were in back had smaller mounds of dead spiders than the ones that had stood in front. They checked to make sure all of the spiders were dead and not just wounded.  One could hear an occasional stomp, when a live spider was found.  After a few hours they moved on, trying to track where the spiders had come from.  They traced it for miles until they found that they were way beyond their patrol area. Sarchise was tempted with continuing on, but finally listened to Hemlot and turned towards the outpost.  It was full dark when they finally made it back to the watchtower. Karl was sleeping by this point.  He did not look so good, and Sarchise felt guilty of taking him out to begin with, and for taking him so far.

The healer took one look at Karl and then started patching his many bites with herbs and then covered them with mud.  “You should have left him here,” he said to Sarchise.  “His wounds are infecting.”

This didn’t ease Sarchise’s guilt any.

Ermort came down from the watchtower.  “We have seen five large spiders that were searching the woods. We saw them at a great distance away and sent out archers to kill them.  They are searching for us. They know that we destroyed the nursery.  They will not be out for food, but for revenge.”

“Let them come, we will set out a trap for them,” Sarchise commented.

Ermort nodded and climbed back up the tree. Sarchise called for runners and sent messages out in both directions. “Make no
noise,
they will be looking for you.” He cautioned the runners as they left.

For two days the army waited. Sending out patrols, but having no more contact with the enemy.  When the sun sat at
its
highest, there came a shout from the tower.  “A runner approaches”

Sarchise looked up from his lunch, “From High Mountain?”

“No, Sir, from Cazz.”

The exhausted runner stumbled into camp, bowed to Sarchise while delivering his letter and then sat down by the base of the tree.

“Bring him water,” Sarchise ordered and then opened the letter from Cazz. It
read,

“To Sarchise, Prince and brother,

“I too have found the enemy.  There was a large group of tiny spiders that attacked one of my patrols and over ran it.  I had sent out small patrols of ten warriors.  I should have sent out large patrols of thirty warriors, like you did.  They were all bitten many times and fell.  I am sad to report that Gamer, of the Royal scouts is dead. He was attached to the patrol. Two of my dwarves also perished. One of the warriors made it back to camp to report that the rest had fallen.  The healer is looking him over now.

“I took one third of my army and moved into the woods.  We found the rest of the patrol where they had fallen.  The tiny spiders did not even try to eat them, I don’t know why.  I think that they eat smaller prey.  There were many birds singing in this part of the forest when we first arrived, but now few birds sing.  Those that do are chased from treetop to treetop by black specks. 

“I led my warriors along the trail that the spiders had left.  We ventured far past our patrol area, but found a
lair,
we surrounded it and killed all of the spiders inside.  I lost three more warriors in the battle.  Inside the lair we found bones of gremlins, and horns and bones of Minotaur.  The most interesting thing that we discovered was in the trees. Hanging in some egg sacks were thirty one gremlins. They were fresh, only a few days old for the eggs inside them were small. How gremlins have come to the Westwood, we know not. We piled them into the middle of the lair and burned them.

“I have written another letter to our
father,
please send it with your fastest runner.  Caspin has been contacted and he agrees with the course of action. I have asked that th
e second army of high dwarves
come out immediately from High Mountain.  We must destroy these lairs before many more of the eggs hatch.  We also have other evil things in the forest to deal with.  The spiders are in the north so we will pursue them in that direction. We will all march on the 8
th
day of the new moon”

It was signed “Cazz, Son of the King, fifth born.”

Sarchise looked up from the letter. 
“Ferdin.”
The dwarf came running up.  “I need you to deliver this letter to the King, you are my fastest runner, and you have just three days to get there.  We will have left before you come back so you will be attached to the second army of high dwarves. They will be held in reserve here at the outpost until we send for them. Good luck, run quickly and quietly.” With that Ferdin was off.

Sarchise wrote another letter to Cazz and sent out another runner in the other direction. After sending for Hemlot and Ermort he announced. “We have three days until we move out.  There is a new threat in the woods that bodes ill for man and dwarf.  Minotaur and gremlins have been found in a spider’s lair.  The city of South Fort must be warned. This I lay at your feet Ermort, you must get there with all
possible speed. Do not go through the forest but go through the halls of High Mountain. Get a guide so you don’t get lost. We will be far to the north when you venture back here but I will leave this outpost manned at all times, so report back here and they will tell you where we are at.”

Ermort smiled.  “Thank you Sir, frankly I was getting a little bored just sitting here.” With that he was off.

During the evening a scout came down from the watchtower. “Sir, you should see this.” Sarchise climbed the tree and looked where the scout was pointing.  “There, Sir.” The distance was darkened by a slow moving mass of black.  It took awhile to make out just what it was.  Looking harder he could see that it was a mass of spiders. They were slowly moving back and forth looking like a black tide.

“They are still far off, have the warriors assemble,” Sarchise said as he scrambled from the tree.

He laid out a plan of action to Hemlot and they both led out 150 warriors each. They were divided into groups of ten.  Each group dug a pit and climbed into it.  Brush was laid over the pit. 

Sarchise and Hemlot instructed their groups. “Do not move until the spiders have passed over your position.  Then form a circle around them.  Do not let any of them out alive.”  The pits were dug in a circle about twenty meters outside of the walls, around the encampment. Hemlot climbed into one of the pits. Sarchise went back inside to organize the defenses there.

Dwarf archers lined the walls.  “When they get to
o
close drop your bows and use your battle axes on them.  They can climb but the wall will slow them down enough to kill many.  We will be building a bonfire to attract the spiders.  Do not look into
it,
it will ruin your night vision.  If you have to retreat, keep your face towards the enemy.” Sarchise instructed. He then climbed up the watchtower to direct the campaign.

When
everyone
was in place, the warriors lit the fire.  Sarchise saw the spiders change directions and come straight toward the fire.  Some came straight at the camp, while others surrounded it.  As
they
came within distance the archers let go the first volley. The noise of the battle builds, with the twang of the bows and the crunch of the battle-
axe
and sword.  Three times spiders tried to storm the north
wall,
three times the dwarves would drop their bows and take up the battle axes. They would
drive
them back far enough to take up their bows again.  But warriors were starting to fall and their line was thinning.  The fourth try the spiders came over the wall and into the encampment.

Sarchise was losing track of the battle as he was now in survival mode.  Spiders were trying to climb up the tree, only to be brought down by the archers on top. One spider gained the height but did not live long enough to bite anyone.  The north wall was taken but the south, east and west held.  Spiders surrounded the tree as
it was exposed by the retreating dwarves, but the rest of the encampment was holding.  The dwarves had retreated past the fire but were able to form a line at that point.

Hemlot’s group popped up after they thought the spiders had gone by but found themselves in the midst of them.  They formed a circle for defense.  Every time the spiders charged them they lost warriors.  They drove off one assault to find that there were only six of them left.  It was time to move or die.  The group hacked
its
way through
the throng of enemy to find another group of five, that were about to be overwhelmed.   With new strength, they drive off the assaults and went to find more groups. Soon his strength was up to twenty-seven effectives.

The spiders were renewing their efforts to take the watchtower and arrows were now in short supply.  With two of his men down a
nd several dead spiders littering
the top of the tower, Sarchise thought it was time to abandon his position.   He was looking for the safest way off, when he saw the dwarves to the south of him start moving toward the tree. The semicircle to the south worked perfectly.  There were fewer spiders at that point and the ones that were there had been crushed between the group of dwarves outside the wall and the ones inside the wall.  The threat to the south was now gone and the two groups of dwarves had joined forces and were moving north to retake the nort
hern wall. The spiders made
one last attempt at the tower, but it was driven back and the rest fled outside of the encampment. 

Hemlot and his warriors tried to block the escaping spiders, but there were too few of them and too many spiders.  Many got away, but many more lay on the ground in and around the encampment where they had fallen. Sarchise watched the retreating spiders, trying to get an estimate of their strength and the direction that they were headed.  Then
he climbed down the tree to ass
ess the damage.