Race through the Waste

The horses were exhausted and the men were forced to dismount and run on foot. The goblins, being hardier afoot than us began to steadily close the gap. Gronth was running as hard as the rest of us, clearly running for his life as well. That surprised Nat…why would a goblin flee his own kind? It would make more sense to join his kind. He obviously had a lot to learn about goblins. He decided to ask Gronth later. Soon however even such idle thoughts were lost as the strain to run on took its toll on his body. He had to continue on though! He had to! The goblins were right on their heels barely behind them. They reached the edge of the mountains. The foothills. These were rocky gorges and crevices with all sorts of brush and dry stream beds leading out from the mountains.

Vaguely as though from a long distance, Nat heard Jerlom shouting for the men to prepare to do battle. There was a gorge ahead that he planned to insert us into and hold them off. Nat ran half staggering towards the gorge. Jerlom reached it and tossed his reigns to another soldier. He swept up a large battle axe from his saddle. “This is where we stop fleeing and will die valiantly!” he thundered. We rushed into the gorge. Nat came stumbling towards it. He heard goblin feet pounding the ground hard behind him and turned. A goblin with a scimitar rushed towards him. A burst of adrenaline swept through him and Nat spun to face him shouting, “Hubleton!” Suddenly the gorge shook and rocks came smashing down crushing the lead goblins. They piled up directly in front of Nat stunning him. He turned and joined Dyl in the battle line. The goblins swept up and over the pile of rocks and continue pressing forward. They engaged and the fighting raged fiercely. Then it happened. A shout arose from the mouth of the gorge followed closely by a roar of explosions. Suddenly a hoard of mailed warriors appeared. Wielding great swords and axes they came driving into the goblins. It couldn’t be though! Nat could not believe his eyes. These glittering warriors were all short! Could they truly be the fabled dwarves…he hadn’t really believed the Gronth when he said the goblins had many wars with the dwarves but here were real dwarves! The goblins reeled in surprise. The dwarves came swarming into the gorge and overwhelmed the goblin force cutting down all in their paths. They seemed to take care of the goblins easily enough.

The fight ended and the dwarves began scrambling shouting back and forth in a strange language. The leader approached the men from Hubleton and addressed them, “Good work! This was Griklorec and his men. What I want to know is how you caused that minor avalanche! This is solid rock! I see no blasting powder marks and you have no magicians with you. The deities must be with you.” He explained that he and his dwarves had watched the chase from afar and determined to avenge themselves on the hated goblins when the fight approached their fortress. They were invited to celebrate a victory at one of the nearby towns. Jerlom was genuinely surprised that there was a nearby town and the dwarves laughed. “Wait until you get there!” they said.

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Well there we go! I finished a first draft of the map and I am sending it to John so he can hopefully put it on the blog. I don't know much about putting images in these things...so I will let him do that part. I shall continue revising the maps and hope to make some more in the next few months. Have fun reading!