The army had set up camp a little beyond what we estimated to be the maximum range of the dwarven catapults and ballistae. I couldn't exactly see them but I could hear them just fine. Gash'zur and even more her brother and the Wall Breakers made sure that any dwarven defender would be well aware of their presence. They fortified the camp and even made a show of setting up one of our siege engines. It was intended as a grand show to distract our opponents but if Torthos plan to take the enemy positions by surprise were not to work out for some reason we could still besiege them the usual way.

I really hoped that the latter would not be necessary though. We were in a bit of a vulnerable position here. If things went bad we could get trapped in between the dwarven fortifications along the road and a relief army. I highly doubted one of those would show up here any time soon but I didn't feel like taking that risk either. I'd rather use these fortifications to cover our own back while we set up the siege of Gothol'gathrak itself. We'd have to take the outpost out west as well to shorten and secure our supply line but that was a problem to be solved another day. First things first.

The small task force I was part of had taken the long way around to approach the dug in fortifications from the rear and unnoticed. I was part of this assault team but I wasn't leading it for a change. I could move stealthy and so could anyone else who had been hand picked for this endeavor but Tortho and his rangers still outdid us in that regard by leaps and bounds. They would lead the assault. The rest of us were here to capitalize on their work once they had secured an open entrance into the dwarven tunnel network.

Sitting still, while someone else had to perform the first strike wasn't easy. I managed though, as did the handful of others waiting alongside me. Muffled sounds ahead of us suggested that it was about time for us to get moving. I took a slow, deep breath and made sure the spells concealing me worked as intended. I was mostly relying on Chameleon Skin to hide me from any observer's eyes and Cat's Grace to make sure my movements would not give me away either. I had wrapped my feet in strips of soft earth colored cloth as well, to further muffle any sound I might make.

A brief flicker of light, from a shielded lantern to make sure we would be the only ones seeing it, was our sign to get moving. I got up from my crouching position and headed for the sunken fortification just ahead of me. A handful of others followed close behind while some more headed to a second catapult position. Two scouts were waiting for us, standing over the unmoving bodies of the catapult crew and by the looks of it, the second crew that had been sent to relief them as well.

The thick bronze door that should have blocked the passage leading underground stood partially open, blocked by one of the bodies. Apparently Tortho and his rangers had waited for the change of watch to strike. It looked like it had worked as well. I jumped down into the catapult position built into the hillside. It was, overall, pretty well hidden. The trees otherwise covering the hill had only been cleared in what I could only presume to be the weapons intended field of fire and even there only for a dozen paces.

The large catapult was mounted on some kind of rails that would allow for the heavy weapon to be traversed left or right with relative ease. In theory it could have fired all around but it was only prudent to assign fixed fields of fire to each and every weapon to avoid chaos. The weapon was pretty massive as well and so were the projectiles it was intended to use, some of which were stacked up along the weapon pit's walls.

The pit's walls were pretty curious as well. It seemed that they were built from pretty large blocks of stone. Even trolls would have been hard pressed to move them. There were no signs of mortar either. The stones fit together neatly without leaving enough room to wedge even the thinnest of blades in between them. It was a pretty impressive sight. To be honest, the more I thought about the more certain I became that it looked like the way trolls built walls and bridges.

I couldn't really waste time to dwell on that though. Instead I stepped over the dead body in the door and headed down into the tunnels. I had expected them to be narrow, since dwarves were after all shorter than most other people in general and demons like me especially. As it turned out it wasn't quite as bad as I had feared. Sure, I had to duck through the door but the ceiling of the tunnel beyond it wasn't quite as low as I had anticipated. Still it would have probably been too narrow to properly use my glaive. As I had only brought my knives that wasn't really an issue though.

Curiously enough the tunnels weren't simply hewn from the rock. Even as I descended deeper, following the tunnels slope, the walls and ceiling were still made from the heavy stone blocks that seemed to fit together seamlessly. Light was provided by softly glowing lichen growing all along the ceiling. If not for that it would have been pitch black down here. There was one more curious feature. Iron rails had been sunk into the floor and after a few more paces it became obvious why, as we came past a sort of mining cart loaded with more catapult ammunition.

I briefly stopped by this ammunition cart and sniffed as a familiar, acrid stench assaulted my nose. I bent a little closer to examine the cast iron projectiles in more detail. The notion alone that the dwarves had enough iron to use it for catapult ammunition was ridiculous. It quickly became obvious that these things were not just big lumps of metal though. Each and everyone seemed to be filled with some alchemical substance and they all had fuses.

I couldn't be sure if it was the same kind of alchemical concoction we used for our siege engines but it smelled a little like the things our alchemists had brewed up. I motioned for the harpy of my group to come closer. “No fire. Absolutely no fire of any kind anywhere. No lanterns. No pipes. No spells. No nothing. Hurry back and spread the word.” Although I was tense I made sure not to raise my voice any more than necessary. As far as I could tell word of our assault had not yet spread after all.

She nodded and hurried back the way we had come. Maybe I was overreacting but I really didn't want these tunnels to turn into a blazing inferno while I was still in them. As far as I was concerned it was better to be safe rather than sorry.

Soon after we came across the first door branching of the corridor. It had already been checked. The chalk mark on the wall next to it suggested as much. I decided to have a look myself anyway. Beyond it was a long hall lined with shelves carrying many more of these alchemical catapult projectiles. I silently backed back out and headed further into the depth.

After a few more paces we reached the first intersection. The way we had come from and one other had already been marked with chalk. I pulled a piece of chalk from my belt, marked the remaining way and led my group down that direction. We reached another branching point soon after and half the group went down one way while the rest followed me down the other after marking the walls here as well.

Muffled sounds of fighting reached our ears from behind us not much later. We didn't turn back though. The others would take care of their part. We had to trust in that. Instead we continued forward. Then, finally after an apparent eternity we came across the first living defender. The dwarf stumbled out of a doorway along the tunnel, rubbing his eyes. Before he could raise an alarm I drove one of my knives up through his jaw, into his mouth and further into his brain. He slumped against the wall, barely making a sound at all.

Yet another dwarf called out for him from beyond the door. The other filed past me and into the room and the sounds of struggle erupted. I followed as soon as I had worked my knife free again. The rest of my team made short work of the short, bearded soldiers who had manned the ballistae of this position. Only one had had the presence of mind to try and slip away. He bumped into me just as I came through the door. Another jab of one of my blades made sure he didn't have a chance to scream.

I took a deep breath and looked around. There were two ballistae in this position built into the hillside. It was a little brighter in here as well, as a little moonlight fell in through the embrasures in the walls. Two weapons. Two crews of four. All dead.

I cleaned off my blades on one's jerkin and stepped back outside to leave a chalk mark next to the door. Then we continued down the apparently endlessly winding and branching hallway. We cleared out several more firing positions and checked several more ammunition stores. We came across heavy bronze doors designed to partition off parts of the tunnel network several times as well. Curiously enough all of them stood wide open.

That seemed downright negligent. I wasn't quite sure if these doors were designed to partition off parts of the fortification network in case of ammunition explosions or if they should have been manned checkpoints to limit the damage intruders like us could do but the way they were left open and unguarded they could not really perform either role.

Some time later, it was hard to tell just how much time had passed down here, we ran out of further branches. Thus we started to track back, double checking to make sure no nook or cranny had been left unchecked. After a while we met back up first with the rest of my group and then the messenger I had sent.

She seemed excited. “Great success! Only light fighting on this side of the valley. Minimal losses. It was a little more close on the other side but that is secured now as well. Captain Tortho has called in reinforcements to do a second sweep and clean up and secure the place.”

I nodded. A second sweep sounded prudent. And the place most certainly would need to be cleaned up. We had left plenty of bodies scattered about after all.