Early the next morning the army, or at least most of it, was already moving again to take up siege positions closer to Gothol'gathrak. A number of us, mostly light infantry, would stay behind though, here at these fortifications to secure our back. I didn't expect them to see much action but it was better to be safe rather than sorry. And if they could get through the rest of this campaign without seeing another enemy it would be all for the better. Right now the chosen were receiving some training for the siege weapons they would be handling, curtsy of some experts from the Wall Breakers.

One of my first orders. Once the place had been properly secured and cleaned up, had been to close the heavy blast doors within the subterranean fortress complex. I had some of them blocked for good measure as well as we wouldn't be using the entire complex with all its weapons. We simply couldn't afford to leave that many of our men and women behind. I had no doubt though that the ones we left would be able to make good use of the weapons they were being trained to use. They certainly would be able to buy enough time to provide us with advance warning if the worst were to happen even if I really hoped that that situation would never come to pass.

Anyway, that was all well in hand. I shifted my attention to some of the dead dwarven defenders that had been laid out a little to the side, next to some of the alchemical ammunitions and other supplies from the underground store houses. I wasn't the only one inspecting them either. Yath'zur and Gash'zur were watching on as well from the sidelines as Kaele had another look at the dead dwarves.

After a while she letf the dead behind to rejoin us. “Something doesn't add up here. They don't look much like the dwarven warriors of the tales I have heard at all.” She paused briefly and shook her head before continuing. “Sure, they are short, they have beards and all that but … well … none of them seem to be actually warriors.”

Gash'zur nodded and chimed in at that point. “Leather jerkins. No armor worth mentioning. Especially none of the fabled, heavy plate armor the short folk are known for. Only light sidearms. Daggers mostly.”

Her brother frowned but nodded in the end. “I would suspect that they are a militia rather than professional warriors. Just enough of them to crew the siege weapons in two shifts. And considering the way they neglected even basic safety and security measures I'd hazard a guess that they were rather badly trained.” He shook his head again. “Even if you hadn't been able to take them by surprise they wouldn't have been able to hold these positions for long with a crew like that.”

I pointed at the supplies. “I don't think they were prepared to hold these positions for more than a few days. Have you seen the food from their store houses? Hard, dry bread and beer? No vegetables. No meat. And the storehouses were mostly empty too.”

Kaele nodded. “Those poor sods don't look terribly well fed in general. I don't think they have been eating well for quite a while.” She shook her head. “The beer isn't bad and the bread, well it will at least keep for quite a while, but I have ordered some of our food to be put into the stores here for the men and women we leave behind.”

The others nodded in agreement and so did I. I pointed at the alchemical catapult ammunitions. “What about those? Do you think we could make use of them? I know we brought some of our own but the ammunition stores down there were full of those. There has to be enough ammunition down there to besiege two or three cities.”

Yath'zur looked a little torn. “We can use them. In theory. We will have to handle them with great care though. Even more than with our own supply.” He sniffed the air as he motioned for some of the training catapult crew to come and get one of the cast iron missiles. “These things might have been sitting down there for decades. You really shouldn't be able to smell them like that. Especially not if they are of obviously good craftmanship.” He shook his head. “It was a pretty good call to make sure no one used any fire down there.”

We watched on in silence as the training crew loaded the missile into the siege engine. Every single of their movements was made with great deliberation and care. Finally everyone but a single quite nervous woman left the firing position, taking shelter in the tunnels behind the thick bronze door that lead into the hill. I and the others backed off a little further as well. Finally Yath'zur raised an arm and gave the signal to ignite the fuse and launch the missile.

From our position a little further up the hill we had a good view of the intended target area. The projectile was large enough to follow its arcing flight path without much trouble as well. I expected it to explode and spill its burning content on impact. It didn't though. Instead it burst apart with a tremendous roar while still in the air, maybe a dozen or so paces off the ground. Pieces of iron were sent flying everywhere as were the burning contents of the thing. The stuff stuck to everything within the target area, setting it ablaze.

I swallowed hard and looked over at Yath'zur. “That stuff isn't like anything our alchemists have cooked up for us.”

The giant nodded and signaled the nervous woman who had fired the catapult that she could relax now. “No. No it isn't. Do you see the gravel of the road? It is burning even that.”

A cold shiver ran down my back as I realized that he was right. The stuff was really burning a hole into the road. And wherever the flaming stuff touched snow there were small secondary explosions that spread it even further. The not quite white fumes that had started welling up around the fire didn't exactly look healthy either.

For a moment we stood there staring in silence. I swallowed hard. “If they have that stuff at Gothol'gathrak itself as well …”

The others nodded and Yath'zur spoke up. “We have to make some adjustments to our siege preparations. As long as they have stuff like that and the means to launch it at us we can't get anywhere close to the city. Trenches won't do us any good against a weapon like this.”

Kaele rubbed her arms before chiming in as well. “Those fumes look like bad news. Do you see how they creep along the ground? Even a close miss might still fill trenches with that miasma.”

I nodded. “It might be about as deadly as the fire itself. Do you see how the trees start sizzling wherever that mist touches them?” Earlier I had felt a little pity with the dwarves we had killed last night. Knowing that they had planned to throw that stuff at us quickly made any such sentiment disappear though.