The Sundered Arms

TERRITORIES

Tordek swept his war axe completely through the first defender and let the powerful momentum carry the blade past to cut off another of the wretches at the thigh. Four big, bloody pieces of goblin splashed to the marshy ground.

Tordek glanced up to see Lidda's green-fletched arrows fairly streaming at the main body of guards. The goblins screamed impotently as the swamp grass clutched their legs and held them to the ground. Her spell completed, Vadania joined the halfling in picking off the trapped goblins one by one with keen sling bullets that wounded where they did not cripple and crippled where they did not slay.

Behind the fierce women, the captives from Croaker Norge scrambled for cover. Most of them were still bound with leather shackles and collars, but they wasted no time getting away from their entangled captors.

Devis felled one foe with a shot from his crossbow then darted past Tordek to stand between the village captives and the goblins that weren't entangled by Vadania's spell. Tordek grunted his approval. Initially he had feared that the bard might do little more than cheer the attack with a song or stand back and fling a few spells with his lute, but it was good to see that Devis did not quail at the prospect of toe-to-toe combat.

The goblins recovered quickly from their initial surprise at the ambush, and the survivors formed a rough wedge as they advanced on Tordek and Devis. The leader tumbled backward with the shaft of one of Lidda's arrows protruding from his eye, but the remaining goblins charged the attackers that stood between them and their captives.

The half-elf's slender blade dipped in and out of his foe's guard, plucking splashes of blood from the goblin's unarmored face and arms. Devis barely seemed to move, but wherever he leaned or turned, the goblin spears missed him by a coin's width. A few that might have grazed the bard glanced aside, and for an instant the pale blue outline of his mage armor shimmered brightly.

Tordek fought much more directly. He caught the enemy blades on his shield and shoved them aside to form an opening for his axe. Wherever the heavy blade fell, it left ruined armor and gore in its wake. He split the skull of his first foe with an overhand thrust and shoved hard with his shield as a pair of goblins strove to pull it away and give their fellows an opening. Even in twos and threes, the goblins were too weak to withstand Tordek's battle-hardened strength. He bellowed with blood-glee when a fallen goblin's skull cracked under his boots, and he advanced into the fray.

After the initial clash, Devis stepped back and let Tordek lead. The dwarf welcomed the doubled odds, feinting an overhand chop but instead kicking his nearest enemy in the chest. As that one fell, Tordek redirected his balked swing, breaking another goblin's boiled-leather helmet and smashing the skull within. As from a distance, he heard Lidda's joyous shout, the thrup of her bow, Vadania's sweet voice turned savage in chant, and Gulo's terrifying roar. The din was but a murmur beneath the triumphant pounding of Tordek's heartbeat. His blood surged hot and rhythmic through his warrior's frame. He felt the beat of war-drums in his belly.

Before he could give himself up to the rapture of combat, the fight was over. All the war-heat drained from Tordek's body as he gazed over the battleground.

Everything was gloom and shadow under the cloud-veiled sky, through which the sun was little more than a silver coin above the swamp. Although the trees were never so dense as to bar the way, the mist was so thick that they could see no farther than a few dozen yards in any direction.

Tordek trudged across the field, watching for pretenders among the fallen foes. Every second step was a gray puddle or a patch of the smelly mud that was already oozing into Tordek's boots.

A quick tally told him they had slain fourteen goblins, but more might have lain trampled beneath the muck. Tordek had a small cut on the bridge of his nose. A goblin arrow hung from Vadania's cloak, though it seemed to have missed her body. From her shield jutted a few more arrows, and the sight reminded Tordek to look down at his own. It bristled like an angry porcupine. The others appeared completely uninjured.

Tordek spied a movement in the grass to the east-a motion contrary to the breeze. Before he could call out a warning, Lidda sent an arrow toward the disturbance. The first shot evoked a frightened yelp, but the second stilled the movement.

"Gulo!" called Vadania, standing tall atop a clump of grassy earth. She pointed at the spot where the arrow fell, and the gigantic wolverine surged forward, a mountainous wave of flesh. When its jaws found the wounded goblin beneath the grass, even Tordek had to turn away from the creature's quick, brutal demise.

"We are the best!" crowed Lidda, leaping with delight as she stood among the rescued villagers. They had anticipated at least a few casualties among the prisoners before they launched their attack on the goblin captors. Thanks to Vadania's immobilizing spell and the swiftness with which they dispatched the goblins, every one of the men and boys taken from Croaker Norge now stood shaken but alive. They stared at their saviors with awe and gratitude but also with more than a little fear. They looked weary from the march of a night and most of a day, and their faces were blackened by the smoke of their razed village.

"Wait a moment," said Tordek. "Did someone remember to keep one of the buggers alive?"

"Of course, my fearless friend," said Devis with a flourish of one hand. Just when Tordek was beginning to think the bard might be more useful than annoying, the half-elf had to take on those courtly airs once more. Devis beckoned to a nearby stand of pussy willows. "Come on out, little fellow."

Fearfully, a particularly small and ugly goblin emerged from the reeds. One of its arms-unnaturally short-was bound to its chest with dirty, blood-crusted bandages. Tordek noted with grim amusement that he had probably seen the goblin's hand back in Croaker Norge.

"Let's find out what he knows," said Devis, beckoning his new "friend" closer. Tordek had seen the effect of charm spells before, and he knew the goblin would be no friendlier to him or the women. Only Devis would seem to be its ally and only so long as the spell endured. Still…

"Leave him to me," said Tordek. He set his axe aside and pulled the goblin close by the collar of his studded leather armor. The creature's teeth were yellow where they weren't black, and its breath stank of decay.

Devis stepped close and put a hand on Tordek's pauldron. "Maybe it would be easier if I were to-"

"Go help the others get the villagers sorted out," snapped Tordek.

White flecks of spittle appeared on the goblin's face. The captive flinched. This would not take long, he thought. Just to make sure, he smacked the crippled goblin sharply in the face.

"Tordek?" called Vadania.

He did not even turn to look at her. He had no time for qualms about the way he chose to interrogate this wretch. "Later," he said to her. Turning back to the goblin, he demanded, "Where were you going?"

The captive did not immediately reply, and Tordek grasped the goblin by the crotch and throat. He lifted the smaller creature completely off the ground before hurling it back down with a bone-crunching impact. If not for the soft, black muck of the swamp, the blow might well have broken the goblin's back. The creature gasped and whined, trying to climb back up to its feet, a difficult feat for a goblin with only one hand. Before it could stand, Tordek grabbed it by the face and lifted it up again, one-handed.

"I'll ask only once more," he warned. "Answer me, or be damned." He gripped the goblin's jerkin with his other hand and released its mouth.

"The dwarven delve!" yelped the goblin in the common tongue.

"This is important," interrupted Vadania again.

Tordek snapped his head around to glare at the intruding druid. "What is it?"

"We've found some tracks," she said.

"Good," said Tordek. "We'll follow them as soon as I'm finished inter-"

"Lizard tracks," said Vadania. "Two-legged lizards, probably troglodytes. From the look of them, we are in their hunting grounds."

"We'll be gone long before they return."

"The tracks are fresh," she insisted.

"All right then," said Tordek. "I'll make this quick."

"Lidda is sending the villagers back immediately," added Vadania.

She stepped close to look into Tordek's face, but he kept his gaze locked on the goblin, striving to burn his hatred into the creature's skull by force of will. Vadania's words seemed far away.

"We can't keep guarding them all, and it will be dark soon."

"All right. Just give me a few more moments." He put his face right up to the goblin's scabby visage. "Who led you there?"

The goblin shrieked a protest in its native language. Unlike some of his kin, Tordek never bothered to learn the corrupt tongue of the least of the dwarves' eternal foes. Lidda could talk their gutter-speech, but he preferred not to have a translator for this. It made the goblin work harder to tell the truth, and that pleased Tordek. He shifted his grip again, digging his hard fingers into the goblin's armpits.

"Who?"

"Har-!" shrieked the goblin. Twin fears fought over the word in its mouth like two feral dogs over a bone. Perhaps the goblin thought its master was more fearsome than Tordek. Perhaps it would need a lesson to correct that mistake.

"Tordek!" said Vadania. The elf's normally cool voice was shrill with urgency, but Tordek barely heard it. He felt as if his head was spinning, and hot blood surged just behind his bulging eyes.

"What did you say?" roared Tordek, squeezing the goblin so hard that he felt the creature's ribs begin to creak.

The goblin gurgled, "Harg…Harg…"

As his fury grew, Tordek wanted nothing more than to crush a skull between his fists, no matter that this particular goblin was not the foe he truly wanted to murder.

"Tordek!" shouted Vadania, shoving him hard and pointing at the ground. "Look!"

Tordek shook his head, but the gesture did little to dispel his dizziness. Looking down where Vadania directed, he saw that he was standing in a deep depression in the mud.

"What?" he said, keeping a tight grip on the squirming goblin.

"Step back and look," said Vadania.

He did as she instructed and realized the depression was actually a gigantic, three-taloned footprint. From its middle toe to the dewclaw, the print was nearly as tall as Lidda. After a good rain, any two of the companions could have taken a bath in the concavity. Water was only just beginning to ooze into the print, and Tordek didn't need Vadania's wood-cunning to understand that meant the track was fresh.

Tordek stared for a moment, his mind unable to calculate the size of the monster that must have left that print.

"We have to leave," said Vadania. "Now."

Tordek nodded dumbly, still stunned by the size of the footprint. He lowered the goblin to the ground but maintained a grip on its collar.

"Does he have the hammer?" Tordek demanded.

Without warning, the goblin leaped at him, knocking Tordek back a step. The anger came rushing back into his limbs, but before he could retaliate, he felt the burning-cold spot on his ribcage and saw the other side of the short javelin protruding from the goblin's back. From the butt of the weapon dangled fetishes of frog bones and vulture feathers.

Tordek realized the goblin had not attacked him after all.

Vadania helped him pry the dead goblin away. The corpse took with it the javelin that had penetrated its entire body with enough force to pierce Tordek's armor and sink deep into his side. Only after the shock of the goblin's final, sudden, and involuntary lurch began to fade did the wound begin hurting.

The druid called a warning to the others as she and Tordek crouched for concealment. A few more javelins arced down from clusters of weeds and leafy shrubs in the west. None of them was as accurate as the weapon that had silenced the goblin.

"They are testing us," said Tordek, "to lure us into a hasty response."

"Then we had best run now, before they see how few we are," she said.

"Psst!" Lidda parted a clump of grass behind them. "Come on! We need to draw them off so the villagers can get away."

Before Tordek could protest, the halfling fired an arrow in the direction of the incoming javelins. With a sharp twang, Devis's crossbow joined her bow.

"By Abbathor's thumbs!" grumbled Tordek. Crouching, he recovered his axe. Vadania pressed a leaf of mistletoe to his bloody side and chanted a word of healing. He smelled a fleeting odor of pine needles and felt the warm magic suffuse his torn flesh, knitting the deep wound back into seamless skin.

After healing Tordek, Vadania readied her sling, but no more javelins fell near them. Tordek listened for any sound of approaching troglodytes. He heard nothing but the sloshing of the marsh water around them, but Vadania tucked her sling into her belt and drew her scimitar from its scabbard. She crouched, ready to spring. Tordek followed her example.

Gulo's roar announced the start of the hand-to-hand struggle. A chorus of rasping, hissing screams answered Gulo's cry, and a dozen reptilian warriors surged out of the marsh. They stood tall as elves but slouched forward, their lean bodies balanced by long, heavy tails. Sharp teeth jutted from their crocodilian jaws, above which their yellow eyes flicked with amphibian double eyelids. Vestigial horns pricked up upon their brows, and tall dorsal ridges jutted atop their heads. Some wore scavenged or makeshift harnesses festooned with teeth and skull fragments. Half of them bore long spears and javelins, while the rest loped forward with fangs bared and claws grasping.

Devis put a bolt in a trog's throat, but still the lizard rushed forward. Lidda's arrow found the same target, crossing the first missile deep inside the trog's thick neck. The reptilian hunter fell with a red splash.

Four troglodytes thrust their spears at Gulo's face, forcing the great animal to rear up on his haunches. They stabbed at the wolverine's exposed belly, and two sharp spearheads sank deep. Gulo snapped one of the offending spears in half while the other weapon whipped back for another thrust.

Vadania turned her head and grimaced at the plight of her bestial friend, but she faced two foes of her own. She slashed at the first, but it caught her scimitar on a bark shield. The second trog leaped at her. She stepped back barely in time to evade its sharp claws. She did not see the third one rising up out of the muck behind her.

Tordek spied the trap and called out a warning. Two troglodytes stood between him and the druid. Neither creature was armed, but Tordek knew that their teeth and claws were more than sufficient to tear away even his plate armor. He knew these reptiles were keen-minded warriors who probably expected him to keep them at bay with the advantage of his weapon's reach.

Tordek lowered his head and rushed them.

The first troglodyte crouched, arms wide to grapple the rushing dwarf. Briefly, Tordek thought of the human villager who had tried catching him that way a few days earlier. He knew the reptile-man was more cunning and far more powerful than any villager. Just before he came within its grasp, Tordek leaped up and stomped on the trog's thigh. The creature trumpeted its pain as Tordek continued running over its body. His armor-bolstered weight drove the surprised trog down into the mire. Tordek's trampling attack was so unexpected that the second trog charged past the point where it expected him to be. Tordek continued running toward Vadania and her three assailants.

The elf struggled to free her sword arm from the grip of the trog that grasped her from behind, but she could not match its reptilian strength. The trog pinned her as its two fellows closed in to rip her apart with their razor-sharp claws. Unseen by either of them, Lidda's short sword licked out, biting one troglodyte on the hip and drawing its attention away from the druid. The frill upon the trog's neck rose in a threatening fan as the gaze of its beady, black eyes fixed on the halfling.

With a mighty heave, Tordek raised his axe and brought it down with all his mass and strength. The blade separated the second attacker's head from its shoulders and showered Vadania with blood.

Tordek heard furious splashing behind him. He tried to turn in time to face the foe he had eluded moments earlier, but he was too late to raise his guard against the fangs and claws. Tordek heard the snap of a bowstring and felt a quick breeze upon his cheek just before the rushing troglodyte barreled into him, then they fell together into the muck. Tordek thrust an elbow into his foe's head, but the enemy was already limp in death. As he shoved the dead trog's body aside, he saw another of Devis' black-fletched bolts that had pierced the monster's cheek and penetrated into its brain.

Tordek rose to his feet, looking around to appraise the course of battle. Vadania and Lidda had their backs together, and two more trogs lay dead at their feet. Gulo had made short work of all four of his attackers and galumphed back to bolster his two-legged allies. Behind the dire wolverine, a second, longer line of troglodytes approached warily, the frills on their heads fanned out in threatening displays. Having witnessed their clutch-mates' fate, they were less inclined toward a reckless charge.

Tordek grunted his approval at the tide of combat. He felt that his companions and he had little more to fear before they could begin withdrawing from the territorial troglodytes.

The stink hit him like a stone.

For an instant, Tordek was sure he would vomit uncontrollably. Tears streamed down his cheeks and into his beard as the noxious vapor stung his eyes, yet his dwarven fortitude withstood the full power of the toxic stench.

Devis and Lidda were not so fortunate. The bard doubled over and spewed out his own nasty contribution to the already filthy mire. Lidda managed to keep her insides on the inside, but she staggered back from the approaching trogs as if tipsy. Both looked wan and feeble, like ghosts in the gray swamp mist.

"To me!" cried Tordek. He stood as tall as possible upon a miserable, damp clod and raised his axe and shield to draw the enemy's attention.

Lidda bounded through the swamp as fast as her little legs could carry her, mostly avoiding the muck and puddles that impeded her. Devis hesitated, seeming to consider casting a spell before thinking better of it and running toward Tordek.

Vadania was already by his side, scimitar in hand. Gulo crouched nearby, his dark lowering indicating that the beast was ready to deal more slaughter.

Rather than charge, the troglodytes crouched down among the grass and reeds. Those with javelins and shields began beating them together in unison.

"What are they doing?" asked Lidda, still gagging from the disgusting trog musk. She grabbed Devis' arm for support, but he too was so weak that she nearly pulled him down off their little island before they steadied each other.

"They expected easier prey," said Vadania. "They hope to frighten us away." She turned to Tordek for agreement.

He nodded slowly, wondering whether the druid was sure of her assessment. "It's time to get out of here."

"Won't they just begin tracking the villagers?" said Lidda.

Tordek sighed. Lidda's concern for the villagers was admirable, and he too hated to think that their rescue might be for nothing, but saving them was not part of the mission at hand. He took a deep breath and prepared to explain exactly that when Vadania pointed beyond the trog position.

"Look," she said.

Tordek could see little more than the blurred outlines of the nearest trees, dark green in the fog. Some of them were slender and lonely, while others clustered in twisted columns.

One of the thickest columns lumbered toward them.

The thing was well over twice Tordek's height and built massively. When it moved, waves rippled out in all directions through the watery ground, and Tordek thought of the giant footprint he had seen earlier.

The enormous monster grasped one of the lone trees. With a terrible sound of tortured wood and deep suction, it rent the tree from its roots and hefted it like a club.

Devis uttered a long and artful dwarven curse that impressed even Tordek. He concluded in the common tongue, "What in the nine hells is that?"

"Maybe a hill giant," said Tordek, hopefully. He longed to test his skills against one of the gigantic foes of his people, and he prayed fervently that he could defeat one such creature with a little help from his allies. He feared this was not his time for that battle-not when the thing had so many of its allies nearby. As the monster lumbered toward them, Tordek saw that it did not have the roughly humanoid head and shoulders of a giant. Instead, its reptilian skull hung low from its hunched shoulders, and what looked like three separate pairs of yellow eyes pierced the gloom like lanterns.

Gulo lowered his head and whined like a frightened dog.

Vadania looked at Gulo with an expression of astonished disappointment. Tordek guessed that she had never seen the great animal so cowed with fright.

"I'm with the big fellow," said Devis. Beside him, Lidda nodded emphatically and pointed at herself before jerking a thumb over her shoulder in the universal sign for, Let's get out of here.

Tordek felt the earth trembling. The monster's steps came ever closer, gradually picking up speed. He saw the thing's gray jaws clearly for the first time. They seemed as vast as a portcullis gate, with sharp teeth as hard and sharp as iron spikes. He hated to flee a fight, and yet…

"Damn it," Tordek rumbled. "Run!"

The trogs hooted in triumph as they saw their foes scatter. Another flight of javelins fell to the ground all around, but neither Tordek nor the others turned to see where they struck.

Tordek and Lidda soon lagged behind their longer-legged companions. With every six of his own labored steps, Tordek felt the impact of another of the gargantuan beast's long strides shudder up through the ground. He heard the thing's breathing, deep as a forge bellows. He wanted to call out for help, but his pride forbade it.

"Hey, it's catching up!" Lidda screamed to Devis and Vadania. Apparently, she was unhindered by Tordek's qualms. "Do something!"

There was no time to hope for help, thought Tordek. He slowed his pace, preparing to turn and swing his axe around to fight the beast. He would not prevail, he knew, but he might delay the thing just long enough to give the others time to escape. Maybe the bard would make a song of him, maybe not.

When Tordek felt the splashes from the monster's footfalls wet his back, he planted his feet and turned to face the foe.

"Tordek, don't!" shouted Vadania.

Her warning came too late.

The beast's roar was like an avalanche in his ears, its breath a noisome gale. Tordek swung his blade in a low arc, hoping to wound the beast so suddenly that it would stumble, giving the others a few more seconds' lead. Instead, his axe swept through the empty space where the monster's legs had been the instant before it hopped back from the dwarf, howling.

The beast dropped its giant club and clutched at dozens of tiny wounds in its feet, where sharp, woody spikes jutted from its thick hide. None of them was wicked enough to maim the creature, but collectively they gave it a fearsome pain. The monster bellowed and rubbed at the gigantic thorns.

Briefly, Tordek wondered how he had avoided treading on the spikes, but in an instant he realized their source and knew they had not been there when he passed. Vadania summoned them from the roots of the swamp growth to slow the brute.

Rather than take advantage of her spell, Tordek had turned to stand there like a half-wit.

"Hurry, you fool!" cried the druid. "I cannot do that again."

Tordek lowered his head and ran for his life, muttering a brief prayer of thanks to Moradin, who had forged his soul and watched over it, even when he made such blunders as this one. The monster's howls of pain turned to roars of anger as it regained its feet and chased after its prey. Even with their slight lead, Tordek knew the monster's vast strides would soon close the distance.

They ran until Tordek felt his pulse throbbing in his head. Ahead of him, Vadania and Devis slowed their pace so that he and Lidda might keep up. Tordek heard a mighty splashing behind him and saw Devis staring agape.

"Don't look!" shouted the bard. "Just run!"

Devis turned and obeyed his own advice, as did Vadania and Gulo. They ran for hundreds of yards, and each one felt like ten for all the clinging mud and rough terrain. They ran until their breath came in harsh wheezes. They ran until they could no longer feel their legs.

Tordek barely noticed when he slammed into a tall pole and knocked it down into the marshy ground. He stomped on some leathery fetish that had been mounted on its tip, but he spared it not so much as a glance.

He ran until his heart leaped to escape his chest, his eyes swelled almost to bursting, and his legs turned to rubber. At last he knew that the last stand from which Vadania had just spared him was indeed fated for this day. Once again, he planted his feet, grabbed his war axe, and turned to face his doom.

He saw nothing but empty swamp.

As his throbbing pulse slowed, Tordek could hear the distant splashing of giant feet running in the opposite direction. Soon after, a horn sounded in the distance. It came again a moment later, more distant still. The trogs were retreating.

For a long while they stood gasping for air, their bodies bent over, their hands clutching at their knees for support. Devis tried to speak, but all that came out was a harsh whistle. Gradually, their panting slowed, and they blinked away the dizziness.

"Well," said Vadania, "it wasn't Gulo who frightened off the mob this time."

"Maybe not," replied Tordek, "but something surely did the trick."

"Maybe it was one of these," suggested Lidda. She shook a tall pole with a troglodyte's head mounted atop it. Some of the bones that rattled beneath the rotting head looked more human than reptilian.

"Uh, oh," said Devis. "I have a bad feeling I know where we are."

They looked around in all directions, crouching low in an effort to see before they were seen-by exactly what, they were not certain, making them feel all the more exposed and vulnerable. They spread out slightly, keeping in sight of each other as they searched the area.

"There," said Vadania, pointing toward the northeast.

On a relatively dry mound of earth stood a homely cottage no better than those they had seen in Croaker Norge. All around it stood similarly gruesome warning poles, some mounted by skulls, others with frightful talismans of sticks and bones and skin.

"Shall we have a peek?" said Devis.

"No!" said everyone else.

"Aren't you curious about the fabled Sandrine?"

"We'll skirt the cottage," decided Tordek. He looked up to judge the sun's distance from the horizon. It was hard to tell how much daylight was left when precious little of it reached them through the mist.

"There could be treasure," crooned Devis, drawing out the last word in a manner obviously meant to tempt a dwarf. "Gold and jewels and fabulous trinkets plucked from her victims over the years."

"Knock it off, Bunny," said Lidda. "You just want to see whether she's beautiful."

"Well…"

Tordek turned his back on the argument and led the way around the cottage, staying as close to the totems as possible. Lidda and Vadania soon followed him, as did Gulo, who was gradually looking more and more ferocious after his embarrassing retreat from the bigger foe. Slowly, reluctantly, Devis followed them through the totem poles and north, away from the story of Sandrine the poisoner.