The Death of the Gold Crusade - Part 3

The next person I’m going to interview took me the longest to get to agree to speak with me: Sir Euwan, Lord Long-night’s closest friend and brother in arms.

Whenever I’d asked him about things to do with the Gold Crusade before, he had always hesitated and asked for some time and, this time, it took him five days to get back to me once I’d asked.

He agreed to it, but his face and the way his body was shaking told me that it wasn’t going to be easy for him.

Ancestors, please watch over him.

Sir Euwan wasted no time just talking about what happened.

No formalities, no pleasantries, nothing.

We sat down and he just started talking about what I wanted to know.

“I had been assigning the next night patrols close by Lord Dorvan’s tent when the bells rang,” Sir Euwan started. “My lord quickly came out of his tent, still wearing his armour from the battle earlier in the day, and he pushed his journal into his breast pocket, demanding to know what was going on.

“The other lords gathered around him as did dozens of officers from all retinues and divisions, just in time before the messengers from the frontlines reached us.

‘My lord, a goblin horde some 50-60,000 strong has begun assaulting the frontlines!’ The man reported. ‘They have come from the tunnel leading to Dark Hammer and will soon be engaging the construction crews!’

‘Shit!’ Lord Dorvan shouted. ‘There’s nowhere near enough men to hold back a horde that size.’

‘Not just that; they’re exhausted from working on the fortifications,’ Lord Feather-fall chimed in. ‘They’ll be dead or routed in minutes.’

‘If that happens, the camp’ll be overrun,’ Lord Ahkvan said.

‘Captain Kethan, gather what men you can and head there now! We will join you shortly,’ Lord Dorvan commanded.

“Then, he pointed at dozens of other captains and ordered them to do the same.

‘I’ll do the same, Lord Long-night,’ Lord Feather-fall said, running to the frontlines.

‘I will as well,’ Lord Quartz said, and half a dozen other lords nodded and ran with him after Lord Feather-fall.

‘I’ll take what men I can and join ‘em,’ Lord Ahkvan grunted. ‘Long-night, organise the troops and bring ‘em to reinforce us.’

‘I will, Lord Ahkvan, and may the Ancestors bless and watch over you,’ Lord Dorvan replied.

‘You too, Long-night. You too.’

“Few of the other lords had their full sets of armour on, including Lord Ahkvan and Lord Feather-fall, but they had made sure to grab their weapons when they came out of their tents. I was asked by Lord Dorvan to gather our men, get their equipment and fall into their ranks, so that we’d be better prepared to fight back the goblin horde.

“The last thing my lord wanted was more casualties caused by disorganisation and lack of disciple.”

[While I didn’t mention this to Sir Euwan at the time, given what happened to the first group of phalanx soldiers to be attacked by the goblins, taking the extra time to organise doesn’t appear to have been a bad idea in hindsight]

“With around 5000 of our men gathered, we charged to the frontlines just as the High King and the main force moved to reinforce our men engaged in battle.

“With our and the High King’s arrival, the routed soldiers re-joined the battle and we began to press the goblins back. However, even with the tide turning against them, the goblins didn’t rout like the others had in our previous skirmishes with them at Stone Shard and the town in the tunnels.

“During the chaos of the fighting, my lord and I had managed to link up with Lord Ahkvan and he also seemed to find it odd.

‘When I served at Strangúld, the green bastards ran once we started to push them back, even if they still had a rather large number left,’ Lord Ahkvan said. ‘So, why haven’t they run yet?’

“I was about to voice my thoughts when I noticed a good number of soldiers looking to our rear and I looked back with them and…I felt my heart sink.

‘Sir Euwan?’ My lord asked.

“When I didn’t reply, he and Lord Ahkvan turned to look to our rear as well.

“A second goblin horde, larger than the first, emerged from the tunnel that Lord Taigstun was meant to have arrived from and they were running, full speed, into the city and towards our undefended camp.”

Even without Sir Euwan coming right out and telling me, I knew what that meant.

Lord Taigstun was late not because he needed more time to march his host of 140,000 to the city.

He was late because he wasn’t coming.

Lord Taigstun, and his detachment, almost half of the Gold Crusade’s might, had been killed by the second goblin horde.

“Lord Dorvan tried to rally the men in the rear-guard to meet the approaching goblins, but only a few thousand men turned to fight the goblins and…it wasn’t enough. The goblins had already done what they needed to; they had blocked off our escape and were ready to swarm into the city and flank our main force.

“With no defences at the rear, and nowhere near enough men to counter the approaching second horde of goblins, my lord…my…Lord Dorvan…made a…declaration…

“After ordering the few thousand men who’d answered the call to run to the rear to charge, he turned to me and Lord Ahkvan and said: ‘We have to withdraw from Anvil now, before it becomes too late and all is lost.’

[Sir Euwan swore on his honour and life that everything he said in his testimony, including the conversation that I’ve transcribed below, happened, word for word]

‘What the fuck are you talking about, Long-night?’ Lord Ahkvan demanded. ‘We can’t just-!’

‘Lord Ahkvan, we’re surrounded and, even if we defeat the horde to our front, by the time we’re finished with them, the camp will all but be overrun and destroyed, and we won’t be in a condition to fight or fly when that happens. If they retake Anvil and trap us between the frontlines and the tunnel to Dark Hammer, we die.’

‘We could rally the men and defeat the goblins, you know we-’

‘Half of our men will rout the minute that horde hits the main force in the back and the rest won’t be able to properly organise to counter such an attack! My lord, I know it’s a hard and harsh reality to accept, but we must prepare to retreat back to Strangúld as quickly as possible before it becomes too late.

‘If we gather as many rams and riders as possible and charge right into one of the goblin forces at the tunnel entrances, we could break through enough to allow some riders to rush back to Strangúld and warn them of what’s happened here. If we don’t do that, then not only do we lose the Gold Crusade’s army, but we lose Strangúld and Ancestors know how much else!’

Lord Ahkvan bit his lip hard and spat to the side. ‘Fuck! What of the High King and the others?’

‘We can’t waste much time, you know that,’ My lord said. ‘The longer we wait, the less chance we have of making it home!’

Lord Ahkvan’s face twisted in anger and the veins on his neck looked like they were about to burst. ‘You’d abandon the High King?!’

‘If it meant saving our Kingdom, then, yes.’

‘You’re more of a cunt than I thought, Long-night. I’m not abandoning my High King. Ever!’

With that, Lord Ahkvan ran into the thick of the fighting towards the High King, leaving my lord looking and, no doubt, feeling sick.

I had tried to protest my lord’s decision as well, but he quickly yelled me down. He cried, ‘Sir Euwan, understand this. We are surrounded, all the rear tunnels have thousands of Goblins defending them and these foolish children won’t be able to defeat this horde of Goblins! Curse you Taigstun for not allowing us to give the men real combat experience and curse you for losing half our army!

‘Sir Euwan, if this horde reaches Strangúld, it’ll fall, and this Crusade will cause another city to fall to their filth. I won’t ever allow that to happen, and neither would any Dwarf right here, right now, fighting till their last.’

“With that, he told me to spread the word of the plan and to bring the riders to him once they had been assembled.

“I told every solider I ran into to do the same and, soon, more than six thousand riders and ten thousand soldiers of all divisions had gathered to Lord Long-night. Upon seeing the Goblins advancing more rapidly into the city, Lord Long-night ordered the charge into the tunnel that we had come from earlier that day and…the men ran and roared with all their might…and we rode with all of ours…

“It was a last, desperate move, one that we all wanted to work, one we all needed to work and…even as we charged to our deaths. We roared and charged, never stopping, never silencing…

“Never.

“…I was riding beside Lord Long-night during…the-the-the-charge, and…and…”

Sir Euwan stopped and apologised to me, saying that he was sorry that he had broken his promise to tell me everything I wanted to know and that he still would, but he needed one more day to collect himself to speak of the charge through the goblins and the journey home.

First thing in the morning, he said, he’d come to my quarters and tell me everything.

He swore it to me on his life.

I decided not to transcribe everything in here that I learnt yesterday from my interviews, as I wanted to see what Sir Euwan’s final testimony would offer me.

And, it turns out, it was the right decision.

Sir Euwan’s testimony, as well as a witness account from the High King’s force, helped me understand the final moments of the slaughter at Anvil and how horrid it was for the brave survivors to make it home.

Like the day before, Sir Euwan wasted no time just talking to me about what I wanted to know.

“With the men we had gathered, Lord Dorvan led the charge into the goblin lines and, the second we ran into their ranks, the massacre began. I heard countless dwarves dying all around me and blood flew in front of my eyes and onto my skin and ram.

“Even then, I and the others still pressed on.

“I saw rider after rider get a spear through the chest or through their rams and I knew that I could soon join them, but, even then, I kept riding and never looked back.

“I saw arrows fly past my eyes, some grazed me, spears were thrust towards me but missed, and a few goblins tried to jump onto my ram. If they had, I wouldn’t have been able to fight them off.

“I was too busy swinging my sword by my left side, hoping that it’d fell any goblins as I rode, so that the men behind me stood a better chance of making it into the tunnel.

“Lord Dorvan was close by my right side, still riding and roaring as his men died, and we managed to break through.

“I didn’t look to see if anyone else had made it, or that my lord was unharmed…or if any of our brothers could make it through the goblins’ lines. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw…Lord Dorvan…fall…off his ram and into the dirt…

“I stopped, turned and rode to him and saw that…that-that…he-he…was…wounded. He-he had…two arrows in his chest, a stab wound in his shoulder, and…a bad gash on his forehead…

“I threw him onto my ram with the help of another two riders who had stopped and then we continued onwards.

“As we ran…this time…I…looked back…and saw…just how few of us managed to break through their lines.

“I’d say that twenty brothers died just to let one or two riders make it through.”

[Sir Euwan went on to tell me off the ride back to Stone Shard, then to Strangúld and then onwards to Dawn Hammer, warning every city they passed through, but, after hearing what I did from my next witness, I thought it best to place the rest of Sir Euwan’s testimony after the next one.]

That last, desperate charge; it was worse than I could ever have imagined.

Even as I try to imagine it, as I try to place myself in the minds of those who lived through it, I can’t bring myself to do it.

To see and hear your brothers in arms dying, to see goblins cheering and leering at you as they thrust their swords and spears at you, desperately trying to end your life, and the fear of not knowing if you’d even make it into the tunnel.

Ancestors watch over and bless those who fought through such a horrid experience, and those who managed to make it home.

I have quite a good idea now of how the battle went at Anvil, but there are pieces of information missing that I desperately want to know, to answer the many questions I have.

Why did the High King set so many of the men to work constructing the fortifications?

How was it that even with their training, equipment and spirits high that the phalanx broke so easily under the goblin’s initial assault?

Was it a lack of experience?

Discipline?

Was it because they’d expected another massacre and then were too surprised by the goblin’s battle prowess that they couldn’t respond effectively?

How did the goblins manage to trick the Gold Crusade into thinking they were invincible so easily?

Surely, someone like Lord Feather-fall would’ve realised the difference in the goblins’ strengths and appearance, or was he, like the rest, drunk on the notion of invincibility like the rest?

What about Lord Quartz and Lord Ahkvan?

The greatest warriors of our time; how did they fall in the battle?

How did they not manage to escape with the High King?

How did the goblins come up with such effective and strange tactics?

Who was leading them?

How many of them were there in the end?

How many of the goblins did our men manage to kill before the last dwarf fell?

What exactly were the circumstances of Taigstun’s death and his dispatchment’s defeat? Just how many goblins met them in that dark tunnel?

Perhaps it’s best that I don’t start asking unanswerable questions about everything and anything.

It would be a miracle from the Ancestors themselves to have even just one of these questions answered.

Well, the next person I’m meant to meet with promised to answer one of those questions.

How did High King Torvar Stardust the 9th die?

The man I was to meet with next asked that his name was not to be included in my writings, for they didn’t want to be known as the dwarf who witnessed the High King’s death and was unable to lift a finger to help him.

“Aye, I saw it…I saw the High King die…

“Even now, I can remember it like it happened just moments ago. The battle was raging all around me, Dwarves running, fighting and dying everywhere and yet…my eyes were fixed on him, on the High King and those fighting beside him.

“He, Lord Ahkvan, Lord Quartz, the King’s guard and the main force were being pushed back into the city and were soon flanked by the second horde from the rear, quickly surrounding them and the slaughter began.

“They didn’t go down easily though; Lord Quartz and Ahkvan, beside the High King, cut down goblins left and right, but the soldiers around them didn’t last long and were torn apart by the bastards. The King’s guard lasted a bit longer and, in just a minute, only those three were left standing, back-to-back, surrounded by more than a hundred goblins, all sneering and growling at them.

“However, the goblins didn’t charge them; they waited, and then they began banging their feet on the dirt, their weapons on the ground or against their shields, and chanted a name: Krahgrul.

“The goblins parted and a massive one, standing almost twice the size of the tallest dwarves I’ve ever seen, easily a fully body taller than the High King, with thick hide and strong muscles, carrying a massive iron cleaver, stepped through. He was covered in blood, with drips even dropping from his jaws, and he had a nasty glower on his face.

“…That face still haunts me even now.

“Without hesitation, Goblins-bane stepped between it and the High King, brandishing his sword and he let out a mighty war cry, even as he was panting, desperately trying to catch his breath.

“Lord Quartz quickly did the same as Lord Ahkvan charged forward.

“…Lord…Lord Ahkvan…Krahgrul swung just once and carved him in two, from crotch to head.

“Lord Quartz…didn’t know…how to react…the goblin Krahgrul swung again, but Lord Quartz blocked it with the Dawn Blade and was sent flying onto his back. The goblins didn’t miss that chance and…stabbed him with their spears and swords…chopped him with their axes again and again…even as he cried out and …even once he’d died.

“The High King and Krahgrul engaged in battle and the High King managed to land a few cuts and stabs on the goblin’s chest and legs. With his last thrust, the High King pierced the goblin’s side, but Krahgrul growled and grabbed the High King by the head and…crushed it…like a fly…shattering his skull and the Ruby Crown.

“…Then, that monster roared, and his monsters met his cries and charged at the rest of our brothers…it locked eyes with me and smiled.

“All I can remember after that…is running. Running, screaming, crying, dying all around me and…I don’t remember anything else…”

Ancestors have mercy!

Lord Ahkvan Goblins-bane, a living legendary, was cut down so easily, and so quickly, by a single goblin.

Lord Quillus Quartz the 3rd, unmatched in his sword skills and duelling abilities, didn’t even get a chance to fight, torn to pieces by vermin whilst on his back.

And the High King…

Even trying to imagine what happened to him makes me feel like I’m going to throw up.

The Ruby Crown that had been forged when Dawn Hammer had been founded, marking the first of the High King’s, made of the finest metals and gemstones…it was…destroyed…crushed…

I had hoped that all three would’ve died glorious deaths, fighting till their last and succumbing to their wounds, perhaps buying time for Lord Long-night and the others to escape.

I don’t want to dwell on these tragedies any longer for it’s too cruel to think of.

[Below, is the rest of Sir Euwan’s testimony, detailing the last events of the Gold Crusade and bringing its tale to a close.]

“After my lord was safely on my ram’s back, I rode again as fast and as hard as I could through the tunnel, praying to the Ancestors that we wouldn’t run into any other goblins and would make it home alive. Perhaps my prayers were answered and we reached Stone Shard by the time our rams couldn’t ride any further.

“I and the rest stopped, let our rams catch their breath and we caught ours with them. I looked around those who had ridden with us and saw that there was about a thousand of us that had made it and I knew that no one else would be coming.

“We were all that was left of the Gold Crusade.

“Our bellies were empty, our throats were dry, and our rams threatened to collapse at a moment’s notice, but all we could do was rest for just a few hours before we had to march again. Everyone, even the beasts, knew that, for no doubt the goblins would be in pursuit of us and, if they reached us as we were resting, then we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

I asked Sir Euwan how they managed to ride so far without a rest sooner and he simply smiled sadly at me and said one word, “Fear.”

As he himself said, everyone, even the rams, were terrified and I doubt any of them were paying attention to how exhausted they were.

I thought it best not to ask any more questions of Sir Euwan, although I had wanted to know how long it took for them to ride that far.

“As we were resting, I was attending to Lord Dorvan’s wounds with a medic [Tylan, I imagine] when my lord grabbed my arm and stared into my eyes; his…grip…it was…weak. He tried to bring himself to my ear but couldn’t muster the strength, so I leant down to his lips.

“He begged me to…take his journal…take it home…not to lose it, no matter what…I…I…I couldn’t…bear the thought…of…Lord Dorvan…dying…so, I ordered the ride back as swiftly as possible after tending to his wounds as best we could and…and then…we came home.

“We made it…to Strangúld…and…well, you know the rest.

I thanked Sir Euwan, but he said nothing else.

He simply stood up and left, without saying another word.

After the Gold Crusade’s survivors had returned, Sir Euwan had sought me out and handed me Lord Long-night’s journal, saying that he remembered my dream of writing a book about the Gold Crusade and hoped that it was helpful.

Originally, when men were being recruited for the Gold Crusade, I went to Sir Euwan and begged, on my hands and knees, him to take me with them, but he had politely refused, saying how it wasn’t my calling, that I had another path to walk down.

When I told him my hopes of one day writing a book on the Gold Crusade, he had smiled gently and told me he couldn’t wait to read it.

When he came to give me Lord Long-night’s journal, he had smiled grimly and told me how fortunate I was he had stopped me going with them.

Based on the eyewitness accounts I now have of the Gold Crusade, I think I have a good idea of how the Battle at Anvil proceeded, even if I do not know how much of the battle’s details were left out or that were missed, no doubt witnessed by long dead brothers.

In the middle of the night, as the soldiers were fortifying the frontlines, a goblin horde of at least 50,000 strong attacked and the men on duty prepared to receive them. The warning bells rang and Lord Long-night and the High King both organised the reinforcements to send to the front. As that was happening, the goblins broke through the frontlines and were causing chaos because of their bizarre military tactics, including their archers set up on the walls.

Then, Lord Long-night and the High King’s forces arrived to reinforce the front which Lord Ahkvan, Lord Feather-fall and Lord Quartz were in charge off and the battle looked like it was turning in the favour of the dwarven forces.

Then, the worst possible scenario happened; a second goblin horde arrived from the rear tunnel, some 80,000 strong, where Taigstun’s forces were meant to have come from.

Lord Long-night tried to rally a counter force, but he couldn’t muster enough men to repel the second horde and, soon enough, all three tunnels were blocked up by goblins, the city and camp were being overrun, and the dwarven lines were in chaos and routed.

Fearing that this large goblin horde would reach Strangúld and overwhelm the defenders at the city, Lord Long-night ordered a desperate retreat and punched through the goblin lines, barely escaping with himself and a thousand others.

They then rode home, leaving the rest of the Crusade to die, including the High King, Lord Quartz and Ahkvan Goblins-bane.

The Gold Crusade was defeated, and the lost cities remained lost to us.