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Journal of Thrakha'zaguul.
Chapter 22: Descent
Limestone, 260
The time has come. Our warbands are strong, and the lords of the Old Clans stand united at our side. The strength of the elves, dwarves, and our other ancient foes upon the surface world has been broken. Only one task worthy of our warriors remains: to rout the Devils of the deepest Underworld hells.
Our battle plan is simple enough. We have glimpsed our enemies through the carven breach in the bluestone pillar: great demons of flame, sand, and ash. They are undoubtedly powerful and deadly at close range, but yet seem vulnerable enough to our weapons. Ranged firepower will be key. Huscarl Dohon, Mavj, Krat, and the other Black Elders will shoulder the greatest burden in this fight, since they can look after themselves in melee as well as at range. Trak'ruhn, Grinbasher, and the rest of the light infantry will defend the ranged fighters: Firehawk, Ilena, gunner Shrishak, sniper Bolugd, cannoneers Higgs and Gamerlord.
Our heavy infantry is divided into two legions: the Ghoshash clan warriors under Warlord Brokenmind, and the Old-clan nobles under brother Ashaash. If all goes by plan they will rest until the critical time when our assault reaches the floor of the underworld cavern. At which point they will be called upon to either defend our beachhead in victory, or perhaps to buy time with their deaths while we seal the fortress against a devastating defeat. Only time will tell.
Talata, the famous Beast-slayer, and his Avenger squadron are reserved to hunt down any individual demons that break through our defenses. Scribe Keita and other masons will be in the line of deadly fire, and so are given tomahawk sidearms, shields, and quality light armor to defend themselves.
In the past years, we have prepared several defenses in the Deep Caverns. Archer nests are carved into stone-columns throughout the cavern. At the breach point in the Old Quarry: a handful of turrets and prototype golems that we have scrounged, and a pack of direwolves. At the New Quarry Gate: a pack of war bears. In the tunnel connecting these two cavern gates to the fortress proper: a corridor of fireproof repeating spike trapss, and landmines. The open magma caldera that feeds the Deep Forge has been entirely floored over with masonry. In the worst case: there is an extra fall-back gate that can seal off the Forge along with all cavern entrances.
All ranged squads report to the West Cavern tower, and miners pierce the adamant spire. The demons choose not to immediately test themselves against our prepared defenses, so we stand down the active order. Two rangers from each squad stay are scheduled to stay on point until further notice.
Sandstone, 260.
Masons are building an elf-bone stairway down the hollow pillar. Keita follows with a party of engravers, carving the histories of Ghoshash Shazaga upon the adamant stairway to Hell. In the case that these are the last days of Ghoshash Snazaga, our tale will endure.
The clanmates report that they can see a few discernable shapes in the shadows below, but otherwise our enemies are strangely passive. Once our explorers breach a strange layer of viscous semi-molten rock: they toss a cave beetle down into the pit, in hope of revealing the abyss below.
In fact it was a fatal mistake. The beetle attracts the attention of a large group of Ash Devils, who snap into action and quickly fly up the passage. The demons kill the beetle-wrangler and a mason, and storm our defenses at the top of the Hellgate. The attack quickly destroys most of our defending golems, but surprisingly the war-trained dire wolves are agile enough to tie up the devils in a frantic battle. The gunners and archers on station then put this wave of Devils down pretty quickly.
The Black Elders lead a counter offence: escorting the masons down to build a fighting platform suspended in the void of the Underworld. Warrior Tugbuur is the first fighting Orc to enter the underworld proper, holding position with both bow and blade, keeping enemies at bay while masons add a block at a time to the Bone Tower. Our snipers engage a band of Ceratopsid Devils, much tougher than ash-devils, but so far seeming less interested in flying up to attack us.
Timber, 260.
The Elders fight off big waves of various Demons, but our fighting platform has fortifications, and is now large enough to move down some turrets into position. The Elders need a drink break; hopefully the other ranged squads can hold down the position for a time.
Once the enemy are pushed back, it is time to touch our stairway to the surface of the cavern below. The warriors can see heaps of broken wings, webs, ash, and ice on the ground below. Miners and masons run out under cover from a large fraction of the warband to attempt to secure a perimeter. A wave of demons converges: there are too many, and there is simply not enough dakka to put them all down. Huscarl Dohon and Sargeant Srishak charge down the final stair, scattering the last of the Ash Demons with cold steel and fixed bayonet. These are the first Orcs to set foot upon the alien slade. Even at the moment of their great victory, death is but a moment away. Srishak is burned fatally by a demon fireball, although he stands his ground returning musket fire to the last moment. The rest of the orcs fall back to the tower safely while the swarm of Red Devils is broken, each exploding in a blast of supernatural flame.
On the surface: an automaton army with cavalry. They are led by their Prototype, who happens to be an elven rifledancer. The enemy has a vast number of sharpshooters, and with no safe way to secure the Underworld gate we are currently in no position to destroy them. I order the clanmates to close both the main gate and the back door. For the first time in many new-moons, our ranged squadrons abandon their orders to patrol the surface citadel, keeping our heads down out of cannon range for now and trusting to our barbed wire traps to slowly take their toll on the enemy army.
During a lull in the waves of demons we unforbid Srishak's corpse and brave craftsorc Gradbul runs out to grab it. Another legendary gunner, Thashum is promoted to sergeant in his place.
A wave of Horned Phantoms gains the tower, causing several casualties. They are powerful enough to toss a mace-orc and a mason from the tower crashing to the ground below, where ash-demons and Red Devils circle like carrion hawks, and tear the orcs apart. One brute attempts this type of attack on Ilena, goring her with a black horn and body-checking her into a fortification so hard she gets embedded in it. Although stunned, she is saved by her armor, and amazing to see: stumbles up to the safety of the upper citadel under her own power.
A second wave of Horned Phantoms: this time only one gets through, but it terrorizes the peasants who have almost completed the security wall at the base of Foothold Citadel. Two dead and two critically wounded. While the entire warband focuses on this monster, a formation of Flash Banshees strafes the tower, tossing fireballs everywhere. Quick thinking by the warband: slow down the demon assault by locking some hatches below the fighting platform, so the Flash Banshees must content themselves with terrorizing the peasants and sabrecats.
Moonstone, 260.
The warbands are allowed a quick reload and refresh break. Unfortunately, they all leave the fighting platform at once, instead of some from each squad following the scheduled order to remain on station. Some Demons gain the tower in the interval and finish off a wounded squaddie and a mason. Many soldiers are ordered back, including the reserve infantry. Our slade turret had been thrown out of the tower, but survived the fall not too badly damaged. A peasant goes to recover it. The citadel is now very close to being enclosed. Gunner Agrat gets his fifth demon kill and becomes a master.
Ilena was dianosed with a terrible compound fracture in her left arm, but at least she is in the hospital being cared for. Firehawk is also wounded by a Shade Brute, although he was saved by new gunner-sergeant Thashum's quick work with a bayonet. At this point, the Gunners and the Black Elders are the squads most effective against the devils, and so they are ordered to stay on station indefinitely. The archers are much less effective, now that Ilena and Firehawk are both confined to the hospital. Other squads rotate in and out of duty stations.
Two big groups of Flash Banshees and Red Devils assault the tower this month. They are both destroyed at range, crashing as firey ruins into the abyss.
As soon as we complete the roof and lock the door, the waves of demons stop, and we can give most of the warbands a longer rest. Mechanics race to the depths to add a bridge for more permanent security. Miners delve a simple cavern into the slade below, with room for a simple dorm, eating space, food and ammo storage. Now our tired warriors can recover a few steps from their battle station instead of passing out from exhaustion inside the adamant spire, or in the deep cavern tunnelways.
Opal, 260.
After a bit of rest the warbands head up to the surface citadel battlements to clear out the sqaudrons of remaining Automatons. In the Underworld, a wandering forgotten Beast duels with a detachment of Red Ghosts.
The forces of Hell gather for one last furious wave, strong Horned Phantoms and Shade Brutes, but the temporary brass door slows them down long enough. Our gunners and cannoneers blast the devils to pieces while a tinkerer works furiously to finish installing the gate mechanism. Finally the lower Hellgate bridge slams shut.
Obsidian, 260.
The year ends. A remnant of the dwarven armies closes in on the upper surface citadel. It may be they hoped to catch us in a unprepared state, but for this: they are at least one month too late. With Foothold Citadel now fully operational, our warbands can easily come back up to the surface world, and already several dwarven squadrons have been broken. After 10 glorious and bloody years, there remain a few acres of hell outside our perimeter for future generations to conquer, and maybe too just a few enemies in the wider world yet uncrushed.
And so this record ends,
GHOSHASH SNAZAGA VICTORIOUS
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