The stone corridors bustled as the warband rebuilt itself. Those with serious wounds would stay behind, and there was no shortage of volunteers willing to go looking for the missing dwarf.\n\n"Four teams!" the warden bellowed. "Take your points! We go in half an hour!"\n\nThe search teams finished organizing themselves, and Rabster could barely contain himself. He had traded the heavy crossbow for a lighter crossbow he could reload with a quick tug, and doubled up on ammunition. Restless, he paced back and forth, and the warden ignored him as the rest of the warband got organized.\n\nIt was not quite dawn when the warden released the teams, and each one took a seperate road from the vent into the pass. The warden led Rabster's team, towards the floor of the valley, nearest where Gnorn was last seen.\n\n"You know he probably didn't get far," Rabster muttered to the warden as they pushed through the snow.\n\n"You may underestimate Gnorn," the warden retorted. "Besides, this isn't just about finding a lost dwarf. It's also about combing the valley to get rid of any new infestations of monsters."\n\nRabster clamped his jaw shut and trudged in silence. Until they heard the howls.\n\n"That's no wolf," one of the dwarves observed. "The tone is all wrong."\n\n"Thank you, Shelby," the warden replied. "Okay, on alert." They continued, cautious. Then Rabster started running. \n\n"Get back here!" the warden hissed.\n\nRabster ignored him, dashing up the low hill until he had a better vantage. He saw six monsters intently examining an area that could hide a safehouse, fifty yards away. The monsters were shaped like giant wolves, but instead of a neck, the body sprouted a humanoid torso with arms and a wolf head. They were shaped like centaurs, with shaggy hides, armed with claws and jaws.\n\nRabster did not hestiate. He raised his crossbow and fired a bolt; it arced up towards the half-benighted sky, then dropped down and stuck a monster. The wolf-thing let out a snarl, and swiveled to look for the source of the attack. With a wide grin, Rabster flourished his red cape against the white background.\n\n"Need backup!" he yelled, gratified that the wolf monsters were all charging him instead of digging in the landscape. He turned to run, with the monsters surprisingly close behind and gaining fast--\n\nThe wolfen crested the hill, trapped by their own momentum, and drove down towards a dozen heavily armed and prepared dwawrven warriors.\n\nYears of experience and similar training honed the dwarves into a single-minded dance of bladed and bludgeoning death. The light of dawn glinted on whirling axe blades, thrusting swords, hurled spears, and studded shields. The wolfen monsters made the best of their lot, snarling and lashing out, but every move hit parries and shields, or fell on empty space as the maneuverable dwarves surrounded their prey. One dwarf leaped in the way of a strike, and the one behind him struck as the off-balance wolfen's defense wavered. A stab to the haunches provoked a pivot right into the path of an axe. The monsters toppled in pieces.\n\n"Okay," Rabster panted, squinting at the warden. "You wanted me back. Here I am."\n\nThe warden cuffed him on the side of the head, and turned to the others. No casualties, only a few grevious injuries. "Volunteers scout around while the rest of us care for the wounded," he growled.\n\nRabster was already on his way up the hill.\n\n"Gnorn!" he shouted. "Gnorn, where are you!" Rabster ran towards where the wolfen had been sniffing around. Then a big smile split his face.\n\n[[Rescue]]\n
The others left, and for a long moment Deftlin regarded Gnorn, who looked down at the floor.\n\n"He saved my life," Salvin whispered. "And--and I'm unsteady." He shivered deeply. "I've been seeing things that aren't there," he added, eyes unfocusing. "But first--first I told him. I told him the news. He can help me--help me make sure I get it right." He closed his eyes. He was pale, sweating. \n\nGnorn slung his coat off and covered Salvin with it. "We did our best to be safe, but it was dangerous to move him. His fever just broke a short time ago."\n\n"How bad are his injuries?" Deftlin asked. "He's one of the toughest dwarves I know. I would think he'd be on his feet by now."\n\n"Poison," Gnorn shrugged. "Claws, teeth, stings. Lost a lot of blood." He hesitated. "You must be right, about how tough he is, or he'd be dead."\n\nThat hung in the air between them for a moment.\n\nThe back door to the mansion opened, and a heavy-set dwarf raced out. "Salvin's back?" he demanded.\n\n"Archon Craymark," Gnorn said with a deep bow.\n\n"He's back, and badly hurt. A bit delierious," Deftlin said.\n\nThe archon looked stricken for a moment. He clasped his friend's clammy hand between his own. "He needs a healer," the archon said. "Why is he here?"\n\n"Sir, I am a healer, and he refused to go to the chambers of healing," Gnorn said. "He wanted to get you a message. He found out that there is a new Tamer, using old Shaper magic and making monsters. The new Tamer is based out of the South Dellwaters." He paused. "Monsters pursued us, watch teams have been clashing with them in the Cleftpass."\n\n"Is this true?" the archon asked Salvin, who nodded. The wounded dwarf seemed to relax, and sleep flowed into him.\n\nThe archon considered him for a long moment, then looked at Gnorn. "Thank you for bearing that burden for him." He looked back at the injured dwarf. "And for keeping him alive." He heaved a deep sigh. "You can stay for now."\n\n"I'm not sure I want to," Gnorn said delicately.\n\nThe archon raised an eyebrow. "Salvin involved you," he said. "I choose to trust his judgment. Please stay."\n\nGnorn nodded, and said nothing.\n\n"We could block the Cleftpass, there's plenty of snow. Deal with it in the spring," Deftlin suggested in a low voice.\n\n"If we do," the archon replied, stroking his luxurious beard, "the Tamer will veer into the elfwoods or target Targos, that human settlement on the river." He shrugged. "Or they go up another pass and hit Clan Vanhelt."\n\n"Yes," Deftlin agreed. "Those things would happen. We can send warning. Maybe some volunteer warriors."\n\nThe archon considered it for a long moment, then looked at Gnorn. Gnorn immediately looked at the floor.\n\n"Any thoughts?" the archon asked.\n\nGnorn was quiet for a few seconds. That was often enough time for people to move on to the next topic or speaker. Not this time; the archon waited, quietly. Gnorn thought, for the eternity of a minute or so.\n\n"We have the pass," he said finally.\n\n"Exactly," Deftlin said, gesturing to Gnorn.\n\n"And they don't," the archon mused. "Vanhelt is built to repel attacks from the other side of the mountains. Targos has water, but that won't slow a Tamer's attack down. We have the best ambush site."\n\nDeftlin composed herself. "I think it is naieve to rely on their gratitude after the fact," she said. "They are not likely to acknowledge our help in any way that's useful to us." She paused only a moment. "And it would cost us warriors."\n\n"Sometimes," the archon sighed, "it's just about getting the job done." He looked to Deftlin. "We have the Tamer's attention. Let's bait a trap, get as many of the creatures as we can with an avalanche, then send a warband to hunt and kill the Tamer. The threat isn't over until the Tamer is dead."\n\nDeftlin shrugged any leftover feelings off. "I'll start drawing up the plans, sir," she said.\n\n"Good," he replied with a bleak smile. He looked down at Salvin, who slept peacefully, then up at Gnorn. "You are free to go."\n\n"Thank you, sir. I'm overdue for watch. I missed half a shift."\n\n"For... ahem, you are free to take the rest of the day off," the archon said with a small smile.\n\n"I am also free to stand watch, yes?" Gnorn replied.\n\n"Of course," the archon replied, spreading his hands. "You may do as you wish."\n\n"Thank you, sir," Gnorn replied. He turned, and headed out of the manor.\n\n[[Standing Guard]]
Snow tumbled down as a boulder shifted aside, and Rabster sprinted towards the gap. Gnorn peered out, blinking owlishly against the dazzling sun, and his eyes widened just before Rabster skidded to a halt in front of him. \n\n"Don't _do_ that," Rabster growled, punching Gnorn on the shoulder. "Had me worried."\n\nGnorn's face slit with a rare grin, and he punched Rabster back. Then he looked past him to see several other dwarven warriors.\n\n"The trespasser," Gnorn said quietly. "It was Salvin."\n\nRabster's eyes widened. "The Archon's Pick? Master Salvin?"\n\nGnorn nodded. "He was on a mission. We have to get him back."\n\nIn a matter of minutes, the full efficiency of the dwarven rescue operation was on display. Four dwarves carried the stretcher, a runner went ahead, scouts minded the flanks, and the wounded walked behind.\n\nSoon, they had crossed the white expanse of the snowy pass. They had moved through the tunnels, up the vent passages, and into the main clanhome.\n\n"Better go to the chambers of healing," Gnorn growled, brows knitted.\n\n"No," Salvin replied, eyes fierce. "I need to see the archon at once."\n\nThe warden shrugged. "I'm going with the Pick's orders," he explained. That was the end of the conversation.\n\nThe expedition passed through the fortified entrance to the archon's compound, up the stairs and around the side of the massive manor directly to its back gardens.\n\nA woman trundled out to greet them. "What's going on?" she asked, her tone neutral as she looked over the battered and bloody dwarves and their burden.\n\nThe warden bowed deeply. "Madame Deftlin, Archon's Shield," he said. "We recovered Master Salvin, Archon's Pick, badly hurt in Cleftpass. He was pursued by monsters, and demanded he be brought right here."\n\n"Of course you were right to do so," she replied quickly, something breathy in her tone as though she had been gut-punched. She led them to a stone table overlooking the photophorescent drifts of flowers below the balcony. "Put him here, and you may go."\n\nThe warden nodded, but Salvin gripped his wrist. His eyes struggled to focus on Deftlin. "Gnorn stays," he said, his voice weak. The warden and the shield exchanged a quick glance, and she nodded. \n\n"Right, let's go," the warden said. Rabster hesitated only a moment, then he turned and left with the warden.\n\n"If you are curious," the warden muttered to him as they headed down the stairs leading away from the garden, "think on my advice. Secrets are burdens." He raised his eyebrows, briefly making eye contact wtih the bigger dwarf. "Burdens. Remember that."\n\nRabster heaved a sigh, and shrugged. "I'll remember that. Are we done?"\n\nThe warden hesitated only a moment, then shook his head. "Of course not. I'll always need your help," he said as they left the archon's manor.\n\n[[Meeting the Archon]]\n[[Rabster's Duty]]\n
Rabster nodded to the guards as he trundled past, and he hurled his bulk at the double doors of the watch station. They crashed open, and a dozen startled dwarves looked up.\n\n"Warden Tyvor," Rabster said, glancing around.\n\n"Over here," the warden said, pushing past a couple guards. "Aren't you supposed to be watching Blizzard Scope?"\n\n"Yes sir," Rabster nodded, "but there was a trespasser. Gnorn went to intercept him, they were attacked by bird women. I fired on the bird women and provided some cover, but I lost track of Gnorn and the trespasser. We need to go get them, sir."\n\n"Right!" the warden said with a frown and a nod. "You lot! First dozen, with me. Everyone else, I need runners to guard posts and to command to let them know there's a situation and we may have monsters incoming. Let's go." Already wearing his armor, he snatched up a double-bitted axe and led the way, striding towards the door. Dwarves fell in line with the warden, and in no time the bustling watch station was sending runners all over the clanhome.\n\nBy the time the warband exited the vent into Cleftpass, the sky was scattered with a cold blaze of stars and the snow seemed to glow with their light. The dwarves had lanterns, glass cylinders with luminescent grubs clinging to nutriant cores. Their light was alien and strange under the stars, stripped of the comforting weight of endless stone above.\n\nThey trudged through the snow, alert and watchful, headed for the southern entry to the long pass. \n\nStrange cries drifted across the snow, and the dwarves glanced around nervously. Rabster looked up. "See, shadows gainst the stars," he murmured as he squinted up at the flicker of motion above.\n\n"Can you hit it?" the warden asked.\n\n"Too unsure a shot," Rabster said. "I think they'll get closer."\n\nNo one had anything to say to that. They watched the wheeling, crying harpies for a minute, then resumed their trudge.\n\nSeveral minutes later, the harpies abruptly shut up. All the dwarves stopped, but as they looked up, Rabster realized the trick.\n\n"Ambush!" he cried, looking around instead of up.\n\nFrom a nearby copse of trees, massive shapes lunged towards the warband. There were three, covered in fur, three times the size of a dwarf. Whether it was luminescent fangs or a trick of the starlight, the slavering jaws drew the eye as the monsters charged across the distance.\n\nIt seemed inevitable that the monsters would bowl through the dwarven warband killing with impunity, but the targets tumbled out of the way as their neighbors pounced at the monster flanks. Rabster pounded a quarrel into the ribs of one. The warden drew the attention of another by smacking his axe across its snout, and as it wheeled to face him two of his guards drove spears into its flanks. A hammer slammed across one monster's eye, bursting it, and whickering blades flashed as battle was punctuated by grunts and screams.\n\n"Watch out!" shouted a warrior; the harpies dove at the warband, expecting to pick off stragglers.\n\nRabster yanked a hatchet from his belt and loosed it; the weapon tumbled through the air and whacked into a harpy's face, disrupting her dive so she didn't flare her wings fast enough. She crunched into the unyeilding earth as the other harpies swirled down like massive flakes of filthy ash.\n\nThe last surviving hairy monster lunged for the warden, and he caught its jaws open with his shield. As it flexed, crumpling his shield around his arm, he buried a pivoting chop into its jaw hinge. Dragging his arm clear, he managed to duck its thrashing as others piled on to the dying monster.\n\nFor a moment Rabster was surrounded by stench and battered by wing strokes, but he raised his mace and lashed out all around. A wing crunched, a beak cracked, and the harpies squalled as they strained at the sky, flapping hard, pulling away from the dangers of the ground.\n\n"Let them go," the warden said, hoarse. The snow hissed and steamed with hot spilled blood, most of it from monsters--but not all. "Save who you can."\n\nClouds were drifting in, making the scene of carnage oddly close and private in the darkness. As the warriors tended their wounded and covered the faces of their dead, Rabster gritted his teeth.\n\n"We are close," he growled. "We have *got* to be close."\n\n"Leave it alone," the warden scowled, blinking blood out of one eye. "There are, what, six bolt holes in that area? Plus a few underground entrances? Places on the surface to hide? We don't know if Gnorn and the trespasser were captured, or if they are hiding." The warden looked at his battered warband. "I have casualties. They must be returned to the clanhome." He squinted at Rabster. "We resume the search at first light."\n\nBiting his tongue, Rabster looked down and whirled the crank on his heavy crossbow, reloading it, struggling to contain his feelings. He wondered where Gnorn was, whether he was safe. A warrior approached with a wet cloth and some thread, Rabster shrugged the attention away.\n\n"First light," he said, as much to himself as anyone else.\n\n[[First Light]]
Gnorn's boots clopped on the shaped stone as he raced down the hall. He reached a ladder and slid down, gripping the sides and ignoring the rungs. Slamming down, he clattered along the hall as it curved under the shape of the hill, until he reached a bolthole. Unlocking the backside, he swung it open, then picked up a loop of rope from a hook on the wall. He tugged the loop over the outside doorknob, then leaned into the snow. He pushed up through it, careful and slow. As he pressed up through the snow, he pulled the door closed behind himself.\n\nJust his hood and shoulders were free of snow, and they were white and blended. From his concealed position, he could see the figure toiling through the snow in the valley. Climbing free of the snowbank, he headed down towards the lone trespasser. The snow was thinner where it lay across stone ridges and boulders, and though he could not see those shapes under the snow, Gnorn remembered the layout. He traveled quickly towards the deeper snow at the bottom of the valley, until he too was waist deep and plowing through the snow's weight.\n\nThe cloud of his breath clung to his thick moustache, beard, and eyebrows. First he was rimed with frost, then crusted with ice.\n\n"Ho there!" shouted a hoarse voice as he approached the trespasser. "Speak your clan!"\n\n"Gnorn, of Clan Tunnelprop," Gnorn shouted back. "You are at the edge of Underpeak North, our clanhome."\n\nThe trespasser seemed to deflate, falling into the snow. Alarmed, Gnorn shoved through the last hurl of snow as fast as he could. As he approached the collapsed trespasser, he saw that it was a dwarven man in once-fine garb, shredded by battle. The glint of mail was visible through the tatters. \n\nGnorn reached him and rolled him over, startled to recognize the severe features of Master Salvin, Archon's Pick. One of the most prominent dwarves in the clan was dying in the snow at Gnorn's feet.\n\nHis actions were quick and businesslike as Gnorn propped the injured dwarf up and pulled out a canteen of water. "You've lost blood," he muttered. "Drink."\n\nGnorn hefted Salvin up to a seated position, and as Salvin's eyes fluttered open, they widened with alarm. That was all the warning Gnorn got.\n\n[[Attack in the Snow]]
"So what can I do for you?" Rabster asked.\n\n"Tonight at supper in the Longhouse I want you to tell the tale," the warden said. "Lay it out, from top to bottom, everything you did. Should be quite a tale," he added with a grin. There was something heavy behind the grin, and Rabster hesitated.\n\n"And?"\n\n"I have a duty, a heavy duty I want to share with you," the warden replied. He stopped walking, off to the side, and the foot traffic of the clanhome bustled around them. "We had four casualties last night, in the raid. Now that the task is over, I need to get the news to the families. I want you to talk to Kern Velstaad's family."\n\nRabster's heart sank. He swallowed hard, then turned to the other dwarf. "Warden Tyvor, it would be my honor," he said.\n\nThe somber dwarves went to the guard station, and then down below it to the Quiet Halls. Several guards stood talking quietly in the subdued atmosphere of the magically cooled hall. Four bodies were laid out, and dwarves worked on preparing them for burial. \n\nRabster stood at the head of the slab that bore Kern Velstaad. His throat had been torn out. Frowning to focus his untrustworthy eyes, Rabster picked up the hammer laid across the slab above the corpse's head. His finger traced along the line of names. The most recent was Kern Velstaad. His name weapon. It must be given to his widow.\n\nRabster turned and strode out of the Quiet Halls, the guard station, into the clanhome's busy halls. He mounted the ramps and steps to where the Velstaad family lived, and approached the door. He pounded on it four times, the knock of a stranger.\n\nThe door swung open, and warmth flowed out. The dwarf who answered the door had flour on her apron and face, and an energetic young dwarf gripped her leg. She grinned at Rabster for a moment, then her smile faltered.\n\nRabster raised the hammer between them. "He fought well, Sura," he said, giving the traditional phrase as much depth as he could.\n\nSura's face shifted as she dealt with the news, trying to stay open, trying to hold together. She reached out and almost snatched the hammer from Rabster's hand, taking its weight for herself. "Thank you," she said, a deep anger glowing behind her eyes. She knelt down and looked her child in the eye.\n\n"Here is your great grandfather's name. Your grandfather's name here," she said, pointing to the next rune. "Here, your father." Her voice did not even waver. "Your name will go here," she said, touching the side of the hammer's head, focusing on the still-smooth steel of that specific point. This was not the first time she had told her son where his name would go on the heirloom weapon.\n\nThe child blinked. "But--but Mim," he said, only beginning to guess the truth. "What about Da? Where is Da?"\n\n"Here," she said, almost a growl. "Always here." She touched his chest. Then she rose, and turned to Rabster.\n\n"You tell me when it's time. When we go after the ones that did this." Her tight voice was almost a hiss. She too had a name weapon, and the will to use it.\n\nHe only nodded. Then he stepped back, and she closed the door.\n\nSomething in him gave out. He felt like he had not slept in days. Maybe weeks.\n\nFollowing his feet, Rabster found himself standing by the corridor in the center of the clanhome. He watched the dwarves come and go about their lives. What time was it? Nearly midday? \n\nHe sat for an hour or so.\n\nFinally he stirred. He should go home. But he would normally be on watch by now. The thought struck him; the solitude, the cool quiet, the sense of purpose. Even if Gnorn was there, it would still be a quiet place to reflect. \n\nHis feet led him somewhere else.\n\n[[Standing Guard]]\n
Gnorn scrubbed his eye with a meaty fist. The snowblinding on the majestic sweep outside was penetrating into his brain. Blizzard Scope wasn't the worst lookout post on the clanhome's flank, but it sure wasn't the best either.\n\nHe heard the whisper of leather shoes in the corridor behind the guard post, and set his jaw as he stared stubbornly out over the snowscape. Moments later, the heavy smell of garlic washed the room as Rabster bustled in.\n\n"I'll do the whole conversation meself," Rabster said, his voice as big as the rest of him. "You say, 'Why hello Rabster!' and I say 'Hello Gnorn! Any movement in the Cleftpass?' and you say 'Naturally not my good man, where's my lunch?' and I slap it into your hand and sit down to break bread with you." Gnorn heard Rabster settle his stocky frame on the bench along the wall, opening the ration basket he brought from aux stores along the guard road.\n\n"In the interests of socializing," Rabster continued, "I think I'll have us another conversation! 'Oh this is terrible Rabster!' you say, looking at yer sporeflesh cake." Rabster pulled out the disk of compressed fungus. "Then 'Not so bad,' says I, and I pull out this sapsauce, and dip it in. 'These here are like real flavors from the finest of seige gardens,' I go on ter say, and I take a big bite with a grin on my face." He freed another disk, dunked it, and took a stubborn bite. His strong teeth crunched into the disk. He chewed carefully, pulverizing the tough material.\n\nGnorn spared a glance over to the sporecake, and silently sighed. He squinted back out the watchslit, surveying the empty cold seperating swaths of darkened trees in the pass.\n\n"You know, this is almost as good as pizzlecap," Rabster reflected as he looked at the sap-stickied sporecake. "I mean, if you squint with yer tongue, you can see real food from here." He rifled in the ration pack. "Oh good, some beer to wash it down," he said, not bothering to feign surprise.\n\nGnorn's brows contracted, his face tightening like a clenched fist. He stepped over to the wall, picking up the chalk from a tray, and quickly sketched out the guard code on the stone. GNORNWATCH--SIXBELL--CHECK INTRUSION. He turned to Rabster. "Come on," he growled. Rabster was already on his feet, shrugging his heavy cloak up over his shoulders and hefting his mace, eyes hard.\n\n"What is it?" Rabster asked. Gnorn gestured at the slit, then slung his deep coat on and pulled the hood up over his head. Rabster squinted out the concealed viewport, letting his eyes adjust for a long moment.\n\nOn the slope below, a lone figure lurched through the snow leaving small red stains at irregular intervals. Perhaps a wounded dwarf.\n\n"Go to Treeperch 3," Gnorn muttered. "Cover me." Then they were on the move. \n\n[[Follow Rabster to Treeperch 3]]\n[[Intercept the Traveler]]\n\n
Hours passed.\n\nNo sign of harpies. No scratching at the door. A small fire flickered by the injured dwarf, and Gnorn tended both the fire and Salvin with equal care. He melted more snow for drinking water. Dried herbs from Gnorn's medicine kit sprinkled in hot water made for a foul tea, but it was just the thing to fight the heat in Salvin's blood. \n\nHours passed. \n\nDarkness was full and heavy under the trees, but it was deflected from the pale mantle of snow in the moonlight. Inside the bolthole, the dark twitched and shifted restlessly, needled by the tiny fire.\n\n"My blood burns," Salvin whispered, shallowing Gnorn's drowse to wakefulness.\n\n"Don't speak," Gnorn murmured. "Rest." \n\n"Listen," Salvin insisted, the light glittering in his eyes. "In case I lose my coherence," he added. "I need you to swear you will carry my secret to the archon."\n\n"I swear it," Gnorn said, uncomfortable.\n\n"A new Tamer has risen, and is warping creatures. Like that thing that you fought," Salvin said, barely audible. "Using old, old Shaper magic. I tracked him to the South Dellwaters. The new Tamer is raiding from there, retreating beyond reach."\n\nGnorn's expression darkened. "South Dellwaters," he repeated, trying not to think about that haunted marsh in the lowlands. "Yes."\n\n"You will tell Craymark," Salvin insisted, gripping Gnorn's arm with unexpected strength. Gnorn looked over the injured dwarf's desperate face, and he deeply understood the urge to complete a mission. The archon himself had sent Salvin to find out about this, and Salvin could bear death more easily than failure.\n\n"I will tell Craymark, and no one else," Gnorn replied, the words prying themselves from his twist of a mouth. A new weight settled on him, but Salvin leaned back, spent. \n\nAfter a few minutes, Gnorn rose and got more wood for the fire, more water for his charge. He changed the cloth on Salvin's forehead.\n\n"You know," Salvin said dreamily, "this didn't used to be a bolthole."\n\n"Hush now," Gnorn murmured.\n\nSalvin waved him off. "Centuries ago, this was part of a road. The tower above, a stopping point. Before the dragons came. My grandfather... he told me stories about it. About how my father died fighting the dragons, not far from this very spot." Salvin's eyes were unfocused, something dreamy in his tone. \n\nGnorn shifted, uncomfortable. He was grateful when sleep stole through Salvin and left him senseless.\n\nHours passed.\n\nGnorn smiled to himself as he touched Salvin's forehead. The fever was broken, maybe an hour before dawn. Gnorn allowed himself a small smile.\n\nThen he heard the howling.\n\nGnorn waited as long as he could. Salvin was too vulnerable to move through the snow, but anything with brains and the scent tracking of a wolf would find the bolthole. Gnorn pondered his choices. Go scouting? Lay a false trail? Try to go get help? He wondered how Rabster fared, then put that hope from his mind. He could very well be the only one who could get news of a new Tamer to the archon. Could he leave Salvin alone here to do it?\n\nHe settled on his haunches, facing the door, shortsword in hand. He did not need to test its edge; it has his name scribed on it, and the name of his father, and his father's father. He knew exactly how sharp it was.\n\nThe greater mystery was whether he could afford to wait any longer before striking out into the cold.\n\nThen he heard his name, shouted in the cold outside.\n\n[[Rescue]]
The Guards of Blizzard Scope
Andrew Shields
Rabster's boots whispered against the shaped stone as he strolled down the corridor towards the watchpost. He shouldered through the door to see Gnorn already at the viewport, watching Cleftpass.\n\n"Greetings and ho there," Rabster said, feeling a touch of his effusive nature return. "Good to see you back at your post. And I know that you are glad to see me," he added with a nod, "so I will spare you the expectation of small talk." He paused, and smiled. "You know, you're slipping. A breach of protocol."\n\n"What?" Gnorn said, swiveling his head to point an unpleasant look at Rabster.\n\n"There, on the wall." He pointed at the chalk signs: GNORNWATCH--SIXBELL--CHECK INTRUSION. "That incident has been addressed. Finished business." He grinned.\n\nGnorn rolled his eyes, pulled a rag from his belt, and rubbed the chalk out. "Happy?" he demanded.\n\n"Well," Rabster said, cocking his head to the side. "Maybe a little happier."\n\n"Your turn to watch," Gnorn said, settling on the bench. He picked up the sporecake, which was unchanged since the day before, and nibbled at it.\n\nRabster leaned on the wall and watched out the viewport, taking in the silent expanse of white. "I'm telling the tale of our adventure tonight," he said. "You should come."\n\nGnorn just nodded, and continued working on his sporecake.\n\nBack to business as usual.
Gnorn snapped his fists down in the snow on either side of Salvin and braced. A second later a massive weight slammed into his back, claws tore at his heavy cloak and mail. He felt the pain and shock, but held; whatever hit him launched off, and he pushed against the ground to swiftly rise, ignoring the fire of pain streaking through his back.\n\nThe thing that hit him crouched in the snow, glowering. It was a hideous mix of a stork and a human woman, with long scaled bird legs up into a humanoid torso, hunched wings in place of arms, and a twisted face with too-human eyes over a wicked stabbing beak. Flexing its wings, it hissed at him. Maybe the eyes weren't so human after all. Movement caught the edge of his vision, and he saw three more still in the sky circling for the kill.\n\nGnorn let a brutal smile twist his face, and he released a bark of a laugh; this creature did not look like it could endure mockery. He needed her to attack, because he did not dare step away from the collapsed dwarf that lured him out in the first place. The harpy launched at him, he sidestepped as he deftly twisted the cloak around his arm. Whipping the cloak at the harpy, he provoked a recoil. She scrabbled back, freeing her head, and he stepped in with a lethal stab from his shortsword. The startled harpy took the stab in the wing instead of the heart, and screeched horribly as she tried to escape into the air and faltered.\n\nThe harpy's unsteady tangle of limbs thrashed wildly, but Gnorn was solid and sure. He jumped at the harpy, and she drove her beak at him; he slammed it out of the way with his cloak-wrapped arm and jammed the shortsword into the creature's ribs. One last piercing shriek, and the harpy convulsed off his blade and flopped on the snow, wings splayed.\n\nGnorn's mind raced. There were six bolt holes in the valley that could offer safety. Only one might be within reach, if he ran. There was no chance he could carry Salvin to shelter and make it himself. Glowering, he strode to the injured dwarf and hauled him up to his feet, provoking a cry of pain from Salvin.\n\nIn the sky above, the three harpies angled for a dive. Then one of them squawked, punctured by a crossbow quarrel. The three harpies wheeled around, scanning for the threat, and they saw a flash of crimson fabric. There. They swooped towards the new threat as Gnorn gritted his teeth and staggered through the snow as fast as he could with his injured burden.\n\nCries of outrage echoed between the stone walls of the valley, but all Gnorn could manage was to drag Salvin towards the wall of the valley. In his mind's eye he could see the stream, now frozen over and buried in snow. At the source of the stream, a rock that shifted aside and revealed the basement of a long-destroyed watch tower. A place to hide until the danger passed. His heart was strong as iron bellows, forcing energy through his strained limbs, and nothing between Gnorn and the hideout mattered.\n\nHe reached a hump in the snow that looked like the various snowed-over shapes around it, and he slung Salvin down to the ground. Then he thrust his arms into the snow, brushing off the edge of the boulder. He applied his shoulder, and it creaked aside as he pushed. Moments later, he had dragged Salvin inside and thrust the secret entry closed again.\n\nThe stone room had the paralyzed chill of an abandoned winter chamber. Gnorn wasted no time dragging Salvin to a pallet on the floor. He methodically worked at the injured dwarf's cloak, pulling its half-frozen soggy mass from the dwarf. Salvin could barely endure the pain as Gnorn patiently and ruthlessly worked at removing his chain shirt and pulled the filthy cloth armor beneath out of Salvin's wounds.\n\n"I am a healer," Gnorn said quietly. "Be still." His brow furrowed again. Bite marks, claw marks. There, a blade cut. All fairly recent, but not so recent that Salvin had avoided massive blood loss. "You are in danger. Be at peace now, we have work to do." His voice was oddly soft under its flinty edge, and his hands were sure.\n\nGnorn unpacked his medicine kit, then paused. He touched Salvin's forehead, and his expression darkened.\n\nA fever, of course.\n\n[[Fever Night]]\n\n
Just like that, Gnorn was off. Rabster did not waste any time either. He barreled down the hallway to the recessed alcove with the emergency armory, and pulled out the pieces for a heavy crossbow. Moments later he had mounted the crank on the stock and clamped the bow in place. He strung it with a practiced economy of motion, hooked the thick bowstring to the crank, and swiftly worked the windlass. He took the long quarrel bolts in a case, slotted one into the crossbow, and headed down the tunnel.\n\nHe followed the half-finished stairs down in a curve of a drainage tunnel, pushed through a grating, and raced down a partially flooded access corridor, punching holes in the thin ice with his footfalls as he ran. Minutes later, he climbed the short ladder by the wall that was decorated by a delta of tree roots. Pushing the access hatch open, he climbed up into the interior of a hollow tree. He climbed to the exposed crown, then hefted the heavy crossbow in place. He took stock of what he could see of the valley.\n\nThe watch post was far above and behind him now, and from his closer vantage he could see the trespasser collapse. Squinting, he saw Gnorn plowing towards him, almost invisible in his winter gear against the blinding snow.\n\nThen he saw the winged shapes approaching from above. Three angled towards the struggling dwarves in the valley below, and one went for a dive. \n\n"Too far," Rabster gritted out. He lined up with the heavy crossbow, mentally compensating for wind speed and distance, and frustration welled up in him. He could not just watch it play out, but... what could he do? \n\nHis eyes were wild as he watched the winged figure elongate, wings folded back and up, heron-like claws extended down. It was a horrible mix of a human woman and a crane of some sort maybe, with a beak and wings and long stick legs but a very humanoid torso and head. The creature slammed into Gnorn, and Rabster swore aloud.\n\n"Get up and fight--get up and fight--" Rabster said through numbed lips as he squinted at the distant squabble. Relief flooded through him as Gnorn was on his feet, blade flashing. A tussle, then the harpy was down, skewered.\n\n"You'll not have to do another one," Rabster said sternly, and he re-propped the heavy crossbow. The harpies lowered, and if he was very careful, if the winds and the gods were kind... he slowly squeezed the release until the quarrel leaped from the high-powered weapon.\n\nThe bolt was nearly spent by the time it reached that height and distance, but it got their attention. Only then did Rabster realize he was in a concealed perch.\n\nStruggling to his feet, the portly dwarf planted his stance and twirled his cloak; the outside was white, but the inside was bright red. For special occasions. Plus, it was the warmest one he had, so he always wore it when his turn came up for guard duty.\n\nHiking up the stock of the heavy crossbow, he twirled the windlass with expert speed as the three harpies oriented on the noise and the color, homing in on him.\n\nAs he jammed a quarrel in the crossbow, Rabster grunted. "Hm," he reflected. "I really must think ahead a bit better." The screech of a furious harpy cut his reflections short, and he wheeled around, thudding down through the angled hollow trunk of the treeperch. He heard the harpies slam into it behind him, and he scrabbled down into the cover of the earth as fast as he could.\n\nHe pivoted as he reached the safety of a stone tunnel. The first harpy came at him, eyes glowing in the dim, screech deafening at close range. He depressed the crossbow lever, pounding a bolt through the harpy's head; she crashed down, still jerking and kicking. The other two did not even hesitate, flowing past their fallen sister and springing at the infuriating dwarf.\n\nRabster ran down the corridor, kicking up sprays of water from the broken ice. The harpies stalked and hopped after him. Their awkwardness slowed them only a little, but it was enough; he hurled himself against a section of wall, clawing at some sort of metal mechanism. The portcullis rattled down and crashed into place behind him, and he leaped back from the grating as a folded claw darted through the lattice and expanded as it kicked. \n\n"Yeah?" Rabster said, eyebrows raised. "Okay." He swung the crossbow down nose first, and started working the windlass. By the time he loaded a bolt, the harpies had withdrawn out of visual range.\n\n"That's what I thought," Rabster sniffed. He turned and jogged towards the clanhome.\n\n[[Rescue Expedition]]