The Creeps

   The Sergeant peered over the forward surging coldcrew to see the gnomes. Already the shard-slingers had been eliminated, only Yshtra remained behind the goblin ranks. Ilk still waited behind the Sikli, urging them on, though their numbers dwindled. Many of the goblins were dead, but the half-goblins still fought as did nearly half the original group. The warmcrew had sustained serious losses, but were gaining ground and had the remaining goblin force pinned against a wall. It could go either way. More footsteps thundered up the passage. Zigny glanced up, then did his own survey of the fight.
   Reke stared up the passage as the Second Rank of his watch came running to reinforce the First. The Mand'r of the Second Rank stopped short at his side as the rest of the gnomes hurried to join the fight.
   "Topside entrance secure. Their camp was nearly empty. This must be all of them, sir," reported the Mand'r, then he too dashed to join the fight. Reke looked to Zigny, who had also heard the report. The Master's questioning expression gave Reke a cold feeling again.
   "The Third Rank?" asked Zigny. A look of horror flashed across Reke's face.
   "The Door," they shouted in unison, then dashed up the corridor together, leaving the battle to their men. They had both counted the goblins in the cavern and had expected that another fifty or so would be waiting in the camp near the opening to the surface. All the kobolds were there, but nearly fifty of the goblins were still missing. The Third Rank should have been done with their objective and joined the main force well before the other Ranks had completed their missions.
   The officers reached the large caverns only a moment after leaving the fight, when they slid around the corner of the passage and slipped through the narrow opening into the first of a sequence of large chambers leading to the Door, they knew they were too late. The first of the dead gnomes had no obvious wounds to explain why he laid upon the ground white and stiff, the next few had large gashes from which blood no longer ran. The wounds had come from various weapons, some were from the small daggers and shortswords of goblins, others were nearly body length slices that could only be caused by the two-handed sword Zigny had seen swinging from the Chief's hip. Finally, the two saw Mand'r Pertidin Onyxyloris lying dead in the center of several goblin corpses in the last chamber before the Door. He clutched at his throat as if suffocating. His blue face told of his death, though strangely most the goblins seemed to have shared his fate.

   Zigny looked at Reke, but the younger gnome wouldn't meet his gaze. Zigny could see the tears rolling down his Sergeant's face and rage building in his heart.
   "The runner you sent said the Door was blocked," said Zigny. Reke broke his gaze away from the dead Mand'r and looked to the passage ahead of them. The boulders had been stacked to fall out of the way, but only if pushed from the cavern side. Reke's jaw fell open as he realized he hadn't thrown the switch to reseal the Door. This was bad. No, this was a catastrophe. At least the switches were hidden among the rough stone walls, Zigny ran forward to throw the switch and reseal the Door.
   "We must check the svirfguard. They could have circled around to attack our rear," said Zigny without emotion. It wouldn't help to cast recriminations nor to lose control. In any case, his Sergeant would batter himself for the simple mistake forever, as he would feel guilty for sending six svirf to their deaths. Those actions couldn't be undone, but Reke had to live with them. Zigny only hoped the weight of those decisions didn't crush Reke's ability to command.
   "No, they don't know the tunnels, they'll follow the largest passage to the guardhouse," replied Reke, equally without emotion. His logic was sound. If they had tried to take the tunnels to the Cavern of Spikes, they would lose plenty of time back tracking and most likely be hopelessly lost by now. No, they would take the passage to the guardhouse and barricade themselves in. They would still need all the gnomes to win that fight. Both headed up the passage to find their warriors.
   There were only two ways into the guardhouse; one led from the Door to the gates of the guardhouse, the other was a long passage full of deadfall switches which had to be unlocked from the Master's Quarters before travelers could use it to reach the Hold. Only one trap remained engaged and reset itself when tripped, a swinging blade that fell from the passage opening. It had it's own hidden switch known only to the Master and his Sergeant. The rest of the traps were left unlocked. Apparently the dark elves had known that, since they had used the tunnel to reach the Hold. If the goblins had tried to use the tunnel, the first to cross the threshhold would have been sliced neatly in half. Zigny hoped that would keep them from following the drow down the passage to the Hold, where fifty goblins would make an excellent addition to whatever strike force now assaulted Southreach Hold.