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From the
southern tunnel came a crash, then rumbling as a great boulder rolled
out and crushed several of the drow poised to join the frontline. From
behind the boulder rushed the goblins captured in the failed attack on
the Doorway led by Yorbut Gert, the surviving half-goblin brother. They
fell to attacking the drow with abandon, long rusty blades making short
work of the stunned dark elves.
Zigny hit his feet as the crash sounded and fired his bolt
into the distracted archer, before looking to see what had caused the
disturbance. Luckily for himself he fired first, because when he saw
who had come to deliver them, he was stunned into inaction. He had
never imagined the goblins would do anything but flee if they escaped,
and certainly Yorbut, whose only surviving family had been slain by the
gnomes, would never have been expected to ally with the svirf. Zigny
resolved to find the answer to that puzzle should he survive. Their
actions flew in the face of everything he knew about goblin psychology.
Realizing himself, Zigny looked to where the drow had been
watching him and saw only charred remains of the elf and wounded
archers on the ground around him. He signalled to his men and began
climbing back down to the ground. It took longer than the trip up, but
they had no hurry. The goblins were obviously aware of the four gnomes
scaling down the far wall, but waited for them to near the ground
before turning and retreating into the tunnels from whence they had
come.
Several drow followed after the goblins, thinking the
tunnel sealed, but returned in moments to rejoin the fight when they
could find no goblins nor side-tunnels.
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Zigny and his
men reached the hidden passage where the rest of the Fourth Rank
awaited them without incident. When they arrived, they were shocked to
see an additional dozen or so gnomes also waiting. The gnomes explained
they were with the First Spike, the svirfguard of the northern Passage.
They had been separated from the main force during the drow ambush of
the northern posts and had used the hidden tunnels to reach the Cavern
only to find themselves cut off from the city. Zigny welcomed them to
the fight and told the Mand'r of the new arrivals to follow him. The
older officer knew of Zigny and believed in the system of Ranks. He
knew in this situation he was under the Master's command and did as
instructed.
Zigny knew where to find the failsafe switch and hurried
to locate it, before the mass of warriors he could hear dashing to
reinforce the attackers in the Cavern reached their goal. When he found
the rusted switch, he cursed and began prying at it to work, he hoped
the trap itself was not as badly aged as the switch. His men could do
little but watch as he struggled. They could all hear the voices and
feet of the drow warriors on the other side of the thin stone walls.
Finally, with a loud creak, the switch gave and started
the tunnels rumbling and shaking. In moments to ceiling began to give,
not only in the passage full of drow, but in the side tunnel as well.
They heard a huge crash and watched as the thin wall powdered before
their eyes and the tunnels in both directions crumbled. The crash
killed most of the reinforcements, but left Zigny and his men face to
face with three times their number of drow warriors, with no avenue to
escape for either of them.
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