Part III: A family affair

Trogdar lay prostrate, the Goblins that weren’t holding him down were stabbing at his chest, trying to get through his armour to no avail.

“I’ll hold the archers off, you take these ones,“ said Jandyr, turning and firing down the corridor with his bow. His first shot went wide, but he had time to fire a second which found its mark, plucking an unfortunate Goblin from its feet.

Short-arse barrelled into the Spear-armed Goblins, sending them flying like skittles. While the Wizard tended to Trogdar’s wounds, the enraged Dwarf set to work carving through the greenskins, her sharp axe making short work of the puny foe.

“Hah! Not so tough now are you?” she shouted in exultation. A lone arrow came through the open doorway and struck her in the leg. “Ow! I thought you were meant to be holding them off?” she called to Jandyr.

“There are quite a few left yet,” replied Jandyr, edging his way backwards towards the open doorway while loosing arrows into the distance.

“He-e-elp me-e-e…” came a weak voice.

The voice startled Short-arse. In her battle-fugue she had not seen the figure propped up in the corner, but now she could see a lone Dwarf wrapped in blood-stained clothing. The vision brought back memories of the Iron Guard she had failed to save, and she rushed to help.

“Wizard, quickly,” she called, turning to look for the Wizard.

“Cousin?” said the figure.

Short-arse turned in shock at the voice. Where before it had been weak and unrecognisable, now it was strong and familiar. This was Ironbeard Grunnson! Had he gone ahead of the party to try to recover the amulet himself? If he had, he had paid for his foolish decision with his life.

“Ironbeard?” asked Short-arse, “Oh you stupid fool, what have you done?”

“I really wish it hadn’t been you,” replied Ironbeard.

“What?” asked Short-arse in confusion. She felt something at her waist and looked down to see Ironbeard stealing a small bag of Gold from her pouch.

“I’m sorry,” Ironbeard said as he cast off the bloody cloak, revealing himself to be hale and healthy. Taking the opportunity in the confusion of battle, he ran for the door and disappeared.

Short-arse knelt in confusion for a few seconds more, before rising angrily to her feet.

“RAAAAARGH!” she screamed as she charged through the door into the Goblin archers outside.

“What happened?” asked Trogdar, recovering his senses just in time to see the rampaging Dwarf charge past him.

“I’m not sure,” replied Jandyr, watching the Dwarf hacking the archers to death, “One minute she was knelt over a Dwarf, the next she was chasing it after it went running out of the ruins. Now she’s hacking the Goblins apart.”

“Maybe there was a misunderstanding over whether they were both women,” said Trogdar, rubbing the scar on his chest, “it’s easily done. We’d best go after her.”

“Has anyone checked the room?” asked Jandyr with genuine worry.

“Not really got time,” replied Trogdar as he rose to his feet, “Come on, no Dwarf left behind and all that.”

“But what if there’s treasure, or Gold?” said Jandyr with mounting concern.

“Come on,” said Trogdar, grabbing Jandyr by the scruff of the neck and dragging him bodily along behind him.

A faint glint of gold from beneath Ironbeard’s cast-away bloody robe faded and disappeared as the lantern light left the room.