General Chat 2

thanks man you rock

No problem dude. I'll try to help you whenever I can.

EYAEEWHY!


New chapter!


Prologue

In the gloom of the tunnels, they are coming. Their evil drum named Grond is booming; echoing in the distance. They are coming. Long have the dwarves of Moria kept them at bay. But now, they have breached the western gate and come pouring into our tunnels. We cannot get out. They are the goblins; the terrors of the deep.


Chapter one


“Throw the volley!” A cloud of throwing axes flew above the heads of the phalanx of dwarves, landing in the unorganized ranks of the goblins. The short swarming creatures impaled themselves on the long spears of the dwarves, for the scaly armor of the goblins offered little protection. But the numbers of the goblins were too great. Soon the dwarves would be overwhelmed. They would have to withdraw back into the tunnels of Moria.
“Retreat! Retreat! Retreat to the Inner Gates!” The dwarves shifted backwards, fighting along the way. The goblins were close behind, killing any one lingering behind. Balin, being the leader of the dwarves, called to his troops to retreat again.
They made there way to the inner gate, barring the doors. Balin commanded to put up earth and boulders against the doors. The goblins were not stopped by the tall gates, for they easily climbed the walls.
“Sir, they are scaling the walls,” said the dwarf lord’s attendant.
“Yes, I know. We will fight to the death. This scum will not defeat the power of the dwarves!” Balin replied fiercely. He knew the goblins would eventually overwhelm them and kill them all. Having every entrance and exit blocked, there was no way out of the Misty Mountains.
“Push the boulders off of the wall,” he commanded loudly. Dwarves of all sizes heaved the huge rocks off of the walls.
Drawing his bearded ax, Balin climbed the steps on the inward side of the wall. Goblins swarmed him as he approached, so he swung his ax to the left, then to the right, and finally driving the head of his ax into the skull of a goblin imp.
But deep in the tunnels, a thunderous rumble erupted, frightening the goblins back to the mines they came from. But the throat that the boom came from was much more terrifying and treacherous than all of the goblins combined. For this, a foe greater than anything in middle earth, was the Balrog.
The Balrog is a sight to be terrified by. He had a head of a buffalo, arms of huge man and legs of a dragon. He stood forty feet tall and weighed more than twenty tons. But the most frightening thing was that he was cloaked in flame. Fire came from his nose and mouth, grew from his torso, and capped the top of his head.
He came crashing through the tunnels, tearing down pillars and walls. Frightened by the horrifying sight, dwarves and goblins ran in all directions, taking cover in all sorts of places.
The Balrog cleared the wall in one leap, using his short wings to stay aloft for a few seconds more. He left two huge foot prints in the ground. Upon landing, he turned to face the dwarves, widely opened his mouth, and exhaled. Fire shot from his mouth, singeing anything in a hundred yard radius.
While scanning the top of the wall, the Balrog caught sight of an unfortunate dwarf: Balin. The Balrog Charged towards him, taking long deep strides. The monster drew a long fire-made sword in his right hand, and an even longer whip, constructed of fire, in his left.
He halted about twenty-five yards away from Balin, who was sprinting down the wall. The Balrog slashed to the left with his fiery sword followed by his whip, going the other direction. The sword missed by a few feet high above Balin’s head, but the whip snagged him on the leg, pulling him to the stone face of the top of the wall. The monster rose the fire-blade above his head, all set to cleave Balin in half. But five dwarves came to the rescue, firing giant arrows, called bolts, from a ballista, decorated with a glowing rune, at the Balrog. Soon the monster retreated, after three heavy bolts from the crossbow.
Balin arose from the wall, and looked in the direction of the dwarves that narrowly saved his life. Walking towards them, he said, “M’boys that was a show of great bravery and courage. It takes great courage to stand and fight against that monster. You save my life. What are your names?”
“My name is Casey, this is Baffer, this is Krovan, this is Oin, and this is Gamili. We were just doing our duty. If the king is in danger, we feel obliged to help him,” Casey said.
“And what is this magnificent machine?”
“This crossbow has been enchanted by elven magic. They gave it to us for rescuing one of there kind in the overland
“I see. One in a million, it is. I am proud of you, not to mention the saving of my life. Are you the leader,” Balin asked Casey.
“Yes, Sire. I lead this small party,” He replied.
“Well, I think I should change your rank to Kings Guard. If you except, you will now follow me wherever I go, through sickness and dark. What say you?”
“We will follow you to the bitter end, M’lord. It is a great privilege.”
“Well, that is that. Now the goblins are run off for a while, but they will come back. We must be ready. They may have also retreated as far as the Outer Gates. I think if we were to attack quickly, we could regain the loss.”



Chapter two


The way to the Outer Gates was quiet except for the clinking of armor, spears knocking together, and the heavy footsteps of the war-clad dwarves. The time seemed to pass slowly.
It seems so far to the Outer Gate, Balin thought. He was at the front of the army, leading a legion of five-hundred dwarves, with the new Kings Guard following close behind him.
Looking at the steep rock face to the side of them, he noticed a small shower of pebbles and dirt fall. A few minutes later, there was another shower, farther ahead. Balin turned and spoke to Casey. “Did you see that,” he whispered, indicating the small land slide.
“Yes, M’lord, I did see that. What is it,” Casey whispered back.
“I think it may be a goblin scout. Send the Kings Guard to tell the rest of the army to be on their best guard. Hurry now.”
“Yes M’lord.” Casey bowed to the dwarf lord and turned to go carry out his commands.
Before Casey could get far, goblins showered from the rock face. The dwarf army, except Casey, Balin, and a few others, were caught completely off guard. They came swiftly off the cliff, firing arrows along the way. Of the five-hundred, twenty were killed early. But shortly after, the dwarves were recuperating, and the element of surprise was gone. The dwarves cut down the goblins; they were poor hand-to-hand fighters. All the while, Balin was shouting orders.
“Form the ranks! Line formation, line formation! Spearmen up front, axe-throwers behind.”
Balin fought alongside his army, with his axe swinging from side to side. Four of the Knights Guard were behind him, fighting in perfect harmony.
It was Oin that, in the rear ranks, was aiming the crossbow, and fiercely guarding it from the onslaught of the goblins. He shot well, and killed more than any ordinary foot-soldier.
Casey drew a throwing-axe and pitched it with all his might at a goblin, about to thrust his short curving blade through Balins back. Balin, keeping his part of the melee, heaved his axe into a goblin archer, who had his bow drawn, ready to lose an arrow towards Gamili. Baffer was surrounded by goblins, and he held well, but could not hold out for long. Krovan rescued him by charging into the ranks and using his own element of surprise. The goblins retreated from the juggernaut Krovan, saving Baffer from a fate worse than death.
The battle was swift, for the goblins had attacked with only a small fraction of their army, and the dwarves won fairly easily, with the help of the crossbow.
“Count up the dead, and send a party of about twenty to escort the wounded back to the Inner Gate,” Balin said to his attendant.
“Yes, M’lord,” the faithful servant said. He jogged off to carry out Balin’s commands. He returned shortly after to speak to the King.
“Sir, we have twenty-five dead, and forty wounded. That leaves about four-hundred and thirty,” he said.
“Twenty-five dead.” Balin said while sighing and a moment of silence ensued. After a while he finally said, “We must continue with the battle. Now our surprise attack is dead. We must attack formally, and powerfully.”
“Yes, Sir. May I suggest using catapults? Or even a ballista. I saw one during the fight.” the attendant replied.
“Yes, good idea. The Kings Guard have possession over that rune-enhanced war-machine.” Balin replied, and turned to the Kings Guard.
“Casey,” He said. “Is that the ballista you used against the Balrog?”
Casey smiled almost evilly and said, “Yes. We knew you would probably use it in the battle to come, so we brought it.”
“Why did you not tell me? And why haven’t I seen it?”
“The answer to both is this: the thing has amazing stealth. It seems almost invisible if we want it to. I did mention it is magical, right?”
“Yes, you did,” the king replied. He was perplexed by the answer given by Casey. “Well, I’m glad you brought it. It will help us greatly in the battle to come. It helped in this ambush. And you--” He turned to Oin. “You are an incredible shot with that thing. I am proud.”
Oin blushed and said, “Oh, it was nothing. Any one with practice can shoot as well as me.”
“Well, let us go continue.”
The army assembled and marched towards the Outer Gate, with Oin and the crossbow behind. It was tedious; many of the dwarves half-expected another ambush.
Ten minutes after they started, they arrived at their destination, staying far enough away from it that the swarming goblins could not see them.
The goblins had made a temporary fortification to protect them; it was likely a few of the goblins escaped the ambush earlier that day. They had made a makeshift rock wall to cover the steps that terraced up the wall. In addition to that, they had a wooden palisade of spiked logs; where they had acquired the lumber, no one knows. Wood is rare in the dark tunnels where there is hardly any light. The Outer Gates, as the dwarves call them, was, in reality, a wall a hundred and fifty feet long; the wall was eight feet thick, and twenty feet tall, and the gates took up only a measly twenty yards in the center.
Balin signaled the army to stop and turned to Oin.
“Oin, I want you to bring the crossbow to the front here. We can shoot the ceiling above the enemy with the crossbow, and send their ranks into confusion.”
Oin looked at Balin in surprise and said, “Uh, yes, Sire.” Gathering himself up, he jogged of to the rear ranks to get the ballista.
Watching Oin run off, Casey asked Balin about his plans to attack the goblins. Balin replied, “We will collapse the stalactites on the ceiling of this cave, and they will fall onto the goblins. They will not expect a thing. Next, hopefully the goblins will still be in confusion long enough to give us enough time to reload the crossbow and--” He was interrupted by Oin and the party carrying the crossbow.
“Here it is, sire.”
“Good. Now set it up and raise it high enough to bombard the ceiling above the enemy,” Balin replied, indicating high above their heads.
Oin was hesitant, not knowing the kings intentions, and not being to bright anyways, but quickly carried his commands out anyway. Balin was pleased with the crossbow.
“Good. Now everyone prepare for war. We have a hard battle in front of us.”



Chapter three


Twang!
The ballista launched a hurtling crossbow bolt, landing on the rock ceiling above the unfortunate goblins with a loud crunch. The stalactites shivered, and soon gave to the powerful tremor created by the substantial bolt. They fell, gaining momentum every yard they fell. It was about 75 yards to fall, in fact.
They landed, and a humongous rumble and boom, followed by an earsplitting shriek from the terrified goblins ensued. The goblins, the ones that survived, scattered, leaving the battle field all to the dwarves.
But before they attacked hand-to-hand, Oin first shot the rubble wall that blocked of the steps that led onto the permanent wall. The rubble, mainly consisting of helmet sized boulders, fist sized rocks, and a small amount of mortar plastered scantily throughout the rubble wall, crumbled beneath heavy crossbow bolt.
Now, with four hundred and thirty dwarves, Balin and four of the Kings Guard charged into the battlefield, slaying any goblin that ran in their direction when escaping the crossbow bolt explosion. After they charged a little more, they met a group of fifty or so goblins cowering under the presence of the dwarves, who outnumbered them one to eight. The dwarves clashed into them, killing twenty of them in the first stroke, and only two of the blood-lusting dwarves were injured.
By the time they reached the wall, the goblins assembled with a thousand strong. Now it was the dwarves turn to be outnumbered. The dwarves fought well, but could not so much as hope to seen victory if not for Oin.
Oin was still in the back, firing the crossbow at any assembling group of goblins. Of course, he did not fire anywhere there were dwarves, for fear of hitting them. He dispatched more than a hundred and fifty, and sent their ranks into confusion.
Balin and twenty others, including the four Kings Guard, breached the left side of the mass of goblins. After fighting through their enemy, they reached the wall and climbed it up backwards, parrying blows from frustrated goblins. But sadly, while stepping up the staircase backwards, Krovan did not lift a foot high enough, and it hit against one of the stone-hard steps, causing him to fall. The goblins fell upon him, and he stood no chance.
Casey turned to see the commotion, and when he saw the fate of his friend, he bellowed. He knew he could do nothing, but he still fought the goblins to get to him. Balin tried to constrain him, but he broke free.
“Casey! You must come!”
Finally pulling himself away from the already dead Krovan, Casey staggered back, nearly tripping and joining his dead friend.
Making it up the wall, the wounded and injured crawled up to the far side, while the capable dwarves kept the narrow staircase defended. It was a tough fight, but the staircase was narrow enough to filter the goblins, allowing only a few to fight at one time.
But the losses were enough, and Balin knew he had made a bad decision when the dwarves climbed the wall staircase. He knew they needed help.
Leaving the staircase, he drew a horn and touched it at his lips. Blowing as hard as he could, the sound echoed against the rock walls of the tunnels, and even the goblins were frightened by the reverberation.
Dwarves from every place on the battlefield looked towards Balin. The goblins knew they were doomed; for the dwarves knew their leader was in danger, and that drove them on to fight towards him. For a short time on that field of battle, not one dwarf lost his life. In addition to that, hundreds of goblins lost their lives in the same short time.
About a hundred dwarves made it to the wall in time to assist. That was more than enough. Even Oin aimed at the enemies enclosing Balin.
The goblins crumpled under the weight and onslaught of the angry dwarves. Of the thousand goblins, only four hundred survived.
Unfortunately, after the dwarves realized that their leader was safe, they slackened their attempts to protect their king. The goblins saw this as a perfect opportunity to attack, and many dwarves died.
Soon, although, the dwarves defeated the goblins, and, in turn, recaptured their lost fortifications. But they also had loses too, as three hundred and twenty five remained. And, in a way, they lost Casey. He couldn’t fight in that battle afterwards, because the loss of his long-time friend was too great.
Balin could not help but to feel sympathetic towards Casey. “I am sorry, my friend.”
“Oh, death must come to all of us, though I expected it to be later. Will you be attending the funeral?”
“Yes, of course. Even though there are a lot more to bury, I can assure you that he will get the proper burial.”
“We must attend to that, of course. Let’s go.”
And with that, they walked into the bloody mess. There were mostly goblin corpses, but dwarves littered the field also.
So much death, thought Balin as they walked through the blood-red mud. Yet for such a petty cause: Hatred between two races.
The stench of all of the bodies of the goblins were stacked into a great heap, and burned; while the bodies of the dwarves had to be buried in a great pit. All but the most important--including Krovan--was buried this way; the superior was buried individually.
So sad that it end this way, Baling thought, but he was wrong. It did not end there.

Chapter four

After the battle, and the aftermath of cleaning up all of the bodies, part of the dwarven army was sent back to the Inner Gates. Balin and about a hundred stayed to finish cleaning up, and to protect the wall, should any of the goblins attack again.
Meanwhile, Balin was thinking about the war with the goblins, and planning strategies to drive them away when his loyal attendant interrupted his thoughts.
“Balin, M’lord, some shaken up dwarf says he has a message.”
Seeming if he didn’t hear, Balin stood there without saying anything. The attendant
waited politely for a few seconds, and said, “M’lord?”
“Yes, I heard you. Send him up,” he replied.
“Yes, M’lord.” The attendant turned to go, but looked over his shoulder. “Is everything alright M‘lord?”
“No, not everything is alright.” Balin snapped. “We may have drove the goblins from our lands, but they will come back. I can assure you that.”
“Well, we will drive them away again, and again, until they do not come back.”
“The problem is, they will keep coming back. They have the numbers to do it, and the determination. They will not turn their path just because some dwarven army half their size defeated the once or twice. No, that will drive them further.”
The attendant didn’t say anything. What could he say after that speech?
“Go get the messenger.” said Balin.
“Yes M’lord.”
Left to his own thoughts, Balin gazed out in the darkness of the tunnels.
What can I do, he thought. We are all going to die. We can’t hold back the horde of the goblins. Not all of them. But we can fight ‘till the death. I will--. Interrupting Balin’s thoughts, his attendant said, “M’lord, here he is.”
Balin turned to face the new dwarf, and said, “What is it m’boy?”
Shaking uncontrollably, the dwarf managed to gasp out, “King Dain… Lonely Mountain… Coming… Meet at west gate… He brings army… Goblins!” He stopped for a small moment, then screamed and ran frantically towards the edge of the wall, and jumped clean off. His body shattered against the rocks below.
Balin, very alarmed by now of the recent show, looked over the battlements at the mangled mess and said, “What just happened?”
“I think” said the attendant, “he said that King Dain of the Lonely Mountain is coming and… He said something about the west gate, and bringing an army, but what about the goblins, and then the outburst of screaming?”
Balin, having a blank look on his face, stared out into space without replying.
“Sir?”
“Wow, King Dain. The King Dain. The one from the Lonely Mountains. That is incredible.”
Balin paused a moment, and his face changed from merriment, to disgust as he thought of the goblins.
“This could be a trap. The goblins. I think the goblins may have something to do with this. That could explain why he was so shaken up.”
Balin paused once again, staring into blank space in thought.
“Sir,” the attendant said. Balin sighed and said, “I must go. Dain is too great a figure to just ignore.
I’ll go with fifty of my best dwarves, but leave the King’s guard here to take my place.”
“But what if it is a trap? We cannot let you go to your doom. You must stay.”
“Sometimes you do not listen to what I say,” Balin sighed. “Go now, and do something else.”
“Yes sir.”



“Casey! A shaken up messenger has said that he was sent from King Dain of the Lonely mountain, and said he is coming with an army. Although the dwarf was so shaken up, he threw himself of off the wall. ”
Casey stood dumbstruck, saying nothing, so Balin continued.
“Although, he did manage to get out ‘Goblins!’ Before he went into a fit of terror and killed himself. It may be a trap, so I need your counsel. Do you think I should go to meet him, or not take any chances?”
Dumbfounded by the whole story being unfolded to him so quickly, Casey did not know what to think.
“I, uh… I think that… It, uh… I think that… You should stay here. I can‘t let you run off and get killed.”
“No, I need to go. At least see if anything is down there. What if this is true? I had this debate with my attendant and I am not going to be swayed. Alright?”
There was a pause.
“Well,” Casey started, to which Balin laughed, “why did you ask me then, for advice?”
“Heh, good point,” he said. “I guess I wanted to know what you thought.
“Now you do know what I think. And that is that you should stay here. The King’s guard and I will go for you. Like I say, I can’t let you run off.”
“If anyone goes, It needs to be me. Suppose King Dain does come. I need to be the one to greet him, because he should not be met by anyone less. Do you get my picture?”
“As much as I hate to admit it, yes, you must go. I‘ll get ready in a bit.”
Balin opened his mouth to object, but thought better of it.
Maybe should come, he thought. If there is any danger, I can’t find any better protection. Besides, that would disappoint him greatly.

« Last edited by Twilight Knight on 14th Jan 2008 »

Holy crap!!! That's a ton!!!!

Great job!

Lol. It is a lot, now isn't it?

EYAEEWHY!

The stupid Italics! They won't show up on here!

You mean like this?

EYAEEWHY!

I don't want to convert all Balins thoughts to that, with the [ i ], and the[ /i ]!

Oh. I see. You don't want to go through that again? Just do what I do in case of these things. Instead of " ", put ' '.

TL thought, "I wonder if my sig makes my butt look big."

TL thought, 'I wonder if my sig makes my butt look big.'

I wanted to put something stupid.

ROFL!


EYAEEWHY! That was funny!


I see what you mean, although. The "", and''. Not your butt.

« Last edited by Twilight Knight on 14th Jan 2008 »

Oh. Right. *Looks at own butt.*

EYAEEWHY! No really! I didn't mean it!

lol I know.

So how's it going?

EYAEEWHY! Why do you ask! Are you stalking me!?!

Well, we had my first B-Ball game. Not the first of the season, just my first.

That's cool. How'd that go?

What's with the, "EYAEEWHY!"

« Last edited by TWILIGHT LINK on 14th Jan 2008 »

EYAEEWHY! Because I feel like it!

It went pretty bad. We lost. 6 to 31, or something.

I have to go. Seeya.

« Last edited by Twilight Knight on 14th Jan 2008 »

That is bad. You'll do better next time I'm sure.

Bye.

...I play video games.

I do too. I lika da games!

Have you played super mario galaxy?

Not yet. I don't have a Wii. Trying to get a Wii and 360 though.