>>5369225Your heart falls a little, to your surprise and shame. Has Davora betrayed you, then, after all?
“Actually, quite the opposite,” the Thief says, sounding almost surprised—even impressed—himself. “The Herbalist was… Surprisingly dedicated to the ruse. One of the other females broke rank, attempted to persuade the dwarves which were sent—including myself—to turn against you.”
“And?” you ask, fearing the worst.The Thief points to a nearby rock, behind which your kobolds find—and extract—a bound-and-gagged, still-unconscious dwarf female with black hair. You stare for a moment, feeling a strange warmth in your chest, and nod.
It is not long later that the dwarves come marching out. You are position such that you can watch their advance for almost two miles. You watch as their formation deteriorates, until they staggering, sloppy, slow. You suspect any member of a mammalian race WITHOUT the dwarves’ famed constitution would have been rendered utterly unconscious. By the time they reach the ravine, they seem to realize something is wrong…
But it is too late.
With another use of <Earth Tremor> and <Wall of Stone>, you collapse the ravine at its narrowest points, and trap them in the pass. Your forces have moved to higher ground for the most part, taking up missile weapons—well-crafted bows and arrows, even for your lowly kobolds, thanks to your requisitions from the Chaplain. As the walls close in and the silhouettes of your Dark Army loom, the dwarves realize they have been tricked and trapped, but most are too weak to do anything about it. A few fire crossbows, but it is with middling accuracy. Your forces evade, and they hiss, yammer, and jeer in mockery.
You scan the dwarf forces below. The Herbalist, who wrought this terrible fate for them, is not among them. She will no doubt learn what happened here, of course… If she is safe. You suddenly stop to consider this. If she has remained with the defenders, those she said would fight to the bitter end… Will they realize that she who prepared their food or ale is responsible for the ambush below, when they peer out from their parapets. What will they do to her, if so?