guard inside.
“I don’t like the feel of it out there. Someone was following me. Took me wandering the better half of the city before I lost him.” Seeroth was the grizzled of veteran of hundreds of cave expeditions and had been in more battles than the younger dwarves he was addressing had lived years of life. The human that they suspected of being a new Dragon Lord had been attacked by a fraction of dwarven rebels responsible for the curse that destroyed the old Dragon Lords. Seeroth had them hiding in one of the old tunnel guard posts that were scattered around Underheim at each of the tunnel gates.
“I want all the guards to move inside here. We can keep watch from the overlooks.” Seeroth sent out the guard that had opened the door to retrieve the guards stationed around the guard post. It was a relic from the Millennium Wars and had held off a couple invasion attempts during its time. Built out of the natural stone, it presided over a choke point where the cave walls had narrowed before opening up to the cavern that housed Underheim. A thick stone slab still hung over the gate. It had been plastered into place long ago since there hadn’t been any armies threatening. During the Millennium war, it had hung ready to drop into place and seal the tunnel. At that point, anyone still left outside the gate had little defense from the slotted windows carved into the stone. On the inside, they were wider windows where a dwarf could rain death down on those outside while remaining safe from any but the best rangers. The city side still offered a fair amount of defense should the holdfast be attacked from the other side. Guards were posted at these windows and the door was again bared in place.
“Do you think they would try something in the middle of the day?” Taric slipped his armor on and cinched down the straps.
“We are underground. Day becomes night if they snuff out the torches.” Seeroth sighed and shook his head. In truth, there was little distinction between day and night. The city never seemed to sleep. There were always dwarfs out doing their business no matter the time.
“This is a fort. We should be able to hold a few people out.” Roild made as if to get up before he thought better of it.
“That’s a good one. This fort hasn’t been maintained since the tunnels to the surface were sealed. That flimsy iron gate out there is only to keep the stray spider and rat out. This door wasn’t even new when I was no taller than a knee plate.” Seeroth moved off into a stairwell carved into the wall before either of the dwarves could say anything else. He had been off making sure that all the guard posts had appeared the same as far as anyone walking past could see.
“I don’t know. It almost seems like it was a bad idea to bring the human to Underheim.” Taric lamented as he went to the door and peered out the peep hole.
“I really don’t know. He only started healing after the rebels used the soul shard on him, but it nearly killed him. On the other hand, he might have started healing on his own if we had hidden him in Kalsrod.” Roild winced as he slid a boot off and started unwrapping one of his feet.
“Will you stop playing with it? You are only going to make it worse.” Taric chastised his friend as he went back to watching the human through the bars.
“The healer said that it would heal faster if I let fresh air to it.” Roild scowled at Taric.
“It makes sense considering how bad your boots smell.” Taric retorted.
“My feet? I bet if I threw one of your boots into a spider nest, they would all die of asphyxiation before they had a chance to bite it. And if they did bite it… I don’t know what would have happened.” Roild gingerly removed the last wrapping and grimaced at the angry red scar tissue forming under the scabs.
“I told you not to do that. It’s sickening.” Taric watched apprehensively as Roild picked at the scabs.
“What? It itches.” Roild removed the scab and rubbed the tender new skin.
“Gross.” Taric turned back to watching the human breath.
“Wimp.” Roild began picking on another scab but flinched when it began bleeding again. Glancing at Taric, he was glad that his companion was