After curving to the right, the square-stoned passage corned back to the left and then continued almost straight on for one hundred feet. At its end Darius saw a mass of what he now knew to be hobgoblins fighting his patrol. The tunnel split left and right in a T-juncture. Foes fought on either side and his men were caught directly in the middle of the intersection. Dram and Dalin held the left flank, Igor and Rogg the right, and the rest fired over the front lines from the center. Darius pulled out his hammer and shouldered his way forward into battle. Examining the hobgoblins he noticed they were exceptionally tall, taller than most humans even. With about the same build as the gnolls they looked like enlarged goblins. Each wore chain armor, a helm, and carried some sort of weapon and shield. The shields had an open mouth emblazoned on them and the creatures looked as if they were in uniform.
Brother Ben stood back from the battling front lines and used the sling Mirel had given him. He counted an even dozen hobgoblins and although he was not an expert he discovered they were hardened warriors just like the gnolls. The party was fortunate the creatures were not using ranged attacks as they were. Minutes passed by and both sides took damage, but neither lost position. It was a difficult fight being pinched in as they were, but the team did not pull back from having two fronts. Then sounds of marching feet could be heard from behind. It did not sound like the ogre this time, so Darius ran back from the front and into the darkness of the corridor behind. He was shocked by what he saw. Another half dozen hobgoblins were marching towards him in formation, weapons at the ready. “We’re being cut off!” he cried out.
Dram made a daring maneuver and darted past the line of hobgoblins on the left side. That side had the fewest number of foes and he turned to flank his enemies with Dalin from behind. They managed to kill two in short time. Brother Ben ran up with his flail to fill the hole in the line Dram had just created. “Aim to the left” called out Kayla and the ranged firepower focused on to the weak spot. Rogg and Igor tried to defend the right flank, but found themselves vastly outnumbered. Each was injured and their foes kept switching places when fatigued. “I need some help here!” came Darius’s call again from down the back passage. He was surrounded and hobgoblins were rushing past him towards the party’s undefended third flank. Needless to say, things looked pretty grim.
Fortunately for Darius, many of the blows on him were being absorbed by his full plate armor. The dwarf seemed to be able to take a lot of punishment himself too. But in his current position he was cut from the others and being attacked by four swordsmen. In an act of courage, Rogg withdrew from the right flank and rushed back into the mass of creatures around Darius. With a headlong charge he pushed one hobgoblin back into another. Fearfully Mirel moved in next to Igor to fill the broken front line. Swinging her torch at the enemy, she realized she would not last long without a real melee weapon. However, the concentrated effort on the left flank was paying off. Dalin, Dram and Ben had cut down two more enemies and Kayla slung a stone into the last one’s eye. It ran back down the tunnel behind it. One side was clear.
Dalin and Dram decided to chase after the fleeing hobgoblin. Both carried lit torches in their off-hands. As the passage curved to left, they saw the hobgoblin run into a wooden door at its end and slam it shut. Dalin charged forward lowering his shoulder guard and smashed the door off its hinges. Dram ran inside and spun around looking for the goblin while Dalin clambered to his feet. The room was a dead end; a barracks with several bunk beds and footlockers at the end of each. The hidden hobgoblin swung its sword out from under a nearby bed. Dalin cried out a warning and Dram jumped aside just in the nick of time. The two partners stabbed under the bed simultaneously and the creature was gutted.
In the hall outside Brother Ben tried moving in to relieve Igor, but even fatigued the chef would not back off. Grateful, Mirel switched with him instead and she ran back to Kayla and Ormand the Redd. The three started firing into the rear tunnel around Darius and Rogg who both needed the help. The dwarven paladin had just managed to extricate himself from his encircled position. But upon joining Rogg’s side, a blow punctured the other man’s chain shirt. Rogg’s limp form slid from an axehead onto the floor stones. “Ben! Come here, Ben!” Dalin’s voice echoed from the barracks hall. “Dalin! Dram? Come back to us, if you can!” yelled back Ben.
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