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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 5050693" data-attributes="member: 3285">City Under Siege: Part 3a – Barbarians at the GateA battered, bloody member of the watched rushed towards Beldin, collapsing into his arms. “We are under attack!”  He coughed.  “The barbarians are at Drac’s gate.  We closed the gate in time, but they must have planted soldiers within the city.”  He spat up blood.  “They surprised us!  Commander Stern…” he wheezed, “cannot hold out for long.  That gate must remain closed.  Please, help us…”The man let out a long, rattling cough and died.Beldin gently laid the man down on the ground and stumped towards Drac’s gate.The scene at the gate was bloody.  Two wounded Guardsmen stood amidst their comrades’ dead bodies and attempted to defend the inside of the gate from ten attackers.  They were doing their best to keep themselves between the barbarians and the mechanisms that would raise the portcullis and open the wooden gates, but they would not last much longer on their own.One of the Guardsmen went down as Beldin reached the gate. “Keep that gate closed!” shouted Commander Stern, the lone guardsmen left. He blocked an axe swing with his shield.One barbarian began churning the winch to open the gates.  Beldin hacked through one of the barbarians, who didn’t see him coming.  He went down flailing.Two more barbarians attacked the dwarf.  Beldin was filled with an almost supernatural rage.  He blocked an axe blow from one of the barbarians with his shield and disemboweled the other with Windcutter.The gate opened a little more.Beldin slammed his shield into another barbarian.  Teeth filed to sharp points snapped at him.  “Tcho-tchos?” shouted Beldin in surprised.Tcho-tchos shouldn’t have been in the city, much less anywhere near Freeport. Something more sinister was afoot than a simple invasion.Commander Stern skewered one of the barbarians, but an axe blow glanced off his armor, wounding him.  He fell back against the gate. The gate opened wide.  Only the portcullis stopped a screaming horde of hundreds of barbarians from bursting into Freeport.Beldin swept low, chopping the legs out from two barbarians.  He kept moving as the remaining three barbarians began winching the portcullis up, inch by inch.All three turned to face him.  Beldin slammed another barbarian out of the way with his shield and headbutted the second.  Before the third could let go of the winch, he hacked right through the man’s arms with Windcutter.  With a howl and a spray of blood, the man fell backwards and the portcullis slammed back to the ground.Stern was nearly dragged through the openings in the portcullis by the barbarians.  Some of them ordered their companions away from the gate.“We’ve got to get to the Fortress of Justice!” shouted Beldin.  He helped the man to his feet.  “Can you walk?”Commander Stern was pale but mobile.  “I think so.”“Good,” said Beldin. “Let’s go before they reach for their bows.”  “Why the Fortress of Justice?” asked the Commander.“I need you to issue a pardon.”</blockquote>

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