The Commander Fights: In the Front and Out the Back

    The cacophony of battle rang throughout the ruins of Minas Eriol. The clattering of mail and weaponry and the yells and shouts of both man, elf, and dwarf alerted the goblin occupying force that they had been given a notice of eviction. The vanguard force led by Commander Altheric and the stalwart dwarf Sergeant Kildwin flushed violently into the heavily populated entrance that the Beastmaster Aranoll revealed to them. A young hobbit, Bellemy, joined them on the dangerous mission as well and the Commander was pleasantly surprised by that one’s tenacity and spirit.
    The goblins put up a fight, wildly skirmishing the vanguard with hit and run tactics. They would attack from toppled roofs of ancient buildings and snipe from crumbled alleyways. The fight took them through the goblins’ messy encampments, populated with the stink of the malnourished and the unclean. Fires dotted each alcove and archway,not a single space was wasted. The goblins were legion and they let the vanguard know it.
    The bows and blades of the elven warriors cut down the vile skirmishers while the mighty swings of the Altheric’s pole-axe kept their soldiers at bay.  Kildwin went into their masses like a leaded missile and soon the vanguard were forced to protect his flanks. In short time the formation was compromised and the Commander found himself alone with the beastmaster. The goods had been recovered, but now they had to exit this cursed place.
    “Vanguard!” he shouted at the top of a once mighty stairway.”Vanguard to me!”
    His next order was cut short as he yelped, three goblin skirmishers hiding on top of a weathered dome fired a volley of wicked arrows at the commander. All three hit their target and one of those cruel arrows dug in through his mail and into his thigh. He dropped to his knee grasping his wound with a pained sigh. A opportunistic goblin struck him across his helmed brow with a spiked club, ringing the sense out of him. A guttural and cruel bout of laughter came from that blow and was ended in a shriek as Altheric drew his arming sword and impaled the goblin in the gut.
    “The commander is down!” cried one of his soldiers. “Hurry and get him out of here.” Using his halberd as a crutch, he rose to his feet and with the help of both Aranoll and a few of his men, he was escorted toward the rendezvous point. There at the rear entrance of the ruins the rear guard met with the commander’s group and retreated with their own skirmishers loosing volleys of arrows and spears into the harrying mob of goblins.
    The captain’s wound bleed profusely and soon he had grown dizzy. His bulky form was lifted to a horse and he was ridden off toward safety. He lost consciousness as he looked back the violence they had wrought.
    He smiled. They, including their goods, had all made it safely back.