Chapter 5
Clang!
Durog's mining hammer rebounded from impact with the end of the mining drill.
He used the force of the rebound to start setting up the next blow - the same as he had been doing now for hours.
Squinty, holding the metal shaft of the mining drill, gave it half a quarter turn clockwise, as he did between each blow. Then he double-checked to make sure it was still in line with the guide rod, so they drilled at the correct angle.
It took skill and practice to drill holes like this - the ancient traditional way.
But they had that. This was how the 2 had supported themselves while studying to be engineers.
Clang!
Another blow. Another half quarter turn. Another bit of stone broken free by the chisel end of the mining drill.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Then it was time to pause while Squinty lengthened the shaft of the drill.
He pulled the rod out of the 3 inch diameter hole they were drilling, unbolted a 3 foot section of rod, and bolted on a 6 foot section instead.
He also removed the chisel tip of the rod, bolted on a small scoop instead, and spent a couple minutes scooping rock chips out of the hole, while Durog sharpened the chisel.
Then the chisel end replaced the scoop, and was bolted tightly on.
Durog adjusted his belt, since the dozens of good luck charms hanging from it had dragged it down a bit.
As Squinty lowered the rod back into the hole, snugged it, and aligned it with the guide rod, he said "That's 14 feet - we should be almost through."
Durog grunted assent, aimed carefully since the end of the rod was now 3 feet higher, instead of down near the floor like with his last swing, and swung the heavy sledgehammer again.
Clang!
The hard labor had Durog short on breath, but long on time to think.
In a way, he relished that.
And he especially needed the time to think.
They were in a dangerous situation.
Orc sign had been found near the mountain, in amounts that suggested a full orc army was nearby.
The warriors and heroes, excited at the prospect of battle, had all formed up and marched out to meet the orcs. They'd left only a few guards in the mountain, of which Durog had volunteered to be one.
Skinny and Squinty had been left behind too, since they could be more use as ballista crew than as regular melee warriors.
All of Durog's other workers had left with the army.
He had volunteered to guard the back entrance to their tunnel system. And his offer had been accepted.
That entrance was near the orc sign.
That entrance had also recently been under comparatively heavy use, while the main entrance was under reconstruction. So it was possible that orcs had observed it being used and therefore it's secret entrance was no longer secret.
King Thror thought so too, which is why he'd taken the army out that way to look for the orc army.
When Durog and his small team had arrived at the back entrance, two of them had gone out to look around, leaving Squinty back to guard.
Despite an army of dwarves having just passed this way, Durog and Skinny had found plenty of orc sign.
Much more is meant by the term orc sign than just footprints.
Orcs are violent, chaotic, and not careful about anything.
Where they pass, they leave not just tracks, but trash of all kinds - from broken gear to the remains of past meals - and the random destruction they get up to when they get bored, which is frequent. So there were plenty of trees and bushes with fresh gouges or slashes, plenty of rocks with chips taken out of them, and plenty of scuff marks where things had been kicked at.
There was also no shortage of orc blood spilled here and there as orcs quarreled with one another and it escalated into violence. Orcs actually fought with each-other quite frequently, and over the slightest provocations.
If it wasn't for their very high reproductive rate, the race would have extinguished itself long ago.
Orcs had a "pecking order" just like chickens, where every one of them tries to bully every other one of them, violence at some scale results, and things eventually settle down - mostly - into a hierarchy of abuse. But chickens will only occasionally take this to extremes, while orcs often get carried away with it and kill or seriously wound each-other.
So it was with no surprise that they also found a couple orc corpses as well.
These were only half gnawed-upon, which was bad, since it indicated that they had plenty of food along and only took 'the best cuts' from the fallen for the flavor.
That suggested a well-equipped army and had dire implications for the dwarves of Lonely Mountain. It was rare for orc chieftans to bother with details like logistics.
So Durog and Skinny had hurried back inside, and consulted with Squinty over some maps they'd brought with them.
Fairly quickly, they'd formed a plan.
First, they'd checked the emergency boulder near the rear entrance, and verified it was ready for use.
Then they'd installed a couple wooden doors along the quarter-mile long entrance tunnel, and planted a couple bits of 'random treasure' behind each.
Then they'd worked for most of the rest of the day on the pump rooms.
For reasons they did not understand, suction pumps could only raise water so far. So they'd simply built a series of pump rooms and pond rooms, with access staircases linking them as they climbed higher and higher within the mountain.
Dwarves had always had to pump water out of their mines. Most of the time they'd just pumped it up high enough to let it flow out and away from the mountain.
But Durog had suggested they could store some in underground lakes and ponds they dug for the purpose, since by storing it they could do a variety of things like drowning dragons.
That had worked, so they'd let him expand the system.
There was even talk of raising fish in some of the reserviors least likely to be emptied.
And some of those storage ponds and lakes were quite high within the mountain, well above the ground level at the base of the mountain, since that gave the stored water a large amount of stored energy, and when you let it flow, it did so with great force.
They tapped into that system now, working hard and making alterations until just before nightfall.
Nightfall was when orcs started traveling again.
Then Squinty propped open the back entrance tunnel's outer door by wedging a pebble in it, as if it had been accidentally kicked there by a dwarf in a hurry. After that, he hurried back to help Durog in the pump rooms.
While he did that, Skinny hurried to get to the hidden guard room near the back entrance. He went deeper into the mountain far enough to get to branch tunnels and take one back to the small access tunnel back to the hidden guard room, just a hundred feet away from the rear entrance.
There he would keep watch, and send signals using mine code.
The quarter mile long tunnel from the back entrance sloped down into the mountain and ended at a small "fort" room - a room that could be defended against attackers. It had a strong outer door, with closable ports that could be used for stabbing with spears or shooting with crossbows. It had a strong inner door too. After that room, other tunnels branched out in various directions.
Durog and crew had spent most of the day routing the water from the pump system to that fort room, and flooding it completely.
Durog would get in trouble for flooding that room if he'd guessed wrong and the next army to come to the rear entrance was dwarves not orcs. But it would be comparatively minor trouble - a dwarf army could march around to the front entrance easily enough while the damage was repaired and the room drained.
But if he had guessed right and the orcs came, that flooded room and his other tricks could very well save the day.
Next they went to one of the pond rooms - pond room 6, which they had emptied for this purpose - and started drilling holes from it, down through the ceiling of the back entrance tunnel - the tunnel where the orcs would be if they came in that way as Durog supposed they would.
They were almost done drilling their third such hole now.
Durog was concerned it may not be enough.
As he was calculating flow rates and volumes yet again, the signal came.
Skinny pounded out a quick "Orcs sighted" in mine code.
Durog paused his drilling only long enough to tap out an acknowledgment.
Then he got back to drilling
He would have hurried, but that sort of thing led to mistakes and he didn't want to hit, and potentially cripple, Squinty with a missed blow.
All too soon, the next message came from Skinny "part of the orc army is entering the tunnel".
Durog and Squinty stopped drilling.
Orcs were neither smart nor careful, but even they could be tipped off to a potential ambush or trap if they heard unusual sounds.
Squinty measured how much of the drilling rod protruded above the pond room's floor, and whispered the number to Durog.
Then the two dwarves went to the 2 completed holes and listened.
Listening was an important skill for anyone living and working underground, for more reasons than just being able to correctly hear mine code.
As Durog listened, he did math in his head.
By the time he and Squinty heard orcs stop entering the tunnel, he knew his third hole was within inches of getting through.
By the time they heard the orcs start battering down the first wooden door, he'd refined his answer and knew the third hole was only 2.6 inches short of the ceiling of the tunnel the orcs were in.
But sometimes, when drilling, that last little bit of rock would give way suddenly. So it was hard to know how much more drilling was needed.
Then he and Squinty both reflexively pulled back from their listening holes as there came a shout of triumph from the orc-infested tunnel.
The orcs had gotten through the wooden door and yelled "we're in, and we found treasure already!"
That would be the golden candlestick Durog had left there to get them excited.
Excited orcs are less careful than usual.
Predictably, there came the sounds of many more orcs entering the tunnel and rushing forward, eager to get some loot for themselves.
Orcs usually didn't fully commit themselves until they were sure something was working.
A moment later, when the orcs came to the second wooden door, there came the sounds of much scuffling and some fistfights, as the forward momentum of the packed mass of orcs was stopped by the door and they all crowded and jostled each-other.
Some orcs in front bellowed to "back up so we have room to break down the next door"!
The fighting among the orcs increased briefly in response, and then came the sounds of wood being hacked at chaotically.
Squinty and Durog pulled back a bit from their listening holes in anticipation, as the 2nd wooden door was defeated.
The orcs beyond it again bellowed in triumph as they found the golden torch-sconce that Durog had left there.
The mass of orcs surged forward, crowding each-other in their urgent desire for the loot that only the foremost would get.
Durog's team had installed those doors and left the gold for this purpose - to convince the orcs they were past all defenses and it was open-season on looting.
And it sure sounded to Durog like they had succeeded and orcs were cramming themselves as tightly into the tunnel as they could.
The rumble of the emergency boulder rolling downhill proved Skinny was still paying attention and following the plan.
Durog and Squinty barely had time to cover their ears before the boulder hit the rear entrance door with a mighty crash, sealing it closed with the entire orc army within.
The boulder had not been intended to lock orcs in, but to keep them out, by bringing itself, accompanied by a small avalanche of rocks down to seal and hide the door at need.
It would be a pain to dig the door out again, which is why the boulder was to be used only in emergencies.
Still, dwarves believed in being prepared and so all Skinny, there in the guard room, had had to do was remove the safety pins from 3 pistons, and pull a lever, to allow the pistons and the 3 smaller boulders they supported to sink out of the way and allow the big boulder to roll the hundred or so feet from the rocky mountain spur where it normally sat, to go bury Lonely Mountain's rear door.
There was no longer any point in being quiet, so Durog and Squinty hurried back to their drilling.
They could have just started the flooding as things were. But Durog was concerned that, with only 2 holes flooding them, the orcs may have time to dig their way out.
The mountain was solid in almost all directions from the orc-infested tunnel.
This pond room was closest, and the orcs would have to tunnel through 15 feet of solid rock to get to it. And that was assuming they knew where and in what direction to dig, which was so unlikely that the possibility could be dismissed.
That left the doors - the outer door by which the orcs had come in, and the inner door going to the fort room.
Both were good solid thick stone.
However that was exactly the kind that the orcs had come prepared to defeat.
But even with the pickaxes and drills the orcs would have brought, getting through the doors would take hours.
Just like it would take hours to fill the tunnel they were in with water.
And that race is why Durog was worried.
If the orcs won, things would be bad.
Sure, the rest of the guards at Lonely Mountain would have heard Skinny's mine-code messages, and the situation update that Skinny was tapping out even now.
They would be ready in case the orcs broke out. But they were few and the orcs were many.
So Durog and Squinty worked on drilling the rest of the third hole as quickly as possible.
Unless Durog was mistaken, they could fill the quarter-mile long orc infested tunnel with water in 15.4 hours with just one hole, or 7.7 hours with 2 holes, or 5.1 hours with all 3.
The tunnel would take that long because it was wide - a full 7 feet wide, to allow for cart and wagon traffic, but only 6 feet high, since dwarves didn't need much vertical clearance and the animals pulling carts didn't need much more.
Durog knew that determined dwarves could break through the doors in that time, or at least make enough holes in them to let water flow out to buy them more time to finish.
He was doubtful that orcs could do as well, but he wanted to be as certain as possible.
Which was why the inner door was backed by an already-flooded room.
If the orcs got through the outer fort door, the water filling the fort room would make it much harder for them to work on the inner door of the fort room.
Durog couldn't imagine them effectively swinging their picks underwater while holding their breath, and that's what it'd take.
Durog's thoughts were interrupted as his hammer-blow continued much further than it was supposed to and he suddenly stumbled forward.
The loud bellow of an orc in pain accompanied the realization that the 3rd hole was now complete and the drill had penetrated into the tunnel below, and, apparently, into an orc as well.
Squinty tried to pull the drill rod up and out, but had some trouble until Durog joined him.
It came free with a sickening "shlurk" sound and when they pulled the chisel head free, they could see it covered in orc blood with some bone splinters, and what might be some brain tissue.
There was some rattling as orcs tried to fire arrows up the hole.
That was no danger. Even if they lined up the shot perfectly, the arrow's arc would curve more than 3 inches during its flight, bringing it into high-speed contact with the rock walls of the hole and probably shattering the arrow.
One might get splinters if he stood in front of the end of the hole, but both dwarves were smart enough not to take even that small risk.
Squinty finished unbolting and storing the sections of drilling rod, then looked questioningly at Durog, as if to ask why they were waiting around at all.
Durog held up one hand for patience.
Grgsvsgth!
That was the word he'd been looking for.
He ran over it again in his mind, composed himself near the opening of the 3rd hole, and yelled, in the best orcish he could compose
"you will all drown in parasite-infested water, because so many other orcs are in your way that you can't get at the exits."
Orcish has many ways to say 'in your way' and Durog used the one with trespassing overtones and implying violence if they don't get out of the way.
Durog and Squinty left while a confused roar came back up the hole from the many orcs yelling taunts back, all at once.
Durog said, "I know - taunting is usually a waste of time that just hands the enemy information he may use to his advantage. But if I can plant the seed to get them fighting amongst themselves, they will be that much less effective in any attempt to get out."
"Parasites?" Squinty asked.
"Yah, I made that up. It was just to get them even more agitated."
Squinty snorted "Well, they can't use the information to start digging earlier than they would have, since they'd started before you yelled. At worst they'll be motivated to dig faster somehow, but that takes organization or coordination and that's very un-orcish. So I think we're fine."
They hurried to pump room 7, and immediately had it start to pump backwards from pond room 7 to flood pond room 6 - the room they had just come from, with the 3 holes into the orc-infested tunnel.
That had been set up before, and now they took the time to set up pond rooms 8 through 11 to flow backwards into pond room 7.
They wanted to be sure to have enough water to fill that tunnel completely. Those 5 pond rooms should be enough and then some, unless the orcs managed to cut some way through all that rock to allow drainage.
Then Durog and Squinty started working on a way to pump more water up from below, despite having emptied pond room 5 into the fort room at the end of the exit tunnel.
They were still working on that when Durog fell asleep during a 5 minute break. He'd been up and working hard all day and well into the night.
He awoke with a face mere inches away from his, and with someone's hand shaking his shoulder.
With a shock he realized it was the king's face.
King Thror's haggard, grim, weary face with its bleary eyes, staring at him from inches away, was the most terrifying thing Durog had ever seen.
"I see you're asleep on the job" the King said mildly.
Durog hastened to explain but the king held up a hand for silence.
"Save it. Tell me later. Right now I'm in a hurry to get some sleep myself. I've been marching with the army for altogether too many hours, led on 'wild goose chases' by an unusually sneaky orc chieftain. One who snuck past us and who you apparently managed to drown, with his whole army. Well done."
Durog smiled but the king hastened to add "As it happens, you and your two sidekicks are the most well-rested dwarves among us right now, though a few of the other guards caught some sleep in shifts. So," he continued "you will be the ones doing the cleanup."
A look of dismay came over Durog's face, and the king added. "You weren't thinking of leaving all those orcs to rot and stink up my mountain, were you?"
Later, using his long hooked pole to drag orc corpses out from the tunnel exit while Skinny "made sure" of them with an equally long spear, Durog observed,
"This one makes two so far that seem to have actually drowned instead of killing each-other to get closer to the exits."
"Out of how many - what's the count?" asked Skinny.
"Sixteen hundred and seventy four so far, and it appears we're about a third done."
"So we'll need a couple more of the mass graves to hold them all then. Luckily we'll be getting some more workers soon." Skinny paused to wipe sweat from his brow.
"Actually, I was hoping I could get you to keep using that same spear all through the whole process, if possible. It could help me understand how to fill the king's new 'request'".Durog asked.
Skinny snorted. "You mean where he said 'and next time you kill an army, get me a new magic weapon while you're at it - maybe by some kind of spinning blade on a piston or something'?"
"Yup." Durog sighed. "There are legends about weapons that became magic after slaying absurdly large numbers of foes. But there is debate about whether that is due to improbably great deeds being rewarded and commemorated by gods, or whether it is some kind of necromantic-energy accumulation."
He paused for a breath, "Getting some idea which one it is would seem like a good first step in knowing what to build or how to go about it."
"And that brings us back to this spear." Skinny finished for him. "If it changes at all after stabbing something like five thousand individual foes, either not long dead or sometimes not completely dead, then the theory about necromantic energy gains support."
"Yup, that's about the size of it." Durog answered.
Skinny considered. "Well, with frequent breaks, I figure maybe I can do that for you. I'll try. And who knows," he snickered "maybe the king will hear about my 'great deed' and award me an honorable cognomen too, o great Durog Spike-Hammer."
Durog, newly named Spike-Hammer by the king, blushed and sighed again. "All that time spent mastering the axe, and now I have to start over and master both the warhammer and the military pick, to properly use both ends of my new spiked hammer that goes with my new name. I wonder if that's the real reason he named me that - not because I, by chance, hammered a drill into an orc, but because he wants to 'make a real warrior' out of me."
They both laughed.