Though Princess Aaron began the charge, Sir Smallhill quickly took the lead. The Knight's lance, pierced a goblin archer, as his horse trampled two more. Aaron and Sir Trevor took up his flanks and scatter the archers before them, while Lady Scarecrow and Ed the teamster mopped up any survivors left in their wake. The five riders swept the archers before them.

Mina and Gerald meanwhile, struggled to keep up. Not only was their mount slower, Ed took the younger and faster of the two draft horses, but it also had to carry two riders. Despite this, the pair managed to pull their weight during the charge. Though Mina refused to attack, she didn't seem to mind when their horse stomped a stunned goblin that wandered before them. Gerald on the other hand managed to clip a couple of goblin archers on the top of the head with his horseman's mace. His third swing missed, but he was able to catch him on the shoulder with his backhand. While he preferred the more showy and flashy rapier, the mace proved an apt weapon. It was easy to grip, hits hard, and most importantly simple to swing.

After their impromptu wedge slammed through the archers and routed them, Aaron directed them towards old Greeneyes himself. While the rest of the goblin's guard scattered before the vengeful Prince, the goblin shaman stood his ground and slammed his staff onto the ground.

The ruined streets shifted and great spikes of cobblestone and bedrock tore upwards from the ground. Sir Smallhill's horse reared up, almost knocking the knight to the ground. Somehow Smallhill maintained control of his steed, but it was for naught as two more spikes erupted to the side of him. The great stone spikes impaled the knight and his horse, and lifted both their lifeless bodies high off the ground.

Greeneyes then turned his magic against the rest of the knights, scattering them as they attempted to evade the spikes.

Sir Trevor was the next to be grabbed, his horse was crushed by the stone, but he managed a swift dismount and blunted most of the initial attack against him with his shield. Another stone spike attempted to stab him through the brain, but Prince Aaron rode by and shattered it with Dragonsword, before parrying and riposting a trio of spikes aimed at her and Corsair.

Gerald had seen Greeneye's mastery over this type of magic before. He recalled that it almost crushed the life out of Tig last night and recalled what he had to do. As Prince Aaron and Sir Trevor regrouped, Gerald tossed a simple blue smoke spell in front of Greeneyes. The goblin shaman scoffed at this old trick and narrowed its greedy verdant eyes at Gerald.

That was all the distraction and hesitation that Prince Aaron needed.

Corsair jumped over the spikes attempting to encircle him, landing a mere few feet past Greeneyes. The mighty warhorse attempted to kick straight through the goblin but was stopped mere inches away by a translucent green shield. Before the goblin could react, the Prince slid from her saddle, so she was practically horizontal from the ground. She then took a lunging swipe at the goblin and both the top of Greeneye's staff and his head were separated with the Prince's mighty cleave. While Gerald was still unsure about the dragon slaying properties of Dragonsword, the sharpness of its edge was no longer in doubt.

"Good show laddy," said Ed as he smashed his mace down onto a goblin's head.

Gerald wanted to say something witty in return, but Mina was guiding their horse in an erratic fashion to avoid the goblins that were all around them.

"To the bailey!" shouted Aaron. With their shaman dead the goblins were in mass disarray. Mina and Ed complied and set off after the Prince. Lady Scarecrow attempted to follow but was almost pulled off her horse by a bugbear. Luckily Sir Trevor was nearby and managed a good shield bash into the furry goblin's face, stunning the creature enough for it to release its grip. He then pulled himself up on Scarecrow's horse and they both galloped after the Prince.

As the group rode desperately towards the fort, a great shadow covered them. Gerald thought that was pretty impressive, since it was already pretty dark, but then he realized it must have been some sort of magic trick. He glanced up and briefly saw the outline of a great dragon before he was engulfed in the darkness. While he couldn't see, he could hear Trevor cursing and Ed yelping as their horses whinnied in confusion.

Gerald wasn't sure if the goblins could see in the darkness, but he could hear their voices and they were closing about them.

"I'm afraid Gerard," whispered Mina. Gerald couldn't see, but she could feel her as she clutched him closely.

"I'll protect you." He couldn't see and he could barely fight, but he meant it for all he was worth.

"I don't need protecting," said Mina in a soft distant voice. "It's just that. All this blood, all this carnage. I don't know if I could control myself. "

"Eh? Just let your fury overwhelm you," said Gerald. If there was anytime they needed some dwarven ass kicking powers, it was now.

"No, you don't understand. I'm not like my brothers and sisters, I can't control it. The fire inside of me cannot be controlled if I release it."

Fire? Was she referring to her sorceress powers? Was she a pyromancer or something? Or was it some dwarf forge analogy. Besides fighting those little guys like to work in their smithies, and the last time he recalled those places were hot.

"I'm here for you. If your rage becomes a problem, we'll deal with it together," said Gerald. He wasn't sure if that was inspiring enough, but he felt a tight little hug from the dwarven sorceress, and he guessed it was good enough.

"We have to go on foot," said Mina as she guided Gerald off the horse. Though he couldn't see, he was used to stumbling and they soon found themselves breaking free of the magical darkness. Instead of exiting next to the moat however, the pair found themselves staring face to face with about a dozen bugbears wielding great morning stars with no sign of Prince Aaron and the other Knights.

Gerald pushed Mina behind him, but once again the dwarf girl refused to budge. "I'll handle this," he lied as he stepped in front of her instead. Though he was pretty sure he would get pasted by the first giant hairy goblin, he didn't want 'save me Mina' to be his last words. If this was where he was going to die, let it be with some famous last words he could be proud of.

Gerald stepped towards the first bugbear with his light mace in hand. He wanted the brute to make the first move, so he could dodge or something, but before either one of them could react, a great war hammer arced out of the darkness and crushed the surprised bugbear.

The other large furry goblins trembled in fear, and rightly so, as two hundred and fifty pounds of muscled bound hammer wielding half orc descended into their ranks. It was like watching a bear against a pack of wolves. Every swing that Ceto took was swift, decisive, brutal, and lethal. One bugbear managed a parry against the great hammer, but both its morning star and head was crushed under the half orc's might. A few of the hairy goblins managed to attack en masse in an attempt to overwhelm Ceto, but their formation was quickly broken up when a red pinecone was tossed from the half orc's back and into their ranks. One moment they were ready to rush Ceto, the next moment their body parts were blown across the battlefield in a shower of gory viscera and shrapnel.

"Mina! Gerald!" cried Tig as her partner was busy stomping another half orc." I didn't think to see the pair of you here."

"Honestly, we didn't think we would be here either. After entering the fort, Lady Tessa fooled me again. And then I kind of got thrown into a cart, and some wargs chased me, and then the crazy Prince decided to attack the goblins herself. Well it's a long story."

"Herself?" asked Tig.

"Like I said, it's a long story."

"Not now," grunted Ceto as he pointed skywards. The dragon made several passes overhead, but seemed to ignore them as it circled the motte and bailey.

Tig nodded and motioned towards the fort. "Dragon or no dragon, that's our only option."

As they picked their way through the rubble, Gerald saw what looked like the remains of Sir Trevor being torn apart by three wargs. The knight's shield was rended and his blade broken on the ground. The red eyed wolves each had a limb and pulled apart the knight in a grisly fashion. Trevor was already dead, but the wargs seemed to relish in the desecration of his body. While they were a good distance away from them, Gerald knew that it could easily have been him in Trevor's place. He quickened his pace away from the terrible scene.

High above them the dragon had finally descended from the clouds again, landing on the ruins of the storehouse. It screeched its awful high pitched voice at his remaining troops. Though they had taken crippling losses, they still had the numbers to take Daggerhall. Terrorized by the dragon, the scattered goblins once again reformed ranks and marched towards the fort. This time they rumbled forward in unison. No reserves, no flankers, no missile cover. It was an all or nothing attack .

"We really should get to the bailey quick," suggested Gerald as the dragon above them screeched at its troops. The other three agreed and they began to crawl over the ruined buildings towards the fort in double time.

"Where's Armondo?" asked Gerald as they hopped around a particularly large piece of broken wall.

"We lost him in the cellars," said Ceto. "Before it fell."

"I'm…I'm sorry," said Mina.

"The dragon is crafty, it didn't show itself till the battle was joined. We had a trap set, but we decided to set it off prematurely to buy the defenders some time. Armondo stayed at his sniper's perch a bit too long, but he's always been like that."

Ceto shrugged. "My brother is tough."

As they neared the moat, Gerald could feel the ground shake as the goblin army thundered behind them. They barely made it to the southern portion of the bailey and saw Sir Ridley and Lady Tessa guarding the breach. Around them were Inga, Rolf, and a few other villagers hard at work at dislodging the log bridges set up earlier by the bugbears.

"What in the Abyss are you doing here?" cried Tessa. "Where's…umm ….your fellow prisoner."

Gerald didn't bother to answer as the small group hopped on the big log and ran across the moat. He half expected someone to challenge Ceto or even Tessa to set her guards on them, but right now they had other things to worry about. Roughly two thousand things, armed and charging full tilt at the breach.