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[h2]The Concilio Union[/h2]
The occupied fortress of Norsal
colab with [@Klomster]
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The answer was rather easy to understand, for ranged firepower spoke more than words.
From the fortress a mass of projectiles both magical and physical was lobbed with a constant barrage at the bloodied vanguard, which in unison went into a shieldwall to ward off the worst of the barrage.
Lightning bolts from the Norsal towers slammed into warded shields, some succumbing under its might, cannon balls momentarily disrupting the formation. The resilience of the elite guard however meant that very few actually fell.
Automatic ballista fire, a mass of arrows and bullets pattered upon the steel wall of Kraam's elite.
One ballista bolt sailed through the air, was grazed with an arrow and singed by green fire as it arced towards its target, a perfect shot which if one would see from its perspective gave a amazing view as the vanguard were battered with fire.
The bolt whizzed ever closer to Kraam, wobbled in the air and went straight for his left eye.

The motion of his right arm was faster than a normal minotaur could move, unflinching in his gaze the only part of him in motion was the arm which grabbed the bolt and held it an inch from his eye for a moment.
Lowering the bolt he looked at its singed form, followed by looking at the fortress.
-"Bloodied.... we have our answer.... BLOOOOOD!!!!!" Kraam's voice echoed over the field, as he gave his battlecry the entire host joined in and the thundering storm of warcries and lumbering of hooves made the ground tremble.

The regular forces moved out first, their bloodthirst leaving them with little control, many were cut down as lightning cannons shot into groupings of warriors, cannons seemingly the only sure way to kill a bloodied minotaur in one shot made evident with several keeping on their charge as they are pierced with many arrows and some even ballista bolts in non crucial areas.
But many more died from the ferocious barrage of ranged firepower.
After them the vanguard followed Kraam, who strolled over the field with complete disregard of lesser projectiles and at times stepping to the side to avoid a cannon ball or ballista bolt.
A lightning cannon made a skilled shot and hit the red god right on, which made him falter in his step until he rerouted the energy into his axe which now sparked angrily with lightning.
The shot had also fried two elite guards near Kraam, but no one cared.

Nast watched in horror as the seemingly untouchable Kraam either sidestepped or muscled through everything that the defenders threw at him. If she had the capability to she would have ordered all the lightning cannons to focus on him, and for the more mundane firepower to be directed towards his followers, yet the realities of the difficulties of giving nuanced orders during a chaotic battle meant she could only watch as most of their firepower was squandered. That firepower was starting to falter, the intensity of the initial barrage slowly petering out as archers reached for their quivers only to find them empty, as marksmen fired the last of their preloaded rifles and mages expended their reserves of Theurgia. 

Beside Nast one of her advisors, a goblin shaman, started shouting something about the fact that the minotaurs had a new God in place of Zul being important, but over the raging storm it was drowned out. Nast was far to occupied with watching the line of minotaurs as they got closer and closer to the walls, incredibly concerned as to how they were intending to breach the fortresses thick stone curtain without siege equipment. She considered calling the retreat right there and then before they found out, her instincts screaming at her to go find a bolt hole to hide from the massive predators, but she held firm in her duty. The preparations going on in the urban sprawl behind her needed more time and they couldn’t give up the strategic advantege the walls provided without a fight. As the Minotaurs closed, the Unionists drew their swords, picked up their spears and readied their pistols, ready to fight and die for Justinian.

The bloodied host didn't take long to reach the walls, where minotaurs began to try and climb the walls with sheer ferocity, some who jumped and got a good grip actually managed to get up but most of them were cut down by the outnumbering defenders.
All over satyx javeliners made great leaps, actually jumping up to the crenelations in a single leap with many making another leap and beginning to skirmish from the rooftops of the fortress. Many however fell to reacting ranged troops, but the speed of the satyx was a problem when it came to hitting them.

Chaos engulfed the Unionist ranks atop the battlements as the Bloodied forces entered their midsts and a general breakdown of discipline quickly followed. Confronted with the colossal forms of the minotaurs some simply broke and ran, others abandoned their positions to mob the first arriving warriors, leaving areas of the wall poorly defended. Several explosions wracked the area, as kamikaze attacks and panicking artillery crews annihilated friend and foe alike. Some of the fleeter footed soldiers, often the crow like Corvants, persue the satyx skirmishers on foot, leaping and scrambling after those that had breached the outer defences in an attempt to get a better shot or strike them down with their spears or knives

Kraam smiled as he saw the ferocity of his troops, the bloodied never really had much strategy, but few could withstand their might.
He motioned and his vanguard hunkered down in a massive shieldwall formation, making them even more resilient.
Followed with the god of the bloodied strolling closer to the gates of Norsal, hefting the ballista bolt he kept in his hand.
-"This one almost hit me, so i guess you want it as a souvernier." He boomed out to the defenders before preparing to throw it.
The clouds in the sky began to roil and turn above him, purple lightning bolts dancing from the sky over his body and reaching for his right fist empowering the bolt.
He had not trained much, but in a way, drawing power from the divine came natural to red gods, so while it was not refined, it was powerful.

As he threw it the power of the throw was such that all sound disappeared for a moment, leaving only silence as the bolt flew at the gate. Electrical purple shocks shot out from the flying projectile into the ground.
The defenders could see the gate be annihilated with a single strike and a second later the sound of the explosion and other sounds returned.

After brazing from the shockwave both sides realized that the gate was now open, which the bloodied host responded too with a rooar of exhileration. They began to run again, the vanguard not having time to lead the assault as droves of minotaurs began to run into the open gate past Kraam who gestured with his axe to his vanguard, who began to march forward following his lazy stroll.

This was much easier than last time, Kraam thought to himself as he grinned.

Nast’s ears were left ringing by the blast that had annihilated the gate. Her position nearby had meant that the shock wave from the impact had knocked her and her retinue off their feet and the various Unionists took a few moments to pick themselves up. As she rose to her feet and her hearing began to recover she could hear the priest shouting once more about Kraam’s power and that they should sound the retreat, but his voice was silenced as a colossal axe came crashing down onto him, cleaving the servant of Justinain in twain, spraying the others with his blood. Nast stared in horror at the hand gripping the battlements behind the slain preist, which a Dread Warrior swiftly used, on conjunction with the axe it had used as an improvised ice axe to haul himself over the parapet. His hooves hammered into the stonework of the wall into a space the retinue had instinctively formed as the scrambled away from their butchered comrade.

The Dread warrior was a horrific sight, standing almost 4 times the size of Nast herself, the minotaur was a visage of exposed muscle, his skin incapable of containing the raging magic that fueled the monstrous warriors incredible strength. That same magic burned in place of his eyes, were raging flames now stared down at his diminutive prey. Nast glanced along the wall, where similar scenes were playing out. With the gate breached, it would soon be time to call the retreat but as she reached for the horn with which to call it, she found the leather strap on her armor empty. To her horror, she saw the horn lying close to the dread warrior, next to the slain priest. Rage engulfed her and instead of simply searching for a replacement she drew her sword and charged the monster, screaming a warcry. Spurred into action by her shout, her retinue joined her, bodyguards, mages and advisors all, charged the Dread Warrior together, taking up her cry.

“For This World's End!”

The warcry was met with a twitch in the neck of the dread warrior, followed by a psychotic roar which exposed the heat inside of the unstable dread warrior, a piece of its cheek fell off in a gross slodge as the monster charged the retinue with its head tilted.
A heroic attempt was made by a ratman in heavy armour as he moved in with his glaive to try and gut it from its left.
But with a sudden increase in speed, the dread warrior swung its axe, letting go of it with its right hand and cleaved the poor warrior in twain from shoulder to the right leg. The flesh hissing from the heat and the armour red hot along the cut.

It grabbed Nasts scribe, a kobold which screamed in rage and fear as the dread warrior picked him up, roared in his face and slammed him into one of Nasts soldiers crushing them both. Swiping with the axe three others were thrown to the ground as Nast managed to close in.
Her righteous warcry was turned into a cough as the dread warrior responded with goring her and one of her bodyguards with its horns. She was nearly thrown over the railing protecting from falling into the courtyard below, the rail creaking and bending violently as she dangled precariously.
Her bodyguard had not been so lucky as she saw him pierced upon the left horn of the dread warrior, seemingly not even slowing it down as it slammed its axe into the floor barely missing a few of her retinue, albeit showering them with stone shards.

The hooves of the dread warrior left burning prints as it moved and red tattoos began to shine brighter as the monstrum raged on.
Nasts retinue mage managed to cast a bolt of ice through its abdomen as two warriors managed to stab it with a glaive and a spear in the neck and torso respectively.
Letting out a bawl, the dread warrior took hold of the spear and used it to fling the poor goblin over the crenelations while it stomped down hard on the one who got him in the neck with such force there was barely anything recognizeable left as the hoof crushed its way through flesh bone and leather alike leaving singed flesh which smelled horrifically.

Nast picked herself of the floor and rejoined the fray. You don’t get to be the a general in the union, much less the only general on the council, by being a shoddy fighter and the space unfortunately provided by the Dread Warrior’s thinking of her retinue allowed her to show this off. The rat woman nimbly dodged the first blow of the warrior’s axe, the magic infused blade causing a massive crack in the stone floor as Nast darted behind him, swinging her sword at the exposed muscles on the back of one of his legs, steel hacking through flesh and coming away red hot, causing her to drop the blade. The minotaur stumbled , his footfalls unsteady from his damaged leg. Nast darted past a grabbing hand, before trying to get clear but unable to retrieve the horn.

As the beast stumbled a Corvant rouge nimbly leaped up onto the battlements of the wall, hopping from one to the other with swift footfalls till he came up behind the minotaur, leaping from the stonework and driving his twin poisoned blades into the shoulders of their foe. The Dread warrior roared in pain as the toxins necrotized part of his shoulder and left arm, only to be burned away by the intense heat within. He shook his body to and fro, tossing the Corvant from his back. The unfortunate rogue was sent plummeting from the wall to the mercy of horde below. A Gnoll matriarch, largest and strongest of the Unionists present yet still dwarfed by the monster, grabbed ahold of his axe handle. An orange light in the shape of a wolf was suffused over her body, coming from a Gnoll mage behind her, gave her the strength to briefly wrestle the Warrior for possession of his weapon. Taking this chance, Nast came in again, drawing a dagger and leaping up towards the Dread warriors exposed heart. Just as she did this, the Gnoll mage collapsed, his life force sacrificed to give the Matriarch every second he could, but with his help gone the blade came crashing down on the woman, slicing part of her face and her arm clean off. It gave Nast the time she needed however, as she grabbed one of the warriors horns with one hand and with the other drove the knife into the heart of the beast, over and over again till it collapsed.
Reaching with its hand towards Nast as it stumbled with all of its flesh falling off its body until only the skeleton still remained, with a brief final intensity the fire faded and the minotaur skeleton collapsed on the floor smoking and degrading, only the horns would remain in the end.

Landing on her feet, Nast retrieved the horn and had a few scant moments to look at the slaughtered forms of her people, many of their corpses were left unrecognisable by the Dread warriors wrath. The Gnoll who had let her strike the killing blows lay dead, her hand grasping that of the mage to whom she had crawled to before dying of blood loss. Her name had been Shansera, the general duly recalled. There was no time to mourn the dead however, more Minotaurs were coming, the defender’s firepower having been disrupted by the first few arrival had allowed more to survive their climb, it was time to go.

Nast pressed the horn to her lips, ready to sound the retreat.


[hr]


Down below Kraam’s gate breach had caused greater devastation upon the troops set to receive him. The unfortunate assembly, particularly the crew of a small number of artillery pieces pointed at the entrance, had been showered with projectile speed splinters, Blinding and bloodying many. One thing that had not been damaged was an insane combination of beast magic and machine cooked up by a number of mages that hid behind it’s bulk. Semi affectionately named [url=https://imgur.com/a/GdCBZ]Toto[/url] by it’s creators, the beast that had once been a dog had been grown to propostorose sizes by their magic, and then coated with steel armor and magic infused artificial muscles fused to it’s flesh resulting in a massive tank of a beast. Drawing Theurgia from their dying comrades all around them, the mages supercharged their creation, electricity similar to that fired from the Union’s lightning cannons arched across it’s body, in particular between the 4 rods on its back and two large mana batteries on it’s shoulders. The creature gave a metallic tinged howl as it was let slip by it’s masters, bounding towards Kraam, crashing into the Minotaur’s storming through the gate, the blows of its armored front paws resulting in thunderous retorts as it delivered deadly shocks to any that tried to strike it. 

As the beast bounded over much of the indwelling forces, heading straight for the biggest and most obvious target as it had been taught, the union soldiers, bleeding from the splinters, rushed in on the disrupted intruders, forming a pike and spear wall across the main street that D’ave had so recently road up to reach the Keep beyond. In the buildings on either side shutters were thrown open on second story windows as soldiers and civilians rained down arrows, pistol shots and throw objects at the oncoming Minotaurs. The bloodthirsty horde crashed into the haphazard mob of defenders, enchanted armor shrugged off projectiles as weapons obliterating Unionists in showers of gore. At the same time the mass produced weapons of the Militia forces jabbed, and stabbed, causing death by a thousand cuts.

Behind the crude phalanx the mages who had made ToTo channeled yet more magic each forming their own favored spells to assist their martial comrades. A barrage of fireballs, chunks of ice, balls of acid, jars of venomous spiders and other projectiles were lobbed over the heads of the spear Militia, crashing down upon the Minotaurs not yet in direct combat with the Union forces causing chaotic destruction among their ranks.

Kraam noticed something new there, a massive canine beast of metal. He barely had time to think about it before it leapt at him slamming minotaurs aside like minotaurs fling goblins with their stampede.
Grabbing hold of where its jaws would be, being constantly shocked by electrical fury, Kraam was pushed back several yards before he hefted its weight and flung the beast over him using its momentum.
Toto rolled once but quickly got back to his feet as he renewed his onslaught, slamming his paws down trying to smash Kraam as he dodged, deflected and shrugged off the attacks.
Then he saw an opening, Toto slammed his right paw hard into the ground as Kraam made a powerful upward strike which cut a massive gash in the canines right shoulder, unleashing the purple lightning that was stored in the axe inside the flesh which twitched and began smoking.

For a moment Kraam thought he had slain the beast before it shook it off violently before making an attempt at a howl, a hellish sound of metal, lightning and anguish, followed by renewing its assault.

ToTo hammered the god-eater with his still working fist, sending him skidding backwards as he blocked the thundershock, before following up his hit with another charge, dragging his damaged limb behind him. Midway through this the metal beast jumped into the air, curling up into a ball and rolling like a wrecking ball of lighting towards Kraam. The Bloodied master sidestepped this attack with ease, causing it to crash into the warriors assembling behind him, the lot of them collapsing into a tangled mess of oversized canine and bullmen. ToTo pulled itself from the mess, preparing to strike again, but the Bloodied had learned from the mistakes of the others and instead of getting close to the beast threw axes, hammers and spears at the beast, each impact doing superficial damage until one lucky throw hit one of the Mana batteries on ToTo’s shoulder, the same shoulder that was attached to his already damaged arm. The resulting detonation said of blast of lightning and raw magic into the minotaur's, killing several, but left ToTo with only three functioning limbs.

Now the vanguard arrived with its steadily advancing shield wall, Kraam was hefting his axe in preparation for Toto's charge some in the vanguard with special lightning protection shields ran up and began to suck up the electrical assault, followed by a large and impressive minotaur that bulldozed into the monster and toppled it from the side.
Its more vurnerable belly exposed and with the majority of the electrical discharges taken care of, the vanguard stormed in and began hacking Toto to death with enchanted swords and axes.
One finished Toto off with a massive shield slam to his head. The bull who had toppled Toto ripped open its chestplate and then ripped out the still pulsing heart of the beast, held it aloft and squeezed it and drank its blood. Theurgia appearing on his form.
Followed by a massive roar by everyone present apart from Kraam, who noted.
-"You stealing my kills? I might not bring you along next time if that's how you gonna do it."
Followed by a moment of silence and then a laugh. He didn't mean it, but for a moment they doubted him.
Leading the vanguard, Kraam now marched into the open gates.

At that moment Nast’s horn is sounded, a long loud call that is picked up by others around the fortress. The call for retreat has come. Those that can break of combat and flee, scurrying down from the wall on ladders, rickety stairways and ropes and those that can vanish into the unruly and cramped mess that is the Union’s infrastructure within the castle walls. Most however run and scamper up the few main roads up towards the keep, past hastily built traps and gateways that are sprung or closed in their passing to stall the faster Bloodied forces. What these traps was and how effective they where was varied, each trap hastily built by the local noncombatants with whatever they had on hand. Barrels of tar and oil were tipped over, bear traps were scattered and horses and oxen were driven down the roads behind the survivors as they ran for safety. In other places carts where hastily shoved out of alleyways into the road, their axles shattered with lumber axes once they where in possitoin. 

 When the horn came for the spear wall of the gate, they had actually gained a wee bit of ground before the mages ran out of magic, the front rows of spear militia standing atop the bodies of fallen minotaurs and unionists to get a better chance at stabbing their enemies heads. But with the horde already upon them, they couldn't simply break off and run without being overrun, so they carefully, methodically, gave ground, the entire formation retreating as one. 

Being the last section to retreat, the union spear wall was hounded relentlessly by the bloodied, while an all out rout would have been catastrophic the slow rout was a painfully slow journey with many casualties. Several times a javelineer, dread warrior or a regular bloodied launched themselves from above into the formation to disrupt it, killing many before being put down with great effort.
The spear wall was also beginning to lose heart since Kraam and the vanguard was marching steadily towards them, with more speed than they backed off.

From in front the keep above, where it sat atop a rocky crag at the end of the old main road through the fortress, Nast watched the beleaguered spearmen with resignation. Down to her left was a newer road built by the Union that lead to the true heart of the fortress: the recently excavated entrance to the dwarf hold beneath their feet. It must once have been a resplendent gateway, the figures of noble dwarfs and terrifying dragons could be barely seen in engraved around it, but time and weather had first eroded and then buried the entryway. The hold had only been discovered because the Keep’s builders dug into it while making the fort’s dungeons and the Union, after they captured the fortress, had subsequently dug out from the inside of the hold to free up the true entrance. Now the Union masses crowded around the entrance, their passage down into the hold painfully slow as, other than the basement entrance in the Keep and a few claustrophobic crawl tunnels, the gate was the only way down. This made the hold supremely defensible, but painfully slow to move troops into. The traps, barricades and spear wall were all that was keeping the slow moving ground from being pinned and slaughtered against the cliff face.

She had hoped, prayed, that the task of holding the main road would not be a suicide mission, but as Kraam, that damnable bastard, approached, she knew for sure those brave Justinians they were doomed. If she, if anyone, survived this, their sacrifice would not be forgotten. Songs would be sung of their heroic last stand. For now though, she had to make their, and everyone else's, sacrifices worth it. She nervously tapped her hand against the horn at her hip, unconsciously ensuring it was still there, ready to give the next signal.

Kraam who kept a faster pace than his vanguard had almost reached the spear line when a trio of brave unionists charged him and tried to impale him upon their spears, attempting to buy time for their comrades and giving themselves to the will of justinian.
Kraam however was sorely impressed with the meek mortals whom hadn't even managed to scratch his armour, the spears stuck in joints and mail.
With a lazy motion he used his axe to break the spears, with his left hand he picked up a goblin, bit open its torso and took his heart in his mouth and then tossed the corspe away.
The bloodied lord held the still beating heart in his hand as its blood drenched his mouth.
-"I will drink your blood, i will use this sacrifice to become stronger." Kraam boomed out so it echoed over the formations, he then bit the heart and swallowed it all.
-"And there is NOTHING, you can do about it." He followed up while pointing his axe towards the closest kobold, who panicked.
With that Kraam let out a shilling roar which cast down the soldiers closest to him, a good dozen or two were thrown to the ground.

Picking up a rodant warrior, Kraam flung the poor sod horizontally into the formation with such force it had the same effect as a heavy cannon ball.
He stomped on another soldier with such might the ground heaved, then he charged forth swinging his axe, emitting a purplish field of energy which made it difficult to even be close to the red god without the eyes, mouth and orifices bleeding profusely.
Each blow killing several soldiers, bodies were flung, crushed and fried with the electrical power and molten core of Kraam's axe.
The spear formation was being quickly decimated, it didn't help that dozens of bloodied warriors joined the fray with a roar, not to be outdone by anyone else, and to prove they were strong enough to join the vanguard.

Nast was briefly stunned by the shear carnage layed upon the spear wall by the Bloodied’s leader and by the time she raised the trumpet to her mouth all of the defenders of the main road where dead. 3 long, mournful tones blasted out from the instrument, muffled somewhat by the still ongoing rain of blood. The silence that followed loomed large as she held her breath. Then one of the warehouses exploded. Then another, and another as martyrs of justinian crept out of hiddy holes, barrels and rafters in the various gunpowders stores scattered throughout the fortress and lit the dark powder alight. Blinding light and a deafening cacophony engulfed the Bloodied warriors who had pursued the defenders only to get bogged down in the traps and barricades thrown up behind them. The entire defense of the wall had been bait from the start, as Nast and her advisers had predicted that the minotaurs were clever enough to see an empty fortress as a trap, and they had decided this was the most effective use of the garrison and supplies that would buy the survivors the most time in the depths as they awaited relief. 

The blast, they hoped, would take out enough of the minotaurs leadership and vanguard to stall their siege of the dwarf hold and now burning wreckage of the warehouses and barracks in the lower parts of the fortress would make setting up that siege a logistical nightmare. There was one possibility they had not considered however, and as Nast looked upon the ruination of her fortress her eyes went wide and her heart sank at the sight of that miscalculation. She turned and in an undignified scamper, made her way inside the keep as fast as her four limbs could carry her, shouting at the bureaucrats ferrying paperwork, maps and the treasury down into the depths. 

“Drop everything! Get inside now!”

The blasts were impressive, scores, dozens.... probably even hundreds of bloodied had been caught in the titanic blasts. What Nast however had noticed and what made her heart sink so much was the fact that the one she had hoped to take out with the trap was very much alive.
Kraam was annoyed, such an obvious trap and he stepped right into it. As he pondered he got annoyed with the dead minotaur laying on top of him, which he promptly tossed away. 

He observed the losses his forces had suffered. Loads of regular warriors, many from the vanguard, a bunch of javilineers.
Overall he was pleased, his forces had taken the ambush better than he thought. In truth several thousands of bloodied had fallen, but in the grand picture this was expected.

For the moment though, his forces were in disarray, almost the entire vanguard was knocked down, basically everyone of the regular warriors who had entered the fort were dead. Had the union in some way been able to have troops immune to explosives they would wreak havoc if they charged in right now.
Luckily, no such troops existed.
Kraam strolled forward, began to trot, followed by a straight up charge.
The union forces were beginning to panic as they saw the enraged red god gaining on their position with frightening speed.
He ran with his hands stretched out, channeling power into his axe, around his axe... just in general really, the purplish haze was changed for embers and traces of fire, small pebbles and a few cobblestones from the road began to hover strangely with a sort of inner vibration next to the bloodied god as he passed, some followed, some just fell down again.
The air distorted and Kraam's form became more blurried, his roar not only in materia, but on other planes of existance as well.

Within the mouth of the carved entrance to the dwarf hold, standing effortlessly on the walls and ceiling above the fleeing crowds stood 5 Chiropian mage. Clad in brown dirty robes, their eyes, pointed ears and nose covered in masks of obsidian that seemed fused seamlessly to their flesh. Carved into the black stone and highlighted by white pigment was the eye of justinian held within the Dwarven rune for earth. They stood on the surface of the horizontally ovaloid tunnel with their feet melded to the stone in the same way the masks were to their faces. Though they could not see him approach the mages knew, from the screams of the now stampeding warriors below and the heavy thumps of his hooffalls vibrating through the earth itself, perverting it to his will, that death approached all who remained on the surface. Those who had failed to get inside must be abandoned lest all share their fate. Bending to the surfaces of the walls the mages placed their hands to the stone and slowly began to walk backwards into the earth. As they walked the stone they had touched grew upwards, five cones of rock growing towards the center of the tunnel like a closing maw. Screams, shouts and pleas came from those that could not enter for them to stop, but the mages continued their task wordlessly as the tunnel was sealed, the five fangs of rock crashing together to form a seal.  

Hundreds of Unionists were left behind, Kraam tearing into their rear and pinning them against the cliff face. Those remaining despaired, panicked or fought futilely as they were butchered by the Red God, till a goblin priest clambered atop the shoulders of one of his flock, brandishing a curved knife and screamed at Kraam “I give my life for Justinian so you may not have it” before slitting his own throat, the tattoos marring his face and body glowing white for a brief moment as the goblin sacrificed himself. Other quickly followed his example, preferring to die at their own hands rather than from Kramm’s unholy blade, shooting themselves, slitting their own throats or falling on their swords. In the end about a third of those left at Kraam’s mercy managed to die at their own hands rather than his. The base of the cliff was stained red with blood and it’s face painted with gore from those who fell to Kraam’s titanic blows. 

The reason he managed to take so many was partly that as he saw his foes beginning to sacrifice themselves to justinian, he countered with using the red fists of Zul, with the power to trap the souls of those they were used upon.
It was a frantic struggle for some to try and sacrifice themselves for justinian before Kraam could point the palm of one of the monstrous artifacts and suck the soul and lifeforce out of the victim leaving a dried husk behind.

Behind the slaughter the Mages used the last of their strength to finish sealing 30 M of the tunnel, it’s entrance now indistinguishable from the rest of the wall. Their task done they were left suspended from the tunnel's ceiling, the stone having grown out from their mask, up their hands and feet till it had left them statues kneeling before their seal, and before Kraam’s power. Above, the last of those who had chosen to enter the hold via the keep’s dungeon succeeded in fleeing below, and the secondary entrance was sealed in a far less magic manner, a series of gunpowder explosions collapsing the various floors on top of the smaller tunnel.

As Kraam saw the result of the magic closure of the path, he roared in hatred and swung his axe upon the cliff wall, the fortress below shuddered and shook from the blows and families and soldiers alike hid in the corners and hallz below, with dirt raining from the ceilings, engineers forced to add supports to some area or risk collapses.
Luckily the might of the fortress was stronger than Kraam's patience and as such not even a single passage the defenders did not raze themselves collapsed.

Turning to his horde, the red god raised his axe and the response was a mighty cry of victory. So fierce was it that even below ground did the unionists hear the terrifying bloodied horde.
-"Now seize all the food, and cook the dead. MEAT IS ON THE MENU AGAIN!!!!" Kraam boomed out and the response was a massive exhilerated roar and a mass looting spree.
Every corpse from after the battle, all the supplies left above ground, the fields and the granaries were stripped of anything edible and taken.


While the beasts above feasted upon their fallen comrades the survivors cowered in the dark labyrinth of the Dwarf hold, terrified that at any moment Kraam would simply split the mountain in half with his axe and they would all be slaughtered. It was only hour later, once some brave rogues had survived creeping back to the surface via crawl tunnels to report on the enemy's activities that the garrison could come crashing down from the adrenaline high that had kept them alive during the battle. Nast and her remaining advisor knew there was nothing that could be done with the hungry and exhausted soldiers and so, barring a rotating watch of the two entrances, most of them were left to their own device in order to recuperate. 

The Unionists settled into the Dwarven tomb as well as they could, where they slept huddled together for warmth or ate cold, month old salted meat or stale bread for dinner. Priests walked tirelessly among the masses, aiming to heal both the body, mind's and spirit’s of Justinian's servants with words, herbs and any Theurgia that could be spared. For her part Nast tried to sleep, but her dreams were plagued by Kraam, the decaying Dread warrior and blood. So much blood. It was a dismal night for the defeated, for they were convinced that come dawn above, hell would descend from the surface to slaughter them all in the dark.