The Escape

As the dark dwarf scrambles off, Korg rushed forward drawing a roll of bandages from his belt. He flipped Roark over and gasped at the sight of the gruesome wound. As he tightly wrapped the bandages around Roark’s back to stop the flow of blood Roark gasped in pain. “Easy brother, you’re going to live.” Assured Korg. With that he heard footsteps from the direction of Torm. Already? The dark dwarves could not have reached the city yet. Thought Korg. He drops Roark, spinning as he does, his battleaxe already in hand. “AAARRRRGGGGG!” He screamed fully prepared to sacrifice himself to kill as many dark dwarves as possible!

However, the footsteps belonged to five fellow Tallos members. Korg watched as they scrambled into view closely followed by their commanding officer and exhaled in relief. “Dark dwarves attacked…. we fended them off but it cost us dearly” Korg explained gesturing to the many corpses littering the ground, “One escaped, he’s fetching reinforcements!” Just as Korg finished speaking fifty some dark dwarves scrambled into view from the side tunnel the other dark dwarf had gone into. “Retreat!” yelled the officer and Korg picked up Roark and started to climb the steep slope to the gates of Torm. Hand axes whistled through the air to bury themselves into two Tallos’ backs. They went down hard and tumbled down the slope knocking a couple dark dwarves down onto their faces. Finally, the great stone gates of Torm came into view revealing rank upon rank of battle hardened dwarven warriors. Korg gave a cheer. There were at least a hundred dwarves standing in formation, weapons held ready in clenched hands. They parted making a path straight into Torm. Korg handed Roark off to one of the other Tallos and joined the dwarves in their ranks.

Just 2 tunnels away the black robed figure stalked ever closer, surrounded by a swarm of terrified dark dwarves. Just how important is this city to the master? Should I show myself? The figure was unable to decide whether to participate in the final battle for Torm or to let the dark dwarves die by themselves.

Choose reader. Should the figure enter the battle in favor of the dark dwarves or stay out of it letting the dark dwarves fight by themselves?