Hearing no further opinions, our epic thread and adventure comes to a close.
The battle rages through the darkness of the early day and the defenders seem as if they will break the attackers will when the sky lightens. The zombies and fiends are unimpressed by the dull grey hour of daylight and manage to hold the attackers lines until the darkness returns. Then the barbarians redouble their assault.
Asinjin spends the battle moving from one spell generator to another, using his purifying power to throw white fireballs where it seems the defenders lines might crumble. Most times the spells turn the tide but some times they do not and the soldiers or marines are overrun or pinned against the wall where no one can aid them.
Rubius spends most of the battle acting as a sniper, firing his holy arrows at fiends and barbarian leaders. He is very effective until a little after darkness returns when he is hit with a dispel that renders him visible and (he quickly discovers) unable to fly. He is forced to jump down to Damon to avoid a swarm of the winged brain fiends that you have seen before. He tries to return to his perch but the swarm returns and seems to have another means of locating him. He is forced to fight beside Ari until he is exhausted and then one of the giants picks him up and keeps him on his back until he too must withdraw for a respite.
Parker, as befitting his skills and reputation, spends the battle doing a variety of things. He serves as a protector for the wizards, all of whom exhaust their spells before the second darkness and continue in the battle using wands and staves from the treasury. He also adds spells of distraction and offense when needed and finally fighting a winged fiend, though Nisoru eventually helps him dispatch that opponent.
On the field the defenders eventually are broken into three groups. The first, well east of the Juggernaut and gate is centered on Damon and his giants. They suffer terribly from the fiends fire spells and the barbarians flaming spears and arrows but the ice gnome clerics heal them quickly, knowing that each one is worth dozens of smaller soldiers. After hours of battle a dwarven officer sends fifty of his warriors through the lines in a shield wall to the juggernaut. They smash the ends of the rollers using muscle and spells and soon begin passing boulders behind the lines to the giants. They in turn begin throwing them at point blank range into the horde, each inflicting terrible casualties. Damon proves himself nearly unchallengeable. Any berserker who vaulted the dwarven lines was instantly cut down and only once when a swarm of the winged brains seemed as if he would be overwhelmed. Asinjin's holy fire rescued him on that occasion. By the end of the battle dwarves, gnomes and humans took up the cry The White Mountain.
The second group forms around Arion, Ajax and the Knights. This group is the most disciplined, benefiting from the leadership and inspiration of those warriors but also because the soldiers are members of elite units inuding the Castle Guard and Diamond Brigades. In the early hours the soldiers fought in their own units and the Knights and paladins in a single block on their own, trying to break the enemy lines with their skill and mighty auras. The undead and berserkers proved largely immune to such magics (Ajax and Arion excepted) and held through the brief daylight. When the defenders were pushed back at great loss the knights and Arion separated and each joined one of the regular units. From then on their losses were far less severe.
There were exceptions among the heroes. Ajax rode back and forth along the lines, exhausting his spells and divine power against fiends and zombies and giving aid to weakened units. Nisoru mounted Elayu and descended upon one berserker chieftain after another, cutting them each down in a flurry of katana strokes before remounting Elayu to seek another. In the air he challenged those fiends that dared to return, sending them all back to the infernal planes.
Arion tried to do the same but King Oliver brought him back to lead the castle guard. Their block never broke and wrought terrible damage against the Cavehome waves that came against them.
