bunn

Previously...
We marched into the fort of Bosvik, a well-defended spot occupying the only pass through the mountains to the Stiff-beard capital. There were two sets of gates, and all traffic travelling through the pass must travel through both of them.
Here we are, just arrived at Bosvik. You can just see the southern gate in the background, and the Dwarves who have come with us lined up in rows behind the tables in the main courtyard. The Northern gate is defended by the square tower and portcullis.

It's a pretty amazing fort, so here are some more pics of it. It only had a small garrison before we arrived.

The heroic Noldo Thorofin rushed straight through the fortress to the bridge outside the main-gate.
He found a very defensible looking bridge across a chasm.

Soon, refugees came flooding in over the bridge from Kuldheim, which we already knew had fallen to the ice-orcs. They were defended by a rear-guard of the remains of the Kuldheim garrison, ten stalwart Dwarves led by Sergeant Hepti. The garrison had been fifty, and this was all that was left. We sent the refugees on through the gate, and kept the rearguard in the fort to rest, recover, and help us defend the pass.

That night, we were attacked, and soon discovered the bridge was indeed, very defensible indeed.
Orcs fell like leaves in autumn under our arrows fired from the walls.

After that, there was a Suspicious Lull. Thorofin bravely went out to the ice-orc camp to find out what the orcs were planning. He was in disguise wearing his bat-hood, which creates a very effective illusion of fitting in with the crowd. Here he is in the orc-camp:

Successive waves of attacks followed over the next few days. Oceans of orcs were slain (many of them by Angruin, who firing from above with the Bow of Angrod, hit his mark pretty much every time), and yet they could not breech the bridge!

When the numbers started getting out of hand, some of the Mountaineer Dwarves brought down an avalanche on the ice-orc's heads. They were careful to make sure that the avalanch from the peaks only came down on the orcs' side of the Chasm. But soon, the orcs dug through the avalanche and were joined by trolls. It was getting pretty difficult to even get at the bridge, because of the pile of corpses. (They didn't all pile up at once. This happened over several days.)

Brunor, a 'giant of a Dwarf', the Stiff-beard king's personal bodyguard, who had come with us to defend Bosvik, was determined not to be put off, even if it meant climbing over a mountain of fallen enemies. Only Thrandin's best persuasive shouting was able to persuade him that it would not end well if he insisted on throwing himself into battle against trolls.

This seems as good a time as any for a photo of Yama Bungle in armour:

(the armour was made, oddly, not by Dwarves or Noldor, but by Sirithglor. Truly, she has all the skills. )

And then... Oh no! The orcs & trolls had found a way down into the Chasm under the bridge.
They had dug sideways and come up through the mine tunnels into the very fortress!
Some of the valiant defenders had time to line up barrels, chests and tables to try to slow them down, before they burst the door open.

But it didn't slow them for long. The enemy burst through the line of chests, to be met by none other than the heroic Hidek, in the form of a bear!

That's a pair of white Dwarvish War-boars in the foreground there.

The battle was a ferocious one! Thorofin zipwired from a tower onto the walls and into the fray!
More and more trolls came bursting in!

Outside the walls, orcish shamans had summoned up whirlwinds, causing some consternation among the stalwart Dwarven defenders, some of whom had to zip-wire away from a tower using their elite mountaineering skills.
Sirithglor managed to hijack the whirlwinds and use them to deter the attackers.

Here is a composite Art representing all of that. Background zipwiring dwarves and in the foreground, an Orcnado full of flying dead orcs in a whirlwind.

Thorofin was very badly injured in the battle, but Sirithglor managed to heal him. Several of the heroic Dwarf defenders were slain, including Dormo Firebeard, captain of Bosvik, who had spent the last twenty-odd years pretending to be a total drunk so he wouldn't get promoted and have to take excessive responsibility. What an icon.

But at last, we had held the fort long enough for the Dwarvish reinforcements which had been down in Borr to march up and relieve us. We had done a great deal of damage to the invading ice-orcs, particularly with our avalanches, and it seemed pretty sure that the Stiff-beards under the command of Badrin son of king Sudrinwould be able to mop up the remains. We marched out with honour, and returned to Kibil-Tarag to lick our wounds and follow our mission.

.... and I still have a great deal more but this will have to do for now!