It wasn't a pleasant time. More than a few of those things were tired of crawling in the night and wanted their time in the Sun. Only they couldn't, and settled for bringing night with them.
And the Militia were right in their way.
Now Cordor has it's Guard. But Brogendenstein up north ways divides things up. Top of the pile is the Thane's Kuldarn. Now, if you're all set up to fight in a mining shaft like the clans, what you have there is what they call a narrow frontage. Forget flanking or fancy stuff like that. It's a straight-up brawl with whatever axes and magical waggling can be thrown about over the top. In a fight like that, you want the few folks up front to be the best you have, with all the glowing runes. That's the Thane's Kuldarn.
Now, they're not always about. Off fighting dragons or getting those runes. So there's the Militia that minds the stores and Gates. They're kuldarn too, if you know your Dwarvish. But the Thane's Kuldarn are the elite. You can tell by the capital letters.
Behind them are all the ordinary clanfolk, most of whom can remember which end of an axe is which. But if they're asking Great-Uncle Bruni to dust off the family rune axe then things are getting real bad. The world is full of folks trying to kill the clans, and not so full of clanfolk. If they're not trading one warrior for a couple of dozen enemies the arithmatic just doesn't work.
It's a brutal game. The hold moves the Kuldarn around the great gameboard of survival, blocking enemies off, and the enemies try to shift their pieces about so they can get at the soft bits. Well, the hold ain't got too many soft bits, so let's call them the bits that are softer. The hold's good at the game when the enemy is all angry and shouty. Not so good against things they can't see coming.
If you ask me, that's the reason why the Earthkin Alliance works. Well, when it is working, that is. If I ever wanted to know what was happening, I asked about in Bendir. Hin get everywhere. And by everywhere I mean everywhere. If something went missing in Bendir it tended to stay missing. I eventually wised up and stayed away from their missing property jobs. But if there was someone who seriously pissed them off. Well, they could tell you who, where, and how many freckles.
Anyway, the Iron Anvil Clan out at Camp Duin probably blamed themselves after it all got settled. But it wasn't their fault and noone blamed them. There's some things that don't show up in a telescope. No matter how much you polish the lens.
This time it was vampires hunkered down in an ancient fortress way north of the hold. They skulked down the mountains one at a time, and nobbled the Militia one at a time. Downside of having a team that can fell dragons is that the ones on the Gate ain't exactly Brog's finest.
Now, the thing about there not being too many of us, is that if we don't know names and faces, we know how things should be done. It became pretty obvious pretty quick that a whole bunch of us weren't operating with a full satchel of throwing axes, as it were. Even for yours truly just wandering through.
Turned out the Thane and his Council were all over it. And I got roped in to make up numbers. I couldn't have been more out of my depth if you slapped Kuldar plate on me and dropped me over the side of the Ironhelm.
Sometimes you pick the job. And sometimes the job picks you.