Chapter 98

It’s a pity.

I didn’t get a chance to admire more of the dwarven architecture. But it had a really interesting foundation of using circles within the castle to build off strength from each other. The formation was unexpected because I’d thought the castle system would use squares and blocks. But this style didn’t. I still don’t know if this architectural feature is unique to this area or in all dwarven towns.

I asked Svinn about this as we began marching up to the top of the ramparts on the stone stairs, where we found a whole bunch of dwarven sharpshooters. Of course they probably haven’t ever seen a bunch of humans in a small keep like this so we get a lot of attention. Their whole community is staring at us under torchlight.

Having pretty females with me didn’t help with that any. Asakura gets the most attention like usual, but ignores it.

Much of the dwarven soldiers are extremely well equipped. I’m also studying them. I find this startling since the map and strategy meetings labeled this as a small village keep. Yet despite this, every one of them has top of the line equipment. They are all in a shiny well made and sparklingly shining chain mail that would make a banker jealous. Plus the cone helmets with a well made chin strap and guard, shin gaurds, mail skirt, chain gloves, and at least a crossbow and pike. There were follow up items of either sword and shield, or warhammer and shield with many of them having a backup short sword or long daggers tucked away in scabbards.

And this is the village people? What will I see in the big major castle towns? Does this mean their system is better circulating wealth into all towns and not just the big towns?

Wow. They are impressive.

But they lack cavalry. They also are vastly outnumbered from what it sounds like about the goblins outside town. They seem a bit too serious for me as well and have straight faces that don’t give any hint of emotion. It’s harder to read people like that. I can never tell if they like us or dislike us.

Of course you wouldn’t need cavalry if you were only defending, and you could use the pikes against whatever the goblins and orcs have for cavalry. But each type of unit needs its own tweaked defense.

It’s clear that they don’t plan to leave the keep any time soon when I turn and face outwards from the wall into the underground valley below.

“Crap, when did so many of them show up?” Rina exclaimed.

Even though she can’t see in the dark she can see all the goblin campfires lit up surrounding the keep. They haven’t lit up the campfires for cooking and camping only but to try to intimidate the dwarves by how many of them are out there. I keep a hold of her so she doesn’t go near the wall edge in the darkness and steer her around. I also have Asakura help me.

So we arrived just in time for an invasion.

What bad luck.

But this is a good time to experiment.

I’ve been having a hard time using the paladin holy light spell because I’m afraid of how it will mix with the demon box DNA influencing what was happening to us. I’ll be able to work out the kinks on the goblins hopefully.

But I can use what I learned about how to transfer the focus of a spell from my hand and being held to instead put it on a weapon.

Like a crossbow bolt…Ahh this will work nicely. And I can test it out without even having to come out from behind this nice cozy dwarven siege wall.

Svinn teams up with me eagerly after I pitch the idea to him. My enthusiasm is picked up on by him easily enough and sells it more than the facts. He can tell I believe it will work by the look on my face. Of course I gave him a spill and an excuse of it being a new and imperfect skill which is partly true anyway.

It helps too, that he’s also a crossbow expert, and likes to push his limits. This will give him a new high for his thrills as we begin working it out.

We place the spell carefully on his bolt but I’m immediately flinching back from its burning effect. This is tricky because I don’t want Svinn to notice how much the burning of the paladin light affects me now. It doesn’t affect normal humans like Rina, or dwarves.

I’m lucky I have both my shield up and the resistance buff.

Svinn lets loose the crossbow quarrel which has a light radius about it, since its foundation is very similar to a light spell radius.

We’re shocked when in the distance there’s a mini explosion. I can’t help but notice that other goblins within about five to ten feet in radius from the impact are also ignited and screaming. I’m about 90% certain the first goblin is dead. There’s a cry out of revenge among the goblin voices below en masse.

“That’s different. I thought they’d be in despair,” I said.

“That’s because they haven’t gotten their spirit broken yet. We need to make sure they do. You don’t want to turn your back on them when they are still rebellious and defiant,” he said.

It’s too bad I need another co-conspirator to use this skill though since my demon DNA makes it painful to use directly without a proxy. But I am getting my skills worked out and it’s also true that I am getting monster cores. I doubt goblin monster cores are much good though. It makes me frown a lot. I guess this is a medieval version of artillery. It only works because the dwarves can see so far in the dark.

Wow I didn’t know it would have that much bang in it. Pound per pound, in the hands of someone well trained the crossbow is as powerful as a gun. But it just can’t compensate with the rate of fire of a gun.

“What the hell?!” I exclaimed as we watch another paladin light aura explode on contact.

The dwarves put up a cheer.

“What the fudge just happened? What is that?” Rina asked.

Asakura is hanging onto her and keeping her down so she doesn’t fall now that I’ve gotten busier.

“Don’t let her fall,” I urged to Asakura, who nods.

The keep wall is high up and sturdy with about three feet of room to walk in its width, not counting the crenellations and archer position holes that stick out from it. Now we’re hugging every inch of the ramparts that have crenellations and other stonework that provide shielding. The goblins don’t like being shot at and they have been trying to fire back at us. There are so many goblins that hundreds of arrows are shooting over our heads.

Despite their pathetic evil nature they aren’t bad marksmen. None of the dwarves’ will risk coming out from behind the battlements for a good reason. There’s a shower of black feathered primitive but effective homemade arrows with wooden shafts and flint points with raven or crow feathers I see as I inspect one of them.

I couldn’t help it. I was curious how their ecology and army manufacturing worked out.

“Apparently the paladin holy light is intense enough that it made the goblin explode?” I guessed looking at Svinn.

He nods excitedly, “dang, this is fun as hell. I could keep this up all day. Let’s go again,” he says like a kid that just got off a roller coaster. His fingers are also twitching greedily.

“Is that the paladin skill again?” Rina asked.

“Keep your head down,” I hissed.

Since we’re up here, even with the battlements I don’t dare risk Asakura or Rina’s health. They already have the runic shielding up, and so I added the protection from missiles buff. Since it lasts several hours each cast, it will work for this situation without wasting mana.

Suddenly the dwarves are really interested. They see we have a chance even though we are outnumbered significantly. They are trying to return fire, but with about three arrows fired by the goblins for every one of theirs they have to slow down their firing rate so that they can focus on staying alive.

It turns out that having cool armor doesn’t mean you can be reckless. Plus it’s heavy and hard to move around in. There are also weak spots too in the armor at the neck and in the armpits despite how well and clever it’s made.

“Eh? You have a paladin skill?” I realized it was Oleg, and he was close by us.

“More like light magic,” I said.

“I don’t know sounds paladin-ish to me,” Rina objected folding her arms.

“Whatever,” I said.

“How long will the goblin trash keep firing like this?” Rina asks out of turn while the enemy is trying to shoot back, with her hands protecting her head and hunkering down much like the position you would use for hiding under a desk in an earthquake during school.

We ignore her for the moment. But it’s not a bad question.

“Paladin skills are sacred to dwarves. We take great lengths to promote and take in paladins and those that can use anti-evil skills,” Svinn said with big eyes. He’s giving us a smile like we found money.

“Eh? Really?” I asked.

At this point I’m not sure what he wants. It’s probably small talk.

“So how much would it take to hire you?” he asked squinting at me carefully.

He’s got a business man kind of face and posture right now.

“Well, I’m on my way to a bigger town. I want to help really, but we’re searching for other survivors from our group. I’m also trying to find other mage training and better pay and buy an adventurer’s license,” I said.

“Come on let’s talk real money. We can help you out,” Svinn nods at me.

“I don’t think you have enough,” I said.

This town was pretty small…

How would a small town be able to support me and him both, plus whatever elite friends he has or inner circle people? And if he has mistresses it would be even worse?

“Ah, that’s too bad,” Svinn frowned after I rejected him again. I can see he thinks competing with that is a tall order. He’s doing some kind of calculations in his head. After awhile I can see a clouded look on his face.

I let the silence lengthen. If he was able to provide a real offer he’d stew over it for awhile and then come up with something.

But I’m also curious will he come up with something?

Maybe I can let him tempt me with an offer but still…can a small town even do much?

Which is a better deal, working for rich dwarves or working as an adventurer? Is there any real opportunity here?

I doubt the dwarves would permit a fence sitter trying to soak up both, because they are in the middle of a war.

We launch another crossbow bolt.

It impacts another goblin, which also explodes in red flames. His brethren are wounded too.

But the flames are put out on the others, so we are disappointed.

We keep launching more with the combination of dwarven genius and steel plus my magic augmenting the bolt’s destructive power terribly; but I wish I could see as far as Svinn. I can only see illuminated areas when it impacts and explodes but he can see the actual goblins…and goblin parts flying.

After the seventh goblin explodes he risks talking again.

“You know you might be able to secure some kind of military contract for mercenary work. Since you are conflicted about signing up for dwarven military, that might be an option. They do have mercenary contracts that they give out,” he said.

“Hm... well what kinds of benefits do they give?” I asked.

“its good pay, like a silver piece a week, plus room and board. They have great pay and good beer. They have a generous beer allowance for any contract, mercenary or dwarven regulars,” he burped then. He had sipped his canteen right before then and suddenly I suspect it’s not water.

“That’s a cheap offer,” I stated.

1 silver a week?

What an asshole. A lot of people are making that much in a day.

Does he think we’re stupid?

He frowned. “Ah, someone’s been teaching about our money and economy huh?”

“I’d been wondering about that,” Rina said. She’d been watching intently this whole time.

I hold my fingers over my lips signaling her to be quiet.

“Oops,” she said aloud.

Svinn picked up on it though, “ah, ahh I see how it is. Someone’s been coaching you huh?” he still smiled.

“Well it is a cheap offer and it doesn’t matter if someone is helping me because that’s really a low ball offer,” I said.

Svinn sighed, “The truth is…”

He paused. “Dwarves are happy to recruit mercenaries and help from humans and others…”

“But?” I guessed the next part had a complication.

He nodded, “there’s pressure from the top to not take away jobs from local people and our own. It’s not racism really. But dwarves have this ingrained mentality to one, avoid debt. Number two is, providing for your clan and support for your clan without corruption, and number three, giving dwarven jobs to non-dwarves is seen as a form of corruption unless it can be proven otherwise.”

“But if it saves dwarven lives…” Rina started to say.

“Saving dwarven lives is how we were able to justify the old ancient laws and change things to allow for foreign races and mercenaries, soldiers, etc. Another way is if we can prove it’s a skill that we can’t get in any other way through real dwarves. But it’s been a slow change and takes time to process. We’ve encountered some resistance still that are still in power and want officers to give non-dwarven officers a normal soldier rate and low ball rate for someone joining the military as if they have no skills in their pay grade.”

He frowned.

Shit. That’s a problem.

I’m suddenly thinking working for dwarves might not work out. I had been so positive I’d not banked on their gentle opposition through having a rule of putting their people first. I’m not sure much about them, but I think there are probably dwarven mages already.

It means it could also mean if we do get through a wage difference against us in favor of dwarven competitors despite how positive Svinn sounds; like eeking out a living probably competing against a dwarven higher standard of living cost. And I’m sure their better standard of living is this world’s equivalent of a sub-level of a developed medieval country.

We launched more crossbow bolts with the paladin holy light spell on them for the next three hours without talking much but it does seem like Svinn likes us. We have to be careful but the siege isn’t over. At some time I’ll be able to have some rest on a cot in a private housing area Svinn assures me.

That worries me.

My particular dietary needs and that of Asakura can’t be taken care of in a barracks or public common area. We’ll need private housing for that or she and I won’t be able to feed. So living poor and in a barracks won’t work for us. I also think the dwarven women might be too small to…turn into ‘worker bees’.

The protection from normal missiles spell meshed well with combining it’s usage with the runic shielding. Our first test for that happened when Rina accidentally poked herself out from the battlement crenellations for a brief two seconds and several goblin crossbow bolts grazed her arm but didn’t do damage. Of course we chewed her out for not being careful enough. We had pulled her down as soon as the enchantment is starting to soak up damage, but it ends up with three solid arrow hits.

The missile protection spell is good. Now that it’s tested we’re happy and celebrating that Rina isn’t going to lose her arm to poisonous infection either from goblin poisons in the darts. Her eyes got really wide when we explained that possibility. She looked sort of air sick somehow.

But so are the goblin sharp shooters.

“Why are they able to hit and pinpoint targets on walls this well protected?” she exclaimed in fear.

“Goblin archers often get written off as trash, but that particular trash literally at war their whole short lives. So in the off hand they survive to adulthood, they can become problematic as fighters. That’s why they are such a problem,” Svinn said.

“Really?” Rina asked.

It made sense but to have their entire life be a war…they didn’t have any rest?

Svinn is actually a bit proud. By showing how awful goblins are, he’s also uplifting the dwarves by having his people beat them. “The fact is in a goblin city a lot of the meat comes from goblins themselves since they are too lazy and inbred enough to dislike any type of farming. They are good at hunting, but the bigger a goblin city or fortress gets, the more impossible it gets to feed its people by hunger. The result is that they grow up practicing war and herding their own weak genes to the soup pot. So it’s like an eternal war, and they enjoy when it’s against others instead of their own necks being a possibility for the soup pot. That’s why we have to thoroughly break their spirit every run they attempt.”

“That’s…very discouraging,” Rina said.

“And?” I was curious what he’d say next as we loaded another crossbow bolt to fire off the next holy light goblin bomb.

“A normal person will never hit anything with a crossbow or a bow if you give them something hard to hit even at a short thirty foot range. But give them proper training, military drills, and make them shoot at least three times a day for a few hours each time and do that for several years…now you suddenly can shoot stuff at hundred yards ranges, two hundred yard ranges, etc.”

“Crap,” Rina said aloud, but I was thinking the same thing.

We kept up hunkering down behind the walls for many hours.

The protection from missiles spell skill I’d acquired was rapidly starting to look like one of my top five most important spells right now!

I could see Rina and myself had big eyes thinking about it.

It’s taken some mana to use this spell, but it saves and preserves the runic shielding eating up the damage first before anything hits the runic shielding. This means the runic shielding can be preserved for enemy attacks that are melee oriented while the arrow enchantment takes stuff that is still incoming from afar off.

I’m still unhappy however because while useful I am still getting used to this type of enchantment and that means its mana cost is significantly higher than the cost for runic shielding. I’ll have to develop it more and practice it to be able to get the cost down. I’ve found spells that are more familiar to me cost less and that the cost continues to decreases over time.

I do believe however that once both spells are well developed their effects will compound the damage absorption rate on each other.

“How many do you think we stopped?” I asked.

“That’s an interesting question. Why did you say stop instead of kill?” Svinn’s eyes narrowed at me. He looks offended.

I shrugged, “if a goblin is wounded heavily or moderately won’t two other goblins be forced to leave the battlefield to take care of him?”

Svinn brightened up. “Oh good, that’s actually interesting thinking. I was afraid you were going to spout off some crap about goblin rights or not hating other races nonsense.”

“Well…they are goblins,” Asakura said. “What do you expect?”

I’m shocked again. She’s actually slowly opening up. I can’t help but smile. I hope her old personality resurfaces soon. Of course all this time Asakura has stayed really close to me.

“It’s true that tying them down in useless tasks will buy time for our army to arrange for an interception,” he nodded.

“So the dwarven army is headed this way for cleanup?” I asked.

Svinn hesitated for a bit. He was going to withhold something or hesitate. I could see him cross his arms, but was he withholding unwillingly or was he trying to figure out what he was even going to say?

So I cut him off before it happened. “Since I’m a mage, you should know if you withhold information I’ll find out anyway.” It kind of wasn’t entirely a lie because I believed I’d figure it out. I’d seen in real life on Earth, how lies always come to light sooner or later.

His lip twisted up in self conflict. “Hmm, well played mage.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Shun always wins,” Asakura said confidently.

Ah crap. That might set me up for being a target later. That gave Svinn a funny look on his face. I hope he didn’t take it as a challenge.

“I think she means survives,” I corrected her.

Asakura gave me an odd look after that. She then shrugged. But her arms folded over her chest. It’s much harder to do that now. She now has to fold her arms under her boobs instead of over them because of what the demon DNA has done to her.

“The dwarven army has a small problem,” he cleared his throat. “We’ll win this, but this was well organized. They want to split up our forces,” he explained.

“You mean the goblins?” Asakura said carefully.

“Yep,” he said.

“So you are also saying there are complications too huh?” I said.

He nodded briefly. Out of his breast pocket he pulled out a well detailed cleverly made map on nicely made vellum paper preserved in some kind of oil hardened protective coating. The calligraphy and markings on the old map were beautifully made.

“That’s beautifully made,” Asakura said with big eyes.

Svinn blushed. “Thanks.”

“So we need to get something like this Shun. It’d help navigate and find a town to live in,” Rina said.

Of course the gnomes didn’t even hint that they had maps but I believed that to be a lie seeing this now.

“Any chance we can get one of these?” I asked.

Svinn chuckled, “fat chance. This is a dwarven kingdom map. Possession of these by non-licensed non-dwarves is considered like contraband.”

He kind of looks smug right now. So the little trust he’d gained with us, I wanted to flush down the tube now.

Our faces fell.

Later he’d clarified maps aren’t censored if they are only mapping outside their territory. They only censor stuff inside their borders from going out on map or information form due to constant invasions by goblins and others.

I hadn’t thought in a medieval world some technology we took for granted might be a controlled substance too.

But at least the goblin arrow spam had been quieter for the last hour. They’d slowed down to try to do guerrilla sniping and preserve their arrows since they weren’t able to do much. Of course they had paralyzed the dwarves to stay under cover at least if nothing else. Nobody dared leave protective cover.

“But I’m not unsympathetic to your wanting to find a place to live. I can write you a letter of introduction after these battles conclude to help you find work in the dwarven capital,” he added.

“That would be helpful,” I admitted carefully and still guarded.

“But back to the matter at hand. The problem is that we are at this keep here,” he said. He points to a small triangle on the map, but we can’t even read it except for the parts with pictures.

“We can’t read dwarven runes,” Rina said dourly.

“We can make out the landscape though,” I said slowly while frowning.

“True. You don’t need to know everything, but this keep here where we are is exactly a day’s march from the next keep here, which is called Valsignade Gruve, which is interpreted as Blessed Mine, and then another day north is Trofasten Burgen,” he said.

“OK, so what’s the story?” I asked.

“Valsignade Gruve we believe could be their primary target. But Trofasten Burgen is the most populous and if their targets were dwarves themselves, could therefore become a primary target, with this settlement of the three being the smallest of all.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Rina said.

“The point is, each of these small keeps has been hit at the same time. So we aren’t sure which the real target is yet. This riff raff outside also isn’t the goblins’ main force. It may be to tie us down to keep us from relieving the town about to be hit by their main force and distract us,” he said quickly before we second guessed anything.

“Wow, this is complex,” Asakura noted.

“That is a problem,” I admitted. “If you deploy your main force before you know which one is the main target for their main force then you run the risk of not assisting the right one in time and then losing it to being overwhelmed by numbers.”

“Exactly. You are spot on,” Svinn said.

I noticed Oleg by us, wasn’t particularly pleased that I’d figured it out so quickly. He also looks unhappy that we’re becoming closer to Svinn.

“We dwarves can hold our own without outsiders,” he scowled at me.

Svinn waited for him to leave, as he waved him back to his post. None of us spoke till Oleg left. We could see Svinn didn’t like talking with him close to us.

“Just ignore him. As I said, we need to know which keep their main force is going to hit. This group out here is to draw out our people as far as we can tell,” he finished.

“How do you determine that? I’m not saying you are right or wrong but how would you calculate that as a dwarven general?” I asked.

“Hm good question,” Asakura said right after that.

“Brilliant question actually,” Svinn’s eyes widened. “Now I really want you for our army. I could be your sponsor you know.”

“Shun needs enough money from you moneybags dwarves to support us, his women. I’m the first mistress,” Rina said before I could stop her.

I slapped my forehead in stress. I didn’t stop her in time.

Svinn’s eyes widened. “You have two women? Wow. I’d heard humans did that. With dwarves…doesn’t happen much unless you are a baron, a duke, or a noble. How does that work?” he’s suddenly very curious.

“Yep, we’re his women! Rina said again while I was trying to cover her mouth with my hand.

“Hey cut the chatter,” Asakura said, glaring at her menacingly.

“Shut up,” I said quickly.

“You didn’t hear that,” I said to Svinn.

“It’s cool. I can keep secrets. Dwarves see keeping friends secrets as like a test of keeping the honor and showing our worthiness,” he said earnestly. He’s looking at us like I’m some kind of odd ball though; I don’t like this kind of point of view.

Damn...

“Oh great…” I heard Asakura muttered.

Her response has Svinn puzzled.

Interesting. Through the master slave ghoul relationship, Asakura had somehow said exactly what I’d wanted her to say? Or her senses were just heightened in protectiveness and she’d figured it out or guessed.

“Let’s talk about that later,” I brought them back to the main point.

Svinn chuckled, “as I was saying. Usually generals will try to figure out how many enemy are needed to take out a stronghold or keep based on historical averages of calculations of troops movements that failed for a given keep size and those that succeeded in keep sieges of given sizes based also on the keep classifications. We have a big index that’s adjusted yearly for skirmish updates and also types of enemies.”

“Hmm that’s good,” I admitted.

“I didn’t know dwarves were really into math,” Asakura noted. She seems curious.

“But how do they determine keep classification? Is it based on wall measurements or population?” Rina asked.

“More often than not, primarily based on population. But it can take into account wall size. It definitely has breakdowns for if the wall is stone, a mix, or a type of wood palisade. We don’t like wood much for walls,” he countered.

Then he turned to me. “So if the averages are classified on major dwarven keeps, minor keeps, and medium keeps there’s an average number of goblins needed to take each with a probability rate. Each goblin above or below that will cause a corresponding drop or increase in that same probability rate,” he concluded.

“How do we stand then?” I asked.

“Well, …the number of goblins outside right now is basically border line the number to be able to succeed or fail right now. That worries me. This isn’t their main force either,” he said.

“So there are more goblins?” Asakura’s eyes caught mine.

“And about this amount of goblins is confirmed to be the amount needed to have a real chance at this keep?” I asked.

He nodded slowly, and was looking down. “Yeah, I don’t like that part. But tough luck as they say.”

“But is that the same amount that’s standard for this type of keep?” I asked.

He nodded again slowly. I think he understood what I was getting at.

“Yeah, goblin population in the last five years is up a lot. That’s a big worry,” Oleg confirmed listening in.

Oleg was starting to be annoying. I think he was here for the wrong reasons. The other dwarves had noticed my intellect had caught Svinn’s ear and now Oleg wanted in.

But wasn’t he supposed to be at another post too? Svinn was giving him a funny look.

It also appears that Oleg and Svinn have some kind of weird rivalry. Oleg was clearly looking for a chance to participate in a grand strategy session like this. It may have been unintentional but the natural flow of higher intellect had subtlety turned this conversation into something quite useful to the dwarves.

“If what you are saying is true then that means that your enemy is quite cunning and more dangerous than we’d previously imagined,” I stated.

“What makes you say that?” both Oleg and Svinn asked at once.

“Think about it. Your enemy hasn’t not only got his main force in reserve, which is an unknown number of soldiers. But he also has the amount that would give him a chance to take each keep on its own,” I said.

“That’s just coincidence. He’s putting up a show. It doesn’t change the fact that the main concern is that main force out there waiting or circling to pounce next,” Oleg spat.

“He can’t beat us,” Svinn defied the very idea verbally, but he still looked stressed out. But was that his conviction or just his pride talking?

“But the fact that the number of goblins at each stronghold already is enough that it could be tipped in the enemy’s favor stand alone is quite cunning. It means he’s got fall back positions, more than one option, and looks at it from the point of view is how can I gain a victory even when I’m taking a loss in part? It also shows your enemy is aware of how you calculate the average number of troops needed to take a stronghold and that he too is thinking about how you think. Don’t you get it? He’s put precisely the same amount that you would have put as a borderline deciding factor amount that could be just about the number to push through. He’s also done it in the same way you would have done it. And the most important detail of all is that according to your own calculations this goblin leader is calculating and keeping records of what it takes to achieve a goblin victory over dwarves. He’s got a history of numbers of which keeps fell and why. That’s what makes this goblin leader somebody significant,” I finished.

“Dammit, he’s right,” Svinn said. “You’re hired.”

“You can’t afford me,” I said back.

“Why hire him instead of me?” Oleg complained.

“Well unlike you, somehow he’s able to get through a lot of adversity,” I heard Svinn telling the other dwarf unhappily.

Both of them look sore at each other.

Hmm did that mean there was some significance in taking interest from and being hired by an officer directly? I thought Oleg was already in the dwarven military? Or was he trying for a settlement outpost on the outskirts of nowhere?

I still didn’t have these guys figured out.

…

Later on I heard a different twist of some dwarven war techniques and their perception of goblins back at the camp when the dwarves ate with us by the campfire.

On Earth, there’s a perception if war, if you shoot a guy but keep him alive wounded, two friends have to carry him back to camp. So in effect, you’ve tied down 3 people not one.

But the dwarven perception of goblins is different than this. From their view if you wound a goblin, two of his friends will be tied down to carry him back to the stew pot, instead of the hospital tent like humans and dwarves would do.