Sarodor

Act II – Episode 52

Undead storm over the walls of the Kindred fortress. The air is thick with screams and the thud of metal against bone. Suddenly, a shrill bell rings out. Captain Margull looks up at the mountains overlooking the valley. He spots the bonfire. Savuk’s signal.

“That’s it!” he shouts. “Fall back! Everyone fall back!” Around him, orcs begin slowly to make their retreat away from the battlements. Two zombies poke their rotting, hideously deformed faces over the walls and are instantly dispatched with a hail of arrows.

Below him, a deafening racket rises up from the gate. Metal shrieks. Trolls swear furiously. “They’re getting through the gate!” someone in the courtyard yells. Orcs come from everywhere, changing direction mid-stride to defend the failing gate.

“No! No!” Margull shouts, pointing back towards the depths of the Keep. “Fall back! Fall back to the tunnel!”

“They’re getting through!” a desperate spearman shouts back at him. He hurls his spear at the gate, desperate to hit something. Anything.

The low bleat of a war horn suddenly echoes through the Keep, followed by a single bell.

“Doesn’t matter!” Margull shouts back. “Everybody fall…” he pauses as something grips his ankle. He leaps out of the zombie’s grasp and skewers the back of its skull with his sword.

Orcs and zombies run in every direction. A handful of orcs run blindly towards the escape tunnel, their spirits broken. A group of archers on the far side of northern battlement continue fighting unabated, apparently unaware that the evacuation signal has even been sounded. One orc limps slowly toward the tunnel, his leg a twisted mess of gore and exposed bone. A passing swordsman stops to hoist him across his shoulders.

The war horn sounds again, followed by two sets of bells.

“Sixty seconds!” Margull shouts. He takes a swing as a pair of quick-moving zombies leap off the battlement beside him, but they disappear into one of the towers before he can reach them. He takes a step to follow them, but catches himself. There is simply no time. “Sorry, boys,” he mouths silently, thinking of the two archers still stationed at the top of the tower.

The archers around Margull start to hasten their retreat, all the while firing arrow after arrow at the seemingly never-ending stream of zombies climbing over the battlements. Behind him, there is a roar and whoosh of flame as one of the trolls’ grenades lands in the courtyard. Several unlucky orcs howl in pain as the fireball engulfs them.

“Come on, lads. It’s time,” he says to the row of archers who have assembled to defend the gate. “Nothing we can do now. We have to go.”

The archers look at him forlornly, the thought of leaving the Keep undefended not sitting well with them. But they know the Captain is right. They fire one last volley towards the mass of undead flesh straining against the gate, and then begin their retreat.

The horn sounds again. Three sets of bells.

Thirty seconds until the escape tunnel is sealed.

Credits:
Orc by Ghostofmacbeth
Curio’s Keep by Curio
Old Wooden Cart from free stuff

Notes:
Posed in Poser Pro
Rendered in Carrara 7 Pro
Additional models created in LightWave 3D 9
Normal maps made using CrazyBump
Rendered in 10 separate layers
Composited and postwork in Paint Shop Pro Photo X2