Previous: The Days of Kruk-Ma-Kali Part 9
Kruk-Ma-Kali moved to attack Queen Shortrastor and the Dominarie Mountain Dwarves. He led his army to the western hills of the Dominarie Mountain range. His troops entered the tunnels with their king in the lead. Kruk-Ma-Kali used magic crystals to boost his telepathic powers. His enhanced brain detected dwarven minds for miles ahead of him. With his psionics as a homing beacon, Kruk-Ma-Kali found every Dominarie Dwarf settlement and eradicated them. The hobgoblins got closer and closer to the capital, Shortrastoria, killing and eating every dwarf they came across in a cannibalistic genocide.
Knowing she had to do something, Queen Shortrastor took every able-bodied dwarf out to defend the tunnels. Finally sensing the army’s presence ahead of him, Kruk-Ma-Kali ordered the hobgoblins to prepare a trap. As the dwarves approached, Kruk-Ma-Kali collapsed the tunnels upon them. Those that survived were butchered by hobgoblins at the exits to the cave-in.
With no considerable force standing in his way, Kruk-Ma-Kali marched on the Dominarie capital. Princess Tandia, the grandaughter of Queen Shortrastor, took up the defense of the city. Although she was nine months pregnant she fought on the frontlines alongside the remaining defenders available to the dwarven people. A sling bullet to the head knocked Princess Tandia out and initiated labor. Her attendants took her off the battlefield as the hobgoblins swarmed over the walls of the capital.
Kruk-Ma-Kali heard of the Princess’s pregnancy and promised an enormous reward to whoever brought him the baby to eat. Hobgoblins raged through Shortrastoria, searching for the royal child, looting and burning as they went. The Princess and her child were not found. Figuring that she had left the city, Kruk-Ma-Kali continued his rampage, going east through the entirety of the Dominarie Mountains. Every dwarf was slain, but none could be positively identified as Princess Tandia or her infant.
Kruk-Ma-Kali ordered a return home. With the whole treasure of Fangaroot, Bradel Fields, Nomingburg, Jipangu, and the Dominarie Dwarves in their possession the army was quite satisfied. The races of the Conclave had been chastised and the Hobgoblin Empire now extended west to the Caspian. Kruk-Ma-Kali gave the goblinoids a portion of their homelands back and they would remember him forever for it.
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