"
Ahead of you the now cleared field is a perfect location for the dozens of runically enhanced artillery pieces and guard towers all along the walls to fire on, every last meter ranged and memorized by the crews for accurate firing.
A wall consisted of at least two meters thick and ten meters tall of stone reinforced by bars of steel and in some places Gromril. The walls themselves were inscribed with Runes of Warding and Preservation to make the granite even more difficult to break, built in such a way that the rubble would only provide further obstacles to climb through.
Of course, each wall had a gatehouse and accompanying moat and drawbridge. The structure of each gatehouse was such that it had two doors. A Gromril plated Portcullis and a larger thicker stone gate behind, with larger versions of your Alchemical flame throwers in between. All three mechanisms controlled from inside the gatehouse by a system of pulleys for the gates and Runes for your fiery death traps. The drawbridge was built from imported Wutroth reinforced with Gromril bars, and could be raised in fifteen seconds thanks to the Rune of Waking that would aid the dwarfs in charge of the pulley system behind it.
Then the moat, a ditch at least two meters wide and three meters deep. But It was no ordinary moat, no this moat was meant to be flooded, not with water, but with lava. Lava sourced from pits built inside the guard towers, that bore Runes of Heat, Insulation and Warding that allowed any scrap stone from mining or construction to be melted down and then through clever rune enhanced pipework to be used to flood the ditch in a minute or less. The lava kept in a liquid state with yet more Runes on the stone side. Easily able to be simply shunted away or put back with a bit of clever fluid engineering… and Runes.
Now repeat this, seven times.
Each time the wall grew larger and denser and the moat deeper and wider until you reached the final gatehouse, walls 5 meters thick and 20 meters high of Runed stone and metal. With titanic pools of lava ready to turn the depression in front of it into a river of molten death.
But, this was only the start.
The final plans called for a great network of tunnels, collapsible in the case of breach of course, that stretched from the hold into a series of barracks, watchtowers and artillery emplacements nestled and hidden in the nearby mountains. Turning the entire cleared area into a killing field with artillery now capable of raining down on them from all sides. Of course, artillery alone wasn't enough. Your plan called for the entire clearing to be made ruinous to march through. Using great underground pipes that were going to crisscross all throughout the plain, all meant to flood the earth with water and with the aid of Runes of Warmth turn the field into a quagmire of sticky, suffocating mud.
Defence. In. Depth. "
"
You begin by inscribing Runes of Heat, Protection and Preservation on the piping destined for the field, making sure the water will never freeze and that the pipes last far longer than the millennia they were slated for.
Even when not turning the field into a mire that artillery would sink into and infantry would suffocate in, their radiant heat would melt the permafrost layer and likely keep the fields from freezing over again until the deepest part of winter.
On one hand, this meant the fields were good grazing land when not in use, letting them stay warm enough for good hardy dwarfen grass to take root on the other it meant that when they were flooded with water it would become a mire, as engineers purposefully created sections of the field that could quickly become sinkholes and cloying pits of quick-mud when bogged down by the torrent of water the pipes would unleash. "
"
Built deep within the surrounding peaks, large, collapsible, hallways were tunnelled into the rock itself, connecting a massive network of barracks, way stations and artillery emplacements that would rain death down on the enemy. Also part of this larger network were the massive underground cisterns that housed the water necessary to turn the field into a mire, inscribed with Runes to prevent evaporation or undue damage to the surrounding stone of course, but also act as a secured supply of water for the dwarfs of both the main hold and those stationed here.
Your work here was decidedly more mundane, using Runes of Concealment that, while nowhere near as effective as the Master Rune of Disguise, made the gazes of any would-be attackers pass over the already inconspicuous forms of pillboxes and covered artillery platforms more often than not.
Here King Otrek had a larger role in planning out the overall tactics of the defences, deciding patrol routes, stationing garrisons, and making an overall plan of action to follow in the event of an actual siege that made the most use of your dazzling array of murder.
It was also King Otrek that requested you incorporate stations for Rangers to supply from, something that increased both their effective range and length in the field. Further, he was the one who suggested that a series of recon towers/supply depots be built not just in the surrounding peaks but across much of Kraka Drakk's overall dominion. Slowly, before the eyes of the elder council, creating a network of fallback points and evacuation plans for the dwarfs who worked outside the hold to be drawn back into the safety of the mountain.
It was so detailed that even Elder Brokk sniffed in approval.
Much of that business didn't require your attention, the King choosing instead to hire other Runesmiths for that business and instead requested you begin work on the final part of your proposed defences.
The Inner Hold Defences. "
"
Your plan relied on replicating the approach to your Workshop door but writ large. With that in mind, dozens of master masons create meters thick facades over several major structural pillars, behind which Runes of Force will let sections be blasted off in a cascading fall of heavy stone meant to cut off the hold in such a way that attackers are funnelled through the hold in a winding path that ends right at the throne room.
The main hall looks mostly the same but with several well-placed Runes of Force that will cause controlled collapses that will funnel attackers towards large busts of Grimnir that spit alchemical fire. Several of the structural pillars are added onto, large axes and hammers on rails, propelled by Runes of Waking that cause them to spin at speeds fast enough to crumple armour and bisect bodies. If one looks up they'll see several Rams and swinging axes set to swing down and destroy anything in their path.
If by some miracle they get through that, they are funnelled into the Market District where yet more controlled cave-ins will turn the large open square into a tight close-quarters brawl, store roofs made easily accessible for quarrelers to rain down quarrels from and portable two manned bolt throwers, stored in caches throughout the district, that can be easily accessed and put down to deal with larger foes.
From there, the enemy is funnelled into the foundry district where you've turned the natural heat, smog and temperature of the area towards defending the hold. Here you put down the same sort of defences as the previous two segments, but are inspired to incorporate molten rock as well. With that in mind, you have a setup similar to the lava moat built. The reservoir is connected to a series of Ancestor statues that, instead of alchemical fire, will spew molten rock at incoming foes. The Pure Gromril Foundry becomes central to the area's defense, bolt thrower emplacements are laid down, and to your surprise, two enterprising Master Runesmiths build three-meter tall Gronti to stand guard on either side of the door as well. THEN, you work to make this place a death trap in the event that you are forced back from it. Your apprentices remove the original ventilation grates and you direct other Runesmiths to replace them with versions that, on command, will actually stop filtering and sucking out the air. When combined with Runes on the metal chimneys that will open them up into the hold, you'll be able to turn this place into a smog-filled chamber that should suffocate anyone inside.
You finish the entire ensemble off by leaving the residential district safe for storing portable artillery and asking some Thanes to agree to have Runes of Force be applied to their homes to cause a few rockfalls here or there. There is no clever tactic here, no grand scheme beyond your usual efforts to funnel foes into killzones, leaving the fury of Dwarfs pushed right to the doors of their home to kill their enemies and simply work to support that.
And that's just the largest areas of the hold proper.
Throughout the Karak, you direct the many Runesmiths here to turn hallways into deathtraps, your usual blend of pendulum blades, swinging axes and hammers and a dash of alchemical fire. Subsidize the transformation of Clan homes and shops into potential tombs for their enemies and hardpoints in the overall defence.
THEN. Then you cap it off by building your gate. "
