>>5383180>>5383184>>5383180>12To your dismay, you realize only in midair that you missed one of those half-dozen surviving dwarves in your charge—or perhaps there was a seventh? A crossbow-wielding female of the species, ducked behind a rock, rises and lifts her armament to open fire upon you. Were you capable of true flight—if only!—you could have veered to avoid it… But you are not She accurately predicts your arc and, as in your last such assault on a company-town, you enter the fortifications only after being thus-bloodied. You land awkwardly, and in pain.
>4, 9, 1, 8Behind you, you heard clashing steel and a high, trembling hiss which ends in a gurgle. You wince, feeling it somehow without turning to see it—a fie-lizard has been slain, dying in pain. One of your pets—albeit not a creature you ever really thought to name. It is still a thing of yours—a reptile to which you were bonded by your natural empathy. It stings as badly as the bolt. Worse, you can feel fear and weakness rising in those who remain—your other fire-lizard driven to flight, Agno pushed back. You cannot tell what has become of the Throat-singer for the moment his song is shattered by fear or injury your more tenuous connection to his mammal-essence is likewise broken.
>1The one blessing is that your sudden appearance, tremendous stature, and the sneer of pain and dismay on your face seem to lend you a gargoylish first impression. The dwarves who were working the gate stop what they are doing to stare in horror, and flee their posts… Only to find themselves incinerated in a furious flash of your firebreath.
You press on, determined to…
>Find the non-combatants—females, offspring, elderly—and to use them to force a surrender>Slaughter every remaining defender who does not immediately lay down arms, that the dwarves will know who you are and that where you go, Death follows>Seize any valuables of particular note herein before they can be destroyed by enemy sabotage or siege-born accident>Find and close off any possible escape route, before any canny and craven dwarf can sue it>Write-in 