Grudge Thrower

The Grudge Thrower is a dwarf catapult with a purpose beyond mere destruction: a heavy stone-thrower whose great boulders are inscribed, before they are loosed, with grudges drawn from the hold's Book of Grudges. Every score the dwarfs mean to settle, every insult and injury done to the hold, is carved into the very rock that will crush the offender, so that the enemy is not simply killed but answered, the debt paid in stone and blood. The engine hurls its runed missiles in a high, punishing arc to smash down upon the foe, flattening ranks of infantry, cracking monsters, and shattering the cohesion of an advancing horde. Its crew are as much clerks of vengeance as artillerymen, matching each shot to a grievance recorded long ago, and they take a slow, grim satisfaction in every hit. For the dwarfs, war is bookkeeping written in ruin, and the Grudge Thrower is where the ledger is balanced: one boulder, one grudge, one enemy struck from the accounts at a time.