Snippet #2152385

"Engineer, how's the weapons looking?" sergeant Ericson asked as he approached Otto.
"Been in far better condition. The moist and the mud is taking its toll on the wood, attracting termites and causing the wood to rot. I've ordered the dismantling of one ballista, if the Maker is with us it will also be the only one," Otto answered as he surveyed the soon-to-become battlefield from the stone bridge. Otto and his crew had worked tirelessly to prepare the warmachines for this battle, dozens of oil pots had been prepared, as well as stones, and arrows for the archers.
"How will a single ballista affect our defenses? The rest are still functional and the catapults don't seen to even have a scratch. What is there to worry about?" the sergeant doubted.
"The ballista that was dismantled was the one guarding our left flank along with your men," Otto explained, though he had to pinch himself so he wouldn't sneer at the dim-witted sergeant.
"A minor loss then, besides those men can kill ten times more darkspawns than your precious warmachines," the sergeant remarked, though Otto didn't take the bait and returned to looking at the ruined castle's defenses.

Otto had learned that heroes were those who wielded a sword against the monster, not a group of men who hurried to load the next projectile on a catapult or ballista. Men like Otto would always be in the background when it came to heroic tales, though as he had explained to his crew, there were brighter sides, such the near guaranteed chance of escaping from a battle with your life, the warmachines were generally far away from the main battle for the crew to know if it would be time to run or stay.

After Otto had finished his second inspection of the defenses he returned to where he and his fellow siege officers had agreed to meet for a drink before the battle started. "Oi, Otto, check them out, over there by the bonfire. Mercs?" Sebastian asked. Sebastian was a clever man, he had an eye for measuring distances and would overlook the ballistas during the battle, while Tom was more of a brute and would be working on loading stones and pots onto the catapults.
"Mercenaries working for the Ferelden army? I wouldn't imagine it so," Otto answered as he placed the bottle of brandy on the ground between them. "Maybe some royal, fancy ass soldiers to come and make all the other lads look bad," he then suggested, giving a grin to the other two.
"You know, I heard the Templars talk about them as well. They called them for 'The Wardens' or something like that. I don't know, I was trying to catch a glimpse of those witches," Tom explained as he poured three glasses.
"Careful, you know what they say about those magic users. They are locked up in that tower for a reason," Otto warned, taking a little sip of his drink.
"Whatever the case, lets cheer that their powers will be used on the darkspawns and not us," Sebastian raised his glass and the men cheered.