So, this just happened and I had to post about it, I am relatively new to dwarf fortress. This is my third fort after doing the incredible noob guide to dwarf fortress and things ae going pretty smoothly. Only a few trogs here, a troll there, not too bad. Then...
"The mountain titan Oso has come! A gigantic Scale cicada. It has a curling trunk and it moves deliberately. Its scales are small and overlapping. Beware its fire!"
My heart sinks and I fear my doom. I bunker down, get all civilians underground and prepare for the onslaught. I have 30 men in leather or cloth with weapons ranging from a crossbow to silver weapons (as i could not find any iron). When I spotted two militia dwarves outside when the titan arrived (it looked like they were getting water), the first one, a recruit, charges and burns in a cloud of flame. He never stood a chance. Then the second dwarf (An axe dwarf with a silver axe, training axe, and wooden shield), seeing this titan at the mouth of the fortress, charges and I see flame engulf him!
I sigh, mournful of the loss of two warriors... Then, from the smoke, comes sprinting the dwarf! He charges the titan! I was surprised but still didn't expect him to last long at all. Then the fight of a lifetime ensues! The titan breaths fire and hurls bolts or fire, all blocked, and the dwarf hacks at the thing hitting it over and over, at first only denting, then it chips its wings tearing tendons. The fight goes on, the dwarf unharmed and I am in utter shock at this point as he brings the titan to the ground and BITES ITS HEAD and keeps going, punching, kicking, and hacking. This battle is still in progress but heres some pics of the fight...
http://s1303.beta.photobucket.com/user/Philip_Kring/media/Paragon_zpsfa59370f.png.html?sort=3&o=0
http://s1303.beta.photobucket.com/user/Philip_Kring/media/badassmofo_zpsb672f997.png.html?sort=3&o=1
Here dawg, I parsed this for you. You'll find Bay 12 prides itself on being somewhat neater trimmed than the rest of the internet, and Grammar plays a fairly large part. When I arrived my writing grammar wasn't quite up to par, either, though, so don't worry to much. Just try to keep an eye on making it legible and everything else should fall into place.
I did manage to parse through it regardless. The dwarf is pretty badass. Taking down a FB isn't something a new rookie could just pull off. A single Dwarf vs a Forgotten beast would have most bets on the beast, especially since silver weapons are uber-crappy and wood isn't much better. It looks like the D-man there didn't catch the memo, though. I'm still sort of surprised the FB didn't just claw him to death. Maybe it was a baby?
That said, he could easily be superceded. Sometimes dwarves go through way more than one spray of fire and a FB encounter. I had one dwarf with no military training wipe the floor with two Clowns at once, both towering salt monstrosities with deadly dust. He was well cloaked, but even then he shouldn't have survived. He did though, driving a pick through both of the beasts.
Unfortunately he died to a fireblast to the face as miners don't equip shields. Meh.