Yesterday, a Forgotten Beast wandered into my caverns. It was a four-legged monstrosity made from Obsidian, with huge gnashing mandibles *gnash*gnash* and some kind of digestive upset that made it extra cranky and prone to releasing poisonous firey vapors. Nasty. I put my army on it.
As usual, most of them went off to hit the pub or gather new equipment. A Ranger came upon the Beast before anybody else. She was a Competent Marksdwarf and armed with *cringe* a normal iron crossbow and 25 COPPER arrows. I hoped she'd run away.
Instead, she plugged the Beast with arrows as it charged right up to her all fuming and horrible. Arrows took out its legs, becoming lodged in the wounds and when it closed ranks she didn't bat an eye but when it attacked and missed she counterattacked and smashed it right in the face with her iron crossbow (fracturing the right mandible, that's got to hurt!)
Then she backed off, the Beast fell over from leg damage and she emptied her quiver before walking away to find more arrows, now a Skilled Marksdwarf. In a few minutes the Beast starts limping along on four broken legs and two broken feet and three military dwarves come finish it off, and in the next few days I'll have obsidian-flaked soap.
Obviously I asked her to turn in that iron crossbow for melting, so she can pick up one of the Masterwork wood/bone crossbows lying around. But now I'm thinking about that awesome face-smash action on the FB and wonder if a few steel crossbows might be a good investment.