Alright, so a small tale of dwarf heroism.
Awhile back, I had a Giant Bat wipe out all my outside dwarves. The only survivors from the attacks were two engravers, one with red wounds on his limbs (he got better) and one with a broken lower spine, so he won't be doing me any good.
I fiddled with the idea of letting him starve, but ultimately decided to keep him for the happy thought generation he caused when dwarves fed and watered him. I kept him in the forward barracks.
Skip to a later date, and Kobolds have been stealing dead gobbo items. No big deal right? Well, they stole enough to generate a Kobold ambush, and they snuck right through a backdoor i have guarded with traps.
I have 13 dwarves constructing a new building for masonry workshops, and all of the poor buggers are stranded on the roof. I'm cringing because I figure they're all doomed when the engraver with the broken back crawled out of bed, out of the barracks and towards the Kobolds. They begin firing willy-nilly at him, and he turns around crawling the other way. A number of arrows hit him, but he keeps going, rounding corners of buildings leading them on a merry chase. When he finally loses consciousness, a marksdwarf squad intercepts and chases off the kobolds, killing all but one of them.
Total death count?
1 elite marksdwarf, caught an arrow in the brain.
The engraver made it, although he is now a full invalid, with the lower half of his body fully maimed now.
Quite heroic, saving the lives of 13 dwarves!