Sapper Lore

What an age is dawning! Old crowns breed new kingdoms, and the War of Realms will spill enough blood to glut even these Vampires everyone is screaming about. Work for soldiers, work aplenty. But all the soldiers in the world can't get to a defended Tree with siege spires, a well-built city, and a defending force who knows what they're doing. Oh sure, siege engines and hammers will crack that city, but time works against you. You think they'll let you sit there and pound those walls, especially if they've got trebuchets atop their towers? No, I daresay they won't! If you really want to win, what you need is an expert, someone who knows how to bring those walls down. You need to weaken the defenses in places there aren't bulwarks, to draw the enemy off balance. You need a Sapper like me.

Walls are just stones, in the end. Stones are strong, but just like bones, they'll shatter if you hit them just right. None know more of building and masonry than we Dwarves, who invented the arts of masonry and fortification since the world was created. Our very flesh is made of stone, and we listened to the groaning of the mountain's hearts since the beginning of the world. Why, a score of smart raps with a good hammer can transform a stone wall's interior: the shocks crystallize fracture lines, and a good Sapper can hear the weak points sing once he starts to work. Drive in an iron spike, and then watch what happens when the brute squad starts hammering! The walls will fall like trees. And what works on a wall works just as well on a bulwark, or even a bane stone.

But there are other arts we Sappers know. I can burrow under a wall, faster than a mole, and open a chink wide enough to shove a Saboteur through. I also know some of the finer points of alchemy: we Dwarves have seen many things bubble and boil out of a forge over the ages, and we've learned to mix rare slag, sulfur, nitre, and vitrous lye to make a frightful concoction: Balefume, hideous stuff that raises poisoned vapors when mixed with air. Any who breathe it are overcome, and can hardly move or think straight. Born of accident, the stuff makes a fine weapon on the field of war. Just uncork a keg and watch them scatter!

I see I've caught your interest. You're no general, so you must want to learn the Sapper's trade, eh? Well, we'll see if you've the wit and strength for it. One thing's certain; if you do master all I can teach you, you'll never lack for work. Not in these war-crazed days ...