Puffing his way up to where the Boss was, Rassmata reached the battlements where Kavu was standing. Dropping the heavy barrel of pitch on the ground between them, he focused his gaze upon the catapult, murmuring to himself about the state the humans left it in. Rapping his knuckles on the pitch, he smiled.

"Whole thing of pitch, Boss. Lot more where that came from in the cellar of this place." Rassmata cocked his head as he glanced at the human army approaching, and said, "I'd say we start giving the bunnies some of this as a gift, yeah Boss?"

Kavu shook his head in amazement, his head already whirling with plans to incorporate this new development. To be fair, most of those plans consisted of 'boom, dead bunnies'; it was hard to add any degree of finesse to burning pitch. He was glad that at least one of his underlings had shown initiative in this affair in doing a preliminary inventory of the castle's armory while he'd been occupied hauling supplies into cover, but perhaps he should have expected this from Rassmata. After all, the other Orc was a member of the Chosen just like him. Kavu nodded in approval, and set about clearing a brief workspace.

“By my father's tusks, Rassmata, you dirty bunny-lover, I'd say you earned yourself several mugs of ale when this is all done. Solid work. Go ahead and prime this barrel, this bunny-made piece of dung needs some replacement gears.”

Kavu left the room in a hustle, grunting to himself as he rushed down the stairs faster than he had come up them. He has glad that he had left his own gear easily accessible, or he could have spent precious minutes clearing a path through the assembled wagons. Even now, he saw the unmistakable figure of Tall Shadow standing amongst a group of Orcs on the far side of the courtyard near the sally-port, which he inferred meant they were about to attempt an attack. He grunted once more to verbalize his annoyance – he wanted to avoid any collateral. Grabbing a passing pike by the arm, Kavu conscripted the unfortunate Orc into being an impromptu messenger; he wanted Half-Face to avoid engaging the right flank of the enemy siege camp, as that was closest to their newly acquired catapult. With his duty done, Kavu returned to the task of finding his tools. Now where did he leave that replacement cog...

- - - - -

Meanwhile, Rassmata was working on the barrel. Reaching into his apron, he drew out his tool pouch, and set upon the barrel, saying to himself, 

"How can we make this explode more?"

After a few minutes of tinkering, Rassmata heard the sound of Kavu's voice over the shouts and cries of the battle as the bunnies tried to advance their ladders to the wall. Rushing down the stairs to help Kavu carry the heavy box of tools, Rassmata took some of the weight onto his shoulders, letting out small puffs of breath on each step of the way up. Deftly navigating the box off of his broad shoulders and laying it gently upon the ground, Rassmata burst into a rapid drone to Kavu concerning his alterations.

"Drilled a hole into the side, and mixed in some black powder to give that extra kick and some of those magnesium flakes we found last week, so it'll be making for some vurrrry toasty bunnies once it's struck. Plugged the hole up with rope, and we can use that as the fuse. I'd say we launch this at one of their own siege units, make a pleasant bonfire outta, or you could always getem when they crowded round another, break the charge up, yeah? Wish we gots more time cause coulda dug up the sand in the courtyard and used it to make a nice treat for the sally port, yeah? Burning sand is good stuff, not exploding but still good stuff."

Kavu shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind. The dwarf-trained Orc was undoubtedly skilled, but he talked at an incredible pace and it made the more methodical Orc's brain hurt. Thinking took time. However, he got the general idea, and grunted in acknowledgment to the other Orc's comments.

“Aye, that's what we'll do. Get 'dis here cog switched, and put a plank on the lobbing arm... yeah, that'll do nicely. Finish gettin' that barrel primed, aye?” Kavu turned his head from his observation of the catapult to observe the other Orc's response.

"Hurmm... this one is all set to blow...” Rassmata paused briefly, glancing down at the lone barrel in front of him. “We could use some more barrels though, a nice human is downstairs, he knows where they are... I'ma get 'em". Turning quickly and rumbling down the battlements, Rassmata had a childish look on his face of unadulterated joy. Kavu shook his head and muttered to himself about bunny incompetence and overeager Orcs as he set about forcefully changing the parts on the machine. He was so engrossed in his work that he barely noticed when Rassmata's voice cut through the din of battle.

"Boss! I got four more of these barrels! The Tuskers won't even need to put on their armor, fight'll be done before it starts!"

Rushing up the stairs with two barrels hoisted between each arm, Rassmata dropped them heavily next to the completed barrel, and is gone before Kavu can speak, running back down the stairs and returns into the castle again. Kavu paused for a brief moment to stare at the newly arrived barrels, then went back to nailing a plank of wood onto the arm of the catapult as reinforcement. After a couple minutes, Kavu stood up and grunted at the ugly apparatus in front of him. It was not a pretty weapon, but it should work. Accuracy was over-rated anyhow. The quartermaster took ahold of the rear of the contraption, and with a might shove began to move it out into the open, careful to keep his head down as he pushed the catapult out of the shelter of the turret and onto an open platform nearby.

Bursting out of the castle again, Rassmata returned to Kavu standing with the catapult, the last two barrels of pitch under his arm. The quartermaster had already cranked the catapult to its firing position, and was currently hefting the barrel of pitch into the slot. Rassmata dropped the barrels nearby and helped Kavu give the final push that primed the catapult for firing. He gestured towards the nearby barrels,

"I'll give the rest of em the same treatment as the first, sound good, Boss?"

Kavu nodded. “Aye, but first we'll see if your work was good. I think I've got it aimed at their lines, so all you've gotta do is light the fuse. I swear, if this blows up in my face, Rassmata, I'll hunt you down from the nine hells themselves...” Kavu grinned, his broken tusk making his amusement a little more sinister than the quartermaster likely intended.

Rassmata nodded. “No chance of that, Boss. Lets fry some bunnies!” He retrieved some flint and tinder from his kit and spent a precious few seconds casting sparks over the dry rope until some sparks finally caught. Moving quickly to hold onto the far side of the catapult, Rassmata and Kavu waited until the flame reached the edge of the barrel before the latter slammed down on the release lever and the catapult shot forward with a jolt that threw both of the Orcs to the ground. Two nearby Spikes were momentarily distracted from the battle by the elaborate nature of Kavu's cursing.

The Quartermaster's cursing came to an abrupt end, however, when he heard the almighty bang that signified that the barrel had exploded mid-air, raining burning pitch down upon the bunny ranks below. A quick glance over the battlement showed that they had fallen far short of the bunny siege camp, but Kavu satisfied himself with the fact that he'd hit part of the right flank's front lines with tar and shrapnel. The screams of the bunnies warmed the small part of his heart that still resented the jibes and kicks of his childhood. Turning to Rassmata, Kavu grinned his lopsided smile.

“Alright, 'mata, load up the next one. Attempt two...”

((Thanks to [@Sypherkhode822] for the collab!))