Dragon Ballista

Dragon ballista, as the name suggests, are a kind of large ballista designed to kill dragons. Like other ballista, they resemble giant mounted crossbows. They differ, however, in their size and range, being far larger and usually built on specialized towers above a city or large fortification. The large contraptions require complex mechanisms to operate, and require great skill and expense to make.
Despite all this, the ballistas effects tend to be fairly limited, usually more successful in simply scaring off the dragon than killing or injuring it. Most recorded dragon deaths from the ballistas occured when the dragon tried to attack the ballista tower, making them an easier target. Since dragons rarely take such risks, this usually only happens when the dragons have aligned themselves with a larger force, which has been almost unheard of since the The Age of the Dragon Emperors. Most known dragon ballista deaths took place during early conquests of the Aurean Empire and in a few internal conflicts, most recently in the Revolt of the Dragonpriest in the third millennia, a conflict where a total of six dragons were killed. Notably, the dragon emperor Galithrax was also killed by a ballista during the first invasion of Greenwood Valley in 1409 AY.