Russ nodded at the hairy man thing and went off to climb up the roof as the dragon's roar was heard. Russ was extremely surprised that the enraged beast had somehow managed to get through the clearing without making a single apparent sound before. There had been no prior roars, no rumbling as it went through tress, no panicked wildlife. He also considered how he was probably the one with the best shot at setting up anything resembling a coordinated effort within the tavern. It was sad since he was hardly a leader, didn't speak the language very well and knew screaming bits and pieces of orders at an unruly mob would do very, very little. 

As if to confirm his thoughts, as soon as he popped his head out on the roof...something, he had no way of telling what it was exactly, came crashing down on it, destroying the chimney and forcing Russ back down the ladder's trapdoor to avoid the hail of fragments. Grunting and cursing his family, his homeland, his commanders, the crown and whatever god might care to listen in at that precise moment, all in a constant, nonstop mumble that sounded offensive even to those who didn't know the tongue, the guardsman stepped back out the roof to catch a look at whatever was trying to kill him.

He looked up at the beast, now regretting his decision to try and see it coming from the roof. He figured he'd have some more time to prepare, what with the assumption that one would hear something like a dragon approaching from a mile away. He also, thanks to his wondrous eyesight, could see the witch that had warned them about the beast preparing to cast some kind of wondrous spell no doubt. He really didn't care much for magic, which was a rather tolerant view where he came from. Still in position to head back down in an instant, he opened Nat's breech and loaded up a cartridge, waiting for the dragon to act.

At this rather short range, a shot from a musket could still pierce all but the best, most expensive plate armor without fail and Russ was extremely accurate within some 85 yards, a good 10 yards more than average. Depending on what happened, it would be rather easy for him to aim at a vital spot such as the eyes or one of the already open wounds and punch quite the nasty hole in it, as the smooth lead balls used as musket ammunition would flatten or even burst after penetration to further increase the damage they dealt.