They say that burning to death is one of the most painful ways to die. This is true, but there is a bright side: Dying by fire forces the victim's brain to think things along the lines of, "This is unbelievably painful! This really, really hurts!", leaving very few neurons to be dedicated to either fear or existential pondering.
This was the experience of Callista, legendary bone carver of Doomforests. She had been engaged in a pleasantly heated argument with one of the carpenters, and had just slammed her mug onto the dining table with an exclamation of, "A goblin! There is a goblin leading the fortress! Historically significant goblins are still goblins!" when suddenly a hot wind, bearing noxious gases, billowed into the dining hall. It was followed by fire.
They stood, scattering the remains of their meal as the sheet of flame ignited one of the wooden dining tables. Already the air was hot and impossible to breathe. They looked toward the dining hall exit furthest from the flames, glanced at each other, and ran for it.
Callista could smell their hair and beards burning. But the smoke rolled in, and she lost her way, and she could not tell whether she was moving toward the door or toward the fire. She saw the carpenter collapse, having taken a lungful of poisonous smoke. And then the fire came.
Amidst the expected thoughts informing her that she was really in excruciating pain and, if she didn't mind, could she please do something about it, Callista's brain informed her of the presence of a strange, demonic creature--was it a lizard, or perhaps an ugly bird? In any event, it seemed to be quite unhurt by the fire, something that struck the dwarf as decidedly unfair. In her surprise she forgot herself and took a breath, and fire choked her. She fell, skin melting, clothes ablaze, in too much agony to scream.
In the dwarf's last moments, an incongruous thought came to her: How thirsty I am... I could really go for some barley wine...