King Onul and I both dropped a bunch of weapons on a table in the barracks. The room was empty, as all soldiers who weren’t on guard duty celebrated victory in the most recent battle. This was a good place to talk uninterrupted, as most dwarves had no reason to go here, and there was plenty of space to do some practice swings.
“Allright then, let’s start off with” I grabed a weapon from the pile ”swords”. I looked upon a masterfully made steel shortsword and gracefully spun it in my hand, waching reflections of light dance on the walls. Most tunnels were dark, but all often used rooms were lit with torches. “The sword is a jack of all trades among weapons. You can stab, tear, cleave, dissect, and there is one for every occasion. The shortsword I have here is meant to be used in combo with a shield or another weapon. Some dwarves use two weapons at once and tie a shield to one of their hands, but that requires greater skill and strength than you currently have. Not yet anyways.” I observed him, hoping he would react to this minor insult, But Onul just nodded in acceptance, seemingly all too focused on my lesion. I put the shortsword aside and added “Falcatas and scimitars are basically more of the same. Form may differ but role does not.”
“What about using a single small sword and lighter armor for speed?” Onul asked.
“It has been done, usually when there is a lack of weapons and armour. But it is risky, and you are a king. Corpses make poor leaders.” I answered. “Although, if you want a single weapon only, then we have greatswords.” I pulled a massive flambard from the pile. “Meant to cleave apart all sizes of enemies. Can kill or mortally wound smaller enemies, like goblins, xelic or chaos dwarves in one hit. Can disable large enemies like ogres or forgotten beasts by cleaving off limbs, or smashing up bones. However, you won’t be able to carry a shield, and it will be slower than a smaller weapon. Again, there are many types, but they all serve same purpose.”
Onul had picked up a longsword while I was speaking, and was taking a few practice swings. His inexperience showed, but he was strong enough to not be thrown around by sword’s weight.
“Go try it out on one of practice dummies” I encouraged. Some of the troops, myself included had carried back some armour from invaders, and made some practice dummies. They were mostly used by fresh recruits to feel out how much damage they could do with a swing. Onul took a wide swing, and with a shout struck straight through the bronze plate into the wooden doll underneath. That was in fact quite impressive. I would had been a little more impressed if he hadn’t got his longsword stuck.
“Here, try this one” I said as I handed him a bastard sword. I let out a silent but hearable to him chuckle as I pulled out longsword from its bronze trap. It was actually more stuck than I wanted to let him know, but I managed to pull it out without having to put in any visible effort. I threw the longsword back onto the pile and started on about bastard sword while Onul took a few swings with it. “Bastard sword is a mix between greatswords and shortswords. They are small enough to be used with a shield, but can be used with both hands to add extra force to your attack. Arguably the best sword to be used while mounted, though I doubt there will be much chance for that in this Carryscar. You shouldn’t concern yourself with that, because as a King you will almost certainly be mounted during larger battles in wars.” I watched as Onul took a few swings first with his right hand, then with his left and then with both. Leader or tyrant, at least he was taking fighting seriously.
“Let’s move on, shall we?” I said to divert his attention towards a spear that I was holding.” Spears are a weapon of choice for those that fight large enemies on regular basis. They are fairly light, and capable of piercing through armour and flesh, leaving deep wounds, possibly causing organ damage. Spear is very effective when going against most bleeding enemies. A spearmaster can cause fatal bleeding or lethal levels of organ damage within seconds. The trick is to pull out spear very quickly. That, of course, requires a great deal of strength, especially when pulling out through armor. You have already had that experience with longsword.” For a moment, I could have sworn that Onul slightly blushed.”Here, try to pierce some of leather armour sets to get a feel how well you can get a spear stuck in flesh. Leather might be harder to pierce initially, but when muscles clench from pain it will be no easier to pull it out. That’s why some spears are made with the specific intention to be left in the wound.” I pulled another spear from the pile. Where previous had even edges, like a large steel oval on a stick, this one had jagged edges, with barbs pointing inwards. “This one right here would need an experienced surgeon to get out without losing few pounds of flesh along with it.” As Onul was taking some practice stabs at a practice dummy adorned with several leather armour sets piled on one another, I carefully aimed the jagged spear. A forceful throw embed the spear in the dummy closest to the one Onul was messing up. He jumped in surprise, turning towards spear that was still slightly vibrating right next to him. I let out another chuckle. “Spears, however, are not without disadvantages. If an enemy gets too close to you, or if he pushes your spear aside, you will be wide open. Spearman can carry a shield, but then the spear should be shorter, sacrificing range, one of main advantages of using a spear. Only if you are in formation, long spears and shields can be effectively used, but such formations are very slow and can’t manoeuvre well on the battlefield."
I pulled out last weapon out from the pile. “Last one for now, and then if you want we will do some one on one practice. “ I threw weighty weapon up in the air and caught it again. “Maces. Weapons for simple minded peasants, arms for those that can’t grasp the finer methods of battle. You might have heard such words, but know this, they are all lies. Mace is a weapon that mainly involves bashing something heavy against something hostile until aggressor is no more, but there is more to that. Mace can be used both to kill and to knock out, experienced mace users can compensate for armour and chose whether to knock out, to fracture skull or to bash the brains out by limiting force of their swing. Mace can cripple easily, ignoring any armour enemies might have. You can break weapons by simply blocking, as maces simply have no edge and thus don’t risk getting dull or chipped. If you ever get in a long battle you will be glad to have mace, since when swords and axe users are made less and less effective by their dulling edges, mace wielders stand unaffected. Mace is a heavy weapon that can knock out shield or sword out of hands by simply hitting it with enough force. The fact that precise aiming with a mace is not required is more of a problem for those that stand against the macer. The disadvantages that mace has is that it is slightly slower that sowrd, and since it is heavy, swinging it around can tire out user quicly.”
“I see.” Onul muttered. “Well, I’ll just have to try it out and feel it out for myself, I suppose. Let’s start our practice mach then.” He added picking up a shortword.
I picked up a scimitar from the pile and stepped forward.
***
Onul managed to last long enough to try out spear, mace and two small swords, once with a shield and once with two swords. He was sweating and breathing heavily. I was also slightly tired, but did not let it show.
“Well then, I hope this will help you to chose a weapon that suits you. And don’t let others to chose for you, we are talking about an item that will determine whether you live or die on the battlefield. And it would be sad to see a fine dwarf as you in a coffin. There is only one last thing, although as king meant to set an example, you will probably won’t be using it much, if ever.”
Onul managed to lift his eyes towards me, breathing heavily. He was probably hurting all over from getting hit a couple of times, and if he wasn’t now he would be tomorrow. But he still managed to focus on me. What I was about to say was the reason why I tried to keep up a slightly intimidating appearance in our lesion.
“Edged weapons have one additional advantage over blunt ones, and the advantage is that they can be poisoned.”
“Poisoned? What use would that have for someone who is not an assassin?”
“Usual stuff wouldn’t, But I have a bottle of forgotten beast poison.”I pulled out a metal flask and shock it before Onul’s eyes. “Instantly rots skin and flesh. Though if you wanted to use it you would need to get some engravings on the edge to hold poison that blood wouldn’t wash it away. Tell me if you’ll need it.”
I hid flask back in my pocket and gave Onul a supportive smile. “You did quite well today. There’s talent in you, that’s one thing you won’t need to worry about. See you in training” And I walked away, bearing all the weapons, as Onul was hardly in shape to walk by now. I doubted that he would ask me for poison; after all, it was not why I had showed it to him. It was a precaution, in case he was an exceptionally deceitful tyrant. I was almost certain that he was a noble in mind as well as position, but it always paid to be prepared. It was a message. If he would stray away from his fine behaviour too much, his next chalice of vine might become his last.
Yet again I seem to face the situation where second part is more than twice larger than the first. Nice work coming both from TalonisWolf and Monitor Lisard. I could offer you some advice too, Lisard. Use " instead of - in dialogues. Have no idea why but it generaly reads better that way. My dialogue read like crap while I used -.
Poll
7 (26.9%)
Author
Topic: Ozkakurrith "Carryscar," A Civ Forge Community/Story Fortress: FINISHED (Read 97854 times)