[Weapons Training] I Hope You're Right About This...

[Kavala]

Timestamp: Late Winter
Location: The Sanctuary's Courtyard
Purpose: Blowgun, Bola, and Crossbow training


It was Akela's suggestion. So Kavala blamed her entirely. She didn't want to have a blowgun and poisoned darts, but then again she never wanted to be a victim again. If she had a way to paralyse or kill her opponents - those that threatened her - without ever letting them get close or touching them then it couldn't be a bad thing. And truthfully with a blowgun there wasn't too much training involved. One had to practice and practice and practice... until one could hit a target and that was about it.

Making the target was far more interesting than actually shooting the darts. Kavala ended up rolling a large oak keg to the far side of the courtyard and set it up by the gate. She then took white construction chalk and chalked a large target on it. The barrel was used as a seat these days because it would not hold liquid, so filling it full of holes was actually not an issue. Then, carefully opening her text, Kavala began to read... after she was confident, she set the book down and looked thoughtful, ready to practice. There were four steps, it seemed, and she read them carefully.

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"Step 1 - Stance and weight distribution."

There was a stance she needed to take. Feet shoulder width apart, weight evenly distributed, shoulders relaxed, blowgun held firmly in her right hand. Her darts were threaded to a small holder on her belt that looked like a tiny miniature arrow quiver. She was ready to go. Carefully, reviewing the instructions she'd went over in her mind, Kavala followed the steps.

"Step 2 - Inserting the dart."

Place the target from 6 meters to 8 meters in front of a line you choose to shoot from. Insert a dart into the blowgun, making sure it slide in deeply and carefully. If it did not, the dart wouldn't fly true and it was a bad shaft or dart. Fortunately, the dart went in and she moved on to the next step.

"Step 3 - The grip and hold - stance reviewed."

Kavala held the gun carefully, as the book instructed. One of her hands were wrapped over the shaft and the other was supporting the bottom, cupping it gently. She made sure her hands were separated appropriately. Her elbows were closed and resting on her chest.

"Step 4 - Breath and firing darts."

Kavala then inhaled deeply, counting out seconds... six, seven, eight, taking a large breath. She placed her mouth on the mouthpiece and relaxed. Then, instantly, she exhaled forcibly to fire the dart.

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The dart flew wide, not even remotely reaching the barrel. Kavala re-evaluated her stance, but could see nothing wrong with what she did. She reloaded the next dart up, and let it fire again. A little closer this time, but still to far to do any real good. Though not surprised, the Konti was vaguely disappointed. The book made it seem so easy, so simple... She launched the other eighteen of her darts, only once coming close to the barrel, before she crossed the distance and gathered up the projectiles to try again.

This time she moved closer...

[Kavala]

In the end, after all day of practicing, Kavala decided for herself that blowguns usage had to be restricted to 40 ft or less because she couldn't simply generate enough force to get any accuracy or kill anything further out. It wasn't to say her range wouldn't increase, but before it could she had to get a lot stronger with her breath work and develop her lungs and their capacity far more. The secret in using a blowgun was to simply sneak in close enough, quietly, to be able to pick off your opponents with either the poison on the darts or with the accuracy of your aim. Kavala had the perfect place to practice too - like it or not.

Although she was a healer, there were times she knew she needed to kill. And the gopher colony that had moved into her northern pasture was definitely causing a problem for the horses, riddling the fields with holes here and there. The Konti found, that through the course of her training, she could sneak in closer, quietly take a seat - and only using half a dozen darts or so, she could load one, hold it close to her mouth, and carefully practice her aim. At 40 ft, she was accurate about one in every four shots. At 10 ft she could hit almost every time. In between, there was no question she was better than the 40 ft mark and worse than the 10 ft mark. Hunting wasn't her thing, but the denizens of Sanctuary didn't mind gopher stew, nor did the simple minded gophers seem to care that darts flew by them with no more noise than insects. So rather than scare them with a first failed shot, she could go on to reload and fire again until she killed the varmint.

It was good practice, truth be told, and for the next three days, she slowly creature by creature eliminated the gopher problem in the north pasture. She didn't always hit them. In fact, she missed more often than she struck. But the important part was her practicing her technique and pressure in the puff, holding the gun, and safely handling the darts. She was careful with them, even when they were not poisoned. And it was so nice they were cleaned out - from either a sitting or standing position of patience - she knew she wanted to move on to bigger and better game. Kavala knew a small simple dart wouldn't bring down a deer... but a dart with poison on it - something that wouldn't ruin the meat - would.

So it was off to her small budding library to research on muscle poisons and nerve toxins before she was out and about again hunting larger game.

[Kavala]

The philtering lab was quiet when Kavala arrived. She slipped into her workspace and reached up to pull down her book of poisons. The Poisons of Mizahar was a good text, one that rarely lead her astray as she dove into the world of poisons. And since Kavala had skills in the area of roots, vines, and aquatics, there were sections devoted to her skill level. It was flipping through to one of those sections that caught her attention.

Blue Whinnis (4-dose tiny vial) - An odorless, light blue liquid extracted from concentrated whinnis root found in forest environments. Effects caused through injury. Causes mild weakness followed by unconsciousness for up to three hours. (175 gm)

Blue Whinnis was really what she needed. Darts alone weren't enough to kill more than small mammals. But Blue Whinnis could knock down larger animals if given enough time and patience. And the best part of the poison was it was not toxic or fatal. In fact, since its effects wore off after only three hours, that meant her prey would easily be able to be consumed without risk to the person eating the meat.

So, whinnis, and did she have any. Kavala slipped out of the Philtering lab, walked down the hallway, and into her herbal storage. She had to push a heavy chair over to one side, climb upon it, and look at the very top shelf. Sure enough, there was a large glass container of Whinnis. The root was good as well to make a medicine she gave her patience when she needed to knock them out for surgery which was why she kept a supply on hand.

Taking down the container, she removed five or six roots, tucked them against her, and walked back to the philtering lab. She pulled forth a second book, Introduction To Philtering , and thumbed through until she had a good section on how to turn roots into concentrated juice.

"To make a concentration of a root, one must first boil the root in a decoction, mash the remains, and then reduce by boiling the liquid out of the mixture that's remaining after straining. Peel the root, place it in a kettle, and gently cover it with water which one brings to a boil. Boil the roots until they are soft and mashable. If leaves are desired to be added, make certain that roots are put into boil before leaves. Once the water has come to a boil, simmer for about 30 minutes covered, then leave to cool completely. Mash, strain, and then and then gently simmer until the decoction become think and reduced like a sauce."

Kavala nodded, reading quickly, and carefully took out a knife and began peeling the whinnis roots. She chopped them neatly, covered them with enough water to just make sure they were all in the water before she put them on the fire to boil. They heated quickly and were at a rolling boil before long. She kept testing the roots with a knife, spearing one then another, until her knife slipped in clean, then she put them off the fire onto a stone for the purpose of holding hot pots. Retrieving her potato masher, Kavala made quick work of the roots, mashing them to a thick pulp. Then she prepared another pan, covering it with cheesecloth and dumping the blue root mixture into the cheesecloth. She let it strain, forcing the root water through the cloth that was doubled up multiple times, until she'd strained the mash so that all that remained was a thick blue water without pulp in the second pot.

She put the pot back on the fire and hung it so that it wouldn't boil but just gently simmer. She kept it there, stirring it occasionally, and then only took it off two bells later when it had reduced to half its size and was this thick blue syrup.

Then, when it was cooled, she carefully went back to her poison book and reread how to make the blue whinnis. Okay she had the main ingredients, but she needed a stablizer, something to keep the poison from loosing its high concentration and breaking down even further. She carefully mixed plant gum into it, dissolving the gum when the reduction was still warm. It thickened the blue whinnis even more, and allowed her to place it in vials. With the last of the poison created, Kavala went to retrieve her darts and began carefully coating each and every one with the last of the poison remaining in the pot. Laying the darts and vials of blue whinnis aside, Kavala began to thoroughly clean the philtering lab, removing the last of the poison from the pot and replacing all the items neatly where she got them. She'd have to restock her whinnis root, but she could do that when she went to actually use the darts.

A bell later, she was done and it was time to test her efforts. She went outside, carefully walked to a target, and fitted one of the poison darts to her blowgun. She took a careful stance, feet spread, shoulders wide, and gently inhaled a large volume of air. With a quick puff she let the dart go, and noted how it flew, the poison only a light coating, but indeed one that changed the way the dart sailed when it was untreated ever so slightly. She was wide off her mark, not within the circle of her dart target, but still on the target itself. She loaded another dart, relaxed, inhaled deeply and puffed abrutly, sending the dart forward, adjusting for the new flight path the treated darts followed.

This time she hit into the ring, not on the bullseye, but definitely where the dart would have delivered its poison and done its job. She nodded. That was enough. She went to retrieve the darts and carefully store them in their leather pouch away from the other non-treated darts she used on smaller animals.

[Kavala]

Ready to test the poison in the field with her new darts, Kavala rode out, past where she'd murdered the rodents and out onto the grasslands themselves. She made sure she had her crossbow, lots of bolts, and a half dozen dogs to defend her. Ghost, the stallion she rode, was a big asset as well since he was more warhorse than pleasure mount. Plus, riding him, she could get closer to big predators that she normally wouldn't be able to on foot. Though, truthfully, big predators wasn't what she really had in mind. Kavala was looking for young raptors, birds to populate the mews with. Fledglings, with no full adult colors would work well, so too would hatch lings not out of the nest.

The fringe forest was full of such nests, chicks hatching late in the winter season for a jump start to spring. All Kavala had to do was find them. And as she rode, she thought about dosages and how each dart could not be treated the same as other darts because animal size varied. So she left her pretreated darts alone for now, and instead got her untreated darts ready and pulled a file of blue whinnis out where it would be ready.

The first nest she saw was a sparrowhawks. The Kestrel was not minding eggs, but she was building a nest, heavy with eggs. There was no mate in site, and by the sorrow Kavala felt from the bird, one would not be forthcoming anytime soon. Kestrels were small, and so when she halted ghost beneath the tree the female was working in, Kavala only dipped the tip of the dart in the poison. This bird, heavy with eggs, she could take back to the falconer at The Sanctuary and hopefully the bird would nest there, bringing her hatchlings into the fold there to be trained as companions and hunters.

The dogs ranged around her, Kavala having only brought the Imperial Watchers. They scattered, not willing to interrupt their mistress in her doings. Being beneath the bird on the ground, the bird felt no threat but Kavala was able to get relatively close mounted on her horse and keeping her eyes to the sky. She barely dosed the needle like dart, fit it into her blowgun, and quieted Ghost so he would stand absolutely still as she took aim. Kavala felt she'd only get one shot so she waited, quietly, until she was sure she could dart the kestrel.

Inhaling slightly, relaxing, taking careful aim, Kavala puffed and sent the dart launching skyward. It sailed wide of the kestral, who fluttered slightly but went back to obsessively building its nest. Kavala frowned, frustrated at herself, and dipped another dart, sad one was lost. She set it in the blow gun, and did as she knew how to do... relax, took aim, and fired.

The dart went really wide again, as if the kestrel was too big of a target. Kavala snapped her teeth together frustrated. What in the world was she doing wrong? Another dart was retrieved - Kavala was glad she had a lot of them - and dipped. Then she reset the dart, relaxed, and glanced down at her horse. Riding... required technique, but when it was done best, it was done without thought, instinctual. Was using a weapon the same way? She lifted the dart to her lips again, looked thoughtful, and then closed her eyes and utterly relaxed. She drew in breath, looked up at the bird and without taking aim, let the dart fly with a quick puff.

The kestrel squacked in shock as the dart pierced its back and it fluttered once, twice, and started a downward spiral, slightly controlled to the ground where it landed awkwardly. It hopped forward, two or three moments, and then flopped down twitching. Kavala slipped from Ghost's back, scooped up the Kestrel, and carefully tucked her away in a side bag with lots of breathing room after checking her for injuries.