Completed Innkeeping and Archery I

[Tazrae]

Timestamp: 70th of Summer, 520 A.V.

Everyone had finished dinner and the dishes and deck where cleaned up from the food and gathering. Several guests were playing cards – poker Tazrae thought – and two more were discussing trade routes. These long summer days gave Tazrae an extra edge. She was planning on seeing if she could get a pig at the Swine Swells this afternoon, but she really had no idea how to go about it. She could pay someone to go kill her a pig for the larder, but honestly, she wanted to be able to get one on her own.

It was up to her to provide food for the Inn, and even though hunting after a long day wasn’t her idea of a good item, she had to hustle and provide for her guests while they were here. She had plenty of time when she had no guests and she couldn’t very easily rely on the crab and lobster pots she threw out in the mornings to feed absolutely everyone at night. It was just lucky they did today. The guests were thrilled. Crab and lobster were considered higher-end meals in Riverfall and the other places people had come from this round. But she needed fresh meat, or their breakfast would be thin.

Tazrae gathered her bow, a bundle of arrows that she still cursed herself she had no quiver for, and picked up her survival pack. She strapped on her machete and added a few carry sacks to the side of the pack in case she came across fruit on her trip.

“Going somewhere?” A warm voice asked as grey studied her curiously. “Like hunting perhaps?” He asked, and Tazrae smiled.

“There’s lots of daylight left and I thought I’d walk to Swine Swells and see if I could get a pig.” She added, glancing outside. It actually wasn’t even that hot. A cool rain threatened for the evening, and that would make the weather afterward even nicer.

“Do you know how to use that?” Xander asked, the bard curious as he watched her get ready to go. “I know a thing or two about bows and I could give you some pointers if you want too. Or even if you get a pig, you’ll need a hand packing it back won’t you?” He asked, knowing full well that Tazrae couldn’t probably pack a full adult pig back.

“I actually haven’t ever used it. I know almost nothing about them. Juli said it would be a good weapon for me and I thought I’d take it out and practice.” Tazrae admitted, smiling sheepishly. “All alone no one can see me fail.” She added, slinging her pack across her back after fastening the bow to it.

“Yea… that’s not how you learn how to shoot a bow. Trial and error work on a lot of things, but there’s a factor or two to that bow you should know. There’s a real technique that if your lucky you can stumble upon… but unless you are exceptionally gifted, you need a teacher, Tazrae.” Xander said sincerely.

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[Tazrae]

Tazrae laughed. “I can promise you I’m not exceptionally gifted. I’m exceptionally clumsy and have exceptionally never hunted for food in my life.” She said with a grin. Xander just laughed.

By this time, he was moving around as well. He’d gathered a pack, put on a rain slicker even though it wasn’t raining and followed her out the door, and into the late afternoon light. It was technically evening, but this time of year Syka stayed sunny well into the night-time. They walked briefly west, hit the Cobbled Pathway, and headed north from there taking the ‘road’ that would lead the past the bungalows and around the bend towards Sharktooth Point and past that Swine Swells. It was a bit of a walk so they had time to talk.

“There are so many advantages to the bow Juli recommended for you.” Xander started out, his pace as brisk as Tazrae’s – fast but not interfering with his ability to teach and talk at the same time. “It really doesn’t have a steep learning curve, not like a traditional bow can have. I say this because when you take up a longbow, it requires a significant amount of skill and strength to shoot it accurately. And that takes a lot of practice to develop. The Compound Longbow is more accurate and requires a lot less strength for double the amount of speed and force that a longbow has. The secret is in all those pullies at the ends of your bow tips. I’ll talk about them in a moment, but just know you’ll need to practice, but just not nearly as much as you would get skilled at a simple longbow.” He added.

Tazrae nodded, following his line of thinking. By now she’d gotten the bow untied from her pack and was actually carrying it. The process got her used to the feel of it in her hands and enabled her to study it as they walked, especially as Xander pointed out a few things. “So, the Juli told me the major difference between the two types of bows… the longbow and the compound longbow… is that I don’t need great strength to pull this one, so I won’t wear out hunting.” She added, watching Xander for his confirmation.

“That’s true enough, but there are other major differences too. The longbow, which I grew up knowing as the recurve, is made with very few parts. If it gets damaged, normally the whole bow has gotten to be replaced. Your composite longbow has many different parts. There’s more to break, but it's not unusual for the fixes to be easier. Your bow is more expensive due to the moving parts, and recurves are cheaper. You don’t need the strength to use yours and it won’t tire you out like a recurve longbow will.” He added as they continued walking.

Tazrae looked thoughtful then smiled. “What other advantages are there?” She asked. And after a moment, Xander answered.

“Well, there are quite a few more advantages and disadvantages. Your advantage is that you can use a wider variety of arrows and bolts on it, and they will hit with more force. That’s another advantage. Your composite longbow is completely customizable to you and will grow with your skill so you won’t need to change up bows as you get better. You can just change up the rigging and customization.” He added with a smile.

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[Tazrae]

Tazrae glanced at him. “Customization? What do you mean?” She asked, curious.

“Well, what makes the compound longbows so popular is its ability to be customized to the archer. A normal bow can have scopes or small accessories, but for the most part, they have come as they are and not adaptable. Compound longbows can hold a number of tools for the wielder from scopes to small quivers. The sky is the limit with them in terms of adjusting the pulleys, changing out strings, adding and taking off accessories. They really allow you to create a mobile setup perfect for whatever use you need them for. The tradeoff is the price… its more expensive. And it becomes bulky. You’ll never slip it into a city under your cloak for example. They get big fast. The more accessories, the more they have to carry. I think the bulk is worth it.” He added when Tazrae studied the bow in her hands and indeed found it a lot more…. more of everything… than most bows were.

“If it can help my aim and makes up for my lack of strength, then I’m all for a bulkier bow that lets me be more powerful than I am with a simple longbow.” She added as they halted on the trail. A large pit viper was sunning itself across the stones. Tazrae didn’t know what kind it was, but Xander didn’t seem too concerned. He backed off, picked up a rock, and tossed it towards the snake, not actually hitting it, but bouncing it by its head. The snake woke abruptly, hissed, then coiled in on itself protectively, before uncoiling and heading back into the thicker brush on either side of the road. Tazrae noted they were in a wilder part of Syka now… far outside the Commons though still technically inside the city itself.

“This bow has a lot of moving parts. Can we talk about what they are called and what they actually do?” She asked, gesturing at the pulleys and running her hands along the arms that looked intimidating. Honestly, the whole compound bow looked as if a gadgeteer had gotten ahold of it. She liked it though. It didn’t actually look like a weapon and it didn’t have clean beautiful lines. It looked awkward and unimpressive.

“Sure. Hrm… where to start?” Xander mused. “Yea, all those moving parts can be pretty intimidating to people just learning. So let's talk about the parts as I know them. “The Riser… this is the middle part of the bow that contains the grip. That’s the arrow shelf and sight, mounted to it. Risers are where you mount the accessories… your sight, arrow rest, a quiver, and stabilizers. I see you already have stabilizers. And honestly, I think I have just the quiver for you. Mounted to the riser is the limbs. You have a top limb and a bottom limb. These are the flexible planks that hold the cams. The cams are the round things the string passes through. I’ll talk about them in a moment. But its important that your limbs are strong and flexible. It’s where all the energy is stored when you generate it pulling back on the bowstring.” He added, then smiled.

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[Tazrae]

“Limbs come in different types. You can have solid ones like you have there, or twin split-limbs connected at the riser. Split limbs are more durable and produce less shock than your solid limbs, but someone didn’t see it as a problem for you.” He added. “Parallel limbs can be yet another type of limb… yours are definitely parallel. Recurve Longbows form an almost D shape with the string being the straight body. Parallel limbed Compound Longbows form an E shape. It's stronger and you can generate more force in the bowstring… but more importantly, they are far quieter than the D shaped longbows and have far less recoil. You won’t even hear your bow fire when you do fire it and you won’t feel it at all. It’s a beautiful thing… though not as sleek and deadly looking like a recurve longbow is.” He signed thoughtfully and smiled at her again.

So, the round things on the end of the limbs are the Cams. They are attached to the ends of the limb with bolts. They mechanically manipulate the draw weight of the bow as you pull the string back, so past a certain point, it gets easier to pull back even though you have all the same maintained stored energy a traditional recurve longbow would have.” He said thoughtfully.

“Wait, what? Draw weight? What is that?” Tazrae asked, tilting her head and studying her composite longbow like it was an alien object.

“Okay… you need to really know two numbers to dabble in archery. The first is draw length. It’s measured in inches and is the length you can pull back a bow. Or… your wingspan.” Xander said with a laugh. “Stop a moment. Let’s measure you. He had her hold both arms out at her side and he started at the middle finger of her right hand and counted off her inches to her middle finger of her left hand. Sixty-seven inches… not bad.” He muttered.

Tazrae grinned. “I’m 5’7”. Do you know most people have a wingspan that exactly corresponds to their height?” She asked.

“I do now… now draw length is this measurement... 67… minus 15 then divided by 2, is your draw length. So… roughly 26. Not bad. I’ll not have to adjust your bow by much. And typically remember you need 26-inch arrows 25 or 27 will work, but you’ll get your most accurate shots at 26-inch arrows. Don’t forget.” He added, then moved on. “Draw weight is the amount of force needed to pull a bowstring, and it's measured in pounds. The traditional longbows have a heavier draw weight incrementally the further they are pulled. The standard for determining their draw weight is taken at 28 inches of draw length.” He said, then glanced at her.

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[Tazrae]

Tazrae nodded. She was listening carefully.

“You have a compound longbow... it's different. They have set draw weights no matter how much you pull the string back. I looked yours over. It is already set to a 26-inch draw weight which is perfect. Either someone is a good guesser or you are roughly the same height as Juli and that’s how she knew to send you over this one. I’ve seen her assortment of weapons and she literally has all kinds with all sorts of draw strength so you didn’t just get lucky. Someone selected that bow just for you. I can set it up so it can be shortened and lengthened ten pounds either way, but you won’t need it unless someone else goes hunting with it. But it's your gear… don’t loan it out.” He said with a smile and tapped his longbow that was attached to his backpack over his shoulder. “This one has known no hands but my own. It’s not a compound, but it does nicely.” He added.

“You mentioned arrow length.. and that mine should be 26 inches. I have some but I don’t know how long they are.” She said with a frown. Xander nodded. “We can cut them down if they are too long, but I suspect she sent you over 26-inch arrows too. And the quiver I am thinking about for you won’t need you to be buying many more arrows. It has a special talent… one I don’t actually need in this world anymore. But you’ll get a lot of use out of it. So all we need to do is have a few 26-inch arrows of the various types and we’ll be good to go. I also have some fishing line that works very well with compound bows. I can mount a spool to your bow and you can fish with it as well.” He added, his excitement growing. It was going to be fun to have a student go hunting with him again. He didn’t often get out into nature, and truth be told it inspired a lot of new songcraft when he did.

“You measure an arrow's length from the nock’s deepest part to where the pot and arrow shaft meet. The point doesn’t actually count in the measurement. You must keep this measurement to 26 in each arrow you buy. It makes all the difference in the world in terms of accuracy.” He added, as they swung around the point by Sharktooth Point and headed on down towards Swine Swells. The side path wasn’t too far and Tazrae was sure they’d be there I just a chime or two.

“Not all arrows are made equally too, kiddo. Some are faster than others. We measure them in tones. It’s a mark faster than a chime. There are sixty tones in a chime. So, you can always fire an arrow… count one-one tone tone, two-one tone tone, three-one tone tone and discover which types are fastest. Counting ‘one tone-tone’ will give you the approximate length of an actual tone. Some will fire faster out of your bow than out of another bow. You just have to experiment and determine which work best for your style.” He added then darted off to the path that lead to where the pigs were. They’d be hunting soon… sooner than she was ready for. Her head felt filled with facts that may or may not help her pull that trigger and kill a pig to feed her guests.

She hoped she could do it.

Continued In: Innkeeping and Archery II

Word Count: 595

[Tazrae]

Tazrae-

Planning +1xp, Weapon (Compound Longbow) + 5xp, Socialization +3xp, Interrogation +2xp, Mathematics +3xp

Lores: Compound Longbow: Its Advantages & Disadvantages, Compound Longbow: Its parts and what they do, Bows: The major differences between types, Archery: Draw Length & Draw Weight Calculations, Archery: How to Calculate Arrow Length, Archery: Fishing With A Bow, Archery: How To Measure The Speed Of An Arrow