FreeOrienttwo

First, have you read the wagon peoples information and sent in your email declaring that you have done so? [If the answer is no, do so now.]

This orientation will be a brief description of animals and weapons. As you travel the plains and forests, you will come across several animals and you may engage in battle with other people. At DFC, we do these things right. You cannot, for example, fire an arrow from atop a tarn and hit an animal in the eye. No one is that good. What you post must be reasonable and probable. There are no Hercules or Supermen on Gor.

Before you can continue this lesson, you must read the following information on the camp's website: Sleen, Tarns, Kaiilas, Larls, Kurs, and Tumits. Gorean weapons (pay special attention to which weapons are used by the Wagon Peoples)

Animals and how to fight/kill them on the plain.

Sleen: You can fight a sleen with your spear, crossbow, long bow, short bow and in a pinch your quiva (although if you choose to fight it with your quiva, picture trying to fight a pit bull with a pocket knife, while you may eventually kill the animal, you will be severely injured during the process). Domesticated animals can be made into pets, and the camp's sleens are fully trained to voice commands. The camp's sleens are excellent hunters and trackers and will guard you if you take one out with you on the plains (note, you cannot just claim to have a guard sleen with you out on the plains, there actually must be someone posting as the sleen for it to count).
Tarns: Even "domesticated" tarns are extremely dangerous and even its owner needs a tarn goad to get it to obey. Tarns are not really used by the Wagon People, though there is an instance in Nomads where Tarl and Harold bring one back to the camp. If you want to do authentic Gor, you should forget the tarn and ride a kaiila.

If you do ride tarns, be sure you learn which straps do what. If you meet a wild tarn and don't have a tarn goad, get away as best you can. They are vicious and can kill you easily. A wild tarn might attack you while you are riding a tarn. It will go after your tarn, trying to injure it so it falls from the skies.

A long bow, cross bow or spear are about your only defense. If you choose to hunt a tarn, you should dig a pit first. Hide in the pit and stake a slave out just at the top of the pit as a lure. When the tarn descends, thinking the slave is food, she should jump into the pit and you should try to lasso the tarn. You will need to tie the tarn quickly to a root sticking out in the pit or let yourself be dragged to the surface and quickly tie the rope around a tree. If you can't secure the tarn quickly, let go of the rope or it will pull you into the skies and almost certain death. Lastly, if you do have a tarn, keep in mind you will be caring for it, you cant send a slave to feed and water it. To a tarn a slave is a snack. As it says in the books, a tarn typically only responds to one, if its your tarn, that would be you.

Kaiilas: The kaiila can be your best friend when hunting or in a battle. You can train it to almost anticipate what you want it to do and it is itself a formidable beast if it attacks. Most Wagon People own more than one.

Larls: It is impossible to domesticate or train a larl. Their pelts are highly prized, but this is a vicious and skillful beast. First, it is HUGE, standing seven feet at the shoulders. It's head can be more than two feet across. This is MUCH more than a lion or tiger.

The traditional way to hunt the larl is in a team of seven and with spears. The first spear, the most skilled of the hunters, throws his spear, then ducks down under the safety of his shield. The second hunter does the same, on down the the last hunter, who is usually the weakest hunter of the group. After the last hunter throws his spear, he faces the larl and fights, armed only with his sword. He is, of course, killed, but that allows the others time to escape.

There is a reason it takes seven to kill a larl. It can be assumed that the first spear hits the larl, since he is the most skillful hunter of the pack. And it's assumed the second also hits the larl, and so forth. It can take up to seven thrown spears to bring down a larl, and even then, the larl may not go down.

If you are alone, your only chance is to dig the end of your spear into the ground and try to position the tip of the spear in such a place that when the larl leaps to attack you, it impales itself on the spear. If it hits its heart, you will be lucky and it will die.   Quivas and swords are useless against a larl because once you are close enough to use them, the larl would have clawed you to death. The short bow probably does not have enough strength to do anything but anger the larl. The long bow would probably kill a larl. A crossbow might be able to kill a larl, but more likely would just injure it.

Kurs: If you see a Kur, don't attack it. You are much better off going in the opposite direction and hoping that it decides to ignore you. Kurs are frequently armed with axes and shields and the length of their arms means that they can harm you long before you can get within striking distance of it.

Swords and quivas are useless against a Kur. Even if you fling your quiva, the most you will do is anger the Kur. The Kurs are very skilled at fighting. While you might inflict damage with a sword, you likely soon will be dead.

You shouldn't try to test your skills against a Kur with an axe either as you likely will loose. The short bow is only likely to antagonize the Kur. The long bow would probably kill a Kur, though a crossbow likely would only injure it.

The best way to fight a Kur is to shoot a flaming arrow (if you have something to make a flame). Barring that, try to outrun the Kur (it is very fast, but probably not over long distances and if you are on a kaiila you probably can outrace it). Another possibility is putting a body of water between you and the Kur. They are not good swimmers and avoid the water when possible.

Tumits: A Tumit is a carnivorous bird hunted by the Wagon Peoples. Which brings to light, would be lively sport when the Tumits were released in Camp (with slaves and FW being behind the doors to only watch) for the Warriors to show Their skills as the birds where sought to be killed, or PKs forbid would take vengeance of the Warrior hunting them. As could serve as a paid sport for "Outsiders" to watch. A bola is used to bring these birds down, however, with enough skill, a shield and long spear can be used. However the Tumit serves far more purposes then just that.

Ost: Tiny snake, about 12" long, bright orange in color; its venom causes extremely painful death within seconds; the ost of the rainforests inland of Schendi are red with black stripes. There is no cure for ost poisoning. Death is within seconds. No more need to be said on that than to avoid it at all times:

"...One to be feared even more perhaps was the tiny ost, a venomous, brilliantly orange reptile little more than a foot in length, whose bite spelled an excruciating death within seconds.
"---Outlaw of Gor, 3:26

Wagon People weapons

Kaiila lance: A long slender spear, eight to ten feet long, designed to be used from the saddle of a rider on kaillaback. These lances are carried in the right fist, and are flexible and light. They are used primarily for thrusting. Black in color, they are made from the poles of young tem trees, and so flexible that they may be bent almost double before they break. A loose loop of boskhide, wound twice about the right fist, helps the user to retain the weapon in mounted combat. It is seldom, if ever, thrown.

Quiva: A narrow double-edged blade of between 9 and 12 inches in length mounted on a shaped handle of wood, bone, or horn. It is honed to razor sharpness, and its blade tapers to a needle point. Designed for use primarily as a throwing knife, the quiva is also perfectly functional as a hand weapon and general utility knife. It is mostly used by the nomadic Wagon Peoples of the southern hemisphere, who will carry matched sets of seven in special sheaths attached to their kailla saddles.

Short Bow: This curved bow is much smaller in size than the great bow, and is better suited for use in close spaces or from the back of a kailla, tharlarion or tarn. It is often carved from a single, flexible piece of tem wood or ka-la-na wood, though such peoples as the Wagon Peoples and the Red Savages craft shortbows of layered wood and horn, which gives such bows much greater strength and durability. The arrows used by the shortbow are also much shorter than those employed by the great bow.

Gorean Warrior's Shield: a circular shaped shield; made of several layers of bosk's hide generally seven to nine layers thick stretched over a lightweight framework of wood or horn, generally about twenty-four to thirty-six inches in diameter. The shield is often banded with strips of iron to further strengthen it. The shield, thought seemingly small, is sufficient in size to protect the areas where a fatal blow may be struck, yet it may also be used as a covering in sever weather. It is worn upon the user's arm, usually the left one, and is carried slung across the back while traveling. The shield is usually painted and sometimes carries a design or device that denotes the warriors city-state.

Wagon People's helmet: Another type of a helmet is that often worn by the desert tribesmen and warriors of such cities as Turia and Tor, as well as by the nomadic warriors of the Wagon Peoples. This helmet is cone-shaped steel, often fitted with a nasal guard of narrow flat construction. Such helmets may be trimmed with a ring of fur or fabric which encircles the brow, or with either a cloth covering or chain mail at the back of the helm, that covers the neck. These helmets are closely fitted to the wearer's head, padded with a thick cloth cap.

Bola: The favored weapon of the Warriors of Wagon People. The bola consists of three long leather straps, each about 5 feet in length, terminating in a leather sack which contains, a heavy rounded metal weight. Developed for hunting, it also can be used as a weapon of war. Thrown low the long straps, with their approximate ten-foot sweep, strike the victim and the weighted balls, whip about the victim's legs, entangling and tightening the straps. Thrown high it can pin a man's arms to his sides; thrown at the throat it can strangle him; thrown at the head the whipping weights can crush his skull. Once a victim is entangled with the bolo, another weapon is then utilized to dispatch the victim.

Spear: The common Gorean battle spear, designed to be used both in single combat and thrown, though it is typically depicted primarily as a missile weapon. Aided by the significantly lighter gravity of the Counter-Earth, it is deadly when thrown, quite capable of penetrating thick shields and even passing virtually unhindered through the body of its victim. As described by Tarl Cabot, the typical Gorean spear is approximately seven feet in length, with a fitted wooden handle up to two inches thick, capped by a leaf-shaped, tapering bronze spear head eighteen inches in length. Alternately this spear head can be made of steel, which is probably true in many cases, bronze being too soft a metal for repeated or long-term usage.

Bosk Rope: This has been called a "bosk rope" or a "kaiila rope". Wagon People use this for various reason. As a whip, to secure, to lasso, etc. It consists of a long braided bosk hide and is coiled and set to a Wagon Man's kaiila saddle.

"On the saddle there also hung, on one side, a coiled rope of braided boskhide ...
" Nomads of Gor, page 11

"Bring me," I said, to the crossbowman, standing at the foot of the perch, "from the belongings of Gladius of Cos, kept in the compound of the Steels, the bola of the Tuchuks, the kaiila rope, the southern quiva.
"Assassin of Gor, page 364

Nevertheless, perhaps as a matter of custom, many spears in use on Gor do retain the traditional bronze tip. The handle itself is usually made from ka-la-na wood, and can be banded with metal near the juncture of the spear-head socket to prevent the handle from shearing when thrown. This weapon first appears in Book #1, Tarnsman of Gor, and appears regularly throughout the series thereafter.