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Year
10,174 Contasta Ar
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Gorean Weapons - Miscellaneous
This is my narrative and relevant references from the Books about miscellaneous weapons too numerous to separate into individual categories.
I make no pronouncements on these matters, but report them as I find them.
Arrive at your own conclusions.
I wish you well,
Fogaban
Acid, by its very nature is terrible stuff. Ho-Tu was forced to drink it, afterwards all he could eat was gruel.[1] Once, in an attempt to maim or kill a racing tarn, it discolored its wing feathers.[2] Mentioned in passing acid was suggested as a means to disfigure a slave.[3] Or, worse yet, dollops of acid, are used as part of a lengthy mode of execution.[4] In some dwellings, corridors or tunnels are protected from behind tiny apertures several feet above the floor and in the ceiling. Along with crossbow bolts, noxious materials might be emitted from such vents, such as pitch, acids, and heated oil.[5]
The Anango, or Anangan dart is a weighted metal dart, some eighteen inches in length, which is flung overhand and because of its fins[6] requires less skill than the quiva.[7] The point is broad and barbed[8] and can be used for close combat.[9] This dart can also be used from tarn back and, when so equipped, is stored three on each side of the saddle.[10] These darts can also be poisoned.[11]
As a weapon, not much can stand against an armored tharlarion charge.[12]
The barbed war net is only mentioned in passing so you'll just have to imagine how fun it would be to become entangled in one.[13]
Sometimes siege towers incorporate battering rams with the intent to break through walls.[14] To thwart this, a Gorean keep's first sixty feet or so would presumably be solid stone.[15] Battering rams are also used under long, rolling, shedlike roofs which protect the ram, sometimes hung on a hundred ropes.[16]
Maybe you just pick up a beam of wood.[17]
Mentioned as a children's toy . . . but still.[18]
Certainly alluded to in the past, albeit subtlety, beauty is now specifically mentioned as a weapon.[19]
Bladed chains are mentioned just once and then only as one of many in a group of weapons.[20]
Bladed hooks are swung on long lines below giant tarns. The intent is to cut tarn wire and tear it from its posts.[21]
Ok, to be honest, I had to laugh when I read about the blubber hammer. Have you ever heard of someone so stupid or inept they could 'ruin an anvil with a rubber hammer'?
Seriously though, the blubber hammer is normally used for pounding blubber to loosen the oil in it, which is then used in the lamps of the far north. It has a wooden handle and a stone head. And the blubber hammer, as a weapon, could prove lethal.[22]
No doubt just a thick stick with a heavy end.[23]
Boarding hooks, on poles, are often used to draw ships within boarding distance of one another. These are sometimes sheathed with tin near the points making it harder to cut or chop them away.[24]
The boat hook can be a lethal weapon if you were cut open by one.[25]
Yes, just a tree branch can be a weapon.[26]
In what amounts to a very wicked pair of gloves, the cruel cestae[27] can be spiked,[28] or incorporating four-bladed daggers[29] and would indeed, be a formidable weapon.
Flailing a chain around can be a weapon.[30] But you can also strangle a person with a chain.[31]
No doubt a wicked way to die is by a chain garrote cutting into your neck.[32]
Having come from the Steel Worlds, chemical weapons are unfamiliar on Gor.[33]
Actual use of a chisel as a weapon? I don't know, use your imagination.[34]
Clubs are mentioned in various places as just that, a club.[35] But some clubs are made more lethal with the addition of knife blades or long nails.[36]
Used with the Gorean parachute, cordage is also an object of war.[37]
Another weapon of opportunity, the crate hook will serve the angry man.[38]
Even a crutch can be a formidable weapon.[39]
Deceit is amongst the tools of war.[40]
The edged battle weights are mentioned just once and then only as one of many in a group of weapons.[41]
Fire, just by itself, is a useful weapon.[42]
Another weapon of opportunity for a mob.[43]
Yet another weapon of opportunity for a mob.[44]
Useful as a signaling device.[45]
Flame baskets, catapulted over the walls, are used to set fires inside a besieged city.[46]
What amounts to a Molotov cocktail, incendiary bombs, flame vases and clay flasks, corked with rags, can be lit and dropped from tarns.[47]
A definite means to start fires.[48]
Great bundles of brush, on ropes can be set on fire and hurled over the edge to thwart invaders.[49]
The fork, used during a Gorean meal or on the farm, it can still be a weapon.[50] But then there is the four-pronged garden fork.[51]
Yes, even fragments of pavement will serve as weapons.[52]
Alright, alright, perhaps not the most formidable weapon but still.[53]
A gaff, use as a weapon . . . well, I would not want to be on the receiving end.[54]
The garrote, a bowstring,[55] a piece of wire or cord fastened to two handles, is used to loop around the neck of a foe. While it can be defeated,[56] it will usually, and easily, cut the throat. Therefore the similar weapon used to capture slave girls has, instead of wire, a length of light chain.[57]
Next we have gauntlets. These can be anything from plain armored gloves to being spiked or having attached hatchets or knives.[58]
The typical slave goad, used mainly for the control, direction and discipline of slaves, has several settings of intensity. At the highest setting, it can be lethal and is shown as being used as a weapon.[59]
Both the base of the heavy goblet and its metal rim can deal a serious blow.[60]
Even gold has been described as a weapon.[61]
Not only are there the small grapnels, used by one man or groups of men, to scale walls[62] but there are also huge siege grapnels. The latter are hurled by an engine and then, either with the second arm of the engine or by the same arm, they are then reversed and drawn back with great force. This can rip away the crests of walls or tear off roofs.
The derrick grapnel is much what the name suggests. It is used from walls, dangled down, and then drawn up with a winch. If the wall is a harbor wall it can capsize a ship. If the wall is a land wall it can topple a siege tower.[63]
There are then the grapnels used in ship-to-ship warfare. These are used to drag a nearby ship closer so that forces can board it. These grapnels are made with a length of chain behind the hook and that chain is attached to another length of knotted rope. This makes cutting loose the grapnel, once it has taken hold, much more difficult.[64]
Well sheeesh, how could a hammer not be envisioned as a weapon?[65]
Used, at least, in ship-to-ship warfare, heated stones are used to attack an enemy.[66]
Ho, ho, ho . . . ok, no, and not a prostitute either, the hoe can also be a weapon.[67]
The war hammer is only mentioned twice and not described at all. One of these references specifically identifies the war hammer as being of Hunjer, an island west of Torvaldsland. In any event it is, no doubt, a devesting weapon.[68]
Hurling stones are mentioned once among objects of war.[69]
What amounts to a John Deere 9620 . . . no, just kidding. Though I would guess that "Implements of Farming" are whatever you can imagine, within reason.[70]
"Men of low caste dared at last to seize the instruments of their trade and turn on guardsmen and soldiers". That had to be a fearsome sight.[71]
Yes, just an iron bar, unless you get hit with it.[72]
Yes, just an iron lever, unless you get hit with it.[73]
Just imagine the enraged woman swinging an iron pan.[74]
A huge marine animal which can be used as a weapon.[75]
What might be a garrote, this weapon is described as loops of wire.[76]
No, not the aerosol can, the mace is only mentioned once as a weapon and then only as one of many in a weaponry.[77]
Just that, a metal bar but one that is ten feet long and three inches in diameter. This thing would weigh 240 pounds and yet a Kur can twirl such a weapon as if it were a wand.[78]
Metal pellets, at a short distance, and in great numbers, can rain down like a deadly hail. Almost invisible in flight, they can blind a man, break a head, and cut him open.
[79]
Misinformation too is a well known tool of war.[80]
(see Flame Vases and Flasks)
Nets are often used in hunting. Smaller nets can be cast, larger nets may be spread between poles or trees, to intercept driven game.[81]
Certainly, nets are used to catch girls,[82] or even free women.[83]
But they are also rich in war uses. For instance, see the separate heading for barbed war net. Nets can thwart scalers and grapnel crews. They can block passages. From behind them one may conveniently thrust pikes and discharge missiles. In the field they may serve as foundations for camouflage. At sea they are used in the repulsion of boarders.[84] Speaking of blocking passages, there are nets larger than just capture nets, long and wide, they are referred to as wall nets.[85] Even better at blocking passages is a wire capture net.[86]
The weighted capture net can be circular and strongly woven[87] or a mighty net, stoutly woven, thickly stranded.[88]
Weighted nets well cast, might entangle a tarn or its rider in the sky, interfering with the bird's flight or the rider's capacity. They might also be used, from a low-flying tarn in support of ground forces.[89]
By means of boarding nets dozens of men might simultaneously descend the side of the ship.[90]
During an attack, oil can be used to produce a slick, which can, as a last resort, be set on fire.[91] Oil can also be kept boiling in a cauldron. This heated oil can be poured through apertures.[92] Buckets of it, on long handles, can be dipped into the boiling oil. The oil is then set afire and poured on attackers. The oil tends to hold the fire on the object when poured about the floor, down a ladder or over a wall and onto attackers.[93] What is obviously a Molotov Cocktail, oil bombs are mentioned as being used against ships where the tarnsmen light the oily rags one by one. The clay flasks of tharlarion oil are then hurled down, from the heights of the sky.[94] The fire bomb can also be used from tarnback on the land.[95]
I will also mention being boiled in oil.[96]
Wrapped around arrows and lit on fire, it provides an easy way to send said fire into the distance.[97]
More of a light ballista than a bow, this item deserves its own mention. The pani bow is generally anchored in a stout frame, and strung with a thick, oiled cord. It has unusual range, requiring two men to bend it. But it lacks accuracy and has a slow rate of fire.[98]
Lady Bina's deadly yellow parasol. [99]
Another weapon of the masses.[100]
(see Staff)
Pitch, being the sticky substance it is, transported in jars,[101] when lit, becomes a formidable weapon. Canisters of flaming pitch can be lofted from the deck catapults of ships,[102] cast down by tarnsmen,[103] thrown from roofs[104] or walls[105] or poured from ceilings,[106] transforming the area into a blazing furnace.
There is little which may not figure as a weapon for instance, just a regular plank.[107]
The pointed stick is shown several times to be a weapon.[108]
The pole is also shown several times to be a weapon.[109]
Just that, a bar of iron, heated red hot on one end.[110]
Carried on a harness hook, the Kur rifle is slung behind the left shoulder. It is a stubby, cylindrical fire tube capable of producing a blast of force.[111]
The rock hammer is only mentioned once but described as used to break down a door.[112]
A weapon can be only a piece of jagged rock.[113]
Roofing tiles are shown to be a weapon thrown from a wall.[114]
Even simple rope can be interpreted as a weapon.[115]
A way, but not the most fun way, to board an enemy ship or get over a wall.[116]
A scythe, that's what the Grim Reaper carries.[117]
Not sure if these are attached to a prisoner or not but a pair of shackles can be a weapon too.[118]
Then there is the sharpened half-staff. Its use as a weapon is pretty self-explanatory.[119]
A swordsman can engage but one opponent at a time, and this renders him vulnerable to the other, however brief the engagement. If, instead, he defends himself against one, with a particular parry, however swift, he is exposed to the thrust of the other.
Something very similar to this occurs in Gorean naval warfare, where, commonly, the ship is the weapon.
[120]
Yes, even just a shovel.[121]
The common siege catapult projectiles, commonly large boulders, are designed to crash through stone walls. Another point of interest, though perhaps one too obvious to mention, has to do with the platform and target of fire. The land catapult is commonly stationary and commonly has a stationary target.[122]
Fragilely roofed siege ditches provide an interesting method of capturing those wishing to escape a besieged city.[123]
The siege hammer is used to knock down doors. These are used by one or more men, depending on the size of the hammer or ram.[124]
Siege poles, like ladders, can be either a single upright, rungs tied transversely on the single axis or a more conventional a two-upright ladder. These are used to scale the walls of a besieged city.[125]
Siege tower are used to overcome a cites walls. They are equipped with battering rams.[126] Being covered with steel counters the effects of fire arrows and burning tar.[127] As large as buildings, they are moved in various ways.
Some are moved from within, by such means as men thrusting forward against bars, or tharlarion, pulling against harnesses attached to bars behind them, such apparatuses internal to the structure. Some, on the other hand, are drawn by ropes, drawn by men or tharlarion.[128] One defense against the siege tower is the derrick grapnel. Used from walls, the grapnel dangled down and then drawn up with a winch, with luck, can topple a siege tower.[129]
Slave nets are carefully woven, with stout inescapable cordage. And, when cast with skill, one does not escape their coils.[130]
Not actually described, the slave snare is still, evidently, quite the effective binding.[131]
The slave trap.[132] From the description, this is similar to a trap for beavers, wolves or bear. The main difference being that the slave trap has heavy, curved steel jaws, which lock shut and can only be opened with a key.[133] Smaller, lighter versions of such traps exist for escaped female slaves. Within some of these devices, surrounded by the wire and blades, one cannot move without cutting oneself to pieces.[134]
Similar to tarn wire, a lighter form of wire is called "slave wire," and it, too, is dangerous. A slave attempting to escape through such wire is likely to be found suspended within it, piteously begging for help, half cut to pieces.[135]
The sling is mentioned briefly as something used by light-armed troops,[136] or even in semi-military units. These are more dangerous than many understand, particularly at a short distance, and in great numbers, when a sheet of missiles in their thousands can rain down like a deadly hail.[137]
Smoke bombs are described as being used to signal others from a distance.[138]
Some contests are fought with spiked leather,[139] sometimes with steel claws fastened to the fingers,[140] and sometimes with whips.[141]
There are actually like gangplanks, some five feet in width, to be fastened at one end to the round ship and intended to be dropped, with their heavy spiked ends, into the deck of an enemy ship.[142]
Contestants in pit battles sometimes fight with spiked yokes. These are heavy beams going behind the head to which the hands are fastened at each end. The beams are fitted with steel horns, eighteen inches in length and pointed like nails.[143]
Springals, Ballistae, Catapults, Onagers and Mangonels | To The Index |
Light engines, mostly catapults and ballistae, used during the siege of a city, are transported over siege ditches by harnessed tarn teams.[144]
However, usually mounted on ships (and best aimed by a catapult master)[145] on leather-cushioned, swivel mounts[146] these devices are used to launch chain-slings, javelins, burning pitch, and fiery rocks.[147] Javelins, large heavy arrows, almost spears, can be fired one at a time from ballistae or in showers from a springal. Besides that, they are usually wrapped with oil-soaked rags and are burning.[148]
But then there are the much larger catapults or mangonels mounted on wheeled platforms, which can heave huge boulders, tubs of burning pitch, flaming naphtha and siege javelins.[149]
No matter the size or where used, the catapult cordage must be kept dry or be rendered inoperative.[150]
The great staff of the Peasants is some six feet in length and some two inches in diameter. In the hands of a skilled user, it is a formidable weapon in its own right.[151]
Used to thwart siege ladders, defenders sometimes use sharpened, steel crescents fixed on metal poles.[152]
Sticks and stones shall break my bones.[153]
Yes. sticks and stones shall break my bones.[154]
A supple, barkless branch or a nicely crafted leather switch, either one can be described as a weapon.[155] Most switches have wrist straps[156] and Free Women often have a switch about their person.[157]
Mostly used to prevent tarnsmen from flying into an area, by having literally hundreds of thousands of slender, almost invisible wires stretched in a protective net across the city.[158] Tarn wire can also be used more offensively in loops to snare foes, either trapping or cutting them.[159]
Large pointed, rounded pieces of wood, most of which were something like a foot and a half in length, and two to three horts in diameter constitutes quite the tent peg.[160]
The throwing stick is used mostly by women of the Vosk delta and some are quite skilled with it. It is not a boomerang, as you might expect, because this would be largely useless among the rence. But it does float and can therefore be recovered and used indefinitely.[161]
Timbers are objects of war.[162]
Another example of a weapon used by a swarming populace.[163]
(See Parasol)
The Uru is a small, winged mammal, much like the Vart. If its nesting area is disturbed or approached to closely, the Uru will shriek a warning. Soon a swarm of the Uru are shrieking and quite likely even attaching the intruder.
Now, imagine you had nests of the Uru 'posted' along the routes to your stronghold. You would have a self-supporting early warning system along with an advance attack weapon.[164]
The vart is a bat-like creature from the caves of Tyros. Some are the size of small dogs and can be trained as weapons.[165]
In the hands of the Warrior, even a length of vine, is dangerous.[166]
Not just an item to fan yourself on a warm day, the war fan has edged blades of metal which can cut a throat or sever a hand.[167] It is not a mere decoration, the accessory of an ensemble, a bauble of fashion, it can be used as a shield.[168] Locked open by pressing a switch, it becomes a circle of terror. With its weight and sturdiness, functioning as a missile, a flighted, spinning blade, it is not easy to evade and likely to take blood wherever it might strike.[169] Although, once thrown, it is not easily recovered.[170]
Imagine having a pack of sleen turned on you. It would be a slaughter.[171]
What would likely be a garrote, the wire noose is a favored weapon of the Assassin.[172]
Torches mounted in the sockets of thrusting poles, prove their worth in battle. War torches can engage climbers and illuminate targets. Too, the sight of war torches and irons, particularly at night, the torches blazing and the irons bristling with heat, glowing in the darkness, have little difficulty in convincing an enemy of possible dangers likely to attend his proposed assault.[173]
Footnote References
[1]
"Long ago," said she, "Ho-Tu was mutilated, and forced to drink acid."
"I did not know," I said.
"He was once a slave," said Sura, "but he won his freedom at hook knife. He was devoted to the father of Cernus. When the father of Cernus was poisoned and Cernus, then the lesser, placed upon his neck the medallion of the House, Ho-Tu protested. For that he was mutilated, and forced to drink acid. He has remained in the house these many years."
Assassin of Gor Book 5 Pages 253 - 254
[2]
Quarrel, named for the missile of the crossbow, a strong bird, very fast, reddish in color, with a discoloration on the right wing where, as talk had it, protagonists of the Silvers, long ago, had hurled a bottle of acid.
Assassin of Gor Book 5 Page 361
[3]
"She is beautiful," said Cabot.
"Let her be dipped in acid," said Peisistratus. "She will be less beautiful then."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 292
[4]
With proper surgical attention this mode of execution can be extended over several days, before the more grievous tortures are inflicted, with the needles, and irons, the tiny flames, the dollops of acid, and such.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 468
[5]
Within was a long, dimly lit tunnel, with several opened gates within it, some of bars, some of metal-sheathed wood, with tiny apertures some eight to ten feet above the floor. These were tiny ports, used, I would learn, for the missiles of the crossbow. They are manned by platforms which are a part of the interior surface of the doors. I did not notice them at the time but there were other ports overhead from which missiles might be fired toward the doors, should foes achieve the dubious success of reaching them. I think there was no place in that corridor, or perhaps generally in the fortifications as a whole, which could not be reached by missile fire from at least two directions. Noxious materials might be emitted from such vents, as well, such as pitch, acids, and heated oil.
Witness of Gor Book 26 Page 166
[6]
"And the objects of war," said another, "timbers, hurling stones, cordage, jars of pitch, finned darts, spears, glaives, javelins, varieties of blades, masses of shields, bucklers, wrappings in which are bound a thousand arrows."
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Pages 203 - 204
[7]
I thought we might substitute for the quiva the Anangan dart, a weighted, metal dart, some eighteen inches in length, which is flung overhand and, because of its fins, requires less skill than the quiva. It would be, I supposed, primarily an auxiliary weapon, to which recourse might be had in special circumstances, those, for example, in which, on the ground, one might employ the quiva. Such circumstances, those in which the quiva might be used, would commonly be in the swirl of close combat, where even the bow might be impractical.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 282
I myself carried a Tuchuk saddle knife, double-edged and balanced for throwing. Several are commonly sheathed on the side of the saddle. They may be used in close combat, rather as the darts of Anango.
Warriors of Gor Book 37 Page 85
[8]
I saw an Anangan dart lodge itself in a fellow's throat, who tried to pull it free, and, blood bursting from the neck, he sprawled into the dust, the vessel of the artery exposed, as it had caught behind the point of the dart, which point is broad, and barbed.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 329
[9]
The temwood lance and Anangan darts would be at hand for close combat, should that arise.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 286
But even the finest steel is of little avail . . . against an Anango dart at the base of the skull,
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 194
At closer quarters one might use quivas, saddle knives, or Anango darts.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 5
[10]
Too, mounted there, were six Anangan darts, three on each side.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 309
Saddle knives were in place, and, behind the saddle, one on each side of the small pack, was an Anango dart. Although the saddle knives are balanced for throwing, most of my men preferred the darts. The points of the darts were clear of poison.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 28
[11]
"I favor the poisoned Anango dart," said another.
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 229
[12]
It is not a weapon like an armored tharlarion whose charge might shatter walls.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 18
On long lines of tharlarion I could see warriors of Turia approaching in procession the Plains of a Thousand Stakes. The morning sun flashed from their helmets, their long tharlarion lances, the metal embossments on their oval shields, unlike the rounded shields of most Gorean cities. I could hear, like the throbbing of a heart, the beating of the two tharlarion drums that set the cadence of the march.
. . .
The warriors of Turia extended their formation about two hundred yards from the stakes until in ranks of four or five deep they were strung out in a line as long as the line of stakes itself. Then they halted. As soon as the hundreds of ponderous tharlarion had been marshaled into an order, a lance, carrying a fluttering pennon, dipped and there was a sudden signal on the tharlarion drums. Immediately the lances of the lines lowered and the hundreds of tharlarion, hissing and grunting, their riders shouting, the drums beating, began to bound rapidly towards us.
. . .
There was nothing living on Gor I knew that could take the impact of a tharlarion charge.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 113 - 114
A close-formed military formation is difficult to maintain over rough terrain. Indeed, the Torian Squares, which I have mentioned, common among Gorean infantries, with their superior mobility and regrouping capacities, had, long ago, made the phalanxes of such cities as Ar and, in the south, Turia, obsolete. The Gorean phalanx, like its predecessors of Earth, consisted of lines of massed spearmen, carrying spears of different lengths, forming a wall of points; it attacked on the run, preferably on a downgrade, a military avalanche, on its own terrain and under optimum conditions, invincible; the Torian Squares had bested the phalanx by choosing ground for battle in which such a formation would break itself in its advance. The invention and perfecting of the Torian Squares and the consequent attempts to refine and improve the phalanx, failures, were developments which had preceded the use of tharlarion and tarn cavalries, which radically changed the face of Gorean warfare. Yet, in the day of the tharlarion and tarn, one still finds, among infantries, the Torian Square; the phalanx, though its impact could be exceeded only by the tharlarion wedge or line, is now unknown, except for a defensive relic known as the Wall, in which massed infantry remains stationary, heroically bracing itself when flight is impossible, for the devastating charge of tharlarion.
Assassin of Gor Book 5 Pages 343 - 344
And, as the torches burned lower in the wall racks, the singer continued to sing, and sang of gray Pa-Kur, Master of the Assassins, leader of the hordes that fell on Ar after the theft of her Home Stone; and he sang, too, of banners and black helmets, of upraised standards, of the sun flashing on the lifted blades of spears, of high siege towers and deeds, of catapults of Ka-la-na and tem-wood, of the thunder of war tharlarion and the beatings of drums and the roars of trumpets, the clash of arms and the cries of men;
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 226
In a Gorean engagement on foot, incidentally, assuming uniform lines, this drift is almost inevitable, because each man, in fighting, tends to shelter himself partially, as he can, behind the shield of the man on his right. This causes the infantry lines to drift. A result of this is that it is common for each left flank to be outflanked by the opponent's right flank. There are various ways to counter this. One might deepen ranks in the left flank, if one has the men to do this. One might use tharlarion on the left flank.
Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 302
It is, I suppose, given its nature, a military road leading to the north, broad enough to accommodate war tharlarion, treading abreast, and the passage, two or three, side by side, of thousands of supply wagons and siege engines, without unduly, for more than several pasangs, extending and exposing the lines of the march.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 138
The large upright tharlarion, or war tharlarion, are guided by voice commands and the blows of spears.
Beasts of Gor Book 12 Page 125
The huge war tharlarion are commonly guided by voice signals and the blows of spears on the face and neck.
Fighting Slave of Gor Book 14 Page 174
The Mistress did not breed and raise racing tharlarion, incidentally. These are usually larger and more agile beasts than common saddle tharlarion and are smaller, of course, than either draft tharlarion or war tharlarion, the latter used almost exclusively in the tharlarion cavalries of Gor, huge, upright beasts, several tons in weight, guided by voice commands and the blows of spears.
Fighting Slave of Gor Book 14 Page 233
"There has been a major engagement, one long awaited," said the man next to me, "south of Vonda. More than four thousand men were involved. Fighting was fierce. The mobility of our squares was crucial in the early phases, separating to permit the entrance of charging tharlarion into our lines, then isolating the beasts." Massed men, I knew, could not stand against the charge of tharlarion, not without a defense of ditches or pointed stakes. "But then," said the man, "their phalanx swept down upon us. Then did the day seem lost and retreat was sounded, but the withdrawal was prearranged to creviced ground, to rocky slopes and cragged, outjutting formations. Our generals had chosen their ground well." I knew, too, that no fixed military formation could meet the phalanx on its own terms and survive. Different length spears are held by different ranks, the longer spears by the more rearward ranks. It charges on the run. It is like an avalanche, thundering, screaming, bristling with steel. Its momentum is incredible. It can shatter walls. When two such formations meet in a field the clash can be heard for pasangs. One does not meet the phalanx unless it be with another phalanx. One avoids it, one outmaneuvers it. "Our auxiliaries then drove the tharlarion, maddened and hissing, back into the phalanx. In the skies our tarnsmen turned aside the mercenaries of Artemidorus. They then rained arrows upon the shattered phalanx. While the spearmen lifted their shields to protect themselves from the sky our squares swept down the slopes upon them."
Rogue of Gor Book 15 Page 11
It was Dietrich of Tarnburg who had first introduced the "harrow" to positional warfare on Gor, that formation named for the large, rakelike agricultural instrument, used for such tasks as the further leveling of ground after plowing and, sometimes, on the great farms, for the covering of seed. In this formation, spikes of archers, protected by iron-shod stakes and sleen pits, project beyond the forward lines of the heavily armed warriors and their reserves. This formation, if approached head-on by tharlarion ground cavalry, is extremely effective. It constitutes, in effect, a set of corridors of death through which the cavalry must ride, in which it is commonly decimated before it can reach the main lines of the defenders. When the cavalry is disorganized, shattered and torn by missile fire, and turns about to retreat, the defenders, fresh and eager, initiate their own attack.
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 32
Most impressive to me, perhaps, was Dietrich of Tarnburg's coordination of air and ground forces, and his transposition of certain techniques and weapons of siege warfare to the field. The common military response to aerial attack from tarnsmen is the "shield roof" or "shield shed," a formation the same as, or quite similar to, a formation once known on Earth as the testudo, or "tortoise." In this formation shields are held in such a way that they constitute a wall for the outer ranks and a roof for the inner ranks. This is primarily a defensive formation but it may also be used for advancing under fire. The common Gorean defense against tharlarion attack, if it must be met on open ground, is the stationary, defensive square, defended by braced spears. At Rovere and Kargash Dietrich coordinated his air and ground cavalry in such a way as to force his opponents into sturdy but relatively inflexible defensive squares. He then advanced his archers in long, enveloping lines; in this way they could muster a much broader front for low-level, point-blank firepower than could the narrower concentrated squares.
He then utilized, for the first time in Gorean field warfare, first at Rovere, and later at Kargash, mobile siege equipment, catapults mounted on wheeled platforms, which could fire over the heads of the draft animals. From these engines, hitherto employed only in siege warfare, now become a startling and devastating new weapon, in effect, a field artillery, tubs of burning pitch and flaming naphtha, and siege javelins, and giant boulders, fell in shattering torrents upon the immobilized squares. The shield shed was broken. The missiles of archers rained upon the confused, hapless defenders. Even mobile siege towers, pushed from within by straining tharlarion, pressing their weight against prepared harnesses, trundled toward them, their bulwarks swarming with archers and javelin men. The squares were broken. Then again the ponderous, earthshaking, bellowing, grunting, trampling tharlarion ground cavalry charged, this time breaking through the walls like dried straw, followed by waves of screaming, heavily armed spearmen. The ranks of the enemy then irremediably broke. The air howled with panic. Rout was upon them. Spears and shields were cast away that men might flee the more rapidly. There was then little left to be done. It would be the cavalries which would attend to the fugitives.
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Pages 32 - 33
The cart was drawn by a bipedalian tharlarion, a slighter breed than, but related to, and swifter than, the common shock tharlarion used generally by the lancers of Gorean heavy cavalry.
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 229
"Cosians were waiting for us," he gasped. "It was a slaughter, a slaughter! We were raked from the air with quarrels. Stones were used to break our ranks. We were trampled with tharlarion! War sleen were set upon us! We had no chance. We could scarcely move. We were too crowded to wield our weapons. Hundreds died in the mire. Many, who could, fled back into the delta!"
Vagabonds of Gor Book 24 Page 155
We were astride rented tharlarion, high tharlarion, bipedalian tharlarion. Although our mounts were such, they are not to be confused with the high tharlarion commonly used by Gorean shock cavalry, swift, enormous beasts the charge of which can be so devastating to unformed infantry.
Magicians of Gor Book 25 Page 290
She did know that a large variety of tharlarion, of bipedalian and quadrupedalian sorts, were bred for diverse purposes, war, transport, reconnaissance, hunting, haulage, racing, and such.
Prize of Gor Book 27 Page 284
Could they not heed the plaints of refugees, hear the drums of spearmen, sense the ponderous tread of war tharlarion?
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 111
"You are familiar, then," said Lord Nishida, "with the tactics of a cavalry, its movements, its applications, and such."
"Light cavalry," I said. I had never commanded the massed, thundering, earth-shaking charges of war tharlarion.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 249
An analogy, though quite imperfect, might have been the early transition from cavalry as a supportive arm, used to reconnoiter, harass, and ride down stragglers, to a central arm, a shock arm, of stirruped lancers fit to strike, split and disrupt serried ranks. The latter role on Gor, of course, belonged to war tharlarion.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 257
The inertia of a tharlarion is formidable. It cannot be turned and halted with the same ease as might, say, a kaiila, or horse, which may be instantly turned or halted, pulled up short, and so on. When the tharlarion has its own head it is difficult to control. Consider the difficulties of trying to communicate with, or control, a boulder tumbling down a mountainside. Draft tharlarion, of which variety these were, are normally driven slowly, and with care. War tharlarion, often larger than draft tharlarion, can be, and are, used in charges. There is little defense against them if encountered on unprepared, level ground. Open formations will try to let them pass, and attack them from behind. Closed formations seek uneven ground, use ditches, diagonally anchored, sharpened stakes, and such. If they become slowed, or are milling, they can be attacked by special troops, with broad-bladed axes, designed to disable or sever a leg. I have never much favored tharlarion in combat, as, if they are confused, or wounded, they become uncontrollable, and are as likely to turn about and plunge into their own troops as those of the enemy, thereby, indiscriminately, wherever they trod or roll, whether amongst friends or foes, spreading disorder and death.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 352
I had seen, earlier, some races of the heavier-class quadrupedalian tharlarion, the larger, more ponderous beasts, the maneuvering, the shifting about for position, the lurching, thrusting, and buffeting, the grunting, the crowding. Below, near the rail, one could sense the ground shaking beneath their tread. These were similar to war tharlarion whose charge can shatter phalanxes, breastworks, palisades, and field walls.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 327
"The emotive impact of the tarn on battle must, of necessity, be brief," I said. "Its appearance, by itself, is unlikely to rout an enemy more than once or twice. It is not a weapon like an armored tharlarion whose charge might shatter walls.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Pages 18 - 19
Most domestic tharlarion are draft beasts, but they also have their applications in sport and war. There are, for example, racing and hunting tharlarion, and tharlarion bred for battle, some of which, ponderous, and armored, can shatter lines and topple siege towers.
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 172
[13]
If objects are to be handed to a man, say, a warrior, such as a buckler, or barbed war net, this transfer of articles from the left is not likely to discommode or encumber the most common weapon hand which is, of course, the right.
Prize of Gor Book 27 Page 429
[14]
It was unthinkable that they should top the walls of Ar, but with their battering rams they would attempt to break through at the lower levels.
Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 164
[15]
The bridge permitted access to the tower from the building on the roof of which we stood. Indeed, it provided the only access, save on tarnback, for there are no doors at ground level in a Gorean keep. The first sixty feet or so of the tower would presumably be solid stone, to protect the tower from forced entrance or the immediate, efficient use of battering rams.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 225 - 226
[16]
We could hear, too, as though far off, the rhythmical shock of the battering ram at the gate, where men toiled at the hundred ropes, beneath the long shedlike roof which protected them and the ram.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 229
I looked over the wall and noted that the long, rolling, shedlike structure was quite near, beneath which the battering ram, on its ropes, was slung.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 264
[17]
Such a portal could withstand for a time anything likely to be brought against it, axes, rock hammers, beams of wood.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 495
[18]
"I would have thought," said Marcus, "that Ar might have rejoiced these days to obtain even the services of a lad with a beanshooter."
Magicians of Gor Book 25 Page 71
[19]
And few women I had ever known had been as skillful as Talena in wielding the weaponry of her beauty.
Warriors of Gor Book 37 Page 443
[20]
Most of the weaponry, spears, swords, crossbows, longbows, javelins, glaves, maces, axes, Anango darts, gauntlet hatchets, edged battle weights, bladed chains, and such, was gone.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 162
[21]
The wire had been cut, with bladed hooks, swung on long lines below giant tarns, cut, and torn from its posts. The tarnsmen had approached from the dark quadrant, away from the moons, low, not more than a few feet from the ground, hidden by the shadows of the world, and then had, without warning, little more than a quarter of a pasang from the keep, swept into the air, the first wave striking at the wire, the second, third and fourth waves dropping through the cut, billowing wire to the parapets, roofs and courtyard of the keep.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 272
[22]
"Would you please hand me the blubber hammer behind you," asked Poalu. Obligingly I handed her the hammer. I thought I could probably avoid or fend its blows. The object, wooden-handled, with a stone head, is used for pounding blubber to loosen the oil in the blubber, which is used in the flat, oval lamps.
Beasts of Gor Book 12 Page 214
She still carried the blubber hammer. If struck properly with it one might be brained.
Beasts of Gor Book 12 Page 216
[23]
"How might you have succeeded where Babinius failed?" he asked. "With a bludgeon? With a quicker dagger?"
"With no means so crude," she said.
Players of Gor Book 20 Page 99
We cried out in fear for there was a sudden sound, striking us like a bludgeon, a sudden snap of wings, great wings, not twenty feet from us, over us, air rushing about us, buffeting us, we covered for an instant by a vast, fleet shadow. We heard laughter, rapidly fading.
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 601
"Shields will be raised," I said. "Keep swords, knives, bludgeons, axes, ready."
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 365
[24]
They are much more useful, in my opinion, at sea, as in, say, drawing ships within boarding distance of one another, the ropes then usually being attached to chains some ten feet or so behind the hooks. This makes it hard to cut them free. Boarding hooks, on poles, are often used, too, for such purposes, when one can get close enough. These are sometimes sheathed with tin near the points, again to make it harder to cut or chop them away.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Pages 264 - 265
[25]
But a moment later the charging citizens, like thundering, horned kailiauk, like uncontrolled, maddened, stampeding bosk, pikes and spears leveled, chains flailing, swords flashing, boat hooks, and axes and shovels upraised, struck the dumbfounded, disarrayed throngs of astonished buccaneers.
Guardsmen of Gor Book 16 Page 128
It was difficult to see how my projects would be furthered if, while attempting to identify myself and explain my mission, I were to be cut open with a boat hook.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 153
[26]
They had come prepared, though naked, to make war, though it be with but the branches of trees and the stones of the forest.
Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 289
"You are of the Warriors," said Grendel. "In your hands a tiny branch, sharpened, a length of vine, is dangerous."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 332
In one paw he grasped a heavy branch, that which I had seen him seize up at the rendezvous point.
. . .
As soon as this was said, Lucilius discarded his weapon, that stout branch, and reached into a slitlike opening on the left side of his harnessing and drew forth a small, wrenchlike device which he immediately began to apply in places to the ruptured fuselage of the silver tarn.
Warriors of Gor Book 37 Pages 504 - 505
[27]
Even the cruel cestae of the low pits might have cut away his lower jaw.
Fighting Slave of Gor Book 14 Page 321
There are also, of course, as one would expect, contests of physical combat, such as those of wrestling and boxing, fists often wrapped in the dreadful cesti, and weapon combat, amongst which would be numbered the Gambles of Blades.
Quarry of Gor Book 35 Page 271
[28]
He had fought even with the spiked cestae and the knife gauntlets.
Rogue of Gor Book 15 Page 241
[29]
The wooden shields of Torvaldsland no more stopped the great axes than dried skins of larma fruit, stretched on sewing frames, might have resisted the four-bladed dagger cestus of Anango or the hatchet gauntlet of eastern Skjern.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 205
[30]
many of them carried nothing more than a chain or sharpened pole."
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 220
Several of them began to follow us, lifting flails and great scythes. Some carried chains, others hoes.
They had no leadership.
Like wolves, crying out, shouting, lifting their fists, they ran behind us as we made our way toward the wharves. Then a rock fell among us, and another.
. . .
A hundred yards from the wharves we saw a crowd of angry men, perhaps two hundred, blocking the way. They held gaffs, harpoons, even pointed sticks. Some carried crate hooks and others chisels, and iron levers.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Pages 49 - 50
Two days later, following his departure, they came, with fire and chains.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 6
He carried no weapon, but one paw was tangled in the chains which had been swathed about Decius Albus. The weight of those chains, wielded with the might of a Kur, would constitute a terrible weapon.
Warriors of Gor Book 37 Page 562
[31]
But a moment later the charging citizens, like thundering, horned kailiauk, like uncontrolled, maddened, stampeding bosk, pikes and spears leveled, chains flailing, swords flashing, boat hooks, and axes and shovels upraised, struck the dumbfounded, disarrayed throngs of astonished buccaneers.
A cheer rose spontaneously from my throat.
"Fight!" I heard Policrates scream. "Fight!"
I saw a pirate being strangled with a chain. I saw a flailing chain, doubled, tear a pirate's head half from his body.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 128
[32]
I have seen the plates of weapons and devices borne to the training chambers, the daggers, the balanced throwing knives, the easily concealed hook knife, the swords, the darts, the loops of wire, the chain garrotes, and, in particular, the crossbow and quarrel, the favored striking weapon of the caste, which may be easily concealed beneath a cloak, and in whose guide a quarrel may wait for Ahn, like the ost, before it strikes.
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 235
[33]
Chemical weapons, to the best of my knowledge, were unfamiliar in Gorean warfare. The use of such a fluid, presumably some sort of acid, spoke more clearly of the technology of a Steel World.
Warriors of Gor Book 37 Page 572
[34]
A hundred yards from the wharves we saw a crowd of angry men, perhaps two hundred, blocking the way. They held gaffs, harpoons, even pointed sticks. Some carried crate hooks and others chisels, and iron levers.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Pages 49 - 50
I could hear, too, between the heavy, periodic strokes of the ram, the blows of hammers and axes, and the smiting on punches and chisels, and the sounds of creaking metal, as men sought to cut and punch openings in the facing on the gate, then twisting and prying it back.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 291
[35]
The women and children carried sticks and switches, the men spears, flails, forks and clubs.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 249
More than one of them carried heavy clubs.
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 242
"They would have killed her," said Lord Grendel. "They would have cut her with stones, thrust sticks into her, broke her with rocks and clubs, chewed the skin from her bones."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 514
Is it not, ultimately, in the mass that the power lies? Who else, at a word, might swarm into the streets, armed with paving stones and clubs?
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 103
On the continent, street contingents, raised in times of need to supplement a city's standing troops, commonly make do with knives, clubs, sharpened poles, and stones.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 284
The occupying forces, in days of terror and blood, overwhelmed by a massive revolt of a swarming populace, armed sometimes with no more than pointed sticks, staves, clubs, torches, and fragments of pavement, fled.
Quarry of Gor Book 35 Page 144
[36]
The knife blades and long nails are sometimes mounted in clubs.
Savages of Gor Book 17 Page 145
[37]
"And the objects of war," said another, "timbers, hurling stones, cordage, jars of pitch, finned darts, spears, glaives, javelins, varieties of blades, masses of shields, bucklers, wrappings in which are bound a thousand arrows."
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Pages 203 - 204
[38]
A hundred yards from the wharves we saw a crowd of angry men, perhaps two hundred, blocking the way. They held gaffs, harpoons, even pointed sticks. Some carried crate hooks and others chisels, and iron levers.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Pages 49 - 50
[39]
One must number, as is well known, deceit and misinformation amongst the tools of war.
Avengers of Gor Book 35 Page 280
[40]
What I had heard striking on the floor was the base of a heavy, rounded crutch, whose height was fitted into a stout, rounded crosspiece. That aid to balance, that support, in itself, might have constituted a formidable weapon.
Quarry of Gor Book 35 Page 77
"He is approaching?" asked Seremides, his hand now on the crutch. As it was held, he could now wrench his body around and deal a sweeping, or stabbing, blow to anything within its compass.
Warriors of Gor Book 37 Page 85
[41]
Most of the weaponry, spears, swords, crossbows, longbows, javelins, glaves, maces, axes, Anango darts, gauntlet hatchets, edged battle weights, bladed chains, and such, was gone.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 162
[42]
Two days later, following his departure, they came, with fire and chains.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 6
[43]
The women and children carried sticks and switches, the men spears, flails, forks and clubs.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 249
Several of them began to follow us, lifting flails and great scythes. Some carried chains, others hoes.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 49
Several of them began to follow us, lifting flails and great scythes. Some carried chains, others hoes. "Who knows what may serve as a weapon," said a man, "a knife from the kitchen, a pointed stick, a stone."
Prize of Gor Book 27 Page 285
[44]
But a moment later the charging citizens, like thundering, horned kailiauk, like uncontrolled, maddened, stampeding bosk, pikes and spears leveled, chains flailing, swords flashing, boat hooks, and axes and shovels upraised, struck the dumbfounded, disarrayed throngs of astonished buccaneers.
A cheer rose spontaneously from my throat.
"Fight!" I heard Policrates scream. "Fight!"
I saw a pirate being strangled with a chain. I saw a flailing chain, doubled, tear a pirate's head half from his body.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 128
[45]
"We have no way to signal a ship!" cried Iantha, "no whistling, climbing, streaming flares, visible for pasangs."
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 182
[46]
Fires have occurred in the city, from saboteurs, from fire javelins, from flame baskets catapulted over the walls.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 37
[47]
clay flasks, corked with rags. These flasks, I knew, were filled with tharlarion oil, and the rags that corked them had been soaked in the same substance.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 275
And then, their fighters disembarked, the birds with their riders swept away, up into the black, vicious sleeting sky, to light the oily rags one by one, in the clay flasks of tharlarion oil and hurl them, from the heights of the sky, down onto the decks of ships of Cos and Tyros. I did not expect a great deal of damage to be done by these shattering bombs of burning oil,
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 276
Then the first of the tarns returned to the flagship, having cast down its flaming bombs of burning oil.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 277
Fifty tarns, of course, might provide invaluable intelligence, telling attacks at carefully selected points, and, equipped with flame vases, threaten any number of structures, even the palace of Lord Yamada itself, with relative impunity.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 545
[48]
"Those who did these things," he said, "those who came with axes, flaming brands, swords, and chains."
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 5
[49]
"The torch!" I called. "Light the brush!"
. . .
A torch was brought. With it we set fire to the great bundles of brush, on ropes, which had been prepared earlier. These flaming bundles, on their ropes, were then hurled over the edge, to hang burning against the rocky face.
Blood Brothers of Gor Book 18 Page 425
[50]
The women and children carried sticks and switches, the men spears, flails, forks and clubs.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 249
[51]
One of Lord Akio's men raised his sword to strike Haruki, who stood there, a long, four-pronged garden fork, used for turning soil, bloody to the socket, in his hands, but the blow failed to fall, and the bearer of the lifted sword spun away, his blade lost, he grasping at a long Pani arrow in his throat, blood running through his fingers.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 589
[52]
The occupying forces, in days of terror and blood, overwhelmed by a massive revolt of a swarming populace, armed sometimes with no more than pointed sticks, staves, clubs, torches, and fragments of pavement, fled.
Quarry of Gor Book 35 Page 144
[53]
Inside the cube there were canisters of Mul-Fungus, a bowl, a ladle, a wooden-bladed Fungus-Knife; a wooden-headed Fungus-Mallet;
Priest-Kings of Gor Book 3 Page 111
[54]
A hundred yards from the wharves we saw a crowd of angry men, perhaps two hundred, blocking the way. They held gaffs, harpoons, even pointed sticks. Some carried crate hooks and others chisels, and iron levers.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Pages 49 - 50
[55]
In a thousand ways one may bleed and die. Such serums provide no protection from the thrust of a knife or spear, from a strangling bowstring, from the subtleties of poison, from the claws and fangs of beasts.
Quarry of Gor Book 35 Page 26
[56]
A confederate was there waiting and I felt the loop of the garrote drop about my neck. I thrust the man I held from me and spun about, the cord cutting now at the back of my neck.
. . .
The heels of both hands drove upward and the head of the first confederate snapped back. The garrote was loose about my neck.
Beasts of Gor Book 12 Page 102
[57]
"About my throat, closely looped, was a narrow golden chain. It was controlled by two narrow wooden handles, in his hands." "It was a girl-capture chain," I said. "It is to be distinguished sharply from the standard garrote, which is armed with wire and can cut a throat easily. The standard garrote, of course, is impractical for captures, for the victim, in even a reflexive movement might cut her own throat."
Savages of Gor Book 17 Page 180
[58]
Then as if with one voice soldiers, guardsmen and rebels lifted their weapons and saluted Lara as true Tatrix of Tharna.
"Hail Lara, true Tatrix of Tharna!" they cried, and as was the custom of the city, five times were those weapons brandished and five times did that glad shout ring out.
The body of Dorna the Proud recoiled as if struck by five blows.
Her silver-gloved hands clenched in fury upon the one-strap and beneath those shimmering gauntlets I knew the knuckles, drained of blood, were white with rage.
She looked once more at the rebels and soldiers and guardsmen and Lara with a loathing I could sense behind the impassive mask, and then that metal image turned once more upon me.
"Farewell, Tarl of Ko-ro-ba," she said. "Do not forget Dorna the Proud for we have an account to settle!"
The hands in their gloves of silver jerked back savagely on the one-strap and the wings of the tarn burst into flight. The carrying basket remained a moment on the roof and then, attached by its long ropes, interwoven with wire, it slid for a pace or two and lurched upward in the wake of the tarn.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 243
There were various matches in the pit of sand that evening. There was a contest of sheathed hook knife, one of whips and another of spiked gauntlets.
Assassin of Gor Book 5 Page 120
He had fought even with the spiked cestae and the knife gauntlets.
Rogue of Gor Book 15 Page 241
Sometimes men wrestle to the death or use the spiked gauntlets.
Assassin of Gor Book 5 Page 189
Murmillius, at least until he himself should lie red in the white sand, held the adherents of the games in Ar, and perhaps the city itself, in the gauntleted palm of his right hand, his sword hand.
Assassin of Gor Book 5 Page 191
The wooden shields of Torvaldsland no more stopped the great axes than dried skins of larma fruit, stretched on sewing frames, might have resisted the four-bladed dagger cestus of Anango or the hatchet gauntlet of eastern Skjern.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 205
Then helmeted heads, eyes wild in the "Y"-like openings of the helmets, appeared at the crenels, and gauntleted hands and booted feet appeared, and men were swarming at the walls.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 297
He had fought even with the spiked cestae and the knife gauntlets.
Rogue of Gor Book 15 Page 241
"In the pits of Ar," he said, "he has fought with . . . the knife gauntlets."
Fighting Slave of Gor Book 14 Pages 318 - 319
Fortunately we did not engage with knife gauntlets or his head might have been torn from him.
Fighting Slave of Gor Book 14 Page 321
It would be difficult, once seen, to ever forget the massively scarred, misshapen countenance of Krondar, a veteran of many bouts with the spiked leather, and the knife gauntlets, in Ar.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 94
This is suggested by the fact that, traditionally, the favor, or the symbolic token of the favor, is a handkerchief or scarf. Sometimes a lady's champion, as I understand it, might have borne such a favor, fastened perhaps to a helmet or thrust in a gauntlet.
Players of Gor Book 20 Page 44
Most of the weaponry, spears, swords, crossbows, longbows, javelins, glaves, maces, axes, Anango darts, gauntlet hatchets, edged battle weights, bladed chains, and such, was gone.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 162
[59]
He turned and I saw in almost one motion of his finger, the goad switch to on, the dial rotate to the Kill Point. Then crouching, the goad blazing in his hand, he approached me warily.
Assassin of Gor Book 5 Page 260
[60]
Warriors, of course, are trained to rely upon peripheral vision. If he approached me too closely, coming within a predetermined critical distance, I could dash the paga upward into his eyes and wrench the table up and about, plunging one of the legs into his diaphragm. Then in a moment I could have him under my foot or upon my sword. Some authorities recommend breaking the kantharos into shards on the face, taking the target above the bridge of the nose with the rim. This can be even more dangerous with a metal goblet. Many civilians, I believe, do not know why certain warriors, by habit, request their paga in metal goblets when dining in public houses.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 77
Xenon tensed, and his large hand went to the paga goblet, now empty. Both the base of the heavy vessel and its metal rim can deal a serious blow.
Warriors of Gor Book 37 Page 85
[61]
"My weapon is more fierce than either," said Marlenus. "It is gold! I have a sack of gold for he, or those, who first open your gates."
Warriors of Gor Book 37 Page 460
[62]
We heard grappling irons with knotted ropes fly over the parapet, scrape across the stones, and wedge in the crenels.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 296
Again irons, on their ropes, looped over the parapet wall.
. . .
Suddenly more than a hundred irons with ropes struck the delta wall, wedging in the crenels, and I saw the irons tighten in the crenels and strain with the weight on them.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 299
I then seized one of the ropes attached to a grappling iron wedged in one of the crenels and began to descend the outer side of the keep wall.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 302
Almost at the instant that he had spoken grappling irons looped over the bulwarks and snapped back, the points anchoring in the wood. We saw tension in the irons as men climbed the ropes secured to them. But they were met, as dark shapes at the bulwarks, screaming and cursing, by fierce defenders, thrusting them back with bucklers, darting steel into their bodies. They were emerging from longboats and must climb up and over the bulwarks; they could not, bulwark to bulwark, leap to our deck; the advantages were fully ours; only one reached the deck, and we threw his lifeless body, thrust through in a dozen places, back into the Vosk, after its retreating fellows.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 15
As I went toward the gate's battlements a grapnel looped over the wall gracefully and fell behind the walkway. Considering the arc, its width and height, I assumed it had been lobbed there by an engine. It was drawn forward and one of the hooks caught and the rope sprang taut. Such things are generally not much good in this form of fighting except for secret ascents, say, at night, when they are not noticed, or there are too many of them to deal with.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 264
I watched the rope on the grapnel for a moment and noted that although it was taut it did not exhibit the differential tensions which it would if it were being climbed. I pulled it loose then and, letting its tautness do the work, let it fly back over the walkway and the crenelation. Had I more time or been of Ar's Station, perhaps I might have waited until it was being climbed and then, after a while, cut the rope. This sort of thing, as you might imagine, tends to be somewhat frustrating to the fellows who are climbing the rope, particularly if they are some seventy feet or so up the wall at the time. It takes great courage, incidentally, to climb such a rope in daylight under battle conditions. I did not doubt but that one or two of the fellows on the other side of the wall were probably just as pleased that it had come back as it did. It also takes great courage, incidentally, though it is much easier to do, to climb a siege ladder, particularly when the walls are heavily or stoutly defended. It is better, I think, for the individual attacker, particularly if the walls are high, over twenty feet, say, to try to enter over the bridge of a siege tower or, even better, through a breached wall or gate.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Pages 265 - 266
[63]
I will append one qualification to these observations pertaining to grapnels which is to acknowledge the giant, chain grapnel, and its relative, the grapnel derrick. The giant grapnel is hurled by an engine and then, either with the second arm of the engine, or by the same arm, reversed, drawn back with great force. This can rip away the crests of walls, tear off roofs, and such. If Cosians used them here they might have created gaps in the battlements. The effectiveness of such a device, however, given the weights involved, and the loss of force in the draw, is much compromised by the necessity of extreme proximity to the target. Also the defenders may be expected to free or dislodge the grapnel if possible.
The derrick grapnel is much what the name suggests. It is used from walls, dangled down, and then drawn up with a winch. If the wall is a harbor wall it can capsize a ship. If the wall is a land wall, it can, with luck, topple a siege tower.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 265
[64]
Some grapnels, on knotted rope, were slung upward from the galley, but fell short.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 255
At that point a grapnel, attached to a length of chain, and that to a course of knotted rope, looped over the rail, struck the deck, scraped back across the deck, and was caught against the rail.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 258
Each grapnel, with its rope and chain, was launched from a small engine, a tiny catapult, mounted between the benches. And behind the catapult was a vat, filled, from the odor, with burning pitch.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 258
We heard the rustling of looped chains terminating with short, thick metal rods, each of which, as though exfoliating, seemed to blossom into three metal hooks.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 326
"Clitus," I said, "the enemy will use grapnels. As we are grievously outnumbered, we must do our best to limit boarding."
"I shall have axes ready to sever the ropes," said Clitus.
"The grapnels," I said, "are likely to be, close to the hooks, on lengths of chain."
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 355
The grapnels of the enemy, as I had anticipated, had some seven or eight feet of chain between the eye of the grapnel and the normal casting ropes. This arrangement made it impractical to chop away the casting rope, thus rendering the grapnel ineffective. The usual negative effect of this arrangement was to shorten the distance the grapnel could be cast by one individual, necessitating then greater proximity, the use of an engine, or the vulnerable clustering of two or more individuals. More importantly, in understanding the nature of the grapnel, with its customary three or four hooks, one recognizes that it must have an accessible, independent anchoring point to render it effective, such as the top of a wall, the girth of a branch, a railing, or such. If the grapnel is denied purchase, its utility to the enemy is nullified.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 364
Suddenly dozens of these devices, heavy with seven or eight feet of chain, most cast by two men, hurtled toward the Tesephone.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 366
[65]
Some were even slaves, who had fought with poles and hammers.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 291
I could hear, too, between the heavy, periodic strokes of the ram, the blows of hammers and axes, and the smiting on punches and chisels, and the sounds of creaking metal, as men sought to cut and punch openings in the facing on the gate, then twisting and prying it back.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 291
"The cattle will follow the bell, and the human who wears it," said Cabot. "Such things are common in slaughter houses. There is a shoot. The lead animal, at the last moment, slips through a gate to the side, and the line behind it continues to move forward, and downward, to the great hammers, or to the ropes and slings, to be suspended, dangling, for the knives, such things."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 415
there is little which may not figure as a weapon, axes and hammers, the implements of agriculture, planks, poles and sticks, the very stones of the streets.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 116
Such a portal could withstand for a time anything likely to be brought against it, axes, rock hammers, beams of wood.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 495
[66]
Thus the fourteen hundred round ships might, hopefully, be able to envelop their formation, surround it, and attack on the flanks, with their not inconsiderable barrage of flaming javelins, heated stones, burning pitch and showers of crossbow bolts.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 262
[67]
Several of them began to follow us, lifting flails and great scythes. Some carried chains, others hoes.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 49
[68]
Hunjer is an island west of Torvaldsland.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 137
Then, to my amazement, I saw something, like a streak of light, leap from the delta behind the wall, and the leader of the crossbowmen spun about as though struck with a war hammer and dropped, inert, from the wall.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 299
I had learned that the Kur shield could be as devastating a weapon as the war hammer of Hunjer.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 227
[69]
"And the objects of war," said another, "timbers, hurling stones, cordage, jars of pitch, finned darts, spears, glaives, javelins, varieties of blades, masses of shields, bucklers, wrappings in which are bound a thousand arrows."
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Pages 203 - 204
[70]
The storm of men, like lava pouring through the gate, bearing arsenals of stolen weapons, glaives, and swords, and dozens of implements of farming, rushed forth, upon us, and was as though it would engross us, when it stopped, but yards way.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 591
[71]
Not only slaves of the city raised the banner of defiance but men of low caste, whose brothers or friends had been sent to the mines or used in the Amusements, now dared at last to seize the instruments of their trade and turn on guardsmen and soldiers.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Pages 215 - 216
[72]
Shortly thereafter some seven or eight ruffians, armed with clubs and iron bars, had attacked the shop, destroying its equipment.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 237
[73]
A hundred yards from the wharves we saw a crowd of angry men, perhaps two hundred, blocking the way. They held gaffs, harpoons, even pointed sticks. Some carried crate hooks and others chisels, and iron levers.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Pages 49 - 50
[74]
She seized a heavy iron pan, of the sort used out of doors across stones for cooking.
It would not be pleasant to have that utensil beating on my head.
. . .
She then rushed forward, striking down at me with the heavy, flat pan. I removed it from her. I did this that I not be killed.
Beasts of Gor Book 12 Pages 213 - 214
[75]
"They are using the island, the living island!" cried a man.
"It is like land, living land, rushing upon us!" cried a helmsman.
"Steady," I said. "Steady."
"Tragic, innocent, overloaded, abused beast," said Thurnock.
Men with burning irons were thrusting them into the body of the island, while it, as if it would escape from the pain, was driving toward us. I caught the scent of living, burning flesh.
"Thus," said Thurnock, "they turn a dumb animal into a weapon."
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 339
[76]
I have seen the plates of weapons and devices borne to the training chambers, the daggers, the balanced throwing knives, the easily concealed hook knife, the swords, the darts, the loops of wire, the chain garrotes, and, in particular, the crossbow and quarrel, the favored striking weapon of the caste, which may be easily concealed beneath a cloak, and in whose guide a quarrel may wait for Ahn, like the ost, before it strikes.
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 235
[77]
Most of the weaponry, spears, swords, crossbows, longbows, javelins, glaves, maces, axes, Anango darts, gauntlet hatchets, edged battle weights, bladed chains, and such, was gone.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 162
[78]
From a gate at the level of the sand below and to their right, seven large Kurii, harnessed for war, entered the arena. Each carried a long, thick, metal bar, some ten feet in length, some three inches in diameter. Such an implement would have been difficult for many humans to lift, let alone wield. Kurii, however, might play with such a device as with a wand, or as a brawny peasant might with his stout, well-grasped defensive staff, a punishing implement which, well used, might overcome a blade.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 241
[79]
Some cities maintain semi-military units, skirmishers, light bowmen, and slingers. Slingers may use stones or metal pellets. These are more dangerous than many understand, particularly at a short distance, and in great numbers, when a sheet of missiles in their thousands can strike foes as might a deadly hail. Certainly one of these hornet-like projectiles, almost invisible in flight, can blind a man, break a head, and cut him open.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 284
[80]
One must number, as is well known, deceit and misinformation amongst the tools of war.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 280
[81]
The three with nets lifted them, shook them a bit, and spread them a little. Nets are often used in Gorean hunting. Smaller nets can be cast, larger nets may be spread between poles or trees, to intercept driven game.
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Page 330
[82]
Shortly thereafter, approaching from the east, I saw Hiza, the upper part of her body wrapped in a slave net, stumbling toward the camp.
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Page 334
Hiza next, now freed of the capture netting, was flung to the ground, belly down, to Emerald's left.
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Page 335
And now Cabot himself was netted, though not in the light toils of a weighted slave net, which he might have torn open and shredded, a net unsuitable for a man but inescapable for a female,
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 208
[83]
Then the knife continued its rude work and Emerald and Hiza lay at men's feet, no different from other free women, perhaps more refined, gentler creatures, who might say, have been driven from sacked, burning cities, snared on bridges by soaring tarnsmen, netted on outings, lured into taverns, seized from caravans, gagged and abducted in darkness from inns, taken in raids on the baths.
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Pages 338 - 339
[84]
The fishermen had a net with them, doubtless brought up from their small boat in the harbor. Such devices are rich in war uses. They can discommode scalers and grapnel crews. They can block passages. From behind them one may conveniently thrust pikes and discharge missiles. In the field they may serve as foundations for camouflage, for example, effecting concealments from tarnsmen
. . .
Nets, too, of course, are used at sea in the repulsion of boarders.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Pages 282 - 283
Can the net and trident be taken seriously as weapons? Are they not rather, merely, the tools of a trade, not weapons but the equipment of a way of life, like the peasant's sickle and plow? Needless to say, in war, such an error of judgment is likely to be made only once.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 131
[85]
These were not the small capture nets but wall nets, to block a path of escape. Between their interstices, here and there, spears thrust, forcing back those who would tear at them. Then the long, wide net, held by slaves, began to advance.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 51
[86]
Some Silver Masks were discovered even in the sewers beneath the city and these were driven by giant, leashed urts through the long tubes until they crowded the wire capture nets set at the openings of the sewers.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Pages 246 - 247
[87]
Then two capture nets, circular, strongly woven, weighted, dropped over him.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 53
[88]
And now Cabot himself was netted, though not in the light toils of a weighted slave net, which he might have torn open and shredded, a net unsuitable for a man but inescapable for a female, but in a mighty net, stoutly woven, thickly stranded, cast by a Kur, a net that might have held a larl.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 208
[89]
I also ordered the production of weighted nets. Nets are familiar on Gor. There are, for example, war nets, so to speak, such as the nets of the "fishermen" in the arena, who are armed with net and trident, and capture nets, such as are used by hunters for small animals and by slavers for women. Such a net, well cast, I hoped, might entangle an enemy tarn or its rider in the sky, interfering with the bird's flight or the rider's capacity to engage. They might also be used, I supposed, from a low-flying tarn in support of ground forces.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 285
Behind the saddle, folded, was the weighted net.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 309
[90]
"Have boarding nets prepared," said Lord Okimoto. "Form boarding parties. The nets will be cast at my word."
By means of such nets dozens of men might simultaneously descend the side of the ship.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 258
[91]
Then, presumably to make more clear the hopelessness of their position, several barrels of oil were poured onto the stone flagging flooring the trail, oil which, obviously, if desired, might be ignited.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 449
[92]
Within was a long, dimly lit tunnel, with several opened gates within it, some of bars, some of metal-sheathed wood, with tiny apertures some eight to ten feet above the floor. These were tiny ports, used, I would learn, for the missiles of the crossbow. They are manned by platforms which are a part of the interior surface of the doors. I did not notice them at the time but there were other ports overhead from which missiles might be fired toward the doors, should foes achieve the dubious success of reaching them. I think there was no place in that corridor, or perhaps generally in the fortifications as a whole, which could not be reached by missile fire from at least two directions. Noxious materials might be emitted from such vents, as well, such as pitch, acids, and heated oil.
Witness of Gor Book 26 Page 166
The roofs are commonly flat, and equipped with stones, debris, and covered vessels of pitch which, uncovered and ignited, might be cast down toward the water, and, in places, leaders are found through which, suitably adjusted, burning oil might be directed with what, from the point of view of those below, would doubtless seem to be a most alarming precision.
Quarry of Gor Book 35 Page 132
[93]
I smelled hot oil on the parapet, and a cauldron of it was boiling, which I passed. Buckets on long handles could be dipped into this, the oil fired, and then poured on attackers. The oil tends to hold the fire on the object.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 266
It was difficult to see how my projects would be furthered if, while attempting to identify myself and explain my mission, I were to be cut open with a boat hook. Similarly I was not interested, in the midst of friendly overtures, in receiving a bucket of flaming oil in the face or, say, being struck from a ladder by a roofing tile brought from the interior of the city.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 153
In two of the towers defenders had won the top level and poured flaming oil about the floor and down the ladderways.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 284
Scarcely were the defenders drawn back than the great cauldron of oil, its oil now ignited, now aflame, into which the buckets on long handles had been dipped, was overturned with poles and flooded the walkway behind them.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 292
Fifty tarns, of course, might provide invaluable intelligence, telling attacks at carefully selected points, and, equipped with flame vases, threaten any number of structures, even the palace of Lord Yamada itself, with relative impunity.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 545
[94]
"The ship was fired, and then sunk," said he, "the supply ship, that bound for the north."
"I know," I said.
"I am a failed captain," said he.
"It is difficult to defend against tarn attack, the sheets of burning oil to the sails."
"They came again and again," he said.
Beasts of Gor Book 12 Page 160
Much oil was brought aboard, not so much for the ship's lamps, but for a substance with which to fill clay vessels, with wire handles, of which there were hundreds. These would constitute fire bombs which might be flung from tarnback or launched from catapults.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 535
[95]
And then, their fighters disembarked, the birds with their riders swept away, up into the black, vicious sleeting sky, to light the oily rags one by one, in the clay flasks of tharlarion oil and hurl them, from the heights of the sky, down onto the decks of ships of Cos and Tyros. I did not expect a great deal of damage to be done by these shattering bombs of burning oil, but I was counting on the confluence of three factors the psychological effect of such an attack, the fear of the outflanking fleets, whose numbers could not yet well have been ascertained, and, in the confusion and, hopefully, terror, the unexpected, sudden loss of their commander.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 276
"Fire bombs!" called Callimachus. "Signal our fellows in the marshes! Let the attack flags be raised!" There was a cheer upon the walls. Men rose up on the walls, lighting fuses of oil-soaked rags, thrust into oil-filled, clay vessels; a smoke bomb, trailing red smoke, was lofted from a wall catapult high over the marshes. Red attack flags, torn by the wind snapped on their lines. Vessels of clay, spreading broad sheets of flaming oil, shattered on the decks of the vessels in the yard. Soldiers of Ar's Station, emerging from the marshes on the left and right, screaming, hurled, too, such flaming missiles against the ships in the channel. Our men emerged through the iron door of the holding to command the walks lining the sea yard. They then began to board the moored vessels. A melee took place, even upon the flaming decks.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Pages 113 - 114
Much oil was brought aboard, not so much for the ship's lamps, but for a substance with which to fill clay vessels, with wire handles, of which there were hundreds. These would constitute fire bombs which might be flung from tarnback or launched from catapults.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 535
Clashes continued, small groups engaging small groups. Tarns continued to swoop, soar, and circle, tarnsmen firing from saddle bows and casting small fire bowls toward the wagons, defenders cutting away burning canvas in an effort to save the wagons.
Warriors of Gor Book 37 Page 93
[96]
"I see," said she, "beating is not enough for you. It seems you must be boiled in the oil of tharlarion as well!"
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 115
"The only thing you truly need to fear," said Hurtha, "is that your honor might be lost."
"I suppose you are right," I said. "Still I would not look forward to being boiled in oil."
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 285
"Doubtless the informant, this Mincon, was boiled in oil," said a man.
Vagabonds of Gor Book 24 Page 414
"He should be boiled in oil!" cried Marcus.
Magicians of Gor Book 25 Page 269
"I could have had you boiled in tharlarion oil," snapped the gowned slave.
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Page 489
Men seized the moaning Temenides and tore away his robes and tied his hands behind his back. Then heavy ropes, suitable for confining him in the vat of oil, were put on his neck. He looked wildly about himself in terror. "Ubar!" he wept.
"I have had the oil heated," said Belnar. "Doubtless it is now, or soon will be, boiling. In this fashion the end will come swiftly. We have not forgotten, in the hospitality of Brundisium, that Temenides is our guest."
Players of Gor Book 20 Page 333
[97]
Some twenty fellows rushed to the gate and pulled it shut, tying the two, in-swinging leaves together, and another twenty hurried to the closed gate with thick bundles of brush, grass, and straw which they piled before the tethered gate. At the same time, small fires were lit in clay pans and arrows, the heads of which were wrapped in oil-soaked cloth, were ignited and fired into the village, which shortly thereafter roared with flames, the heat of which jarred the air and carried even to our positions surrounding the village.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 199
[98]
He referred to a Pani bow generally anchored in a stout frame, and strung with a thick, oiled cord. It had an unusual range but little else. It required two men to bend it and, out of the frame it lacked accuracy. Its rate of fire was slow. It was essentially a siege weapon. Its most effective application was to deliver fire arrows. Lord Yamada had not used it, at least as yet, in that capacity, presumably because he was interested in taking the holding, not destroying it. In its frame it resembled a light ballista.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 14
[99]
"Kill her!" cried Decius Albus, and one of the Kurii at the foot of the stands lunged toward the small figure, who brought up her parasol between them, and the Kur crashed into it, shook his head, seized it in one hand, or paw, and tore part of the silk away, and then crouched down, jaws opened, fangs wet with saliva, and took a step toward the small figure, its last step as it turned out, for, a moment later it rolled in the grass, writhing, whimpering and choking, flailing about, apparently in great pain, biting at its own body, and then, in a matter of Ihn, it was inert. Its body was contorted, and rigid. The one eye, which it had not torn out in its frenzy, was of a single hue, a sightless wad of dark leather half emerged from the face.
"He spoiled my parasol!" she cried angrily. "For this, I hold you, Decius Albus, responsible."
She still clutched the shreds of the parasol in one hand, several of its spines now exposed, free from the silk.
None of the other Kurii about rushed upon her.
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Pages 576 - 577
[100]
Is it not, ultimately, in the mass that the power lies? Who else, at a word, might swarm into the streets, armed with paving stones and clubs?
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 103
[101]
"And the objects of war," said another, "timbers, hurling stones, cordage, jars of pitch, finned darts, spears, glaives, javelins, varieties of blades, masses of shields, bucklers, wrappings in which are bound a thousand arrows."
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Pages 203 - 204
[102]
Outside and above decks we could hear shouting, and the sound of sprung ropes, as the canisters of flaming pitch were lofted from the deck catapults.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 366
"Light the pitch!" called Callimachus. "Set the catapults! Unbind the javelins! Bowmen to your stations!"
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 7
A clay globe, shattering, of burning pitch struck across our deck. Another fell hissing into the water off our starboard side. Our own catapults returned fire, with pitch and stones. We extinguished the fire with sand.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 10
I watched the long, looping trajectory of a bowl of flaming pitch, trailing a streamer of smoke, near us, and then fall with a hissing splash into the water nearby.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 11
Under such conditions, the oarsmen, facing the stern, unable to see behind them, must resist the almost irresistible impulse to look behind them, even to leap from the bench. It is a horrible death to be struck by, almost enveloped by, a descending, barrel-sized, clinging ball of burning pitch.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 168
[103]
Too, roofing, where practical, if not sheathed in metal or coated in wet hides, would succumb to the canisters of pitch and fire, lit and cast by our tarnsmen.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 567
[104]
The roofs are commonly flat, and equipped with stones, debris, and covered vessels of pitch which, uncovered and ignited, might be cast down toward the water, and, in places, leaders are found through which, suitably adjusted, burning oil might be directed with what, from the point of view of those below, would doubtless seem to be a most alarming precision.
Quarry of Gor Book 35 Page 132
[105]
Other inflammables, pitch, and such, were cast over the walls from the outside, which, by a flung torch, a cast, flaming bundle of straw, or such, might be as easily ignited. In such a way the walled-in trail might, at selected points, as desired, be transformed into a blazing furnace.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 449
"They have still not mounted a massive attack with scaling ladders," said Thurnock.
"They are not eager to do so," I said. "It requires great courage to cling to a ladder with one hand and try to defend oneself with the other, against burning pitch, axes, jabbing blades, cast stones, and such. Most such assaults are turned back with a great loss of life. That is one reason towns and cities have walls."
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 259
Far to the right I heard a wild, eerie scream where a large bucket of flaming pitch, by means of its socketed rods, was tipped over the parapet.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 278
[106]
Within was a long, dimly lit tunnel, with several opened gates within it, some of bars, some of metal-sheathed wood, with tiny apertures some eight to ten feet above the floor. These were tiny ports, used, I would learn, for the missiles of the crossbow. They are manned by platforms which are a part of the interior surface of the doors. I did not notice them at the time but there were other ports overhead from which missiles might be fired toward the doors, should foes achieve the dubious success of reaching them. I think there was no place in that corridor, or perhaps generally in the fortifications as a whole, which could not be reached by missile fire from at least two directions. Noxious materials might be emitted from such vents, as well, such as pitch, acids, and heated oil.
Witness of Gor Book 26 Page 166
[107]
there is little which may not figure as a weapon, axes and hammers, the implements of agriculture, planks, poles and sticks, the very stones of the streets.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 116
[108]
Many others, too, rushed to the sound, and we were jostled by armed warriors, scarred and fierce; by boys with unscarred faces, carrying the pointed sticks used often for goading the wagon bosk;
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 34
Behind her, nude, proud, erect, golden rings in her ears, carrying a pointed stick, an improvised spear, came blond Verna, tall and beautiful.
Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 297
A hundred yards from the wharves we saw a crowd of angry men, perhaps two hundred, blocking the way. They held gaffs, harpoons, even pointed sticks.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 50
At the gesture of one of the pointed sticks I went to all fours on the wooden ramp. I cried out, protesting, at the poke of a stick.
Dancer of Gor Book 22 Pages 123 - 124
I wondered how the women in the darkness would feel, sweating, harnessed naked to a plow, subject to a whip, or crawling, perhaps hastened by the jabbing of a pointed stick, into a dark, low log kennel at night.
Witness of Gor Book 26 Page 245
"Who knows what may serve as a weapon," said a man, "a knife from the kitchen, a pointed stick, a stone."
Prize of Gor Book 27 Page 285
They carried pointed sticks, some sharpened as spears, others as shorter, stabbing weapons.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 177
Then, in the confusion, several humans, screaming, and carrying their pointed sticks, slid into the defile, and others rushed forward, through the opening.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 195
"Do you think the pointed stick in your grasp is a weapon?" inquired one of the Kurii.
"Lend me your spear, if you wish me better armed," said Cabot.
"You could not cast it," said a Kur.
"Then I must make do with my pointed stick," said Cabot.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 206
For example, dozens of humans, armed with their stones and pointed sticks, suddenly swarming upon isolated Kurii were something seriously to be reckoned with.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 435
It was prodded forward by two iron-chain Kurii with pointed sticks.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 495
I heard the shouts of men, and I saw one, far to the left, outside the verr pen, carrying a pointed stick, and then other men, with sticks, had entered the pen, from behind, and were herding the verr out the chute, through the doorway, into the light outside.
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 538
"A knife will do," said Kurik, "or a pointed stick."
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 549
The occupying forces, in days of terror and blood, overwhelmed by a massive revolt of a swarming populace, armed sometimes with no more than pointed sticks, staves, clubs, torches, and fragments of pavement, fled.
Quarry of Gor Book 35 Page 144
[109]
many of them carried nothing more than a chain or sharpened pole."
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 220
Some were even slaves, who had fought with poles and hammers.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 291
there is little which may not figure as a weapon, axes and hammers, the implements of agriculture, planks, poles and sticks, the very stones of the streets.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 116
Those of Ar had risen, everywhere, it seemed, from doorways and cellars, from within the cylinders and on the bridges, rushing forth, seizing up as weapons things so simple as clubs, poles, staves, and rocks, overwhelming in their numbers even armed men.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 42
On the continent, street contingents, raised in times of need to supplement a city's standing troops, commonly make do with knives, clubs, sharpened poles, and stones.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 284
[110]
At the same time he saw at the end of the corridor a red line, like a knife, slowly describing a large circle, bubbling and hissing, as it moved, in the steel. Then, as the circle was nearly completed, there was a sound as of a single blow, abrupt and impatient, on the other side, perhaps a small explosion, and the steel protruded into the hallway, as though it had been struck by a fist, and then there was another such blow, or explosion, and there was a screeching of metal, and then a large clanging sound, as the large circle of steel, with its diameter of ten feet or more, collapsed, rocking and shimmering with sound, into the hallway.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Pages 76 - 77
The beast then slung its rifle behind its left shoulder, to a harness hook,
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 79
The beast then, others gathered about, unhooked his rifle, a stubby, cylindrical fire tube, and directed it toward what had been the top of the container.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 80
[111]
Such a portal could withstand for a time anything likely to be brought against it, axes, rock hammers, beams of wood.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 495
[112]
I climbed one of the great chains to the huge windlass set above the shaft and found myself among hundreds of cheering men, their chains struck off, their hands boasting weapons even if only a piece of jagged rock or a pair of shackles.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 168
Like wolves, crying out, shouting, lifting their fists, they ran behind us as we made our way toward the wharves. Then a rock fell among us, and another.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 49
"They would have killed her," said Lord Grendel. "They would have cut her with stones, thrust sticks into her, broke her with rocks and clubs, chewed the skin from her bones."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 514
Those of Ar had risen, everywhere, it seemed, from doorways and cellars, from within the cylinders and on the bridges, rushing forth, seizing up as weapons things so simple as clubs, poles, staves, and rocks, overwhelming in their numbers even armed men.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 42
[113]
It was difficult to see how my projects would be furthered if, while attempting to identify myself and explain my mission, I were to be cut open with a boat hook. Similarly I was not interested, in the midst of friendly overtures, in receiving a bucket of flaming oil in the face or, say, being struck from a ladder by a roofing tile brought from the interior of the city.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 153
[114]
Kamchak was a skilled instructor in these matters and, freely, hours at a time, until it grew too dark to see, supervised my practice with such fierce tools as the lance, the quiva and bola. I learned as well the rope and bow.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 66
[115]
These irons, red-hot, were used in repulsing attackers. These irons, more commonly used for driving animals and criminals onto the sands of arenas in large cities, such as Ar, were formidable defensive weapons, thrust into the faces, eyes, and bodies of men trying to climb over the wall onto the parapet.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 279
[116]
"They have still not mounted a massive attack with scaling ladders," said Thurnock.
"They are not eager to do so," I said. "It requires great courage to cling to a ladder with one hand and try to defend oneself with the other, against burning pitch, axes, jabbing blades, cast stones, and such. Most such assaults are turned back with a great loss of life. That is one reason towns and cities have walls."
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 259
[117]
Several of them began to follow us, lifting flails and great scythes. Some carried chains, others hoes.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 49
Several of them began to follow us, lifting flails and great scythes. Some carried chains, others hoes. "Who knows what may serve as a weapon," said a man, "a knife from the kitchen, a pointed stick, a stone."
Prize of Gor Book 27 Page 285
[118]
I climbed one of the great chains to the huge windlass set above the shaft and found myself among hundreds of cheering men, their chains struck off, their hands boasting weapons even if only a piece of jagged rock or a pair of shackles.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 168
[119]
"Whose compartments are these?" demanded a man, with a sharpened half-staff.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 49
On the continent, street contingents, raised in times of need to supplement a city's standing troops, commonly make do with knives, clubs, sharpened poles, and stones.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 284
[120]
This is most simply illustrated in swordplay in which two blades are set against one. A swordsman can engage but one opponent at a time, and this renders him vulnerable to the other, however brief the engagement. If, instead, he defends himself against one, with a particular parry, however swift, he is exposed to the thrust of the other.
Something very similar to this occurs in Gorean naval warfare, where, commonly, the ship is the weapon.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Pages 376 - 377
[121]
But a moment later the charging citizens, like thundering, horned kailiauk, like uncontrolled, maddened, stampeding bosk, pikes and spears leveled, chains flailing, swords flashing, boat hooks, and axes and shovels upraised, struck the dumbfounded, disarrayed throngs of astonished buccaneers.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 128
The citizens, rallied, armed with whatever they could find, shovels, axes, even stones, and rose en masse.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 15
[122]
It might also be mentioned that the ship catapult is, as would be expected, much smaller and lighter than the common siege catapult whose projectiles, commonly large boulders, are designed to crash through stone walls. Another point of interest, though perhaps one too obvious to mention, has to do with the platform and target of fire.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Pages 170 - 171
[123]
Those who are not promptly taken into custody, running into the arms of enemy soldiers, fallen into fragilely roofed siege ditches, rather like capture pits, finding themselves unable to scale walls of circumvallation, caught in slave wire, taken in slave snares or slave traps, and such, may be sought by trained sleen.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 584
[124]
The pounding at the door grew more insistent. Too, there was shouting. And I then heard heavy blows against the wood, the striking of some tool.
I supposed this would be siege hammer, or possibly a hand ram, swung by one or more men.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 49
[125]
We heard the striking against the walls of the keep of siege poles, like ladders with a single upright, rungs tied transversely on the single axis.
. . .
I threw a man whom I had struck, even before he died, over the parapet, striking another, who, clinging desperately to the siege pole, carried it back in a long arc with him as he fell.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Pages 296 - 298
Again we heard the striking against the walls of siege poles.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 299
We heard the men climbing closer on the siege poles.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 300
Turning, about fifty yards behind me, I saw the upright of a single-pole ladder jut from the outside over the wall. The two men, gaunt and weary, paid it no attention. Back there, however, a cluster of defenders sped to the place. The ringing of swords came to my ears. More than one fellow leapt over the crenelation but the ladder itself was thrust back. This isolated the Cosians who had attained the wall. Men swarmed about them. Two were cut down and a third climbed back over the wall and leapt away, plunging to its foot, preferring to risk the consequences of such a fall rather than face certain death on the walkway. The bodies of his two comrades, stripped of weapons, half hacked to pieces, were flung after him.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 267
To my amazement then I saw two uprights of a ladder, a two-upright ladder, not one of the single-pole ladders, suddenly appear but feet from me. I ran to the place and thrust through the crenelation at a fellow, his hand already half over the wall. He tumbled back, into space. The next fellow had his shield before him.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 288
[126]
Here and there among the tents siege towers were being constructed. Nine towers were in evidence. It was unthinkable that they should top the walls of Ar, but with their battering rams they would attempt to break through at the lower levels.
Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 164
[127]
It began several hours before dawn, as the giant siege towers, covered now with plates of steel to counter the effect of fire arrows and burning tar, were slowly rolled across the ditch bridges.
Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 178
"That is a great advantage of siege towers," said Clitus. "They can conceal and protect men, be wheeled to walls, overtop walls, and, when they suddenly drop their gates, permit besiegers bearing shields to rush downward with great force upon defenders."
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 259
[128]
Even mobile siege towers, pushed from within by straining tharlarion, pressing their weight against prepared harnesses, trundled toward them, their bulwarks swarming with archers and javelin men.
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 33
"What is wrong?" I asked.
"I thought I saw a building move," she said, "back by the other buildings."
"Where?" I asked.
"It does not matter," she said, "it was only an illusion, a ripple in the air, a matter of the waves of heat rising from the stone, the debris."
"Where?" I asked.
She pointed. Then she gasped, again.
"It is no illusion," I said. "It is moving. There is another, too, and another."
"Buildings cannot move!" she said.
"I count eleven," I said. "They can be moved in various ways. Some are moved from within, by such means as men thrusting forward against bars, or tharlarion, pulling against harnesses attached to bars behind them, such apparatuses internal to the structure. Some, on the other hand, look there, there is one, are drawn by ropes, drawn by men or tharlarion. That one is drawn by men. See them?"
"Yes," she said.
There must have been at least fifty ropes, and fifty men to a rope. They seemed small yet, even in their numbers, at this distance.
"Even so, how can such things be moved?" she said. "They are not really buildings as you think," I said, "made of stone, and such. They are high, mobile structures, on wheels. They are heavy, it is true, but they are light, considering their size. They are wooden structures, frameworks, covered on three sides with light wood, sometimes even hides. The hides will be soaked with water as they approach more closely, to make it difficult to fire the structure. They overtop the walls. Drawbridges can then be opened within them and men can pour out, preferably down, this giving them momentum for the charge, over the walls, others following them up the ladders within. There are many types of such structures. Some are even used on ships. We call them generally castles or towers. As they are used here, one would commonly think of them, and speak of them, as siege towers."
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Pages 259 - 260
[129]
The derrick grapnel is much what the name suggests. It is used from walls, dangled down, and then drawn up with a winch. If the wall is a harbor wall it can capsize a ship. If the wall is a land wall, it can, with luck, topple a siege tower.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 265
[130]
The slave nets are carefully woven, with stout inescapable cordage, and they are cast with skill.
One does not escape their coils.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 147
[131]
Six of my men, each with a length of binding fiber, approached her. She held her arms down, and a bit to the sides. The ends of six lengths of binding fiber, like slave snares, were fastened on her, one for each wrist and ankle, and two about her waist; the men, then, each holding the free end of a length of fiber, stood about her, some six or eight feet from her, three on a side. She was thus imprisoned among them, each holding a thong that bound her.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 228
She turned and twisted and leaped, and sometimes seemed almost free, but was always, by the dark thongs, held complete prisoner. Sometimes she would rush upon one man or another, but the others would not permit her to reach him, keeping her always beautiful female slave snared in her web of thongs. She writhed and cried out, trying to force the thongs from her body, but could not do.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 229
One of my men had fallen unconscious to the ground. Another, futilely, weakly, was fighting slave snares, held like a trapped animal in the cruel, taut cords. Then he was pulled from his feet, and I saw a panther girl, a blond girl, her hair wild, leap toward him, her spear lifted in two hands.
Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 125
Those who are not promptly taken into custody, running into the arms of enemy soldiers, fallen into fragilely roofed siege ditches, rather like capture pits, finding themselves unable to scale walls of circumvallation, caught in slave wire, taken in slave snares or slave traps, and such, may be sought by trained sleen.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 584
[132]
It was not unknown that among the bands in the forests, a male might be sold for as little as a handful of such candies. When dealing with men, however, the girls usually demanded, and received, goods of greater value to them, usually knives, arrow points, small spear points; sometimes armlets, and bracelets and necklaces, and mirrors; sometimes slave nets and slave traps, to aid in their hunting; sometimes slave chains, and manacles, to secure their catches.
Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 31
Those who are not promptly taken into custody, running into the arms of enemy soldiers, fallen into fragilely roofed siege ditches, rather like capture pits, finding themselves unable to scale walls of circumvallation, caught in slave wire, taken in slave snares or slave traps, and such, may be sought by trained sleen.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 584
[133]
There was suddenly a great, heavy steel snap at my feet.
Arn cried out in pain and fell forward.
Locked on his right ankle were the heavy, sharp steel teeth of a slave trap.
I fought the heavy, curved steel jaws, but they had locked shut. The Gorean slave trap is not held by a simple, heavy spring as would be the trap for a panther or sleen. Such a spring, by a strong man, with his hands, might be thrust open. This trap had sprung shut and locked. The heavy steel curved snugly about his ankle. The sharp teeth, biting deeply, fastened themselves in his flesh. It could only be opened by key.
He would be held perfectly. It was a Gorean slave trap.
I pulled at the chain, a heavy chain, concealed under leaves.
It led to a ring on a post, sunk deeply into the ground. I could not budge the post.
Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 126
[134]
I do not here, incidentally, discuss the nature of slave traps, as they constitute a different object of discourse. Some of these are rather benign devices, with no object more in mind than to discommode a free woman until the hunters arrive and collect her. Others, with coiled wire, with springs and steel teeth, generally designed for the capture of escaped male slaves can be quite cruel. Smaller, lighter versions of such traps exist for escaped female slaves. Within some of these devices, surrounded by the wire and blades, one cannot move without cutting oneself to pieces. I had once, in training, been carefully entered into one, and then left there, standing, for more than an hour. It helped to impress upon me, as did a thousand other considerations, physical and social, the hopelessness of escape for a female slave.
Witness of Gor Book 26 Pages 284 - 285
[135]
Similar to tarn wire, a lighter form of wire is called "slave wire," and it, too, is dangerous. A slave attempting to escape through such wire is likely to be found suspended within it, piteously begging for help, half cut to pieces.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 252
[136]
Light-armed troops hurried forward, slingers and archers, and javelin men, to keep defenders back.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 259
"The arrow can strike from cover, the archer unseen," said Grendel.
"So, too, can the knife, the sword, the spear, even the slinger's leaden pellet or smoothed, rounded stone."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 378
Who, when the enemy appears at the horizon, would be willing to spare even a single slinger, in rags, with his sack of absurdly engraved lead pellets, let alone a spearman, or swordsman?
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 177
"We have found them!" we heard. "spears and shields! Arm your bows and slings! Release the vulos."
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 318
[137]
Some cities maintain semi-military units, skirmishers, light bowmen, and slingers. Slingers may use stones or metal pellets. These are more dangerous than many understand, particularly at a short distance, and in great numbers, when a sheet of missiles in their thousands can strike foes as might a deadly hail. Certainly one of these hornet-like projectiles, almost invisible in flight, can blind a man, break a head, and cut him open.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 284
[138]
A smoke bomb, trailing smoke, was lofted upward from a catapult on one of the lead ships. It arched gracefully upward and then fell into the marshes lining the channel.
"Return the signal," said Callimachus.
In moments an answering smoke bomb, from a catapult on the wails, describing its graceful parabola, ascended and then seemed to pause, and then looped downward, to splash into the marshes.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 111
"Fire bombs!" called Callimachus. "Signal our fellows in the marshes! Let the attack flags be raised!" There was a cheer upon the walls. Men rose up on the walls, lighting fuses of oil-soaked rags, thrust into oil-filled, clay vessels; a smoke bomb, trailing red smoke, was lofted from a wall catapult high over the marshes. Red attack flags, torn by the wind snapped on their lines. Vessels of clay, spreading broad sheets of flaming oil, shattered on the decks of the vessels in the yard. Soldiers of Ar's Station, emerging from the marshes on the left and right, screaming, hurled, too, such flaming missiles against the ships in the channel. Our men emerged through the iron door of the holding to command the walks lining the sea yard. They then began to board the moored vessels. A melee took place, even upon the flaming decks.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Pages 113 - 114
[139]
It would be difficult, once seen, to ever forget the massively scarred, misshapen countenance of Krondar, a veteran of many bouts with the spiked leather, and the knife gauntlets, in Ar.
Guardsmen of Gor Book 16 Page 94
"In the pits of Ar," he said, "he has fought with the spiked leather, and with the knife gauntlets."
Fighting Slave of Gor Book 14 Page 318
[140]
Sometimes slave girls are forced to fight slave girls, perhaps with steel claws fastened on their fingers
Assassin of Gor Book 5 Page 189
[141]
There were various matches in the pit of sand that evening. There was a contest of sheathed hook knife, one of whips and another of spiked gauntlets.
Assassin of Gor Book 5 Page 120
[142]
There are actually like gangplanks, some five feet in width, to be fastened at one end to the round ship and intended to be dropped, with their heavy spiked ends, into the deck of an enemy ship.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 262
[143]
We were thrown on our feet again, and, to my horror, our yokes were fitted with steel horns, eighteen inches in length and pointed like nails.
Andreas, as his yoke was similarly garnished with the deadly projections, spoke to me. "This may be farewell, Warrior," said he.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 112
Two warriors hastily unbolted the horns from the yoke and dragged me to the golden wall.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 116
[144]
Light engines, mostly catapults and ballistae, would be transported over the ditches by harnessed tarn teams.
Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 164
[145]
It is important to make evasive action as unpredictable as possible. The catapult master conjectures and the prey conjectures.
. . .
Some catapult masters have an almost uncanny sense of a prey's next move, but I trusted that the corsairs, being the hired brigands they were, would not be likely to have the services of a seasoned, skillful catapult master at their disposal. Indeed, I had not expected a naval catapult in their arsenal.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 168
Some catapult masters have an almost uncanny sense of a prey's next move, but I trusted that the corsairs, being the hired brigands they were, would not be likely to have the services of a seasoned, skillful catapult master at their disposal. Indeed, I had not expected a naval catapult in their arsenal.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 169
catapult engineers, "gunners," and such, are rare and highly paid.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 253
[146]
She also carried, on leather-cushioned, swivel mounts, two light catapults, two chain-sling onagers, and eight springals.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 193
The catapult on the enemy's stem castle had broken loose from its large, rotating mount. Its ropage hung down, dangling in the wind. The strands seemed narrow, from the distance from which I viewed them. The largest, however, would be some four inches in diameter.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 23
Surely there was no ram, no shearing blades, no sockets for fixing catapults or springals.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 219
In passing, one might note that the ship catapult, one of several such devices, can rotate, this altering its direction of fire. It can fire aft as well as forward and to the side. It might also be mentioned that the ship catapult is, as would be expected, much smaller and lighter than the common siege catapult whose projectiles, commonly large boulders, are designed to crash through stone walls. Another point of interest, though perhaps one too obvious to mention, has to do with the platform and target of fire. The land catapult is commonly stationary and commonly has a stationary target. It is seldom used, for example, against infantry. The naval catapult, on the other hand, is mounted on a moving ship and its target is usually in motion as well.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Pages 170 - 171
[147]
deck areas and deck castles can accommodate springals, small catapults, and chain-sling onagers, not to mention numerous bowmen, all of which can provide a most discouraging and vicious barrage, consisting normally of javelins, burning pitch, fiery rocks and crossbow quarrels
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 133
"Light the pitch!" called Callimachus. "Set the catapults! Unbind the javelins! Bowmen to your stations!"
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 7
[148]
A set of javelins, five of them, from a springal, struck from their guides by a forward-springing plank, raked the interior wall of the starboard rowing frame.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 49
"heavy arrows," almost spears, which might be sped either singly, as from ballistae, or, from a springal, in showers, their flight propelled by a single fierce blow, that from a horizontal spring-driven board.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 535
As the mast went down our fellows at the springals lit the bucketed fires in which the oil-soaked wrappings on javelin heads might be ignited.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 23
I had heard, above the cries and the breaking wood, from the other side of the passing hull, the sudden ringing of springal boards speeding javelins, doubtless ignited, into the enemy.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 29
[149]
mobile siege equipment, catapults mounted on wheeled platforms, which could fire over the heads of the draft animals. From these engines, hitherto employed only in siege warfare, now become a startling and devastating new weapon, in effect, a field artillery, tubs of burning pitch and flaming naphtha, and siege javelins, and giant boulders, fell in shattering torrents upon the immobilized squares.
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 33
From time to time we could hear, and sometimes feel, through the floor, the impact of the Cosian projectiles, the great stones, some of which would weigh a thousand pounds or more, flung by mighty catapults, some the size of houses.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 229
Then, suddenly, a lever thrown, the mighty arm of the engine went forward again and a great stone burst against one of the towers.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 285
The attentions of our tarnsmen had been divided between the artillery, the ballistae, the mangonels, the catapults, the springals, on the shore, armed with their missiles and fire, and several galleys offshore.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 567
I had not before realized the size of the catapults, which, with their mounting on heavy wheeled carts, were something like three stories high.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 274
[150]
Catapult cordage, heavy with water, rendered their engines, of which, as noted, there were three, inoperative. One gathers that the "artillery men," so little versed in the technology they were attempting to exploit, had not anticipated the effect of rain and moisture on the efficiency of their machines. In such a situation, experienced catapult engineers would have removed exposed cordage and placed it in waterproof bags. Commonly, too, extra cordage, in containers sealed against moisture, would be on hand, to be emplaced when the time was opportune. Similarly, had they been more practiced in the craft to which they were addressing themselves, they might have availed themselves of more costly cordage, woven from, say, women's hair, which is stronger, more resilient, and more weather resistant than common cordage.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Pages 253 - 254
[151]
The other common peasant weapon is the great staff, some six feet in length, some two inches in width.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 139
With respect to the staff, it serves of course not only as a weapon but, more usually, and more civilly, as an aid in traversing terrain of uncertain footing. Too, it is often used, yokelike, fore and aft of its bearer, to carry suspended, balanced baskets. Weaponwise, incidentally, there are men who can handle it so well that they are a match for many swordsmen. My friend Thurnock, in Port Kar, was one. Indeed, many sudden and unexpected blows had I received in lusty sport from that device in his hands. Eventually, under his tutelage, I had become proficient with the weapon, enabled at any rate to defend myself with some efficiency. But still I would not have cared to meet him, or such a fellow, in earnest, each of us armed only in such terms.
Magicians of Gor Book 25 Page 245
The occupying forces, in days of terror and blood, overwhelmed by a massive revolt of a swarming populace, armed sometimes with no more than pointed sticks, staves, clubs, torches, and fragments of pavement, fled.
Quarry of Gor Book 35 Page 144
This was the peasant staff, less an accessory to walking than a stout weapon, some six or seven feet in length, some two inches, or so, in thickness. In the hands of a strong, skilled man it is a formidable weapon.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 400
[152]
I wished that I had had one of the tridents or one of the sharpened, steel crescents fixed on a metal pole, useful in such work. The fellow who had had the shield now climbed toward me. This time, however, the ladder leaning out from the wall, I managed to get the point of the spear free from under a rung and on one of the uprights itself. I could now push back.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 290
[153]
The dour women of the Wagon Peoples, I saw, looked on these girls with envy and hatred, sometimes striking them with sticks if they should approach too closely the cooking pots and attempt to steal a piece of meat.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 30
Hooded, stripped to the waist, chained, I had been beaten from one end of the room to the other with sticks.
Assassin of Gor Book 5 Page 311
Slave girls in the crowd rushed forward to surge about the carts, to poke at them with sticks, strike them with switches and spit upon them. Panther girls were hated.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 213
We, for some minutes more, continued to abuse her, with sticks and dirt, and our spittle and our insults.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 222
The women and children carried sticks and switches, the men spears, flails, forks and clubs.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 249
He then ordered that the man be put in the dress of a woman and beaten from the court with sticks.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 231
When I dallied I was beaten with sticks.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 321
Many of these arrows were not fine arrows. Many lacked even points and were little more than featherless, sharpened sticks.
Blood Brothers of Gor Book 18 Page 415
Because of the width of the wagon bed and the height of the cage, some five feet or so above the surface of the wagon bed, I had been reasonably well protected from the blows of whips, the jabbings of sticks.
Kajira of Gor Book 19 Page 189
Near the pawing feet of the leader's tharlarion, in their tunics of white wool, there stood two stout peasant lads, bound, heavy sticks thrust before their elbows and behind their backs, their arms bound to these at the back, their wrists, a rope across their bellies, held back, tied at their sides.
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 37
Similarly walking sticks and staffs often have one or more such compartments in them; reached by unscrewing various sections of the stick or staff. Needless to say, some of these, too, contain, daggers or thrusting swords.
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Pages 211 - 212
Then, on her hands and knees, swiftly, at a gesture, she crawled, poked by sharp sticks, hastened by the cry "Quickly, she-tarsk!" to the first of the low, narrow cages and scrambled, weeping, within it.
Dancer of Gor Book 22 Page 107
Another charge, rushing forth from the tower, unable to stop, pushed on by the masses behind them, plunged into flames, where we had heaped bundles of tarred sticks in their path, the sort that on wires and chains, flaming, are hung over the walls at night to illuminate ascending foes.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 282
I saw other fellows carrying bundles of flaming sticks and tar on their pikes into a tower.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 284
They carried sticks, and it was not without jabbings, pokings and blows, and impatient expostulations, that they sped their linked, disconcerted, intimidated charges, those lovely, chained she-animals, forward, presumably to a final staging area prior to their sale.
Prize of Gor Book 27 Pages 464 - 465
Two attendants then, with sticks, hurried the two lanes forward. The attendants cried out, angrily, making use of their sticks. Ellen cried out once, when struck across the back of the left shoulder.
Prize of Gor Book 27 Page 474
The eight weapons would doubtless have made one of the insurrectionary groups more formidable than otherwise, say, that of Lord Grendel, but presumably the eight such weapons would have been of little avail against the full, massed power which might be brought against them by a reasonably large contingent of enemy forces, and, of course, given such an arrangement, concentrating the weapons in a single group, the other rebels' groups, now distributed, now muchly out of touch with one another, would have remained as before, limited to their original primitive, simple weaponry, sticks, spears, axes, knives, and such, and more dangerously, of course, and more happily for them, the arrow. Indeed, the arrow, loosed from the great bow, remained a not unformidable tool, even against foes equipped with a more sophisticated weaponry.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 471
"They are being driven, herded, with sticks," said Cabot. "They are naked, and roped together, by the neck."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 507
"They would have killed her," said Lord Grendel. "They would have cut her with stones, thrust sticks into her, broke her with rocks and clubs, chewed the skin from her bones."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 514
"Weapons had been forbidden to the populace," said another, but many had been concealed, and there is little which may not figure as a weapon, axes and hammers, the implements of agriculture, planks, poles and sticks, the very stones of the streets."
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 116
Tiresias was then, with the sharp sticks, striking and jabbing, hurried from the room.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 496
[154]
They had come prepared, though naked, to make war, though it be with but the branches of trees and the stones of the forest.
Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 289
Men, before its movement, were struck screaming to the ground, but others followed them, pouring over the wall, to plunge into coiled tarn wire, to stumble, to fall, to wade in it bloodied, to meet stones and steel.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 281
"Cosians were waiting for us," he gasped. "It was a slaughter, a slaughter! We were raked from the air with quarrels. Stones were used to break our ranks. We were trampled with tharlarion! War sleen were set upon us! We had no chance. We could scarcely move. We were too crowded to wield our weapons. Hundreds died in the mire. Many, who could, fled back into the delta!"
Vagabonds of Gor Book 24 Page 155
"Who knows what may serve as a weapon," said a man, "a knife from the kitchen, a pointed stick, a stone."
Prize of Gor Book 27 Page 285
"They would have killed her," said Lord Grendel. "They would have cut her with stones, thrust sticks into her, broke her with rocks and clubs, chewed the skin from her bones."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 514
there is little which may not figure as a weapon, axes and hammers, the implements of agriculture, planks, poles and sticks, the very stones of the streets.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 116
The citizens, rallied, armed with whatever they could find, shovels, axes, even stones, and rose en masse.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 15
"Kajirae, kajirae!" I heard, a sing-song, mocking chanting of children. "Kajirae, kajirae!" Small stones, stinging, one after another, apparently from almost at my elbow, were hurled against me, and, from the disturbance in the coffle, the rattle of chain, and cries of surprise and pain, I knew I was not the only victim of this petty aggression.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 101
"And the objects of war," said another, "timbers, hurling stones, cordage, jars of pitch, finned darts, spears, glaives, javelins, varieties of blades, masses of shields, bucklers, wrappings in which are bound a thousand arrows."
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Pages 203 - 204
There is the occasional danger of engine-sprung stones, of descending arrows.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 41
On the continent, street contingents, raised in times of need to supplement a city's standing troops, commonly make do with knives, clubs, sharpened poles, and stones.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 284
The roofs are commonly flat, and equipped with stones, debris, and covered vessels of pitch which, uncovered and ignited, might be cast down toward the water, and, in places, leaders are found through which, suitably adjusted, burning oil might be directed with what, from the point of view of those below, would doubtless seem to be a most alarming precision.
Quarry of Gor Book 35 Page 132
[155]
The women and children carried sticks and switches, the men spears, flails, forks and clubs.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 249
I cried out with pain, struck by a supple, barkless branch, a child's makeshift switch.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 101
It was the result of a blow not from some child's makeshift implement, a plaything, a pretended disciplinary device, but from an actual device of the sort his diversion mimicked, a supple, nicely crafted leather switch, an instrument designed to improve the discipline and service of a female slave.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Pages 104 - 105
[156]
Usually Tela's switch dangled from her wrist.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 56
About her right wrist, from its loop dangled a switch.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 457
[157]
Free women, abroad, often have a switch about their person.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 223
[158]
Across the city, from the walls to the cylinders and among the cylinders, I could occasionally see the slight flash of sunlight on the swaying tarn wires, literally hundreds of thousands of slender, almost invisible wires stretched in a protective net across the city.
Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Pages 162 - 163
[159]
The security-mindedness of Brundisium, incidentally, was manifested also in the tarn wire strung among its towers, extending down in many cases to lower rooftops and even the walls. Such wire can be quite dangerous. It can cut the head or wings from a descending tarn.
Players of Gor Book 20 Page 349
"It is hard to see at this time of day," said Mincon. "But the sky over the city is crisscrossed with thousands of strands of tarn wire. Even in the daytime it can be hard to see. It is there, however, I assure you."
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 109
Men, before its movement, were struck screaming to the ground, but others followed them, pouring over the wall, to plunge into coiled tarn wire, to stumble, to fall, to wade in it bloodied, to meet stones and steel.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 281
loops of tarn wire were cast over the armed, halted efflux which the foe, to his horror, trying to extricate himself, felt draw tight and then he, too, snared, was dragged from the bridge
. . .
The wire, in its wide, supple loops, had settled about its victims, their legs and bodies
. . .
perhaps to have its throat cut
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 283
[160]
These tent pegs, or stakes, were large pointed, rounded pieces of wood, most of which were something like a foot and a half in length, and two to three horts in diameter. I mention these measurements as it may make more clear the application to which they were shortly to be put. When two Ashigaru came about the tent to investigate the local collapse of canvas they encountered Haruki, apparently bewildered, who called their attention to the loose ropes and sagging canvas, not that this situation really required his exposition. I fear they might have been unkind to Haruki, but they had little opportunity to do so, as Tajima, and I, armed with the tent pegs, or stakes, if you will, approaching from different sides, struck them, from behind, heavily.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Pages 404 - 405
[161]
In her hand was a curved throwing stick, used for hunting birds. It is not a boomerang, which would be largely useless among the sedges and rushes, but it would, of course, float, and might be recovered and used indefinitely. Some girls are quite skilled with this light weapon.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 10
More cruelly the women is sometimes stunned by a throwing stick, a method which is used, I have heard, in a place called the delta of the Vosk.
Witness of Gor Book 26 Page 237
[162]
"And the objects of war," said another, "timbers, hurling stones, cordage, jars of pitch, finned darts, spears, glaives, javelins, varieties of blades, masses of shields, bucklers, wrappings in which are bound a thousand arrows."
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Pages 203 - 204
[163]
The occupying forces, in days of terror and blood, overwhelmed by a massive revolt of a swarming populace, armed sometimes with no more than pointed sticks, staves, clubs, torches, and fragments of pavement, fled.
Quarry of Gor Book 35 Page 144
[164]
The most interesting precaution, at least to me, was the provision of nesting sites on the almost vertical slopes for the Uru, which is a small, winged, vartlike mammal. This mammal, which usually preys on insects and small urts, like several species of birds, is communally territorial. When disturbed, it shrieks its warning and it is soon joined by a clamoring swarm of its fellows. In this way, a natural alarm system is obtained. Moreover, if a nesting site is closely approached, the Uru is likely to attack the intruder. It is a small mammal, but, shrieking and flying at the face of a climber, one precariously clinging to an almost vertical surface, it is, I am told, at least in such a situation, something most unpleasant to encounter.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 384
[165]
Tyros is a rugged island, with mountains. She is famed for her vart caves, and indeed, on that island, trained varts, batlike creatures, some the size of small dogs, are used as weapons.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 139
Perhaps most I dreaded those nights filled with the shrieks of the vart pack, a blind, batlike swarm of flying rodents, each the size of a small dog. They could strip a carcass in a matter of minutes, each carrying back some fluttering ribbon of flesh to the recesses of whatever dark cave the swarm had chosen for its home.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 26
[166]
With the noose of marsh vine I dragged him over the side of the hull, lowering him into the marsh, holding him until I felt the tharlarion take him from me, drawing him away.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 74
"You are of the Warriors," said Grendel. "In your hands a tiny branch, sharpened, a length of vine, is dangerous."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 332
[167]
I heard a fan snap open and shut twice nervously. By the sound, I knew the fan was of metal. Such fans can cut a throat.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 127
His colorful fan, with its heavy, edged metal blades, rested across his knees.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 260
[168]
He shook the large, metal fan open.
"This is not a mere decoration, the accessory of an ensemble, a bauble of fashion," he said.
"Still," I said, "it is attractive with its brightly colored panels, and well matches the tasteful robes of Lord Akio."
"Are you familiar with such fans?" he asked.
"Not really," I said.
"I have others," he said.
"Which match other robes," I said.
"Of course," he said.
"I see," I said.
"Do you think me a fop?" he asked.
"No, Lord," I said. "It is common for nobles to bathe frequently, to dress well, and care for their appearance."
He spread the fan.
"It is a shield," he said.
"I am sure it would turn aside a thrust, an arrow," I said.
It was not much different, in its expanse, from a small buckler, of the sort carried by the cavalry.
"It is, of course," he said, "not simply a shield."
"Oh?" I said.
"It is edged," he said, calling attention to the razorlike brink of the device. "It can cut a throat, or sever a hand."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Pages 158 - 159
"It is an assassin!" cried Lord Akio, snapping open his war fan to shield the shogun.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 275
[169]
"Of course," said Lord Akio, lifting his war fan, spreading its wings, and locking them in place.
Such a device is difficult to evade.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 583
"Behold," said Lord Akio, with a snap flinging the fan into a circle, and then, with a thumb, locking the blades in place.
"So, now," I said, "it is a circle, a wheel, of sorts?"
"A circle of terror," he said, "a wheel of death."
"I do not understand," I said.
"Do you think I am unarmed?" he asked.
"You might turn a blow," I said, "and, at close quarters, strike an opponent."
"I can hurl this," he said.
"It might be dangerous," I said, "with its weight and sturdiness, functioning as a missile a flighted, spinning blade, likely to take blood wherever it might strike."
"It is not simply a matter of drawing blood," he said.
"Surely, given its shape it would lack the penetration of a blade," I said, "and, given its shape and weight, it would lack the distance and accuracy of an arrow."
"All weapons have their limitations," he said.
"And their advantages," I said.
"True," he said. "For example, our attractive friend here might not be recognized as a weapon."
"Perhaps not," I said.
"Which is a splendid advantage."
"Doubtless," I said.
"I once decapitated a bandit, who thought me unarmed," he said.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 161
[170]
The spinning war fan is a terrible weapon, but once discharged, it is not easily recovered.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 585
[171]
"Cosians were waiting for us," he gasped. "It was a slaughter, a slaughter! We were raked from the air with quarrels. Stones were used to break our ranks. We were trampled with tharlarion! War sleen were set upon us! We had no chance. We could scarcely move. We were too crowded to wield our weapons. Hundreds died in the mire. Many, who could, fled back into the delta!"
Vagabonds of Gor Book 24 Page 155
In the corridors they met the war sleen and the hunting sleen of the pits.
Witness of Gor Book 26 Page 488
Sleen are trained variously. The five most common trainings are those of the war sleen, which may also be utilized as a bodyguard; the watch sleen, to guard given precincts; the herding sleen, which will kill only if the quarry refuses to be herded rapidly and efficiently to a given destination, usually a pen or slave cage; the trailing sleen, which is used, in leash, to follow a scent; and the hunter, which is trained to hunt and kill.
Witness of Gor Book 26 Page 575
War sleen, watch sleen, fighting sleen, and such, when freed, would normally retain the collars, which are often plated and spiked, for the protection of the throat.
Witness of Gor Book 26 Page 596
Domesticated sleen, tracking sleen, hunting sleen, herding sleen, guard sleen, war sleen, are relatively common on Gor.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 500
[172]
The Assassin is to be much alone. Like the forest panther, he is commonly a solitary hunter. He is to have no associations, connections, interests, or entanglements that might distract, compromise, or impair his capacity to discharge the requirements of his office, the fulfillment of his commission. His life belongs to the caste. His allegiance is to be undivided. He is to devote himself to his skills, and to his tools, the dagger, the quarrel, the wire noose, the dart, the brewing of poisons, to deception, patience, disguise, and ruthlessness. One applies, one trains, one strives, and one is
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 234
[173]
These devices, together with war torches, torches mounted in the sockets of thrusting poles, proved their worth in battle. War torches, for example, last night, not only engaged climbers but illuminated targets. Too, the sight of war torches and irons, particularly at night, the torches blazing and the irons bristling with heat, glowing in the darkness, have little difficulty in convincing an enemy of possible dangers likely to attend his proposed assault, the memories of which will persist later, indefinitely, even in daylight.
Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 279
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