{"id":627,"date":"2012-05-16T09:41:02","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T14:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=627"},"modified":"2012-05-16T09:41:02","modified_gmt":"2012-05-16T14:41:02","slug":"fire-slings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=627","title":{"rendered":"Fire Slings"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an excerpt from an upcoming Splintered Lands story titled Kingdoms in Conflict.<\/em><\/p>\n

\tGaldere muttered and cursed and shouted at the soldiers that reported to him as they struggled to fit together the second of the lever-armed devices. The technologically-minded soldier still hadn’t come up with a name for his creation, but he would, eventually. It was hardly relevant at the moment. And most people just called them giant slings anyway, which was accurate enough. It was what he’d based them on, after all. Just using the power of nature to do the tossing, instead of the power of a human’s arm. <\/p>\n

\tAs they assembled the second of the devices, there was another team in the woods, hunting down appropriately shaped trees and limbs to be used to create a third. And to create more spare parts, which were in constant demand. There was now a second set of embankments around the giant slings, one facing outwards, in case of an enemy raid, and the other at the rear, with a low trench behind it. That was where everyone stood when the device was being fired. No one trusted it not to throw splinters all over the place. Especially not after it had almost taken the arm from one unlucky soldier. Still, the risks were worth it.<\/p>\n

\tNearby, H\u00e1lsung and Iudas stood watching the assembly process, occasionally turning when there was a thump from the more distant device. First to see if anyone had been killed, and second to follow the flight of the ball as it impacted into the wall or flew over into the town. Although it was clearly damaging the walls, progress was slow, much to slow for the liking of the baron, and of his army’s food supplies. So now he debated ways to speed the matter up with his subordinate.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAnd what would you fling into a town you wished to conquer, H\u00e1lsung?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI’ve always used arrows and sling stones, lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSo have I, but neither of those seem to be that effective.\u201d He drummed his fingers on his chin as he paced up and down, staring at the walls of Abbodd\u00f3m. \u201cPerhaps fire?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHow would we do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWell, we’re throwing stones, right? Why not carve the spheres from wood, hollow them out a bit, and fill them with burning tinder? If we fire them fast enough they won’t damage the slings. Galdere, come here!\u201d That last was in a shout that carried across the battlefield and cut through the technological soldiers meandering curses.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWould firing partially hollow spheres of wood that were on fire work?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tGaldere pondered for a moment. \u201cI don’t see why not. We might need to weight them down with a few stones so they flew farther, but I’m sure we can manage. I’ll play around with a few designs this afternoon after I get the sling up and firing, and we’ll try them out overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIudas clapped him on the shoulder. \u201cGood man. Just don’t take too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe veteran blanched.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an excerpt from an upcoming Splintered Lands story titled Kingdoms in Conflict. Galdere muttered and cursed and shouted at the soldiers that reported to him as they struggled to fit together the second of the lever-armed devices. The technologically-minded soldier still hadn’t come up with a name for his creation, but he would, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[4,56],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-a7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":659,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=659","url_meta":{"origin":627,"position":0},"title":"Splintered Lands Cover Reveal","date":"March 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"You may have seen me mention that I have a few upcoming releases. Well, the first of them is almost here, and this is the cover art. Splintered Lands Volume One will have three interconnected short stories set in the Splintered Lands universe. Coming in at 21,000 words long, each\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"SL WIP4","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/SL-WIP4-700x1024.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":664,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=664","url_meta":{"origin":627,"position":1},"title":"Splintered Lands is Here!","date":"March 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Splintered Lands Volume One is here! Telling the story of Ellgis and Fryca, a pair of technologists designing machinery to help their fellow men, and Baron Insw\u00e1n, a noble trying to make his land a paradise in a shattered world, Splintered Lands Volume One opens a new world of post-apocalyptic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"SL WIP4","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/SL-WIP4-700x1024.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":416,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=416","url_meta":{"origin":627,"position":2},"title":"Splintered Sundays are Here!","date":"January 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"For the last little while, I have been working on a joint writing project with six other authors, planning, mapping and building a world that we all shared, and that we all wrote within. Well, the first evidence of that is now here, as each week, the six of us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":646,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=646","url_meta":{"origin":627,"position":3},"title":"Into the Swamp","date":"February 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The first installment in a new short story, one of three from the upcoming Splintered Lands: Volume One. With a twang, the rope snapped, and Fryca cursed. \u201cThe bloody thing broke again.\u201d Ellgis patted her on the shoulder. \u201cWe'll have it mended soon enough.\u201d \u201cWe've got Knights of the Broken\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":642,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=642","url_meta":{"origin":627,"position":4},"title":"Rumours of My Demise…","date":"February 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, we all know how that particular saying ends. And like almost every time it is employed, it's true. I am not dead, and I have certainly not given up on writing. I just appear to have given up on blog posting for some time, although I can say the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chloddio"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":649,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=649","url_meta":{"origin":627,"position":5},"title":"Amongst the Poor","date":"March 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The fourth installment in a new short story, one of three from the upcoming Splintered Lands: Volume One. Fryca knew she had a few days before the trial. Well, farce. The Knights would accuse Ellgis of trying to create another cataclysm, and nobody would say a thing. They'd all be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}