Rapiers were chosen, and from the outset it was clear that our two combatants were grossly mismatched. Tiberius Gau weighing in at 22 stone, 6 foot 6 tall, and from the look of his loincloth, he clearly had big hands. It’s a shame he hadn’t spent much time holding a rapier with them.
Having staked her claim to the centre of the arena, Mathilda! simply waited for Tiberius to complete his demonstration of futility, as he launched attack after attack against a seemingly untroubled defence. Time and energy were not on his side, and perhaps he spent a little too much of the night before celebrating the fact that he had previously been undefeated. Considering the way he was turned back like the tide against high cliffs, we have seen a clear illustration that skill and technique have not previously needed to form part of the arsenal of a winning Gladiator.
Eventually, like a clock winding down, Tiberius slowed, and it was with almost disdainful air that Mathilda! relieved him of his sword arm at the elbow, before also slashing his right thigh to the bone. With game over, the healers rushed on in time to save Tiberius life, but his reputation and record will forever live in the minds of this week’s crowd as a bumbling fool, for whom the only question left is whether he will be fit enough to stay alive when he must next appear in three months time.
I’m used to seeing Mathilda’s skill. She is superb. What impresses me about this bout is the power behind her attacks. A rapier is generally considered a very poor slashing weapon and used primarily for thrusting attacks. To cut someone’s thigh to the bone or relieve them of their sword arm doesn’t just require amazing skill but extremely impressive strength as well.
OOC: It requires the Ginzu Miracle Rapier (TM) because as you say the rapier is a tip weapon, not edge, even when making shallow cuts. It has no strength perpendicular to the blade and is not designed for slash and hack. 🙂 But I’m sure Mathilda was furnished with the latest model in preparation for the bout so it wouldn’t break given her superior strength. (wink) It is role play if we can have super hero suits we can have really amazing rapiers.
OOC: I’m also really not getting the thought process that leads a high muscle low skill competitor with a size advantage to choose a precision weapon like a rapier for the duel.
OOC- I didn’t either. My character reacted to that and my OOC remarks may have ended up interpreted as crowd reaction. My view was that Mongo should have chosen a Claymore, a long heavy blade that even with Mathilda’s strength would have made her work to keep the point out of the dirt because of the height difference. It would have tired her more and made her work for it a bit harder. Even a tire iron would have been a plus a la Half Life. The other glad’s owner and trainer had to be on drugs to let rapier be selected. Or the fight was thrown. Or maybe they were trying to get their guy killed and themselves humiliated for some reason?
I suggested the Gaming Commission should look into it. Like throwing a prize fight or pulling up in a horse race.
But Stephanie’s rule is to avoid letting a smaller, agile, fit opponent have a precision weapon when you are a big lumbering fellow. Mathilda didn’t need strength to win and even a less skilled small agile rapier fighter would have improved odds against a big guy who knew what he was doing with a rapier.
Fishy. Very Fishy.
What you’ve got is a GM who doesn’t know his sword types well enough – what I was meaning was the thing that has a long slightly curved blade with an sharp edge and a sharp point, and a basket hilt – like Richard Sharpe uses in the Sharpe movies.
Hindsight says that was probably a cavalry sabre.
Sabre definitely! 🙂
Sorry Tim, but you know the conspiracy theory thing is pretty juicy as a sub plot. 🙂
It gives Mongo some expectation of landing a nasty crushing blow, a big guy with a saber can be a tough customer. But it gives the small opponent a lot of time to step in as the bigger guy sweeps past with the blade. Mathilda could have got inside the sweep of his arm and made up for the smaller room to swing with a boatload of strength which she has plenty of. So she still looks good for taking off an arm, usually you like to be on horse back, from a height or working up a good sized swing to get some momentum up to take a limb. She would have done it nearly flat footed with superior force. Doable at her likely level and a big surprise to onlookers who wouldn’t have expected that kind of damage close in.
Less of a shock, but he’d still look pretty foolish. And the trainer/owner might have made a bad plan but not an outright crazy one like the rapier would have been.
S.
OOC — I think that would be a heavy cavalry sword, assuming Sharpe was at Waterloo. It would definitely provide the heft with a reinforced “back”, and sharpened blade for it’s full length from hilt to point. In fact…that single knucklebow design is one of my favorite choices of weapon for blade-wielding Amberites, because you can take advantage of the character’s car-lifting strength, while still managing a bit of finesse. Check out the link if you like weapons, or are into Heinlein. Or both. 🙂
http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/albion/late/sword-lady-vivamus.htm
I can totally believe that a rapier wielded by someone with Mathilda’s strength (which is sick btw) would be capable of taking an arm off at the elbow, or slashing a thigh to the bone. Nothing was said about the construction of the weapons, which I’m assuming were of combat quality at the minimum, and “special” at the outside (denser metals, metal folding techniques, possibly scientifically engineered). Then there’s the relative strength of the chopper versus the chopped. He might have been 6’6″, but I’m betting that Mathilda still had him beat in strength.
I really don’t think that this is food for conspiracy, even if Tim let the “rapier” choice stand.
Tiberius might have gained a moderate advantage by going with a long, heavy weapon, and the choice he made is odd. Maybe he’s just that level of braggart, and wanted to give the wee slip of a girl a chance.
On a related note, Zelazny describes Eric’s Ghost as using a blade on the heaviest end of rapier, and Eric does an awful lot of cutting in that fight. I know that your average rapier might have an edge from the top of the forte all along the foible to the point (or its entire blade length might be edged, or it might have no edge and be an estoc), but there’s so much variation in construction over the history of the rapier’s use that I’m not sure if it ever conveniently fits into a single category.
C.