[MUD-Dev] Git out the boar spear, Martha!

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <Pine.GSO.3.95q.970620170244.7692A-100000 at uhunix2>, on 06/20/97 
   at 08:33 PM, Nathan Yospe <yospe at hawaii.edu> said:

>...well, the point is, my chosen
>weapon to take after a boar was a seven foot quarterstaff with steel
>caps, and a half dozen diamond-blade steel throwing knives. I killed
>one of the beasties, too. No thanks to the knives, in spite of the
>fact that I sank five of the six out of sight into the thing's meat.

One thing that is rarely realised by people who don't deal with
animals on this level, is that very few things that are critical to an
animal's short term survival are located within single digit inches of
the surface, or are not heavily protected by bone or the physical
configuration of the animal (neck protected by head/shoulders etc). 
You can sink all the knives you want into a boar, much as you saw, and
you may even kill it if you can hang around that long to wait for its
lungs to fill with blood or similar (remember a fear crazed animal
will keep on going long after the heart has given up).

It makes the classic MUD scene of Bubba dispatching the Fido with half
a shrug a quick whack with a stave a little pitiful.

>Not all that much thanks to the quarterstaff, either. That kept it
>off my back when I got it mad with the knives. I killed it with a
>broken branch off a mountain apple tree.

This is why the classic boar hunting spears were short, incredibly
strong, _HAD_A_GUARD_, and meant to be ground into the earth waiting
for the boar to propell himself on to them with sufficient force as to
shatter its ribcage and heart, hopfeully dieing in the process. 
Anything less lead to the risk of severe injury or death for the
hunters.

>...But
>those tusks looked sharp. And so did those hooves.

And I'll bet they were.

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...