Ass-Kicking 101, Thursday, 3rd Period

[wrongkindofsith]

The danger shop was somehow turned into a very classic, Midwestern dining room that was set with a full Thanksgiving feast.

Complete with NPC family members.

"Next week can be a little trying for some people with the holiday," Jane said, eyeing one of the NPCs with a 'go woke, go broke' shirt with a level of disapproval.

"Family dinners are often a source of conflict," Cara added. "Especially when in-laws don't get along, even when they don't attempt to have you killed. Or set a mob on you."

"So, today will be about getting through a different kind of fight unscathed," Jane said. "Possibly with wine."

"Significant amounts of wine."

Basic Weaponry; Friday, Third Period [11/17].

[special_rabbit]

The racks that usually stood bristling with weapons behind Amaya in their training field were definitely being put to good use that morning, lined up with a broad assortment that should leave no guesses as to what the subject of today's class would be.

And, even if there were guesses, Amaya was obviously about to answer that question straight away. "Polearms!" she declared happily. "Close range combat weapons that usually involve something sharp and pointy at the the end of a stick! And, well, consider it the spear's fancier, more elaborate cousin who maybe went to some kind of posh military school, or the like. Though not quite as varied as the sword, there are a multitude of different styles of pole arms, from your halberds to your glaives. Tridents count, so do harpoons, bardiches, war scythes, and lances! Even the humble spear itself! So since there's plenty to talk about today, and plenty of techniques to go over, let's not waste another moment and get right into it!"

And get right into it she did, in the hopefully-by-now expected exhaustive fashion, covering everything from how the concept came about to a more detailed breakdown on how the various different heads of polearms evolved over time, complete with a flowchart and several actual examples of this evolution, with an emphasis on how their versatility and effectiveness, as well as the low cost and ease of production, which lead to a lot of experimentation with styles, which is why so many pole arms'll look so different, even among the same kinds, and why they became so popular as a weapon on the battlefield, especially when you start getting into how effective they were against enemies on horseback.

"Now, generally speaking," ha!, "as you may have noticed by the development of the weapons, pole arms can be divided into three broad categories: those designed for extended reach and thrusting tactics used in pike square or phalanx combat, those designed to increase leverage, thanks to hands being able to move freely towards several different leverage points all along the pole, which could maximize centrifugal force against cavalry, and those designed for throwing tactics used in skirmish line combat. Since we've talked a little bit about throwing spears in our last class, we'll be mostly focusing on thrusting and leverage today. Your focus should really be on what makes the pole arm different from other weapons we've studied in this class so far: the range, the length, and, really, how you use it changes based on the positioning of your hands on the shaft."

"Heh," Rosa contributed helpfully, because it never, ever got old, "shaft."

Aaaaand Amaya was just going to ignore that, thank you, and instead, she was just going to take a few more moments to get into even more specific details about some of the more well known pole arms and what classified them, although... "As I mentioned, there's been a lot of playing around with different forms of pole arms over the centuries, so this is not even remotely exhaustive, but it' a good look at some of the differences. Hopefully, you'll be able to see if those differences make much...well, difference...once you get out there and get a feel for them yourselves.

"And, with that, we'll turn it over to the Detective, unless there's any other lingering questions about pole arms before we start getting into the more hands-on stuff."

Renaissance Art & Engineering, Friday, November 17, 2023

[heroic_jawline]

Well, there wasn't a field trip today, but the players had remembered it was Friday this week so things were looking up but Steve and Tony were back in the front of the classroom surrounded by food.

"Diets in the time of the Renaissance were mostly bread and wine based," Steve said, "and then determined by your rank in society. The higher you were in society, the taller the food was that you could eat." He coughed. "I wish I was kidding, but root vegetables were for peasants because they grew in the ground."
"It's... a sort of logic," Tony said, with a confused look. "The wine was typically watered down because drinking water could be a bit sketchy in cities. But alcohol could help purify some of it."

Cities were gross, folks. And this was coming from native New Yorkers here.

Steve nodded. "And being drunk in public was not considered acceptable behavior, even then."

"And, with the holiday next week, we thought an easier class would be a good idea," Tony admitted. "Also food!"

"Including fried chicken, which was invented during the Renaissance," Steve said.

Look, kids, learning!

Library - Friday

[onlyajones]

It was Friday and Jo remembered was at the library and she found herself with a huge stack of books to reshelve so that was keeping her pretty busy for most of the morning, nothing seemed to be out of place so once the books had been put away she focused on doing some tidying and general organising before she settled down at the front desk.