Solo A Thrown Blade I

[Moritz Craven]

15 Spring 522

Rising early in the morning, Moritz spent a few moments watching the sun streaming in the side of his house as the light slowly rose in the sky. Not many people went to a bar for breakfast so today he was not needed until a bit later, and so he did not need to get up and leave for work early.

Likewise he didn't really have any plans in particular, and with the curse causing him to lie constantly going off and talking and interacting with someone was troublesome... Thinking on this the Kelvic went over to his pack and began going through his things. After a few moments he pulled out some weapons, recalling the daggers he had gotten the prior season while shopping with Alric. He had yet to have a chance to use them, and recalled that he had somewhat more solid ones meant for melee combat along with slimmer ones meant for throwing in ranged combat... Coming to a decision based on that Moritz got dressed, picked up the pair of sheathed real metal throwing daggers along with the four wooden training ones, and headed outside.

To begin with he just wanted to familiarize himself with the weapon, and so didn't plan to start with the metal ones. At least, not until he felt a bit more confident with it. Since they were meant for throwing doing so seemed the simplest way to acquaint himself with them, and so he found a good tree to aim at, stopped ten paces or so away. Pausing and thinking better of it Moritz moved a bit closer, getting to five paces from the tree, before setting aside his weapons and picking up one to hold in his hand.

The wooden training weapon, being made of wood and not metal, was even lighter in his grip than the real one. Still the form was similar, and it gave him a feel for things. Tossing it from hand to hand Moritz somewhat juggled the item, tossing it from hand to hand and grabbing it by the hilt. It being wooden he tossed it back and tried to grab it by two fingers by the blade, but his hand missed and the blade landed softly on the ground below.

Thinking on throwing them Moritz reminded himself that if he missed and lost one he could always find it with his Iraso abilities, so losing it was not too likely. Bending he recovered the weapon, before standing and taking one in his other hand as well.

Pausing he focused on the one in his right hand, aimed the weapon blade out towards the tree, and then threw... The blade sailed off, but landed only about halfway between himself and the tree, not even close to the mark.

Exchanging the other blade to his right hand Moritz focused again, this time holding the blade back with the blade end pointed back at him, and pictured the blade turning end over end instead of moving straight like a bolt or arrow. With a sigh he let out his breath, held and threw again. This time the blade went a bit further, but still didn't quite reach the tree.

Trotting along he recovered the blades before returning to his spot.

WC: 544

[Moritz Craven]

While he had not gotten far in his training so far, Moritz was not one to give up quickly. Taking up the weapons in each hand, Moritz focused again. Strength or power, that was his problem. He wasn't giving enough strength to the throw... Or, perhaps as Kyra might say for a punch, he was failing on the follow through.

Focusing again Moritz pictured the weapon turning end over end and hitting the tree, traveling the distance. With this mental image in his head Moritz held his breath, and threw, taking in some air and watching as the blade traveled. This time the weapon managed to make it to the tree, hitting it softly and dropping once it hit the trees trunk. Better, but still not good...

Changing hands Moritz inspected the blade, trying to understand it as much as he did his own arms and legs. If he understood the weapon, he felt he could use it better. Or at least, that was his theory. Watching the blade in his hand he slowly moved it, tracing a route in the air. Then focusing once more he prepared his body, taking on a ready stance like he might in unarmed training. Holding up the blade at chest level he tilted it, examined it, considered it, and then letting out a breath let it loose to fly across the air. With a bit more force the weapon struck the tree trunk, landing the blow.

Of course, as Moritz reminded himself, trees did not hit back, nor did they move or react. So hitting one was a relatively simple thing to do. A moving target, once he was better at what he was doing, that would be a real test. While he planned to buy more daggers if he got decent with them, for now he only had two real ones, which was not much in the way of arms... Of course being so poor with them, not having used them at all before, he doubted it would make much of a difference if he had thirty or two. Practice, that was what he needed.

Moving over to the tree he quickly recovered the two he had thrown, moving back again to his starting position. Oddly enough he found he knew where to go, and did not have trouble keeping track of where that was, even without looking at the pack he had left next to the spot.

Considering what to do next Moritz paused, examining the blades again. Recalling seeing a juggler Moritz tossed one up into the air, before tossing the one in his left hand to his right hand. He managed to catch the one in his right hand thrown from his left. However moving his left hand he then tried to catch the one he had tossed from his right hand, but he missed again and dropped the blade on the ground. Juggling, another area of improvement clearly...

WC: 490

[Moritz Craven]

Holding a wooden weapon in either hand, Moritz tried once again to change up his tactics. Focusing for a moment he opened his Iraso sight, and watched as the djed sight bloomed before him. As he did he could see the trees djed off in front of him. That was quite different from the grounds djed below him, and his own djed when he looked down at his hands. Looking at the blades they also had their own unique djed, though they were more similar to each other than his own djed or the trees. Which, he supposed, made sense. They were inanimate dead things, once living wood but now no longer. The tree however was much bigger and still alive, though less dense than a sentient beings djed like Moritz.

Done for the moment Moritz turned back to the dagger for throwing in his hand, and focused on its djed. With that as a comparison point he focused closely on the djed trails before him. Quite easily he saw his own djed trail moving back and force from the tree as he moved to and from the weapons where they had dropped and retrieved them. However he pushed beyond this and focused even more closely, trying to find the djed trails of the daggers he had thrown. With a clear comparison of the actual items djed in his hand, he hoped this would be easier.

It took him a good chime or so, but eventually he did find it and snagged the thin trail moving through the air from the starting point he had selected, to the tree. Following along the trail Moritz hoped to better understand its path and thereby how to throw it. Taking it slowly one pace at a time Moritz watched the pathway of the items djed as it moved. While he did not understand much more the actual process of throwing it, he did find out some things about its path. As he reached the tree he compared the spot to his own body, and then back to the height it had been when it left his hand...

One thing was clear, the weapon had landed lower down than he had thrown it... So it was being pulled down as it flew, not just slowing but also falling even over such a short distance. For a moment he was unsure what to do with this, but then realized if it was going to fall he needed to adjust for that, and expect it to hit lower... Or aim higher with the expectation that it would hit lower. Something like that.

Moving back to his starting spot Moritz focused on the blade in his hand, turning and facing the tree once more. Aiming to hit it in the same spot as before he focused on a spot a bit higher, expecting it to drag down, and then let the weapon fly after taking and letting out a breath and calming his body.

This time with his Iraso sight active Moritz could see the djed trail of the item as it was created, snaking away behind it as the blade moved. The items djed being weaker he had trouble seeing it clearly all the way over at the tree, but he could still see it all the same in his normal sight. This time the the blade struck the tree again, near the level he had aimed at, but no where near the spot. This time he had aimed off center and it had hit over a foot to the side of his aimed spot. Fixing one issue, only for another to arise...

WC: 607

[Moritz Craven]

Focusing on his Iraso sight once more Moritz willed it to turn off, watching for a moment as the djed vision vanished from his sight. He felt he had gained most of what he could by examining things in that way, and so he might as well stop the waste of djed by keeping it on.

Holding the remaining weapon up again Moritz tried to focus on the motion the blade would take, picturing it in his mind. If he used his hand like so... And turned it like so... Then when he threw it like this... Then it would... Would... The more he tried to understand the expected motions of the blade, the more he realized how complex a subject it was. It was affected by so many things. The specific way he threw the blade, held it, how it was weighted, the angle of how he threw, and by outside forces pulling it inexorably downward once it left his hand...

Pushing this aside for a moment Moritz paused again, loosening his body and readying himself for the second throw. Once he felt suitably flexed he paused, took in a slow breath, let it out, readied his hand, canted his hand like so as he did while holding the blade pointed towards himself... And then threw.

Watching the weapon ark he waited the few moments it took to travel, letting out a sigh as he missed the tree entirely this time. Was he actually getting slowly worse? Or was it just trial and error at random, and he had just so happened to have the good trials earlier on and the bad ones later... However that would mean he was not learning, which was the one thing he did not want. Letting out a sigh he bent and rather than recovering the initial two weapons he grabbed up his other two training blades, and stood at the ready again.

What had he learned? What had worked and what had not? If he wanted to improve he was going to need to work on things... Which meant seeing what worked and what did not, while also figuring out or understanding the route that would result from each type of throw. Otherwise he would never improve in what he was doing...

Once more holding a blade in each hand Moritz felt the weight of his body, considering if even how he balanced his body across the torso might also affect things. With that in mind Moritz focused on his right arm, letting out his breath, and then holding his arm this way... Extending into the throw like this... And with the intention of the blade landing right there in the middle on the spot from before, he threw the blade again.

With baited breath he waited and watched, only after a few moments to be disappointed somewhat by seeing it hit off center. The height was decent, but he was off center! And off center to the right, which was the opposite side of where he had missed on from before. So he hadn't then really gotten any better than his last success, but nor had he gotten worse. Not much of an improvement then.

WC: 534

[Moritz Craven]

Moving over to the tree again Moritz moved about one by one and retrieved each of the daggers he had thrown. One, two, three, four, he got them all and headed back to his starting point.

Having tried a fair number of times at this point and learned a bit, he decided it might finally be time to try using a real throwing dagger. At least once, he should feel the heft and throw of the real thing, before getting too far. And having learned many of the obvious mistakes and deadly things to avoid doing, he felt a bit more confident to try it. Or at least he was fairly certain he wasn't going to stab himself or lose a finger to an obvious mistake.

Setting aside within his things the training daggers Moritz took up one of the metal throwing blade still in its sheath, and felt the weight. Even just now he could tell the difference, clearly heavier and different from the wooden training ones though similar of form and layout... Should he, he considered, perhaps buy a few of the actual metal ones to use, but with blunted edges? That way it would be the right heft and weight, with less chance of him cutting or stabbing himself. Not none, as it was still a metal blade, but less.

Thinking on this for a moment Moritz let out a slow breath, and taking it back in slowly drew the blade. Moving it around with care Moritz felt out the weight of the blade, trying as before to understand it. To get it. To see what it would do, and how it should be used. While some of what he had done before would still apply, it would not be perfect, but then that was known with using something of a different type and material. But still, it was better and safer than doing the initial work with a real live blade.

Taking extreme care Moritz moved up the blade into position, readying his body and his position. He focused on how he was distributing his weight, how he held himself this way or that, how his arm moved, extended, and was held.... He tried to take into account each thing he had learned before, and consider them all in this throw. Then finally feeling ready, with a breath he prepared and then extended his arm into a throw.

Moritz watched as the metal blade moved, arcing across the air, heading towards his destination... Slowly moving lower, and lower, but still centered... And lower.. And low- and hitting the ground a half pace away from the tree.

With a sigh Moritz headed over to the fallen blade and carefully picked it back up, wiping it clean on the edges of his clothes before re-sheathing it.

For the moment he felt he was done, and so he recovered all of his things and brought them back home, not feeling he could cram much more learning into one day. Better instead to sleep on things, try to work them out a bit in his head, and then coming back at things fresh in another few days.

WC: 527

[Moritz Craven]

Grade Award!

Name: Moritz Craven
XP Award:
Juggling-1
Logic- 2
Observation- 2
Pathfinding- 2
Physics- 2
Weapon(Dagger)- 5

Lores:
Not worth conversing with a lying curse
Best to start with training weapons over live blades
Visualizing a weapons path
Visualizing a weapon hitting its mark
Follow through/power on a throw is important
Calming and focusing before a throw helps
Not breathing during a throw helps
Pathfinding: Different djed from living tree versus dead items wood
Pathfinding: Following the trails of a thrown object
Physics: Thrown weapons land lower than they are launched from
Physics: Thrown weapons are pulled down as they move
Physics: Aiming a thrown weapon higher than the target to adjust for falling
Physics: Many complex variables to a thrown object
Building on past mistakes to improve
Considering ones entire body when throwing
Adjusting on known differences on training versus real weapons

Penalties & Awards: N/A

Notes: Simple little intro into throwing daggers, now to try them in melee!