#billhooks

[dndtreasury]

Expanded Armory (Billhooks, Bolas, & Chakrams)

[sbeep]

Sometimes we slow cook OCs until they melt into an assemblage of family disappointments.

[thegremlinprince]

Probably not gonna finish this but I had a vision and I need to share it.

[askymzbuki]

Striped hyena militiaman

45 minutes

[cutecuttlefish]

The sword of the day is the billhook.

We’re back to polearms today. This one was used in England, and sees its origins in an agricultural tool used for trimming tree limbs. Its use on the battlefield was significantly more deadly, though. The hook could be used to unseat cavalry, who could then be readily dispatched with the end spike (often reinforced for incredible armor penetration) or the cutting edge. The additional spike on the back edge of this example not only provides an additional option for attack, but a means for parrying and pushing an opponent��s weapon.

[wearemercs]

Bloody Unhold Contract by Zahir Aqakhani

[woodspurg]

looks who's back

[m3dieval]

[Video Source]

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer Polyship Week 2024, Day One: Team As Polycule (Valicer In The Dark AU)

Hello everyone, and welcome to Valicer Polyship Week 2024! :D Where, just like in 2023, you will get a daily Valicer fic based on one of the prompts from the official Polyship Week 2024 prompt list, courtesy of, naturally, @polyshipweek! Today is Day One, and the prompt I chose was "Team As Polycule" -- mostly because it immediately made me think of my Valicer In The Dark trio, and how they are a criminal crew as well as a polycule. Though, interestingly, the story that I came up with doesn't have actually have them doing a score together or anything like that. Instead, I ended up writing something about Alice being told that romancing her fellow crewmates is a bad idea by the leader of another gang in the area, and taking semi-violent offense to said leader poking her nose into her business. :P Not sure why my mind went off in that direction -- but as you will see tomorrow, apparently I really wanted to write "someone is a jerk to one of the trio, only to get theirs in the end" this year...

--

“You know, it’s not a good idea to mix pleasure and work.”

Alice blinked, then looked over to see one Nessa, leader of the Gray Cloaks, standing by the door to the bathroom, arms folded across her chest and mouth thin with displeasure. “It’s not going to end well,” she continued. “Sooner or later, the tower of cards always collapses.”

“Right.” Alice shook her hands off above the cracked sink basin before reaching for the towel. “First of all, did you really follow me in here to say that? And second of all – what? What are you talking about?”

“Yes, I did, because I had to go anyway – and I didn’t want to say this with your two, ah, friends overhearing,” Nessa replied, jerking her head toward the door and, implicitly, at Victor and Smiler back at their table. “And you know what I’m talking about. You’re playing a dangerous game, getting – involved with your partners in crime.”

Alice’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t believe I asked your opinion on my love life,” she said coolly, drying her hands.

“You’re getting it anyway,” Nessa said, untroubled by her tone. “Because I think too much of you to let you make a stupid mistake. Look, you’re easily the most sensible one in your little gang–”

“Me? I’m the one who talks to things that don’t exist on the regular,” Alice cut in, raising an eyebrow. At her feet, Cheshire covered a chuckle with his paw. “Just underlining my point there, Cat.”

“Sure, fine, but look at the two people you hang around with,” Nessa insisted. “Your Whisper’s a slip of a thing from money, and spends his time sticking his nose too far into his books and fiddling around with things he doesn’t understand. And your Leech…” Nessa rolled her eyes. “Well. They’re an Advocate. We all know what that lot is like.” She pointed at Alice. “But you? You know that this world’s a stupid, cruel, cold place, full of people that are as likely to stab you in the back as they are to shake your hand and give you a smile. And you’re more than ready to do the stabbing if you have to. You’re the one who sees things as they are.”

“Except when I don’t,” Alice said, watching as a tentacle poked its way through a hole in the ceiling. “Though I suppose I should take a compliment when it is offered. But what exactly is your point here, Nessa? I know you have one, even if it’s just hidden in your cloak.”

“My point is that you should be smart enough to know that getting personally involved with your crew is only going to lead to trouble,” Nessa said, shaking her head. “You can’t trust them that far, no matter what they might whisper in your ear in the middle of the Names. It’s common knowledge that Roric and Lyssa were lovers before she tore his belly open and dumped him in Ratblood Canal so she could get the Crows all to herself. Less common that Mylera of the Red Sashes used to be a spy in the Lampblack ranks, and seduced a few secrets out of Baz himself before running back to her own to destroy him. And don’t get me started on what happened between the Billhooks’ Tarvul and his wife before she ended up in Bellweather Crematorium and he in Ironhook Prison…” She huffed. “Point is, this city is rife with idiots who took a chance on getting close to their fellow scoundrels, and paid the price. And I see the way you look at your crew, and – I know you’re gonna get hurt.” She sighed, letting her arms drop. “Van Dort grew up rich, Alice – the minute he thinks he’s got enough Coin to get back into proper society, he’s going to ditch you without a second thought. And Alton – I bet you you’re never more than one too many frowns away from being stuck with a syringe and dragged back to their headquarters to get your head ‘corrected.’ Maybe you three work well enough together now, but – you can’t trust ‘em to treat you right.”

“I see.” Alice hung the towel back on its little hook. “Is that your entire piece?”

“Yeah,” Nessa nodded. “Just had to get it out there.”

“Excellent.” Alice took a moment to brush her hair back from her face –

Then, before Nessa could move an inch, she slammed the woman up against the wall, putting her knife against her throat. “Here’s mine then – keep your fucking nose out of my fucking business,” she hissed. “You think Victor wants to go back to a life where the weight of his parents’ expectations made him miserable? You think Smiler doesn’t care enough about me to know that getting me high on Joy Serum is the worst way to make me happy? You honestly think I’m stupid for daring to fall in love with the first two people who ever actually treated me like I was a person and not just a broken simulacrum of one? You don’t know anything about us, then. And I’ll thank you to keep your opinions to yourself in future.”

Nessa stared at her, eyes wide and breathing hard – and, judging by the sudden smell, no longer with a need to go to the toilet. Alice released her and tucked her blade away again. “Good talk,” she said simply, then headed back out into the Ball & Socket.

As she’d expected, Victor and Smiler were still at their table, finishing off their food. “Was that Nessa that just followed you into the bathroom?” Smiler asked as she sat back down again. “Thought I recognized her braid.”

“It was,” Alice confirmed. “We just had a rather illuminating chat.”

“Oh?” Victor said, dabbing his mouth with his napkin. “What about?”

Alice responded by grabbing his tie and pulling him in for a kiss. “About how she’s an arsehole who thinks you two are idiots and I’m an idiot for being in love with you,” she said after releasing him. “And how, if she doesn’t believe a crew can trust each other enough to be together more – intimately than normal, that’s not my problem.”

“Uh – ah – oh,” Victor said, blinking as his brain tried to catch up. “I – I see. I think.”

“I definitely see – that was rude of her,” Smiler said, defying their name by frowning. “I mean, sure, probably what we have together isn’t conventional for a crew, but – I like what we’ve got.”

“Me too,” Victor agreed, before leaning over to give Smiler a quick kiss, apparently worried they’d feel left out otherwise. “I’m happier than I’ve ever been with you two.”

Alice smiled at them, taking both their hands in hers. “I feel the same. And trust me, Nessa knows that very well now.” She glanced over to where the Gray Cloaks were huddled, looking a bit nervous about how their leader hadn’t come out of the bathroom yet. “So – no offering our services to help them gather more evidence about how they were framed right now?”

“Hell no,” Smiler said succinctly. “Maybe the Lost could use our help instead – I heard that they’ve got a vendetta against the owner of the Cordelia Furniture factory now...”

[aghamnayon]

Dorian’s Ink-out experiment

[m1dori-eyes]

Begging fantasy authors who want to write about Medieval or Renaissance era warfare to please stop describing every single conflict as a bunch of people running at each other with longswords and full plated armor. Like yeah those battles between heavy infantry units DID happen a few times but the VAST MAJORITY of battles were fought between two bodies of LIGHT INFANTRY, aka a bunch of peasants in normal clothes with spears. Warfare was expensive as fuck, armor costs time and money to make, swords cost time and money to make, people cost time and money to be trained in swords and armor, and most militaries just couldn't afford to go through all that shit. If you want to send an army at someone, you give a bunch of locals spears, because spears are cheap, big, and a lot of individual fights were just decided by who could land the first blow. People didn't have hit points like in a video game, if you get stabbed through the shoulder with a pike then you were kinda just fucked from there, and polearms were longer than swords so you'd hopefully get the chance to attack your enemy before they could attack you. A one-handed sword is the weapon of a mounted warrior who needs their other hand on the reigns, a gladiator being made to fight for spectacle, or a rich person trying to honorably duel another rich person. They're flashy and have certain uses such as close quarters combat, but they're not practical for general military usage. Swords and shields were sometimes used in large scale warfare, but only by people who could afford them, which were wealthy commanders and a very select few units of elite infantry. And full armor??? Aside from being one of the most expensive things someone could buy, plate armor requires TRAINING AND TIME JUST TO PUT ON AND TAKE OFF. You think just any old ruler could afford to outfit an entire battalion of people with full armor, train them how to use it, and then arrange each battle so that they would have enough time to put it on before fighting? Just for them to fight on foot and not even on horseback??? Armored footsoldiers were niche, they existed but only when horses were impractical or otherwise inaccessible. Stop putting them everywhere, if that armored knight in your book could be on a horse in that situation, then they absolutely were. Also if you're on foot with a sword, and an enemy combatant on a horse runs at you, there's basically nothing you can do, armor or not!!! You either get incredibly lucky, dodging their strike and then happening to strike one of the few weak points on the lower half of standard cavalry armor, or the infinitely more likely thing happens and they hit you with enough momentum to immediately kill you on impact, before you can even get close to reaching them with your sword. The power of a warrior on horseback doesn't come from the arm strength of the warrior, it comes from the speed of the horse. Spears are the best weapon to use against other spear wielders, and will give you the largest chance of survival when you're outclassed by cavalry. Fantasy writers please just give everyone in big infantry battles a spear they make so much sense and they're so cool please I am begging you.

[monstersandmaw]

Today’s coppicing adventures.

For more woodsy related adventures, follow me on Instagram. I also share random whimsy, chainmail, and workshop makes there.

(C) do not use, edit, reupload.

[kaninchenzero]

fuck's sake, enough with the portents already

[chiinferno]

Meet the Family | My Girlfriend is Death's Daughter

It's finally time for Jake Prillo to meet the family of his new Girlfriend. Might have been nice if she'd told him ahead of time that her father was Death himself!

[victusinveritas]

[wearemercs]

City guard by nemui