Siege Weaponary

[Hanseti 38]

Part I: The Trebuchet

A dark elf with long white hair, covered with tattoos of odd and unknown symbols on his body, face, and arm, stands in the middle of a workshop. He wears a nice suit and goggles, which is a bit odd considering the work he is about to do.

"I dont have the calculations for the ratio of counterweight to projectile....It has to be in this book somewhere..."

Frustrated, he flings the book onto his table, already a mountain of books, scattered papers all around. On the wall is several blue prints and designs of old experiments. Ventraux turns to another table, a crafting bench. And on it, lies a small model of his current work.

"Why the hell did the Hochmeister give me such a difficult job.....Trebuchets have not been made since the time we sieged the Nical's base near Konnisberg..."

He scratches his long mane of hair in frustration, pushing his index finger on the counterweight of the mini trebuchet model. It buckled after several seconds and snapped the central beam in half. It buckled under the pressure, and the model was destroyed. Sighing, the dark elf takes out a small notepad and scribble some notes in

"Damn Kai, he said he was going to find me more tomes on Enclusa, its been a whole damned year and he still hasn't given me anything new."

He replays the scene in his mind, the meeting with Kai the Archealogist, and his Hochmeister Samuel Bealcrest. It was a snowy day as usual, but Kai found something in a ruined house by Wolf's Edge. He claimed that it belonged to Enclusa, a legendary blacksmith and mathematician. "Here you go Hochmeister, some of his work was saved from the ravages of time, surprisingly underneath his floorboard. I think he may not have wanted others to read this." He unwraps the silk bundle, and a old, almost-falling-apart, tome lies in the center. Samuel gingerly picks it up, and starts flipping through the pages. With each flip, a small plume of dust arises from the book. Curious about anything related to my line of job, I peered over.

A trebuchet calculation works. In Aegis, Hochmeister Gaius Marius commissioned a trebuchet to be built by Abeam to siege the Nical. It worked fairly well, but the range was quite pathetic, and accuracy was horrible. Out of 5 shots fired, only 1 hit the gates.

While I was deep in thought, a voice called out to me. "Ventraux." Startled, I turned around. The Hochmeister turned his winged helm to me. I cant see past the slits in his winged helms to know what's he thinking, but I have a feeling its one with glee, and pain. For me. Lots and lots of pain.

[Hanseti 38]

Part II: The Beginning

I've served the Order for a close 35 years now, and I know when to shut up when the Samel is saying something important. But I feel like I'm going to regret whatever I do next. "How can I help you, Sam?".

"This. I know you're really good with maths, and you've done something similar during construction. You built the crane for Konnisberg and Hanseti. Do you think you can do this?"

I notice the excitement in his voice. Trebuchets were something the Teutonic Order was proud of, we were the pioneers of siege equipment. It also reminded of several of our battles that involved it. What better way than to improve what is essentially ours? I glance over the book once again, seeing more calculations and diagrams. I could probably do it, but this is going to be a pain.

"I probably can do it....but I'll need some space, equipment, material...all that kind of stuff."

The Hochmeister just grinned, and beckoned Horus forward. With piercing blue eyes, and a slightly grey tinged hair, he wears the Gold trimmings that represents his rank as Landmeister. Our best builder in Hanseti, he and Viadar made most of the housings. The Hochmeister leaned forward, and whispered some things to Horus. Horus's face pale, but the loyal Sariant he is, nods and walks off with Kai

"I've got that covered Ventraux, you just go take this book, and study it. I've sent Kai to see if he can dig up more tomes, and Horus to create some space for you."

Yeap. This is going to give me a butt ton of pain, I'm sure of it. I sigh, but decide to read it anyways. Who knows what else is in this notebook?

[Hanseti 38]

Part III: The Workshop

1 Month after

I was strolling through the streets of Hanseti, doing my rounds as the occasional record keeper for the city. I've been reading the tome religiously every night, and found blueprints for many other things than just a trebuchet. Something called a ballista, siege towers, weapons, traps. I was fascinated. I think I could spend the end of days just reading the book, it was a library's worth of information and value.

"Vent!" I glance up, seeing Horus run up at me, out of breathe. He's definitely getting older alright, and all that porkchop probably didn't help his health either. "Whats going on?" Horus just grins and beckons me to follow him.

We pass the streets and rows of houses, across the bridge, nearing the barracks. I gasp. The sight before me.....was my own private world.

"Yes Ventraux, your very own workshop. I made it with Kai and Maur." Horus grins and pats my back while I stood there, mouth agape, staring like a idiot or like a child who just entered the world's biggest cake shop. My head feels dizzy, I run in and inspect every nook and cranny of the building with joy in my eyes and feathers on my feet.

Samuel strides in a bit later, with Horus, Kai, and Maur. All tired, (except Sam), but all of them grinning like mad and looking at my stupid face. I couldn't help it, I mean! Just look at this! And it was made for ME!

"How do you like it, Vent?"

Grinning myself, I forced myself to answer coolly

"Could have been better. Those cranes are positioned slightly off. But good job anyways."

Horus looks slightly mad, but Kai and Maur just laughed and slapped Horus on the back. Then he grinned too. Man, these guys are great. Despite the pain I feel I'm about to endure, all the heartbreaks and dissapointment that is about to befall me, I say

"I'll do it, I'll improve the Trebuchet."

Sam grins, and says "I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Engineer Ventraux."

[Hanseti 38]

Part IV: The Construction

Back to the present.

Ventraux sighs as he looks at the broken model. In frustration, he swipes the broken model of the table off the crafting bench, and plunks his bottom down on the chair, rereading the tattered tome that has been somewhat repaired.

Scratching his head, Ventraux does not know what to do without the correct calculations for certain areas, the projectile to conterweight ratio, the amount of force the support should be able to handle, how long should the central beam be, and all that mathematics.

Suddenly, the double wooden gates are busted open, and someone in a wolf pelt strides in hurriedly, with a slightly maniac expression and leaving a trail of melting snow off his coat and fur boots.

"I found it! Well more accurately I found something!"

"This was the home I found by Wolf's Edge, I think it belonged to one of the Derva people. Anyways I found this here."

A small, letter, brown with age, was passed from Kai's fur gloves to Ventraux's oily leather work gloves. He lifts his goggle up, and starts reading closely at the letter.

"THATS IT! The counterweight is supposed to be 100 times heavier than projectile, and the ratio of the beam holding the counter weight to projectile is 1:4! OI KAI!"

Grinning, Ventraux turns to Kai, only to see him trudging away with his hand raised, in acknowledgement of goodbye. Ventraux had no time to lose. He got to work, designing new trebuchet designs.

Wind, rain, snow, sun. Ventraux toiled over the designs. Finally. After two months. Its time. To see if these actually work.

[Hanseti 38]

Part V: The Test

In a small section of the clearing in the Ice Fields, Ventraux stood. With a small checklist of materials outside a tent.

1. 
   
   
2. 19 half steps
   
3. 16 stairs
   
4. 2 wood planks
   
5. 13 fences
   
6. 8 logs
   
7. 4 trap doors
   
8. 1 cobble
   
9. 1 fence gate
   
10. 1 stone brick
    

This is a list of the needed material for a medium sized trebuchet. The trebuchet had no wheels, so it had to be constructed on the spot. Ventruax had to test a few things.

1) Accuracy

2) Range

3) Impact

To check all 3, was very simple. Just test-fire the trebuchet. Ventraux steps down from his small hill, and sets up small pumpkins on wooden planks as 'targets'.

Winding the trebuchet, Ventraux lit the oil soaked cobble ablaze, and then axed the ropes holding the projectile back.

BOOM

Ventraux placed a small sign, checking the distance, and measuring the impact of the crater. The impact was a crater of 10 wide and 5 tall.

Now to test the range. Ventraux takes off the stone brick, and adds a even heavier counterweight. Obsidian. The ratio from 100:1 of counter weight to projectile is now changed to 145:1. Lets see how this goes.

BOOM

A 20 block difference. By increasing the weight by 50%, the range was increased by 30%. But according to the notes, anything more than the ratio of 130 will be negligible because of the gravity. Impact is still the same.

The beams held no signs of breaking, which meant the calculation for pressure and weight was correct and did not collapse, like the model.

[ski_king3 0]

Moved to the Great Library. It shall be sorted into appropriate category shortly.