a few bad apples

[freiman the minstrel]

I have a slightly delicate matter.

My housebrother was attacked at gulf wars in the ravine battle by what he believes was an unsafe weapon. He strongly believes that the fighter deliberatly used a weapon designed to be unsafe. The blow from a short sword broke his greatsword, and continued through to crease his steel vambrace and helm. He was slightly injured (mild concussion, bruises, and scratches where his helm gave) and really honked off. The household was really honked off because the ER visit in Hattiesburg seriously cut into the beer fund.

My housebrother has fought more than one gulf wars, as well as Pennsic, border raids and Lillies, so I believe that this is not a simple calibration error.

We heard later (yeah, I know, rumours) that three fighters "had their cards pulled" for deliberatly using unsafe weapons.

Ya'll know more about fighting than any other folks I could ask, so I have a few questions.

First, if such deliberations are not private, does anyone know anything about this?

Second, is there any way I can assure my housebrother that he will not face this particular oinker on the field again?

Finally, does anyone know the procedure for handling something like this at a major interkingdom war?

thanks

[FrauHirsch]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by freiman the minstrel:
<B>He strongly believes that the fighter deliberatly used a weapon designed to be unsafe. The blow from a short sword broke his greatsword, and continued through to crease his steel vambrace and helm.

thanks</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

He should make a complaint if one hasn't been made already. There is a possiblity that it could have been a falchion, in that case might have been legal and would hit with more umph than a shortsword.

As a side note, the weapons that are bounced tend to be two handed weapons and poles. Rarely do the marshals seriously check something like a shortsword.

Unfortunately sometimes accidental overpowering happens even when weapons are legal. Not saying that this was the case, but it is possible. Sometimes weapons break too. Its almost impossible to chase someone down in a large war unless you get names and info on the person who hit him or there was recognizable heraldry.

Sometimes people from different areas just hit harder than others. Sometimes adrenaline does scary things too.

I wish I could be of more help.

You can always ask the Marshal who was in charge of the war.

Juliana

[Alcyoneus]

What guage are the vambrace and helm? How thick at the breaking point was the rattan?

Was this one blow that did all of that? That would probably classify as excessive in most books.

Someone should have contacted the marshal at the war.

[Conal]

You should contact the Marshal in Charge of Gulf Wars XI with the specifics of your complaint. He can be reached at:

Sir Conal MacDale
earl.marshal@meridies.org

Regards,

Conal

[Prince Of Darkmoor]

Warning - non-SCA response below:

Generally, there are two ways to solve this issue and be assured it will never happen again. The first is to go through all the diplomatic channels. The second is to show him what excessive force really is.

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Salinas Swordsman
Darkmoor Armoury

[Owen]

And, of course, that second is remarkably effective when you're dealing with an accident/misunderstanding.

------------------
Owen
"Death is but a doorway-
Here, let me hold that for you"

[Murdock]

Go to Sir Conal, he's a good and fair man.

If complaints were already made he may have already dealt with it. He'll treat ya right.

DO NOT hunt the bad guy down. That just gets you in trouble too. Your buddies honor is intact let the marshalate deal with it.

Hope he's ok.

[theodrik]

Definately get word to Sir Conal. Perferably ftf with damaged equiptment there for a hands-on inspection/review, but pictures at least. As a DEM of the West, I'm agast and hope that there are contributing factors (thin armor, rattan flaw, opponate tripped forward, perhaps). I have personally run into some folks who are just out-of-control, but very little gets done without reports, as accurate and timely as possible. Just remember, your housebrother loses no face reporting honestly. It may save someone elses broken (arm, head) in the future. It can be tough to make charges, but how will you feel when you hear that Lord So-and-So got his arm broken and now won't be able to work for 6 weeks because your courage failed?

------------------
Sir Theodrik of Skane,
West, Mists, Blackwood Company
'Lude Fortier, Lude Juste, Nemini Damnum!'

[Stoffel]

I would file a report or something on the guy who broke my friends helm and cut his mouth up, then proceded to shove his spear into my glave which proceded to hit my helm and leave a nice gash through the front of my tounge, but I dont know who did it as he was blindly spearing through a crenalation in the castle. Neither me or my friend thought to look at first becuase we didnt realize the extent of the damage until some of the adrenaline wore off and we were off the field. Normally I wouldnt have a problem with the hit becuase thats just part of war, but the fact that he couldnt see what he was spearing at, his spear point wsa about five inches from the back of a marshals head who was watching the people coming off the ramp(the crenelation was closed to attacking becuse of the ramp), and that he did it to two poeple within about ten seconds of each other, I see something wrong with that.

[mrks]

Hello all.

when making a report of the sort that sounds necessary... please do so in a timely manner.

waiting two years and then trying to correct a wrong hurts both parties because time has a way of changing the stated facts.

the best possible way of dealing with this sort of thing is at that very moment or very soon after it has happened.

mrks
Squire to the R+Ded Sir Aveloc