Rope, Astrid's Weapon

Hemp Rope

TOTWK01 Knights Creed/01; TOTWK01 Knights Creed/15; TOTWK01 Knights Creed/19, 27

When Astrid came out of the forest, and rejoined humanity, she had very few possessions with her. One was her main weapon, one hundred feet of coiled climbing rope that draped her left shoulder and right hip, which she had trained with when she went to warrior's school before they were dispossessed.

With it, she was able to entangle her enemies, coil it around their feet, interfere with their aiming of their weapons, and use it as protection as well. (Example:The supple rope looped once around the target neck. As soon as she saw the line cross itself, she jumped back and to the left, drawing her arm back again.T he rope cinched briefly and she backed off just enough to grab the man, but not snap his neck like she could have.) She could also pop it, using the ends as you would a whip. She carried the rope over her shoulder, always coiled, ready.

She replaced the original rope with one that had been used before - the rope that was used to hang Alisa. She worked for several hours stretching the rope and working on the hemp braids. Much time was spent going over every inch, making the twists even and combing the fibers until the rope was supple. When she was done, she wrapped it twice around her waist and looped one end around her left shoulder. She tucked the other end loosely into the coils at her waist. She then went to the village blacksmith, and asked a favor of him. “Can you add metal ends to this rope? They should be shaped like the narrow part of an egg and have attachment points for the strands.” She held up the frayed rope end. “You’re making a rope weapon?” Astrid nodded her head.

Uses: She loosened her rope weapon as she ran and spun one end over her head. The egg-shaped dart hurtled forward just as the man pulled his trigger. The dart shot out ten feet to shatter his forehead.

Astrid jumped in and smashed some skulls with her rope darts, then jumped back

Somewhere, in Book 2, Knight's Struggle, Tarkon and Moxy invent/create a product called silksteel, from which is made a body suit, to which armor is attached (The matte-black plates of sacred steel were attached to a bodysuit woven from silksteel threads of charcoal gray). and a new version of Astrid's rope. The rope is still her principle weapon, and still has the egg-shaped darts on the end.