Fantasy story, set in a medieval-style time period. MC is in training to be a warrior, and so she attends regular archery classes with her fellow trainees (beginners, though she has shown to be somewhat of a natural at it) Long story short, I have a baddie who is arranging training "accidents" for my MC in the hopes of taking her out... At arms training, a sharpened weapon was slipped in with the dull practice blade, resulting in a near miss. So how can someone sabotage archery in a similar way that could potentially cause a fair amount of harm?
practice blades were usually wooden btw that aside on point a bow that was sabotaged to break as it were being drawn could hurt you if it broke at full draw, or another students fletchings could be tampered with to make their arrows fly off target towards the MC
I know, they had moved from wooden to dull metal so she could get a feel for the proper weight of the blade before going to sharpened. But thanks for the tip. I was already kind of thinking about a bow breaking at full draw...so it seems I'm on the right track at least
A common injury for archery in real life for hunting are cuts from razor sharp broadheads. They are so sharp many hunters bleed out without realizing it. Maybe an arrow place in her quiver upside down? She could easily sever a tendon. Just a thought...
That would depend a bit on how much range safety they practice...normally no one would be standing anywhere even close to the path of an arrow. But maybe they weren't as worried about safety back then...
*puts on nerd glasses* Wouldn't be very likely as everyone on an archery practice field would be standing behind or beside the shooting line. Fletching can be tampered with so to miss a target but not to the point where it might hit someone standing behind or beside the archer. By 'in hopes of taking her out', do you mean outright kill your MC or would it be enough to injure or incapacitate her? TRDavis has made a nice point (hehe) already. An archer, especially one just learning the art, can easily cut themselves on a sharpened arrowhead and maybe your baddie has treated your MCs arrows with some kind of poison? Though this would require her to actually be handling sharp hunting or war points which you don't do in training. Training points are simple cones or even blunts without any barbs, wings or other fancy stuff so no cutting edges there. Maybe she goes on a hunting trip or is set to maintenance duty of the actual hunting/combat equipment? A bow breaking in your face is certainly no pleasant experience (trust me, I know), especially when you're holding your 80# warbow at anchor point but it would only injure, not kill. Still, she could get whipped across the face by the string or get struck by a wood shard. Eye-losing potential there. Tampering with the shafts or notches might result in the arrow breaking at the point of release, also potentially breaking the bow (talk about dry fire). Something nasty I just thought of is this: if they practice fast shooting, there is only a split second between getting into full draw and release. If your baddie shortens your MCs arrow just about one or two inches that would be enough for the point to slip down from the back of her hand and, because they're shooting fast and they're inexperienced and she might only notice it the moment she releases the string, the arrow gets fired into her hand. (Google it, if you have the stomach) Hurting your bow hand because of flaws in the arrow is about the most common injury for an archer. (That and turning your bow arm into a single giant bruise because you moved it an hair's breadth too far in and the string hit it) That being said, archery is one of my favourite topics to unnecessarily blab on and on about and annoy people with. So if you have any other questions regarding that, I'm eager to tell you everything you never wanted to know about it.
What about a poisoned string, plus the bow's break by sabotage? Certainly poison could be expected from the arrows, but not from the string in particular.
Hmm while getting a string in the face would be painful and most likely result in a nice, big welt, I don't think breaking skin is likely. You normally don't actually get 'whipped' (bad phrasing on my part there, sorry.) In standard western european archery (that's what you are amining for, right?) the string is only drawn back until it's just in front of your face (or touching your nose). With warbows however, there is the concept of "long draw" where you draw the string back way behind your ear or even back of your neck. So the string could graze the side of her face or lodge behind her ear... Long draw ist usually only used for very long, very strong bows though. Would, again, be a matter of what equipment they use. Also, if you like the bow breaking ideas, you should look at some videos of bows giving out. It's no actual explosion of wood shrapnels everywhere as most of the force escapes away from the shooter. But some shards could still hit her. Yikes, imagine sharp hooks flying everywhere
Curiously, came to mind the possibility of poisoning by spores on the string, while handling the bow. They could be spread on the air near the bowmen's face by the mere use. But that doesn't qualify for an accident, really.
I actually don't understand how that happens and can't visualise it (and don't wanna google - don't need the gore). But could you explain to a novice? I know nothing about archery.
There are a few methods of fast shooting, but I believe Jennisej is suggesting that the bow "draw" is too deep for the arrow length. ie. if you pull it back too far, the arrow will be too short to rest against the stave and have the potential to cut the hand, break , or be released in a random direction. If I am wrong my apologies. If the trainer wants an "accidental" death to result, a sure bet is to have the character collecting arrows from the butts and being caught in volley practice by a bunch of novices. If he is just trying to drive her out, a snapped bowstring could damage an eye but it is far from a certainty.
Uh now that's something creative right there. You mean, they could get some powdery stuff in the string and everytime she releases it, she's standing in a cloud of the stuff, inhaling it? That's really devious, I got to admit. No idea how realistic that would be though. TRDavis is right see that picture? In a normal draw, the tip of the arrow would be just an inch or two in front of the knuckles. If your draw is too long, the arrow can slip down and be deflected, scrape or pierce your fingers or the soft part between your thumb and forefinger (where in this case there's the leather glove. You don't strictly need one though.) I like the accidential volley idea. Maybe the MC is collecting missed arrows behind the target so the newbs on the line don't see her. And just as she steps out from behind it ...
This. My stringer for my bow once slipped off and the bow knocked me in the head. I saw stars and darkness for a little bit just from that. I couldn't imagine what would happen if my bow had broken at full draw. If she's out retrieving her arrows from a target farther back the antagonist could also give the other archers the go ahead and claim they didn't know she was out there.
It might be easier to put some herbal poison in the arrow fletching, like nightshade or hemlock, but I think she'd get examined if she keeled over sick during archery practice. Why not poison her meal and guarantee she gets the dose, instead of possibly getting a different student using the doctored arrow? Depending on the technology level of the world, what about a crossbow? A crossbow is far more prone to misuse and easier to engineer an accident with during training.
No, generally sparring weapons would be blunted metal, since a big part of learning to fight with weapons is getting a feel for the weight and heft of real weaponry. Also, wooden weapons can, somewhat ironically, be even more dangerous than metal ones in a practice setting. It depends on location and time period, but almost anywhere where the theme is "generic European middle ages" would probably be using dulled weapons for sparring. If you're talking throughout Asia, where wooden weapons were much more common, then it might be a different story. The Japanese made wooden "practice" blades that could be used almost as well as their real swords. Anyways, I didn't really read the entire thread but the best way to attempt injuring someone with a bow would probably have to be weakening the bow (or bowstring) itself so it'll break mid-draw. It's something that can leave a pretty nasty injury if the arrow falls out of the bow right. When I was younger, my friend and I were shooting an old composite bow that was in the basement of a home my family had moved into (it was/is a really cool old bow, and there were a few arrows that were with it which is what we were shooting). Anyways, the bow snaps in half when he draws it back and the arrow ends up cutting him really bad and deep across his wrist. "Freak accident" because of a bow breaking is definitely a valid option to go with.
Okay, firstly, this idea will only work if your MC is an incredibly stupid girl... a mysterious package (sender unknown) is left on her bed; she unwraps it... turns out to be a fine silk tunic with a bullseye target embroidered on it. https://www.zazzle.com/crosshairs_bullseye_target_t_shirt-235232742390286835
Sorry :> I'm a morbid person with the tendency to emphasize on the bad part of things. Archery is a pretty safe sport, if you stick to some basic rules and take care of your equipment. I've been doing it for close to a decade and the worst I've gotten so far were a few shallow cuts and bruises (mostly from refusing to wear protective gear). Serious injuries normally require some real bad luck. On another note, is the accident at sword fighting the only one so far? If she's training to be a warrior, things like horse riding or lance fighting could be included in the mix. The potential for arranged riding accidents is endless. I've recently read a book where one of the MCs was set up to kill a knight during a jousting tournament. The baddies replaced the MC's blunt jousting tip with a sharp war point and hid it under a porcelain shell. Maybe that gives you an idea.
My wife nearly shot herself with an arrow, once. It ricocheted off of an improvised target and came almost straight back at her. It missed her face by inches. She has a ludicrously hefty bow and that was the last time she ever used it at close range or indoors.
Well, if this is a medieval scene, they probably wouldn't be using that type of point for combat training. Instead, they'd be using an armor-piercing "bodkin" point, which isn't really sharp at all. Those points were designed to punch through things, not slice through them.
