Before I sign off the the holiday and disappear into the wilds of Somerset, I thought I'd point you at this interesting clip on Youtube:
I gather that this demonstrates the use of what could be called an Arbalest, as this seems to be what we can see in the footage. These would be what D&D would call a 'heavy crossbow', and seems to be a bit more dangerous than the D&D version. That said, there are accounts of brigandine being able to provide protection against crossbows - although what type of crossbow and at what range, I'm not sure.
See you in the New Year - providing I haven't suffered death by cider...
I do love crossbows...
ReplyDeletehttp://shortymonster.co.uk/?p=386
Nice! The only problem with crossbows is that they don't really like damp environments (a typical dungeon), so the drawstring tends to become the weak link in the whole device.
ReplyDelete