Shadow Walker Chapter 7 (Spoilers)

[lapland]

What? Doesn't anyone want to be the first to discuss it?

As usual, it's amazing and I'm usually disappointed in coming to the conclusion of a chapter to have to wait for another, but Fel is an amazing writer, so it pays off in the end.

Those things in the shadow world are so Fel. Should have known they were there. Now is Fel going to make Kyvin learn more about them then his totem. Could be interesting if he could gain something from them, against their will. Either way, he is now a very dangerous creature. Being able to take on the shadow fox at will, disappear into the night and reappear wherever he wants. Only needing to learn how to wrap himself in the shadows, when there aren't any shadows to work with, and learn how to understand that shadow world. His most important mission to learn besides the main mission at the moment of freeing the Arcan.

I do wish I had a map of the geographic area with overlays of Kyvins world and our world so I could keep track of his vast travels. Other stories were not so invovled with locations, directions and topography that we needed them. But this one is getting more and more complex and my memory isn't what it use to be....

[GBLW]

The following is just my opinion, but being a bit of an amateur cartographer it seems to fit the KISS principle, so just pull out a map of the eastern half of the USA.

Nooram has to be what's left of North America after a major war (The Breaking).
The ‘old' section of Avannar has to be Arlington Virginia, so the ‘new' side of Avannar has to be Washington, DC
The Black Keep has to be Theodore Roosevelt Island
The Loremaster Headquarters has to be the island which has the Jefferson Memorial and East Potomac Park, (I don't recall the proper name of it in our world.)
Atan is supposedly west of Avannar, but I haven't place that yet, all I've decided is that it has to be in the Appalachians.
(The ‘Smoke Mountains' might be/are the Smokey Mountains?)
Riyan has to be Richmond, Virginia
Rallan would be Raliegh, NC
Cheston has be Charleston, SC
I'm guessing that the Snake River is the Mississippi
And so on

As for members of the "Noraam Alliance, try these;
Georvan has to be Georgia + South Carolina
Flaur has to be Florida
Alamar - Alabama
Nurys - New Orleans
Lanna has to be Louisiana

I'm sure that's enough for you to puzzle out any others you might wonder about.

[Ledsmith]

I figured the geography out a while ago and Fel gave me a cookie . Now that I have tooted my horn on that, either I'm confused of Fel is confused on breach vs. muzzle loading (that or it is a simple typo). I swear that in either this chapter or a previous one he calls the Briton rifle muzzle loading. As far as I know muskets are muzzle loading, you put the powder down the end of the barrel (the muzzle) then the ball or shot than pat it down some and fire. Where as all the modern guns and artillery I can think of is breach loading, the round goes in at the back of the barrel.

[kabalman2000]

ledsmith:

I think your confusion may come from his referring to the current loreguard pistols as breech loading in this chapter. You are correct in that muzzle loading is done from the front of the gun. Breech loading is done from the rear. Muzzle loading is powder, wad, shot loaded from the front. Breech loading is shot, wad, powder loaded from the rear.

There were four steps to our current brass case cartridge firing weapons. And I may even get them in the correct order. To speed things up the paper cartridge was developed having a pre-measured amount of powder and the ball wrapped in paper. You bit off the end with the ball, poured in the powder, used the paper as a wad, then spat in the ball.

Then there was percussion cap ignition that saved having to prime a pan of powder to ignite with a punk or spark. It's possible this came first. Breech loading opened the back of the barrel and let one just shove the paper cartridge in without all the other pouring, tamping, etc. steps. Last was to combine the percussion cap into the cartridge to get modern ammo.

So, it looks like the loreguard's current pistols are breech loading single shot. But they want the Briton revolvers (which even though the cylinders are loaded from the front in muzzle loading order, are still considered breech loaders because you don't actually pour the stuff down the muzzle - go figure).

[boballab]

Actually the Briton pistol would be similar to the Colt Army Model 1860. The Colt .44-caliber “Army" Model was one of the most widely-used revolvers of the Civil War. It had a six-shot, rotating cylinder, and fired a 0.454-inch diameter round lead ball, or a conical projectile, that was propelled by a 30 grain charge of black powder ignited by a copper percussion cap that contained a volatile charge of fulminate of mercury (a substance that explodes upon impact). The percussion cap, when struck by the hammer, ignited the powder charge. When fired, balls had a muzzle velocity of about 750 feet per second.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Army_Model_1860

[GBLW]

I figured the geography out a while ago and Fel gave me a cookie

Sorry, I hadn't noticed that, which only goes to prove that I do miss some messages.

By the way, what town or city in our time frame did you use as a reference for Atan?

[Ledsmith]

I'm not entirely sure. It must be on the Potomac river somewhere in the valley that interstate 81 uses. That leaves the three prime suspects as Williamsport, Martinsburg or Winchster.

[ANTIcarrot]

I figured the geography out a while ago and Fel gave me a cookie . Now that I have tooted my horn on that, either I'm confused of Fel is confused on breach vs. muzzle loading (that or it is a simple typo). I swear that in either this chapter or a previous one he calls the Briton rifle muzzle loading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_rifle - Breach loading rifle - seen to great effect in the Sharpe TV series. Used as sniper-platoons in the Nepolionic wars. It's also possible the Britons have several types of rifle, and it's character familiarity (or lack there of) that's causing the problems.

She nodded soberly. “I can say I fully believe you now, brother. But it’s not easy. I’ve been around humans most of my life, but sometimes I just don’t understand them.”

What does she find so confusing? If you have a large social group, and then take away that which enables social cooperation thee results are entirely predictable.

[Fiferguy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_rifle - Breach loading rifle - seen to great effect in the Sharpe TV series. Used as sniper-platoons in the Nepolionic wars. It's also possible the Britons have several types of rifle, and it's character familiarity (or lack there of) that's causing the problems.

The Baker Rifle is a muzzle loading rifle. The ramrod is not necessary or even desired on a breach loading rifle. The image that I got when Fel described it was a Winchester 1866 Model Lever-Action repeating rifle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_rifle

I've shot a 1894 Winchester for several years, and though it's not the most accurate rifle in the world, it's more accurate than most muzzle loading weapons, and has the ability to shoot many rounds in the time it takes a muzzle loader to shoot once.

[D.F. Thompson]

Now this just my personal opinion. But from years of owning and shooting black powder fire arms both pistol and rifle. I get the feeling that breech loading rifles that are mentioned are similar to the Sharps rifles introduced during the civil war, which used a paper cartridge and a percussion cap just like a muzzle loader. The way it operated was you pulled down on the trigger guard which also served a cocking lever, similar to the later Winchester repeating rifle. This cause the back of the breach block to drop down. The paper cartridge was inserted into the breach. You pulled up on the cocking lever which caused the back of the breach block to come back up into position cutting the back end of the paper cartridge and put the hammer into the half cocked position and primed the firing chamber. A percussion cap is then placed on the nipple and the hammer is pulled back into the full cock position and the weapon is ready to fire. The repeating rifles that he mentions remind me of either Winchester 1873 or possibly a Henry repeating rifle.

Sharps Rifle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharps_rifle

Winchester 1873. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_rifle

Henry Rifle formerly The Volcanic rifle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_repeating_rifle