"I hate nature!" - Aug 19

[Anthony Lion]

Being a lazy bastard, I prefer This one

The sparks from it is twice as hot as a matchstick(3000degrees Celsius, versus 1500degrees), and it's rated to work 5000 times, at least.
I believe it's part of the Swedish army's standard equipment, too.

[Bigdude]

I prefer this one:

[Anthony Lion]

That site doesn't allow deep linking...

Anyone wondering, go to http://www.fvza.org/images/ and browse down to Flamethrower.jpg....

[Squeaky Bunny]

She must be an indoors kind of Elf.

Well she isn't a Garden Gnome.

True, but she's trying to start a fire. Perhaps that makes it a case of an "Elf, Elf on the range"?

*rimshot*

Maybe it's Gnomex material?

[Atarlost]

So much for Quentyn having killed a buncha hoomans.

Despite it's insane ROF the Elfshot pistol is still a birding weapon, it looks like he did the lux equavilent of spraying the crowd with a half dozen shells of birdshot. Looks ugly, hurts like hell, but not enough penetration to be fatal in and of itself. Given medieval conditions I'd be worried about potential infection (do the local humans have a germ theory of disease, or something that works similiarly?), but if they can avoid serious infection at worst the have a bunch of pockmark scars.

I still think some people, possibly many of them, will die of infection. They don't have antibiotics or sterile bandages and probably, given the medieval culture, don't bathe frequently.

[Maxgoof]

you know... in all the time I had ever been outdoors when I was younger... I've never gotten that to work no matter how many rocks I tried.

I once started a fire by rubbing two sticks together.

Okay, they were both matches, but still...

[Wanderwolf]

I still think some people, possibly many of them, will die of infection. They don't have antibiotics or sterile bandages and probably, given the medieval culture, don't bathe frequently.

You're just desperate to see someone die in this strip, aren't you?;)

Sirius-ly, it's unlikely any of them will even get sick, and that for three reasons:

1. Bathing wasn't quite as rare in the medieval era as it sounds. Until the Church insisted they be pulled down, most places had a Roman-style baths which was used often (not least because the smaller ones were sometimes communal... you could get clean and act dirty at the same time). (Um, yeah, that is why the Church had them destroyed.)

2. Good wound treatment survived the Dark Ages because it was a necessity. Sometimes it got reinvented, sure... ever hear of Sympathetic Powder? Sprinkle the powder on the weapon that made the wound (or a representation thereof), and keep the wound clean, dry and loosely bandaged. It worked wonders.

3. Herbal medicines have been around a long time. Check Culpeper's Complete Herbal (you can read it online here) for a list of herbs that were good against infections, prevented scarring, and accelerated healing.

Heck, you can make a good healing potion with no magic at all. Just boil Clown's Woundwort (Clown=Countryman, as in Shakespeare's day), which contains a wonderful little chemical called allantoin. Maybe add bramble for flavor (blackberry, another source of allantoin).

Sorry, O morbid one, but the villagers will be just fine.

Yours truly,

The wolfish,

Wanderer

[Shyal_malkes]

for a while (up until it died) my mom kept an Aloe plant in the house. I believe the sap of the plant is good for burns maybe other injuries as well but definatly burns.

[Madmoonie]

for a while (up until it died) my mom kept an Aloe plant in the house. I believe the sap of the plant is good for burns maybe other injuries as well but definatly burns.

They are very good actually on burns. I once had a nasty burn on my fingers, broke an Aloe leaf and smeared the sap, and the injury healed quickly not to mention just felt a whole lot better.

[Catherine_Puce]

He's not going to turn around and walk away, is he? Heh, but why is she trying to light a fire in the middle of a downpour?

Obviously, she doesn't understand combustion.

Sirius-ly, it can work; strike two rocks together hard enough, you'll get sparks. Have some dry tinder waiting where the spark lands and you get a coal. Nurse the coal and you get a flame. Feed the flame and you get a fire.

Oh, but (as this article shows,) tinder wasn't any of that homey-sounding stuff in the Boy Scout manual; no punk, no peat moss, nothing of the sort. The trick is to use charred cloth, which really works the way it's supposed to: Add a spark and it burns nicely. (Actually, if you read down, the other stuff would probably work just fine... if it was first charred.) The article even includes instructions on how to prepare your own charred cloth.

Yours wolfishly,

The book-remembering,

(And likely misquoting,)

Wanderer

Personnatly, I learned to do it this way. This isn't a easy method and he's right, you don't forget your matches after have exhausted you at trying to make a fire like that.

Anyway, this elf will never start a fire like that. If Quentyn doesn't help her, she will probably have an horrible night (she lack of the common sense to find (or build) a dry shelter to light a fire so thing risk to get worst and probably catch a flu ( you can easy die of it when it become a pneumonia and no nearby human like her enough to help her once she get sick.) and meet her creator to ask him why elves die before their twenty before be send to hell.

Il a probablement une très bonne raison pour avoir décider ça.

S.P.P.

[Squeaky Bunny]

I still think some people, possibly many of them, will die of infection. They don't have antibiotics or sterile bandages and probably, given the medieval culture, don't bathe frequently.

You're just desperate to see someone die in this strip, aren't you?;)

Sirius-ly, it's unlikely any of them will even get sick, and that for three reasons:

1. Bathing wasn't quite as rare in the medieval era as it sounds. Until the Church insisted they be pulled down, most places had a Roman-style baths which was used often (not least because the smaller ones were sometimes communal... you could get clean and act dirty at the same time). (Um, yeah, that is why the Church had them destroyed.)

2. Good wound treatment survived the Dark Ages because it was a necessity. Sometimes it got reinvented, sure... ever hear of Sympathetic Powder? Sprinkle the powder on the weapon that made the wound (or a representation thereof), and keep the wound clean, dry and loosely bandaged. It worked wonders.

3. Herbal medicines have been around a long time. Check Culpeper's Complete Herbal (you can read it online here) for a list of herbs that were good against infections, prevented scarring, and accelerated healing.

Heck, you can make a good healing potion with no magic at all. Just boil Clown's Woundwort (Clown=Countryman, as in Shakespeare's day), which contains a wonderful little chemical called allantoin. Maybe add bramble for flavor (blackberry, another source of allantoin).

Sorry, O morbid one, but the villagers will be just fine.

Yours truly,

The wolfish,

Wanderer

Considering those lux bolts are made of energy, odds are that they cauterize as they strike, so infection would not be a problem.

[Rokas]

Just because they're made of energy doesn't mean they automatically cauterize. The question is, how much of that energy leaks out as thermal through radiation or conduction?

I don't think they can be too hot, myself, because when Quentyn first tested the elfshot pistol, it put a hundred or so darts into his practice dummy and it didn't catch on fire or even show scorch marks.

[Squeaky Bunny]

Just because they're made of energy doesn't mean they automatically cauterize. The question is, how much of that energy leaks out as thermal through radiation or conduction?

I don't think they can be too hot, myself, because when Quentyn first tested the elfshot pistol, it put a hundred or so darts into his practice dummy and it didn't catch on fire or even show scorch marks.

The fact that it left holes tells me that there was enough thermal radiation to cause a burn. If it were just conductive then it would be more like Tasering, not a bad alternative, but the effect passes quicker.

Of course if that were the case and Quentyn zaps the toothless one, then the rest would most likely just stand around and make sympathetic sounds while Smiley writhed on the ground. Truely it would be an early example of shock and awwww.

[Zorro]

Assuming medieval Europe then the wounds will be dressed with honey and should heal well.

Honey works so well on wounds that it was still used in WWI to dress wounds.

In the American civil war onion and cabbage leaves dressed with honey were a standard treatment.

[Shyal_malkes]

light, heat, electricity, just because something is 'made of energy' doesn't mean that it burns.

while trying to organize and create a tabletop RPG I came accross an idea of shadow magic which was little more then creating what looked felt and sounded, even tasted and smelled real, even down to chemical reactions but when the magic that powered it fizzled out the object(s) dissappeared. technically 'made of (magic) energy' but most spells using it wouldn't burn a thing.

[Rokas]

The fact that it left holes tells me that there was enough thermal radiation to cause a burn. If it were just conductive then it would be more like Tasering, not a bad alternative, but the effect passes quicker.

Holes are not automatically indicitive of high specific heat. They could be indicitive of each lux needle having a direct effect on physical objects, despite the fact that it's energy. (If you thnk that's not possible, then look up atomic theory.)

Also, Tasering is the conduction of electrical energy, not thermal, into a body. A hot needle wouldn't be like a tasering but rather would be more like being stung by wasps... The big nasty kind that just SIT there on you skin for as long as possible, pumping in the venom... I hate wasps...

[TMLutas]

He's not going to turn around and walk away, is he? Heh, but why is she trying to light a fire in the middle of a downpour?

Wet + Cold + Not very woods wise

[TMLutas]

She must be an indoors kind of Elf.

Well she isn't a Garden Gnome.

True, but she's trying to start a fire. Perhaps that makes it a case of an "Elf, Elf on the range"?

*rimshot*

So which end of the target range do you put this elf on?

[TMLutas]

Assuming medieval Europe then the wounds will be dressed with honey and should heal well.

Honey works so well on wounds that it was still used in WWI to dress wounds.

In the American civil war onion and cabbage leaves dressed with honey were a standard treatment.

There's a modern company in NZ that uses honey infused bandages.

[Doink]

Yeshua forgives people for their sins.

Then again, Quentyn isn't Yeshua, and it'll be a long while before he can bring himself to trust this girl again. Assuming he even contacts her again. It's unlikely, I know, but Ralph's thrown me for a lot of loops so far, and I'm still counting it as a possibility.