Post by Dougal on Mar 16, 2009 1:01:26 GMT -5
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Profession: Captain, Special Warfare Corp
Appearance:
Gender: Male
Profession: Captain, Special Warfare Corp
Appearance:
Dougal is one of those people who don't look their age. His jet black hair shows no signs of grey and his face has no more lines than any other field soldier. However, unlike most army captains, Dougal is not a noble and you can see that in every part of his body, which is as thick as a Skandian's - although without the beer belly - and hands that end in thick, lumpy fingers. Dougal's broad shoulders and heavily muscled arms also reveal his common heritage, with the broad shoulders of a man who has been trained from birth to shoot a warbow and the arms of a professional soldier. Even at his old age, Dougal can still travel forty kilometres in a day carrying a twenty kilogram pack.Personality:
Dougal was born a peasant and remains so to this day. While it doesn't automatically mean that Dougal is crude and uneducated, he does tend to play this card, mixed often with his sergeant persona, having been one for so long. He dislikes the nobles he now mixes with on a regular basis because they have what he terms a "Higher Class Morality". In other words, they don't know what it's like for those below them and thus their morality is wrong. For example, most nobles consider prostitutes to the be lowest of the low, but Dougal considers them to be some of the bravest people he knows, doing the only thing they can to survive, despite the threat of rape, STDs and death.History:
That said, Dougal also other aspects to his personality. The first is that he is quite found of black humour and will tend to make jokes in the most inappropriate or dangerous situations, lifting the spirits of his men.
The second aspect of Dougal's personality is much darker. Having been born the son of a tanner and been considered the lowest of the low, Dougal has had to work his way up through society, making him extremely ruthless. He is also very loyal to the Crown and will use any methods necessary to protect Araluen, including the killing of innocent people as a warning to others.
Dougal was born in a small coast located on the eastern side of Araluen. His mother had been raped in a raid by Skandians and he was the result. For this reason, Dougal was never more than tolerated by his parents, siblings and the others in the town. In particular, a lot of boys from the town took a disliking to Dougal and attempted to make his life miserable. After one severe beating, Dougal realised that he was going the wrong way about things and decided to find other ways of getting revenge. He formulated a tactic whereby he would get one of the bullies alone and pound him silly. Another tactic involved drawing the bullies into the forest, where Dougal would either get them lost or lead them into a poacher's trap. Because there were no witnesses and because he always returned from the forest with some kind of animal for the family's dinner, no one ever believed the town boys that it was Dougal beating them up. After a while, they left Dougal alone.Additional Information:
Perhaps Dougal's only happy memories of his time at home are those of his learning to use the longbow. Trained from the age of ten, Dougal practiced for hours every day and became the best marksman in the entire village, even better than many of the men. That skill was put to the test when Dougal was 14 and the Skandians raided the village. Dougal managed to hide off in the forest and shoot the Skandians as they chased after the villagers who had escaped. The Skandians, who weren't all that good at spotting people hiding in the forest, thought that one of the Rangers must be attacking them and so let the villagers escape. However, the Skandians took their anger out on the few villagers who hadn't had time to flee. This included most of Dougal's family. Dougal's father lived long enough to ask Dougal to go and live with his uncle.
Now, Dougal's uncle was one of the very few Rangers who have been stripped of their oakleaf. While his uncle never said why he had been removed from duty, Dougal later found that it was because of excessive cruelty and law breaking, although none of the charges had ever stuck. Because of his background, the uncle was considered to be the the best poacher in all Araluen. It was said that he could sneak up on a deer and break its neck and that he could also steal a Ranger's saxe knife without the Ranger's knowledge. The rumours slightly exaggerated the uncle's skill, but he was good enough that no Ranger could ever catch him in the act of poaching, and they had tried like hell to do so.
The next four years of Dougal's life were spent on the run with his uncle. He learnt how to blend into his surrounds and move silently very quickly, but the reading and writing aspect of his uncle's tutelage took Dougal much longer to learn. However, it was the fighting that Dougal enjoyed. He learnt how to modify deer traps to catch humans and even how to use the environment as a trap. However, at the age of 18, his uncle told Dougal to enlist in the army and, because he was young and stupid, Dougal agreed.
Dougal had signed up about a half a year before Morgorath's first rebellion and one of his first experiences of the army was this war. At one point, the Wargals reached the archers and Dougal was forced to fight hand-to-hand with them. The army might have considered Dougal a raw recruit, but he had first killed at 14 and had killed since. He struck out again and again, killing anything that tried to get through the makeshift wall of stakes. When his sergeant was killed, Dougal stopped them men around him from retreating and they made a stand, preventing the Wargals from breaking through.
For this heroic action, Dougal was promoted to Corporal and put in charge of a section of ten men. Deciding to capitalise on this, Dougal trained the men in his own way, participating in everything and encouraging them. Four years later, his section had proven themselves time and time again in exercises. They snuck away from the battle at various points and disrupted a supply caravan or ambushed a Royal Scout. One of the senior Royal Scouts, a friend of Lord Northolt, was annoyed at having been ambushed and asked Dougal's commanding officer to punish Dougal for disobeying orders. When it was revealed that Dougal's commander had given him permission to harass the enemy, the Scout went to Northolt with his complaint.
Northolt was curious and made some enquiries. He had heard rumours of a group of soldiers who had been making life difficult for whoever they were opposing and he decided to put them to the test. Dougal and his soldiers were ordered to enter Thorntree Forest and make their way to a certain objective. Dougal, who had been taught the uses paranoia by his uncle, suspected that this was a trap and did his best to avoid it, seeing as this was Ranger territory. However, despite his paranoia and the skills of his men, Dougal was still ambushed by the Rangers. His men made a good account of themselves, spotting the occasional Ranger and taking them out. In the end, all of Dougal's section, including himself, were "dead" and three Rangers had also been "killed".
Northolt had long thought that the Rangers were not used to their full potential, but the Commandant would not let extra Rangers be trained or let the Rangers be used as a military unit. Now he sensed an opportunity. Dougal was already half trained and had shown that he was able to train others. Northolt consulted with King Duncan and was granted permission to create what he termed the "Special Warfare Corps". This was kept secret from everyone but the Ranger Corps, the King and the Supreme Commander. Why? Because the SWC was to be used as a secret force. They were to go behind enemy lines and disrupt supply lines, kill officials and make life difficult for the enemy. As long as no one knew about them, then no one could defend themselves from the SWC.
Dougal was removed from active service and then promoted to Captain. Northolt told Dougal to choose anyone he wanted, up to two hundred men. Dougal told Northolt that it would be better to choose double that and then see who could make the cut. Northolt was loathe to agree with this, but Dougal showed Northolt what he planned to do in order to get the best possible recruits and Northolt then agreed. The five hundred were told that they were part of an experimental style of training to see how well they coped outside of their own units. The training was brutal and Dougal was left with only 130 men that either passed his test or he felt were worthy enough.
Then the real training began. Retired Rangers were brought in to teach the recruits everything about stealth and a Temujin defector was brought in to teach the recruits hand-to-hand combat. Genovesan assassins were hired to teach Dougal's recruits, and Dougal himself, how to infiltrate fortresses and poison the inhabitants, as well as how to use the crossbow. All throughout this there was rigorous physical training, where all soldiers were encouraged to beat Dougal in everything. Forced marches with twenty kilograms loadouts were held monthly. In these the soldiers had to reach a target forty kilometres away, with the last thirty soldiers having to walk back with a forty kilogram pack. Dougal never lost one of these marches until he reached the age of 38.
At some point in time - no one knows when it happened, only that it happened after the SWC was formed - Dougal fell in love with a woman called Rhianwen. He was so captivated by her that people began to wonder if she was a witch who had cast a spell on Dougal, a man who was normally very levelled headed. It turned out that Rhianwen was one of Morgorath's spies and she kidnapped Dougal one day in order to extract all the information he knew about the archer corps. To cut a long story short, Dougal escape, despite a broken arm, three broken ribs and a dozen cuts. In order to escape, he had killed half a dozen of Morgorath's best men and Rhianwen. Rumour has it that he crucified Rhianwen and then gutted her while she was still alive. Dougal offered to resign, but an investigation by the Rangers, as well as several other agents of the King cleared Dougal and he was allowed to retain his command. No one has tried to double-cross Dougal since this incident, although some members of the Ranger Corps regard Dougal with suspicion.
The Special Warfare Corps SWC) generally work together in teams of ten (section), although these teams can be split into teams of five (fragment). The armament of the teams will vary depending on the mission and the personal preferences of its members. Because of their special status, several interesting and unusual weapons are available to the SWC
Pistol Crossbow: A light crossbow without a stock. The draw is light enough that a tumbler style trigger can be used (you pull the trigger and a metal disk rotates around, releasing the string). The crossbow has an armour piercing range of 50 metres and a maximum range of about 130 metres. It is cocked by pushing down on a lever and has a maximum fire rate of 6 bolts a minute, but most people can get 3-4 bolts out of it.
Arbalest: A small piece of artillery. It is capable of firing a 0.5 Kilogram rock two hundred metres and, in the hands of an expert, a bolt from this can kill a fully armoured knight at a distance of a thousand metres. Its drawbacks include its weight (near enough to ten kilograms) and the long time between firings (it takes a minute to reload). However, special ammunition has been developed that allow this to act as a modern day grenade launcher.
Kukri: A very effective, if unusual, knife.
Falcata: This sword comes from Iberion and is perhaps the deadliest of all swords. It is designed so that all the energy in the blow is focused into the third of the blade closest to the point. While not a thrusting weapon or even one that requires finesse to, the falcata is capable of going through chainmail, the padded gambeson underneath it and cutting deep into the bone. When the target isn't wearing armour, this sword is capable of removing the arm, something that usually requires an axe or two-handed sword. That said, the falcata is heavy and not very well balanced. It takes an strong expert to use this properly and beginners should not fight with one of these.
Grenade 1: This is based on technology that has been available, although unused, for decades. Basically, when bones, lime and charcoal are heated together you get Calcium Phosphide a chemical that, on contact with water, releases phosphine gas. The phosphine then ignites spontaneously, creating an overpressure wave, in addition to the fireball, that blows out the eardrums and may even kill anyone within five metres of the explosion via means of collapsed lungs due to the changes in pressure.
The phosphide grenade is a clay jar the size of a tennis ball with a dividing layer of clay down the centre. One side contains the powder while the other contains the water needed to set this off. When the jar shatters, the water mixes with the fine powder and the phosphine is released, causing a explosion.
The grenade is designed to be fired from an arbalest, but it can be thrown by hand.
Fire Starter: This is a clay jar about five centimetres in diameter and fifteen centimetres long. It is filled with a mixture of high proof alcohol, vegetable oil (mixed in with natural emulsifiers), sulfur, saltpetre and quicklime. A small tube of water runs down the centre of the jar and, when the jar is smashed, the quicklime reacts with the water in order to ignite the mixture. It is very effective for destroying wooden fortifications and is almost impossible to extinguish, as water only causes the quicklime to heat up, reigniting the fire and spreading it elsewhere.Dougal's Weapons/Armour
- 1 x 50 pound recurve bow
- 30 x arrows (10 bodkins, 20 swallowtail)
- 1 x Falcata (Wootz steel)
- 1 x Kukri (Wootz steel)
- 1 x padded jack (body armour, consists of twelve layers of heavy linen sewn between two layers of hemp canvas, with a plate of boiled leather over the stomach and heart regions. It is sleeveless).
- 1 x cloak (A light brown cloak can be released very quickly, thanks to a special kind of broach, because it is almost impossible to fight in one of these).
- 2 x vambracers
- 2 x phosphide grenades
- 2 x fire starters (Only on sabotage missions)