Help! I need to hurt my character.
The scenario: The setting is roughly 17th century. Deadly weapons on hand: pistols, muskets, swords, horses. My character (I'll call him Bob) is one of the generals besieging a town. His side has just been overrun by a relieving force; his role at the moment is to command an orderly withdrawal. In the course of this battle Bob is injured & taken prisoner. The next day he is manacled & escorted on horseback through a forest, where he escapes (still on horseback). The captor needs Bob on the horse because he knows Bob's men will want to rescue him & sends his carriage under guard on the main road as a decoy to lure the rescue party off the scent. The captor also secretly wants Bob to escape, so he sets up an opportunity that Bob immediately takes.
So... I need to figure out the initial injury, received in the course of a somewhat chaotic cavalry action, which incapacitates him to the extent that he can be taken off the field by the enemy but still makes it reasonable for his captor to put him on horseback for an expected long ride the next day, & for him to be able to break away & stay on the horse long enough to make a good escape through rough wooded terrain. After these strenuous events he'll get a couple of days off to rest & recuperate, then he has to get back on that horse & find his army again...
My first thought was that old chestnut, hit him on the head and knock him out for a while. But I know the classic "hard head" trope is deprecated these days, & actual brain injury is definitely not in the cards for Bob at this point in the story. He also needs his limbs mostly intact, because he has to ride & he has to have manacles on his wrists. (That's non-negotiable plot stuff.) I am currently considering something like a glancing blow that's momentarily dazing & bleeds heavily. But I'm not sure that's the best thing. Anybody have a better way to batter Bob?
The scenario: The setting is roughly 17th century. Deadly weapons on hand: pistols, muskets, swords, horses. My character (I'll call him Bob) is one of the generals besieging a town. His side has just been overrun by a relieving force; his role at the moment is to command an orderly withdrawal. In the course of this battle Bob is injured & taken prisoner. The next day he is manacled & escorted on horseback through a forest, where he escapes (still on horseback). The captor needs Bob on the horse because he knows Bob's men will want to rescue him & sends his carriage under guard on the main road as a decoy to lure the rescue party off the scent. The captor also secretly wants Bob to escape, so he sets up an opportunity that Bob immediately takes.
So... I need to figure out the initial injury, received in the course of a somewhat chaotic cavalry action, which incapacitates him to the extent that he can be taken off the field by the enemy but still makes it reasonable for his captor to put him on horseback for an expected long ride the next day, & for him to be able to break away & stay on the horse long enough to make a good escape through rough wooded terrain. After these strenuous events he'll get a couple of days off to rest & recuperate, then he has to get back on that horse & find his army again...
My first thought was that old chestnut, hit him on the head and knock him out for a while. But I know the classic "hard head" trope is deprecated these days, & actual brain injury is definitely not in the cards for Bob at this point in the story. He also needs his limbs mostly intact, because he has to ride & he has to have manacles on his wrists. (That's non-negotiable plot stuff.) I am currently considering something like a glancing blow that's momentarily dazing & bleeds heavily. But I'm not sure that's the best thing. Anybody have a better way to batter Bob?
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