Tarn wire used in defense on Gor

Tarn wire is sharp, usually handled with gloves
Tarn wire can usually cut to the bone, can take a wing from a tarn
At the last tower a simple garrote of tarn wire, almost invisible, had been thrust forth, secured between two poles. Such wire is usually handled with gloves. It can usually cut to the bone. It can take a wing from a tarn. I do not think the first fellows hurrying down the bridge even saw it. Their bodies, lacerated, impeded the flow of their fellows.
Renegades

Wings of striking tar cut from its body if brought through maze of wire
Dropping the tarn through such a maze of wire would be an almost impossible task. The wings of a striking tarn would be cut from its body by such wires.
Tarnsman

Tarn wire is common in Gorean defenses
I looked above me at the posts mounted on the walls. Between them was slung fine wire, gently bending and swaying in the slow breeze of the hot afternoon. Such wire is tarn wire. It is used to prevent the descent of tarns into the courtyard of a fortress. It is common in Gorean defenses.
Slave Girl

Tarn wires are not in place permanently over a city
Usually strung only in times of clear municipal peril - as when the city is expecting an attack or is under siege
Such wire can be quite dangerous. It can cut the head or wings from a descending tarn. It is usually strung only in times of clear municipal peril, as when, for example, the city may be expecting an attack or is under siege. If all went well I hoped to be able to use it in my plans.
Players

When tarn wires are up in defense, openings are left in the wires to provide access to the tarnsmen of the city
The openings are changed nightly - wires raised and lowered to change the pattern
The beacon fires had not yet been lit on the walls. These serve as guides to tarnsmen aflight, and, too, may be used to signal their recall, and such. Between some of them tarn wire would not be stretched; between others it would, which would be known to the tarnsmen. It is changed nightly.
Dancer

With forces of a hostile city in the skies around, a city "would surely have its tarn wire strung"
I had sold the tarn only two days ago, to proceed on foot. The skies had seemed heavily patrolled. I had little doubt they would become more so as I proceeded farther northward. It seemed to me that my chances of successfully delivering the message to Aemilianus, whatever might be its contents, might be improved if it were borne not by tarnsman but by one afoot, one who might, say, among mercenaries, or civilians, mix inconspicuously. This speculation was further encouraged by the fact that Ar’s station would surely have its tarn wire strung and the skies about it, as nearly as I had determined, were currently controlled by Cos.
Renegades

Strands of tarn wire, a fine sharp wire, are strung from walls to the cylinders
Hundreds of thousands of wires stretched among buildings create the effect of a "netting" but are not connected together
Each wire is separate from the others
Every fifty yards along the walls rose towers, jutting forth so as to expose any attempt at scaling to the fire from their numerous archer ports. Across the city, from the walls to the cylinders, I could occasionally see the slight flash of sunlight on the swaying tarn wires, literally hundreds of thousands of slender, almost invisible wires stretched in a protective net across the city. Dropping the tarn through such a maze of wire would be an almost impossible task. The wings of a striking tarn would be cut from its body by such wires.
Tarnsman

Tarn wire strung among towers
Extending down to lower rooftops
Extends to walls
Gorean urban architecture, in the high cities, tends to be not so much a matter of flat, spreading, concentric horizontal rings, as in many cities, as a matter of towers and tiered levels, linked by soaring, ascendant traceries. The security-mindedness of Brundisium, incidentally, was manifested also in the tarn wire strung among its towers, extending down in many cases to lower rooftops and even the walls. Such wire can be quite dangerous. It can cut the head or wings from a descending tarn. It is usually strung only in times of clear municipal peril, as when, for example, the city may be expecting an attack or is under siege. If all went well I hoped to be able to use it in my plans.
Players

Winches along the walls are used to lower and raise the wires
'Lower the wire.'
The cry, rather forlorn, to lower the wire was echoed along the lengths of the walls and from tower to tower. Soon the great winches were in motion and, foot by foot, the frightful netting of tarn wire began to sag. When it reached the ground, it would be sectioned and rolled. I was not, of course, concerned with facilitating the entry of Pa-Kur's tarnsmen who, as far as I knew, did not even constitute a portion of the garrison force, but I was concerned with opening the sky over the city in case I, and others, might be able to utilise it as a road to freedom.
Tarnsman

Men hanging from ropes beneath a tarn, drop to the wires to cut it and fight
((SEE ALSO Tarns for quotes of 7 to 10 men hanging from rope beneath a tarn in flight))
We fought on the height of the keep.
The last four arrows of the great yellow bow were fired, and four who threatened us fell from the delta wall beyond the keep, from which they were attempting to cover the climb of the besiegers.
Standing even on the mantelets under the tarn wire, with spears and swords, we thrust at the tarnsmen dropping to the wire, leaving go of the ropes to which they had clung.
Raiders

Tarn wire cut with bladed hooks
First wave of tarnsmen cut the wires, the second, third and fourth waves entered the gaps
"The tarn wire has been cut!" cried a man. Then he reeled, bloody, from a blade.
Borchoff, drunk, staggered to his feet between the tables. The Turian soldiers looked wildly about. The music had stopped. Outside the hall we could hear fighting and shouting.
"To arms!" cried Borchoff. "Ring the alarm bell!"
More men swept into the room. Turian soldiers ran to the walls, to seize at their weapons. Slave girls screamed.
Then the room was in the control of the strangers. They were fierce, swift men, efficient, terrible. They wore gray helmets, with crests of the hair of larls and sleen. Their leather told me they were tarnsmen.
"The key to these chains," demanded the prisoner, rising to his feet.
Blades were set at the throat of Borchoff. His men were throwing down their weapons. The surprise had been complete. For the music we had heard nothing.
The wire had been cut, with bladed hooks, swung on long lines below giant tarns, cut, and torn from its posts. The tarnsmen had approached from the dark quadrant, away from the moons, low, not more than a few feet from the ground, hidden by the shadows of the world, and then had, without warning, little more than a quarter of a pasang from the keep, swept into the air, the first wave striking at the wire, the second, third and fourth waves dropping through the cut, billowing wire to the parapets, roofs and courtyard of the keep. Numbers had fought their way almost instantly to the hall. The plan of the fortress seemed well known to them. They moved with dispatch.
Slave Girl

Tricking the guardsmen into lowering the wires
Without leaving the back of the tarn, I demanded the officer in charge. He was a dour, hard-bitten man with white hair cropped short. He had grey eyes that looked as though they had seen action and hadn't flinched. He approached sullenly. He did not enjoy being summoned by an enemy of Ar, and in particular by one who wore the habiliments of the hated Caste of Assassins.
'Pa-Kur approaches the city,' I cried. 'Ar is his.'
The guards were silent. At a word from the officer a hundred spears would have sought my heart.
'You welcome him,' I said scornfully, 'by opening the great gate, but you have not retracted the tarn wire. Why is this? Take it down in order that his tarnsmen may enter the city unimpeded.'
'That was not in the conditions of surrender,' said the officer.
'Ar has fallen,' I said. 'Obey the word of Pa-Kur.'
'Very well,' said the officer, gesturing to a subordinate. 'Lower the wire.'
The cry, rather forlorn, to lower the wire was echoed along the lengths of the walls and from tower to tower. Soon the great winches were in motion and, foot by foot, the frightful netting of tarn wire began to sag. When it reached the ground, it would be sectioned and rolled. I was not, of course, concerned with facilitating the entry of Pa-Kur's tarnsmen who, as far as I knew, did not even constitute a portion of the garrison force, but I was concerned with opening the sky over the city in case I, and others, might be able to utilise it as a road to freedom.
Tarnsman

Escaping from a high building by placing a small metal wheel on the wire and hanging beneath it to descend as the wheel rolls down the wire
Looping coiled wire over a strand of tarn wire and descending to the ground
Outside, in the garden, off in the distance, on one of the bridges, I saw some men approaching. They had not yet seen me. I did not even know if they would. I looked at the slender, swaying tarn wire. I took the small, flanged metal wheel, with its protruding axlelike spindle, from my pouch. I also put the thick leather gloves on my hands.
...
“How did you escape form the city proceed?” inquired Lecchio.
“Very well,” I said.
“Splendid,” said Lecchio.
“To be sure,” I said, “I did not realize the descent on the tarn wire, with the flanged wheel, would be that swift. I struck the wall of a building with great force.”
“The most difficult part of the journey, of course,” said Lecchio, “would be the section where the tarn wire, from the lower roofs, stretches over to the wall, that section where you could not simply use gravity and the flanged wheel.”
“Some might have found it so,” I admitted.
“Fortunately,” said Lecchio, “it was a matter of only a hundred feet or so.”
“A mere nothing,” I admitted.
“Did anyone see you?” asked Lecchio.
“I did hear a couple of fellows shouting,” I admitted.
“Did you resist the temptation to do a somersault on the wire for them?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“It is probably just as well,” he said.
“I think so,” I said.
“I am pleased you did so well,” he said.
“I fell off seven times,” I said. “Fortunately I managed to seize the wire each time. Finally I finished the journey hand over hand.”
“You are probably not yet ready to do that sort of thing professionally,” he said.
“No,” I said. “I do not think so.” I was pleased that I had not broken my neck. The descent from the wall, once I had reached it, was simple. I had looped coiled wire about a parapet projection and, protected by the leather gloves, had descended to the ground, some sixty feet below.
Players