The heavy bolt-thrower, built on the same principle as the springald and three times the weight of it: two torsion skeins, a heavy stock, and a windlass that four crew turn to span. It looses an iron-headed shaft the length of a man’s leg with force enough to carry through a shield, the man behind it, and a second man behind him. Field armies bring them for gates and engines; garrisons keep them for anything that comes over a wall. It is the lightest thing in an arsenal that can mark a hide no sword will cut.
Four crew are needed — two on the windlass, one to lay it, one to handle the bolts — and two minutes’ work between shots.