The apparent lack of a dome indicates it was relatively fast, as Simurgh fights go. Likely at least one god or several of their greater servants showed up and proceeded to smack Ziz around enough she left.
I think the maximum theorised time one can be in the radius of her song before being considered a thrall is 5-10 minutes i think, correct me if im wrong. I know she doesnt really need to sing and all but im talking from the human perspective, it would have to be an incredibly short EB fight...if you could call it that.
 
I think the maximum theorised time one can be in the radius of her song before being considered a thrall is 5-10 minutes i think, correct me if im wrong. I know she doesnt really need to sing and all but im talking from the human perspective, it would have to be an incredibly short EB fight...if you could call it that.
From my understanding the max time before they wall a city is something like 45 minutes. Ziz can master people pretty much instantly from anywhere, but they don't know that. I suspect that doesn't work on gods or very well at all on sufficiently Epic creatures, though.
 
And the problem with a spear with interchangable heads is that while the dagger "spear tip" might be magic, the shaft isn't. So basically all you're doing is tying a dagger to a quarterstaff. I personally would probably also rule that since the method of attaching the spear's tip to the shaft isn't a full tang with proper anchoring, there's a risk of the spear's tip breaking off. Say, a 10-20% chance when you score a critical hit.
I can think of at least three ways of handling attaching the blades to the staff, and at least one of those would require the staff be enchanted as well. As to the tip breaking off..... don't you mean a Critical Miss? As in, roll a one in combat, and risk the weapon breaking? Besides, at least one of the ways I can envision the attachment (admittedly, the one requiring magic to pull off) would be at least as good as a full tang, and one of the non-magical attachment methods would forgo quick exchanging of blades for secure attachments. (Think the method replaceable Exacto-knives secure their blades, with replaceable handles going around the tangs for the ones used as daggers. A bit clumsy,to be sure, but add a counterweight to the other end, and it should be functional. Just don't be too surprised when it takes a full turn to exchange blades, minimum......)
 
From my understanding the max time before they wall a city is something like 45 minutes. Ziz can master people pretty much instantly from anywhere, but they don't know that. I suspect that doesn't work on gods or very well at all on sufficiently Epic creatures, though.
The way the Simurgh creates "Simurgh bombs" (not thralls, though the difference is largely technical and not important in practical terms) is by using her precognition to see how she can direct their actions through minor telekinetic effects. Anything that causes problems for entity precognition is defended against the Simurgh (and creates a degree of defense for their surroundings, since they also disrupt predictions of people who interact with them).
 
It can't be that old; prior to third edition, there were only two types of DR (Silver and Magic), and Magic trumped Silver; any magic weapon did full damage to anything the needed Silver to hurt, regardless of what it was made of.

In First and Second editions, if a fae was hard to hurt, they needed a Magic weapon to harm, not a Cold Iron one. Cold Iron wasn't a thing of importance until 3.5

Then again, it wasn't DR back then; before third edition, if you didn't have a weapon that bypassed the defense, your weapons would do NO damage whatsoever. Thankfully, I can't think of a single case of a first or second edition monster that needed anything higher then a +3 weapon to hurt.....
It was old because the book was as old as I am and came out in the 1980s. I'm pretty sure that counts as "Old".

Also, it was AD&D, not D&D.
 
For all we know, the aboriginal Capes of Australia could've turned up and dumped Canberra into the Dreamtime so Rainbow Snake could have a discussion with Ziz.

Edit: As far as rulebooks go, I still have my dog-eared copies of the 1974 edition of Dungeons and Dragons. It was a serious kludge to fit individual characters into a miniatures combat environment and include magic. Getting the AD&D material when it came out was so much better in many ways, even if it broke about half of the characters I'd carefully built up with the original rules.
 
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Also, it was AD&D, not D&D.
When I refer to first and second edition D&D, what I mean is AD&D; they shortened the name with third edition, but any of the editions that come in hardcover manuals are essentially AD&D. I just use the shorter name because that has become the convention for the last three and a half editions compared to the longer name for just two editions.

1980's was solidly first edition AD&D, and back then Cold Iron wasn't a thing in the official materials. As such, I have to wonder what alleged advantage there was to having a hybrid blade, instead of just enchanting a Silver Blade. Especially since, back then, a +1 to hit enchantment was enough to overcome any material based damage immunity.....
 
Which would still be at least 5 to 6 weapons. You'd still be golf bagging your weapons. Also pretty sure most material inlays don't bypass DR in D&D 3.5, especially if you're using a bladed weapon. If the steel edge can't cut the skin of your foe, how is the inlay along the side suppose to do anything?

Long spear across the back, short spear down one side, machtee on one hip and crossbow on the other, the two knives are then on either side of the legs and are more tools than weapons, though the utility knife could be a final holdout.

As I understand it, it won't. I only looked at the expanded DR rules once or twice (having not upgraded since 3.0), but as I understand it, there are at least four types of DR: Silver for dealing with traditionally Unholy monsters like Vampires and Werewolves, Cold Iron for dealing with Fae, Magic for dealing with powerful supernatural beings like Dragons, and Adamant for dealing with insanely durable beings like top level Monks. Silver works because it is Pure, and the weapon needs to be at least largely pure silver to do the job. Cold Iron works because it is a natural conduit of the Earth Element or some such, and again needs to be pure to do the job. Magic..... can be applied to any of these and still work, but must be adequately enchanted to be useful. And adamant needs to be pure to have the raw strength to overcome the pure physical toughness of the target. So, unless you are planing on carrying an exotic double bladed weapon, where one blade is one material and the second is another, with the whole thing enchanted out the wazoo, you will need at least three primary weapons.

I suppose one COULD have a spear with exchangeable heads, and each head function as a dagger when used separately, to get around the whole mess, leaving them with either one spear and two daggers OR one staff and three daggers as their melee weapons, but even then anything more then a sling for a ranged weapon would be getting cumbersome....

Really depends on how you do it, for a spear/bladed staff I would have a core made of Adamant that is also the cap and the final third/point of the blade since you're likely only going to be stabing things with it, after which there is the wood which is then given a cold iron cover/inlay of sorts (it doesn't cover the entierty of the shaft) and makes up most of the rest of the blade, then over that you put the silver so it covers bothy part of the iron and still exposed wood with it taking up the little bit of the blade left and also being inlayed in the iron part of the blade right to the edge.

Then you enchant it.
 
1980's was solidly first edition AD&D, and back then Cold Iron wasn't a thing in the official materials. As such, I have to wonder what alleged advantage there was to having a hybrid blade, instead of just enchanting a Silver Blade. Especially since, back then, a +1 to hit enchantment was enough to overcome any material based damage immunity.....
Uh, cold iron was a thing back in the 1980s. It gets mentioned in the original "Lords of Darkness" for Forgotten Realms.
 
As to the tip breaking off..... don't you mean a Critical Miss? As in, roll a one in combat, and risk the weapon breaking?

Nope, I'd meant a critical hit. As in "the connection can't take the strain of you hitting the enemy that hard". A critical miss, you might have hit your allies or accidently thrown your weapon... assuming critical misses are a thing in the campaign.
 
WRT the conversation about golf-bagging your weapons to get through DR: (this applies only to 3rd edition of D&D, though)

all that only applies to low-magic worlds, or if you're kept dirt-poor by your DM. If you're mid-to-high level and have had decent access to magical enchanting, a simple +2-equivalent enchantment will get a single weapon through ALL material-based DR: Metaline.

Magic Item Compendium said:
METALLINE

Price: +2 bonus
Property: Weapon
Caster Level: 9th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 19) transmutation
Activation: Standard (command)

The color and texture of this weapon seem to shift with each passing moment.

When you activate a metalline weapon, you can change its composition to adamantine, alchemical silver, cold iron, or ordinary steel.

That one enchantment right there? Your silver sword isn't working agianst the iron golem? change it to adamantine! Now it isn't working against that devil? Now it's cold iron! Granted, it takes a standard action to change, which takes you out of a fight for a round, but that's -much- better than having to lug around a bunch of weapons and have to sort through them in the middle of battle!

Here's another one:

Magic Item Compendium said:
TRANSMUTING

Price: +2 bonus
Property: Weapon
Caster Level: 13th
Aura: Strong; (DC 21) transmutation
Activation: —

This odd-looking weapon has both sharp and blunt sections. Its pommel or grip is set with a diamond, a piece of jet, a sapphire, and a ruby. In addition, it is inlaid with both adamantine and silver.

When you score a successful hit with a transmuting weapon against a creature that has damage reduction, that attack is resolved normally. At the start of your next turn, however, the weapon transforms, taking on the properties required to overcome that creature's damage reduction.

Once so changed, the weapon overcomes the designated type of damage reduction for 10 rounds, or until you strike a creature that has a different type of damage reduction. In this case, the weapon transforms in the same manner to overcome that damage reduction instead. If the target has multiple types of damage reduction, the weapon overcomes all of them. If the creature gains a new type of damage reduction after initially being struck (from changing its form, for example), the weapon must change again before it can overcome the new type.

A transmuting weapon does not gain any other benefit of the properties it takes on, and it always deals normal damage.

Same price-tag, and this time it's automatic! AND it pierces alignment-based DR, as well as metal-based DR! So that bastard Balor with DR 15 / Cold Iron & Good won't be ignoring you for long!

If you can't afford a +3-equivalent item by the time you hit 10th level in 3.5 D&D, something has gone wrong somewhere, or you're in a very low-magic game. Even the statted NPCs are getting +3 equivalent weapons by 15th level or thereabouts, and they have less Wealth-By-Level than PCs are supposed to have.
 
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Who says they're only focused in BB? The story is, but this kind of stuff could be happening all around the world.
Oh no, I wasn't suggesting that they were only focused here, just commenting on the fact that they've deployed a resource as powerful as Tamamo and enough power to change someone to another race in a seemingly random American City...

I mean, sure, Brockton Bay looks like it will be Dragon Central for quite some time, but it's still interesting that they've expended as much as they have.
 
Then again, it wasn't DR back then; before third edition, if you didn't have a weapon that bypassed the defense, your weapons would do NO damage whatsoever. Thankfully, I can't think of a single case of a first or second edition monster that needed anything higher then a +3 weapon to hurt.....

There were some but they were very high end. Think Archdevils (IIRC) and Demi-lich (definitely)
 
Isn't he of mixed race? Or is that fanon?
That's actually canon, according to the wiki.

Half-Chinese, Half-Japanese.
Lung is suppose to be half Japanese, half Chinese. But more, I blame Wildbow thinking all Asian cultures are the same.

He was a cape in Japan, not China. So why was he using a Chinese cape name? And after having to escape from the Yangban, why would he continue using that name? One would think he'd hate his Chinese ancestry for either cultural or personal reasons.

I now exist in a state of being corrected. Still a dumb choice.
 
"FLUFFY!" *snorts*
Even the shards like fluffiness. :lol:

I can understand Amy not telling Carol about her lizarding. Might be a bit much all at once.

I still think one of the Dragon Gods should take a look at their Digital namesake. She's a good girl, who doesn't deserve her fate.

Excellent Chapter!

My dishwasher manual is a better love story than Twilight.
The multiplication table is a better love story than Twilight.
The coffee table is a better love story than Twilight.
 
I love seeing everyone speculating on what happened at Canberra. This story is also posted on Cross Time Cafe (link is to it there) and has more posted there. I won't spoil because that would be rude as hell, but it is so fun watching the mass guessing.

This story is freaking amazing and so enjoyable to read (and reread) and I always look forward to the next chapter.
 
Part of chapter 5 is about "WTF happened in Canberra." It's title "Demons, Dragons, Angels, Saints."
  1. Demons includes the likes of Lolth, Oni Lee, Cauldron and Bakuda, and their machinations and victims.

  2. Dragons includes the usual suspects, plus a couple of newcomers Including Dragon/Teresa Richterand Hlal.

  3. Angels Includes Ziz, Tamamo-no-Mae and a couple of new comers(Paige McAbee/Canary, Sehanine Moonbow, Eilistraee) and their machinations and interference, plus the trouble the people they've halped get into.

  4. Saints includes the life span challenged Geoff Pellick and company.
As has been mentioned, Raw chapters get posted to The Cross Time Cafe. I'm about a month ahead there, with [5.5] Dragons II getting posted last night.
 
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With all that coming down, I think the episode should've closed out with a rendition of "Real Folk Blues" from Cowboy Bebop.
 
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