Remove ads

Scaling Up

Reader mode
Has Missy been told about exactly how Taylor got turned into a dragon other than "trigger event, nearly died"?

Because I could quite easily see Missy connecting just enough dots to realise there is more going on here, even if she doesn't know the full story...


"Hey, Taylor?"

Taylor looked up from the post-patrol paperwork she was filling out. "Yeah, Missy?"

"Why did you pick the name Naurelin?"

"It sounded vaguely Tolkien-like, and it just sorta... Felt right, you know?" Taylor shrugged. "I'm not sure if there was more to it than that, honestly. Why do you ask?

"I had an interesting experience the other day while out shopping with Theo for a gift for Mom, and met myself, but also this family of half dragons, one of whom may be your long lost half-brother..."

Taylor looked at Missy quizzically. "You met yourself?"

"Long story, not relevant at the moment. Does the name Nils ring any bells?"
 
FaerieKnight79 said:
To be fair, no monkey's paw has ever caused any sort of major non-infection related problem... to the monkey it belongs to. It's only when you cut off the paw and turn it into a wish granting object that problems arise.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Similarly, I've never understood why people consider Rabbits' feet to be lucky. If the rabbit lost it's foot, it couldn't have been particularly lucky (or at least not good luck)
 
FaerieKnight79 said:
It's only when you cut off the paw and turn it into a wish granting object that problems arise.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The Monkey's Paw is worse then average for Wish granting items, as it was (in the original short story) created to "prove" that one cannot alter one's own fate without creating misery. In other words, no matter what it was used to Wish for, it will find the means that brings the greatest misfortune and misery to the user to grant the Wish. For instance, in that story a wish for 20,000 British Pounds resulted in the death of the son of the one making the wish, with the offered death benefit from his employer being, you guessed it, 20,000 Pounds...

Most Wish granting items are, by comparison, relatively benign. Most will even grant certain Wishes with no real strings attached, such as using them to effectively cast Heal or Cure spells on party members. With the Monkey's Paw, asking for a party member to be Healed will probably have a Priest of Vecna show up, lay a Geas on the Party, and then do the Healing so they can do his bidding....
 
Of course, one thing you should never do when dealing with an annoyed djinn is to say "I wish for you to make me a sandwich." Actually, don't make that wish no matter what the source granting it is.

You wouldn't believe the number of 'clever' adventurers that got turned into a ham sandwich that way.
 
Disney's Live Action Aladdin actually has Genie outright state to Aladdin to be very careful with the wording of his wishes. 'Make me a prince.' could be used to conjure a prince into existence instead of turning the wish-maker into a prince.
 
Norgarth said:
Similarly, I've never understood why people consider Rabbits' feet to be lucky. If the rabbit lost it's foot, it couldn't have been particularly lucky (or at least not good luck)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well, if it's like they Monkey's Paw, maybe the killing of the owner and preparation as a charm inverts the luck on it and turns the jinx on the rabbit into luck for you?
 
Segev said:
It is very weird to see people so comfortable and knowledgeable about the Lady. o_o
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The impression is that Nils works to enforce Her Law, and works closely enough with Her to know more then most about Her.

Most in Sigil are quite appreciative of The Lady for making the city as safe as it is. Without her, most of the Powers would be fighting over the most valuable city in the Outer Planes.

Interesting detail; at least in second edition, the farther one is from the Plane where a Magic Item is created, the weaker the item becomes; weapons and armor loose +1 of bonuses per plane removed. This means, on the Outer Planes, weapons from the Prime Material will be weaker by 2, while weapons made in Sigil and the Astral Plane will be at only a penalty of 1. By comparison, a +5 sword made in Olympus would be functionally +1 in the Abyss or Celestia, and non-magical beyond those planes. Considering how difficult crafting anything is in the Astral is, one can see why Sigil is considered the most desirable bit of real estate in the Outer Planes...

The Lady keeps the other Powers out. Naturally, this is seen as quite desirable to those that live there, which is why they are so comfortable with her presence.

Which is not to say that anyone wants her attention. It's just that her direct servants would be used to it by now.
 
Briefly:

Nils is actually part of a group that handles people suddenly arriving in Sigil via non-standard means and entry. Sigil has a Port of Entry area where most of the Portals arrive, courtesy of the Lady. While any door in Sigil may wind up being a portal to nearly anywhere, She tries to keep that to a minimum, at least to other planes. In between places in Sigil is another story, but if She wants to see you NOW, you will be transported to Her presence Immediately (if not sooner), and as traditionally, the Lady is silent, one of Her servants will explain things to you. If the Lady has to come to you... It's either very good (head pats / hugs!) or very bad( being smeared across existence / Imprisoned / trapped in one of Her labyrinths).

The medallions that Nils and Missy wear are for people She's interested in or who work directly for Her. She wears the only adamantite one, there are two mithril, and three platinum medallions. Gold tends to be for the official diplomats, Silver and Bronze for Her civil servants. Nils, if you want to give him a modern job title, is a senior Customs and Immigration officer. The medallions basically have Tongues and Comprehend Languages on them, along with a couple other abilities that deal with planar travel. The rarer medallions basically say "This person is a member of the Lady's house, and I've got them covered." Hence, why Missy has a rather substantial amount of credit in the ring of Sigil.

Lady Amelie Stonehewer is a member of the City Watch, and commands the Market District Precinct. And yes, she's an Analogue for Director Piggot. Think about how tough you could make a L10 Fighter, and then give them SpecOps and Urban Warfare training. Amelie and Emily would probably get along just fine, commiserate about their circumstances, and then go out for drinks. She has to deal with much the same things as the PRT in Brockton Bay, except that the villains in Sigil are more civil, and readily turn in troublemakers in their organizations before they garner HER attention.

Basically, Nils works for the Federal Government, and Lady Stonehewer for the City, but they both half to deal with extra-planar bullshit regularly, so the Lady doesn't bother them too much, especially if she stays waaaaaaay over there (in Amelie's case; Nils tends interact more directly with Her or Her deputies).
 
Last edited:
So at what point are they going to realize that dragons are popping up on earth bet like daises. Or a particularly virulent fungus.

It seems as full blooded dragons are basically gone from existence that that would be a major event that they are just crawling out of the woodwork now. All in one location.
 
I think a good analogy for Missy and the Mistress would be to compare them to Shirou Emiya and Heroic Spirit EMIYA, respectively.

One is simply one potential future path that the other could take.
 
Professor Vesca said:
So at what point are they going to realize that dragons are popping up on earth bet like daises. Or a particularly virulent fungus.

It seems as full blooded dragons are basically gone from existence that that would be a major event that they are just crawling out of the woodwork now. All in one location.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

As soon as some extra-planar travellers (Ignore the old man smoking his pipe in Mr. Greenwood's kitchen in Canada, he keeps secrets well) who can't keep their mouths shut start poking around. Given that the Earth tends to be an extra planar backwater (Ship : Local name, Earth. Galaxar : Booooooring.), there's not much reason for them to poke around here, except as maybe a tourist, and even then, events of the last 25 years tend to make extraplanar tourists to NOT want to go there.

It is more likely that someone in the Outlands will see Naurelin, Panacea, or Dennis (w/Hlal) flying around. Not incredibly likely, since Naurelin and Panacea are in a pretty remote area of the Outlands (Tiamat's Chalet is within a day's flight, and Bahamut's mountain is visible), while Dennis and Hlal are in another area entirely.
 
Kryslin said:
The medallions that Nils and Missy wear are for people She's interested in or who work directly for Her. She wears the only adamantite one, there are two mithril, and three platinum medallions.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Three platinum and Missy got one. I wonder if the other two are regularly possessed by someone or if three is the maximum number of mortal Missy Biron's that have been present at the same time.
 
Please tell me there's an ugly dude with dreds running around with a floating skull - who claims to be the Head of Vecna - that has one of HER symbols as a tattoo on his back. (Basically the lowest rung on that medallion ranking) :evil:
 
Kryslin said:
No, because Humans live there, and humanity has a reputation of being able to thrive almost anywhere, and they get really mean when you try to kill them. Most advanced, intelligent civilizations consider the Earth 'Boring' but not harmless.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Humans are Space Orcs! P.M. Seymour has a long video series about this on his channel.
 
E.I.G. said:
I note that the original Naurelin's father was not said to have died.
Which seems like it will matter, because that is definitely half of a fused soul backstory right there.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

More importantly, this explains why Tiamat has such a personal interest in Taylor, doesn't it - even a red dragon who's not particularly evil still falls under Her purview, as do the offspring thereof.
 
This is an advisement from the Author:

Due to birthday celebrations (mine) on 25 Sept 2021, posting of that night's chapter may be delayed until later in the evening/Sunday Morning.

Thank you.
 
Congratulations in advance Kryslin, sincerely hope you enjoy your birthday and since I'm a gentleman I won't ask how old you're going to be 😜.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top