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Posted by: Sprite Omae Sep 1 2013, 11:00 PM

Hello chummers!

We are playing a SR1 campaign with the SR 4 2050 rules. After an interesting and eventful run a team member was able to kill a dragon with a powerful artifact. Before we had to flee, my Hacker/Street Sam dwarf was able to get hold of three dragon teeth and six large dragon scales.

Now I have been wondering: What can I do with them? I considered using the scales for a custom dermal plating. Would you think this to be a good idea?

Alternatively, I could just sell them. What would be a reasonable price to get for them? They are from a dragon after all. Are there other possible uses?

Thanks in advance!

Posted by: Vilda Sep 1 2013, 11:12 PM

I would not want to be in your skin, when some other dragon decides he wants the scales of his fallen comrade back

Posted by: Sprite Omae Sep 1 2013, 11:18 PM

Haha, that is true. It is my main reason of doubt about that plan, actually. Then again, a dragon dermal plating...

Posted by: Dolanar Sep 1 2013, 11:38 PM

sell it to a mage & fast, no names, just lots of money on a cred stick

Posted by: FuelDrop Sep 2 2013, 12:30 AM

Hide. Hide a lot.

Posted by: WhiskeyJohnny Sep 2 2013, 12:48 AM

Did you make sure to take a nice bath in the dragon's blood? Worked for Sigurd after all. As far as what to do with the teeth, I'd keep them for sowing when you encounter the aforementioned dragon-who-wants-his-chummer's-scales-back.

Posted by: Shemhazai Sep 2 2013, 12:58 AM

Or you could make a rating 6 katana weapon focus that doesn't require bonding.

Why would a dragon want some other dragon's scales? And what kind of effect would implanting one in your skin have?

Posted by: Sprite Omae Sep 2 2013, 01:01 AM

Interesting idea!



It would provide quite some armor. My GM mentioned it could have other features as well, an acidic resistance or the like.

Heh, seems like I should ask my GM again how much other dragons would be after me for this. That dermal plating still sounds cool to me, but probably a bit short-sighted...

Either way, how much would they be worth when selling to a mage? I couldn't find any hard numbers.

Posted by: Shemhazai Sep 2 2013, 01:08 AM

What would the scale in your skin actually do?

Edit: Quite some armor? Is that like when Clint Eastwood had that woodstove door under his poncho? Anyway, it's his game. If he wants to make it a magical implant, then roll with it.

There is literally something in a Shadowrun book, I think Street Magic, about a run to get a dragon's tooth to be shaped into a katana handle. Then, it was used to take a human life to make the focus I described.

Even ivory is expensive. Could you imagine how much some rich person would pay to have a dragon's tooth in their library?

Posted by: Shortstraw Sep 2 2013, 01:21 AM

Initiate and use the scale and your metamagic to become a drake of that dragon type.

Posted by: Tanegar Sep 2 2013, 01:44 AM

You might not make as much money selling your dragonslaying teammate up the river, but you'll definitely live longer.

Posted by: Voran Sep 2 2013, 07:03 AM

Just because you killed a dragon with an artifact doesn't make the dragon any easier to chopshop. I mean, essentially you just killed a Naval Battleship. Without specialized tools, how would you break it down?

Posted by: FuelDrop Sep 2 2013, 07:17 AM

chainsaw. solves everything.

Posted by: Sengir Sep 2 2013, 08:57 AM

Well, the enchanting rules in SM do list dragon parts as possible exotic reagents/telesma. How much of that is applicable in a 2050s game with lower mana levels and all would be another question, though...

Posted by: Shemhazai Sep 2 2013, 09:32 AM

In 1st ed, there was a published adventure where part of the plot was killing a dragon. There weren't any dragon vigilante groups at the time.

Posted by: Sprite Omae Sep 2 2013, 02:41 PM

Exactly right, we are playing the Bottled Demon campaign interwoven with other campaigns right now.

Posted by: Angelone Sep 2 2013, 02:57 PM

The revenge posses didn't show up until late 4th edition if you are playing in the 2050's you should be safe. Still watch your back it's cheaper to hire someone to take the loot rather than to buy it.

Posted by: Bigity Sep 2 2013, 04:39 PM

Pretty sure the early editions enchanting rules mentioned dragon teeth/blood/etc as use as telesma for enchanting. It didn't mention taking them by force specifically (In fact, I think it was something like - You want me to do WHAT in that bottle?)

Posted by: Sendaz Sep 2 2013, 05:14 PM

Actually given that dragons were able to survive the low mana cycle, granted mostly by snoozing, rather than reversion like the metas probably means dragon bits are chock full of mana and would be ideal for reagents/telesma due to the inherent mana.

Posted by: binarywraith Sep 2 2013, 08:13 PM

You're dead. You have in your possession ritual links, and no dragon dies without something coming looking for why, even if it's just his ally spirits.

Posted by: Sengir Sep 2 2013, 10:34 PM

Or maybe dragons see defeat, especially at the hands of "younger races", as an utter disgrace and will do their best to distance themselves from the deceased. Dragon society is complicated and decidedly inhuman...

Note we are talking about a time long before Clutch here. In 2075, having ever dealt with dragon parts is a death sentence -- but you also have dragons performing ritual meetings in human form and with entirely human manners...

Posted by: binarywraith Sep 2 2013, 10:44 PM

I'm not even worried about other dragons as a society. No Great Dragon goes through life without allies, their sheer level of power and longevity makes it natural for others to want something of them or owe them favors.

Posted by: Sendaz Sep 2 2013, 11:10 PM

Granted a lot of this will depend on if and who the Dragon has ties to. As for Ally Spirits, again that depends on how they were treated in life since death of the Master is a condition allowing them to break free.

Now if this was the same dragon I am thinking of I recall he was quite young and a bit full of himself, even by dragon standards.

Plus I remember hearing there was another Dragon in play, but working the other side and they obviously didn't mind having his tail being kicked about.

I think his death in this case could be chalked up to Draconic Darwinism and the runners were merely the tool of Fate in this situation as he was heading for a bad end regardless.

It is a pity you didn't have time to gather some of the juicier bits of meat, though I suppose it is just as well.

The stuff is toxic unless you know how to properly leech the meat, heavy minerals and such, usually by special preparations and burying it for a few months.

Ah, but the flavour once you have rendered it safe for consumption and cooked properly....to die for.

Sometimes literally as Dragons tend to not like the idea of being the eatEN instead of being the EatER.

That and the 'Jewel' of the dragon of course, harvesting that would have fetched far more than the not inconsiderable monies you could get for the teeth and scales you had acquired.

Posted by: Sprite Omae Sep 2 2013, 11:50 PM

Thanks for the input guys, there is much I didn't know or consider. Interesting stuff

Yes, it was Geyswain.

What do you mean by that?

Posted by: Sengir Sep 3 2013, 12:37 AM

It's not about great ones, either. People tend to forget that there are a lot of adult, not-great dragons around

Posted by: Falconer Sep 3 2013, 01:48 AM

What should you do....

Post your pics of you with them all over the 'trix as bragging rights like posing with that deer you just shot in the woods.

That's what you should do .

Posted by: Lantzer Sep 3 2013, 02:47 AM

I look at it this way.

When a dragon dies, other dragons fight over his stuff. The winner gets everything he wants. Dragons don't like to share.

You are not a dragon.

You have a powerful dragonslaying artifact.

You have his stuff.

It was nice knowing you. You won't even see it coming.

Posted by: FuelDrop Sep 3 2013, 02:52 AM

Yeah. Thor shots HURT!

Posted by: grid.samurai Sep 3 2013, 07:50 AM

I gotta say that I'd probably just count my lucky stars that I killed the dragon, then lay very low for quite some time. I'd ask the GM if it would be okay to story a month or two to proceed without your runner actually doing anything besides ordering takeout and watching reruns of Combat Biker - not to avoid the scrutiny of any other dragons that might be interested in who did this, but from all of the metahumans out there trying to dig up who did this. I might also try to pin this on someone else so that someone - anyone - else would take the fall for it rather than myself. The last thing I would do is to believe I knew enough about their physiology to get medieval on their corpse in search of magical body parts. Not only would this be extremely messy and take an incredibly long time, but it is dangerous beyond belief. I would never make a character with a Death Wish quality, but that would be the only reason I would entertain the idea of doing anything remotely like this.

But it sounds like the deed is done though, so you might want to opt for framing someone else - someone with a mental disorder - as the true dragonslayer.

Posted by: Sprite Omae Sep 3 2013, 01:36 PM

Okay, I got the "other dragons don't want you to have parts of a dragon".

Just a heads up for the people claiming we are in trouble for slaying a dragon:
The artifact used for it was disabled and is no longer in our possession. Also, the slain dragon was known for his naive greed for this artifact and our group was indirectly sanctioned by another dragon for our actions. The outcome was in the interest of other dragons. As far as we can tell, of course.

Posted by: Shemhazai Sep 3 2013, 05:00 PM

No no no. GMs don't want you to loot.

Posted by: Tymeaus Jalynsfein Sep 3 2013, 06:10 PM

Looting? What's that?

Posted by: Lantzer Sep 3 2013, 07:47 PM

That's what they call nabbing the wallets of the thugs that tried to geek you in the alley.

Posted by: Sendaz Sep 3 2013, 08:21 PM

See? Looting is such an ugly term and misleading.

Rather you are reversing the current negative cash flow situation by active redistribution of the assets formerly possessed by the opposition for the purposes of maintenance, restocking and financing future endeavours.

However, doing the Happy Runner's Dance over the corpse is still in poor taste.

Posted by: Tymeaus Jalynsfein Sep 3 2013, 08:38 PM

In my experience, perfoming the Happy Runners Dance only gets you killed. So, we always leave that to the Amateurs.
I find that Financing future endeavors is not always a bad deal, but I still tend to leave opposition equipment by the wayside. Too much effort for too little gain and a whole lot of Risk.