It's irritating when your not in on the secret. Does anyone know who posts throughout the Sourcebooks as Dragonslayer?
I think it's one of the IE's who took part in the down cycle killings, but I'm not a SR super genius. I already checked AH's site.

No-one, it's probably just a handle that the writers or editors use when they need some shadowtalk about dragons.

Aside from a distinct anti-dragon bias (and I believe an indication that Dragonslayer is male), there is nothing on Dragonslayer that I can recall.

He seems far too naive and uninformed to have direct Immortal connections, though that would not preclude a grunt level membership in the Hunters or a vessel agency for Dragonslayer. Both comments in Underworld and Dragons of the Sixth World indicate the former while leaving the latter a matter of speculation. However, it would make sense for such a group to use Dragonslayer as a decoy or diversion.

Dragonslayer is just the moniker they use when they want a left-field conspiracy theorist like The Lone Gunman, but want to apply that particular conspiracy to dragons and dragon-related events(or apparently un-dragon-related events, Dragonslayer knows better).

Very few of the handles I've seen used in sourcebooks actually correspond to characters that I or the freelancers play. Heck, I know for certain that one such handle has no corresponding character, because, well, it's me.

'bout to say...

Hey, I'm sure I'm in the books somewhere also. Just, you know, not as a proper noun.

Shhh... Wireknight, you're not supposed to tell them these things. More fun if they try and figure out who the Posters are...

Oh, BTW... Just because a regular poster doesn't correspond to anyone NOW doesn't mean that might not change at some point. I mean, at some point down the line someone might decide that Damien Knight REALLY hates Dragons and Dragonslayer is his "Secret Identity".

<shrug>

But 1/2 of Poster names are just that... Names. They often develop some character as they're reused through the books, and they may eventually become
an "Active player".

The other half are either puns or names of friends and friends characters

Bull

Don't mean to be a tease (well, not too much anyway), but if it's any help, there should (IIRC) be something in one of the next couple of books (Running Wild or Loose Alliances). Like Bull said, sometimes posters are just names and sometimes you're surprised when an author gets it into his head to give you a peak at what lies beyond.

Personally I have a lot of fun playing with established, but undeveloped characters, sometimes even dragging back long-forgotten ones (ie. Johnny Spinrad and Richard Kaminsky).

Actually, I'd say Dragonslayer's just one pissed off bugger with some gathered regret against dragons. Not sane. Sure. Which makes one wonder how he's still alive...

Sepherim: Even dragons need comedy

They can't possibly track down and remove every dragon-hater out there.

No, that part is easy. It's leaving the non-dragon-haters alive that's hard.

Has anyone else noticed that Dragonslayer seems to be maturing a little bit?
Most of his/her early posts are little more than "Fraggin dragons" or "It's always a dragon chummer" but he said something a bit calmer and even slightly profound in DotSW. I can't remember the quote offhand, I think it was in the Lung section but this brings up the question. Do the same writers handle the same persona's or does someone say ' Hey it would be funny if Dragonslayer said this here'?

Maybe he's just maturing, or maybe something happened to mature him...

Oh. Do elaborate. Oh wait, I forgot

As for surviving, I know probably Dragons don't give a s**t about him, that's obvious by now. But comedy... We know Dunkie had a sense of humor, but do the rest of them share that faculty too? Doesn't seem like Lofwyr or Lung would spend much time laughing each day...

I would like to think that Dragonslayer is actually someone of substance. An intelligent, but slightly insane and majorly paranoid up-till-now un-named I.E. downtime dragonslayer.

Maybe it's just me, but I like to chuck in a little I.E. background every now and then, and in my opinion not every single one is known. There has to be at least one surviving downtime-hunter (besides Shiela/Alachia ), and I would think it only logical for him to use Shadowland the manner he does.

yeah, but would he be dumb enough to advertise? making strategically-placed and -timed posts with crucial pieces of info under a variety of disconnected and/or anonymous names, i can see. posting under the name "Dragonslayer", on the other hand, smacks of someone who doesn't expect to live more than ninety or so more years anyway.

I'd rather him be a human as intelliugent as you describe him, probably with some trauma of sorts due to his life, or something like it.

Or has lived long enough, and through enough dangers to be confident and/or arrogant (not a trait unknown among IEs). Everyone posts on Shadowland, but not everyone is, or even can be traced. Why should he be any less competant than any of the others?

given enough time and motivation, anyone who posts as regularly as Dragonslayer does can be traced. confidence and arrogance are one thing (or, well, two things); overconfidence to the point of stupidity is another.

I have a hard enough time swallowing the number of immortal elves and great dragons posting on a hacker board as it is. We don't need any more.

I'll point to Underworld again as evidence that he doesn't know enough to be an IE. Specifically, he didn't know there was a link between Ryumyo and the Triads (among others). Plus he doesn't appear arrogant in the sense of personal superiority, but rather just has an innate hatred of dragons. Also, Harley forgoes his usually wit to lay a plain insult ("DRagonslayer, you really are just an idiot), which I have no recollection of him doing to anyone previous.

Bah, Harley would hold no love for him if he was a downtime hunter, and would be well-served by discrediting him. Notice Harly does not disclaim him. As for any lapses, he might just be trawling (trolling) for information, or spreading misdirection to obscure a future strike.

I like conspiracy ... I like I.E.s ... I usually GM and therefore don't get to figure out the in-game details ...

Somebody had to do the downtime hunting ... why not him?

That's the secret of Dragonslayer's cover .. hide in plain sight.

I do think that Harley, if he did hunt at all (which I doubt), would have been quite selective.

the fact that Dragonslayer is still alive and posting means one of two things: 1) he's a harmless, if reasonably intelligent and fairly well-informed, crank; 2) he's some kind of uber-badass decker (among other possible areas of expertise that relate to the slaying of dragons). however, you never see him posting as a l33t decker or anything else. possibility number 2 is, well, possible. possibility number 1 is not only possible, it's likely.

and, well, hiding in plain sight doesn't work so well, when there's a search on for people who look just like you.

There's another option. He's a badass sammie, and hunting him would requiere more expenses than the damage he does. Doesn't matter how much he hates dragons, he really doesn't know that much about them.

i considered that possibility, and decided it fit well enough into possibility number 1 that it wasn't worth differentiating. after all, if he's only a badass when compared to run-of-the-mill runners, then he's basically harmless to the guys who might oppose his grandoise plans--ie, dragons.