Dragonslaying

[Ruby]

One of the most fun things about fantasy is being just realistic enough to get characters into serious trouble. Such as creating a monster that's simply too massive to exist, and then still have to look for the physically best ways to stand up to it. So here, with spoilers from across fiction, is:

NINE WAYS TO KILL A DRAGON

1. Poison — the simplest method, if you can get enough into the dragon. Best example: Tanith Lee's short story "Draco, Draco," where a sacrificial maiden poisoned herself before offering herself to the dragon.
2. Magic — some wizards might actually be stronger than the dragon, or at least know its weakness. Best example: Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wizard Of Earthsea, where Ged defeats young dragons through paralysis spells, immature dragons by fighting in dragon form, and their father by using his true name against him.
3. Archery — the very best archer might be able to hit the eye, ear, or traditional "secret weak point in its armor." Best example: J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, where Bard the Bowman shoots Smaug's weak spot as he flies over the town.
4. Ballistas — clumsy but powerful, if you can hit. Best example: the SciFi Channel movie Dragon Star, involving a team sent out with a wheeled ballista (with gunpowder bombs attached for good measure... well, they can't all be classics).
5. Rockfall — even clumsier but worth trying to set up. Best example: Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance: Dragons of Winter Night, where a dragon is lured into a tower for gates to slam onto its head, trapping it to be finished off.
6. Lance — an ordinary knight has some extraordinary momentum with warhorse, knight, and armor mass focused on a lance point. Best example: Gordon R. Dickson's The Dragon And The George explains just how powerful a lance charge is.
7. Axe — if it has to be a straight fight against something that tough, "Any fool who'd go after a dragon with a sword…" Best example: Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane, source of the quote and also uses with poisoned harpoons.
8. Jump on the head — for true daredevils or the desperate only. (Variation: wait for it to bite at you and then try to stab that head.) Best example: the anime series Record Of Lodoss War.
9. Dragon-Slaying Weapon — deus ex machina. Best example: Fred Saberhagen's Books of Swords series includes the god-forged sword Dragonslicer, allowing half-trained peasants to become professional dragon-hunters.

So: have I missed anything?

Thanks. I will try to find a method that you've missed.

 

[wordwalker]

Near the end of this thread, we agreed that "get a bigger dragon" deserves to be a tenth.

And

Break his or her heart. It seems very traditional to fight a dragon, but there are many ways to die. Find a way to kill it that stands out from the crowd.

Say your dragon guards a sacred forest. Burn it down.

Say your dragon has a traditional hoard covering the bones of his mate. Steal it and desecrate them.

Say your dragon has developed an affinity for a human. Have the human betray the dragon.

Breaking a heart, taking away the will to live... that's a short road to a fast death.

really does stand out. If a dragon's power is an expression of some ancient place or thing, target that; if it's raw physical power, bypass that and go for the emotions. It worked on King Kong.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

In one book I used a technique against cyclops that would probably work against a dragon - since they love their sleep. Wait till he's asleep (duh!) then soften the ground under him by diverting underground rivers, but not all the way. Leave a thin crust at the top so he has no idea what's happening while you use your magic to eat awy the subsoil and build a nice big grave of silty / loamy quicksand. Then when it's large enough, take the crust away and watch him sink into the silt. He'll wake up of course but by the time he does he's already under water. (It works better at night too so he's not quite sure what's happening.) Then block the rivers up so that the silt solidifies around him, in effect burying him.

I used another variation of this in Maverick against a spider queen (As big and nasty as any dragon). She was living in a dead castle which I figure is not that much different to a cave. Melt the rock around him so he's quickly buried in lava. Presumably he won't burn but he won't like it much. Then let all the heat go. The lava turns back to rock and the dragon is embedded in solid rock. Think a fly in amber. He may not die if he doesn't need to breath, but he is somewhat trapped until the rock erodes!

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Hainted]

In Fables by Bill Willingham he mentions that the Adversary hasn't invaded Earth because of modern weapons, specifically because a single jet fighter could decimate his Dragons.

 

[wordwalker]

On thinking of this, I realize we're talking mainly about the more powerful dragons.

And I realize that Smaug is the go-to fantasy dragon, but if you look at myth, dragons were rarely anywhere near super-powerful and were much more of a nuisance. They were invincible to most commoners, but vulnerable to knights.

You're right, Zero. Dragons were more likely to be village terrors like St. George's, or the end of a long trail of hazards around a treasure; the idea that they took on armies or made a whole city stand and watch while one hero saved the day is fairly new.

So, there's room for younger dragons too. If you look at the pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus, it's estimated at about 500 lbs, equal to say a female grizzly bear, but with 35' of wingspan. All it would need to count as a minor dragon would be the breath and at least a bit of cunning, and some magic to let it fly with a less ponderous wingspan. And you've got something not too different from the smaller beasts in the Temeraire books or How to Train Your Dragon, that could be send a farm district into panic but not be impossible for a expert warrior with a brain.

And I think the minimums for "scaling up" (yes I have to say it) a dragon from there are not just size but two particulars:

• the altered physics so it can fly without being 99% wingspan (and okay, actually move, and keep fed), and
• toughening those scales.

From what Malik's taught us about the power of hunting bows, let alone warbows or full yew longbows, I understand how a hunter can kill a grizzly with an arrow-- though he'd be in badass territory to risk it. So any interesting fantasy creature that wants to come out of the forests or dark alleys to storm the castle is going to need something like armor, or it'll just be shot to pieces by multiple archers. Which brings us back to the Vulnerable Spot again, at least as one way to hurt it.

("Armor" may be oversimplifying it. If we think of a dinosaur attacking those troops, we think of its sheer size and reptillian stubbornness making it hard but possible to wear down. So maybe making bigger dragons armored is just more respectful than picking them apart, but Smaug shows it can be cooler.)