What's this about a OS4 Pegasos kit?

[SlimJim]

@bbrv
 
I must be thick or lacking some special humour-DNA, because to me your post makes very little sense.
.
SlimJim

[SlimJim]

@bbrv
 
How amusing your view of the world now may be, you forgot
to mention the large hulking trolls sitting right in between the
campfires, growling at each other and being fed a scrap here
and there depending on which side they are shouting at for the
moment.
.
SlimJim

[SlimJim]

...
 
Oh, and I still haven't got an answer to the question of this
thread - from where did bbrv hear that a "AOS4 Pegasos Kit"
was considered? If from fleecy, when did fleecy say this?
 
The question was sort of drowned out in faery tales.
.
SlimJim

[SlimJim]

@bbrv
 
Heh, not my avatar is not a Avatarasorous. The
Avatarasorous is much smaller. My avatar rather depicts
the three-meter head of a Dracocéphalum Elementalis
Rex*, commonly known as the Great Dragon.

These sentient carnivourous animals can be found in all
terrain. Fully grown (after a youth lasting almost 50 years),
they reach a length of about 25 meters while weighing in at
about 90 tonnes. The wing span of a fully grown dragon is
about 60 meters (some 600 square meter of total wing
area). Their brains are eight times larger than a human brain
and even though very alien in thought they often quickly
learn to replicate human languages by careful high-pitched
vibration of their head-pansar. The Dragon tongue itself is
three meters long and incapable of pronouncing human
languages - it is used in the Draconic language referred to
(quite logically) as Dragontongue**.
 
For the amateurs Dracologists, I'll give an excerpt from L.
Canberras excellent Field Dracology, today and
tomorrow(D&A publ.):

[...]The safest way to observe a [Great] Dragon is from a
safe distance. Find an observing point no less than three
kilometers from its lair. In some areas where a Dragon
hunts, locals have constructed special reinforced shelters -
ask for those! If you are lucky, you can spot it as it lifts
from its lair or from catching something on the ground.
(Check the local newspapers for sightings. Dracology
specialist publications such as "Teeth and Claw" or "Dracol"
publish montly lists of dragon sightings)
[...]
Caution: remember that the Dragon has much better eyesight than
you. Always assume that if you can see it, it can see you
too.

For further information on these fascinating animals, I refer
to the original published article in Dracol by Dracologie
professor S.Regandell (Dracol nr 3, 417, Chile 2002.)
 
But if you have any further easy questions, just ask and I
might be able to answer.
.
SlimJim


*) Dracocéphalum is latin for "Dragon's head" (from Greek
"drakon" and "kefale" meaning "Dragon" and "head"
respectively) Elementalis is a historical reference to this
animal's domination in all the traditional elements, including
fire. "Rex", finally means king. It can be discussed whether
or not the Great Dragon deserve this title as it is certainly
not the biggest member of the Dracocéphalum animal
subgroup - the Great Sea Serpent is much bigger. History
and tradition are the culprits here; The Great Dragon was
simply discovered much earlier than the Sea Serpent. For
fairness, the latin name of the Great Sea Serpent,
Dracocéphalum Aquarius Rex, denotes it as the "king of
water". For further background on early encounters
between humans and dragons, we refer to "Ecyclopaedia
Draconis Imperatis" by E.Chao et al (D&A publishing)

**) Human understanding of the Dragontongue is
limited, and the syllabic alphabet created to put the known
words on paper is longer than the list of actual known
words. Today 164 words in Dragontongue is known. Of
these, 40 are Draconian names, 2 are verbs, 4 are
adjectives and 118 are different classes of threats and
insults.

[SlimJim]

... and no, I have not been on any "extended stellar exploration
mission" - wish I was. I have been working on my Master
Thesis, and it is not in Dracologoly...
.
SlimJim

[SlimJim]

-Double post. Sorry.-

[SlimJim]

@bbrv
 
To answer your question, I once again quote the Draconic
litterature.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"The insides of the Dragon ribcage is practically empty,
leaving two huge spaces, each inlined with a sack
membrane having a volume of 16.5 cubic meters. The
outer walls of the second chamber of each "gasmaker"
organ faces the inside of these sacks and the hydrogen
from the chemical breakdown is stored like in a balloon. In
fact it's exactly like a balloon, since these sacks, commonly
referred to as the flying sacks allows the dragon to lift
its immense weight off the gound without having the
anatomically impossible bodymass/ wingmusclemass
normally required for such an heavy animal to fly. [...]

The hydrogen production never stops as long as there are
water left in the lower part of the refeeding stomach. When
the flying sacks are full, the dragon must expell gas. It does
so by contracting the ring of muscels of the chest. The
pressure expells the gas at high speed through two canals
at the foremost end of the sacks [...] the gas joins in a
cartellage conduit leading all the way through the throat to
the "fire-breathing" apparatus in the skull bone.

[...]
The "fire breathing" of the Great Dragon is actually not a
natural treat of the species, but a mix of anatomical
perfection, intelligence and cultural influence. A dragon is
not born with this ability, rather it has to be taught. [...] The
dragon eats a stone of flint and use the tongue to place it
right on top of the hollow connecting the gas-expellation
chamber and the mouth. A second stone is nudged at the
tooth seeling the side of the hollow. With practice, the
dragon can now snap its teeth shut to produce a spark at
the same time expelling gas from its flying sacks. Since the
dragon is simultaneously exhaling breathing air through the
connection between the mouth and expellation chamber, an
over-pressure is built up in the expellation chamber and the
hot gas mix is pushed with great force through the three
holes in the front of the dragon cranium. If the mix is ignited
by the flint- spark, it ignites a few centimeters outside the
expell holes, causing a thin flaming cone of burning
hydrogen up to twelve meters long. The effective range of
this "fire weapon" is however reduced due to hydrogen
dissipates so quickly - reducing the useful range to eight
meters - actually comparable to the reach the Dragon has
with its front paws. For this reason the fire-weapon is
almost only used as a defensive or tactical weapon by the
dragon. [...]
 
[...] So in no way is the dragon actually "breathing" fire.
Instead the ignited hydrogen is expelled from the three exit
holes in the chin, below the mouth. Since the expellation
cavity links to the mouth, these holes are often used to
drink water from pools of water whicj are too shallow for
the dragon to dip its long head - their function is similar to a
straw.
 
Normally, the gas is not ignited, rather the hydrogen from
the over-full flying sacks are just dispersed in a harmless
gust. [...]"

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope this answers your question. Other notable animals
belonging to the Draconis animal group (not the
Dracocephalii) are the smaller Hydra Elementalis and
the Chineese Dragon.

(excerpts are from  the Encyclopaedia Draconis Imperatis  VII)
.
SlimJim

[SlimJim]

@bbrv
 
... and my thesis is about a binary star. I'm the first to
analyse it so it's quite interesting: Two solar-like stars orbiting
each other at a distance of 1/10 of the distance between Earth
an our sun... :-)
.
SlimJim (...not getting all that much done this afternoon, it seems)