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Old 02-13-2018, 04:56 PM   #21
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Default Re: How Do You Imprison TFT Wizards?

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Originally Posted by Steve Jackson View Post
Kipling had it as " ‘But Iron — Cold Iron — is master of them all.’ "

And, doing a bit of webreading, I find an allegation that he was the first to apply the epithet this way.
The Grose reference is long before Kipling was even born, and since he was producing a dictionary, he was documenting existing usage. Poking around at google ngram viewer, the oldest use that comes up is from 1672, though that was about interactions with hot lodestone so it might have actually meant cold. The second reference is a printed version of a play by Ben Jonson, though it actually dates to 1631, The Devil is an Ass, with a single reference "And lest our cold Iron should chance to confute thee". That seems to be something to do with confounding Pug, who is a minor devil but seems like he might be related to Puck.
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Old 02-13-2018, 04:59 PM   #22
Chris Goodwin
 
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Default Re: How Do You Imprison TFT Wizards?

Is there a spell for regrowing lost bits? Assuming you need the wizard relatively alive, and don't want to make an enemy of him forever, cut off his hands, eyes, and tongue. Regrow them for his court dates and/or release.
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Old 02-13-2018, 06:55 PM   #23
BrotherBill
 
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Default Re: How Do You Imprison TFT Wizards?

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Maybe this is a digression and maybe not. Why do we always say COLD iron? Is that just an epithet for iron, or does the iron really have to be cold?
Perhaps it has to do with magnetism, red hot iron will not be attracted to a magnet--blacksmiths use this when quenching a blade.

I prefer to imprison wizards in chain mail with lots of iron manacles and chains.
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Old 02-13-2018, 07:36 PM   #24
tanksoldier
 
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Default Re: How Do You Imprison TFT Wizards?

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Yep, that's the way we did it. Crude, but effective.
The problem with keeping a prisoner bound and gagged, unless imprisonment is meant to be a death sentence, is they can’t eat or drink and will also soil themselves. They will also begin to have circulation problems and eventually may lose hands and feet, or even arms and legs... which will putrefy and kill the prisoner that way.

Also it’s easy for someone bound and lying down to suffocate.

Leaving someone tied up for a few hours is uncomfortable but survivable. A few days can kill them.
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Old 02-13-2018, 08:03 PM   #25
malloyd
 
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Default Re: How Do You Imprison TFT Wizards?

I believe the oldest reference to anti-magical properties of iron is Pliny the Elder, who specifies "nails taken from a tomb" rather than "cold iron". You drive them into your threshold to ward off nocturnal spirits. That may or may not be a much older tradition - witness the similarity of nails in the ground to the use of the Tibetan phurba or Sanskrit kila.
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Old 02-13-2018, 08:29 PM   #26
Steve Jackson
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Default Re: How Do You Imprison TFT Wizards?

To answer a couple of questions:

(1) What I was thinking in 1980 was just iron.

(2) While there should probably be a healing spell to regrow lost bits, right now nothing short of a Wish would do it.
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Old 02-13-2018, 11:46 PM   #27
Skarg
 
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Default Re: How Do You Imprison TFT Wizards?

One relevant detail that would also be good to have spelled out, is how curses stack. Is the effect of the highest curse, or the total of all curses? If it's the total, anyone can eventually be cursed so that they have any level of minuses. Even if only the strongest curse is used, if you have one IQ 13 wizard with Curse and a few apprentices with Aid, you could get someone a -15 or -20 curse, and some iron gloves that don't allow hand gestures and a gag, that seems solid unless someone removes the curse... except a prisoner kept a long time could keep trying and hope for an automatic success.

Steve/Jaggaddo's Freeze item (which is the standard Freeze item effect) is a good solution for people who can get one.

Seems to me it would be nice if there were a few other possibilities other than Geas and Little Death (high-IQ spells).
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Old 02-14-2018, 12:17 PM   #28
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Default Re: How Do You Imprison TFT Wizards?

Here's an interesting thread over on RPG.net, that discusses sources of the legends of cold iron dating back to Pliny the Elder.

https://forum.rpg.net/archive/index.php/t-770739.html

Maybe those legends are a lot older than Rudyard Kipling after all!
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Old 02-14-2018, 02:40 PM   #29
Anthony
 
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Default Re: How Do You Imprison TFT Wizards?

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I believe the oldest reference to anti-magical properties of iron is Pliny the Elder, who specifies "nails taken from a tomb" rather than "cold iron". You drive them into your threshold to ward off nocturnal spirits. That may or may not be a much older tradition - witness the similarity of nails in the ground to the use of the Tibetan phurba or Sanskrit kila.
Yeah, anti-magic properties of iron are certainly very old, but the question was about the 'cold' part.
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Old 02-14-2018, 04:03 PM   #30
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Default Re: How Do You Imprison TFT Wizards?

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Yeah, anti-magic properties of iron are certainly very old, but the question was about the 'cold' part.
If you read the thread, they actually address that point -- which is why I included the link; otherwise, I just would have quoted "malloyd" too! ;-)
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