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Here's a situation from my Pathfinder game this past weekend. I use a (fairly common) house rule that a 1 is an automatic failure and a 20 is an automatic success. I then usually roll percentiles to see the degree of magnitude of the failure or success. Admittedly house rules, yes, but this question is about the scenario that they led to, and a question about that, not the house rules themselves.
Anyway, to explain the adventure, the party was up in a little Alpen kingdom and the king had to make nice with his new subjects and points with his very tired old chamberlain by going to the town to judge the annual cheese festival and pageant for the loveliest milkmaid. You know, usual stuff until the Miller who was an evil conjurer on the side contracted an evil red dragon to go ruin the cheesemaking festival, terrify the villagers, and basically make his ruse a bit more credible that the virgins he'd been sacrificing over the years were in fact eaten by a picky red dragon, rather than sacrificed to devils and then having their charred corpses torn apart by hellhounds. You know, typical.
So the dragon flew down and landed dramatically atop a tower in full view of the villagers, the adventurers, and everyone else attending the cheesemaking festival, and then lit off a huge gout of dragonfire into the air to get everyone's attention and give him an even better bonus on his Intimidate check than making a dramatic entrance and the plain fact of being an adult red dragon. And then I roll for the dragon and he gets a 1.
Now, I then consult a few more dice and realize it was a pretty bad botch, the dragon terror is going to be so not happening that day, and in the hushed silence of the terrified villagers, the littlest milkmaid is heard to say, "Look, mama! The dragon's got the weathervane up his bum!"
Yes indeed, he had. One of those horrible social faux pas that the bards would be singing about in bawdy tavern ballads for centuries. A weathervane with a decoration atop in shape of a prancing stag had become rectally inserted and the fact had been pointed out by a small child in a dramatic moment rather blatantly lifted from "The Emperor's New Clothes." It was probably a kindness that the adventurers pressed their rather miraculous advantage and proceeded to make short work of the dragon due to good rolls on their party and a bit more awful luck on his, including flying into the clocktower after being blinded by the mage.
To gild the lily on the situation, it had earlier been set up that the mage had done stuff to attract the attention of Thor, and I rolled and indeed, the Norse god of thunder was looking down at the moment and watching the proceedings like someone had just sent him a link to the most hilarious YouTube video ever. Thunder that sounded suspiciously like laughter rolled across the sky, and two characters with extremely good perception checks noticed a bearded face in the clouds right over a rainbow that had rather spontaneously appeared. And there the game session ended, with the littlest milkmaid saying the fateful words, "Mama, I hope every cheese festival is this exciting!"
Now the question comes here, is the weathervane now magical? I'm pretty certain by the RAW it is still just a mundane weathervane, and in fact one snapped off at the base and more than a bit bent. However, by the rules of storytelling, it was bathed in dragonsblood, struck the first and last blow in the death of a dragon, and was witnessed by a god as the punchline of the shaggy dog story version of a dragonslaying. How can it not be magical now, even a little bit?
My question here is, does anyone know any rules for this, either in Pathfinder sources, or else in 3.X sources or other 3rd party sources? Do I just make it magical by DM fiat, or saying that the god watching performed a Miracle, or at very least make it now some quasi-magical substance on the order of dragonhide, since the dragon died with it lodged in his body and it's now gained the same properties as the rest of the corpse?
And if I do pull a DM fiat, any suggestions for what powers to give the dragonsbane weathervane?
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I don't know of a rule that would allow this, but I definitely like where you're going with it, and GM fiat seems totally appropriate.
As for what it would do...if it was an arrow-shaped weathervane, it could henceforth act as either a magically replicating +x dragonbane arrow (i.e.- everytime it's pulled from a quiver it regrows itself in time for another shot or in d4 rounds, minutes, hours, or days) or, if it's big enough, maybe as a +x dragonbane spear or javelin (maybe suitable for a small character if it's a bit on the smallish side).
Dragon bane spear +1! giving +4 to dragon fear saves.
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Or, since the weathervane so ably defended the town against a heinous (or would that be heinyous) evil, Thor blesses it to keep doing that job. When is imminent danger to the town, the wind blows in a direction not normal for the town during that season (ill wind?) and the weathervane glows and points in the direction of the threat. Have the priests, farmers, or hunters whoever is fairly knowledgeable about weather point out that the wind is blowing from the wrong direction, and even stranger, the weathervane is pointing in a direction different than the wind is blowing!
Or, it could just be another magic weapon for your party...
Thanks everyone for their suggestions.
The players decided, of their own initiative, that the weathervane which had formerly been on the tower of the Cheesemakers Guildhall would be moved to the town clocktower which had done the final blow on the dragon when it smashed into it, followed by the war mage's black tentacles spell which flogged it to death while it lay on the ground, with insult to injury being the little bellringer figure with its hammer that had come loose from the clock and was stuck in front of the dragons nostril and one eye such that the last thing the dragon saw was the figurines hammer smashing into his eye after being smacked in the back by a tentacle.
Over the next week the workmen restored the bell tower, and when it was done, the wizard noticed that the weathervane was now magical and appeared to be continuously summoning a small air elemental who was always pointing it in a different direction than the wind was blowing. They assumed it was now pointing to the nearest dragon. (They are right.)
Also of note, the workers found that the little bell ringer figure had somehow acquired a beard and helmet which he didn't have before. This was assumed (again correctly) to be the work of Thor, who of course approved of the idea of putting a hammer through a dragon's eye.
There was also some fun dealing with all the dragon's blood, as I declared that red dragon's blood had the same volatility as your average brandy.
A few other things became enchanted as well, including one character who ended up bathing in the dragon's blood then not washing it off, allowing her to pull a Seigfried and gain a natural armor bonus.
But again, thanks to everyone who made suggestions.