A question for super science geeks!

[Warren Okuma]

Before responding, I do have a question about the early crank engines, Okuma.

I can understand that a crank engine sparks fuel in the chamber on startup, but how does it work with only steel? As I recall, steel on steel doesn't spark well. What is the actual sparking mechanism?

Sure Dannyalcatraz. I just talked to my cousin. It seems that he built a compression ignition engine. Weird. Sorry about the confusion. I told you he wasn't too smart. Air when it gets compressed gets hot.
http://www.firepiston.com/
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Herbert_Akroyd_Stuart

Personally, I can't really do either...and one of my Great Uncles makes his own 'shine. (I know I'm a dissapointment.) I mean, I know the general ingredients, but not the process.

I suspect few people actually possess that knowledge.

All my friends that I know that yeast makes alcohol. And that lots of people know that alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water so it boils first. And when hot vapor cools it condenses. All you need is a copper tube, to cool the alcohol laden steam, (water optional) and a bucket to collect your alcohol. Repeat to purify. I suspect that there will be hundreds of thousands that know this surviving. Everyone in my High School and college chemistry classes knows how. Look all basic techs are as easy as this. Isn't moonshine stills in Texas in the rural areas?

Add yeast. Wait ten days. Boil. Alcohol boils first. Cool steam. Repeat to purify. How simple is that?

For the best results, you first boil the corn or feed. This kills the all unwanted microorganisms. Let it cool. Add yeast. Let ferment for ten days or until the mixture stops bubbling. Boil, and funnel the evaporating alcohol and water into your cooling rig. The initial boil is alcohol. When the mixture stops boiling it's almost out of alcohol so stop. Cool the steam by running it though a tube of copper (you can use iron if you do not intend to drink it) a water bath is best, but not necessary and to purify distil it again. Three boils and you have 91%+ (182 proof) alcohol. Ahem. Or so I read. Yup. And behold! If you survive you will have the knowledge to help rebuild civilization.

I studied the Oil & Gas industry as part of my education at UT Austin School of Law under Ernest Smith ( http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/profiles.php ), including the details of what makes a mine profitable, secondary & tertiary recovery methods, etc.

According to him, even small deposits get worked by someone if they're near the surface or otherwise easily recoverable. There is always a company/community/person for whom mining such a deposit would make economic sense.

Wow. You're right. There are tons of people working micro coal claims. Been looking at some micro coal pockets mining claims. Very interesting.

Most O&G mines are not surface mines.

Correct. One third of all mines in the United States are surface mines, strip or logwalling. And most of the underground mines have backup generators as safety features so can operate post starfall. I didn't realize so many coal mines had back up multiple generators. These mine operators keep a very ruthless schedule.
http://www.getenergysmart.org/Files/Schools/FactSheets/Coal.PDF

90% casualties overall- distribution of survivors would be lumpy, not evenly spread. Cities would be flattened (well, cratered, really) but rural areas would be relatively untouched, so casualties in and nearby cities would be basically 100%, but in rural areas, possibly as little as 10%.

So the problem remains.

Its not a question of impact modelling.

Oh indeed it is. To get the 90% most of the casualties will be in California and New York and other heavily populated coastal cities due to tidal waves from underwater avalanches and earthquakes. Texas should be close to 90% with the entire coast wiped and many cities smashed. And you can drop anywhere from 1000 rocks to 30,000 depending on the model you uses otherwise you will get uncontrolled global warming. You do believe in global warming is caused by CO2 at least a little right? 30K of rocks produce a lot of burning.

The Illithids are coming from the future with a plan to utterly destroy the surface civilization, leaving only enough people for thralls & snacktime.

The future? So are they coming with powered armor, tanks and stuff?

Thus they will know how many and will use as many rocks as it takes to do the job of thoroughly annihilating the cities & major targets of the surface world..

And most importantly does not cause runaway global warming from burning cities. One half of the hit is nuclear winter, but after three years it's nuclear summer due to the enormous CO2 being released from the burning cities. Being on Venus like world sucks.

Your list made me think about skewed demographics. Given that rural areas would be fairly untouched, many modern nations would find themselves in a situation in which the bulk of survivors would be:

1) Farmers, Ranchers & survivalists who live out there most of the time...

and

2) Outdoorsmen and others who vacation out there, including a disproportionate number of wealthy & politicians. Which reminds me of Douglas Adams's books...
tart up the oil wells.

And small towns, and some small colleges, and unpleasant often industries. And small town libraries.

No, as per Lords of Madness, Illithids don't exist at all in the here and now until they come back in time and start trying to hasten the rise of their kind in the future.

In this campaign, that will be right after the ELE.

And how many people in authority or power actually take them seriously enough to do anything about the impending UFO/Bigfoot Invasion?

The point is that historically, oracles are seldom given credence. In a fantasy world, there would be more people who did so, but the question is how many and what could/would they do?

So... no clerics in this world? None? No high level clerics? No gods? Please clarify.

Just drawing from current reality- we currently have more observational power than ever before, and yet we still have cataloged fewer than 1% of objects capable of ending life on Earth...

NEO's it's up to 80% detected. Really.
http://www.ll.mit.edu/LINEAR/

AND most of what we've detected we can't do anything about because we:

1) Lack the tech

and/or

2) Haven't detected them at a range at which we could do something usefeul about them IF we have the tech.

90% chance of detecting an asteroid that will hit in ten years. And they have 30,000 spot checks.

Ten years is a lot.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My normal browser wouldn't let me post further responses in this particular thread for some reason... Trying something new!

The future? So are they coming with powered armor, tanks and stuff?

Yep...but the force had a critical accident- or perhaps the planet actually mounted an Epic level PC counterstrike of some kind- and the vast majority of the strike force was destroyed- only a few Illithid lifepods made touchdown, with the injured survivors heading underground as quickly as possible.

The asteroids, however, continued unabated to their targets.

Oh indeed it is. To get the 90% most of the casualties will be in California and New York and other heavily populated coastal cities due to tidal waves from underwater avalanches and earthquakes. Texas should be close to 90% with the entire coast wiped and many cities smashed. And you can drop anywhere from 1000 rocks to 30,000 depending on the model you uses otherwise you will get uncontrolled global warming. You do believe in global warming is caused by CO2 at least a little right? 30K of rocks produce a lot of burning.

I have no problem with the dust clouds & attendant climate problems- I'm counting on them, in fact. The ejecta should cause a lot of plants to die just from the coating of settling ash, not just the clouds blocking light high in the atmosphere.

This would lead to further casualties among the surface dwellers as starvation sets in.

So... no clerics in this world? None? No high level clerics? No gods? Please clarify.

Sure there are, but divination is still doesn't have a 100% guarantee that what is seen is exactly what happens. The images they see are so bizzare and outside the realm of experience that they are largely dismissed as being too obscure. They'd continue examining their auguries, but...

Essentially, the divination equivalent of "Ask again later."

Remember, the way most divinations work in D&D is you ask specific questions looking for particular answers. Very few divinations are in the form of unasked-for prophecies of uncontemplatable events.

NEO's it's up to 80% detected.

Dang! That is totally news to me! I hadn't heard anything about meaningful progress on that.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Check. Test.

 

[Piratecat]

Check. Test. (In Firefox)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I can still get around the NEO thing by using objects from farther away and/or a longer, more continuous "bombing" using smaller objects mopping up.

I'm in no hurry to get this campaign underway- we're still being run through RttToEE. The ELE doesn't have to be starbombing. It could even be the result of a combination of things (I had originally toyed with the idea of a Godwar before settling on mass-driver equipped Illithids).

Is there any better way to get:

1) Collapse of most of the surface worlds' civilization.

2) Destruction of magical texts (as per Nightfall).

 

[Slife]

I can still get around the NEO thing by using objects from farther away and/or a longer, more continuous "bombing" using smaller objects mopping up.

I'm in no hurry to get this campaign underway- we're still being run through RttToEE. The ELE doesn't have to be starbombing. It could even be the result of a combination of things (I had originally toyed with the idea of a Godwar before settling on mass-driver equipped Illithids).

Is there any better way to get:

1) Collapse of most of the surface worlds' civilization.

2) Destruction of magical texts (as per Nightfall).

Go with some sort of ritual-infusion on the asteroids to start with. Coat them with quintessence to keep the spells fresh, and use epic spellcasting to hide them from notice (or just start them hurtling at the planet in the Illithid's timeframe, and timeshift them back immediately. When they hit, the quintessence sprays across the area, inhibiting psionics (and magic, if you're considering magic/psionics to be transparent). The infused asteroids drain the magical energy from the area in order to fuel the second stage of the Illithid's plans, which doesn't come to pass due to $disaster.

The asteroids only have a limited amount of storage, and once they fill up they explode violently, spawning all sorts of monsters (living spell disjunctions, reaving dispells, Winds of Papyrus and the like). In addition, the distorting effect they had upon the fabric of magic itself is sufficient to eliminate virtually all magic devices (perhaps explaining $disaster), and the resonance effects which allowed them to work caused many of the the magic spellbooks and other texts to spontaneously cast the spells inside them as if they were scrolls. This immediately makes many of the pages unusable, and indirectly causes the destruction of many others (you had fireball, burning hands, and acid arrow, right? Too bad about that spellbook). This also has the advantage of taking out most of the high level spellcasters.