Shark World Inc

[Carnifex]

Oil on Earth was made from the mass death of the dinosaurs put under pressure for millions of years.

Actually, this is incorrect - an aquatic world is perfect for the formation of this kinda stuff. Oil is usually formed by tiny organisms in the *sea* - when they die, they float down to the bottom, get layered over with mud, gunk, etc, and over millions of years get compressed into oil.

Crude oil *isn't* made of dinosaurs. When you light an oil lamp, you're not burning some t-rex

If anything, oil rigs and mines could be a way for landlubbers to get a substance that is of no real use to underwater dwellers (since you can't burn it underwater). The sea-dwellers could have a chokehold on the supplies of oil to the people on the islands, who might well depend on it.

Or there could be a trade - seadwellers mine oil from under the sea floor, and trade it up the the island dwellers who, since they can use fire and forges, trade back metal weapons to the aquatic races.

 

[drowdude]

I've got the Leviathan up in the rogue's gallery.

 

[Crothian]

Actually, this is incorrect - an aquatic world is perfect for the formation of this kinda stuff. Oil is usually formed by tiny organisms in the *sea* - when they die, they float down to the bottom, get layered over with mud, gunk, etc, and over millions of years get compressed into oil.

Crude oil *isn't* made of dinosaurs. When you light an oil lamp, you're not burning some t-rex

Wrong about the source, right about the time. Sorry, it's been a while since those geology classes.

Anyone know oil started to be prcessed, and when it was first gotten from beneath the sea bed? I'm not totally against the idea, but I don't know the technology level needed to do this.

 

[The Iron Mark]

Well most of the races do live underwater. It would be easier for them to get oil underwater for them than it would for us. They probably think getting oil from dry land must be really hard. Just got another idea. What if the Cloud Giants were Psuedonatural? They could have been the ones that launched the meteors. And why can't CLOUD Giants live in the clouds?

 

[Crothian]

But why would the underwater people want oil? A spill down there would make a certain area unlivibile for a while.

Pseudo natural cloud giants sound nasty. I'm not sure I want to specifically say they caused the metoers to hit, but implying they do (or have people think they did) works for me.

 

[Aeolius]

But why would the underwater people want oil? A spill down there would make a certain area unlivibile for a while.

Exactly. A controlled oil spill might not be dissimilar to one of the various tides; red, purple, black, brown, etc, that wreak havoc on the local environment. Suppose, as in the case in BPAA, that a group gained control of such a spill/tide. They could use it to wipe out neighboring communities.

Fortunately, the Sisterhood of Blood (one of the hag coveys in my game) has yet to fully tame the Ebon Tide, though it’s only a matter of time.

For that matter, there are a number of factors which could adversely effect local water parameters; too much salt, not enough salt, nitrates, ammonia, acidity, alkalinity, and so on. Even something as simple as a decanter of endless water, spewing freshwater into a saltwater setting, could have dire consequences.

 

[Carnifex]

But why would the underwater people want oil? A spill down there would make a certain area unlivibile for a while.

For trading purposes. Sure, it's mucky, gunky, and apparently useless, but then some surfacer merchant says 'hey, that stuf is really useful for us, we'll give you more of these shiny metal weapons for a few barrels of it.'

Or maybe the surfacers *don't* tell the aquatics that they find it so useful, and rather say - 'hey, you know those coral mines you have that keep on running into pockets of black gunk, well, we'll take it off your hands.' They might then buy it really cheap, concealing its true usefulness, or even get it for free, pretending to be acting in good will and removing some useless waste that just pollutes the aquatics' waters.

 

[Aeolius]

...Sure, it's mucky, gunky, and apparently useless...

You also might do some research on methyl hydrate, in essence an explosive crystal found deep in the sea. I read somewhere that abyssal storms would occasionally stir up the methyl hydrate crystals, causing them to explode.

The red-skinned water dwarves, who dwell near the Firewater Trench located in the Dramidj Ocean in the region of the Pinnacles, are most interested in these “shock rocks”. Granted, the dwarves rely upon chemosynthesis to survive, as they dwell near hydrothermal vents. Their interaction with other sentient races is limited.

 

[The Iron Mark]

And when I mentioned Psuedonatural Cloud Giants, I was thinking of the template in T&B, not the one in the ELH. Maybe the weaker one could be for the children or something, and the stronger one for the adults or clerics or whatever you want to be the leader.

 

[Crothian]

And when I mentioned Psuedonatural Cloud Giants, I was thinking of the template in T&B, not the one in the ELH. Maybe the weaker one could be for the children or something, and the stronger one for the adults or clerics or whatever you want to be the leader.

That does tone them down a little, but no less fitting. I few of the ELH versions, as leaders and the rest of them the lesser types. THere won't be many of them at all, it'll be a nice little menace that few people are aware of.