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Old 11-04-2015, 05:02 PM   #31
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Default Re: Dust Explosion - Grain, flour, wheat

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
a low-hanging cloud that is at least 50 yards in radius
A half sphere of 50 m radius is 4 / 6 * pi * 50^3 = 261,000 m^3. At 750 g / m^3, that's nearly 200 tons of flour. Whatever the genie can do, 50 mages still need to carry 4 tons of flour each.

If we make it a cylinder 4 meters high (to match Magic's AE height), I get 31,400 m^3, so 23.5 tons of flour or 470 kilos per mage.

I think you're looking at much smaller strikes, unless the mages also have magically enhanced payload capacity. A 16x4 meter cylinder is 3200 m^3 or 2.4 tons of flour or 48 kilos per mage. 10 meters, 1250 m^3 / 937 kg total / 19 kilos / mage.

As for the djinn, that's up to the GM, of course. I'd think a tornado wouldn't exactly be the way to go, as that would concentrate dust in the central vortex (if my childhood years of making chocolate milk taught me anything). But presumably the air spirit can make the proper updrafts and mixing and whatever to make it happen, as long as it's got the fine control of winds that you mentioned. Perhaps the mages should try a small-scale practice exercise to teach their djinni what to do.
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Old 11-04-2015, 05:23 PM   #32
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Default Re: Dust Explosion - Grain, flour, wheat

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They won't invent any spell. But would a djinn, a spirit of air, that can transform himself into a tornado, be able to distribute the grain dust or flour?
Maybe? A normal whirlwind won't likely do the job (fire tornadoes exist, but they form from already burning materials), but for a djinn, it depends what powers it has, though a djinn powerful and flexible enough to do the job might be better used in other ways. Seems likely to be unhealthy for the djinn, though, and at that point you're no longer 'dropping' stuff, you're just sending a djinn down to make trouble, and the enemy will just kill the djinn.
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Old 11-04-2015, 06:54 PM   #33
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Default Re: Dust Explosion - Grain, flour, wheat

If they know where the assault is going to breach they can set up a much more controlled explosion at that site.
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Old 11-04-2015, 07:30 PM   #34
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Default Re: Dust Explosion - Grain, flour, wheat

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If they know where the assault is going to breach they can set up a much more controlled explosion at that site.
Well, they don't know, but they can guess at likely spots. The large southern gate is a given, but it's likely a successful attack will need more than one entry point.

The PC used his Intelligence Analysis, Operations and Tactics skills to pick out a likely approach route for an infantry column attacking the city from the south, coming up the Old Enlil Road. The reserve force situated to exploit a breach will be out of normal artillery range from the walls, but within quick deployment distance of the potential breach locations. They'll need level, unbroken ground that can take them to the south gate as well as any of several places where a breach would be practical.

Based on the result of opposing rolls against the enemy general, the PC could be spot on in his guess and his pre-planned flight and dropping pattern might be useful. Or he might be wrong, forcing him to either improvise a new pattern for his men or to commit them to carefully spread grain dust over a location occupied only by a few skirmishers.
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Old 11-04-2015, 11:10 PM   #35
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Default Re: Dust Explosion - Grain, flour, wheat

Ok, I was just curious on the catapult thing and good reason for not using it here.
Giving the PCs skills, a smart Dijinn and some luck its plausible.
Rule of cool is good enough for me given that setup.
Pastiles are pretty close to the concept and he is an Alchemist.
Some concussion spells triggered to go off on impact or anything like that could help with a bursting charge,
Rain is a deal breaker here.

Another idea might be to make some traps. A large tepee type arrangement with flour inside it (contained in say a sail wrapped around some poles) would make good if obvious traps.
Have pesants and laborers make plenty of them and you have dummy traps that may still divert or slow things down a bit.
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Old 11-05-2015, 03:04 AM   #36
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Default Re: Dust Explosion - Grain, flour, wheat

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Maybe? A normal whirlwind won't likely do the job (fire tornadoes exist, but they form from already burning materials), but for a djinn, it depends what powers it has, though a djinn powerful and flexible enough to do the job might be better used in other ways. Seems likely to be unhealthy for the djinn, though, and at that point you're no longer 'dropping' stuff, you're just sending a djinn down to make trouble, and the enemy will just kill the djinn.
The djinn will serve for 15 minutes. Well, actually, a simulacrum of the djinn will serve and if that simulacrum gets killed before the 15 minutes are up, it doesn't actually affect the djinn any more than if the time just naturally expired.

The djinni is around 10' tall and 1000 lbs. He can take on a gaseous form that is hard to detect or harm to get into position among the enemy army. He will be detected and attacked, but assuming that he moves into position at the exact time that the flying mages are dropping their bags of grain dust or flour, any enemy spellcaster powerful enough to engage a djinn or do something about a flying target 3,000+ feet above could only focus on one of these threats at once.

The djinn power I thought would be most convenient to act as the equivalent of a series of bursting charges is:

"A djinni can transform itself into a whirlwind once every 10 minutes and remain in that form for up to a minute. In this form, it can move through the air or along a surface at its fly speed.

The whirlwind is 5 feet wide at the base, up to 30 feet wide at the top and up to 50 feet tall. The djinni controls the exact height, but it must be at least 10 feet."

Bags of grain dust or flour at terminal velocity will probably burst with some force when they impact the ground. The djinni whirlwind will suck more of it up from the ground and into the air, where it will start slowly drifting back to earth. If he can manage to move over most of the area in a circle where the bags land, a cloud of flour or grain dust should be created. The djinni has pretty good control of his whirlwind form, enough so that he could ensure fairly even distribution of what flour or grain dust he picks up with his body.

If he lived long enough, he could Shape Air to fine-tune the distribution of the flour or grain dust, in accordance with orders from the PC, which he'd give after using Measurement spells, but I doubt they'll have time for any of that. Most likely they'll have to hope 'maybe' is good enough and roll randomly for whether an explosion results when the cloud is hit by lots of fireballs and exploding spheres full of Thayan (Greek) Fire, Alchemist's Fire and smokepowder (gunpowder).
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Old 11-05-2015, 04:14 AM   #37
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Default Re: Dust Explosion - Grain, flour, wheat

You need to crossbreed a djinn and a fire elemental. Time to get the bio-mages... :)
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Old 11-05-2015, 04:48 AM   #38
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Default Re: Dust Explosion - Grain, flour, wheat

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You need to crossbreed a djinn and a fire elemental. Time to get the bio-mages... :)
Well, the PC who is the son of a efretti (ifrit, spirit of elemental fire) prince and soulbonded with a spirit of elemental air will have to do.
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Old 11-05-2015, 06:22 AM   #39
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Default Re: Dust Explosion - Grain, flour, wheat

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...
Rule of cool is good enough for me given that setup.
...
Totally agree. It's a great idea, plausible enough and will make for a tale for bards to sing.
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Old 11-05-2015, 08:05 AM   #40
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Default Re: Dust Explosion - Grain, flour, wheat

If you created an engine that ran on powdered flour, would that be 'flour power'?
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