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Old 11-22-2021, 06:01 PM   #2
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Ways for Monsters to See in the Dark

Vibrissae are useful for this, and are statted out on page 22 of Powers: Enhanced Senses as Sensory Hairs. Air currents can tell you a lot about the layout of an area, as well as anything moving through it, and you can directly perceive your immediate surroundings by moving your vibrissae over it. Ideally, you'll want another sense to help with hunting, but Sensory Hairs alone should be enough to navigate. Note that, statwise, they're basically just represented by Vibration Sense (Air).

An interesting option for intelligent creatures that have infravision is to create light by burning something that produces very little light in the visible spectrum, but plenty in infrared. Alcohols will do so, and while they won't last as long as oil lamps, I think ethanol lamps have decent longevity (as would, I expect, methanol lamps, which produce even less light in the visible spectrum). You could also posit some sort of fantastic fuel with similar properties but greater longevity (Essential Ethanol, although most of that ends up consumed by dwarves). Generally the humans will be able to see it in the dark, but only as a rather weak light - perhaps humans would be at -6 when the natives can see as well as humans see in daylight. As a bonus, if the humans do bring their own light sources, it will make the flames of the native's light sources functionally invisible, potentially resulting in a hapless adventurer walking right into a raging fire (although unless they're rather distracted, they'll probably notice the heat before they get dangerously close; smaller heat sources will actually be more dangerous, as you may not notice them until your hand has already gotten a bit crispy). You could also posit bioluminescent fungus that luminesces primarily or entirely in the infrared spectrum.
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Last edited by Varyon; 11-22-2021 at 06:04 PM.
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