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[Talvieno]

SO.....

After almost a hundred pages I am curious, has anyone actually Ogranized something?
((looks around))

So much goofing off, boozing and being lazy
.  I don't know weather to be disappointed, or proud you are keeping up Dwarfish culture

Click my sig.

Also - Oliolli, do you have time to continue? Or should I see if anyone else wants the save?

[wierd]

I get the feeling that the local "actual" dwarves would be both fascinated and terrified by me...

(For the record, I actually try hard NOT to reveal scary things like I've done in this thread. I would only bring stuff up as it was needed, listening to the rumors and scuttlebut going around the fortress. I prefer people to think of me as a friendly and harmless eccentric, and not an agent provocatur)

Just one thing though. Production of nitroglycerine is very dangerous, touchy work. It will need a safe, remote, "pyrochemical hazard lab" on the surface, very far away from the main fascility. In the liquid form it goes off by looking at it cross. I wouldn't want to be in the lab during sythesis. This means making some kind of automated timed mixing aparatus for it. Once it gets rolled up with sawdust or fullier's earth, it becomes reasonably safe to handle, and can be wrapped with paper to make dynamite. Liquid form? Dog farts; It explodes. It's about the only high explosive that could be made with crude equipment though. Don't get it on your skin either. Its absorbed topically, and radically lowers blood pressure. That's why they make heart pills with it.

For obvious reasons, I would want to avoid creation of large quantities. Don't get boomhappy.
If I have to spend inordinate amounts of time making boombooms because "explosions are awesome!"  Things will get ugly, and I will get angry. You wouldn't like me when I get angry.

I actually prefer making soap and simple firecrackers over things that blow people up. Dangerous world war inducing tech only as a last resort.


Creation of cartridge primer caps requires making lead azide. This will likely be outside the scope of normal chemical synthesis, as all pathways to lead azide require sodium azide as a reactant, which can only be made by reacting sodium metal with anyhydrous amonia, and then some dangerous chemical magic.

Primer caps are a mix of crushed glass powder, and lead azide gently crimped up in a brass casing the size of a pencil eraser or smaller. Inside the casing there is a tiny steel "anvil" between the bottom of the casing and the explosive.

When the firing pin hits the primer, it compreses the crushed glass and lead azide. Lead azide is a contact explosive, and the sudden pressure wave detonates it. This detonation ignites the actual powder charge of the shell.

If I am forced to make lead azide, somebody else gets to make the primer caps. I refuse to lose fingers so somebody can have cartridged ammo.

[Talvieno]

I get the feeling that the local "actual" dwarves would be both fascinated and terrified by me...

(For the record, I actually try hard NOT to reveal scary things like I've done in this thread. I would only bring stuff up as it was needed, listening to the rumors and scuttlebut going around the fortress. I prefer people to think of me as a friendly and harmless eccentric, and not an agent provocatur)

And we would prefer to think of you as Wierd, Deathlord Chemist.

In the liquid form it goes off by looking at it cross. I wouldn't want to be in the lab during sythesis. This means making some kind of automated timed mixing aparatus for it.

A fifth of us are engineers/mechanics. Won't be an issue.

For obvious reasons, I would want to avoid creation of large quantities. Don't get boomhappy.
If I have to spend inordinate amounts of time making boombooms because "explosions are awesome!"  Things will get ugly, and I will get angry. You wouldn't like me when I get angry.

Don't worry about this. We learn fast. And then we'd make our own. But the elves would never know our secrets... The dwarves might, I don't know... We might just want to keep it for ourselves.

I actually prefer making soap and simple firecrackers over things that blow people up. Dangerous world war inducing tech only as a last resort.

We're in the middle of nowhere in dwarfworld. There are dragons, titans, hydras and forgotten beasts, not to mention towering statues made of bronze that would throw you a quarter mile if given the chance. I'd say everything is last resort. Plus, dangerous world war inducing tech can be fun, provided you only use it on the right people (the ones who would kill you anyway).

[Oliolli]

I will get around to playing it, I promise.

As for the primers, you think they could be improvised?

...and in the end we have 88mm handguns, simply because we couldn't make small enough primers...


Static emplacements and primitive firearms until we can somehow automate the construction of the primers, so no-one has to lose their fingers. Or just make the dwarves assemble the primers and cartridges. They seem to know how to do anything.

[KodKod]

I will get around to playing it, I promise.

Your promises are no good here, Oliolli!

[Oliolli]

Alright, I swear I'll get around to playing it.

[Splint]

...and in the end we have 88mm handguns, simply because we couldn't make small enough primers...

Nothing quite like having a literal handcannon is there?

Static emplacements and primitive firearms until we can somehow automate the construction of the primers, so no-one has to lose their fingers. Or just make the dwarves assemble the primers and cartridges. They seem to know how to do anything.

I second this. Firearms of any sort would give us a huge advantage.

[Eric Blank]

We will never trust you.

As for firearms, we may be best off just making korean rocket-propelled ballista arrows (that explode on contact) for a while. Or applying our brains to superior crossbow/ballista designs. The fewer things that can go horrily, horribly wrong, the better. We're not dorfs after all, so our lives actually matter.

Besides, we'd be praying that mineral scarcity isn't 2500 and we actually have a load of resources within 5 miles of our fortress. You can't rely on outside trade...

[wierd]

What? We can't request platinum bars from the outpost liason?

(Granted, the ...reputation... I would eventually get would require somebody else to file the request. The "what 're you gonna use et fore laddie?" Being answered honestly may result in trade sanctions.)

[Splint]

Ugh, that's true. If you really need something then you're fucked six ways to sunday getting enough of it a reasonable price... And exploding ballista bolts sounds pretty good, but ballistae require crews, and the only real issue is gettingt he right thickness of metal bits for muskets wouldn't it? I'm mostly looking at the psychological impact on attackers and us (having guns of any sort would be very comforting, as it'd probably make this hell hole feel more like home with such a familiar kind of tool, ones already present not withstanding) And realistically I don't think goblins would mess with a bunch of cave dwelling humans who shacked up with the dorfs and suddenly thier being there brings forth metal sticks fo fire and death.

Goblin 1: ALright boys! This is it! We'll crush this fortress onc-

-BANG-
-Random gobbo drops dead-

Goblin 2: WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?

Forumer: Damn it, shot went too far to the right. I missed the leader.
Forumer 2: Did you hit one at least?
Forumer: Yes...
Forumer 2: Then this was a successful test. Also we may need to make some ear plugs before we make more of these.

[KodKod]

What about those mongolian multiple rocket launcher thingies from medieval times? I'm sure those would make a nasty surprise for any invaders.

[Splint]

Forumer: Boss? We got a problem!

F2: What now?

F1: We ran out of rockets. But the goblins seem rather intent on escaping now...

[Eric Blank]

Indeed. Exploding Korean rocket-propelled ballista bolts would definitely scare the crap out of them the first time around. Imagine walking up to a fortress entrance and a section of wall retracts, revealing another wall of spikes. Suddenly the spikes fly out of the wall at breakneck speed, into your group and begin exploding loudly, sending shrapnel everywhere and turning your strongest warriors to pincussions of metal shards. Even the goblins would be terrified and run. It may only work once as a weapon of fear, but it would certainly allow us to fire large barrages of deadly projectiles in a short timeframe. The quantity gunpowder necessary, and designing decent rockets/firing mechanisms, would be the biggest hurdles. Using the old Korean design wouldn't be necessary, or practical as it seems they were extremely inaccurate and unreliable at times. We can do better, though.

[Oliolli]

So if we ended up in a dwarven fortress our first invention there would be a primitive MRLS?

The gobbos are fu*ked.

I also started thinking, regarding weapons of fear, incendiary weapons. Some burning mixture lobbed onto the enemy with a catapult or somesuch. Although something tells me wierd would refuse to produce large amounts of such stuff...

[Splint]

So if we ended up in a dwarven fortress our first invention there would be a primitive MRLS?

The gobbos are fu*ked.

Quite fucked indeed. Cause we humies love our explodey stuff. Even moreso when we can shoot multiples at the things we don't like.