(TFT) a big ball of protoplasam on a carbon latice wraped around a still and called a dragon

["Jay Carlisle" <Maou_Tsaou@charter.net>]

More notes.

Okay, it's set up that dragon dung is a "chief" source of sulfur.
"Gunpowder IS known in this world. However, due to the presence of a 
sulfur-metabolizing microorganism, it is rare, expensive, and unreliable.
I suppose this has something to do with the technology vs. magic conflict 
eluded to in several places.
For the longest time I thought this was simply a contrivance until I ran 
across some vague references to a sulfur metabolizing microorganism a while 
back.
Well shut my mouth thought I, it IS possible.
I got an interesting info off of Nat Geo's Naked Science this week.
In a programe on life in the solar system they brought up an extremeophile 
found living in the sulfuric acid effluent in a mine in CA.
The bacteria does in fact metabolize iron sulfides but in the process they 
excrete the sulphur.
Now this could be useful, as long as we dump the VERY BAD idea of a 
sulfur-metabolizing microorganism.
In exchange for making gunpowder rare and expensive (it was unreliable) 
which makes gunpowder worthless for war, except perhaps for special siege 
equipment, the sulfa drugs are more or less out.
Coccidiosis, cholera, dysentery. live stock worse than people but no check 
on them for the "green" revolution in agriculture.
No paper, or a common medieval ink.
No one is vulcanizing rubber cheaply.
My goodness! Sulfa drugs became available just in time for WWII. I'd hate to 
even THINK about the lack. limbs hacked off all over the place.
However, an extremeophile that eats the iron outta fools gold and poops the 
sulfur sounds very interesting.
A dragons gullet is a pretty extreme environment I'd think.
If I make their blood green oil of vitrol.
No carbon. Gargoyles "have a silicon metabolism" and both fly.
Hummmm.

Natural occurrence
Ammonia is found in trace quantities in the atmosphere, being produced from 
the putrefaction of nitrogenous animal and vegetable matter. Ammonia and 
ammonium salts are also found in small quantities in rainwater, whereas 
ammonium chloride (sal-ammoniac), and ammonium sulfate are found in volcanic 
districts; crystals of ammonium bicarbonate have been found in Patagonian 
guano. The kidneys secrete NH3 to neutralize excess acid.  Ammonium salts 
also are found distributed through all fertile soil and in seawater. 
Substances containing ammonia, or those that are similar to it, are called 
ammoniacal.

The calorific value of ammonia is 22.5 MJ/kg (9690 BTU/lb) which is about 
half that of diesel. In a normal engine, in which the water vapour is not 
condensed, the calorific value of ammonia will be about 21% less than this 
figure. It can be used in existing engines with only minor modifications to 
carburettors/injectors.

In the form of sal-ammoniac (nushadir), ammonia was known to the Muslim 
alchemists as early as the 8th century, first mentioned by the Persian 
chemist Jabir ibn Hayyan, and to the European alchemists since the 13th 
century, being mentioned by Albertus Magnus. It was also used by dyers in 
the Middle Ages in the form of fermented urine to alter the colour of 
vegetable dyes. In the 15th century, Basilius Valentinus showed that ammonia 
could be obtained by the action of alkalis on sal-ammoniac. At a later 
period, when sal-ammoniac was obtained by distilling the hooves and horns of 
oxen and neutralizing the resulting carbonate with hydrochloric acid, the 
name "spirit of hartshorn" was applied to ammonia.

Ammonium chloride
The substance occurs naturally in volcanic regions, forming on volcanic 
rocks near fume-releasing vents. The crystals deposit directly from the 
gaseous state, and tend to be short-lived, as they dissolve easily in water.
Biological applications include using it as a nitrogen source for 
microbiological growth of organisms (including yeast).

Razi produced kerosene and various other compounds using an apparatus called 
alembic. In his Kitab al-Asrar (Book of Secrets), the physician and chemist 
Razi described two methods for the production of kerosene. One method 
involved using clay as an absorbent, whereas the other method involved using 
ammonium chloride (sal ammoniac). The distillation process was to be 
repeated until the final product was perfectly clear and "safe to light," 
i.e. volatile hydrocarbon fractions had been mostly removed.



The Haber process, also called the Haber-Bosch process, is the nitrogen 
fixation reaction of nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas, over an enriched iron or 
ruthenium catalyst, to produce ammonia.

By using ammonia derived from the Haber process, the final product can be 
produced from nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen which are derived from air and 
natural gas as the sole feedstocks.

Nitric acid is made by reacting nitrogen dioxide (NO2) with water.

If the solution contains more than 86% nitric acid, it is referred to as 
fuming nitric acid.

White fuming nitric acid may be used as the oxidizer in liquid fuel rockets 
with kerosene as fuel.

Potash imports and exports are traditionally reported in "K2O equivalent", 
although fertilizer never contains potassium oxide, per se, because 
potassium oxide is caustic and so highly reactive that it must be stored 
under kerosene, as with metallic potassium.

.hummm
~1000 degrees @ ~300 atmospheres.
Let's look at atmospheres first. what IS 300 atmospheres?
Here's a fun reference!
http://books.google.com/books?id=h_Pnas7R-YcC&pg=PA335&lpg=PA335&dq=300+atmospheres+depth+in+water&source=bl&ots=DfdUbvm8mv&sig=JRWj9jid4viLQ8GVv0sn2C8wA1M&hl=en&ei=FTH3S8HVIZP-NZOm-LwF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=300%20atmospheres%20depth%20in%20water&f=false
The gist of it is that 50c.c. pipettes shatter into powder at about 3000m 
depth of ocean water which is roughly 300 atmospheres.
50c.c.'s is about a tenth of a pint (u.s. eighth of a galleon) or around 3 
cubic inches.
14.6psi ~ 1 atmosphere, 300 atmospheres is a bit over 2 tons per square 
inch.
~2.6 ST per square inch to ~766 ST per sq in. in pressure.
4 hex dragon is ST 30.
ST 30 exerts 165 pounds of force per 1 pt fST so 165ft lbs * 29 fST = 4785 
pounds of force or ~870 ST
One blast of "rocket fuel" under the right conditions makes a 4 hex dragon 
pretty tired. or is it sulfuric acid?


1000 degrees f?
http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20080247813
"A socketing material (16), or mortar, for speltering wire rope, strand, and 
other tension members (14), comprising 35%-55% AL2O3; 32%-52% SiO2; 0%-20% 
CaO; and 0%-2% Fe2O3. The material (16) may have a continuous-use 
temperature of at least 1000 degrees, at least 2000 degrees, or at least 
2500 degrees Fahrenheit."
AL2O3 - alluminium oxide; commonly corundum, sapphire and ruby.
SiO2 - silicon dioxide; commonly sand and quartz. (Gargoyles)
CaO - calcium oxide; quick lime. lime-burnt calcium carbonate (probably a 
curing agent. so figure it being chalk in the organ. dragons excreting 
calcium carbonate around limestone or dolomite make their own caverns).
Fe2O3 - iron oxide; rust

The gizzard, also referred to as the ventriculus, gastric mill, and 
gigerium, is an organ found in the digestive tract of some animals, 
including birds, reptiles, earthworms and some fish. This specialized 
stomach constructed of thick, muscular walls is used for grinding up food; 
often rocks are also instrumental in this process. In certain insects and 
mollusks, the gizzard features chitinous plates or teeth.
The "rocks" in a dragons gizzard are porous, enriched iron or catalysts and 
the chitin is made of corundum, quartz, chalk and rust.
It's gonna need nickel too, and the iron sulfide eating extremophile keeps 
the catalysts in good shape. and is a REASON the thing would poop sulfur.
This gizzard and glandular stomach arrangement can be used to help improve 
ammonia extraction from say eaten cattle, with the gizzard both grinding 
bones, hooves, horn, and teeth as well as providing pressure and containment 
for further Haber process ammonia  enrichment during the expression of its 
"fire"-breath.
I figure it also needs a kind of alembic still type organ system for 
distilling kerosene and some sort of urea filter system. nitric acid is too 
useful here to pee out.
Do dragons pee at all?
If so then how much?
Well that all depends on how I design them, which is gonna depend on how I 
imagine them.
If I've got them using much if not all of the urea in "typical" urine then 
principally what's left is phosphoric acid, potassium, chlorine, and sodium.
95% water
2.5% urea
~0.625% each of phosphoric acid, potassium, chlorine, and sodium
Depending on diet but this is figured for a first world, middle class diet 
and we eat a LOT of meat.
I'm thinking dragons eat a lot more; also their not decended from water 
buffalo.

A pressure type carburetor (w/inverted flight), basically a simple fuel 
injection type organ would be required.
So would some kind of valve or nozzle type organ.

1 square hex is 16 square feet so a 4 hex dragon can't cover more than 64 
square feet, a 7 hex dragon can't be more than 112 sq feet and etc.
Cubic feet depends on how dragons are shaped in the gameworld and how the GM 
imagines their movements.
Musculature and skeletal structure to scale are a real problem.
Didn't Galileo do a femur for a giant?
How did Asimov tweak scale for "The Fantastic Journey"?
Good enough for Asimov is 99.99999999.% good enough for me.
I wonder about the limits of the idea of dragons.
When does the idea get so odd that  whatever it IS it's NOT a dragon?
Anyway, that alembic still has two chambers (one onion shaped and the other 
a cylinder) and I suppose the volume of breath attacks I want a big one to 
be able to make will help tell me how big to make them, and that will tell 
me a little bit about how wide they have to be.
Now I gotta go fetch my lego's.
Nonetheless I've already got a MUCH more interesting picture of dragons than 
I started with.
"Old fool! Why there is a large patch in the hollow of his left breast as 
bare as a snail out of its shell!"

I'm thinking of having them attracted to natural sources of sal-ammoniac 
like volcano's and also having them attracted to areas with large seams of 
coal that they can burn for the sal-ammoniac.
"There are hundreds of coal fires burning around the world. Those burning 
underground can be difficult to locate and many cannot be extinguished. 
Fires can cause the ground above to subside, their combustion gases are 
dangerous to life, and breaking out to the surface can initiate surface 
wildfires. Coal seams can be set on fire by spontaneous combustion or 
contact with a mine fire or surface fire. A grass fire in a coal area can 
set dozens of coal seams on fire. Coal fires in China burn 109 million tons 
of coal a year, emitting 360 million metric tons of CO2. This contradicts 
the ratio of 1:1.83 given earlier, but it amounts to 2-3% of the annual 
worldwide production of CO2 from fossil fuels, or as much as emitted from 
all of the cars and light trucks in the United States."
That plus excreting calcium carbonate makes dragons big cave complex 
developers AND fits with magic vs. tech because they are burning up all the 
coal before coal burning tech is available.
Hee hee hee, dragon hunters carry soap to test the streams for hard water.

I don't know, maybe it's (and now for) something completely different ; it's 
not my place to dictate what you should imagine.
Some stuff needs to be objective though.

A world is an objective gametool. like a die.

"Cidri is BIG. No complete map of its surface is known."

The Cidri mapping project.
"Astral Projection" (s): Let's the wizard send his "astral body" to another 
place while he (apparently) sleeps. The astral body can go anywhere the 
wizard knows about if he knows (approximately) the path. Distance is no 
barrier. The astral body can observe events in other places for one hour; at 
the end of that time it automatically returns.
.
A wizard in the astral plane can cast a spell on himself, or on another 
astral Figure, exactly as though he were physically present."
So it's like this.
I go outside on a clear day, lie down and look up.
WAY up.
I Astral Project up there then use stuff like Far Sight, Mage Sight, and 
Eyes Behind to map her.
This should tell me SOMETHING. usually that the GM's "gameworld" isn't 
really a gameworld at all.
It's a little late at such a point to be thinking-up answers to questions 
like "what's on the opposite side of the gameworld from my "campaign" area, 
or what's the diameter of Cidri.
In a large battle a wizard with this kinda set up gets to see the whole 
battle field.
Magic can be a HUGE imbalance in how a genera is expected to function.
Full blown TFT magic in the middle ages turns the whole genera into a 
Flintstones thing, literally.

MUCH better to use the real world Earth for examples when Cidri hardly 
exists at all.
I know more about Oz. including an interesting backdoor. don't some little 
people have a map of the holes in time whensomewhere are they running about 
these days do you think?
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