Some thoughts on dragons and the bombadier beetle

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Sat Oct 06, 2001 1:11 am

Ever heard of the european bombadier beetle? When in danger it expells flammable gasses from its rear, methane (or farts in the vernacular)ignites it and uses the combustion to rocket off to safety. Realized hey, dragons must use a similar mechanism as a jato assist for take off!!!! look at firkraag and shadow dragon. they are so big that they would require a huge cliff to jump off to glide and think about their hunting. to fuel such massive bodies they must land and hunt...cattle, or people for food many times a week. but the question is how will they take off again? a dragon's legs are not really geared for running to build takeoff speed, they look rather stumpy in the game, so it must use some magical form of take off assist. then I remembered the bombadier beetle. The dragon lets off a huge stinker, ignites it, and uses it to propell itself into the air.

Magical jato packs!!!!!

this also could be the real source of dragon breath.....

so the game got it wrong, firkraag could only incinerate your party when it is facing its tail....

ParadoxIncarnate · Post by **ParadoxIncarnate** » Sat Oct 06, 2001 1:22 am

the flatulence post is inevitable, folks. just take it for its humor value and leave it alone

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Sat Oct 06, 2001 4:00 pm

Think of it htis way, also, the dragon rotates the wings on his back to act like a giant cup, so the full force of teh explosion will be transmitted to the axis of geometry of the body, so in effect its wings in takeoff mode act like the "pressor" plate of an orion like space craft!

Orion space craft are teh brain child of robert goddard who realized that if you throw explosive devices below the main body of the space craft, into a pressor plate, an armored "engine" if you will, you can lift significant masses into orbit very cheaply. see jerry pournell's "footfall" and "king david's spaceship" for more details.

now the "effuvience" cannot be the standard methane air mixture that composes most SBD's, (silent but deadly), this is far too exothermic and not explosive enough to lift several kilo tons into the air. we are talking about a more rational complex hydrocarbon, with a more complex molecular structure that decomposes rapidly in heat, so that the energy out put spikes more readily generating a explosion rather than burn. something in the nature of fuel air explosive?

this also suggests that in a world where presumably gunpowder does not work, so people still whacks with each other with swords and no one has invented the gun yet, (though flasher bruiser mates suggests jan may do so in the future)a warlord may someday discover the ultimate in siege and sapper technology....taming dragons so they can exploit this natural explosive.

the siege engineers of faerun may someday build casks of air tight leather filled with rocks and farts to lob into towns with a fuse attached the explode in their midst and scatter high velocity shrapnel all over the area. if the fuse fails, the projectile may still do their job, albeit in a more disgusting way.

I wonder if stinky clouds could be ignited? I always thought stinky cloud spell was a giant fart anyway, suggesting that a follow up fireball may ignite the cloud, generating tremendious damage.

I mean the description says it will knock creatures uncontious, just like enough complex hydrocarbons and esters and acetones will do the same. and guess what composes a fart?

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Sat Oct 06, 2001 4:05 pm

It's disturbing you know that much about farts....

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Sat Oct 06, 2001 4:22 pm

its more practical chemistry and extensive field experiments in college, I used to carry around the lighter while hanging with my friends, and I'd toss it when andy or dave called out "lighter!" one time dave got a giant one, we still have the picture somewhere...

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Thu Jan 10, 2002 3:59 am

No whining fable, I saw you bump the dwarven throwers thread so I am bumping my master piece.

Obsidian · Post by **Obsidian** » Thu Jan 10, 2002 1:48 pm

I was going to post something, but on recollection, I just really dont want to know the reply...

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Fri Jan 11, 2002 12:49 am

??????

brain fart....