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This definitely isn't Kansas...

W

Whipsnade

SOC-14 5K
Gents,

Need a truly spectacular and wondrous place for your Traveller's to visit or stumble across? Then look no further than Mexico's Cave of Crystals.

Be sure to play the video clip. It's just a tad over 2 minutes and leaves you wishing it lasted 2 hours.

While I know the processes that formed the cave wouldn't be present in a planetoid, I can't get the image of floating through such a cave in a vacc suit with my helmet lamp playing over the myriad facets and prisms around me...


Regards,
Bill
 
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I saw the National Geographic show on that place! It's incredible.

It's so hot that you can't be in it very long even with air-conditioned suits, and the crystals shatter easily leaving razor-sharp edges. Some crystals had organic material inside them that the scientists extracted for analysis and dating.

While I watched it I could just imagine a hothouse world with an exotic atmosphere and "forests" like these crystals. One rip in a suit and things would be bad. And add some other elements to the mix and the colors when the sun its them would be spectacular (and possibly hazardous).
 
sabredog said:
While I watched it I could just imagine a hothouse world with an exotic atmosphere and "forests" like these crystals. One rip in a suit and things would be bad. And add some other elements to the mix and the colors when the sun its them would be spectacular (and possibly hazardous).
Click to expand...


Sabredog,

That's an excellent idea! Just think of all those exotic atmosphere worlds with "forests" like that and "lumberjacks" working in those forests...

Consider your idea stolen, Sabredog! ;)


Regards,
Bill

P.S. I really goggled over the environment in the cave, 50 degC and 100% humidity. The linings of your lungs are cooler than the air so the moisture in the air your breathing condenses in your lungs.
 
Yes.....rare elements could be locked up in the giant crystal "trees" and harvested for refining them out! Some types could be used by artisans for making one of a kind jewelry and art works so there would be a niche market in exotics for enterprising travellers to exploit (on the sly or legitimately).

Your right about that humidity, somebody would drown as the hot fluids filled their lungs. It would have to happen to some redshirt first to give players fair warning, then hand them a roll of duct tape and a laser "ax" to go to work.
 
Or say that they are natural Zuchai crystals, which work better in J-drives than synthetic ones for some reason. Of course with crystal trees, you'll probably have something that eats them. Which would be real trouble if one got on your ship somehow and survived - "Aw crap, something just ate the jump drive capacitors".

If the organism could eat any sort crystals - it could eat the hull (crystaliron), the computers (holocrystals and circuits), screens (liquid crystal and quartz), etc. So harvesting those natural Zuchai crystals would be a nightmare in logistics.
 
I liked Anne McCaffery's take on unique crystals in high-tech:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Singer

Don't let the decorative romance trappings fool you, these are solid sci-fi stories first & foremost, and will give you lots of ideas for how unique items might be valuable enough to drive interstellar commerce.

Just do like me, and create some other function for the Black Crystals... unless you are willing to allow a limited amount of restricted FTL communication.
 
Lycanorukke said:
If the organism could eat any sort crystals - it could eat the hull (crystaliron), the computers (holocrystals and circuits), screens (liquid crystal and quartz), etc. So harvesting those natural Zuchai crystals would be a nightmare in logistics.
Click to expand...


Lycanrukke,

As Sabredog pointed out, scientists have found organic materials in those crystals.

Hmm... something that eats computer chips...

And to think we've been casting about for someway to rid the OTU of Virus for all these years... ;)


Regards,
Bill
 
Gents,

Looking through a few subsectors here...

How about Orcrist/Sword Worlds 1126 B8A6733-A M Fl 401 for our "crystal forest"?

We've an exotic atmosphere, a large enough "hydro" rating to mean there are continents surrounded by a world "ocean" of something other than saltwater, 40 million people, and a high enough tech level to make "logging in vacc suits" feasible.

I also like using the Sword Worlds so I can slip Yet Another Tolkien Reference into Traveller. ;)

Aglarond was the name of the glittering caves behind Helm's Deep which so captivated Gimli that he convinced Legolas to visit them in return for visiting Fangorn after the war. Gimli liked the real estate so much he even set-up a dwarf-realm there too.

The local term for the regions of crystal-dominated "forest" or "terrain" on Orcrist would thus be "aglarond".

Now to figure some way to insert them into an amber zone or adventure seed...


Regards,
Bill
 
Whipsnade said:
Lycanrukke,

As Sabredog pointed out, scientists have found organic materials in those crystals.

Hmm... something that eats computer chips...

And to think we've been casting about for someway to rid the OTU of Virus for all these years... ;)


Regards,
Bill
Click to expand...
Nice idea - but what would a chip digesting bacterium do to all the other electronics used?

Often the cure is worse than the disease ;)
 
Whipsnade said:
Gents,

Need a truly spectacular and wondrous place for your Traveller's to visit or stumble across? Then look no further than Mexico's Cave of Crystals.

Be sure to play the video clip. It's just a tad over 2 minutes and leaves you wishing it lasted 2 hours.

While I know the processes that formed the cave wouldn't be present in a planetoid, I can't get the image of floating through such a cave in a vacc suit with my helmet lamp playing over the myriad facets and prisms around me...


Regards,
Bill
Click to expand...
Holy Toledo! I actually WROTE A STORY set in JUST THIS KIND OF A PLACE! It's about one of my usual four (sometimes five) character set led by Captain Rick Aston. The marine of the group goes into such a cave to rescue a lost child. Adventure ensues.

Truly incredible. What a place to shoot a film!
 
mike wightman said:
Often the cure is worse than the disease ;)
Click to expand...

I wasn't thinking of the bacterial level - though that can have potential all on it's own. (*whistle* Bye bye virus :smirk:)

I was aiming for the more 'macro' level - insects and the like. You have spiders and beetles with crystal carapaces, making them living versions of the little glass sculputures today - an 'emerald spider' is literally an emerald spider. Nobles and art nuts would go crazy for them despite their taste for "crystal food".

It could also add flavour and danger - that glittering irridescent cloud coming towards you is a swarm of 'crystal gnats'. Very pretty and harmless on their own - but as they swarm past, thousands of tiny crystal exoskeletons perform the equivilant effect of a sandblaster on you and your vacc suit.

On edit: Also crystal spiders are much more 'visceral' than bacteria when it comes to PCs (unless the crystal bacteria 'crystalizes' humans).
Investigating their jump drive failure, they find a dozen crystal spiders munching on the engine crystals.
Spiders who are immune to lasers (refraction and such).
Spiders who have diamond mandibles who can eat through plastics and maybe thin metal to get to the other side.
Spiders who can digest solid crystal.
Spiders who think the smell of the PC's laser weapon crystals are really tasty and those viewports on the ship...yum yum.
Spiders who have now turned and are staring at the PC with ruby eyes....
 
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Lycanorukke said:
I wasn't thinking of the bacterial level - though that can have potential all on it's own. I was aiming for the more 'macro' level - insects and the like.
Click to expand...


Lycanorukke,

Oh yes! Micro and macro both!

Diseases are just something the GM can bother the players with, but "macro" life is usually something the players can shootat! ;)

What sort of critters would inhabit Orcrist's algarond biomes? There would be your "sandblast" flies naturally. What would a "woodpecker" analog look like? A sloth analog? Python? Lemur? Flying squirrel? How would they bedevil the players?

Imagine signing aboard a safari ship only to find out the patron won't be gunning for sea bears but instead is set on bagging an Orcrist stick puma?


Regards,
Bill
 
Thinking on Orcist lifeforms....

Leyden Bug - a insect like creature the size of a large crab with an ususual defense mechasim. Like Terran clicking beetles it can 'snap' its carapace to make a loud noise. Unlike clicking beetles, the 'snap' actually produces a strong jolt of electricty via the piezoelectric effect. Dont touch or tread on one.

Sun cat - about the size of a tiger with a mouth like a lamprey and a single large 'eye'. The creatures body refracts sunlight into the 'eye tube' where a lens focuses it on the creatures prey. The thermal shock of sudden heat 'kills' (shatters) crystal life forms where on the cat hoovers up the remains in its mouth. The sun ray can also do quite a number on soft vaccsuits or pressure seals. And dont look it in the eye either if you value your retinas.

Shrieker - Almost sessile and roughly looking like a sea ananeome. Often attaches itself to static structures in the same way. The fronds are a feeding/defence mechanism. They grab small crystal gnats from the atmosphere and it moments of stress, vibrate. The vibration of one shrieker is amoust inaudible, but in a group they amplify one another producing a powerful high pitched shriek (designed to shatter predators) which also can crack brittle things (say a vacc suit face plate) or an ATV windscreen.

Ribbons - A parasitic 'plant' like misletoe. Looking like a long crystal ribbon, it is made up a hundred of small segments (similar to a tapeworm). The 'head' is permanently attached to a crystal tree while the rest of the body flutters in the wind. Ocassionaly a portion of it (about 1 metre) will break off and drift on the winds. Once it touches something the crystal segments wrap around the target and 'lock' its structure in place. It then grows crystal 'tendrils' into the target permanently joining them togther drawing nutrients from the imbedded tendrils, whereupon the ribbon grows a new 'tail' which flutters in the breeze. Their appearance can vary depending on their host tree - from clear crystal to glittering gemlike colours - just make sure it is dead before you use one as a necklace at the nobles ball.

Talking rock - Not so much a creature as a feature, A hard crystalline structure with a 'soft' crystal interior. When electrical current is applied the soft crystal become charged and reacts to vibrations on the exterior shell. When the current is removed, the soft crystal locks in place again but preserves the displacement patterns the vibrations caused. If a slightly larger current is applied once a 'recoding' is made, the soft crystal snaps back into place causing vibrations on the surface - essenitally a natural tape recorder. The recodings are very crude and sound like a 60's gramaphone, but they also dont show up on sensors as recording devices.
 
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