Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ZolDarklock 02-16-07, 01:08 AM	a floating castle, it is attached to a upside down granite peak about 300 yds across at the flat base where the castle sits, and angles down at the edges at a 45 degree slope to a point at the bottom, a really massive object thats weighs hundreds if not thousands of tons this castle is rigged to fall, when the helm is disconnected, it is sitting about 3 miles above the ground hidden by the clouds from view... when it hits the ground, I assume nothing, not even an avatar could survive the impact what I need to know is what will the damage be, for those who will argue that there big bad overpowered realms chosen, avatar, magister, dragon, epic npc or whatever would have survived this attack "yeah they are those who will argue this" also what kind of devastation will be done to the nearby areas... I assume such an impact by such a large object falling at such a speed from such a height would be something along the scale of a small tacticle nuke or asteroid any ideas on the percentage chance that anything would survive and how they would have survived it, and the amount of damage and what type of radius the destruction would be?
Bluenose 02-16-07, 07:52 AM	According to an Asteroid Impact Calculator site I tried, and some fairly basic mathematics, your impact is roughly equal to 280 kilotons of TNT - plenty, if you want to leave most Realms cities in ruins. The crater won't be very big, probably about 200m across and 30-50 deep depending on the type of rock it lands on. Drop it on a deep dungeon (Warlcok's Crypt, anyone?) and the owner is likely to be mildly annoyed. Anything out in the open within 1km or so is probably dead.
Khaelieth 02-16-07, 08:06 AM	The dust cloud that will envelope the planet after that might very well kill almost all life on Faerūn's surface too. No sunlight, no plants. No plants, no humans. No humans, no orcs. No orcs, no dragons. No dragons, no elves. Had to put elves at the top of the food chain. But we all know us all-wise sun elves have prepared three melons in a secret underground lair in case of such circumstances.
Bluenose 02-16-07, 10:29 AM	The dust cloud that will envelope the planet after that might very well kill almost all life on Faerūn's surface too. No sunlight, no plants. No plants, no humans. No humans, no orcs. No orcs, no dragons. No dragons, no elves. Had to put elves at the top of the food chain. But we all know us all-wise sun elves have prepared three melons in a secret underground lair in case of such circumstances. There won't be a planet-enveloping dust cloud. It's really not that big an impact. Meteor Crater in Arizona is comparable, possibly even bigger in it's effects. Some local effects, sure.
Khaelieth 02-16-07, 12:43 PM	Aye, good point actually.
nameneeded 02-17-07, 12:42 PM	K, first I am poor at math so my math could be off but here goes. Assuming a pyramid shape with a length of 300 yards per side on its base with 45 degree angles I put the hieight at 231 yards. This means that the mountain is 187110000 cubic feet in volume. Granite wieghs 168lbs per cubic foot so the mountain wieghs 15,717,240 tons. (2000lbs/ton) Thats like 162 aircraft carriers. This does not include the wieght of the buildings and stuff on top. SRD says a falling item does d6 dmg for every 200lbs if distance is more than 10'. It also states that we add 1d6/10' after the first 10' of distance to the damage to a mximum of 20d6. So that means your falling city would do 157,172,240d6 dmg. Oh plus 20d6 for falling distance. meh......my vop monk could survive. :D As for damage to the surroundings......I used an asteroid program that lets you fill in all the basic parameters with the target being 1/2 a mile away from impact. See results below. The problem with these programs though is they account for atmospheric impact prior to land impact. (They break up.) Distance from Impact: 0.81 km = 0.50 miles Projectile Diameter: 202.00 m = 662.56 ft = 0.13 miles Projectile Density: 262 kg/m3 Impact Velocity: 0.31 km/s = 0.19 miles/s Impact Angle: 90 degrees Target Density: 2500 kg/m3 Target Type: Sedimentary Rock Energy: Energy before atmospheric entry: 5.29 x 1013 Joules = 0.13 x 10-1 MegaTons TNT The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is 3.8 years Atmospheric Entry: The projectile begins to breakup at an altitude of 34100 meters = 112000 ft The projectile reaches the ground in a broken condition. The mass of projectile strikes the surface at velocity 0.00513 km/s = 0.00319 miles/s The impact energy is 1.49 x 1010 Joules = 0.36 x 10-5MegaTons. The broken projectile fragments strike the ground in an ellipse of dimension 1.25 km by 1.25 km Major Global Changes: The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass. The impact does not make a noticeable change in the Earth's rotation period or the tilt of its axis. The impact does not shift the Earth's orbit noticeably. Crater Dimensions: The result of the impact is a crater field, not a single crater. The following dimensions are for the crater produced by the largest fragment. Transient Crater Diameter: 21.4 m = 70.1 ft Transient Crater Depth: 7.56 m = 24.8 ft Final Crater Diameter: 26.7 m = 87.7 ft Final Crater Depth: 5.7 m = 18.7 ft The crater formed is a simple crater The floor of the crater is underlain by a lens of broken rock debris (breccia) with a maximum thickness of 2.64 m = 8.67 ft. At this impact velocity ( < 12 km/s), little shock melting of the target occurs. Thermal Radiation: At this impact velocity ( < 15 km/s), little vaporization occurs; no fireball is created, therefore, there is no thermal radiation damage. Seismic Effects: The major seismic shaking will arrive at approximately 0.162 seconds. Richter Scale Magnitude: 0.9 Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of .81 km: Nothing would be felt. However, seismic equipment may still detect the shaking. Ejecta: Most ejecta is blocked by Earth's atmosphere Air Blast: The air blast will arrive at approximately 2.45 seconds. Peak Overpressure: 1100 Pa = 0.011 bars = 0.155 psi Max wind velocity: 2.57 m/s = 5.75 mph Sound Intensity: 61 dB (Loud as heavy traffic) By the by... Earth weighs in at 5.972 sextillion (5,972,000,000,000,000,000,000) metric tons.
MarkusTay63 02-17-07, 03:39 PM	So that means your falling city would do 157,172,240d6 dmg. Oh plus 20d6 for falling distance. meh......my vop monk could survive. :DPun-Pun could not only survive, but could balance said rock on the tip off his nose. ;)
nameneeded 02-17-07, 08:07 PM	Pun-Pun could not only survive, but could balance said rock on the tip off his nose. ;) But could he do it with a wedgy?
ZolDarklock 02-18-07, 12:28 AM	I dont think it would do that kindda damage, remeber it was only about 3 miles up, no breakup or reentry effects... but still i have people argue that the realms uber powers and the avatars that were at the impact zone would have survived I personally ruled all the uber powers were having there clones activated that had them, the rest were just dust, it was during a major free for all in during the ToT, FYI - Fzoul did it to them all, Bane included, he was really ****** at all the gods and the realms elite at the time, seems he hates a god jumping into his body and using him as his puppet, and punks like Elminster threating him
MarkusTay63 02-18-07, 02:52 AM	But could he do it with a wedgy?Yes, WHILE fighting Chuck Norris. :D
nameneeded 02-19-07, 02:54 AM	I dont think it would do that kindda damage, remeber it was only about 3 miles up, no breakup or reentry effects... No I based the damage on the sheer weight of said mountain. The distance it falls is only +20d6 as per SRD. The asteroid stuff is just for some flavour. And like I said it presumes the object is coming from space and thus impacts the atmo. Barring that I did put in the velocity it is traveling based on a 3mile fall. Yes, WHILE fighting Chuck Norris. :D LOL!! :D:D However.....you realize that by saying his name you are 2 seconds away from death right?
BrianCritchley 02-19-07, 04:57 AM	ya know this is funny as the joke way to be killed off by a POed GM at my table is to have a catle suddenly drop on your char.
ZolDarklock 02-25-07, 01:03 AM	Quote: ya know this is funny as the joke way to be killed off by a POed GM at my table is to have a catle suddenly drop on your char. who the hell would ever want to play with a group that would allow such a childish spoiled brat DM tactic??? castles do not suddenly drop from the sky out of nowhere, it takes time, money, and good intell to set up such an attack successfully, not to mention someone has to sacrifice an actual castle that can fly, such acts are usually a very rare one time if ever occurance that is used only in the most dire situation imaginable... hmmm like during a ToT event where the realms uber powers and avatars have gathered for a final showdown...
nameneeded 02-25-07, 01:15 AM	Maybe the powers that set up the "castle attack" just rolled a 1 on targeting and missed. And the character in question was having a very "bad luck" kinda day. (He walked under a Ladder.)
boggler65 02-26-07, 12:04 AM	[QUOTE=ZolDarklock;11581959]Quote: who the hell would ever want to play with a group that would allow such a childish spoiled brat DM tactic??? QUOTE] Who would want to DM for a group who is constantly questioning them? Even if somehow, by the ridiculous rules surrounding deities and avatars, which BTW have no actual place outside of novels, the avatars or whatever could survive; just say something like they are trapped under the crushing weight of 15 million tons of solid rock, rendering them incapable of any action, and thus for all intents and purposes dead.
ZolDarklock 02-26-07, 12:22 AM	actually the group never questioned the DM, it was the spectators who were die hard realms lovers who think it is sacriligious to even consider harming a realms icon character, and go thru extreme leghts to try and defend there beloved chosen, avatar, or other uber power by any ridiculous means, even in situations that dont involve them, but they still cant seem to think it is possible by any of the official canon rules to off them... some need to be educated that offing even a chosen of mystra is easy to do even by someone who has little real power, all it takes is using a little common sense and imagination, something a lot of people here dont seem to have a lot of...
dragonheart 02-27-07, 09:29 PM	ok the castle is 3 miles up that is about 4800 meters which means it will take it about 32 seconds to fall (neglecting air resistance - more on this later) and will have an instatneous velocity of about 310 meters/sec when it hits (that is about 698 mph or just over the sound barrier at sea level). Assuming your mass (15,717,240 tons) is correct that is about 14,000,000,000 kilograms so the energy (1/2 mv2) is about 2 trillion joules (yes I'm doing some roundings along the way -at these numbers do we really need exact amounts?) that is a LOT of energy no matter how you phrase it :D buts its still only about 480 tons of explosives going off around you - not even a small nuke. :rolleyes: still it shold blow a fairly decent sized whole in the ground and send shock waves down and out that would do conciderable damage probably collapsing portions of cave roofs beneath you for some distance down (it probably wouldn't totally collapse warlock crypt but it would do enough damage to thouroughly annoy Larloch and maybe even force the lich into a new body as the old one was destroyed by the cave in - if you were really lucky you might even shatter his phylactery if its made of some brittle materials. 480 tons of explosives - think of being on the recieving end of 480 2000lb bombs. would it create a crater - sure - how big? probably 100-300 feet across and about 1/3 of that deep. so anyone in the area is going to be squashaed flat and then some. and its going to scatter debris out to nearly a mile away and moving at some fairly substantial speeds sp consider it all shrapnel. Of course this assumes air resistance has no effect and it would - about the time it reaches the speed of sound (1-2 secoonds before impact and a about 50-100 feet up the shockwave of air resistance is going to shatter the block before impact scattering its material out like an airburst artillery shell scatering shrapnel - probably out to about a quarter to half a mile radius. if it airbursts there will be no crater - just shredded everything out to the limits of the burst. basically I would rule it doing 1d6 damage/joule between heat, shock, shrapnel anyway you want to work it so 2 trillion D6 damage and I wonder if even pun pun would survive :D . certainly no character with reasonable HP levels is goign to come close. so no iconic NPCs, no avatars, nada