Shadow Lands vs Ocean Life

[greasy golem gunk]

A campaign I'm pondering involves an underwater shadowland, possibly created by the deaths (over the years, with a deathlord influence over slave treatment or a series of curses?) of Slaves in transit to the blessed isle (so I suppose the shadowland would be between the blessed isle and nexus, near a grand trench in the ocean- more on that later), and I'm wondering if such a thing works in cannon, or if I'm going to need new "house rules" for Salt and Shadowlands.


The Skullstone Archepalego is a series of shadowland islands; would the taint of the underworld extend onto the beaches, past the beaches, even to spread  across the shaded terratory of the Archepalego?  Or does the salt, of the salt water, limit it's spread or stop it?


Sea monsters and water elementals aside, would a shadowland be able to maintain it self in the deep blue sea of creation?


The shadowland in question would provide the deepsea base for a (new) deathlords underwater navy (1st Age vessals, salvaged 1st/2nd Age vessals, new Soulsteel works and a grand vessal built from the jade prison it's self) who finds a way to unite the hordes of the underdark (fair folk; the masses of cave-life villians who constantly harrass the Mountain Folk) and spread chaos across the blessed isle through a giant zerg rush from under land and from the seas.  


The trench from above might be access to the labyrinth, depending on "daylight" and the scope of the shadowlands taint.


-g3

 

[Bizar]

In my oppinion it would since the salt in the ward has to be in material form and not desolved in water. It's salt water in the the sea not salt chrystals.So yes.

 

[greasy golem gunk]

hrmm...


Until someone figures out the (some circle) sorcery spell that causes all the salt in the sea to fall to the bottem.


Sorcery ftw!


(it appears my deathlord will have to leave a sorcerer behind for basic defense..  or just plan on not having a base to fall back on).

 

[Solfi]

would a shadowland be able to maintain it self in the deep blue sea of creation?

In my oppinion it would since the salt in the ward has to be in material form and not desolved in water.

... not to mention that's the ritualistic aspects of a line drawn with salt are important. But honestly, aren't you just making things hard for yourself thinking about this? The joys of debating game-physics aside, this just seem like so much minutiae to me.

 

[Bizar]

I also think you should forget aplying normal science to the world of exalted. This is not reality and nearly everything works in the way you percieve it instead acording to the physical laws.


So seawater is just that seawater, not water with a sollution of NaCl, Na+ Cl- and NaI, I- in it.

 

[Flagg]

So seawater is just that seawater, not water with a sollution of NaCl, Na+ Cl- and NaI, I- in it.

But it is saltwater, and has salt in it, wether that salt is made of sodium and chlorine, or elemental Earth.

 

[Bizar]

But I think you should look at it more from the perspective of the ancient Greeks where the elements can transform into each other. This means that if you add heat (fire) to seawater (water) you get salt (earth). So the salt isn't salt untill it is dried. The greeks did not think in terms of atoms and molecules and what have you. but instead they qualify substances by the interaction it has with the observer. I know it is difficult to not percieve it in the manner in which we see the world, but when you do you can give your players a whole new dimension to their game that will certainly be worth it.

 

[Flagg]

A salient point.

 

[Bizar]

The other point that has merit is what Solfi said:

... not to mention that's the ritualistic aspects of a line drawn with salt are important.

 

[Sherwood]

In the Abyssals book, there is mention of the horrors of the deep water in the underworld, sea going creatures and behemoths.  So why not a underwater shadowland?  Most of the critters in the underworld ocean are quite content to stay where they are, but sometimes they may cross over by accident.


There would not be much access to a underwater shadowland unless you have the ability to survive underwater to access it.

 

[Persell]

I say that salt doesn't stop the dead.  Only unbroken lines of salt stop them.  How can salt be in a line in the sea?  If you pour a salt in a line in the sea, the particles will fall at different rates, which means there's no line, which means there's no barrier against them.


Let's apply this elsewhere.  Let's say you had a plaza in a city and a bunch of granules of salt were scattered all over it.  Because the salt isn't brought together in an unbroken line, it's not a barrier to the undead even though salt covers the plaza.


So I say go for it.  Besides, the idea of an undersea shadowland just sounds too cool to pass up.

 

[greasy golem gunk]

... not to mention that's the ritualistic aspects of a line drawn with salt are important. But honestly, aren't you just making things hard for yourself thinking about this? The joys of debating game-physics aside, this just seem like so much minutiae to me.

Yeah, I guess I am overthinking this one.  Waves of broken salt aren't lines of unbroken salt, the dead can still move in it.  An underground shadowlands only problems are


1.) New "recruits" are a little further away than normal, so it takes extra planning.


2.) The behemoths of the underworld like to eat ghosts.  (and would take time away from a deathlords planning to repell or make us of them)


3.) The courts of the ocean don't care for ghosts.


So, an aspiring undersea deathlord would have to move from "no obvious holdings in creation" to "I'm attacking the land mass of ____" in a hurry, so as not to lose their element of suprise.  


On the other hand, a zombified whale fleet of "submersable zombie carriers" might be neat.


-g3

 

[Persell]

Think Pirates of the Carribean for inspiration. Both movies would apply.