I've been working on a prop lantern, and looking into old models of lanterns I started to come across miner's lamps. These were mostly carbide lanterns that run off of the acetylene produced by calcium carbide and water. While it's a cool design, the idea of exposed flames in an enclosed space filled with potentially flammable gasses isn't so cool. That eventually led to the safety lantern, and so on and so forth.
This line of research got me thinking about how miners in a D&D setting would get around the same issues. How do you properly light a mine without risking the lives of your workers? A covered lantern could work, but that's still risky. Assuming the mine overseer has the resources, perhaps they use magic to produce lights? Have a bunch of helmets or fixtures enchanted so that they will illuminate on command, or when certain conditions are met.
Then I trailed off into lighting a minecart track. After all, railway lanterns have a certain appeal to them from an adventurer's perspective; a metal cage surrounds the glass globe and fuel tank, so they'll be protected while banging around on your backpack or other equipment, and the hood extending over the globe helps to protect the globe from things falling on it. But I digress.
What if your mine is filled with these lanterns, placed at vital points along your track system to act as signals? Letting miners know which tracks are being used, which ones have oncoming traffic, which direction a track has been switched to, etc. Rigging this light system with light spells and alarm spells would be an interesting method to make it almost automatic (of course, some DM shenanigans may be required to make it work just right). An especially clever wizard or enchanter could even set up scrying orbs around certain parts of the mine, connected to a central command orb. Bam - magical CCTV footage!
Whether this is used in a mine run by enterprising folks looking to make mining safer, or by a devious villain who's taken over an abandoned mine and converted it into a death maze, I think it's an interesting idea to consider using. If I get a chance to DM a game or campaign, I may have to find a way to work that in.
Anyway, I just wanted to share my thoughts on lights in mines and such. Happy adventuring!
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I've been working on a prop lantern, and looking into old models of lanterns I started to come across miner's lamps. These were mostly carbide lanterns that run off of the acetylene produced by calcium carbide and water. While it's a cool design, the idea of exposed flames in an enclosed space filled with potentially flammable gasses isn't so cool. That eventually led to the safety lantern, and so on and so forth.
This line of research got me thinking about how miners in a D&D setting would get around the same issues. How do you properly light a mine without risking the lives of your workers? A covered lantern could work, but that's still risky. Assuming the mine overseer has the resources, perhaps they use magic to produce lights? Have a bunch of helmets or fixtures enchanted so that they will illuminate on command, or when certain conditions are met.
Then I trailed off into lighting a minecart track. After all, railway lanterns have a certain appeal to them from an adventurer's perspective; a metal cage surrounds the glass globe and fuel tank, so they'll be protected while banging around on your backpack or other equipment, and the hood extending over the globe helps to protect the globe from things falling on it. But I digress.
What if your mine is filled with these lanterns, placed at vital points along your track system to act as signals? Letting miners know which tracks are being used, which ones have oncoming traffic, which direction a track has been switched to, etc. Rigging this light system with light spells and alarm spells would be an interesting method to make it almost automatic (of course, some DM shenanigans may be required to make it work just right). An especially clever wizard or enchanter could even set up scrying orbs around certain parts of the mine, connected to a central command orb. Bam - magical CCTV footage!
Whether this is used in a mine run by enterprising folks looking to make mining safer, or by a devious villain who's taken over an abandoned mine and converted it into a death maze, I think it's an interesting idea to consider using. If I get a chance to DM a game or campaign, I may have to find a way to work that in.
Anyway, I just wanted to share my thoughts on lights in mines and such. Happy adventuring!