Re: What is smokepowder?

On Sun, 4 May 1997 Circumcise@???.com wrote:

> I have a question for you spelljamming gurus: what is smokepowder made of and
> how is it made? I know its a magical mixture but not much else is said about
> its manufacture or ingredients in the official material.
>
> Has anyone done anything with this?

Behold!  The Spelljammer heretic has arrived to answer the question!

Seriously now.

I actually use real gunpowder instead of smokepowder.  Magical
smokepowder bothered me, especially since I couldn't see any reason why a
mage would waste his time making it when the same time could be used
making magical wands or staves.  So I just use gunpowder.

There are a couple of competing substances in my campaign, though.  One
is that powdered plant from Realmspace, I think.  Wherever it is, it is a
plant that can be dried and powdered and used as half-strength
gunpowder.  The other competitor is, for lack of a better term, distilled
elemental fire.

See, some mages open a portal to the Elemental Plane of Fire and extract
some of the raw elemental fire.  It is then rendered down into a fine
greyish powder which is the essence of fire.  It's very compact;  a cubic
foot of Elemental Fire becomes one ounce of Fire Essence.  It was
originally developed as a material component for any fire-based spell (a
pinch with the spell dramatically increases the effect), but it can also
be used in place of gunpowder.  A fraction of the normal gunpowder charge
is all that is required for a weapon to fire.  Using a full charge of
Fire Essence produces quite spectacular (and dangerous) results.  If you
use phlogiston in your campaign (and I think I'm the only one who
doesn't), don't use Fire Essence in the Flow.

Anyway, perhaps Fire Essence is how smokepowder is made in normal
Spelljammer.

Rich GAnt