- #1
Rickswan
- 3
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This thread is also my introduction to the forum, so hello.
So the basic setup of my story is the hordes of hell invade New York City. I'm agnostic, so it's more "beings from another dimension enter ours" than a religious thing - it's like the DOOM game series. Let's say that a certain amount of "magic" is allowed in this universe, or at least manipulation of the laws of reality/physics that we don't understand, but the demons' physiology is at least partly possible in our world. They can be killed with regular bullets. One of the characters in the story is a biologist, and I want him to be there to observe the demon physiology in order to discover their weaknesses (think alien research in the XCOM game series).
I made threads in two other forums ([1], [2]) pertaining to how the demon's physiology could be taken advantage of. The biologist notices that this variety of demon has green blood because of something similar to Sulfhemoglobinemia, and it reeks of sulfur. He determines that a component of its physiology is sulfur (because another name for sulfur is brimstone - get it?). I'm wondering if a chemical that reacts violently with sulfur could be useful. After a bit of search engine research, I found that zinc and sulfur have a neat violent reaction resulting in a bright puff of green fire [video]. Would it be a stretch for the biologist to say something like "we have a bunch of Zinc powder in the university labs, not far from here. Maybe we could weaponize the stuff" - ?
The trick then would be for the weaponization to be more useful than simply using bullets. Maybe normally the demons are immune to fire, but small beakers or http://www.controls-group.com/backend/prodotti/img_upload/img_big/1207091102100_86_d1135.jpg could be turned into molotov cocktails filled with zinc powder, with the wick dipped in kerosene or something. Then there could be a pun in there about fighting fire with fire. I'm wondering if the zinc must be in powder form for it to work properly, or if the zinc could be liquefied and be used more properly like a molotov, while still causing the explosive zinc-sulfur reaction. Thoughts?
My chemistry knowledge is admittedly weak so if anybody has a better idea of how to exploit the demon's weaknesses (or ideas for their physiology) I'm all ears. Things like, "What would they need to breathe at the temperatures of hell without burning their lungs? Would they even need to?" Stuff like that.
So the basic setup of my story is the hordes of hell invade New York City. I'm agnostic, so it's more "beings from another dimension enter ours" than a religious thing - it's like the DOOM game series. Let's say that a certain amount of "magic" is allowed in this universe, or at least manipulation of the laws of reality/physics that we don't understand, but the demons' physiology is at least partly possible in our world. They can be killed with regular bullets. One of the characters in the story is a biologist, and I want him to be there to observe the demon physiology in order to discover their weaknesses (think alien research in the XCOM game series).
I made threads in two other forums ([1], [2]) pertaining to how the demon's physiology could be taken advantage of. The biologist notices that this variety of demon has green blood because of something similar to Sulfhemoglobinemia, and it reeks of sulfur. He determines that a component of its physiology is sulfur (because another name for sulfur is brimstone - get it?). I'm wondering if a chemical that reacts violently with sulfur could be useful. After a bit of search engine research, I found that zinc and sulfur have a neat violent reaction resulting in a bright puff of green fire [video]. Would it be a stretch for the biologist to say something like "we have a bunch of Zinc powder in the university labs, not far from here. Maybe we could weaponize the stuff" - ?
The trick then would be for the weaponization to be more useful than simply using bullets. Maybe normally the demons are immune to fire, but small beakers or http://www.controls-group.com/backend/prodotti/img_upload/img_big/1207091102100_86_d1135.jpg could be turned into molotov cocktails filled with zinc powder, with the wick dipped in kerosene or something. Then there could be a pun in there about fighting fire with fire. I'm wondering if the zinc must be in powder form for it to work properly, or if the zinc could be liquefied and be used more properly like a molotov, while still causing the explosive zinc-sulfur reaction. Thoughts?
My chemistry knowledge is admittedly weak so if anybody has a better idea of how to exploit the demon's weaknesses (or ideas for their physiology) I'm all ears. Things like, "What would they need to breathe at the temperatures of hell without burning their lungs? Would they even need to?" Stuff like that.