Ring-a-ding-ping

From: James Frusetta <gerakkag_at_wam.umd.edu>
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 09:29:38 -0400 (EDT)

Bill McKinley wrote:
> The obvious disadvantage of active sonar is that the pulses can be
> detected - bad news if you are lurking around in a submarine - and
> passive sonar provides much less information.
IMO, every troll has a slightly different darksense "ping," and *normally* they hear only that one. (Otherwise, it'd be fairly difficult AFAIK for a group of trolls to all use Darksense at the same time). Perhaps with training a dark troll can learn to detect other sonar "pings", but I'd treat that as a fairly rare skill. Hmm -- a troll's unique "ping" might develop in childhood, too. Might make sense for a child's sonar to be at the same "frequency" as mom's, so that she can teach how to use Darksense.

(To the Digest Friends of Dolphins: how do Flipper & Friends do it? Individual or communal frequencies, or both?)

Uzuz, with their snazzy super sonar skills, likely can detect other "pings" pretty much instinctively along the lines you suggest. There might be a few darkness predators out there that can detect a wide variety of "pings"; also some species that might try to "jam" sonar by giving out a massive "ping" that'll "blind" an attacker/enemy.

> (2) It should be quite feasible to develop a 'detect troll' spell that
> would enable a human (for example) to tune in to the frequencies used by
> trolls, and in that way spot active trolls in the darkness. >
Not sure what the advantage (beyond MGF!) are here -- the magic "Detect Troll" presumably works the same way Detect Lead, Detect Enemy, Detect Elf or Detect Meter Maid work. Or did you mean something along a divine magic spell, 15 minutes of passive sonar reception?

After the horrors my smart-ass remarks about "smart arrows" begat, I should know better. ;) But I've gotta throw out... if other races can magically use some sort of "detect Darksense" to find trolls, then those clever Elven munition makers just tinker a bit, and create "Darksense-  arrows" that home in on an active-sonar troll. (Disclaimer: comment meant for amusement only).

As a countermeasure Trollish Anti-Yelmic R&D is, of course, busy at work on the Heatseeking Sling Bullet.

Peter Metcalfe wrote:
> >Upon rereading the passage, I had the impression that the son and
> >grandson were the hooman rulers of Safelster who maintained the
> >friendship with the Uz of Guhan.

Drat, on rereading I think you may be right. Did his Human or his Trollish line rule the Dark Empire? He was a troll at the time, and I'd assumed it was his trollish kids that succeeded him -- unless "someone" illuminated them, I wouldn't think they'd be thrilled about Dad's new trollish body, dining habits and Zorak Zoran confessor.

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