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Well my party opened the floodgate of skull dam long enough to drop the level of the lake below the damaged portion thus fixing the problem in the short term. Now though one of the PCs, an engineer, wants to drain the storval deep completely, gradually over time so as to not flood downriver or loose monsters upon the countryside.
Will it work and what would the consequences be? It seems the dam is not really necessary anymore.
Oh and one of you Paizo cartographers, does that river go through the Iron Peaks under the mountain or is it two separate rivers? It's a little unclear from the map.
Interesting one this, I can't find a reason for the construction of the Dam, apart from the fact that there was a huge quarry there that they wanted to fill with water.
Typically Dams are build for one of several reasons (in a none fantasy world such as Earth:
1) Regulate water flow to prevent flash flooding of lands lower down.
2) Create a lake to be used to supply water in the dryer seasons and ensure a fairly constant supply, for irrigation or as a drinking source (unlikely considering how wet the low lands are).
3) To use the water as a power supply to convert its raw power into a more useful type of energy (unlikely, as if some one is powerful enough to summon a couple of pit fiends, I am sure he could have other ways of harnessing power).
(I think that covers all the basses)
Based on what you think is the most likely of these, you will get your answer. Only number one and two have a bad consequence on the towns and villages below.
Now from what I have read about the climate in this area, the coast is wet (Seatle) and the Storval Plateau and Cinderlands are similar to the bad lands of Montana. Please some one correct me if I got the areas wrong.
So the peak rainfall will be in the months equivalent to April to June (Gozran, Desnus and Sarenith).
So by my (apparent) logic, removing the dam could cause wide scale flooding of the low lands, possibly create new low land lakes and marshes with seasonally flooding of some towns and washing away of bridges and river crossings as an added bonus. Most of the towns would of evolved around the current regulate river, not the natural untamed river.
If you buy my argument, the dwarf is better off looking at a way of repairing the dam and having the flood gates work mechanically.
Remeber that the Dam was placed before the fall of Thasillon. The geography changed quite a lot at that time. Who knows what purpose the Dam was supposed to fulfill way back when.
Just thought of a few new reasons for a dam, taking into account who ordered it built.
1) Stop some one or something from coming up stream, either from the sea which was much further away at that time (Abloth?), or from the other rune lords lands.
2) To use as a possible weapon to flood the other rune lords lands, a type of arms race? Or to restrict the flow of water to hold them to ransom. It could even be used to control the populace by rationing their water.
3) To create a breading ground for some sort of monster that lives in big lakes, a good possibility considering who lives there now.
I think the purpose of the dam was to be totally awesome and badass. It was very successful at that.
The characters is an engineer. It sounds like you are not (I'm not, I wouldn't know what would happen). Ask the player what his or her general objective is and try to find a way to let it happen. If you want to slow down the game a bit, give them some trouble with it (they get attacked while draining the lake because it takes days or weeks to do).
Artificial or not, the lake has been tehre for 10,000 + years. Draining it should cause a massive ecological upheaval. Tribes will need to relocate, monsters will emigrate, etc...
Creative Director
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Oh and one of you Paizo cartographers, does that river go through the Iron Peaks under the mountain or is it two separate rivers? It's a little unclear from the map.
There are two rivers in the Iron Peaks. Rivers can't connect in a ring like that, therefore... two separate rivers that have sources on opposite sides of one mountain, I suspect.
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Creative Director
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Yeah... draining the lake will indeed wreak HAVOC on the ecosystem, both upriver and downriver from the dam. It'd likely eventually cause flooding anyway, and certainly it'll rile up and enrage lots of giants who depend on the Storval Deep for water, who'll then head south to see "WHAT'S UP!" Also... there's a fair amount of monsters in the Storval Deep—like Black Magga. There's a lot more down there than her, and lowering the water will wake them up and angry them up.
As for WHY the dam was built... some deep Thassilonian history to follow beyond the spoiler...
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Ah thanks all. You're echoing my sentiments exactly. I'm a biologist I know the ecological effects would be quite drastic. I told him he's going to kick over that anthill and send monsters everywhere.
Still my fellow player is quite clever. First he wouldn't remove the dam he'd just remove the lake so the flooding issue may not be a problem. Also
he was going to gradually lower the lake's level ever so slowly so the monsters wouldn't notice right away. It's not a bad plan really, if he lowers the level gradually competition for the limited resources would increase. The giants and monsters would have to compete among each other for the diminishing water. Eventually a small(er) population would be left because of attrition. Of course he probably just selected for the toughest, baddest monsters and sent them roaming south.
He's had crazier plans, this is the guy who lives next to and is rebuilding the Light in Sandpoint.
Hmm still my PC sells weapons so business could become quite lucrative. Also as James said there's ancient stuff down there, I'm curious as to what might be found.
Wouldn't the Storval Deep be drainable ONLY if the flood gates were at the bottom? Looking at the cutaway view, there's still 100' worth of water below the gate, and that's pretending that the lake bottom doesn't slope downard towards the center.
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Wouldn't the Storval Deep be drainable ONLY if the flood gates were at the bottom? Looking at the cutaway view, there's still 100' worth of water below the gate, and that's pretending that the lake bottom doesn't slope downard towards the center.
Exactly right. He'd need to stoneshape another sluice farther down. You wouldn't need to get every last drop out though. Evaporation will take care of the rest.
I just keep telling him to work on the underwater breathing apparatus. I want to try it on the Varisian Bay.