Product of Brainstorming meeting

[Jojon]

Hmm, I'll admit to only skimming the log, so that was not clear to me. Also; as a second glance, I notice that CS already had the territorial bit in there...

[ChaosSong]

...were the miners, whether outworlders or natives, unaware of the existence of the previous claimant, or did they (or only somebody in a leading position) know, but went ahead anyway?

The way my version reads, the humans get hints of the hostile native but don't figure out what's happening 'til it's too late.

[Sudre]

I was thinking about the reasons for wanting the gas. With todays oil and gas prices it can be very obvious. There are a few gasses that can be very useful if they can be collected easily.
Hydrogen (typically not found in pockets underground.)
Propane
Natural Gas (actuall has NO smell. The smell is added before sold)

All three of those gases are a hot commodity on the surface. All of them can also be used to power a car or heat a home.

I also thought of another thing. I have a meter at work that we wear that monitors the air so we know it's safe to work in confined spaces. Probably be nice to have at least one of those around in the mine. Could be good for keeping the explorer out of an area. The monitor alarm goes off and the avy won't go any further.

[ChaosSong]

Sudre: For the purposes of the puzzle, I was thinking that the gasses would have to be pretty much unique. The puzzle needs to have flesh made of red-herring clues. I was thinking of five individual gasses that the chemests have discovered useful combonations of. One combonation might lead to an excellent lubracant, another might be a medical anesthetic, and of course one (derived from other formula) has to create torch-fuel, some of these formula could even call for an ingredent gas that is no longer obtainible. We will have to name the gasses for sure, but want to stay away from actually locating the gasses on the periodic table to avoid real-science conflicts.

They are "natural gasses" in the sence that they are indigenous to this improbable age.

I have a meter at work that we wear that monitors the air so we know it's safe to work in confined spaces. Probably be nice to have at least one of those around in the mine. Could be good for keeping the explorer out of an area. The monitor alarm goes off and the avy won't go any further.

Yes, that fits right in.

EDIT: Writing this post has me thinking now that maybe a good addition to the puzzle would be that the mixer can hold three types of gas at a time; out of five options. The pumping apparatus would have to be reconfigured to change the gasses you can add to the mixer... Some formula could have only two or one ingredent gasses, so many variants are possible...