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Q&A

What is a medieval technology method of underwater enemy detection?

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I am writing a DnD module where fishmen are invading island nations. The islands would naturally have adapted to this in some way as the raids have been happening for years. What method would these island nations use to detect underwater invaders?

I first thought of nets with floats and bells but these would give constant false positives from fish or tides.

Magic is an option, but needs to be a realistic and low level spell that a run of the mill spellcaster could accomplish (say 3rd level or below). I considered a water-breathing spell cast on a regular patrol but the underwater terrain is unlikely to be hospitable to a normal patrol and visibility would be too limited to be useful.

I much prefer a more generic non-DnD specific answer but would settle for something in the DnD world.

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This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/86457. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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In the realm of simple magic: Great White Shark patrols.

The magic is to give the sharks a predisposition for patrolling the shore; they can go off to hunt for food, but the magic means they just never get tired of hunting the shore near the city, even if they never catch anything there.

Similar low level magic to attract them into cages and calm them, where they can be enchanted, perhaps even attaching an amulet to them or something like that. It should not be much more difficult than an infatuation spell. If you attach the amulet, than simple touch magic to a sister amulet can call the sharks in an emergency, or send them off to hunt elsewhere during the day so your own fishermen can get their jobs done.

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