(IR) The 3rd IR, Turn 3 (thread 1)

There is true panic in the Flanaess now.

This is not the petty minor panic caused by the Sending of the Wanderer.
This is not the little uproar caused by the Black Brotherhood.

This is an insane panic, a panic gone beyond all reason and over the brink and off the cliff.

It cannot be stopped, for the military is a part of it.

In the Lortmil Technomancy, in Dorakaa, and in other isolated places, order is maintained.
Also, order is maintained in the Dark Union and amongst the Scarlet Brotherhood.

Elsewhere, there is - literally - bedlam.

Cities are burning.
People are murdering each other in the streets.
Others are feasting and making merry, and even making love, in the streets as the chaos rages around them.
All law and order has broken down.
Every church is being broken into, ransacked and pillaged, while men curse the Gods who will not help them, cannot save them.
Public buildings burn as mobs storm the gates, killing officials, taking a brutal revenge for every imagined wrong, or because the whim takes them.
A deathly silence falls over the countryside.
Cows and pigs, chickens and farm cats, wander aimlessly in abandoned fields.
Harvesting machines stand idle, half filled, abandoned in the middle of their work.
Trains on the railroads stand still, in the middle of the lines, engines still running, abandoned.

Vast numbers of people are fleeing for the mountains, for the imagined safety of desolate places in the wilderness, or holing themselves up in whatever place they can find and defend against all comers.

It is all the imagery of The Stand, come to Oerth.

Edena_of_Neith said:

I'm afraid that all initial research into this disease, even by Iuz (the Empire of Iuz is being hit also) fails.

Click to expand...

Any initial attempts. In that case, we continue to research it. I don't care how long it takes - if someone has a crackcase idea on how to beat it, we'll try it out. If it works, great; if it doesn't, then we'll move on. The point is, we're not doing anything, so everyone who has a minute of spare time is going to be working on this. We shall find a cure, and that is that. As the great Yoda once said, "There is no try. Only do."

Obviously, we have no test subjects. However, we will transmit our ideas to our allies with very detailed instructions, via either psionics, telephony, or radio. Our comminiques will hold subliminal magical or psionic messages to restore order and to remain calm, that there should be no fear and that a cure will be found, that the greatest scientists in Oerth are working on this problem as this message is being sent.

Nobody in the Flanaess has yet actually exhibited any symptoms of the disease.
Nor will anyone, until the next Turn (Turn 4.)
The disease started over 2 weeks into the current Turn, and has a long incubation time.

Click to expand...

Sollir, I think that answers your question.

In the middle of all the horror, Vecna sits and watches through his magical mirror with a smirk on his face.
He cradles his Queen and slavegirl in his arms, the fair Shadowlady Ahlissa.

He speaks softly:

The Servitor Races are learning their place at last.
This is a well deserved and long overdue lesson for them.
Slaves they were, and slaves they are, and slaves they shall always be, to the Suel Race, and I am Master of the Suel Race.
If they will not bow to me in Life, then they will bow to me in Unlife.
Either way, they WILL bow to Vecna, Emperor of Oerth.

As for the snivelling, kender hugging Torilians, I shall enjoy watching as Acererak devours them all, and enjoy their futile screams.

Vecna smiles at Ahlissa.

And they shall bow to Ahlissa, Queen of Oerth.
She shall have her pick of the finest Servitors, be they living or undead, and they shall be hers. Forever.

Our researchers begin tearing through every book, historical reference, and encyclopedia in the nation, searching for references to this nasty disease. We will go through every mentioning of ancient diseases, and work through every cure found. We will test these out, sending the ideas they give us to our allies via the same systems we mentioned earlier that we are using for communication.

We will also begin a very small, side project, that we will keep very secret from the common folk. A project that will work on constructing some very tiny golems - smaller than flies. The size of a few cells, at most. What we want is something that can hunt out magical things the size of cells, and destroy them through the usage of powerful, concentrated antimagic fields. Only the best and brightest who want to work on this will be allowed access to it. We want them to be controlled by radio or by a similar long-distance system. Develop morse code into a form of signalling system, for the tiny golems to move around in the cells. Develop long-range magic detection items that the golems can detect the disease with, but that would allow the scientists to see the viruses and maneuver the golems around and destroy them. This project will get all the funding it requires, but absolutely no public attention. This project will be kept very quiet. This will be used as a last-ditch effort, if necessary, to fight the disease. We want these little things to be mechanical in nature, but they can utilize minimal magic if absolutely necessary. They can produce any type of side effects, other than death or extremely severe pain or uncurable disease, so long as it destroys this disease.

Disease Schmisease.

Sorry for my tardiness. My AOL login isn't working -- I think the server is down. Had to call long-distance to my old MSU server.

And my, has there been an explosion of lameness since I was last here.

I'll deal with the disease this post, and then some problems with the Angels, next post.

------------------
Forrester will be saving his *own* people far before Turn 4 begins. I don't need 10th level magic to cure a freakin' magical disease of such poor quality. Neither do any of you -- at least, as far as your military forces are concerned. Your innocent civilian population (those that are left), may be another story.

I have a few million troops. Given the proliferation of archmages and 120th level characters running around, it is almost certain that for every 200 of my troops (call it a "unit"), one is a 12th level cleric, and two more are 6th level clerics. There are probably more, but let's start there.

Edena said that a Remove Disease spell would cure the disease, and make the recipient immune. Fair enough -- the ninth level magic makes it spread like wildfire, and makes it kill people, but it still can be cured magically.

Remove Disease is a 3rd level spell. Two 6th level clerics and one 12th level cleric, assuming reasonably good wisdom bonuses for genetically modified humans/humanoids, can together cast 23 Remove Disease spells a day.

Within 9 days, they can cure 207 people. That's everyone in their unit.

Then, of course, there are the much higher level clerics who can cast many more such spells (and probably have a 6th or 7th level Remove Disease spell that targets multiple people at once), the wizards who can cast Limited Wish or other spells to aid the clerics, and so on.

Meaning in nine days, MAXIMUM, my troops are not only cured, but immune from such foolishness. I don't even have to break out the Wishes or Miracles.

Allow me to take a moment to yawn in Acererak's direction.

*YAWN*

Thank you.

We will have to figure out how to save the civilians, of course, though I don't know how many are left since the Angels invited folks to go.

Point two, and a segue into my next post: Edena, I have a question for you.

<edited away -- um, the gist is that, um, I think you made a bad call, Ripley. I mean, Edena.>

This disease spreads incredibly quickly, but it has a slow incubation period and can be cured by a freaking THIRD LEVEL SPELL. A huge quantity of people could be cured at once through 10th level magic.

And those of Toril can cast 10th level magic. And ELEVENTH LEVEL MAGIC. And they have technomancy of the highest order -- medicine and genetics, combined. The fact that the virus is magical would mean little to my people -- a doctor in a one-building town could cure this disease without breaking a sweat.

"Take two Pills o' Curing and call me in the morning."

The Angels would be selfish arrogant fools to stop innocents fleeing to Toril. The Angels could easily cure them themselves, and even if they refused, my people could cure them in days, if not hours. And they most certainly would not be affected by such a lame disease.

Ninth level magic? C'mon! We've got hedge wizards on Toril that can come up with better stuff.

After confirming with their 11th level divinations that this disease was created with tediously weak 9th level magic, the people of Toril welcome the sick of Oerth . . . c'mon!

Lord Forrester -- who is feeling damn healthy right now, thank you very much.

I cast a wish spell stating: I wish that the undead being known as Acerack is not able to repel the magical influence of a helm of opposite alignment the next time one is placed on his head. Then with haste and two minds cast I teleport w/o error next to Acerack, put a helm of opposite alignment on him and teleport w/o error out.

Rary orders quarantines throughout the IBKSC. Under penalty of death, no without proper authorization is allowed to leave the current city, town, village or work site. Work will continue. People will still be expected to go to their jobs, and fulfill their responsibilities. A sense of normalcy is important to keep up moral (which is getting lower by the day I suspect). Golems and other constructs will be used in policing duties -- where feasible -- on very important or critical sites (they don’t get sick).

Edena, question:

What about the planar (demons, solars, etc,) are they getting sick as well?

Edit: Since Cure Disease works on this, Clerics with army start to heal the troops. Civilians are cured at work, promting them to go back to work all that much quicker.

(ooc-are relic and ritual spells allowed?-in reference to Kaboom's 2 mind spell.)

I begin restoring order throught the Crescent. Quarantines are set up and order is reestablished. I imagine this will be easier in Aaqa, where everyone is fanatically lawful.
Priests are set to work casting Remove Disease and more powerful curing spells on eveyone they can find. Aurican, meanwhile, puts his Pheonix heritage to work; he can cast Remove Disease at will an unlimited number of times per day, once per person. I also begin research into discovering how the virus was created, such as the spells used to make it.

Re: ooc: are R&R spells allowed?

if they are't then the attack is called off.