Suggestions needed for new material: Herculaneum

[jcbdragon]

Since I don't draw very good maps, I tend to use real-world maps for my campaigns (2e AD&D). Some things carry over fairly directly (major cities got placed where they were for a reason, and most of those reasons still apply in a fantasy setting), some things get dropped, and others are carried over only metaphorically.

Near my home town in Southeast Missouri, there is a town called Herculaneum. I have decided to place a mining town there, the town taking it's name from the substance it mines.

But I can't decide what it DOES, so I'm bringing it here for suggestions.

Whatever it is, it's valuable enough that the nearby capital city (St Louis) maintains a constant garrison to make sure that the only supply is firmly under THEIR control.

Based on the name, it would seem to have something to do with Hercules, but what? Used for making potions/items related to Strength? Used for making exceptionally strong weapons/armor? A medieval equivalent of spring steel?

What suggestions do you guys have?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Greenfield]

Spring steel existed in medieval times. What didn't was stainless steel.

Short course on metalurgy: Add carbon to iron, get steel.

Add enough carbon to iron, add heat and cool quickly, and get hardened steel. Temper with care, get spring steel.

Add nickel to steel, get stainless. The more nickel, the more "stainless" it becomes.

Problem: The alloy won't take both carbon and nickel at the same time. The more nickel, the less carbon it can hold, so the ability to develop spring steel fades as it becomes more rust resistant. Eventually the ability to even harden it goes away.

So a metal you could add to steel to make it "stainless" without reducing its ability to hold carbon, and thus be capable of hardening...

... would be worth a lot.

Make it the site of a meteor strike, hence the unique supply. Add legends about the metal of the gods, embers from the Forge of Creation or what have you.

Or, make it as hard as Adamantine but without that "twice the weight of iron" issue, and thus favored for armor. Note that it isn't adamantine, so it isn't anything special when it comes to bypassing DR.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Eating the metal makes you strong.

A Rust Monster eating the metal turns into a Rust Dragon.

 

[jefgorbach]

In keeping with the myth, drinking a mixture containing the mineral results in a strength bonus, however prolonged usage results in developing epilepsy and eventually changes the addict's alignment evil. (His 12 labors were undertaken as proof of his sincere atonement for prior misdeeds, demonstrating his newly found empathy and alignment change towards good.)

Who Was Hercules
Epilepsy - Famous Ancient Figures Who Had Epilepsy