(IR) IR Interlude between Turns 3 and 4 (thread 2)

DISCOVERY!!!

Many people and beings have now attempted the Blood Waste.
Most of them accidentally, like it or not, touched the strange substance that now covers much of the region - the vividly glowing red gooish stuff.
And when they did, they dissolved.
Those that pulled back quickly, still had a tiny amount of it on them, and they dissolved.

Attempts were made to pick up the stuff with metal containers.
The metal, dissolved.

However, it was finally discovered that mithril and adamantium containers could hold the substance, and would not dissolve.
Thus, with great care and more than a few fatalities, the stuff was brought out of the Blood Waste for examination.

Although it is a mixture of water poisoned by Shade, lava from Oerth's interior, and the blood of 53 million fallen living and undead, it is quite cool when taken out of the Blood Waste, and quietly sits in the containers, glowing it's bright vivid red.
Then, it hardens into a metal.

This metal, is harder than adamantium by far.

All initial attempts to smelt it, hammer it, or heat it, failed.
Not even the great modern forges of the Lortmil Technomancy could heat it or alter it.

Finally, in frustration, someone threw a fireball at it.
It melted at once.

With the discovery that magic will readily affect this metal, it became possible for it to be shaped and forged (touching it after it hardened into a metal had no apparent ill effects.)
The resulting items proved to be incredibly strong, literally unbreakable.
Needless to say, someone started forging swords out of it.
The swords proved horrifically sharp, unbreakable, and extremely light, although the luminence from the metal changed with the forging - the swords now glowed in all colors of the rainbow, the light coming from a seemingly deep, remote place within the metal.

Realizing that the era of swords was over, attempts were made to make bullets out of this substance, and they have succeeded.
These bullets, glowing with multicolored rainbow light, remote and deep within the metal, will penetrate anything (they are far better than depleted uranium bullets.)

The secret to building suits of plate armor that would stop bullets, or even enemy artillery and high explosives, has been discovered.
With magic, the metal can be readily heated, melted, forged, and shaped (but no non-magical heat known as of yet will affect it at all.)

The secret to bullets that will pierce enemy tanks, or even go through a large amount of earth or stone to reach a foe, has been discovered.

Now, they are discussing making everything out of this new substance, this blood steel, or rainbow steel, or star steel, or by the many names with which it is called.

Unfortunately, only limited amounts are available, because it is necessary to obtain the stuff from the Blood Waste - that is the ONLY place where it is found.
It must be collected in containers of mithril, adamantium, or blood steel itself.
Forays into the Blood Swamp are horrifically dangerous, and usually end with many fatalities, no matter how careful the gatherers are, or how hard they try to protect themselves.

As for the blood steel, it radiates strong magic, strong rainbow light from a seemingly remote and deep distance within the metal, and it radiates no alignment.
The long-term effects of using it (much less wearing it as armor) are currently unknown as of this time.

- - -

A final note.
If collected as goo, within a container that will hold it, the strange stuff from the Blood Waste can be used as a weapon.
It could be, say, catapulted at a foe with a catapult made out of mithril, adamantium, or red steel itself.
Tests show that not only do the foe (and all their equipment except for mithril and adamantium) dissolve when the stuff hits, but the ground itself melts, and a new pond of the strange goo is created.
These new small ponds of gooish stuff cannot be moved, changed, affected, or removed by any known means, including 10th level magic.
They CAN be used as a source for even more Red Steel, however.
Goo could be removed from these new pools of goo, then flung into the ground to create a second pool of goo, which could then be used to create a third pool of goo, etc.

Since it takes several days for the goo to harden into red steel, once removed from the Blood Waste or the experimental pools, it is quite easy to create new pools of the stuff, or create batches as weapons to throw at enemies.
 
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Noted.
The Dark Union begins mass collecting the gooish stuff from the Blood Waste, using their mithril and adamantium to do so.

- - -

The Solars, Planetars, and Devas run by Alzem (not to be confused with the Angels of the 7th Heaven, which I am playing), have been hanging over the Blood Waste, examining it (as per Alzem's article above.)

In the heart of the Blood Waste, nearly all the land has been submerged under the radiant goo, except for great broken pieces of bedrock sticking up at wierd angles into the sky.
The whole area radiates very intense evil.
The air, is so filled with the fumes from the stuff that even the powerful Deva cannot abide it, and the Solars and Planetar have to magically protect themselves.

More and more magma is coming to the surface through the thousands of crevaces Vecna made in the Oerth with his Catastrophe, and more and more of the water of Wolly Bay is pouring into the area.
Lava, water, and the strangely undepletable blood continue to mix together to form more and more of the gooish substance.

- - -

Morning breaks over Celene, the sun rising in the east.
The sunlight of the dawn is shining through the fumes of the Blood Waste before it reaches Celene.

Up until now, the sunlight has been normal, and there has been no trouble, except along the borders of the Blood Waste where the fumes have caused local problems.

But this morning is different.

The sun is unchanged, yellow and brilliant.
Yet around it is a red corona, apparently caused by the fumes from the Blood Waste.
The whole rest of the sky is darkened to a purplish color, and the clouds are tinged with red.

The reddish light is reflected off the Lortmils, off of the trees, off of every leaf, and it is reflected off of the rivers and lakes of Celene.

At first, this is nothing more than an unusual atmospheric phoenomenon.

However, as the sun rises higher, and it's light grows stronger, the reddish halo around it stands out vividly, casting an eerie, fatal glow across Celene, the Kron Hills, and the eastern slopes of the Lortmils, and strange and unpleasant things start to happen.
It starts with the smell.
The smell of rot.
The trees begin to look vaguely sick, the shrubs show signs of blight.
The number of insects increases dramatically, driving the birds frantic, scaring the animal life.
The green fields of Celene gain a splotched look, as some of the crops turn yellow, mold and fungus growing on them.
A lot of elves don't feel very well, and take off work.
Some feel downright sick.
Others notice boils and lesions appearing on their skin where the sunlight struck them.

Then, around noon, the sun lifts high enough that it is not shining through the fumes over the Blood Waste.
In a sudden dramatic switch, the sunlight returns to normal, the red halo disappears, the sky is blue again, and the red tinge is gone from the clouds.
But the effects of the morning last ... they do not fade.
Those elves who took sick become sicker, while many who felt fine become sick.
The boils and lesions grow worse, and must be treated.
The illness of the trees and plants worsens.

The elves conclude that the sunlight is being poisoned by the fumes over the Blood Waste.
The sunlight, has become dangerous.
A bane, say the elves, to all who stand in it, and all that it touches.
They give it a name.
They call it the Sunbane.
 
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Intriguing.

<< Well. This is interesting. >>

Anabstercorian opens his eyes, one of his more talented and intelligent thrall standing next to him - Kraytos, a human with long, oily black hair.

<< Kraytos, my divinations have revealed interesting facts about the Blood Wastes. Know these facts. >>
A spark of electricity passes between him and Kraytos, who blinks, reeling, holding on to the wall.
"This... This is incredible! We must gain a source of this metal!"
<< Indeed. Send our mages out with an adamtinium cauldron. Don't let them scoop the stuff, have them move it with telekinesis. >>

<< Edena, I'm sending a PL 2 force of high level NPC's to pick up a large quantity of Oerthblood using telekinesis to move it in to adamantinium containers, which will then be Teleported Without Error back home. We'll be pouring the stuff in to some of the chillier areas of the Godspires, form a small pool of our own. >>

<< Forrester, I know you need to talk. I'm at school at the moment... I'll have to check my e-mail later. If it's about the City of the Gods and Vecna, I'm as concerned about this as you are... Frankly, the City of the Gods is way too much for me to handle. I'm considering using the Big D... At any rate, I'll be in contact. Meet you at Pazeno's - I'll foot the bill. I'd like to talk to their cook about getting the recipe for that fondue... It would be delicious poured over brains, I think. >>
 

The gooish stuff is not Oerthblood.

However, it is readily telekinesised and teleported.

Soon, you have a large supply of it, and new pools of the stuff are sending fumes up over the Godspires.
 
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Ah! Sun-blighters to the rescue!

The Illithid people have many ways of dealing with problems with the sun. I think that, should you find our aid necessary, we will be able to remove this little solar poisoning without blotting out the sun.

<< Edena, I am devoted 1 PL worth of researchers to figuring out what the hell the Sunblight is and how we can fix it. I like my Thrall healthy and the Solistarim don't want the Flannae ruined. >>
 

Fumes? We don't need no steenkin fumes!

You know that enormously powerful Sphere of Annilation spell you mentioned, Edena? The one that levels cities? We're using an altered version of that (fairly heavily altered, really) to suck up the fumes from the Oerthblood (I'll call it what I like!) and shunt them in to the void, where there isn't much to wreck. It won't get rid of ALL of the side effects, but it should keep the Sunblight from eating at the tops of the mountains.

Also, we begin outfitting out troops with Bloodiron weaponry! It's not Substare, but it'll do. We start by giving them blood-iron chain, which should be extremely light and extremely effective. If need be, I'll Dominate a few elven smiths to help us make it. They'll be returned to their homes with generous wages, of course.
 
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Your researchers come up with no answers to the problem, Anabstercorian.
Apparently, the fumes come with the goo.
You can't have one without the other.
Once the stuff hardens into red steel, it does not emit fumes.

The new pools you have formed, obviously, do not harden into anything, but remain pools of goo, from which you can derive huge amounts of red steel.
And the fumes continue to rise over the Godspires.

Perhaps 11th level magic could handle the fumes, but nobody has 11th level magic on Oerth.
I guess you'll have to live with the fumes, if you want that red steel.

The Sphere of Annihilation tactic, does not work.
The fumes do not rush into the Sphere, and there is far too much in the way of fumes in the air for the Spheres to destroy by moving them around with mental control.
 
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All righty then.

We'll continue extracting red steel until we have enough of it in raw form to outfit our entire army in a full panoplia of armor and weaponry, and then we'll destroy the Oerthblood pools using several dozen simultaneous Greater Sphere Of Annihilation spells. We'll just shunt the suckers in to the void, baby!

So, basically, we're keeping the oerthblood pool around for a month, then we're getting rid of it. We'll continue to look for a solution to the problem of the Sunblight.
 

Using the safest means possible, my mages collect enough of the bloodgoo to form a new pool. It is then teleported to one of my colonies off Oerik. There, it is studied and held in sealed containers. The containers will be placed away from the colonies and guarded by golems, and the sun will not be allowed to touch the stuff. When we learn the secret of working the red steel, Red Steel Golems will be forged out of it, and equiped with the latest in destructive weaponry.

All golems and other equipment made of red steel are blessed and kept on hallowed ground, and other precautions are taken to remove any evil taint the metal has left.

Also, how did Zagyg's experiment with exposing his Dire Ape's to the Blood Waste go?
 
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