Nature of a Dead Island (looking for pseudo-science)..

[Three_Haligonians]

Allow me to describe a setting:

It is an island - lost in the middle of the sea. It is completely dead. By that I mean, it is entirely within a "dead magic" zone but also its very environment is stagnant and still. There are no living creatures here, from the grandest dire elephant down to the smallest bacteria - the soil is inert, the plants are all lifeless (but still there.. just dead). There is no weather - it is constantly a dull hot haze because their is no wind, no rain or anything. Even the sea surrounding the island is current-less and lifeless as well.

In fact, with the exception of air to breathe and regular atmospheric pressure, the island is very much like our moon in climate.

However, it wasn't always this way - so it is not just a barren rock. At one point in time it was probably very tropical in nature but it went "dead" in an instant. I'm wondering what it would look like to visitors who find it decades or even centuries later. Here is what I'm thinking:

- Tracks are still there, looking just as fresh as the day they were made.
- Plants are there, but dead; tall grass is yellow and dry - trees are bleached (leaves are either still on the trees or on the ground but are brown and unmoving).
- If the island was new when it was "killed", the beach rocks would still be sharp and jagged as there has been no surf or weather to wear them down.
- Interplanar travel is impossible here.

- Dead bodies from past visitors/inhabitants are still around, but how much decay would occur in these kinds of conditions? What else would such a place have or not have? Would it be going to far to suggest that not even fires can be started?

Basically, I'm looking for a set of physics to run this place under - a set that makes a certain amount of scientific sense but it doesn't have to be exact given the nature of the game.

In case it helps, the context is a cursed island my Epic group will be heading to at one point during the campaign. The main antagonist will be a ghost - one that they will have to put to rest since without magic they can't really hurt it (I am hand waving the part where ghosts can't enter antimagic fields or otherwise lose their supernatural abilities.)

J from Three Haligonians

 

[SteelDraco]

Sounds a bit like the Mournland, in Eberron. You might look at that, for a few details.

What caused this devastation, and why hasn't life been able to return to the area? Is it the ghost? Or is there something else causing it? Will it have negative effects on the PCs?

I'd imagine dead bodies would more or less mummify, eventually. If it's always hot and dry, that's what you'd expect. Without bacteria, they wouldn't get quite as... squishy, but they'd still eventually dry out. Plants would be more or less the same - dead, lifeless grass. Personally, I think it'd be creepier if the brown leaves were still on the trees, but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense - just stylistic.

If fire doesn't work, then it's obviously a pretty powerful ongoing magical effect. If you're world is animistic (spirits everywhere), that's easy to explain. There just AREN'T any spirits there, of any kind, other than the ghost. No water, no wind, no fire - nothing but lifeless, barren rock. Depending on your cosmology, that might also explain why it's magic-dead.

So, what's the backstory here?

 

[darthkilmor]

- Dead bodies from past visitors/inhabitants are still around, but how much decay would occur in these kinds of conditions? What else would such a place have or not have? Would it be going to far to suggest that not even fires can be started?

Strictly speaking, visitors would bring bacteria/etc with them, since its not that no life Can exist on the island, just that all life ceased at some point in the past. Bodies would be rotted away, considering the conditions probably sun-bleached bones and clothes/equipment. Maybe markings/writings from previous visitors?("surely i have died and gone to hell", or "Willlllson!"). Graves of previous dead visitors? basic huts/shelter of previous inhabitants? Attempts at making boats/rafts ? Any type that doesnt need to eat could be found here. AMF probably rules out constructs, but a group of outsiders maybe(refugees? outlaws? sounds like a great but boring place to hide, maybe someone is in hibernation), or undead(other than the ghost).

I dont see why fires shouldnt be able to start, but I could see things not burning well/ barely able to burn. Kind of like....that stephen king movie where the plane flies into the "past" and everything is dull and lifeless.

 

[cougent]

In effect, it is not that you have an area of no magic but rather you have a very powerful area of negated magic, and negated weather (probably from the same actual magic that is powering the negates magic field), and almost a time stop field (ditto). No wind or weather and no "life" even in the form of bacteria, you very well could have dead brown leaves still on the trees. You could also have fire (oxygenation) not occur as no chemical processes are occurring (again, reference powerful A-M field). I think the science you use to justify this is all tied back to that very non scientific A-M field, but that works just fine. AFAIK, there is no science for a total lack of life, because there is always some life. Moon rocks have microscopic microbes in them, decay is a very living process, and there is always weather of some kind naturally, (A storm 100's of miles away could produce waves that would wash up on the island and bring aquatic life.) So there really is no science to eliminate all of these, thats why we have magic, to do the scientifically impossible easily.

 

[1upus]

Problem with real life is that in the event of a total 'vacuum' where no life did exist, external life forms would eventually enter the zone to colonize it. Imagine an ecosystem where there was no competition!

Granted, there are no winds to immediately bring life into the area, but the edges of this zone would eventually start to be recolonized by bacteria, spores, etc. This would definitely be noted in the ocean around the island. How do marine life react to the zone? You have already said there are no currents. Do fish, algae, plant life avoid the area totally and if so why? Is there something about the senses of animals/fish that warn them away, but humans tend to ignore? Or alternately, has the ocean around the island been recolonized?

However, in a magically created situation, how it looks really depends on how you envision it.

If all the life was suddenly killed in the area, and there is no wind, I can't see a reason why there won't be leaves still on the trees. I would tend towards the mummified bodies/carcasses given your description of the heat haze.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

You say that everything died suddenly at some point in time. What you need to say is if whatever did the killing is still in effect. If so, the characters die. End of adventure. If not, as stated above, the area will be recolonized by various lifeforms eventually. Either way, no, you can't use science to explain it. If there are tides on the planet there will be tides on the island, and that will accelerate the recolonization. Also, if there isn't enough oxygen to start a fire the characters die. See above. Magic, of course, can explain whatever you want.

 

[Warren Okuma]

This was a place where a god of life or healing died a long time ago, thus marking this place. PC's take one hit point per day and cannot heal naturally.

 

[Baron Opal]

Assuming there is no bacteriological decay, dead flesh will either liquify due to the collapse of the cells, mummify if the air is at least dry and preferably hot as well. However, the meat will stay "fresh" until it completely falls apart. Then you just have bones, gristle and leather. The plant life will become brittle. A field of yellow grass will crumble under the feet and leaves will fall off of trees when they are shaken. If weather patterns are disrupted as well this might take a while due to a lack of a breeze. The first animals to get washed ashore will feast well if they arrive soon enough. They will begin to starve all to soon, however, as the foodstocks are not replenished.

Almost sounds like heavy irradiation, actually.

 

[Huw]

Antarctica. All the effects of a land being 40 below zero without it actually being 40 below zero.

 

[fuindordm]

If life can exist there, but never reproduce, then you shouldn't have to worry about visitors restocking the island with microbes.

It does sound like mummification would be the natural course for all bodies.