Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - The First Interbellum (1918-1939)

Johnny1A.2 · 03-09-2016, 09:28 PM

LATER.

Normally, this might have been the end of the matter. Unfortunately for 'Iron Henry' McCord, the artifact in question was one of the most dangerous things left over from the Antediluvian Age. It was, in fact, a surviving paralens, one of the ancient devices used by the Atlanteans to amplify and stabilize the Flux, making it more readily and safely useful.

Unfortunately for McCord, and others, this one was one of the 'tainted' ones created by the Unity in the last years of Atlantis. These devices normally worked much as a proper Flux-paralens did, but under certain circumstances they could and did produce catastrophically bad effects.

Even more unfortunately, this particular paralens had subsequently been changed and modified and put to particularly exotic use, in the time immediately prior to the Great Cataclysm. This had made its 'tainted' nature both more unusual and more dangerously portentous. We will learn more about why this specific paralens was so important later. For now, suffice it to say that there were reasons why it had been found where it was, in the remote outback of Australia, and why is had become so simultaneously so infamous within the restricted circles of Antediluvian antiquaries.

Even with this dangerous item stored in the warehouse cache, normally it would not have been likely to matter except subtly. Two additional factors had combined to make the presence of the device so important.

One was that the device was mechanically damaged, both by the use to which it had been put in the ancient times, and the events of the Great Cataclysm. The orichalcum-alloy 'caps' that should have been present upon it were also long gone, removed for their precious orichalcum content.

The other factor was external. Recall that a ley line ran through Harrystown, not far from the warehouse district, and the hidden cache was well within its area of effect. This, too, might not normally have mattered. The high Flux activity associated with the ley line stimulated more activity from some of the items in the cache, but nothing normally spectacular.

However, on the evening of the explosion and subsequent fire, there had been a tremendous surge of activity in the world-wide network of ley lines, for reasons that we will come to soon enough. (In fact, the triggering event for the Flux-surge along the ley lines had happened in Germany.)

For now, suffice it to say that that this surge of activity stimulated the dangerous artifacts in the cache, especially the new addition that had been discovered in Australia, initiating a chain reaction that culminated, over the course of several seconds, in a tremendous explosion that literally blasted the aboveground warehouse apart.

This detonation had been a Flux reaction, similar in nature to psychokinetic phenomena. In fact, it could be compared to a spontaneous 'PK blast', though on a vast larger scale than most psions could hope to duplicate. Most of the force had been manifested radially, and initially it had been a 'cold' event, with very little immediate thermal energy release. [1]

The fire had been triggered when a metal shard from the shredded warehouse structure had been blasted through the wall of a neighboring warehouse, struck a metal shelf, and sparks had been produced. The sparks had touched off a fuel tank that had been opened up by shrapnel, initiating the huge fire that had raged through the warehouse district after the initial blast. Fortunately, as mentioned earlier, it so happened that there been a soaking rain falling that evening, which had spared the city much harm.

The collapsing warehouse from which the initial blast radiated had buried the entrances to the underground cache under a large mass of rubble, some of which had subsequently been heated and softened by the heat of the fire, producing a difficult-to-penetrate barrier. To make matters worse, from the point of view of Henry McCord, the blast had blown a rough channel that had enabled the rain-swollen river to pour into the site as well, partly flooding that part of it that had not been buried under rubble. That water remained in the depressions produced by the blast, not yet drained or evaporated.

The surge of activity in the ley lines that had been trigger for the event had lasted no more than a few minutes, perhaps ten at the most. The source of that surge, however, lay far away in Germany, and rooted in complicated events that do not immediately matter to the events in Harrystown or the mission of the Seven Aces at that time.

What did link them, though, was that the men involved in the events that triggered the ley surge had detected the interaction in far-away New York, and as a result, several men had come to Harrystown over the following days.

MORE LATER.

[1] For more about 'PK Blast', see:
http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...01&postcount=1

03-09-2016, 09:28 PM	#205
Johnny1A.2 Join Date: Feb 2007	Re: The First Interbellum (1918-1939) LATER. Normally, this might have been the end of the matter. Unfortunately for 'Iron Henry' McCord, the artifact in question was one of the most dangerous things left over from the Antediluvian Age. It was, in fact, a surviving paralens, one of the ancient devices used by the Atlanteans to amplify and stabilize the Flux, making it more readily and safely useful. Unfortunately for McCord, and others, this one was one of the 'tainted' ones created by the Unity in the last years of Atlantis. These devices normally worked much as a proper Flux-paralens did, but under certain circumstances they could and did produce catastrophically bad effects. Even more unfortunately, this particular paralens had subsequently been changed and modified and put to particularly exotic use, in the time immediately prior to the Great Cataclysm. This had made its 'tainted' nature both more unusual and more dangerously portentous. We will learn more about why this specific paralens was so important later. For now, suffice it to say that there were reasons why it had been found where it was, in the remote outback of Australia, and why is had become so simultaneously so infamous within the restricted circles of Antediluvian antiquaries. Even with this dangerous item stored in the warehouse cache, normally it would not have been likely to matter except subtly. Two additional factors had combined to make the presence of the device so important. One was that the device was mechanically damaged, both by the use to which it had been put in the ancient times, and the events of the Great Cataclysm. The orichalcum-alloy 'caps' that should have been present upon it were also long gone, removed for their precious orichalcum content. The other factor was external. Recall that a ley line ran through Harrystown, not far from the warehouse district, and the hidden cache was well within its area of effect. This, too, might not normally have mattered. The high Flux activity associated with the ley line stimulated more activity from some of the items in the cache, but nothing normally spectacular. However, on the evening of the explosion and subsequent fire, there had been a tremendous surge of activity in the world-wide network of ley lines, for reasons that we will come to soon enough. (In fact, the triggering event for the Flux-surge along the ley lines had happened in Germany.) For now, suffice it to say that that this surge of activity stimulated the dangerous artifacts in the cache, especially the new addition that had been discovered in Australia, initiating a chain reaction that culminated, over the course of several seconds, in a tremendous explosion that literally blasted the aboveground warehouse apart. This detonation had been a Flux reaction, similar in nature to psychokinetic phenomena. In fact, it could be compared to a spontaneous 'PK blast', though on a vast larger scale than most psions could hope to duplicate. Most of the force had been manifested radially, and initially it had been a 'cold' event, with very little immediate thermal energy release. [1] The fire had been triggered when a metal shard from the shredded warehouse structure had been blasted through the wall of a neighboring warehouse, struck a metal shelf, and sparks had been produced. The sparks had touched off a fuel tank that had been opened up by shrapnel, initiating the huge fire that had raged through the warehouse district after the initial blast. Fortunately, as mentioned earlier, it so happened that there been a soaking rain falling that evening, which had spared the city much harm. The collapsing warehouse from which the initial blast radiated had buried the entrances to the underground cache under a large mass of rubble, some of which had subsequently been heated and softened by the heat of the fire, producing a difficult-to-penetrate barrier. To make matters worse, from the point of view of Henry McCord, the blast had blown a rough channel that had enabled the rain-swollen river to pour into the site as well, partly flooding that part of it that had not been buried under rubble. That water remained in the depressions produced by the blast, not yet drained or evaporated. The surge of activity in the ley lines that had been trigger for the event had lasted no more than a few minutes, perhaps ten at the most. The source of that surge, however, lay far away in Germany, and rooted in complicated events that do not immediately matter to the events in Harrystown or the mission of the Seven Aces at that time. What did link them, though, was that the men involved in the events that triggered the ley surge had detected the interaction in far-away New York, and as a result, several men had come to Harrystown over the following days. MORE LATER. [1] For more about 'PK Blast', see: http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...01&postcount=1 Last edited by Johnny1A.2; 03-09-2016 at 09:58 PM.