Topic: Zor Wastes

[munchy]

Hi, I remember reading something somewhere on the radiation in the Zor Wastes. As you may have geuessed I cannot remember, however, where I read that. It would be really nice if someone could give me directions.
I own almost all of the Shadow World books but cannot find anything really interesting. Even the Grand Campaign offers too little for me.

Additionally it would be nice if you could tell me (and all the others) how you use the wasteland. Do you have it like the Devastation of Cyradon (hot, red sand, mutations etc.) or like that area from Eberron (with living spells and everything in stasis not dead).
It apparently was a nuclear explosion that devastated the area (the interesting part here, IMHO, is how big that thing must have been, compare the Tsar Bomb (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba).
I also always wondered about how that explosion and radiation might interact with the Essaence. I've got some ideas but would love to read yours first.

[Guillaume]

hmm,
if it's not the Grand Campaign that's going to pose a problem, because that's the biggest source on the Zori radiations...

The only other source that comes to my mind for this kind of crunchy bits is the Shadow World Mailling List... or the RM Mailling List.... and well good luck in finding an archive somewhere ( I have bits and pieces of it lost somewhere ) and good luck rumaging into it... ( I'm talking of several tens of megabytes of text only stuff  [ not even html, not even word, just plain basic ascii text ] )

[munchy]

Ah, right, then I got with what you all do concerning the wasteland and what Terry PMed me concerning the radiation:

Good question actually. I would say that radiation is no longer a big issue and the legends are outdated (but feel free to do what you want). There is some info about Zor in the Grand Campaign--you can get it from my downloads page.

and the event itself:

I had always figured it was something along the lines of a nuclear bomb, though it would have to use something different than gunpowder as the trigger. My thinking was that the Zorians found this thing, which was an artifact left over by one of the interregnum races (the Jinteni probably) or the Aldari. My thinking is that were never that many of these things, and this was a prototype. The Zorians didn't fully understand it, but they were arrogant enough that they though they could control it.

(Terry, I hope it was okay that I quoted from your PMs.)

Still, there is always room for your own ideas - just as Terry says. I prefer the radiation to still have some effect, either as the radiation itself or as something else.
So, what are YOUR ideas? Have you had campaigns or adventures in the Zor Wastes?

[markc]

 Thanks for the Tsar Bomba link it was a very interesting read as well as the Tsar Bell and Tsar Howitzer.

MDC

[Guillaume]

I always assumed the explosion in Zor was caused by some ammunitions from K'Ta'Viiri time that were discovered and poked the wrong way.

Being from K'Ta'Viiri origin would solve the triggering explosive problems.

[munchy]

I always assumed the explosion in Zor was caused by some ammunitions from K'Ta'Viiri time that were discovered and poked the wrong way.

Being from K'Ta'Viiri origin would solve the triggering explosive problems.

Yep, that is basically what Terry says. Something like a nuclear bomb. Imagine something similar on K'ta'viir tech level, fusion bomb or whatever. The power must be immense.

The more interesting question, I think, is what has been left behind after the explosion itself.
The ground zero, where Verzor used to be, has been described as being a huge crater with black glassy stuff (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_%28nuclear_test%29) covering the ground. Nuclear device seems pretty likely.
However, as I pointed out, how does radioactivity react with the Essaence if the Essaence for example prevents the use of black powder? How does radioactivity react with the Unlife? Think radioactive undead, a gateway ripped open to the agoth, leaking void, etc.

[Guillaume]

Well, last time my playing character that lived on the fringes of the Zor Wastes checked he had an Ordainer in the memory banks of his computer... 

So I'm a bit biased here. 

Cleaning up the house took us quite a bit of time... 

( well actually the really last time he checked home he had 4 Dragonlords in his living room... but that's another story )

[RandalThor]

Thinking about the tech level involved means that it easily could have been something like an antimatter bomb and all the strange mutations coming from the interaction of the antimatter and essence of the area. I would tend to believe that if it is k'ta'viir in origin, it would be more than a "nuke" - especially if it was made on Kulthea where they had full magical powers. So it could have been a magical nuke.    Which could explain why it's effects cover such a large area, the essence flows transported the energies.

[vroomfogle]

I think whatever folks decide about the radiation, the important thing to keep in mind is that the explosion must have altered the climate patterns in the region - specifically the precipitation patterns. Zor used to be the 'breadbasket of Jaiman' containing rich soils used for farmland.  Originally this was probably a semi humid grassland prarie region but now the flows have been altered creating a semi arid to arid region.

[markc]

 I do not know much about SW but I did have some ideas last night while sleeping.
1) Magic that does what it is supposed to do but also has some other effect.
2) The "event" opened a gate to a pure elemental realm
3) Areas under cloudy half sunlight half darkness
4) Strange clouds of multiple colors
5) The Navigators equipment does not function at all as they are not tuned to the altered essence here.
6) Being a magical area some mutations may be viable unlike in normal life. You can use some of the standards from post appoc. games if you would like. ie two headed fish, giant head, glowing eyes.
7) People, monsters can have constant spell powers or abilities.
Radiation sickness

Now if it was as Anti Matter bomb you have a whole bunch of other problems as I do not think you would have as much harmful radiation, but I could be wrong but just a lot of energy being released. In this case it could just rip the planer lines so multiple planes could intersect at specific spots. This would create unique creatures as well as many problems as you may not know where one plane ends and another begins.   
MDC

[Nejira]

I have no further ideas to this but I feel this highlights whats cool about ShadowWorld