Character:
NaOH (aq) + HCl (aq)-> NaCl (aq) +
H20
(aq)
The Plane of Salt's just one
big chemistry problem, and the blood who can figure out
the chemical reaction will rule over the whole sodding
plane.
Description:
The only way this
burg stays alive is the fact that Ichtar managed to open
up no less than six gates to the Elemental Plane of Water
around the town, and shield it from the Stinging Storm
using permanent walls of force. The water flows
into an intricate aqueduct system that only a Guvner
could design, and the water circles itself around the
town, creating a curtain of water that surrounds the burg
in a circle on all sides. Now, if the gates were small,
the salt would overwhelm the little town, but these gates
are sodding big. Circular, with at least a twenty feet
radius, they nicely neutralize and break up the salt
around the town, as well as melt and neutralise the acrid
blizzard of the Stinging Storm. Should there ever be
enough salt to overwhelm the water, Calinar's been canny
enough to open a gateway to a Prime World (with a
wish spell), just in case the entire town should
need to evacuate quickly. The gate's also useful for
providing the Guvners of the town with equipment that
Calinar can't summon up with his magic. Fresh air is
created for the town by means of another gateway, this
one natural, to the Elemental Plane of Air.
The residents of the town
are, for the most part, Guvners that are fascinated with
the Elemental Plane of Salt, seeing its ties to the study
of chemistry and alchemy. They've traveled a long way
from Mechanus to reach this burg, but agree that it was
worth the journey. The first Guvners that arrived in the
burg predictably tried to change lead into gold using
salt. After that phase ended, they tried to see if they
could use the divine properties of salt to become a
power. By now, however, they've realized that the
reactions that salt makes with other elements, mostly
with Water and Fire (and their respective quasielemental
and paraelemental planes). Now they're trying to see what
secrets and laws of the multiverse, especially the laws
of the Inner Planes, that they can divine from studying
Salt.
The main building in the
town is the large building near the center of town known
as "The Grand Hall of Research into the Inner Planar
Substance Known as Salt," where most of the research is
done. It contains gates to a good deal of the other Inner
Planes, where mephits specifically created for the task
hurry back and forth to collect samples of salt, ice and
slush for the Guvners that work in the Hall. There are
confirmed portals to Lightning, Mineral, Earth, and
Water, while some speculate that there are gates to Dust
and even the Negative Material Plane itself. The blood in
charge of the Hall is Hsante (Planar / female salt genasi
/ F5 / Gunver / LN), an old salt genasi who's given up
wandering to study the very element that she was born
from in her declining years. She's said to be stern with
visitors, but always respects a kindred spirit interested
in learning more about the multiverse.
Ruler:
The ruler of this Guvner town in the middle of the
vastness of the Plane of the Salt is a blood by the name
of Epsar Waveborn (Planar / male water genasi / Abjurer
15 / Guvner / LN). He's one of the most powerful wizards
that the Fraternity of Order has, but it takes the best
to stay alive in the middle of one of the most dangerous
elemental planes. Fascinated with the workings and
reaction between salt and water, his native element, he
is usually seen examining the reaction that salt has with
the other various elements in the Inner Planes. He's got
a salt mephit (planar / male salt mephit / 16 hp / N) for
a familiar, and despite the creature's wry wit, he's
gotten to like him, and uses him in voyages outside the
town into the plane of Salt to gather samples for his
next experiment.
Behind the
Throne: Calinius
Ichtar (Planar / male human / Conjurer 21 / Guvner / LN)
is the real force behind the burg. While he holds not
Epsar's enthusiasm for the study of the elemental nature
of Salt, he enjoys being able to put his talents to use
in creating all manner of things for the town. Without
Ichtar, the residents of the town would starve, die of
thirst, be frozen to death, and have the very water
sucked out of their bodies by the unrelenting nature of
the plane.
Militia:
Neutralization isn't
anything more than a bunch of scholars attempting to
learn about the basest of chemical reactions. If a
concerted effort was made by Inner Planar creatures to
eliminate them, this burg would probably be salt itself.
However, the corridors of water around the town keep
salt- and ice-based intruders away, seeing as how it's
like a curtain of death to most of the plane's
inhabitants. However, if needed, Ichtar can summon
various elementals and other creatures from nearby
Elemental Planes to protect the town.
Services:
For a mere fee of 500 gold pieces, any scholar can
enter Neutralization and study there, gaining the full
services of the Hall's mephits and food and drink for as
long as they stay inside the town. Those not looking to
stay can purchase food and drink for a lesser fee.
For Planewalkers, the Hall
contains gateways to many of the other Inner Planes (see
above). Convincing Hsante to allow a berk to use them
should be more than a little problem, but by paying the
standard fee to use the hall she'll be likely to consent
to their use.
Current
Chant: It's said
that Epsar's discovered a disturbing dark: the town's
been studying only one kind of salt. He claims that there
are millions of varieties of salt, each made by various
combinations of the Inner Planes. After years of work,
it's said that he's introduced a new variety of salt to
the multiverse: "potassium chloride". By distilling a
nasty gas from the storm around the town and combining it
with various metals from the Quasielemental Plane of
Mineral, he claims to have found a great truth in the
Multiverse.
Also, Saeri (Planar / male
human / Conjurer 3 / Guvner / LG), a fairly new Guvner
recently discovered a new fact about the nature of salt:
it behaves curiously inside an electrified basin of
water. Nobody's too sure what this means, but everyone's
interested.
Character:
<sniff>
What's that in the air? An expression of horror
crosses the face as the realization dawns; something
foul, something unspeakably rotten is nearby. Hold your
breath and try not to imagine what grotesque thing could
exude such a stench. Try as you might, an image forms in
your mind... tentacles, fetid flesh falling off bones,
skin so putrid even Jubilex would shudder. A scream so
inhuman it hurts to even think it. Then suddenly, all is
white and clean and crystalline and the only scent is the
acrid dryness of Salt.
The
Chant: Sometimes
travelers on the arid and brilliantly white plane of Salt
stop and sniff the sharp atmosphere. Sometimes, just
sometimes, they smell something fearsomely awful, a smell
so terrible it should not even have a name. Then as
suddenly as it wafts in, the stench is gone. Most bashers
put it down to imagination, for the plane of Salt is so
monotonous it tends to starve the senses, but the effect
is very real. In fact, the lucky traveler has just
escaped a brush with the Salt Cellar.
The
Dark: Long
ago, before there were tieflings, a power of stench and
rot did something unspeakably disgusting to a fellow
power. Most scholars point the finger at Qort, power of
cleanliness and minimalism, as being the likely victim,
but any real proof of it was She is long lost to the
sands of time. In retaliation, Qort lashed out,
enveloping the power of rot in all-preserving salt,
chilled to freezing in the Stinging Storm by the icy
hail, and entombing the poor sod in salty ice for all
eternity. It doesn't take much imagination to figure that
an oozing, pustulant power is suffering terrible agonies
as the desiccating nature of the plane oh so slowly
leeches away its decay.
Rumor
has it that the Salt Cellar is a real place, far away
from anywhere people would sigh to travel in the Stinging
Storm, and that the rotten power is very much alive, and
insane with rage and vengeful desire. Surely it would
promise anything to a blood brave -- or foolish -- enough
to release it from its torment and pain. None claim to
know the real name of this lost power, and it's said that
anyone who speaks its name while on Salt is sucked into
the Salt Cellar to join it. Funnily enough, nobody seems
that keen to learn it, but there's smart money on the
assumption that learning its name is somehow the key to
freeing the sod too.
