Chapter 8 – Global Problem in a National Meeting
In the middle of the kingdoms resides a mountain range, and in the middle of the mountain range resides a single city. Numerous leaders have gathered together with the adventurer’s guild as a central figurehead. Several Elvin dignitaries, a few Dwarven guild leaders, a couple of humans from a bankers coalition and republic, a number of different beast kin from half a dozen different tribes, a few clerical leaders from town, and the City Mayor. A bit of food was lined on a table and several kegs were arranged on another table full of drinks.
As a chime sounded in the room, the many overlapping voices grew quieter and then silent when one man spoke up loud enough to suppress all the remaining voices.
“Welcome and thank you all for coming. As you all know the Adventurers guild has volunteered to host for this forum. Just like the letters sent out to all of your countries and organizations, there is something that has been happening in the world that is very alarming to say the least. We have gathered here to address that exact issue and try and come up with a solution to the problem that has come to affect us all. If you could please bring out any samples you have. And here are the items the Adventurers guild has found.”
Many different people stepped forward from different places to place down items on the table near the speaker. Some people left after putting the items down, and others such as the dignitaries sat down an item then stood back behind the item to keep an eye on it.
Some such questionable pieces include a spring the size of a leg, a window door handle, ballpoint pens, aluminum can, a broken 2x4 board with some nails sticking out of one end, a series of caramel covered apples, lollipops, a revolver, kevlar vest, broken bits and pieces of electronics or circuit boards, a wheel and rim, and much more. Anyone from earth could recognize these things from the 21st century. But here in the mid town with swords and sorcery these little treasures are completely out of place and time.
“This is a massive pile of heresy; all these items are cursed by the gods. They are easily identifiable because of the gibberish in status. We should burn it all, and be done with it!” insists a robed cleric from the human temples.
Many of the others began to shout to be heard when they were all drowned out again from the main speaker.
“BE CALM!!! I know you all have different opinions. But here is one exact item we requested from an adventurer.” He gestures to the 2x4 board with nails. “It is unknown why this is so, but this was found on an Orc leader that was defeated. For some reason it is able to puncture nearly anything. We have tried to break it, bend it, burn it, and much more. But for some reason this item seems to be unbreakable even with magic.”
“Eh Hem, The elves have also experienced something like that. There is a tree that has appeared and it is producing these red crunchy fruits. At a certain point in time the fruit starts to get a thick dark sticky coating over it and it draws lots of bugs to them. If we can keep the bugs away these are overly sweet and edible things. However our magic can’t prevent the tree from growing, nor can we prevent the tree from producing these fruits. It has been turned into a commodity, but no one can rightly identify the tree. We can’t destroy the tree, and our magic cannot manipulate the tree at all. It is an enigma to all of our people. It has also required a lot of extra effort just to watch this tree. We have to harvest these things because if it is left alone the tree draws in far too many sweet seeking bugs. It is as much of a pest as a means of making some extra money. We end up paying elves to safe guard the area, protect the tree and kill the bugs it draws. We have much more than just this problem. But this one we can’t get rid of.”
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“The writing tools from the beast folk are not so amazing. These tools can be used to write on mostly a paper substance.” The bird folk gesturing to the ball point pens of various sorts. “But we have yet to determine how long they can write for. It is believed they will last for ages. The problem we have is they are limited to use, and simple pressure or strength of hand is enough to crush them into little bits. But these other items are able to write on more materials.” They further separate markers from the pens. “We can tell the color is like that of the outside, and they work on wood, stone, and most things even skin. But if you try to damage these they will make a mess the size of a small room. It is like the reserves of the color spills out when broken. Fire burns away these items and the color. But considering how useful they are we will demand payment if anyone seeks to acquire some of them for testing.”
After them the dwarfs speak up about edible crystals they ended up mining. They are able to be ground up like the sugar cane the human nation is producing. If the crystals are not delt with correctly they can be dangerous. They can start growing in places. And at least one dwarf lost their life when the crystal grew from his chest. If you cook these things then they appear to prevent it from growing ever again. Along with other strange items like a Unknown wheel or (rubber tire & rim), that have seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Presently they have been able to advance the wheels of several carriages for cargo transportation using this as a model.
Humans had to put down a group of bandits that had thunder sticks. The bandits had terrorized a region for a while before a group of high level guards were sent to hunt them down and destroy the base of operations. These items (revolvers, bullets, and vest) were strange materials that were recovered from there. But here are some more unidentifiable items (such as plastics and electronics).
Beast kin put to use a new writing utensil (ball point pen and markers) that worked for many governing groups. They attempted to auction off part of the goods that were brought as examples. At the same time they were seeking leads to more unusual items or rumors of such items.
Other testimonials carried on while some groups tried to sell, and others tried to buy. Some people said it all should be collected or confiscated as heretical material and kept under lock and key till it could be destroyed. Few things were even able to be brought to an agreement over hours of debating. Most groups refused to give up items that could be used against them. Some people tried to monopolize things that showed some potential for development in said nation such as the leg sized metal spring. While the church wanted to bar heretical writings and symbols that was undecipherable gibberish (periodic table of elements), among other things.
The only thing all groups could really agree upon was to try and keep the others updated incase of any other divine abnormality that could pose a threat to all other nations. In addition the adventures guild would try and compile a list of known abnormalities and occasionally send it around to the different kingdoms. But the future is uncertain. So time will tell if these efforts were enough to quell the surge in global problems.