Yet another random bit of world building.

[gridlore]

Caught a show last night on the National Geographic Channel about the Sahara Desert. One interesting thing I learned it that you can find natural fused glass all over the place, the result of an asteroid impact some millions of years ago.

One facet of GURPS magic has always been power stones, little magical doohickeys that allow mages to cast spells without incurring fatigue (or, if you're using Unlimited Mana, reduce the Threshold level of the spell, etc.) Y'all can see where I'm going with this. Those lumps of glass are magically charged. Link this back to my Dwarfish Empire and you can see where the age of industrial magic begins. By the default setting time for my Fantasy Europe, power stones are either embedded in magical objects or more precious than all the jewels of far Araby! But there are always legends and maps to fabulous lost mines in the desert, rumors of vast storehouses of raw stones lost to the sands...

A few other thoughts.

• Dragons, being magical, would horde the things.


• A fun campaign might be a "crystal rush" set in the days of the Empire.


• Add some magicpunk elements to the above. Zeppelins, clockwork contraptions built by mad Dwarf artificers...


• The crater itself might be an interesting site. Now merely a depression, it could still be inherently magical.


• Possibly the source of all the so-called abominations that plague the world.


• For a little nightmarish gaming, the asteroid contained a sentient, very evil being. His essence is in each stone, and he wants nothing more than to be reassembled...

Comments

[eyemage.livejournal.com]

i remember it well...

who could blame them becoming communist really?