Post by Catsmate on Jun 22, 2016 12:41:52 GMT
The summer of the year 1783 was an amazing and portentous one, and full of horrible phenomena; for besides the alarming meteors and tremendous thunder-storms that affrighted and distressed the different counties of this kingdom, the peculiar haze, or smokey fog, that prevailed for many weeks in this island, and in every part of Europe, and even beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary appearance, unlike anything known within the memory of man. By my journal I find that I has notice this strange occurrence from June 23 to July 20 inclusive, during which period the wind varied to every quarter without making any alteration in the air.
The sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded moon, and shed a rust-coloured ferruginous light on the ground, and floors of rooms; but was particularly lurid and blood-coloured at rising and setting. All the time the heat was so intense that butchers' meat could hardly be eaten on the day after it was killed; and the flies swarmed so in the lanes and hedges that they rendered the horses half frantic, and riding irksome. The country people began to look with a superstitious awe at the red, louring aspect of the sun; and indeed there was reason for the most enlightened person to be apprehensive; for all the while, Calabria and part of the isle of Sicily, were torn and convulsed with earthquakes; and about that juncture a volcano sprung out of the sea on the coast of Norway. On this occasion Milton's noble simile of the sun, in his first book of Paradise Lost, frequently occurred to my mind; and it is indeed particularly applicable, because, towards the end, it alludes to a superstitious kind of dread, with which the minds of men are always impressed by such strange and unusual phenomena.
Vicar Gilbert White of Selborne.
The sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded moon, and shed a rust-coloured ferruginous light on the ground, and floors of rooms; but was particularly lurid and blood-coloured at rising and setting. All the time the heat was so intense that butchers' meat could hardly be eaten on the day after it was killed; and the flies swarmed so in the lanes and hedges that they rendered the horses half frantic, and riding irksome. The country people began to look with a superstitious awe at the red, louring aspect of the sun; and indeed there was reason for the most enlightened person to be apprehensive; for all the while, Calabria and part of the isle of Sicily, were torn and convulsed with earthquakes; and about that juncture a volcano sprung out of the sea on the coast of Norway. On this occasion Milton's noble simile of the sun, in his first book of Paradise Lost, frequently occurred to my mind; and it is indeed particularly applicable, because, towards the end, it alludes to a superstitious kind of dread, with which the minds of men are always impressed by such strange and unusual phenomena.
Vicar Gilbert White of Selborne.
However the year also saw three more unusual or destructive events; the Calabria earthquakes, the Laki eruption and the Great Meteor.
[1]
Chronologically the earthquakes were first. A series of five powerful earthquakes hit the Calabria region of the Kingdom of Naples, in southern Italy. The first quake (05FEB1783) quake was of magnitude 7.0 and inflicted 25,000 casualties. It was followed by four more on 06FEB1873 (magnitude 6.2), 07FEB1783 (magnitude 6.6), 01MAR1783 (magnitude 5.9) and finally another magnitude 7.0 event on 28MAR1783. In all, total fatalities for the five quakes were between thirty and forty thousand.
- Curiously the first quake opened a series of huge fissures in the ground, some 40-50m wide and up to 75m deep that swallowed up humans and animals, many of which were vomited back by geysers boiling water. A few people actually survived this horrific experience.
More people were killed by exposure and epidemic; small tidal waves killed hundreds at the coast, including many who'd taken to boats or rafts to flee.
Now the region is prone to geologic upheaval, but for game purposes perhaps the quakes were not a natural phenomena. What could be behind it?
Perhaps an alien ship crashed into the water offshore and this is the instigator? It could be the decaying gravity drive effecting the local geology, or perhaps poorly conducted repairs cause the ship to crash on take-off. Or were the aliens attempting to mine some material, or recover a lost artefact and the quakes the result of this?
Perhaps a poorly stabilised portal was briefly opened to a different part of the universe, or an experimental time-ship materialised within the rock, causing a hude release of energy.
Or was it a deliberate effect, by awakened Silurians or Zygons? What are their plans?
[2]
First the ground swelled up with tremendous howling, then suddenly a cry shattered it into pieces and exposing {the earths] guts, like an animal tearing apart its prey.
From the smallest holes flames and fire erupted. Great blocks of rocks and pieces of grass were thrown high into the air and in indescribable heights, from time to time strong thunders, flashes', fountains of sand , lightning and dense smoke occurred... The Earth trembled incessantly. …how terrible it was to see, such signs of an angry god...[now] it was time to confess to the lord.
Pastor Jón Steingrímsson
From the smallest holes flames and fire erupted. Great blocks of rocks and pieces of grass were thrown high into the air and in indescribable heights, from time to time strong thunders, flashes', fountains of sand , lightning and dense smoke occurred... The Earth trembled incessantly. …how terrible it was to see, such signs of an angry god...[now] it was time to confess to the lord.
Pastor Jón Steingrímsson
- More than forty billion tonnes of lava are released, along with about eight million tonnes of poisonous and corrosive hydrogen fluoride and 120 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide, also toxic (it forms sulphurous acid with water) and an irritant.
The dust cloud spread rapidly, reaching Prague and Padua on 17JUN and St. Petersburg a few days later.
- Experiments in Paris involving flying kites to take samples produced black dust particles. These were witnessed by Benjamin Franklin (who wasn’t the first to link the effects to the eruption). This stimulates much scientific discourse.
The climatic effects were worldwide; the Nile inundation was far less than usual, likewise the monsoon rains were less intense. This effected crops and triggered famines; for example in Egypt about half-a-million people died. Likewise in the new United States; the US east coast saw winter temperatures average 5 degrees colder than normal.
Was this catastrophe a natural event, or was someone meddling with the interior of the Earth? Had a Grold spacecraft been under the Icelandic rock, with it's crew making repairs and recharging their energy? Was the explosive eruption an accident, or the result of their departure of this cold and hostile world? Or was it triggered to try and stop their plans?
- Another oddity is the number of reports of ball lightning after the time of the eruption; Britain alone say a dozen reports in the weeks afterward. Might these be discharges of residual energy from the event that triggered the eruption? Or alien life of some sort.
[3]
On the evening of 18AUG1783 between 21:15 and 21:30 a fireball was observed passing over Britain. It's believed to have been a meteor that entered the Earth's atmosphere over the North Sea, before passing over the east coast of Scotland and England, and over the English Channel. It shattered explosively in the region over south-western France or northern Italy.
Given the clear and dry night there were many witnesses. One group of these were on the terrace at Windsor Castle at the time the meteor appeared and included the Italian natural philosopher Tiberius Cavallo, who studied electricity, magnetism and aeronautics. He wrote:
Some flashes of lambent light, much like the aurora borealis, were first observed on the northern part of the heavens, which were soon perceived to proceed from a roundish luminous body, whose apparent diameter equaled half that of the moon, and almost stationary in the same point of the heavens [...] This ball at first appeared of a faint bluish light, perhaps from appearing just kindled, or from its appearing through the haziness; but it gradually increased its light, and soon began to move, at first ascending above the horizon in an oblique direction towards the east. Its course in this direction was very short, perhaps of five or six degrees; after which it directed its course towards the east [...] Its light was prodigious. Every object appeared very distinct; the whole face of the country, in that beautiful prospect before the terrace, being instantly illuminated.
Was the object merely a bit of interplanetary debris? A rock that'd been orbiting for millions of years until it chanced to be pulled in by the Earth's gravity and set off a spectacular lightshow?
Or was it something else. The destruction of the Terileptil ship in 1666 was noted as having resembled a meteor shower, was this a large spacecraft (or timeship) crashing? If so what effects might there have been? Dangerous debris released over Spain and France where it eventually exploded? Did any of the crew escape in some form of escape pod or lifeboat? That partial breakup over Lincolnshire is interesting...
Game use.
In addition to the general ideas listed under each event perhaps the whole lot were connected? Was there a battle being waged around the Earth of which most of humanity was unaware?
Of course there are other ways to insert these events into a game; they could be background detail or minor events that hamper or inconvenience the PCs.
Maybe they at Windsor for the meteor, and find themselves caught up in a discussion of what the fireball is? At the time many scientists considered them electrical phenonema in the upper atmosphere, rather than extra-terrestrial debris. Or maybe the PCs have to entice some of the spectators outside to see the show.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
Links.
A detailed paper on the Calabria quakes
The Eruption of Laki
The Great Meteor
Royal Society article on the Great Meteor
Contemporary paper on the meteor