Raw Nyblantine, Untreated

Trade

Raw nyblantine, or magesilver, is a reflective metal that’s liquid at room temperatures in its natural form, much like mercury. When solid at –100o F it’s far too brittle to be anything more than a metallurgical curiosity—until 20 years ago, when Eloritu’s faithful uncovered ancient records of a magical process for treating and stabilizing nyblantine. When treated with these rare—and, in many systems, proprietary—magical techniques, nyblantine becomes a malleable, gleaming blue metal that degrades technological items it touches. Nyblantine magically causes electronic impulses to fluctuate erratically and molecular bonds to loosen and distend in unpredictable ways. Nyblantine’s effects are strongest against technological items, and although the metal can affect hybrid items (including weapons with weapon fusions), the metal always drains the minimum possible number of charges. Raw and treated nyblantine is treated as a hybrid item.

Nyblantine melee weapons are too soft to be practical. However, nyblantine ammunition works well. A technological item with charges loses 1d4 charges when struck by nyblantine ammo, in addition to the usual effects of being shot. A construct with the technological subtype that takes damage from nyblantine ammo becomes flat-footed and off-target for 1 round.

Armor incorporating thin nyblantine plates bleeds energy from technological items that strike the wearer. A powered melee weapon that strikes the wearer loses 1d4 charges with each successful attack and if the weapon is reduced to 0 charges, the weapon deactivates automatically after resolving the attack. Armor made with nyblantine is a hybrid item, and armor upgrades that aren’t magical or hybrid items don’t function when installed in the armor.

Nyblantine can’t be used in many high-tech devices, as its presence renders the device ineffective, but it can be used for certain destructive purposes. For example, you can connect 1 bulk of nyblantine to explosives you set and trigger via a detonator (Core Rulebook 218). The nyblantine disrupts complicated detonation signals, so you can trigger it only with a button press, but the resulting explosion ignores three-quarters of a technological object’s hardness instead of one-half. A battery in contact with at least 1 bulk of nyblantine loses 1 charge per round and an empty battery in contact with that much nyblantine can’t be charged for 24 hours afterward. At the GM’s discretion, other uses of nyblantine might disrupt or even degrade nearby technology, such as nyblantine-coated walls interfering with comm unit signals.

Treated nyblantine only recently became widely available, even though the techniques are decades old. Rumors abound that the church of Eloritu brought the material to market only after it amassed vast stockpiles of it and that factions within the church vie over control of these stores.