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This is a new idea that I just came up with. Now you all know that the most infamous pandemic of the middle ages was the plague. It infected most of Europe and killed thousands of people. In my books the plague was a Biosafety Level 4 agent. Highly contagious and no known cures or treatment protocols. Nowadays it is probably a Level 2 or 3 agent. 

This takes place in the Court of King Arthur and his castle Camelot. It all happened during a feast in the great hall, little did they the food was contaminated before the group, the knights, and king ate it. A few days later, the king was sick in his own bed, when the doctor came to examine him, what he saw was not good.

"I want his majesty isolated immediately! Tell the guards that Arthur is not to leave this room for any reason!" he ordered to a servant. The servant obeyed and alerted the captain of the guard that the town doctor ordered the king's isolation. As such two guards secured the royal bed chamber and stood watch to ensure that the order was kept. The doctor returned to the town to inform the others on the situation.

 A few days later Sir Lancelot came down with the same illness along with three others. Getting nervous a squire to Sir Lancelot went to leave the castle complex when he noticed that the doors were blocked from the outside and could not be opened. Informing the captain of the guard of this, he went over to try the doors himself. After finding that they were blocked he tried the other gateways but found that they were sealed too.

"That's odd, they have not been locked like this before." he said.

"Sir you had better come look at this!" a guard said from atop the castle wall. When the captain went up to take a look, what he saw was shocking. The castle was surrounded by armed peasants wearing full plate armor. They, along with the town guards were setting up inverted defences around the moat. The draw bridge was blockaded by metal barriers.

"ATTENTION! RESIDENTS OF CAMELOT, YOU ARE NOW UNDER QUARANTINE! DO NOT ATTEMPT TO LEAVE!" one of the peasants yelled. All the windows were being covered with plastic and glass seals. The whole complex began to panic and rush the doors only to find that they were trapped inside. The idea was simple, nobody came out and no one went in. Soon doctors entered the castle in special hazmat armor. They confirmed that the illness was indeed the plague.

Rumor has it that a research facility has discovered a cure for the plague. The facility was located in a dragon's lair for security reasons. The group's only hope is to get the cure from the facility and hope that it is not too late. In order to embark on this quest, they must breach quarantine and escape the town un infected. Can they do this and find the cure?

So what do you think about this?

Jun 19, 2012 -- 7:05PM, Mastercliff wrote:

Why would a cure be kept away from people?
Why would a peasant tell people what others can and cannot do?
How would peasants get full plate armor when it's the most expensive?
How would peasants get the strength to carry full plate armor?
How would peasants get the skill to wear full plate armor?
Why would there be a hazmat suit when they don't even know about germs?
Why wouldn't the group become infected?  It would add a timer as they got sicker and sicker.
Why don't they just use magic?

I will answer each question individually. 

1. The cure it still only experimental. Humans trials have not been authorized yet. That is why it is being kept a secret officially. Plus there are only a few batches preasent in the lab. For it to be practical there has to be large stockpiles of the cure secured. The idea is that they have to convince the scientists inside to let them test the drug on their own king.

2. It is by the King's Law that they must do this. The Public Heath Law that he signed made it madatory for the people of the kingdom regardless of caste to build, enforce, maintain a quarantine of a plague infected area. It includes the power to overrule royal authority if it is necessary to maintain the qaurantine. The town doctors are the only ones who can decide that the quarantine be lifted. But the decision must be made freely without any sort of influence.

3. Containment is our absolute priority and people must be supplied with any and all equipment deemed necessary to enforce it. Chances are that the soldiers inside the quarantine zone will attempt to escape. They must be prepared to stop any attempt to breach the hot zone.

4. Strength must be maintained as required by law. To prepare for defence or any other time in which it is needed.

5. The same law applies for skills too.

6. They do know that protection from contact with contaminated lifeforms and materials will keep them from getting sick.

7. Getting sick is not an option of they are to make it through other populated areas. The whole world is on alert with orders to qaurantine anyone with symptoms.

8. They used magic way too much and now it has become resistant to it. Survival of the fittest, the bacteria has been exposed to magic so many times that it has adapted to make itself a null magic organism. Also other strains have adapted to feed on magical energy and use it to spread even faster.

They tried Martial Law before and what happaned was the entire kingdom rebelled against the order and made the situation worse. This is a different way that they are trying as a more humane alternitive.

Keeping the cure quiet until it is ready is the best course of action. Otherwise people will rush the lab and fight over who gets it first. The facility would become an arena and it does not need to be one.

There is an alternitive to this problem though. I could also do it the real world way in which they have resonable checks and balances inside the Q-Zone ie they would quarantine the complex and screen for symptoms. Only the bug is resistant to magic. I could set it up so that they can detect the presence of the bug by seeing if the person is resistant to magic. A special diagnostic spell could be used to screen each person or a detect anti-magic check too.

If they are affected by it, they are clear and allowed to pass. If they are resistant or are showing symptoms, then they are infected and ordered to stay inside the complex. Teleportation circles would be too risky due to magic eating strain which so far has not infected people yet but is still isolated to the complex and very capable of spreading to people.

Now to add the cure provision. The peasants have heard the rumors of a cure too. They have sent numerous people to obtain the cure from the facility but none returned. Also the facility has a magic nullification field around it for security reasons as this used to be a space pirate weapons lab until it abandoned and turned into a medical research facility.

However the group has been ordered to stay in the hot zone due to a false positive. So they will have to break quarantine.

As for the full plate logic hole, they take the art of war extremely seriously due to a savage massacare by a enemy kingdom that killed off half the population. Thus they take no chances any more and have to train once every year. "Arm youself because no one else here will save you!" They still have time to do their normal stuff.

Does this help?

You are right about the fact that plate armor is expensive and hinders mobility. However (Sci-Fi ALERT!) we have be doing a little thing called R&D.

We have been experimenting with verious different alloys of metal to create a full plate armor suit that is cheaper to maufacture and have better mobility. Verious matarials we are currently exploring include:

Demon Steel- A very strong, flexible material that can easily be shaped into to anything. Can be crafted an edge with the thickness of a single atom without breaking. Can only be found in the nether world. Prototype suits in field tests have shown that it is still a little cumbersome to use. A bit uncomfortable and can pinch.
 
Phazite- A special type of Phazon Ore that can be crafted into any shape and is extremely hard. Allows for moderate flexibility and very abundent on the planet phaaze or any other planet with phazon deposits. The planet we are on has a large phazon deposit in the areas beyond the kingdom. Materal must be mined. It is slightly heavier then Demon Steel. Prototypes were disasterous. Cumbersome to use and the meterial was radioactive.

Adamantium- A highy flexible material that is light weight and extremely strong. With similar properties as Demon Steel including the ease of crafting it and the ability to create nano sharp blades it is currently the best one so far. The material must be mined but is extremely abundent. Prototypes were very successful with the most free movement of the three. Also the lightest of the three too. Can be hardend to control the flexibility. Very comfortable for the user.

Our knights are very skeptical about it and decided not to use it (they do not know what they are missing out on.). But the peasants seem to find it very easy to use. So this is what they are equiped with and that is the reason we are using full plate armor.