On Wed, 27 Aug 2003, Mark A Mandel wrote: >On Fri, 15 Aug 2003, Alexx S Kay wrote: > >#> >#> The first time Vlad teleports to Castle Black, he notices the Overcast >#> beneath him, and above, more of the same. OTOH, in Athyra, Rocza is >#> able to fly through the Overcast in one breath. Which she holds. >#> Because it's toxic. Seems to me Morrolan is a smart enough fellow not >#> to fly his castle in the middle of a toxic smog cloud. The Overcast doesn't appear to be particularly thick. Morrolan can simply keep his castle above the Overcast layer or below it. >#Yet travelers in Viscount go though the Enclouding with no ill effects. >#Hypothesis A) It's toxic to jheeg (small j), but not to any of the >#species that call themselves human. >#Hypothesis B) It's only toxic after prolonged exposure. Castle Black is >#either usually *not* inside it, or has some sot of magical air-filter. > >Rocza holds her breath. We infer that it's toxic. Maybe she just thinks >it is. What's the textev? (I'm AFB.) > Checking /Paths of the Dead/, I note that Piro notes an odd smell as he passes through the Enclouding. Perhaps Rocza finds the smell sufficiently offensive that she habitually holds her breath going through it, just as I do when driving over one of the local areas which are either near sloughs or swamplands at evening time, when the scent of decaying vegetable matter is rising in a particularly penetrating and odiferous manner. At no point that I see does the text state that actually breathing the overcast is known to be toxic.