how did kurac clear the north road ~10 years ago?

[Lotion]

Continued from here.

From a few roomdescs of the north road

Many jagged tool marks and white blast splotches mark the stone to each
side of the road.  The road seems relatively clear and well maintained here.

Blast splotches implies magick seeing as how flash powder has been retconned.

That was an IC event probably 10 RL years ago or so.  Not sure if you can find out that info IC, but from players certainly.  The North Road was blocked and PCs in Kurac used a variety of means to clear it.

So, what happened?

[Dracul]

Seconding interest as a player.

Also I don't think a single one of my characters have been interested, and if one was, they would probably be considered a spy or a witch if they went around asking questions like that.

[Citizen Puddi]

afaik magick wasn't too much of a factor

https://armageddon.org/help/view/Flashpowder

Still kinda bummed the trap skill got cut. :c

[Jihelu]

They used ligma

[Dar]

If you are talking about the section of North Road that is north of Luirs going towards the span. I was part of the clearing of it from the Tuluk side. I was playing an Akai Sjir and I remember working on that contract. Bringing virtual and PC workers over, arranging supply lines. I 'think' flash powder was still a thing then, because I recall making deals about it. I honestly don't remember the details as it was a relatively run of the mill thing. I think my connections around the Delven tribes was pretty good as I was able to keep the RF off our backs, so workers were mostly unmolested.

[Reiloth]

Posted on Discord, but reposting here:

I was the player of Eliam-da Kurac who was the PC charged with clearing the North Road after an earthquake (? Memory not great of the 'why') rubbled part of the North Road just as you were about to enter the canyon of the Shield Wall.

So he hired some dwarves to blast it with flash powder
Didn't do much
Hired grebbers to dig the stone
But it was taking forever!

So he hired some Elkrosian on the sly to blast the shit out of it at night
Eventually it was cleared and this leads to the description today of 'white blast marks and splotchy thingies'.

The blast marks are the flash powder
the splotchy thingies are the on-the-sly Elkrosian

It was a nice touch from Staff at the time to acknowledge both.

Flash Powder was definitely still a thing around then, as Eliam later hired an elf to use it to try and blow up his nemesis, Senior Merchant Bam, for getting promoted before him. She survived the encounter but Eliam was satisfied with her being scarred and shook.

[Dar]

I think I was working on clearing the block at the entrance of the canyon from the north. And Eliam was clearing at the entrance from the south?

Shrug.

Flashpowder was definitely a thing. A dwarf hired with the same PC to kill Anthinius blew up the top floor of oashi Azure tavern. 

Was an awesome dwarf by the by.

[HavokBlue]

I started playing around 2010, not too long after this happened I think. One of my first PCs ended up in the Kuraci Fist and I remember teenaged me being obsessed with finding more flash powder.

[Riev]

If I'm not mistaken, the OP's concern was that "flash powder is retconned". They didn't 'just remove trap', they removed flash powder from the game and all mentions of it existing.

Elkrosian Big-booming is totally fine as an answer, but "flash powder existed" unfortunately isn't, because it never existed. We've always been at war with Oceania.

[Lotion]

Apparently flash powder does exist, it's just an extremely rare thing that most people would not know about.
https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,57288.0.html

[Veselka]

1522 (Year 59 Age 20)
Under the cloak of night, aided by a tremendous sandstorm, a small group of terrorists set off several barrels of flash powder within the Tor Academy, causing a tremendous amount of damage and chaos. Simultaneously, a Tuluki force led by the Jihaen templar Gavale Uaptal descends on the Xytrix-Za Valley and slaughters the occupying Allanaki forces.

Still in the chronology page.

I think it's just a finite resource that is hard to get (AKA, Staff pulled it from the game).