'Thunderbolt Iron' (PE679/RE245/EM285)

rating: +111+x

PE679/RE245/EM285
Status Selling
Demand Low
Value 8,540 GBP/ 10,500 USD per ounce
Availability Current Inventory ~ 3.5 tonnes
Identifier Thunderbolt Iron
Description Since before antiquity, iron has been prized for its ability to keep mischievous Fair Folk at bay. But like men, not all iron is created equal. After having spent untold Aeons adrift in the low-hume environs of outer space, then instantly flash forged in the crucible of Earthly impact, meteoric iron possesses unique thaumaturgical qualities. Sleep well knowing that no Fairy may trespass on your home or curse you or your kin with a spellforged charm wrought from Thunderbolt Iron.
Marshall, Carter and Dark, LLP
Initial Report
Author Victor Chan Date February 25th, 2018
Interest Low Identifier Thunderbolt Iron
Thunderbolt Iron just hasn't been selling well to the paratech crowd. As rare as it is - less than 450 tonnes of it in the wild, at last estimate - it can't compete with modern alchemical alloys in terms of cost or functionality. I think we need to change our marketing strategy.

There's only one thing Thunderbolt Iron does that other thaumic metals don't, and that's repel Fairies. Regular iron is poisonous to them on contact, but Thunderbolt Iron somehow projects this effect into its ambient environment. The real beauty of it is that it doesn't just poison Fairies but neutralizes their spells as well. A small ingot of the stuff can keep an average-sized house free of Fey influence.

And that's really our only market for it. I'm going to have some of it melted down and remoulded into 1 oz charms. Our focus needs to be on clients who have disobeyed the garden signs reading 'Don't piss off the Fairies'. It's a waste of company time trying to sell it to anyone looking for thaumically reactive substrates. There are just too many better options to offer them.

File Opened Under: PE679/RE245/EM285
Marshall, Carter and Dark, LLP
Sale Records
PE679/RE245/EM285
Records From: February, 2018 to January, 2019
Month Sold Comments
February, 2018 3 units
March, 2018 18 units Spike due to Saint Patrick's day raising concern about Fairy hexes among the supersitious.
April, 2018 16 units Half of sales were to undercover Foundation agents, most likely for research.
May, 2018 11 units
June, 2018 21 units Spike due to Mid-summer.
July, 2018 14 units
August, 2018 12 units
September, 2018 7 units
October, 2018 29 units Halloween spike.
November, 2018 114 units 100 units were sold to a Brazilian businessman for defense against anomalous eco-terrorists.
December, 2018 14 units
January, 2019 13 units
Marshall, Carter and Dark, LLP
Memo 01
PE679/RE245/EM285
Sender Victor Chan Recipient Ruprecht Carter
Mr. Carter, I've received an interesting offer regarding the Thunderbolt Iron that requires executive approval.

There's a sect of the Serpent's Hand fighting a crusade against loggers in the Brazilian Amazon. They're not Fairies, but they are using Fey magic. My Brazilian client Cardoso evidently had good luck in using our Thunderbolt Iron charms to protect his logging company's equipment and personnel. With the Brazilian President ramping up deforestation efforts, Cardoso is expecting more pushback from the Hand, and is willing to pay a premium for the Thunderbolt Iron.

Since we're selling so little of the iron to anyone else, he's requesting an exclusive agreement. He's willing to buy a lot of it, but nowhere near all of it. Short-term, it will definitely increase our sales, but long-term I think an exclusive agreement will give him too much bargaining power.

What would you like me to do sir?
Marshall, Carter and Dark, LLP
Memo 02
PE679/RE245/EM285
Sender Ruprecht Carter Recipient Victor Chan
Take the deal.

There's a shop here in London we use to peddle off cheap crap we can't sell to our core clientele. The Raven's Nest, run by a Witch named Raven. We'll sell the rest of the Thunderbolt Iron through that. Cardoso will never know the difference.
Marshall, Carter and Dark, LLP
Memo 03
PE679/RE245/EM285
Sender The Seelie Court of Fata Morgana Recipient Marshall, Carter, & Dark LLP
To the Esteemed Gentlemen Marshalls, Carters & Darke and the Illustrious Lady Dark.

It has come to the attention of Her Surreal Majesty Queen Titania, Ruler of The Seelie Court, Monarch of the Isle of Fata Morgana, and Sovereign over the Blessed season of Summer, that your company has been supplying large quantities of Thunderbolt Iron to Cardoso Industria, a logging company currently engaged in crimes against both Nature and the mortals who depend on Her.

In Her unrivalled magnanimity, Her Surreal Majesty Queen Titania has been generously supplying brave resistance fighters with the preternatural means required to defend the Ancient Amazon from this abominable threat. Inquiries into why their cause has made so little progress has led us to your dealings with Cardoso.

As both yours and Cardoso's possession of Thunderbolt Iron negates the possibility of us taking direct action against either of you, we are writing to inform you that should you continue to supply anyone with this vile weapon against our race, our representative to the Occult Council of 108, Her Serene Ladyship Jenevieve O'sar, will have no choice but to propose that all Members enact a complete boycott against your company.

Sincerely

Her Benign Eminence Kyvian Mossfoot, Anointed Scribe of the Seelie Court, writing on behalf of Her Surreal Majesty Queen Titania, Ruler of The Seelie Court, Monarch of the Isle of Fata Morgana, and Sovereign over the Blessed season of Summer.

Marshall, Carter and Dark, LLP
Memo 04
PE679/RE245/EM285
Sender Ruprecht Carter Recipient Victor Chan
The situation regarding Fata Morgana and the Thunderbolt Iron was brought up at the last board meeting.

It was decided the best course of action would be 'Don't piss off the Fairies'. While Marshall, Carter, and Dark LLP will no longer officially be dealing in Thunderbolt Iron, we will still be selling it out of the Raven's Nest in London.

This does complicate our relationship with Cardoso. He's our biggest buyer, but he's not an idiot. If we sell it to him through the Raven's Nest, he'll most likely realize that we haven't been honouring our exclusivity agreement. He also won't take kindly to just being cut off. But if his supply of Thunderbolt Iron remains consistent, Fata Morgana will likely become suspicious of us, even if they can't prove we're the ones selling it to him.

You have a meeting with Cardoso later this week, if I'm not mistaken. Do your best and keep me up to speed.

Marshall, Carter and Dark, LLP
Incident Report 01
PE679/RE245/EM285
Author Victor Chan Date March 8th, 2019
As anticipated, Cardoso was not willing to end our arrangement, and made this fact vehemently clear to me.

In order to prevent an incident, I immediately offered to continue to supply him the Thunderbolt Iron through the Raven's Nest. This relieved tensions to a degree, but he insisted on an immediate inspection of the facility. As he had his retinue of bodyguards with him at the time, I again decided that the best course of action would be to comply with his demands.

I took him through the Way to the London office and then led him to the shop. I did, of course, message them ahead of time, letting them know that we were on our way, and to remove any Thunderbolt charms from view. Raven complied promptly, but unfortunately, Cardoso's assessment of the shop was more thorough then she had anticipated and he found the charms.

Somewhat surprisingly, he did not become violent or even all that angry. He seemed to have expected us to double-cross him. He simply announced that he would be taking all the inventory we had on hand as recompense for our breach of contract, and that his men would be checking in unannounced from now on to ensure we kept our end in the future.

I personally would have been willing to let it go at that. Raven, however, being a very devout Witch and feminist, wasn't impressed with his macho posturing. She made it very clear that her business was independent from Marshall, Carter and Dark, and thus she owed him nothing and he would be leaving with nothing.

Again, Cardoso was not immediately unreasonable. He still insisted the Thunderbolt Iron was rightfully his, but acknowledged that Raven was not personally at fault. He tried to talk me into compensating her, but she was adamant that she wouldn't willingly assist an - in her own words - Earth rapist.

When it was clear she wasn't amendable to negotiations, Cardoso pulled his gun and ordered his men to just take the iron and anything else that looked valuable. Raven responded with a summoning spell. It was mostly for show; the lights dimmed, the room got cold and her eyes went white, and her spirit familiar started brushing past Cardoso and his men.

His men got spooked and ran, but Cardoso remained persistent. He fired off his gun, but in the poor light couldn't get a clean shot at either of us. Raven's familiar was able to knock the gun out his hand, and then Raven grabbed her athame - it's a Wiccan ritualistic knife - and castrated him with one swipe. He bled out pretty quickly, and she told me to call for a cleanup crew, which I did.

As a result of this, Cardoso Industria is no longer a client of ours, and we no longer have a major client for Thunderbolt Iron. I will leave it up to Mr. Carter if Raven - or, possibly myself - should be disciplined for this turn of events.
Marshall, Carter and Dark, LLP
Memo 05
PE679/RE245/EM285
Sender Ruprecht Carter Recipient Victor Chan
Poor sod. I've had bodies ritualistically castrated before. It's never fun, at least for me.

Fortunately for little miss 'slice the patriarchy's balls off', she's more valuable to us than Cardoso was, and she was acting in self-defence, so she will not be disciplined. You're in the clear too, Chan. You did your best.

Raven can retain the Thunderbolt charms already made, but I've found a buyer for the unprocessed ore. The death of Cardoso has put Fata Morgana and their eco-terrorists in a good mood, it seems. I went to the Court, offered my sincerest apologies for the situation and insisted I had no idea that they were the ones backing the eco-terrorists. To ensure them that such a regrettable misunderstanding would never happen again, I offered them the remaining Thunderbolt Iron, for a meagre one-tenth of its weight in Morgana Silver as compensation for our loss of income. They talked me down to a twelfth, and we have to handle the hazmat precautions.

So in addition to suring up our relationship with the Seelie Court, I effectively traded three and a half tonnes of an obsolete metal to people for whom it was toxic for 290 kilograms of one of the most precious thaumaturgical alloys in existence, all while doing my part for the environment.

This may very well be the most we've ever profited from a literal emasculation.
Marshall, Carter and Dark, LLP
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