I wonder what the damage would be holding it for 15 seconds.

Cobalt 60 has a half life of 5.27 years. Assuming that a language lost to time is at least 500 years old, the rod should be fairly safe to handle. Heck, even after only 100 years less than 0.01% of the original amount of radioactive material would be left.

But that aside - One of the items that can be found in the video game series Avernum is Uranium bars, which give you a nice unhealthy glow

I wonder what the damage would be holding it for 15 seconds.

Cobalt 60 has a half life of 5.27 years. Assuming that a language lost to time is at least 500 years old, the rod should be fairly safe to handle. Heck, even after only 100 years less than 0.01% of the original amount of radioactive material would be left.

But that aside - One of the items that can be found in the video game series Avernum is Uranium bars, which give you a nice unhealthy glow

Cobalt 60 has a half life of 5.27 years. Assuming that a language lost to time is at least 500 years old, the rod should be fairly safe to handle. Heck, even after only 100 years less than 0.01% of the original amount of radioactive material would be left.

But that aside - One of the items that can be found in the video game series Avernum is Uranium bars, which give you a nice unhealthy glow

I assume “danger” and “drop & run” would be straightforward enough, but does casting comprehend languages cause the wizard to understand the concept of radiation (or cobalt, or how large a ‘curie’ is)?

I asked Chat GPT:

Approximate unshielded dose rates:

At 1 m: ≈ 5.2×10^4 Sv/h (≈51,800 Sv/h) — fatal essentially instantaneously (seconds or less).

At 3 m: ≈ 5.8×10^3 Sv/h — fatal within seconds.

At 10 m: ≈ 5.18×10^2 Sv/h — fatal within tens of seconds.

At 30 m: ≈ 5.8×10^1 Sv/h — severe, life‑threatening in minutes.

At 100 m: ≈ 5.2 Sv/h — dangerous; a few hours would produce fatal/serious acute radiation syndrome.

(For perspective: an acute whole‑body dose of ~4–5 Sv often causes death without intensive medical care; 1 Sv already causes significant radiation sickness.)

These are conservative, point‑source, unshielded estimates for whole‑body dose from the gammas. Being closer, or in contact, or staying in the field increases dose proportionally.

Back to me again. I’m sorry my radioactive physics game is weak and I had to speculatively look it up. That’s a lot of downvotes, yet no one decided to share the math themselves.

Isn’t the blue glow only present under water (or other transparent medium with a similarly high index of refraction)?

Back to me again. I’m sorry my radioactive physics game is weak and I had to speculatively look it up. That’s a lot of downvotes, yet no one decided to share the math themselves.

I asked my toddler about the radiation and she said “nana” and then with emphasis “nana” once more.

The downvotes are because our two methods of finding an answer are roughly equally likely to returning a reliable answer.

Mine is slightly better for the climate, maybe. That will likely change as she grows up and uses up more resources. I’ll ask her to do the math on that one later, she is busy eating a book right now.

If it’s actively glowing blue, I don’t think it’s safe to handle.

I asked Chat GPT:

Approximate unshielded dose rates:

At 1 m: ≈ 5.2×10^4 Sv/h (≈51,800 Sv/h) — fatal essentially instantaneously (seconds or less).

At 3 m: ≈ 5.8×10^3 Sv/h — fatal within seconds.

At 10 m: ≈ 5.18×10^2 Sv/h — fatal within tens of seconds.

At 30 m: ≈ 5.8×10^1 Sv/h — severe, life‑threatening in minutes.

At 100 m: ≈ 5.2 Sv/h — dangerous; a few hours would produce fatal/serious acute radiation syndrome.

(For perspective: an acute whole‑body dose of ~4–5 Sv often causes death without intensive medical care; 1 Sv already causes significant radiation sickness.)

These are conservative, point‑source, unshielded estimates for whole‑body dose from the gammas. Being closer, or in contact, or staying in the field increases dose proportionally.

Back to me again. I’m sorry my radioactive physics game is weak and I had to speculatively look it up. That’s a lot of downvotes, yet no one decided to share the math themselves.