Slag

Slag was a common by-product of the process of smelting metallic ore, created by the separation of the different substances found in the rock from the desired metals. It could also refer to stone and metal that was melted and ruined by heat.
In thieving parlance, slag referred to items that were smuggled, with a slag commission being the fee taken by a smuggler from one-third of the final sale value.
==Description==
Slag was a glassy amalgamation of minerals that weighed a little less than pure metals did, allowing it to be separated by gravity. It contained the useless non-metallic contents of the ore, as well as the flux and other volatile chemicals that separated and bound the different substances. The slag did often contain trace amounts of valuable metals caught up in it, and so was still a useful material that could be re-processed. Smelters often took the slag as payment for their services because of this profitable recycling opportunity.
The improper operation of a smelter could mean that the slag did not actually separate from the metal and simply created a useless mass that would need to be re-worked. Alternatively, it could mean the creation of separated but impure metal that made for an inferior product.
==Occurrences==
Slag heaps were often piled up outside of the mines and smelters that produced them, alongside the other tailings produced by the industry. These unsightly mounds of unstable material leached traces of chemicals into the ground and water, poisoning them with metals and industrial by-products alongside the air pollution created by the furnaces.
Some notable slag heaps were as follows:
* The copper-mining towns of Semphar in the foothills of the Mountains of Copper had great slag heaps that poisoned water sources with copper, turning them red and undrinkable.
* The mining and smelting town of Hillmarch in Cormyr was interspersed with great mounds of slag and other tailings.
* The Slag of Ramekho was a slum district named after the smelting operations there.
* The Slag of the City of Brass was a great waste dump for the mines at the Pits.
* Mirabar's environs were dotted with signs of industry, including heaps of slag and other mine leavings.
* Main roads in Cormyr were usually surfaced with a layer of gravel that was magically melted into a glassy slag. While it was still soft it was embedded with more gravel to form a high-traction road surface, then covered in a mixture of mud and straw.
* Chain devils excreted a kind of soft, crumbly slag rich in sulfur and arsenic as dung.
* The divine dwarven realm of Erackinor in Solania was marked by an enormous streak of slag and tailings at its front gates.
==Appendix==
===Appearances===
===External Links===
* 
===References===
Category:Metals
Category:Substances
Category:Items
Category:Items from Toril