I've recently made the acquaintance of Evil Ash in an Evil biome. It seems to kill on contact and is never announced. The biome also has Revolting Goo, which causes dizziness and nausea, and which is announced and which I thought was the culprit and that death was a rare by-product.
But no, I have Evil Ash, which has exterminated all the wildlife, my grazers, and half a dozen dwarves, who not only died two tiles from my front entrance, but on the same tile, no doubt each trying to claim the shoes of their predecessor before being struck down themselves.
I've managed to pull the raws from my save file, so if anyone can tell my why this stuff is so deadly (or wants to use it themselves), I'd love to know.
Evil Ash raw:
[INORGANIC:EVIL_CLOUD_6]
[GENERATED]
[SPECIAL]
[STATE_NAME:ALL:evil ash]
[STATE_ADJ:ALL:evil ash]
[STATE_COLOR:ALL:GREEN]
[DISPLAY_COLOR:2:0:1]
[MATERIAL_VALUE:1]
[SPEC_HEAT:4181]
[IGNITE_POINT:NONE]
[MELTING_POINT:NONE]
[BOILING_POINT:NONE]
[HEATDAM_POINT:NONE]
[COLDDAM_POINT:NONE]
[MAT_FIXED_TEMP:10000]
[MOLAR_MASS:1]
[TEMP_DIET_INFO:SLIME]
[ENTERS_BLOOD]
[SYNDROME]
[SYN_NAME:evil ash sickness]
[SYN_AFFECTED_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON]
[SYN_INJECTED]
[SYN_CONTACT]
[SYN_INHALED]
[SYN_INGESTED]
[CE_NUMBNESS:SEV:100:PROB:100:START:0:PEAK:200:END:1608:LOCALIZED]
[CE_PAIN:SEV:100:PROB:100:START:0:PEAK:200:END:2330:LOCALIZED]
[CE_BLISTERS:SEV:100:PROB:100:START:0:PEAK:200:END:1596:LOCALIZED:VASCULAR_ONLY]
[CE_BLEEDING:SEV:100:PROB:100:START:0:PEAK:200:END:3285:BP:BY_CATEGORY:ALL:ALL:VASCULAR_ONLY]
It seems to cause blisters and bleeding in the lungs, which would be disgusting and lead to drowning in one's own blood. Not a nice way to go. It's contracted whenever someone eats (idiot), is injected with, breathes, or
touches the evil ash. It probably appears as big, green clouds; speaking as someone who hasn't seen any evil clouds, it might also leave little piles of ash lying around. These would also transmit the sickness to anyone who is barefoot. Like animals, or children, or dwarves with clothing issues. Try putting restricted traffic designations over the indoor piles and keeping dwarves indoors.