Omnium

Exploratory shaft discovered a strange vessel in a flooded cavern fifty feet below our current mining depth. The vessel was badly damaged and most of its contents were beyond repair, but I did recover an intact metal cylinder with threaded caps on both ends.   When the item was opened, something very much like purple quicksilver flowed out of it. The substance seemed inert until I touched it, at which point it communicated with me.   There is so much work to be done. The liquid metal is known as the omnium, and it has shown me a way to escape this accursed, strangling city.