Barkblight

Seeming a little grey when in the shadows of the canopy, showing a slight violet hue in the light of the sun. This seemingly small and harmless patch of moss is soft to the touch, almost squishy, seeming as if water-logged or spongey. However in reality, this small patch of moss may herald something far worse. As you look up, your suspicions and fears are confirmed. Above you the apples show their color, however you can also see the blackening of the bottom of them, the darkening of the red to nearly a smokey coal like hue, and the leaves show dirty browning around their edges and an almost pus like yellow hue in their centers. As you touch the bark of the tree, it squishes beneath your touch, you can feel the oozing beneath. Looking around to nearby trees, your concern turns to abject horror and fear as you begin to note other trees bearing the exact same swirly moss pattern at about head height. Two dozen of them at least, pear, apple and walnut trees, and that count is only from a cursory glance. Fear begins to creep in as you begin to realize the potential extent of the situation.

Barkblight is an illness, a fungal infection of sorts that occurs seemingly specifically in fruit and nut bearing trees, most commonly those like apple, pear, plum, fig, cherry, walnut, hazelnut, and maple trees. It is a condition greatly feared throughout the Depen because of how swiftly it can propagate through a tree. From when the moss patch first appears to when the tree is fully infected, the fruit or nuts upon it no longer safe for any living thing to consume only takes as little as two or three weeks. During that window of time for the most part the moss is actually not visible. It grows upon the trunk for the first three days, softening the bark, but spreads its spores in a semi-liquid form that it injects into the systems within the tree that move the water it draws up from its roots around the structure of the plant. Once this process begins, the moss falls off, decaying rapidly, leaving a seemingly healthy bark and layer behind. Over the next ten to fourteen days the tree will rot and rot from the inside outwards and at the end that moss patch will begin to grow again, showing this time to be almost a third of the size of a person. The spore fluid not only spreads throughout the tree, but rotting small holes in the root system, it spreads throughout the soil as well, infecting neighboring trees. Within two months a single tree can wipe out an entire orchard.

However though this condition and this fungal illness is very dire indeed, it can be stopped. If caught early enough and one happens to have the services of a priestess of the Talia at their disposal, or perhaps an Emerald Magister, this blight can be halted. Alternatively the only real method to contain an outbreak is to thoroughly inspect and search all surrounding trees, identify the furthest out in each direction that show signs of the infection. Then you extend that radius by another ten to fifteen percent by most accepted standards, in all direction, and you take drastic action, having a controlled burn. The fungus and its spores cannot survive even the temperature wood burns at. However this controlled burn is no guarantee, as refereneced and noted earlier the spore fluid can travel underground between root systems. So even the controlled burn method is no guarantee, and seemingly only works around sixty-five to seventy percent of the time.