Gulping Disorder

Enough Misinformation to Start a War

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Dutton Journal by ROD w/Midjourney

Mad Doctor Dutton's Otherwhere Adventures

From the journal of Dr. Matt Dutton, Reporting from Forgooten Forest

MDutton Log Date 1907 Dr. Matt Dutton is a well-known mystery and adventure writer. His work involved capers that sent him to prison several times. With political influence from the Garamund family, along withe escaped long sentences. His usual stay lasts only 6 months. He used his only year long prison sentence to write a novel and earn a law degree that kept him from being arrested for varied accusations about his process for exhuming corpses from local graveyards. Dr. Dutton continues to argue that the practice of medicine, in particular surgery, required the dissection of the dead. The nearly dead being used for research is an unfortunate collateral mistake. It is dark when bodies are rounded up and his grave diggers don’t always see well. Touching a dead body or looking for a pulse is a tricky procedure that results in strange presumptions.

The el-e-goot people were the first to notice swallowing difficulties. Because many of them ate moldy leftover barley bread, local healers determined patients did not chew. But the disorder spread, and during a security expedition through the Forgooten Forest, a group of scouts watched a strange ritual performed by the Beekeepers. After the ceremony ended, the scouts bagged the stones that were placed on altars. When they returned home to their village in the el-e-goot region, they presented their finds and the story about what they saw to their elders. The elders needed an explanation for the spreading gulping disease. They decided that the two members of the scouting party who died from choking on the return trip were affected by the ritual and stones.

Distributing Disorder Misinformation

Gulp Discovery Protocol by ROD w/Midjourney

Once news spread that their gulp disorder resulted from a curse, the el-e-goot farmers walled off the Forgooten Bee Keepers from entering their region during fall when crops were harvested and the beekeepers were not needed to work in the fields. El-e-gooten children were warned not to explore the forest or look for the water gardens. A lore developed around the myth about the scouting expedition the Forgooten bee keepers argued had nothing to do with their ritual. The bees, set in stone for hundreds of years, were sold to the jewelry market in Preclipse. When Uwigor and I traveled through the city of Preclipse, we came across the Forgooten Amber stones. We bought five that did not precipitate gulping. Our breathing was steady. I tried to explain that the stones were inert, but El-e-gooten guides did not believe us. They convinced themselves that Preclipse residents were unaware of the Forgooten curse.
Within months after discovery of the first amber gem, most of the Eastern region, including the entire city of Preclipse, suffered from chronic gulping. The gulping led to other conditions that resulted in death. Forgooten Gravits, a terminal disease with weakened muscles, caused double vision and lazy eye. Eating and drinking became impossible. Facial muscles collapsed and speech slurred. Progressive breathing problems eventually ended in sinking lung infection. Patients died within 24 hours of its onset.

Gulping Scan

Forgooten Gravits Condition

Gulp Scan by ROD w/Midjourney

Forgooten Gravits by ROD w/Midjourney