The Plague Fields

Here, Iuz's decimation of the land rebounded on him. A castle keep in this land was razed and destroyed during the wars, without realizing that the keep itself had warding magics which kept in check an evil artifact of the ancient Suel deity Pyremius buried below the ground. Now the wards and protections have been destroyed, and the malign effects of that artifact are beginning to spread, covering an area of some 12 miles radius around its place of burial.

These effects are baneful indeed. The soil is poisoned and plant life is withered, yellowed or utterly destroyed within a mile of the artifact. Natural animals avoid the area entirely. Any creature setting foot within the 12 mile radius must save versus poison or acquire a wasting disease similar to mummy rot. If the central mile-radius area is entered, a fresh saving throw must be made at -4 to avoid this fate. What is worse, the illness is infectious. Sick humans, demihumans or humanoids will infect others whom they have had physical contact with during the first week of their illness. A saving throw versus poison at +2 negates this. Iuz's priests have no ability to neutralize poisons or cure diseases, and some three hundred humanoids have already died from the wasting disease. It isn't surprising then that these lands are shunned by all.