Rotting Shock

As if getting bitten by a three foot tall mushroom with anger issues isn't bad enough...

— Kalas Pascal

Called the 'silent stalker', this condition is well known in the Shattered Lands, Great Northern Swamp, and Kindamire regions. Outbreaks have plagued those regions for many ages in Illuria.

Transmission & Vectors

Rotting Shock is primarily the result of a bite from a Mushroom Creeper. Specifically, it is the creature's saliva. Secondary means of spreading the condition are from the bodily fluids, such as saliva, of someone suffering Rotting Shock.

But a bite from a Mushroom Creeper does not guarantee that the victim will suffer this condition. That can only be determined if the victim shows symptoms three days after the initial bite, or being examined by a qualified healer or cleric.

Symptoms

Symptoms of Rotting Shock appear three days after the initial bite. The victim experiences a sore throat and tingling skin in extremities such as fingers, toes, or wings. This is also when the victim is highly infectious and able to transmit Rotting Shock to others.

The next symptoms appear in the second, or 'shock' stage. This stage is the has the most dramatic interaction between the bacterial infection and the victim. The victim is also infectious at this stage but transmission is harder than in the initial three days.

During the shock stage, the victim suffers periodic shakes or tremors as if cold. These sporadic convulsions last no more than a few seconds.

Often, these tremors take place in an arm, a wing, or other limb. Victims can suffer full body tremors but those are more common toward the end of the shock stage. This stage lasts on average a full three days until the final stage symptoms appear.

In the final sage, the disease earns the other part of its name, where victims suffer the 'rot'. At the start of this stage, victims suffer hours of dehydration and extreme thirst. This passes after the first day once the major symptom appears. The 'rot'.

The 'rot' symptom is where the victim's skin takes on a chestnut hue, like tanned leather with cracks as if the leather has dried out from the heat. The victim's skin peels in long strips, revealing a gray-white skin underneath. A skin tone, similar to many varieties of Mushroom Creeper.

The skin tone, despite the 'shapeshifting' panic it can cause is a side effect, nothing more. Key to this malady is the dehydration. Blessed water, juices do wonders to keep a patient stable while being treated. The Jogba fruit is especially effective.

— Dr Marlin Von Ingerthol

Prognosis

If left untreated, those suffering from Rotting Shock will feel some improvement after two weeks, but this is ruse. After three days past the second week, the symptoms start once more, only more pronounced. This deadly cycle continues until the victim dies from dehydration or the rotting stage.

It's uncommon but there are survivors of the condition. They often have patches of permanently cracked, leather-like skin that cannot complete heal. Their vocal chords are often heavily damaged, and many have lost fingers or limbs in the course of the malady that have rotted off in the process of the third stage.

In rural areas, sufferers take to living on the outskirts of communities. Those in more settled areas are treated with sympathy but kept at a distance for fear of spreading the bacteria. Treatment is administered while the victim is kept isolated.

Treatment

During the 2nd Age, a monk named Kosk postulated that the Mushroom Creeper saliva contained a type of venom the creature used to 'pre-digest' its food. Through much study and care of victims, Kosk realized that the digestion venom needed to be neutralized.

The monk found his remedy with the Arscilla Tombflower leaves. Crushed tombflower leaves with their necrotic aspect, combined with cayenne pepper, and hibas root when mixed in a solution turned out to be the answer.

Administered three times a day for a week, the solution slowly neutralizes the digestion bacteria causing the condition. At the end of the week, the victim will be free of the ailment. An application of basic soothing balm or basic healing enchantment will reverse the 'rotting' appearance of the vicitm's skin.

The soothing balm also helps slow the progress. More than one of my patients have nearly scratched themselves to pieces. Silkbalm works best.

— Dr Marlin Von Ingerthol

Affected Groups

Mushroom Creeper ranchers are the most well-known victims. But unwary travelers to the Great Northern Swamp or the Dead Swamp are always at risk as well.

Prevention

Prevention takes many routes.

Against Mushroom Creepers, anti-fungal amulets exist that will repel the aggressive fungus. These emit a vibration that the Creepers find unpleasant as it resonates in their inner stalks. These amulets work for three days before needing to be recharged in sunlight.

The second is an anti-fungal cream. The odor of this lavender scented cream repells the aggressive mushrooms as it causes their caps to wither.

History

The earliest known case was recorded in the late 2nd Age. According to history, an unexplained disaster in the northern coastline of the Great Swamp forced large numbers of Mushroom Creepers migrating south out of the swamplands. This sent them right into the settlements of the Shattered Lands and Kindamire regions, part of what is now the Markovia Alliance.

At the time, the name 'Rotting Shock' wasn't commonly understood, and many thought it a curse. Hundreds contracted it from Mushroom Creeper bites, then later through person-to-person contact. The condition spread as the Creepers swarmed south, leaving fear and illness in their wake.

It wasn't until Kosk, a devoted monk of Tyeal, discovered a treatment. Relations between Kosk's people, the Eltaa in the Great Swamp and the settlements in the Shattered Lands and Kindamire had soured after the outbreak. This hindered slowing the condition’s spread.

But eventually knowledge of the treatment passed through all three regions, allowing healers there to get the outbreak under control. Scribes agree it was this early Rotting Shock plague, and the monk’s treatment, that paved the way for the future cooperation between those two cultures.

Contents

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Type

Bacterial

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Uncommon

Myths and Rumors

Oh, what I wouldn't give for a cure for those with a case of the Galloping Paranoia...

— Dr Marlin Von Ingerthol

This condition, this contagion, has existed for many ages. History is thick with accounts of outbreaks, even after a treatment was devised. Myths and superstitions, some drawn from ancient origins, have always persisted to haunt the victims.

The nature of the spread always draws suspicion. Victims are shunned and isolated within communities, especially rural ones. In some rural areas, victims are even urged to live in quarantine communities away from most settlements. The main reason being a false fear of being able to catch Rotting Shock by breathing the same air as an afflicted person.

Then there is the rotting stage. To the current day, myths circulate about how the condition is nothing more than a terrible transformation. Where the afflicted will become a Mushroom Creeper and attack anyone nearby. This has been tested and disproven repeatedly by technomages who stress that a transformation enchantment just does not work in that manner.