The Bruising Death

Firsthand account of an outbreak of the Bruising Death in the port village of Topton, Kudoran Kingdom.  Submitted to the Main Temple of Idikai by Flathac Anotor, year 1280 of the Age of Knowledge.
Personal note from Flathac Anotor:
The doctor is clearly exhausted, and has little patience.  After questioning me repeatedly about my age, she finally opened up about the outbreak.
We have no idea where it came from, probably one of the ships that came in.  Have you ever seen the Bruising Death kill a person?  I'd like to find whatever wizard came up with this disease and give it to them, then let them suffer.  It hits the weak first; the old, those already sick or starved.  Pregnant women, babies, then children.  A few adults get it, usually ones that have tired themselves out caring for the sick ones.  I've seen it wipe out entire villages, almost, leaving nothing but empty houses and a few people who might as well be ghosts with all they've lost, and all because people won't isolate themselves when they get it.  They always think it's not so bad, when it is.
You can track the stages of the disease by how the patient looks.  First it turns people so pale, more than anything I've ever seen before. Then the skin around their eyes start to get darker and darker, and their eyes seem to burn.  Then they start to shiver, so hard that it brings up bruises on that pale skin--that's where it gets its name. 
I was visiting from Skuph, a ways south of Topton.  A friend of mine, who lived on the outskirts of town, was going to have her first child, and said she trusted me more than the local doctor. I think she just wanted me to visit, really.  As soon as I got into town, I knew the disease was there.  I didn't even slow my horse down, just went straight to my friend's house, and was so relieved to see her and her husband both healthy.  I sent the two of them away to my house, figured that was far enough to keep them safe.  Then I went to the local doctor and volunteered my help.  
The first person I saw was a pregnant woman, her husband brought her in.  She was already ghostly, with the burning eyes, and the shivers were starting to wrack her body as I examined her.  She told me that she hadn't felt the baby move in a couple of days, and was getting worried.  There was no chance the baby was still alive, but I didn't tell her that.  Once the disease is at the bruising stage, it's too late for them anyway.  Her husband was also sick, just starting to get pale himself.  I had to separate them, because he had a chance to get better, and I can still hear her sobbing for him when I try to sleep.  
More and more patients came in over the next couple of days, in various stages of it.  I tried to separate them out into three groups, hoping to keep it contained.  We shut down the borders, for fear of it getting out to other towns.  The doctor told me he had tried to get a falcon out, asking for some powdered Lily of Despair, but he hadn't heard anything back.  We started losing people after the first week, most of them ones that were sick before I got there.  The pregnant woman, my first patient, was one of them.  Her husband found out the night before she went just how bad she was, and he snuck into her bed, he died the next week.  
Finally, a ship arrived outside the harbor.  The captain stayed at anchor, not willing to come in to shore, and who can blame him? He told us he had the Lily Powder, and to send a healthy person out to get it.  One of the local fisherman rowed out to meet him, and the captain lowered some crates down onto the boat, then sailed off.  I made up the medicine, since I had experience with it, and the doctor and I got it round to everyone.  
Still, so many died.  In a town of over three hundred people, just under a hundred survived.  I remember that captain every day in my prayers to Landrina and Soxai.  Without him, the survival rates would have been far less.  I hope I never see the Bruising Death again, but I'm sure I will.  People are just too stupid to get rid of a disease.