Smokeleaf Stillness

"Bloody Balden has gone and dropped like a stone. It's that bloody smokeleaf, I tell you."

— Unknown speaker

A Matter of Focus

While smokeleaf is prescribed by some herbalists as treatments for lack of focus, there are rare occurrences where the herb can take a massive toll on the user.
The effect known as "smokeleaf stillness" presents over several days, beginning with a darkening around the eyes as if sleepless. From there, the effects continue to degrade the affected, causing their veins to blacken and their ability to perform simple tasks gradually worsens. The final effect of the stillness, and where it gets its name from, is the sudden finality that it brings to the smoker of the leaf, stopping their heart with little but a shortness of breath as notice.

The Dimly Unfocused

After death, those afflicted by the stillness become remarkably difficult to move, almost becoming stone-like, with their limbs not moving much from their final resting point. This rigidity lasts for several days before they can be properly arranged for burial, at which point a funeral is rather unpleasant as decay has usually set in.
Many have tried to work to prevent the stillness from taking effect on many of their friends, but the ultimate demise of them has been out of the control of anyone but a few who have recovered naturally.
Those who stop themselves from continuing using smokeleaf are quite often the ones seen as lucky, as they have kicked a habit that could very well cause their own downfall, much akin to people who jump off cliffs into the water below them who jump even when unsafe.

Type

Physiological

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Rare