Small Pox

Small Pox
Mundane Disease
DC: 14
Progression
Pestilence: 0
Your body fights off the pox.
Effect: You are cured.
Pestilence: 1 - 2
You are stricken with fever, muscle aches, and headaches.
Effect: Tired
Pestilence: 3 - 4
Your fever subsides, but small reddish lesions form in the mouth, throat, and on the tongue. These lesions enlarge quickly and rupture, creating open sores.
Effect: Pain(1), Tired
Pestilence: 5 - 6
More lesions form on your forehead, then rapidly spread over the rest of your body.
Effect: Pain(2), Tired
Pestilence: 7+
Your organs fail and you die.
Effect: You are dead, but your corpse is intact.
Immunity: After recovery, a creature is generally immune to smallpox for many years, possibly their entire lives.
"They say Small Pox be the touch of dark spirits, punishin' the livin' for sins unknown. You see those blisters? They say each one's the mark of a damned soul, cryin' out from beneath the skin."
——Matilda, village herbalist

Description

Small Pox, often referred to as the “Speckled Demon” by common folk, is a sinister ailment that grips villages and cities like a dark plague unleashed from the netherworld. The afflicted first become host to a fever that boils the blood, and chills that rattle the bones. Their spirits wither, and they are consumed by an unquenchable thirst. Soon after, the demon shows its true form: countless raised, reddened pustules that speckle the skin like the spots of a sickly toad. These sinister marks of contagion fester, filling with an unholy fluid, before scabbing over. Those who survive are often left with grotesque scars, marking them as having danced with the Speckled Demon and lived to tell the tale.

Typical Exposure

Small Pox is a malicious specter that moves silently through the air, or clings to the belongings of the stricken. It spreads through whispers and stolen breaths, moving from one soul to another. A careless touch, the sharing of a drink, or the wearing of a garment that once warmed an afflicted body can pass the demon’s curse. Many a village has been brought to its knees through the gathering of folk at markets, festivals, or houses of worship where the spectral hands of Small Pox linger.