The Bloody Flux (Plot)

The Bloody Flux is a disease which struck the territory of Myrken Wood during the summer months of 205 AR and returned in spring 206. Its origins are unknown, although inquiries have revealed that the illness is endemic to Myrken Wood. Whether the insects which spread it also are, remains a matter of speculation.

The Insects

The disease-transmitting bugs are described as pitch-black and winged, measuring slightly larger than a man's thumb. It could be mistaken for an oversized -- and zealous -- wasp, sporting a half-inch stinger. Upon death, the insect's entire body collapses into black dust. It has been assumed that the insect does not function as a traditional vector, which would convey infection from one host to another -- but that it independantly transmits the disease to its victims.

The Disease

It is initially possible to mistake the Flux for a nasty case of the flu -- but within days, those traditional symptoms have become far less benign. Blood begins to show at each cough, coughs evolve into vomiting, until the point at which blood is leaking from most, if not all, of the body's orifices. Death often follows swiftly, although several have survived the Flux, most of them with the aid of the Rememdium Edificium.

Progression

April 25, 205 AR: The first victim of the Flux was Cheswick Valladay, a member of the Order of Straka. By the afternoon following being stung, he'd been coughing; very soon, he'd begun to vomit great amounts of blood. Within twelve days, he perished due to loss of blood, his illness attributed to disease. His body was cremated.

April 26, 205 AR: Ariane Carnath-Emory admitted to the Rememdium Edificium subsequent to vomitting blood on the Broken Dagger floor.

April 27, 205 AR: Governor Altias Bromn succumbs. Sawyer is conveyed to the Rememdium by Darrin. The illness, previously unnamed, is now widely referred to as the Bloody Flux.

April 28, 205 AR: Lothbury Estate quarantines itself, chaining closed its great iron gates, and erecting a barrier of tables, benches and broken doors behind its own walls -- as if to prevent both entry and escape. Rumours follow of bloodshed and screams during the night, of fields both torn and ruined; by day, great plumes of smoke can be seen rising, presumably from funeral pyres upon Lothbury farmland.

Darrin supplies Doctor D'Rael with several of the living insects for examination, and advises they be handled with a falconer's glove. The research continues.

May 12, 205 AR: The Flux is widely believed to be at an end. The final toll is something more than twenty persons deceased, and many more suffering through the illness's last stages. Further struggle with complications caused by it, and many of the healthy have begun to leave supplies for Doctor D'Rael upon the Rememdium's doorstep.