Angst Plague

## Common Knowledge

During the autumn of 10,016 A.B., an infectious disease began affecting many people in central Orelisle and even some beyond. This disease made people bitter, and prone to violence. Then one day it rained and every patient was cured. Certain residents of Talios may have also seen a stitched-together elven woman and a horde of cockroaches around this time.

## Contributing Factors

### Belladonna’s Atrocity in the Making (C. 10,010 A.B.)

Belladonna, a newt-folk witch and master of biology, alchemy, and curses, developed a bioweapon for use in a war her tribe was waging. This weapon had three parts: the disease itself, which reduced the impulse-control and self-preservation instincts in the afflicted, and amplified their violent tendencies and negative emotions and in its later stages totally consumed its victims with mindless rage; its permanent carrier, a stitched-together, elven homunculus named Eki; and its spreader, a horde of cockroaches sharing one mind, one soul, and one essence across many bodies, named Gen.

The newt-folk tribal elders deemed these creations abominations, and their creator a necromancer of the vilest sort. They demanded that she dispose of her creations, and was then put into exile immediately after she had done so. Rather than destroying her beautiful and useful creations, Belladonna imprisoned them in a cave in the Binturian Forest and left them for a rainy day. For six years, Eki and Gen sat and stewed in their neglect. Though Eki ended up better for her part, Gen was consumed by the desire for revenge on the people who had invoked such a fate upon them.

### The Binturian Party’s Miscalculation (10,016 A.B.)

The story of Belladonna’s creations morphed with blinding speed, and quickly became an “ancient legend” about an all-powerful weapon. This appealing story caught the attention of the Binturian Party, who like any good group of adventurers sought this weapon for themselves. In doing so, they discovered Belladonna’s cave and unwittingly released Gen and Eki from their bindings.

## Binturian Involvement

Some members of the Binturian Party were some of the earliest victims of this plague. Otherwise, the Binturians were among the first to learn of the disease, found its creator, secured a cure, and disseminated that cure across all of Orelisle.

## Order of Events

Rumors circulated about a legendary weapon, one that could fell any foe it touched, and naturally the Binturian Party followed that legend to the letter. The trail of hints and vague clues led them to a cave in the Binturian Forest, where they found and unwittingly released the creatures Belladonna had imprisoned years earlier. Now freed, Gen wished to exact revenge upon the world that sealed them and their sister away by inflicting their plague on as many people as possible. Eki went along with Gen’s plot, and slowly people and animals in Binturia and western Talios were infected. The disease spread quickly, as they are often wont to do.

The Binturian Party eventually encountered the two again, and discovered their likely creator: Belladonna. Belladonna explained that she was responsible for their creation but she had no control over the ensuing chaos and therefore was not to blame, though she *might* make a cure if Eki was somehow returned to her for *experimentation*. When the Binturians fought the duo again, Belladonna’s words ringing in the back of their minds, Eki convinces Gen to flee instead. Eki tried to follow, but was captured by the Binturians. Interrogating her, they learned that she wished to end her brother’s quest for vengeance.

Recognizing that Eki had truly changed, they managed to convince Belladonna to create a cure to the plague (and made very clear to specify that she needed to make a cure that would cure ALL of Orelisle, not just a few people). Weeks later, Belladonna’s cure was completed and administered to Orelisle at large by infusing it into the rain (courtesy of the floating city Ebrilas’s Spirit denizens). Belladonna departed for parts unknown, to devise her latest scheme to destroy magic.

As for the Binturian Party, they spent a great deal of time trying to figure out what to do with Eki. She still carried the disease, but could hypothetically be cured. Discussions of “removing her” took a permanent tone for a short time, and that was enough to drive Eki to flee back to the cave from whence she came. The Binturians chased her there, only to discover her planting essence-based explosive charges in the cave. Even if it meant a dismal existence, she would entomb herself within the cave forever to save Orelisle.

The Binturians talked her down, they felt confident that they could cure her and they saw no need for her suffering or her death. Just as she was coming around, just as she was going to accept their offer to help her, one Binturian among them fired a blast of soul magic at her. Eki was killed, her body destroyed without trace, and her soul left without a host. The party immediately turned on the attacker, the miraculously returned Gethen, but he teleported away before a fight could put him down. The chaos had accidentally ignited some of the charges, and the cave began to collapse.

Dragging behind their own wounded (from the fight with Gethen), the scarce remains of Eki (what amounted to leftover stitches and clothes), and Doora (an unseen bound to door who formerly served Belladonna), the Binturians escaped from the collapsing cave and stood outside it, shell-shocked. They performed an impromptu ritual to give Eki a new body to inhabit, to give her another chance at life, to cure her disease, to keep her here, anything. Pouring their hearts, souls, and likely a few Nirvanas into the ritual, they reformed Eki’s body and resurrected her. But as she looked at them with an unfamiliar gaze, they realized that her soul was long gone, and that this was merely a new soul in Eki’s old body. A final victory for the Angst Plague, and for Belladonna.

## Aftermath

The Angst Plague was permanently cured, both Gen and Eki were dead (more of a death by technicality, In Eki’s case), and Belladonna remained at large.

Doora was installed as the front door to Will’s Tavern, and was later relocated to the Binturian Hall in Adria.

Eki, or the woman who looks like her, is now a citizen of the United Sanctuaries of Orelisle.

## Further Information

* Belladonna
* Binturia
* The Binturian Party
* Essence
* Homunculus
* Spirits
* Talios
* United Sanctuaries of Orelisle (U.S.O.)