Autumn Cough

"I think I should *cough* get a tattoo in *cough* these shapes." - Amberfaen Denizen on Holiday

Thalia Willowroot used ingredients from her own lover's corpse to brew the only known cure for the Autumn Cough. A simple touch of a beautiful brown-orange leaf can lead to the most violent of deaths, and solidify your place in the cycle of life growing a corpse tree mere moments after the disease takes your life.

Transmission & Vectors

Pollen lives on the leaves of the trees in The Praery Woods. This pollen, no current reason known, turns deadly as the leaves fall from their host tree yearly. It can travel only a small way off of the leaf and is mainly spread by contact with a creature's skin. Eventually as the affected person succumbs to coughing fits, the pollen can be spread via their saliva.

Causes

The week of Autumn in The Praery Woods brings all manner of changes. A cool and crispness in the air, the harvest season begins, and the pollen from fallen dead leaves. This pollen can cause reactions in people allergic during this time that come into contact with the leaves. Leaves fall for a week once a year so immunity is hard to build, as such this affects mostly younger people.

Symptoms

The fallen pollen, invisible to the eye, is easily spread. It starts as an itch, irritating the area that came into contact with the leaf. This causes the pollen to spread unless properly cleaned. The irritation will often cause leaf-like patterns over the affected skin. A cough will develop if the pollen is inhaled. The cough, uncured, will soon turn violent as the affected will continuously cough causing permanent and fatal damage to their internals. Unless cured, this disease ends in death.

Treatment

Only recently has a cure been found. The Budding Brew is a newly discovered tonic made to cure the Autumn Cough. A flyer has been made of the ingredients and instructions on how to create the brew and is distributed far and wide as the Autumn nears. Once the Autumn Cough sets in, The Budding Brew is the only cure to prevent the eventual death.