Withered Settlements

Not every venture succeeds, and though the reasons may vary, some die out for seemingly no reason at all.

Summary

There is no pattern, every tale is different, as is every teller. Everyone knows of someone who knows someone who was part of a Withering. Guards got reassigned to other settlements, food deliveries petered out, eventually those remaining leave or face starvation.
Those few who make it back to civilization are told 'What do you mean? No one said anything.' They are never reopened, just fading ghost towns in the hinterlands.

Spread

Rumors abound in every corner of the new lands. Some think there are fey spirits that mask the town from friendly minds, and the withering is just a natural process. Others assert that the spirits of the dead, those who fell working their indentured servitude, are enraged and drive away everything and everyone who would approach. A third and less popular theory is that there is a malign intent from the land itself that make the place hostile...