The Path of the Sentinel

Deep in the woods above all towns, on the very edge of inhabited land and bare rocks reaching for the skies, lays a peculiar graveyard that no scientist and no specialist can ever hope to solve the mystery of.

What makes the graveyard peculiar is the way it's shaped - it's not in a group or a square or any other shape of clustered together graves. It resembles a long thin line of solitary graves, spaced about 2 meters from each other, following through the entire landscape of the mountain. Wherever there are waterfalls or other natural separation, the graves will continue on the sides of them - never breaking the line for more than necessary.

Nobody knows who or what or for how long's been in those graves. Or even if they are graves at all. The one thing citizens of cities and villages all around the mountain's body know is that there are stone statues lined up shortly before the graveyard starts. They call them the Sentinels of Stone. And getting near them is forbidden for a very good reason.

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Transmission & Vectors

A person that can potentially be affected by the Curse of the Sentinel - as it's most commonly recognized - is anyone who's dared to go anywhere near the Sentinels of Stone - especially if they got close enough to see any of the Sentinels' faces. It is through the Guardian's sight that the curse attaches to a new soul.

Symptoms

The very first signs that something might be wrong would happen up to three days after the exposure to a Sentinel's sight. In the very beginning colors start to change: things like grass, leaves, moss but also people's eye color, the proper shades in a wooden desk or even one's own skin color - they'd all look peculiar. It is all due to the slow but irreversible loss of the ability to see the color green and all its shades.

The second series of signs can take up to a month to show off completely and can be confused with possession which is something that has to be very carefully distinguished before any further action is taken.

The first hints of it will be the affected individual's health. They will begin to throw up quite frequently - first only before bed, later - at any time and place. The color and consistency of the produced vomit will progressively turn greener and goopier. Alongside that the person will wake up feeling like they've ran a marathon - in pain, sweat and barely moving - caused by events like levitation and sleepwalking up the walls and on the ceiling - during the sleep periods.

People around might see the affected individual stand and stare at corners, hear them whisper in languages no ear has ever heard and eventually make sounds completely shocking for their kind. This is the point where the question "Should I call an exorcist?" can start popping in some heads. And it's crucially important to not rush and make that decision. A quick test would be saying a prayer near the affected person - it may be whispered or said out loud - it wouldn't make a change. Upon the mention of holy words and the name of God a possessed individual would turn towards the testing person and react in (possibly) violent way. Someone affected by the Sentinel's gaze would instead not even hear the words but instead suddenly rush to find something to write on and something to write with.

This sudden compulsion to write and the apparent ability to write in languages the person has never learned is a tell-tale sign of what the cause for the behavior actually is.

The next thing that starts to happen is sensory hallucinations as well as overlap of the senses. In their time awake the person would start to sometimes see colors when hearing a certain sound. Or smell a specific thing when touching different materials. or hear voices saying certain words in their head when they taste a set thing. It can be very easy for one of those confused sensations to slip through and turn out to be a hallucination. This in its own turn can make the suffering individual extremely scared, confused and paranoid in their own home and around their own family.

The hallucinations would eventually evolve into migraines - especially strong ones - that are characterized by total loss of spatial awareness. A thing that can certainly happen when these start is the person getting out of their room, running into walls, into corners, through windows and out in the wild and if the family doesn't stop them and take them back into a safe spot - this might easily kill them before the last stage is even close.

At the point when it gets to the last steps it would most likely be the start of a third month after the initial contact for the affected. if they survive the previous symptom they will simply quiet down and fall asleep one night only to wake up - yes, actually wake up, not sleepwalk, in the middle of the night with sudden wounds and cuts on their face. They will walk out of the door and no matter how much one tries to call them back, hold them closed or tie them somewhere - they will always get out and walk all the way to the Sentinels' lines. Once they reach a spot they will simply stay there.

Before the break of dawn the person will become a new Sentinel - forever locked in stone, awake but not knowing where they are. Not feeling anything. Always watching. Always guarding. Eventually losing the sense of self, the identity that once made them whatever they were - human, fairy, centaur or any other creature. Until time shows them mercy and lets them crumble away into dust.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Rarity

Extremely Rare

IF THE WRONG DECISION Is MADE

and one's family decides to request and exorcism the effect of the symptoms will speed up and instead of three months will take a few weeks les, increasing the affected's suffering.

Treatment

The only chance to revere the entire process is to have the affected person find and swim in (diving in it, head & all) a lake of wind water. Wind water is not exactly water and can be found in three spots in the mountain range in the west of Bulgaria's territory and in seven in the other main mountain range that divides the country North from South.

Wind water looks like a soft cloud of eternally swirling fluff and feels like putting yourself into a living wall of dandelion fluffs - or any other kind of very soft airy fluff - which thickens and embraces you like a blanket. It works for removing the curse as it goes through every pore in the body of the submerged and pulls out and away the magic particles that carry it.
! Wind Water can only help in the first stages. If one has already started getting the migraines it'd too late to help them.!