Callian's Hut

Long ago, before memory of most townsfolk, the Callian family moved to the Mystic Forest in the Valley of the Forgotten. They were and still are a mystery bunch who mainly keep to themselves. But everyone knows their house. It is a small log cabin located in the middle of the forest near the Mysterious Pond. In fact, no one quite knows how the pond exists either, since it never rains in the forest, nor are there rivers. (It is in fact a small opening for an underground river, but most people stay away from the area from fear, hence the origin is still largely unknown.) The Mystic Forest is a feared location in an otherwise pleasant valley. It is roamed by nightmarish spirits, fierce animals and countless monsters. The Callians are rarely ever seen or heard. They are avoided at nearly all costs. The only visitors they have (that the town knows of) are the incurably sick. There are only two reasons that a Callian will arrive in town. The first is to summon a relative of the sick to aid their treatment. The other, is to request the service of heroes to help maintain the evil spirits of the forest. Although the Callians are feared because of the rumors in town, it is a simple fact that those who visit always return in prime health. If they return. Most do, but some do not. How do they cure even the most deadly of maladies? No one really knows. Those who return have only vague memories of their visit, some not even remembering they ever visited. They merely go to sleep one day, on the verge of death, and wake up the next as the picture of health.
There are rumors and speculations, of course. Some say that the Callians are necromancers, killing their guests and returning them from the dead. Or maybe they actually return clones without the ailments. Others believe they have simply mastered the mystical remedies available in the forest. A small portion even believe that they are a species not yet known to this realm, with powers and resources beyond our understanding.
The truth has yet to be discovered. The only ones who could provide it, apart from the Callians themselves, have either forcibly forgotten or have witnessed horrors so terrible they chose to forget.








Some of the rumors are not entirely incorrect. The Callians are, in fact, human. But long ago they crafted a new form of magic. It is much like medicine for the spirit. Ailments such as infections or disease are always caused by something which carries an energy. It is something like a soul, but on a much more instinctual level than the souls of sentient beings. These energies have one purpose: to reproduce. Therefore, if they extract this energy and replace it with something more productive, the agent is no longer detrimental to the host.
But negative energy cannot simply be discarded like materials. They must go somewhere. It can be transferred to another host, or it can be given a corporeal form. Most are given corporeal form because they are insignificant enough to cause any real damage. Most "minor" ailments are transformed into carnivorous animals to live as part of the natural food chain. More severe ones become larger problems like deadly spiders or monsters. Most stay within the forest. But some ailments are too deadly to take corporeal form. If they did, they would be ravaging demons and cause significant harm to the material world. In these cases, a sentient host is required to keep the energy under control. In most cases, a family member, usually someone more healthy, will offer to carry the energy. The energy starts from scratch in the new host, so it may take several years to show any severe symptoms. Thus, the ailments appears to the public as hereditary, when it is actually a "gift" being passed around the family.
There is a reason the Callians reside in the Mystic Forest. First, it provides excellent privacy to conduct their magic. Because demons are hellish creatures can be the byproduct of their art, they are weary to allow outsiders know the process. Therefore, they also ensure that all visitors leave unaware of the events that transpired. They allow some creatures to wander in order to keep most people away. Second, the minerals found in in the Mysterious Pond are vital ingredients for creating the vapors necessary for the extraction.

Type

Hut