Deep-Steam Therapy

"Just relax, breath in, and out, and in, and out, and if you feel like you have you cough up anything, do it!" - Alma, Local Hornfell Herbalist.

Deep-Steam Therapy is new medical procedure to attempt to combat the symptoms and ease healing of Dragon Lung.

Utility

The deep steam has the afflicted strip completely nude and go into a nearly airtight leather tent with a pile of heated rocks thrown into a pot of spring water filled with white eye oak leaves. There the rocks quickly boil the water and create steam, filling the tent and the lungs of the afflicted.
Alma is almost always in the tent with them and monitors their condition, offering them herbs depending on what they are feeling. After about 10 minutes she has the patient lay on their stomach on a wooden bench while she slaps their back and legs with a White Eye Oak branch, still with leaves on it. She does this for about a minute or two, and then waits and has them breath very deeply. While this happens patients may feel an uncomfortable itching in their lungs, but Alma always encourages them to cough up anything they feel irritating their lungs. After about ten minutes she has them lean back up and take in the steam once again. This process repeats for about three to four times before the steam finally begins to fade. Nearly every time the patient reports feeling at least slightly better. She will send them on their way, and have them come back in a week or so.

Access & Availability

Most afflicted with Dragon Lung seek out Alma for aid. She doesn't charge for her services but asks each person she treats if she can try something new along with her normal treatments, which most agree to.

Complexity

The herbs involved are mostly found locally within a day around Hornfell. Alma discovered more than half of these plants herself.

• Ground up dry Black Stick Moss (temperature increaser and synesis clearer)
• Burton Root (clears up synesis system)
• Hill Mint (eases coughing)
• Fresh Pigtail Sprout (reduces fever)
• Whisper Grass (for energy)
• White Eye Oak branches (for slapping against the back and opening pores)

Most of these herbs taken too often will make the patient sicker than they already were. Only the fresh pigtail sprout and/or dried black stick moss are given daily if needed. The rest are given during a deep steam.

Discovery

Alma was an old woman who lost her husband to Dragon Lung after he was afflicted with it time after time. Instead of mourning him and preparing for death herself, she spent time trying to discover what caused it. While she didn't uncover what had made the miners of Hornfell sick, she didn't finish her quest, and instead sought ways to treat it. 
While it still relies on trial and error tests when it comes to herbs and their effect on the body, she did make a few positive discoveries that help in controlling symptoms or speeding up healing the condition.