Webfever

Transmission & Vectors

The cause is unknown, but the rustic inhabitants of Hoary Step blame it on evil spirits darting about Magic Field. However the contagion seems to mostly affect the geriatric, of which there are very few living on either plateau. The Zhomadite scientists who dwell in a single tent at the very edge of Hoary Step suspect that it is obviously caused by the interdimensional distortions of Magic Field, although not a single noumenon has been identified. Perhaps they are demons, or the closest psychic equivalent to them as Zhomadite super-science can explain - or maybe it is the dream-spoor of some beast which slumbers in one of the awry dimensions which bears a connexion between the vast gulf of transdimensional space and the chilly plateau where the ailment originates.

Symptoms

Analytical thinking and logical functions decrease, and the brain begins to allocate less energy to its left side. Slop that smells like lychee with the consistency and texture of jam begins to ooze out of the ears sometimes. Thought patterns become symbolistic, everything seems as if it exists independently from what is around it. Usually the infected tend to focus an abnormal amount of mental stress on observing something and forming bizarre synasthesic connexions between things, irrational associations through which other truths are learned. Normal cohesion is somehow perceived through a web of dream-logic and what seems to be sheer nonsense.

Treatment

People caught with these disease are usually placed in an infirmary at the end of Hoary Step facing away from Magic Field and have ice placed on their heads and are isolated from the outdoors or anything of that matter. However, a nauseating medicinal tonic made from fermented snail slime, quicklime and charcoal, thoroughly mixed with a specific species of berry tends to stave off its effects for a while, but these are not permanent.

Type

Magical