Epidemic

[Chagrin]

I'm looking for a disease, curse, poison that would have very subtle signs initially before a vicious end in a weeks time. It will be placed on the kind of treasure you'd find in a dragons hoard.

The idea is for the party to act as carriers looting the wealth and spreading it around, once the big bad has made sure they won't be affected of course.

This raises a few issues.

1) What should I use as the source of this blight? A disease, curse, poison, spell, etc?

2) How do I get the party in a position to be immune to the source unwittingly?

[Elvenoutrider]

IN the I am legend book the human population is turned into vampires by a virus. Robetr Nevile is the only one immune because he was bitten by a vampire bat while doing research in south america. He received a weakened form of the virus. Perhaps there is some monster your characters can fight in order to unwittingly gain the immunity to your plague?

It makes sense from a fantasy disease perspective

[Aroka]

Developing from Elvenoutrider's idea: the PCs get exposed to the curse, spell, disease, or toxin in a weakened form. Perhaps they get the disease before it has mutated, perhaps they get exposed to only part of the magical source or in circumstances where the effect is lessened, perhaps they are bitten by immature specimens of the creature that spreads it... they are affected for a while, get better, and have immunity. Then the epidemic hits the general population. Depending on how fast the PCs are able to act and how clever they are, and how complex it would be, they might be able to inoculate parts of unexposed populations before they are struck by the full version.

If it's a curse, though, it can just be made to not affect the "originators", only those they come into contact with. If the curse is "may all you come in contact with sicken and die", that pretty well excludes the actual recipient of the curse from it. (Of course, that sort of magical power is pretty immense in scope, but curses - dying curses most especially - tend to get some leeway, especially if they can be somehow lifted.)

[Vantharion]

I normally just lurk this forum without actually ever getting around to making an account and posting. This is my first post because I was so inspired by your question.
Traditionally a bacterium develops through the most successful means of distribution. Say you had small objects that were handed out around a kingdom and exchanged between people on a regular basis. Say that a bacterium started evolving to hook onto the specific type of object while being a contact infection...
Hello a gold/silver/platinum loving bacteria.
As for the player's vaccine: Dragon's Breath. The dragon is not particularly weak to the infection that traditionally manipulates humans, yet it is susceptible. During combat with the players you can have them 'gain the vaccine' from drinking trophy blood, getting dragon-breathed or even just the dragon breathing into the cavern air gives weak strands of the bacteria that trains the body.
I would say have the disease start week and then ramp up. (Assuming everyone has lousy health and fail the fort saves.
After 1 week roll 1d3, victim loses 1 dex, 1 str, 1 con (If they get a 1, they lose a dex. A 2 loses 1 dex and 1 str, etc)
After 2 weeks, roll another d3. Same thing.
After 3 weeks, roll a d6. 1: 1 Dex. 2: 1Dex/Str. 3: 1Dex/Str/Con. 4: 2Dex/1Str/1Con...Etc
After 4 weeks from infection roll 3d6. They'll have taken: 6 Dex damage minimum.
Countrywide symptoms would include clumsiness, light exhaustion, weakness in some, extreme sickness and death in others.
The true beauty of this I would say that as people get sicker, they would pay their 'infected' money for cures, the disease then spreads. If they store uninfected monies with infected monies, the new money gets infected.
As for a cure... well that you could go with 'Everyone needs to burn their money, purify it with holy water' or something that fits your campaign
You can of course change the growth period of the disease, throw fort saves where appropriate.
I think money is a great way to infect people.
-Vantharion

[Bushidough]

If you're looking for a real world disease, Ebola sounds ideal.

Extremely vicious, a fatality rate up to 90% in the worst outbreaks. Death by extreme blood loss/organ failure See wikipedia.

Even more sinister, it's not all that contagious in the early stages making if very difficult to determine the source. It could take the players some time to realise it's them.

[subject42]

If you want to make them immune, have the hoard be guarded by some sort of monster that they need to kill. Make the blood/phlegm/venom/etc of the monster act as a vaccine against the affliction. That way they're inoculated against the negative effects as part of the fight.

[Darkxarth]

If you want to make them immune, have the hoard be guarded by some sort of monster that they need to kill. Make the blood/phlegm/venom/etc of the monster act as a vaccine against the affliction. That way they're inoculated against the negative effects as part of the fight.

This seems like a good idea, because once they figure it out, the quest becomes "Find Another Phlegminotaur and create a vaccine/cure to spread to the people." Lots of excitement there, especially if there is a stipulation that the specimen needs to be living in order to harvest the vaccinating agent, or a sample must be harvested while the creature lives.

[Jarawara]

This seems like a good idea, because once they figure it out, the quest becomes "Find Another Phlegminotaur and create a vaccine/cure to spread to the people." Lots of excitement there, especially if there is a stipulation that the specimen needs to be living in order to harvest the vaccinating agent, or a sample must be harvested while the creature lives.

The party goes in to see the high preist of the town, the only cleric within hundreds of miles capable of casting Ressurection.

"Let me get this straight. You went on a quest at the behest of our King (now dead of the plague), to destroy the Phlegminotaur, the evil beast that has been threatening our people for years -- and as you now say was also responsible for the plague that has inflicted our town and killed our king...

...and now you want me to cast Ressurection on it?"


What a great idea for a quest!

[Vantharion]

This entire thread would make more or less a GREAT game.
The Phleminotaur, an ancient beast that has survived for long periods. Phleminotaur has giant stockpiles of gold throughout the continent. The Phleminotaur occasionally raids the kings treasuries and kills a couple people making off with thousands of gold. Sometimes the beast even destroys entire villages claiming all the gold.
Players go after the beast, get FLEM'D
Players kill the beast.
They get tons of gold, give some of it back, spend some of it.
Gold spreads a dangerous virus. First casualty is the leader.
Players then need to convince a high level cleric to cast Resurrection (possibly with some additional reagent costs perhaps) on the beast that has plagued and raided civilization for hundreds of years.
Players get the stuff/convince the cleric to cast Resurrection...
Maybe give some force: distant emperor, king's oldest son who is now king (And a terrible one at that), or even a stereotypical evil badguy doesn't want the players to cast.
Another option would be straight mob mentality saying they shouldn't resurrect the beast.
The Phleminotaur is actually a protector, stopping a dangerous bacteria from causing a catastrophic outbreak. Whenever the bacteria would get onto foreign (overworld) gold coins, the Phleminotaur would go gather up the coins with force if necessary.


Moral of the story: Greed is Bad, Different does not mean Evil

[mcl01]

What if the PCs themselves were unwittingly the source of the plague?

I like the idea of an ancient relic sealed away at the bottom of some dungeon. An artifact of some forgotten or dead deity that can't be destroyed by normal means. Perhaps a cursed talisman or amulet that spreads a magical blight upon the land wherever it goes. Perhaps the amulet gives the PCs some enormous bonus by sucking vitality from the land itself, to ensure the PCs keep it. An identify spell only reveals the bonuses.

As the PCs move about, they unwittingly spread the blight. The amulet speeds up death and decay in the area as it drains life from its surroundings. As a consequence, bacteria and vermin thrive, causing bacterial disease of epidemic proportions.

[Abies]

I'm reminded of an episode of Star Trek where Data unwittingly distributes radioactive metal among the population of less-advanced civilization.

The treasure could be slightly radioactive and require several days or weeks to effect anyone carrying it.

For being immune, the aforementioned guardian immunity bestowed on the vanquishers will do. Just make sure the players are told this particular creature is terribly delicious and eating it confers "great power" on those who consume it.