The small village of plains people, L'lyra in the Savannah, has been
struck by a terrible plague. After first infecting the livestock, it
spread to the villagers, leaving half of the village bedridden and
caught in a fitful and feverish sleep. Elegnem, the shaman of the tribe,
begins to seek answers through her rituals, but to no avail. After the
Chieftain of the tribe fell ill to the mysterious ailment, Elegnem asked
the hunters Etarni and Innej to seek help from an outside village.

Etarni and Innej journeyed to Caanae, calling for help and proclaiming
that their village was in peril. A Wytchen, Silvestrek, and a Noctusari,
Nilaihah, offered their services to them, and went with them back to
L'lyra. They were greeted with a ghastly sight: diseased cows lay dead
in their pens, the living ones not far off from joining them. Three
children of the village and one adult man were piled onto beds of furs
in the hut nearest the Chieftain's. In the air hung a disturbing
thickness, as if the plague itself floated among their noses. After
learning of the nature of the disease, Silvestrek convinces the Clerics
Selthis and Cordia, and the Wardancer Brydian, to assist the village as
well.

The Clerics set up their Rites of Healing within the hut of the sickly
villagers, while a few other Noctusari join Nilaihah to investigate the
corpses of the cows. Cordia's rites do not aid the sick, being too
strong for her to combat. She and Selthis question Elegnem at length on
the nature of the disease, learning as much as they can in order to
determine its cause. At this point, the Wytchen offer refuge to Elegnem
and the rest of the healthy villagers, with the Clerics arguing that
spreading the plague further would be disastrous.

Brigid, an Arboreal, suggests seeking the advice of Ikarios, a
knowledgeable herbalist within the Elmwood. Grimlac and Brigid leave for
the Lalwan Eryn, with Selthis coming along to translate the Sylayan
language. The advice of the scholary Ikarios is sound, and after
listening to the details of the illness, says he may have a cure. They
hypothesize that the disease is blood-borne, originating in the swamps
near the village where the cows may have roamed to water. After being
bitten by the insects which breed within such marshes, they would have
been consumed for meat by some of the villagers, and infected them.
Ravven and Brigid set out to find the herbs Ikarios requests: Aryana's
Balm, a restorer of balance to the mind and a fever reducer, and the
blood rose, a purger of blood diseases.

Ikarios is able to successfully create the potion from the ingredients,
and they return to L'lyra with the antidote. He sends with them the
warning that it may not save those already sick, but will burn the
disease as a preventive measure to the others. Upon their return, they
learn from Elegnem that the sick children did not survive the night, and
the fourth villager is fading fast. Selthis is quick to to provide the
chieftain Utata with a few drops of the elixir, and they pray for it to
save him. Unfortunately, it is too late for him, and the once-powerful
warrior chief passes away, much to the great distress of his bedmate,
Shunaan.

With the elixir, they are able to save the few villagers that were not
quite sick enough, and they move them to the Great Rock within the
Savannah, a temporary location until they can rebuild their village
elsewhere. Etarni, hunter of the L'lyra steps up as the new Chief of the
people, already making plans to make his village strong again. Together,
they burn the village huts, providing a proper burial for the deceased,
with prayers given to them by both Cleric and Shaman.

With the village burned, and the surviving L'lyrans homeless for now,
much confusion still exists about the plague. Where did it come from,
and will it spread through the contaminated air?

Penned by my hand on the 9th of Halitus, in the year 426 AD.