shellphones | [open] 🔥 a research project of sorts

Type: Text
Sender ID: phoenixdominant (Joshua Rosfield)
To: Open
Subject: Research into medical conditions, sicknesses and diseases.
Warnings: Tba.

Hello, I am Joshua Rosfield. I fly under the corsair's banner with The Hideaway.

Of late, I have set myself to the task of compiling a reference, a compendium, if you will, of the many maladies, curses, afflictions, and fevers known to manifest upon this star. My concern lies not with ailments familiar to our home worlds, but rather with those that are native to this star alone. Born of its soil, sky, and magics.

This work will encompass all that is known. Recorded symptoms, confirmed cases, and such cures or countermeasures devised by learned minds or discovered through hard-won experience.

Here are a few of those examples that I've gathered:

The Drowning Sickness:

📌 A rare and insidious illness, marked first by the appearance of a deep black bruise upon the skin. Often on the hands, at the base of the neck, spine, or over the heart. The bruise is tender to the touch and slowly grows in size and intensity, becoming inflamed as the affliction progresses.

While waking symptoms are troubling, it is during sleep that the sickness reveals its true nature. Those afflicted are haunted by vivid, suffocating dreams. Visions of drowning in dark, endless seas. With each sleep, the dreams deepen. Patients note the sensation of lungs filling with water, of being pulled under by unseen hands, or of sinking into deep, endless water.

Upon waking, the sufferer experiences acute breathlessness, as though having truly emerged from drowning. Over time, rousing from sleep becomes increasingly difficult, and some fall into a slumber from which they never wake. Death comes quietly, the body showing signs of asphyxiation. Lungs filled not with water, but with nothing at all.

If untreated, it is always fatal. The interval from first bruise to death varies. Between three to nine nights, depending on the patient's strength and resistance.

📌 Treatment: While no universal cure is known, skilled healers have reported partial success through use of aetheric purgatives combined with dreambinding incantations. Removal or destruction of the bruise by mundane means (burning, lancing) has no effect and may hasten decline. Smelling salts or ingesting powerful angelic jellyfish have shown some success in staving off deeper stages of the dreams, though their effect is temporary, offering only reprieve rather than remedy. What appears to be definitive is surviving the drowning dream, itself.

The Crystal Affliction:

📌 A rare condition said to be contracted by those who venture too deep into the forgotten caverns and shadowed mountains of remote, uncharted isles. Victims first notice sharp, painful growths erupting upon the skin. Jagged shards of crystal or glass-like rock, as though the land itself seeks to reclaim their flesh.

Left untreated, the affliction progresses. The crystalline formations spread, encumbering movement, disrupting vital functions, and slowly petrifying the body from within. In time, the victim is left encased in a gleaming, translucent prison. A statue of living crystal, robbed of will and warmth.

Those in the later stages suffer from extreme lethargy, dulled senses, and an emotional emptiness that renders them pliable, easily manipulated and easily controlled.

📌 Treatment: Healers across all the Leviathans have developed a method to remove the crystalline growths through careful surgery, thanks to a local riftfarer’s extensive knowledge of crystal. The procedure is long and taxing, requiring potent sedatives or enchantments to ease the pain. Even so, few emerge unscarred and this procedure has yet to be mastered.

The Thornbind Curse:

📌 A highly contagious, creeping ailment marked by vine-like growths that first appear upon the hand. Over time, these thorned tendrils thicken and climb the body, binding tighter with each passing day. The afflicted are left with painful welts, bruises, and skin pierced by sharp thorns.

Evidently, the vines seem to grow faster in those weighed down by deep, unmet desires, as if the affliction feeds upon longing that is left to fester.

📌 Treatment: A medicinal cure was created that can be taken topically to cure the affliction completely. Trials have proved extremely successful. A full entry on the cure can be found here.

While there remains much yet to study regarding the myriad of ailments afflicting this realm, I pen these entries in hopes they may one day form the foundation of a true medical compendium, for the benefit of others.

On that note, my current inquiries lie with the nature of petrification in all its varied and vexing forms. I seek not only to understand its onset, but to uncover means by which to slow its advance, or better yet, reverse it. Should you possess notes, I would be most grateful for your shared insight.

And, as I am aware, this is hardly the most uplifting or interesting fare for one's morning coffee ... do share instead tales of your most recent voyages across the seas? I love a tale.

[And that concludes this giant nerd post.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That would be incredibly helpful, Gale. You have my thanks. I'll only have to get my hands on a basilisk, first. Should be simple enough, yes?

[Well...]

Dispel Magic. I wouldn't be opposed to studying its effects firsthand, as well. You say you know how to cast it?

For a given definition of 'simple,' yes! Of course, our crew does have a large number of storied adventurers among it; I imagine you'll have little trouble, assuming they exist here.

[That is something of an assumption, but much of this world's fauna correlates to things he's quite familiar with, and there are new creatures popping up all the time.]

Of course— and I would be only too happy to do so. I will preface our efforts by saying that some of my magic doesn't work quite the same way here as it does in Faerun, being separated from the Weave as I am, but the spell is straightforward in itself, and we'll not know unless we try.

Perhaps you could tell me a bit more about the situation, if it is not prying too much to ask?

[If there isn't a basilisk there is bound to be something similar to it in this world. He's sure of it. And now he has another project on his list to look into.]

I imagine your magicks may not behave quite the same upon this star as they do your own... Still, I've no objection to giving it a try if you are willing.

As for the petrification. It's something of a personal concern. To speak plainly, I, and a small number of others we know, are afflicted by a type of slow petrification for which no cure has yet been found.

[He understands that Gale's efforts might not work. But he has no reason to keep the information a secret either. That's why he will try anything.]

It stems from the flow of aether within our bodies. The more we draw upon it, the swifter the petrification takes hold.

[It's enough information to put him in mind of similar maladies in Faerun, at least, which gives him hope that a solution may be found, even if his own magic is not what aids them in the long run.]

I have heard of curses with similar effects. Was this something that was done to you at the hands of another, or something native? If it is a natural occurrence, I am certain a skilled enough healer will be able to be of aid, but in the meantime, I am more than willing to try my hand at it. Even if my efforts are unsuccessful, we will learn yet more about the condition; such is the nature of any experiment.

[He is very grateful for Gale's concerns and his offer to try to see his if own magic and expertise might work. It's a long shot. But at this rate, Joshua is willing to try anything.]

I fear this affliction has been mine since birth. The power of the Phoenix dwells within me as my Eikon. And with every pulse of aether I summon, my bones slowly turn to stone... such is the price of its flame.

[And it also happens to the other Dominants...]

Therefore, I've come to understand that it has something to do with the root of the aether in my body. But the more that I can learn, the better.

[And no, "just stop using phoenix" is not an option!!]

Such power often comes at great cost, I am afraid. I am sorry to hear you have been plagued by this so long, through no fault of your own.

[Parts of it are quite familiar to him, in fact— though his own struggle was his own doing, and he cannot claim otherwise at this point.]

Does it progress only when you call upon your power actively? I realize that not doing so is hardly an option; if it were so simple, you would have come to that conclusion long ago, I expect.

I've held this power for as long as memory serves; relinquishing it is not an option. I was given the gift to heal ... and so I shall continue to use it.

Because of this connection, I can slow the progression of the petrification to a significant degree. Yet therein lies the paradox, yes. It is through the very use of aether that the symptoms advance. At times, even heightened emotion is enough to accelerate the affliction.

My hope, my goal, is to find a method by which the petrification can be halted entirely, without forsaking my ability to channel aether. If such a balance exists...

That is quite a gift, indeed. I imagine there are many who would not be so keen to continue using it at such cost to themselves. That you persevere says a great deal about your character.

[He's far more selfless than Gale had ever been, that's for certain.]

Aside from the efforts we have already discussed and intend to try, if there is aught else I might do to assist in the future, I should very much like to. I know a bit about such conditions, those that cause one to deteriorate over time. I am researching one such malady in my own time, and how it might be slowed. Should I come across anything that might be useful to you in my efforts, I will be certain to send it your way.

I'd hope so. My brother would call it sheer stubborn determination.

[Which it is...]

My thanks again, Gale. I'll do what I can to acquire some samples of this Basilisk Oil that you mentioned. Once I do I would appreciate any testing you could help with.

In the meantime, I would be happy to help you with anything you might need as well. You are researching something yourself, you say?

[open] 🔥 a research project of sorts

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