Tether administration has made an attempt to keep it all under wraps... However things are at the point now where it simply cannot be hidden from the public. Guildereim is alive with a bombastic boom of biodiversity! The flora and fauna of our beloved island are suddenly out of control - spreading at an impossible pace and appearing in new types and variations previously unknown to all records! Not simply beautiful and fascinating, however, the jungle has become increasingly threatening - and the Tether has become host to more and more plants and creatures despite fervent cleaning efforts. One can only wonder: is this simply a strange natural event - or is something more insidious creeping out from the jungles as well?
Increasingly concerned with the sudden proliferation of plant and animal life on the island (and rumored disappearances), The Tether has contacted famed explorer Basil Withering. Outfitted with supplies and a small team, Basil set on an expedition into the jungles of Guildereim some days ago. He was not seen again, nor were any members of his expedition but one: a young lad who stumbled out of the wilderness clutching the tattered remains of the journal. Hours later, the boy broke free of the infirmary and has vanished - but the journal remains.
Morning, Day One,
Spoiler! "Everywhere we look, flora abounds. In the very air are spores of every sort, sometimes enough of them to remind one of a thick green fog. Vines hang everywhere, some sprouting flowers and some wielding thorns. They tangle around your ankles and you can even find them wrapped around your arms or neck if you aren't careful! The ground is an endless carpet of such vines, roots, and other growths - always crunching and uneven with nuts, sprouts, fruit, fallen leaves, and even the carcasses of small animals who presumably found themselves trapped and suffocated or starved. In places, we found ourselves knee-deep in all this, and members of the expedition repeatedly called out that they felt their feet tugged at or trapped. This is just the nervous chattering of those without experience in a true jungle, I'm sure.
While Guildereim was never short on trees, the density seems to have somehow intensified. It must be some trick, for nowhere on the planet can a tree of any size grow so quickly - but comparisons to recent maps show me that the geography of virtually the entire area has changed. Between the wall of trunks, the hanging vines, the clouds of spores, and the thick canopy above, one finds themselves in a perpetual twilight at best - I've brought our group in closer and slowed us down to ensure no one gets lost.
A constant 'snow' falls from the canopy above, a greenish dust that stings the eyes and irritates the nose. Occasionally we will hear some great commotion in that ceiling of leaves and branches, at which point great amounts of this dust will fall in a way that lets on track the motion of what I imagine are birds or perhaps mammals above. When I tasked one of the team -a spry little feline creature- to climb up and see above the canopy, she reported to me that there was a dim open space that ended at yet another, secondary canopy even further up. Within this 'between' space, so she says, was a network of tangled branches and vines that appeared occupied by massive armored insects, bloated large lizards, and what appeared to be oozing blobs of fungal growth. Extraordinary! I suspect that perhaps there may be multiple such layers, each hosting a miniature ecosystem all its own!"
Afternoon, Day One,
Spoiler! "We have only traveled, by my guess, for perhaps a couple hours at this point. In this dense forest, tracking the passage of time becomes impossible. My team already chatter among themselves about setting up camp for the night. I knew I should have demanded to bring my own people, not these layabout locals! Still, I realize that the dense growth will take some time to clear and I would prefer tackling the morning with everyone refreshed and fed.
As we seek to clear a space suitable for camping, we find that there are layers of undergrowth beneath our feet! Indeed, it is likely we have not trod upon actual dirt and rock ground for some time! The carpet of fallen leaves and debris from above gives way to vines and stalks and roots, which give way to a thick layer of fungus and mold. It is beneath all that that we find the ground - though even that seems riddled with sprouting growths. The carpet of plant material is so dense that many flowers and other such things have taken root in it, as opposed to the soil. Amid all these tangles are many pools of water, some small and some nearly the size of a pond. Most are visible as you pass, but some smaller ones find themselves covered - leading to my team occasionally splashing into one and sending out a great eruption of animals and insects skittering in every direction. Foolishly, one girl drank from one of these pools and has already begun to take ill. I can only imagine what was in that stagnant water.
Still, we will have our camp set by nightfall. As dusk approaches, we hear an absolute symphony of sounds in the jungle. The low places rustle with small creatures, the distance between trees echoes with howls and screeches and hisses, and above is a nonstop song of birds and insects and whatever else has taken to those levels of canopy. It unnerves the team, but lulls me to sleep. One of the guardsmen with us says he hears voices out there, but it is no doubt just some creature's call."
Night One,
Spoiler! "I was roused by a shrill cry from the tent beside me. Someone was bitten by a many-legged segmented insect of some sort. I have the dead specimen before me now, and I suspect it a millipede of some sort - though of unusually bright coloring and of gargantuan size for such things. Between the 'plates' of its exoskeleton I find small stalks of some sort of plant growth - this will need to be studied in a proper laboratory. The bite victim is feverish already, his foot swollen to uselessness and looking to be in poor color.
Outside the camp is an eerie sight that has kept most of my team from sleeping: eyes. So many eyes. Deep in a jungle, you often see the reflective flash of some cat or creature strolling by - but here there are dozens -no, hundreds- of such eyes reflecting our firelight. A stone lobbed at any area clears out these eyes only briefly and earns a great many hisses and squelches and other displeased sounds. Further, we find that the plant growth has already taken back perhaps twenty percent of the space we'd cleared - in only a matter of hours! It's simply not possible!
As the night progresses, jungle creatures are getting more bold. Great spiders ease down on thread from high above, serpents work their way beneath our tents, and mammals of various sort prowl close. What's more, the light of our fire does little to illuminate the vast darkness of the jungle at night. While murky and dim during the day, this wilderness is like some deep ocean at night. Still, like those deep oceans which I am told harbor life that glows and illuminates, this forest also shows pinpricks of lumenescene. Above us and in the distance I see little flashes of blue and yellow light - often but a pinprick, sometimes larger. These pinpricks are many times not alone, but part of a constellation that suggests there are rather large bio-luminescent things out there.
The team is nearly all injured or sick, now. The food is already spoiling and finding water is becoming a problem. We cannot even step aside to relieve ourselves without having lookouts. This expedition was meant to last a week, I cannot be certain we will reach tomorrow night without turning back."
Morning, Day Two,
Spoiler! "The girl who drank from that puddle looks...very bad. I am not a doctor of medicine, but I need no formal training to know one should not have fungal stalks sprouting from fresh ruptures in their skin! She babbles ceaselessly and has even tried to run off twice now! We haven't the means to handle this. The man bitten last night remains feverish and now his leg up to the knee is, frankly, hideously discolored and swollen - the fur falling out in tufts. Virtually everyone else has reported bites, stings, or other minor injuries that all seem to be adding up. For my own part, I feel fine. This team is paid well, after all, and signed a contract to get me to the center of this jungle! They'll do their job, dammit! We push on.
The campsite was all but overrun by the time we packed up. The injured are being carried, which slows us down tremendously - but I ignore calls to turn back. We'll have no other opportunity. I suspect that by noon, all evidence of our camp will be gone as the patch is swallowed back up.
It is drizzling on us a bit. I can't say if this matches the actual weather outside the jungle - for it is so thick it may block out a downpour entirely, or it may be generating entirely insular weather patterns thanks to the dense humidity within. The droplets of water are refreshing, and we've all been greedily trying to catch it in our hands to get a bit of what seems to be clean water.
There is no path to be found anymore, so we have to fight for all progress - slowing our group further. Were the team more loyal, I'd instruct them to leave the sick behind. There's no saving them anyway, that much is clear."
Afternoon, Day Two,
Spoiler! "The sick girl finally ran off in a moment of distraction when we watched a pack of rather large lizards bringing down a massive ape. The battle took place on the ground and in the trees, the lizards having some capacity to glide and using this to land on the ape, latch on, and bite before gliding away. I suspect poison in their bites, for soon(after crushing several of his pursuers), the ape collapsed. The lizards set upon it, then came all manner of other creature - beetles swarming in, birds and other avians falling from above, large feline hunters pouncing at the other scavengers. It was madness, and we had to withdraw.
Another has left us, too. This one a guard who had displayed thus far only what I would categorize as 'flu like' symptoms. He simply walked away - ignoring our calls as he went. We are now few and injured and, I suspect, not equipped to continue as a group. They whine, they wince, they cough, they complain. They will not see me to the jungle center, so I may have to carry on alone. When we make camp, I will let them fall asleep, then I will go. I don't need the light, I hear others in the distance. Another expedition? A village? They'll know the way."
As animals are dissected and more denizens of the Tether fall ill, the administration has learned that perhaps the most insidious thing about this strange happening is, as is often the case, something tiny and easily missed. There are countless plant and fungi spreading over nearly every inch of Guildereim, and many of these release various spores. In some places, the air is so thick with this cocktail of airborne spores that it is akin to a green fog - but it's a fair assumption that the spores have managed to spread everywhere, even inside the Tether itself.
Who is to say what inhaling these spores might do? For many, they seem to be essentially harmless. Still, there are regular sightings of Guildereim wildlife stumbling about as if in a zombified stupor, half-coated by strange fungal growths and stalks. There are even unconfirmed reports of a Tether patron or two beginning to act strangely before wandering off into the wilderness, their body and possibly their mind usurped by some strange fungal infestation.
Because there is no one single type of plant or fungus creating these spores, there is no way to nail down just what an individual has come in contact with. Immunity on one day does not guarantee immunity the next - but likewise, someone showing signs of being affected is far from guaranteed to become a shambling abomination. The effects vary from one creature to the next and the species of that creature appears to have little bearing on the matter. There appears as yet to be no correlation between the level of exposure and the level of infection: someone could become grievously compromised by one breath of spores while someone else may safely breathe clouds of them for days without issue.
After several medical examinations and dissections, the following research is hereby made public as part of a caution to all patrons of the Golden Tether.
Preliminary research suggests that while non-sentient life is also affected in unpredictable ways, most sentient life affected by the spores falls into one of five categories:
Level One: No effect.
While this is no guarantee of immunity, it does seem that a portion of the population is relatively 'safe'. To date, there appears no way to duplicate this effect in others who have proven more susceptible.
Level Two: Minor Illness.
While the specifics vary wildly, this is most akin to a persistent and rather difficult to treat 'cold'. Headaches, sneezing, running nose and eyes, and similar symptoms rise but do not appear to intensify. This illness does not appear contagious in and of itself, and is perhaps more related to an allergic reaction.
Level Three: Moderate Illness.
Again, the symptoms vary - but at this stage, the victim is noticeably diminished in physical and possibly mental ability. The symptoms can be flu-like or worse, with some victims managing to remain somewhat functional while others find themselves bedridden. The ailment can include confusion, aching joints, vertigo, nausea, running nose and eyes, coughing, headaches, fatigue, sores, impairment of the senses, a lack of appetite, weakness, and a variety of other symptoms - all of varying levels of intensity. As in Level Two, this does not appear directly contagious and does not respond to traditional or even magical treatment - though symptoms can be lessened in intensity in some cases.
Level Four: Victim is Compromised.
At this point, there is not much sign of traditional illness. Instead, the victim displays far more worrisome symptoms. Physically, there are visible growths on them - in some cases as simple as fungus seeming to spread out over their flesh or scales, while in other cases taking the form of stalks, vines, and other protrusions jutting out of their orifices and even out of flesh and open wounds. Excising these growths appears to put the victim under the same duress as having a limb or digit cut away, and the depth of changes to their physiology varies wildly from case to case. While in some cases this can result in the loss of senses or even some level of immobilization, other victims appear to actually gain levels of sensory perception or a level of tactile control over the vines and stalks sprouting from them.
Still more worrisome than the physical side of Level Four is the mental side. Victims begin to act in unusual ways. Sometimes they appear erratic, sometimes forgetful, sometimes confused. Several have shown a predisposition to wander - always seeking the wilderness and even going into trances where they appear to lose most conscious control. More troubling, some of these victims have attempted to not only escape into the wild - but have tried to cajole, bribe, threaten, or otherwise convince other people into going with them.
Level Five: Infested.
There is little data regarding a victim considered Infested. The sole studied case developed through the preceding stages rapidly, becoming increasingly erratic until they were restrained. Upon checking in on them one morning, the victim was found to be grotesque in appearance - fungal growth of every sort sprouting from eyes, mouth, and bursting out of flesh throughout their body. Thorns and stalks protruded from them here and there - and appeared under the victim's conscious control. When approached, the victim unleashed a cloud of noxious spores that rendered most of us ill, then broke free of their bonds and fled. It does not appear the victim was reduced to mindlessness, but instead acted and moved with some level of twisted sentience. The extent of the victim's transformation, abilities, and mental faculties cannot be known - nor can it be guaranteed that there are not other even more horrid permutations of this infestation that we have failed to see.
(Feel free to have your character fall prey to the Infestation at whichever level you choose! Have fun with it! If you have questions, feel free to send them toward the staff!)
