Blackscour taint

Blackscour taint is a fungal disease contracted by ingesting any part of a blackscour mushroom, or by drinking water that these mushrooms were growing in.

Effects

This disease is not deadly to a healthy adult, but when combined with the fact that the taint hits towns without very many resources, many of the elderly and children who contract the taint die before the disease runs its course.

After ingesting tainted food or drink, an infected person would seem normal for anywhere for 1 to 3 days. After this time, they develop a hacking cough that quickly turns bloody if the disease is left untreated. The taint starts eating away in the victim's chest and belly; the cough is the body attempting to get rid of the tainted flesh. This, combined with the taint itself, rips apart the person's internal organs.

Remedy

There is a remedy for the taint, but it requires many ingredients. Some are common in shops of herbs and remedies, while others are very difficult to find. Those hard-to-find ingredients are:

• Elderwood moss, which only grows on the oldest tree in a forest
• Rat's Tail, a pickled root
• seven ironbloom mushrooms

Known outbreaks

In 4707 AR, Brookman's Well, a spring just outside Falcon's Hollow, became tainted. At least 30 of the townspeople became ill, and at least a few people died, including one of the village elders.