The World Breaker Plague

The World Breaker Plague

The Plague Spreads

Origin	The Dragon Goddess Tiamat
Victims	Humanoids with Magical Potential

The World Breaker Plague was a devastating magical sickness that spread across Quelmar, infecting anyone who had the potential for magic. Victims were twisted into monstrous abominations that could only be destroyed by fire, forcing entire communities to burn their own to survive. It was crafted by the evil draconic Goddess Tiamat and released into the world during the War of Many Names.

Description

Designed by Tiamat, the World Breaker Plague was crafted to infect and transfigure magic users, who comprised most of the strongest warriors opposing Tiamat and her dragons. What begins as fevers and violent tremors soon escalated into gruesome mutations, with skin splitting, limbs twisting, and voices dissolving into guttural shrieks as the afflicted transform into ravenous abominations. These monsters secrete a sickly black ichor, and if you are to come into contact with it and have the potential for magic, you risk infection.

Save for a unique few infected, most monsters created by the World Breaker plague are utterly mindless and have only two goals, to destroy whatever is in their path and to infect more people. They possess the ability to sense magic around them, allowing them to easily snuff out any magical people nearby for them to infect. In addition, the endless mutating of the infected allow them to recover from almost any injury, with fire being the only way to prevent World Breaker infected from regenerating.

The longer an infected lives, the stronger it becomes as it body continues to mutate and even possibly fuse with other World Breaker monsters, transforming them into large freakish abominations with many heads, arms, claws, and legs.

The disease is only able to infect humanoids, so creatures like dragons are immune to the disease and wont be targeted by World Breaker infected.

A Recently Infected Paladin

History and Origins

The World Breaker, more commonly known as the Tarrasque, is a monster prophesized to one day end the world. Since returning to the realm, the Dragon Goddess Tiamat has been hard at work in her mountain lair of Kiston attempting to bring this monster into existence through horrific experiments. After many failed attempts, Tiamat came upon a revelation, what if the World Breaker show in the prophecies wasn't a singular monster, but rather a representation of something else; a disease, one that would spread across the realm and destroy everything in its path.

Tiamat Releases the Plague

In her labs she concocted the World Breaker Plague, releasing it out into the world in 800 PR at the height of the Realm War II, when the entire world was at war with itself. The plague was able to find purchase in many of the more chaotic regions of the realm, where local governments and cities were unable to institute proper quarantines and exterminations. The plagues spread was especially successful in Osugbo, where the raging warfare of the Spear Front allowed the disease to infect and spread without end.

The city of Dolmvay, to combat the plague began the Scorching, an operation where Dolmvay militaries burned any region where infected were even rumored to tread.

The False LaCroix Cure

As the World Breaker Plague spread across Osugbo, it did not go unnoticed by the city of LaCoix, a mysterious city in Osugbo with one great secret, its inhabitants were Vampyres (Quelmar's version of Vampires, but with a Y). Hoping to take advantage of the chaos for their own personal gain, envoys of LaCroix traveled the continent peddling a new "vaccine" for the cure. Many were eager to protect themselves from becoming infected and took this vaccine without question, while those who were familiar with LaCroix's past were more hestitant.

And those who were hesitant were rightly so, as the vaccine wasn't a vaccine at all, but rather distilled vampyre blood that turned whoever took the vaccine into vampyric thralls of LaCroix. The administering of these vaccines also gave LaCroix envoys permission to enter people's home and dwellings, allowing these envoys to pilfer powerful and rare magical artifacts and relics for the LaCroix Curation, a museum of magical items from all across the realm that was the pride of the city.

The Alestian Reckoning

As the plague spread across Western Osugbo, local towns and cities were unable to stop the spread, and the region fell into lawlessness. Even the people of the great elven city of Elin Barad were forced to flee their city after a failed quarantine and the Steelhand Clan fled underground to escape the infected. The plague was even beginning to spread to the continent of Isonhound, east of Osugbo. Here it made landfall in the seaside city of Saltport, where it gained the attention of the Wold Order, a strict and militant organization that sought to protect Isonhound at any cost.

After executing a successful quarantine in Saltport, the Wold Order began sinking any ships crossing the sea between Isonhound and Osugbo. But the order knew they could not continue this practice forever, and so came up with a final solution: Greenfire. Greenfire was a destructive magical substance that turned all living non-fey life into plants. The Wold Order deployed many of these bombs across Western Osugbo in an event known as the Alestian Reckoning, turning much of the region into a verdant wasteland.

While the use of the Greenfire bombs would have realm shaking consequences, they were effective in stemming the spread of the World Breaker Plague in Osugbo. While small pockets of infected would remain for centuries to come, the spread would never be as vast as it was during Realm War II.

A Large Mutated Infected Hulk

Stages of Infection

Upon coming into contact with the black ichor produced by the World Breaker infected monsters, a creature must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or contract the World Breaker Plague.

Stage 1: Infection and Incubation

Duration: 1d2 Days

The victim feels an unusual warmth under the skin, accompanied by fever, nausea, and migraines. If the victim attempts to cast a spell, they must roll a DC 10 Constitution check. On a failed roll, the spell fizzles out and the spell slot is used up.

Stage 2: Initial Mutations

Duration: 1d6+1 Days

Symptoms worsen as the victim’s body begins rejecting their magical essence. Veins blacken and glow faintly with arcane light, eyes become discolored, and fingernails and teeth start to harden into unnatural shapes. The victim's actions become more erratic and they suffer one level of exhaustion. During Stages 1 and 2, the plague can be cured with the Greater Restoration spell.

Stage 3: The Unraveling

Duration: 1d3 Days

The victim's transformation accelerates. The victim’s skin cracks, limbs twist into monstrous proportions, and their voice warps into inhuman screeches. At this point, the afflicted lashes out at anyone nearby and has completely lost the ability to cast spells. Most victims must be restrained or destroyed before full metamorphosis. At this point, the plague can only be cured by means of a Wish spell.

A Rare Bloodwrought Infected

Stage 4: Full Transformation

Duration: Permanent

The victim fully transforms into a World Breaker infected monster, bearing only a faint resemblance to its former self. All traces of their original identity are lost. They are highly resistant to mundane and magical attacks alike, and require fire to be destroyed completely. At this point the infected starts secreting a black ichor that can be used to infect others.

Variant: Bloodwroughts

Bloodwroughts are a rare variant of World Breaker infected, with around one instance being created per hundred normal infected. A Bloodwrought goes through the same transformation process, but does not lose its ability to cast magic and maintains many of their mental faculties. In addition, the ichor they secrete is of a deep red, giving these creatures their name. These infected are incredibly dangerous as their magic makes them versatile and their ability to plan and strategize allows them to control large groups of mindless infected.

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