DRAFT: More material for That Ancient Serpent
CURING THE PLAGUE
There are no guaranteed cures for the draconic plague in this booklet. Maybe the plague doesn’t get cured and the planes are totally consumed and transformed into a post-apocalyptic nightmare (wouldn’t that be a fun setting to play in!). If a cure is found, it’s because the PCs and NPCs in your game worked together to bring the plague to a close, at least temporarily.
If you’re pondering jobs related to looking for a cure, here are some possible leads:
1. There hasn’t been an outbreak of dragons for centuries, right? So whatever stopped them before must have some mention in the imperial records of Dis or the secret archives, armories, and tombs of the ancient dragonslayers. Maybe some immortal beings remember how it was done and already have contingency plans…
2. The Church of the Font played a major role in treating plague victims during the previous outbreak. Surely they know the most about the disease, including potential cures. Perhaps a pilgrimage needs to be made to the tomb of the gorgon Evryali, Mother of Serpents, deep beneath the Noble Parish of the Iron Bourse.
3. Diabolists and blood sorcerers are experts in the properties of dragon blood and entrails, plus they often have good connections with the blood cults. Perhaps the entire population could be vaccinated with small injections of dragon blood, assuming it could be acquired, handled, and administered safely.
4. Maybe all signs of plague should be purged by fire or ice, or perhaps Dis itself could be convinced to swallow or expel the infected parishes.
5. Clearly a crew of freebooters should go back in time and prevent the outbreak from happening in the first place. Sure, you’ll doubtlessly be hunted down by the Sultana’s elite Road Warden unit for preventing large-scale temporal anomalies, but you can handle them, right?
6. It’s rumored that the Sultana herself is infected (or, worse, her child, the city of Dis). The dark prophesies are coming true and the end times are at hand. If we can just play the proper roles in the cosmic readjustment to come, we may yet survive into the next age.
The plague has different strains, signified by different colors that the infected’s eyes turn. Based on the color, that is the element the plague-ridden need to be exposed to for a cure.
Lightning, fire, acid, ice and even obscure alchemical sleep gas remedies have worked in the past. So, sometimes a cure is given by a drunk lightning god, and sometimes it is a drug you buy on the street-corner.
And sometimes a chromatic strain will come up and you just have to wait to see what color your veins or eyes or tongue or urine turns before seeking out the healing element and figuring out how it can heal you.