Akmens Syndrome
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Akmens Syndrome
At the turning of the new age the discovery of new alchemy recipies led to the development of many interesting and strange potions granting the user abilities unheard of. One such potion, the potion of Stoneskin gave its' users the power to shrug off blows that would fell lesser men. But little did they know that there are risks with all things in large quantities. The long term affects were not apparent at first but continued consumption of the Stoneskin potion led to its' relative junkies and addicts developing a new and strange symptom.
Akmens Syndrome.
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What is it?
Akmens Syndrome is caused by continued and large consumption of the Potion of stoneskin product. It is a debilitating malady that targets the joints and nervous system of those afflicted, slowly wearing away at the tissue in their joints and killing off nerves found within the skin. Causing loss of feeling, sense of smell etc eventually leading to necrotising of the various affected areas and eventually death of the victim. Turning a once great warrior into a junkie that is slowly killing themselves, much akin to the real life Swedish berserkers of old who would consume mushrooms prior to battling to become more fierce fighters capable of shrugging off pain that would otherwise kill them, but at the cost of possibly overdosing or causing damage to their nervous system in the future.
What does it do?
The effects begin once the subject has consumed a certain amount of stoneskin potions within a certain time span of perhaps a couple years. (The time can be determined at a later date by staff if they wish). The effects are as follows:
-Loss of feeling in skin. Perpetual loss of other senses follow including touch, smell, taste.
Followed by:
-Destruction of tissue within the joints causing severe hampering of movement
Followed by:
-Continued degradation of the body, leading to lesions developing
Followed by:
-Catastrophic breakdown of tissue all over the body, joints begin to fuse solid, skin becoming more stonelike by the day
Finally ending:
-The death of the subject as the body breaks down, killing the subject rather spectacularly as they merely degrade into a pile of rocks and rubble.
"Well that sounds horrible, can't it be cured?"
Perhaps an ingame cure could be found, though depending how far down the line someone is with their syndrome the affects of the cure could take years to fully manifest and heal the subject. Such is the price of abusing substances. Magical healing magic can slow the effects of the spread of this syndrome but it cannot truly heal it entirely.
"Couldn't the monks heal this when I die normally?"
It is a well known fact that the Monks do not save people who choose their own death, such as via suicide. Or accept injury upon themselves, such as a loss of a limb. Hence why these things are possible in our world.
The willing consumption of a substance deemed harmful to the user would be treated much the same. So dying and re-spawning at the monks will not fix this syndrome. A cure must be sought out.
"Can I get this and spread it to my Friends?"
Truly this is not a disease persay, it is caused by continued use of the stoneskin potion. So you cannot spread it by merely being in contact with another person. Unless that person is also consuming stoneskin potions at the same rate you are.
Final Thoughts:
I wrote this lore after hearing a lot of commotion about the apparent use/abuse of the potion of stoneskin and thought "the ability to merely shrug off wounds that would kill lesser men would surely have some sort of downside if you kept using it..." So I thought about it for a bit and came up with a somewhat fantasied version of Leprosy, though without the ability of it being spread by touch of course.
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