Disease

Disease is so common an issue in Haenor, especially amongst the impoverished, that there is a special mechanic for it. There are nine different diseases that spread commonly through the city:

• Bubonic plague: Spread by fleas (if PC is within 5', roll a d20 to see if a flea jumps over and bites the PC, it does so on a 7 or less). Causes inflamed lymph nodes (buboes) around the groin, armpit, or neck which eventually hemorrhage and go necrotic, chills, malaise, high fever, muscle cramps, seizures, pain around the buboes, gangrene in extremities, fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, spleen inflammation, lenticulae, delirium, coma, organ failure, and death. d100 roll 1-2.
• Cholera: Spread through contaminated food and water (if PC eats or drinks contaminated material). Causes profuse diarrhea and vomiting of clear fluid with a fishy odor, dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, bluish-gray skin, lethargy, sunken eyes, dry mouth, cold clammy skin, wrinkled hands and feet, deep and labored breathing, blood pressure drop, lack of urination, muscle cramping, weakness, altered consciousness, seizures, and coma. d100 roll 3-7.
• Influenza: Spread through the air (if within 20' of a carrier). It causes fever, chills, headaches, muscle pain, malaise, loss of appetite, lack of energy, confusion, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and gastroenteritis,, respiratory symptoms such as a dry cough, sore or dry throat, hoarse voice, a stuffy or runny nose (though this is less common), and pneumonia. d100 roll 8-12.
• Leprosy: Spread by close contact. It causes pale or pink patches of skin, loss of sensation in fingers and toes, runny nose, dry scalp, eye problems, skin lesions, muscle weakness, reddish skin, smooth shiny diffuse thickening of facial skin, ear, and hand, thickening of peripheral nerves, flat nose from loss of nasal cartilages, changes in speech production, atrophy of testes and impotence, nerve damage which leads to loss of muscle function and thus paralysis and sensation abnormalities and numnbess, and secondary infections causing tissue loss, shortened fingers and toes, and loss of cartilage. d100 roll 13-17.
• Measles (if PC is within 10'): Spread through coughing and sneezing or close contact with secretions. It causes fever, malaise, cough, white spots inside the cheeks, head cold, sneezing, conjunctivitis and photophobia, and maculopapular rash that darkens from red to brown before vanishing. Complications often include croup, pneumonia, and malnourishment. d100 roll 18-22.
• Scarlet fever (if PC is within 10'): Spread by close contact and respiratory droplets. It causes sore throat, fever, malaise, headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, widespread rash, red strawberry tongue, red spots on palate, swollen uvula, and swollen lymph nodes. d100 roll 23-27.
• Small pox: spread through close contact after rash develops (if PC is within 5'). It causes fever, muscle pain, malaise, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, backache, visible lesions called enanthem in mouth, tongue, palate, and throat, then fall off of fever, then lesions enlarge, then creation of pimples called macules, rash, then on to one of four possibilities: ordinary (subtle rash, macules raise to papules, fill with fluid to become vesicles, then darken to pustules, which later leak and scab over, flake off, and leave a scar); confluent (the blisters form into sheets and a confluent rash which detach the outer layers of the skin, increasing fatality rate); modified (less severe, no fever during rash, skin lesions fewer, usually in the vaccinated); malignant (lesions remain flush with skin when raised to vesicles, thus remaining flat, had severe high fever and other symptoms, usually becoming confluent, hemorrhaging, and almost always fatal); hemorrhagic (extensive bleeding into the skin, mucuous membranes, gastrointestinal tract, and viscera cause by the disease, no pustules because all bleeding goes inward, making skin look black and charred, typically fatal). d100 roll 28-32.
• Tuberculosis: spread by those with active tuberculosis when they cough, sneeze, speak, or sing (if within 20'). It causes fever, chills, night sweats, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue, nail clubbing, chest pain, prolongued cough producing sputum which may be bloody, tiredness, temperature, loss of appetite, wasting, general malaise, erosion of the pulmonary artery and massive bleeding in rare cases, extensive lung scarring and chronic respiratory symptoms. d100 roll 33-38.
• Typhus: spread by lice, ticks, fleas, or mites, depending on the variant (if PC is within 5', roll a d20 to see if a creature jumps over and bites the PC, it does so on a 7 or less). Starts with fever and flu-like symptoms, then a rash develops, then meningoencephalitis (unusual behavior, personality changes, nausea, brain fog, headache, fever, neck pain, light sensitivity, seizures). d100 roll 39-40.

When the PCs interact with any random NPC (someone who is not already named and defined by the GM), the GM rolls a d100. Anything 41 or above means the NPC is not carrying anything. Anything below means they have one of the above diseases. If they interact with a PC in a way that might spread the disease, the PC rolls STR or disease resistance against a difficulty determined by a roll of a d10+6, with +3 more for every subsequent contact with that disease within a week.

There is also "the Galdish pox", or syphillis, which will be rolled for when dealing with sexual situations.