Danse Macabre

Rare Disease

Lethality: High

Transmissibility: Low

After a night of drinking, feasting and partying, a small town woke up to one of their old men laughing, singing, and dancing uncontrollably in the streets. It was thought to be an extended drunken action until more followed his lead shortly after. Days later, half the town had danced themselves to death. The other half had evacuated, convinced dark magics were involved. Over time, more incidents like these have been recorded, usually affecting a few people at the same time. People still do not understand the cause, but the disease has been given a name: Danse Macabre.

Infection: Getting infected with this disease is simply a stroke of bad luck. The cause lies with the consumption of meat that contains prions, such as meat of an animal that has a prion disease (whether known or not) or meat from another person with this disease. Once consumed, it can take years for the disease to manifest itself. Some people carry their death with them without ever realizing it.

Contagion: This disease is not contagious from person to person unless the infected person’s meat is consumed by another creature. When there is an outbreak, it is typically due to multiple people eating the same infected animal, herd, or flock.

Symptoms: A creature exposed to Dance Macabre becomes symptomatic 1d10+4 months after contracting the disease. A creature gains progressively worse symptoms the longer that they are infected. Once the creature is infected, then it gains the following symptoms at the start of each of the following days. These effects are cumulative.

• Day 1: The creature gets uncontrollable laughing fits. They are considered Shaken during these fits, which last for 5 minutes when they occur. A laughing fit occurs whenever a hero rolls a 1 or 2 on any d20.
• Day 2: When laughing, the creature also starts singing at random and is considered Sickened.
• Day 3: When laughing, the creature starts dancing uncontrollably and is considered Staggered and Slowed.
• Day 4: The creature gains Fatigue.
• Day 5: The creature continues to dance and is considered Paralyzed, doing nothing but dancing.
• Day 6: The creature dies.

Treatment: The mundane cure to this disease has not yet been discovered. Greater Restoration and similar magic completely cures this disease.