Digging for Lies: How does Distant Madness work?

[Colmarr]

The effects of the disease itself are pretty clear, but I'm not clear on how exactly it ends up infecting a PC.

For example, the worm maw's Drain Thoughts power (page 12) says that "the target contracts" the disease. The eye of madness' Burst of Terror power (page 27) says "the target is affected by Distant Madness. If the target is already affected, its condition worsens by one step".

Ordinarily I would read the wom maw's power as meaning that the disease is automatically contracted (ie. there is no exposure save at the end of the encounter) but the wording on the eye of madness seems to that it is the "worse" version.

I'm also not clear on whether the Heal skill can be used to treat a creature suffering Distant Madness. As the adventure says nothing to the contrary, am I right in think that the general rule applies (ie. a Heal check can be used during an extended rest)?

 

[RangerWickett]

I admit, I've never used disease rules before in 4e, so I might've gotten the wording wrong.

To be affected by the worm maw's power, you've already been hit twice, so I figured it should just affect you right away. I didn't mention "or worsen by one step," because originally we only had one worm maw in the adventure. But we added an extra one later on, so yeah, it should cause or worsen the disease.

And the intent of the eye of madness was that if you're hit, the madness affects you. I didn't realize, though, that normally you get a save afterward.

And sure, Heal can represent psychotherapy.

 

[Colmarr]

So if we use "exposed" to mean you've been hit by a relevant power but aren't infected until you fail a save at the end of the encounter, and "infected" to mean the PC is suffering the effects of the disease, should the powers read:

"the target is exposed to Distant Madness. If the target has already been exposed to Distant Madness in this encounter it is instead infected by Distant Madness. If the target is already infected by Distant Madness, it's condition worsens by 1 stage"?

Does that sound right?

 

[RangerWickett]

Sure, works for me. But my philosophy is that if you've got a lovely insanity-causing disease, it'd be a shame for no one to contract it, so don't make it too hard to catch.