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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 6308170" data-attributes="member: 92511">I was thinking that ("scientific" -to us- disease)....but it doesn't have to be. This miasma idea warrants some consideration.Could be anything. To reach the level of widespread plague, I would guess the contagion would have to be fairly fast moving...or as you note in your "bird flu" example, occurring simultaneously in multiple locations...and then spreading quickly. The "how it spreads/what it is" isn't so much my concern as the "what happens in the world as a result", ramifications of what happens/how the world reacts to a widespread disease that is not easily shirked off with magic.Right. The "Mask of the Red Death" scenario.What if, there was something like "you need 3 Cure Diseases applied in a 24 hour period to fully get rid of the infection"? Or is that too much of a screw to PCs? Only those wealthy/important enough to have high level or multiple mid-level clerics at their personal disposal might stand a chance of survival? Other clerics (low levels, rural areas, deities that do not offer a Cure Disease option) would probably be setting up hospitals or tending the sick (assuming clerics of good deities, druids seeking to restore balance to the natural world, etc...). Some may be entirely blamed or turned against for their inability to rid the peasants of their afflictions. I could see a huge uptick in devotees trying to appease my world's [decidely Evil] goddess of disease and undeath (who, just running with this miasma idea, might be the source of the thing in the first place).Might mages have/gain an upper hand, assuming a supernatural source, with, say, a Dispel Magic followed by a single Cure Disease has a chance of success. The numbers of mages and clerics of relevant level in the world, in general, being largely inadequate to the task...except maybe in large cities. Maybe a large uptick in those interested in taking up the arcane arts...If that is the case, and peasants are dropping like flies while the cityfolk lock their gates and set up internal "vaccinating spell stations", in the wake of the plague...with a huge amount of food producing farmers gone...hmmm...</blockquote>

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