Post originally by MetalMan at 2004-12-17 11:13:34
Converted from Phorums BB System

I'm posting one of the curses from the book in its entirety. This should give you an idea if this sort of thing is for you or not.

Its also OGL... so feel free to steal it if you want!

Pox
Necromancy
Level: Sor, Brd 3
Components: V, M, 350 experience
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: special
Area: 2 HD / level of caster
Duration: permanent
Saving Throw: Will special
Spell Resistance: No

The Pox is learned in cultures known for
their treachery. The secret to learning Pox
is different from most sorcerous curses as it
requires little more than a life of suffering
to unveil. No one knows for sure why this
curse develops in some and not others. The
material component of the curse is a recently
dead (no more than a fortnight dead) or
dying person. Three instances of the Pox
have been documented. In all cases, the
sorcerer comes from a dark background,
illuminated by some hope that is crushed. It
has been theorized by bards that the curse
is learned early as their hate festers butlacks the power of meaning until there is an injustice to act against.

In the Kingdom of Alera, the magistrate,
Mercer, investigated the disappearance of
young children in the crowded farming
community of East Leeland. After a week,
she discovered a concerted effort by several
families to kill infants in order to cheat the tax system. Mercer herself had become a
magistrate only after her own husband had
left her because of her inability to have
children. At the gravesite of the most recent
victim, she cast Pox.

More than eight thousand miles and several
centuries later, the woodsman Bun returned
home from a trip gathering bear fat for the
village’s winter to find his wife murdered
by bandits. Lying in their empty bed, he
sent out his own spirit to the body of his
wife, laying in the ground outside the house
and called forth the Pox. The bandits were
found a month later some insane, some dead.

The best information about Pox comes
from Badaric of Alera, the son of a minor
merchant house who secretly married the
young Dorias, a niece of the duke. When
the duke discovered the marriage, he
personally saw Badaric tied to a horse and
had him drug around the city three times
before released and declared the marriage
dissolved. Badaric’s death occurred in the
sanctuary of the church where his friend the
bard Asturius recorded his final words.

"I lie here dying but it will not be without a price
I give up spirit to send the token
As my body is eaten, so shall theirs
An eye for an eye, worm for worm "

The dead who act as the conduit for the
Pox must hold a strong emotional tie to
both the victim(s) and the sorcerer. A loved
child, a dear wife, a precious friend, or, in
the case of Mercer, a painful symmetry can
act as bridges for the power. In Badaric’s
case he was the victim himself. In the case of Badaric, not only did he curse the duke
but the chambermaid who he trusted who
sold him out to the duke. Mercer’s curse
struck not only the murderers but those that
capitulated, cooperated and made possible
what they did by breeding a culture of greed.

Those that learn the curse are something
of nihilists, with feelings of emptiness so
strong that they can naturally develop an
aptitude for this kind of magic without any
prompting or use for it for years or decades.

Any number of targets may be selected to
be afflicted by the Pox but the total number
of hit dice may not exceed twice that of
the caster. All of the targets must be valid
as defined by the nature of the curse. The
victims develop acne over the first week
that fill with puss. During the second week
they gain lesions on the arms and face.
During the third week, welts develop on the
neck and chest along with acne becoming
infected and bleeding. Finally, in the fourth
week headaches develop with a great deal
of sinus leakage. In the fifth week, this
culminates in maggots crawling out of the
victim’s sinus passages. In the sixth week,
they become constipated until festering
wounds develop in their anuses that spiders
hatch from. Many of these traits can be
treated and cleaned out but they return. Oils
and treatments are expensive, costing over
1,000 gold a week and do nothing more than
relieve the pain a little.

Aside from the social impact of such an
appearance, the impact on the body and
mind is significant. The pain dulls the
senses while the body is wracked. Each
month of this affliction permanently reduces
the victim’s Constitution and Intelligence
by 1 point to a maximum of losing six
from each attribute. A successful saving
throw versus the spell effect reduces the
maximum loss to four points. Most social
interaction rolls have a penalty of -8 due
to the repulsiveness of the victim. With
constant treatments the penalty is reduced
to -4. Victims of the Pox may learn to live with their condition but it is never easy.

Curing the Pox is no less easy than living
with it. Victims must seek out the Aki
Scrolls, created by the Aki mystics during
the Mungo Dynasty though new ones
come into existence as their secrets are
rediscovered. The Aki mystics bred silk
worms in their monasteries and sold the
silk to merchants, eventually becoming a
powerful economic and political power in
their region of the world. But it was one of
their arcanists, a wizard named Yu Li Su’et
who was hired by a noble man and created
a cure for the Pox. Thanks to his expertise
with silk worms, he created a new breed,
whose creation is described in the scrolls. If no living worms of this kind can be found,
aki silk worms require six years to be bred
by one familiar with the raising and care
of silk worms in the proper climates. Silk
worm larvae must then have a very specific
spell cast on them and inserted into the open
anal wounds of the Pox victim. The larvae
will begin killing other creatures as they
mature. The process takes two months of
extended agony during which any mental
activities take an additional -4 beyond
current penalties but at the end most of the
body is covered in thin silk.

Every day a gallon of herbal ginseng tea
and maldor root is fed through a tube to the
victim. Maldor is a common root extract
used to increase stamina and enough may be
bought for five silver to brew a single gallon. The victim must drink this tea, at least three cups a day for two months. The body must also remain immobile and silk allowed to set. Once it has, the person will fall into a coma for 2d4 days, during which they must make a Fortitude save versus 17 for every day they are in it. Failing for three days in a row requires a new Fortitude save versus 20 or instant death results. Should they survive, they are cured and will long consider what brought them to these measures.