Description (Healing Blade Lore)
Yersinia pestis are one of the most ancient scourges to haunt the globe, and have been responsible for the deaths of countless other worlds in the deep past, starting even before the Apothecary Healers began offering protection to Soma and other lands. In fact, these Pestilence agents were only discovered centuries after some of their most horrific killing sprees, and over the last several decades, the breath of their wrath was slowly revealed. When Soman scouts visited a string of barrier islands that had fallen victim to a mysterious villain some 600 years ago, for example, they found the remains of some Y. pestis beasts preserved in the rocks surrounding the islands’ entry bays, leaving little doubt as to the cause of the unthinkable natural tragedy. Y. pestis can be so devastating that some lands have gone so far as to purposefully release the Pestilence agents on enemy territories as a form of biological weaponry.
The beasts still lurk around Soma’s perimeter, feasting on giant marine rodents and breaking through the boundary wall whenever the vermin come ashore to nest on the beaches. The Pestilence agents synthesize a sticky excretion that allows them to scale the wall and enter Soma’s border towns. They also produce a potion that eliminates blockages from Soma’s water ways to speed the rate at which they infiltrate the rest of the land, where they are skilled at evading raids by Soma’s Noble Sentry and can cause widespread damage. Thankfully, however, now that Y. pestis have been identified, the appropriate Apothecary counterattack can usually protect Soma from extensive damage from the Lords’ attacks.