Pamphlet: A Pox Upon You
Chaos! Havoc! Tokyo is undergoing national quarantines to protect its people from a sudden surge of sicknesses from the history books, and its protectors visible and hidden are encountering curious difficulties in resolving them. What's going on? NOBODY KNOWS YET! But here's where we gather information. This is a living document, and is not considered final until an answer--or rest--is had.
Contents
Timeline
January 28
In the early morning of 27 January 2015, a call for medical assistance went out; a strange outbreak of bubonic plague had hit several sites. Early HOTEL responders discerned that this was a new and engineered strain, resistant to conventional antibiotic treatment. Initial deployment of HOTELian medical technology proved successful, and the outbreaks were contained.
At approximately 1700 that same day, several subway trains in Tokyo were the targets of spontaneous contagion. The train was stopped remotely and flooded with preventative measures in fear of a "dirty bomb" scenario infecting the city. When Tokyo and UNIT aid workers arrived on the scene, they were attacked by a sudden outbreak of the undead; many were slain and added to the casualty count. When more heavily-armed violent folks arrived on the scene, they found the infected areas of the train to have a 95% fatality rate, lodged with highly-infectious effluvia which dripped upon the tracks. A handful of survivors were found on each car of the first train that was infected, but all passengers on the all subway cars throughout Tokyo that had stopped in tunnels because of this threat were never heard from again.
The disease, with analysis, was identified as a fast-acting hemorrhagic fever, new to Earth. Tentatively named Space Ebola, it was identified as likely airborne, with a projected infection cycle lasting a few days in a healthy person, who would be able to fight it off with rest and care. It was also projected at this time that most of Tokyo may be infected. The cars were cases where the disease was escalated suddenly and terrifyingly at rates approximately 15,000 times faster than studies of the pathogen suggested it would spread in healthy adults.
Van Saar Federation spacecraft intervened, launching a widespread barrage of "Cure Disease" spell missiles. The airburst blanketed the majority of Tokyo, effectively bringing a temporary halt to Space Ebola.
Shortly after efforts begin to combat Space Ebola, a number of walking dead, identified post-facto as persons killed by the Sendai tsunami, advance from the sea and raid port areas for waterproof supplies. The Tokyo Spiritual Defense Network was activated in response, at which point many of the raiders fled with their booty!--with unusual intelligence and coordination. Not your ordinary zombies.
January 29
Circa 2100, reports came from around Tokyo that a fast-acting form of necrotizing facsitis, a flesh-eating bacteria associated with surface injuries gone septic, was occurring among workers in industries with probabilities of injury. Medical treatment was quickly deployed, and few fatalities occurred, but the survivors would require reconstructive surgery or other interventions. A second, larger-spread barrage of "Cure Disease" missiles blanketed Tokyo skies.
Additionally, farmers began to report behavioral curiosities among livestock, possibly tied to another sickness outbreak, but little came of this investigation.
January 30
Power players in Japan among the Council of Elders (whoever THOSE guys are), realizing that their ability to deal with large-scale threats like this is somewhat limited, hash out agreements with Nelius Raoul and his crew to hunt down the cause of these outbreaks, and with the Van Saar Federation to continue providing large-scale medical/magical aid and support. The Van Saar answer by dedicating substantial resources from two branches of their Inquisition--one focused on fighting the Alien, the other focused on fighting the Malevolent Spirit.
Q, as in yes, that Q, also appeared circa 2130. His interest in the situation was, as he put it, "to point and laugh, mainly." The jerk.
January 31
Mostly quiet. Mostly. Eliza McIntash seemed to know something, but she wanted to speak only to The Intern, upon the condition that the Intern would not repeat what had been discussed. After a kind of seizure, Eliza shouted to everyone present that she was certain that the culprit behind the attack was the enemy she had hunted obsessively, and whom she claimed intended to make wishes upon Doctor Xadium's merchandise to change the fate of this world.
February 1
At 1800, reports began of outbreaks of phosphorus necrosis of the jaw in match factories and other facilities that handle the equipment. As before, this was a fast-acting variant that is infectious despite modern industrial protective equipment. New, however, were signs that this disease was magic-resistant in 5% of cases. Psychic healing was deployed, resolving most of the remainder of cases; hypertech is deployed to assist the remainder. Investigation into these microbes revealed that there was a catalyst of some sort acting to dramatically accelerate the rate and spread of these disease outbreaks. The catalyst itself was not known at the time. Wider investigation of the factory site yielded that the catalyst was not temporal in nature, but some sort of dimensional shenanigans were definitely afoot, plausibly in the scattering of the phosphorus that would otherwise be contained.
Around 1930, a hospital worker was diagnosed with fast-acting leprosy and Hansen's disease; subsequent tests reveal that most of the hospital was infected with the same. Simultaneously, a fire broke out in a warehouse district; firefighters reporting to the scene subsequently went rapidly blind. Van Saar escalated delivery of medical resources to these sites, deploying nanotech medication capable of rewriting DNA, as well as correcting and accelerating healthy tissue growth, effectively completely healing most sicknesses and major injuries.
Tanar'ri intelligencers' exhaustive snooping revealed that a body, infected by the recent Ebola outbreak that terrorized West Africa, had gone missing. Was it relevant? WHO KNOWS!
Known Players?
One major player in this disaster was a magic-user of some stripe, possibly focused in Vancian-style necromancy. His exact nature is unknown, but Eliza McIntash claimed to have had visions of his appearance hither and yon for some time (though her memories were faded and not fully certain in all respects).
The other major possible player was a desiccated individual, possibly but not certainly dead. She was sighted riding a black comet over the skies of Tokyo, clearly enjoying what she was seeing. Sakura April encountered her on 28 January; her senses determined that it was not mana-active at the time.
Random(?) Trivia
About the time-of-outbreak of Space Ebola on 28 January...
- A Tokyo television station went black, likely attacked. HOTEL persons put all broadcasts on a time-delay to ensure no mass hysteria-inducing broadcasts were sent.
- A faint Echo of the Widening Gyre was registered at this time also!
- Mysterious black banners have been hung up in the subway at several locations.
Verdict
During her final confrontation with Hsan-tachi, Alria revealed her knowledge of and suggested her responsibility for the plagues in Tokyo, the blinding sickness among emergency crews, the diseases that no hospital precaution could contain, and the Black Banners in the subways associated with mass abductions. The truth was that Alria was merely the public facade of the Tome of the Stilled Tongue, the hideously powerful grimoire associated with the cult of Vecna, a lich-turned-god of magic and undeath. In order to spread panic, discredit her pursuer Eliza as an uncontrollable necromancer, and generally torment and punish the forces of good, Alria had attacked Tokyo again and again. The wicked grimoire was responsible for the reign of terror, of zombies, communication blackouts, and seizure of Tokyo citizens to bolster the ranks of her undead army which now marched under the Black Banners which symbolized the legions of Vecna. Alria even arranged for the Black Banners to be placed in the same subway tunnels that had been attacked previously by a cult during the Subway Sarin Incident in order to open old wounds and spread fear. Eliza's premonitions that this was her dire foe turned out to be correct, and Alria used necromancy to flay Eliza alive for her interference.
Ultimately, the terrible suffering the Tome of the Stilled Tongue spread was part of a sociopathic gambit that ultimately proved successful--to enrage, alert, and draw out Bixia Yuanjin so that the grimoire could be manipulated into finalizing The Return of Vecna.
