In the month of Estar, 475 years after the Coming of Estarra, the cities
and forests of the Basin of Life were visited by two humans by the names
of Elsa Fallows and Constance Walker. They claimed to be members of the
Lusternia Humanistic League, an organization they described as being
devoted to research about humanity, human history, and human origins.
Their goal was to find new topics of research for submission to the
League.

Elsa Fallows first approached New Celest, meeting Caleb, Skanylla,
Kreon, and Tridemon. She asked them for leads on human populations or
genealogies, explaining that she needed a new research project on human
bloodlines in order to win a research award. After fruitless forays into
Celestian lineages (as Elsa was only interested in human families),
Celest citizens finally sent Elsa off to see Bob the Trader, who is
presumed to be human. Elsa was not satisfied with her conversation with
Bob, however, and wandering on, she eventually ended up in Magnagora.
Elsa's effusive praise of the Engine of Transformation earned her the
bemused attention of Magnagorans gathered at the Megalith of Doom,
including Lillie, Rolsand, and Kailanna, who offered her the option to
research the lineages of the city's viscanti Great Houses. Elsa was
interested, however, only in families "full of humans", and thus was in
the end directed by Magnagorans to one of the human villages "south of
the Inner Sea, north of the Moors".

A day or two later, Elsa showed up in the great forest of Glomdoring,
completely lost. She found Rancoura in the Great Library of the wyrden
forest, and when she learned that she was not in a human settlement, but
rather in a forest commune, Elsa began to yell in frustration. Her yells
brought the presence of Xenthos and Athree. Xenthos suggested the
village of Duum, where xenophobic and isolative humans dwelt, as a
perfect place for Elsa's genealogy research. However, in exchange for
the location of Duum, Xenthos requested the location of the Lusternia
Humanistic League headquarters, which Elsa was unwilling to divulge
without consulting her colleague Constance. Thus, the Glomdorians led
the lost genealogist out of their forest and sent her on her way to meet
up with Constance.

Meanwhile, Elsa's bespectacled colleague Constance Walker was making a
search of her own. Constance first approached the great forest of
Serenwilde, where she was met by extreme suspicion by nearly everyone
she encountered. Urdnot, Enyalida and Everiine grilled her incessantly
while she tried to explain her alchemical research into physiology,
diseases, and cures as related to humans. Faythe was more willing to
speak and listen to the woman, learning that Constance was hoping to
find a human settlement for her and her colleagues to study. In the end,
however, no one had any answers for her, and Constance was sent onwards
to Hallifax.

Near-sighted as she was, Constance travelled by mistake to Gaudiguch,
where she met Letarne. The Gaudiguch citizen disabused her of the idea
that the fiery city was Hallifax, and instead set up a meeting for her
and a few Hallifax citizens at the Aetherplex upon Avechna's Peak. Doman
and Orventa arrived from Hallifax and listened to Constance as she once
again explained her research and her hope for a population of humans to
study. Others continued arrving as the discussion progressed: Esoneyuna
of Gaudiguch, Yarith of Hallifax, and the conversation soon turned into
a conflict between those of Hallifax and those of Gaudiguch regarding
the proper way of conducting research. Constance became overwhelmed by
the argument and eventually begged leave to seek out her colleague Elsa,
with a vague promise of returning to Hallifax at some later time.

All was quiet for a number of days as the cities and forests settled
into their old rhythms. But early in Urlachmar, the Basin of Life was
rocked by a wave of nauseating energy, and everyone on the Prime
Material Plane experienced a vision of sickening appendages, parasites,
cestodes, and nematodes. Insanity afflicted all who were affected, and
even as the victims reeled, they noticed dark clouds and lightning
flashing over the Balach Swamp. So began a search through the Village of
Duum, the bowels of the Soulless God Muud, and even the Aegis of
Vestara. But nothing seemed entirely amiss at the time.

In mid to late Urlachmar, travellers along the roads of the Basin began
to notice pools of noxious slime that hindered their movement and at
times afflicted them with disease and plague. Though most simply
shrugged off the slimes as nuisances and went on their way, a few began
to wonder if there was something more to the slime pits, and whether
there was some way to remove them. Centuries-old Iytha of Hallifax
recalled the potential meaning of the slime pits from long past
memories, and she rushed back to the Village of Duum to see if anything
might be amiss. There, she found that the researchers of the Lusternia
Humanistic League had already been drawn to the village by the insanity
wave of the month before and had set up camp. She also found Elsa
Fallows in an odd trance and unresponsive to any entreaties. Constance
Walker, Elsa's alchemist colleague, was in a state of agitation due to
Elsa's odd behavior and begged Iytha to help her gather ingredients for
a cure.

As Iytha helped Constance brew an initial cure for Elsa, a rumble echoed
across the Basin coming from the Southern Passages. Many across
Lusternia rushed into the Undervault in order to seek the source of the
noise. After dead ends and false leads, Faythe and Torgaddon of
Serenwilde, with helpful directions from a kephera convoy leader,
managed to find a hidden way from the Southern Passages into the maze of
tunnels underneath the Village of Duum itself. A period of confusion
ensued. Some were not convinced that the cave-in occurred at the new
passage into Duum; others went exploring elsewhere the Undervault for
new openings, but could not find any. Eventually, those who returned to
Duum at long last began to hear the yells and shouts of various Duum
villagers, including the oddly behaving Elsa Fallows, who was still in a
trance and in cohort with Duumites. Constance's initial cure had not
worked.

Iytha then resolved to chase the problem to its source, gathering a
group of varied Lusternians to raise and then slay the Dread Lord of
Contagion within the Village of Duum. The killing, however, caused
Constance Walker even more distress, given she was in the process of
producing a more potent cure for Elsa Fallows, and the raising of the
Dread Lord had hindered that process. Iytha was appropriately apologetic
and immediately began gathering the ingredients needed for the new cure.
Meanwhile, Faythe of Serenwilde and Dys of Gaudiguch remained with the
very distraught Constance, taking her mind off of Elsa's plight by
playing games of 'I spy'. Xenthos also arrived on scene while they
waited, revolting the alchemist with lurid displays of his plucked out
eye, which the Gaudiguchian Dys ate with eagerness.

Finally, Iytha laboriously gathered all the ingredients for the cure,
restoring Elsa to her own mind amid the laments of Duumites. Faythe
promised Constance that she would return to play more games of 'I spy'.
And quietly, without anyone noticing, the slime pits on the roads
disappeared without a trace...

And so, the researchers of the Lusternia Humanistic League returned to
their research once more, having finally found a village worthy of their
studies. What will be the fruit of their research? What is the
relationship among the Village of Duum, the Soulless Muud, and the
insanity wave that swept through the Basin? And will the strange
affliction that had affected Elsa Fallows return once more to empower
the Village of Duum to dark ends?

Penned by My hand on the 19th of Avechary, in the year 475 CE.