This is the sort of layout we didn’t often attempt in the pages originally intended for the web, because it kind of requires you to keep scrolling up and down to get the full effect, and even then it doesn’t quite work. “Pages” on the web can be any size, but the viewing window is generally smaller and more horizontal than a traditionally sized volume, much less our oversized format.

Sorry about that.

Except for the ending, the plague was my big addition to the story. My own limited experience and research suggest that illness doesn’t play as big a role in fantasy RPGs as it does in real-world history, and even narrative fiction often forgets about it (one of the revolutionary things Stan Lee did was allow Spider-Man to catch colds). This particular illness will be important later.