Nyctodiafora (5e Disease)
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Nyctodiafora[edit]
Contracting Nyctodiafora[edit]
It was originally brought into existence by a long forgotten necromancer whose name is lost to history. Nyctodiafora is contracted when one comes into contact with a gnat or any bloodsucking insect infected by it, or a humanoid who is still in the plague’s incubation period. (See Effects)
Effects and Definition[edit]
Nyctodiafora in Common speech literally means Night difference ... as once one is afflicted, they take on a sickly and crazed persona around the middle of the night.
Stage 1 (Incubation): Initially the disease enters a week or two of incubation after the bacterium enters the bloodstream, during which the victim has a mild fever or headache. Once the disease has incubated, the victim must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, with disadvantage if they have eaten within 6 hours, if failure, they unleash massive bouts of vomiting for a short period— approximately a fortnight. (14 days, you gamers!) The bile is the only way the victim can pass the disease.
Stage 2: Once all of that has been over with, the victim seems to return to normal, except for the fact that their arteries and veins are a deep shade of grey. Then, during the night, between 11:23 and 3:04 sharp, the victim wakes up, retains no memories of their daily hours, and is frightened of everybody in sight and tries anything to distance themselves from any humanoid’s presence. This can be only prevented if the victim during the time period is in the presence of feysage. (See Treatment) Once the night is over, the victim gains 2 levels of exhaustion and has disadvantage on all physical saving throws and checks. Every other night, make a DC 17 Constitution check (disadvantage does apply), if faliure, the victim gains one more level of exhaustion.
Stage 3: If the victim completes 3 successful saving throws and no more than zero faliures, tjey are permanently cured and immune, but can still pass the disease through occasional vomiting bouts. If no... YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET, SON! Now, for the next fortnight or two, the victim is subject to 1d4 necrotic damage if in direct daylight/sunlight (magical, too) every hour. At night, the being’s form seems to take on a hunchbacked, pale, form, (whose clawed hands deal 1d4 piercing and 1d4+1 necrotic damage and retains all other features) which is hostile if provoked; still, the victim and the night-being aren’t aware that either of them exist by seeing the result of each other’s actions.
Stage 4: Stage three is still active, but at the end of the ~24 days, the victim must repeat the Constitution saving throw, but instead of dying at the 6th stage of exhaustion, enters an undisrupted coma that lasts for a year and a day. During this period, the victim is slowly turning into the night being, and if not cured, will be it for life.
Treatment[edit]
Nyctodiafora cannot be cured with any spell short of Wish. The only hope is to retrieve the near extinct Feysage, found only in the Feywild. The ritual to banish the affliction is to cast Greater Restoration with Fey-sage instead of the diamond dust component.
Sorry if this destroys your party. ;)
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