[366 Days of Monsters] Day 045/366 - Cursed of Orr

In the winter of 999 AT, a wanderer traveled to the village of Orr in the Rasgax territories. The Orrsh, a friendly folk, welcomed the traveler into their homes, fed him, and kept him safe from the chill winds raging outside. In exchange, the wanderer offered stories. He told the Orrsh the tale of Garmerex the Undeafeted and the stories of the Fall of Hearth. He spoke of the deeds of Odon and Oxon and the banishment of the Striped Conjurers. But the Orrsh' favorite story was that of The Book Child.

"The Book Child would travel from village to village throughout the Long Continent reading stories from a big, red book that bore no title," explained the wanderer to the Orrsh. "Everywhere the Book Child traveled, the villagers sat hypnotized by the stories he pulled from his nameless tome—much like you are right now."

Of course, The Book Child is no mere story. It is an old, dangerous spell, invented by the Hags of Fel. The story has two functions. First, any who speak it die within 24 hour; the traveler's body was discovered face down in a frost-covered turnip field two days later. Second, those who hear it become cursed and undergo a cruel transormation, changing into a twisted, hateful echo of their former selves.

A week after the storyteller died, the Orrsh who heard the story started to hear voices. They began to see things out of their corners of their eyes. Then, the change began. Boils and bleeding blisters covered their skin. Jagged barbs formed on their bones, pushing through their flesh. Their mouths became home to over a hundred yellow, needle-like teeth. And with the change came madness.

It's been nearly fifty years since Orr fell into ruin. The Rasgax still give the village and its surrounding lands a wide berth when passing south through the Northern Stretch.