Featherlung

Featherlung was a respiratory disease. It was one of The Three Plagues of the more well-known contagious diseases of Faerûn.

Effects
Featherlung was spread by inhalation, and took one to three days to take effect.


 * Two slightly different versions of the disease have been given. These may be different strains or different diseases with the same name, or one is mis-described, or it may have mutated over time.

One version of featherlung filled the lungs with dying flesh, which asphyxiated the victim. Another dried up the lungs and reduced their capacity, eventually suffocating the sufferer. Even those that survived the illness sometimes had difficulty breathing in dry weather.

Once someone was infected with featherlung, they became immune to the disease.

History
In Marpenoth of the Year of the Shield, 1367 DR, the city of Procampur in the Vast was struck by a featherlung plague, which killed hundreds of people, particularly in the District of the Poor. Procampur's wards were slow to react, and to be treated by clerics of Helm and Torm, the sick had to cross the city to reach the Temple District, thus spreading the plague further. High priests Orn Thavil of Tymora and Baniya Dolester of Lliira went to the poor district to set up an auxiliary shrine and treated the sick directly, and other priests soon joined then. Though their actions halted the spread of the disease, the Thultyrl reprimanded both high priests for breaking the Procampur's district rules, and were reminded that the city and its laws were older than a number of deities.

In approximately 1475 DR, a featherlung epidemic swept through Waterdeep killing several hundred people.