Gwindahl and His Plague-Infested Rats

(Shard, Crossing: 263 Moliko 354)

An odd lot of questions and news keeps flying through here in the past few days about a man named Gwindahl and his ichor rats — rats that spread a deadly plague of disease when they are killed and searched.

According to the few reliable sources that have been sharing information, this Gwindahl has popped up in Shard and the Crossing, has a Gwethdesuan, and issues an ultimatum to the city.

"Return my Anli’Jalbreth, or deal with destruction by plague!"

Anli’Jalbreth means Gold Fish in Gamgweth. He refers to Anli’Jalbreth as a She, leading some people to think it is a woman he is looking for, not a fish. Other people are convinced he is looking for a gold colored fish.

Gwindahl, a halfling, carries around a box filled with these disease infested rats, Ichor Rats, they have been named. They are not any more dangerous than other rats, when they are alived. But kill them, and it is another story!

Once skinned, searched, or when they decay on their own, their bodies burst into a flying storm of plague-filled rat-parts. Only the most skilled of hunters seem to be able to evade them. If you are infected with this plague, go somewhere, find an empath or two who can help you, and pray. It is extremely fatal. Even two skilled empaths will have to work long and hard to save you from this progressively deteriorating disease. Your skin will erupt in boils, and then begin to rot slowly. By the time the disease has run its course, you will be bleeding everywhere, and pieces of your flesh will be falling off where you did not even know there was enough flesh to fall off!

Empath teams report some success with one of them keeping up with the victim’s disease itself by curing the disease and transferring it, and a second one who can then keep up with just the wounds.

Clerics have reported that raising someone with this disease is futile, they just die again. It must be cured, or the body retains the infection. Those who were able to depart, of course, appeared at the temple clean.

Gwindahl and his rats were noticed all around the Crossing today. In the Guilds, out some of the gates — all over. Yet for all his accusations, none of us know anything about his Anli’Jalbreth, "Gold Fish."

If you run across any Ichor Rats, be warned, and do what you can to keep people from remaining near them when they decay or are searched. If you run into Gwindahl, give him a wide berth…

All of Elanthia is looking for some concrete information that will fill in all the gaps. Who is this Anli’Jalbreth? Why does Gwindahl want her returned? What was she to him? Was she stolen, did she run away?

Is this nothing but a lunatic’s broken heart, or is there something else going on here? Just who needs assistance, and who needs protection?

All we have are questions. If you find any information, make sure to leave a brief news report here to Baresh about it. For now, all we can do is keep our eyes open, and hope we are not about when this Gwindahl next goes on a rampage about Anli’Jalbreth.