Pepper Sickness

"I have never seen anyone eat that many in one sitting... are you going to be fine?"
"Yeah, just need to take a nap."

— Two patrons of "The Crossed Stars" tavern

  Citizens of the Rhyliss Empire have access to a great number of different spices, but in the frontiers of Helenic there are many more spices which have been outlawed within the Empire's borders. Among those spices is something which has been called the "king pepper". It is derived from the seeds of a fruit found amidst southern fields in Helenic, which is inedible to most mammalian species. As has often been said, merely being inedible is not enough to stop humans from trying to eat something.

And it is also true how it should have been a warning when it was inedible, not an invitation to process parts of the fruit as spices. Consuming excess amounts of the spice has become known to cause adverse health reactions, particularly among humans. This starts as an upset stomach which sometimes is not enough to dissuade the diner. Continuing to eat things flavored with the spice will start a general malaise and fatigue which is often explained away. However, it should be noted this is the body's final warning to stop. Continuing past this point causes permanent damage to the organs of a human body, in a variety of expressed symptoms. Though it cannot be predicted which happens first, any of them is almost entirely irreversible without magical restoration. Investigations into the symptoms took over a decade to accumulate enough to consider king pepper to be the primary cause, and it has taken over a decade more for the warnings to be taken seriously.
Scholar's Note  

• Impacted Sense of Taste. The most commonly anticipated symptom of overdosing on king pepper is losing the ability to discern one or more "types" of flavor. Scholars have long since determined there are five general types of flavors, and king pepper overdoses usually "burn out" the ability to discern sweet or salty flavors. This can be a problem, as many common poisons have these flavors when added to food.
  Scholar's Note
  (Scholar's Note: I daresay if they were abusing their tongues to this degree, losing their ability to taste flavor is probably not going to be missed. - J)
• Impacted Sense of Smell. Similar to the loss of taste, the loss of the ability to smell is anticipated - but much rarer. Individuals experiencing this symptom often cannot pick up subtle scents, though it is also possible for a complete lack of sense to happen. While this is obviously socially disruptive, it can be lethal for those who take of adventuring or politicking as a career.
  Scholar's Note
  (Scholar's Note: I hated figuring out this was a symptom and not just because people don't bathe as often in the frontier. - J)
• Impacted Sense of Vision. This symptom is not as widely-known, and not anticipated. It is possible for king pepper to cause eyesight to grow weaker in curious ways. While simply developing what can be called 'far-sight' or 'near-sight' is possible, it is also possible for a complete blindness to develop. For those who have their vision damaged, bright light seems to alleviate this symptom while a lack of light makes it far worse. For those who lose their vision altogether, there has been a reported sense of "grey fog" instead of bright lights.
  Scholar's Note
  (Scholar's Note: The adjective of "bright" is insufficient. We had the afflicted individual prompted to stare directly at the rising sun. - J)
• Impacted Digestive Ability. While this symptom is rarer to anticipate, it is the most commonly attributed damage of eating too much king pepper. It is also the broadest category, as there are several ways "digestion" can be affected. There is an inability to pass solid food, where the individual should be warned this will also alter how often they need to relieve themselves of waste. There is a side-effect where the presence of difficultly-digested foods inducing vomiting after two to eight hours, which does not stop even after the stomach has been emptied. There is an inability to receive nutrition from eating, requiring other means to be nourished. Lastly, and most embarrassingly for the subject, there has been reported a "feeling of burning" when expressing either solid or liquid waste.
  Scholar's Note
  (Scholar's Note: Fifteen volumes of notes on this symptom, and if I close my eyes as someone reads them to me I can vividly remember each instance. And the smell. I almost wish I had inflated the cost of the research. - J)
• Death. In rare cases, any of these symptoms may induce extra complications which cause further symptoms to develop until the body simply stops functioning. Magical assistance has been known to keep death at bay for up to several weeks, but the quality of life is said to be "not worth the expense".
  Scholar's Note
  (Scholar's Note: It should be noted, warning people that king pepper taken in excess may cause death has never gone well. At best it is taken as something said in jest. At worst it is taken as a challenge. I have watched someone informed of this order six platters of "King's Deviled Eggs" which has the highest concentration of king pepper, to get the most spicy kick. I had the displeasure of having to explain myself to several local authorities, who believed it was poison and not just too much king pepper. - J)

  Despite all these symptoms becoming known in the last decade, king pepper remains a common way to add a "spicy kick" to meals. It is widely used among establishments which cannot afford other spices, often as a means to cover the taste of meat or cheese which has gone off. It is said apothecaries and healers have gotten significant amounts of business from adventurers who believed themselves afflicted by curses or poisons rather than bad cooking.
Scholar's Note