Grey Pox

Fringe Folk prefer the simple life of hunting and foraging for their survival, and the first thing any young Folk learns from his or her mother or father is that whatever the situation may be, one should never linger in the Death's Head Orchard for long. Those who do, risk shedding their humanity and eloping into the forest, never to be seen again, at least not as a human. This condition has been dubbed the Grey Pox, as the first visible symptom of the infection is a deathly pallor, causing the infected to take on a dry, ashen appearance.
 

Symptoms

Those stricken with the Grey Pox begin to feel an irresistible need to journey into the Black Forest as their flesh loses its vital color. This call originates from the Funereal Manor, the foreboding, dilapidated abode of the Ashen Baron that inexplicably moves from place to place within the outer regions of the Black Forest, never staying in one place for long. The sufferers enter the manor and do not come out until it is time for a Wake of Embers (as the church has dubbed them), an occult event during which the Faltered, skeletal warriors hellbent on journeying towards the Heart of Hate and razing every Folk homestead they might stumble upon, emerge from the manor.
 

Infection

The exact method of infection is unclear, but theories set forth by researchers of the Enlightened Few posit that it is possible that the Grey Pox is not a disease at all, but rather the magical removal of the very essence of the victim, which is whisked away into the manor. This separation then compels the physical body to seek out what has been taken from it, shambling towards the manor in hopes of retrieving it. One shudders to think that the Baron could be capable of such evil.