Spirisurge

Spirisurge appears to be solely caused when a mortal eats Liminakl, a form of food manifested by powerful spirits and other undead entities. This food can resemble any kind of dish familiar to the entity, but its taste usually will not be as expected. Instead it will correspond to the spirit's emotions as it manifests the liminakl. For example, if the spirit is obsessing over the memory of a terrible betrayal at a family dinner, it may indeed manifest the aforementioned meal, but the food is likely to be abnormally bitter or tart. However if a spirit is lost in the memory of a picnic with their first love, the manifested liminakl, resembling the picnic food, might be enticingly sweet.   Especially evil and intelligent spirits have been known to deliberately manifest liminakl in the form they believe might tempt a hungry adventurer or unwary enemy, though this level of control over the manifestation is rare.

Initial symptoms appear within twelve to twenty-four hours of the mortal's consumption of Liminakl. The first sign is great fatigue, even after a full night's rest. This fatigue will continue to increase, though frequent rest may slow the onset. Within thirty-six hours, the mortal's irises may become translucent, and their sense of smell and taste will fade, rendering normal food bland and unappetizing. They'll also find that it offers them increasingly less nourishment. In the later stages of the condition, which usually occur within two to three days of ingestion of Liminakl, the mortal's body will experience episodes of substance loss. The person may reach for a glass and find that their hand passes through it, or go to sit on a chair and find it doesn't hold them. Initially these episodes may only last a few seconds, but as the hours pass, they will get longer, and begin to involve the entire body.

Usually within four days, the exhaustion has left the person in a permanent slumber, as their body continues to lose substance. They will gradually become translucent until, within no more than five days, their mortal form becomes purely spirit, though still bound to the material plane.

If the spirit who manifested the Liminakl did so accidentally, or bears the consumer no ill will, the new spirit may retain its own will. However a particularly strong and malevolent entity may deliberately tempt people with liminakl, and bind their spirits to its service after the spirisurge takes effect. In either case, the new spirit is likely to be weak and will struggle to manifest or even hold its form for long periods.

  Warning Those who become a spirit due to spirisurge cannot be resurrected through normal means, as they did not experience death as such, but only a transformation to this immaterial state. They are not ghosts in the strictest sense.

There are only a few known ways to cure spirisurge. Firstly, the condition is almost never curable once the victim has become fully spirit. Prior to this, a powerful cleric may be able to perform a restoration spell that may cure the condition. Strangely, there have also been victims who have petitioned high-ranked devils who have also been cured, though the infernal method of curing the condition is unknown, and it is believed that victims are usually forced to bind themselves to the devil's service in some form in exchange.   Finally, there is a drink served to dao on the elemental plane of earth called Ardemen. It is created from the densest of diamonds found in the impossibly deep fissures and tunnels of that realm, and has magical properties. A sufferer of spirisurge who is able to consume a glass of Ardemen will find their substance rapidly restored. However Ardemen is rare and it can be extremely difficult to persuade a dao to give up such a delicacy, unless the sufferer has something they want.

Sufferers who can access a cure before they entirely lose their substance usually make a full recovery, though it has been known for their eyes to remain permanently translucent, and they may lose some sense of smell and taste. Once a sufferer has fully lost their substance and become a spirit, a cure is very rare, and may require direct divine intervention or a wish spell.

This condition can be avoided if care is taken to avoid consuming unfamiliar food, when one is traveling in an environment with particularly powerful spirits. One warning sign that a food is Liminakl is that if the food is held up in sunlight, there may be patches of translucence, or a grey dust may be seen to crumble from it.

Fortunately Spirisurge is only transmissible through Liminakl, and cannot be transferred to other mortals by other means.