The Taint of Mould
A beast hungrier than the guillotine.
The most ferocious of the Taints, the Black Mould stands out from the others for how far it spreads and how hard it is to kill. It is also the only Taint that can strike not only Savants but ordinary people as well.
The essence of the Black Mould is endless expansion. It is a disease of constantly multiplying diseased tissue, producing spores and raising the chance of infecting new hosts. To some extent, then, the main “motive” of the Taint is survival, and in that respect it is not at all choosy. The dominion of the Black Mould covers almost the entire continent, though over the years its symptoms were often mistaken for other fungal diseases.
At the moment of infection the Black Mould takes root in the internal organs, only later colonising the rest of the sufferer’s body. Once the taint shows on the Savant’s skin, their fate is essentially sealed. The sufferer may rely on a few effective inhibitors, yet the Black Mould has fully earned the name of the Tireless Reaper. As the best-understood Taint, it also remains one of the most dangerous and deadly.
Symptoms
Onset of the Disease
The Taint of the Black Mould progresses extremely quickly, but its first symptoms are surprisingly trivial. The adept is consumed by the taint from within, which shows as intense coughing and spitting up thick, black phlegm. This discharge is a sure sign that the disease is progressing and that spore structures are growing in the adept’s lungs.
In the first stage of the disease, the Savant suffers from recurring coughing fits. They come back regularly and grow more intense with every new pathogen that multiplies.
Taints
