Ospa

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Likhoradka, Ospa

Auntie Pox; the Speckled Monster

The ospas are the likhoradka of pox, of all kinds. From the merciless small pox that has killed millions of innocent primes over thousands of years, to the virulent great pox that punishes the lusty, a visit from Auntie Pox promises sickness, contagion, and death. Amongst all the likhoradkas, she is one of the most feared. She takes the form of an elderly woman with horrifying pustules in place of eyes. She appears to be stooped with age, or malice, though there is truly nothing frail about her. Her skin is papery and blotched, her fingers knotted. Her most horrifying feature is her face though: where her eyes should be, there are pustules, swollen and glistening, as though the disease has eaten through sight and replaced it with its own terrible blossoms. Ospas might pretend to be blind, to lure the gullible-hearted close, but they can see perfectly well without eyes.

An ospa usually smells of old bedding, fever sweat, and soured milk left in the sun. Their voice is a wet whisper, usually accompanied by a damp cough. An ospa can exhale a foul miasma of infection—a choking spray of disease-laden sputum that feels hot on the flesh. Those struck directly by such a hacking cough attack bear the first signs quickly, and the illness the ospa carry is highly contagious among humanoids. The disfiguring pox takes effect with terrifying speed and is quite deadly, however it affects only cutters she can get to. More insidious, and more dangerous to societies as a whole are the contagious diseases she can also spread. These aren’t useful in combat, but for long term impact and disfiguration, the ospa’s plagues are hard to beat. Ospas are the vector of choice for the yugoloths too—see the conspiracy theory on the Pox Exchange for more.

Unlike other likoradkhas, ospa do not have any known crippling weaknesses—or if they do they’ve kept them well-guarded—which is partly why they are so dangerous. However, if a cutter has been affected by one of an ospa’s poxes and recovered, chant goes they are very unlikely to be infected again by any ospa. Unfortunately, that immunity does not extend to disease caused by other likhoradka. Ospas hate this small mercy. They compensate by returning to a burg again and again every few years, searching for those who escaped her pox the first time.

Ospas are spreaders of household ruin. They prefer towns, camps, tenements, and any place where cutters crowd together and touch the same cups, doors, blankets, and children. They are especially fond of the frightened, because frightened berks gather close to one another and make infection easier. Unlike some of the other likhoradkas, ospas do not need dramatic theatrics. They need only one cough in the right room, one hand laid on the wrong shoulder, one child infected and sent home to their mother, before the rashes appear.

Sources: Margarita and Jon Winter-Holt. Margarita notes: The likhoradkas are a homebrew fiend race, inspired by the eponymous disease-riddled spirits of Slavic mythology. While based on Slavic folklore and beliefs, the amount of actual information we have on pre-Christian Slavic deities is so minuscule that building any kind of lore out of it is impossible. However, there are a lot of folk beliefs about things these deities are thought to represent, which I have worked into the piece.