Ravaged

Consumed by magic and turned into monsters

He didn't even stay in the cloud. The cloud reached him as he was picking something from the floor, and he ran away as soon as it felt the cloud. But it was already too late for him and somehow it was worse for him.

I've seen plenty of people get... destroyed, consumed, changed, by the clouds, but they are fast changes, they barely get to realize what happened. Poor old man had a slow change. He claimed it helped him get ready for dying and to feel at peace by tying up some last minute knots, but I don't think it has been easy nor painless as he claimed.

CW: Body horror

We started calling them Ravaged at one point, I don't know why or who started, but that's what sticked as their names when they changed. They once were people who got in contact with the clouds of feral magic that consumed Lerres. They turned into weird, eldritch, things that barely even looked alive, and attacked anything and everyone. Killing them was mercy.

Transformation

How would I describe it? It's damned quick, I'm not sure most of them even realize what's happening other than possibly unimaginable pain, going off their screams.

Parts of the clouds jumped into the bodies of the affected, as piranhas attracted to blood. These parts are the first to change. They grow, they stretch, they collapse, turn to sand, shrink, get growths like scales or lumps. Some sweated blood, some had all their hair whiten before falling off, some had their skin discoloured and start curling up like bark. It's nasty. These parts quickly expand across their bodies, leaving a barely humanoid small blob.

By then, we hope at least, they aren't alive anymore. They don't seem to feel nor have thoughts other than consuming and destroying. These blobs aren't the monsters we end up with. From the blobs, creatures of nightmares form by molding the blobs to the shape they will end up being and enter again the clouds if they had left them somehow. I don't really know what happens next, the clouds tend to obscure whatever happens, but in a split of a second, the eldritch creature leaps out, fully formed, and will attack whatever and whoever.

The few hours he had left, we kept them as far away from the clouds as possible. Getting close to one of them only made the progress go faster as tiny clouds swam towards him as piranhas smelling blood.

His change was slow, it allowed me to see how the cloud changed his body. Wish I didn't see, being honest, it was horrifying and disgusting. Don't even want to imagine how it must have felt to live through that and see your own body becoming that.

I spent his last hours trying to listen to all he wanted to say and remembering as much as possible. He didn't want compassion, but had a favour to ask and a promise. He demanded me, and made me promise, that I would make a record of his hometown, Lerres, so that it wasn't lost to time. And, he asked a favour, not an easy one: to kill him once he wasn't himself anymore. He didn't want to hurt anyone.

Regardless of him being a ravaged by then, I think I did it as painless and merciful as I was able in the situation. That thing didn't make it easy though, attacking me in the blink of an eye.

Dealing with them

There's no cure. At least, not one easy to figure out and we had it bad enough to even try figuring it out. Killing them was how we dealt them, and it was what we though of it being merciful. It wasn't easy, but we ended up learning enough to survive an encounter with them without having too many injures.

They don't really have many thoughts anymore and that can be used against them. It can't be stressed enough that these things have unnatural speed and strength and should NOT be underestimated yes, I'm thinking of that stupid group of adventurers we had to save up from a group of ravaged.

If they are on you, don't try to kill them alone, run to a group of soldiers or fighters, call for help, don't stop running. If you have magic, use it to boost you and run faster. Try to hide, they aren't smart nor seem to go by smell but sight. Pray to the gods just in case, not the time to worry whether or not they are listening us, just do it if it motivates you.

Best way of dealing with them is when they are entertained destroying thing. Be silent and quick, either an antimagic area around them or cutting off their head should be enough. If they spot you before you can kill them and you don't have a clear shot, focus on crippling them. Don't feel bad, you'll die otherwise. This is the end of the world, we don't really have time to have our feelings freeze us. If you can't avoid that, just stay in groups, hide, and follow orders. Don't get in the middle of a fight and don't be a nuisance.

We aren't sure if it's even useful or helpful, but mages recommend burning whatever's left of them. Some of their bodies end up crumbling or disappearing, but we don't trust the corpses that just... stay there. Don't touch them if you can avoid, it's proobably not contagious, but magic has been so chaotic that it's better not to risk it. Keep a mage with you when killing them, so they can clean off any splashing magic falling on you, burning them without contact, and can try slow down or freeze them for long enough for you to kill them.