Salt Star

In the Barony, and in the world at large, there is a disease that everyone gets at some point their life, and most people get more than once. It's called the Salt Sickness, and no one now remember how it got its name. The symptoms are mild, something like a flu with a high fever, and it is about as contagious as a common cold. Unlike most disease in the Barony, contracting the Salt Sickness is not a big deal.

Each time that you contract this disease, you move a little further into a dreamlike state. Most people get it every 20 years or so; some people more; some people never get it. The long term effects are heightened pattern recognition, periods of gentle mania, and incrtesingly vivid dreams. These symptoms progress further each time that you catch the disease, and the population of the Barony will sometimes talk of 'generations' of the illness. Her behaviour is understandable, she's already four generations deep. 

In already sensitive people, a couple of generations into the Salt Sickness can start to look like schizophrenia. For most people, it is assumed that most old people (since they are likely to have more generations under their belts) will have a more vibrant and active imagination, and a better capacity for image-thought and complex ideation. 

Each time the disease draws further you into the dream, you will perceive a special star in the sky, called the Slat Star, more brightly. The Salt Star is invisible to people who have never caught the illness. Those rare individuals who go fifteen or twenty generations deep will tell you that eventually the Salt Star burns brightly enough in the sky to obscure every other constellation, but people that deep in say many things, many of them impossible. 

All the normal preventative measures that you would take against flu work against the Salt Sickness. 

In game terms:

Symptoms are not severe enough to effect your character's stat sheet. The disease lasts about a week. 

Each year, there is a 1/20 chance that you will contract the illness. The DM will determine when in the year. 

You can catch it from someone else who has it, and all the normal drugs work. The effects only take place if the disease runs its course without the character taking curatives, which will immediately banish the symptoms. 

After the disease has run its course, you lose 1 INT or WIS (roll), and gain 1 CHAR. The change is permanent, and stacks over the course of your life.