Iuri strides up to the fireside in the inn, staff in hand. "So," he begins, and the room falls into a hushed quiet for this latest incarnation of storytime.

"This wasn't something that happened recently. It was a while back, and it'll be a bit of a thing to relay all of it, but I found myself on a cart en route to a town called Harkenvale. The journey started out regularly enough—if you can ignore the sad state of the horse and driver—but as we neared the town, the forest we were passing through became... deader. The leaves didn't have the same vibrancy of green, and a stench permeated the air. The source of the stench soon became clear.

"Bodies along the side of the road. I was with a fairy called Connolly, Tai-Lee, a drow named Minolin, a dragonborn called Flynn, and a sort of snake-like human, Morgana. No sooner had we encountered these bodies, something hit our cart, and we were flung off the road into a forest clearing. A few growls and, lo and behold, wolves.

"I can only guess they had been eating the dead bodies and didn't like our interference, but there was something very clearly wrong with them. They looked alive but rotting. Not in a zombie way quite, but certainly something similar.

"We managed to take them out—wolves are never much of a worry—but after we did, the dragonborn decided these awful-looking wolves looked like good meat. As in, raw meat consumption. Clearly diseased wolves.

"Now, I don't know what kind of food safety you all think purification spells provide, but in no universe should anyone be consuming what is clearly rancid meat. Sure enough, Flynn started acting weird after eating it, and then Connolly decided the best way to figure out what was up was to bite Flynn."

Iuri takes a deep breath, eyes skyward. It's crazy to him to have to explain this to anyone, but here goes.

"There are a lot of things that can cause diseases. Most of these things are tiny, small things, so small you can't see them. Viruses and bacteria. If you get a really, really powerful lens—I'm sure at some point, we can arrange a demonstration—you can see them, but the fact remains they are like little tiny creatures that can get into your blood and organs and make you sick.

"Curative magic is great, but you should not be testing its limits by consuming meat and food that is absolutely and entirely visibly tainted if you do not absolutely have to. For all you know, the bacteria causing the infection won't register as something that can be cured by the magic because it is, in fact, its own lifeform. Can you Cure Diseases to remove a dog or a cat from existence? No? Then don't assume it'll work on a bacterium. It's a tiny, tiny living creature. It may even have some sort of magic resistance. If you don't know, don't push your luck when you don't have to.

"After biting Flynn, Connolly began acting strange, too. We ended up unable to get back to the road somehow, and when we marked the trees, they had a sort of black ichor inside them. Clearly, something was very wrong in this region on a deep, fundamental level.

"We made it to the town, though, and the guard let us in. There were diseased animals inside a barn and a merchant, apparently disease-free, who was asked for information, but he only wanted to barter for it."

Something shifts in Iuri. His hands and jaw tighten.

"I realize some of you—most of you—are new to Luma. I myself am new to Luma. This is a city unlike any other, and I think we're lucky that we've been able to find our way here.

"So if you meet some suspicious, unhelpful merchant who will only give you information if you give him information, maybe don't give him information about the place that's supposed to be a safe haven for all of us. Maybe don't betray the people who live here, who have opened this city to us free of charge, by throwing information around about it to people whose intentions may not be trustworthy. Pick some other information instead!"

It takes a moment for the ire to subside enough for Iuri to continue, the room either somewhat cowed by the lecture or unwilling to press the point with the sorcerer right now.

"Anyway," continues Iuri, glancing to the side a moment, "Flynn at this point chose to go down into the town well. At the time, he said there was nothing down there. This turned out to be a lie. I guess that's another takeaway from the Harkenvale excursion. Don't assume the people who come with you from Luma are people you can trust.

"After that, we went to visit the town doctor, Hargin or something like that. He gave us a list of ingredients to help his work to find a cure to the plague and we left Flynn, who was acting increasingly erratic and seemed to be reacting to the infection much worse than Connolly, in the doctor's care.

"The doctor also provided some clear medical guidance regarding the plague which I will now share with you all.

"I cannot stress enough the importance of this. If you are in a situation where a town is being beset by a literal plague, it's safe to assume normal curative magic won't work on it, because if it did, then there wouldn't be plague. It is therefore important to take nonmagical measures to protect yourself. What do I mean?

"Distance. Infections are much less likely to be able to affect you if you just stay away from people who are infected. Keep at least five feet between yourself and others. Don't eat meat that's visibly contaminated. Don't bite people who are visibly contaminated. And I realize some of you are thinking this is the most obvious, inane piece of advice that could be given right now, but for evidence as to why such advice is necessary, might I point out that two members of the party did exactly that.

"Anyway, there's more to what happened in Harkenvale, but I'll leave it for another night."

With that, Iuri steps down. If nothing else, he hopes his 'layman explanation of germ theory' will stick with some of the adventurers and help them avoid similar trouble in future.