Beginning of game, can't cure Strange Illness?

[TrueMenace]

Just got the springberries, but I'm still affected by the "Strange Illness" injury at the beginning of the game?

[Merina]

The berries are just ingredients for the cure ... which somebody else from the caravan would create for you, if they got the chance to do that. So, no, that won't happen. Eeventually you will need to rest to be cured.

[PugPug]

They say you need the berries and the water to make a medicinal tea. Don't worry about it, though. The sickness debuff goes away later without you doing anything (don't even need to rest). Pretend your character made the tea and drank it, if you like.

[HawkSoft]

It's a scripted affliction that goes away as you progress the early quests.

 

Seems a bit tough on new players, be interesting to see what their reaction is.

[Harry Easter]

Well, iIrc, it was more like diarrhea. So you could say, it was just a joke from the developers, to get you into the tutorial. 

[Skladzien]

It was added in last patch. Before there was no Strange Illness

[Heijoushin]

Interesting. That's always been kind of a plot hole really. Your character never actually gets a chance to make his tea.

[PrimeJunta]

Interesting. That's always been kind of a plot hole really. Your character never actually gets a chance to make his tea.

Yeah I always wondered about that. Game starts off with you have dysentery basically and then goes "NVM you're a Watcher actually."

[Miquel93]

 

Interesting. That's always been kind of a plot hole really. Your character never actually gets a chance to make his tea.

Yeah I always wondered about that. Game starts off with you have dysentery basically and then goes "NVM you're a Watcher actually."

 

 

I don't know if it's explicity stated somwhere, but I think the reason for the illness is that the watcher's soul is trying to "meet" with Thaos. Souls with unresolved business try, unconciously, to resolve said business. The illness is a reaction of the watcher's soul because Thaos is nearby, to try to make him stop and with luck meet him.

 

Either that or the Biawac trying to pull your soul from your body manages to cure it.

[PrimeJunta]

I can make up ex post facto rationalisations as well.

 

They did say it's the rumbling rot and can be cured with springberries though, and that was that.

 

It is true though that whenever my soul wants to resolve unfinished business, I get the runs also. Stupid souls.

[FlintlockJazz]

It probably takes a while for the tea to take effect, and was more to settle down a 24-hour bug than to actually cure it.  The caravan master says you'll be fine as long as you keep drinking anyway, further evidence in my mind that it's just gastric flu.  Calisca and Heodan both probably died because they caught your bug and shat their innards out while unconscious...

[house2fly]

They said based on your symptoms it sounds like rumbling rot, but in retrospect I definitely think it was the character's soul stirring at being near Engwithan ruins. Iirc there's a similar description of feeling sick when you meet Thaos in the Sanitarium, and if the Mysterious Illness goes away when you witness the ritual at Cilant Lis then that would pretty much confirm that was their intent.

[Miquel93]

I can make up ex post facto rationalisations as well.

 

They did say it's the rumbling rot and can be cured with springberries though, and that was that.

 

It is true though that whenever my soul wants to resolve unfinished business, I get the runs also. Stupid souls.

Well, I said I didn't remember any clarification from the game, I just thought that I could add my two cents to it, as it's something that came up to me replaying the game.

 

The illness is "supposedly" rumbling rot, Odema isn't sure and just speculates with the symptoms you're having. They even called it strange illness in this new injury they added in partch 3.0 instead of rumbling rot.

 

And you're most likely making a joke, but obviously I was talking of the souls according to lore. 

[house2fly]

There's a cyclopedia entry on the strange illness it turns out:

[anameforobsidian]

"Doesn't feel like any sickness you've had before" certainly seems to point to a soul thing.

Edited February 21, 2016 by anameforobsidian

[why]

NIce catch, but they probably should have broadcasted it a little more clearly.  That description alone puts the question to bed, but it's buried in the journal.  I recently started another run and I wondered about the strange illness thing, but it went away and I wasn't worried.  Part of me thinks it's a flaw but I also think that we've stopped relying on our own imaginations to fill in the gaps.  It used to be that you'd encounter something like this and remain unfazed because you could rationalize the issue internally after the fact with a few logical assumptions.  It's kind of what Prime dude says up above, only I took his statement as somewhat critical (not to put words in your mouth) whereas I see it as a useful characteristic in order to be able to enjoy a game without getting into fights about some tiny detail destroying your 'immersion.'

[Faerunner]

Yeah, it always bothered me that the game starts with you being sick, then you never take any steps to heal, then it's just never brought up again. I mean, the caravan master identifies it as the Rumbling Rot, which he warns will kill you in less than a day if you don't drink water. But then you go through all that excitement without getting a chance to drink any water or make your tea, then after witnessing that ritual they just kind of drop it and never bring it up again.

 

If the strange illness is actually your soul stirring because it senses something afoot, that makes way more sense... and I kinda wished they'd hint that before. It actually would have saved me a lot of confusion and puzzlement.

[Nonek]

You've all got it wrong, the whole game is a fever dream of the protagonist, none of his adventures really happened. In Poe 2 the protagonist will awaken in the Engwithan ruins, his fever broken, with Heodan and Calisca watching him shiver by the campfire.

[why]

You've all got it wrong, the whole game is a fever dream of the protagonist, none of his adventures really happened. In Poe 2 the protagonist will awaken in the Engwithan ruins, his fever broken, with Heodan and Calisca watching him shiver by the campfire.

You jest, but I would get an immense kick out of that! hehe  Of course, then the devs will endure relentless griping for doing it.