Taint

This is a magical effect that behaves like an infection and appears like writhing gray or black worms (similar to the demons in Princes Mononoke). In its normal form it is only subtley visible with detect magic. It becomes obvious in a process that resembles shedding a skin when a fully infected individual is sufficiently wounded. The process of infection is accelerated by strong emotions and the infection seems to destroy memories. The party has discovered that both 'break enchantment' and 'remove curse' will remove the infection from a creature, even after full infection has set in. It appear that a victim that has 'shed their skin' will be completely destroyed by this, though.