A page from the journal of Ichabod Shaw
Days of interviewing the locals and dozens more games of draughts with Zadok have reaped some reward. This Dancing Plague, if it happened at all, happened long ago. Time is a tricky thing to track here. The details vary from mouth to mouth. All agree that a great many died. Some even suggest their exhausted bodies died permanently.
Some think the plague a punishment. These fertile lands saw endless war and strife by those who wished to control it. It is thought the land eventually had enough.
This is all connected to a very loose myth cycle of a figure known as the Queen in Emerald, also called the Verdant Spirit and the Music that Eats. Opinions vary whether this is meant to be an actual entity or simply the madness of the dancing given allegorical form, a shape seen in the delirious ecstasy.
Only a portion of the community believe in any of this, and they think we should enjoy the bounty of the land very quietly.
-Ichabod Shaw