CoQ's main quest inevitably forces you to delve into Golgotha (ancient sewers or something like that) to retrieve a broken robot. Black slimes dwell there and they will likely afflict you with "stiff legs". And then after some time your movement speed will start decreasing while your armor will increase.
That kinda sucks. Ironshank maxes out at -80 movement speed penalty - 5 times lower than the default movement speed! Armor bonus is nice but not being able to run away from overwhelming threats is WAY too big of a penalty.
So, after my character contracted the disease, I tried talking to all sorts of NPCs in hope that some will provide a clue. None did. No one at all even mention it. It got on my nerves so I checked the wiki. Aaand there's a book named "Corpus Choliys" that one NPC sells that contains instructions for curing diseases.
....How on Earth should a first-time player know this?.. How do you figure this shit out without looking up a solution? Whatever! I know what to do now! I bought the book and read the page dedicated to Ironshank.
Once the disease is fully blown and the patient begins to lose mobility, gel (made from desalinated amoeba slime) is the only effective treatment I've discovered. The patient should be administered a draught composed of one dram of gel and one dram of wine[1] every day until the leg joints regain their full range of motion.
[1] The game randomly chooses what liquid you need to use. I got the rarest and most expensive one :)
"Gel made from desalinated amoeba slime." Wh- what? I know about amoeba slimes of course, I fought dozens of them at this point, but what does "desalinated" mean in this game? I've never seen a single mention of this in any dialogue or items' description. Not knowing what to do again I looked it up online.
When a desalination pellet is applied to a container of liquid, or thrown into a pool of liquid on the ground, it removes up to 200 drams of salt, leaving behind the remaining liquid.
Interesting. So the game has this item. And one of the NPCs I've met already have these at sale! So, it is my fault in the end? It was me who wasn't paying attention?
No. The mentioned NPC did NOT have desalination pellets on sale. Bottles, liquids and some unidentified artifacts - but nothing with 'pellet' in their name.
I went to Six Days Stilt to see another trader who should sell it. No luck again. Frustrated, I checked the subreddit. And, well...
Bottles, liquids and some unidentified artifacts - but nothing with 'pellet' in their name.
There were indeed these pellets on sale. It's just that the game hid them from me. To make sure I have no hint whatsoever on how to apply the instruction the game so fiendishly hidden away.
Maybe I should read on the ascension kit next while I'm at it hm?
Caves of Qud is my favorite game precisely due to antics like this. I've never beaten it, however.
With adequate preparation and ingenuity you can more-or-less bypass this, and many other, challenges in the game, and it feels so satisfying to pull off.
Fair. I at first too was like "woah, a disease? So dangerous, I wonder how will I remove it."
But having no NPCs react to it and making me read up stuff on wiki and reddit led to my immersion being ruined. I'm okay with goofy games like NetHack doing that but Qud loses something important for me when I have to leave its pixel confines to interact with its mechanics.