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It's October 1347 in the Bustling Port City of Messina in the Kingdom of Sicily.

In a city's harbor, 12 merchant ships arrive after a long voyage from the Black Sea.

A dock worker rushes to greet one of the ships and help unload its cargo.

But as he ventures on board, he realizes something is deeply wrong.

He finds no one aboard.

The dock worker calls out, and eventually a lone sailor comes to meet him.

His face somber, the sailor explains that the mysterious but deadly sickness struck the

crew during their voyage. Guides the dock worker below deck,

where the remaining members of the ship's crew lay shivering and bedridden.

The dock worker recoils as the ill passenger shifts beneath their blankets,

revealing bodies covered in black oozing boils.

As their sores are revealed, the scent of rotting flesh hits the dock worker,

and he stumbles back in disgust.

He's never seen or smelled a sight so gruesome.

As fast as he can, the dock worker flees the ship, and rushes to alert the city's official

of his horrifying discovery. He's confident that the sick arrivals, with their strange black

bumps and odor of death, are a bad omen for the town. And he is correct.

He does not yet understand the extent of the devastation to come. He has no way of knowing

that the ship's mystery illness will soon ravage the entire continent,

...