What are Sand Lice?
Sand lice are parasitic creatures that thrive in the deserts of Tryne. They burrow through the sand during the day, and are attracted to the body heat of animals, and sometimes kaasht, at night. The insects bore into their prey after injecting an anesthetic into the entry site. The animal is slowly eaten away form the inside out, non-essential organs and tissues are targeted first, to keep the host alive and fresh for as long as possible. The victim often doesn't realize he or she is infested until it is too late, as the sand lice keep the victim numbed to the pain of being eaten. The last tissues to be eaten are the brain, spinal cord, lungs and heart. The lice then leave the desicated husk to look for another host.

What are the symptoms?
The victim will first find a small, but deep bite, the entry wound, which is oddly painless. As the sand lice's anesthetic takes hold, the kaasht will be in a constant state of contented bliss, and will lose it's pain reaction to injuries. Often the victim will become totally unable to experience pain or fear. As internal organs are consumed, the afflitced individual may bleed from various orafices, such as eyes, ears, nose and *ahem* other openings. The bleeding may be sluggish and barely noticable, or profuse and a rather disturbing sight. Finaly, as the creatures bore into the kaasht's brain and vital organs, the kaasht will go completely insane, experience seziures, asphyxiation, and/or heart failure

How is it spread?
Sand lice do not jump from one host to another, only leaving their current host after it has died. A kaasht can only contract sand lice by sleeping on sand in the desert without a Ward set up

Where is it found?
In sand-covered areas in the desert, and occaisonally on very hot sandy beaches.

How can it be prevented?
By not sleeping on sand in the desert, or by setting up a simple Ward when sleeping thusly is unavoidable.

How is it treated?
The kaasht can rid itself of the parasites by using an ability to make themselves insubstantial (eg Sand Kaasht), and the lice merely fall out of the host. However, this does not always cure the kaasht, as the creatures may have already eaten too much of the kaasht's insides. A Gold kaasht can heal the wounds caused by the feeding of the sand lice, depending on how far gone the disease is, and how powerful the Gold kaasht is.

What are your chances of getting it?
Next to nothing outside of the desert, and rather rare in careful Desert kaasht. Chances are perhaps 1 in 150.