The symptoms were quite bizarre. Involuntarily, individuals would pick up a quill and use whatever writing materials were at hand to copy this message. They would then stuff it into an empty Rum bottle and toss it into the sea.
They had never learned the Runes, yet they wrote them with apt precision. Furthermore, they didn't need to dip their quills in ink; their own blood would automatically flow to the tip, enabling them to write.
The more times the message was copied, the more frenzied their minds became.
This was undoubtedly a special type of memetic influence: one that achieved mental contamination through imitation and was particularly adept at disseminating information.
Byron didn't allow his crew's condition to worsen; merely a drop of the Blood of Transformation was all it took to save them.
