In the early days the expedition force to Moonshadow was entirely composed of noble minded volunteers; men and women who desired naught but to serve their king. The first to return home showed no outward signs of malignancy; yet, within a year, all who had crossed the portal were dead, rotted away to naught but foul corpulence within. Realisation dawned: there were some 87 surviving Moonshadow veterans among our people and a further complement of 150 within the fort.
In light of this morbid discovery, all new missions through the portal were suspended until a cure could be devised. Those already there were to have their tour of duty extended indefinitely, while their families were fallaciously informed of their demise.
All our attempts to halt the progress of the steady corruption in the veterans failed horribly. One by one they dwindled; first to 54, then to 28 before finally only 7 were left. It was at this point that one of the remaining survivors elicited to return to Moonshadow, his desire to die fighting was admirable and thus granted immediately on the proviso that he mentioned naught of his condition to those already station within the accursed fort.
Hours after stepping foot on Moonshadow his symptoms ceased to develop and, while they did not reverse, they did not develop further. When offered a return to Moonshadow the other 6 opted for a slow rotting death, refusing ever to set foot again upon that cursed nighted sphere.