I'd geared up pretty decently, but decided to visit the city of Six Day Stilt to really get ready for the adventures I knew were coming. I knew it to be full of merchants, as well as many strange creatures/animated doorways the Mechanimists had converted to their religion. Luckily those strange creatures are all friendly as long as you're not hostile towards them/their faction. I also managed to find some better weapons. Then I found a shack where several converts were hanging out, including a large mushroom who greeted me by throwing spores all over me and its allies. I got back out before I died, the rest did not (although the killed the mushroom before dying in the cloud of deadly spores). As I left the city, I received the message: "You have contracted fickle gill in your left arm."
So now I had a difficult-to-cure fungal infection that shoots spores all over if I get hit in combat, trying to infect me further and everyone else as well. I did the only reasonable (well, not really) thing, and headed to the ape village of Kyakukya, looking for the cure even though I wasn't ready for the journey yet. Further fungal infection would reduce my ability to wear armor and wield weapons, so I needed to get there before things got dire. Not surprisingly, I got lost in the jungle on the way there. And some goatfolk found me. I ran, occasionally thrown forward by the explosions from their sower's seeds, and may have escaped if I hadn't run into a group of Napthaali tribesmen looking for a hunt.
Caves of Qud.