Chapter Three: Mutation
(Special Rules)
I think it wants to spread.
That's the best explanation.
There's no other reason for it to do this to me. Or is it them?
I don't think it spreads just by being near people. I think it's tied to the inside of the body.
To body fluids.
I won't bleed on anyone, so it's making me….
It's doing something to me.
Oh god, I need some help. I have to call Dale.
No.
It has to call Dale. I won't call him. I won't. It can't make me.
It can't.
The infected are no longer human. At least, that's what they like to think.
Spreading the Love
It's possible to transform other individuals into Infected. In order to infect another host, the "parent" host in question must have a Resonance of 3 or higher and spend 1 Willpower dot. Then, of course, the parent must perform the action that spreads the infection, dependent on the vector. The target then rolls Stamina + Resolve. The number of successes achieved on this roll by the victim is the number of weeks it takes for the infection to set in. The parent infected holds no control over the new infected; he or she must seek his own fate.
During this period, the new infected behaves as if he or she has a Resonance score of 5 for the purposes of chimera detection, that is, chimeras seek her out. The character can sense the infected that performed the deed, as well (using the originator's Resonance as a guide). The host responsible for infecting the target can detect the target no matter where he or she is, as long as the target is within a day's walk.
The Society
Since infected organizations aren't populous enough to keep track of new infected that pop up,
Blackout
Sometimes, moments of extreme stress, extreme violations of Fusion, and other situations will trigger a blackout. Blackouts are periods in which the infected experiences gaps of memory, but these gaps do not occur after the fact, and the body does not seem to be idle during these gaps of lost time. In fact, the infected, after experiencing a few blackouts, might find himself with other infected "servants," alone in an alley with fresh blood on her lips, in the middle of a date, awakening in a stranger's home, in the midst of writing something in an unknown language, or in some other situation. In almost all cases, the infected often finds herself in the middle of something she had no idea she was capable of or seems completely out of character. An otherwise moderate character might awake to find himself in the center of debauchery or some other excess, while another party animal might simply be walking in the park.
Characters awakening from blackout together might find stores of ATP gone (or draining, with powers active) and their faces on wanted lists, or find themselves in jail with no explanation for their actions. Blackout is especially common in characters with low Fusion scores. To test for blackout when it's called for, a character simply rolls his Fusion score. Even a single success staves off the blackout. Failure causes a blackout that lasts for a number of hours equal to 10 – the character's Fusion. A blackout "persona" has a virtue and a vice all its own, and may act on either. Players should put those down on their character sheets after their own Virtue and Vice, even if they're not the ones playing their own blackout.
Blackout personas aren't all that smart: they seem to react on instinctive urges, at least, at first. Characters who experience it too often might notice disturbing regularities in their blackout, such as collecting certain types of organ or e-waste, writing the same sentence in that odd language, and so forth. Of course, another infected might find a pile of rat livers waiting outside his home one morning and throw them out, only to discover after a Blackout session he's fished them out of the trash and is busy soldering them to copper wire.
If a player doesn't write down a virtue and vice his damn self, the Storyteller is urged to be fiendish.
Phagomania
Infected need to eat. A lot. Specifically, infected need to eat about three times as much food as a normal mortal or risk Decay.
Decay
Infected whose Fusion drops too quickly, are subject to blackout too often, or don't eat the amount of food they should begin to suffer. The degenerative process that results is called Decay. This state can also be triggered by extreme stress, hefty expenditure of ATP, and use of the Mutation subversion. While suffering from Decay, the infected character's skin bruises, turns green or patchy, flesh sloughs off, hair drops out, and the character's voice even changes subtly. Decay doesn't just have to mean falling apart like a zombie, either (called Degenerative Decay). Mutative Decay causes an infected to grow new features, such as dual-layered fingernails, orifices in strange places, and other such disfigurements.
Extreme stress, lack of food, and loss of Fusion cause Degenerative Decay. When confronted by the situation in question, the infected rolls Resolve + Stamina. A single success mitigates the Decay, but a failure causes one point of bashing damage that cannot be healed through natural or supernatural means. A dramatic failure causes this damage to be lethal.
Note that modifiers a cumulative; a starving infected character who loses a dot of Fusion because he did something wildly against his Virtue or Vice suffers a -4 penalty to the roll to resist Degenerative Decay.
Situation Modifier
Loss of Fusion -2
Lack of food -1 per day
Stress involving Virtue/Vice -1
Recovering the damage caused by Degenerative Decay can be recovered by an expenditure of 5 ATP per point of bashing damage it has caused. If the damage has converted to lethal damage, it costs 10 ATP to recover.
Use of the Mutation subversion, ATP expenditure, and stress all trigger Mutative Decay.
The Good Stuff
All infected share a few blessings despite their condition
Enhanced Metabolism and Senses
Infected can eat almost anything organic. Slime-covered broccoli and half-rotten steaks are no problem. In addition, the infected character's sense of taste is greatly altered to actually enjoy this sort of sustenance. The mutated flesh of chimeras has a wonderful bouquet and even the flesh of human being smells sweet and delicious. The infected can see colors she couldn't before, feel touch sensations more intensely, and pick out sounds from all around; this doesn't afford many direct bonuses other than being able to stomach some nasty food and a +2 bonus on all Perception tests due to enhanced senses of smell, taste, and hearing. On the plus side, the infected character gets to add an additional +1 to ranged combat rolls if she takes a turn to aim and can ignore up to 2 points of penalties due to darkness or foggy conditions. These bonuses disappear if the character uses a scope of any sort.
Infected Derangements
Infected can suffer from unique derangements, in addition to the normal ones that mortals can experience. Some of these are listed below.
Dissociation (Mild): The host begins to believe that the pathogen is in more control than it possibly could be, or that he or she is controlled directly through some means other than her own mind. The character doesn't mind; in fact, far from it. He likes the idea. It means he doesn't have to make his own decisions, and indeed, doesn't. This can cause an emotional disconnect from the world, as the infected character ceases to believe himself responsible for his own actions, and argues vehemently that it isn't his or her fault.
Blackout Human Syndrome (Major): The infected believes he or she is the pathogen, and the personality that emerges during blackout is the original human inhabitant of the body. In this scenario, the human is possibly an enemy, a friend, or something to be suppressed. In extreme cases, the infected believes herself above the law, the law being a "human institution." In all cases, the infected believes that the strange writing, odd pictures, and nervous tics inherent to all infected to be attempts by the human personality to re-assert control and visibly becomes annoyed or angry at these actions; the host also often creates a new name for herself, often from folklore or a random string of letters.
Alien Hand Syndrome (Mild): The character's non-dominant hand begins to move by itself. Not dangerously or outright maliciously, but it acts according to the blackout persona's virtue and vice. For example, a "charity hand" may be prone to giving things to others out of the character's pocket while a "glutton hand" may seek to stuff food into the character's mouth. Otherwise, the hand may simply wander and explore the surroundings and perform utilization behaviors. Social skill penalties may apply.
Alien Ambulation Syndrome (Major): The character can't sit still. His eyes wander, he refuses to sit in one spot even if he wants to, and picks up and handles everything. This is, in effect, a more severe version of alien hand syndrome. Even when trying to hold a conversation, he may walk away and look at something unrelated, fail to maintain eye contact, or display incorrect body language.