Wednesday, April 8, 2015

98. Vitiate

The left-handed and right-handed ecosystems of Chimeran life are, most often, so different as to be irrelevant to each other. Left-handed organisms generally cannot feed on right-handed, and vice-versa. There has been enough evolutionary time, however, that some specialists exist who cross these boundaries. Some right-handed insect-equivalents have developed prions as a defense against left-handed prey.

The vitiate prion interferes with red blood cells, bonding with them and prevents them from carrying oxygen, as well as infiltrating the production of new blood cells, causing all new blood cells to be made with bonded prions. Infected animals slowly experience blood-loss, eventually dying of oxygen deprivation.

Mechanics

Vitiate is a toxin affecting biomorphs. [High]

Characters that have ingested vitiate prions appear healthy for ~36 hours. From that point forward, they will lose one point of SOM per hour as their blood degrades. If their SOM reaches 0, they die.

Characters with medichines will receive an immediate warning of infection, and double time spans (they are healthy for 72 hours, and lose 1 point of SOM every 2 hours). Morphs with respirocytes are immune.

Plot Hook: So far the fact that vitiate must be ingested has prevented infection of the researchers and explorers of Chimera. Recently, however, a Triad boss was poisoned, with symptoms most consistent with vitiate ingestion. He hires the players to confirm that he was killed by vitiate, and then determine how the prions were transported from Chimera, and why.

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