The virtue plague is an exsurgent strain that supercharges the brain's mirror neurons as well as greatly increasing human-to-human empathy. The infected are highly empathetic and strict pacifists, and are called the virtuous.
Among themselves the virtuous are extremely tightly bound, with their overactive empathy giving them a sharing of emotions that can almost resemble a group-mind. They maintain constant eye-contact with each other whenever practical, and typically share a mood when together. A constant deluge of stream-of-consciousness conversation is occasionally broken by periods of silence, when words are not needed.
To all others they are seldom seen, isolated, clannish, and paranoid pacifists. The bands of virtuous that form will seek isolated, unclaimed areas to live in, and do not threaten or interact with outside society at all. They will avoid contact with non-infected through any means up to (but not including) violence. If forced to interact with non-infected, they will attempt to due so via text, avoiding voices and face-to-face contact.
The virtuous often also exhibit echopraxia, and will also compulsively mouth words spoken near them.
Mechanics
The virtue plague is a biological strain, infecting biomorphs.
Stage 1: (Initial infection to one week) During the early stages of infection the virtuous become more friendlier, more empathetic, and more social in general.
Stage 2: (One week to two weeks) During this stage the virtuous' mood will begin to become unpredictable while in the company of others, their moods easily influenced. They will begin to seek the company of other virtuous.
Stage 3: (Two weeks+) At this stage the mental transformation is complete. The virtuous will form into tightly-knit communities of several dozen, seeking isolated places where they can live among themselves.
Plot Hook: A recently recovered datastore has information suggesting that this strain is the result of promethean experimentation with the exsurgent virus. It is hypothesized that the prometheans attempted to render the strain benign, but only partially succeeded, The players are tasked with investigating this possibility, with the understanding that the utmost discretion is required, so as not to endanger Firewall's relationship with the prometheans.
Showing posts with label exsurgent strains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exsurgent strains. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
153. Carcossa
Carcossa is one of the most nefarious of exsurgent strains, with no immediate effects and therefore capable of spreading through a population undetected, before spontaneously turning the community into a cult.
Each victim of the strain (usually called dreamers) halts their usual dream activity and begins to dream only one dream, the same every night. Dreamers are typically dissatisfied with their attempts to describe their dreams to others, feeling that key details, moods, and inferred contexts are always lost.
When dreamers meet, they inevitably wish to discuss their dreams, and will sometimes find that their dreams are linked, and that they dream to perspectives of the same scene. Dreamers who have successfully linked dreams begin to hold the conviction that their dreams are fragments of the true world, and that this world is the dream. Compilations of dreams suggest a narrative of an immortal society, fallen past decadence but unable to die. Each dreamer dreams one of the days of the lives of its residents, enacting pointless politics and ritualized betrayals.
The strain is memetic, but how it is spread is an unsolved problem, a fact that causes Firewall no end of worry.
Mechanics
The dream is a memetic strain, spread by basilisk hacks, infecting all humans.
Stage 1: (Initial infection to one month) During this stage the strain is dormant. It can only be detected and treated through psychosurgy.
No effects during this stage.
Stage 2: (One month+) At this stage the dreamer begins to dream their dream. They dream the same dream every night, and will dream no other dreams. The victim is not otherwise effected, and carry out their daily lives as normal.
Victims take 1 SV per day during this stage.
Stage 3: (Upon linking dreams) If the dreamer is introduced to other dreamers, the strain enters its most active phase. Dreamers will often find that their dreams are linked: that another dreamer is dreaming the perspective of one of the characters in their own dreams. Linked dreamers will seek others and often form the nucleus of a cult of linked dreamers. Dreamer cults seed their locations with camouflaged basilisk hacks, the only way the strain is spread.
Victims take 1d10/2 SV per day, gaining disorders that parallel the personalities of the character they dream.
Each victim of the strain (usually called dreamers) halts their usual dream activity and begins to dream only one dream, the same every night. Dreamers are typically dissatisfied with their attempts to describe their dreams to others, feeling that key details, moods, and inferred contexts are always lost.
When dreamers meet, they inevitably wish to discuss their dreams, and will sometimes find that their dreams are linked, and that they dream to perspectives of the same scene. Dreamers who have successfully linked dreams begin to hold the conviction that their dreams are fragments of the true world, and that this world is the dream. Compilations of dreams suggest a narrative of an immortal society, fallen past decadence but unable to die. Each dreamer dreams one of the days of the lives of its residents, enacting pointless politics and ritualized betrayals.
The strain is memetic, but how it is spread is an unsolved problem, a fact that causes Firewall no end of worry.
Mechanics
The dream is a memetic strain, spread by basilisk hacks, infecting all humans.
Stage 1: (Initial infection to one month) During this stage the strain is dormant. It can only be detected and treated through psychosurgy.
No effects during this stage.
Stage 2: (One month+) At this stage the dreamer begins to dream their dream. They dream the same dream every night, and will dream no other dreams. The victim is not otherwise effected, and carry out their daily lives as normal.
Victims take 1 SV per day during this stage.
Stage 3: (Upon linking dreams) If the dreamer is introduced to other dreamers, the strain enters its most active phase. Dreamers will often find that their dreams are linked: that another dreamer is dreaming the perspective of one of the characters in their own dreams. Linked dreamers will seek others and often form the nucleus of a cult of linked dreamers. Dreamer cults seed their locations with camouflaged basilisk hacks, the only way the strain is spread.
Victims take 1d10/2 SV per day, gaining disorders that parallel the personalities of the character they dream.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
127. Driver Failure
"Driver Failure" was the quiet cause of uncounted deaths during the Fall. Today many are still infected, effectively banished from biomorphs, able to live only in unliving synthmorphs.
Driver failure is an entirely information-based virus, capable of infecting any mind. It is capable of spreading through any sufficiently information-dense medium: cyberbrains can be infected by digital variants, but biological brains can only be infected by a basilisk hack.
Although they can carry it, synths and informorphs are immune to driver failure's effects. The easiest treatment, therfore, is to resleeve into a synth or infomorph, although a pacemaker and respiration machine can also keep you alive. These are only temporary solutions, however, as the virus survives the resleeving process, and if the victim ever resleeves into a biomorph they will suffer its full effects. The only real cure is restoration from a pre-infection backup.
Mechanics
Driver failure is an information based strain, capable of infecting all transhuman minds.
Stage 1: (Initial infection to one week) In the initial stage, autonomic control of breathing begins to break down. At first this will manifest as apnea and asthma-like symptoms. Within a couple days, autonomic control will break down entirely, and the victim will have to maintain a constant conscious effort to keep breathing
Victims must make a WIL x 3 test once per day, representing the constant vigilance required to maintain their breathing. If they succeed, they take 1d10/2 SV, if they fail, they roll again. Success on the second test means they have had a close call, and take an additional 1d10 SV. If they fail, they die.
Stage 2: (One week+) If the first week is survived, the virus progresses to the heart. Heart arrhythmias appear, and soon the heartbeat must be consciously maintained, in addition to the breath.
Victims must make a WIL x 2 test once per day, representing the constant vigilance required to maintain their breathing and heartbeat. If they succeed, they take 1d10/2 SV. If they fail, they die.
Plot Hook: On man afflicted with driver failure has lived far longer than any others. He exists in a state like constant meditation, under study on a remote Jovian research station. Firewall has obtained some of his brain scans, and believe he is beginning to manifest gamma-sleights, without any signs of Watts-McLeod infection. The players are tasked with raiding the station and retrieving as much information as possible, up to and including the man himself, if possible.
Notes: Inspired by the terrifyingly real Ondine's curse.
Driver failure is an entirely information-based virus, capable of infecting any mind. It is capable of spreading through any sufficiently information-dense medium: cyberbrains can be infected by digital variants, but biological brains can only be infected by a basilisk hack.
Although they can carry it, synths and informorphs are immune to driver failure's effects. The easiest treatment, therfore, is to resleeve into a synth or infomorph, although a pacemaker and respiration machine can also keep you alive. These are only temporary solutions, however, as the virus survives the resleeving process, and if the victim ever resleeves into a biomorph they will suffer its full effects. The only real cure is restoration from a pre-infection backup.
Mechanics
Driver failure is an information based strain, capable of infecting all transhuman minds.
Stage 1: (Initial infection to one week) In the initial stage, autonomic control of breathing begins to break down. At first this will manifest as apnea and asthma-like symptoms. Within a couple days, autonomic control will break down entirely, and the victim will have to maintain a constant conscious effort to keep breathing
Victims must make a WIL x 3 test once per day, representing the constant vigilance required to maintain their breathing. If they succeed, they take 1d10/2 SV, if they fail, they roll again. Success on the second test means they have had a close call, and take an additional 1d10 SV. If they fail, they die.
Stage 2: (One week+) If the first week is survived, the virus progresses to the heart. Heart arrhythmias appear, and soon the heartbeat must be consciously maintained, in addition to the breath.
Victims must make a WIL x 2 test once per day, representing the constant vigilance required to maintain their breathing and heartbeat. If they succeed, they take 1d10/2 SV. If they fail, they die.
Plot Hook: On man afflicted with driver failure has lived far longer than any others. He exists in a state like constant meditation, under study on a remote Jovian research station. Firewall has obtained some of his brain scans, and believe he is beginning to manifest gamma-sleights, without any signs of Watts-McLeod infection. The players are tasked with raiding the station and retrieving as much information as possible, up to and including the man himself, if possible.
Notes: Inspired by the terrifyingly real Ondine's curse.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
115. Fray
The everyday population may have heard of a TITAN virus inducing the constant effects of the uncanny valley on its victims, and singularity seekers may identify the same virus as a means of ego-loss, transcendence or enlightenment, but few are aware of just how many irreversible insanities and suicides can be traced to fray infections. The virus does not kill directly, but very few egos are capable of withstanding the stress, anxiety and paranoia it produces.
Mechanics
Fray is a digital strain, infecting cyberbrains and infomorphs.
Stage 1: (Initial infection to one week) The sole symptom of the initial stage of infection is a gradual tendency to view all faces and morphs as being in the uncanny valley. At first the effect is subtle, but by the fourth or fifth day all human faces and bodies will evoke disquiet and revulsion, seeming somehow wrong. By the end of the first week even faces glimpsed in clouds and other pareidolia experiences are tinged. Victims will often try to isolate themselves to minimize the effects.
Victims take 1 SV when engaging in social situations in this stage. They may also take 1d10/2 or 1d10 SV when interacting with friends and loved ones, who will seem wrong and alien.
Stage 2: (One week to two weeks) During the second week, the victim begins to experience greater and greater levels of derealization, possibly due to the uncanny valley effect spreading beyond human forms. Victims feel as though their world is becoming strange, alien and subtly malevolent, even though they cannot point to any specific change.
Victims take 1d10/2 SV per day during this stage.
Stage 3: (Two weeks+) By the third week, even the victim's own ego is becoming unrecognizable. The victim begins to experience depersonalization, feeling divorced from their senses and body, feeling as though they are intruders in their own lives, and feeling as though they are not always in control of their actions. Disassociative fugues, temporary amnesia and alien limb syndrome also begin to occur.
Victims take 1 SV per hour during this stage.
Although fray does not kill directly, survival past three weeks is very rare. Those few who have lasted become catatonic, but psychosurgery reveals that their ability to determine where they end and everything else begins has broken down, leading to a sense of ego-loss and transcendence.
Plot Hook: A small singularity seeker cult has become convinced that fray is the TITANs means of inducing enlightenment. Recently they have managed to acquire the strain and have begun experimenting with it. The players are tasked by Firewall with destroying the cult and neutralizing their samples.
Mechanics
Fray is a digital strain, infecting cyberbrains and infomorphs.
Stage 1: (Initial infection to one week) The sole symptom of the initial stage of infection is a gradual tendency to view all faces and morphs as being in the uncanny valley. At first the effect is subtle, but by the fourth or fifth day all human faces and bodies will evoke disquiet and revulsion, seeming somehow wrong. By the end of the first week even faces glimpsed in clouds and other pareidolia experiences are tinged. Victims will often try to isolate themselves to minimize the effects.
Victims take 1 SV when engaging in social situations in this stage. They may also take 1d10/2 or 1d10 SV when interacting with friends and loved ones, who will seem wrong and alien.
Stage 2: (One week to two weeks) During the second week, the victim begins to experience greater and greater levels of derealization, possibly due to the uncanny valley effect spreading beyond human forms. Victims feel as though their world is becoming strange, alien and subtly malevolent, even though they cannot point to any specific change.
Victims take 1d10/2 SV per day during this stage.
Stage 3: (Two weeks+) By the third week, even the victim's own ego is becoming unrecognizable. The victim begins to experience depersonalization, feeling divorced from their senses and body, feeling as though they are intruders in their own lives, and feeling as though they are not always in control of their actions. Disassociative fugues, temporary amnesia and alien limb syndrome also begin to occur.
Victims take 1 SV per hour during this stage.
Although fray does not kill directly, survival past three weeks is very rare. Those few who have lasted become catatonic, but psychosurgery reveals that their ability to determine where they end and everything else begins has broken down, leading to a sense of ego-loss and transcendence.
Plot Hook: A small singularity seeker cult has become convinced that fray is the TITANs means of inducing enlightenment. Recently they have managed to acquire the strain and have begun experimenting with it. The players are tasked by Firewall with destroying the cult and neutralizing their samples.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
74. Crèche
Crèche infestations are one of many reasons salvage teams don't always come back, and the rest keep incendiaries and disassemblers handy. When a team opens a ship or hab filled with soft, white flesh, they throw as much fire, plasma and nanites at it as they have, and run. Those who encounter the beings those masses give birth to are generally either killed, or recruited into Firewall.
The mass of tissue is soft, and yields too easily to the touch. The surfaces are covered in complex ridges, like the gills of fungi. There are sometimes slowly contracting holes, places where the ridges have been pushed apart by something emerging. The mass is largely unaffected by bullets, but area-of-effect weapons, explosives and disassemblers are very effective. Inhalation of particles blown off by weaponry will invariably infect the unfortunate inhaler.
Mechanics
Crèche is a biological strain, infecting biomorphs and pods.
Stage 1: (Initial infection to one month) In the early days of infection, the only symptom is an increased appetite. The victim will begin to gain weight, but not as fat. A new type of tissue is growing throughout the victim's body: a fibrous, pseudo-fungal network grown from hijacked lymph nodes. The infection can only be diagnosed with a tissue sample or detailed medical scan.
Stage 2: (One month to two months) Once the infection has infiltrated the victim's brain, and built a sufficient store of energy and nutrients, it will induce a nesting compulsion in the victim. They will gather as much organic material as they can manage, piling it into a hidden niche. When they are satisfied that they have enough, they will burrow into it. The infection will no longer maintain its host's body, using it and the gathered organic matter as it grows. The growing flesh is a pale, off-white globe, with ridges and valleys tracing its surface.
Stage 3: (Two months+) Once a critical volume (not mass) is reached, the flesh has become a crèche. A simple, but powerful genetic computer, it endlessly recombines the genetic material of its former victim. Any of these combinations that prove viable are gestated, slowly moved from the center of the crèche to the periphery and expelled once mature. The behavior of the beings, like their anatomy, are not consistent, except for basic instincts not to harm the crèche and to bring it organic matter.
The mass of tissue is soft, and yields too easily to the touch. The surfaces are covered in complex ridges, like the gills of fungi. There are sometimes slowly contracting holes, places where the ridges have been pushed apart by something emerging. The mass is largely unaffected by bullets, but area-of-effect weapons, explosives and disassemblers are very effective. Inhalation of particles blown off by weaponry will invariably infect the unfortunate inhaler.
Mechanics
Crèche is a biological strain, infecting biomorphs and pods.
Stage 1: (Initial infection to one month) In the early days of infection, the only symptom is an increased appetite. The victim will begin to gain weight, but not as fat. A new type of tissue is growing throughout the victim's body: a fibrous, pseudo-fungal network grown from hijacked lymph nodes. The infection can only be diagnosed with a tissue sample or detailed medical scan.
Stage 2: (One month to two months) Once the infection has infiltrated the victim's brain, and built a sufficient store of energy and nutrients, it will induce a nesting compulsion in the victim. They will gather as much organic material as they can manage, piling it into a hidden niche. When they are satisfied that they have enough, they will burrow into it. The infection will no longer maintain its host's body, using it and the gathered organic matter as it grows. The growing flesh is a pale, off-white globe, with ridges and valleys tracing its surface.
Stage 3: (Two months+) Once a critical volume (not mass) is reached, the flesh has become a crèche. A simple, but powerful genetic computer, it endlessly recombines the genetic material of its former victim. Any of these combinations that prove viable are gestated, slowly moved from the center of the crèche to the periphery and expelled once mature. The behavior of the beings, like their anatomy, are not consistent, except for basic instincts not to harm the crèche and to bring it organic matter.
Left alone, a crèche's expansion will be limited only by the volume of it's environment and the amount of organic matter it can absorb. A very mature example might fill every square centimeter of a ship or station, packed with the unborn, waiting for there to be enough room for delivery.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
11. Reduction
The reduction strain of the exsurgent virus is a bogeyman among infomorph and infolife communities. It is spread entirely digitally, infecting cyberbrains and informorphs; biomorphs are immune. The virus slowly streamlines the victims' egos, as if the strain were attempting to improve the efficiency of the transhuman mind. In the initial stages, the simplification is subtle, going unnoticed unless deliberately sought out by brainscans or psychosurgery. By the end, however, the ego is so simplified it has scarcely any intelligence at all, and will ultimately disappear completely. Perhaps the most frightening aspect of the strain is that because the victim's self-awareness suffers, they are usually unable to determine that anything is wrong, even as they lose their very sentience.
Mechanics
Reduction is a digital strain, infecting cyberbrains and infomorphs.
Stage 1: (Initial infection to two weeks) In the initial stage, the infection remains hidden. There are no noticeable changes in behavior, although a brainscan or psychosurgey session may reveal anomalies.
Stage 2: (Two weeks to one month) Stage two is entered when the ego has been reduced by ~30%. Throughout this stage the victim will be losing the ability to handle complex abstractions such as non-intuitive mathematics, and the ability to predict and think in terms of hypotheticals. During this stage, the ego should be treated as a beta fork.
Stage 3: (One month to two months) Stage three is entered when the ego has been reduced by ~60%. Throughout this stage the victim will lose the ability to handle any abstractions or metaphors, to clearly distinguish between themselves and others, and to think in terms of basic logic such as cause and effect. The ego's thoughts are intuitive reactions to what is immediately present. During this stage, the ego should be treated as a delta fork.
At the end of stage 3, ~80% or more of the ego has been reduced. The ego is typically catatonic, with low, sporadic brain function. If the ego is kept running past this point, it will disappear entirely by the three month mark.
Plot Hook: Cognite researchers have become interested in Reduction, specifically in the first stage. The fact that the strain can reduce an ego by almost a third with no apparent effect on behavior suggests that the transhuman mind is inherently inefficient. Reproducing the first stage could lead to vastly more efficient cyberbrains and informorphs. An insider tips off Firewall, and the PCs are sent to investigate the program.
Mechanics
Reduction is a digital strain, infecting cyberbrains and infomorphs.
Stage 1: (Initial infection to two weeks) In the initial stage, the infection remains hidden. There are no noticeable changes in behavior, although a brainscan or psychosurgey session may reveal anomalies.
Stage 2: (Two weeks to one month) Stage two is entered when the ego has been reduced by ~30%. Throughout this stage the victim will be losing the ability to handle complex abstractions such as non-intuitive mathematics, and the ability to predict and think in terms of hypotheticals. During this stage, the ego should be treated as a beta fork.
Stage 3: (One month to two months) Stage three is entered when the ego has been reduced by ~60%. Throughout this stage the victim will lose the ability to handle any abstractions or metaphors, to clearly distinguish between themselves and others, and to think in terms of basic logic such as cause and effect. The ego's thoughts are intuitive reactions to what is immediately present. During this stage, the ego should be treated as a delta fork.
At the end of stage 3, ~80% or more of the ego has been reduced. The ego is typically catatonic, with low, sporadic brain function. If the ego is kept running past this point, it will disappear entirely by the three month mark.
Plot Hook: Cognite researchers have become interested in Reduction, specifically in the first stage. The fact that the strain can reduce an ego by almost a third with no apparent effect on behavior suggests that the transhuman mind is inherently inefficient. Reproducing the first stage could lead to vastly more efficient cyberbrains and informorphs. An insider tips off Firewall, and the PCs are sent to investigate the program.
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