LEPERS By James B. Agle (agles@k2.kirtland.cc.mi.us) History Gideon Ruiz was a brilliant biochemist living in Miami and working for a major medical research corporation. He was young, ambitious, and remarkably talented, and his colleagues knew it was only a matter of time before he caught the attention of the corporate owners and was moved on to bigger and better things. They were right. MedTech Research Unlimited was owned, through dozens of other corporations, by an ancient and powerful Ventrue named Javier. One night, the elder was strolling along the beach, watching the way the moonlight shined on the blood slowly seeping from his arm. His meal that night had been a young gang member, and the morsel had managed to wound him. No small feat, that. Javier stared into the silver-lit blood, and mused how odd it was that one drop of this substance could so change a person. He determined to discover exactly what properties vampiric blood had that modern science could discern. Two months later, Gideon arrived at his lab to find a refrigerated blood sample, and a note from the higher-ups telling him to see what he could learn about it. The young chemist thought that he was being tested for possible promotion, and, in an odd sort of way, it turned out that he was. Weeks went by, and he was amazed at what he had. He sent requests for more sample to work with, as he needed to run more exacting tests, and more samples were sent. That it was blood could not be disputed. Closer examination proved that it was human blood, but every DNA scan Gideon ran came up with a different gene pattern. It was as if someone had taken blood samples from ten or twenty different people and mingled it, but then, if they had done that, wouldn't the samples die? Blood type tests revealed an impossible result, that being that the blood was Type A+, A-, O, B-, and AB- all at once. Further samples sent from the corporate owners revealed different blood types, but always at least three varying types per sample. What's more, none of the differing samples were even trying to reject each other. The red blood cells would, after twenty or thirty hours at room temperature, begin to slowy break down. The white blood cells were positively creepy. Gideon found that they were between ten and fifteen hundred times more powerful than normal human cells. In fact, in one test he added a large dose of salt to a sample, an act that would normally kill every cell in the solution. Instead, the white cells formed a barricade and kept the other cells safe, seemingly immune to the salt themselves. The salt was actually forced to the top of the solution and not permitted to diffuse at all. And where were the antibodies? There should be at least a few. But no matter what disease he added to the samples, the mysterious blood either destroyed the infection outright, or the virus would die itself for no discernible reason. He exposed the blood to every harmful effect he could come up with for days, including radiation, and nothing except open flame had any effect whatsoever. The flame had been odd, though. The blood itself had started to burn. In the end, it was an accident that revealed the truth to Gideon. A temp was called in to replace a sick secretary at the lab one day, and, overeager to get to work, any work, the young lady was driving way too fast as she arrived. The amphetamines she took that morning to help herself wake up didn't help much, either. Nor did the fact that her ancient Buick had needed new brakes two thousand miles ago. Bottom line, she crashed into the building, destroying quite a lot of Gideon's ground-floor lab, and spilling fresh morning Florida sunshine onto Gideon's samples. The fire nearly destroyed the lab, and Gideon was there to see it all. Mrs. Ruiz hadn't raised many stupid children, and within four weeks of intensive work, Gideon realized what it was he had. The home office was supplying him with Vampiric blood. Adding samples of fresh blood to the mystery blood proved it, at least in Gideon's mind. The new blood was absorbed, consumed, and within seconds came to resemble the original sample. When he filed the report to the home office, they scoffed at his results, and were infuriated that they had been paying him for the last two months to make up lies, or to make such stupid errors with his work. He was summarily fired. Two weeks later, a copy of Gideon's report came to Javier's hands. Javier was amazed at what he read, and at the insight shown by this mortal. The Ventrue was on his private plane and winging his way to Miami within an hour. Once ensconced at the Miami Majestic Hotel, it was a simple enough matter to Summon the chemist to him, and the two of them spoke for hours. Before dawn, Gideon was rewarded for his fine work by receiving the Embrace. Javier was so impressed by Gideon that he embraced him himself, granting him the honor of standing among the ranks of the sixth generation. Javier was himself fifth. Years went by, and Javier, annoyed by the regular incursions of Sabbat into the city, returned to Madrid. Gideon chose to stay. He was now a wealthy man, a gift from his sire, and owned the very company that so recently had fired him. He continued his research in the medical field, but for new reasons now. His particular feeding requirement was that his prey had to be sick. Ill. Diseased. And it sickened him to be so dependent on such a demeaning prey requirement. And so he sought a cure. Not for disease, and not for the need for such blood that existed in him, but for vampirism. He sought to find a way to restore his vampiric blood to its former human state. Finally, five years later, in 1991, he thought he had succeeded. The trick was to overwhelm the vampiric blood's resistance to outside influences, to make it burn out everything it had just to survive. Done properly, it should leave him mortal once more. Several doses were tried, Gideon injecting himself full of every noxious and dangerous substance he could think of. Perhaps it was his own Fortitude that proved is downfall. Perhaps it was the fact that he seemed to thrive on disease that foiled his attempt. Perhaps he just goofed. Either way, he found his vampiric threshold for disease, and exeeded it. The result wasn't a cure, but a new and terrible infection. And not just an infection of the blood, but of the soul. He had made two progeny, both at his sire's request, and at the same time he was transfigured, so were they. Gideon was remade as the incarnation of Disease, a walking infection. He suffered the symptoms of dozens of diseases, ranging from the common cold to leprosy, changing constantly, cycling through some bizarre pattern. Worse, whenever he fed, and he no longer needed to feed on the sick, the mortal he drank from caught whatever disease he was suffering from at the time. Other kindred shunned him, and laughed at the formerly proud Ventrue, now a sniffling, sneezing, runny-nosed freak. His own sire rejected him, saying "I don't know what you've done to yourself, or to your progeny, or how you accomplished it. Nor do I care. Until you cure yourself of this 'embarrassment' you are no longer Ventrue. Begone, foul Leper." And so he was outcast. Worse than Caitiff. He was forced to flee Miami, since his former fellows in the Camarilla would no longer protect him from the Sabbat. And the Sabbat feared and loathed him just for existing. Vampiric disease in any form is anathema to them, and they did all they could to destroy him. It is a credit to Gideon that he managed to escape at all. Nobody knows where he resides now, but in the last five years, Lepers have been seen all over Europe and the Americas. They seem to be searching for a cure, and at least one rumor states that they seek the Salubri, hoping that if there are any left, they may be the Lepers' salvation. Nicknames Pusbags, Sickies, Snotmen, Sneezers, etc. Appearance Not pretty. Most Lepers are men, in their mid-thirties, although this isn't always the case. They can be male or female, young or old. Whatever else they are, they are sick. Know a Leper by his runny nose, his puffy eyes, raspy throats, fevers, sneezing, coughing, rashes, cold sores, and all the myriad symptoms of disease. Curiously, most Lepers seem to possess the merit Baby Face, as coughing wouldn't really be a problem when you don't breathe anyway, and fevers wouldn't inconvenience one with no body temp. Haven Any place where they can look for a cure. Some follow evangelical circuits, others lurk about in hospitals. Still more seek out gypsies or psychic healers. And still more just find a place they can be left alone in their misery. Background In life, nearly every Leper was a healer of some kind. Doctors, faith healers, herbalists, accupuncture specialists, and so forth, and so on. Other cases exist when the neonate was a cruel monster who rejoiced in spreading disease like one deviant freak who infected a blood bank's supply with HIV. It seemed poetic justice to have him suffer endless disease as his punishment. Now his only hope is to join the others in the search for a cure. Character Creation Mental Attributes are almost always primary. Common knowledges include Medicine, Chemistry, Herbalism, and even Occult. Many have three or four dots in Generation, as their founder was Sixth Generation and they've only had two years to spread. It also helps if the new Leper has a strong will, as he could face centuries of bleary eyes and an eternity of laryngitis. Clan Disciplines Dominate, Fortitude, Pestilence Weaknesses Disease plagues the Lepers the way madness follows the Malkavs. Not only do the poor souls constantly suffer from the disease (-1 to all social rolls), but they spread their illness to whomever they feed on. All have the Flaw: Disease Carrier. Eighth Generation Lepers and above transmit whatever illness they are suffering at the time, Ninth and lower have one particular disease they transmit, although their own symptoms will still vary from day to day. These cases are rarely fatal, unless too much blood is taken. It's hard to fight off pneumonia when you're three pints low. For this reason, many lepers tend to feed on the terminally ill, granting them the release they crave. The Sabbat fear and loathe everything they've heard of this bloodline, and actively seek them out to destroy them, each war party knowing that if they are infected, they are not to return. The Tremere have argued to the rest of the Camarilla that these kindred endanger them all, their spreading of disease a danger to the Masquerade. Organization Lepers maintain contact with their sires, and report to them any possible cures they have found, and whatever results they find in their experiments. In this way, should a cure be found, it will work its way up the ladder to Gideon, and when he is cured, it should cure them all. What happens to them then is anyone's guess, but they agree that it can't be worse than what they have now. Stereotypes Mortals: We understand suffering as few others can. If it is ever in our power to ease ones suffering, it is our duty to do so. If that means ending their lives, when there is no hope for them, then so be it. Assamites: There's a rumor going around that Javier hired one of these Arabic-type killers to go after Gideon a while back. (sniff.) Same rumor says Gideon sent him back to Saudi with a nasty case of MS. As long as they leave us alone, we're happy. Brujah: If anybody really deserves migraines, these punks do. The old ones are okay, though. Caitiff: More outcasts. They're okay in my book. Followers of Set: Never met one. I've heard they're into corruption, though. Bet they'd love me, eh? (achoo!) Giovanni: One of these once ripped my soul right out of my body. And I was so glad my soul wasn't sick too, I was crying for days. Yeah, they're creepy, but so what? At least they don't try to fake sympathy. Malkavian: Don't get me started. (hack, cough) They make no sense; they can't offer any real help, and if you don't piss 'em off, they leave you alone. So don't worry about 'em. Nosferatu: Damn, but I like these guys. They know what it's like to be outcast and reviled, you know? And nobody's better at helping you find equipment you need. (snffle sniffle snort) Excuse me. And when you really need a place to lay low, ask a Nos. Ravnos: Bastard took my wallet. I see him again, I give him shingles. Salubri: I've heard they had healing powers. God, I'd sell my soul to find one. Toreador: (Wachoo!!) The Nos are right; they're too prissy for words. A little mucus and they treat you like, well, like a leper. Sheesh. Tremere: Oh, you mean the clan that wants to see us all killed just because we're sick? The clan that slaughtered the only kindred who may have been able to help us? The clan that has access to all sorts of (cough, cough, cough) all sorts of magical secrets and shit but won't help just a little? Love 'em. Oh, yeah. Cancer's too good for 'em. Ventrue: Mister, I am a Ventrue. I'm a little under the weather, that's all. When I get better, you'll see. They'll take us back. You'll see. Pestilence Description Pestilence is a discipline that taps into the nature of sickness and disease. A brave Caitiff once took a chance and let a Leper instruct him in the use of Pestilence, to see if the state of constant illness was a side-effect of the discipline. The Caitiff learned the ability, and to this day, he remains healthy. If this discipline seems too powerful, or too unbalancing for your campaign, then replace Pestilence with Obfuscate and use the Lepers that way. * Strengthen the Sickness The Kindred can sense the presence of illness of any sort, and knows some of the particulars of the disease, such as what symptoms it induces, whether it will permanently disable the sufferer, how long it will take to run its course, etc. In some cases, the Leper may be able to reach out and amplify those diseases found, making them stronger. Or, should no diseases be found (a very rare thing indeed) he may choose to weaken a human's immune system, making him more susceptible to infection. System: The Leper rolls Perception + Medicine, against a difficulty that varies depending on how subtle the disease is, Storyteller's discretion. The Common Cold would be a diff. 4, while a Progenitor virus with an incubation time of ten years would require a 10. The number of successes rolled indicates the amount of information learned. One success just lets the Leper know what the illness is, and so on. In case of multiple diseases, the Leper only makes one roll, and the Storyteller applies that roll against everything in the subject. For example: I roll an eight. The storyteller decides that that will detect the still-dormant cancer (diff. 7), and the infection in the old stab wound (diff 6), but not the slowly developing arthritis (diff. 9) in my subject, a fifty-five year old policeman harassing me. If the Leper wishes, he may make Willpower roll to empower the illness(es) he finds. The difficulty is the same as his first roll, and each success will subtract one from the victim's Stamina, only for resistance tests made against that (those) affliction(s). For example, I decide that cop is really getting on my nerves, so I roll to amplify his ills. On my seven dice, my best is three sixes. The cancer remains dormant, but odds are good that in the next few days that infection will become very serious indeed. Use common sense with this power. For most cases, if the roll reduces the victim's Stamina to zero or lower, it means that the disease will run rampant, the victim's body completely unable to counter it. For a common cold, that would be bad, but hardly fatal. For the aforementioned infection, it could lead to blood toxicity and eventual death. ** Touch of Sickness The Leper may now spread disease by just touching his subject, no longer needing to bite. Further, his bite and touch may now infect kindred as well. Even Garou can become ill through this ability, and mages will find that the illnesses spread by Touch of Sickness have one die of countermagick for every two levels of Pestilence the Leper Possesses. The disease spread will vary and Lepers have no control concerning what the victim suffers. Symptoms include fever, cold chills, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, nausea, muscle cramps, watery eyes, open sores, rashes, stiff joints, extreme drowsiness, itching, swollen glands, pox, or insomnia. The illness given is never fatal in itself, and is resistant to normal medications. System: The victim must be touched, skin-to-skin is preferred, but not necessary. The Leper rolls Manipulation + Medicine against the victim's Stamina + Athletics (The logic being that the more active the victim, the more resistant to disease.). The victim suffers one of the above effects (or any other you can make up) for each success, for a number of days equal to the number of successes. A botch indicates that the victim is immune to the user's Pestilence for the remainder of the story. For each success, subtract one dot from Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina. If any of these are reduced to zero, then the victim is bedridden until he recovers. Recovery will be slow, with the victim regaining one dot in each attribute per day. If he chooses to remain active, that is, not resting in bed, he loses one die from his dice pool for any action for each success scored against him, recovering one die per day. One blood point must be burnt as the victim is touched. *** The Touch of Death The Leper may now use the Touch of Sickness to induce fatal illnesses or maladies, such as Muscular Sclerosis or Cancer. Or, if he wishes, non-fatal but permanent afflictions such as arthritis or diabetes. Players are encouraged to use their imaginations, and, since there are so many possibilities, Storytellers must be the final arbiters for what may and what may not be accomplished with this power. For example, how would you handle an onset of Alzheimer's? System: A relatively straightforward power for dealing with mortals, and this includes Garou and Mages. However, Vampiric bodies are extremely resistant to change, so if you use this power to induce a case of male pattern balding in that Toreador you hate so much, don't expect it to last too long. Perhaps two nights per success (use the system for Touch of Sickness, above, except that now that the third rank is achieved, the kindred may choose what disease he inflicts, even if he's only using the Touch of Sickness.) The cost for using Touch of Death is two blood points, which must be burnt while touching the victim. If you cannot burn more than one blood point per turn, then you must maintain contact for more than one turn. **** Death's Gaze The Leper may now kill with a glance. With a quick glance, he uses a more powerful form of Strengthen the Sickness to induce incredibly accelerated growth in every bacteria, germ, virus, and spore in the victim. These various microbes will grow and reproduce and feed and die at such a phenomenal rate that it can literally consume the victim from the inside out. System: This power has a range of fifteen feet. The Leper rolls his Manipulation + Medicine vs. the victim's Stamina + 3 (vampires may add Fortitude to this), with a maximum diff. of 10. For every success scored, the victim takes two levels of non-aggravated damage, then the various bacteria, spores, germs, etc. have burned themselves out. The effect is extremely painful, even if no damage is taken, and the victim will know where the attack came from. ***** Plague Those afflicted with diseases by the Leper are, if the Leper wishes it, carriers of the disease themselves. They will remain contagious for as long as they are afflicted, and the Leper may choose how the disease will be transmitted. By air, by touch, by sexual contact, etc. System: No roll is necessary beyond the initial roll needed to infect the victim. Again, use common sense in deciding how certain afflictions are spread. Yes, this is a supernatural effect, so if you wished you could spread colon cancer by sexual contact, but this is a dangerous power. Many Lepers have died because vengeful princes have resented losing valuable retainers to diseases that were traced back to the source. For each blood point spent, the disease will be contagious for one generation. For example, I spend three additional blood points as I infect Phil. Phil will infect Sam, who will infect, Jill, who will infect Sally, but when Sally meets Frank, he's safe. It's no longer contagious. ****** Corporeal Infection Use of this power is a horrible thing to behold. The Leper actually takes on the form of a cloud of infectious spores, and swarms onto and into his victim. The victim "catches" the Leper like a disease. Once inside, the Leper begins to take over the mind of the victim, and will eventually succeed, as the presence of the Leper induces a sickness in the victim as per Touch of Sickness. System: The Leper and his victim engage in an opposed Willpower test. This is an unfair test from the start, as the victim is already infected as per Touch of Sickness rules (and therefore and a dice penalty to his Willpower). They each roll vs. a target number of six. Each success scored by the Leper is one day (24 hours) he may usurp control of the victim's body, and each success scored by the victim nulls one of the Leper's successes. Should the Leper score no successes at all, the victim is immune to his Pestilence for the remainder of the story, and he might as well abandon the body, unless he just wants to hide for a time. He will take one level of non-soakable damage each day he stays while not in control of the body, as the immune system does its best to purge the Leper. Should he botch, he is unable to leave the body until the host purges him. He is trapped for one day per success scored on the initial infection roll (as per Touch of Sickness) and will suffer two wounds for each day, non-soakable. Should he be taken below Incapacitated in this way, the victim's immune system has destroyed the Leper utterly. If the victim was also a kindred, then the Leper has just been diablerized. The wounds are non-aggravated, so upon leaving the victim they may be healed normally. One of this power's benefits is that the Leper does not lose the customary one point of blood per day of sleep while possessing the victim unless said victim is also kindred. The leper does not have access to the victim's mind or memories, only the body. This means that he could take over a werewolf and change shape, but he could not use the Spheres of a possessed mage. During the Possession, the host body will show signs of illness, say, a bad cold. The Leper is used to it, however, and suffers no dice penalties as a result. At the end of the possession's duration, the victim finally manages to purge the Leper, usually by vomiting him forth. The Leper will reform automatically, naked, and the victim is forever immune to this power. This power will Never let the Leper possess the same person twice in this manner. At any time the Leper may choose to abandon his victim's body. The victim will still be immune to this power in the future, no matter how short the possession. ******* Master of the Diseased The Leper may now use his powers of Dominate over anyone infected by any disease that can be traced back to him. Also, he will sense the rough location of any of these disease carriers within a seventy-five mile radius. For example, Gideon infects a local politician with a common cold. Using Plague, he ensures that everyone the politician meets in the next few days will catch the cold, and those they meet, and so on. He sits back in his haven, and feels the disease spread, like a spiderweb, throughout the city. Outside the radius of his sense, he can still Dominate them, but he can't pick and choose which ones to command. When he feels he has a large enough army, he sends out the mental call, most likely using level 5 Dominate, Possession, and the army of sniffling, coughing, zombies march against his enemies. System: Use Perception + Alertness to "sense" those infected. The better the roll, the clearer the sense of how many there are and where they are. Closer is easier. Two people infected in the next room would be difficulty two, while one child infected seventy miles away would need a ten. Otherwise, use the standard rules for Dominate. The Leper may choose to command the entire horde or just one person, or any range in between. Not very fair of him, since they're probably bedridden with illness or suffering dice penalties, depending on how badly they were infected. This power can effect one hundred people per dot of Willpower the Leper posesses.