Kyeudo
One Thousand Club
I posted a couple weeks ago about my dissatisfaction with the current rules for disease. In addition to being contradictory (rules on page 129 disagree with the rules on page 350 over whether the Exalted can contract mundane diseases) and nonsensical (Wound Infection is either always fatal or a single difficulty 1 roll, depending on how you read the text), they just don't model a sickness very well. If you take a deep look at the rules, mortals only ever spend their Stamina in days actually sick with a disease, even if they have a long term illness like leprosy or consumption, and even that is only if they are going to die from it.
I recieved some decent suggestions (thanks all who contributed), and after some work homebrewing stuff up, here's what I've come up with. Please let me know what you like/dislike/hate/think is unbalanced.
(Note: I worked from the disease discriptions in the Core book, not from any real medical knowledge.)
New Disease Statistics
Diseases now have the following statistics:
Vector: The means by which the disease is transmitted.
Virulence: The difficulty of the Stamina+Resistance roll to avoid contracting the disease. If the exposure is brief, the Virulence is reduced by up to two, while if the exposure is practically unavoidable the Virulence increases by up to two.
Incubation: How long after contracting the disease before the symptoms emerge and rolls for Morbidity begin.
Morbidity: Untreated/Treated/Interval - How difficult the rolls to resist the symptoms of the disease and to recover are. Victims of a disease roll against the disease's Untreated Morbidity after the disease's Incubation and after every Interval thereafter to see if they suffer the disease's Major Symptoms or begin to recover.
Diagnosis: The difficulty of the Perception+Medicine roll to determine what disease the patient has. A patient treated for the wrong disease recieves no benefit, so a successsful Diagnosis is usually required before effective treatment can take place, although the physician can guess and get maybe get lucky, performing treatment for a disease he suspects but hasn't confirmed (such as treating everyone in an army with severe diarhea for Cholera). If multiple diseases with similar symptoms are currently common in the are, increase the difficulty of diagnosing those diseases by 1. Once the disease's Incubation is over, decrease the difficulty of the Diagnosis by 1.
Difficulty to Treat: Mundane/Magical - How difficult the Intelligence+Medicine roll to provide appropriate treatment to a patient suffering from the disease is. A patient who has been successfully treated rolls his next Morbidity roll at the disease's Treated Morbidity. This only lasts for one such roll, however, so ongoing treatment is needed to continue rolling at the Treated Morbidity.
The physician uses the Mundane difficulty if he does not or can not supplement his treatment attempt with some form of appropriate supernatural care, such as a Medicine Excellency or an artifact with healing powers. Otherwise he may use the Magical treatment difficulty. Diseases with only one difficulty given are no easier to treat magically and use the same difficulty regardless of the physician's supernatural skill.
Treating a disease is a dramatic action, requiring a minimum of a full hour to administer poultices, herbs, and/or other curative regimens. The necessary igrediants for such are normally Resources 1, but may be higher or lower depending on the area and the rarity of the disease. Village healers and witches often gather their herbs and drugs rather than pruchase them, requiring at least an hour of time and a successful Perception + Survival roll, assuming the ingredients can be found locally.
If a physcian spends a full day regularly checking in on a patient, the healer recieves a bonus die on his treatment roll. This bonus increases to two dice if he does virtually nothing else but administer treatment throughout the day. An apprentice or assistant can provide prescribed treatment in place of the healer himself (using the Healer's full dice pool for the action) so long as the apprentice has at least a number of dots in Medicine equal to (Healer's Medicine - 2).
Tenacity: Initial/Maximum - The number of successful Morbidity rolls needed to recover from the disease. When the victim contracts the disease, it has the Initial Tenacity. Each successful Morbidity roll drops the Tenacity by one and each failed Morbidity roll adds one to the diseases Tenacity, up to the Maximum Tenacity. When the disease's Tenacity reaches zero, the victim recovers from the disease and the symptoms vanish.
Minor Symptoms: The penalties and problems that a victim of the disease suffers, regardless of the success or failure on Morbidity rolls. The Minor Symptoms are never fatal, but can be extremely inconvenient.
Major Symptoms: The penalties and problems that a victim of the disease suffers every time he fails a Morbidity roll, as well as what results from a botched Morbidity roll. The Major Symptoms can potentially be fatal.
The Exalted and Disease
The Chosen are highly resistant to disease, so they get an automatic two successes on rolls to avoid contracting a disease and to resist the symptoms of any disease of the First Circle, which includes all mundane infections. This means that any such disease with a modified Virulence of 2 or less cannot affect the Exalted and that the Exalted automatically succeed on all Morbidity rolls of 2 or less, suffering only the minor symptoms, and cannot botch either roll. The Chosen also reduce the interval of Morbidity rolls (but not Incubation time) for First Circle diseases by one step (months to weeks, weeks to days, and days to hours, hours remain as given). Minor diseases run their course quickly when affecting the Exalted.
Mundane Diseases
Leprosy
Sometimes called the ghost disease, leprosy is fairly common in shadowlands and otherwise rare. Lepers are a fearsome, heartwrenching sight - the living rotting away like the dead. The early symptoms are no different from a mild illness: fever and weakness, muscle aches and exhaustion. Then the more severe symptoms begin: numbness as nerves begin to feel, then the patient's ability to fight off the illness weakens and he risks infection from every cut and bruise. Eventually, parts of the body die and fall away, leaving the victim vulnerable to secondary infections such as gangrene.
Vector: Skin contact with a leper or anything handled by a leper
Virulence: 1
Incubation: two weeks
Morbidity: 5/3/one month
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 3
Tenacity: 4/12
Minor Symptoms: The difficulty for the victim to resist infection and disease increases 1 and the time needed for the victim to heal wounds doubles.
Major Symptoms: Of a failed Morbidity roll, the victim takes two unsoakable levels of lethal damage (subject to possible Wound Infection). On a botch, the victim additionally loses a body part as his flesh rots alive. The lost body part starts small, fingers and toes, but works its way up with each new botch, eventually claiming whole limbs and vital organs.
Consumption
A wasting disease, consumption leaves its victims to suffer for weeks or months as weakened, crippled and vulnerable wretches. It is a subtle, slow moving disease, taking several months to apear after exposure. Consumption begins quietly, with lethargy and low fevers. It can weaken the muscles of the body, leaving the victim lame or twisted. It can also attack the lungs.
Vector: Breathing contaminated air
Virulence: 2
Incubation: two months
Morbidity: 2/1/one week
Diagnosis: 1
Difficulty to Treat: 3
Tenacity: 8/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers a -2 internal penalty to all Strength and Dexterity related rolls and the victim cannot heal damage to his Stamina naturally.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers one dot of damage to his Stamina, effectively decreasing his Stamina by one until it can heal. Damaged Stamina heals at a rate of one dot per day of rest normally, but due to the Minor Symptoms of Consumption cannot be healed while still suffering the disease. A victim reduced to 0 Stamina by Consumption dies. On a botch, the victim suffers a permenant one dot reduction in Dexterity, which can only be healed by magic that can remove Crippling effects.
Hysteria
This disease almost always takes numbers of victims at once. They might turn on each other and riot or hunt down and destroy those they have decided are the enemy. The disease itself is not fatal, but the way it stirs up fears and unnatural rage usually result in death for those hysterics target. Early symptoms are extreme agitation, strange fancies and fears, paranoia, then increasing violence.
Vector: Casual contact with an infected person
Virulence: 4
Incubation: None. The disease begins affecting the victim immediately.
Morbidity: 3/1/one day
Diagnosis: 2
Difficulty to Treat: 2
Tenacity: 2/4
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers a -2 penalty to all his Mental DVs and treats all forms of persuasion as unnatural mental influence.
Major Symptoms: The victim loses a number of temporary Willpower points equal to (5 - the victim's Temperance), to a minimum of one point of Willpower, on each failed Morbidity roll. On a botch, the victim loses all temporary Willpower.
Note: Hysteria cannot be cured by magical effects that remove disease, such as Contagion-Curing Touch. Only effects that banish mental afflictions have any effect on the disease.
Sleeping Sickness
Found only in the dry South, and sometimes called the wanderer's disease, it steals away the victim's strength of will. Victims are fist struck with fever, joint pain and itching. The physical symptoms continue but are joined by sudden and upredictable mood swings. Victims become lethargic, alternating with bouts of violence. In later stages, victims barely open their eyes, and even the most urgent drives of the oaths or conviction will not move them to raise a hand or speak. Finally, they fall into a deep stupor and die.
Vector: Biting insects and parasites carrying the disease.
Virulence: 2
Incubation: one month
Morbidity: 5/2/one week
Diagnosis: 2
Difficulty to Treat: 4
Tenacity: 6/10
Minor Symptoms: The victim cannot recover naturally from Fatigue penalties and also becomes irritable, suffering a -2 internal penalty to all social rolls.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim's Fatigue penalties increase by 2. If the victim's total Fatigue penalties exceed his Stamina + Resistance total, he falls unconcious and can't be roused by any natural means. If the victim's Fatigue penalties ever exceed twice his Stamina + Resistance, he dies. On a botch, the victim's Fatigue penalties increase by 4 instead of by 2.
Cholera
Also known as the flux or the bloody flux, cholera is a disease that appears when the spirits of the waters have been offended. Defiling wells, allowing goats to drink directly from a river or stream, permiting criminals to bathe in open water - all of these can bring the flux to a land. Cholera kills quickly through fever and a watery, constant diarrhea that dehydrates the body. Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable.
Vector: Drinking polluted water
Vector: Drinking polluted water
Virulence: 4
Incubation: six hours
Morbidity: 3/1/one day
Diagnosis: 2
Difficulty to Treat: 2
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers a -2 penalty to all Strength and Dexterity based rolls. Additionally, the victim requires twice as much water to survive due to the terrible diarrhea the disease causes.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim accumulates a -1 penalty from dehydration. On a botch, the victim accumulates an additional -1 penalty from dehydration. When anyone's total penalties from dehydration exceed their Stamina + Resistance, they die.
Syphilis
Sometimes called the whore's revenge, syphilis apears when people have been unchaste. The disease is prevalent in cities - amoung prostitutes, adulterers, and the careless - but due to its subtle nature, it is found amoung the homes of the wealthy and the poor alike. The first symptom is a painless sore, which heals in a few weeks. Aches, pains, and intermittant fever are common symptoms of the disease. Over months to a few years, it eats away at the victim's ability to control their limbs, resulting in a peculiar stiff legged walk, then it attacks the mind. The first effects are increased lust and decreased self-control. At the end, syphilis eats away at the body and minds of its victims, leaving them paralyzed and, eventually, mad.
Vector: Sex with an infected person
Virulence: 3
Incubation: one month
Morbidity: 4/2/one week
Diagnosis: 1
Difficulty to Treat: 3
Tenacity: 6/10
Minor Symptoms: The victim's Temperance is treated as two lower than it actually is. This can temporarily bring the victim to 0 Temperance, but has no effect on the Great Curse (ie. an Exalt with a Temperance-based Virtue Flaw still rolls the normal amount of dice when his Limit Break Condition is met).
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim finds it hard to control his urges. Everytime the victim is confronted with a situation in which he could satisfy his lust in the next week, he suffers a social attack with a dice pool of (5- the victim's Temperance) x2. If the social attack, which cannot be parried, succeeds, he must spend either spend Willpower to resist or spend the next scene indulging.
On a botch, the victim suffers a permenant one dot reduction in Dexterity and Temperance, which can only be healed by magic that can remove Crippling effects. Victims reduced to 0 Temperance are incapable of controlling themselves (as if in the grip of the Overindulgance Limit Break). Victims reduced to 0 Dexterity are paralyzed.
Rabies
All hunters know that some spirits of slaughtered prey can enter into the hearts of men and drive them mad. This is why the rituals to placate the spirits of slaughtered prey are so important. But, even so, hunters, ranchers, and hound masters might find themselves taken with a mad animal spirit, particularly if a hunt goes bad and the prey fights back or if a rancher mistreats his animals. Animals near the Wyld are particularly likely to carry rabies in their bite.
Rabies begins with a bad hunt or an animal attack. The bite wound might not look infected, but soon, a fever apears, which rises to delirium. The victim begins to act as a crazed animal might, foaming at the mouth, hallucinating, and, finally, dying.
Vector: A bite from an infected animal
Virulence: 2
Incubation: one week
Morbidity: 5/3/one day
Diagnosis: 1
Difficulty to Treat: 4
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim cannot regain Willpower naturally.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim must spend two temporary Willpower or spend the day attacking any living creature that comes within sight. While in the grip of this madness, the victim will not eat, drink, or sleep, no matter how hungry, thirsty, or tired he is. On a botch, the victim additionally loses two points of temporary Willpower first, before he can spend Willpower to resist the disease's madness.
Plague
The feared follower of war and woe, plague is drawn to misery and chaos, when the rats outnumber the survivors of a siege and the dead lie unburied in the streets. It is passed from person to person and also hides within blankets, clothes, and other goods that a plague victim might have touched. Should the plague spread to the lungs, it becomes a swift moving and deadly disease easily transmitted through the air that can leave cities dead and kingdoms desolate.
Vector: Exposure to contaminated air, people, or contaminated objects.
Virulence: 4
Incubation: four days
Morbidity: 5/4/one day
Diagnosis: 1
Difficulty to Treat: 4
Tenacity: 6/10
Minor Symptoms: The victim does not heal naturally.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers one dot of damage to his Strength, Stamina, and Dexterity, effectively decreasing these Attributes by one until they can heal. Damaged Attributes heal at a rate of one dot per day of rest normally, but due to the Minor Symptoms of Plague they cannot be healed while still suffering the disease. Victims reduced to 0 Dexterity or 0 Strength are paralyzed. A victim reduced to 0 Stamina by Plague dies. On a botch, the victim suffers a permenant one dot reduction in Stamina, which can only be healed by magic that can remove Crippling effects.
Wound Infection
Vector: A character recieves a lethal or aggravated wound in a scene or the character exposes such a wound to dirt, filthy water, or the like.
Virulence: 3 (but see below)
Incubation: one day
Morbidity: 1/0/one day (but see below)
Diagnosis: 1
Difficulty to Treat: 1 (but see below)
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim cannot heal lethal damage naturally.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers 1 unsoakable level of lethal damage. On a botch, the victim suffers an additional level of unsoakable lethal damage.
Notes: A character who has been wounded must check against the Virulence only if the wound is not cauterized within an hour (cauterizing a wound causes one unsoakable level of bashing damage from minor burns). If the wound is sterilized (such as with alcohol or some other antiseptic) within an hour, the Virulence drops to 2.
For every day that a victim of Wound Infection goes untreated, the disease's Morbidity (both Untreated and Treated) and its Difficulty to Treat increase by 1. As long as a victim recieves successful treatment, the progress of the disease is arrested at its current level and will not worsen, but if treatment ceases for any reason the Morbidity and Difficulty to Treat will resume increasing.
Magical Diseases
Some diseases are clearly not natural. Whether created by the wrath of a disgruntled spirit, spawned by the Wyld, or caused by an Exalt's Charm, they all disrupt the internal flow of the victim's Essence in such a way that the body no longer functions as it should. Some of these sicknesses are readily contagious, but most are not easily spread, either by design or fortunate chance. Unlike mundane diseases, spirits have no immunity to their effects, so a demon, fae, or ghost could catch Broken Tile Organ Condition or White Veil Sickness.
Magical Diseases are classified into three different levels, or Circles. Diseases of the First Circle include all natural diseases, as well as the least of magical diseases. These diseases can have effects ranging from the conventional (loss of health levels, weakening of the body, etc.) to the strange but harmless (causing the victim to emit a scent that attracts amorous sheep). They typically have a Magical Treatment difficulty of 1 or 2.
Diseases of the Second Cirlce are almost always obviously supernatural. Diseases of this sort have Minor Symptoms that alone are crippling in scope and can have Major Symptoms that are nearly always fatal. They typically have a Magical Treatment difficulty of 3 or 4.
Diseases of the Third Circle are the most terrible of afflictions. Their Minor Symptoms leave all but the greatest of beings almost incapable of action and their Major Symptoms can kill Exalts within hours of contracting the disease. Diseases of the Third Cirlce are impossible to resist naturally. Reduce the victim's Stamina+Resistance dice pool to 0 before the application of Charms or Stunts when rolling to resist a Third Circle disease's Virulence. Such diseases may also be untreatable by mundane means. They typically have a Magical Treatment difficulty of 4 or 5.
Diseases of the First Circle
White Veil Sickness
Initially, the victim of this disease feels no more than a little off. Perhaps he has a minor cold or a case of fairly tenacious indigestion. Once the incubation is over, however, the intense pain that this sickness causes can not be mistaken for anything so minor.
Vector: The Dragon Dies Screaming
Virulence: Attacker's Essence
Incubation: (Target's Essence) days
Morbidity: 5/3/one hour
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 3/1
Tenacity: 3/6
Minor Symptoms: The victim takes a -1 internal penalty on all actions due to minor discomfort.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim takes an additional -2 internal penalty on all actions from intense pain and takes one unsoakable level of bashing damage. On a botch, the victim takes an additional level of unsoakable bashing damage.
Notes: White Veil Sickness's initial symptoms are similar to those of indigestion, the common cold, and other minor ailments, so this disease almost always suffers the increased Diagnosis difficulty during its Incubation.
The Shepherd's Disease
Perhaps one of the most minor illnesses to have been spawned by the Wyld, the Shepherd's Disease causes its victims to become incredibly attractive to sheep. Bleeting herds of sheep are inexplicably drawn to the victims, congregating around the victim despite the efforts of sheep herders to seperate the two, but has the disease has no other obvious symptoms. Those that suffer from this disease for a prolonged amount of time sometimes become as equally enamored of sheep as sheep are of them.
The disease can be carried by sheep, but they cannot catch it.
Vector: The bite of ticks or other parasites that have fed on an infected creature.
Virulence: 3
Incubation: One week
Morbidity: 2/1/one day
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 3/1
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim becomes incredibly attractive to amorous sheep.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers no additional effects from the disease except that the disease continues to run its course. On a botch, however, the victim immediately gains an Intimacy of love towards sheep.
Diseases of the Second Circle
White Sun Sickness
Origionally a form of malaria, White Sun Sickness first apeared when a small Wyld zone expanded to encompass a Southern swamp and the mosquitos within mutated into a new and deadly form.
The principle symptoms of White Sun Sickness are a high fever and hallucinations, brought on as the disease attacks the victim's natural Essence and turns it against him. As a result, mortals have little to fear from White Sun Sickness, but its effects on the Exalted and other supernatural beings can be crippling.
Vector: The bite of the white mosquito (naturally occuring) or Feverish Essence Discharge Atemi (inflicted)
Virulence: 5 (naturally occuring) or Attacker's Essence (inflicted)
Incubation: four days (naturally occuring) or none(inflicted)
Morbidity: 5/2/one day (naturally occuring) or 6/1/one day (inflicted)
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 6/3
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: Each time the victim spends Essence on a Charm, the disease increases the Charm's cost by one mote. This cost is a cumulative one, so the second expenditure costs two extra motes, the third costs three extra motes, and so on. Reduce the accumulated total by five for each day the victim spends no motes. The fever and hallucinations also reduce all the victim's dice pools (except those to resist disease) by an amount equal to the victim's permanent Essence. Finally, when the victim gains Limit (or Resonance, if an Abyssal), he gains twice the amount that he normally would.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers no additional effects from the disease except that the disease continues to run its course. On a botch, however, the victim regains Essence at half his normal rate (from any and all sources) for one day.
Drunken Moth Sickness
A victim of this disease finds himself unable to resist certain behaviors, drawn to them like a moth to flame or an alcoholic to booze. This disease has few physical symptoms and is rarely fatal. Some can go for years without realizing they suffer this disease, only to find at a critical moment they can't stop themselves from performing some task, such as assassinating a visiting king or betraying a gate to an invading army.
Vector: Disjointed Essence Infectious Atemi
Virulence: Attacker's Essence
Incubation: None
Morbidity: 6/1/one day
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 6/4
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers from a general purpose Compulsion effect (chosen by the attacker). Treat this as unnatural persuasion. The victim can spend one Willpower point per action to resist its effects. If the victim does not, he must use all of his actions to further the diseases purpose. If the victim does spend Willpower, he can use a simple Charm, a Combo, or spend at least half of his non-reflexive actions serving the disease's purpose (round up in all cases).
Fortunately for the victim, the disease only forces the victim to take action when an obvious way of fufilling its purpose exists, either without using Charms or by using Charms already active. Otherwise, the victim is free to act as he pleases.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers no additional effects from the disease except that the disease continues to run its course. On a botch, however, the victim loses two points of Willpower.
Broken-Tile Organ Condition
Named for its most visible symptom, Broken-Tile Organ Condition causes its victims to break into pieces when struck forcefully.
Vector: Convulsive Displacement Infectious Atemi
Virulence: Attacker's Essence
Incubation: None
Morbidity: 10/1/One day
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 10/4
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: Whenever the victim is struck in combat, the victim must succeed on a Stamina roll (difficulty equal to the number of health levels lost) or have a body part fall off or spurt out. To reattach a body part lost this way, the victim need only take a miscelaneous action to stick it back on or swallow it down to have it seemlessly reattach. Seperated body parts will only attach back to the origional owner. Individual organs and body parts remain alive, connected, and under the victim's control when seperated from the body. The victim still suffers the origional damage.
By default, limited leverage reduces the dice pool for a severed limb to 0 before the influence of Charms. Most seperated organs are worse off, being entirely incapable of independant action. Appropriate stunts or outside assistance can give a victim's limb access to his full dice pool. Defensive Charms can only protect such organs or limbs as they naturally apply to, so a seperated spleen finds it difficult to activate Seven Shadows Evasion with no means of dodging but is easily protected by Adamant Skin Technique.
Any damage inflicted on a seperated body part is inflicted on the victim, but the damaged body part will not be destroyed while the victim still lives.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers no additional effects from the disease except that the disease continues to run its course. On a botch, however, the victim literally falls to pieces, shattering into at least ten seperate parts (Storyteller's choice which pieces fall off).
Notes: Recovering from Broken-Tile Organ Condition does not automatically restore the victim's lost body parts to their proper places. He must still reattach them, but once cured they no longer are in danger of falling off again.
Enemies can cause body parts to fall off with a suitable called shot that causes no actual damage. Such attacks take a -1 external penalty if they target limbs or a -2 external penalty for targeting other organs. The difficulty of the Stamina roll to resist losing a body part to such an attack is 2.
As a quick guide to determining which body part is lost, roll 1d10 and consult the following chart:
1-2: Sensory Organ (Eye, Ear, etc.)
3-5: Limb (Arm, Leg)
6-10: Internal Organ (Heart, Liver, Lung, etc.)
Green Rage
This disease induces uncontrollable, psychopathic fury in its victims, along with compulsive cannibalism. Victims of Green Rage attack any living thing they encounter in a frenzy, but they preferentially pursue humans and other primates, the only two creatures that can contract the disease. The disease takes its name from its most unsettling symptom, the faint green glow that emanates from the eyes of its victims.
As Green Rage has no known mortal cure, the most common response to an outbreak is simply to wall up the victims until they all die of starvation.
Vector: The bite of an infected creature.
Virulence: 6
Incubation: (Victim's Stamina) hours
Morbidity: 6/2/one day
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: no cure/4
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim becomes unable to digest any food other than raw meat and cannot naturally heal damage to his Intelligence. Victims with an Intelligence of less than 3 suffer an unnatural compulsion to eat human flesh. The victim can resist these cravings for a scene with a successful Compassion roll at a -2 internal penalty or by spending a point of Willpower (the victim can attempt the Compassion roll before spending the Willpower), but otherwise cannot stop himself from going to any length to consume human flesh, even killing family and friends in his cannabalistic madness. Victims with an Intelligence of 1 or less suffer the same compulsion, but cannot resist it by any means. Victims with an Intelligence of 1 or less gain a bonus dot in Strength and Dexterity while still afflicted with the disease.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the disease's Magical Treatment difficulty increases by 1 (to a maximum of 8) and the victim suffers one dot of damage to his Intelligence, effectively decreasing his Intelligence by one until it can heal. Damaged Intelligence heals at a rate of one dot per day of rest normally, but due to the Minor Symptoms of Green Rage cannot be healed while still suffering the disease. The disease cannot reduce the victim's Intelligence to less than 1. On a botch, the Intelligence loss becomes permanent and can only be healed by magic that can cure Crippling effects.
Notes: Victims of Green Rage will not attack others suffering the symptoms of Green Rage.
Grinning Fool Death
This deadly disease is a particularly nasty strain of Drunken Moth Sickness. This particular variety imposes on the victim a compulsion to laugh maniacally without pause, gradually sapping away the victim's strength until he passes out completely. The disease itself rarely kills, but untreated victims usually die of thirst or starvation, as they become soon become unable to surpress the laughter long enough to feed themselves. Victims who die under the effects of Grinning Fool Death have faces contorted into a hideous grinning rictus that not even the most skilled mortician in Sijan can remove.
Vector: Eating Wyld-tainted fruit or listening to the laughter of an infected person
Virulence: 4
Incubation: None
Morbidity: 6/2/one day
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 7/4
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers from a unnatural, uncontrollable urge to laugh hysterically. Outside of combat, the victim laughs constantly as long as he stays concious, taking one level of unsoakable bashing damage every hour and fainting automatically whenever the accumulated damage fills his Incapacitated health box. Without the aid of stunts or Charms, this bashing damage cannot heal while the victim remains concious. The laughter also inflicts a -2 internal penalty on all actions the character takes and stealth becomes impossible. Eating and drinking without exerting Willpower (see below) and sleeping naturally also become impossible (so regaining Willpower by sleeping is right out).
In combat, the victim must devote one miscellaneous action on every tick in which he acts to laughing. This means that every combat action becomes at least a two-action flurry.
The victim can spend one Willpower point to supress the impulse to laugh for one action. On the subsequent action, he can use a simple Charm, a Combo, or spend at least half of his non-reflexive actions laughing (round up in all cases).
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers no additional effects from the disease except that the disease continues to run its course. On a botch, however, the victim loses two points of Willpower.
Notes: Anyone who survives Grinning Fool Death once treats the disease's Virulence as only 3 if re-exposed to the disease. Anyone who manages to survive the disease twice is rendered permanently immune.
Diseases of the Third Circle
Yellow Poxes of Contagion
Also known as the Revel Outside the Sealing of the Gates, the Yellow Poxes of Contagion causes its victims flesh to melt from the terrible fever and yellow blisters to rise on the sufferer's skin. The victims hear a rythmic whispered chant that compels them to dance, a chant that only they can hear and that they cannot resist for long. Even worse, the disease does seldom directly kills its victims, instead causing them to starve as they find themselves unable to stop dancing long enough to eat.
Vector: Citrine Poxes of Contagion Form
Virulence: Attacker's Essence
Incubation: None
Morbidity: 10/1/one hour
Diagnosis: 4
Difficulty to Treat: 10/4
Tenacity: 4/10
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers one level of unsoakable aggravated damage every action until all of the victim's -0 and -1 health levels are filled with aggravated damage. Additionally, the victim suffers an unnatural compulsion to dance around a random person or object nearby at a distance of 10 yards. Unless the victim spends one Willpower per action to resist this compulsion, he can not take any non-reflexive action except to dance madly. If the victim does spend Willpower to resist, his effective Dexterity is reduced to 0 for that action as he fights against the unnatural momentum of his own limbs.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers no additional effects from the disease except that the disease continues to run its course. On a botch, however, the victim suffers a level of unsoakable aggravated damge.
Notes: Any creature immune to Shaping effects is immune to the aggravated damage caused by this disease for as long as that immunity lasts. If the victim's immunity to Shaping effects lapses while he is still afflicted with the disease, he immediately begins taking damage as normal.
The Great(ish) Contagion
The Great Contagion infected virtually everyone who encountered it, and it killed virtually everyone who caught it. Few protective measures worked well. The origional disease either no longer exists within Creation, or maybe the survivors passed some slight resistance on to their descendants. Either way, the only remaining strains are actually treatable.
Victims of the disease show waves of virtually every symptom possible, in every possible combination. Only when the victim's skin begins to slowly turn green does the true nature of the disease become apparent, but by that time it is usually too late. Those killed by the disease begin to deliquesce at once, leaving nothing but bones behind after only a few days.
Vector: Breathing contaminated air, drinking contaminated water, or coming in contact with the body fluids of an infected person.
Virulence: 3 (airborne), 4 (waterborne), or 5 (body fluids). See below.
Incubation: (Victim's Stamina + Essence) days
Morbidity: 6/4/one day
Diagnosis: 5
Difficulty to Treat: 7/4
Tenacity: 4/6
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers a temporary one dot reduction to both his Strength and Dexterity. The victim also suffers one dot of damage to his Stamina each day, effectively decreasing his Stamina by one until it can heal. Damaged Stamina heals at a rate of one dot per day of rest normally, but the victim cannot heal any form of damage, either naturally or supernaturally, until the disease is cured. This damage to his Stamina stops once his Stamina is reduced to only one dot.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers one dot of damage to his Stamina, effectively decreasing his Stamina by one until it can heal. Damaged Stamina heals at a rate of one dot per day of rest normally, but due to the Minor Symptoms of the Great Contagion cannot be healed while still suffering the disease. A victim reduced to 0 Stamina by the Great Contagion dies. On a botch, the dot of damage to the victim's Stamina becomes permanent, and cannot be healed by any means less powerful than Solar Circle Sorcery.
Notes: The Virulence of the airborne or waterborne vectors of the disease can be reduced by wearing gauze masks sewn with powerful herbs or boiling water thoroughly before drinking. Doing so reduces the Virulence to only 1. Against body fluids, only layers of tightly-woven, oiled silk and greased leather can provide the same benefit.
If the disease is successfully diagnosed before the Incubation ends, the disease's Mundane Treatment difficulty drops to only 4 and remains there for as long as successful treatment continues.
After the disease's Incubation, the Diagnosis difficulty drops to only 2 (including the 1 point reduction from the onset of symptoms).
Anyone who survives any strain of the Great Contagion is immune to all such strains.
The Embrace of Decay
Victims of this disease beging to rot while still alive. Their skin greys, begins to decompose, and starts to peel away. They grow frail and become increasingly easy to fatigue. Victims feel constant hunger but can never be fully satisfied, no matter how much they eat. This disease almost inevitably kills the victim, who then rises as one of the walking dead, still carrying the disease.
Thankfully, this disease's only known sample, created by the Eye and Seven Despairs, is no longer in the possession of the Deathlords.
Vector: Any form of lethal damage inflicted by an infected zombie
Virulence: 5
Incubation: (Victim's Stamina) hours
Morbidity: 5/3/one day
Diagnosis: 5
Difficulty to Treat: no cure/6
Tenacity: 6/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim cannot heal any form of damage naturally and accumulates fatigue penalties at twice the normal rate. The victim also must consume twice as much food as normal to avoid accumulating penalties from hunger.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers one dot of damage to his Stamina, effectively decreasing his Stamina by one until it can heal. Damaged Stamina heals at a rate of one dot per day of rest normally, but due to the Minor Symptoms of the Embrace of Decay cannot be healed while still suffering the disease. A victim reduced to 0 Stamina by the Embrace of Decay dies. On a botch, the victim additionally suffers two levels of unsoakable lethal damage.
Notes: Anyone who dies from the Embrace of Decay, while carrying the disease, or from a zombie carrying the disease rises one minute later as a zombie extra carrying the disease.
Those that survive the Embrace of Decay are immune to the disease forevermore.
I recieved some decent suggestions (thanks all who contributed), and after some work homebrewing stuff up, here's what I've come up with. Please let me know what you like/dislike/hate/think is unbalanced.
(Note: I worked from the disease discriptions in the Core book, not from any real medical knowledge.)
New Disease Statistics
Diseases now have the following statistics:
Vector: The means by which the disease is transmitted.
Virulence: The difficulty of the Stamina+Resistance roll to avoid contracting the disease. If the exposure is brief, the Virulence is reduced by up to two, while if the exposure is practically unavoidable the Virulence increases by up to two.
Incubation: How long after contracting the disease before the symptoms emerge and rolls for Morbidity begin.
Morbidity: Untreated/Treated/Interval - How difficult the rolls to resist the symptoms of the disease and to recover are. Victims of a disease roll against the disease's Untreated Morbidity after the disease's Incubation and after every Interval thereafter to see if they suffer the disease's Major Symptoms or begin to recover.
Diagnosis: The difficulty of the Perception+Medicine roll to determine what disease the patient has. A patient treated for the wrong disease recieves no benefit, so a successsful Diagnosis is usually required before effective treatment can take place, although the physician can guess and get maybe get lucky, performing treatment for a disease he suspects but hasn't confirmed (such as treating everyone in an army with severe diarhea for Cholera). If multiple diseases with similar symptoms are currently common in the are, increase the difficulty of diagnosing those diseases by 1. Once the disease's Incubation is over, decrease the difficulty of the Diagnosis by 1.
Difficulty to Treat: Mundane/Magical - How difficult the Intelligence+Medicine roll to provide appropriate treatment to a patient suffering from the disease is. A patient who has been successfully treated rolls his next Morbidity roll at the disease's Treated Morbidity. This only lasts for one such roll, however, so ongoing treatment is needed to continue rolling at the Treated Morbidity.
The physician uses the Mundane difficulty if he does not or can not supplement his treatment attempt with some form of appropriate supernatural care, such as a Medicine Excellency or an artifact with healing powers. Otherwise he may use the Magical treatment difficulty. Diseases with only one difficulty given are no easier to treat magically and use the same difficulty regardless of the physician's supernatural skill.
Treating a disease is a dramatic action, requiring a minimum of a full hour to administer poultices, herbs, and/or other curative regimens. The necessary igrediants for such are normally Resources 1, but may be higher or lower depending on the area and the rarity of the disease. Village healers and witches often gather their herbs and drugs rather than pruchase them, requiring at least an hour of time and a successful Perception + Survival roll, assuming the ingredients can be found locally.
If a physcian spends a full day regularly checking in on a patient, the healer recieves a bonus die on his treatment roll. This bonus increases to two dice if he does virtually nothing else but administer treatment throughout the day. An apprentice or assistant can provide prescribed treatment in place of the healer himself (using the Healer's full dice pool for the action) so long as the apprentice has at least a number of dots in Medicine equal to (Healer's Medicine - 2).
Tenacity: Initial/Maximum - The number of successful Morbidity rolls needed to recover from the disease. When the victim contracts the disease, it has the Initial Tenacity. Each successful Morbidity roll drops the Tenacity by one and each failed Morbidity roll adds one to the diseases Tenacity, up to the Maximum Tenacity. When the disease's Tenacity reaches zero, the victim recovers from the disease and the symptoms vanish.
Minor Symptoms: The penalties and problems that a victim of the disease suffers, regardless of the success or failure on Morbidity rolls. The Minor Symptoms are never fatal, but can be extremely inconvenient.
Major Symptoms: The penalties and problems that a victim of the disease suffers every time he fails a Morbidity roll, as well as what results from a botched Morbidity roll. The Major Symptoms can potentially be fatal.
The Exalted and Disease
The Chosen are highly resistant to disease, so they get an automatic two successes on rolls to avoid contracting a disease and to resist the symptoms of any disease of the First Circle, which includes all mundane infections. This means that any such disease with a modified Virulence of 2 or less cannot affect the Exalted and that the Exalted automatically succeed on all Morbidity rolls of 2 or less, suffering only the minor symptoms, and cannot botch either roll. The Chosen also reduce the interval of Morbidity rolls (but not Incubation time) for First Circle diseases by one step (months to weeks, weeks to days, and days to hours, hours remain as given). Minor diseases run their course quickly when affecting the Exalted.
Mundane Diseases
Leprosy
Sometimes called the ghost disease, leprosy is fairly common in shadowlands and otherwise rare. Lepers are a fearsome, heartwrenching sight - the living rotting away like the dead. The early symptoms are no different from a mild illness: fever and weakness, muscle aches and exhaustion. Then the more severe symptoms begin: numbness as nerves begin to feel, then the patient's ability to fight off the illness weakens and he risks infection from every cut and bruise. Eventually, parts of the body die and fall away, leaving the victim vulnerable to secondary infections such as gangrene.
Vector: Skin contact with a leper or anything handled by a leper
Virulence: 1
Incubation: two weeks
Morbidity: 5/3/one month
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 3
Tenacity: 4/12
Minor Symptoms: The difficulty for the victim to resist infection and disease increases 1 and the time needed for the victim to heal wounds doubles.
Major Symptoms: Of a failed Morbidity roll, the victim takes two unsoakable levels of lethal damage (subject to possible Wound Infection). On a botch, the victim additionally loses a body part as his flesh rots alive. The lost body part starts small, fingers and toes, but works its way up with each new botch, eventually claiming whole limbs and vital organs.
Consumption
A wasting disease, consumption leaves its victims to suffer for weeks or months as weakened, crippled and vulnerable wretches. It is a subtle, slow moving disease, taking several months to apear after exposure. Consumption begins quietly, with lethargy and low fevers. It can weaken the muscles of the body, leaving the victim lame or twisted. It can also attack the lungs.
Vector: Breathing contaminated air
Virulence: 2
Incubation: two months
Morbidity: 2/1/one week
Diagnosis: 1
Difficulty to Treat: 3
Tenacity: 8/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers a -2 internal penalty to all Strength and Dexterity related rolls and the victim cannot heal damage to his Stamina naturally.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers one dot of damage to his Stamina, effectively decreasing his Stamina by one until it can heal. Damaged Stamina heals at a rate of one dot per day of rest normally, but due to the Minor Symptoms of Consumption cannot be healed while still suffering the disease. A victim reduced to 0 Stamina by Consumption dies. On a botch, the victim suffers a permenant one dot reduction in Dexterity, which can only be healed by magic that can remove Crippling effects.
Hysteria
This disease almost always takes numbers of victims at once. They might turn on each other and riot or hunt down and destroy those they have decided are the enemy. The disease itself is not fatal, but the way it stirs up fears and unnatural rage usually result in death for those hysterics target. Early symptoms are extreme agitation, strange fancies and fears, paranoia, then increasing violence.
Vector: Casual contact with an infected person
Virulence: 4
Incubation: None. The disease begins affecting the victim immediately.
Morbidity: 3/1/one day
Diagnosis: 2
Difficulty to Treat: 2
Tenacity: 2/4
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers a -2 penalty to all his Mental DVs and treats all forms of persuasion as unnatural mental influence.
Major Symptoms: The victim loses a number of temporary Willpower points equal to (5 - the victim's Temperance), to a minimum of one point of Willpower, on each failed Morbidity roll. On a botch, the victim loses all temporary Willpower.
Note: Hysteria cannot be cured by magical effects that remove disease, such as Contagion-Curing Touch. Only effects that banish mental afflictions have any effect on the disease.
Sleeping Sickness
Found only in the dry South, and sometimes called the wanderer's disease, it steals away the victim's strength of will. Victims are fist struck with fever, joint pain and itching. The physical symptoms continue but are joined by sudden and upredictable mood swings. Victims become lethargic, alternating with bouts of violence. In later stages, victims barely open their eyes, and even the most urgent drives of the oaths or conviction will not move them to raise a hand or speak. Finally, they fall into a deep stupor and die.
Vector: Biting insects and parasites carrying the disease.
Virulence: 2
Incubation: one month
Morbidity: 5/2/one week
Diagnosis: 2
Difficulty to Treat: 4
Tenacity: 6/10
Minor Symptoms: The victim cannot recover naturally from Fatigue penalties and also becomes irritable, suffering a -2 internal penalty to all social rolls.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim's Fatigue penalties increase by 2. If the victim's total Fatigue penalties exceed his Stamina + Resistance total, he falls unconcious and can't be roused by any natural means. If the victim's Fatigue penalties ever exceed twice his Stamina + Resistance, he dies. On a botch, the victim's Fatigue penalties increase by 4 instead of by 2.
Cholera
Also known as the flux or the bloody flux, cholera is a disease that appears when the spirits of the waters have been offended. Defiling wells, allowing goats to drink directly from a river or stream, permiting criminals to bathe in open water - all of these can bring the flux to a land. Cholera kills quickly through fever and a watery, constant diarrhea that dehydrates the body. Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable.
Vector: Drinking polluted water
Vector: Drinking polluted water
Virulence: 4
Incubation: six hours
Morbidity: 3/1/one day
Diagnosis: 2
Difficulty to Treat: 2
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers a -2 penalty to all Strength and Dexterity based rolls. Additionally, the victim requires twice as much water to survive due to the terrible diarrhea the disease causes.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim accumulates a -1 penalty from dehydration. On a botch, the victim accumulates an additional -1 penalty from dehydration. When anyone's total penalties from dehydration exceed their Stamina + Resistance, they die.
Syphilis
Sometimes called the whore's revenge, syphilis apears when people have been unchaste. The disease is prevalent in cities - amoung prostitutes, adulterers, and the careless - but due to its subtle nature, it is found amoung the homes of the wealthy and the poor alike. The first symptom is a painless sore, which heals in a few weeks. Aches, pains, and intermittant fever are common symptoms of the disease. Over months to a few years, it eats away at the victim's ability to control their limbs, resulting in a peculiar stiff legged walk, then it attacks the mind. The first effects are increased lust and decreased self-control. At the end, syphilis eats away at the body and minds of its victims, leaving them paralyzed and, eventually, mad.
Vector: Sex with an infected person
Virulence: 3
Incubation: one month
Morbidity: 4/2/one week
Diagnosis: 1
Difficulty to Treat: 3
Tenacity: 6/10
Minor Symptoms: The victim's Temperance is treated as two lower than it actually is. This can temporarily bring the victim to 0 Temperance, but has no effect on the Great Curse (ie. an Exalt with a Temperance-based Virtue Flaw still rolls the normal amount of dice when his Limit Break Condition is met).
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim finds it hard to control his urges. Everytime the victim is confronted with a situation in which he could satisfy his lust in the next week, he suffers a social attack with a dice pool of (5- the victim's Temperance) x2. If the social attack, which cannot be parried, succeeds, he must spend either spend Willpower to resist or spend the next scene indulging.
On a botch, the victim suffers a permenant one dot reduction in Dexterity and Temperance, which can only be healed by magic that can remove Crippling effects. Victims reduced to 0 Temperance are incapable of controlling themselves (as if in the grip of the Overindulgance Limit Break). Victims reduced to 0 Dexterity are paralyzed.
Rabies
All hunters know that some spirits of slaughtered prey can enter into the hearts of men and drive them mad. This is why the rituals to placate the spirits of slaughtered prey are so important. But, even so, hunters, ranchers, and hound masters might find themselves taken with a mad animal spirit, particularly if a hunt goes bad and the prey fights back or if a rancher mistreats his animals. Animals near the Wyld are particularly likely to carry rabies in their bite.
Rabies begins with a bad hunt or an animal attack. The bite wound might not look infected, but soon, a fever apears, which rises to delirium. The victim begins to act as a crazed animal might, foaming at the mouth, hallucinating, and, finally, dying.
Vector: A bite from an infected animal
Virulence: 2
Incubation: one week
Morbidity: 5/3/one day
Diagnosis: 1
Difficulty to Treat: 4
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim cannot regain Willpower naturally.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim must spend two temporary Willpower or spend the day attacking any living creature that comes within sight. While in the grip of this madness, the victim will not eat, drink, or sleep, no matter how hungry, thirsty, or tired he is. On a botch, the victim additionally loses two points of temporary Willpower first, before he can spend Willpower to resist the disease's madness.
Plague
The feared follower of war and woe, plague is drawn to misery and chaos, when the rats outnumber the survivors of a siege and the dead lie unburied in the streets. It is passed from person to person and also hides within blankets, clothes, and other goods that a plague victim might have touched. Should the plague spread to the lungs, it becomes a swift moving and deadly disease easily transmitted through the air that can leave cities dead and kingdoms desolate.
Vector: Exposure to contaminated air, people, or contaminated objects.
Virulence: 4
Incubation: four days
Morbidity: 5/4/one day
Diagnosis: 1
Difficulty to Treat: 4
Tenacity: 6/10
Minor Symptoms: The victim does not heal naturally.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers one dot of damage to his Strength, Stamina, and Dexterity, effectively decreasing these Attributes by one until they can heal. Damaged Attributes heal at a rate of one dot per day of rest normally, but due to the Minor Symptoms of Plague they cannot be healed while still suffering the disease. Victims reduced to 0 Dexterity or 0 Strength are paralyzed. A victim reduced to 0 Stamina by Plague dies. On a botch, the victim suffers a permenant one dot reduction in Stamina, which can only be healed by magic that can remove Crippling effects.
Wound Infection
Vector: A character recieves a lethal or aggravated wound in a scene or the character exposes such a wound to dirt, filthy water, or the like.
Virulence: 3 (but see below)
Incubation: one day
Morbidity: 1/0/one day (but see below)
Diagnosis: 1
Difficulty to Treat: 1 (but see below)
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim cannot heal lethal damage naturally.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers 1 unsoakable level of lethal damage. On a botch, the victim suffers an additional level of unsoakable lethal damage.
Notes: A character who has been wounded must check against the Virulence only if the wound is not cauterized within an hour (cauterizing a wound causes one unsoakable level of bashing damage from minor burns). If the wound is sterilized (such as with alcohol or some other antiseptic) within an hour, the Virulence drops to 2.
For every day that a victim of Wound Infection goes untreated, the disease's Morbidity (both Untreated and Treated) and its Difficulty to Treat increase by 1. As long as a victim recieves successful treatment, the progress of the disease is arrested at its current level and will not worsen, but if treatment ceases for any reason the Morbidity and Difficulty to Treat will resume increasing.
Magical Diseases
Some diseases are clearly not natural. Whether created by the wrath of a disgruntled spirit, spawned by the Wyld, or caused by an Exalt's Charm, they all disrupt the internal flow of the victim's Essence in such a way that the body no longer functions as it should. Some of these sicknesses are readily contagious, but most are not easily spread, either by design or fortunate chance. Unlike mundane diseases, spirits have no immunity to their effects, so a demon, fae, or ghost could catch Broken Tile Organ Condition or White Veil Sickness.
Magical Diseases are classified into three different levels, or Circles. Diseases of the First Circle include all natural diseases, as well as the least of magical diseases. These diseases can have effects ranging from the conventional (loss of health levels, weakening of the body, etc.) to the strange but harmless (causing the victim to emit a scent that attracts amorous sheep). They typically have a Magical Treatment difficulty of 1 or 2.
Diseases of the Second Cirlce are almost always obviously supernatural. Diseases of this sort have Minor Symptoms that alone are crippling in scope and can have Major Symptoms that are nearly always fatal. They typically have a Magical Treatment difficulty of 3 or 4.
Diseases of the Third Circle are the most terrible of afflictions. Their Minor Symptoms leave all but the greatest of beings almost incapable of action and their Major Symptoms can kill Exalts within hours of contracting the disease. Diseases of the Third Cirlce are impossible to resist naturally. Reduce the victim's Stamina+Resistance dice pool to 0 before the application of Charms or Stunts when rolling to resist a Third Circle disease's Virulence. Such diseases may also be untreatable by mundane means. They typically have a Magical Treatment difficulty of 4 or 5.
Diseases of the First Circle
White Veil Sickness
Initially, the victim of this disease feels no more than a little off. Perhaps he has a minor cold or a case of fairly tenacious indigestion. Once the incubation is over, however, the intense pain that this sickness causes can not be mistaken for anything so minor.
Vector: The Dragon Dies Screaming
Virulence: Attacker's Essence
Incubation: (Target's Essence) days
Morbidity: 5/3/one hour
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 3/1
Tenacity: 3/6
Minor Symptoms: The victim takes a -1 internal penalty on all actions due to minor discomfort.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim takes an additional -2 internal penalty on all actions from intense pain and takes one unsoakable level of bashing damage. On a botch, the victim takes an additional level of unsoakable bashing damage.
Notes: White Veil Sickness's initial symptoms are similar to those of indigestion, the common cold, and other minor ailments, so this disease almost always suffers the increased Diagnosis difficulty during its Incubation.
The Shepherd's Disease
Perhaps one of the most minor illnesses to have been spawned by the Wyld, the Shepherd's Disease causes its victims to become incredibly attractive to sheep. Bleeting herds of sheep are inexplicably drawn to the victims, congregating around the victim despite the efforts of sheep herders to seperate the two, but has the disease has no other obvious symptoms. Those that suffer from this disease for a prolonged amount of time sometimes become as equally enamored of sheep as sheep are of them.
The disease can be carried by sheep, but they cannot catch it.
Vector: The bite of ticks or other parasites that have fed on an infected creature.
Virulence: 3
Incubation: One week
Morbidity: 2/1/one day
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 3/1
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim becomes incredibly attractive to amorous sheep.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers no additional effects from the disease except that the disease continues to run its course. On a botch, however, the victim immediately gains an Intimacy of love towards sheep.
Diseases of the Second Circle
White Sun Sickness
Origionally a form of malaria, White Sun Sickness first apeared when a small Wyld zone expanded to encompass a Southern swamp and the mosquitos within mutated into a new and deadly form.
The principle symptoms of White Sun Sickness are a high fever and hallucinations, brought on as the disease attacks the victim's natural Essence and turns it against him. As a result, mortals have little to fear from White Sun Sickness, but its effects on the Exalted and other supernatural beings can be crippling.
Vector: The bite of the white mosquito (naturally occuring) or Feverish Essence Discharge Atemi (inflicted)
Virulence: 5 (naturally occuring) or Attacker's Essence (inflicted)
Incubation: four days (naturally occuring) or none(inflicted)
Morbidity: 5/2/one day (naturally occuring) or 6/1/one day (inflicted)
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 6/3
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: Each time the victim spends Essence on a Charm, the disease increases the Charm's cost by one mote. This cost is a cumulative one, so the second expenditure costs two extra motes, the third costs three extra motes, and so on. Reduce the accumulated total by five for each day the victim spends no motes. The fever and hallucinations also reduce all the victim's dice pools (except those to resist disease) by an amount equal to the victim's permanent Essence. Finally, when the victim gains Limit (or Resonance, if an Abyssal), he gains twice the amount that he normally would.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers no additional effects from the disease except that the disease continues to run its course. On a botch, however, the victim regains Essence at half his normal rate (from any and all sources) for one day.
Drunken Moth Sickness
A victim of this disease finds himself unable to resist certain behaviors, drawn to them like a moth to flame or an alcoholic to booze. This disease has few physical symptoms and is rarely fatal. Some can go for years without realizing they suffer this disease, only to find at a critical moment they can't stop themselves from performing some task, such as assassinating a visiting king or betraying a gate to an invading army.
Vector: Disjointed Essence Infectious Atemi
Virulence: Attacker's Essence
Incubation: None
Morbidity: 6/1/one day
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 6/4
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers from a general purpose Compulsion effect (chosen by the attacker). Treat this as unnatural persuasion. The victim can spend one Willpower point per action to resist its effects. If the victim does not, he must use all of his actions to further the diseases purpose. If the victim does spend Willpower, he can use a simple Charm, a Combo, or spend at least half of his non-reflexive actions serving the disease's purpose (round up in all cases).
Fortunately for the victim, the disease only forces the victim to take action when an obvious way of fufilling its purpose exists, either without using Charms or by using Charms already active. Otherwise, the victim is free to act as he pleases.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers no additional effects from the disease except that the disease continues to run its course. On a botch, however, the victim loses two points of Willpower.
Broken-Tile Organ Condition
Named for its most visible symptom, Broken-Tile Organ Condition causes its victims to break into pieces when struck forcefully.
Vector: Convulsive Displacement Infectious Atemi
Virulence: Attacker's Essence
Incubation: None
Morbidity: 10/1/One day
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 10/4
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: Whenever the victim is struck in combat, the victim must succeed on a Stamina roll (difficulty equal to the number of health levels lost) or have a body part fall off or spurt out. To reattach a body part lost this way, the victim need only take a miscelaneous action to stick it back on or swallow it down to have it seemlessly reattach. Seperated body parts will only attach back to the origional owner. Individual organs and body parts remain alive, connected, and under the victim's control when seperated from the body. The victim still suffers the origional damage.
By default, limited leverage reduces the dice pool for a severed limb to 0 before the influence of Charms. Most seperated organs are worse off, being entirely incapable of independant action. Appropriate stunts or outside assistance can give a victim's limb access to his full dice pool. Defensive Charms can only protect such organs or limbs as they naturally apply to, so a seperated spleen finds it difficult to activate Seven Shadows Evasion with no means of dodging but is easily protected by Adamant Skin Technique.
Any damage inflicted on a seperated body part is inflicted on the victim, but the damaged body part will not be destroyed while the victim still lives.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers no additional effects from the disease except that the disease continues to run its course. On a botch, however, the victim literally falls to pieces, shattering into at least ten seperate parts (Storyteller's choice which pieces fall off).
Notes: Recovering from Broken-Tile Organ Condition does not automatically restore the victim's lost body parts to their proper places. He must still reattach them, but once cured they no longer are in danger of falling off again.
Enemies can cause body parts to fall off with a suitable called shot that causes no actual damage. Such attacks take a -1 external penalty if they target limbs or a -2 external penalty for targeting other organs. The difficulty of the Stamina roll to resist losing a body part to such an attack is 2.
As a quick guide to determining which body part is lost, roll 1d10 and consult the following chart:
1-2: Sensory Organ (Eye, Ear, etc.)
3-5: Limb (Arm, Leg)
6-10: Internal Organ (Heart, Liver, Lung, etc.)
Green Rage
This disease induces uncontrollable, psychopathic fury in its victims, along with compulsive cannibalism. Victims of Green Rage attack any living thing they encounter in a frenzy, but they preferentially pursue humans and other primates, the only two creatures that can contract the disease. The disease takes its name from its most unsettling symptom, the faint green glow that emanates from the eyes of its victims.
As Green Rage has no known mortal cure, the most common response to an outbreak is simply to wall up the victims until they all die of starvation.
Vector: The bite of an infected creature.
Virulence: 6
Incubation: (Victim's Stamina) hours
Morbidity: 6/2/one day
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: no cure/4
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim becomes unable to digest any food other than raw meat and cannot naturally heal damage to his Intelligence. Victims with an Intelligence of less than 3 suffer an unnatural compulsion to eat human flesh. The victim can resist these cravings for a scene with a successful Compassion roll at a -2 internal penalty or by spending a point of Willpower (the victim can attempt the Compassion roll before spending the Willpower), but otherwise cannot stop himself from going to any length to consume human flesh, even killing family and friends in his cannabalistic madness. Victims with an Intelligence of 1 or less suffer the same compulsion, but cannot resist it by any means. Victims with an Intelligence of 1 or less gain a bonus dot in Strength and Dexterity while still afflicted with the disease.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the disease's Magical Treatment difficulty increases by 1 (to a maximum of 8) and the victim suffers one dot of damage to his Intelligence, effectively decreasing his Intelligence by one until it can heal. Damaged Intelligence heals at a rate of one dot per day of rest normally, but due to the Minor Symptoms of Green Rage cannot be healed while still suffering the disease. The disease cannot reduce the victim's Intelligence to less than 1. On a botch, the Intelligence loss becomes permanent and can only be healed by magic that can cure Crippling effects.
Notes: Victims of Green Rage will not attack others suffering the symptoms of Green Rage.
Grinning Fool Death
This deadly disease is a particularly nasty strain of Drunken Moth Sickness. This particular variety imposes on the victim a compulsion to laugh maniacally without pause, gradually sapping away the victim's strength until he passes out completely. The disease itself rarely kills, but untreated victims usually die of thirst or starvation, as they become soon become unable to surpress the laughter long enough to feed themselves. Victims who die under the effects of Grinning Fool Death have faces contorted into a hideous grinning rictus that not even the most skilled mortician in Sijan can remove.
Vector: Eating Wyld-tainted fruit or listening to the laughter of an infected person
Virulence: 4
Incubation: None
Morbidity: 6/2/one day
Diagnosis: 3
Difficulty to Treat: 7/4
Tenacity: 4/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers from a unnatural, uncontrollable urge to laugh hysterically. Outside of combat, the victim laughs constantly as long as he stays concious, taking one level of unsoakable bashing damage every hour and fainting automatically whenever the accumulated damage fills his Incapacitated health box. Without the aid of stunts or Charms, this bashing damage cannot heal while the victim remains concious. The laughter also inflicts a -2 internal penalty on all actions the character takes and stealth becomes impossible. Eating and drinking without exerting Willpower (see below) and sleeping naturally also become impossible (so regaining Willpower by sleeping is right out).
In combat, the victim must devote one miscellaneous action on every tick in which he acts to laughing. This means that every combat action becomes at least a two-action flurry.
The victim can spend one Willpower point to supress the impulse to laugh for one action. On the subsequent action, he can use a simple Charm, a Combo, or spend at least half of his non-reflexive actions laughing (round up in all cases).
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers no additional effects from the disease except that the disease continues to run its course. On a botch, however, the victim loses two points of Willpower.
Notes: Anyone who survives Grinning Fool Death once treats the disease's Virulence as only 3 if re-exposed to the disease. Anyone who manages to survive the disease twice is rendered permanently immune.
Diseases of the Third Circle
Yellow Poxes of Contagion
Also known as the Revel Outside the Sealing of the Gates, the Yellow Poxes of Contagion causes its victims flesh to melt from the terrible fever and yellow blisters to rise on the sufferer's skin. The victims hear a rythmic whispered chant that compels them to dance, a chant that only they can hear and that they cannot resist for long. Even worse, the disease does seldom directly kills its victims, instead causing them to starve as they find themselves unable to stop dancing long enough to eat.
Vector: Citrine Poxes of Contagion Form
Virulence: Attacker's Essence
Incubation: None
Morbidity: 10/1/one hour
Diagnosis: 4
Difficulty to Treat: 10/4
Tenacity: 4/10
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers one level of unsoakable aggravated damage every action until all of the victim's -0 and -1 health levels are filled with aggravated damage. Additionally, the victim suffers an unnatural compulsion to dance around a random person or object nearby at a distance of 10 yards. Unless the victim spends one Willpower per action to resist this compulsion, he can not take any non-reflexive action except to dance madly. If the victim does spend Willpower to resist, his effective Dexterity is reduced to 0 for that action as he fights against the unnatural momentum of his own limbs.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers no additional effects from the disease except that the disease continues to run its course. On a botch, however, the victim suffers a level of unsoakable aggravated damge.
Notes: Any creature immune to Shaping effects is immune to the aggravated damage caused by this disease for as long as that immunity lasts. If the victim's immunity to Shaping effects lapses while he is still afflicted with the disease, he immediately begins taking damage as normal.
The Great(ish) Contagion
The Great Contagion infected virtually everyone who encountered it, and it killed virtually everyone who caught it. Few protective measures worked well. The origional disease either no longer exists within Creation, or maybe the survivors passed some slight resistance on to their descendants. Either way, the only remaining strains are actually treatable.
Victims of the disease show waves of virtually every symptom possible, in every possible combination. Only when the victim's skin begins to slowly turn green does the true nature of the disease become apparent, but by that time it is usually too late. Those killed by the disease begin to deliquesce at once, leaving nothing but bones behind after only a few days.
Vector: Breathing contaminated air, drinking contaminated water, or coming in contact with the body fluids of an infected person.
Virulence: 3 (airborne), 4 (waterborne), or 5 (body fluids). See below.
Incubation: (Victim's Stamina + Essence) days
Morbidity: 6/4/one day
Diagnosis: 5
Difficulty to Treat: 7/4
Tenacity: 4/6
Minor Symptoms: The victim suffers a temporary one dot reduction to both his Strength and Dexterity. The victim also suffers one dot of damage to his Stamina each day, effectively decreasing his Stamina by one until it can heal. Damaged Stamina heals at a rate of one dot per day of rest normally, but the victim cannot heal any form of damage, either naturally or supernaturally, until the disease is cured. This damage to his Stamina stops once his Stamina is reduced to only one dot.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers one dot of damage to his Stamina, effectively decreasing his Stamina by one until it can heal. Damaged Stamina heals at a rate of one dot per day of rest normally, but due to the Minor Symptoms of the Great Contagion cannot be healed while still suffering the disease. A victim reduced to 0 Stamina by the Great Contagion dies. On a botch, the dot of damage to the victim's Stamina becomes permanent, and cannot be healed by any means less powerful than Solar Circle Sorcery.
Notes: The Virulence of the airborne or waterborne vectors of the disease can be reduced by wearing gauze masks sewn with powerful herbs or boiling water thoroughly before drinking. Doing so reduces the Virulence to only 1. Against body fluids, only layers of tightly-woven, oiled silk and greased leather can provide the same benefit.
If the disease is successfully diagnosed before the Incubation ends, the disease's Mundane Treatment difficulty drops to only 4 and remains there for as long as successful treatment continues.
After the disease's Incubation, the Diagnosis difficulty drops to only 2 (including the 1 point reduction from the onset of symptoms).
Anyone who survives any strain of the Great Contagion is immune to all such strains.
The Embrace of Decay
Victims of this disease beging to rot while still alive. Their skin greys, begins to decompose, and starts to peel away. They grow frail and become increasingly easy to fatigue. Victims feel constant hunger but can never be fully satisfied, no matter how much they eat. This disease almost inevitably kills the victim, who then rises as one of the walking dead, still carrying the disease.
Thankfully, this disease's only known sample, created by the Eye and Seven Despairs, is no longer in the possession of the Deathlords.
Vector: Any form of lethal damage inflicted by an infected zombie
Virulence: 5
Incubation: (Victim's Stamina) hours
Morbidity: 5/3/one day
Diagnosis: 5
Difficulty to Treat: no cure/6
Tenacity: 6/8
Minor Symptoms: The victim cannot heal any form of damage naturally and accumulates fatigue penalties at twice the normal rate. The victim also must consume twice as much food as normal to avoid accumulating penalties from hunger.
Major Symptoms: On a failed Morbidity roll, the victim suffers one dot of damage to his Stamina, effectively decreasing his Stamina by one until it can heal. Damaged Stamina heals at a rate of one dot per day of rest normally, but due to the Minor Symptoms of the Embrace of Decay cannot be healed while still suffering the disease. A victim reduced to 0 Stamina by the Embrace of Decay dies. On a botch, the victim additionally suffers two levels of unsoakable lethal damage.
Notes: Anyone who dies from the Embrace of Decay, while carrying the disease, or from a zombie carrying the disease rises one minute later as a zombie extra carrying the disease.
Those that survive the Embrace of Decay are immune to the disease forevermore.
