Diseases of the Damned
by Damien Hunt

As the nights fill with oddities of unnatural power, echo with the dooming cries of street prophets and the bloodlines of the Kindred wither and grow thin, it should come as no surprise to them that the powerful resilience of their blood should begin to falter. Though they may contact, carry and spread the mundane diseases of humanity, the Kindred have never had to fear their debilitating effects. The threat of contracting a disease was once merely an embarrassment or at worst a nuisance as it endangered one’s mortal herd, but no longer. New viral threats have evolved and are now spreading among the unweary Kindred, destroying the powerful from within.

As these strange new diseases spread and outbreaks continue, many Kindred have attempted to uncover their origins. However, as they appear with a frustratingly unconnected randomness, all attempts to track their migrations to points of origin have failed and thus their genitor’s are unknown. Also hindering the efforts of concerned Kindred are the fear-driven decrees of many Camarilla Princes, who deal with outbreaks with harsh finality. As flames and sunlight destroy all evidence that might be studied, the more scientific minded Kindred are left with very little to help them understand these threats. There are no shortages of theories flowing through the rumor mill though, as religious zealots feel the providence and wrath of God behind the plagues and Camarilla besieged by the Sabbat cast blame upon their hated enemies. The truth concerning the source of these diseases may be unknown to anyone.

The Necrourge Plague

Away from the revelers and alone at long last, they danced wildly to the impassioned symphony playing on her expensive sound system. However tonight’s lover wished to indulge other passions and it was not long before the dance was forgotten. Modesty abandoned, the young seducer’s lips left descending trails of heat across Aryanna’s smooth cool flesh. With a kiss of her own, she left him shuddering upon the floor in delight and death. She sat, sated, upon the polished marble and watched the passion fade from his gorgeous green eyes until, with his beauty washed away, she was entranced no longer. He had been such a dear boy.

She stood to her feet and smoothed out the creases in her dress, the night still young and awaiting her tending. Yet, through the pulse of music, she heard a sudden sharp scrape across the stone-worked floor and turned quickly to find the body of her hollowed lover vanished. A hiss drew her gaze around to find him crouched like a feral animal before her. With eyes yet again full of hunger, but devoid of the impassioned beauty for life that always aroused her desire, he skittered rapidly across the floor toward her. The power of Aryanna’s age failed her as she froze in unbelieving horror and once more did his lips feast, gnawing and biting, upon her flesh.

Infection

The Necrourge Plague spreads through the transfer of bodily fluids like a STD. The greatest risk of infection comes from feeding and a mortal who is fed upon can catch the disease from the vampire’s bite. The disease is quite virulent, especially to Kindred. Mortals who catch the disease may recover eventually, however once a Kindred is infected they will remain so permanently.

System: Characters coming in contact with the bodily fluids of an infected individual must immediately make a Stamina Roll (difficulty 8) or become infected. Every 24-hour period a mortal can make another roll to recover from the disease.

Effects

After the incubation of the disease mortals may find that they feel a little under the weather, but rarely more severe than a persistent headache or general aches and pains. Kindred suffer no debilitating effects, but they may notice that the amount of vitae that serves as saliva will increase without becoming a nuisance. The truly horrifying effects of the Necrourge Plague do not become apparent until an infected Mortal dies, after which the corpse rises immediately as a mindless automaton with the sole purpose of seeking out and destroying the Kindred who infected it.

System: The incubation period is a number of hours equal to the character’s Stamina, after which an infected Mortal suffers a +1 penalty to the difficulty of all Stamina rolls. Any infected mortal that dies will rise within minutes as a Necrourge.

Necrourges

Any infected Mortal that dies will rise again within minutes as a mindless undead beast, without pain or fear and existing for the single purpose of destroying the Kindred that infected it. Whoever the Mortal used to be is gone, the Necrourge has no personality, it is merely an unnaturally animated piece of feral meat. Whenever the plague infects a Kindred it mutates into a unique strain, all mortals infected by that strain who die will rise as Necrourges seeking to destroy that particular Kindred. Although they are mindless, the Necrourge’s physical abilities increase and they can withstand a great deal of physical damage before being destroyed. Coming into contact with a Necrourge, even one who has been destroyed, can cause the infection to spread further. However, they will ignore anyone who stays out of their way. The first time a Kindred encounters a Necrourge they may be overcome by shock and horror as the corpse rushes to attack them.

System: Perception increases by one and is attuned to the location of the source Kindred, allowing it to track the Kindred instinctively. The strongest physical attribute increases by one point, but the Necrourge has no intelligence, wits or social attributes. They can soak bashing and lethal damage with Stamina, withstand ten levels of damage before being destroyed and only gain wound penalties from aggravated damage. Infected Ghouls who rise as Necrourges retain all levels of Potence and Fortitude they had. If the Kindred is overwhelmed by horror, they must roll a Willpower roll (difficulty equal to the Kindred’s Humanity) to act immediately or the Kindred remains unmoving in horror for a round.

Cure

Although mortals seem to be able to eventually fight off the disease, Kindred who become infected must suffer with the disease permanently. All attempts to find a cure have failed. Many Kindred of power who fear the plague have developed effective measures to stop the spread of the disease, but they involve fire and sunlight.

System: When an infected Kindred dies, all carriers of that Kindred’s specific strain no longer become Necrourges and already risen Necrourges will immediately fall fully dead once again. Carriers can still spread the disease, possibly infecting another Kindred to cause a new strain to evolve. In the case of Kindred, only complete destruction by fire or sunlight has successfully destroyed the disease.

Hellfire Fever

The barroom was loud with boisterous calls of favor and hazing while the two glared intently into each other’s eyes. Thick air swirled with smoke, the copperish scent of fresh spilt blood and the darker tang of vitae, while fangs flashed threateningly over the shrouded table with leathers creaking out the stress of the match. Grinning fiendishly, the two struggled to pin down the other’s arm to the blood-covered spikes beneath, while money, servants, information and favors changed hands in the ongoing gambling around them.

After a few minutes, her opponent’s obviously thicker arm had managed only to hold her in a trembling stalemate above the table and it was time to bring on the heat. Concentrating, feeling the warm rush of strength flow through her, she managed to initiate the slow decent of his arm which was quickly halted with an answering growl from his bearded face. She poured it on, relentless, only vaguely bothered by the strange, almost painful, waves of heat flowing through her body.

With an inhuman howl of victory, she slammed his arm home. No answering cries of delight or rage rose up within the barroom, not that she would have heard them if there had been. With the last echo of her howl hanging, she fell twitching to the floor. Thick black vitae gushed from her eyes, ears and mouth with a bubbling gurgle. The spitting convulsions left her a leather bound husk, lying in a steaming pool of boiling black ichor as the room erupted in a chaos of terror.

Infection

The infection of Hellfire Fever spreads only through the exchange of vitae between Kindred and/or Ghouls. It has no effect on mortals, surviving only within vitae. Thankfully it is not a virulent disease, being rather weak and the initial infection is easy to fend off.

System: Any Kindred or Ghoul who comes in contact with the blood of an infected individual must make an immediate Stamina roll or become infected with the fever. The difficulty of the stamina roll is 5 if the infected individual is a Ghoul, 6 if it is Kindred.

Effects

The effects of the fever first become apparent 24 hours after contracting the disease, after which the infected individual is fully contagious. After this incubation period, the fever reacts whenever the individual uses their vitae. This reaction is volatile, causing the blood to heat rapidly and in cases of extended use of vitae the blood may boil the victim from within.

System: Infected Kindred or Ghouls inflict one health level of damage upon themselves for every blood point spent. This damage cannot be soaked as it scalds the body from within, however it is not aggravated damage. This makes healing quite a problem.

Cure

After being infected, Ghouls continue to fight the infection and can eventually recover from the fever, however there is only one cure known for an infected Kindred. By “burning” all the infected blood within one’s system, Kindred may be able to eradicate all traces of the disease. However, this dangerous cure most often leads to torpor and the Kindred must also fight the craving of the beast to feed as they continue to “burn” their blood.

System: Infected Ghouls can make another Stamina roll every 24 hours to recover from the fever. Kindred who successfully “burn” all their blood points can make another Stamina roll to recover from the fever, but they must fight against Frenzy until they have no vitae left within their system.

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