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Combat

Page 9 of 11

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Disease

Disease can be contracted via several points of infection. The description of each disease lists the forms in which it can normally be delivered into a character’s system.

Some diseases are naturally occurring, caused by age or an unhealthy (or over-healthy) lifestyle. These include heart disease, most cancers, senility and any genetic disorders.

In most cases, there is nothing that can be done to avoid developing a naturally occurring disease, other than to live a balanced lifestyle. Obviously, this is harder said than done.

Resistance tests (see below) are not used for naturally occurring diseases – characters contract them at the GM’s discretion.

It is possible to contract some diseases by eating contaminated material (usually infected meat). The most obvious example of an ingested disease is food poisoning, from eating rotten animal or vegetable matter.

The disease is passed on via bodily fluids. Many sexually transmitted diseases are passed on by this method, and require a Resistance test during each act of congress.

Additionally, a character administering medical treatment to, or otherwise handling, a wounded carrier of such a disease must take a Resistance test, with a +60 modifier if the character is uninjured, and a –10 penalty for each D3 of bleeding in the carrier.

Fluid transmitted diseases can also be injected, either deliberately or as a result of poor hygiene (such as re-using syringes). Injecting another person with a syringe (more commonly known as injectors to the uneducated Imperial citizen) usually requires either surprise or consent for it to be successful. Attempting to use an injector in combat counts as fighting unarmed, although a successful blow does not cause damage, other than that caused by the injected substance. The GM may rule that armoured locations cannot be injected, and will probably break the needle, while a decent thickness of clothing stops an injector 50% of the time.

It is rare, but possible, for a disease to be transmitted in a needle-style weapon. Several tyranid bio-construct weapons work in this way.

Some diseases can be contracted through exposed skin, by handling contaminated items. This can be bodily waste, bedding, clothing or even another character suffering from the disease.

Thick gloves, an undamaged sealed suit or full suit of airtight armour (such as power armour or tactical dreadnought armour) will automatically resist any contact-spread diseases. If the suit’s integrity is compromised in any way (the character has been shot or stabbed, for example, or if the suit was damaged in a fall), the character must take a Resistance test (see The Effects Of Disease, below), but gains a +20 bonus from the suit’s protection.

Some diseases are spread by airborne microbes. Such diseases are particularly dangerous, since they can spread unchecked and unseen across entire populations.

Characters wearing filter devices, such as a gas mask or syn-skin, gain bonuses to Resistance tests against airborne diseases. If a disease also works by contact, any bonuses granted by filters are halved. See Poisons for more details.

Characters running the risk of being affected by disease must take a Toughness test, to represent their bodies’ natural resistance to outside attack. Characters who fail this Resistance test are affected, while those who pass manage to fight off the disease.

Not all diseases are as contagious as others. It is easier to resist the effects of a cold than it is to shrug off the effects of an artificially engineered plague. To represent this, each disease has a Resistance value – often a negative number – which acts as a modifier to the Resistance test.

Characters with the Immunity To Disease ability gain a +10 bonus to Toughness when taking Resistance tests against all forms of disease.

If the Resistance test is passed, the character does not contract the disease.

A character must take an additional Resistance test every hour that he or she remains exposed to the disease. Of course, the character need not realise that exposure is taking place.

Few diseases have an immediate effect, instead fighting against the immune system for some time before gaining enough of an upper hand to produce noticeable symptoms.

Barring medical intervention, all diseases have a natural lifespan. After this point, the patient normally recovers. A disease’s duration of effect is normally related to the Resistance test’s margin of failure. The duration of effect begins after the incubation period ends.

Diagnosis

Treating a disease is much easier if a medic knows what it is he or she is trying to cure. When first presented with a patient, the medic must take a Sagacity test, with access to a variety of medical equipment, textbooks and tests granting a +20 bonus, and the Surgeon ability conferring an additional +10 bonus. A character without the Medic ability can still attempt to diagnose a disease, but suffers a –30 penalty.

If the test is passed, the medic has correctly diagnosed the disease and can begin treatment.

If the test was failed, the disease remains undiagnosed, but diagnosis can be re-attempted the next day, with a +10 modifier if new symptoms have occurred before then.

A matching failure means that the disease has been misdiagnosed. The medic will attempt treatment, but it will have no effect. It takes a number of days equal to the margin of failure, divided by ten, to realise the misdiagnosis and re-attempt diagnosis.

Treating a disease requires the medic to take a daily Sagacity test, with the same bonuses as for diagnosis.

If the test is a matched success, the disease has been cured and the patient recovers fully from the symptoms after a day or two.

If the test is a success, any characteristic or hit point loss caused by the disease on that day is halved. The patient also has a +10 bonus to his or her Toughness test when attempting to recover lost hit points due to resting that night.

If the test is a failure, the disease carries on having its normal effects.

If the test is a matched failure, some form of complication develops, doubling any characteristic or hit point loss on that day.

The diseases in this section are referred to by their modern names, occasionally using modern medical terminology. Depending on the local culture, and their own ignorance, doctors in the Imperium may not use scientific terms at all. Vapours, humours, bloodletting and trepanning are still recognised medical procedures in parts of the Imperium.

Anthrax is a disease that only affects warm-blooded creatures and is spread by spores. It is most common in agricultural areas, chiefly effecting herd animals, and those that come into contact with their carcasses. The vast majority of anthrax infections (95%) are caused by contact, but airborne varieties of anthrax are occasionally used as biological weapons.

Anthrax has different effects depending on how it was contracted.

Ingested anthrax (also known as ‘intestinal anthrax’) shows itself initially through vomiting, loss of appetite and nausea, rapidly developing into abdominal pains, vomiting of blood and diarrhoea. Characters with ingested anthrax suffer D6 damage every three hours, and halve all characteristics, while the disease is in effect.

Contact anthrax gets into the body via cuts and abrasions. Symptoms manifest with an infection similar in appearance to an insect bite, eventually becoming a painless, black-centred ulcer, about an inch across. Characters with cutaneous anthrax suffer D3 damage every six hours, and reduce all characteristics, except for Toughness, by a quarter while the disease is in effect.

Airborne anthrax starts out with symptoms akin to a common cold. After D3 days, the character goes into shock and suffers severe breathing difficulties, losing D10 hit points every hour, and halving all characteristics while the disease is in effect.

Cholera is spread by organisms present in dirty water, and can wipe out whole cultures if they have no access to specialist medical facilities.

A character with cholera becomes dehydrated, with no grace period. See Damage From Other Sources for more details. Because the nearest water supply is generally the source of infection, those who try to quench their thirst are often just reinforcing the cholera. Thus, treatment through re-hydration must use clean water supplies, and preferably intravenous fluid injections, or else it has no effect.

Other symptoms of cholera include profuse, watery diarrhoea, frequent vomiting, abdominal pains, muscle cramps, low skin and body temperature, rapid heart rate (tachycardia) and low blood pressure (hypotension).

Influenza is an airborne virus that affects the respiratory system. It is an extremely common and contagious illness (but should not be confused with the common cold), and rarely has any harmful effects beyond minor symptoms. However, superbug strains are not unknown, and epidemics can devastate packed hive cities just as surely as a bio-engineered virus.

Normally, the character will just feel like hell for the duration of the illness (-10 to all characteristics), but on a matched failure, pneumonia or some other complication will set in, and this characteristic loss occurs once per day. If any characteristic reaches zero during the illness, the character has become so weak that he or she dies.

Influenza has symptoms of fever, headache, extreme fatigue, sore throat, dry cough and blocked nose, as well as an aching body. Pneumonia complications will extend this to include stabbing chest pains.

The life-eater virus was artificially engineered as the ultimate bio-weapon. It is primarily used in Exterminatus, the destruction of entire planetary populations, but has found its way into some smaller-scale viral weapons. Life-eater is immensely dangerous and it is forbidden for any without the highest Inquisitorial clearance to handle.

Any organic life form infected by the life-eater virus immediately breaks down into brown primordial mulch. Any other organic life forms within fifty yards must immediately take a Resistance test or become infected as well, and so on. When the virus has run out of victims, it attacks itself and dies. There is, however, a 10% chance that at some point during the next century, the virus will reappear in the contaminated area.

Resurgence of the life-eater virus can be prevented by incinerating everything potentially infected, thus killing off the virus. When used on a planetary population, the vast scale of organic decomposition often fills the atmosphere with so much oxygen that the very air ignites (thanks to lightning, volcanoes or even just the spark from two pebbles striking one another). This cleanses the entire planet, as well as finishes off any life forms that have otherwise resisted the life-eater virus.

When determining how far an infection of life-eater travels through crowded areas, over grass or through forests, make a single Resistance test for all potential victims and, if passed, everything within a number of yards equal to the margin of failure, multiplied by one hundred, of ground zero is destroyed. Then make another – if this is failed, everything within a similarly determined distance, of the edge of previous infection limit is destroyed. Repeat until a mass Resistance test is passed.

Malaria is a genus of parasite that develops in the liver before spreading into the red blood cells. The parasites multiply and grow until the cell bursts, and move onto other cells, leaving a trail of toxins in the victim’s bloodstream.

Malaria is spread by transmission of blood, either through parasitic insects or direct transfusion, and is mainly found in tropical or other warm, damp climates.

Malaria leaves the victim feeling sick with fever, shaking chills, headaches and tiredness, and possibly nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting. In serious cases, loss of red blood cells can cause jaundice and anaemia. This has the effect of reducing all characteristics by the margin of failure, at a rate of D10 points per day. If this should reduce any characteristic to zero, the victim dies.

If the Resistance test was a matched failure, the victim has developed a particularly dangerous variety of malarial parasite, and loses D10 hit points every day, in addition to characteristic loss.

Nurgle’s Rot is a truly exceptional disease, since it is of supernatural origins and effect. Unlike most other diseases described in this section, it is not bound by species barriers. Anything, even tyranids, can succumb to Nurgle’s Rot, and there is no conventional treatment. It is rumoured that some victims of unshakeable faith have overcome the disease through prayer and fasting, but the horrific nature of the disease’s effects – the gradual transformation of the victim into a Daemon of Nurgle – mean that the Inquisition keeps most treatises on the disease under wraps.

Barring the intervention of the Emperor, Nurgle or some other powerful deity, a character with Nurgle’s Rot is doomed. Each month as the disease progresses, the victim’s characteristics move D10 points towards the standard characteristics for a Plaguebearer (see the Chaos Bestiary) and gains D10 Insanity points.

The disease has three stages, each taking three months to complete. In this time, the victim’s body bloats and transforms into that of a Plaguebearer. The Plaguebearer will have up to seven Chaos attributes (D10-3, minimum 1), and these will gradually accumulate over the nine month course of the disease. The following example explains the development of the ‘generic’ Plaguebearer, with all the typical attributes for a Daemon of its kind.

Over the first stage, the character will develop the Chaos attribute Rotting Flesh. In periods of delirium, the character may mumble rhythmically.

In stage two, one or more horns push through the character’s skull. During this time, the character will begin droning numbers in a voice reminiscent of buzzing flies.

Finally, in stage three, the feet become hooves and the character’s eyes merge together into a single cyclopean eye. Finally, the victim dies, only to be reborn seven hours, seven minutes and seven seconds later as a Plaguebearer.

Particularly large creatures will develop the Shrink Chaos attribute before any others, and particularly small creatures may either become Nurglings or develop the Growth Chaos attribute.

If a victim of Nurgle’s Rot is killed before the disease runs its course, the Plaguebearer will not be created.

On several occasions in the past, bubonic plague came close to wiping out human civilisation entirely. Now that humans are entrenched across the galaxy, it is impossible for the disease to ever pose such a threat again. This by no means diminishes its potency on a local scale, particularly in primitive or densely populated societies. The plague bacteria is transmitted through the bites of infected fleas, or on the cough droplets of a victim with pneumonia. Some Imperial doctors associate plague with the presence of rats, and launch extermination campaigns against vermin in plague-infected regions.

Bubonic plague takes its name from the painfully swollen lymph glands, known as ‘bubos’, that characterise the illness. Additionally, victims suffer from exhaustion, fever, chills and headache. All characteristics are halved.

If the disease is not successfully treated with antibiotics within D6 days of the first symptoms, it will almost always develop into pneumonic plague, a severe respiratory illness. The victim’s lungs become infected, causing laboured breathing, and a cough expelling bloody sputum. The vapour droplets of this coughing turn plague into an airborne disease. The victim loses D10 hit points every day spent suffering from pneumonic plague.

The Salmonella Typhi bacterium lives only in the human bloodstream and intestinal tract. It can be passed on via human sewage, and spreads rapidly in primitive cultures where hygiene quality is poor.

Typhoid manifests as a high fever, feelings of weakness, stomach pains, headache and loss of appetite. Victims reduce all characteristics by the margin of failure, at a rate of D6 points per day. If this should reduce any characteristic to zero, the victim dies.

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