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Diseases & Vermin IYTU (Plagues and Pests)

Spinward Scout

Spinward Scout

SOC-14 5K
Baron
Hey Everybody,

I came across this Article this morning:

Ten Mysterious Diseases

And started to wonder what Diseases might exist in Traveller. So after I got to "what could a rabies equivalent be in Traveller' I started thinking about Vermin that might transmit the diseases, and of course, that lead me to thinking about Organized Crime, but I digress...

What kind of Diseases or Vermin Infestations have you done IYTU?

The Reginian Rat being carried parsecs in cargo containers?

A Plague in an Asteroid Mining Facility?

Or something simple like Poison Ivy?

Spinward Scout
 
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I'm currently running a campaign with a Botulism outbreak exacerbated by vacuum storage conditions, and a virulent population-decimating plague called Rybecker's Disease, that's a cross between Ebola and Poe's Red Death.

There may be more but I can't tell you yet, cos I have at least one player on these boards.
 
"Jump Fever" -- Similar to "Jump Sickness" but the symptoms persist long after return to normal space. Vertigo, nausea, malaise, and a slightly elevated body temperature are typical symptoms. Afflicts 1 out of 100,000 humans. Less frequent in other races. Does not affect aquatic or amphibious races. Treatment with tranquilizers will temporarily relieve the symptoms, but there is no known cure. The specific cause is thought to be a hormone imbalance, but this is evident in only about 1 out of 10 cases. The victim's endurance is reduced by half permanently, or until cured. Spontaneous remissions have been documented, but are exceedingly rare.

"Flesh Rot" -- A catch-all term referring to any disease that attacks and destroys the flesh of an individual. Most commonly used to describe an infection of flesh-eating bacteria, but can include certain annelids, fungi, and virii, as well. Early diagnosis is vital, if only to isolate and sedate the victim until death occurs. Most effective treatment is excision of the affected skin, or amputation of affected limbs, followed by an intensive and near-toxic regimen of chemical lavage and therapy. Reconstructive surgury or prosthetic replacement is almost always required for the victim's full recovery. A prolonged cryogenic environment has been known to halt the spread of flesh-eating bacteria and parasites, but merely delays the inevitable when the viral form is encountered. Full cycle of the disease from infection to death is 10 to 60 days.

"Brain Spores" -- Traced to a single Ancient site, now Red-zoned and quarantined. Infection is by inhalation. First symptoms appear about three days later, beginning with memory loss, followed by loss of sensory ennervation, then manic-depressive episodes, then schizophrenia, then loss of motor control, then catatonia, and finally death. Upon the death of the victim the skull (or, in hivers, the brain case) and major nerve runs rupture, exposing a brain-like fungus that disintegrates upon exposure to oxygen, releasing more spores into the atmosphere. The entire cycle, from inhalation to sporalation, is about 7 days, plus or minus a few hours. This infestation afflicts only warm-blooded mammals, although air-breathing non-mammals can be carriers. There is no known cure.
 
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Greetings and salutations,

In My Traveller Universe, I have the following diseases and vermin:

Disease(s):
Malin's Burn: Disease that actually makes your skin look like you ran through a fire. If detected and treated early enough, there will be very minimum to no damage to the skin or internal organs.

Vermin:
Fang Rat
 
What's that in the water?

Spinward Scout said:
That just sounds awful!
Click to expand...

Thank you! For your further enjoyment, I present the Scather...

...

VERMIN: "Scather" (SKAY-ther) or "Wrapping Leach"

Found on a few wetworlds corewards of the Spindrift Marches. This creature appears as a large, flat, greenish-brown leaf. Careful observation will reveal a slow, peristaltic undulation that the creature uses for locomotion. If left alone, the Scather will do no harm. But when the scather comes in contact with another creature (non-Scather), it quickly wraps itself around its victim, inserting hundreds of hair-like feeding tubes into the victim's flesh. Small creatures are drained of all organic fluids within a few minutes. Larger creatures suffer a searing pain where the Scather is attached.

Forcibly peeling the Scather from the victim at this phase of attack will either remove portions of the victim's epidermis or leave a few dozen feeding tubes embedded in the victim's skin. Either way, the victim is now exposed to a high risk of infection. Acids, chemical salts, alcohol (50% or better), open flame, or any of the other safe means of removing Terran leaches will cause the Scather to withdraw its feeding tubes and try to escape, leaving its victim with only a nasty "road rash" type of wound. Successful treatment at this stage requires a medical kit and paramedic skill (Medical 2+) or better.

Allowing the Scather to complete its feeding is even more dangerous, for once it is fully sated, the Scather will deposit thousands of eggs, which will hatch into larvae within 3 to 18 hours. These 1mm-long larvae (or "Maggots") which by now have entered the victim's bloodstream, muscles, and organs, will attack and consume the victim from the inside out. Successful treatment of larval infestations requires admission to a medical facility under the care of a doctor (Medical 4+). Cryogenic storage in a low berth will force the larvae to become dormant. An extended stay -- up to a year -- in a low berth may kill up to 98% of the larvae, but the victim must still survive both the low berth and the remaining larval infestation.

Once the victim has died, the larval Scathers go dormant until exposed to moist ground or swampy water, wherein they make their final metamorphosis to their adult form.

Adults range in size from 1cm to 30 cm in length, about half that in width, and never more than 3cm thick. They detect their prey by its scent, motion, and electrical fields, much as does the Terran shark.

Scathers tend to swarm in groups of 3 to 18. They avoid salt water and direct sunlight.

...

Sleep well tonight.
 
Keklas Rekobah said:
Thank you! For your further enjoyment, I present the Scather...

...

VERMIN: "Scather" (SKAY-ther) or "Wrapping Leach"

Found on a few wetworlds corewards of the Spindrift Marches. This creature appears as a large, flat, greenish-brown leaf. Careful observation will reveal a slow, peristaltic undulation that the creature uses for locomotion. If left alone, the Scather will do no harm. But when the scather comes in contact with another creature (non-Scather), it quickly wraps itself around its victim, inserting hundreds of hair-like feeding tubes into the victim's flesh. Small creatures are drained of all organic fluids within a few minutes. Larger creatures suffer a searing pain where the Scather is attached.

Forcibly peeling the Scather from the victim at this phase of attack will either remove portions of the victim's epidermis or leave a few dozen feeding tubes embedded in the victim's skin. Either way, the victim is now exposed to a high risk of infection. Acids, chemical salts, alcohol (50% or better), open flame, or any of the other safe means of removing Terran leaches will cause the Scather to withdraw its feeding tubes and try to escape, leaving its victim with only a nasty "road rash" type of wound. Successful treatment at this stage requires a medical kit and paramedic skill (Medical 2+) or better.

Allowing the Scather to complete its feeding is even more dangerous, for once it is fully sated, the Scather will deposit thousands of eggs, which will hatch into larvae within 3 to 18 hours. These 1mm-long larvae (or "Maggots") which by now have entered the victim's bloodstream, muscles, and organs, will attack and consume the victim from the inside out. Successful treatment of larval infestations requires admission to a medical facility under the care of a doctor (Medical 4+). Cryogenic storage in a low berth will force the larvae to become dormant. An extended stay -- up to a year -- in a low berth may kill up to 98% of the larvae, but the victim must still survive both the low berth and the remaining larval infestation.

Once the victim has died, the larval Scathers go dormant until exposed to moist ground or swampy water, wherein they make their final metamorphosis to their adult form.

Adults range in size from 1cm to 30 cm in length, about half that in width, and never more than 3cm thick. They detect their prey by its scent, motion, and electrical fields, much as does the Terran shark.

Scathers tend to swarm in groups of 3 to 18. They avoid salt water and direct sunlight.

...

Sleep well tonight.
Click to expand...
This will make me think twice about raking leaves....

A nasty little pest - do you mind if I import this into my Traveller Universe???
 
Fritz_Brown said:
Well, I certainly don't want to leave my vacc suit if Keklas is ref'ing! :eek: "Never get off the boat!"
Click to expand...

I've often wondered why it is that while I rarely get asked to ref a game, my players are very often reluctant to leave or see the gamestory end.

{Insert evil chuckle here.}

navywarlord said:
This will make me think twice about raking leaves....

A nasty little pest - do you mind if I import this into my Traveller Universe???
Click to expand...

(Hmm ... this is the second such request I've received ... the first was for the "Roan Ferret" ... maybe I should assemble my menagerie into book form for some lucky "Hunter" to bag and bring home ... )

Of course you may import it to YTU. That's why I posted it!
 
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Neo-Rabies: A genetically-enhanced version of the Rabies virus modified to have a far shorter incubation time (i.e. to reach the brain within a day or two) and, once reaching the brain, to keep the host alive and active for several weeks (essentially the later stages of neural damage are delayed). The end result is a "zombie" plague, though the "zombies" are not dead yet, just brain-damaged, agressive, and out for a bite (i.e. rabid humans).
 
I have created quite a few diseases, bacteria, virus, etc. in my campaign. My favorite for a pest are metalmites (based on similar bacteria on earth) often found on metallic asteroids & on ships. My most favorite is a symbiotic microorganism found on the volcanic planet Tortuga. It protects its host by absorbing & neutralizing toxic gases.
 
I toyed for a while with an outbreak of the zombie disease after reading World War Z. Galactic civilization collapsed under the onslaught, but a small colony had defeated its undead attackers, recovered and was cautiously probing nearby worlds. It got a little strange after a few iterations with giant fungal hive-palaces called, "Blooms," and an extremely intelligent, "Vampire," form of infected. Eventually, I lost interest as I usually do with that sort of thing, but it would have made an interesting, "Halloween," scenario on a much smaller scale.
 
Diseases: the incubation period would have to be longer than a week for it to travel to another world easily, right? Unless the person is in Cold Berth, they'd die, become a Space Zombie, be ravaged by disease, etc... during Jump. And you should be able to warn the Destination World, unless, of course, there's no one left alive on board to warn them.
 
That was one of my problems. Zombie virus needed a long incubation period to get from world to world, but it needed a fairly short incubation once it was recognized. After all the best move was to decapitate anyone who died. That was part of the reason why I had the intelligent, "Vampire," types. They could successfully simulate uninfected individuals long enough to make the jump then start infecting people to make, "zombies," at the next planet. They also made good ringleaders.
 
Vermin:

On a rocky minor planet in a system far from civilized space, a single cell organism has developed, generations of which cover the entire sun-lit side of the planetoid. The organism produces acids that melt the rocks beneath it, releasing nutrients that are quickly used to produce more of the organisms. Now, when a unwary smuggler or pirate lands on the planetoid, they may unwittingly provide a new surface for colonization. Once established, the organisms quickly utilize the pure metals of the ship's hull to mulitply at such a staggering rate that ships sometimes distegrate before reaching their next port of call.
 
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