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Old 07-28-2020, 12:10 AM   #2
Johnny1A.2
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Default Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE sidebar: Omnigenine...

OMNIGENINE continued...

What the researchers at USAMRIID did not understand, and lacked the necessary information and frame of reference to understand, was that the drug they had developed was acting as a activator for latent psionic abilities.

Specifically, the drug had three broad effects in humans. It weakened what is usually the strongest human psi-ability, Antipsi, often to the point of nearly total suppression. It boosted the Biopsi Power, making it more active, and the absence of the self-focused Antipsi effect that is the human default permitted that Biopsi Power to manifest. In some people, there was sufficient instinctive grasp of Healing skill to subconsciously use this Power to deal with medical issues. Cancer, because cancer cells were no longer genetically 'synched' with the healthy body, was especially susceptible to this effect. This much was to the good for the test subjects.

The third effect, though, was far nastier, the more so because it involved phenomena of which the research teams were blessedly ignorant. The drug weakened the natural Telepathic mind shield that most humans possess, and it also made the mind more 'receptive' to Telepathy. This in itself would not have been so bad, but the context made it catastrophic.

Without the Antipsi and mind shield, the subjects were exposed to a background roar of thought from other people, albeit at an entirely subconscious level. Without the necessary knowledge and training to screen it out, this began to have subtle effects on the subjects. Over the short term the effects were minor, but over years they began to accumulate.

One clue the researchers missed in looking at the test subjects was that those who showed no negative effects, or at least no major ones over many years, mostly lived in very rural areas, away from large concentrations of people. This was beneficial because it reduced the 'background noise' that was causing problems in some of their fellow test subjects.

This was not the worst problem, however.

Far more serious was that without the protective effect of their native Antipsi, and with their compromised mind shields and enhanced Telepathic receptivity, certain people found themselves 'attuned to that dark entity known in later centuries as the Malignium. [1]

It is difficult to exaggerate the malevolence of that entity. Those individuals who found themselves subconsciously attuned to it, and lacked the will to resist the 'leakage', tended to react by mirroring that malevolence. Thus the madmen who murdered or attempted to murder others, and the serial killer, a torture/murderer, who would not be stopped until 1988 when a U.S. Army Intelligence officer finally caught up with him.

Lacking the necessary frame of reference to even understand the situation, it was hardly surprising that the researchers failed to understand either the benefits or the deadly dangers associated with their drug.

In GURPS modified 3e terms, the effect of a dose of omnigenine is as follows:

The subject should roll vs. HT. On a critical failure, roll vs. HT again, on a second critical failure the subject is allergic to the drug and suffers a seizure. Otherwise, the drug takes effect.

If the GM has not already done so, he should determine the latent psi abilities of the subject. This can be done quickly by rolling 1d and adding 4, this gives a range of latent psionic Powers other than Antipsi from 5 to 10. For Antipsi add an extra 2 levels above whatever other Power is strongest. Or the GM can assign values as appropriate.

The drug will reduce Antipsi by 2d, to a minimum of zero. It also annuls the self-focusing tendency, so that even if there is some Antipsi Power left, it no longer suppresses the other Powers of the subject.

The drug will also cut the natural mind shield most people generate by 1/2, rounding down, and add 2 levels of the latent Telepathy Power for receptive purposes only, which will begin to subconsciously operate.

(Note that someone with the right training and knowledge could compensate for several of these effects.)

All this will have long term effects.

To be continued...


[1] See here: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=147153
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