[FOCI]
Worlds Numberless and Strange
You are invested with the amazing abilities of a bacterium, which allows you to withstand harsh environments that would kill a normal human outright. When most recursors visit Microcosmica, for example, they must wear protective suits to explore the vast biological expanse, or they’ll suffocate and die almost immediately. Not you. You can move about the recursion freely and without concern. As your ease with your abilities grows, you gain additional bacterial options, including the ability to sense your environment chemically, go into stasis indefinitely, and attack others with lethal excretions.
You look a bit odd to normal humans. Your skin is slightly translucent with a greenish, gel-like color. Your eyes are white with biofilm, and you have no ears. Regardless of the environment, you don’t need to cover yourself in protective gear, so you tend to go minimally clothed.
Anyone who needs to survive in harsh environments for extended periods should consider this focus, though vectors are most commonly drawn to it since some of the abilities require an investment of Might.
Although Becomes Bacterial is offered in the context of Microcosmica, it would also be suitable in many Weird Science recursions, including Ruk, as well as some Exotic recursions.
Silvery shorts and tunic, one weapon of your choice, a radio communicator, an inertial tracker and compass, and $100.
You regain 1 point lost to damage.
You regain 3 points lost to damage.
Your body adapts to your environment, allowing you to function in locations normally lethal to humans. You can operate underwater (even at great pressure), in poisonous gas, in the vacuum of space, in arctic conditions, and in oven-hot conditions. This protection is suited to passive environmental conditions. Against active damaging effects (such as attacks using fire, cold, poison, or pressure) or extreme environmental effects (such as acid, superheated plasma, and similar conditions), you gain +1 to Armor.
If you would otherwise be killed, you instead revert to a formless, mindless bacterium, and wander off to pursue new goals and adventures finding food and replicating.
You have a sixth sense, akin to scent but far more sensitive and informative. You can sense your surroundings within long range regardless of sight conditions, even if you’re otherwise blind or objects of interest have cover (unless it’s complete and chemically sealed cover). As a difficulty 2 Intellect-based task, you can also learn the species, sex, wellness, and other related biological facts about a living target you sense with this ability.
Enabler; Action to learn additional information about a target.
You release a burst of concentrated nitric oxide that inflicts a moderate wound (5 points) on all creatures within immediate range. Alternatively, you can launch a vacuole of nitric oxide to any point you can see within long range, where it bursts on contact, creating the same effect.
You enter a state of suspended animation by encasing yourself in slime that hardens to amberlike solidity within a round, providing +10 to Armor. While suspended, you do not age, respire, or otherwise express metabolic processes, and you cannot take actions. The stasis lasts for a predetermined amount of time, though it ends if you take damage while in stasis.
Action to initiate.
You release an invisible stream of signaling molecules into the environment. In Microcosmica or a similar recursion, this draws one or more white blood cells to the area within a few rounds. The summoned cells indiscriminately attack creatures you designate or biological structures within short range.
If used in a recursion unlike Microcosmica, your touch is an attack that causes the victim’s immune system to briefly turn against itself, inflicting a moderate wound (5 points) for three consecutive rounds.
You attempt to bodily engulf and digest your foe. Your body structure loses cohesion and swells, becoming a bloated, translucent mass as you lunge at a target within immediate range. The victim takes 7 points of damage from enzymatic acid each round it remains caught in your embrace. The only action available to most victims is to attempt to pull free on its turn. If the victim is killed while in your embrace, you automatically consume and absorb it into your form, regaining 6 Might points. However, you can’t regain your normal humanoid form for one minute as your body digests its meal.
Action to initiate.
GM Intrusions: You inadvertently release a dangerously noxious odor. White blood cells attack you as an invading organism. If you become incapacitated, you transform into a mucous blob until you are no longer incapacitated. You unexpectedly divide asexually.