The Legacy Virus
Source: Marvel RPG and more
The Legacy Virus
While research into this deadly virus is relentlessly being pursued by renown scientists like Moira McTaggert, Hank McCoy, Rory Campbell and Nathaniel Essex (Mr.Sinister) the cure still doesn't seem to be within their grasp. While the victim count keeps rising every attempt to stop it has been in vain. The Virus created by the enigmatic Cable clone and adoptive son of Apocalypse, Stryfe, is a construct of a genius who was literally way ahead of his time.
- Virus Name: Legacy Virus
- Strength Level: Can be deadly, variable length of terminal condition, can exist in a state of remission.
- Affects: Mostly spread among homo sapiens superior population; some known cases of infection in homo sapiens.
- Symptoms: Among mutants: breakdown of mutant abilities, skin lesions, fever, cough. Among humans: none recorded.
- Cure: None known
Game Effects:
The Legacy virus directly targets a mutants DNA by using the mutant variant in the genetic code as the access point. Until recently it was thought that only mutants were the victim but it has been revealed that the virus has mutated and is now able to spread to the human populace as well. The only known human inflicted so far is Dr.Moira McTaggert so it is not known if her condition is only due to her being the mother of a mutant and a close associate to several other mutants, it seems that there is only a very small chance (I suggest a 1 in 100,000 chance) for a human to be inflicted but this number will probably rise due to the virus' mutation.
If the Judge wants to add the Legacy Virus in his campaign he should let the characters inflicted be able to find a cure somehow but only after lots of campaigns, if he wants to keep the chance of infection random he should roll for each mutant once every month. If he rolls 01, 02 or 03 the mutant is inflicted if he then fails an green End.FEAT.
The rate of the breaking up of the DNA sequence is different for each mutant (roll on the following table):
| Legacy Virus Time Table | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Die Roll | Time between Stages | Stage | Description |
| 01-10 | 1 day | 1 | early stage, no noticeable effect |
| 11-20 | 1 week | 2 | identifiable as Legacy Virus, slight weakness |
| 21-75 | 1 month | 3 | weakened power control |
| 76-98 | 3 months | 4 | apparent weakness, difficult to control powers |
| 99-00 | Varies | 5 | Final stage: death within 1 month |
Whenever the Virus rises to a new stage the mutants Endurance will drop by 1 point (not rank) if he fails to make a Red Endurance FEAT, 2 when he fails to make a Yellow Endurance FEAT and 3 when he fails to make a Green one, the character slowly starts feeling sick and weak having a -1CS on all stats for every 2 columns shifts to Endurance he has lost. (minimum Fe). As soon as his Endurance reaches Fe he can no longer function and he must be admitted to medical facilities. When the Endurance reaches 0 the character dies.
If the character is treated by specialists (X-Mansion, Muir Island, Mr.Sinister or anyone the Judge sees fit) he need only make a Yellow FEAT to avoid loss of Endurance, a White roll means he loses 2 points.
Every time the character uses his powers he must make an additional check to see if he loses Endurance, characters with powers that are always active must make an additional check each day.
Because the Virus attacks the DNA which houses the character's mutant powers for each point decrease in Endurance the character's powers increase by 1 point (all of them). However, it becomes increasingly difficult for the character to control his powers, every time he uses his powers he must make a Psyche FEAT (at another -1CS for every lost Endurance rank with a minimum of Sh-0) or his powers go wild (the exact effects are up to the Judge, for characters with energy emission powers the most probable result is a full power blast that inflicts an entire area). When the character has reached Pr Endurance he can no longer control his powers and they can activate at any moment.
Finally every stage increase will be accompanied by a spreading rash on the character's skin.
At the characters death all his powers will go off at once at maximum effect.
Until now a sole exception to this scenario seems to be the mutant and former Weapon X subject Maverick, one of the stages of his decease triggered the return of his long lost powers and even increased them, he is now back to full health and ability although the Virus still slumbers in his body waiting to resurface.
List of Victims:
The list is probably not complete, some cases are still pure speculation.
| Legacy Virus Casualty Chart | |
|---|---|
| List of Victims | Current Status |
| Illyana Rasputin (Magik) | Deceased: possibly this was a alternate Illyana or an alternate Illyana could still return from Limbo. |
| Jamie Madrox | Deceased: revealed to be one of his dupes. |
| Infectia | Deceased |
| Mastermind | Deceased |
| Revanche | Deceased |
| Chris Bradley | Protégé of Maverick, infected, Stage 3 |
| Maverick | infected although the virus has gone into remission |
| Moira McTaggert | Stage 4, possibly only a few months to live |
| Mr.Sinister | Possibly, although effects do seem to be extremely slow |
| Pyro | Stage 5 |
| Aminedi | Iraqi military agent, Deceased |
| Absalom | External, killed by Selene |
| Nicodemus | External, Deceased |
| Burke | External, Deceased |
| Psynapse | Inhuman/mutant, killed by other Dark Riders |
| Gordon, Lefferts | 1st victim, scientist working for Sinister, deceased |
| Abyss | Member of the mutant underground, stage 2 |
| Mutate 24601 | Deceased, various other mutates are also infected/deceased |
Short History:
Portions of this page taken from the Legacy Virus Casualty List By Bernard R. Assaf.
The Legacy Virus was created by Stryfe, the former leader of the Mutant Liberation Front and clone of Cable from the same era. It was to be his final revenge on mutant-kind after his defeat during the X-Cutioner's Song Saga. Stryfe gave a canister containing the virus to Mr.Sinister, who believed it contained the long-awaited Summer's DNA.
The first recorded victim was Illyana Rasputin shortly thereafter followed by Madrox and Mastermind. Although frantically working on a cure, Dr. McTaggert, Beast and Mr.Sinister all didn't seem to be able to find the means to stop the virus. And now Dr.McTaggert has become the first human victim herself.
It is believed the Cable somehow has the key to the virus or else that the Android Zero contained the information which he uploaded into Excalibur's Douglock unknown to Douglock himself.
Meanwhile KingPin, Sebastian Shaw and many others have thrown themselves in the race to find a cure all for very different reasons. Others seek out Legacy Victims for even other reasons, such as Empyrean, who has an island-rufugee for those infected by the Virus.