Zombie Ticks
These ticks are normally the size of a fingernail, but they will manage to get themselves into the back of your head, and will stick there, sucking blood, growing until reaching the size of a human hand, and disrupting and taking control of the host's nervous system through Neural Connection - 1, and an equivalent of Animal Connection - 1, but backwards, from animal to human, although they can also infect mammals, reptiles and big insects.
To all effects, an infected host has the intelligence of a bug, and will aggressively chase and eat anything, living or dead, and will gloat, get sick, and eventually die. The hosts suffer no pain, and they do not bleed thanks to something the tick injects into their bodies, much like the Bloodsaver - 2. When the host is no longer able to move due to sickness or dismemberment, the tick will lay eggs inside the incapacitated host, and larvae will start chewing it from the inside, bloating at first, and then bursting into a huge number of mature zombie ticks,
Hosts retain their human physical attributes and athletics, but all social and mental attributes drop to zero, as well as every other skill, including melee. However, as the time passes, their Agility and sometimes other physical abilities will suffer too. Most of the infected hosts last alive some months, but they could theoretically live for years in captivity with proper feeding.
The hosts can be saved after a couple of days since infection by carefully removing the tick, from the head, touching the body will cause the head to disingage from the body, and the head can regrow the complete body. The body will burst with a corrosive enzyme fluid carrying eggs that drill their way into the flesh of living beings.
The host can be saved up to two weeks after infection, but in that case, Smarts will be damaged permanently. It will be diminished by one die level, and the maximum Smarts the character can ever reach will be 1D10.
After two weeks, the tick has grown too large, so you could safely remove the tick, but the former host will most probably die with a hole in the back of his head, or it will continue behaving the same, since the brain was irreversibly rewired by the tick, in this case, the only option is putting them out of thir misery.
The only safe way of destroying a tick along with its eggs is by fire, knockout poison or superior, or acid, since violence will only make it throw the egg juice into the attacker and the ground. The eggs can last for months in the ground, and will infect any creature stepping on them without protecion in their feet. Hooved creatures do not get infected in this way.
To all effects, an infected host has the intelligence of a bug, and will aggressively chase and eat anything, living or dead, and will gloat, get sick, and eventually die. The hosts suffer no pain, and they do not bleed thanks to something the tick injects into their bodies, much like the Bloodsaver - 2. When the host is no longer able to move due to sickness or dismemberment, the tick will lay eggs inside the incapacitated host, and larvae will start chewing it from the inside, bloating at first, and then bursting into a huge number of mature zombie ticks,
Hosts retain their human physical attributes and athletics, but all social and mental attributes drop to zero, as well as every other skill, including melee. However, as the time passes, their Agility and sometimes other physical abilities will suffer too. Most of the infected hosts last alive some months, but they could theoretically live for years in captivity with proper feeding.
The hosts can be saved after a couple of days since infection by carefully removing the tick, from the head, touching the body will cause the head to disingage from the body, and the head can regrow the complete body. The body will burst with a corrosive enzyme fluid carrying eggs that drill their way into the flesh of living beings.
The host can be saved up to two weeks after infection, but in that case, Smarts will be damaged permanently. It will be diminished by one die level, and the maximum Smarts the character can ever reach will be 1D10.
After two weeks, the tick has grown too large, so you could safely remove the tick, but the former host will most probably die with a hole in the back of his head, or it will continue behaving the same, since the brain was irreversibly rewired by the tick, in this case, the only option is putting them out of thir misery.
The only safe way of destroying a tick along with its eggs is by fire, knockout poison or superior, or acid, since violence will only make it throw the egg juice into the attacker and the ground. The eggs can last for months in the ground, and will infect any creature stepping on them without protecion in their feet. Hooved creatures do not get infected in this way.
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