Aberrant 2.0 Chrysalis
Basics
Chrysalis is directed evolution of a character's M-R node according to their will, rather than the undirected evolution of Taint. A character who gains Chrysalis treats it as Taint, but with a minor advantage-rather than the ST determining the gains from Taint, and the aberrations, the player does.
Gaining Chrysalis
Once per scene, a character gaining Taint may pay 1 willpower and an additional 10Q per point of temporary Taint gained to convert this Taint into temporary Chrysalis instead. Doing such an action is an extreme act of will and requires a Willpower roll, difficulty (+points of temporary Taint gained). If failed, the character gains that much temporary Taint and loses the quantum points. If botched, the character gains double the normal amount of temporary Taint.
A character who gains 10 points of temporary Chrysalis gains 1 point of permanent Chrysalis, which behaves identically to permanent Taint except with the caveat that the character (and by extension, the player) gets to choose any aberrations or body modifications gained from this process.
Transformation
A character with 5 Permanent Chrysalis or more may attempt to go into Chrysalis, rolling (Willpower + Chrysalis) at +4 difficulty while exposed to a condition that challenges the character's preconceptions of his or her powers. If successful, the character is surrounded by a chrysalis based on their powers and paradigm, which protects them as they rebuild their body from the ground up.
Characters inside Chrysalis are immobile and incapable of perceiving or acting in the real world, locked in dream or nightmare or death-like sleep. However, the Chrysalis gives the character the equivalent of the Regeneration and Adaptability enhancements, and grants an additional +10B/10L/10A soak against all attacks. However, characters in Chrysalis are not immortal and sufficient applied force can still kill them. These enhancements only last until the Chrysalis ends-an ice manipulating Nova who undergoes Chrysalis by jumping into an active volcano (without Adaptability) better have a very good idea of how she's going to get out.
It takes 1 week per 2 XP spent for Chrysalis to end. Ending Chrysalis leaves a character with full Quantum points and temporary Willpower.
Advantages
While in Chrysalis, Novas may purchase quantum powers and other related abilities at reduced cost. Furthermore, Novas may mitigate permanent and temporary Taint with minimal XP cost.
Increasing Traits
| TRAIT INCREASE | XP cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Background | Current (Attunement, Dormancy, Node only) | |
| M-Attribute | Current x 3 | |
| Q-Power (L1) | Current x 1 | |
| Q-Power (L2) | Current x 3 | |
| Q-Power (L3) | Current x 5 | |
| Q-Power (L4) | Current x 7 | |
| Q-Power (L5) | Current x 10 | |
| Q-Power (L6) | Current x 13 | |
| Quantum | Current x 4 | |
| Reducing Taint | 1 XP (remove 1 temporary taint)/10 XP (remove 1 permanent taint) | |
| Quantum Pool | 1 XP / point |
New Traits
| NEW TRAIT | XP cost | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Body Modification | Normal XP Cost/2 | ||
| Background | 1 (Attunement, Dormancy, Node only) | ||
| Enhancement | 3 | ||
| M-Attribute | 3 | ||
| Q-Power (L1) | 2 | ||
| Q-Power (L2) | 3 | ||
| Q-Power (L3) | 5 | ||
| Q-Power (L4) | 10 | ||
| Q-Power (L5) | 12 | ||
| Q-Power (L6) | 15 | ||
| Extra | 5 | ||
| Strength | 2 |
Disadvantages
Psi Vulnerability
Against Psionic attacks, Chrysalis makes a character especially vulnerable. All Elevated Novas consider themselves particularly vulnerable to damage from psions. Psions consider all psionic direct damage against a Chrysalis Nova to have an Armor Piercing rating equal to the Nova's total taint social penalty plus the Psion's own Psi score, and reduce any dice pools to resist their powers by that same amount. If the attack successfully hits or penetrates soak, it deals an additional number of levels of damage equal to the Nova's total taint social penalty, of the same type of damage the attack normally does.
Against powerful Psionic beings such as Proxies or Doyen, Elevated Novas consider all damage they deal unsoakable above and beyond the normal effects of Noetic/Quantum interference.
Chrysalis also has additional side effects that relate to the Nova drifting ever farther from the noetic universe. For example, a Nova with Chrysalis may not be healed by Vitakinesis.
Social Isolation
Chrysalis social penalties stack with all other social penalties and also gain a number of aberrations anyway. Against races which communicate and sense predominantly via psionic powers, Elevated Novas double their Taint-based social penalties before applying modifiers such as Soothe.