Crucible
Someone call for a cleaner?
History
The Crucible wouldn't be a true organization till the early 90s, but their origins go much further back. The first trace of what they would become emerged from the civil war. Doctors working on wounded soldiers found disease impossible to handle.
With little in the way effective sterilization, and next to no equipment to begin with. They were forced to make due. Then came Dr. Laurence Douglas. Douglas was a famed occultist, many believing him to be a holy man capable of healing the most lethal of wounds with nothing more than flames.
The soldiers would scream for hours as he worked. The tents were avoided, many suspecting foul play until the soldiers would emerge from the tent. Their screams of agony turned to joy as they emerged miraculously recovered.
A lifelong enemy
Douglas disappeared when the war ended, only.appearing again in New York City. The year is 1897. The government works to cover up a remarkably dangerous infection outside a small apartment building on the street of Little Water. Anyone who even attempted to enter would immediately be infected by a disease that seems to have a sense of its own existence. It did not wait for its victims to stumble across it. It actively sought them out.
Douglas arrived and went to work, but found this to be no ordinary malady. For the next 30 years, he traveled across the world, following the outbreak as they occurred. He could eliminate the virus using his gifts, but it would always return, rebounding from extinction. He called it “The Five Point Pathogen” and it would be a lifelong fight for Douglas to keep it contained.
Douglas couldn't continue the fight, having reached a ripe old age. He instead taught another, who taught another, and so on. All this was done to ensure the survival of humanity. As time went on, the numbers of those capable of harnessing these gifts would grow until in the 90s, when the Crucible officially joined The Web. How else could one stop a disease that won't stay cured?
Ignis Medical
When Crucible officially established itself as an organization, it based its operation around Ignis Medical, a corporation that produces many cutting edge forms of protective equipment and pharmaceutical goods. Ignis produces the vast majority of Crucible’s equipment.
The Five Point Pathogen
The five point pathogen is the true enemy of The Crucible. They eradicate it with efficiency, only to have it resurface years later. The pathogen is unlike any other, acting as both a virus, fungal infection, bacterial infection, and a parasite simultaneously. It mutates regularly, ruins the body of its victims, and then sprouts a gorgeous black flower from the corpse. The flower releases the contagion into the air.
Once released, the contagion will actively search for others to infect, making use of changes in the air, water, and living things to spread itself. It can change its own symptoms with every infection, able to emulate any horrible ailment that assails the world.
The only universal symptom experienced is audible hallucinations. Once infected, the victim will always report hearing screams in their head. Sometimes the victim can sometimes understand these screams, an indication that the infection has spread too far and the victim will soon be dead.
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"Douglas disappeared when the war ended, only.appearing again in New York City. The year is 1897. " Maybe fix this as "Douglas disappeared when the war ended, only to reappear in New York City in 1897." or something similar. The -tense is a bit odd in that paragraph. I like the cryoflame idea; i might want a subclass that specializes in that or something. If you don't have time to kill a disease-ridden place, just lock it down with ice, perhaps transferring the heat to your next target if you're using magic. I like how each of your web organizations has it's own area of expertise and agenda. The black betties are very different from the pillow for guys who are different from the magic university who are different from the crucible. What happens if a Crucible pyro goes rouge? Say a kid in the infected zone reminded him of his deceased daughter so he let her go and got himself fired? (no pun intended) Does he now just wander the world with his demon buddy setting things on fire? Does the demon leave? What about people who bond with fire demons who've never heard of the crucible? I love the idea of thermite charges just melting down a door, like when the stormtroopers board the Tantive IV at the beginning of A New Hope. Maybe if you had enough you could make a ring in the floorboards for an impromptu trap-door. Thermite is just fun. What if some guy collected five-point flowers after they released their pollen? Would they still be dangerous?
Oooooo thank ya for this. Self quarantine sucks. lol ill rephelrase that. yours sounds much better. There are cold flame specialists, so that's possible. Locking down a location for further study or, ahem, sterilazation, has happened a time or two. Almost every organization in The Web answers a question, in this case how does the web handle things too small for a bullet to put it down. The black betties are an answer to how do small groups get coordinated when authorities fail to deal with or understand the problem they face. Oxenfree, the pillow fort guys, are an answer to what happens when multiversal and metaphysical junk gets involved. The university is where The Web began. I remember watching Dracula and saw van helsing pull out a massive tome of vampire lore and all I could think was, "who in the hell wrote that book and how?" In rpg terms, I wanted everyone to have a role but I also wanted each organization to bring so much in the way of role play and lore that its be hard to stick with just one group. "ill do an arsonist this time but oh wait, oxenfree looks cool" line of thinking. Your questions are awesome. arsonists dontt get fired, if they go rouge, they are either put down, severing their connection to the demon, or they get psychic surgery from the magicians at carthage. It's definitely an interesting role play scenario though. May wanna test that out at some point. Others who bond but are not in crucible usually try to lay low or end up being baddies. Over time, it becomes clear the darker side of the world is much bigger, even if you don't know anything about it. The thermite ideas you have are not only valid but encouraged. It's one of the best perks of this character. You don't need a thief. Lemme just make a hole. Now five point is dangerous. You won't get close enough to the flower to pick it, or if you do, the virus let you do it to spread more. The pollen only stops spreading when the body is fully decomposed, then the flower repurposes itself, slowly crumbling into spares. I'll be doing more on five point... It's nasty.