Aberrant RPG - NOLK - Who dies?

[Alex Green]

Like the title says. The Teragen is holding the Night of Long Knives.

Who do you think will survive?

Who do you think might survive?

Who do you think won't survive?

Two names top my "will die" list. The Apostle and Bounty. There's just too many people gunning for both of them.

[metaphysician]

Oddly, I'd say Orzaiz almost certainly survives. While he's comparatively weak, and has lots of enemies, he has several factors in his favor.

One, he also has many friends, and allies, and people who owe him debts. Not all of them known, and not all of them even within the Teragen. Two, he's one of the most likely to see it coming, between his skill at intrigue, and his limited prescience. Three, the only real competing intriguer is Tarik, who doesn't really have anywhere near the same asset base as Orzaiz, except in the Middle East.

So, I see the NoLK happening, somebody ( probably multiple somebodies ) guns for Orzaiz, and their efforts get splattered from unexpected angles ( anything from assassins sneaking into his chateau to find Totentanz waiting, to the safehouse the conspirators are assembling at getting hit by a surprise Directive or T2M raid ). The Casablancas in general probably take a beating, though, as Orzaiz will probably have to burn a fair amount of resources to manage his defense and counterattack.

[metaphysician]

Pedro Santiago, OTOH, almost certainly doesn't make it. Every single scenario in the Teragen book, IIRC, has him biting it one way or another, and I think there's a reason: the NoLK is, from his perspective at least, the point where the Aberrant War becomes unavoidable. And as transhuman as he may be, he's not able to look upon that as a certainty without going mad from horror, and essentially committing suicide.

About the only way I could see him not dying, is if the PCs somehow had taken actions so that the Aberrant War ( or at least the apocalyptically destructive version of it ) *isn't* a certainty.

[Sprocket]

AFAICT both Jeremiah Scripture & Marcel "the Apostle" Delormier have a good chance of being killed during the NOLK. Unless Delormier is a complete twit (which *is* possible), he will have arranged for Scripture to face enough nova "firepower" to have a very good chance of killing him quickly. The Apostle will then of course be incinerated by Mal as payback for that, but Marcel doesn't seem capable of seeing the consequences of his compulsive betrayals ahead of time.

[metaphysician]

Eh, Delorimier has a *much* higher likelihood of dying than Scripture. Remember, Scripture has been keeping the full extent of his powers secret, and Delorimier *is* a complete twit. Even if he did arrange for T2M including Pax to land on Scripture's head, its hardly a sure thing given Scripture could probably down Pax and his mostly undefended head with one attack. And in canon, Delorimier is described as not considering that an option, as he's already done that to get rid of a rival once; instead, he's looking for people within the Teragen to use as catspaws.

Not that I can't see Scripture dying in any conceivable scenario, but I'd tend to think if it does happen, it'll happen in a scenario where he gets hit by more than one angle unexpectedly. Which probably means PC involvement, as most of the other factions are either not especially hostile towards the Cult of Mal, or else would be gunning for Delorimier first, anyway.

[BlueNinja]

Sprocket picked out the reasons for Scripture and Apostle pretty well.

Narcosis probably will survive, but only because she surrounds herself with so many meat shields. The Pandamonium will definately be hanging up a "Help Wanted" sign after NotLK. (Bad BN, this is Night not Knight. ::brick )

Orzaiz I see as a split ticket - he does have lots of allies, but several of them will be too busy watching their own backs to help him out. Whether or not he survives will be mostly luck, I think.

Tarik will most likely survive, but I can't see him sticking with the Teragen afterwards. That's probably what is most likely to ensure his survival, is backing out and going back to the Mideast to make it his little private fiefdom.

Geryon, Leviathan, Shrapnel, and the other NV and Harvesters, are almost certainly going to survive, if only because they'd have to gang up on each other one at a time to kill anyone. That said, some of the weaker NV/Harvesters are going to die, likely as someone else's foot soldiers. (Apostle, Orzaiz, Narcosis, etc)

I think I'm forgetting something, because I don't know why anyone would be gunning for Bounty's head, since she's the only one capable of reversing nova sterility and raising the children.

Mathematician is a toss-up as well. While he's almost certain to see any attack coming, he's getting rather fatalistic and depressed, so he might let it come anyway.

Synapse is going to survive, because virtually nobody knows where his body is to kill him.

[metaphysician]

Ah, another candidate for death: the Apothecary. he's not that powerful personally, not especially an intriguer, and half his own faction hates him. Somebody taint-buttered probably steps on him, possibly at the behest of Delorimier.

[Sprocket]

I think I'm forgetting something, because I don't know why anyone would be gunning for Bounty's head, since she's the only one capable of reversing nova sterility and raising the children.

Are you kidding? Bounty & the Nursery are stated in the Teragen splatbook as being big, juicy targets throughout the whole scenario range for the NOLK. Yes, the Terats *are* egomaniacal enough to put the kids' futures & lives at stake for short-term advantages.

[metaphysician]

IMO, they should have probably put the Nursery in the personal territory of Scripture and/or Mal. People would be less inclined to screw around with the kids if they happen to live on, say, an island Mal has owned for decades, and has a residence on.

[Sprocket]

Well, going by the canon fluff on p. 79 of the Teragen splatbook, Scripture & Mal were using the Nursery as both a covert primary residence and Mal's hideyhole during his latest Chrysalis. AFAICT they did so out of a desire for privacy from the Pantheon. How exactly Bounty & the Terat 2ndGens figure into Mal's priorities, I couldn't tell you. I suspect it's not too high, though...

[Alex Green]

Bounty is actively wanted dead by the Confederate (she's black and creating black 2nd gen novas).

Delorimier wants the children so they're raised "correctly". None of the other factions trust him to keep his hands off them (correctly).

Similarly, that Taint Lady (and the Harvesters) want to make sure the children are all high taint, even if it kills some of them.

And note being a Terat means that you don't follow the rules, i.e. that you Act. Geryon proved that when he killed that Mayor and the rest of the movement confirmed it when they backed him. "Geryon does what he thinks is right."

Translation: Delorimier & the Harvesters are the ones being true to Mal when they act to destroy the Nursery. It's the rest of the movement who "doesn't get it" when they think that everyone should keep their hands off. 'No rules' means 'no rules'.

[Sprocket]

If that's the general Terat (and Mal's) philosophy of child-rearing, it'll be a wonder if any of the kids stay with the Teragen upon achieving some real power, much less survive the NOLK. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot...

[metaphysician]

If I were to run a game, that'd be retconned. Not to say the Nursery and the Children would survive, but whatever terat is primarily responsible for blowing the place up would get an angry speech delivered by Mal over top of the pile of ash that was them, explaining that yes, indeed, killing "pure" novas who were being raised to Teragen ideology from birth, and the one known individual who can reverse sterility, is indeed *not a good idea.*

[Alex Green]

...but whatever terat is primarily responsible for blowing the place up...

That would be Mal.

The purpose of Teras is clearly not to protect the weak from the strong. Presumably the strong will survive and the movement is better off without the weak anyway. Inter-party fights are the predictable result and the weak are expected to die in them.

Having said that, keep in mind that after the NOLK Mal changes into a Dictator... and also keep in mind that he's the poster child for Megalomania and Schizophrenia. It apparently never occurred to him that his own rules would lead to the kids getting killed... *if* he cares and *if* he's in touch enough with reality to even acknowledge it.

[metaphysician]

OTOH, placing the Nursery on his own home turf *does* seem to imply a personal interest in it, and/or acknowledgment of its importance. I tend to peg it as not so much him not caring about the fate of the Children, as him not comprehending that anyone within the Teragen would fail to find the Nursery's important and value self-evident.

Which, to be fair, it *should* be self-evident; the Teragen *know* they've been subject to attacks on their fertility, they *know* that they will need more members in the long run. The Nursery will result in powerful novas raised free of human ideology that would prevent them from embracing Teras; in what way is this bad for the movement or ideology? After all, even the harshest "Teras means having the power to do what I want" will presumably want new minions and followers, if not genuine converts.

Of course, the problem is that quite a number of high ranking Teragen are idiots, and I don't mean in the "driven insane by my powers" sense ( ie, Mal ).

[Alex Green]

The Nursery will result in powerful novas raised free of human ideology that would prevent them from embracing Teras; in what way is this bad for the movement or ideology?

You're assuming a level of unity that Teras has explicitly rejected. The brutal fact is the kids will be *horrible* for some parts of the movement. It's just not decided which part yet.

Long term, if Delorimier (etc) is to prosper, those kids MUST be brought up with *his* ideology. If the rest of the moment is to prosper that can't happen. Ditto the Harvesters, ditto Terik(sp), ditto others.

Their problem isn't that they're idiots, given the situation their best move is to make sure the kids are on their side... or to make sure they're dead.

The scary part is Mal probably won't lift a finger before, during, or after the events.

[SkyLion]

I think most of us misunderstand Mal greatly. HIs Chrysalis means he can choose his aberrations for the one he finds most useful. For another, how do we know he is insane? He has a Mega Intelligence of likely 8. At that level of intelligence, he is extremely alien and might appear to us lesser minds. Furthermore, it is a mistake to assume he is heartless. He has a passionate relationship with Scripture and I highly doubt he would let anything happen to the children, *especially* if they are protected in his personally claimed Domain. White Wolf pretty much made Mal to be unstoppable. Do you really think he doesn't see right through and know all about Tarik, Delomier, Orzaiz and everyone elses petty little schemes? They are as transparent to him as glass. Adding in his close association with Orzaia and the Mathematician, don't you think Mal has quite handily foreseeen everything to come and more than likely orchestrated it on purpose?

Mal's Advocate ::devil

[Alex Green]

I think most of us misunderstand Mal greatly. HIs Chrysalis means he can choose his aberrations for the one he finds most useful. For another, how do we know he is insane?

He's been through Chrysalis 4 times, he presumably designed it to deal with taint since his powers let him deal with everything else.

He needs something like 16+ points of aberrations where low=1, medium=2, high=4.

He has glowing eyes, too perfect looks, anima banner... and that's apparently it as far as the known aberrations go, but he needs a ton of others... and the obvious choice for someone who has Mega-Int 8 and Taint Resistance is mental disorders.

And multiple sources hint that this is what has happened. Sophia & the Directive marvel at how detached he is. He's got his own cult devoted to worship of him.

Further he doesn't appear to *want* the results he's getting. His treatment of Pax seems amazingly disconnected to reality considering Mal wanted to convert him, not enrage him. His talk at the 12 head dinner in AB:Teragen is similar. He doesn't *want* this multifactional mess and reality is *not* working out as he predicted.

In short, a lot of what he's doing seems insane, like text-book from the core rules.

[Sprocket]

Re: Mal's aberrations-

Wasn't this already statted out over at RPGPost.net?

Re: Mal's view of other people-

On a related side-point, the matter of Mal's warped view of other people's character, desires & psychology sounds like it has a parallel in the overly-idealistic nature of Max Mercer. Like Mal, he sees people as being better, wiser and more noble than they actually are. The twist here is that Mal's misperception is more tightly focused than Max's. Mal sees those novas "wise" enough to seek out Teras through the proverbial rose-colored glasses, with other novas seen as being too "young" to know any better or willfully ignorant. Baselines are relegated to the role of worshipful masses/sheep. The flipside to that is that proving otherwise to Mal will need pretty-near incontrovertible evidence. It's kind of like a woodsman not seeing a bear as a threat until it actually tries to bite off his leg - he can realize the danger, but it will be too late to prevent the damage.

Not that Mercer's much better; he sees everyone through rose-colored glasses as to their nobility/goodness/wisdom. OTOH, it takes less for others to prove otherwise to Mercer than it will to Mal.

Just my 2 cents, YMMV.

Re: Another NOLK fatality in the making-

After re-reading the bit about his covert infection gambit, I'd think that Tarik ibn'Mahmoud (sp correct?) has a very good chance of getting killed during the NOLK for his efforts. Several of the Pantheon do have ways of detecting his infections IIRC, and Tarik enjoys somewhat less than the full support of his faction (The Companions). If anything, I'd expect Tarik to suffer a quick death disguised as yet another assassination/suicide bombing in the Middle East while the erstwhile Companions jump ship to either the Casablancas or the Primacy as their individual capabilities & preferences dictate.

[metaphysician]

Sprocket- that tends to be my view of Mal, combined with a very strong element of philosophical dedication to free will ( for novas ).

[Alex Green]

Tarik is an interesting one since we don't know how his power mechanically works. It might be some form of delay with a trigger... in which case Geryon is dead when ever Tarik wants him that way.

It sounds like his power is an "auto-kill" meaning if he's given any warning that he's being attacked then he could take down a lot of people with him. *Much* worse, I don't think the developers realized how hard it could be to deal with him if everything is played out correctly.

Bounty finds out that someone has poisoned the children (and how does see find this out?)... so who does she turn to? Tarik is on the short list of people she trusts.

The same holds true if anyone else finds out that someone is running around zapping people. Tarik's powers aren't known and it'd be darn difficult to catch him in the act. The person most likely to be blamed for most of this (depending on who is discovered to be infected) could be Delorimier.

Edit: IMHO the only person who really has a trump against him is the Mathamatician. If Tarik starts threatening people, or even starts killing people, Math-boy will know it before it happens. On the other hand if Math gets killed or takes himself out of the game, then Tarik could run wild. Someone drops dead... who is going to remember that he shook Tarik's hand two or three years ago?

[metaphysician]

I'd have to check, but I don't recall Tarik's description saying explicitly "he can kill any nova with his diseases." I'm sure he can kill at least some, maybe a fair number, but I'd be rather skeptical of his ability to kill someone with a ton of mega stamina, like say, Leviathan.

Of course, if Tarik is clever ( and he is ), he could trigger his diseases when the intended victim is otherwise endangered. A super-virus that would normally only do 3-4 lethal and a -2 penalty for a few days is a lot less survivable if your in the middle of a fight for your life.

[Alex Green]

Agreed about Leviathan (especially since he likely has both Adaptability and Hardbody), but there's still a ton of soft targets around.

Which brings us to Geryon. The nasty part about "delay" (or whatever it is) is you calculate damage ahead of time. So in theory he could (and presumably did) nail Geryon while he's dormed. Better still, he can do it as many times as he needs to.

If Tarik can do 2-3 lethal, then he can do as much as he needs. He's got days, months, or years to zap people as many times as he needs to.

[SkyLion]

The problem I have understanding Mal is that someone sooo intelligent, quick thinking and perceptive AND with the ability to cherry pick Aberrations *should* be able to see the forest for the trees and act accordingly. This apparent disconnect between powers and results is likely because he is a Mary Sue..

[metaphysician]

Agreed about Leviathan (especially since he likely has both Adaptability and Hardbody), but there's still a ton of soft targets around.

Which brings us to Geryon. The nasty part about "delay" (or whatever it is) is you calculate damage ahead of time. So in theory he could (and presumably did) nail Geryon while he's dormed. Better still, he can do it as many times as he needs to.

If Tarik can do 2-3 lethal, then he can do as much as he needs. He's got days, months, or years to zap people as many times as he needs to.

Presuming he *can* stack. I'm not sure the rules allow it.

Also, I'm a little dubious that Tarik's power works like that, re: rolling effects first. Its not almost certainly not using the "Delay Damage" rules from Temporal Manip, after all, since he's not screwing with time.

[metaphysician]

The problem I have understanding Mal is that someone sooo intelligent, quick thinking and perceptive AND with the ability to cherry pick Aberrations *should* be able to see the forest for the trees and act accordingly. This apparent disconnect between powers and results is likely because he is a Mary Sue..

Mary Sues don't have their efforts mostly explode out of their control, until the only way they can claim victory is by going off to build their own universe to try it all again. Remember, Divis Mal's goal, insofar as one is discernable, was to create peers, gods who he could interact with as equals. While he did eventually get some Q8 novas, they either rejected all his beliefs and/or were even more insane than he was. So basically, Mal failed.

[Sprocket]

Re: Tarik-

AFAICT he's got the disease version of the Poison quantum power with the Trigger Extra from the Teragen book (on p. 131). While he does harbor diseases that are horribly lethal by baseline standards, I'm doubtful that they would do much against any nova with Mega-Stamina at 2+. I think he's overestimating his own capabilities and/or underestimating the capabilities of the other Pantheon members. Either way, he's putting his own neck on the chopping block.

[Alex Green]

Presuming he *can* stack. I'm not sure the rules allow it.

It doesn't *stack*... but nothing prevents him from making an additional attack.

I.e. nothing prevents you from putting more than one triggered Q-Bolt or even Poison attack on the same object with the same trigger.

Also, I'm a little dubious that Tarik's power works like that, re: rolling effects first. Its not almost certainly not using the "Delay Damage" rules from Temporal Manip, after all, since he's not screwing with time.

Shoot. I can't find my 8 page general "index". I remember there being an extra which would do something similar to this ("Sustained"), but I don't recall the book.

But if memory serves, *nothing* matches what he's doing exactly. "Sustained" means you roll damage right then and there and the victim takes it over a long period of time, "Triggered" means that the attack waits for an event and you apply soak then.

And you can make an argument for either/both. Can Geryon really use his mega-stamina to prevent his cells from being invaded when he's dormed? On a side note, it's *very* hard to build something like this mechanically without Q6.

Triggered with an absurd duration would basically require Mastery. So would just putting some kind of limit on his powers, i.e. Q-Bolt (or Elemental Anima:Disease) with the limitation that he can only use it on someone he's touched also implies he's got Mastery just because of range issues. This guy wouldn't be very scary if all you needed to do was skip town to avoid him.

[Alex Green]

This comes pretty close...

Tarik:

Two Linked Powers:

A) 3 Poison+Triggered+Agg+Strength:PermTriggerDuration+Weakness:Linked to P-Link+IncreasedQCost

1 P-Link+RQC+Weakness:No Communication,Only activates Trigger+Strength:Doesn't Require Acceptance+Weakness:Range Is Touch

Q5

M-Stamina 4

M-Manip (Trickster, Persuader)

M-Chr (Whatever makes it more likely that you can touch people)

1) Putting Agg and IncreasedQCost on this thing is iffy, I'm not sure it balances, but let's run with it.

2) I'd like to make a new extra, Triggered doesn't work well since the target *is* determined in this case at the time of attack. That implies the power & resistance rolls are as well.

Even without Agg, if he averages 1 *die* (not one level) of lethal damage every other attack (against a stamina brick like Geryon) then it's still lethal. Nothing prevents him from using it 7 times a day, every day, for as long as he's socializing with him which could be weeks.

[Sprocket]

Re: Tarik-

Going by his NovaPhiles listing (Teragen p. 48), he's also got Mega-Appearance with the Copycat enhancement.

[PowerStar]

Are you kidding? Bounty & the Nursery are stated in the Teragen splatbook as being big, juicy targets throughout the whole scenario range for the NOLK. Yes, the Terats *are* egomaniacal enough to put the kids' futures & lives at stake for short-term advantages.

Anyone attempting to hurt Bounty and/or the Children will likely die as Divis has no patience for such STUPIDLY self/Nova-destructive (read traitorous)/actions!

Also, in Teragen games, PC's may have something to say about the safety of Bounty and the Children!

In my last game as a Terat, I was blessed with a son and a daughter. ANYONE attempting to TOUCH PowerStar's kids will be hit with Q-Bolt (Plasma) at **** with Mastery 1 and Armor Piercing...Just as an opening move. If the fool is powerful, I'd just Push for my "Solar Flare" special! Then there is my sweet Wife who is a precog/Entropy witch. Being turned to goo isn't gonna be pleasent.

[Alex Green]

Anyone attempting to hurt Bounty and/or the Children will likely die as Divis has no patience for such STUPIDLY self/Nova-destructive (read traitorous)/actions!

Most of the people involved want to help the children and/or see that they're raised/develop "correctly".

Also, in Teragen games, PC's may have something to say about the safety of Bounty and the Children!

Very true.

In my last game as a Terat, I was blessed with a son and a daughter. ANYONE attempting to TOUCH PowerStar's kids will be hit with Q-Bolt (Plasma) at **** with Mastery 1 and Armor Piercing...

Do you trust all your fellow terats enough such that you're comfortable staying away from the Nursery during the NOLK? If not, do you think that other terats will do the same?

If rival members of different factions all have "protectors" there, do you think they all have enough self control to avoid any hostilities?

[Wanderer]

Most of the people involved want to help the children and/or see that they're raised/develop "correctly".

Mal and Scripture may still step in to ensure that hostilities between rival factions do not go out of hand. Scripture seems to have been fairly strongly involved in the raising and proper indoctrination of the Terat 2nd Gen, and in all likelihood Mal by extension as well, if he picked the Nursery to undergo his fourth Chrysalis.

By the way, I do not give much credence to Scripture being a victim of NOLK. It's not just that he's described as having a very great deal of combat-worthy personal power, even if he doesn't use it often, but Mal is very liekly to step in and protect his consort. IMO, the most likely outcome is the Apostle finding himself outgunned and exposed for the conniving betrayer he is, and burned to a crisp by Scripture or Mal.

Very true.

Seconded.

Do you trust all your fellow terats enough such that you're comfortable staying away from the Nursery during the NOLK? If not, do you think that other terats will do the same?

If rival members of different factions all have "protectors" there, do you think they all have enough self control to avoid any hostilities?

Not necessarily, but again Scripture and Mal may enforce peace, with the help of the less power-maddened members of the various factions (in all likelihood including Terat PC).

Moreover, according to ABA, even pre-Apotheosis the Children are going to pack a fairly sizable amount of power themselves. I guess that they would be able to protect themselves effectively from crossfire, and I doubt that Bounty herself is such a pushover. A power focus on biological mastery can easily be rather combat-worthy.

[Alex Green]

Not necessarily, but again Scripture and Mal may enforce peace, with the help of the less power-maddened members of the various factions (in all likelihood including Terat PC).

I think hoping Mal will step in is like hoping God will. Great if it happens, but history shows it's unlikely even in the middle of a holocaust. I think Mal will let the Terats make their own choices and learn from their own mistakes.

...I doubt that Bounty herself is such a pushover. A power focus on biological mastery can easily be rather combat-worthy.

The writers who came up with Mastery and kick but Bio-Manip did so long after Bounty was statted out as a wimp. Nothing about her write up suggests "Mastery" or even Q6, those were created for other characters. Further if she can hold her own then there's no need for the PCs to get involved.

[Wanderer]

If that's the general Terat (and Mal's) philosophy of child-rearing, it'll be a wonder if any of the kids stay with the Teragen upon achieving some real power, much less survive the NOLK. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot...

I don't think there is any realistic chance of the vast majority of NPC Children ever breaking ranks with the Teragen, even if individual exceptions may exist. Although they may easily prove as fractious as their elders. According to ABA, Terat 2nd Gen have been raised by Bounty and Scripture to be thoroughly indoctrinated in Teras. That's the whole reason of being for their clade, otherwise they would have been True 2nd Gen. Actually, it is more likely that in adulthood Terat 2nd Gen and the True 2nd Gen more alienated from baseline humanity (fairly easy, according ot their description) may close ranks.

[Wanderer]

I think hoping Mal will step in is like hoping God will. Great if it happens, but history shows it's unlikely even in the middle of a holocaust. I think Mal will let the Terats make their own choices and learn from their own mistakes.

There may be exceptions to Mal self-imposed non-involvement in this scenario. Part of the whole point of NOLK is that Mal decides it is high time to climb down from Mount Sinai, be a more activist god-king, and make some housecleaning in the movement. IMO, if Mal does anything at all to prevent unncessary collateral damage in NOLK, it is to a) protect Scripture (in the unlikely case he needs it) protect Bounty and the Children. Nothing else in the Teragen seems to me that important to him on a personal, ideological, or pragmatist level to make an exception. So yeah, he won't lift a finger to save the Mathematician, Orzaiz, or the Apothecary from the radicals. Not even, in all likelihood, Narcosis, although he's is quite fond to chat with her and bed her in his etero phases.

The writers who came up with Mastery and kick but Bio-Manip did so long after Bounty was statted out as a wimp. Nothing about her write up suggests "Mastery" or even Q6, those were created for other characters. Further if she can hold her own then there's no need for the PCs to get involved.

She might still need PC help to keep the factions under control, but neither she nor the Children need be such wimps that they are going to collateral damage of the first bout of QB "friendly fire". She may not have Mastery, but it is a canon fact that she does her fertility trick by Bio-Manip (the power writeup says so) so by canon she has Q6, unless we hosuerule the Q6 requirement for Bio-Manip (as I am favorable to do: Bio-Manip looks to me much more akin to the other L3 suite powers than to the L4 ones).

[Alex Green]

...it is a canon fact that she does her fertility trick by Bio-Manip

Didn't Bio-Manip the power come out after her write up did? (Books not here). But if so then she can bio-manip the fact, but not the power.

[Wanderer]

Didn't Bio-Manip the power come out after her write up did? (Books not here). But if so then she can bio-manip the fact, but not the power.

The Bio-Manip writeup explictly says that the Teragen (and hence Bounty) use this power to overcome PU-induced sterility. It makes no mention of Bounty having a partial L2 Fertility version of the power. Since Phase I came after Teragen, I assume we have to conclude that the implied wimpy portrait of Bounty has been retconned, at least to the extent that she has Q6 and Bio-Manip.

[metaphysician]

Of course, just because Bounty has biomanip doesn't mean she's *not* fairly wimpy. I get the impression she's a near total pacifist, and utterly lacking in combat skill.

[Sprocket]

(Wanderer) >>I don't think there is any realistic chance of the vast majority of NPC Children ever breaking ranks with the Teragen, even if individual exceptions may exist. Although they may easily prove as fractious as their elders. According to ABA, Terat 2nd Gen have been raised by Bounty and Scripture to be thoroughly indoctrinated in Teras. That's the whole reason of being for their clade, otherwise they would have been True 2nd Gen. Actually, it is more likely that in adulthood Terat 2nd Gen and the True 2nd Gen more alienated from baseline humanity (fairly easy, according to their description) may close ranks.<<

As the guy who wrote up the Terat 2ndGen clade, I'd like to point out that following Teras does not necessarily equate to having an unswerving loyalty to the Teragen. AFAICT, the surviving kids in question will either leave the Teragen to join with other nova groups - such as the Edenites - or become dominant forces w/in the Teragen themselves, second only to Mal & Scripture. If anything, they'll likely get along better w/ Mal than 95% of the current Pantheon, resulting in a Highfather/New Gods-style relationship.