Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 22:29:00 -0800
From: "Adam Reeve" <rabid@namadgi.com.au>    
Reply-To: rabid@namadgi.com.au
To: Palladium Mailing List <palladium@dante.neonexus.com>
CC: rabid@namadgi.com.au
Subject: Evil Doc and Juicer

A tip o’ the hat to Nathan Troester, who wrote the Juicer Upgrades,
from which
this idea came.

	The rogue scientist Peter DeVries was a man who never permitted petty
compassion or the desires of others stand in the way of his research.
And everything he
did, or so he rationalised it, was all in the service of his research.
Born brilliant but poor, he acquired an broad (if eclectic) education
from reading the papers and books buried in the landfill in which his
mother’s hovel was dug. Medicine and the intricacies of anatomy he
learned from a gentle, distant master, Doctor Jung of the Midland
Charity
Clinic. Having won his spurs, he stole Jung’s irreplaceable diagnostic
computer to pay
for a ticket to another city and capital to begin his own business.
	At first this was a Chop-Shop in the shanty town surrounding Southern
Cross like
a great rotting ring. His work was good, and he could afford to pay the
snatchers
supplying him well. But learning was his calling, not just competent
surgery, and he
began to pay a few snatchers to bring him living subjects for his work.
More than two
years he spent, alternately ripping out and stitching in, or vivisecting
and studying. Often he would fall asleep with his hands covered in blood
to the elbow. His luck ran out, almost, when a careless snatcher brought
him a collection of parts taken from a murdered daughter of the
commander of the city garrison. He successfully planted the parts on a
principled body fixer who’d made trouble for him in the past, turned him
in for the reward, then disappeared. Things were too hot in Southern
Cross for him to be able to give his work the attention it demanded.
	He founded the Nanoclinic in Norseman specialising in Juicer
augmentation, and
studied the extremes to which the the body could go. Some of his less
savoury
experiments had the side effects of causing great suffering to the
subjects, and when after some years these came to the attention of the
local authorities he found it convenient to sell off his business.
Taking the data he’d amassed and his reference library on disk, he
travelled out of the regions of relative law and order into the
badlands. On his journey he found it necessary to betray the concealed
wealth of some fellow travellers to a gang of ruthless bandits to
protect himself, but it was all in the service of his research.
	At last he arrived in Larsen. DeVries had sunk to his natural level, a
true hellhole on earth, the paradise of mercs on leave, of vices and
violence, of every human affliction, and ruled by nothing human. His
quick wit and concealed wealth kept him alive until he was established
and a part of the local regime, providing medical treatment and
augmentation for the local “protector”’s henchmen. In Larsen he had free
reign to obtain experimental subjects, and here he made his great
discoveries.
	Years earlier he had purchased data on Juicer upgrades. He had left off
his main
line of study to investigate them, and had examined everything from the
complex,
unstable molecules that made them possible, to the messy (but
entertaining) deaths
which the application of too many upgrades caused. After being asked by
Juicer clients
for the hundredth time if he had “anything to give me a bit more of an
edge”, he
imagined something that the ever-competetive Juicers would pay megabucks
for. In
Larsen, his skill made it real, in two forms: Extremetin and Spartacin.

	Extremetin is an altered Juicer chemical which does not simply
hyper-activate the body’s abilities. Instead, it responds to chemical
cues secreted by the body when injured. The more injury the user
suffers, the greater the reaction the Extremetin produces. In game
terms, there are four levels of effect:
1. The Juicer is uninjured. Abilities are normal.
2. The Juicer is injured but has lost only up to 50% of their SDC.
Extremetin begins to
react, adding +2 to initiative, P.P., and P.S. and +5 to speed. 
3. The Juicer is injured and has lost from 50-100% of their SDC (no hit
points lost). The reaction accelerates, adding +4 to initiative, P.P.,
and P.S. and +10 to speed. NOTE: these bonuses are totals, not in
addition to the bonuses listed at (1).
4. The Juicer is injured, has no SDC and has lost at least 1 hit point.
The reaction peaks, adding +6 initiative, P.P., and P.S. and +20 to
speed. At this point the Juicer’s body is so supercharged that it may
cause injury to itself: any hand-to-hand or melee attack the Juicer
makes will result in the loss of 1D6 hit points from torn muscles and
ligaments, ruptured capillaries, and broken bones pushing through the
skin! Being reduced to zero or less hit points in this manner indicates
death from a cerebral hemorrhage or ruptured heart.
	NOTE: Extremetin’s reaction depends on cues which are purged from the
body
within 30 minutes of the injury taking place. As a result, a Juicer
reduced to 5 hit points by an injury suffered an hour before would have
NO additional bonuses from the
Extremetin.
	Extremetin can be added to a Juicer’s bio-comp pack with minor
alterations by a
skilled body fixer or cyber-doc (cost 25,000). A supply (or resupply) of
the drug itself
costs 100,000 credits, and will last for at least a dozen fights. 

	Spartacin is an entirely new chemical of the same family, and it is
this product of which DeVries is most proud. It reacts with the Juicer
metabolism to produce a chain-
reaction response of increasing intensity, with a steep increase in
performance ending
inevitably in death. In game terms, the Juicer self-destructs from the
incredible strain
placed on their body: the entire Juicer credo in microcosm. Spartacin
has no effect for 1 full melee after injection, and then provides the
following bonuses:
	2 extra attacks per melee, +4 to initiative, +8 P.P. and P.S., and
+2D4x10 to
speed. It also provides an additional (temporary) 2D6x10 SDC. Duration
is calculated by
the Juicer’s P.E. -20, in melee rounds, with a minimum of one melee.
During this time,
the Juicer’s body is so supercharged that it may cause injury to itself:
any hand-to-hand or melee attack the Juicer makes will result in the
loss of 1D6 hit points from torn muscles and ligaments, ruptured
capillaries, and broken bones pushing through the skin! It is up to the
GM to determine whether such injuries would result in the disabling of a
limb and resultant combat penalties.
	Once the duration is expired, so is the Juicer :) In short, the
Juicer’s body is used up, all its amazing vitality channelled into one
superhuman effort lasting mere seconds. A surprisingly large number of
Juicers, with their devil-may-care attitudes towards death in battle,
welcome the opportunity to ensure that their death will be a battle
worth singing about. Spartacin can be added to a Juicer’s bio-comp pack
with minor alterations by a skilled body fixer or cyber-doc, and
generally involves the addition of a single red button with a caplock
for activation. The alterations cost 30,000, and a single dose of the
drug retails for 250,000.
	
	NOTE: neither of these drugs will affect non-Juicers, except to make
them sick in small doses and causing death by heart failure in large
doses.

	Peter DeVries. Rogue scientist, 8th level. Peter wears his graying hair
long and
unbound, and it flows to his shoulders. However, he is largely bald. His
pale gray eyes
are deeply hooded, his face heavily lined, and he has a very pointed
chin. He is tall but stooped, and has seen 41 summers. Typically wears
protective (clear) glasses.
	Alignment: diabolic. He doesn’t derive (much) pleasure from hurting
people, but
he would not hesitate to cripple a child if it would further his
research.
	IQ 22, ME 13, MA 15, PS 11, PE 14, PP 15, PB 9, SPD 10. HP: 44, SDC:
13.
	Skills of note: HTH basic, biology 98, pathology 93, chemistry 98,
chemistry
analytical 93, electrical engineering 88, medical doctor 98/98, MD in
cybernetics and
bionics 93/98, computer programming 93, prowl 73, streetwise 60,
mechanical engineer
83, surveillance systems 93, WP energy pistol and rifle. Not a language
or lore expert.
	DeVries is a free agent, and is not at the beck and call of any power,
although
he’s currently employed by the master of Larsen. He has no interest in
educating the
masses or reducing oppression; he considers knowledge to have intrinsic
value, and
despises humanity in general.
	Peter has the following cybernetic implants: cyber-armour, an augmented
headjack, optic nerve video implant, amplified hearing and sound
filtration system. He
will never stand and fight unless he has no other choice. Whenever
outside the safety of
his fortified clinic and laboratory in Larsen, he wears Gladiator armour
and carries an
NG-57 ion pistol and a P-20 pulse rifle, but is always accompanied by
hired mercenary
guards, often Simvan monster riders or equally fierce types, heavily
armed. In addition,
his death would inconvenience the master of Larsen, a supernatural being
with great
capacity for anger.


Rabid
The man with no .sig