entropy effect

entropy

                Destiny is not a matter of chance; but a matter of choice.
                It is not a thing to be waited for, It is a thing to be achieved.
                    - William Jennings Bryant


Stockbroker's Talent
(Entropy 1 Mind 1)
No single human being can track the ebb and flow of stock market values, estimate the future values of today's portfolio or determine with accuracy which derivatives will be the best to invest in. That's what you may think, we of the Syndicate know how to do this.
Obviously the Syndicate Magic Men can put people like Gordon Gecko to shame. Want to know what's next season's, next week's, next day's best investment? Listen to your investment consultant, he knows what's best for you. The Syndicate eats, drinks and breathes stock quotes, and so it's easy for them to call on their training and empower themselves to calculations even beyond modern Analyst's wildest dreams. Those are the people who walk into the NYSE with ten bucks and come out a month later with ten million.
[This procedure can be used to make money, lots of money. Given time for an extended roll (one for each day spent in front of the ticker and reading the Financial Times) an Enlightened broker may multiply his current liquid assets by the number of successes achieved. Caution should still be applied, manipulating the stock market to much can result in serious financial crises...]

Dodging Bullets
(Entropy 2 Forces 2)
Even the most skilled gunman has only a limited chance of actually hitting a target. If the target in question is also moving to avoid getting hit this chance decreases accordingly. A well trained agent can virtually walk through a hail of bullets unharmed.
The close-combat shooting scenes of many Hong-Kong movies tell us that an acrobatic skill and a stroke of luck is enough to dodge several incoming bullets at once. Ever seen Chow Yun Fat or Tony Leung pull this off? Hell why shouldn't you, after all you're one of the best. In countless gunfights the opponents of Syndicate Enforcers had to find out that the superiour skill of those agents made them really hard targets. The use of this procedure has spread through the ranks of Union field ops, and is now employed by Syndicate and NWO agents. Iteration-X HIT Marks and Armatures tend to frown on such flashy displays of acrobatic maneuvers and like to rely on heavy armour instead.
[To be able to use this procedure effectively the character will obviously need a high dexterity score. Each success grants one free dodge in a turn up to the dexterity rating and surplus successes add to the dicepool for the dodge up to the rating of the dodge talent.
Example: Leah Jones has a dexterity of 3 and a dodge rating of 2. Rolling her Enlightenment she scores five successes and jumps to spin through the air in an impressive display of acrobatics. (Forces decreases gravity and influences the movements of both the character and the bullets) Her opponents are hard pressed to keep track of the agent, let alone hit her. (Entropy 2 decreases the chance to hit). Leah may dodge three attacks this turn (her dexterity rating) and increase the dicepool for the dodge tests by two (her dodge rating). The dodge dice may not be used for all tests, they must be allocated to each one. Leah decides to use both successes to increase her dodge test against that grunt with the shotgun, and will use her normal dodge dicepool for the two other attacks she may dodge this turn. .]

Design Flaws
(Entropy 3 Prime 3 Forces 2)
The weird pseudo-technology of those traitors to our Union's cause lacks the reliability and the refinement of our own Devices. A suitably experienced technician can easily spot the design flaws in those creations and exploit them.
Iteration-X fervently works to discredit the innovative technology used by the Sons of Ether and the Virtual Adepts. Those technomancers sacrifice reliability and stability in their Devices for leaps of innovation and prodigious new developments. With appropriate sensors and a knowledge about the delicate nature of hyper-advanced technology, dangerous flaws in such Devices can be detected and even triggered by manipulating the conditions under which they work. This dreaded procedure may also be used to cause more serious trouble in a more advanced variant with Time 4 and Prime 4.
[The difficulty for this Procedure is the target Deviceīs Arete. Each success drains one point of Quintessence from the Device and causes it to malfunction in some way by using Entropy. The malfunction may even damage the Deviceīs user with Forces damage as electric shocks, feedbacks or other energy discharges occur. The number of damage dice is equal to the number of Quintessence points drained. The Time 4 Prime 4 variant uses an extended test to prepare a device to malfunction fatally at some certain point in time. The flaws of a Device manifest in an explosion, lethal feedback or other terrible occurrence that causes aggravated damage by expelling the reservoir of Primal Energy contained within the Device. The Forces Sphere is no longer necessary in this application. Using this procedure is coincidental. Everybody knows that freakish creations of technology tend to blow up from time to time. ]

Fatal Birth Defect
(Entropy 4 Life 2 Prime 2)
Most humans have genetic or physical flaws since birth. Susceptibility to strokes, heart attacks, cancer and other fatal ailments are a widespread among those who did not receive the extensive genetic screening we use for our Union's Citizens. Sometimes it is necessary to turn such flaws against a subject.
The Progenitors have methods to detect birth defects that most normal medical doctors do not even suspect. Who knows, maybe your genetic code includes some previously unexpressed lethal flaw that has been passed on for generations. Medical examination on a hyper technological level can determine such flaws and force them into expression. Normally this Procedure is used in a medical lab. Some daring Genegineers have been known to employ it in the field though. Doing this can be extremely dangerous since even the thoroughly screened genomes of Progenitors are not completely flawless. Damage Control uses a variation of this Procedure to intentionally create such flaws in their creations. One never knows when some homunculus becomes a security risk.
[This procedure creates and triggers a fatal birth defect like a cardiovascular flaw, a genetic defect causing cancer or a previously undetected pressure in the cranium that will lead to a lethal stroke. The Procedure causes aggravated damage to the subject by triggering the respective condition. Using this in a medical facility is coincidental. An attack with this procedure in the field is vulgar under most circumstances. Backlashes usually result in the expression of flaws in the character's genome itself. ]

Meme Deterioration
(Entropy 5 Mind 3 Correspondence 3)
In order to shape the masses minds to accept new ideas we first have to make room for new ideas by correcting their superstinionist believes and anachronistic thought models. This lengthy process is the most important project on our way to the ultimate goal - Ascension for each and every human being.
The Ivory Tower is working continuously to manipulate morale, ideals, paradigms and thoughts - in a nutshell, all the memes living in the collective of human minds. Secularism, the most recent rejection of soviet-communism even the masses' belief in progress and technology have all been created by the Ivory Tower Scientists. Of course it is necessary to eradicate old superstitions and strong bonds to atavistic thought and behaviour patters to enlighten humanity as a whole. Manipulating the ways people think from their Collegiums, the Ivory Tower Scientists slowly but surely move closer to their goal - one world, one mind.
Critics point out that this practice tends to destroy sensible traditions and - even worse - destroys the ability of the masses to form ideas of their own. Such criticism is quickly discredited however. After all, who needs tradition when thereīs progress, and who needs independent thought when the NWO is there to think for the masses?
[ The scope of this Procedure is well beyond most applications within a chronicle. Like most feats on this level, the Meme Deterioration needs extensive preparations, lots of time and numerous people working on it. The results can be staggering though. The values of whole societies may be changed with this Procedure, history may be rewritten, and what was right yesterday can be wrong tomorrow. This large-scale operation represents the ultimate application of Entropy Science of the Ivory Tower Collegiums. Bringing about a completely new set of believes, values and paradigms is what itīs about. Inspiring the masses to something of the magnitude of the Renaissance is just one example. ]