At first, it seems like a contradiction. You join up with the False, and the whole point is to not fall to the Contagion. The Crucible Initiative destroys anyone that looks infected, Naglfar’s Army sacrifices whomever they can to survive, and the members of the Machiavelli Gambit want to stick around for long enough to profit from the chaos. Why would you intentionally infect yourself with the Contagion?
Here’s the trick: you can be infected and not show any symptoms. You can be a carrier without being a victim. Very few of the False knowingly carry the Contagion — that’s further down the line of the vector. Worse, Shift Contamination makes it seem like you’re actually getting rid of the Contagion.
Let’s say you get sick. The common cold, for those of you who can still do that. You feel like hell, so you call a friend up. You hang out for a bit, and after a few hours you feel better. Then your friend calls you up, cursing you out for getting them sick. But you’re not sick anymore, because you feel fine, right? And that’s all that matters.
The Contagion isn’t gone. It’s never gone. But you don’t have to suffer the consequences, so that’s good.
A Sin-Eater coats her hand in clear, sticky Plasm and touches a bystander, shedding the Contagion. A hunter draws a red X on the back of his hand and waits for a chance to shake his neighbor’s hand. A changeling infuses a bit of her personal Glamour into a small straw doll to offer as a gift to her rival.
System: By spending a point of Willpower or a personal resource (e.g., Vitae, Plasm, Glamour, etc.), the character can move one temporary or persistent Contagion Condition she is suffering from to another target she touches. If the False using this ability does not have the Persistent Condition Contagion Carrier after using this power, she immediately takes the Condition.
Cost: 1 Willpower (or see appropriate Edge) Requirement: You must touch your target Dice Pool: Manipulation + Medicine Action: Instant
Duration: As per transferred Condition Edges
Beasts, Deviants, Mummies: You are further from humanity, and care less about the impact spreading the Contagion has on others. With Storyteller approval, you can choose to make a temporary Condition you move into a persistent one.
Hunters: Humans are good at one thing: surviving. Hunters are really good at surviving, and that extends to the Contagion. When a hunter moves a Contagion Condition, they do not acquire the Contagion Carrier Condition just from use of Shift Contamination. (If they already have Contagion Carrier prior to the use of Shift Contamination, however, they keep it unless Contagion Carrier is the Condition being shifted.)
Changelings, Demons, Mages, Prometheans, Sin- Eaters, Vampires, Werewolves: You have supernatural power crackling inside of you. How can a mere illness stand up to what’s contained within your own body? False with this edge can spend 1 Glamour, Aether, Mana, Pyros, Plasm, Vitae, or Essence instead of 1 Willpower to move their infection to a new host.
Specializations
The Crucible Initiative: “Burn it all down” is the credo of the Crucible, and the Fire-Bearers manifest that literally. When they shift a Contagion Condition onto a target, the target already receives a point of lethal damage as their insides burn with a sudden flare of intense heat throughout their body.
The Machiavelli Gambit: How can you possibly take advantage of a situation if you’re burdened with useless crap? Members of the Machiavelli Gambit can use Shift Contamination to shift any appropriate condition onto another target. Anything from a death threat to a hangover can be foisted off onto some other sucker, with Storyteller permission.
Naglfar’s Army: If the world is going to end, you might as well do it right. By spending extra Willpower or personal resources per target (as per specific edges), Antediluvians can spread the love, and the Contagion. Each target who touches the Antediluvian, including successful unarmed attacks, gains an identical copy of the shifted Condition.