ADAPTATION - 10 Points [Taken from a super secret hush hush place of which I am not allowed to speak]
The birthright of anyone born of at least one full-blooded Rebman parent, this
enables the character to breathe underwater in most places, with additional benefits.
While all those in Rebma and its lands are able to breathe normally, or at least without ill
effects, this power lets Rebmans and others travel to places where Rebma's enchantment
does not protect them.
A minor Power at best, this can best be described as a Shape Shifting variant with
fewer benefits, though more suited for the environment of Rebma. This Power works
everywhere in Shadow where Shape Shifting will, and beneficially, comes with few of the
dangers inherent in Shape Shifting.
Adaptation is usually not even a conscious Power, as most who have it use it
instinctually and without effort. The Power's very nature makes it most useful as an
automatic power, without the need to remember or concentrate on its manipulation.
Dangers of Adaptation. Because some of the uses of this power involve both
internal and external manipulation of bodily tissues, it can leave the users open for some
weaknesses which should be considered.
Dangers of Adaptation
. Because some of the uses of this power involve both internal and external manipulation of bodily tissues, it can leave the users open for some weaknesses which should be considered.
- Rapid Changes in Surroundings. Teleporting (or Trumping) from one type of atmosphere to another is dangerous, especially if the environments are radically different in nature.
For example, it would not be wise to Trump from miles below the ocean's surface into the fiery plane surrounding the Keep of the Four Worlds if one were specially adapted for survival in the first of those places. Near instant searing of the lungs, blindness, and dehydration would be immediate effects if attention is not paid to the transition, and depressurization would create potentially deadly results. For higher ranked Endurance scores, this becomes less of a threat, but is almost always discomforting.
The Gamemaster should initially ask the player attempting such transitions in environment if they have any preparations to make. If these do not become a standard part of any Trumping or teleporting, then the Gamemaster should feel free to inflict upon foolish characters traditional diving maladies such as the bends, burst eardrums, sudden nausea or vomiting, dizziness, unconsciousness, and possible respiratory failure as natural consequences of rash behavior.
--- - Time Needed for Adaptation. Unlike Shape Shifting, conscious Adaptation is very quick and requires little concentration. Changing single features such as altering body temperature is quick, only requiring five or ten seconds. Electing to completely alter one's own body to survive comfortably in a hostile and different underwater climate can take up to thirty seconds. Since it usually takes much longer than that to reach one's destination while swimming, this amount of time is rarely inconvenient. Changing back to one's normal state is almost instantaneous, but usually must be willed consciously.
As with Shape Shifting, one's physical condition is of utmost importance when using Adaptation. Healthy, well fed characters with higher Endurance scores will be able to Adapt and survive sudden changes in environment far better than tired, malnourished, or characters ranked Human level in Endurance.
--- - Endurance Limitations. Because the process of Adaptation is far less taxing and involves much less manipulation of bodily tissue, Adaptation is not as tiring as Shape Shifting, and may be attempted a few times throughout a day for Human Ranked Endurance characters, often for Chaos levels, and Amber or higher-ranked characters may use Adaptation continually for prolonged periods of time, Shadow-swimming throughout multitudes of differing types of watery environments.
--- - Attribute Tips for Adaptation. Adaptation is a function of Endurance, and higher Endurance will allow characters greater flexibility in changing their bodies to meet new environments. It will also aid tremendously when the character makes the mistake of changing environments without considering the dangers and adjusting accordingly.
Since Adaptation does not cause one to change their personality in any significant fashion, high Psyche is not a requisite.
Adaptation Abilities
Adaptation confers the following benefits to its users:
- Breathing Underwater. Unlike in Rebma, where the watery environment is altered so that those from above might breathe and exist there without harm, the waters of the ocean floor surrounding Rebma are not so hospitable. Stepping off Faiella-bionin and swimming or walking away from Rebma are each deadly to surface dwellers and Rebmans without Adaptation.
This ability allows the user to travel wherever one wishes within a watery environment, extracting oxygen enough for sustenance, and also lowering the amount of oxygen the body needs. This ability is of little use in breathing in non-oxygenated atmospheres, such as vacuums and alien world Shadows. The Power of Shapeshifting might be of more use here, allowing the character to Shape Shift into a being with different respiratory requirements.
A side effect of this is that the character is able to speak while underwater, anywhere, and may henceforth hold conversations, use Trumps, Spells, Power Words, etc...
--- - Swimming. Heightening ones ability to move through the water, this ability works in two ways:
Firstly, it strengthens muscles and adapts them to the motions most conducive to rapid, tightly controlled swimming. Adaptation gives the character some instinctual understanding of maneuvering in water, and maximizes their physical attributes to aid them in swimming.
Secondly, it allows the body to produce an oily film which is released through the pores, slippery and slick, which aids in making the character move unimpeded through the water. This ability does not impair motor functions or make the hands too slick to handle weapons or other items. It might be rendered useless if the body is covered with clothing, hence the scanty garb common to those in Rebma. The less impeded with clothing a Rebman is, the more this ability aids them in moving through the water.
Use Strength as a judge of the character's swimming speed, since Strength is a measure of muscle and its applications, and speed and power swimming is a physical activity which builds and demands muscular ability.
This film quickly dissipates in outside air. One interesting potential use for it is in
Strength versus Strength Combat, where it might make a wrestler slippery and difficult to
hold onto.
--- - Immunity to Cold. By both strengthening the body's resistance to cold and lowering a character's body temperature, this ability allows submersion without discomfort in the coldest of waters. It also allows survival in cold environments, though long-term exposure to intense, unrelenting cold can harm a character with Adaptation just as it can anyone else, though to a lesser degree.
Endurance is the barometer of how much this ability will allow a character to withstand. Allow Human Rank Endurance characters the ability to remain in very cold (35-50 degrees Fahrenheit) water for long stretches of time without discomfort, Chaos Rank to survive freezing water or atmospheres (15-35 degrees), and Amber Rank the ability to remain in frozen waters for long-term periods of time. It is even possible that highly Ranked characters with this ability might be able to survive being frozen in ice for a short time, hibernating until thawed.
--- - Resistance to Extreme Pressures. As Corwin observed during his fight on Faiella-bionin, stepping forth from the bridge can be fatal. The pressure of the deep water surrounding Rebma is incredible, able to crush the life out of any surface dweller who dares step from the protection which Rebma's gates and stairway offer.
Adaptation allows the character to survive without damage the changes in pressure that come from swimming downward, upward, or out of the confines of Rebma. It prevents cramping, deafness, depressurization, and other factors which characterize deep-sea diving.
With Adaptation, a character can swim freely up from the ocean's floor to the surface and vice versa, without the time consuming necessity of becoming acclimated to the gradual change in pressure.
This ability involves toughening the tissues of the body, alternately swelling them with blood and oxygen or dispersing them to meet the required pressures. Endurance governs the ability to resist these changes, and the ability of the body to adapt to differences in pressure. A Human ranked character would be able to move down to about 200 feet or so beneath the surface without distress, and a Chaos Ranking in Endurance allows submersion up to 500 or so feet. Amber level allows the character to continue at depths of around 1000-1500 feet below the surface without harmful effects. Ranked characters may venture beyond this with some caution, with the points determining roughly the depths they might survive without considerable harm.
A character such as Corwin, with superiority in Endurance (if he possessed the Adaptation Power), would be able to survive depths unheard of, unexplored save for within immensely strong pressurized diving bells.
Rapidly changing from one atmosphere to another, can be devastating if the character is not prepared for the change.
--- - Enhanced Vision. The bottom of the sea-floor is quite dark. If not the strange fires which burn everywhere in Rebma, the city would have been quite dark. Enhanced vision allows a character alter the structure of his or her eyes, to maximize the available light and provide illumination. However, like sea-creatures from the lowest reaches of the ocean, once the point of utter blackness is reached, this vision fails to be useful, though it allows for the user to see things which are illuminated, such as many forms of sea-life which produce bioluminescence, the ability to produce light from their bodies.
Looking into the eyes of a character with this ability in use shows their pupils to be almost entirely black, similar to the way a cat's eyes dilate to allow night vision. The "flip-side" to this ability is that Adaptation allows the character to shrink the pupils to
mere pinpoints, allowing only the slightest amount of light in. This is automatic and nearly instantaneous, preventing the Rebman character from being blinded from a sudden teleportation or change in lighting.
--- - Advanced Hearing. Sound carries a shorter distance underwater than it does
in air. Though it is not useless below the ocean surface, fewer creatures are able to rely on it as a primary sense. This ability allows the character's hearing to develop to a phenomenally acute level, which allows for the inner ear to pick up the faintest of sound
waves passing through the water. Very useful for any natural forms of sonar, or listening
for the songs and noises made by the creatures of the deep. This Power allows the character to hear below the ocean at a range of approximately double the aboveground range for noises. Of course, the "loudness" and quality of the sound affects the character's ability to detect it.
--- - Directional Sense. Oceans are vast, greater than most humans' ability to comprehend. It can be easy to get lost while traveling through them, especially when they are unfamiliar. Directional sense allows the character to remember a clear feeling of the direction they traveled from, and gives a rough estimate of the depth which the character is at. Further sensing allows a player to get an approximate feel for the compass points.
Clued into regular tidal currents or familiar with the undersea topography, a character can navigate quite easily. However, this ability does not provide any clue to the whereabouts of a place the character has never been, and will not help find something if the character has no idea where to find it.
--- - Increased Touch Sense. Known in the animal kingdom as the lateral line system, this sense is closely related to the sense of touch, allowing fish to sense the movement of other beings in their vicinity and to sense obstacles. This sense extends beyond the fish's line of sight, and is how they are able to maneuver in utter darkness.
Consisting of a series of channels under the skin of most fish, the Adaptation power uses the human pores for this ability, allowing them to sense the presence and direction of changes in the flow of currents around them. Currents create vibrations in the channels (or pores) which are transmitted via the nervous system to the brain where the information is processed like other sensory input. Altered currents register differently, and can be easily detected.
This ability can be turned on and off by the character, and with concentration can be used aboveground to detect the movement of air about the Rebman. Drawbacks to this power is that clothing hampers it, and rain renders it similarly useless