Something that has been occupying some of my cognitive cycles since certain events with Sam in Tabula Rasa that I'd like to bring up. Mercer is keen on preparation - he hasn't stayed alive for 20+ years of Hunting by being fast or even particularly smart, he's done it by preparing for most any scenario and trying to leave as little as possible to chance. Mostly, he hunts vampires and things are happy, but some of the beasties on the bounty list can Infect you with just a touch (well, cut), which means you are always just one failed defense check away from being on the other side of the Hunt (in a different way than the title of this PbP suggests). Mercer would strongly detest those odds and so would either avoid such bounties where possible ("let the crazies have 'em") or he'd approach them with an abundance of caution (Vera being both the beginning and the end of "abundant" and "cautious"). If he did do such jobs with any regularity, I'd think he'd have some means of making fighting off the Infection more likely.
Toward that end, here are some thoughts:
1. All strains of HMHVV are retroviral. Today, treatment for such viral infections is in its infancy, and from hat I can find on HMHVV, it resists most available treatments anyway, trivializing any progress made over the next 60 years. However, if applied quickly, it may help fight off the disease, though the books don't provide any details that I can find on how this might work crunch wise. What options are available for increasing your resistance to the disease since the most likely vector is injection? Will toxin extractor bioware help? Will a medkit (applied before the first interval)?
2. All Infected have a allergy to sunlight. Would it be reasonable to assume that UVA radiation might also be lethal to the virus itself? If a powerful UV source (including sunlight, but also sterilization strength artificial UV light) is applied to the point of infection immediately (within a minute or so, or a couple CTs), could it help improve the victim's odds of resisting infection?
Strain III, with its power of 6, only needs a dice pool of about 18 to have even odds of defeating it (really 21 since they also have a penetration of 3). That means that Mercer only needs about 11 more dice, which is unlikely, except with R5 toxin extractor (Availability 15) and a R6 medkit providing a bonus equal to their rating. Of course, he can't afford the extractor anyway, so his odds of success are mostly zero. It gets worse for Strain II with power 10. From a metagaming standpoint, I can use edge to not get hit and burn edge to fight off the infection, but in game it's basically dumb luck.
Now, it's good that things be scary - we're hunting monsters, after all. But I just want to make sure that wily ol' Mercer is using, or at least aware of, every tool available to keep himself and his team alive and un-Infected. Prices for such things - wood-fiber gauze! Silver Iodide! UV emitting particles in suspension via IV (mind the radiation poisoning)! UV Dialysis! - would also be useful since I might want to obtain a few. If you want tht risk of Infection to remain high, that's fine too, but Mercer will act appropriately.
