Scorched Plague

"We are One!"

- Scorched chatter

The Scorched Plague is a devastating infection caused by a fungus found underground in Appalachia in 2102. While it's responsible for wiping out humans on the surface, when the player character gets attacked by a diseased scorchbeast, they will not become like the other infected humans, but will instead contract the Blight, which lowers all SPECIAL stats by 1. In the course of the storyline, the players inoculate themselves against the plague as well.

Background
The origins of the Scorched are tied directly to scorchbeasts created by the Enclave's biochemical experiments around 2083. The vicious mutation that turned the bats into ferocious, gigantic predators has also resulted in them secreting a virulent plague that turns other living creatures into their thralls. Those that come into contact with a scorchbeast may begin to mutate if the plague takes hold. First, the victim's skin turns dark, almost black, with the smell of ash. The process culminates in lesions that burn with intense heat begin to form on the victim's body. The affected creature appears to be covered in smoldering embers. In the case of humans, higher mental function eventually disappears, replaced by extreme, almost animalistic aggression.

Needless to say, whenever humans are afflicted, the process is both horrifying and heartbreaking. The Responders attempted to create a vaccine against the plague at the Morgantown Airport, under the lead of Dr Claire Hudson. Using the AVR Medical Center equipment, the Responders attempted to counter this terrible disease and even reverse it. There is no alternative: The Scorched are lethal. They are nothing less than an existential threat and the Responders fully expected that if they cannot find a way to defeat them, or at the very least contain them, they would spread far and wide, transforming or destroying everything in their path.

Worse, individual Scorched humans are savage and deadly. While their ability to speak is limited, they're not mindless. They retain enough intelligence and memory to use guns (but not heavy weapons ex.minigun) and other weapons, and they're hostile to just about everything they perceive as a potential threat.

Biology
A scorched is created when a human, or other creature, comes in contact with a scorchbeast, as the mutated fungal plague called the Scorched Plague that it carries mutates those infected. The skin goes through a rapid change from a charred black to blood red lesions as if they have been flayed alive. Complete loss of hair and cataracts of the eyes also occurs and green Ultracite crystals begin to protrude randomly from the skin. As well as affecting the appearance, those infected also succumb to complete degeneration of mental faculties. The infection of the scorched plague essentially creates a hive mind that connects all scorched to the Scorchbeast queen. The Queen can then command these scorched at will.

The only instincts left for those infected are violent aggression towards everything but other scorched. However, when not acting violently or being directly controlled, a scorched will wander until it sticks in place. The scorched will stay in any position they are stuck in until they petrify from the inside out leaving only a radioactive, petrified corpse. This means that all scorched have a set lifespan until they inevitably succumb to their disease. The petrification process can take longer depending on the activity around any given area, as any disruption to a scorched while going through petrification will awaken them back to their wandering state. Even in death though, a scorched's petrified corpse is a strong source of radiation to any unwise enough to disturb it.

The fungus has some inexplicable connection to the hyper-radioactive ore known as ultracite; the characteristic green crystals that penetrate from the flesh of the Scorched are ultracite crystals, formed from the fungus itself as it ages.

Characteristics
The Scorched Plague is a highly contagious mutagenic fungal pathogen that has infected almost all of West Virginia's human population, turning them into the scorched; beings similar to feral ghouls that retain enough presence of mind to wield weapons and wear armor to assault any uninfected humans unfortunate enough to cross their path. Creatures infected with the plague will not be hostile towards other infected creatures, regardless of species or race.

The plague is also responsible for mutating the local pygmy bat population into scorchbeasts; giant bat creatures who, having overpopulated the underground caverns they lived in, spread the plague to the surface. It seems to have become symbiotic with the scorchbeasts because these beasts retain their individuality while other infected creatures become part of a hive mind, connecting them to the beasts and giving the beasts the ability to control other infected beings to some extent.

The plague also infected other species of local wildlife but didn't mutate them to the same extent as scorchbeasts. A few species such as mole rats, wolves and feral ghouls are noted to have a particularly strong resistance to, if not complete immunity from, the plague.

At least in humans, the Scorched Plague continues to grow inside of the infected, causing ultracite growths to cut through their skin, eventually overtaking the host and killing them. This internal lacing with ultracite also makes plague victims vulnerable to ammunition made from depleted ultracite, due to the negative reaction that occurs when normal and depleted ultracite are brought together. This weakness was leveraged by the Responders' Fire Breathers division, who laced munitions with depleted ultracite crystals, and the Brotherhood of Steel who created laser weaponry with ultracite crystal focus arrays, dealing extra damage against infected creatures.

The plague starts its life cycle as a spore which then grows into a fungus. As parts of the fungus age it hardens into ultracite. This allows for easy tracking of infected creatures, as ultracite gives off a distinctive radiation signature. Ultracite then interacts with the fungus, strengthening it and the creatures it has infected. However, the fungus can't tell the difference between depleted ultracite and normal ultracite, which still has some properties of normal ultracite, but not the same nutrients that the fungus needs, which makes it weak and slows its life cycle. Scorchbeasts have been observed guarding ultracite deposits and consuming raw ultracite ore, suggesting they are smart enough to realize consuming ultracite strengthens the plague fungus inside them.

Immunities
While the Responders, Free States and Brotherhood were all developing an inoculation/cure for the Scorched Plague, there are some creatures with a natural resistance to the disease:

Hostile:

Friendly:

Appearances
The Scorched Plague appears only in Fallout 76.