Brain Mine
rating: 0+x

The security team brought one of the survivors down into the interrogation suite - this was the first time we had managed to take one of them alive and we were certain that Simon would be able to pull some useful information out of him, but even when we had him strapped down and fitted with a resonator cap he seemed unperturbed.
Even mundane prisoners tend to be freaked out by that, and given that he knew what we were going to do that bothered me - I would have expected some recognition that his failure to die for their "Dear Leader" was about to cost them dear, and now I wish I'd paid more attention to that little voice in my head.
He actually smiled when Simon appeared and sat down opposite him - and then Simon's resonator came on and the two were in contact.
Simon stiffened in his chair and began shaking and the prisoner … laughed.
"You want to know?" he cackled.
"Know then … for here
is knowledge! Receive the gift of my master and…" and he was silent, because Shona had put a bullet through his hindbrain. But the damage was already done - Simon began to scream, and wouldn't stop even after we had had him restrained and sedated. We were relieved when he fell silent over an hour later - but only until we discovered that he had bitten through his tongue and bled to death before anyone noticed.

Basic Information

A Brain Mine is, effectively, a Basilisk Image that relies on psychic or magical mind reading to take effect1. When the reader makes contact with the person whose brain is mined, they encounter some form of information or imagery that harms them. The content could be almost anything from a biological logic bomb or memetic virus to things man is not meant to know or memories of something that can drive people insane just be seeing it.

Good candidates for the role of brain-minefield would include the catatonic survivor of a mysterious attack, prisoners taken from a group of attacking cultists or the sacrificed agents of The Conspiracy - or even The Resistance if in a Black and Grey Morality setting. Depending on the rules set this may be a defence that can be actively developed by a skilled telepath - creating a specific compartment in their mind that they avoid but which will look very interesting to someone trying to force them open.

If psionics are well enough known in the setting then there could be some kind of arms race between mine layers and readers, much as there is in the real world between bomb makers and bomb disposal operators.

This will also be a common side effect of making accidental contact with an Eldritch Abomination, or even of contacting a far more (or possibly far less) advanced mind and being scrambled by its content. On a lesser scale telepaths may also be harmed by accessing traumatic memories of any kind, esepcially if they are suppressed and the reader comes upon them unexpectedly.

Sources

Bibliography
1. full source reference

Game and Story Use

  • A good way to make the PCs more cautious if they have a reader and are in the habit of brain-raping prisoners for infomation to short-cut your plots with.
  • If the PCs work as readers for a government agency and have achieved notable sucesses they may be specifically targetted with brain-mined agents.
  • Use to flag up the mysterious stranger when an NPC who is a known reader scans them and goes down bleeding from the ears.
  • A PC might volunteer to carry a brain mine into the enemy base by allowing himself to be captured.
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