Matheson-22

*“They’ve made it worse, have they? I remember the material sample I got from the school lunchroom. Matheson-21 or something like it. A variant on magically altered plagues dating back to the fifteenth century. Nasty business.”*— Cassandra Cassidy, *Esoterrorism*
**Matheson-22** was the codename of the virus created by Dr. Edward Strickland as part of his work with The Wazir. Its purpose was to turn humans into draugr, which would cause a zombie outbreak too large for The House to contain and forcibly reveal the supernatural to the public.

## History

For her part in the Wazir's crusade, Cassandra Cassidy went to the Committee with a business pitch; with her lab, she could use several ancient diseases and ailments to create a new compound that could revert someone from an undead state, allowing them to use the draugr tissue for a new form a gene therapy. The Committee was persuaded by the idea of the profits they could make and not only agreed to the plan, they gave her Dr. Strickland, the head of the White Room, to assist her.

Strickland, in truth, was working with the Wazir as well to get vengeance against the House for its role in the deaths of his wife and daughter. With Strickland having all-but unlimited resources, he got to work to instead alter the virus so that it created undead instead of reverting them. Eventually, his efforts paid off and the virus was completed, allowing him to pass it along to the Wazir. Karl proceeded to use the virus to massacre the town of Wheatfield, Kansas, proving that Strickland's goal had been completed.

Over the course of the Wazir's war with the House, the Matheson virus was an absolutely crucial element, with the Wazir aiming to take control of the stockpile Strickland had created, Strickland himself using the virus to instigate an assault on the White Room to help destroy their information hub, and even Cassandra building her own private lab so she could replicate the virus en masse and distribute it to her own targets. However, all three were killed before the virus could be used in any large quantities. Cassandra's lab was destroyed, but it is unclear if any samples of Matheson-22 survived and were brought back to the House or if it was completely extinguished following the Wazir's death.

## Properties

* **Draugr Creation** - The Matheson virus's primary purpose was to create draugr from regular humans. This was present in all of its iterations.
* **Increased Infection Rate** - The key difference between this virus and previous iterations was that the draugr that were created were capable of spreading the condition via bites, not unlike a traditional zombie. This means that putting down a potential outbreak caused by the virus is exponentially harder, as shown by the Wazir's annihilation of Wheatfield, Kansas with 2,000 inhabitants.
* **Increased Volatility** - On top of the increased infection rate from the draugr, the virus itself was incredibly unstable. It's noted that some of the scientists working on the virus spontaneously mutated even with every safety feature in place to prevent it.
* **Immunity to Weaknesses** - The draugr created by the Matheson virus were immune to their typical weaknesses, such as fire and Nordic artifacts. Enchanted weaponry and holy water still proved effective.