Page 129 - Hunter - The Vigil

N
T
U
N
E
O
O
E
R
E
R
T
E
R
:
H
E
E
R
T
T
A
A
I
N
S
O
O
A
N
R
G
N
Z
Z
I
I
P
P
A
H
C CHAPTER THREE: HUNTER ORGANIZATIONS
h
t
h
,
?
O Oh, this?
i
s
Worthless.
e
y
Ten a penny.
a
n
p
f
…
r
o
o
k
p
I keep it for…
t
i
t
t
s sentimental reasons.
e
.
n
r
t
n

l
e
a
n
o
m
s
a
e
s
Kai Doru has more than the one initiation. The Aegis Kai Doru The Guardians have largely forgotten most of what they once
remains picky about whom it recruits, spending years at a time knew about the witches. They have a vague understanding of the
checking out candidates and often picking people from the same powers a mage can display (although they are often caught by
families who have been part of the Aegis Kai Doru for thousands surprise). They know that some werewolves are man-eaters, and
of years. The older, higher members of the organization often some aren’t, but again, so much of what they knew is now lost.
show a great deal of subtlety in recruitment. Sometimes a new As for other creatures, local Aegis Kai Doru cells decide
member doesn’t even know he’s joined. what to do with them on a case-by-case basis. Some horrors do
little harm. Some even try to help. And some can be used or ma-
The Enemy nipulated into helping the Shield and Spear get what it wants.
Hardly a single magician or werewolf alive today real-
ly understands what the Aegis Kai Doru is doing or why it Hunters

should still matter. But long, long ago, the progenitors of the You’re an archaeologist — not an office-bound, dusty academic,
Aegis Kai Doru made a vow so binding that it still holds to- or the kind who ends up covered up to his knees in some mud-hole
day, and to undergo the First Initiation is to understand why. somewhere. You’re the kind who isn’t supposed to exist, a raider of
They send each initiate alone at sunset into an underground tombs and temples, one who dodges ancient enemies and more an-

labyrinth filled with hallucinogenic vapors. Beset with vi- cient traps in order to find the tools you will use to destroy evil.

sions, chased by imaginary horrors, the initiate has until dawn You were a student of Classics, part of a strange, close-knit

to find the exit. There, the Guardians stop him and make him community that began to experiment with ancient ways of
take the ancient Vow of the Sword to destroy “they who work thinking and acting. One night, something went wrong and
magic and they who change skin.” An initiate who can’t get someone died. You and your friends hastily covered it up, form-
out, or who ends up too mad or incoherent to take the Vow, ing a conspiracy that began to overtake your lives. At some
fails the initiation. point, your small, makeshift conspiracy became part of a larger

Having said that, in the field, reality can get in the way. one; the Aegis Kai Doru began to call on you to play a part
Sometimes a magician is simply doing no harm. Sometimes, in another conspiracy, fighting a small war that makes no real

a hunter of the Aegis Kai Doru finds the werewolves or ma- sense. You still don’t know why, but you’re terrified they’ll rat
gicians warring among themselves, and realizes that it will you out. So you do what they say.
be better for all if one faction triumphs rather than another. You’re a cabbie or a postal worker, although when you’re
Sometimes, a Guardian simply decides that he just isn’t strong called to use the relic you guard, you adopt a different iden-
enough to take one of his “ancient enemies” alone. tity, telling people you’re a professor of some made-up subject
with a nonsense name like “Symbology” or somesuch. You
don’t think you play the part of professor all that well, but no
THE MANY MAZES one seems to have caught you. Lies suit you well.
You’re an artist, probably a performance artist. You don’t make
Wherever the Aegis Kai Doru a lot of money, but it doesn’t matter: your riches go into your blood.
has a powerbase (more than just You can trace your family tree back to Constantine, or Aristotle, or
a cell or two), the conspiracy maybe even Jesus Christ. It doesn’t make you any more powerful, but
establishes a labyrinth somewhere it does give you, you feel, the right to wield the weapon you guard.
to use in its initiation. Might be Conspiracies
a cave-carved catacomb. Could be a
The Aegis Kai Doru upholds a small number of conspira-
snarling jumble of sewer tunnels.
cies, each with a different purpose. There may be more than
Or perhaps even a labyrinthine
just these three. It’s hard to tell.
mansion with many rooms, many
The Sword upholds the Vow, to the letter. They nurse the
fl oors, and countless secret
old grudge, specifically seeking out workers of magic and chang-

passages connecting them all.
ers of skins and kill them. What does it matter if thousands of
The “hallucinogenic vapors” is
years have passed and they know nothing of the grudge? That’s
usually as a result of some relic or
not the point. The point is, a vow was made, and they must be
another. When one is not available,
destroyed. They’re militant and proactive, often wading in when
they simply dose the novitiate with
other Guardians hold back. They’re also the most numerous and
a hefty load of entheogenic drugs:

influential among the Aegis Kai Doru’s hunters.
mushrooms, ayahuasca, LSD, or some
The Temple guards the relics that give the Aegis Kai
other psychoactive substance.
Doru its power, also attempting to locate those relics that
128
128