Page 151 - Hunter - The Vigil

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C CHAPTER THREE: HUNTER ORGANIZATIONS
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Endowments longer receiving the proper signal from their RFID chips, duti-
fully shut down and left the soldiers defenseless.
Certain Advanced Armory Merits are listed as “Renewable.”
Hunters are not supernatural creatures. They do not com- The nature of modern warfare is such that a soldier chews through
mand the unholy powers of the night (although the case could supplies at a high rate: ammo is fired, grenades thrown, and so on.

be made for the Lucifuge), nor do they possess inborn resis- Renewable Merits represent these expendable but vital pieces of
tance to injury or death. Around the world, the vast majority technology, which the Task Force supplies its agents on a regu-
of hunters face the supernatural armed with little more than lar basis. Each Renewable Merit’s description lists how often the
their wits, willpower and whatever supplies they can gather top brass will supply soldiers with fresh ammo, usually once per
from the local sporting goods store. Some hunters, though, by chapter or once per story. Note that this resupply does not mean
dint of powerful backers or stores of ancient relics or a sup- the hunter automatically receives a new Endowment; Task Force:
posed fallen angel in the family tree, have access to tools be- VALKYRIE only replaces expended gear. If a sniper is normally
yond those that ordinary men and women can acquire. Some issued two magazines of etheric rounds (represented by two dots of
would argue that these tools make them every bit as unnatural the Etheric Rounds Merit) but only expends one of them during
as the things they profess to hate — how much difference is the course of a session, he only receives one replacement mag at
there, really, between a witch who calls down lightning from the start of the next session. Obviously, if a hunter does not begin a
the sky and a man who has implanted a swarm of insect mon- session in a situation where he can be resupplied, he won’t receive
sters into his body to use as a weapon? Others counter that to the replacements immediately.
destroy the monsters that hide in the shadows with any chance Finally, remember that Task Force: VALKYRIE expects
of success, a hunter needs every edge he can get. detailed after-action reports from its agents and expects its
Endowments, unlike the powers of supernatural beings, weapons to be used. Hunters with the bright idea of selling
are not their own category of Trait. They are simply a new cat- off Advanced Armory gear and requisitioning replacements
egory of Merit, and are purchased with Merit dots just like any should remember that VALKYRIE controls prisons that make
other (see “Merits” on p. 67 for the specifics of how each En- Fort Leavenworth look like Club Med.

dowment Merit works). Most Endowments have special rules
governing their use, and safeguards in place to keep members of Etheric Rounds (• or •••••;
rival organizations from using them. These rules are discussed Renewable)
in detail at the beginning of each Endowment’s description. Produced in top-secret, experimental laboratories around
the country, these bullets have been bombarded with a cock-
Advanced Armory tail of exotic, high-energy particles that infuse peculiar pseudo-
The elite agents of Task Force: VALKYRIE don’t trust physical properties into the lead. Etheric Rounds are delivered to

their lives to bizarre magical rites, weird relics, or freakish field operatives in clear, plastic magazines (Task Force: VALKY-

biological modification. As befits the best of the best of the RIE manufactures versions in every caliber and magazine style

United States Armed Forces, Task Force: VALKYRIE relies currently on the market) and emit a faint blue light from their

on cutting-edge technology and advanced warfare systems to tips. When fired, this light becomes as bright as a tracer round,
eliminate its targets and keep humanity safe from the monsters. making concealment all but impossible. The bullet is actually
From bullets that rip through ghosts as easily as human fl esh consumed by this light, which converts the metal into a pseudo-
to rifles that spit lightning, the Advanced

Armory of VALKYRIE agents gives them an
edge over the creatures they hunt. HYPOCRISY
Task Force: VALKYRIE takes its op-
erational security very seriously. On recruit- Endowments are weird. Endowments are monstrous
ment, all agents are implanted with a small and, in many ways, inhuman. Does this make those
RFID chip, usually secured in the meat of hunters who use them inhuman? “Humanity” here
the hip or shoulder. All Advanced Armory is in the eye of the beholder. Certainly too few

devices, unless specifically noted otherwise, hunters recognize the hypocrisy in the act of
have a receiver programmed to recognize hunting the supernatural when they themselves
the frequency of this RFID at close range. If wield preternatural gifts. Just the same as
the signal is not detected, the device hard- how many hunters track down cultists when they
locks and will not function. While this keeps themselves could be considered cultists of a
VALKYRIE’s weapons from falling into the different sort. Players and Storytellers may
hands of rogue hunters or, worse yet, the recognize these ironies; hunter characters
enemy, it can also lead to tragic losses. One often do not. This is part of what makes such
strike team in Canada was completely wiped characters curiously fl awed, and it’s also what
out when the coven of witches it tracked forces us to ask just what is it that defi nes
down cast a spell that disrupted electronic a hunter’s humanness?
communications. The team’s weapons, no
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