Page 179 - Hunter - The Vigil

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C CHAPTER THREE: HUNTER ORGANIZATIONS
must be inhaled by another character. Ascending Ones are hypnotic state remains uninterrupted, the Ascending One
taught specific breathing exercises to control and focus the doesn’t lose any successes; he may even go and take other
smoke as they exhale; the hunter may designate any one actions and then return to the programming action.
character within close-combat range as the target of the Exceptional Success: The subject is placed in an ex-
smoke. If the target is aware of the smoke, she may try to ceptionally deep suggestive state. Programming the subject
hold her breath by making a reflexive Stamina roll. Suc- requires only 30 seconds per roll instead of one minute.
cess means she gets a lungful of clean air before the smoke
can affect her; failure means she is affected normally. Relic
The affected character must make a reflexive Stamina
The Aegis Kai Doru has collected many trinkets and
+ Resolve roll, contesting the activation roll, to resist the
odd relics over the centuries. Some are mere oddments
smoke’s effects. If the victim is in combat, or otherwise in
— little trifles for the amusement of kings and children.
an agitated or threatened state, she receives a +3 bonus on
In a storehouse in Naples, an impossibly intricate clock-
this roll. A drugged character becomes calm, sedate and
work man can play chess against a living opponent. In
relaxed, as though she has taken a dose of opium (World
the sewers under Manhattan, a rough-hewn statue stolen
of Darkness Rulebook, p. 177). More importantly, she
from a college campus silently salutes whenever a virgin
enters an extremely suggestible state, in which she may
passes by. Others possess power so terrible that the group
be given complex instructions to be carried out right away
can only seal them away and guard against the day some
or at some triggering stimulus. This drugged state lasts for
fool unleashes them on a hapless world. Deep beneath
10 minutes.
the Russian taiga, in a cave that in every geological sense
Programming a subject with a command is an extend-
shouldn’t be there, three men stand guard over a crude
ed and contested action of the Ascending One’s Manipu-
stone altar that pulses like a living human heart. The
lation + Persuasion versus the subject’s Resolve + Compo-
guards have to be men — no one likes to even talk about
sure. Each roll represents one minute of careful, hypnotic
what happened the last time a woman entered that cav-
instruction. The number of successes required is equal to
ern. There’s a church in Morocco that isn’t on any of the
three per “step” of the complete command. A triggering
maps or in any of the tourist guides, and if you go there
action or stimulus counts as a step. For example, the com-
without an invitation, the last thing you’ll see before you
mand “When a man says to you, ‘Do you have the time?’,
feel the knife slide into your back is a mummified head on
call the police and tell them you’ve witnessed a murder on
a cushion resting on the altar, and before it all goes black,
Fleet St., then hang up immediately” requires 12 successes,
you’ll swear to God the thing looked at you.
because it is a four-step command: the conditional trigger
Straddling the line between the curios and the sanity-
(“when a man says to you, ‘Do you have the time?’”), and
rending artifacts of a long-dead age are the Relics gifted to
three actions (“call the police,” “tell them you witnessed a
Aegis Kai Doru agents in the field. As much status symbol
murder,” and “hang up immediately”). Dangerous actions
as tool or weapon, these Relics are embodiments of the
double the number of successes necessary per action (six
trust shown to promising field operatives. To be given a
successes instead of three). The subject may also be or-
Relic is a singular honor, and the shame of losing one or
dered to forget the encounter with the Ascending One, or
allowing it to fall into the hands of others is as grievous
to forget any actions undertaken while entranced. Either
as deliberate betrayal. Members of the Aegis Kai Doru
adds five successes to the required total.
have killed themselves rather than face their peers after
If the command is to be triggered by a later action, the
losing a Relic to another hunter or, worse yet, a witch.
subject returns to normal when the command is fully im-
The organization itself hunts those who steal “its” artifacts
plemented; the druglike effects vanish and the character
with a relentless determination, sometimes spending mil-
remains her normal self. When the command is triggered
lions of dollars and years of its hunters’ lives to track down
(whether immediately or by a later trigger), the druglike
thieves. Recovery is always the primary objective, but no
state resumes. The victim will ignore or respond only as
one in the Aegis Kai Doru raises much of a fuss if the Relic
much as necessary to anything not related to her task
thieves end up dead.
(questions are ignored outright or answered with a single
Unlike many other Endowments, Relics can be used
word, work and family are put aside and not told why, etc.)
by anyone. Most have a ritual, spoken command word, or
and generally behaves like she’s stoned. Once the com-
other obscure, not immediately obvious means required
mand is carried out, the effects end immediately.
to activate them, but once an individual learns the key, a
The psychic compulsion is only effective as long as
Relic will function for anyone.
the drug holds the victim in her hypnotic state. When
the 10 minutes are up, the subject snaps out of it and all One-Eyed Kings (•)
successes are lost; a partial command does not take hold
These ancient, verdigris-covered copper coins are so
at all. As long as the subject is still in the trance state,
worn as to be nearly indistinguishable from simple metal
another dose of Mesmeric Vapor can be applied, but this
discs. Only a faint relief on one side can still be made
gives the subject another chance to break free of the effect
out: the image of a king, in a style that vaguely suggests
with a contested Stamina + Resolve roll. As long as the
both the Grecian and the Babylonian. This king is missing
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