Page 185 - Hunter - The Vigil

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C CHAPTER THREE: HUNTER ORGANIZATIONS
If she succeeds, that enemy is paralyzed with fear for a number of be used as a 3(L) melee weapon, with which the wielder can
turns equal to the difference in the number of successes rolled. attack any opponent within 10 yards of himself. He simply
A paralyzed opponent loses his Defense, but is not considered mimes a thrust with the spear (making a normal Weaponry
“completely dormant” and cannot be struck a killing blow. attack), and though the talisman may never actually touch its
victim, bloody wounds like those inflicted by an actual spear

Dead Man’s Face (•••••) appear on the victim’s body.
This gruesome Relic appears to be a mask made of the ex-

pertly flayed and cured skin of a human face. It’s difficult to de- Thaumatechnology

termine the face’s gender or even race, as it was long ago reduced
In the cold, sterile labs of the Cheiron Group, men are
to a dried-up, brownish-tan mass. When placed over the face of
made into monsters for the greater good of humanity. Other
a recently deceased corpse, the Dead Man’s Face momentarily
hunter organizations might carry bizarre mystical artifacts
forces some semblance of life back into the cadaver. It’s far from
or learn blasphemous rites of arcane power, but the Cheiron
a true resurrection of the dead, and it doesn’t seem to be calling
Group’s agents actually take parts of monsters and put them inside
the ghost back to its mortal coil, but Aegis Kai Doru agents have
their own bodies. Thaumatechnology Endowments are the most
learned to appreciate the information this Relic can provide
invasive category of Endowments, and while TCG’s fi eld re-
without questioning its source too closely.
covery teams might appreciate the little edges these biomedical
Cost: 1 Willpower; in addition, the hunter gains an Ob-
horrors give them, few are entirely comfortable with the con-
session derangement focused on death and the dead. This de-
cept of grafting bits of unnatural creatures to their own fl esh.
rangement lasts for one week.
While Thaumatechnology Merits resemble Advanced
Benefi t: The Dead Man’s Face must be placed over the
Armory or Relic in that each item is represented as an indi-
face of a corpse that has been dead no more than 12 hours.
vidual Merit with a specific dot cost, a hunter cannot just pick

The hunter must spend a point of Willpower and roll Pres-
up a Thaumatechnology item and start using it. Thaumatech-
ence + Resolve as an extended action as he utters a prayer
nology implants require a lengthy and fairly invasive surgical
to Hades, invoking the wisdom of death to seek the light of
procedure to install or remove from the character’s body.
truth. This prayer requires one success per hour the corpse has
been dead, with each roll representing 10 minutes of chant- Thaumatechnological Surgery
ing. (An exceptionally long extended action may actually in-
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Medicine + equipment; if the
crease the number of successes required.)
surgeon does not have a Thaumatechnology Specialty in
Once the requisite number of successes is acquired, the
Medicine, he suffers a -3 penalty.
Dead Man’s Face stretches or shrinks to mold itself like a second
Action: Extended. Three successes per Merit dot are
skin to the corpse’s features. The corpse’s eyes snap open, and
required to install or remove a Thaumatechnology implant,
it returns, however briefly, to a semblance of life. The corpse

each roll representing one hour of surgery.
can speak and move its head, but the rest of it remains inert
Installing most Thaumatechnology implants requires in-
and dead. (Rumors suggest that the Aegis Kai Doru possesses
vasive, painful surgery. For every two rolls the surgeon’s player
similar relics that can animate a hand, or even the entire body.)
makes, the patient suffers one point of lethal damage. If the
This “resurrection” lasts for one minute per point of Stamina
surgeon doesn’t care how much damage he does in remov-
the corpse possessed while alive. As a rule of thumb, assume
ing a Thaumatechnological implant, the time per roll can be
the corpse can answer one reasonably complex question (e.g.
cut down to half an hour, but the patient suffers a point of
“What did you see before you died?”) per minute.
lethal damage for every roll. Implanting a Thaumatechnology
Doru Talisman (•••••) device requires care and precision, and cannot be rushed in
this manner.
Like the Aegis Talisman, the Doru Talisman is one of the
A Thaumatechnology implant can be recovered from a
great symbols of the Aegis Kai Doru. These rare and powerful
dead patient provided it is extracted within six hours of the
Relics are more than just powerful tools of the Hunt; they are
patient’s death. Since cadavers don’t care much about suffer-
symbols of status and prestige within the organization itself.
ing extra lethal damage, it only takes a half hour per roll to

Few field operatives are ever given this Relic, and the number
remove a Thaumatechnology implant from a dead body.
that earns both an Aegis and a Doru Talisman can be counted
Roll Results
on two hands.
Dramatic Failure: The procedure goes disastrously awry.
A Doru Talisman is an intricately detailed representation
Not only is the Thaumatechnology implant destroyed, but
in pure silver of a doru, or a Greek Hoplite’s spear. It is ap-
the patient also suffers one point of aggravated damage per
proximately four inches long, with a small hole bored through
Merit dot cost of the implant being installed.
the back spike so it may be hung on a chain. In dim light,
Failure: No progress is made toward implanting the
the spearhead sometimes shines red, as though reflecting the

Thaumatechnology.
blood of an ancient battlefi eld.
Success: You progress toward the goal of implanting the
Cost: 1 Willpower.
Thaumatechnology.
Benefi t: Despite its diminutive size, a Doru Talisman is a
Exceptional Success: Not only do you make significant

potent weapon. By gripping the talisman in the hand in much
progress toward completing the procedure, but also the next
the same manner as a full-sized spear, the Doru Talisman may
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