Page 188 - Hunter - The Vigil

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L LOVER’S LIPS|PERSONAL DEFENSE SWARM
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20/20 vision — and the Cheiron Group can give you the eyes informs her that the high priest’s aura is a muted, hypnotic swirl
of a demon that see the deepest secrets of a man’s soul. Trans- of bright green and violet, while the two nearest cultists have gold

plantation of the entire eyeball is a new field for Cheiron doc- auras. The two successes for the high priest show her his obses-
tors, and Devil’s Eyes are one of the early prototypes. Before sion and excitement, while the one each for the two cultists reveals
the implantation, Devil’s Eyes resemble golden, multifaceted their confusion. In addition, she automatically recognizes the high
orbs, like oversized insect eyes. Once they’ve been implanted priest’s psychotic nature — and, interestingly, the fact that he’s
and hooked up to a person’s optic nerves, they shift their pig- under supernatural control.
mentation and structure, becoming indistinguishable from the
patient’s natural eyes. No matter how bad the character’s eyes Lover’s Lips (••)
were originally, Devil’s Eyes give him perfect 20/20 vision. This implant isn’t literally a pair of lips and, in fact, the

Devil’s Eyes aren’t really “eyes” in any biological sense; Cheiron Group’s official designation for it is “Eros’ Caress.”
while they are the sensory organs of the creature they come The truth is less poetic: “Lover’s Lips” are actually manufac-
from, they don’t really perceive the world the way a human’s tured sacs, resembling nothing so much as a snake’s venom
eyes do. To allow a person to see through the Devil’s Eyes, a sacs. They’re made from the latest in synthetic skin technol-
tiny computerized interface chip must be implanted between ogy, with just a little something extra harvested from what
the optic nerve and the Eye themselves. The interface pro- passes for a vampire’s circulatory system. The whole thing is

cesses the visual information out of the image perceived by filled with a few cc’s of blood — not necessarily the implan-

the Eyes, filtering out extraneous data beyond the human vi- tee’s — then implanted under the jaw, right alongside the
sual range. The result of this post-processing gives the hunter’s salivary gland. When the hunter massages just behind his jaw

vision a flat, artificial look, as though the whole world were a and below his ears, the blood, partially transformed by the
badly retouched photograph. vampiric tissue, squirts into his mouth. It tastes vile, but when
Benefi t: By squeezing her eyes shut and rolling them in someone else gets a taste of it, usually through a kiss, they sud-
a particular way behind the lids, a character with Devil’s Eyes denly become very fond of the hunter.
can temporarily disengage the interface chip and receive the Benefi t: When another character tastes the blood secreted

full, unfiltered spectrum the Eyes perceive. When active, the by this implant, it induces a mild euphoric effect, as though she
Eyes allow the character to perceive the emotional auras sur- has taken a hit of morphine (The World of Darkness Rulebook,
rounding other individuals. These auras provide insight into p. 177). This euphoric state lasts only for a scene, not the (8 mi-
the character’s emotional state, and can even reveal super- nus Stamina) hours of a real morphine hit. She becomes well
natural influences. The Devil’s Eyes revert to their natural ap- disposed toward the implanted character, who gains the benefi t

pearance while active. of the 9-again rule on Social rolls against her for the next scene.
Action: Instant. If a single individual tastes blood from the same charac-
Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy. ter’s implant more than once in a single month, she becomes
Roll Results mildly addicted to the taste of the blood. In addition, her af-
Dramatic Failure: The massive rush of information over- fection for him deepens; he gains a +1 bonus on all Social rolls
whelms the hunter. For the rest of the scene, she cannot turn against the victim as long as she has tasted his blood within
the Eyes off and is treated as though she had ingested a potent the past month. This bonus is in addition to the 9-again ben-
(-3 to traits) dose of hallucinogens (see The World of Dark- efi t that lasts for a scene after each taste.
ness Rulebook, p. 177). An Eros’ Caress implant can only hold enough blood for
Failure: The hunter is unable to make sense of the swirl- a single “dose” at a time. In order to use the implant again, the

ing aura of colors around another character. hunter must refill it by injecting a small amount of blood di-
Success: For every success rolled, the hunter can clearly rectly into the implant. The blood can be human (either the
discern one aura color of one individual in her line of sight. hunter’s or someone else’s) or animal, but a successful injec-
She may allocate her successes however she likes; she might tion requires a Dexterity + Medicine roll to hit the implant.
spend all of them on getting a detailed perception of a single Personal Defense Swarm (•••)
individual’s state of mind, or she might try a quick read on sev-
The Cheiron Group’s scientists still aren’t entirely sure
eral characters. She discerns emotions in order of descending
how to explain the function of this implant, and the very na-

intensity. Aura signifiers that encompass the entire aura (that
ture of where it comes from remains top secret. Rumor has it

is, signifiers that are not just individual colors) are perceived
that a team in Bucharest (or maybe Prague, or Vienna, or some-
automatically with at least one success. See the Aura Signifi ers
where else) found some weird little monster that turned into
sidebar on p. 186 for a list of aura colors and their associations.
an ugly little metal statue as soon as they caught it. They say
Exceptional Success: As ordinary success, but the total num-

the boys in the back room figured out what made it fall inert,
ber of successes rolled is applied to all characters in line of sight.
and how to revive it. Then they melted it down into little ball
Example: Angeline, infiltrating a cult ceremony in the Phil-

bearings, coated the pieces with hypoallergenic aluminum, and
adelphia sewers, activates her Devil’s Eyes to get a sense of the
jabbed them into hunters’ arms.
congregation’s state of mind. She rolls four successes and allocates
The tiny metal spheres are embedded in the subcutaneous
two of them to the priest performing the ritual, with the remain-
tissue of the forearm. A small valve, similar to the one some
ing two allocated to the two cultists closest to her. The Storyteller
dialysis patients use, is implanted near the base of the palm.
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