Page 19 - Hunter - The Vigil

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C CHAPTER ONE: SHADOWS CAST BY FIRELIGHT
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for the sake of learning all there is to know, or stumble across goddess Tiamat, who gave it to the god-king Qingu so that he
such heinous wrongdoings and unbelievable horrors that they might effectively rule her armies.
vow to use their knowledge to protect those who live in bliss- With the Nibiru, Marduk hunted Qingu and Tiamat and
ful ignorance. For both, the candle is lit, the Vigil begins. stole the Tablet (which Qingu wore on his chest as a breast-
Some have the hunt thrust upon them. One woman gam- plate). Marduk also tore into Tiamat (who some say was a
bles away the rent and then some, but the casino owner offers bloated sea monster; others claim her to be far more alien
her a deal. In exchange for clearing her debt, she has to seduce and otherworldly than that). Upon slaying her, however, she
a certain patron and coax a particular piece of information from tore in half and released an army of horrors: scorpion-men,
him. Only, the patron is just wearing the skin of a man; inside howling dragons, the corpses of men who had already died,
is something nesting, something that shifts and shudders like a and iniquitous demons. It is in this way that some hunters
bag of whispering locusts. Or instead of asking her to serve as a believe they are taking up the Vigil to “put the snakes back
Mata Hari, the casino owner wants only permission to visit her in the can,” so to speak, fixing the errors of Marduk’s legacy.

in her dreams. Or for her to offer up the memory of the fi rst time Others, though, rely on the hope that the story is as full of
she made love. Or her firstborn child. Where others might agree shit as it sounds.

and become another victim, she refuses and begins her Vigil with
that decision to hunt down the creature that would prey upon Aves Minerva
humanity in such a fashion. Or perhaps she agrees, but lays down Ancient Rome had its hunters, as well — the Empire was be-
terms of her own, turning the tables on her would-be abuser, and sieged by monsters within and without, from mad emperors to can-
sets out on a Vigil of investigation and exploration. Maybe the nibal barbarians, from undead things lingering in the Necropolises
casino owner is not a monster at all, but a hunter looking to to skin-stealing owl women. Many hunter cells operated as cults

flesh out his cell, and for the sake of her debt, she becomes his or gangs working on behalf of various gods and goddesses, and the
resource, and eventually his newest recruit. Aves Minerva (Birds of Minerva) were no different. Aventine Hill,
Another man might be called to the Vigil by voices from one of Rome’s seven hills, featured a rough-and-tumble working-
heaven or from hell, by ancestors long forgotten or spirits class neighborhood that suffered at the hands of several competing
seeking his aid. Rather than ignore the call or seek therapy, he gangs. One of the gangs working for dominance was the Aves, and
listens and is drawn closer to the world of truth that lies just they sought to protect the Hill from the depredations of darkness,
beyond what most of humanity is willing to see. Where oth- operating on behalf of the warrior-goddess Minerva. (They called
ers might fall into servitude of the voices, regardless of their themselves the birds because not only was Aventine Hill home to

sources, he investigates further. Discovering the alien desires various flocks of pigeons, murders of crows and parliaments of owls,
that lie behind the siren’s call, he sets out to ensure they do but Minerva herself was also associated with owls and birds from
not pull others in with their persuasive whispers, or even to her Etruscan origins.) As Minerva gifted Rome with the olive tree,
undermine their efforts to gain a human servant and try to she also gifted the city with the Aves Minerva.
bind them to his service instead. Is he disgusted by what he One story suggests it was the Aves Minerva who helped

must do? Or enlivened by the power thrust into his hands? defeat Cacus, a cannibal monster with fire-eyes (and some say
the child of god Vulcan) lurking beneath the Aventine Hill
History of the Hunt in a series of caves. Cacus would eat the bodies of his vic-
tims, but leave the heads to be nailed to various doors and
The Vigil is as old as humankind itself. As long as mon-
cave walls in the neighborhood. It was said that they dragged
sters have prowled the darkness, brave and desperate mortals
the corpse of the monster down to the Forum Boarium (cattle
have walked out of the protective ring of firelight to pursue

market) to champion their mighty success.
those shadows. Some die. Many go mad. But someone else
Some hunters claim the Aves were a brute squad, a cult of
always picks up the torch and steps into the dark.
thugs representing all that goes against the moral Vigil. Oth-
Some hunters whisper about the history that has preceded
ers marvel at their success in ending the reign of a particularly
them; others boast loudly about it. Few are certain what’s true and
brutal monster (and the child of a god), and even now call
what’s not, only that the Vigil is both timeless and ceaseless.
themselves the Aves, or Birds, after that group.
The Nibiru Other Roman hunter cells existed as well. Many dedi-
cated themselves to the investigation (and, for some, ex-
Some claim that tablets recovered from the Lost Library
termination) of various humanoid cultures noted in vari-
of Ashurbanipal (an Assyrian library handily predating the
ous early bestiaries. As Roman explorers traveled the world
Library of Alexandria) tell tales of the first hunter, and even

and noted strange and terrible races, these cells followed in
the fi rst hunter cell.
their footsteps and, through poison, treachery or outright
Marduk, these tablets claim, was not a god at all but a
murder, decimated the pseudo-human tribes. So efficient
“divine hero” championed by his army (his “cell”), the Ni-
were they in their Vigil that later explorers who attempted
biru. As the son of Ea, he was both righteous and holy and
to reconnect with the dog-headed Cynocephali, the long-
tasked with the mission to reclaim the Tablet of Destinies.
headed and long-toothed Macrocephali or the Skiapodes
The Tablet was said to detail all the events of the past and
(the “Shadow-Foots”) were unable to discover any remain-
of the future, and whoever held it had great power. Unfortu-
ing traces of the tribes.
nately, the Tablet had fallen into the hands of the monstrous
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