Page 192 - Hunter - The Vigil

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Benefit: Apart from restoring the use of an ampu- Exceptional Success: As a success, but all affected char-
tated hand, the Hand of Glory bestows upon its owner acters automatically forget the hunter without need for Will-
the mesmeric power of the folkloric corpse-candle. The power expenditure.
hunter must light the ends of the Hand’s fingers (he takes
no damage from this, and the fire doesn’t consume his
flesh) to activate it. The resultant flames are preternatu- Research and
rally steady and unwavering, and cannot be put out save
by be being doused in milk. Anyone who sees the flames Development
of the Hand of Glory risks being rendered immobile and
insensate as long as the flames remain visible. While the The Vigil is a living thing. Strategies grow stale. Monsters
candles burn, the character suffers a -2 penalty to any rolls adapt. New threats emerge from the surrounding shadows.

related to manual dexterity using that hand. The flames This is a blood-soaked, mind-bending survival-of-the-fittest
are too small to inflict damage or be used as a weapon, but situation. Hunters who fail to adjust to the shifting conditions
they can ignite flammable objects like paper or fabric. of the hunt are hunters who end up dead in a sewer drain or,
Dice Pool: Presence + Composure vs. Resolve. The Hand’s worse, nodding off beneath a Thorazine cocktail at the local
owner rolls once and compares his result to the result of all wit- sanitarium.
nesses. Each time a new group of witnesses sees the Hand, the Those hunters with the fortune (or misfortune, de-
owner rolls once and compares his result to all of the witnesses’. pending on one’s perspective) of having membership in
Action: Contested. one of the major third-tier conspiracies have the benefit
Roll Results of Endowments, granting them an extra edge against the
Dramatic Failure: The Hand of Glory’s power is turned horrors of the World of Darkness. But even these Endow-
on its owner. He is mesmerized (see “Success” for details) un- ments are often not enough; maybe that sonic weapon
til someone forcibly breaks his line of sight to the Hand. won’t work on ephemeral entities, or that demon’s limb
Failure: Any character in line of sight who earns more suc- freaks out any time it’s in the presence of the angelic.
cesses on the contested action is unaffected by the Hand of Glory. Hunters strive to modify existing Endowments and, more
Success: Any character (including the hunter’s allies) importantly, to come up with new devices, modifications
in line of sight who rolls fewer successes than the hunter is and rituals to use on the ever-long Vigil.
rendered immobile and can do nothing save stare, trans- This section is about researching and developing new
fixed, at the Hand of Glory. The hunter may move, speak, Endowments for hunter cells of appropriate conspiracies.

or take actions freely without breaking the spell, as long as Wonder how to harvest demon’s blood for its benefit? Need
the flames are kept in the victim’s line of sight. Remember to design a hollow-point bullet whose lead reservoir is topped
that the victim is completely immobile and cannot turn with fairy tears and sealed with red wax? Hope to decode

to follow the Hand of Glory. In order to be affected, the apocryphal scripture to find a non-canonical ritual to the Vir-
victim must see the flames themselves, not just the light gin of Guadalupe? Look no further.
from them. If the victim is attacked, or threatened with
attack, the spell is immediately broken. The Endowment
A victim normally only rolls against an individual Hand Equation
of Glory once per scene. If the initial resistance roll succeeds,
or if the spell is broken, that character is immune to the Hand’s Hunters in the field can create their own Endow-
effects for the remainder of the scene. The Hand’s owner may ments, and players are encouraged to integrate this
spend a point of Willpower to affect a given character more into the ongoing story. The cost of an Endowment is
than once in the same scene (one Willpower is required per determined by:
successive attempt per person). (Cost of Features) - (Discount from Frailties) -
Mesmerized characters have no memory of events that (Other Discounts)
transpire in their presence while mesmerized. They do recall
The cost can never be below 1 Merit dot. Endowments cre-
the character with the Hand of Glory being the last thing
ated by players follow the same rules covered under the Endow-
they saw before blacking out. The Hand’s owner may spend
ment Merit (see p. 67). This system is intended to give players
Willpower to erase even this trace of his presence: for every
and Storytellers guidelines for the cost of a new Endowment,
affected character he wishes to forget having seen him, he
and then provide ideas and incentives for working the develop-
may spend a point of Willpower when the effect is broken to
ment of that Endowment into the course of a chronicle.
wipe his presence from their minds. Provided he leaves their
Endowments created through R&D cannot be pur-
line of sight immediately, they will retain no recollection of
chased with normal experience points, however. The
him at all. This is an exception to the rule that a character
creation of an Endowment necessitates the player or cell
may only spend one Willpower per turn.
expending its Practical Experience. The cost to purchase
Photographs or video recordings do not convey the
is equal to five times the total finalized Merit dots in Prac-
Hand’s effects to viewers, but live video feeds such as security
tical Experience (so, a one-dot Elixir would cost 5 total
cameras do.
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