Page 260 - Hunter - The Vigil

Hunter: The Vigil — a Storytelling game of light in shadows.
What does that mean, exactly? Light in shadows? To find the an-

swer to that, it’s first necessary to look at the word vigil and see what
it means, or could mean, in the context of a Storytelling game.
Vigil. From the Latin vigilia, or a period of waking from sleep.
Vigil. A religious tradition marking the eve of a holy day ne-
cessitating that one remain awake as a devotional exercise.
Vigil. A ceremony of watching over the gravely ill or remem-
bering the dead, with participants often carrying candles or other
sources of light.
Vigil. An act of observation or surveillance.

All of that, every last definition, applies to hunters and their
task at hand.
They have been, metaphorically (and for some, literally),
roused from slumber, their eyes now open to the truth. They may
never close their eyes again, may never descend into ignorance.
It is a devotion. It is a ceaseless exercise. For some it’s religious
in the sense that they are scrupulously and habitually committed to
it (“I religiously awaken every morning and check that the gun un-
der my pillow is loaded”), while for others it’s religious in a sense of
faith and divinity (“God give me strength to heal those creatures
that can be healed and destroy those that cannot”).
For many, it genuinely involves remembering the sick and the
dead, those hunters who have been wounded or lost. One could
even suggest that, hey, many hunters really do watch over the dead:
the walking dead, the hungry dead, the spectral dead. The Vigil
is, for many, a certain act of watchfulness and observation: eye to-
ward the foul fiends and grief-struck monsters, monitoring them for

movement, for danger, for knowledge.
And for all hunters, it’s very much about carrying that candle
into darkness.

Candle Burning Down

Let’s be honest. A candle doesn’t provide a whole hell of a lot
of light. It’s a meager flame, guttering and smoldering. It provides a

faint halo of illumination against an overwhelming blanket of night.
And that, appropriately, is how hunters generally feel. Even the ones
who have the backup of big agencies and anomalous equipment and
whole libraries of knowledge…well, as soon as you step out into that
dark night, all bets are off. Everything is clouded, cloaked, concealed. A

hunter might have bright fluorescence in his lab or shooting range, but
out on the streets or in the dark forests, he doesn’t have naught but that
tiny little fire to keep him safe, aware and warm. So: terror on top,

So: terror on top,
Oh, but the metaphor continues: a candle is temporary. Some
horror below it,
burn bright. Some burn meager. But they always burn down. That’s horror below it,
how a lot of hunters feel, that their time on this earth is tempo- and lowest of all,
and lowest of all,
rary. The light has a limit, and they can only do so much good in
ex of
the gag refl ex of
that time before the wick hisses and the fl ame winks out. Doesn’t the gag refl
help that many hunters burn the candle at both ends, so to speak, revulsion.
revulsion.
engaging in an unmitigated hunt that wears them down because — Stephen King,
— Stephen King,
they just can’t stop, can’t take a breath, can’t sleep for fear that
Danse Macabre
their laxity (or a lack of vigilance) will give the monsters just Danse Macabre
enough of an edge.
Prism of Light
It sounds nice. It sounds positive. Light in shadows. By the

sound of it, all hunters are out there doing a good thing, fight-