Page 27 - Hunter - The Vigil

D
D
A
H
A
W
S
W
O
O
S
T
E
T
A
P
E
:
R
E
R
R
E
R
F
I
H
T
G
L
I
Y
A
A
C
S
C
B
Y
B
S
T
H
C CHAPTER ONE: SHADOWS CAST BY FIRELIGHT
sleeps for two hours, then goes to work? Maybe
she plays dumb for a time, but even the most COMPACTS AND CONSPIRACIES
devoted spouse can only wash bloodstains out
of clothes so many times. Maybe the hunter The term “compact” is meant to reference
brings his wife onboard, shows her the torch the Chestnut Street Compact (a.k.a.
he carries into the darkness, but that only puts The Candle Compact), an early hunter
a big, bloody bull’s-eye right in the middle of alliance (p. 22).
her forehead — and if they have kids, they The term “conspiracy” isn’t really
can’t afford to both go home in body bags. a term that hunters use to describe
What about sanity? It’s not easy remaining on their own organizations, but…they’re
the Vigil. Dealing night after night with things certainly happy to use it to describe
that howl for a hunter’s blood and aren’t even the other shadowy groups with which they
supposed to exist in the fi rst goddamn place clearly compete.
wears away at one’s moral fabric. Never mind
the nightmares. Sure, hacking away at an un-
dead fi end until it turns to greasy ash is satisfying on one Yet while the Vigil is a lonely and isolating existence,
level, but there’s always that tiny voice that asks could it very few hunters can take on the night alone and hope to
have been saved? Are you just as bad as they are, a murderer, survive. They need weapons, equipment and fi rst aid. They
a monster? Even if the mind doesn’t crack and shudder, the need food and shelter, and someone they can trust to watch
body is just as vulnerable (if not more so). Broken bones over them while they sleep. Most of all, they need people
don’t heal easy. Heart attacks and strokes are common (that they can talk to just to keep the horrors of what they do in
stress, it’s a killer). The barest scratch from a vile thing perspective, lest they become monsters themselves. At the
becomes infected fast, and modern medicine is not swift same time, however, the need for secrecy — and the threat
enough to eradicate a supernatural super-bug. of infi ltration by supernatural or even human adversaries —
Finally, the legal. Hunters might be protecting human- means that hunters must view everyone around them with a
ity (or their own interests), but what they do exists clearly certain degree of suspicion and paranoia. These confl icting
outside the law. A hunter steals a witch’s book from her li- — and often volatile — desires drive the existence of hunter
brary, but he’s wrong to fear her malefi c magics: no, she just societies all over the world.
calls the cops. A cell tracks down a wolf-headed man-beast Any city or town that harbors a multitude of monsters will,
and drills it full of silver-laced buckshot, over and over sooner or later, attract a multitude of hunters as well, each with
again. When it’s done, it’s not left with the cooling corpse their own tactics, agendas and ideologies. As their paths cross
of a man-beast. The wolf’s head is gone. So are the claws, in the pursuit of the Vigil, these hunters form alliances, share
the lupine joints, the bristling hairs. Now it’s just a man, information, offer support and sometimes organize into larger
and he’s got holes blown through his chest and is missing and more effective organizations. They also argue, compete for
parts of his legs. Can the cell explain that to the police or resources, interfere with and even actively oppose one another
the FBI? What happens when CSI points the investigation at times, as all human societies are wont to do.
in their direction? After all, it’s not like the city’s full of Hunter society is small and secretive, even in large
guys drizzling hot silver in shotgun shells — a single speck cities like London or New York, but it is also vibrant and
of residue damns them with incrimination. Yes, some con- constantly in fl ux. Individual hunters band together to form
spiracies and compacts offer their protections against this cells, pooling their skills and resources to take on solitary
kind of thing, but no protection is bulletproof. Even the monsters that threaten their communities. Sometimes these
most decorated soldier of Task Force: VALKYRIE will fi nd hunters become aware of other cells in their area and they
himself in the slammer if he makes a mess so big his superi- form broader ties that grow into larger compacts, creating
ors can’t cover it up. a network that spans entire cities or regions. In rare cases,
hunter organizations grow so large that their resources and
Hunter Society infl uence span entire countries. These conspiracies, while
powerful and ruthlessly effi cient, must contend with the
same inter-conspiracy politics, bureaucratic inertia and
The Vigil is a desperate, twilit struggle, waged by a deter-
confl icting interests common to any large organization.
mined few against the monsters that haunt the dark corners of
Examples of these three organizational tiers can be found
the world. Its skirmishes are fought in back alleys, basements
in nearly every city around the globe, interacting with one
and isolated farmhouses, often under the very noses of the
another in an uneasy balance that forms the basis of hunter
people that hunters stake their lives to protect. Hunters must
society as a whole.
keep their Vigil a closely guarded secret, because humankind
This section describes the three tiers of hunter organiza-
as a whole is ignorant of the horrors lurking in its midst. Rather
tion in detail, discussing how they take shape, their relative
than being hailed as saviors, hunters are cast beyond the pale of
strengths and weaknesses, and how they interact with one
human society. Their actions brand them as criminals, madmen,
another in the keeping of the Vigil.
even terrorists by an increasingly paranoid and fearful public.
26
26