Page 317 - Hunter - The Vigil

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C CHAPTER FIVE: STORYTELLING
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Good at getting physical any way you count it, they’ll dodge
Vampires your bullets, snap your neck, break your heart.
When you hunt a vampire, make a list. Write down every- Savages: Cults of the wild, Zen thugs and experienced
thing it’ll hurt you to lose. And when all those things are gone, eat beatdown artists. They run free through the wild and run the
your gun before you fi nd out what they’re taking next. city like it is the wild. If you feel their breath on your neck, it’s
Van Helsing. Beowulf. These hunters help define the because they want you to.

literature of the Vigil. And who did they hunt? Men who Bloodjackers: Most vampires are dead men preserved
feasted on other men, who overcame death just to spread it forever. Bloodjackers are something worse...mad corpses
around. When the sun sets and the night comes, the living that keep walking past the point of decay and putrefaction.

dead appear and claim the city for their own. They’re human, When their own bodies finally give out, their bite may spread
all right, but with humanity stripped down to the sharp edges the curse to another. Even other vampires seem to fear their
and killer instincts. They’re faster, they’re crueler, and damn blackened teeth and yellow owl eyes. (Think the howling
it, they’re prettier. things of 28 Days Later, mindless but blood hungry.)
Vampires want to be safe and well fed, the same basic Horrors: They scare you. No, sorry, you don’t get a
needs their prey have. But they have to go pretty far to fill choice. If you’re not disgusted by their putrid odors or gro-

those needs. Most of them need human blood, and they’ve tesque manners or thousand unique deformities, then they’ll

only got a few hours a night to get it. They tend to look for just reach inside your head and find something that does scare
stability: regular Lucys to tap and Harkers to handle their you. And beat your lizard-brain with it until you’re a quiver-
business. They often make these people into half-vampires, ing mass of skin and bone and not much blood.
blood-junkies who can still walk around in the daylight. Aristocrats: The bosses of the bunch, or so they think.
Those are the targets you compromise. Addiction and affec- Sharkskin suits, shark-sharp teeth. Everyone falls at their feet
tion are powerful forces, but a manipulative hunter can turn a — man or beast, living or dead.
mortal servant into a double agent. While these seven have become little more than bick-

The worst thing about vampires is how well they under- ering families, vampires find common causes and reasons to
stand people. Death’s only brought into relief their few at- work together. They gather with monsters of like mind, others

tachments to life, and they know too well how to manipulate who have overcome hunger and instinct to find some purpose
those attachments in others. (however grim) beyond themselves.
At tier one, vampires are little more than hardscrabble
Powers of the Blood monsters who travel in packs and coteries. At this level, they
All vampires have the Drain Dread Power, with dots in have little social structure, and are mostly individuals either
that determined roughly by their age (for every 50 years dead, giving into the blood-thirst or trying as they might to resist
assume they gain an additional dot in Drain). Most drink it.
blood, but some seem capable of consuming other elements At tier two, vampires gather in small societies and cliques,

(memory, dreams, flesh) to gain Willpower, instead. They usually bound only to the city in which they’re formed. Small
use Drain, therefore, to gain Willpower to fuel their Dread pagan cults, epicurean bloodlines, street or biker gangs, cabals
Powers. Note that each Willpower taken in this way (via the of greedy moneymen, strange undead scientists, what-have-
bite) incurs one lethal damage. (See “Bite,” p. 157, World you.
of Darkness Rulebook.) Vampires can spend Willpower to Tier three sees the local phenomenon growing to a more
heal, meaning they effectively repair their own bodies by con- global phenomenon: vampires bound up with the Catholic
suming the bodies (blood) of others: one Willpower heals two Church (or who at least believe themselves to be predators
bashing or one lethal; aggravated cannot be healed. Oh, and in the name of God), widespread adherents to some wretched
bullets only cause bashing damage to vampires. blood-drinking goddess, a universal conspiracy of vampiric
Common Dread Powers include (but are not limited to) bankers, an army marshaling at the command of what they
Agonize, Ecstasy, Fury, Hypnotism, Impress, Unholy Attri- believe is Vlad Tepes or Dracula himself, and so on. Here,
bute (Dexterity, Stamina, Strength). vampires control more, they’re endemic, they’re like a plague
that exists invisibly and thus are very hard to remove.
Inside Track
Vampires hate each other for life and love each other Killing the Dead
to death. They’re loners crammed together by their fear of Once a hunter knows what they are, she’ll want to know
what’s beyond the city lights and the fact that sometimes they how to kill them. Start with anything that hurts a human be-
need somebody with whom to hold hands. They call them- ing, but keep in mind it probably won’t work as well. Bullets
selves the Damned and they call each other assholes. Once rip up vampires real nice, but it’s not like the bloodsuckers
upon a time, there were seven dynasties of vampires. Today, need those organs. Plus, most of the walking dead have mind-
the blood of the Damned is a great deal more muddled, but affecting powers...and even if they don’t get you with ’em,
still fl ows in distinct, cursed lines... they’ll probably be able to sway any bystanders to their side.
Lovers: Tempters and seductresses, the kind that drag If you can manage, stake the bloodsuckers before they
you out of seedy bars and drain you in your own backseat. know you’re there. With their hearts properly pierced, they’re
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