Page 338 - Hunter - The Vigil

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Continental Congresses held their sessions, and where strategy B. Franklin, Printer
for the War of Independence was planned, the city was a high-
It’s hard to imagine an America, let alone a Philadelphia,
priority target for British forces. Battles fought in and around
without Benjamin Franklin. Aside from his critical role as a
the city included the Battle of Brandywine in 1777, after
founding father and statesman — it was his diplomacy that
which the city was occupied by the British. The founding
convinced France to ally with the colonies against the British,
fathers bolted, the famous Liberty Bell was evacuated (to keep
just as one example — Franklin left an indelible mark on his
the British from melting it down into bullets) and the city

city, creating everything from its first volunteer fire company

was stripped of anything that might be of value to the enemy:
to the University of Pennsylvania. Here are some suggestions
blankets, clothing, cattle, food. Philadelphia’s residents found
for storytellers who’d like to reference one of Philadelphia’s
themselves trapped in a city overcrowded with refugees and
greatest icons in their chronicles:
British troops; a blockade by American forces kept supplies
Lightning in a Bottle: Franklin’s experiments with
scarce and tensions high. Philadelphia remained occupied
electricity went far beyond his famous kite-in-a-thunderstorm
until the following June, when the British withdrew to defend
discovery. It’s possible that one of the lightning rods he invented
their position in New York City. It was perhaps the only time
captured more than electricity, and that one of the primitive
in history when a preference for New York over Philadelphia
batteries from Franklin’s collection still contains a residue of
worked in the city’s favor.
the mysterious, universal force known to a few scholars of the
The war also took its toll on the city’s monster hunters, at
occult as “Pyros.” Uncased from its shielding and on display
least those not serving in the Continental Army. Those within
in the Franklin Institute, that battery could attract all sorts of
the occupied city found themselves coping not only with
strange creatures and sorcerers who can sense its power. Hunters
privation, British occupation and the horrors of war, but also
will have to identify the battery as the source of the problem,
vulnerable to the predation and manipulations of the unseen

and find a way to nullify or destroy it without releasing the
denizens of night and shadow. Innumerable spirits found
chaotic energy and making things worse.
themselves able to enter the material world, its boundaries
attracted

n
spirit

weakened by strife and tears, which in turn attracted spirit-
hunting werewolves, who barely noticed those
h
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humans caught between them and their
quarry. Vampires grew strong on the blood of
f
s
the weak and dying. Mages exploited the minds
and bodies of ordinary people made weak by
pain and loss. Devils were seen walking the
streets openly; a milky serpent 20 feet long
was said to convene with its worshipers
beneath the State House. Shadow wars for
territory and resources erupted between and
within supernatural factions.
In response, the city’s human population
pushed back as best it could. They held
clandestine meetings in churches, in shops, on
street corners and in row-home attics. Their
city would not become a playground for the
unholy or a fiefdom for the inhuman. For the

first time, hunters of different backgrounds and

r
social classes began to reach out to each other
and offer cooperation. Large-scale, citywide
resistance was not possible, given the meager
resources and minimal knowledge available to
these groups. But cells began to form in response
to individual need, with each able to call on
several others for aid at critical moments. These
hunters didn’t succeed in making their city
anything close to monster free. But their efforts
made it impossible for any single monstrous
cohort to establish dominance, and denied
their supernatural enemies the free rein over
Philadelphia’s citizenry they might otherwise
have seized. (See “The Chestnut Street
Compact,” p. 22.)
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