Page 340 - Hunter - The Vigil

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AMERICAN PLAGUE
In 1793, the largest yellow fever outbreak in American history struck
Philadelphia, killing 10% of its population — about 5,000 people — over the
course of fi ve months. The virus was brought to the nation’s (then) capital
by refugees from the Caribbean, and transmitted by the mosquitoes that
thrived in Philadelphia’s marshy clime (and in the standing water found
in its sewers, cisterns and wells). National government disbanded for the
summer; George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and other notable patriots fl ed
to the countryside to escape contagion. Lacking a germ theory of disease,
many experts of the day blamed corrupt city morals for outbreaks of this and
other urban affl ictions. Those infected with the disease endured several days
of muscle pain, shivers and high fever. Then, cruelly, symptoms subsided
for a day or so, only to be followed by jaundice, vomiting, bleeding, kidney
failure and death. Eyewitnesses to the Philadelphia plague report private
homes converted to hospitals, and patients with raging fever running naked
through the streets.
Story Seeds:
Story Seeds:
The Carrier: While vampires were immune to the effects of the plague, some
The Carrier:
no doubt picked up the yellow fever virus while feeding on its helpless
victims. Now one of the bloodsuckers from that time has awakened from
an extended slumber and is unknowingly passing the still-active virus to
Philadelphia’s unfortunate citizens. The germ’s incubation within vampiric
fl uids has altered it just enough to keep doctors from identifying the cause
of the deadly syndrome. Hunters with family members who are infected and
hospitalized may recognize that the victims show signs of vampire attack.
Capturing, interrogating or identifying the vampire in question may lead
to an effective treatment or vaccine. But can the vampire be convinced to
stop transmitting it? Could she stop even if she wanted to?
Are You My Mother?
Are You My Mother? During the horrible months of the plague, the city
was awash with rumors of husbands abandoning wives and parents abandoning
children. At least one of those stories was true, and now the restless
ghost of a fever-stricken child wanders the streets in search of its
parents. When some kids on their block then disappear, lured away or
taken by the ghost to be her playmates, hunters must fi nd a way to make
contact with the ghost-child and negotiate or force the release of the
children. Confronting the ghost means the hunters endure nightmare visions
of the plague-ravaged city, or suffer painful recreations of the fever’s
symptoms. They may also have to contend with cultists who want to exploit
the ghost for their own purposes, or an extremist hunter cell that wants
to eliminate the ghost without regard for the missing children.

known, but most citizens considered this an unchangeable church and a few warehouses in the process. Unknowingly,

fact of life. Reforms would occur in fits and starts in the their efforts tipped the odds against a vampire prince who’d

century’s first few decades, though it took the stock market nearly established citywide authority over his kind. That
crash of 1929 and subsequent Great Depression to dislodge despot’s near success left the city’s vampires more determined
the prevailing authorities. As in other cities, labor unions than ever to resist any future power grabs. Another success
arose and demonstrated their power, and their efforts inspired story occurred in 1936, when an alliance between Unionlike
ordinary men and women to rise up against supernatural cells and a determined Lucifuge cadre ended werewolf attacks
oppression as well. A pyrrhic victory achieved by the hunters that had plagued the city for decades.
of those days occurred in 1932, when predation by vampires Philadelphia’s industries contributed to America’s
in the city’s increasingly crowded slums drew the attention of efforts in two world wars, but in the second half of
several blue-collar hunter cells, which began to coordinate the century, its factories fell victim to new economic
efforts with like-minded groups throughout the city. After realities. Many shut down forever, not only triggering
several bloody skirmishes, the hunters managed to end the unemployment, but also turning whole neighborhoods
threat with a “controlled burn” strategy that destroyed a into unlivable zones of closed-down storefronts, unwanted

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