Page 348 - Hunter - The Vigil

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magnetic field-manipulating equipment to bend light around
a small US warship, rendering it temporarily invisible. The

effect is said to have also briefly teleported the ship in space
and time. Some crewmembers literally vanished, others were
killed or injured and many survivors were stricken with
permanent schizophrenia or other mental illnesses. Whatever
happened, the area in and around the shipyard exhibits the
following properties:
At certain times of the year, the barrier between the solid
world and the spirit world becomes especially thin, and ghosts
and other non-corporeal entities have an easier time passing
from their world to ours. Something about the area makes
them uncomfortable, though, and most try to leave the area
as soon as they can.
Sometimes, doors open, and inside is a long road bordered
by a dense, thorny thicket. The sound of galloping horses
grows louder. If the door stays open, the riders soon emerge to
steal those nearby back to the strange hedge maze.
Witches have found that the area is a fortuitous place for
magic involving space and or time. They can sometimes be
found here conducting ritual magic or using the area as a mystic
jumping off point to parts unknown. Sorcerers performing
Dread Powers in this area gain +2 to any related roll.
Center City
Although geographically the smallest of Philadelphia’s
major districts, Center City looms large in the city’s history,
culture and economy. Bordered by South Street to the south,
Jen Hogan’s front steps with his rack of bottles set neatly
the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers to west and east, and Vine
beside him (putting them down gently so he wouldn’t leave
Street to the north (or, some say, Spring Garden Street), it’s
any broken glass was Nate’s last act). His interment in St.
the area that comprised the original Philadelphia prior to the
Anthony’s cemetery, two blocks down and three blocks over
1854 consolidation. Center City includes streets walked by
from the site of his demise, should have guaranteed him the
Franklin, Jefferson and other founding fathers; the Old City
long rest he deserved. Instead, a cabal of witches called Nate
area, where Penn and his Quakers began the colony; City Hall;
and some of his fellow corpses from the grave to serve as their
and Independence National Park, where visitors can view the
lackeys. When the schemes of those magicians came crashing
Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and dozens of other historical
down around them, Nate should have lapsed back into true
artifacts and landmarks. The Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which
death like the rest of the zombies. But he stayed on the job,
begins at City Hall, runs through the Museum District to front
walking his old route in the hours before sunrise, hiding from
of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the southeastern tip of
the living for the rest of the day. Instead of milk bottles, he
Fairmount Park. Center City is Philadelphia’s downtown and
carries vessels of enchanted glass left behind by his former
central business district, containing most of the city’s skyscrapers
masters. South Philly hunters have put him to rest many
and some of the most expensive real estate in Philadelphia.
times, only to find him shuffling through the neighborhood a

While most of the city has seen population declines in the past
few months later. He’s never been violent, but residents who
several decades, Center City is an area of rapid growth in both

find a strange-looking glass bottle on the porch some chilly
its business and residential populations.
morning would be best advised to leave it alone.
One Liberty Place is the tallest completed building in
Location: The Shipyard the city (and the state). It was the first building in Philly to

Located in South Philly on the Delaware River, this exceed the height of the William Penn statue atop City Hall,
facility was the first Navy shipyard in the United States, and supposedly incurring the “curse of Billy Penn,” which has kept

remained in service from 1801 to 1995. It’s currently owned Philadelphia’s major pro sports teams from winning any league
and operated by a commercial shipping company, which championship since the skyscraper’s 1987 construction. Its 61
rebuilt the facility and uses it to construct cargo and tanker fl oors might hide anything from a Cheiron Group boardroom
vessels. More interestingly to hunters and others concerned to the ritual chamber of a wealthy necrophiliac cult.
with supernatural phenomena, the shipyard was the site of Penn’s Landing is the waterfront area, where William
the so-called Philadelphia Experiment, allegedly conducted Penn is said to have docked in 1682 (he didn’t). Its piers host
by the military in October of 1943. Also known as Project many festivals and special events. For supernatural creatures
Rainbow, so the story goes, the experiment utilized classified that don’t need to breathe or can survive underwater, it’s an

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