Page 353 - Hunter - The Vigil

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A APPENDIX TWO: PHILADELPHIA,
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M M
M MONSTER HUNTING IN THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE
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all its visitors, however, come to be shocked, grossed out and/
or titillated by the incredibly bizarre, morbid and disturbing
specimens on display there. Among the museum’s 20,000

objects are a five-foot human colon that once contained 40
pounds of fecal matter; sliced, preserved sections of a human
head; numerous bones, skulls and skeletons showing the effects
of various traumas and diseases; and a woman’s corpse that
was transformed into a soaplike substance by an unknown
chemical reaction. There are also objects that have never
been on display and never will be. Weird glyphs formed on the
surface of a madman’s brain. Implike, fetal creatures suspended
in jars of formaldehyde. Petrified human hearts, livers and lungs

that have tiny eyes and rows of jagged teeth. To see these and
even stranger items, or even be allowed to purchase them, one
must be invited by the museum’s “second staff,” all of whom
are unaffiliated hunters. More than once, acquisitive groups

like the Ashwood Abbey or Aegis Kai Doru have tried to gain
control of the museum, only to have their attempts rebuffed by
other patrons wanting to retain access to its treasures.
North Philadelphia
Factory shutdowns, urban blight and other downturns
th
of the late 20 century have hit Upper and Lower North
Philadelphia harder than any city district. To many city
residents, North Philly is synonymous with poverty, high crime
and collapsing infrastructure. As in other regions of the city,
it would be inaccurate to paint all of North Philadelphia with

too broad a brush. Some blocks are experiencing gentrification
food and medicine to the poorest residents. But sometimes
or have been preserved as historic districts, Temple University
his faith in the Long Night ethos wavers. What if these aren’t
has been working to improve the surrounding area, and the
the End Times? What if his boys should be thinking about
northernmost neighborhoods of Olney and East and West
education, about employment, about building a new life?
Oak Lane are thriving. But for the most part, the population
Where exactly is he leading them?
of North Philly is burdened by severe social issues. Much of
the city’s high murder rate is due to blood spilled here, fueled Antagonist: Imakillya
by drug use, gang activity and easy access to cheap handguns. Some say they’ve seen him from the corner of their
eye, the broad-shouldered man in the dark, hooded jacket.
Isaiah Bellamy, He wears a gold chain with a medallion shaped like a .38
Long Night Deacon special. He stands in the crowd as an argument breaks in a
In the middle-class West Philly household where Isaiah nightclub parking lot. He watches from a doorway as an angry
Bellamy grew up, church was just a Sunday morning prelude young man buys a handgun from the trunk of someone’s car.
to the Eagles kickoff. But teaching at Temple University with He hangs back as two drug dealers approach each other on a
North Philadelphia the epicenter of a rising homicide rate contested street corner. He keeps his hood up, but if anyone
made Professor Bellamy want to give more than lip service to dared to look into his shadowed face, they’d see no eyes, no
Christian charity. Soon he was volunteering at a Long Night features, just a rippled mass of flesh and a slash of a mouth

mission seven nights a week. Their fundamentalist rhetoric that holds row after row of gold, jagged shark teeth. The
didn’t affect him much — until the night he witnessed a murderous entity that calls itself Imakillya isn’t responsible
savage street battle between gang-bangers and a pack of for the blood in North Philadelphia’s streets, but it’s grown
werewolves. That horror triggered a religious reawakening for powerful by feeding on the homicides, and will do whatever it
Isaiah, and now he’s a Long Night believer with a growing cell can to perpetuate the cycles of violence.
of ex-gang members backing him up. Imakillya exists in an invisible, immaterial form, unless
Isaiah’s group calls itself M5:5, after the Bible verse using the Materialize Numen below. Like all spirits, it’s
from the Book of Matthew: “Blessed are the meek, for they sustained by Essence, a subtle mystic energy that it gains at
shall inherit the earth.” The name is the group’s way of a rate of 1 per day. The spirit can draw additional Essence

remembering the ones they fight for. Isaiah feels that serving from the site of a recent murder (roll Power + Finesse, gain 1
the Long Night gives the alienated young males of North Essence per success). When not materialized or fettered (see
Philly a positive channel for their energy, whether they’re below), the spirit loses 4 points of essence per hour. Should its
protecting their neighborhoods from demons or distributing Essence fall to 0, the spirit enters a state of slumber.
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