Page 360 - Hunter - The Vigil

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THE BLOOD MUMMER
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its bulk, and it cannot be removed from him by normal means. It also has the
following properties:
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• The costume holds up to 10 hidden concealed knife blades; Oscar can place
sever
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one in his hand as a refl exive action. The costume also contains several
medical syringes that he can manipulate at will. If Oscar scores a success
while attacking with a syringe, the target will either be injected with a
toxin (Toxicity 3–5+ exceed the toxicity rating on a Stamina + Resolve roll
to avoid damage) or suffer a point of bashing damage as the syringe removes
a small amount of blood.
• Once per scene, Oscar can activate a mesmeric effect by making a series
of steps and hand motions. Witnesses must contest Resolve + Composure vs.
Oscar’s Presence + Expression. Those who fail are transfi xed and must remain
motionless for the rest of the scene, after which they have no memory of what
occurred. The trance is broken if the victim is threatened or attacked.
• The costume’s mystical properties must be rededicated every 30 days with
a ritual that requires Oscar to anoint it with human and vampire blood. If
Oscar takes any lethal damage while wearing it, the costume must be repaired
as part of the next monthly ritual. This requires him to incorporate skin
and bones taken from a hunter as part of the ritual.
Derangement: Hysteria. Oscar cannot tolerate hearing his own voice. If exposed
Derangement:
to a recording of it, he must succeed on a refl exive Resolve + Composure roll or
fl ee the area. Since he’s now mute, the only way to acquire such recordings is
by contacting his former friends or family (who believe he died with the rest
of his friends in the “fi re” that destroyed their clubhouse).
resources) is based out of Holmesburg in the far Northeast, and masked and costumed dancers and musicians who compete in
often gets in the way of the other hunter groups. It gets a call or Philadelphia’s New Year’s Day parade. Oscar’s group was small and
hears a story about some folklore, and shows up with its little they never won any prizes, but they put on a good show.
digital recorders or digital thermometers and aim to “prove” the They were also hunters.
existence of the unseen world. The reality is the members of the The club was a perfect cover for the Vigil, giving members
League throw themselves into danger. Oh, sure, most of what plenty of excuses for spending time away from family and
they investigate is bunk. But even one out of 10 encounters gone friends. And for a while, the cell was successful, scoring
wrong is too high a ratio. And yet the hunters don’t really want victories against dangerous threats in its neighborhood and
these amateurs mucking up their business, either. Worse, these assisting some other cells elsewhere in the city.
poor fools often need rescuing, mind-wiping or exorcisms. Some But Oscar let his guard down. He met a woman who was
end up missing, and it only seems to deepen the group’s curiosity the slave of a vampire the cell had recently thwarted. She
— a curiosity that will kill them as surely as it killed that cat. brought him to her master, who mesmerized Oscar, gave him a
gun and sent him to incapacitate his teammates. First, though,
Southwest Philadelphia they cut out his tongue with a straight razor and laughed.
When Oscar came out of his trance, his friends were dead on
A varied area, Southwest Philly includes both blighted
the safehouse floor and vampires were lapping the blood from

areas and well-kept residences, immigrants and long-
the slits in their throats. They saved Oscar for last, draining
term residents. Its most southern neighborhoods border
him dry and leaving him to spend his last moments thrashing
Philadelphia International Airport, oil refineries, gas tank

in the bloody effl uence of his fallen comrades.
farms and abandoned lots used for illegal dumping. Part of
He shouldn’t have survived. But it was the blood. The
the area overlaps with a national wildlife refuge that preserves
blood of his friends, the blood of the monsters who’d fed on
200 acres of tidal marshland, featuring walking trails and
them carelessly. The spilled blood mixed with broken vials
opportunities for canoeing and fi shing.
of some strange liquid given to the group months ago by a
Antagonist: The Blood Mummer hunter from out of town. And as he lay dying, Oscar smeared
the black mixture onto his lips, felt it crawl down his throat.
For most of his adult life, Oscar Rizzo was involved with the
It sustained him. Healed him. Made him into something new.
Oak Street Defenders, a small club of mummers — elaborately
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