Page 130 - Hunter the Vigil - Mortal Remains

THE REsPONsE

Relic: Heart of the Succubus (••) reenact the punishments of sinners in hell.
The Heart of the Succubus artifact is said to have been The Heart detects demons in defiance of their Cover. It
given to a Witness by a demon in 1453. The demon and the requires some skill to use, as the needle swings wildly while in
Witness, an Orthodox priest, were living in Constantinople use, and the precise direction must be divined by trained obser-
when Sultan Mehmed II rode towards the Hagia Sophia to con- vation of the mechanical figures.
vert the basilica into a mosque. The Orthodox priest, one of Dice Pool: Wits + Academics
many who attended the church, was preparing to throw himself Action: Instant
on the swords of the sultan’s guard in a vain effort to protect Roll Results
the grand cathedral when a demon intervened. By some bizarre Dramatic Failure: The Heart seems dead set on a certain
trick or twist of fate, the demon took the priest’s place. As she individual, but this individual is not a demon.
lay dying in the street, she bade the priest cut out her heart. Failure: The movement of the needle and the behavior of
When he tried, he found a remarkable mechanism in its place. the figures are erratic and unreadable.
The priest didn’t live much longer and died from an unre- Success: The character determines the direction of the near-
corded disease in 1456. Before he did, though, he sold the de- est demon, even if it’s located a greater demon using Cover to
mon’s heart to a Greek trader, whose family buried it with him conceal itself from supernatural powers. If the nearest demon is
just a few years later. Rumors of the strange artifact began to an institutional demon, then the character determines the direc-
spread, so the Temple dug up the trader’s grave to retrieve it and tion of the nearest location that would reveal its Fiendish Flaw.
brought the Heart to a safehouse in Athens. It was there, dur- Exceptional Success: The character determines not only
ing interrogation of a captured demon in 1593, that the mecha- the direction of the demon, but its approximate distance.
nism’s practical use — or at least one of them — was discovered. Among other uses, this allows a subject to be positively con-
The Heart of the Succubus is a round, bronze object about firmed as a demon.
the size of a large man’s palm, and resembles a modern-day Ascending Ones
compass. Its intricacy incredible, the artifact is highly detailed We’re a fractured group, aren’t we? Maybe that’s forcing us to
and tells a familiar story. Each time the needle shifts, gears click have an identity crisis where we sell poison to fight rot. Guess it’s true
beneath the surface, causing tiny cast figurines to move along then. We’ll never agree on what to do about demons. Pity.
the sides of the dial. These figures appear to be medieval and

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