Page 134 - Hunter the Vigil - Mortal Remains

THE REsPONsE

The Malleus Maleficarum This might actually be a blessing in disguise. With the era

Demons are a poison. They seep into our communities, our of military popes long past, the Church has proved more skilled
churches, our very homes, wearing faces innocent and trustworthy. at attracting a financial and political braintrust than a military
They aren’t heretics. Or rather, they’re the original heresy, the refusal one. These are resources the Malleus Maleficarum can draw on,
of angels to accept their place in the divine order. Even though we have if subtly. A Church that flirts with reforming the world can be
a special contempt for vampires and witches, we cannot help but feel a Church that roots out the corruption of demonic forces with
pity and hatred for the genuinely damned. astounding effectiveness. For if demons covet human souls,
The Malleus Maleficarum are aware of a wide variety of de- why not show humanity where their souls really belong?
mons. They know of the little imps that corrupt with whispers in Task Force: VALKYRIE
the ear, the greater devils who walk in the forms of human be- Hardest damn thing is convincing people there’s a war on. People
ings, and the institutional monsters who perpetuate the Culture want to go about their business. Shopping, dating, dropping the kids off
of Death so beloved as a talking point by previous popes. The at day care. They don’t get the danger they’re in. They resent the things
differences are immaterial; all demons are Satan’s agents on this we do to protect them. They forget that the enemy looks just like us.
plane. If there is a multitude of souls to be saved on Earth, why That they’ve moved into our neighborhoods, or they work in our offices.
wouldn’t there be a diversity of devils damned in Hell? Some of them even deliver our mail.
Welcome to the Brotherhood of St. Athanasius and its ob- The second hardest thing is that you can’t tell them.
vious response to the demonic incursion. Exorcise the demo- Task Force: VALKYRIE’s peers in the legitimate Homeland
niacs and salt their self-inflicted wounds. Capture their greater Security and military get to have their war in public, at least a
brethren in mortal form and strangle them before they can little. They get speeches from the president, grave reminders of
show their monstrous faces. Bomb the clinics and the govern- the importance of national security, and defense against the na-
ment offices that house the greatest of fiends. tion’s enemies. A civilian can get caught tapping millions of e-
Except, it’s not so simple as that, because that would be de- mail accounts and all he has to offer is a vague defense and those
claring war on the entire world. If there’s one truth the Church key words: national security. Hunters don’t get that in the Task
understands above all others, it’s that it is the mortal exten- Force. There are no official excuses or pats on the back. If there’s
sion of God’s will. While God and His angels may be celes- ever a congressional hearing… well, God knows what would hap-
tial beings, apart from the concerns of the mortal world, the pen. Task Force: VALKYRIE fights a shadow war against terror-
Church is His agency within that world. A world that would ists whose enemy is all reality, and nobody gives a damn.
not, should it know the truth, abide the existence of a religious Here’s what they know: there are ENEs that seem to oppose a
secret police. One that would also not — and does not — tolerate vast machine rooted in reality. Captured suspects say this entity is
rogue states driven by supernatural conviction. The Church is malevolent, but it’s really a case of whether the cup is viewed as half
an agency, and this world does not work without compromise. empty or half full. The interrogated ENEs blame the monstrous
That’s without even considering that, for all the postur- state of the world on this God-Machine, but a lot of VALKYRIE
ing, the Malleus Maleficarum does not embody the will of the agents prefer to look at the world a little differently. They prefer to
Church. The Malleus no more drives Church policy than Seal view the world as being a fundamentally good place, where mon-
Team Six runs the Department of Defense. The Vatican has no sters may exist but hunters protect the innocent. It’s just like any
desire to be seen as a terrorist state. war. Sure it’s awful that people get hurt, but what matters is that
The last several popes have made this clear. Benedict, la- the United States has the power to help. The ENEs claim the es-
beled a conservative and a hardliner, was also a very worldly tablishment and the world it’s created are horrific places? They’re
pope, wearing shoes made of deluxe leather and taking his role forgetting the points of light. And a lot of those points of light are
as one of the world’s most respected diplomats very seriously. the Etheric Rounds of Task Force: VALKYRIE.
Rumor has it that he slashed budgets for the Malleus Malefi- These ENEs commit acts of terrorism against… well, any-
carum, viewing even the physical and spiritual threats posed thing. They blow up construction sites and radio towers, launch
by monsters as secondary to the cause of worldwide harmony. murder sprees on office buildings and somehow slip away by
The newest pope is even worse. Hunt the monsters, he discarding their identities. They view the world as malignant,
says, by all means hunt the monsters, but hunt those that ex- and strike against it any way they can.
ploit the powerless. If demons fight you in the form of banks VALKYRIE is also aware of ENEs that are a lot harder to
and political pawns, then don’t hunt them down with cross capture. Spirits that possess people, for example. Best thing to
and torch, but turn the people against them. Rekindle faith do is to try and draw them out, then spray them with etheric
as a weapon. And if a hunter must use violence, use it against ammunition. They’re also becoming familiar with ENEs that
those creatures whose methods are violent. Subtle corruption, seem to possess entire buildings or organizations. They’re faced
he says, is to be fought with unsubtle beneficence. Show the with the very real possibility that some of the terror cells they
people of the world that they have more to gain from God’s usually pass off to conventional intelligence agencies may actu-
grace than from the traps of damnation. ally be acting under the influence of, let’s just say it, something
And so, the Malleus Maleficarum finds itself fighting a demonic. The possibilities are frightening. The hardest damn
new kind of war, much as the United States did following the thing is convincing people there’s a war on, and that just might
fall of the Soviet Union. It finds itself working to destabilize include everyday civilians and hunters, too.
Satan and his works as much as it does to combat them directly.

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