Page 142 - Hunter the Vigil - Mortal Remains

sOURCEs OF INsPIRATION

Left Hand ing some hunters to get involved in bad fights so they can take
Action: Instant (modifies Brawl attacks) advantage of their opponent’s prowess later.
The character’s unarmed attacks inflict lethal damage, as if
he were using a weapon. Inspiration &
Pain Magnet
The truth of the hunt is: sometimes, people get hurt who Sources
shouldn’t. They could be bystanders, or some of the less rough-
and-tumble members of your own crew. Angel, which is a supernatural take on Batman, has recur-
Once it’s shed its human disguise, a demon might be ring demonic antagonists perfect for Hunter: Wolfram and
equipped with anything from ram’s horns on its ugly mug to Hart. The evil law firm is an institutional demon’s model, an
saw blades embedded in its arms. Even in disguise, demons organization that simultaneously exists for its own benefit and
often pack heat, and can summon up hellfire and the like. reaches outward to do evil in the world. Some of its trappings,
That’s where you come in. You’re the human shield be- like the Witnesses imprisoned in the basement watching for
tween the innocent and the infernal, taking blows and bullets supernatural incursion, or the defense mechanism that turns
for others through the grace of God. deceased employees into the walking dead, might be worth lift-
The Pain Magnet mark allows you to take on injuries for oth- ing. Frailty is a good example of demonic infiltration or, rather,
ers — as they receive them. Ideally, this means nursing some bruises the people who fear it and can be twisted to fit a Tier One
after the fight is over, but against a particularly tough quarry, it can chronicle. Adam and his father could be Witnesses, monitor-
often land you in the emergency room or the morgue. ing the way everything is interconnected, including murderers
Action: Reflexive and their victims. The extreme violence with which they retali-
For the rest of the scene, or until the character decides to ate, and the weight the movie gives this violence, is a good foun-
stop, damage inflicted on a set of subjects the character chooses dation for a story.
are redirected to her instead. These subjects have to be in the The Matrix has a lot of demonic aspects to it, but the one
same general area as the character; she can’t use the power over that comes across first is the concept of the pact. Watch The
the phone. Generally, she needs to be in the fight herself, or Matrix (up to the point where Neo wakes up in the pod) and
close enough to be. ask yourself who’s messing with Thomas Anderson’s reality and
How this looks varies with the hunter’s personality. A then proposes that he abandons it altogether. Morpheus’s offer
tough customer who takes no shit might appear in the path of the blue pill or the red pill is a classic demonic pact: accept
of every blow and bullet, while one with a saintly disposition your life, as it was, bills and cubicles and low budget hacking,
might manifest the wounds spontaneously like stigmata. or be initiated into the secret world. All you have to give up is
A character can’t redirect any additional damage if her last who you were.
health box is marked. Twilight Zone explored many aspects of demons. One such
episode was “The Monsters Come to Maple Street.” “Mon-
Tough as the Last Guy sters” presents an analogy for the Red Scare, back when Ameri-

Somebody once said nobody ever wins a fight. Far be it cans thought that Communists might be lurking among them,
from you to argue with the philosopher, but even if nobody undetected. In addition to being a cautionary tale rooted in the
wins, you’ve goddamn lost a few. Fortunately, this Ink lets you same kind of paranoia Americans feel about terrorism today,
learn from those experiences. With some fairly nice-looking “Monsters” is an example about how, when faced with a seem-
script around your biceps and a little mark on the back of your ingly undetectable threat, people can turn on each other, rather
neck, you gain the ability to mimic your opponents’ moves, than band together, for protection. It’s a problem that might
even their strengths. Given the power demons tend to pack in easily face a hunter cell, or the people they protect.
their true form, this can make you quite a wrecking machine. The definitive “angels in trenchcoats” movie is, of course,
System: After any fight with a supernatural opponent with The Prophecy. Fallen angels battle in the modern day. They are
a higher Strength or Dexterity Attribute, or Brawl, Firearms, or the subjects of an amoral (or at least distant) God who gives
Weaponry Skill than your character, she may activate this En- them free rein. The way in which the human protagonists get
dowment. It “stores” the opponent’s dots in the choice trait. This involved in the moody, occult world of the angels is a good
even applies to dots temporarily gained through Dread Powers. model for an investigative game.
At any time later, your character may unleash that Attri- Lastly, Person of Interest is a television series about a pro-
bute or Skill. She gains access to those dots for the remainder phetic machine that provides the names of people likely to be
of the scene. involved in violent crimes. Is the machine they’ve got a back-
This Endowment can only “store” one Attribute or Skill door into an institutional demon or the mind of God itself?
at a given time. The stored trait can be used only once, lead- The core cast would make a great hunter cell.

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