Page 24 - Hunter the Vigil - Mortal Remains

THE RESPONSE

tion as being haunted, corrupted, or otherwise unlivable. Hunt- sults. Any of the Dread Powers listed in Hunter: The Vigil or
ers that find such a place should know right away that the land in this book can conceivably be part of a Promethean’s arsenal,
has been poisoned; finding out that they can reverse the effects but the following are especially appropriate: Crushing Blow,
should be a relief, not a given. For maximum effect, center the Dead Flesh, Degradation, Dread Attack (claws, fangs, or even
Blight area on a place meaningful to a member of the cell. tentacles), Embolden the Mob, Gremlinize, Revelation, Re-
vivify, Scapegoating, Terrify, Titan’s Strength, Transmutation,
Stage Four: Wasteland Unholy Attribute.
At this stage, the Wasteland earns its name. Nothing grows
or lives within a Wasteland. Plants die, animals flee, and hu- The Response
man beings actively avoid the place. In a city, other supernatu-
ral interests probably intervene, meaning that a cell of hunters
investigating such a Wasteland might run afoul of other mon- Outwardly, Prometheans are quite diverse. While all of
sters looking to cleanse their hunting grounds. the various Lineages cause Disquiet and scorch the earth into
a Wasteland, the effects feel very different from one Created
The Wasteland corrupts the elements on a conceptual and
mystical level, as well as a literal one. monster to another. As such, the various hunter organizations
in the World of Darkness often have more information than
Air. If air is the affected element, the Wasteland they realize. To correctly identify them, it’s just a matter of get-
affects names and words — people have a hard time ting the information to synch.
communicating. -3 to all rolls made to communicate or Each section below includes a snippet from the journals
coordinate, including Tactics. of the three Prometheans detailed at the end of this chapter
(except for the Union, which includes a snippet from all three),
Fire. For fire, electronic devices suffer a -3 modifier, and
all failures using such devices are treated as dramatic some notes on how the compact or conspiracy approaches Pro-
failures. metheans, what the group is likely to know about Prometheans,
and what unique challenges the group faces when dealing with
Water. Water stagnates entirely, congealing into sludge the Created.
the consistency of warm pudding, and living things
(composed, as they are, chiefly of water) become Compacts
phlegmatic and slow; -3 to Speed and Initiative.
The main disadvantage that the compacts have when deal-
Earth. For earth, stone and soil become loose, powdery, ing with Prometheans is the rarity of the Created. Only a hand-
and unstable. All Athletics dice pools suffer a -3 penalty, ful of the creatures walk the Earth at any given time, and some
including Dodge rolls. of them live their whole lives without running afoul of hunters
or anyone connected to them. Certainly, many hunters have
Spirit. Finally, a Ulgan’s spiritual Wasteland becomes read Frankenstein, and some of the more erudite ones might
a vision of Hell. Spirits wander freely in and out of know the legends of the Golem of Prague or Pygmalion, but
Twilight. The entire area has the Open Condition (see that’s a far cry from knowing what to do when a person made
p. 225 of the God-Machine Chronicle). of dead flesh comes through town.
In addition to these effects, the Wasteland is considered Compacts have archives to draw on. Somewhere in those
a level three Extreme Environment. A Wasteland of this mag- archives, the characters can probably find some descriptions of a
nitude should either be a warning to the cell to get the hell creature that matches what they’re currently facing. However, the
out quickly, or a gauntlet they have to endure to get to some- characters probably aren’t going to find long dissertations about
thing (or someone) in the middle. As Storyteller, you should Created beings and how to kill them, nor are they likely to find
find some ways to spring the unexpected on them while they’re any real explanations for how this thing came to life. Each section
there. In a Tammuz Wasteland, a sinkhole might open under ends with an excerpt from the archives of that hunter organi-
their feet. In a Frankenstein Wasteland, a sudden electromag- zation, relating to the Created — even if a hunter reading that
netic pulse might take out their electronic equipment entirely. archive might not immediately make that connection.
The Wasteland should be terrifying, but if they manage to But do they really need to know? Where compacts are
destroy the Created monster at the center of it (who is, perhaps, concerned, it may make more thematic sense for hunters to
imprisoned there), they should see it lessen and begin to recede make the wrong assumptions and have things go badly from
almost immediately. there. The Created are made of dead flesh, so they must be un-
dead (false). A Promethean made of a particular person’s body
Dread Powers might carry his memories and repelled (or at least stunned) by
a picture of his family (probably false). A taser is probably an
The Created are not as versatile in their array of supernatu- effective way to knock the creature out for further study (badly,
ral gifts as mages are, but their alchemical experimentations dangerously false). If all else fails, set the monster on fire — ev-
with their own flesh and souls do harvest some interesting re- erything burns (true).

23