Page 95 - Hunter the Vigil - Mortal Remains

CHAPTER FOUR: THE UNDYING ONES

without ever realizing what they’ve faced. How could a Loyal- destroyed is confronting them once more. Worse, the creature
ist of Thule connect her half-glimpsed foe with ancient Egypt? they hunt is not housed in a new body, but its old one reborn,
Why would a Network Zero member believe a mysterious, hu- just as good as before.
manoid creature he spotted at night is nothing but a zombie? Though they are difficult to kill, mummies can be frus-
What possible cause does an experienced hunter have to be- trated and delayed. Given their nature, that alone can be a pro-
lieve the being they’ve fought will likely never die? found way for hunters to defeat them. However, hunters will
The World of Darkness is plagued by creatures that strad- find that mummies are all but impossible to destroy. Whatever
dle the line between life and death. Ghosts cross the barrier is left of their bodies will regenerate over time. They will even-
between worlds and zombies creep in the shadows. Vampires tually burst forth from their tombs once more, to serve their
prowl as blood-fuelled corpses and even stranger creatures, like masters’ faceless agendas for another brief spell in the living
Prometheans and Geists, exist. A long-lived being that lurks world.
in the dark, carries out mysterious plots, and works through In the files of the oldest conspiracies, a curious hunter can
pawns could be misidentified as a vampire or a warlock instead find hints of patterns, repeated behaviors that suggest some-
of a mummy. This occurs not because the hunter is unintelli- thing else exists in the world. Something very old, and extremely
gent, but because mummies are that rare and enigmatic. powerful. Something that was born in an age long-forgotten,
During the Vigil, doubts will creep in. The monster a cell and yet which influences mankind even today.
thought was dead rises again; the evil the hunters believed was Mummies.

C.

As requested, and frankly against my better judgment, I’ve compiled all the records we
have that match the criteria we discussed:

• Co-ordinated activities of human agents over extended periods of time
• Evidence of the same entity being active repeatedly over time, but with long gaps of
inactivity

• Bursts of extreme violence when confronted

• Interest, or active attempts, in acquiring historic artifacts of religious or mythic
symbolism or importance.

I’m surprised. Despite my skepticism, which you’ll well remember, there are more of them
than I expected. In particular, cross-referencing reports filed in the last year or two suggests
that this sort of behavior pattern has become more common very recently.

Of course, many other factors could be at play here. Our systems are better than they
were even three years ago — God bless the late Mr. Jobs, huh? — and we might just
be capturing this more often. We could be seeing a pattern of learning and knowledge
spreading amongst the enemy, although Lord help us if that’s true.

I’m not prepared to concede that we’re seeing a distinct new type of entity here, just yet.
This is too easily explained as a specific behavior pattern, and Occam’s Razor applies…

That said, I’ve set some flags in the system, and will let you know if anything else matches
this pattern. If you can get a weight of evidence, we’ll look into it further.

Yours,
L.

Last e-mail sent from this account.

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