TEXT: 224mm
  287mm
  A SOURCEBOOK FOR VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE
  
  A Sourcebook for 
  Vampire: The Masquerade
  
  The Second Inquisition
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  WRITTEN BY Cat Evans, Kenneth Hite, and Khaldoun Khelil
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  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  3
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  Introduction, 6
  How to 
  Use this Book, 7
  Storyteller Style, 7
  Theme and Mood, 8
  SI Lexicon, 10
  Chapter One:
  Hunter Killers, 13
  Fixers and Faces: Social, 13
  Techies and Sleuths: Mental, 23
  Hitters and Operators: Physical, 31
  Warlocks and Clerics: Magical, 37
  Turncoats, 46
  Building OPFOR, 51
  Chapter Two:
  Special Weapons, 69
  Arms and Materiel, 69
  Vehicles, 76
  XTech, 79
  Artifacts, 83
  Chapter Three:
  Dangerous Games, 89
  Standard Operating Procedures, 89
  Investigative Tactics, 90
  Channelizing Tactics, 96
  Operational Approaches, 101
  Second Inquisition Projects, 108
  Coalition Response Algorithm, 112
  Chapter Four:
  Fire Teams, 115
  United States, 116
  United Kingdom, 123
  Russia, 125
  Brazil, 128
  Partner Organizations, 137
  Farm Teams, 140
  Chapter Five:
  Mirror Mazes, 147
  Story Element: Chronicle Structures, 147
  Setting Element: Welcome to the Occupation, 151
  Thematic Element: Fire and Sword, 153
  Setting Element: Theaters of Operation, 155
  Thematic Element: Night and Fog, 156
  Story Element: Shoot or Talk?, 157
  Thematic Element: Mirror Images, 158
  Setting Element: Enemies of My Enemies, 160
  INDEX, 162
  
  T O P   S E C R E T // FIRSTLIGHT // REL TO VATSSL / UKJTRG, 
  VZBLLXRO93492
  PP RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
  DE RUEHIAO #0877/02 0361442
  ZNY VVVVV ZZH
  P 000822V FEB 04 2021
  FM <REDACTED>
  TO RUEHC/OPS LANGLEY PRIORITY 0022
  ELINT SURVEILLANCE INTERCEPT
  ASSETS: <REDACTED>
  DATE: JAN 30/0701HR EST
  LOCATION: 25.830500 / -80.180374 // MIAMI, FL, USA
  SUBJECTS:
  Male Blankbody 1 Harry ‘Twitch’ Logan (HTL)
  Unknown Female Blankbody 2 (Codename SHIRLEY) (SHR)
  Unknown Male Blankbody 3 (Codename GRASSI) (GRS)
  Male Blankbody ‘Dominic’ (No Last Name Known) (DOM)
  DURATION: 05:02
  REMOTE PHONE PUSH INITIATED
  [Sound of footsteps]
  [Sound of door sliding open, then shut]
  HTL: Don’t worry, I lost them.
  SHR: Lost who?
  GRS: Where the fuck have you been? It’s almost morning, pendejo.
  SHR: Lost who?
  HTL: Them, these guys, I think they might have made me outside the club. Black guys, faded sides, 
  looked tough, like cops. Or troops.
  GRS: What club, asshole?
  HTL: Scarlet Street, fuck you. Look, I was starving, I been out all night trying to score and nothing, 
  totally dry. Like, dry as your girlfriend.
  [Unintelligible shouting]
  SHR: These two guys –
  HTL: Like I said I lost them, they didn’t even see me go into the club, I know the yellow door –
  GRS: Every jamf in Hialeah knows the yellow door, asshole, it’s on their fucking TripAdvisor page!
  HTL: Well they weren’t anywhere around when I went in, just the usual trash and Carlos and some 
  homeless guy.
  SHR: So the homeless guy saw you go in.
  HTL: No! I don’t know! I don’t know what he saw, he was out of it, man, talking to himself –
  SHR: So after you lost the two troops and got made by a homeless guy you went into Scarlet 
  Street –
  GRS: Through the douche door –
  
  [Unintelligible shouting]
  GRS: You lame punk-ass loser.
  HTL: Fuck you, man, I scored tonight. Huge, maybe a clot, I feel amazing. Hot. I’m topped up, I’m 
  great, nobody on the streets at all after closing, I practically flew here, I don’t even know why I 
  mentioned it.
  SHR: Twitch, are you all right? You look, well, weird. Even for you. You didn’t bring the bloody 
  COVID in here?
  HTL: No, babe, it’s cool, nothing like that, I just feel great, really great, really really great.
  SHR: Jesus, he’s tripping balls! Fuck, he’s actually sweating! Get his coat off –
  [Loud thump]
  DOM: What is that?
  HTL: I, I, I –
  DOM: Is that a phone?
  HTL: It’s not mine, Dom, I swear.
  GRS: It fell out of your pocket, dipshit.
  DOM: You know the rule about phones.
  HTL: I do, I do, I don’t know where it came from, it’s not mine I swear to Christ I mean Cain.
  GRS: So how did it get in your coat, moron?
  HTL: I don’t know, maybe the girl at the club, she was pretty frisky took my coat off and my shirt 
  and –
  SHR: This bird, did you feed from her?
  HTL: Yeah, I told you, I hit that shit, so fine, super fine, way out of my league but I nailed it at the 
  club, drank deep, tasted good but I didn’t want to leave a body like you’re always saying Dom 
  we gotta be low profile and shit plus maybe if she’s a clot it might be worth something tasted 
  so good so fucking good [retching noises]
  GRS: Hey, watch the denim, motherfucker!
  SHR: Fuck your jeans, we’ve been made! Don’t you get it? That girl was bloody bait, a Judas goat! 
  We’ve got to get out of here!
  GRS: How, exactly? It’s fucking dawn, and our so-called Oracle is drooling his blood-mickey on my 
  fucking Jacquards. He couldn’t hide a fucking rabbit much less himself.
  DOM: All of you shut up. Grab his arms. I have a plan. First thing –
  HTL: [Spitting, retching] Hey, was that a truck outside --
  [Sound of windows breaking, flash-bang grenades detonating]
  [Gunfire, unintelligible shouting]
  DEVICE DESTROYED
  
  Introduction
  6
  Introduction
  “For behold, the day is coming, that shall burn like a furnace. And all the proud, yes, all 
  who do evil will be as straw in it. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” says the 
  LORD of Hosts. “Neither root nor branch will be left of them.”
  ―  MALACHI 4:1
  A
  n unnamed Toreador coined the term “the Second Inquisition” for the shitstorm that’s de-
  servedly raining down on the Kindred right now. It is, literally, a term of art, not a specific 
  referent: you can’t call the Second Inquisition on the phone, or email them @si.gov. (Although 
  if you do send email to that domain name, somebody reads it …) Nobody has “Second Inquisi-
  tion” letterhead or a cool SI logo. Even the Vatican just considers this the same Inquisition as the one they 
  started in the 13th century, only the fires blaze higher (and higher-tech) now as the end times near.
  Think of the Second Inquisition as an event rather than an organization in itself. This is the time of the 
  Second Inquisition, a new burning time when the Masquerade frays and the Kindred need once more fear 
  the kine. In these nights, vampire-hunting factions of all sizes (and levels of funding and preparation) come 
  together and strike a fire.
  The most salient iteration of the Second Inquisition, and what the Kindred usually mean by that phrase, 
  is the illicit and covert multinational conspiracy within many intelligence services and the Vatican to hunt 
  vampires. That group calls itself “the Coalition,” when it refers to its membership unofficially. (Officially, it 
  doesn’t exist.) Even that oversimplifies matters: in practice, the Coalition comprises two overlapping con-
  spiratorial alliances, a major third force, and a number of clandestine local programs that all sometimes share 
  targeting information.
  This book focuses on those hunters and their hunt, because that particular exemplar of the Second 
  Inquisition poses by far the most danger to Kindred society as a whole. But one neighborhood church group 
  or union local with a stake lathe in the garage can destroy you just as truly as a centuries-old Vatican militant 
  society or a deniable DEVGRU strike team can.
  Introduction:
  OPENING GAMBITS
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  7
  How to 
  Use this Book
  This is a book of antagonists for Vampire: The 
  Masquerade. It contains no systems for develop-
  ing Inquisitor or hunter player characters, and its 
  guides to roleplaying and deploying those sorts of 
  characters remain focused on the Storyteller. It does 
  contain a whole lot of “plug-and-play” hunters, suit-
  able for any type of contest in any type of chronicle. 
  Not just chronicles where secret teams of deniable 
  government killers might bust into your haven any 
  morning, but chronicles set wherever the kine hate, 
  fear, and resent the monsters in their midst, and 
  ever more among them armor up to do something 
  about it. So, pretty much any chronicle in these 
  modern nights.
  Storyteller characters use the systems, artifacts, 
  tactics, and weapons in this book against the player 
  coterie. Storytellers can and should put any number 
  of obstacles in the player characters’ way if they 
  try to turn them around or use them themselves: 
  challenge makes for satisfying stories, and if you 
  touch a holy icon without research (or gloves made 
  from a corpse’s skin) you deserve to get burned. 
  Mechanically, some of these systems are deliberately 
  overpowered: they abstract away a lot of training, 
  cooperation, information mining, and tax money 
  with the goal of replicating the paranoia and danger 
  the Kindred experience as the Second Inquisi-
  tion rises.
  Storyteller Style
  Like most worldwide phenomena, the Second In-
  quisition appears very different depending on how 
  you look for it, and on where you find it. War stories 
  and spy stories often resemble each other more 
  than actual soldiers and spies do. Like most stories 
  in Vampire, you can choose what the story of the 
  Second Inquisition in your chronicle looks like. Is it 
  a slick ultra-violent spy thriller, a gritty espionage or 
  cop show, or a looming nightmare that never quite 
  resolves itself?
  Pick and choose from among the antagonist 
  types presented, tuning them for your chronicle and 
  your sense of drama. You don’t have to build out a 
  tactical OPFOR, or even know what the acronym 
  means. (We’ll tell you on p. 51.) The world might 
  be full of black-armored death squads (True Death 
  squads?) burning out havens from Seattle to Sydney 
  but your chronicle’s city can just have a half-dozen 
  undercover Helsings in the police department 
  who hide their hunts like their comrades hide their 
  shootings or side rackets. There’s maybe a new priest 
  on the east side, and a few tough-looking guys who 
  hang out at the Brazilian restaurant and watch soc-
  cer on their phones.
  Provide hints and clues, flavored the way you 
  want your story to taste when it’s fully cooked. 
  Give up telling details, maybe even personality 
  quirks, but no monologues or data dumps. (Going 
  up against the NSA is how the Kindred got in this 
  mess in the first place.) Don’t drown the players in 
  explanations: horror works best when it’s unknown 
  and hard to see clearly. Keep the hunters scary and 
  significant when they drop, especially when they 
  drop into the player characters’ haven wearing Kev-
  lar and carrying stake-launchers.
  
  Introduction
  8
  Theme and Mood
  The theme of the Second Inquisition is determina-
  tion – aimed at the player coterie. Like a certain 
  killer cyborg from the future, the Coalition can’t be 
  reasoned with, it can’t be bargained with. It doesn’t 
  feel pity or remorse or fear and it absolutely will not 
  stop. Ever. Individual Inquisitors or soldiers or cops 
  or nuns can be reasoned with and bargained with. 
  Most feel fear, some feel pity, and even a few feel 
  remorse. All those deviations and human moments 
  make excellent stories, ripples in the flood. But 
  the narrative relentlessly washes over those stories, 
  replacing every flawed or broken foe with two more 
  – ten more — out for revenge or salvation. The 
  Inquisition as a whole – both as a conspiracy and 
  a movement that enflames that conspiracy – will 
  not stop until every Kindred burns. Conveying the 
  impersonal, implacable determination of a gigantic 
  bureaucracy to crush the player characters should 
  not be impossible in the 2020s – but it should be 
  very effective.
  The mood of the Second Inquisition is paranoia. 
  Gone are the innocent days when vampires – or 
  anyone – could make a phone call, check a website, 
  send an email, buy a book, like a pretty boy without 
  someone seeing it. And someone does see it, because 
  someone is always watching, or they can pull up the 
  data and watch you tomorrow. And unlike you and 
  your data, your watchers don’t leave traces or have 
  names and credit ratings and Facebook statuses. 
  And some of those watchers watch in person, from 
  unmarked cars or sniper’s nests or the crowd you 
  thought to hunt in safely. And then they close in, 
  and someone else watches them dust you.
  CONSENT AND RESPECTFUL PLAY
  Vampire deals with mature themes and story 
  elements that some may find uncomfortable 
  or that remind them of personal traumas. The 
  methods used by vampire hunters during the 
  Second Inquisition are violent, tortuous, and place 
  individuals in situations that can reflect real-world 
  discrimination and suffering.
  It’s worth calling out that these are story 
  elements and themes. They are specifically not a 
  license to traumatize players or abuse the trust 
  between players. While the characters in a chronicle 
  in which the Second Inquisition plays a part may well 
  experience dire circumstances, by no means should 
  such situations or techniques be visited upon the 
  participants of the game.
  For more information on consent and 
  respectful play, see Appendix III of Vampire: The 
  Masquerade, pp. 421-425.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  9
  
  Introduction
  1 0
  Auto-da-Fé: Literally “act of the faith,” 
  originally the ritual sentencing and pun-
  ishment of a heretic, sometimes by burn-
  ing at the stake; now a Leopoldite judg-
  ment order (usually termination) on a 
  target or subject. Also used for a Shake 
  and Bake (q.v.) raid, or any operation in-
  volving ample incendiaries.
  BBZed: Pronounced “B.B. Zed,” it abbre-
  viates “Blankbody Zero,” the JTRG term 
  for the desired outcome of its operations 
  in Britain. Often used by Coalition hunters 
  to report a successful mission, or some-
  times a negative surveillance finding: “We 
  have BBZed on 18th Street.”
  Beleza: Great, beautiful, well-handled; of-
  ten used sarcastically. Literally “beauty” 
  in Brazilian Portuguese; it has spread to 
  ESOG and American SI special ops.
  Bella: A mortal suspected of working with 
  or for vampires. Sometimes Renfield.
  Blankbodies: FIRSTLIGHT and SO13 
  term for vampires, referring to their blank 
  readout on infrared cameras. Also Two-
  Bravos, B-Boys, and BBs.
  BOES: Batalhão de Operações Especiais 
  Secretas; Brazilian paramilitary vampire-
  hunting group. They call themselves os 
  Sagrados, “the Sacred.”
  Cenacle: A team of Leopoldite inquisitors; 
  their base of operations is a Cenaculum.
  Coalition, the: Informal name given by 
  the Five Torches to the covert overall 
  planning and operations directorates 
  for the global vampire hunt. What most 
  Kindred mean when they say “the Second 
  Inquisition.”
  Eighth Direction: Vampire-hunting group 
  within the Russian GRU (military intelli-
  gence) Fifth Directorate, also Direction 58
  (Napravleniye 58) or GRU-N58.
  ESOG: Entity Special Operations Group; 
  the special-forces component of the So-
  ciety of St. Leopold. (In Italian, Gruppo 
  Operativo Speciali della Entità, or GOSE.) 
  Also Gladius Dei.
  Father Leo: The Society of St. Leopold, or 
  its personnel; mostly used by non-Leopol-
  dites. (“Father Leo has scouted the hospi-
  tal for us.”) Also Pai Leo (Brazilian), Otets 
  Lev (Russian).
  FIRSTLIGHT: Joint CIA/NSA Special 
  Access Program to identify, locate, and 
  destroy vampires.
  Five Torches: The five main components 
  of the clandestine vampire-hunting Coa-
  lition: FIRSTLIGHT (U.S.), JTRG (U.K.), 
  GRU-N58 (Russia), BOES (Brazil), and the 
  Society of St. Leopold.
  Fourteenth Century: The hundred 
  “hidden” Navy SEALs tasked by IAO for 
  special operations against blankbodies. 
  Also C14.
  Green Zone: Area of a city considered 
  clear of vampires.
  SI Lexicon
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 1
  Helsing (or Van Helsing): A solo vampire 
  hunter; generally used condescendingly 
  by the SI and dismissively by the Kindred.
  IAO: Information Awareness Office, 
  originally a Pentagon threat-prediction 
  program officially shut down in October 
  2003; now the shadow command for the 
  U.S. military forces involved in the Second 
  Inquisition.
  In Partibus Sanguisugarum: “In the 
  lands of the bloodsuckers,” used by the 
  Society of St. Leopold to refer to assign-
  ments and missions in cities thought to 
  be vampire-controlled. ESOG and other 
  special ops often shorten it to IPS, or 
  “In Perfect (or Pure) Shit.”
  JTRG: Joint Threat Response Group 
  within GCHQ (the British signals-intelli-
  gence agency) tasked to locate vampires, 
  track them, and target them for SO13 
  operations.
  Leech: A vampire. Often pronounced 
  “kleech” by Russian hunters, as a pidgin 
  with the Russian kleshch, or “tick.”
  Mulambo: Messed-up, ugly. (“This opera-
  tion was mulambo from the jump.”) Liter-
  ally “ragged” in Brazilian Portuguese; now 
  used by BOES, ESOG, and many American 
  hunters for anything gone wrong or 
  fucked up.
  Newburgh Group: Informal advisory 
  group on occult threats to Great Britain, 
  headed by Sir Simon Newburgh.
  Nightwatchman: Short sword used by 
  ESOG, optimized for beheading blows.
  Project Twilight: Informal name for the 
  information-sharing network within the 
  U.S. security establishment in the 1980s 
  and 1990s that believed in monsters, 
  ghosts, and “paradimensionals.”
  Pylon: A mortal (usually a civilian) present 
  at the scene of an operation; connotes 
  both obliviousness and in-the-way-ness. 
  (“Clock the citizen in the doorway across 
  the street.” “A Bella?” “No, looks like just 
  a pylon.”)
  Ratface: Vampire of nonhuman appear-
  ance, especially Nosferatu, increasingly 
  used for all vampires.
  Rolar: “Let’s roll!” The Brazilian military 
  equivalent of the U.S. military “Hooah!”
  SAD: Special Affairs Division of the FBI, 
  tasked with “occult crimes” investigations 
  since the 1920s and dedicated to vam-
  pire-hunting since 2006.
  Shake and Bake: An assault using incen-
  diaries and explosives on a target. Also 
  Auto-da-Fé (q.v.).
  SO13: Former name of the Anti-Terrorist 
  Special Operations branch of the London 
  Metropolitan Police; since 2006 the des-
  ignation for the British vampire-hunting 
  special operations force.
  Tango: From the NATO alphabet for “T”; 
  used for a generic target or often for a 
  suspected terrorist.
  Transylvania: Dangerous territory, turf 
  controlled by blankbodies.
  UTR: Unusual Threat Response, the 
  general bureaucratic or military designa-
  tion for the special police or military units 
  deployed by the Coalition.
  Velum Sanctuarii: “Holy Veil,” the code 
  name for the red gas deployed by ESOG 
  against high-value Kindred targets.
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  1 2
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  1 2
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 3
  Chapter One:
  HUNTER KILLERS
  At the first dawn of day, awake your whole detachment
  — MAJ. ROBERT ROGERS, “RULES OF RANGING”
  D
  espite common misconceptions among 
  the Kindred, the Coalition isn’t all 
  stone-faced militants hiding swords 
  under their trench coats. Each opera-
  tion and maneuver requires a varied mix of skill 
  sets, a hard ticket to fill even if all personnel sur-
  vived the first few months. The Coalition constant-
  ly seeks out and recruits assets who can bring novel 
  approaches to their work. (And plenty of hunters 
  and Helsings “self-recruit” with the same results.) 
  The monsters they hunt are undying manipulators 
  with an inscrutable array of supernatural powers at 
  their disposal; cookie-cutter tactics and paint-by-
  numbers massacres won't win this war. They need 
  an army that can fight on every battlefield.
  GENERAL DIFFICULTIES
  The General Difficulty values given for each 
  Antagonist let the Storyteller treat them as Simple 
  Antagonists (Corebook, p. 370). The number before 
  the slash represents the Difficulty to defeat their 
  strongest ability, the number after the slash the Dif-
  ficulty to overcome them in other tests.
  Fixers and 
  Faces: Social
  The Coalition understands that blankbodies navi-
  gate the halls of power with unnatural grace and 
  that they can never truly be defeated unless they’re 
  confronted on that battlefield as well. Fixers are 
  operatives and allies that have power, influence and 
  connections in the mortal world. Whether gained 
  through inheritance or ambition, these invisible 
  power brokers often shape how the conspiracy ap-
  proaches a blankbody threat once it’s detected. Most 
  Fixers operate in the shadows and they can be frus-
  trating enemies for younger blankbodies that prefer 
  to tackle problems head on. When part of a larger 
  operation, Fixers often run their operations from a 
  well-guarded safehouse or secure office building. 
  Of course, some of the most important Faces 
  on the front line against vampires run their opera-
  tions from churches, soup kitchens, mosques, or 
  yeshivas. Just as they did under the first Inquisition, 
  clergy burn with righteousness during the Second 
  Inquisition. For standard clerics, use Clergy (Core-
  book, p. 371).
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  1 4
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  1 4
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 5
  Blackmailer
  Blankbodies are parasites that only value the 
  mortals around them as pawns and tools. The 
  Blackmailer turns those pawns against their masters 
  with bribes and threats. A common variety of Fixer, 
  Blackmailers usually take a hands-on approach 
  when turning blankbodies’ pawns.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  6, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Firearms 5, 
  Intimidation 8, Streetwise 7
  Equipment: Smartphone, compromising photos, 
  tax records
  Special: The Blackmailer’s presence in an 
  operation makes it more diffi  cult for blankbodies 
  to use their local Allies and Contacts against the 
  hunters. Whenever a vampire attempts to use 
  one of the above Background types against the 
  hunters, they must fi rst make a Composure + 
  Persuasion roll contested by the Blackmailer’s 
  Intimidation Die Pool. 
  Since Blackmailers usually coerce their victims 
  in person, they often leave behind more obvious 
  trails than other Fixers. Tracing a Blackmailer 
  requires a Resolve + Streetwise roll contested by the 
  Blackmailer’s Streetwise die pool. The number of 
  successes determines how complete the information 
  uncovered is and how quickly it was uncovered. 
  Blackmailers usually travel with a Gangster as a 
  bodyguard (Corebook, p. 371).
  Variant: Bear Trap
  A seemingly less accomplished Blackmailer who in-
  tentionally leaves a messy trail to their doorstep, the 
  Bear Trap lures and entraps blankbodies that have 
  proven elusive to capture in the past. Bear Traps put 
  themselves at great risk and in the GRU this role is 
  considered a punishment or even a death sentence.
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  5, Mental 4 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Firearms 6, 
  Manipulation 7, Streetwise 5
  Equipment: Smartphone, compromising photos, 
  tax records
  Special: As Blackmailer above except the Bear 
  Trap is usually guarded by a team of four Hit Men 
  (p. 35) or Warriors (p. 35. Their safehouses are 
  also outfi tted with XScope security cameras and 
  motion detectors, while Bear Traps working for 
  the Vatican have mystical wards in place within 
  their safehouses. 
  Cuckoo
  The Cuckoo is an undercover agent. They infi ltrate 
  herds, blankbody cults, circles of groupies and the 
  other groups of hangers-on that swarm around the 
  undead like fl ies on a corpse. 
  Handlers never see undercover agents as fully 
  trustworthy, even when they’re not interacting 
  regularly with bloodsucking monsters with mind 
  control powers. They get too close to their targets, 
  start to develop sympathy for them. They lose 
  themselves in their cover identity. Add blood bonds 
  and Presence into the mix and a Cuckoo’s fellow 
  team members, their support network, are often 
  right to be suspicious.
  Even worse, Cuckoos are isolated and exposed. 
  If a blankbody catches on to their role, and doesn’t 
  choose to immediately drain every milliliter of 
  blood from their body, it’s easy to pass them bad 
  information.
  All this to say that being a Cuckoo is a danger-
  ous, unrewarding proposition – but it’s essential. 
  Cuckoos have access to information no other agent 
  does, especially as the blankbodies become more 
  cautious about electronic communication.
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  6, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 9
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 6, Etiquette 
  (Kindred) 7, Investigation 7, Persuasion or 
  Subterfuge 7
  Equipment: One-time pad disguised as vapid 
  self-help e-book, burst transmitter built into a 
  cell phone.
  Special: Cuckoos undergo intense psychological 
  conditioning before being allowed out into the 
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  1 6
  fi eld. They receive 4 extra dice on attempts to 
  resist vampiric Disciplines. Some FIRSTLIGHT 
  and GRU handlers pre-Blood Bond the Cuckoo 
  to a torpid, imprisoned vampire as a preemptive 
  defense against them being invited to drink from a 
  blankbody target.
  Variant: Blood Doll
  The Blood Doll is underestimated, nigh invisible. 
  They’re passed around at parties, or treated like a 
  favorite pet. They see more than they should, and 
  they’re assumed to be oblivious, high on the excite-
  ment of the Kiss. 
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  4, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 5
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Persuasion 8, Stealth 8
  Equipment: None
  Special: Blood Dolls are unobtrusive. Blankbodies 
  pay no attention to their faces or names, and 
  treat them like a piece of furniture. Any attempt, 
  active or passive, to pierce their cover is made at +1 
  Diffi  culty.
  JTRG and GRU handlers, especially, use Blood 
  Dolls as weapons infected with EV-H07 (p. 79) 
  or one of the more dangerous Alchemical formu-
  lae (p. 46).
  Deprogrammer
  Blankbodies have a way of engendering loyalty in 
  their servants. They’re beautiful, powerful, and 
  they hold the power of life and death in their cold 
  hands. People who get sucked into their orbit tend 
  to fall for them, and hard. Deprogrammers undo all 
  of that conditioning from the people they liberate, 
  converting them from brainwashed blankbody 
  pawns to Informants or Cuckoos… or just releasing 
  them to try and reclaim a normal life. 
  Techniques vary, but tend to involve locked 
  rooms and intense psychological and emotional 
  pressure. The aim is not to make the subject happy 
  
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  and healthy, it’s to stop them being a useful blank-
  body asset and, if possible, activate them for the 
  Second Inquisition. 
  Some Deprogrammers do more than provide 
  counseling. The best of them know how to re-
  lieve the effects of Blood Bonds and Domination 
  through blood transfusions, strong psychiatric med-
  ication, and – in extreme circumstances – psycho-
  surgery. A little loss of cognitive function is a small 
  price to pay for freedom. 
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  6, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Academics 7, Medicine 
  7, Persuasion (deprogramming) 8, Science 7
  Equipment: N/A
  Special: The Deprogrammer has access to drugs, 
  religious ceremonies, or just highly specialized 
  psychological approaches that alleviate blankbody 
  mind control. Using them effectively requires 
  a successful Intelligence + Medicine (drugs) or 
  Academics (religion or psychotherapy) roll at 
  Difficulty equal to the highest Discipline rating 
  of the influencing vampire. This short-term effect 
  lasts for one scene. 
  Long-lasting deprogramming takes three days 
  to a week. The deprogrammed ghoul or thrall loses 
  one die from Wits pools, but resists their former 
  master with four extra dice.
  Variant: Oswobodziciele Liberator
  Sometimes the Coalition lets blankbodies’ other 
  enemies do their dirty work. Beginning in Poland, a 
  movement simmers away amongst the Anarchs that 
  aims to free ghouls from their bondage. Oswobod-
  ziciele (“Liberators”) do tough, dangerous work 
  mostly unrewarded: ghouls find ways to crawl back 
  to their masters, or find a new one. Or they just 
  prove poorly adapted to normal mortal life after 
  years or decades in the shallows of a glamorous, 
  sunless world. These Anarchs do the work anyway, 
  because it’s right.
  The O don’t work for the Second Inquisition. 
  They occasionally get tips through the grapevine 
  that give them a window of opportunity to snatch 
  a ghoul and get to work on them. When the O have 
  done their work, and taken the blame, FIRST-
  LIGHT or Father Leo picks up the newly liber-
  ated ghoul, gives them a compassionate reception, 
  and siphons out every useful piece of information 
  they can get.
  This profile reflects a neonate vampire on the 
  side of the O’s movement. 
  General Difficulty: 4/3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  6, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 8, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Brawl 8, Stealth 7, 
  Streetwise 8, Persuasion 8
  Equipment: Pistol, handcuffs, chloroform. 
  Disciplines: Animalism 1, Celerity 2, Potence 2
  Humanity: 7
  Blood Potency: 1
  Variant: Psychic Surgeon
  This variant Deprogrammer severs the connection 
  between a blankbody’s victim and the monster it-
  self. The SAD and GRU-N58 both discovered what 
  they called “psychic surgery” in the 1990s, and the 
  Society of St. Leopold has its own “blood exorcism” 
  rituals. By any name, cutting a Blood Bond (or any 
  other vampiric connection) causes physical pain and 
  leaves leaves lasting emotional scars.  
  A rare gift, never seen amongst any vampire, or 
  in anyone who has ever consumed Kindred blood, 
  it can be amplified by training but not – apparently 
  — taught from nothing. Some vampire alchemists 
  believe that the blood of a Psychic Surgeon can be 
  used to make an elixir that would break a Blood 
  Bond; those with the gift seldom advertise it.
  (In game terms, Psychic Surgery is a Merit, 
  but since player characters can’t use it, this hard-
  ly matters.)
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  6, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: relevant Psychic 
  Surgery pool 9
  Equipment: N/A
  Special: Breaking a blood bond with Psychic 
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  1 8
  Surgery requires an Extended Test, with one roll 
  per day and a Difficulty of 5 × the Bond Strength. 
  The Psychic Surgeon can reduce the Difficulty 
  by dealing an equivalent amount of Aggravated 
  damage to the bonded subject: bloody sweat 
  or stigmata, seizures, spleen failure, and other 
  symptoms manifest in such cases. If the subject 
  survives, permanently reduce their Resolve by 1.
  The Society of St. Leopold’s blood exorcists 
  use Charisma + Persuasion; GRU or SAD psychic 
  surgeons use Resolve + Science (if they began as 
  psychiatrists) or Manipulation + Occult (if they 
  began as street healers); Newburgh Group “silver-
  cutters” use Intelligence + Occult. Unwilling thralls 
  or ghouls can contest the roll using their Willpower.
  False Flagger
  The False Flagger presents themselves as an agent of 
  a blankbody faction, usually the Camarilla, to tar-
  gets politically estranged from that faction. Ideally, 
  Turncoat blankbody assets or Lordlesss fulfill this 
  role, but those assets remain extremely thin on the 
  ground. Thus the Coalition more often uses mortal 
  operatives trained to resist mental coercion. False 
  Flaggers present the targets with “missions” that 
  supposedly allow them to enter the faction’s good 
  graces, but actually pit them against other blank-
  body targets. The ultimate end game: internecine 
  war amongst the local blankbodies, ideally with 
  plenty of fatalities. The handler then withdraws 
  the False Flagger and deploys a team of operators to 
  capture any survivors.
  General Difficulty: 4/3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  7, Mental 6
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Etiquette 8, Persuasion 
  8, Subterfuge 8, Politics (local blankbodies) 7
  Equipment: Smartphone, fashion accessory with 
  faction symbology
  Special: The False Flagger has a cover story 
  equivalent to Mask 2. They can also access 
  Resources and Influences on a case-by-case basis 
  to help prove their bona fides. The False Flagger 
  contests Dominate and Presence powers with their 
  Willpower. 
  Gentrifier
  Naturally territorial monsters that twist their 
  environment to suit their vices, it can be difficult 
  to root blankbodies out of their nests without first 
  dismantling their early warning systems. The Gen-
  trifier eats away at blankbody assets and resources 
  on their home turf, turning their Domain’s defenses 
  and conveniences into a trap. Many of them prove 
  to be self-starting Helsings rather than agents of a 
  clandestine government conspiracy. Independent 
  actors or Coalition assets, they generally operate “in 
  Transylvania” — in cities or neighborhoods with a 
  well-established blankbody population. 
  The Gentrifier uses cash and credit as their main 
  weapons: once they know where blankbodies make 
  their nest they begin to turn up the heat. They buy 
  out condemned buildings and re-market them as 
  condos. They invest in old businesses, refurbishing 
  them with state-of-the-art computerized secu-
  rity systems. They pull strings to get street lights 
  repaired, and install surveillance cameras on them 
  with the police or suspiciously well-funded “neigh-
  borhood watch” groups. Charitable contributions 
  and political favors incentivize the police to patrol 
  the streets more regularly. The devastating side 
  effect of the damage gentrification does to mortal 
  neighborhoods is inconsequential to the Gentrifier’s 
  goal. Within a matter of months, if not weeks, a 
  gentrification campaign can transform a vampire’s 
  Domain from their hunting ground to their prison.
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  6, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Finance (Real Estate) 7, 
  Investigation 7, Politics (local) 7, Streetwise 7
  Equipment: Smartphone, perfect credit score, loan 
  guarantees
  Special: Gentrifiers damage the Domains of 
  coteries that they target (Corebook, p. 195). Once 
  a week the Gentrifier can make a Finance roll 
  opposed by one character’s Intelligence + Finance 
  + Portillon; for every extra success they reduce a 
  Domain’s Chasse and Lien rating by one dot each. 
  Once the Domain’s Chasse and Lien are reduced 
  to zero, any leftover successes reduce the Domain’s 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
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  Portillon on a one for one basis. After a Gentrifier 
  stops pressuring a Domain, the Coterie regains 
  one lost dot every week. 
  As long as the Domain is damaged by a Gentri-
  fier, the coterie cannot invest or remove dots from 
  the Domain. If a Coterie abandons a Domain under 
  attack by a Gentrifier they lose all dots invested in 
  the Domain unless they can convince the Gentrifier 
  to undo the damage. Gentrifiers can only target one 
  Domain at a time.
  See p. 98 for mechanics for longer-term or wider-
  scale gentrification attempts.
  Variant: Broker
  The Broker is a cutout for an organized criminal 
  enterprise and any asset they take over is immedi-
  ately used to enrich their backers. Domains under 
  the ministrations of a Broker quickly become the 
  site of arsons, robberies and open drug deals. The 
  police presence in the neighborhood also chaotically 
  fluctuates between their complete absence and an 
  overwhelming armed occupation.  
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  6, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Investigation 7, Politics 
  7, Streetwise 7
  Equipment: Smartphone
  Special: As the Gentrifier above, except the 
  relevant contest is the Broker’s Streetwise vs. the 
  character’s Resolve + Streetwise + Portillon. Also 
  when a Broker reduces a Domain’s Chasse and 
  Lien dots to zero, any leftover successes reduce the 
  Resources available to all Coterie members on a 
  one for one basis. Brokers usually travel with two 
  Gangsters as bodyguards (Corebook, p. 371).
  Variant: Dealer
  The Dealer sets up shop near an area of blankbody 
  activity and becomes part of the grey market selling 
  drugs or other illegal materials to the mortals there. 
  The Dealer cultivates a wide customer base and 
  targets mortals with close blankbody ties for entrap-
  ment. Once the blankbody’s herd or other mortal 
  pawns are indebted to the Dealer they are slowly 
  recruited to perform small tasks in service of the op-
  eration that transgress against their master’s trust. 
  If successful the Dealer identifies and ensnares the 
  blankbody’s mortal support network, neutralizing 
  their value to the vampire.
  General Difficulty: 2/1
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  5, Mental 4
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 5
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Larceny 5, Medicine 5, 
  Melee 5, Streetwise (Black markets) 5
  Equipment: Knife, smartphone, illegal drugs or 
  contraband
  Special: Once per week, the Dealer uncovers 
  actionable intel about their neighborhood:  
  whether a mortal belongs to any blankbody’s 
  Herd, if a given location is being used as a 
  vampire’s Haven, etc. This ability only begins 
  to pay off after the Dealer has operated in the 
  area for three weeks, plus one week per dot in 
  the Domain’s Portillon. Particularly secure 
  Havens may take an extra week per dot in Haven 
  to uncover (or less time if the Haven has the 
  Compromised Flaw (Corebook, p. 188)).
  Informant
  Informants are weak links: staff, retainers, and con-
  tacts with a grudge against their undead employer 
  that burns away at their loyalty, or a weakness that 
  hunters can exploit. The Coalition buys inform-
  ants with money, threats, blackmail or promises of 
  extraction from the vampiric web. They’re an object 
  lesson in why it pays to treat underlings with grace 
  and respect – and to reward them well.
  Most informants are low level: the closer an em-
  ployee gets to the real secrets, the better a vampire 
  usually vets them. That’s why it’s important to have 
  a whole network of informants, everywhere from 
  a vampire’s herd to their corporate office. Some of 
  them don’t even know they work for a monster. It’s 
  also why most informants are disposable. A highly 
  placed informant, on the other hand, can be worth 
  their weight in gold. 
  This profile reflects a run of the mill, low-level 
  informant. 
  General Difficulty: 3/1
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  2 0
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  4, Mental 3 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 5
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Subterfuge 7, Insight 
  6, One special skill (e.g. Finance, Academics, 
  Drive) at 7.
  Equipment: Burner phone.
  Special: The informant has a direct line to their 
  handler. It might be a phone number, an email 
  address, or a coded message on an online forum. 
  If they feel unsafe or have information to pass on, 
  they can get it to their handler in an hour. 
  Being an Informant is a dangerous position. If 
  a blankbody, or anyone else, becomes suspicious, a 
  successful Wits + Insight or Intelligence + Investi-
  gation roll provides enough evidence for them to be 
  sure of the Informant’s position. The Difficulty for 
  this roll starts at 5 and reduces by one for every six 
  months the Informant has worked with the hunt-
  ers: the longer they’re in place, the more suspicion 
  builds and evidence mounts up. 
  Variant: Canary
  The Canary is close to their vampiric employer. 
  They know a lot of secrets, and they provide a regu-
  lar feed of information, not only when their handler 
  asks. A Canary is valuable, and their handler works 
  much harder to protect them. 
  General Difficulty: 4/1
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  4, Mental 3 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 5
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Subterfuge 7, Insight 
  7, One special skill (e.g. Finance, Academics, 
  Drive) at 7. 
  Equipment: Burner phone. 
  Special: The longer an Informant is in place, the 
  more value they have to the Coalition and the 
  more trust and affection builds up between the 
  Informant and their handler. The Canary can ask 
  for favors from their handler, acquiring a one-
  dot increase to any Background for the duration 
  of a week.
  The Canary also knows incriminating secrets 
  about at least one other person in the blankbody’s 
  personal network. If they’re caught and confronted, 
  they can scapegoat this other connection, even 
  pointing to a few pieces of convenient, circumstan-
  tial evidence. 
  Politician
  The Politician wages a slow and painstaking war 
  against blankbody influence in local or regional 
  bureaucracy. It’s rare for a blankbody to hold truly 
  national influence in the West – not least because 
  when they do, the Coalition prioritizes bringing 
  them down.
  Politicians stop or subvert vampiric projects, 
  diverting resources or trapping them in a snarl of 
  red tape. They undermine relationships with allies 
  – supporting blankbody causes, even unknow-
  ingly, has severe consequences for other projects. 
  They might even turn a neighbourhood or city 
  into a hostile environment for blankbodies: work-
  ing to get the unhoused population off the streets, 
  changing licensing laws to reduce the number of 
  nightclubs and other feeding grounds, or relocating 
  a blood bank. 
  Politicians might be “full-time” Coalition 
  directors who take an active role in project planning 
  and strategy, close allies in the know, or ignorant 
  contacts who still don’t want to get on the wrong 
  side of the CIA, MI6, or their ilk. This profile suits 
  a full Coalition asset.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  6, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Etiquette 8, Finance 7, 
  Leadership 8, Politics 9, Persuasion 8 
  Equipment: Top of the line smartphone, 
  winning smile. 
  Special: Politicians interfere with vampiric 
  projects. If the Coalition has a Politician in place, 
  the Difficulty of all blankbody endeavors that 
  involve bureaucracy or finance, or require any 
  permits or licenses, increases by 2. It’s not instantly 
  apparent that a roll has failed: it simply takes 
  longer, processes get swallowed up in red tape, and 
  people lose interest or are swayed by lobbyists with 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
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  different interests. 
  Politicians have a dramatic effect on long-term 
  Projects, too. Any Project that interacts with city 
  or regional government in any way has its incre-
  ment increased by one step (hours to days, days to 
  weeks, etc.).
  If a Politician isn’t actively engaged in opposing 
  a blankbody plan or Project, their presence wears 
  away at alliances and influence. For every month a 
  Politician isn’t otherwise occupied, a target vam-
  pire’s Allies, Contacts, or Influence in politics, law 
  enforcement, or other civic positions effectively 
  reduce by one dot. The reduction lasts until the 
  Politician is out of office. Many separate Kindred 
  have their fangs in city hall, so a Politician rarely 
  focuses on one target for consecutive months.
  It’s not easy for a blankbody to find the specific 
  Politician who obstructs their interests. They hide 
  behind subtle machinations and proxies, and it 
  requires an Extended Intelligence + Politics roll 
  (required number of successes equals the Politician’s 
  Wits + Politics pool) to track one down. Politicians 
  under threat from blankbodies (or other enemies) 
  have a bodyguard or two (use the Police Detective, 
  Corebook p. 371).
  Socialite
  The Socialite is on the best lists and their very pres-
  ence can make or break a party. Most of the Coali-
  tion’s Socialites come from old money or Catholic 
  fortunes, but FIRSTLIGHT and JTRG have 
  begun recruiting (or blackmailing) social media 
  influencers. Socialites play a tricky role within the 
  Coalition conspiracy. They primarily deny blank-
  bodies easy access to the upper echelon of society 
  by drawing them into compromising social situa-
  tions or tarring their reputations through rumor, 
  but they’re also supposed to gain their target’s 
  confidence. This requires them to develop a persona 
  that is at once enticing and believably naive or 
  incompetent.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  7, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 7, Etiquette 
  8, Persuasion 8, Subterfuge (Lies) 8
  Equipment: Smartphone, stunning clothes, invites 
  to the best parties
  Special: The Socialite can gain access to any 
  event or venue open to mortals regardless of how 
  exclusive it is for everyone else. The velvet rope 
  never blocks their path and their admirers hang on 
  their every word. 
  When a Socialite wins Social Combat against a 
  vampire (or their assets) they can reduce one of their 
  opponent’s Backgrounds to zero for a week in ad-
  dition to the regular benefits of victory (Corebook, 
  p. 304). Social shunning might reduce Contacts, 
  Fame, or Influence; a media frenzy might reduce 
  Haven or Mask. The Storyteller determines which 
  Background reduces; after one week the reduced 
  Background returns in full as the media or social 
  circus moves on.   
  Variant: Busybody
  The Busybody (or Gossip) has an insidious empathy 
  and can even pry open a dead heart. Gossips are of-
  ten recruited interrogators and psychologists given 
  a cover identity as a rich dilettante or aspiring actor. 
  They attempt to gain leverage against blankbodies 
  by identifying pressure points that still resonate 
  from their mortal life.      
  General Difficulty: 4/1
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  7, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 9
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Insight 9, Performance 
  9, Subterfuge 9
  Equipment: Smartphone, caring expression, 
  access-journalist friends.
  Special: As Socialite above, except the Busybody 
  can learn the identity of a blankbody’s Touchstone 
  instead of gaining any other benefit from defeating 
  them in social combat. Sometimes this social 
  combat moves so subtly that the blankbody isn’t 
  even aware they’ve lost – until their Touchstone 
  suddenly stops returning their calls. 
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  2 2
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
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  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
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  Techies and 
  Sleuths: Mental
  Inhuman minds, faster than any mortal, watch the 
  cities of the world from orbit and from every ATM: 
  computerized surveillance systems. The Coalition 
  commands this technology, and repurposes proven 
  analytical techniques in their hunt for the undead. 
  Not every hunter group depends on such systems, 
  but the entire Second Inquisition as a movement 
  and a phenomenon benefi ts from the keenest among 
  them: FIRSTLIGHT analysts and algorithms, 
  Vatican archivists, GRU eavesdroppers. Blank-
  bodies can no longer depend on the shadows and 
  anonymity to hide their crimes; the Coalition has 
  let the light in and privacy is a luxury the world can 
  no longer aff ord.
  Bear-Leader
  While vampire hunting used to be a primarily soli-
  tary activity, the advent of the Second Inquisition 
  has transformed it into a globe spanning conspiracy 
  within a byzantine bureaucracy. The logistics and 
  organization required to bring together multiple 
  agencies with diff erent group dynamics and mis-
  sion statements can be daunting. The Bear-Leader 
  (also called the Party Planner) is equal parts project 
  manager, quartermaster and psychologist. They 
  understand how groups of people work together 
  and can quickly turn a pack of rivals into a well-
  oiled squad of hunters. This also gives Bear-Leaders 
  an almost unnatural ability to piece together the 
  group dynamics of the blankbodies they are hunt-
  ing. Nothing makes them happier than when a plan 
  comes together.   
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  6, Mental 6
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Insight 8, Leadership 8, 
  Persuasion 8, Politics 8, Subterfuge 8
  Equipment: Smartphone, laptop, whiteboard, 
  maps, thumb tacks, red string
  Special: When a Party Planner runs an operation 
  they can call in favors from other organizations 
  in the Coalition (or from local authorities) with 
  a Politics roll. The Diffi  culty of this roll depends 
  on the scale of the favor needed. A SIGINT tap or 
  records access might be Diffi  culty 2; a police raid, 
  a budget bump, or speedy confi dential forensics 
  results Diffi  culty 3; requisitioning a chest of 
  silver pounds sterling, or obtaining a relic from 
  the Order of St. Leopold might be Diffi  culty 4; 
  immediate deployment of a specifi c GRU-N58 
  veteran Warrior, a platoon of ESOG UTR 
  troopers, or a Predator strike to the Paris suburbs 
  would be Diffi  culty 5. Player characters with 
  connections to that organization can snarl, delay, 
  or outright block the requisition with a contest 
  of their Manipulation + Politics (+ Infl uence if 
  relevant) against the Bear-Leader’s Politics pool.
  Bear-Leaders can also make an extended Insight 
  roll once a week against a Diffi  culty of 10 to deter-
  mine the basic Relationship Map of any vampire 
  coterie they are hunting (Corebook, pg. 142). A 
  Domain’s Portillon rating reduces this die pool 
  normally, while information uncovered by Burrow-
  ers, Informants, and others may add successes at the 
  Storyteller’s discretion.
  Black-Bagg er
  Understanding and gathering information on a 
  target before taking direct action against them is 
  fundamental to many Second Inquisition opera-
  tions. The GRU, SAD, SO13, and FIRSTLIGHT 
  make regular use of technical experts who can 
  quickly enter premises or a vehicle, plant covert 
  listening devices, and extricate themselves without 
  leaving any tracks. These Black-Baggers allow a 
  UTR team to keep tabs on a target and identify 
  their accomplices with a minimum of risk to the 
  team itself. Black-Baggers have to be exceptionally 
  careful when breaking and entering into blank-
  body premises: supernatural senses can detect the 
  slightest disturbances to their property, and many 
  blankbodies take a perverse delight in trapping their 
  havens against intrusion.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  2 4
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  3, Mental 6
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 6, Larceny 
  (Alarms) 8, Stealth 7, Technology 7
  Equipment: Maxim 9 suppressed pistol, listening 
  devices, toolbox
  Variant: Mechanic 
  Mechanics use their technical skills to get into 
  places they don’t belong and then they rig them to 
  explode at the push of a button. The Mechanic is 
  an artisan at heart and often crafts their improvised 
  explosive devices based upon the mission’s require-
  ments. While limiting collateral damage is rarely 
  their primary concern, often their devices are only 
  used to disable a vehicle during a pursuit or to flush 
  out blankbodies hiding in a haven. Putting together 
  the right device for the job is an art and the Me-
  chanic wants their work to contribute to the UTR 
  team’s success without further endangering them.   
  General Difficulty: 4/1
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  3, Mental 5
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 7, Craft 
  (Explosives) 8, Firearms 7, Larceny (Alarms) 
  6, Stealth 7
  Equipment: Toolbox, plastic explosive, detonators, 
  burner cellphone
  Special: A vehicle rigged to explode by a 
  Mechanic causes Aggravated damage (equal 
  to the Mechanic’s relevant explosives pool) to 
  anyone inside it, and half that to anyone nearby. 
  Blankbodies and mortals with some forewarning 
  can make a Wits + Composure roll to attempt to 
  get clear in time to avoid the blast. Each success 
  on this roll reduces the damage from the blast by 
  one to a minimum of 2 Aggravated Health levels 
  of damage.
  Burrower
  It’s hard to disappear completely. Vampires leave 
  traces. Names change, identities are falsified, but 
  – and this is key – vampires rarely move around. 
  With enough patience and access to the right private 
  libraries it’s possible to connect scattered traces of 
  records into a picture of a monster.
  The Burrower is somewhere between a librar-
  ian and a criminal profiler. They stitch together 
  information to uncover blankbody resources (e.g. 
  a family home, a secret identity), motivations (e.g. a 
  gradual expansion of influence over a subculture or 
  neighborhood), and even to hazard a guess at their 
  supernatural powers and limitations. A Burrower 
  can look at a pattern of animal attacks, the failure 
  over four purchases and twenty years to develop a 
  greenfield site, and local folklore and conclude that 
  the city has a Gangrel problem.
  General Difficulty: 4/1
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  4, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Academics 9, Insight 7, 
  Investigation 8, Occult 8
  Equipment: A laptop full of obscure research 
  materials is the only tool a Burrower needs. 
  When they’re sent out into libraries, archives or 
  collections where they might be in jeopardy they’re 
  armed with a TASER. If they’re in serious danger, 
  a Lone Wolf or other field Operative accompanies 
  them, and makes them wear a Kevlar vest. 
  Special: The Burrower systematically dissects 
  and analyses a blankbody’s past and present 
  lives to ruin them. See Data Analysis: Academic 
  Specializations (p. 94) for specific mechanics.
  Variant: Forensic Accountant
  In modern nights, personal history is often less 
  important than how the money flows. Find your 
  way into bank accounts, investments, and financial 
  transactions and you build up a strikingly clear 
  picture of someone’s existence. This is even true 
  for the dead: privacy and security cost money, the 
  staff needs payroll, and most blankbodies with the 
  resources to purchase a haven do so. It’s the twenty-
  first century: hardly anyone pays cash any more so 
  there’s a data trail, albeit tightly encrypted, for every 
  single transaction. 
  Once a Forensic Accountant has found the trail, 
  
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  they set about cutting off a blankbody from their 
  money, which has a way of severing other ties. A 
  blankbody accustomed to wealth and privilege sud-
  denly finds themselves unable to get anything done. 
  When the money stops flowing, alliances evaporate 
  and projects founder. No more bribes, no more 
  buying influence. It might even stop a Bagger or 
  Consensualist from getting their fix of fresh blood.
  General Difficulty: 4/1
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  4, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Academics 7, Finance 9, 
  Investigation 8, Politics 7
  Equipment: Laptop full of cutting-edge banking 
  software; logins (legitimate or otherwise) to tax 
  authorities worldwide
  Special: The Forensic Accountant identifies 
  the sources of a blankbody’s Resources with an 
  Extended (one roll per day) Resolve + Finance 
  roll, with a Difficulty equal to 7 minus the 
  Background’s rating. Reducing Resources requires 
  an Extended Intelligence + Finance roll with 
  a Difficulty equal to 21 minus three times the 
  Background’s rating: it’s easy to skim some money 
  off a fake bank account, harder to wipe someone 
  out completely, not least because at the lower 
  end of the scale some of those Resources exist 
  only as cash.
  Some Forensic Accountants find it hilarious to 
  distribute the Resources they seize to good causes. 
  The Society of St. Leopold makes sizable donations 
  to Catholic charities, for example. Others just plow 
  the money back into their team’s operational budg-
  ets. BOES goes as far as to flaunt it, making big, 
  showy purchases of new munitions immediately 
  after they’ve drained a target’s bank account. 
  Detective
  The Detective is a hardened investigator with street 
  level experience and a gentle way of squeezing 
  information – support networks, hiding spots, key 
  figures in various underground scenes — out of 
  marks without making them suspicious. While cash 
  and gentle questioning often suffice to get a lead on 
  a target, the Detective isn’t afraid to follow a clue to 
  an abandoned hotel or an underground bunker.
  For a standard police detective unaware of the 
  vampire threat, see the Police Detective (Corebook, 
  p. 371). Build a more clued-in or connected detec-
  tive or spy with the Inquisitor Investigator (Core-
  book, p. 372). This writeup essentially describes 
  that Inquisitor Investigator after surviving a couple 
  of years hunting blankbodies.
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  5, Mental 5
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 6, Firearms 
  or Melee 7, Investigation 7, Larceny 6, Persuasion 
  7, Streetwise 7
  Equipment: Pistol (Glock 17) or police baton, 
  smartphone, wad of cash (or police badge)
  Special: Working alone or with the occasional 
  street informant, a Detective who already knows 
  blankbodies exist can deduce the same things 
  about a blankbody as the Dealer can learn (p. 19). 
  The difference is primarily that the Detective 
  focuses on one blankbody, while the Dealer 
  covers a whole Domain. Unlike the Dealer, the 
  Detective can start putting the pieces together 
  after one week, plus one week per dot in the 
  target’s Mask. Particularly secure Havens may 
  take an extra week per dot in Haven to uncover (or 
  less time if the Haven has the Compromised Flaw 
  (Corebook, p. 188)).
  Variant: Hammer
  Hammers prefer violence to pressure a blankbody’s 
  support network into giving up their master. Their 
  methods are not subtle and the SI often brings 
  Hammers into an operation as a last resort to find a 
  vampire that has gone to ground but likely remains 
  in the area. The direct tactics employed by the 
  Hammer work best when a vampire’s pawns can no 
  longer count on their patron’s protection.
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  4, Mental 4
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 6
  
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  Exceptional Dice Pools: Brawl 7, Firearms 7, 
  Intimidation (Threats) 7, Melee 7, Streetwise 7
  Equipment: Pistol (Glock 17), smartphone, brass 
  knuckles, signature melee weapon (baseball bat, 
  clawhammer, etc.)
  Doctor
  Their calling is to preserve human life; the blank-
  bodies’ purpose is to poison and destroy it. Doc-
  tors make a natural component of Coalition units. 
  BOES, GRU, and IAO hit squads often attach a 
  corpsman or medic; SAD hunter teams work hand 
  in glove with the medical examiner; FIRSTLIGHT 
  keeps entire haematological research facilities 
  funded; the Society of St. Leopold operates within 
  a whole network of Catholic hospitals. Any compe-
  tent Bear-Leader gets their medical specialist admit-
  ting privileges at the local hospital, or at least has a 
  trustworthy physician on 24-hour standby.
  But doctors don’t always get drafted or deployed 
  onto the front lines of the Second Inquisition – 
  sometimes they volunteer. A city full of vampires is 
  a city full of mysterious deaths and strange injuries, 
  of blood stocks stolen from patients in need, of 
  ambulance calls that turn even darker than normal. 
  Teams of hunters drawn from hospitals – EMTs, 
  trauma ward nurses, night-shift residents who have 
  all seen behind the Masquerade – may be more 
  common than teams of hunters drawn from police 
  departments.
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  5, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Academics 7, Insight 7, 
  Medicine 8
  Equipment: Medical bag, crash kit, surgical knives
  Special: Doctors and medics who hunt vampires 
  for long enough develop familiarities with certain 
  conditions and injuries that go beyond mere 
  specialties. Add two dice to their Medicine pools 
  to diagnose, treat, or heal blood loss, anemia, 
  piercing trauma (such as fangs or stakes), blood 
  poisoning, and the like.
  Hacker
  While FIRSTLIGHT, JTRG, and the Russian 
  GRU have an army of programmers and analysts 
  combing through the world’s data streams, some-
  times an operation requires a hands-on technology 
  expert. The Hacker takes control of the digital 
  world around them and constantly feeds their team 
  with up-to-the-second information on their targets 
  and their digital activities. While their ability to 
  commandeer the security apparatus of urban areas 
  is incredibly powerful, their true value to an opera-
  tion comes from when the team comes into posses-
  sion of a blankbody’s electronic devices. A Hacker 
  needs less than an hour with a laptop to copy it for 
  deeper analysis. Smartphones can prove tricky for 
  most Hackers to crack, but FIRSTLIGHT and 
  IAO operatives have access to secret exploits built 
  into the underlying operating systems of most mod-
  ern smartphones.    
  General Difficulty: 4/1
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  4, Mental 6
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Insight 7, Larceny 5, 
  Subterfuge 7, Technology 8
  Equipment: Smartphone, laptop, powerful 
  gaming rig, VR headset
  Special: Hackers operating on a FIRSTLIGHT, 
  JTRG, or Eighth Direction supported mission 
  can add three dice to their Technology pool for 
  hacking attempts, reflecting the support of the 
  NSA, GCHQ, or GRU and their vast institutional 
  cyberwarfare power.
  Variant: Phone Phreak
  The Phone Phreak is a technical specialist in 
  older forms of communications such as land lines, 
  cryptograms and mechanical cipher devices. As 
  blankbodies have retreated from modern technol-
  ogy to evade the Second Inquisition, the hackers 
  of the 1980s have suddenly come back in demand. 
  The Russian GRU is widely acknowledged to have 
  the most skilled Phone Phreaks in the Coalition and 
  often remands these technical operators to other 
  
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  Coalition teams working in urban environments 
  with dated technological infrastructure.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  3, Mental 5
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Craft 7, Larceny 8, 
  Subterfuge 8, Technology 7
  Equipment: Smartphone, decoder ring, 
  professional lineman set
  Special: Phone Phreaks do not incur a penalty for 
  working with analog or other technology from 
  the 20th century and any penalties infl icted for 
  working with devices from the 19th century are 
  halved. Phone Phreaks are also familiar with 
  mechanical cryptography and can use a Craft roll 
  to recreate the mechanism of cipher devices like 
  the WWII-era Enigma machine if given enough 
  time. Their successes on this roll can be added to 
  any computational eff orts to crack codes generated 
  from the cipher devices they’ve recreated.
  Tail
  The Tail is just another face in the crowd, an Uber 
  driver waiting on their passenger or a delivery guy 
  fi xing his bike on the street corner. Although a lot 
  of their most basic functions have been overtaken 
  by modern technology their task is both simple and 
  deadly serious. Tails track blankbodies that have 
  successfully countered electronic surveillance in 
  the past but might not realize the Coalition now 
  directly targets them. Tails follow their targets while 
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  keeping mostly out of sight and only communicate 
  with their handlers when their targets can’t make 
  them. Tails often use disguises if tracking targets 
  over long periods and always have an escape route 
  planned if they’re made.
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  4, Mental 5
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 6, Awareness 
  7, Drive 7, Stealth 7, Streetwise 6
  Equipment: Earbud, comfortable but 
  nondescript shoes
  Special: Tails with radio coverage, overwatch, or 
  partners gain a two dice bonus to all non-combat 
  rolls when involved in a pursuit. This bonus also 
  applies when the Tail is attempting to throw 
  off pursuers.
  Variant: Lamplighter
  The Lamplighter marks the favorite spots of their 
  targets and plants remote video surveillance devices 
  to keep tabs on them. These devices are often 
  smaller than a tennis ball, have a limited range but 
  incorporate simple XScope technology to detect 
  blankbodies. More traditional Lamplighters also 
  work in teams and use dead drops to communi-
  cate with their handlers if a target’s route becomes 
  erratic.  
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  4, Mental 5
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 7, Larceny 7, 
  Stealth 7, Streetwise 7, Technology 7
  Equipment: Concealed micro communications 
  device, remote XScope cameras
  Special: As Tail, above. Lamplighters are well 
  versed in evading surveillance by using sight lines 
  and DIY dazzle camo to fool facial recognition 
  software. Lamplighters can roll their Technology 
  pool to avoid detection by active or passive 
  surveillance devices. This roll is contested by 
  (active) or has a Difficulty of (passive) the camera 
  operator’s Resolve + Technology.
  Variant: Mother Hen
  The Mother Hen tracks multiple targets using a 
  network of local paid informants and loyal spies. 
  While this means the Mother Hen can “follow” 
  several blankbodies at once and discover their group 
  dynamics, their ability to track and investigate indi-
  vidual blankbodies remains somewhat diminished 
  in comparison to other Tails. The Mother Hen is 
  also in less direct danger if exposed and can abort 
  and restart operations with a new team if necessary.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  4, Mental 6
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 7, Leadership 
  7, Medicine 7, Politics 7, Streetwise 7
  Equipment: Laptop, expensive watch
  Special: The Mother Hen can track the movements 
  of known blankbodies by rolling Streetwise. 
  The Difficulty of this roll is equal to the number 
  of blankbodies the Mother Hen is tracking. 
  If a blankbody enters a Coterie’s Domain, the 
  Domain’s Portillon rating subtracts successes from 
  the Mother Hen’s original roll. If a blankbody 
  becomes aware of the surveillance or takes active 
  measures to avoid detection they contest the 
  Mother Hen’s Streetwise roll with an appropriate 
  roll of their own (usually Wits + Stealth). Lastly 
  the Mother Hen’s tracking of targets rarely occurs 
  in real time and their information can have a delay 
  of anywhere from a few minutes to an hour.
  Weaponer 
  In an ideal world, getting the right gear for an oper-
  ation would be as easy as filling in the right form. In 
  the real world, it helps to have someone on staff who 
  can cobble together an LRAD or taser-like shotgun 
  shells with a couple of days and the contents of a 
  fairly mediocre weapons locker. 
  The Weaponer isn’t quite Q Division, but 
  they’re a vital asset. They adapt paintball guns for 
  chemical or acid ammo, craft thermobaric or pyro-
  phoric rounds, and customize a team’s loadout for 
  the specific blankbody they face. Although they do 
  some of their best work in a workshop, a Weaponer 
  
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  is useful in the field, too. Breaking into a blank-
  body’s nest presents unexpected challenges, and the 
  ability to improvise technical solutions in the field, 
  or even get a damaged weapon back in working 
  order, is highly useful. 
  This writeup is appropriate for a field 
  technician.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  4, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Craft 8, Science 8, 
  Technology 9
  Equipment: A handgun or shotgun, Kevlar vest, 
  acetylene torch, tool kit, an assortment of useful 
  items/components
  Special: The Weaponer performs at their best in 
  the field, tinkering with equipment, breaking and 
  recombining to make whatever the team needs 
  right that moment. Given 10 minutes, a successful 
  Wits + Technology roll against Difficulty 3, some 
  common household or office supplies and a couple 
  of pieces of mechanical or electronic equipment 
  they can create a useful gadget that assists with 
  one manual or investigative task: lockpicking/
  breaking, levering a door open, taking 
  fingerprints, etc. Each point of margin on the roll 
  adds one die to tasks using that piece of equipment 
  for the rest of the scene.
  Variant: XTechnician
  The XTechnician has a special gift. They work in 
  one of the classified laboratories most of the Five 
  Torches have at their disposal – though sometimes 
  they have more in common with church crypts 
  than sterile labs. They’re the people who create 
  the Coalition’s superweapons, specifically creating 
  tech that works around blankbodies’ supernatural 
  advantages.
  XTechnicians are generally too precious to risk 
  their big brains in the field, but sometimes the value 
  outweighs the danger. If a Coalition team faces an 
  unfamiliar enemy with powers they’ve never seen 
  before, the XTech’s ability to improvise can be a 
  lifesaver.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  4, Mental 7 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Craft 8, Science 9, 
  Technology 9
  Equipment: Design software, industrial 3D 
  fabricator, pre-printed motherboards and 
  control surfaces, an assortment of useful items/
  components, one piece of XTechnology (pg. 79). 
  Special: Given a day and sufficient laboratory 
  facilities, the XTech can prototype a device 
  that counteracts a specific Discipline or other 
  blankbody ability: screamer grenades that play 
  havoc with Heightened Senses for a few seconds, 
  a tanglefoot trap to stop a preternaturally fast 
  blankbody, even a magnetic field that impedes 
  Blood Sorcery.
  Deploying that device in the field requires a Wits 
  + Technology roll either by the XTech (Difficulty 
  2) or by someone under their direct supervision 
  (Difficulty 3). The next time a vampire uses that 
  Discipline near the gadget, they make their roll to 
  activate it with one fewer die per point of margin 
  on the XTech’s roll. If a Discipline doesn’t usually 
  require a roll to use on mortals, the blankbody must 
  roll to activate it but at half the penalty (rounded 
  down). The gadget works once, and then burns out 
  immediately.
  If anyone survives the operation and reports 
  the gadget’s performance the Coalition might put 
  the device into development, to be deployed within 
  eighteen months.
  
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  Hitters and 
  Operators: Physical
  At the end of the day the Second Inquisition hunts 
  monsters. Blankbodies will not surrender of their 
  own accord; they have to be dealt with on the 
  ground. Local heroes and terrifi ed gangbangers can 
  weed out the slow, the new-fl edged, and the stupid 
  from the leeches’ ranks. But to hunt tougher targets 
  for months or years requires soldiers who not only 
  have the skills to confront such a threat, but the 
  mental fortitude to keep the movements secrets and 
  step over their own moral boundaries. Fortunately 
  for the Coalition, many nations had developed deep 
  benches of such soldiers indoctrinated in the gospels 
  of patriotism and national security.
  When the vampires’ Masquerade began to 
  crack it was a natural evolution to recruit vampire 
  hunters from military and intelligence personnel 
  trained in counterterrorism and shadowy special 
  operations. Deployed as cadre in “Unusual Threat 
  Response” teams, these operators form the tip of 
  the Coalition’s spear. For a generic Coalition UTR 
  special operator, use the Inquisitor Delta (Core-
  book, p. 372).
  Amateur
  Many vampire hunters begin as Amateurs. These 
  “Helsings” often work alone, but some Coalition 
  UTR teams recruit promising local Amateurs after 
  suff ering severe casualties. Amateurs have yet to 
  hone the skills necessary to tackle stronger blank-
  bodies and their teams usually keep them arm’s 
  length from the heart of the action until they are 
  properly seasoned. Amateurs depend on grit and 
  luck to see them through their early missions, but 
  few make it through unchanged.
  Given the overlap between Kindred activity and 
  criminal activity, many Amateurs begin as Gang-
  sters, See Corebook, p. 371).
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  3, Mental 3
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 6, Brawl 6, 
  Firearms 6, Melee (Stakes) 6, Occult (Vampires) 4
  Equipment: Shotgun, stakes and hammers, gas 
  can, zippo lighter, football pads (Armor Value 1, 
  no defence against ballistics).
  Special: When the Amateur is reduced to zero 
  Health they are incapacitated but will not die 
  unless specifi cally fi nished off  by an enemy or the 
  environment. The next time they appear in the 
  chronicle they have an appropriate scar and have 
  become a Warrior, Clearance Specialist, Flagellant, 
  or other dangerous hunter type.
  Homemade explosives are dangerous: on a failed 
  test to set or detonate them, the Amateur takes that 
  damage themselves.
  Breacher 
  Breachers ensure physical obstacles don’t slow their 
  team down. They’re a solution to every environ-
  mental problem from blowing holes in walls or 
  thick doors, making sure the exits from a vampire 
  nest are securely blocked before the team goes in to 
  cleanse it, to clearing traps. Without a Breacher on 
  board, a UTR team’s numbers would be thinned 
  down before they reach their objective, or they 
  might never get there at all. 
  Breachers are worth their weight in gold when 
  it’s time to storm a haven or destroy a feeding 
  ground, and they’re invaluable when a blankbody 
  makes its lair in a non-standard spot, like a crum-
  bling clock tower or a maze of sewers. They’re 
  equipped with the tech and the knowledge to navi-
  gate those spaces quickly and safely.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  3, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 8, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 7, Craft 7, 
  Firearms 7, Larceny 7, Science (Engineering) 7, 
  Technology 6
  Equipment: Kevlar vest, helmet (+1 Armor Value), 
  axe, tactical ear buds, battering ram or breaching 
  bar, plastic explosives, thermite, grenade launcher 
  with thermobaric munitions, shotgun (loaded 
  
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  3 2
  with breaching rounds and slugs)
  Special: Breachers become thoroughly accustomed 
  to the noise and chaos of demolitions. They ignore 
  penalties to senses and Composure tests from 
  smoke, fire, or explosions (but can still use reduced 
  visual range to avoid meeting a blankbody’s eyes). 
  For a Breacher, destroying a wall or other 
  structure with explosives or thermobaric munitions 
  requires the following number of successes on an 
  Intelligence + Larceny roll (or other relevant pool; 
  Corebook, p. 410):
  ■ Interior wall, car: 1
  ■ Exterior/brick wall, armored car, large vehicle: 2
  ■ Concrete/reinforced wall: 3
  ■ Vault: 4 or more
  In the worst-case scenario, a captured Breacher 
  carries enough explosives to bring down a building 
  with them inside. By detonating everything they 
  have on them, they create a single explosion large 
  enough to rip through several floors of an office 
  building or towerblock. It deals 10 levels of Aggra-
  vated damage to anything unfortunate enough to 
  be caught inside. The building is, needless to say, 
  no longer structurally sound or even still standing 
  afterwards.
  Clearance Specialist
  Clad in Level IV body armor, the Clearance Spe-
  cialist brings heavy firepower to the vanguard of 
  the fight against the vampires. Blunt force in close 
  quarters is their operational role and when a UTR 
  team has to force its way into a blankbody nest 
  during their active cycle, Clearance Specialists take 
  the lead with shotguns loaded with Dragon’s Breath 
  shells. They are not the most versatile of operators 
  and their loadout often leaves little left to capture if 
  they have to engage hostiles. Most IAO and GRU 
  UTR teams include a few Clearance Specialists in 
  case things get hairy. The UK’s SO13 even deploys 
  entire death squads composed of these operators as 
  part of their eradicator doctrine.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  4, Mental 4
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics (grenades) 6, 
  Firearms 8, Intimidation 6, Melee 6, Technology 6
  Equipment: SA shotgun (Benelli M4), Dragon’s 
  Breath shells, heavy body armor, axe, HE grenades
  Variant: Firebug 
  Armed with an experimental XM11 flamethrower 
  developed in 2005 with private funding based on 
  the classic M9 design used in Vietnam, the Firebug 
  clears hardened positions and forces blankbodies 
  out into the open. Fire is the great equalizer be-
  tween mortal and monster, and the Firebug is usu-
  ally held in reserve until circumstances make their 
  skills a necessity. When the Firebug comes onto the 
  field usually any hope of capturing a blankbody has 
  faded and the operational focus has moved on to 
  cutting losses and preventing the team’s exposure.   
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  4, Mental 4
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 6, Firearms 
  (Flamethrower) 8, Melee 6, Technology 6
  Equipment: XM11 flamethrower, gas mask, heavy 
  body armor, thermobaric grenades, axe
  Lone Wolf 
  These generalists work alone from preference, habit, 
  or lack of resources and they have a broad mix of 
  skills to enable that. With some close combat, some 
  firearms, some technical skill and a respectable 
  amount of espionage fieldcraft a Lone Wolf can 
  handle most situations – or at least keep a situation 
  under control until a field team can be mobilized. 
  Used to going it alone, many Lone Wolves find it 
  difficult to surrender control to a larger team, or to 
  integrate into one. They make their own decisions, 
  and they don’t take well to trying unfamiliar tactics. 
  If they find a team that fits their way of doing things 
  they make an excellent addition, rounding out skill-
  sets otherwise lacking. 
  General Difficulty: 4/3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  5, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 8, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness (traps) 8, 
  
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  Firearms 8, Intimidation 7, Larceny 7, Melee 8, 
  Stealth 7, Streetwise 6
  Equipment: Kevlar vest, compound crossbow, 
  automatic pistol with armor piercing ammo, 
  fl ashbang grenades, bolt cutters, ropes
  Special: No agent alone in the fi eld survives long 
  without training to resist vampiric mind control. 
  Lone Wolves never count as “unprepared” for the 
  purposes of these Disciplines. They add 3 dice to 
  their Resolve when using it to resist a vampiric 
  Discipline.
  Variant: Slayer
  The Slayer is the most solitary of Lone Wolves. 
  Either they don’t want to risk the people they care 
  about or they’ve already lost them all. They live for 
  the hunt, and they’re impeccable hunters. They’re 
  rarely found inside Coalition ranks: they don’t take 
  orders or work in teams, and that’s no use to a coor-
  dinated operation.
  General Difficulty: 4/3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  4, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 8, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness (traps) 9, 
  Firearms (crossbow) 9, Intimidation 7, Larceny 7, 
  Melee (stakes) 9, Stealth 7, Streetwise 6
  Equipment: Chainmail, compound crossbow, 
  automatic pistol with armor piercing ammo, 
  fl ashbang grenades, bolt cutters, ropes, holy 
  symbol, protective amulet or good luck charm just 
  in case, stolen XScope
  Special: Slayers have all the same abilities as 
  Lone Wolves, and more. They add 4 dice to their 
  Resolve when they use it to resist a vampiric 
  Discipline. They’ve developed such a high pain 
  tolerance (or amphed addiction) they work 
  through injuries that would put a normal mortal 
  out of the fi ght: the fi rst time during a scene they 
  take Aggravated damage from piercing, cutting, or 
  ballistic weapons, treat it as Superfi cial damage.
  Kindred who have been hunted by a Slayer 
  believe them to be supernatural in their own right. 
  Whether this is true, or whether the Kindred 
  subconsciously pull their punches, a Slayer can 
  always win at a cost (Corebook, p. 121) against a 
  single vampire.
  Snatcher
  Most Hitters excel at dusting blankbodies. That’s 
  the job. The Snatcher (or “rendition specialist” in 
  FIRSTLIGHT terminology) knows how to take 
  prisoners, and how to wring information out of 
  them. They’re covert operatives, getting in and out 
  quickly and leaving a minimum of evidence behind 
  them. They combine stealth skills with careful, 
  precise planning, physical prowess, and a gift for 
  getaway driving.  
  The Coalition attempts rendition only for very 
  special targets: those who can lead them to more 
  vampires of even higher value. They’re either well-
  connected or powerful in their own right, so rendi-
  tion operations are some of the best resourced in the 
  Coalition playbook.
  Snatchers coordinate closely with Cuckoos, 
  Canaries, or Lamplighters, making use of their 
  detailed data on a target to pick the perfect time to 
  strike or maneuver them into position. 
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  4, Mental 4
  Secondary Attributes: Health 8, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 8, Brawl 9, 
  Drive 8, Larceny 8, Stealth 8
  Equipment: Zip cuff s, handcuff s, chainmail hood, 
  sunbag, restraint harness; TASER, shotgun (M26 
  3 3
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  3 4
  MASS), Kevlar vest, XTech appropriate to the 
  known powers of their target
  Special: FIRSTLIGHT and GRU snatchers have 
  trained on identical buildings, and bring expertise 
  and custom tools to disable security systems and 
  breach doors or walls. Similarly elite Snatchers 
  never have their Difficulty increased by the Haven 
  Background when penetrating a Haven.
  Variant: Interrogator
  The Interrogator takes over once the rendition 
  target is back at the base of operations. They employ 
  a range of tactics from psychological manipulation 
  to outright physical torture to rip information out 
  of a subject as rapidly as possible. Unfortunately, 
  rendition comes with a high chance of inaccurate 
  data: a subject will say anything to end a threat to 
  their loved ones or their life. 
  Even amongst the Coalition, Interrogators make 
  fellow agents uncomfortable. They’re the Second 
  Inquisition’s “left hand,” the ones who do what 
  others won’t or can’t. Between colleagues who 
  insist that Coalition policy should be to shoot any 
  blankbody on sight, and those who prefer to turn 
  useful ones into assets, most of the Coalition looks 
  forward to a day when Interrogators go the way of 
  the dinosaurs.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  6, Mental 5
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Insight 8, Intimidation 
  9, Medicine 7, Persuasion 8, Science 7 
  Special: Interrogators – those who survive 
  their first session, at least – have at least a hope 
  of guiding their targets’ frenzy into speech 
  rather than violent rage. They can use standard 
  interrogation techniques including torture 
  (Corebook, p. 415) on blankbodies. 
  If this happens “on screen” be sure to read the 
  Torture sidebar on p. 102 - 103.
  Sniper
  A sniper kills from a distance – often a very great 
  distance. Modern sniper rifles (and sniper optics) 
  make thousand-meter shots almost routine. Most 
  snipers work with a spotter, who tracks the target 
  for them and also keeps an eye out for unfriendly 
  presences on their hill or rooftop. A spotter adds 
  one die to the sniper’s pool. 
  Regular troops distrust snipers, who kill with 
  far less risk than grunts take, although they appreci-
  ate deadly overwatch when it’s on their side. Snipers 
  often suffer more combat guilt than regular front-
  line troops, feeling subconsciously that sniping 
  more resembles murder than it does battle.
  This writeup reflects a police SWAT sniper, ei-
  ther trusted by the local SI team or not told exactly 
  who or what they’re shooting at.
  General Difficulty: 4/1
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  3, Mental 4 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 7, Brawl 7, 
  Firearms (Sniper Rifle) 8
  Equipment: Sniper rifle (Heckler & Koch PSG1 
  7.62mm), scope
  Special: Hitting a stationary, torso-sized target 
  with no cover at moderate range (100 meters) 
  with a sniper rifle is a Difficulty 1 test (Resolve 
  + Firearms) for the sniper, See Corebook, p. 
  302). Changes to those conditions increase the 
  Difficulty.
  A sniper using incendiary rounds firing through 
  a haven’s windows (or with NATO Raufoss 
  12.7mm rounds, through a haven’s walls) threatens 
  Kindred inside even if he can’t see them through the 
  wisely blacked-out windows. A critical success on 
  such a shot sets the whole room, and eventually the 
  building, on fire.
  Although most sniper rifles use subsonic ammu-
  nition (and the SI uses suppressors) a Kindred with 
  Heightened Senses (Auspex • ) can make a Wits 
  + Awareness test (Difficulty 3) to determine the 
  source (direction and distance) of a sniper shot if it 
  doesn’t destroy them. A critical success might even 
  spot the street lights winking off the scope.
  Variant: Hit Man
  Possibly with military training, but now working 
  in the private sector. The Eighth Direction may 
  have sourced them through the Organizatsiya, or 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
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  the Society of St. Leopold through the Camorra, 
  or the NSA might have tapped their anonymous 
  Gmail account. Their weapons are either common, 
  disposable rifles or very expensive pieces of ceramic 
  and plastic that break apart into innocuous shapes 
  for travel. Either way, they tend toward shorter 
  ranges but use moderately heavy ammunition (.308 
  or 7.62mm) to ensure a kill shot in the head (-2 
  successes).
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  4, Mental 5
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 7, Firearms 
  (Sniper Rifle) 8, Larceny (Alarms) 7, Melee 7, 
  Stealth 7, Streetwise 6
  Variant: Reaper
  Brought into the Coalition from Delta Force, or the 
  Spetsnaz, or some other unit dedicated to silence 
  and deadliness. Military snipers prefer heavier rifles, 
  firing larger ammunition (12.7mm) at longer ranges 
  than police snipers.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 7, Social 
  3, Mental 4 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 8, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 8, Awareness 
  7, Brawl 8, Firearms (Sniper Rifle) 9, Melee 
  8, Stealth 8
  Equipment: Sniper rifle (Barrett M82A .50 
  caliber), scope
  Warrior
  Since blankbodies are notoriously hard to destroy 
  with guns, the Coalition urgently needs operators 
  that can handle themselves in hand-to-hand com-
  bat. The Vatican’s Society of Leopold and the GRU 
  seem to have an almost endless supply of soldiers 
  with these skill sets, but FIRSTLIGHT has to com-
  pete with the CIA and SOCOM’s counterterrorism 
  operations. Until the U.S. government runs out of 
  human targets to kill up close, IAO has to make due 
  with the few Warriors it can beg, borrow or steal 
  from the private sector.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  3, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 7, Awareness 
  7, Brawl 7, Firearms 7, Melee (Knives) 9, Stealth 7
  Equipment: Pistol (Glock 17), silencer, combat 
  knife, garrote, night vision, camo suit
  Special: Warriors can use their garrote or combat 
  knife to decapitate or dismember their victim 
  (Corebook, p. 221).
  Variations: Leopoldite Sicarius
  A holy warrior combining the best UTR train-
  ing doctrine with the Vatican’s most powerful 
  mystical weapons, Sicarii are veteran slayers. Their 
  armor and weapons have been blessed by one of the 
  Society’s suborders. Their body has been anointed 
  with prayer and enshrouded in the blessings of a 
  Grand Master.
  General Difficulty: 5/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  3, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 7, Awareness 7, 
  Firearms 7, Melee 8, Occult (Vampires) 7, Stealth 7
  Equipment: Pistol (Glock 17), silencer, 
  shortsword, night vision, camo suit
  Artifact: Dagger of Akkad (p. 87)
  True Faith: 2 to 4
  Special: The Sicarius is immune to powers of 
  Oblivion. Drinking a Sicarius’ blood inflicts 2 
  points of Aggravated Health damage to a vampire. 
  A vampire can reduce this damage on a one for one 
  basis with successes on a Stamina + Resolve roll.
  GHOUL TEMPLATE
  Make the following modifications to any other 
  antagonist profile to make a them a ghoul. See Lord-
  less, p. 50, for a more in-depth ghoul profile.
  General Difficulty: +0/+1
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical +1 
  Secondary Attributes: Health +1
  Disciplines: Celerity 1, Potence 1 (or 2 dots of 
  the Storyteller’s choice) 
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
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  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  3 6
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  3 7
  Warlocks and 
  Clerics: Magical
  Occultism isn’t something most blankbodies would 
  associate with the Coalition, or any of the oth-
  ers who hunt them. “Second Inquisition” calls to 
  mind intelligence analysts and UTR teams, Havens 
  burned and allies murdered, the Fall of London 
  and the destruction of the Vienna Chantry. But the 
  Coalition succeeds because they are pragmatists: 
  they use any tool that proves eff ective. And the mys-
  terious, half-understood secrets of the arcane can be 
  very eff ective.
  Despite a rough history of Brazilian repression 
  of their beliefs and practices, a mutual understand-
  ing has surfaced, where some Brazilian Candomblé 
  and Umbanda practitioners bless weapons, work 
  rituals, and protect their BOES colleagues, a force 
  that has long been their own historic enemies; the 
  Newburgh Group has theurgists, self-proclaimed 
  witches, and scholars of hermeticism; the Akritai 
  and the Society of St. Leopold have miracle work-
  ers. The GRU takes advantage of Soviet-era psychic 
  warfare experimentation, and the SAD accumu-
  lates a little of everything from remote corners 
  of America.
  That said, specialists in the arcane arts remain 
  rare, especially out in the fi eld where they could get 
  eaten – or turned by similarly sorcerous blankbod-
  ies. The Vatican remembers the story of Faust, after 
  all, and Leopoldite Censors still sniff  out those 
  tempted by forbidden arts within the Society. Most 
  Coalition troopers have never seen any magic that 
  didn’t want to drink their blood; the existence of 
  occult specialists remains more of an urban legend 
  even among many Leopoldites than it does an 
  entry on a T.O.
  For a “generic” clerical hunter, see the Faith 
  Hunter (Corebook, p. 371).
  Cunning Folk
  The Cunning Mage brings folk magic and witch-
  craft to the service of the Second Inquisition. Many 
  more Cunning Folk are found outside the Coalition 
  than within it: practitioners of this branch of magic 
  don’t tend to be team players. (The general excep-
  tion: Scottish and Appalachian Cunning Folk often 
  serve in their nation’s military.) They’re strongly 
  individualistic, and in many cases the desire to rid 
  the world of undead monsters is their only common 
  ground with the Coalition. Fans of law and order, 
  and religious orthodoxy, they are not.
  When the Coalition does work with Cunning 
  Folk, the relationship is often at arms’ length by 
  mutual agreement. These practitioners work as 
  consultants, assisting where needed but not slotting 
  directly into a UTR team. There are exceptions, of 
  course. Some Cunning Folk are patriotic, or just 
  thoroughly modern and desirous of a career path 
  with a good salary and benefi ts, but they’re far 
  from the norm.
  Blankbodies often believe Cunning Folk are a 
  less implacable enemy than the Coalition’s main 
  forces. In some ways they’re correct: a coterie of 
  Champions protecting a witch’s neighborhood, or 
  a Cerberus coterie safeguarding a magical artifact, 
  may have more common ground with one of the 
  Cunning Folk than the IAO does. 
  The Cunning Mage uses hedge magic for a 
  range of curses and blessings, or borrows the bodies 
  or senses of their animal familiars.
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  4, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 9
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Insight 7, Medicine 
  6, Occult 8
  Equipment: Ritual tools, knife, neck protector
  Special: Cunning Folk know a variety of blessings 
  and curses, each of which requires ritual 
  preparation in advance, a point of Willpower, 
  and a successful Resolve + Occult roll. These 
  rituals channel power into a talisman, amulet, 
  or other material token carried by the Cunning 
  Mage. The accumulated spiritual power can 
  hocus machinery: every additional token borne 
  after the fi rst subtracts one die from any roll by 
  the Cunning One using technology (including 
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  3 8
  firearms). Common effects include:
  ■ Good Health: The bearer of the token gains 2 
  additional Health levels
  ■ Good Fortune: The bearer of the token adds 
  2 additional dice to rolls using an Attribute of 
  their choice. 
  ■ Protection: Vampires and other supernatural 
  creatures find it difficult to touch the bearer of 
  the token. They must make a Resolve + Com-
  posure roll to do so, and must achieve at least 2 
  successes in order to harm the bearer. 
  ■ True Sight: The bearer of the token can see 
  vampires or other supernatural creatures, even if 
  they’re using Blush of Life or other supernatural 
  power to appear mortal. 
  The duration of these benefits depends on the 
  Cunning Mage’s result:
  ■ One success = one scene
  ■ Two successes = one day (until the next sunrise)
  ■ Three or more successes = two days
  Cunning Folk can also Hex an opponent: a sim-
  ple magic word, a gesture, or even a look may suf-
  fice. With a successful Manipulation + Occult roll, 
  and a spent point of Willpower, the Cunning Mage 
  imposes a 2-dice penalty on their opponent’s next 
  roll. This cannot remove Hunger dice from a roll. 
  Variant: Animalist
  Not unlike the vampiric Discipline of Animalism, 
  Animalist Cunning Folk use their animal familiars 
  to observe others, skimming through the night as 
  a bird or prowling as a rat or cat. These Cunning 
  Folk work for the SI as spies, observing and report-
  ing back from places no normal mortal would 
  dare tread.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  4, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 9
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Animal Ken 8, 
  Investigation 6, Occult 8
  Equipment: Ritual tools, knife, neck 
  protector, kibble
  Special: Animalists have the ability to control 
  animals, project their senses into them, or even 
  place their consciousness in the body of an animal. 
  To control animals, inspiring them to loyalty 
  or friendship, fear, or rage directed at a target of 
  the Animalist’s choosing, they spend one point of 
  Willpower and make a contested roll of Charisma + 
  Animal Ken vs. the animal’s Resolve + Composure, 
  or if another creature currently controls the animal 
  vs. that creature’s Charisma + Animal Ken. This 
  control lasts for one turn with one success, and one 
  scene for 2 or more successes. 
  To project their sight and hearing through an 
  animal’s senses, the Animalist spends one point of 
  Willpower and rolls Wits + Animal Ken. They roll 
  three extra dice if they project their senses through a 
  trained familiar, and two extra with an animal that 
  knows them. For one success, they perceive through 
  the animal’s senses for one turn, for two successes 
  up to 10 minutes, and for three or more successes, a 
  scene.  When they project their senses, the Animal-
  ist’s body is blind and deaf until they cut the bond 
  with the animal, which they may do at any time. 
  An Animalist can project their whole conscious-
  ness into the body of a familiar, not only borrowing 
  its senses but controlling its body as if it were the 
  Animalist’s own. By spending a point of Willpower 
  and rolling Resolve + Animal Ken, they take con-
  trol of their familiar’s body for one scene. 
  When the Animalist’s consciousness is in 
  their familiar, the human body is vulnerable, ef-
  fectively comatose. If the body is damaged, the 
  Animalist may make a Wits + Occult roll to return 
  and awaken.
  Faithful
  UTR teams that find themselves in possession of 
  a relic only have a weapon if they have someone 
  worthy of wielding it. While testing for True Faith 
  isn’t really possible, it tends to emerge fairly rapidly 
  under combat conditions. Thus, even if the Faithful 
  doesn’t have the best marksmanship on the team, 
  they carry more than their weight in a spiritual 
  sense. In teams without a dedicated occultist, they 
  tend to drift into a “supernatural intelligence of-
  ficer” role.
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  3 9
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  4, Mental 5
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 6, Insight 
  6, Occult 6
  Equipment: Body armor, standard unit loadout, 
  holy symbol
  Artifact: The best Relic the team has available
  True Faith: 2 or 3 (Corebook, p. 222)
  Special: The Faithful also knows the location of 
  any holy ground, See below) in their patrol area, 
  and adds two dice to any attempt to reach it or 
  guide their unit to it.
  Flagellant
  Mystics who achieve holy communion through 
  pain, Flagellants undergo powerful rituals that 
  fortify their blood and make it burn with faith. 
  Flagellants usually operate independently but a few 
  of their number have found their way into ESOG 
  and Akritai teams.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  4, Mental 5
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 7, Awareness 
  7, Melee 7, Occult 7
  Equipment: Desert Eagle pistol (.50 Action 
  Express), shortsword, body armor
  HOLY GROUND
  Some places absorb the spiritual energy of the devout for so long or so intensely that they begin radiating it 
  back. Locations of major miracles or significant martyrdoms can become holy ground overnight. These sites 
  may come from any religious tradition and may be located anywhere. Storytellers may choose to make for-
  gotten sites (a standing stone, a buried church) linger on in holiness.
  True Holy Ground has a rating from one to five dots. Interpolate the specific Holy Ground values for loca-
  tions in your chronicle city from the following:
  • Neighborhood religious building, consecrated graveyard
  •• Large mosque, cathedral, temple, or synagogue
  ••• Venerated Site: Mt. Athos, Blue Mosque, tomb of a saint or imam, Six Grandfathers in the Black Hills, 
  South Dakota
  •••• Major Holy Site: Notre Dame Cathedral (Paris), Dakshineswar (Kolkata), Al-Kadhimiya Mosque 
  (Baghdad), Mount Kurama (near Kyōto), Wudāng Temple Complex in Húbě (China), Uluru in the Northern 
  Territory (Australia)
  ••••• Holy of Holies: Wailing Wall, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Dome of the Rock (all Jerusalem), Kaaba 
  (Mecca), Dashashwamedh Ghat (Varanasi), Mount Kailāsa (Himalayas), palace of the Oòni in Ilé-Ifè ̣ (Nigeria)
  Holy Ground has no mechanical effect on vampires or other supernatural creatures (except those with the 
  appropriate Folkloric Block Flaw (Corebook, p. 182)), although it may make them uneasy or irritated. Until, 
  that is, someone with True Faith stands on it; at such times, the Faithful adds the dots of the Holy Ground to 
  their own True Faith.
  If the Faithful comes from a different tradition from the Ground (a Catholic priest in a Hindu temple, for 
  example), they generally cannot add Holy Ground to their Faith. Other activities (having a running gunfight in 
  a Buddhist stupa, for instance) might interfere with such addition. Storytellers must determine whether an 
  individual Faithful and a specific piece of Holy Ground are compatible, and if so how much.
  Vampires, especially in the Sabbat, may seek to desecrate holy ground. The specifics of those rituals or 
  activities remain in the Storyteller’s hands but they generally involve a contest (Resolve + Occult, for exam-
  ple) vs. Holy Ground + True Faith of its most Faithful defender. Add a die to the vampires’ pool for every Stain 
  incurred in the attempt; if the Faithful wins, each vampire takes 1 Aggravated damage for each extra success.
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  4 0
  Special: The Flagellant adds four dice to any pool 
  to resist or contest a vampiric Discipline that draws 
  its power from Oblivion. Drinking a Flagellant’s 
  blood infl icts 3 points of Aggravated Health 
  damage to a vampire. A vampire can reduce this 
  damage on a one for one basis with successes on a 
  Stamina + Resolve roll.
  Variant: AbsolVed
  A holy warrior of the Cult of the Friars, See page 
  134) who has made their peace with this world and 
  the next. The Absolved usually guard secret Vatican 
  sites of mystical importance that are too remote or 
  sensitive to be put on FIRSTLIGHT’s radar. These 
  Friars understand that they will likely die in service 
  to the Society of St. Leopold. 
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  4, Mental 5
  Secondary Attributes: Health 8, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 7, Awareness 
  7, Melee 7, Occult 7
  Equipment: Shortsword, body armor, HE 
  grenades, incendiary grenades
  Special: As the Flagellant above. The Absolved can 
  detonate one of the grenades in their possession 
  immediately after being reduced to 0 Health. 
  Nullifi er
  Some people can become, or create, a supernatural 
  null zone. Their precise techniques vary: an Akritai 
  or Leopoldite acolyte leans on prayers and channels 
  the powers of saints for protection, especially St. 
  Marcellus of Paris who destroyed a vampire in fi fth-
  century Paris. A Nullifi er trained by the Newburgh 
  Group is more likely to craft a magical sigil or repeat 
  an incantation in Enochian. Meanwhile, SAD and 
  GRU-N58 sometimes train operatives to activate a 
  latent psychic talent for suppression. 
  The techniques change but one fact is consist-
  ent: Nullifi ers keep their team alive. When fanged 
  monsters slide between their hunters’ senses or force 
  their will on a mortal’s mind, a Nullifi er stops them 
  in their tracks. With a duty to stay out of danger to 
  protect the team, Nullifi ers usually don’t excel at 
  combat. They might know a little fi rst aid or other 
  useful skills that stop them being a one trick pony, 
  but mostly their job is to wear the best possible 
  armor and watch their team’s collective back. 
  Outside of combat ops, a Nullifi er sitting nearby 
  can nix a vampire’s attempt to wipe a victim’s mem-
  ory of their feeding, stop the blankbody seducing a 
  victim to begin with, or prevent them from sneak-
  ing up on a target. For that reason they’re sometimes 
  positioned as bodyguards – circumspect ones – to 
  mortals deemed at risk from vampiric infl uence. 
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  4, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 9
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 7, Occult 
  7, Stealth 6
  Equipment: Kevlar vest, semi automatic handgun, 
  fi rst aid kit
  Special: A Nullifi er can simply choose to stop 
  a blankbody’s Disciplines from working, and 
  extend that eff ect like a fi eld to their colleagues. It’s 
  mentally and physically strenuous, and activating 
  one of their powers not only costs the Nullifi er 
  a point of Willpower but infl icts two points of 
  Superfi cial damage.
  When a blankbody attempts to use Dominate, 
  Obfuscate, or Presence, the Nullifi er spends an 
  additional point of Willpower and rolls Resolve + 
  Occult vs. the blankbody’s Discipline pool. Every 
  two successes on their roll reduce the blankbody’s 
  successes by 1. If the Nullifi er wins the contest, the 
  Discipline simply fails. 
  Pscout
  A graduate of the Eighth Direction’s psychic train-
  ing programs (and, to a lesser extent, similar CIA 
  or Army programs re-started by FIRSTLIGHT), 
  the Pscout trains to fi nd blankbodies, or their kills, 
  through the power of visions. The lucky ones can 
  do this from the safety of their offi  ces but most of 
  them are out on the front lines, clutching at hazy 
  mental impressions blasted into their minds by 
  looking at weathered old bloodstains, or touching 
  the walls in a blankbody’s kill room.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  4 1
  The really unfortunate ones get those visions 
  with no prompting or warning: they’re suddenly 
  overcome with a vision of a corpse overlaying an 
  apparently healthy, living human, or a glimpse of an 
  unknown blankbody sinking their fangs into the 
  throbbing neck of a mortal victim. The fi rst visions 
  aren’t always helpful, on their own, but they’re the 
  fi rst steps down a path that leads Pscouts to blank-
  bodies the Coalition might not have otherwise 
  suspected. 
  Pscouts’ visions can be hard to interpret: does 
  that fl ash of a death’s head over someone’s face mean 
  they’re a blankbody, about to be the victim of one, 
  or destined to become one in future? Like many 
  Coalition investigative personnel, Pscouts use pains-
  taking investigation to clarify and confi rm their 
  visions: costly mistakes have been made by jumping 
  to conclusions.
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  4 2
  General Difficulty: 5/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  4, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 9, 
  Investigation 7, Stealth 7
  Equipment: Experimental psychotropic 
  medicines, Zener or Tarot cards
  Special: The Pscout can identify supernatural 
  creatures, including those using Blush of Life 
  or a similar power to appear as mortals, with 
  a successful Wits + Awareness test. With one 
  or more successes they detect that something 
  is “off” about the person, but not what type of 
  supernatural creature they are. With two successes 
  they can identify a blankbody and with three or 
  more they can guess roughly what type of creature 
  they’re looking at (e.g. a shapeshifter, someone 
  with occult or arcane powers, a being not of 
  this world).
  The Pscout can also “read” objects and loca-
  tions, picking up traces of past events. The more 
  emotional a situation was — prompting extreme 
  fear, suffering, passion, for example — the easier 
  it is to read. The Pscout can touch an object or 
  person and, with a successful Intelligence + Aware-
  ness roll, see a brief flash of one significant thing 
  that happened to them in the last week. A brush 
  with a blankbody or other supernatural creature 
  will almost always be the most significant thing, 
  so “reading” a victim to identify who fed on them 
  is straightforward (Difficulty 2). The Pscout sees 
  and hears, and smells the scene from their subject’s 
  point of view.
  The Pscout’s final ability is both a blessing and 
  a curse: they can sense the proximity of blankbod-
  ies. With a Resolve + Awareness roll, they can tell 
  if there are blankbodies within a mile. With three 
  successes, they can tell roughly how close the near-
  est one is, and with five successes they can perceive 
  the location of a specific blankbody if they are 
  within a mile.
  All psychic powers cost the Pscout 1 Willpower 
  to attempt.
  Pstriker
  Another graduate of the Coalition’s psychic devel-
  opment labs, the Pstriker wields their half-under-
  stood powers as a weapon, albeit an unpredictable 
  one that can be as dangerous to their colleagues 
  as their enemies. Pstrikers stay in the Coalition 
  because any weapon has some situational uses, and 
  it’s not as if they can safely retire to civilian life. 
  They get pushed into dangerous confrontations in 
  vampire-controlled cities, and do as much damage 
  as they can, as many times as they can, before some 
  blankbody monster inevitably takes them out.
  The Pstriker is a valuable asset. They cause seri-
  ous damage, in a way blankbodies can’t replicate 
  and usually aren’t prepared for. Even so, it comes as 
  a relief to their colleagues when they’re gone. Being 
  around a Pstriker has a way of inflicting emotional 
  bleed: when they’re tense and angry, all their friends 
  are tense and angry too. That’s not conducive to a 
  smooth operation or a stable team.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  4, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 8, Science 
  (Parapsychology) 6
  Equipment: Kevlar vest, helmet, experimental 
  psychotropic medicines
  Special: The Pstryker manipulates telekinetic 
  forces. They can pull, push or throw an object 
  in their line of sight using telekinetic force, by 
  making a Resolve + Awareness roll and spending a 
  point of Willpower. Gauge their effects using the 
  Feats of Strength table on p. 411 of the Corebook; 
  each success on the roll represents one dot of 
  telekinetic Strength.
  By spending one point of Willpower and 
  succeeding on a Resolve + Awareness roll, the 
  Pstriker causes a blast of telekinetic power to radiate 
  outwards around them. The range is roughly one 
  meter per point of Intelligence, and all creatures 
  within the range must contest the Pstriker’s roll 
  with Strength + Stamina. If they lose, they fall to 
  the ground prone and take 2 levels of Superficial 
  damage per marginal success. 
  Being around a Pstriker for a prolonged period 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  4 3
  of time is taxing. Their emotions run high, and 
  tend to bleed out into those around them. After 
  spending a scene in a Pstriker’s company, mortals 
  and supernatural creatures alike lose one die from 
  Composure dice pools until they’re away from the 
  Pstriker for at least a day. 
  Variant: Pyrokinetic
  The Pyrokinetic is a very intelligent flamethrower. 
  Instead of telekinetic force, they control heat and 
  create fire — making them a superweapon in the 
  fight against blankbodies. 
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  4, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 8, Science 
  (Parapsychology) 6
  Equipment: Kevlar vest, helmet, experimental 
  psychotropic medicines, cigarettes, no lighter
  Special: The Pyrokinetic’s blast is an expanding 
  circle of fire, and deals Aggravated damage. 
  In addition, the Pyrokinetic can call fire into 
  existence by expending 1 Willpower, setting fire to 
  flammable objects such as clothing and inflicting 1 
  level of Aggravated damage per round to anyone in 
  contact with the fire until someone spends a turn 
  extinguishing it.
  Being around a Pyrokinetic causes the same 
  emotional bleed and loss of Composure as a regu-
  lar Pstriker.
  Sorcerer
  Arcane powers manifest in many different ways: 
  spirit possession, prayer and fasting, lengthy study 
  of eldritch tomes, manipulating ley energies, 
  entheogenic chemical stimulants, initiation into an 
  older tradition, or just weird synchronistic coinci-
  dence. The specifics matter fundamentally to the 
  Sorcerer, but mechanically overlap: any tradition 
  might develop healing magic, wards and amulets, or 
  any other specific sorcerous effect. Treat Occult as 
  the pool for such sorceries unless noted otherwise, 
  although each Sorcerer tradition calls it something 
  else and activates it in its own fashion.
  Even more than with other Antagonist entries in 
  this book, tailor your Sorcerer characters and their 
  powers specifically to your chronicle, tune them 
  to oppose and vex your coterie. A mortal capable 
  of sorcery should be as unpleasant a shock to the 
  player characters as a vampire would be to a normal 
  mortal. Treat the numbers in this profile as starting 
  points and suggestions; treat the menu of possible 
  arcane effects likewise.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  5, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 9
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Academics 7, Awareness 
  8, Occult 9
  Equipment: Ritual tools, a book of rituals, 
  talisman or holy symbol, athame or ritual sword.
  Arcane Effects
  If their art grants them an arcane effect listed below, 
  the Sorcerer spends a point of Willpower and makes 
  an Occult roll. If they succeed, the effect occurs. 
  Subtract 1 die from the pool if the Sorcerer hasn’t 
  spent the previous eight hours in appropriate ritual 
  preparation or activity; subtract 2 dice from the 
  pool if they attempt the effect while in combat or 
  otherwise stressed and distracted.
  A Sorcerer can only use one effect at a time.
  Sorcerers who draw their powers from the divine 
  often have True Faith; if so, they can add their True 
  Faith to their Occult pool.
  No Sorcerer wields all (or even very many) of the 
  possible sorceries here; these examples come from a 
  broad menu.
  HALT
  With a commanding word, the Sorcerer compels 
  a blankbody to take no action. This requires two 
  points of Willpower, and a Contested Charisma 
  + Occult roll vs. the blankbody’s Willpower. The 
  blankbody is unable to take any action, including 
  moving, for one turn.
  HEAL
  With a successful Composure + Occult roll (Dif-
  ficulty 4, or 5 for Aggravated damage), the Sorcerer 
  can heal as many Health levels as they have successes 
  on the roll. Each injury healed costs one point of 
  Willpower.
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  4 4
  HIDE FROM THE HAWK
  For one scene, the Sorcerer becomes imperceptible 
  to the Blood Sorcery rituals Illuminate the Trail of 
  Prey (Corebook, p. 277) and Eyes of the Nighthawk 
  (Corebook, p. 279) and immune to Disciplines used 
  through a Nighthawk. 
  INSIGHT
  The Sorcerer senses the surface thoughts and true 
  intentions of one subject. The thoughts they read 
  are only flashes of surface thoughts: whatever 
  strong, conscious intention or image is uppermost 
  in their mind — for example, whether the sub-
  ject intends to resist or cooperate, who comes to 
  mind when the Sorcerer threatens someone they 
  care about. They might get a flash of insight into a 
  Touchstone. They also know if the subject is delib-
  erately lying or misleading them. 
  The subject can resist this effect with a success-
  ful Resolve + Subterfuge roll with a Difficulty equal 
  to the Sorcerer’s successes on the Occult roll. 
  LIGHT
  The Sorcerer spends a point of Willpower, makes 
  a Resolve + Occult roll (Difficulty 4), and creates 
  a spark of light as bright as a flashlight, that lasts 
  for up to one scene. The Sorcerer can spend more 
  Willpower to make the spark of light expand to an 
  orb large enough to fill a medium sized room. This 
  larger light functions like sunlight, dealing 1 level of 
  Aggravated damage to vampires for every additional 
  point of Willpower expended, and burns out after 
  one turn. 
  PERCEIVE THE OBFUSCATED
  The Sorcerer spends an additional point of Will-
  power and rolls Resolve + Occult vs. the blank-
  body’s Wits + Obfuscate. The Sorcerer can sense 
  Obfuscated characters as normal for the rest of 
  the scene.
  RESIST OBLIVION
  The Sorcerer remains unaffected by the Oblivion 
  (Chicago By Night, pp. 293-295) abilities Shadow 
  Cloak and Stygian Shroud. They automatically de-
  tect a blankbody scrying through Shadow Perspec-
  tive or Shadow Cast and can spend an additional 
  point of Willpower to negate those powers for a 
  few seconds (or one turn of combat), or 3 points of 
  Willpower to negate them for the scene. They can 
  spend 2 points of Willpower to prevent a blankbody 
  using Shadow Step. 
  SCRY
  If the Sorcerer has a personal possession, a quantity 
  of the target’s blood (enough to fill a test tube), or 
  one of a blankbody’s Touchstones, they can spy on 
  one target’s current activity. They see and hear the 
  target’s current location as if they were looking over 
  the target’s shoulder.
  The ritual remains active for one scene. It can-
  not penetrate wards or occult barriers, and a blank-
  body with Auspex or a Discipline that allows them 
  to spy on others from a distance (e.g. Blood Sorcery, 
  Oblivion) knows when they are being scried on, 
  even if they are not the intended target of the ritual.
  TRACE
  With the use of a personal possession, blood, or a 
  Touchstone, the Sorcerer locates their target, and 
  can pinpoint them on a map. The Sorcerer doesn’t 
  see or hear what the target is doing and the accuracy 
  depends on the number of successes on the Oc-
  cult roll. With one success, the ritual identifies the 
  correct neighborhood; with two, the city block; and 
  with three or more, the building that the target is 
  in. This ritual doesn’t track a moving target: it only 
  reveals the location when the ritual is cast.
  UN-WARD
  Detect and resist Wards and Warding circles cast 
  using Blood Sorcery (Corebook, p. 275). While 
  this ability is active (one scene) the Sorcerer can 
  roll Intelligence + Occult to notice a ward, and the 
  Ritual test to activate one against them is made at 
  +1 Difficulty.
  WARD
  The Sorcerer creates an arcane barrier that prevents 
  blankbodies and their ghouls from entering a room, 
  or spying on it using their Disciplines. To overcome 
  this ritual protection, the blankbody must make a 
  Resolve + Discipline roll with a Difficulty equal to 
  the Sorcerer’s successes on the Occult roll. The ward 
  lasts for one scene, or (for an extra point of Will-
  power) until the next sunrise.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  4 5
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  4 5
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  4 6
  Turncoats
  The Coalition holds no common position on the 
  use of blankbodies as assets. Some personnel will 
  never trust them, never believe that they share a 
  common cause, and refuse point blank to work with 
  them. Others find the end justifies the means: they 
  may not trust their blankbody allies of convenience, 
  but they’d rather make a mission a success than 
  stick to their principles. Still others believe that even 
  these monsters have some chance for repentance.
  Ex-ghouls have a substantially easier time find-
  ing acceptance. Not all hunters accept them, but it’s 
  much easier to believe in their narrative of liberation 
  and revenge. 
  Alchemist
  Searching for a cure (or for payback) brings many 
  thin-blood alchemists into the fold of the Second 
  Inquisition. Proactive local Coalition agents some-
  times recruit them with threats or even appeals to 
  their patriotism. Once on board, Alchemists prove 
  extremely useful, creating unique concoctions to 
  overcome supernatural obstacles and impair other 
  blankbodies.
  General Difficulty: 4/3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  5, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Medicine (Pharmacy) or 
  Science (Chemistry) 7, Streetwise 7, Technology 7
  Equipment: Pistol, GPS implant 
  Disciplines: Thin-Blood Alchemy 4, one dot in 
  the surprisingly useful Discipline derived from 
  whatever they drank last
  Humanity: 6
  Blood Potency: 0
  Special: The Alchemist is a problem solver. They 
  have a wide array of recipes at their disposal and 
  have a knack for coming up with concoctions in a 
  pinch when their team encounters a supernatural 
  obstacle. The Alchemist can roll Medicine or 
  Technology depending on the nature of the 
  mystical problem to attempt to devise a solution.
  As well as the alchemical distillations described 
  in the Corebook (pp. 283-287), the Coalition 
  encourages Alchemists to brew a few more bespoke 
  elixirs. With the resources of CIA or GRU chemis-
  try labs, or the Vatican storehouses, these blends can 
  get quite outré and powerful.
  Level 2 Formulae
  BLOOD OF MANDAGLOIRE
  This concoction can taint an entire herd, but must 
  be imbibed by the victims within a few hours of 
  being distilled. 
  Ingredients: The Alchemist’s Blood, melancholic 
  human blood, ketamine or Thorazine, melted 
  human fat, verdigris
  Activation Cost: One Rouse check
  System: After taking this concoction the herd 
  takes on a melancholic Resonance and becomes 
  sluggish and unresponsive. Any vampire feeding 
  off of them while they’re in this state must make 
  a Composure + Resolve roll against a Difficulty 
  equal to the cooker’s Alchemy or fall into a 
  dreamless sleep for an hour. Aggressive shaking 
  or slapping gives the vampire another roll to resist 
  the stupor, while inflicting a wound awakens 
  them immediately though the melancholy 
  Resonance lingers. 
  Duration: This formula stays active in the herd’s 
  blood for three nights after dosing.
  MIRROR OF TRUST
  This mixture, when imbibed by the Alchemist, 
  makes them compelling and attractive, overwhelm-
  ing other blankbodies’ self-control and encouraging 
  them to speak honestly and frankly, especially in 
  response to direct questions.
  Ingredients: The Alchemist’s Blood, 
  sanguine human blood, truth serum, a white 
  chrysanthemum taken from a grave
  Activation Cost: One Rouse check
  System: The Alchemist has 3 extra dice on 
  Persuasion or Intimidation rolls to make another 
  person or blankbody be honest with them
  Duration: One hour
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  4 7
  Level 3 Formulae
  FANG-STINGER
  This poison can be injected into a mortal’s blood-
  stream, dealing no damage to them (through the 
  miracle of alchemical transformation) but inflict-
  ing considerable pain on a blankbody who feeds 
  from them. Other variations create different effects: 
  babbling incoherence (and inability to use some 
  Disciplines), indifferent calm, etc.
  Ingredients: The Alchemist’s Blood, choleric 
  human blood, foxglove, absinthe, laundry 
  detergent or phosgene
  Activation Cost: One Rouse check
  System: The victim makes a contested Stamina + 
  Resolve roll vs. the Alchemist’s Resolve + Alchemy 
  (7 dice). If the victim wins, the serum has no 
  effect. For every success the Alchemist wins by, the 
  victim takes 2 levels of Aggravated damage.
  Duration: One day
  FREEZER FLUID
  When ingested by or injected into a blankbody, this 
  serum freezes their limbs, making them clumsy 
  and possibly even helpless. Wood absorbs it; plastic 
  remains inert; it sublimes rapidly from metal. Hunt-
  ers either covertly inject it into their targets or soak 
  their stakes in it. Targets get a Wits + Awareness roll 
  to avoid drinking it in a beverage (Difficulty 2 for 
  non-foaming beverages; Difficulty 3 for beer).
  Ingredients: The Alchemist’s Blood, melancholy 
  and phlegmatic human blood, echinacea, possum 
  scent glands, local anaesthetic or ricin
  Activation Cost: One Rouse check
  System: The victim makes a Contested Stamina + 
  Resolve roll vs the Alchemist’s Resolve + Alchemy 
  (7 dice). If the victim wins, the serum has no 
  effect. For every success the Alchemist wins by, the 
  victim loses 2 dice from all physical dice pools.
  Duration: One scene
  Brute
  The Brute is a vampire taken from their unlife, 
  locked away in a secure facility, and brought out 
  when needed to take down a hard target. They’re 
  often the result of extraordinary rendition, but 
  some were willing turncoats betrayed in their turn 
  by the SI.
  The Brute is starved, frenzied, and reduced to an 
  incoherent monster. They’re literally leashed, usu-
  ally branded into submission and taunted with fresh 
  blood before they’re released. They’re unleashed on 
  a target for maximum shock and awe value. It helps 
  if their victims-to-be knew them before their de-
  cline into a brute: it’s disorienting, even heartbreak-
  ing, to see a sire or a childe reduced to an attack dog 
  with its fangs at your throat.
  This writeup is for a Neonate vampire reduced 
  to a Brute. 
  General Difficulty: 5/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  2, Mental 3 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 10, Willpower 3
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Brawl 8, Intimidation 8, 
  Stealth 9, Survival 7
  Equipment: thick leather armor
  Disciplines: Auspex 1, Celerity 2, Potence 2
  Humanity: 1
  Blood Potency: 1
  Special: The Brute is all but mindless, except for 
  the hunting instincts of an apex predator. It is 
  immune to Dominate and Presence, and can’t be 
  intimidated. 
  After the Detroit fiasco, FIRSTLIGHT doc-
  trine calls for implanting decapitating bombs into 
  a Brute’s neck, or at least filling the core of their 
  leash with det cord. On receipt of a code phrase, a 
  remote operator triggers the explosives, destroying 
  the thing.
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  4 8
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  4 8
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  4 9
  VARIANT: TZIMISCE MONSTROSITY
  Most Brutes have some vestige of their identity left. 
  If they were rescued – or turned on their handlers 
  and carved a bloody path to freedom – they could 
  return to what they once were. The Monstros-
  ity is too far gone. There’s no hope of return, and 
  they don’t care. These Monstrosities are a type of 
  Wight, and they aren’t acquired by rendition but by 
  hunting: they’re the most dangerous blankbodies, 
  in terms of pure brutality, and the easiest to hunt 
  because they lack all intelligence. The Eighth Divi-
  sion bags them, locks them up tight, and unleashes 
  them as shock troops. Wights don’t survive many 
  missions: it’s much easier to destroy one than try to 
  subdue it all over again.
  This profi le describes a moderately powerful Tz-
  imisce vampire reduced to a Wight. This creature is 
  no longer recognizable as something that once had 
  a human form: it’s a bristling, salivating, hulk of 
  muscle and spines, with beady black eyes that open 
  and close everywhere except where eyes should be. 
  General Difficulty: 6/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 7, Social 
  2, Mental 3 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 15, Willpower 3
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Brawl 9, Intimidation 8, 
  Stealth 8, Survival 9
  Disciplines: Dominate 2, Fortitude 3, Potence 
  3, Protean 4
  Humanity: 0
  Blood Potency: 3
  Special: The one lingering trace of the Tzimisce 
  blood in this monster is its possessive nature. Once 
  it has tasted the fl esh or blood of its prey, it pursues 
  them relentlessly and adds three extra dice to 
  rolls to do so.
  Like the Brute, the Monstrosity is all but mind-
  less. It is immune to Dominate and Presence, and 
  can’t be intimidated.
  Cleaver
  The Cleaver is a vampire asset – or agent – of the 
  Coalition who has managed to hide their true 
  nature from the conspiracy. They may have been 
  Embraced against their will while working with 
  the Coalition, or perhaps they are a sleeper left over 
  from previous Camarilla penetrations of the nation-
  al-security bureaucracy or the Vatican. Regardless 
  of their origin story, the Cleaver now does their best 
  to keep their head down and fi t in. 
  They survive by hiding among mortals and 
  keeping up an ironclad personal Masquerade. As 
  a vampire they are fairly knowledgeable about the 
  inner workings of vampire politics, but have to be 
  careful not to expose their nature to the rest of the 
  team. The few Cleavers still within the Coalition 
  take on roles as infl uence peddlers and fi xers, use 
  their supernatural powers sparingly, and loyally 
  protect their mortal family, not their vampiric Clan. 
  Disloyal Cleavers rapidly attract the attention of 
  FIRSTLIGHT or SAD counterintelligence, or 
  of Leopoldite Censors – and then their loyalties 
  resolve, fi nally. 
  General Difficulty: 5/3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  7, Mental 8
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Melee 7, Stealth 7
  Equipment: Fireplace poker, smartphone 
  Disciplines: Auspex 3, Dominate 3, Obfuscate 2 
  Humanity: 7
  Blood Potency: 2
  Special: The Cleaver adds two dice to any pool 
  to resist or contest any attempt to detect them 
  as a vampire. They also have the following 
  Backgrounds: Infl uence 4, Mask 2 (Cobbler), and 
  Retainers 2. 
  Daywalker 
  Thin-bloods, full of seething resentment for vam-
  pire hierarchies, hatred for their misguided or selfi sh 
  sires, and grudges against the many other so-called 
  Kindred who’ve wronged them, make easy targets 
  for the Coalition. Many can be lured to the hunt-
  ers’ cause with ease. Sometimes they come of their 
  own accord.
  Once on board, some Daywalkers live a double 
  life, feeding information to their Coalition contacts 
  about a specifi c blankbody or a whole group. When 
  their luck runs out and their cover is broken, they 
  disappear into a secret facility, safe from harm. Or 
  they catch a stake to the heart, or a garrote around 
  the neck. The Coalition doesn’t have to do right 
  by monsters.
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  5 0
  Some Daywalkers come to the Second Inquisi-
  tion not in pursuit of a grudge but because they de-
  spise what they are. They occupy a strange, liminal 
  place in the Coalition table of organization hierar-
  chy – if they’re not dusted the moment they walk in, 
  that is. They’re not mortal, but maybe there’s hope 
  for their redemption. The inclusion of a Daywalker 
  into a UTR team badly degrades unit cohesion: the 
  new recruit is either a dangerous predator best kept 
  at arm’s length, or a nearly-human victim deserving 
  of pity and support.
  General Difficulty: 4/3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  6, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 8, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: One combat skill at 6, 
  Politics (Kindred) 6, Streetwise 7, Subterfuge 7
  Equipment: SPF 100 sunscreen, wide-brimmed 
  hat, sunglasses, handgun or combat knife, 
  GPS implant.
  Disciplines: Potence 1 or Auspex 1; Thin-
  Blood Alchemy 2
  Humanity: 5
  Blood Potency: 0
  Lordless 
  The Lordless is a former ghoul who broke their 
  Bond, and now hates vampires as much as they once 
  loved them. When they switch sides they become 
  powerful allies to the Coalition. They’ve been in-
  side blankbody networks for decades, in some cases 
  centuries. They’ve seen more than many actual 
  vampires and because of the Bond in which their 
  master put so much trust, they know their secrets 
  and weaknesses. 
  Once the Lordless has had their revenge on the 
  master they served, maybe even the whole hierar-
  chy of the city, their work isn’t done. A lot of their 
  knowledge is transferable to other locations and 
  operations. They understand Camarilla and Anarch 
  hierarchies and processes, and how to disrupt them. 
  They’re well placed to make contact with other 
  ghouls and turn them too.
  The Lordless described here was once a ghoul to 
  an Ancilla or young Elder. 
  General Difficulty: 4/3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  6, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Etiquette (Kindred) 8, 
  Finance 6, Politics (original faction) 8 
  Special: The Lordless knows a great deal about the 
  politics of their native city and the faction their 
  master came from. When they assist another SI 
  operative in investigating a blankbody, negotiating 
  with one, or disrupting their schemes, they add 4 
  dice to the lead operative’s dice pool on their home 
  turf, and 2 dice for dealing with the same faction 
  elsewhere.
  VARIANT: LORDLESS ASSASSIN
  This ex-ghoul isn’t content to ruin their master’s life 
  by deceit and manipulation. They’re going hunting. 
  Even worse, their master trained them to fight and 
  kill. The Lordless Assassin now drinks from a turn-
  coat vampire in the Coalition’s employ (or a torpid 
  prisoner in a secure facility), temporarily becoming 
  their ghoul in exchange for some morsels of power 
  they can use to hunt other blankbodies. They tell 
  themselves they can quit the vitae again whenever 
  they want. Maybe it’s true.
  General Difficulty: 5/3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  3, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 8, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics 7, Awareness 
  6, Brawl 7, Firearms 8, Stealth 7, Technology 6
  Equipment: Compound crossbow with wooden 
  stakes, garrote, thin-blood alchemical poison, 
  assortment of tools for breaking and entering
  Disciplines: Celerity or Potence 1
  Special: The Lordless Assassin still has numerous 
  contacts amongst their master’s faction or 
  court. Some still owe the former ghoul a debt, 
  or remember them fondly. In the course of 
  their hunt, they can convert one failed roll into 
  a success. 
  VARIANT: VITAE TWEAKER
  Some ghouls never had a master. They heard a ru-
  mor about vampires, and that drinking their blood 
  gave you power, and they believed it. So they went 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  5 1
  hunting for the ultimate high. Most of them died. 
  Some of them didn’t. In Los Angeles in the 1990s, 
  the Young Blood cycle gang built itself on vitae 
  drained from Kindred who found themselves slower 
  than motorcycles. The cartels eventually broke up 
  the Young Bloods, but enough of them escaped to 
  other cities to keep the dream alive – the dream of 
  magic blood that makes you superhuman.
  Vitae tweakers generally wire into the city’s drug 
  trade somehow. They often cross paths with thin-
  blood alchemists, who often hang with the same 
  fixers and shop in the same marketplace.
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  4, Mental 3 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 8, Willpower 5
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Brawl 7, Drive 
  (Motorcycle) 7, Firearms 6, Melee 7, Technology 
  (Repair Cycle) 6 
  Equipment: Motorcycle, chain lasso, sawed-
  off shotgun, big stupid pistol (Desert Eagle or 
  equivalent), helmet, phlebotomist’s lancet and 
  vacuum syringe
  Disciplines: Potence 1, or another dot of the 
  Storyteller’s choice
  Special: Vitae tweakers hunt in packs. For every 
  additional tweaker on a motorcycle or otherwise 
  part of the gang, add one die to their initial attack 
  or ambush pool. Reduce this bonus by half for 
  ongoing pursuits, hunts, etc.
  Building OPFOR
  The OPFOR (Opposing Force) is the team that 
  hunts your players’ vampire characters. When build-
  ing this force consider what part of the Coalition 
  they answer to and how the player characters got on 
  their radar. Each OPFOR is a unique character in its 
  own right, with a history and way of doing things 
  that shapes and drives the story of their hunt. Flesh-
  ing out this backstory not only gives the OPFOR 
  greater narrative impact, it also helps the players 
  understand and counter this force.
  OPFOR Backgrounds
  OPFORs often come with built-in Backgrounds 
  and even Merits and Flaws. The force holds these 
  characteristics in common, along with two traits 
  (Reach and Scope) that help define the limits of 
  their capabilities within an operation. They func-
  tion like coterie Backgrounds (Corebook, p. 196); 
  generally assume the team’s commander has access 
  to these dots if needed on a roll. 
  Some Backgrounds depend not on the type of 
  OPFOR but on its parent organization: FIRST-
  LIGHT and IAO teams can generally call on 
  Resources ••••, while the other Five Torches have 
  to watch their budgets, and local hunter clubs may 
  have nothing more than a panel van and shotguns.
  Regardless of their type or parent organization, 
  most OPFORs come equipped with military grade 
  weaponry such as M4 carbines or AK-74M assault 
  rifles, along with stakes, body armor, and sturdy 
  pursuit vehicles. (In some countries, even Chaff and 
  Monster Squads can muster impressive amounts of 
  firepower.) More advanced weaponry or specialized 
  toys are available to individual foes based on their 
  Antagonist role, but some OPFOR types give access 
  to specialized ammunition or vehicles in their Pos-
  sible Extras.
  REACH
  Reach is a trait that defines an OPFOR’s operational 
  limits. While an OPFOR can work outside of this 
  parameter it is not a decision they take lightly as the 
  EXAMPLE
  The player coterie made a ghoul out of a banker 
  that was laundering money for criminals linked to 
  the Russian GRU. When the ghoul was discovered 
  and questioned, the coterie was identified by the 
  Second Inquisition. Since you’re using the GRU in 
  your story, you’ve decided to make a Wet Team (p. 
  57) OPFOR. This gives every hunter in the force 
  Mask 3 and the Zeroed advantage. Looking at the 
  Wet Team’s Common Force Mix, you decide the 
  force will primarily contain Warriors and one Black-
  Bagger. Looking at the Possible Extras you also 
  decide to give them access to stealth helicopters. 
  You name the OPFOR “The Clean Team” and decide 
  they’re a group of former Mafiya hit men that the 
  GRU sometimes calls in when they want to deny 
  their involvement in a potentially messy operation.
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  5 2
  force loses any benefits it usually gets from its type 
  when working beyond its Reach. This trait also 
  reflects the OPFOR’s understanding of its strategic 
  role in the Coalition. You can use Reach in any rel-
  evant Mental pool rolled by the OPFOR as a whole, 
  to represent briefings, familiarities, and training 
  flexibility. 
  Reach
  •
  Local, only operates within a city or province
  ••
  National, only operates within a country or 
  under very specific conditions 
  •••
  Regional, operates within a group of allied or 
  bordering countries 
  ••••
  Global, borders and international law do not 
  hinder operations
  SCOPE
  Scope defines an OPFOR’s standard tactical proce-
  dures and readiness. Escalating beyond these limits 
  requires the direct intervention from a superior in 
  the conspiracy, and unsettles the OPFOR troopers. 
  Add Scope to the combat pool for the OPFOR in 
  One-Roll combats (Corebook, pp. 298-299), or split 
  it among the OPFOR hunters in a more granular 
  fight. Storytellers might subtract Scope from Social 
  pools used by the OPFOR on human targets: no al-
  derman likes having a black-ops kill squad show up 
  in their district! A wise OPFOR gets Influence first, 
  to soften the blow, or keeps its visible Scope down.
  Scope
  •
  Legal, uses bureaucracy, forensics and police/
  paramilitary forces
  ••
  Semi-Legal, uses public data mining and 
  proportional military force
  •••
  Illegal, uses hacking, torture and indiscrimi-
  nate force
  ••••
  Supernatural, uses occult powers, prophecy 
  and mystical artifacts
  OPFOR Force Mix
  OPFORs comprise many individual Storyteller 
  characters. To the vampires they hunt these hunter 
  teams may seem like a faceless group of stormtroop-
  ers, but each has their own story that brought them 
  into the Second Inquisition. When building these 
  teams start by choosing the OPFOR’s type as this 
  informs what kind of Antagonists will be most 
  common in the team, their overall goals and what 
  kind of tools they’ll have at their disposal. While it 
  might not be possible to flesh out every member of 
  a UTR team sent to capture the Tremere Primogen, 
  the OPFOR’s primary Storyteller characters should 
  have some depth to them starting with their An-
  tagonist role and organizational allegiance within 
  the conspiracy. Even just briefly noting how these 
  individual Storyteller characters became inspired 
  by the Second Inquisition (or if they just go where 
  they’re sent for a paycheck) can also give them a 
  lot of depth.
  A standard UTR OPFOR ranges between a 
  squad (9-12) and an understrength platoon (20-30) 
  in numbers, usually led by a Social specialist with 
  a large core of Physical operators and any super-
  natural specialists they can get. A fully fleshed out 
  OPFOR also has a Fixer or Techie who handles the 
  logistics of the operation and two or three investiga-
  tors usually drawn from the Techie or Sleuth roles. 
  The listed Common Force Mix for each OPFOR 
  type refers only to the most likely members, those 
  most key to the listed mission. Every OPFOR brings 
  a Hitter or two of some sort, for example.
  Types of OPFOR
  The Coalition is a conspiracy of many parts, and 
  even on the ground floor hunters find countless 
  ways to organize themselves. When creating an 
  OPFOR choose a type from the list below or invent 
  EXAMPLE
  You decide “The Clean Team” will have 15 members. Their leader is a former KGB Blackmailer named 
  Sacha who was recruited into the Eighth Direction while in prison. The Clean Team is mostly composed of 
  former criminals Sacha either met in prison or blackmailed. They are a mix of Warriors, Snipers and Clear-
  ance Specialists. A Hacker and a Detective round out the team's investigative capabilities, while a thin-blood 
  Daywalker known as Pervez sometimes freelances with the team when needed. Lastly, a Politician named 
  Michael cleans up after this OPFOR in exchange for favors from the Russian government.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  5 3
  your own. Each type provides a suggested Reach 
  and Scope for the OPFOR, and some likely Advan-
  tages. The writeup lists the most common types of 
  Antagonists in the OPFOR along with the com-
  mon Resonances of their blood, though only the 
  most foolish vampires would seek out these hunters 
  for that. Lastly, possible extras underline the story 
  elements, equipment, and vehicles that the OPFOR 
  would have available to it on most missions beyond 
  the standard loadout. These OPFOR types should 
  be used as guidelines and are in no way exhaustive.
  AUDITORS
  Blankbodies are masters of infesting mortal institu-
  tions with their sycophants and blood slaves. While 
  the Coalition remains fairly confi dent that their 
  own numbers remain clean of blankbody infl u-
  ence, the danger still exists. This is especially true 
  of large bureaucracies and governments that cannot 
  be monitored continuously. Auditors ferret out 
  blankbody infl uence in the Coalition members and 
  in other mortal institutions. When they fi nd it, they 
  rip it out and trace the corruption back to its source. 
  Their role as internal auditors especially has made 
  them few friends in the Coalition or elsewhere. 
  Particularly savvy blankbodies know to target 
  these hunters when they come sniffi  ng around. 
  Auditor teams most often come from the ranks 
  of FIRSTLIGHT or SAD, or from Society of St. 
  Leopold Censors.
  ■ Reach: •••
  ■ Scope: ••
  ■ Allies: ••
  ■ Infl uence: ••
  ■ Enemies: ••
  Common Force Mix: Bear-Leader, Blackmailer, 
  Burrower, Hacker
  Common Resonances: Melancholy, Sanguine
  Possible Extras: XScopes, heavy data mining
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  5 4
  CENACLE
  The Vatican’s Entity and the Society of St. Leopold 
  use Cenacles as proving grounds for young hunt-
  ers and vigilantes unused to working in modern 
  units. Fresh recruits and vampire hunters who have 
  worked alone for years are thrust together under the 
  direction of a seasoned hunter determined to whip 
  them into a working combat unit. Cenacles often 
  target weaker blankbodies in daytime raids, but 
  they take on any mission in service to the Society. 
  While the constant churn of recruits means that 
  these OPFORs seldom achieve operational excel-
  lence, they are a constant source of innovation and 
  experimentation.
  ■ Reach: • or ••
  ■ Scope: •
  ■ Allies: ••
  ■ Contacts: •••
  ■ Special: Cenacles have a high turnover rate and 
  suff er no organizational penalties when losing or 
  gaining a signifi cant number of new recruits.  
  Common Force Mix: Amateur, Burrower, Lone 
  Wolf, Nullifi er if available
  Common Resonances: Choleric, Melancholy
  Possible Extras: Safehouses, artifacts (especially 
  regalia and relics)
  CHAFF
  The Five Torches can’t respond to every alarm with 
  a full UTR strike force. Sometimes they send one or 
  two operatives in to recruit or suborn a local SWAT 
  team, militia, or street gang into fi ghting the local 
  blankbodies until the grownups can get there and 
  clean up. The Chaff  OPFOR doesn’t always even 
  know it’s fi ghting vampires … at fi rst.
  ■ Reach: •
  ■ Scope: •
  ■ Allies: ••
  ■ Special: Chaff  members have poor morale 
  against vampires at fi rst; until properly blooded 
  the OPFOR must make a Willpower test to stay 
  in the fi ght each round (roll once against the 
  listed Willpower for a sample antagonist)
  Common Force Mix: Amateurs, with an 
  occasional Sniper or Warrior; led by an SI Bear-
  Leader or Lone Wolf
  Common Resonances: Choleric, Melancholy
  Possible Extras: Home-brew explosives or napalm
  MINOTAUR
  Also called guardians, Minotaur OPFORs protect 
  an important location or secret of the Coalition. 
  While their operational objective is defensive, 
  most Minotaurs seek to proactively destroy the 
  area’s blankbodies as part of their guard duties. 
  The Society of Leopold’s Condottieri defi ne this 
  OPFOR type.
  ■ Reach: •
  ■ Scope: •••
  ■ Influence: ••
  ■ Special: Add two dice to the OPFOR’s pools 
  to resist the discovery of their base or safehouse, 
  or to protect their charge in combat or by other 
  means
  Common Force Mix: Clearance 
  Specialists, Snipers
  Common Resonances: Melancholy, Phlegmatic
  Possible Extras: Claymore mines, laser tripwires
  MONSTER SQUAD
  New to vampire hunting, possibly unfamiliar with 
  the Coalition as a conspiracy, but the Monster 
  Squad has joined the Second Inquisition nonethe-
  less. The Monster Squad may not be aware of the 
  nature of the threat they are hunting, or might hunt 
  multiple types of supernatural creatures. A Mon-
  ster Squad rarely leaves their hometown and their 
  quest to destroy vampires often starts from a desire 
  to protect their neighbors. In short they are a band 
  of amateurs who decided to team-up and try their 
  hand at wiping out bloodsuckers. Often, their only 
  advantages are luck and their deep knowledge of 
  their home turf.  
  ■ Reach: •
  ■ Scope: •
  ■ Contacts: •••
  ■ Special: Monster Squads can ignore a Domain’s 
  Portillon rating when escaping from vampires.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  5 5
  Common Force Mix: Amateurs, Dealer or 
  Detective, Weaponer
  Common Resonances: Choleric, Sanguine
  Possible Extras: Safehouses, panel van or big 
  powerful SUV, silver bullets
  NIGHT WATCH
  These teams work to maintain what’s left of the 
  Masquerade for the Coalition, not to protect the 
  vampires but to keep society from grinding to a 
  halt. Night Watch teams keep fairly stationary but 
  travel to clean up particularly big messes. Bribes, 
  threats, and media manipulation are all part of their 
  job, but they are still hunters. Nothing heals the 
  Masquerade faster than destroying the supernatu-
  rals that tore its fabric. 
  The UK’s SO13 have the most eff ective Night 
  Watch OPFORs in existence, though their focus 
  is often less on the protection of mortals and more 
  on the liquidation of blankbodies. Perhaps a Night 
  Watch’s most important goal is to prevent the nor-
  malization of vampirism. The only thing more dan-
  gerous than allowing the blankbodies to dominate 
  humankind would be allowing them to integrate or 
  make peace with us.
  ■ Reach: • or ••
  ■ Scope: ••
  ■ Resources: •••
  ■ Influence: ••
  ■ Common Force Mix: Snipers, Hackers, Gen-
  trifi er or Politician
  Common Resonances: Melancholy, Phlegmatic
  Possible Extras: Drones, XScopes, fast pursuit 
  vehicles, safehouses 
  PRAETORIANS
  This OPFOR specializes in the protection of VIPs 
  and places of particular importance to the Coali-
  tion. Hedgehog cities (p. 155) have a near permanent 
  Praetorian presence. These squads are very limited 
  in their operational purview but have access to 
  the full might of the Second Inquisition. Only the 
  deadliest implements of war are out of their reach 
  and even those can be called upon if their charges 
  are in peril. The Condottieri of St. Leopold serve 
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  5 6
  as the Entity’s Praetorians; FIRSTLIGHT has (not 
  enough) read-in cells within the U.S. Secret Service 
  and Diplomatic Security Service.
  ■ Reach: •
  ■ Scope: ••••
  ■ Influence: •••
  Common Force Mix: Warrior, Clearance 
  Specialist, Sniper, Socialite
  Common Resonances: Melancholy
  Possible Extras: Drones, MRAPs, safehouses, 
  heavy weapons, XScopes, artifacts, incendiary 
  ammunition
  RECCE
  Before the eradication teams go in, someone has to 
  find their targets, and that someone is Recce, also 
  known as Recon, Scouts, or The Hounds. FIRST-
  LIGHT, the GRU, and JTRG insert Recce teams 
  into Kindred-dominated cities or into well-defend-
  ed hunting grounds in Open Cities (p. 149). BOES 
  and Leopold prefer to build Recce around a small 
  (one or two) cadre of specialists, mostly using local 
  hunters who know the city well.
  ■ Reach: •••
  ■ Scope: ••
  ■ Contacts: • add one dot per month deployed
  ■ Influence: ••
  Common Force Mix: Burrower, Detective, 
  Dealer, Black-Bagger, Tails
  Common Resonances: Sanguine, Phlegmatic
  Possible Extras: Drones, XScopes, safehouses, 
  surveillance net
  ROVERS
  FIRSTLIGHT, the GRU, and even the Vatican 
  keep many different private military contractors 
  (PMCs) on speed-dial, to take on problems in places 
  the Five Torches can’t easily or immediately enter. 
  ESOG and Brazil’s PMEX often stiffen a Rover OP-
  FOR as “target specialist” cadre. Despite their repu-
  tation as vigilantes and mercenaries, one auto-da-fé 
  usually converts Rovers into dedicated upholders of 
  the Second Inquisition. Rovers often deploy to clear 
  out blankbody nests that have grown up in rural ar-
  eas, or to back up other OPFORs badly outgunned 
  by their adversaries. 
  ■ Reach: ••••
  ■ Scope: ••
  ■ Contacts: ••
  Common Force Mix: Bear-Leader, Breacher, 
  Lone Wolf, Snatcher, Warrior
  Common Resonances: Phlegmatic, Sanguine
  Possible Extras: Pursuit vehicles, armored SUVs, 
  APCs, heavy machine guns, mortars, helicopters
  SAVIORS
  While all hunters in the Second Inquisition wish 
  to see the world cleansed of blankbodies, Saviors 
  understand that vampires are just a symptom of 
  a very sick world. An unpopular doctrine within 
  the Coalition, FIRSTLIGHT and the Newburgh 
  Group deprecate it least. (In the Society of St. Leo-
  pold, the so-called Sanbenito movement embodies 
  this type.) Saviors believe that they can use vampires 
  to solve the underlying problems of the world such 
  as climate change and environmental collapse.  
  ■ Reach: •••
  ■ Scope: ••
  ■ Influence: •••
  ■ Enemies: ••
  Common Force Mix: Canary, Deprogrammer, 
  Flagellant, Snatchers
  Common Resonances: Choleric, Melancholy
  Possible Extras: Artifacts
  SPECIAL DEPLOYMENT TEAM (SDT)
  Also known as Snatch Squads, these UTR teams 
  specialize in capturing blankbodies and transport-
  ing them to secure locations. Other specialized 
  transfer teams then render the targets to a black 
  site where they can be processed and interrogated. 
  These teams put a premium on acquiring high-
  value targets mostly intact, but they use lethal 
  force if necessary. Snatchers are often associated 
  with FIRSTLIGHT and the FBI’s SAD, but the 
  GRU Eighth Direction has also had some success 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  5 7
  with rendition. Since SDTs regularly operate across 
  national borders without legal sanction, they often 
  have to plan their operations around hostile local 
  law enforcement. 
  ■ Reach: ••••
  ■ Scope: ••
  ■ Enemies: ••
  Common Force Mix: Snatcher, Breacher, 
  Deprogrammer 
  Common Resonances: Melancholy, Sanguine 
  Possible Extras: Stealth helicopters, armored 
  SUVs, robotic dogs
  TASK FORCE
  The highest echelons of the Coalition charge a Task 
  Force with a particular mission or quest, usually 
  under the strictest secrecy. The Task Force may 
  often have to put aside vampire hunting in search 
  of a long lost artifact or powerful secret that could 
  give the conspiracy a strategic edge. Unlike other 
  OPFORs, the Task Force often tries to avoid engag-
  ing blankbodies to stay focused on their core objec-
  tive whatever that may be. The Task Force gives 
  the Storyteller the option to put the hunters on the 
  defensive as they try to keep their secrets out of the 
  player character's hands. The GRU often use Task 
  Forces to hunt down artifacts and other mystical 
  objects.  
  ■ Reach: ••••
  ■ Scope: •••
  ■ Allies: •••
  Common Force Mix: Black-Bagger, Burrower, 
  Detectives 
  Common Resonances: Choleric
  Possible Extras: Drones, stealth 
  helicopters, XScopes
  TRAITORS
  This OPFOR secretly works for the vampires and 
  they might not even know it. Either a blankbody 
  such as a Cleaver (p. 49) has infiltrated the team 
  itself, or they’ve become subborned at a higher level. 
  They may never know the truth as they carry out 
  missions that furthers the agenda of the undead. 
  After taking this OPFOR type, choose another one 
  as the cover type for this one.
  ■ Reach: ••••
  ■ Scope: •
  ■ Special: Gain all of the benefits and drawbacks 
  of their chosen cover OPFOR type
  Common Force Mix: Amateur, Cleaver, 
  False Flagger 
  Common Resonances: Melancholy, Sanguine
  Possible Extras: As their chosen cover 
  OPFOR Type. 
  WET TEAM
  The signature OPFOR of the GRU Eighth Direc-
  tion and the Gladius Dei, Wet Teams are UTR 
  squads laser focused on the elimination of danger-
  ous blankbodies with the precision use of violence. 
  (The term comes from the old Russian slang for 
  assassinations, “wet work.”) Also known as Dust 
  Teams, they limit their use of local assets and rely 
  on their own skill to get close to their targets and 
  destroy them. Unlike other OPFORs, Wet Teams 
  do not capture when given the chance and usually 
  only target one or two blankbodies for destruction 
  before pulling out of an area. Wet Team operatives 
  develop elaborate cover identities and have their old 
  lives completely digitally zeroed out.
  ■ Reach: ••••
  ■ Scope: •••
  ■ Mask: ••• (Zeroed)
  Common Force Mix: Warrior, Flagellant, 
  Black-Bagger 
  Common Resonances: Phlegmatic
  Possible Extras: Stealth helicopter, incendiary 
  ammunition and explosives
  Example OPFOR: 
  Special Deployment Team 
  ‘WHITEHORSE’
  FIRSTLIGHT mostly provides intelligence task-
  ings for IAO strike forces and UTR teams stationed 
  at American bases around the world. But much like 
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  5 8
  the CIA it interpenetrates, FIRSTLIGHT likes 
  having its own backup paramilitary units for opera-
  tions a little too special to be shared outside the 
  family. WHITEHORSE combines a political action 
  team with a UTR squad of CIA vets, redeployed 
  specops, and mercenaries. The UTR troopers have 
  been read in on the blankbody threat but have lim-
  ited knowledge of the Coalition’s global reach and 
  strategic alliances.
  FIRSTLIGHT usually calls on WHITE-
  HORSE to close down impromptu efforts by rogue 
  blankbodies to expose their existence to the public, 
  or to capture high-value targets identified as emerg-
  ing imminent threats. WHITEHORSE missions 
  necessarily require complex, fluid handling. If all 
  they needed was to set a haven on fire, FIRST-
  LIGHT has IAO strike teams or the FBI for that.
  WHITEHORSE works out of forward operat-
  ing bases and safehouses that put them within strik-
  ing distance of their targets.
  ■ Reach: ••••
  ■ Scope: ••
  OPERATIONAL PROCEDURE
  FIRSTLIGHT teams are supposed to follow a list 
  of standard operating procedures when neutral-
  izing or apprehending blankbodies, but WHITE-
  HORSE’s prolonged time in the field and high 
  success rate has made them more comfortable with 
  improvisation. They clean up messes and slap down 
  fast moving enemy plots to subvert the Coalition’s 
  cover story. When WHITEHORSE activates, they 
  understand the tactical environment may quickly 
  shift from a covert snatch job to open kinetic opera-
  tions against heavily armed supernatural hostiles.
  WHITEHORSE follows this checklist as best 
  they can, but aren’t afraid to take shortcuts when 
  the mission objectives require; 
  1. Ping: A FIRSTLIGHT analyst determines 
  that an active threat is underway and vets the 
  data streams with the Heartbeat algorithm. If 
  Heartbeat determines the probability of a false 
  positive is low a FIRSTLIGHT action order is 
  issued to WHITEHORSE’s CIA Field Supervisor 
  Lori Olson. Olson coordinates with their 
  Political Liaison Cesar Ward to determine how 
  to prepare the operational area for action. The 
  FIRSTLIGHT Strike Team preps and deploys 
  to an over-the-horizon staging area to hurry up 
  and wait. 
  2. Mark the Targets: Olson reads in her Target 
  Analysts, Fixers and Technicians. Usually these 
  are CIA or NSA careerists cleared to work for 
  FIRSTLIGHT, but if the operation is on US 
  territory, Olson uses SAD investigators instead. 
  Working with Olson they use the processed data 
  provided by Heartbeat to profile and identify the 
  blankbodies while en route to the operational 
  area. A three-person work crew is drawn from this 
  team to probe and determine the target’s course of 
  action in the Feedback phase.
  3. Feedback: Political Liaison Cesar Ward 
  prepares local authorities for the operation with 
  a cover story in case things get loud. Olson and 
  Ward then direct the work crew to observe 
  and penetrate the decision making space of the 
  targeted blankbodies. This usually starts with 
  Patrick Ngyuen bugging their vehicles and private 
  areas while Ming Hewitt uses her eyes on the street 
  to track their movements. Once their herds and 
  havens have been pinpointed Mohammad Kassim 
  infiltrates their inner circle as a Blood Doll. 
  4. Deployment: The UTR squad deploys to a 
  safehouse near the operational area acquired by 
  Olson and briefed on their targets by Hewitt. 
  Ward and Olson cut off potential escape routes 
  for the blankbodies by targeting their assets and 
  influences with local interference. At this point 
  Olson briefs Aqsa on the operation; Aqsa then 
  coordinates with Mohammad Kassim to taint 
  the blankbodies’ herd. (She also feels out the local 
  Alchemist underground.) Nguyen disables any 
  secondary vehicles owned by the targets and rigs 
  their primary vehicle with an explosive. This is 
  an insurance policy in case the blankbodies evade 
  the Strike Team. If the mission calls for direct air 
  support, Olson requisitions a helicopter.
  5. Execution: The UTR squad gets the green 
  light. Kassim and Aqsa pull back from the 
  operational area. Two armored SUVs containing 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  5 9
  eight members of the strike team converge on the 
  primary blankbody nest during the early hours 
  of the morning. The team receives final orders: 
  Burn or (more rarely) Bag. Olson cuts power and 
  communications around the blankbody nest 
  using her local influence. On a Burn order, WH 
  Fire Team Alpha takes point, entering the target 
  site and destroying every man-sized target within. 
  WH Fire Team Bravo acts as mobile reserve ready 
  to take down any blankbodies that escape the 
  perimeter. On a Bag order, Bravo takes point, 
  backed up by Alpha as perimeter. They restrain 
  all blankbodies in sunbags (Corebook, p. 378) 
  and place them in the SUV’s reinforced coffin 
  compartments. In either case, WH Fire Team 
  Delta provides overwatch, and air support if 
  necessary, and a third armored SUV containing 
  WH Fire Team Charlie waits in reserve in case 
  the blankbodies attempt to hunker down. Ward 
  activates the cross-media cover story and seeds 
  fake social media posts where useful. A hostage 
  situation or terrorist militia is blamed and local 
  police block roads into the area. 
  6. Exfiltration: Once the Strike Team has dusted 
  (or secured) the targets, they rendezvous at a pre-
  established exfiltration point. On a Bag mission, 
  Olson informs them of the rendition area, usually 
  an airstrip outside the operational area already 
  under FIRSTLIGHT or CIA control or cover. 
  From that point, FIRSTLIGHT transfers the 
  blankbodies to the nearest sunny black site by air. 
  Ward covers the fallout generated by the operation, 
  while Olson secures any financial records left 
  behind by the blankbodies for future investigation 
  by FIRSTLIGHT forensic accountants. 
  SAC/PAG TEAM
  LORI OLSON, CIA FIELD SUPERVISOR
  Lori’s advancement in the CIA is a credit to her am-
  bition, but FIRSTLIGHT approached her because 
  of her legacy. In its early days FIRSTLIGHT prior-
  itized loyalty even over proven skill. In Lori Olson 
  they found an officer with a long family history in 
  the agency’s Political Action division. The CIA 
  was in her blood and FIRSTLIGHT leveraged that 
  bond to get her on board. Since then she’s proven 
  a capable manager with an almost intuitive sense 
  of how blankbodies slink through the shadowy 
  corners of finance and politics. She sees WHITE-
  HORSE as a model for Coalition operations and 
  sees other hunters as a potential vulnerability that 
  could expose the entire conspiracy. She has reached 
  out to a few “wizards” elsewhere in the Coalition to 
  second to WHITEHORSE if the situation calls for 
  supernatural escalation.
  Lori tries to balance quick action with prepara-
  tion. Invading and subverting enemies’ decision-
  making process keeps them off balance so that her 
  team can move in and exploit their unexpected 
  weakness. This means isolating the tools blankbod-
  ies use to empower themselves and turning them 
  against the monsters. They need blood and dark-
  ness. So she poisons the blood and turns on the 
  lights. Olson understands that blankbodies use the 
  cracks in the system to hide themselves. She also 
  knows that while paranoia is a necessary virtue in 
  her line of work, trusting her team is the only way 
  she can make progress. 
  Lori Olson is a Gentrifier.
  CESAR WARD, POLITICAL LIAISON
  (RETIRED NSA)
  For almost 30 years Cesar Ward worked in the 
  NSA as an analyst, manager and programmer 
  before moving to the private sector in the early 
  2000s where he made a killing as a tech investor. 
  He spends most of his time now on his sprawling 
  Wyoming ranch surrounded by his children and 
  grandchildren. Despite his long service record in the 
  NSA, Ward was only recruited by FIRSTLIGHT 
  after he retired. His Rolodex includes an eclectic list 
  of government officials, spies, and industry leaders 
  and makes him a one-man PR machine. WHITE-
  HORSE depends on his connections to cover their 
  tracks and grease the wheels of their operations.
  Unknown to FIRSTLIGHT, Ward actually 
  became aware of the blankbody threat in the early 
  1990s when his daughter Leticia was turned into 
  a ghoul by Camarilla agents infiltrating the NSA. 
  He helped target their enemies for a decade, alter-
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  6 0
  nately hoping for his daughter’s Embrace and for 
  her death. When Leticia vanished during the first 
  wave of IAO attacks in 2002, he went to work for 
  FIRSTLIGHT under cover of retirement. (SAD 
  agents with top-shelf security systems and XScopes 
  protect his ranch and his remaining family.) He 
  doggedly hunts the vampire threat, while simul-
  taneously trying to find and protect his daughter 
  using his access to FIRSTLIGHT databases and 
  back channels.
  Cesar Ward is a Hacker with Politics 7, Resourc-
  es 5, and Influence 3 (Tech Community).
  PATRICK NGUYEN, CIA FIELD TECHNICIAN
  Pat never thought he’d end up working for the gov-
  ernment, let alone a globe spanning conspiracy to 
  hunt vampires. He was always a tinkerer and grew 
  up taking things apart and putting them back to-
  gether in his family junkyard outside Houston. He 
  wanted to be an engineer but life had other plans. 
  When organized criminals set up a chop shop in his 
  family’s business, Patrick quickly got caught up in 
  the hustle. He had a talent for taking cars apart and 
  the money kept his dreams of engineering school 
  alive. He even started a side business of his own, 
  modifying vehicles for street racing with elaborate 
  nitrous injection systems. Unfortunately his talents 
  also didn’t go unnoticed by the police. 
  Patrick first met Lori Olson in a Texas holding 
  cell. She was cold and matter of fact with an offer 
  that would change his life and he jumped at the 
  chance. He didn’t know all the details at the time, 
  but one of his customers was a vampire and Lori 
  wanted to put a little something extra in his Beemer. 
  That first job was the hardest, but since then he’s 
  learned so much from the agency and he’s never 
  looked back. When Patrick thinks about his vic-
  tims, he imagines the look on their face when they 
  turn the ignition. The confusion when the car’s 
  engine doesn’t turn over smoothly. The shock and 
  realization when they feel the heat and fire through 
  the floorboards. That first time was hard, but now 
  he can only smile. 
  Patrick Nguyen is a Mechanic (Black-Bagger).
  MING HEWITT, DIA OPERATIVE
  Prematurely aged by years in military intelligence, 
  Ming is used to being overlooked. She started her 
  career as an officer in ONI but her talent for human 
  intelligence brought her to the attention of the DIA 
  and she was soon working on the National Joint 
  Terrorism Task Force. At NJTTF she worked with 
  officers from all over the U.S. intelligence com-
  munity and her talent for recruiting informants in 
  communities of color was appreciated by old hands 
  that were suspicious of over-reliance on signals 
  work. Ironically it was the tech savvy Cesar Ward 
  who recruited Ming into FIRSTLIGHT through 
  his NSA contacts at NJTTF.
  Ming is unsentimental about her work. She 
  knows that creating networks of paid spies and 
  snitches in vulnerable communities is corrosive to 
  democracy, but she's fighting monsters. Once the 
  world is safe from blankbodies and the rest there’ll 
  be time to repair the damage done. Until then she 
  focuses on the mission.
  Ming Hewitt is a Mother Hen (Tail).
  MOHAMMAD KASSIM, CIA OPERATIVE
  Originally recruited as a target analyst by the CIA 
  to develop profiles on extremists in North Africa, 
  in 2008 Mohammad was wounded in the field and 
  dragged off into the night when a forward operat-
  ing base was overrun by a pack of blankbodies. 
  Mohammed and several others were fed upon and 
  dominated by the blankbodies in a ritual ceremony 
  in the deep desert. While the others in his group 
  succumbed to the domination, Mohammad was 
  somehow able to resist and over time regained full 
  control. Though he had to overpower and kill 
  one of his former colleagues, he was able to signal 
  FIRSTLIGHT forces that had been tracking the 
  blankbodies. Most of the monsters escaped, but 
  Mohammed was now a novel recruit for the Second 
  Inquisition.  
  Despite several medical examinations it remains 
  unclear why Mohammad can resist the subversive 
  power of blankbody blood. Regardless of the rea-
  sons, his time in the desert changed him. Moham-
  mad relishes his time hiding among the undead’s 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  6 1
  herd and takes a perverse pleasure in the feelings of 
  betrayal and satisfaction that well up in him when-
  ever they feed from his blood. He works closely with 
  Aqsa, feeling a bond with her close to the bond he 
  briefly had with the blankbody killers. Mohammad 
  is often the one who directly poisons herds with 
  Aqsa’s concoctions.
  Mohammad Kassim is a Blood Doll (Cuck-
  oo) with something like a Short Bond (Core-
  book, p. 181).
  AQSA, CIA GHOUL ASSET
  Captured by Society of Leopold hunters outside 
  of Oran in 1998, Aqsa was slowly weaned off Vitae 
  by enforced fasting and constant prayer. She was 
  on her way to Egypt with her master, who had 
  been recruited for the beginnings of the Gehenna 
  War by someone she knew as “the Emir.” In 2002, 
  her testimony proved extremely convincing to 
  American CIA agents in the process of establish-
  ing FIRSTLIGHT. The Society turned her over 
  to FIRSTLIGHT as a source of intelligence, and 
  she broke her fast on the first of several captured 
  blankbodies in 2004. Her relapse disgusts her, but 
  she tells herself she can’t help it – and the eagerness 
  of her FIRSTLIGHT handlers to weaponize her 
  condition doesn’t help either. A fumbled FIRST-
  LIGHT mission into Cairo blew her cover; she 
  remains hunted by the blankbody faction the Emir 
  represents.
  Olson has recruited her with the promise of a 
  final, scientific cure for her addiction, and with a 
  record of competence unusual in CIA operations. 
  Aqsa believes that FIRSTLIGHT, unlike the Vati-
  can, captures blankbodies to study and cure them. 
  The team’s problem solver when they come up 
  against the supernatural, she has thrown herself into 
  the study of alchemy as a possible middle ground 
  between blood addiction and mundane mortality. 
  She usually sets up a lab at a safehouse procured 
  by Olson but away from the rest of the operational 
  team; when possible, she makes contact with local 
  Alchemists to secure elixirs in exchange for various 
  controlled substances her CIA connections provide 
  her. She improvises readily in the field when the 
  team encounters unique threats, or the standard 
  operating procedure seems inadequate.
  Aqsa is a Ghoul XTechnician (p. 29) with Physi-
  cal 6 and Occult 8 (Alchemy) instead of Science. 
  Her special ability crafts elixirs instead of gadgets, 
  with an Occult roll instead of Technology.
  UTR/WH STRIKE TEAM ELEMENTS
  SFC ROY VAUGHN: WH BRAVO, SOCOM
  The tactical commander of the WHITEHORSE 
  UTR Strike Team, FIRSTLIGHT recruited Sgt. 
  Vaughn after he was wounded in the Balkans by 
  an unidentified supernatural entity. Vaughn has 
  a distinctive facial scar and usually wears a black 
  patch over his left eye. He leads operations at the 
  head of the WH Bravo fire team. If shit hits the fan 
  Vaughn directs fire from his Charlie and Delta sup-
  port teams while Leland Moss and WH Alpha fix 
  enemies in place with suppressing fire. 
  Roy is a Clearance Specialist with Leadership 7 
  and Mask 2.
  FATIMA MANESS: WH BRAVO, CIA
  Fatima is a young operator added to the team after 
  a recent KIA. She has had limited contact with the 
  supernatural but is a veteran of covert snatch and 
  grab operations. She’s curious to see blankbodies 
  in action but understands they are dangerous and 
  deceptive creatures.  
  Fatima is a Snatcher.
  CLIFF CARNES: WH BRAVO, PMC
  After being drummed out of the Marine Force Re-
  connaissance, Cliff Carnes drifted in the grey limbo 
  of private military work for almost a decade before 
  he was recruited into FIRSTLIGHT. Cliff is usu-
  ally a calm presence on the field but the recent death 
  of his squadmate Malcom Freeman has rattled him. 
  Cliff uses a picture of Freeman and himself as the 
  lockscreen on his smartphone. 
  Cliff is a Snatcher.
  CPL FARIS AMER: WH BRAVO, SOCOM
  A veteran of the Vienna operation, Corporal Amer 
  is a jovial and popular squaddie with a million war 
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  6 2
  stories. His time sifting through the rubble of the 
  Vienna master nest and cleaning out the blank-
  bodies that survived made him the unit’s de facto 
  vampire expert. 
  Faris is a Snatcher with Occult (Vampires) 6.
  SGT LELAND MOSS: 
  WH ALPHA, SOCOM
  The team leader of WH Alpha, Leland fought with 
  force commander Roy Vaughn in the Balkans and 
  assumed he was KIA until he was recruited into 
  FIRSTLIGHT. Moss is curt and to the point, but 
  doesn’t throw his people into danger unnecessarily. 
  He knows his team’s job is to clear out any blank-
  body countermeasures and pin down any opposi-
  tion while the rest of the team flanks them. This 
  means WH Alpha often takes casualties.  
  Leland is a Breacher.
  HIRAM CONTRERAS: WH ALPHA, ESOG
  Since FIRSTLIGHT teams have limited knowledge 
  of the supernatural, ESOG recruits are sometimes 
  embedded into UTR teams. Hiram is a young but 
  sour faced hunter. His religious faith and penchant 
  for hand-to-hand combat has not always made him 
  a popular member of the WHITEHORSE family.
  Hiram is a Flagellant.
  CLYDE PAGE: WH ALPHA, CIA
  Brought into WHITEHORSE on the recom-
  mendation of senior leadership in the CIA, Page is 
  an operator with powerful friends. Although it’s 
  unclear why Clyde wanted to work on the frontlines 
  of the Second Inquisition, his fascination with fire 
  borders on the mentally unstable. Page’s hands bear 
  the signs of old chemical burns and while he rarely 
  has opportunity to use it, he meticulously main-
  tains his vintage flamethrower.   
  Clyde is a Firebug (Clearance Specialist) with an 
  M9 Flamethrower
  EVAN WATKINS: WH ALPHA, DEA
  Evan Watkins has come a long way from disman-
  tling vehicles looking for smuggled drugs and 
  money. Tearing apart havens for FIRSTLIGHT 
  looking for vampires hidden in the walls is Evan’s 
  dream come true. A gambling addict in recovery, 
  Evan was close to the end of his rope when the Sec-
  ond Inquisition gave his life new meaning. Nothing 
  compares to the thrill of playing hide and seek with 
  the undead.  
  Evan is a Breacher with Awareness (Concealed 
  Objects) 7.
  OMAR DALEY: WH CHARLIE, CIA
  Murder didn’t came naturally to Omar, but his 
  country needed him and if he had to sacrifice his 
  morals in its defense so be it. When FIRSTLIGHT 
  recruited him from the CIA he thought the work 
  would be more challenging but easier on his con-
  science. In actuality it has been a bore as he babysits 
  the back lines in case of an ambush or counter 
  attack. In his time in WHITEHORSE he’s decapi-
  tated three blankbodies and he’s not really sure why 
  everyone’s so scared of these things. 
  Omar is a Warrior.
  EILEEN HARRISON: WH CHARLIE, CIA
  Promoted to field work from a CIA workshop, Ei-
  leen helped design new Model XM11 flamethrowers 
  and shotgun-based stake launchers for the Second 
  Inquisition. Now she’s tasked with developing and 
  testing a new generation of weaponry that can be 
  covertly put into the field and deployed in extreme 
  situations. Eileen often gets caught up in the excite-
  ment of using her new toys against blankbodies 
  and this can make it easy for her to lose sight of the 
  collateral damage her weapons inflict. 
  Eileen is a Weaponer with an SUV mounted 
  20mm autocannon (Damage Value +8, divided 
  among multiple targets in its firing arc). It can also 
  be mounted on a helicopter.
  SPC JONATHAN LUNA: 
  WH DELTA, SOCOM
  Specialist Luna provides long-range support for his 
  team as it breaches blankbody nests. On most mis-
  sions he never fires a shot, but when needed he con-
  centrates fire on targets designated by Roy Vaugn 
  or his spotter Arlene Knudson. Jon is a skeptic and 
  still has trouble accepting that vampires exist. He’s 
  begun collecting evidence of WHITEHORSE’s 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  6 3
  activities in the field in hopes of discovering FIRST-
  LIGHT’s real agenda.
  Jon is a Sniper.
  CPL ARLENE KNUDSON: 
  WH DELTA, SOCOM
  Corporal Knudson acts as Luna’s spotter and 
  backup during missions. Her primary task is to alert 
  her partner to targets of opportunity and defend 
  their position from being overrun. Arlene is super-
  stitious and has undiagnosed OCD. Before missions 
  she repeats catchphrases to herself and compulsively 
  repeats simple tasks such as tying her shoes.   
  Arlene is a Sniper, but usually carries a shotgun 
  with Dragon’s Breath shells. She has a helicopter 
  pilot’s rating (Drive 5).
  Example OPFOR: 
  Cenacle of St. Margaret
  The faces of the cenacle’s members change and the 
  list of names read aloud in memoriam at the annual 
  night of remembrance grows ever longer, but the 
  Cenacle of St. Margaret has been in operation since 
  the seventeenth century. With an excellent track re-
  cord and immense amounts of experience amongst 
  its senior members, this cenacle is seen as a proving 
  ground for talented but inexperienced Leopoldite 
  agents. They’re rotated in and out regularly, both 
  to provide training to more up-and-coming agents 
  and to make sure the blankbodies don’t recognize 
  operatives by sight. 
  Operational command is a safe house near the 
  city limits, but the cenacle’s operatives do a lot of 
  work in the field.
  ■ Reach: ••
  ■ Scope: ••
  OPERATIONAL PROCEDURE
  The Society of St. Leopold didn’t survive for eight 
  centuries by drawing attention to themselves. The 
  Cenacle of St. Margaret moves slowly, advancing 
  their operations in a steady but almost impercep-
  tible drip. They have strong connections with a 
  network of local contacts, well-established processes 
  for passing and receiving information from them, 
  and can pull in operational support from other 
  organisations affiliated with the Second Inquisition 
  as needed. 
  If all goes well, operations flow as follows: 
  1. Alert: An informant, a news report, or a tip 
  from contacts in FIRSTLIGHT (or other setting-
  appropriate intelligence agency) triggers an 
  investigation. The first step is always vetting the 
  lead: cross-checking it with other sources, doing 
  as much as possible to make sure it’s not a trap or a 
  simple mistake.
  2. Ground work: Sister Dorothy taps her network 
  of local informants, putting meat on the bones of 
  the data analysis. She follows up rumors at street 
  level, city hall, and in any relevant subcultures, 
  while Adrian uses his connections in local politics 
  and high society. 
  3. Research: Finding common monsters is 
  comparatively easy. The powerful ones are always 
  well hidden. This is where David Colon comes 
  into play, digging into local archives and bodies 
  of knowledge. There’s always a record somewhere, 
  and vampires – especially powerful ones – don’t 
  travel much. A combination of genealogy, cash 
  flow, and other approaches, cross-referenced 
  against the leads Dorothy and Adrian acquire. 
  Results that don’t have direct bearing on the 
  current case go into the cenacle’s archives. They 
  become “general knowledge” allowing leaps of logic, 
  speeding up future investigations significantly. 
  There’s a lot of unverified but accurate knowledge 
  about the city’s Kindred in the cenacle’s database.
  4. Observation: Tailing, listening, monitoring, 
  courtesy of Matt Lusardi. Documenting 
  movements, routines, identifying other coterie 
  members/close allies, and haven(s). 
  5. Auto-da-fé: A rapid, targeted strike against 
  the blankbody or -bodies identified. They choose 
  daytime raids against moderately powerful 
  monsters, but sometimes opt for night strikes 
  against weaker ones: it’s easier to get an entire 
  coterie at the same time, that way. The Gladius Dei 
  team takes prisoners, preferably retainers or thin-
  bloods: people with some humanity left in them, 
  and who have reason to betray the real monsters. 
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  6 4
  VICARS
  ADRIAN CLAIRMONT
  According to offi  cial records, Bishop Adrian 
  Clairmont was excommunicated seventeen years 
  ago. He’s loudly queer, extremely outspoken, and 
  generally a PR disaster for the conservative church. 
  Adrian is all those things, but his excommunication 
  and overt rejection of the Church also provides ex-
  cellent cover for his work for the Society of Leopold. 
  Nobody suspects him of possessing a bone-deep 
  faith, or of being a soldier of Christ.
  Adrian’s excommunication followed his fi rst 
  encounter with a blankbody and covered for his 
  recruitment into the Society. He trained under 
  FIRSTLIGHT agents and with IAO teams, and he 
  maintains good relationships with those agencies. 
  His fi eldcraft is solid: he can tail a target, handle 
  a cover identity, and occasionally nail a headshot. 
  However, his real talent is the bird’s eye view. He 
  can prioritize, assign resources, and juggle com-
  mitments. That’s what he does as the Cenacle of 
  St. Margaret’s Abbé. He makes the big decisions 
  about when to act and how, and he holds the fate 
  of his team and the city’s blankbodies in the palm 
  of his hand.
  Adrian only gets personally involved in opera-
  tions when his high society contacts are required: 
  he’s a big personality, on every guest list, and he 
  gets to places Sister Dorothy could never dream 
  of accessing. His biggest weakness is his visibility: 
  if anyone ever connected him to the Inquisition, 
  he’d have to retreat to the black site, cutting off  an 
  important cenacle information source. 
  Adrian is a Bear-Leader with Fame 2.
  SISTER DOROTHY MURPHY
  Dorothy has been many things in her sixty-seven 
  years of life: con artist, convict, mendicant Carmel-
  ite nun, social worker, and now agent of the Second 
  Inquisition. For the last thirty years, she’s been all of 
  the last three simultaneously. 
  Sister Dorothy works closely with the city’s 
  unhoused population, at the head of a legion of 
  volunteers running soup kitchens, day centers, and 
  on-street check-in programs handing out blankets, 
  toiletries and food. And she believes in it, passion-
  ately and devoutly. She gets more funding for the 
  endeavor from the Society of St. Leopold than she 
  would from any other source and she makes good 
  use of it. She also keeps those people safe from the 
  monsters she’s been aware of for nearly forty years. 
  Dorothy knows everyone who uses her shelters. 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  6 5
  She’s there day and night, and she makes a point of 
  making friends. Most of her service users would die 
  for their tiny, chain-smoking, neck brace wearing 
  (“for my arthritis”) surrogate grandma, with her 
  brand of brutal honesty and tough love. She also 
  knows everyone who matters in city bureaucracy. 
  Sister Dorothy is the Cenacle of St. Margaret’s 
  information gatherer and manager of informants. 
  Once an alert is raised, it’s over to her to sift through 
  rumors on the street, ask questions, and check in 
  with her contacts at city hall. 
  Dorothy’s network is broad, but she cares too 
  much about her informants: she’s reluctant to 
  expose them to danger or leave them in harm’s 
  way, and this sometimes limits the use she gets 
  out of them.
  A combination of a Glock-42 (light draw, low 
  recoil) and True Faith (•••) mean Dorothy’s not 
  an easy target but if she’s left exposed in a combat 
  situation something’s gone terribly wrong. If so, 
  backup is exactly one voice command to her smart-
  watch away.
  Sister Dorothy is a Detective, with Insight 8 and 
  Influence 2 in the city.
  DAVID COLÓN
  David is nearly sixty, and in his forty years of work-
  ing for the Vatican and then the re-canonized Soci-
  ety of St. Leopold he has seen unimaginable horror. 
  His field days as an exorcist and assassin are far be-
  hind him, and he and his C-PTSD (symptoms: dif-
  ficulty regulating emotions; nightmares; flashbacks) 
  have fallen back on his seminary training. He’s the 
  cenacle’s archivist and historian, digging into city 
  archives and the collections in university libraries to 
  dig up background on operational targets. 
  Often his discoveries reveal vampiric holdings in 
  unexpected places: a long-forgotten connection to 
  the family of the local police chief, a ‘family interest’ 
  in a local art scene or theatre, or ownership of build-
  ings and land rented out through a complicated net-
  work of holding corporations. Resources, Contacts, 
  and potential Havens, in other words. It’s shocking 
  how often blankbodies don’t even bother changing 
  their name and David can find continuous records 
  going back eighty years or more. They were fat, 
  complacent parasites until very recently and that 
  makes David sick. He’s intent on making sure the 
  vampires remember what it means to be afraid. 
  Bravo-Twos keep a close eye on material that 
  could reveal their secrets and David is extremely 
  paranoid: anyone he interacts with in a library, 
  archive, or special collection could be a Renfield. 
  New people scare him, and when he’s scared he gets 
  obsessive, ferreting out everything there is to know 
  about a subject. Upon occasion this distracts him 
  from the task at hand, maybe even enough to miss 
  something obvious. 
  David is a Burrower, with Contacts 3 (archivists, 
  librarians) and Allies 3 (wealthy benefactor of a 
  private occult library). 
  MATTEO LUSARDI
  Sometimes Matt wishes he had a business card so 
  he could put “hacker for the Vatican” on it. He’s the 
  Cenacle of St. Margaret’s tech guy. From monitor-
  ing phone taps and listening devices, to hacking 
  vampiric communication networks, to helping Da-
  vid maintain his database, Matt is always busy. Far 
  too busy. He’s overstretched, and his superiors use 
  that as an excuse to keep relying on Sister Dorothy’s 
  informants over his technical solutions. Usually he 
  gets involved in an operation after the target has 
  been identified and profiled (stage 4).
  Recruited while still an undergraduate from a 
  private Catholic university in Milan, Matteo has 
  never been anything but a Society of St. Leopold 
  asset. He’s never had a visible, public life and he’s 
  never not known about blankbodies. He feels like 
  he’s missed out: he watches the general public go 
  about their lives and he envies them their blissful 
  ignorance.  However, he doesn’t feel any kinship 
  with them. They’re herd animals, and Matt is their 
  shepherd. He’d never admit it, but he firmly believes 
  he has more in common with the vampiric preda-
  tors who hunt human beings than with the idiot 
  mortals themselves. On some level he thinks of the 
  blankbodies as equals, like two rival intelligence 
  agencies in a glamorous spy drama. He thinks he’s 
  capable of building alliances with them, of operat-
  ing with professional respect. 
  He’s very wrong, and if the local Kindred ever 
  
  Chapter One: Hunter Killers
  6 6
  learn of this delusion abduction and possibly a 
  violent Embrace will follow. 
  Matt’s a Hacker, with Willpower 4.
  SPECIAL ATTACHÉ LISA KLEIN
  Lisa came into the Second Inquisition the hard way: 
  in handcuffs and a straitjacket, in the hands of the 
  cenacle’s Gladius Dei ops team. Recently Embraced, 
  Lisa had already turned to religion as a way to try 
  and rise above her monstrous nature. She viewed her 
  capture as a chance for salvation, and she convinced 
  Adrian Clairmont of that too. He’s always had a 
  weakness for underdogs. 
  Before her death, Lisa was a psychiatrist. Now 
  she’s reskilled as a deprogrammer. Her understand-
  ing of vampiric cults is invaluable: she can talk 
  to captured ghouls or thin-bloods on their own 
  terms and earn their trust in a way few others can. 
  She can empathize, or appear to. She uses her own 
  experience as a promise of a better future – she 
  doesn’t mention that she spends most of her time 
  locked in a black site basement – and breaks down 
  her subjects until they spill their secrets and lead 
  the cenacle to their next target. She values it, too. 
  Every other monster who sees the light is evidence 
  that her own struggle for humanity is more than 
  deluded optimism.
  The rest of the cenacle look at her as an example 
  of the Lord’s power, a miracle made flesh: a vampire 
  servant of God. It would tear them apart if they 
  knew that occasionally her resolve weakens and she 
  sneaks offsite to feed on something more substantial 
  than blood bags.
  Lisa is a Deprogrammer, with the addition of:
  Disciplines: Auspex 2, Fortitude 1, Presence 2
  Humanity: 7
  Blood Potency: 1
  SECONDMENTS
  The Cenacle of St. Margaret runs like a well-oiled 
  machine and is a model of patience and discipline. 
  Therefore, talented new recruits are sent there to 
  train, most commonly under Dorothy or David, 
  from whom they learn to run networks or read 
  cryptic hints in crumbling paper trails. At any given 
  time, the cenacle has an additional 2-3 operatives 
  with Social or Technical focus attached to it. 
  GLADIUS DEI CANONS
  Gladius Dei are the Society of Leopold’s front 
  liners. Once the investigation is complete and the 
  plan set in motion, they’re the ones who risk their 
  lives taking on, and taking down, the blankbod-
  ies. Personnel turnover is high: even with relics and 
  the best info Dorothy, David and Matt can provide 
  there’s no getting around the fact that vampires 
  are deadly.
  The Gladius Dei team live full time at the black 
  site. It’s too dangerous for them to be in the city 
  proper, when at any moment they could be recog-
  nized from a second of camera footage or a run-in 
  with one of the rare few monsters who survive 
  encountering them. 
  It’s safe to say the entire team has PTSD, in 
  varying degrees and presentations. As their chaplain, 
  Damian Marshall does what he can to counsel 
  and support them but the job takes its toll on 
  every agent.
  MARINA FERRARA
  Marina heads the cenacle’s Gladius Dei squad. She’s 
  been a soldier for Christ since she was sixteen in 
  Manaus, and at thirty-two she’s lost track of her 
  dust count. Marina’s unshockable. She’s survived 
  blankbody traps, seen teammates die in horrendous 
  ways, and learned from every mission, successful or 
  disastrous. She’s also learned to think on her feet, 
  making split second decisions on instincts she fully 
  believes are a gift from God. 
  Marina accepts that her job comes with a short 
  life expectancy, and that no matter how good the 
  intelligence gathering work beforehand, the situa-
  tion on the ground changes quickly. However, her 
  team are highly trained elites. They’re not irreplace-
  able but it would be a huge waste to let them die if it 
  doesn’t significantly advance the Leopoldite cause. 
  She’ll pull out of an op if it gets too dangerous… but 
  she’ll be back. 
  Marina is a Warrior.
  OWEN BYRNE
  Where Marina is calm and collected, her 2IC runs 
  hot. Owen’s an ex-CIA assassin and his world 
  changed when he realized there were worse things in 
  it than narcos and terrorists. Owen is always first in, 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  6 7
  and first to draw blood. When he can get away with 
  it, he supplements the team’s standard loadouts of 
  handgun and rifle (with bayonet: anything’s a stake 
  if you’re skilled enough) with a two-handed sword 
  he’s had blessed and that he regularly sprinkles with 
  blessed oil. 
  Owen does not like to lose. Even when the rest 
  of the team is ready to pull out, he’d rather fight to 
  the last and hopefully take one more bloodsucker 
  down with him. 
  Owen is a Warrior. 
  ROB KELLY
  Rob won’t rest until there are no more monsters in 
  the shadows. He’s nothing less than a fanatic with 
  the fire of his beloved flamethrower reflected in his 
  eyes. As far as anyone can tell, Rob doesn’t have 
  hobbies or interests. Just that flamethrower, and an 
  encyclopedic knowledge of the local bloodsuckers 
  that rivals David Colón’s. 
  He recites prayers as he strides into battle, 
  hissing and whispering in broken Latin as his 
  holy fire flares up and prepares to sweep a room 
  clean. The last word many blankbodies hear is a 
  snarled “Amen.” 
  Rob is a Clearance Specialist.  
  DAMIAN MARSHALL
  Damian is an enormous man, and an enormous 
  show off. An absolute mountain of muscle with 
  a boyish grin, he’s the squad’s demolitions expert 
  as well as their chaplain. A former Marine who 
  found God and was then found by the SI, Damian 
  enjoys his job. More than he should, probably. It’s 
  satisfying to blow a big hole in a wall and let the sun 
  stream into a crypt. It’s even more satisfying to keep 
  his team going, keep their spirits up, with prayers 
  and services as well as amateur counselling. He’s 
  never short of a joke or a quip, especially when the 
  mood is grim. 
  Damian’s the only one of the cenacle’s Gladius 
  Dei team with a family. Not in the city, of course. 
  His ex-wife and three kids all live out of state and 
  haven’t heard from him for five years. But they exist, 
  and that’s a weakness just waiting to be exploited. 
  Damian is a Breacher. 
  EVAN DE WITT
  Evan’s never been afraid of the dark, just fascinated 
  by it. He was dabbling in the occult when the 
  Society of St. Leopold found him and recruited 
  him. He lives and breathes arcane secrets, spending 
  every waking moment searching for new rituals that 
  allow him to pierce vampiric occultism and illu-
  sions, and extend that protection to his team. 
  Evan looks out of place on the Gladius Dei 
  team: he’s pale, skinny, and clumsy, and he’s barely 
  competent with a firearm. But he’s the one who 
  stops vampires from disappearing, or suddenly 
  appearing, or mazing the minds of the rest of the 
  team, so he’s an asset to be protected even if he is 
  eerily quiet and prone to weird, highly specific, 
  predictions of doom. 
  Evan’s researches, in addition to things Lisa’s 
  subjects have told her, have persuaded him that 
  drinking vampire blood would significantly increase 
  his powers. He hasn’t tried it yet, but it’s tempting.
  Evan is a Nullifier. 
  NATALIE BASSETT
  Natalie was shocked to discover her origin story 
  was not unique or even uncommon: her sister got 
  tangled up in a sex cult that turned out to be a 
  blood cult, died, and Natalie turned vigilante to 
  put a stake in every monster who’d been part of the 
  society. She had six hits under her belt already when 
  she stumbled into a Leopoldite operation and nearly 
  blew it. They recruited her because it was safer than 
  letting her keep screwing things up for them, but 
  she’s turned out to be useful. Natalie’s self-reliant 
  (to a fault) and a generalist who can fill most roles 
  as needed. 
  Natalie likes night fights and up-close finishs: 
  she wants to see the monsters suffer as they die. If 
  bait is needed, she’s the first to volunteer. 
  She’s been reprimanded twice for continuing 
  vigilante activity when the cenacle doesn’t move fast 
  enough for her liking, but it’s real hard to get kicked 
  out of the Inquisition. 
  Natalie is a Lone Wolf.
  
  Chapter Two: Special Weapons
  6 8
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  6 9
  Chapter Two:
  SPECIAL WEAPONS
  The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.
  — MARSHAL FERDINAND FOCH
  W
  orking for a hunter organization 
  allows you access to better tools 
  for the hunt. Clandestine agencies 
  can supply hunters with military-
  grade weapons and bleeding-edge tech, mystical 
  bodies provide artifacts and relics to level the field 
  against supernatural foes. This chapter provides 
  only a small sampling of the wonderful toys black 
  budgets and centuries-old arcane treasuries can 
  bring to bear.
  Arms and Materiel
  Everything in this section (and more) exists, paid 
  for by your tax dollars and deployed in public or in 
  secret. Police and military gear overlap more and 
  more, and even a cursory trawl through the news 
  or websites devoted to security can uncover even 
  more examples.
  Weapons
  While shotguns and stakes have centuries of 
  vampire-stopping tradition behind them, there’s no 
  need for your loadout to be stuck with Stoker.
  ACTIVE DENIAL SYSTEM
  A relatively new development in crowd control 
  techniques, the Active Denial System (ADS) is in-
  formally known as a “heat ray.” Vehicle mounted, its 
  use is limited to outdoor operations and perimeter 
  security (driving escaping blankbodies back into 
  a building, away from civilians, for example). The 
  ADS emits a pinpoint accurate ray of intense heat, 
  up to and including second-degree burns. That’s 
  just for crowd control: the Second Inquisition turns 
  up the heat.
  
  Chapter Two: Special Weapons
  7 0
  The ADS does no damage until the third 
  consecutive turn of exposure, after which it does 
  1 Superfi cial damage each turn. Anyone (includ-
  ing blankbodies) in its area of eff ect must make 
  a Resolve + Composure roll to avoid backing (or 
  running) away; the Diffi  culty increases by one each 
  turn of exposure. An amped-up ADS does Aggra-
  vated damage.
  COMPOUND CROSSBOW
  Crossbows are an effi  cient and time-honored stake 
  delivery method. Compound crossbows use a 
  system of cables to increase the bow’s power. With 
  a draw of up to 200 lbs. they hit hard: easily hard 
  enough to shatter a blankbody sternum. A called 
  shot to the heart is no easier with a compound cross-
  bow, but that raw power means if you hit the organ, 
  you’ll pulverize it.
  Compound crossbows deal +2 damage. 
  FLARE GUN
  Flare guns are available as pistol-shaped weapons 
  or a launcher attached to a rifl e. Either way, they 
  fi re standard sized strontium- or potassium-based 
  fl ares. Calcium fl ares are also readily available, 
  and useful in underwater environments (fl ooded 
  crypts, city sewers, etc.). They’re legal and relatively 
  easy to obtain, so while UTR teams carry them as 
  distress signals they sometimes resort to as weap-
  ons, a Farm Team or Amateur might make them a 
  primary weapon.
  Flare guns deal 2 Aggravated damage. They also 
  add 1 Diffi  culty to Composure and Terror Frenzy 
  tests for one turn when used in an enclosed space.
  VARIANT: ROAD FLARE
  Road fl ares are great street-legal incendiaries. Once 
  lit, use Strength + Athletics to throw one at a 
  target. A road fl are deals 1 Aggravated damage. If 
  not thrown immediately, they cause 1 Aggravated 
  damage to the wielder as molten residue drips onto 
  their hand. 
  GARROTE
  A military-issue garrote consists of a length of piano 
  wire between two wooden handles. It’s capable of 
  decapitating a target in one smooth motion and it’s 
  equally eff ective on blankbodies and mortals.
  The penalty for a called shot to behead is re-
  duced by 1 die when using a military garrote. The 
  damage bonus is +0, but if the user can sneak up on 
  a target by winning a Dexterity + Stealth vs. Wits 
  + Awareness contest, they add the margin of that 
  roll together with the margin of their attack roll to 
  calculate damage.
  LONG RANGE ACOUSTIC DEVICE
  The Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) crowd 
  control weapon is sometimes known as a “sonic can-
  non.” It weighs 300 lbs., so usually remains vehicle 
  mounted, used in outdoor spaces. An LRAD blast 
  induces headaches, panic, and hearing impairment 
  and it works just fi ne on blankbodies.
  Anyone in an LRAD’s fi ring arc must make a 
  Stamina + Composure test (Diffi  culty 4) to resist 3 
  Superfi cial damage each round. If they fail, they are 
  panicked (-2 dice to Composure and Intelligence 
  tests) as long as the sound lasts. Vampires who are 
  panicked for 3 consecutive rounds must make a 
  Frenzy test.
  NIGHTWATCHMAN
  The ESOG’s Nightwatchman (Metronotte in Ital-
  ian) is a shortsword disguised as a regular baton. It 
  can be carried without fear of drawing attention 
  to oneself, unsheathed in a moment, and used as 
  a regular sword. A Nightwatchman is a treasured 
  possession: it’s been through hell and high water 
  with its owner, and it’s often customized to refl ect 
  that. Some are marked with body counts, others 
  with lines from scripture, or just given the name of a 
  saint or loved one.
  The Nightwatchman is also optimized for be-
  heading: a short, straight blade that cuts clean. The 
  penalty for a called shot to decapitate is reduced to 
  -1 with a Nightwatchman. It does +2 damage. 
  RIOT FOAM
  Riot foam slows down a truck so it will certainly 
  hinder a blankbody, even one with unnatural speed. 
  Unless they’re also as strong as a truck. 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  7 1
  Riot foam is not a preferred tool for UTR 
  operators: it’s diffi  cult to target precisely, meaning 
  it’s hard to stake or behead a blankbody afterwards. 
  Plus it’s fi re retardant, so you can’t even burn one. 
  Sure, some agents say enough foam can immobilize 
  a vampire and you can leave it for the sun but that’s 
  unlikely. It’s mostly used where there’s a signifi cant 
  chance of civilian presence or a team is facing a 
  monster with super speed.
  Riot foam doesn’t cause damage. Instead, a 
  target’s speed is reduced to a slow shuffl  e, or human 
  walking speed for vehicles, until they’re cleaned off  
  (the least pleasant use for baby oil). Vampires hit 
  with riot foam use Strength instead of Dexterity in 
  Athletics tests to use Celerity powers.
  TASER
  A self-defense favorite, TASERs fi re electrodes 
  attached to the gun itself, which deliver an electri-
  cal charge that interrupts voluntary control of the 
  muscles. TASERs deal Superfi cial damage, but their 
  primary benefi t is to stop a target from escaping. In 
  fact they usually stop a target from doing anything 
  except collapsing to the fl oor and twitching.
  A TASERed target must equal or exceed the 
  amount of damage taken (after halving, for vam-
  pires) on a Composure + Resolve roll, or be inca-
  pable of acting for the next turn. TASERs do little 
  to harm vampires, who do not rely on electrical 
  impulses to animate their muscles, but they work 
  just fi ne on ghouls.
  WATER CANNON
  Calling these crowd control weapons “water” can-
  nons doesn’t do them justice. The high-pressure, 
  high-velocity, vehicle-mounted cannon can fi re 
  any liquid at its targets. Dye, for later tracing and 
  identifi cation. Tear gas (admittedly, not useful for 
  blankbodies). Gasoline — to set up a hail of incen-
  diary bullets or a Firebug strike.
  In theory, a fi lled water tank could be consecrat-
  ed and used for Holy Water, but that would require 
  an operator with True Faith, which is uncommon 
  even in the Society of St. Leopold.
  Water cannons deal Superfi cial damage. Dye 
  
  Chapter Two: Special Weapons
  7 2
  fi red from them lasts for several days. Coating a 
  target in gasoline increases subsequent damage from 
  fi re by 2. If by some miracle the hunters have a tank 
  full of holy water, treat it as sunlight damage.
  Ammunition
  In addition to the standard Dragon’s Breath and 
  Raufoss incendiary ammunition (Corebook, p. 
  380), hunter loadouts include many diff erent loads.
  ARMOR-PIERCING ROUNDS
  Armor-piercing rounds are made of harder metal, 
  less liable to deform on impact. Because they keep 
  their shape, they rip through most forms of body 
  armor instead of compressing and being stopped. 
  They’re as trivial to blankbodies as any other bullet, 
  but excellent for neutralizing armored mortal or 
  ghoul bodyguards, which many vampires count as a 
  regular part of their retinue. 
  Armor-piercing rounds reduce a target’s Armor 
  Value by 2. 
  BREACHING ROUNDS
  A breaching round, also known as a “master key,” is 
  a shotgun shell designed to break up on impact. It 
  blows the lock or hinges off  a door without hurting 
  anyone behind it. It also, if fi red directly at a hu-
  man being, blows chunks out of them. A standard 
  shotgun shell does much the same damage to a door, 
  so UTR teams use breaching rounds mostly for 
  extractions: retrieving team members or informants 
  taken prisoner by blankbodies, when it’s important 
  to control who comes to harm.
  A shotgun loaded with breaching rounds func-
  tions exactly like one with standard ammo, but 
  there’s no chance of it hitting multiple targets or 
  ricocheting.
  FLASH-BANG GRENADES
  A fl ash-bang, or stun grenade, produces a momen-
  tary fl are of light and deafening blast suffi  cient 
  to blind and confuse those who see it for a few 
  seconds. UTR teams use it to disorient targets when 
  they begin a raid, or to cover their escape.
  Use Dexterity + Athletics to throw a fl ash-bang, 
  and contest with a Wits + Resolve roll. If the viewer 
  wins the contest, they are only disoriented (-2 dice 
  to Wits pools) for one round. Otherwise they are 
  unable to see at all. Eye protection adds 2 dice to the 
  Wits + Resolve roll.
  PLASTIC EXPLOSIVES
  Plastic explosives like Semtex and C4 have the 
  advantage that they can be set well in advance, and 
  detonated at a distance using detonation cord or 
  a timer mechanism: when the cord ignites or the 
  timer triggers, a spark detonates the explosives. 
  UTR teams use them for breaching buildings where 
  breaching rounds won’t do the trick, or as traps. 
  Alternatively if a blankbody’s just too dangerous 
  to take on, a few bricks of C4, and the complete 
  destruction of a building over its Haven, might do 
  the trick.
  Setting plastic explosives requires an Intelligence 
  + Technology roll (but see Corebook, p. 410). As a 
  rough guide to usage, 200 grams of plastic explosive 
  destroys a car, and infl icts 7 levels of Aggravated 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  7 3
  damage. Add another 3 levels of damage for each 
  additional 200 grams, and increase the blast area 
  accordingly.
  RUBBER BULLETS
  “Less lethal” projectiles, rubber bullets can still 
  cause serious bruising, break bones, or blind a 
  target. They’re sometimes used when a UTR team 
  wants to take a ghoul or a mortal retainer into cus-
  tody, but are close to useless against blankbodies. 
  A firearm loaded with rubber bullets deals Su-
  perficial damage to mortals as well as vampires.
  The so-called “wooden bullets” used for crowd 
  control are stubby discs loaded into a shotgun 
  casing, and also don’t do Aggravated damage to 
  anyone. You can fire a stake from a shotgun barrel 
  (replace the shot in the shell with a wad), but it only 
  penetrates a vampire’s sternum when fired at nearly 
  point-blank range, like a stake-launcher (Core-
  book, p. 381).
  THERMITE
  Thermite, a mixture of phosphorus and metal 
  oxide, burns at 2,200° C. It burns through steel 
  and asphalt, and burns flesh from bone. Prolonged 
  contact burns bone to ash. Hence its SI nickname 
  “instant crematorium.”
  Thermite has obvious uses for forcing entry: 
  it’s a “sticky” explosive that can be planted, ignited, 
  and left to detonate. It can also be fired in specially 
  constructed grenades (it requires a magnesium 
  fuse to spark). Once ignited, thermite is extremely 
  challenging to extinguish. Smothering is ineffective 
  (the required oxygen is in the thermite itself), as is 
  submersion in water. Thermite burns for upwards 
  of half a minute. 
  Thermite is relatively easy to make (Intel-
  ligence + Science roll, Difficulty 3), and can be 
  bought in small quantities as a welding supply. 
  Thermite inflicts 3 Aggravated damage each round, 
  for 3 rounds.
  Introducing thermite to a sleeping blankbody is 
  every Inquisitor’s dream, and every hunter has their 
  own fantastic method to use. Mixing thermite with 
  a Tzimisce’s jar of dirt, for example …
  THERMOBARIC MUNITIONS
  Thermobaric munitions, mostly found in UTR 
  loadouts in the form of rifle grenades, create slower, 
  more intense explosions than standard explosives. 
  UTR teams consider them an efficient way to 
  clear a room, or at least win an early advantage by 
  setting everyone inside it on fire, as well as forcing 
  entry: one of these grenades can do major damage 
  to a structure. They’re called “bunker busters” for 
  good reason. 
  Thermobaric grenades inflict +5 Aggravated 
  damage (compared to +4 damage for regular rifle 
  grenades), and set what they hit on fire. They add 
  three dice to rolls to damage structures.
  WHITE PHOSPHORUS
  White phosphorus is pyrophoric: it ignites on con-
  tact with air. It’s used in some incendiary grenades, 
  but primarily for smoke grenades. Like flash-bangs, 
  UTR squads use them to cover their arrival and 
  departure, but also to provide an advantage against 
  blankbodies with mind-altering abilities. 
  White phosphorus reduces dice pools that rely 
  on vision by 3 dice. It renders Dominate powers that 
  require eye contact ineffective, and provides +2 dice 
  to resist the effects of Presence.
  Armor
  In Ephesians 6:11, St. Paul advises his readers to 
  “put on the whole armor of God, to stand against 
  the wiles of the devil.” The Coalition suggests add-
  ing other armor in the field.
  CHAINMAIL
  Chain mail isn’t as effective as kevlar but it makes a 
  statement. Traditional, steel chainmail mostly says 
  “I care far more about aesthetics than protection” 
  but modern alternatives made with titanium alloys 
  or other advanced materials have their uses. The 
  Society of St. Leopold is particularly enamored with 
  chainmail: nothing says “holy crusader” like a full 
  suit of armor. 
  Steel chainmail has armor value 3 (1 versus 
  bullets) and imposes -2 dice on Stealth tests and  -1 
  die on all other Dexterity tests. Lighter, modern 
  
  Chapter Two: Special Weapons
  7 4
  chainmail has armor value 3 (including bullets) and 
  no Dexterity penalty. Modern chainmail is usually 
  covered in a textile outer layer that muffles sound 
  (negating the Stealth penalty) but some agents — 
  mostly Leopoldites — opt for the grand gesture of 
  visible chainmail.
  KEVLAR VEST
  Kevlar vests, flak jackets or similar body armor 
  provide substantial protection (Armor Value 4) but 
  comes at the cost of flexibility and speed (-1 die on 
  Dexterity tests). A little clumsiness is a small price to 
  pay for surviving an op, so for most UTR teams it’s 
  part of the standard field loadout.
  Kevlar also happens to be flame-resistant (pro-
  vides Armor Value 1 against fire), meaning it’s the 
  default choice for Clearance Specialists wielding 
  flamethrowers, or anyone working alongside them. 
  NECK PROTECTOR
  Neck protectors aren’t especially protective, but 
  they are discreet. A standard motorcycle neck 
  protector can be hidden under a bulky coat and a 
  carbon fiber one fits under a scarf or a high collar. 
  They’re popular amongst hunters without access to 
  better gear, such as Amateurs and the Farm Teams 
  on pp. 142. 
  A motorcycle neck protector or equivalent — 
  or arm protectors, or other armor that covers one 
  specific region of the body — provides has an armor 
  value of 1 (0 against bullets). All neck protectors, 
  including carbon fiber or other materials designed 
  for athletic use add 2 dice to Strength + Brawl rolls 
  to resist a bite attack.
  RIOT SHIELD
  Riot shields have a lot of advantages: they’re easy 
  to put down if, for some reason, an agent needs to 
  pass as a civilian. They’re a defensive weapon, too: 
  it’s not difficult to shove an assailant away with the 
  force of one. Made of clear polycarbonate, they 
  don’t impede vision.
  Police riot shields have an Armor Value of 3 (0 
  if the user is surprised from behind), and 0 against 
  ballistics. The SAD and BOES provide a variant 
  that’s somewhat bulletproof, providing Armor 
  Value 1 against ballistics.
  Mundane Gear
  Just stuff you might find lying around the safe 
  house. All organized Five Torches teams have access 
  to all of it; Amateurs need Resources to get it.
  BATTERING RAM
  Police issue battering rams apply 3 metric tonnes 
  of force to door locks, and need just one person of 
  average strength to operate them. Lockpick guns 
  make for a quieter ingress, but a battering ram 
  makes an entrance. Teams use them when they want 
  to make a stir. 
  Battering rams are a favorite tool of UK police 
  forces, and SO13 know them as the Enforcer.
  Battering rams add 3 dice to any test to force 
  open a door. 
  DENTAL PLIERS
  Once a blankbody is dragged in for interrogation, 
  the fang rippers come out. It’s just sensible risk 
  management. It’s also an excellent threat: even if 
  the blankbody expects to survive the interrogation, 
  their dignity and pride is forever ruined. 
  Removing a fang requires a successful Strength 
  + Medicine or Brawl test against a restrained target. 
  Many Coalition personnel like to fill in the ex-
  traction site with molten metal or bone putty, in 
  the belief it stops blankbodies from regenerating 
  their fangs. 
  Removing a fang inflicts 1 level of Aggravated 
  damage. Removing all fangs, and filling in the gaps 
  in the jaw, inflicts the Baby Teeth Flaw (Core-
  book, p. 182).
  FIBEROPTIC SCOPE
  A fiberoptic scope is a flexible bundle of optical 
  fiber with a lens at one end, attached either to an 
  eyepiece or a camera. They’re used for peeking 
  inside small spaces: the inside of locks or machines, 
  or even inside the body. UTR teams mostly use 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  7 5
  them for the first two reasons: they aid in lockpick-
  ing, understanding and disarming traps or security 
  measures, or very subtle surveillance when inserted 
  under doors or around window frames.
  Fiberoptic scopes add 2 dice to tests for any of 
  these purposes. 
  GPS TRACKERS
  The Coalition uses GPS trackers to keep track of 
  surveillance targets, and to keep tabs on their own 
  personnel, especially Cuckoos or others in high-risk 
  positions. 
  GPS trackers affixed to vehicles are usually mag-
  netic and smaller than palm-sized. Spotting one on 
  a vehicle requires a successful Wits + Streetwise or 
  Technology test, but removing it is simple. Person-
  nel trackers are the size of a watch face, and usually 
  sewn into clothing, worn inside shoes, or stuck to 
  the underside of an actual watch. Finding them is a 
  Difficulty 3 Wits + Streetwise/Technology test. 
  An active GPS tracker adds 4 dice to any test to 
  locate the wearer.
  GROUND PENETRATING RADAR
  Ground penetrating radar uses radar pulses to im-
  age subsurface features and locations. It penetrates 
  metres of dirt, solid concrete and rock. It finds its 
  way to the deepest Nosferatu sewer or Tzimisce 
  crypt, or beyond the stone walls of the best warded 
  Tremere chantry. It will spot a hidden room or 
  bunker, as well as trace power lines or water pipes 
  that lead to one. 
  Operation is easy and subtle: teams pushing one 
  of these lawnmower-sized devices around can easily 
  be mistaken for surveying teams or utilities workers. 
  Using GPR requires a Difficulty 2 Intelligence + 
  Technology roll.
  LASER MICROPHONE
  This small, easily hidden microphone uses a laser 
  beam to “read” sound vibrations. They’re tiny and 
  discreet, and the Coalition’s go-to for audio surveil-
  lance. The mic needs to be attached to a flat surface 
  that can vibrate in response to sound — commonly 
  a window or a painting. Windows are ideal: the mic 
  doesn’t even have to be placed inside the room.
  The pickup range on laser microphones is lim-
  ited: an exceptionally large room can stymie them. 
  However, they’re hard to find (Wits + Technology 
  roll, Difficulty 5). 
  LOCKPICK GUN
  Lockpicking requires a delicate hand and extensive 
  training. Or it requires a device that fires a steel rod 
  at the lock, releases the cylinder, and sticks a fine 
  metal rod in to open the lock. Much faster than nor-
  mal lockpicking, a lockpick gun takes a matter of 
  seconds to open a lock. It’s also quiet: a soft punch 
  and click sound.
  A lockpick gun adds 4 dice to a Dexterity + 
  Larceny roll to pick a lock. 
  NIGHT VISION OPTICS
  Night vision optics, usually goggles, but cam-
  eras and recording equipment too, come in two 
  variations: ambient light enhancing, or infrared. 
  Ambient light enhancing optics are cheaper (not 
  a concern for the IAO, but definitely so for Farm 
  Teams), and have longer range but need some light 
  to work. Underground, or in a windowless room, 
  they’re ineffective. IR optics have a shorter range, 
  but they’ll work anywhere. The latest U.S. military 
  NVO system, the ENVG, combines the two. Snip-
  ers in control of their environment are better off 
  with light enhancers; teams moving through a nest 
  or lair find IR less risky.
  Of course, blankbodies don’t radiate in IR; 
  they’re not invisible, but they only show up in 
  contrast to their background. Infrared-only goggles 
  reduce Awareness pools by 1 die in tests to spot 
  vampires. Of course, pitch darkness reduces that 
  pool by 2 dice…
  Attackers can forcibly remove night vision 
  equipment with a successful grapple (Core-
  book, p. 301).
  
  Chapter Two: Special Weapons
  7 6
  RESTRAINTS
  It’s hard to take prisoners without restraints.
  Zip cuffs are one size fits all, and an agent can carry 
  dozens or hundreds of them: great for busting a cult 
  or party of mortal servants. They require a Strength 
  test (Difficulty 5) to break, but can be cut by knives 
  or talons relatively easily.
  Handcuffs are sturdier, and reusable. They 
  require a Strength test (Difficulty 6) to break, or a 
  Dexterity + Larceny roll (Difficulty 4) to slip free. 
  Hobbles include bars that keep wrists or ankles 
  a fixed (with a metal bar) or maximum (with a nylon 
  leash) distance apart. They’re used when prisoners 
  need to be transported — from a vehicle to a facili-
  ty, for example and can’t be trusted to walk. Tearing 
  free or escaping has the same Difficulty as hand-
  cuffs, or worse if the hobbles are Coalition-issue.
  Chainmail Hoods exist explicitly for rendition 
  missions against blankbody targets. Micro-woven 
  aramid fiber-and-ceramic “chainmail” cuts off the 
  subject’s sight (and Presence attacks) and blocks their 
  bite and speech (and Dominate) with thick aramid 
  padding. A titanium-reinforced aramid cord pulls 
  tight around the subject’s neck, keeping the hood 
  secure as long as their hands remain restrained. (Even 
  unrestrained, pulling off a cinched hood takes the 
  wearer’s whole turn.) Putting a hood on an unwill-
  ing blankbody is a called shot, removing two suc-
  cesses from the Dexterity + Brawl attack. However, if 
  the user sneaks up on a target by winning a Dexterity 
  + Stealth vs. Wits + Awareness contest, they add the 
  margin of that roll to their pool for the hood attack.
  TACTICAL EAR BUDS
  Tactical ear buds combine hearing protection — 
  extremely valuable in environments with explosions, 
  gunfire, and sometimes sonic weapons like LRADs 
  — with communication. They balance out sound 
  for clear audio, and come with a microphone for 
  clear, carrying speech. The most advanced models 
  incorporate health monitors, reporting status to 
  operational command.
  Tactical ear buds also add 1 die to Composure 
  tests in combat situations. 
  Vehicles
  The Coalition uses a wide variety of vehicles and 
  weapon platforms in its pursuit of blankbodies. 
  Transport vehicles and drones are fairly common, 
  but a few instruments of war are only brought out 
  to play when a major blankbody infestation or 
  power center is uncovered.
  For the general purposes of urban combat, as-
  sume that vehicles can absorb as much Aggravated 
  damage as their highest Armor levels. Civilian vehi-
  cles only grant their full Armor rating to characters 
  sheltering behind the engine block; other vehicles 
  extend more protection as mentioned.
  Transports
  These vehicles carry reinforcements into the hunt, 
  and prisoners out of it.
  POLICE / PURSUIT VEHICLE
  Local hunters and law enforcement make use of 
  these sturdy sedans to pursue blankbodies and con-
  vey captured targets to a processing center. Often 
  the trunks of these cars include a shotgun, body 
  armor, first aid kits, a portable defibrillator, and 
  bolt cutters.
  Civilian vehicles’ engine blocks have Armor 
  5; the rest of the vehicle provides Armor 2 (1 
  vs. bullets).
  SURVEILLANCE VAN
  The classic white van jammed with surveillance 
  equipment. Although they come in many varieties, 
  those used by the Coalition usually monitor cell 
  phone audio, capture texts and use video surveil-
  lance. To detect blankbodies they also carry thermal 
  imaging cameras or portable second-generation 
  XScope cameras (p. 82). IAO and FIRSTLIGHT 
  teams also have access to XKEYSCORE, allowing 
  them to search through the target’s emails, social 
  media, texts, and video in real time with assistance 
  from the Heartbeat pattern recognition algorithm.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  7 7
  ARMORED SUV
  Commonly used by Snatch Squads and the Russian 
  mafi ya, they can plow through most soft obstacles 
  and only explosives or supernatural powers can dis-
  able them. FIRSTLIGHT and GRU teams prefer 
  to use heavily armored black Escalades with two to 
  four soundproof, secure coffi  n compartments in the 
  back for the safe transport of captured blankbodies. 
  Their side and rear Armor is 8, their front cab and 
  engine have Armor 10. 
  APC / MRAP
  Armored Personnel Carriers and Mine Resistant 
  Ambush Protected vehicles are common among 
  militarized police forces in the US and South 
  America. While law enforcement versions of these 
  vehicles are often mounted with searchlights and 
  LRADs (p. 70), military APCs/MRAPs mount 
  heavy machine guns and tear gas launchers as well. 
  APCs have all-over Armor 8; MRAPs have all-over 
  Armor 10. 
  In particular IAO has diverted a fl eet of RG-
  33 MRAPs to Coalition forward bases in North 
  America and Europe. These unmarked MRAPs can 
  carry a squad of six to eight operators and boast a 
  turret with a remotely operated modifi ed CROWS 
  weapon system that controls a .50 caliber machine 
  gun (Damage +5, Wits + Firearms dice pool can be 
  split among multiple targets) with daylight thermal 
  video camera, laser rangefi nder, and XScope sights 
  (add 2 to the Firearms dice pool).
  SUPPORT HELICOPTER
  Police helicopters have Armor 3, and mount 
  spotlights; riot-control copters also mount tear gas 
  dispensers. Their overwatch adds at least 2 dice to 
  any police pursuit pool.
  Five Torches forces use large-bodied mixed-use 
  military helicopters such as the U.S. Black Hawk 
  or the Russian Mil Mi-24 Hind to rapidly deploy 
  forces to blankbody hotspots. They have Armor 8. 
  While primarily used as troop transports (each can 
  carry a squad plus gear), in a tight spot they can lay 
  down suppressing fi re with mounted heavy machine 
  guns (Damage +5). Some carry rocket pod systems 
  capable of launching salvos of incendiary mini-
  rockets (Damage +5 Aggravated).
  “Stealth” variants increase all detection Diffi  cul-
  ties by +2. 
  DRONES AND ROBOTS
  Roll Wits + Technology to operate drones and 
  unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), usually over a 
  secure, encrypted WiFi connection. Most civilian 
  and police drones can be “driven” using a tablet; 
  military drones use more specialized channels 
  and controls.
  TACTICAL DRONE
  Flying man-portable “backpack drones,” some as 
  small as Frisbees, can be launched into the air by 
  hand. They mount ultraviolet night-vision video 
  and thermal cameras. FIRSTLIGHT uses the 
  Hornet nano-drone variant, a short-range UAV the 
  size and shape of a hand fl ashlight. Small drones are 
  hard to hit (Diffi  culty 3 or operator’s Technology, 
  whichever is higher), but easy to kill.
  GLOBAL HAWK DRONE
  Capable of continuous fl ight over mission zones, 
  FIRSTLIGHT and IAO use video streams from 
  these unarmed drones to monitor and inform Coa-
  lition operations. They use UV night-vision video 
  and thermal cameras.
  
  Chapter Two: Special Weapons
  7 8
  PREDATOR DRONE
  Armed drones come in several varieties. Only 
  FIRSTLIGHT and the GRU currently deploy these 
  weapons in support of their Second Inquisition 
  forces. FIRSTLIGHT uses the deadly MQ9 Reaper 
  drone, usually armed with the R9X “Sword” missile 
  (Damage + 8) specifically designed to limit collater-
  al damage and cut targets in half. The GRU’s Orion 
  armed drone uses KAB-20 guided bombs (Damage 
  +10) with an explosive payload similar to the AGM-
  114 Hellfire missile.
  TACTICAL SPIDER ROBOT
  A small multi-legged robot the size of a dinner plate, 
  a spiderbot has the equivalent of 2 Health and no 
  Armor to speak of. SAD, SO13, and ESOG use 
  spiderbots to recon havens and other hard-to-reach 
  areas and seek out blankbody resting places. Most 
  come with UV night vision and thermal imaging. A 
  secret GRU variant can latch on to a victim (Brawl 
  5) and self-destruct with an incendiary explosive 
  (Damage +2 Aggravated).
  LAST RESORTS
  As the Gehenna War heats up, the Five Torches can’t help but stoke the flames. These aircraft seldom 
  appear over Western cities, but as Vienna demonstrated, “seldom” doesn’t mean “never.” We don’t pro-
  vide damage or armor values for these apocalyptic weapons systems, because if it’s come to ground zero, 
  it’s too late.
  AC-130 SPECTRE GUNSHIP
  Retired from active military service by the United States, these massive C-130 cargo planes mount two 
  20mm M61 Vulcan cannons, one L60 Bofors 40mm cannon, and an M137 105mm cannon. With the ability to 
  circle targets for hours, the AC-130 brings precise and deadly close air support onto the battlefield. IAO con-
  spirators saved a handful of these gunships from retirement and loaded them with incendiary ammunition and 
  ultraviolet dazzle lasers. FIRSTLIGHT deploys them against blankbody concentrations in active war zones and 
  deniable areas. Only the most powerful supernatural creatures can survive their onslaught.
  B-2 SPIRIT STEALTH BOMBER
  Arguably the most powerful tool in the Second Inquisition’s arsenal. The B-2 requires special care for 
  IAO to bring to bear against blankbodies since their actions are closely monitored and this risks exposing the 
  FIRSTLIGHT conspiracy to the world. The B-2 can carry almost any compliment of high-yield bombs, but it is 
  the twin GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator deliveries that make it the trump card in FIRSTLIGHT’s 
  hand. These weapons can tunnel deep beneath the surface and devastate the most fortified crypts, caverns, 
  or buried ziggurats.
  “SPOT” ROBOTIC DOG
  SAD, SO13, and ESOG deploy this four-legged ro-
  bot chassis roughly shaped like a dog mounted with 
  video cameras and XScopes. In combat Spots can 
  shove and tackle (Brawl 7), though their primary 
  purpose remains scouting. They have Armor 3.
  FIRSTLIGHT Snatch Squads have added a 
  modified “hangman” attachment, a push-button 
  deployable wire loop that can snare a sleeping 
  vampire’s limb and drag them out of a haven. ESOG 
  and SO13 often use the hangman to simply drag the 
  blankbody into the sunlight.
  UNMANNED LOITERING SWARM MUNITIONS
  Usually launched from ground vehicles or aircraft, 
  these small autonomous drones silently fly in a hold 
  pattern around an area until their target is identi-
  fied. Packed with explosives, they crash themselves 
  into their target (Damage +2 for each drone). Only 
  IAO and GRU-N58 have access to these weapon 
  platforms (AV Switchblade and Flock-93, re-
  spectively).
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  7 9
  XTech
  Only FIRSTLIGHT has the budget and facili-
  ties to make XTech gear available, with a very few 
  exceptions mentioned in the specific gear writeups. 
  (The Order of St. Leopold tightly controls the Red 
  Gas, for instance.) Japan’s TID and a few German 
  corporate inquisitors deploy similar XTech in very 
  urgent circumstances; the GRU may have some 
  black-market variations in a warehouse somewhere. 
  It’s expensive, rare, and only issued to teams who 
  can make a strong case for it.
  BASAL GANGLIA MASKING AGENT
  This nerve agent operates on the basal ganglia, the 
  region of the brain responsible for motor control 
  in mortals, amongst other things. When it reaches 
  blankbody soft tissues, it somehow temporarily 
  suppresses the vampiric ability to shapeshift, fully 
  or partially. (No teams have successfully survived to 
  report testing it on werewolves.) A standard BGMA 
  canister completely fills an unventilated area the size 
  of a large room at the start of the round after it’s un-
  leashed, at which point all tests to activate Protean 
  powers are at +2 Difficulty. 
  Agents should wear masks when working with 
  BGMA: it has serious effects on mortals too (+2 to 
  Dexterity tests). 
  Some BOES and SO13 field teams concoct their 
  own version of “skin-keeper” from wolfsbane and 
  other folk remedies, deploying it in smoking bottles; 
  Leopoldites deploy both BGMA and other expedi-
  ents in swinging censers accompanied with Latin 
  prayers. Concoctions brewed by herbalists increase 
  Protean power test Difficulties by half the maker’s 
  Occult (rounded down).
  However it’s administered, BGMA disperses in 
  approximately five minutes. 
  BLOODBORNE DISEASES AND PARASITES
  Inquisitors seek to dismantle each and every perk 
  of being undead, including freedom from infection 
  and disease. In sealed campus labs and underground 
  government facilities, researchers work on engineer-
  ing bacterial infections and parasites to devastate 
  undead bodies and brains. (Plenty of bacteria flour-
  ish in corpses, after all.) The GRU leads the way 
  on these mixtures, although FIRSTLIGHT is not 
  far behind.
  Hunters administer these agents through dosed 
  vessels, contaminated supplies of “dead” blood, or 
  via injection — a normal tranquilizer dart suffices. 
  Currently the GRU has three favorite strains, but 
  their repertoire grows all the time.
  Diagnosing infection requires an Intelligence + 
  Medicine roll (Difficulty 3, 1 if the blankbody has 
  previously encountered that specific strain).
  C. HYDEII
  A bacterium delivered by parasitic fungi, C. hydeii 
  wreaks havoc on the victim’s brain, reducing 
  impulse control, making them prone to outbursts 
  of rage, and even frenzy. It manifests on the first 
  night after being dosed, as the blankbody brain 
  reawakens. Not only does this reduce an ingenious 
  foe to a monster, it means other blankbodies often 
  race to euthanize the afflicted before they break the 
  Masquerade. They make their Intelligence, Com-
  posure, and Frenzy tests at +2 Difficulty. A “Hyde 
  infection” runs its course in 10 minus the victim’s 
  Stamina weeks.
  EV-H07
  A spinoff from British research into hoof-and-
  mouth disease, this engineered enterovirus enters 
  the blankbody system via infected blood. In mor-
  tals, it causes narcolepsy and sleep inversion (-2 dice 
  from Resolve pools for a week after infection); in 
  blankbodies it triggers the biomechanical shutdown 
  known as torpor. A blankbody who drinks EV-H07 
  in blood must win a Stamina + Resolve test against 
  a Difficulty equal to 1 + the amount of Hunger 
  slaked by the drink. If they fail, they fall into torpor 
  within an hour, lasting until the next sunrise.
  KOL-05
  The GRU derived KOL-05 from botulism, and it 
  causes similar symptoms: muscle cramps followed 
  by paralysis. Total paralysis. It’s a Snatcher’s dream. 
  If not treated, a KOL-05 infection runs its course in 
  1d10 minus the victim’s Stamina days. Treatment 
  
  Chapter Two: Special Weapons
  8 0
  requires an entire blood transfusion: emptying the 
  victim’s veins and refi lling them with fresh blood. 
  The process leaves the blankbody in torpor for 24 
  hours after completion. Kindred can also deliber-
  ately starve themselves at Hunger 5 for two days, 
  emptying themselves completely of blood. This, of 
  course, has its own dangers.
  NECROPHAGE COCKTAIL
  Necrophagic parasites devour a dead body from the 
  inside out, an excellent remedy for a powerful foe 
  you would prefer not to fi ght directly. Once admin-
  istered, the victim makes a Stamina + Stamina test 
  each night on rising. If they fail, they take one level 
  of Aggravated damage. Necrophages remain active 
  for 6 minus Stamina weeks.
  GPS CHIPS
  Normal intelligence and law enforcement agencies 
  don’t have access to implantable GPS chips yet (the 
  on-market solutions are too big, and battery life is 
  a problem), but FIRSTLIGHT and JTRG (and 
  many other Western agencies) do. Small enough 
  to implant in a blankbody, GPS chips leave only 
  the tiniest red welt at the implant site — and on a 
  blankbody, that mark heals quickly. Blankbodies 
  who come back from FIRSTLIGHT or comparable 
  facilities should assume they’ve been chipped. Some 
  teams carry “stingers” the size of an ear-piercing gun 
  to implant chips on subjects in the fi eld.
  Implanting a GPS chip with a stinger requires 
  a Dexterity + Medicine roll (Diffi  culty 1); a con-
  scious, unwilling subject can contest that roll 
  with Wits + Alertness to notice that something 
  more than a regular injection just happened. After 
  implant, an Intelligence + Medicine roll (Diffi  culty 
  4) spots the implant site, after which a Dexterity + 
  Medicine roll (Diffi  culty 2) removes it. A success-
  fully implanted GPS chip gives +2 successes on tests 
  to locate a subject.
  PHASED MOTION DETECTOR (SCREAMERS)
  Blankbodies have an uncanny ability to sneak up 
  on a mortal, disappear from plain sight — or hide 
  there, and generally act like creeps. Phased motion 
  detectors continuously emit microwaves and trigger 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  8 1
  an alert. Sometimes that alert goes to an operator’s 
  monitor, more often it’s an ear-splitting shriek that 
  warns everyone in the area that there’s a blankbody 
  in the area. Of course, it’s accompanied by a ping 
  showing exactly where the predator is, usually on an 
  agent’s smartwatch or similar multi-use device. 
  Once a Screamer goes off , everyone in the area 
  can make a Wits + Awareness roll vs. the vampire’s 
  Resolve + Obfuscate. If they succeed, they see the 
  Obfuscated vampire.
  Spotting a Screamer before it’s too late requires 
  a Diffi  culty 2 Wits + Technology roll: they appear 
  to be discreet black boxes stuck to a wall or dropped 
  on a fl oor. 
  SUNRISE BOMB
  Another grenade, and another of FIRSTLIGHT’s 
  proudest achievements. The sunrise bomb (aka “the 
  purge,” “the day trip,” or “sunseeker”) simulates 
  sunlight as bright as equatorial noon and covers an 
  area the size of a ballroom. The opportunity to use 
  a sunrise bomb is one of the highlights of a night 
  raid: there’s no point breaking them out if the vam-
  pires are tucked up in separate, lightproof boxes. 
  No, it’s best to unleash one at Elysium and watch 
  the monsters run. 
  Sunrise bombs are a “welcome” weapon: a fi rst 
  barrage. Hunter teams don’t expect to destroy vam-
  pires with them, just send them running, panicked 
  and unprepared, into ambushes and fi re teams. 
  Sometimes literal ones, with fl amethrowers.
  
  Chapter Two: Special Weapons
  8 2
  Sunrise bombs simulate the effects of direct 
  sunlight (Corebook, p. 221) and force vampires to 
  succeed on a Composure test or flee via the nearest 
  accessible exit. Covering the grenade before it deto-
  nates prevents the light from spreading and deals 
  7 levels of Aggravated damage to a vampire who 
  does so, but has no effect on mortals. Covering the 
  grenade after detonation achieves nothing.
  TANGLEFOOT TRAP
  These useful little gadgets come filled with fine 
  wires that unspool and tangle at a rapid rate. They 
  detonate a split second before they’re touched, 
  activating by motion detection. They can really ruin 
  the night of a fast-moving assailant, causing them 
  to trip or stumble and slowing them even after they 
  navigate past the trap.
  After triggering a tanglefoot trap, the target 
  suffers +2 Difficulty to Athletics rolls. The trap also 
  renders the Celerity powers Rapid Reflexes, Fleet-
  ness, and Blink ineffective until the user spends a 
  full turn untangling themselves.
  VELUM SANCTUARII
  Its official name is the Latin for “Holy Veil”, but 
  everyone except the stuffiest Leopoldites calls it the 
  Red Gas. The Order of St. Leopold keeps tight con-
  trol of this experimental weapon, releasing it only 
  for the highest-value targets: Princes, Primogen, and 
  Elysiums or Conclaves. Nobody outside the high-
  est ranks of the Order knows its true nature: some 
  speculate it comes from the holiest possible matter 
  such as the grave dust of St. Peter beneath the Vati-
  can. Others believe it a purely theurgic weapon.
  Inquisitors deploy the Red Gas from sprayer 
  tanks, either man-carried or dispersed from the 
  back of a truck pulled up to the door of a sealed 
  target. Blankbodies see the gas as red mist, hear 
  horrific wailing and screaming, and their bodies 
  begin to wither. Mortals experience no effects at all, 
  although BOES troopers whisper that the gas looks 
  redder to you the more sinful your nature. The Red 
  Gas causes 2 levels of Aggravated damage to blank-
  bodies in each turn of exposure. Most blankbodies 
  don’t stay in an affected area long enough to die of 
  the gas, but it’s certainly possible. More often, they 
  flee into a waiting Gladius Dei strike team ready to 
  escort them into Final Death.
  XSCOPE 3/SD
  Blankbodies know the XScope (Core Rulebook, p. 
  378) as a cumbersome device like an airport scan-
  ner. This describes the first-generation XScope 1 
  systems, which could be fooled with Blush of Life; 
  the XScope 2 more resembles a large video camera. 
  The second-generation XScope 3 systems combine 
  basic readouts with advanced medical software, re-
  quiring Blush of Life and a Composure + Stamina 
  contest vs. the operator’s Resolve + Technology.
  The second-generation XScope 3/SD weighs 
  twelve pounds, mounts on a shoulder, and flashes 
  its readout to a heads-up display in an eyepiece. 
  FIRSTLIGHT continues to push XScope tech in 
  sophistication; the GRU works on miniaturizing 
  XScopes down to the size of a monocular, or a 
  rifle sight. Fortunately for the Kindred, the GRU 
  mostly has to make do with first-generation resolu-
  tion software.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  8 3
  Artifacts
  Throughout the ages hunters have found objects of 
  mystical power that have enhanced their own abili-
  ties or protected them from the creatures of dark-
  ness. Artifacts come in many forms, but since the 
  Coalition’s collection comes mostly from the vaults 
  of the Vatican’s La Entità their artifacts tend to be 
  art objects or relics of dead saints. The FBI’s SAD 
  and the Russian-backed Akritai have their own 
  artifact collections, but they are even less generous 
  with them then the Vatican. (The Brujah masters 
  of the Kremlin destroyed most of the artifacts they 
  could reach, denuding the imperial Russian vaults.) 
  Artifacts vary in power and rarity but the Vatican’s 
  archivists have spent centuries cataloguing and 
  preparing them as a secret armory for supernatural 
  war. These are but a few of the weapons in the Coa-
  lition’s secret arsenal and the most powerful of them 
  have yet to be revealed.
  When using or inventing artifacts in the chroni-
  cle, Storytellers should try to keep them strange, 
  unique, and individual. Don’t treat them as generic 
  weapons or (worse yet) as ammunition; every saint’s 
  finger-bone should have effects evoking its particu-
  lar origin and that saint’s character.
  Icons
  These artifacts usually take the form of large instal-
  lations or tapestries, but since stone weathers time 
  better than most materials many surviving Icons are 
  statutes or carved reliefs. Created by arcane artists, 
  or using powerful kabbalistic geometric ratios, 
  Icons affect any vampire that beholds them, or in 
  some cases any vampire who crosses their “gaze.” 
  Normal mortals cannot perceive their powerful 
  mystical auras; vampires often can, even if they 
  don’t want to.
  Russian hunters and the Akritai often carry in-
  laid, gilded, or painted images of saints called ikons. 
  Like Relics, they require True Faith to use, but they 
  don’t usually have any preserved body parts in their 
  construction. Use the systems under Relics (p. 84) 
  for ikons.
  While most Icons protect sanctuaries from 
  the supernatural, some have been used to trap or 
  contain particularly dangerous monsters. The 
  SAD vault contains objects that ward off not just 
  vampires, but werewolves and extra-dimensional 
  creatures. The Coalition suspects that Icons protect 
  many places of worship in the Middle East and 
  Asia, but has officially adopted a policy of non-
  interference with these objects. That said, FIRST-
  LIGHT inserted covert teams to rescue Icons from 
  ancient sites endangered by ISIS vandals, and they 
  (or the Arcanum) may have looted other Icons dur-
  ing the occupation of Iraq.
  BERNINI’S FACELESS ANGEL
  Never completed during his lifetime, this set of 
  model statuettes and sketches are attributed to the 
  famous sculptor though none of the planning work 
  is signed. Originally conceived as a massive bronze 
  statue built on multiple overlapping flattened 
  toruses, even the models of the work are hard for the 
  eye to fully grasp in three dimensions. The topol-
  ogy and patterns of the work (the so-called “Bernini 
  Cross”) make supernatural creatures uncomfort-
  able, but vampires seem especially susceptible. Jesuit 
  computational mathematicians have mapped the 
  Faceless Angel pattern onto a wire-frame design, 
  but it so far resists being recorded or broadcast, 
  or rendered at all in two dimensions. A dedicated 
  laptop running the Bernini Cross diagram on a 
  deep-field monitor partially reproduces the effect, 
  and some safehouses come with Bernini systems 
  disguised as high-end TVs.
  System: While all supernatural creatures recognize 
  the Faceless Angel pattern as dangerous, Vampires 
  that see it must immediately test for Terror Frenzy 
  against a Difficulty of 3. Vampires that resist this 
  frenzy are immune to the Faceless Angel for the 
  rest of the night, but during that time the image 
  sings to them with a barely perceptible and almost 
  taunting hum regardless of the distance. This 
  song can interfere with the vampire’s day sleep but 
  usually fades with the next setting sun. Brujah 
  that come upon a Faceless Angel make a Fury 
  Frenzy test instead and risk being overcome by a 
  
  Chapter Two: Special Weapons
  8 4
  deafening chorus that directs them to destroy any 
  other vampires within their arms’ reach.  
  ENOCHIAN SARCOPHAGUS (UNIQUE)
  A strange and ancient stone coffi  n covered with 
  etchings that seem Babylonian or Late-Empire 
  Egyptian; it has resisted all attempts to open it since 
  its discovery in 2000. The SAD has held it locked in 
  a vault in West Virginia for almost 15 years, but wit-
  nesses continue to report seeing the Sarcophagus, or 
  at least hearing from those who have seen it, all over 
  the country. The Sarcophagus subtly calls to elder 
  vampires for miles, invading their dreams at fi rst 
  and then whispering to them in their waking hours. 
  While the dreams never reveal its contents, the Eno-
  chian Sarcophagus promises power and fulfi llment. 
  The Tremere and Setites use the Al-Farabi process 
  to mute its call in cities where they have chantries, 
  but even this countermeasure erodes over time.
  System: When this Icon activates in a city, those 
  with Blood Potency of 5 or greater (and Ventrue 
  of any Blood Potency) immediately feel its 
  presence. These vampires can no longer reduce 
  their Hunger below 1 through any means unless 
  the Sarcophagus is in their possession. The Blood 
  Potency threshold for its eff ects drops by 1 every 
  six months the Sarcophagus remains in a city.
  OCCULTED BOSCH TRIPTYCH (UNIQUE)
  A painting on three lacquered panels that are 
  hinged together, this triptych is believed to be the 
  fourth work in a set of altar pieces by Hieronymus 
  Bosch. It was hidden by the Vatican because of its 
  perverse subject matter but its profound power 
  against the undead was discovered when a pack of 
  vampires were destroyed attempting to steal it from 
  the archives. The work is entitled “The Penitent 
  Farmer” and depicts a lone fi gure travelling through 
  a blood soaked dreamscape before fi nding solace 
  with a divine feminine fi gure. The two then become 
  one before a city of fantastic utopian architecture. 
  The work's eschatological meaning is a closely held 
  secret within La Entità but its power against the 
  damned is unmistakable.
  System: Vampires that look upon the panel 
  burn with inner fi re, carbonizing their hearts 
  and traveling along their dead arteries until it 
  consumes them, leaving a pile of ashes. They take 
  a number of Aggravated wounds each round equal 
  to the number of Stains they currently possess. 
  This damage can only be reduced with Fortitude 
  powers. If multiple vampires look upon the panel 
  at the same time, then the damage infl icted upon 
  them individually is equal to all Stains possessed 
  by the assembled vampires. Toreador vampires 
  can delay the damage by completely succumbing 
  to their Clan Compulsion, becoming frozen in 
  place. Their Stains still count for the total damage 
  infl icted by the Icon and they suff er all the delayed 
  damage once their trance is broken.
  Relics
  The Society of St. Leopold provides its Faithful 
  servants (including the BOES, and sometimes even 
  FIRSTLIGHT or IAO) with Relics, created from 
  the remains of holy fi gures, saints, and (some ir-
  religious sorcerers claim) supernatural beings. The 
  Akritai use ikons (p. 83) instead of saints’ bones, 
  but the eff ects remain the same. Relics focus and 
  sometimes amplify True Faith, and indeed become 
  useless chunks of bone or mummifi ed fl esh with-
  out that trait. Relics that add points of True Faith 
  never add it to those without that trait. Most Relics 
  also curse any vampire (or sometimes any inhuman 
  supernatural fi gure) that attempts to use them.
  A hunter can only gain the benefi ts of one Relic 
  per scene, no matter how many they carry.
  These sample Relics show a range of relic eff ects, 
  but as with all artifacts, the Storyteller should intro-
  duce specifi c, individual aspects and powers of any 
  Relic in play.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  8 5
  ASHES OF ST. GODARD
  St. Godard of Rouen banished the dead from 
  Rouen Cathedral, and his ashes still reach into the 
  realms of the dead.
  System: One marked by these ashes can see 
  incorporeal foes, including ghosts and vampires in 
  mist form. Any wooden weapon they wield (such 
  as a stake) can damage such enemies normally. 
  They add one dot to True Faith.
  AVICENNAN HEART
  A mystic with True Faith specially prepares these 
  mummifi ed hearts (using formulae adapted from 
  medieval medical texts attributed to the Persian 
  philosopher Ibn Sina, and a Diffi  culty 4 roll of ei-
  ther Resolve + Occult or Resolve + Medicine), and 
  buries them with prayers beneath the threshold or 
  hearth of a dwelling. When a vampire enters these 
  places the heart quietly beats and marks the undead 
  by their sins.
  System: Upon entering a dwelling protected by an 
  Avicennan Heart a vampire loses any benefi t from 
  using Blush of Life and gains all of the drawbacks 
  of having a Humanity of 3 (Corebook, p. 238). 
  This curse does not change a vampire’s personality 
  or actual Humanity. Ministry vampires also 
  suff er Hunger increases by +2 as their own heart 
  begins to throb and beat in time with the Heart 
  of Ibn Sina. If this increases their Hunger to 
  5, the vampire gains a Stain and suff ers from a 
  Compulsion to fi nd and possess the hidden heart 
  that beats in the house.
  CROSS OF TERTULLIAN
  This fervent defender of the Faith encountered 
  the living dead and drove them back with the 
  words of Christ. A cross crafted from his vertebra, 
  chased with silver and hawthorn wood, rebukes the 
  childer of Caine.
  System: A vampire presented with this Cross 
  subtracts its current number of Stains (minimum 
  one) from all its rolls to resist (or overcome) True 
  Faith. The wielder adds one dot to True Faith.
  
  Chapter Two: Special Weapons
  8 6
  FRANCISCAN ASPERGILLUM
  This aspergillum (a device used to sprinkle holy wa-
  ter) has a splinter of bone from Saint Francis worked 
  into the handle.
  System: Using it to sprinkle holy water across a 
  room creates an aura of tranquility. Vampires exit 
  Frenzy, and will not attack if not attacked. It adds 4 
  dice to any attempt to treat, resist, or mitigate insan-
  ity or madness, including the effects of Disciplines. 
  The wielder adds one dot to True Faith.
  PARIETUM OF ST. POLYCARP
  When burned at the stake by his persecutors, the 
  fires failed to consume Polycarp of Smyrna. He ex-
  tends his protection to servants of the Church who 
  carry his skull fragments even today.
  System: The hunter gains +3 Armor against fire, 
  and 3 extra Health levels when in the presence 
  of fire. They add two dots to True Faith in the 
  presence of fire.
  RELIQUARY OF AGIOS NIKOLAS
  Built by Akritai rites now lost, these small lockets 
  allow the hair or teeth of a venerated hunter to 
  guide and protect the wearer. Less than a dozen 
  remain in existence.
  System: A hunter wearing this Relic passes 
  through magical wards and protections without 
  triggering them. If the hunter detects the 
  protection, they add three dice to pools to dispel 
  or defeat them. Mundane and electronic defense 
  mechanisms are unaffected. If a vampire feeds on 
  a hunter wearing this Relic, it gains no sustenance, 
  and cannot slake Hunger until it gives away 
  something of great personal value to a stranger.
  SHROUD OF SANT’ELLERO
  St. Ellero di Galeata revealed a lamia to the no-
  bleman Olibrius, converting him to the Faith of 
  Christ. Pieces of his shroud (about two feet square 
  of dark homespun cloth) protect the wearer against 
  the wiles of the undead and demonic when held 
  to the face.
  System: A hunter with the shroud over their face 
  can see vampires in their true form (counteracting 
  Blush of Life, Obfuscate, Protean, etc.), appearing 
  as a figure glowing through the shroud’s weave. 
  Wearing the shroud does not make targeting or 
  identifying a vampire harder, but it subtracts two 
  dice for any other visual task. The wearer also 
  gains +5 Armor against any supernatural powers 
  that draw from the abyss such as Oblivion. They 
  are also immune to any form of possession, and 
  add two dots to True Faith.
  ARMAMENTA
  Not necessarily weapons; armamentum merely 
  means “equipment” or “utensil” in Latin. Crafted 
  individually or in very limited numbers, often from 
  extremely rare or deadly materials, they require no 
  special training to use. However, those without 
  extraordinary gifts find them balky, refractory, or 
  outright cursed. As a general rule, any total failure 
  with Armamenta while used by normal mortals 
  does 1 point of Aggravated damage (Health or 
  Willpower, whichever makes sense in the moment) 
  to the user or some other unintended target.
  CENSER OF ABSOLUTION
  A simple silver-clad incense-burning censer; both 
  the censer and the incense are Armamenta. When 
  correctly lit, dark orange smoke pours forth from 
  the container. While the smoke mildly irritates to 
  mortals, vampires and their blood slaves become 
  sick on the stolen blood in their veins.
  System: Once ritually lit (Dexterity + Occult), the 
  censer burns for the entire scene and fills a large 
  area with smoke. Any vampires that end the round 
  in the smoke have their Hunger increased by +1 as 
  they begin to retch up blood  (up to a maximum 
  of Hunger 5). While prolonged exposure does 
  not increase their Hunger further, the retching 
  removes a die from all the vampire’s pools. 
  Ghouls in the smoke must make a Willpower test 
  (Difficulty 2) or become incapicitated with nausea.  
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  8 7
  DAGGER OF AKKAD
  The instructions for the construction of these weap-
  ons were found in a dig site in Iraq in the 1950s, but 
  the Vatican has only recently been able to produce a 
  limited number with resources and technical meth-
  ods provided by the Akritai and the IAO.
  System: These daggers inflict Aggravated Health 
  damage against supernatural creatures and have 
  a damage value of +1. Vampires wounded by 
  these daggers bleed profusely, and their Hunger 
  increases by +1 at the end of the scene (up to a 
  maximum of Hunger 5). 
  SERRE DU GAROU
  Supposedly carved from the claw of a werewolf, this 
  cruelly hooked dagger measures a little under six 
  inches from tip to ivory pommel. Usually, leather 
  windings prevent the wielder from gashing their 
  palm on it.
  System: This dagger deals Aggravated damage to 
  Kindred. While the blade is exposed in the light of 
  the full moon, the wielder can sense any Kindred 
  within three meters of them. Werewolves can also 
  sense such a blade, and want to take it back from 
  its human desecrator.
  WAXEN POETICA
  The SAD locked samples of this dangerous red 
  wax in their vault over five decades ago as part of 
  an unsolved murder investigation with suspected 
  supernatural involvement. The SAD reopened the 
  case recently when a vampire calling themselves “the 
  poet” left another burned victim encased in this 
  living wax. While the original samples remain in the 
  vault, some of the wax from the second crime scene 
  has been cleared for field use.
  The wax “comes alive” when exposed to blood, 
  so SAD agents keep it in fragile two-chamber can-
  isters that mix the two components when broken. 
  When the wax touches blood it boils and grows to 
  cover anything it touches until it’s exhausted the 
  blood supply and rapidly cools back into its inert 
  form, usually living behind a victim boiled alive and 
  covered in the unnerving substance.
  System: The activated wax causes 3 Aggravated 
  Health wounds of heat damage every round it 
  touches a victim and continues to grow as long 
  as it remains in contact with a blood source. A 
  coin-sized patch of wax covers a grown man in two 
  turns and can quickly fill a room if three or more 
  victims are exposed. Fire extinguishers and other 
  retardants can slow and reduce the damage caused 
  by the wax at the Storyteller’s discretion.
  
  Chapter Th ree: Dangerous Games
  8 8
  Chapter Th ree: Dangerous Games
  8 8
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  8 9
  T
  he Second Inquisition counts within its 
  righteous embrace spies of all stripes, 
  technicians and analysts, highly trained 
  shock troops, and the quiet church 
  neighbor with the surprisingly complete home 
  metal shop. In every realm the blankbodies oper-
  ate, from high society to the wet, dark streets; to 
  the high-tech, fast moving world of business and 
  fi nance, to their shadowy Havens and Elysiums, the 
  Coalition has developed tactics to thwart them. 
  Standard Operating 
  Procedures
  The Coalition doesn’t rely on a single tactic. Each 
  of the Five Torches is diff erent, and each of their 
  targets calls for a bespoke approach. However, they 
  draw from a playbook of tried and tested tactics, 
  remixing and adapting them as required to hit a 
  target’s specifi c weaknesses. If the tactics here don’t 
  seem appropriate, make new ones. But these ap-
  proaches do work.
  Hunters fi nd their targets in one of three ways: 
  through their feeding, the activities of a coterie, or 
  through a network of informants. How they iden-
  tify a target impacts the action they take, so every 
  Chapter Three:
  DANGEROUS GAMES
  “Well, you know what we have to contend against; but we, too, are not 
  without strength. We have on our side power of combination—a power denied 
  to the vampire kind; we have sources of science; we are free to act and think; 
  and the hours of the day and the night are ours equally. In fact, so far as our 
  powers extend, they are unfettered, and we are free to use them. We have 
  self-devotion in a cause, and an end to achieve which is not a selfish one. 
  These things are much.”
  — VAN HELSING, IN DRACULA
  
  Chapter Th ree: Dangerous Games
  9 0
  tactic described here makes note of which Predator 
  Types and Coterie Types it’s particularly relevant to. 
  Some of the Five Torches are particularly fond 
  of, or occasionally reluctant to use, certain tactics, 
  and we note this along with any variations they 
  habitually make. 
  At the end of the chapter you’ll fi nd a Response 
  Algorithm, (See Anarch, pp. 186-189) to guide you 
  through the process of turning up the pressure and 
  escalating a Second Inquisition threat, as well as 
  some Projects to refl ect the less dramatic aspects of 
  their work.
  Th reat Level
  The power, precision, and pace of hunter teams 
  depends on what level of threat they pose in your 
  chronicle. Some of the tactics here are appropriate 
  at all threat levels (e.g. Hunting Pattern Analysis; 
  Community Informants). Save major, destructive, 
  auto-da-fé actions for chronicles where hunters pose 
  an active, or even central, threat. 
  Remember above all that the Second Inquisition 
  isn't a hammer to punish or frustrate players. It’s 
  a toolbox to add tension and drama to a story and 
  compel Kindred to rethink complacent attitudes 
  towards mortal threats. In game terms, it’s not 
  interesting or fair to throw in antagonists charac-
  ters have no hope of opposing. Within the World 
  of Darkness, even the Coalition has to justify their 
  tactics and resources. The Church doesn’t bring 
  superweapons like the Red Gas to bear on a coterie 
  of bumbling neonates, and a UTR team’s ability to 
  deploy any of these tactics assumes their superiors 
  have declared an operation high enough priority 
  for them. In game terms, that priority often comes 
  directly from the threat level you’ve defi ned, or that 
  the coterie has demonstrated they deserve.
  Investigative Tactics
  Many vampires think that if they just keep their 
  heads down and don’t do anything that would catch 
  the attention of the Second Inquisition – engage 
  in power plays, maintain a high profi le, get into 
  fi ghts – they stay off  the radar. They’re wrong. Most 
  investigations start with a red fl ag. A news headline, 
  a police report, a subtle pattern in medical data or 
  social media discourse, a tip off  from an informant. 
  In modern nights, where everything is recorded, 
  monitored, and interrogated no hunting tactic goes 
  completely unnoticed.
  Hunters look at the vampire’s eff ect on the world 
  around them and the people who inhabit it. Some-
  where there’s a clue, a string to tug on. It’s easier to 
  pick off  individual vampires: numbers can give an 
  UTR team an edge. However, it’s easier to spot a 
  coterie at work. They have more of an eff ect on the 
  world around them; they leave ripples. 
  The Coalition (and an intelligent Farm Team) 
  always tries to split up a coterie rather than take 
  on the whole group. They observe and monitor, 
  collecting data that tells them the vampire’s Haven 
  or hunting pattern, and strategize based on that 
  information. However, diff erent coterie types leave 
  diff erent traces and the Coalition has evolved play-
  books for all of them.
  Data Analysis: Hunting Patterns
  Most blankbodies have hunting patterns, in which 
  case data analysis can forecast roughly when they’ll 
  strike, where, and the profi le of their preferred prey. 
  Blankbodies feeding on animals aren’t as subtle 
  as they think they are. Either local wildlife or ver-
  min populations are suspiciously low (it takes a lot 
  NO DICE, JUST DANGER
  Many of these tactics come with systems to determine their mechanical impact. To emphasize the un-
  known threat, and provide a frisson of chance, some require only the Storyteller to roll. Too much of this 
  can slow pacing and diminish players’ sense of agency, turning what should be a game of personal horror 
  into “Storyteller solitaire.” To combat this tendency, feel free to plug in numbers or select results based on 
  the hunter team’s quality: poor results for amateurs and new-fl edged Coalition teams, average results for 
  most Coalition or Leopoldite hunters, or excellent results for truly elite foes. You can do the same even for 
  contested rolls, turning them into tests against the General Diffi  culties (or half the ability pools) given in the 
  Antagonists chapter.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  9 1
  of rats to feed a vampire, and those missing pet post-
  ers are a real problem), or there’s a large population 
  of animals: urban aviaries, zoos, crazy cat ladies.
  Animals have people who care about them: 
  zookeepers, veterinarians, rescue charities (these are 
  great for locating havens: neighbours will report 
  noise or droppings). Local pest control have a line 
  on why their jobs are getting easier. Any of these 
  people might have seen a predator at work as a fl ee-
  ing fi gure, or a suspicious visitor.
  Analysis of hunting patterns is as quick as the 
  blankbody is voracious. Each time the blankbody 
  feeds, the lead analyst makes an Intelligence + Tech-
  nology (sometimes Streetwise or Survival, depend-
  ing on methodology) roll to spot the pattern. When 
  they reach 10 successes they have a full profi le of the 
  predator and can anticipate where they will strike 
  next. Appropriate Contacts or Allies add 2 dice to 
  the pool. 
  Eff ective Against: Blankbodies with Prey Exclu-
  sion; Farmers; Commando coteries
  COUNTERMEASURES
  The best thing a vampire can do is consciously 
  change their hunting pattern, accounting for their 
  own biases and habits. This turns the hunters’ 
  pattern analysis into a contested roll against the 
  vampire’s Intelligence + Stealth or Survival. Each 
  success on the vampire’s roll reduces the analyst’s 
  successes by 1. If the analyst acquires no successes 
  three tests in row, they lose the trail and cannot start 
  the search again for at least a month, when they 
  might reasonably have obtained new insights. The 
  analysis starts again with zero successes.
  Additionally, Farmers can move their prey into 
  their Haven, but that’s not a guarantee of going 
  unnoticed. 
  Community Informants
  Predators who move around and strike at random 
  are harder to catch. They don’t always hunt close 
  to their Haven, so the Coalition has determined 
  the best forecasting tool is community informants 
  in hunting grounds. Even trained operatives can’t 
  cover enough ground themselves, but local civil-
  ians all have pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. Get a team 
  on the ground, make friends, and start assembling 
  a picture.
  This is also the best approach to catching blank-
  bodies who feed on sleeping prey. Their victims 
  don’t know what happened to them, but they know 
  they don’t feel great. They have weird marks they 
  
  Chapter Three: Dangerous Games
  9 2
  mistake for insect bites, or feel anemic and run 
  down. They go to doctors or complain to their 
  friends. There may not be any sign that their homes 
  have been broken into but something’s not right: a 
  window doesn’t close properly, they have a feeling 
  someone’s watching them. Victims are paranoid 
  and looking for support, and a local neighborhood 
  watch group or homeowners’ association can pick 
  up on it quickly. 
  Community informants don’t only work for 
  geographic neighborhoods. They’re just as effective 
  at cracking open scenes and subcultures. 
  Occasionally this is a job for a Cuckoo, Socialite, 
  or Detective but more often it’s allocated to a Dealer 
  or a Mother Hen: a strictly backstage role in charge 
  of maintaining and extracting intel from networks 
  of contacts. 
  Building up community trust requires an 
  Extended Manipulation + Streetwise or Etiquette 
  roll (one roll per week). At 10 successes, the network 
  of informants starts to bear fruit, and the SI team 
  identifies the Predator or Coterie type operating in 
  the area, their past victims, and likely next targets. 
  Effective Against: Alleycats; Sandmen; Scene 
  Queens; Fang Gangs
  VARIATIONS
  The Society of St. Leopold finds it easy to befriend 
  priests and their congregations, and it’s highly fruit-
  ful. Their informants take on non-threatening cover 
  identities such as visiting nuns. 
  The Newburgh Group loves a Neighborhood 
  Watch group, and excels at manipulating middle-
  aged busybodies into states of paranoia. Cover 
  identities as local police officers or local government 
  employees serve them well. The SAD preys on 
  homeowners’ associations in a similar fashion. 
  Teams from the Eighth Direction often struggle 
  to place informants: the general populace in former 
  Soviet nations proves suspicious of attempts to elicit 
  information from them. The Orthodox church 
  often presents opportunities, and agents sometimes 
  pay local youths or others in need of cash, to keep 
  alert for unusual activity or strange rumors. 
  BOES don’t have the patience for long-term 
  community information gathering. They prefer 
  to use local police resources to gather dossiers on 
  their likely targets. Deploying BOES on watch duty 
  wastes a lot of time, in which blankbodies are busy 
  killing innocent bystanders.
  COUNTERMEASURES
  A vampire’s Contacts or Allies in the community 
  make it harder for the hunters to get a foothold. 
  Each dot in those Advantages reduces their foes’ 
  dice pool. These Contacts and Allies might also 
  choose to warn the vampire of suspicious newcom-
  ers asking questions. 
  The most effective way to counter this tactic is 
  to be embedded in the community oneself, able to 
  spot early signs of outside interest before the Coali-
  tion gains any meaningful information.
  Data Analysis: Herds and Cults
  Vampires who prey on their own cults, herds, 
  and family members are discreet but not impos-
  sible to detect. Their feeding leaves medical traces 
  (groups of people prone to colds and other immune 
  system disorders, for example). Data analysis reveals 
  sickly family lines from patterns of missed work 
  days, medical visits, even shopping patterns that 
  show high purchase propensity for iron-rich foods 
  or supplements. 
  If they find a family line, the Coalition goes 
  down it themselves. They find the most discontent-
  ed members of the family and recruit or blackmail 
  them, or simply use Lamplighters to find the places 
  where their undead relative sleeps away the day. 
  Meanwhile, some blankbodies tell their prey 
  exactly what they’re doing… and then they go right 
  ahead and talk about it, cryptically or overtly. “I 
  just gave blood!” status updates (when there’s no 
  blood drive in the area), participation in online kink 
  communities, or at offline play spaces can all clue in 
  a knowledgeable observer. Victims who know what 
  they’re participating in inevitably want someone to 
  talk it out with, and it’s shocking what you can find 
  communities for on Tumblr.
  Social media analysis also works on blankbod-
  ies who use fame to surround themselves with 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  9 3
  minor cults. Paparazzi, tabloids, and gossip blogs 
  are a FIRSTLIGHT agent’s best friend. Plus, every 
  famous person has at least one jealous enemy. Start 
  a rumor about a celebrity you suspect, and see what 
  comes back.
  A good Hacker anchors this set of tactics, but 
  Informants and Deprogrammers shine when it’s 
  time to move in closer to the target.
  ■ This tactic only works against blankbodies with 
  a Herd or, at the Storyteller’s discretion, one 
  with a group of followers and hangers-on that 
  they don’t feed on. To employ these types of 
  data analysis, roll: An Extended Intelligence + 
  Medicine test to analyze medical data. The Dif-
  fi culty is equal to three times the blankbody’s 
  Herd rating (the more people they feed on, the 
  more subtle the eff ects). The fi rst three rolls are 
  one week apart, and subsequent rolls one day 
  apart. 
  ■ An Extended Intelligence + Technology test 
  (with two days between rolls) to scrape online 
  and social media data and compile it into a 
  meaningful analysis. The Diffi  culty is equal to 
  three times the blankbody’s Herd rating. Each 
  point of Fame the target blankbody has adds 1 
  die to the Analyst’s pool, but each point of Infl u-
  ence increases the Diffi  culty by 1. A blankbody 
  must have at least one point of Fame for this 
  approach to be eff ective. 
  To convert a member of the Herd or cult into a 
  Coalition asset: 
  ■ Make an Extended Charisma + Persuasion test, 
  with Diffi  culty equal to the target’s Willpower. 
  Some kind of tangible reward is usually neces-
  sary: money, drugs, whatever the target’s weak-
  ness might be.
  Eff ective Against: Cleavers; Consensualists; 
  Osirises; Blood Cults; 
  VARIATIONS
  BOES have become terrifyingly effi  cient at this 
  approach. A number of Toreador in Rio de Janeiro 
  gathered cults of personality around themselves 
  before it became evident this laid a glow-in-the-dark 
  trail. BOES analysts have so much experience tell-
  ing a blood cult from a bunch of groupies they add 
  three dice to their pools for this tactic. 
  Social media (and regular media) monitor-
  ing also turns up strange tabloid stories about 
  werewolves fi ghting vampires — usually noth-
  ing, but sometimes the best way to fi nd a group 
  of Watchmen.
  COUNTERMEASURES
  Diversify. Lock up your Herd: they leave most of 
  their traces when they interact with the outside 
  world. Dominate your victims into silence or make 
  sure they forget. Blood Bond a long-term playmate.
  The best defense for a famous or infl uential 
  vampire is that the Coalition needs proof before dis-
  posing of a public fi gure. A high profi le can make 
  an operation so tricky it’s not worth the investment.
  
  Chapter Three: Dangerous Games
  9 4
  Data Analysis: 
  Academic Specializations
  History. Genealogy. Anthropology. Folklore. 
  Forensic accountancy. These varied disciplines all 
  contribute to the hunt in similar ways: Burrowers 
  painstakingly crawl through records, looking for 
  discrepancies that are not only indicative of blank-
  body activity but provide useful strings to tie them 
  in, weakening them until an ESOG team or other 
  frontline force can neutralize them. 
  This tactic doesn’t come into play until inform-
  ants, different strands of data analysis, or other ap-
  proaches have yielded a name to investigate. Given 
  a name, historians, genealogists and folklorists find 
  historical evidence of their target: age, friends and 
  family, connections to other known blankbodies, 
  and even the likelihood that they possess each of the 
  supernatural powers — mind control, preternatural 
  speed, etc. — tracked by specialists. Psychological 
  profiling remains a developing field of blankbody 
  study, because blankbodies simply don’t think like 
  mortals. But the SAD (and from another direction, 
  the GRU) have ample files on psychopathic killers 
  that improve their findings steadily.
  Occasionally, this research turns up likely 
  blankbodies, otherwise neglected because they’re 
  active during the day. The Coalition only learned 
  recently that that’s not necessarily a hard line they 
  can draw anymore. 
  Burrowers especially target blankbodies’ 
  Touchstones, providing significant leverage over the 
  blankbody in question. Forensic Accountants (p. 
  24) track the blankbodies’ money flows and hidden 
  accounts. Anthropologists specialize in vampires 
  embedded in scenes and subcultures. They track the 
  flow of influence, the roles played by different peo-
  ple — or the same person with different names — 
  and identify the people with too much control, or 
  who have been around for too long. Historians and 
  archivists find the same faces in photographs going 
  back decades: a Jazz Age flapper who reappears as 
  a London mod, then as a Shoreditch hipster. They 
  track down people who’ve personally interacted 
  with the probable blankbody, gather firsthand 
  accounts, and develop a profile of likely holdings, 
  goals, and powers. 
  This tactic requires an Extended dice roll, with 
  one roll per week. The nature of the research deter-
  mines the dice pool, and the effect:
  ■ Identifying Discipline powers: Intelligence + 
  Occult. Each successful roll identifies a Disci-
  pline power. 
  ■ Pierce Masks: Intelligence + Investigation roll, 
  requiring 3 times as many successes as the Mask 
  rating, identifying the real identity of the blank-
  body along with information on their assets, 
  properties owned, and their known hangouts.
  ■ Identify Touchstones: Intelligence + Academ-
  ics or Insight; Difficulty 6. Each successful roll 
  identifies one Touchstone.
  ■ Psychological profiling: Intelligence + Insight 
  or Medicine (Psychology); Difficulty 3. For each 
  successful roll, learn one of the following: Preda-
  tor Type, Coterie Type, Clan, Sire, Childer, one 
  Attribute score.
  Effective Against: Cleavers; Scene Queens; 
  Tremere; Cerberus coteries; Day Watchers 
  VARIATIONS
  The Newburgh Group specialize in discerning 
  a blankbody’s powers, with a particular knack 
  for identifying Oblivion, Necromancy, or Blood 
  Sorcery powers. The SAD tends to go straight for 
  the bank account. BOES and the Eighth Direction 
  delight in finding Touchstones, and threatening 
  them or taking them hostage to draw a blank-
  body to them. 
  The Society of St. Leopold has an immense 
  archive of their own, and because that’s always their 
  first port of call and it’s infamously incomplete 
  when it comes to non-European vampires, they’re 
  slower than the other Fires: it takes them an addi-
  tional week between their first two rolls.  
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  9 5
  COUNTERMEASURES
  Each dot of Mask Advantage increases the Diffi-
  culty of the inquisitor’s roll by 1. 
  A vampire can obscure their trail or remove 
  themselves from physical and digital records with 
  a successful Extended Intelligence + Academics or 
  Technology (use the lower) roll. For every 3 suc-
  cesses, the Difficulty of the hunter’s roll increases 
  by 1. When the vampire reaches 10, they are gone. 
  They gain the Zeroed Mask Advantage (Core-
  book, pg. 191).
  Intelligence Assets
  The Coalition intertwines inextricably with the 
  espionage and intelligence agencies it formed from. 
  Thanks to its powerful links with such organiza-
  tions, it doesn’t have to do much of its own legwork. 
  The CIA, JIC, and other agencies already track 
  any and all threats to national security at home and 
  abroad. Thanks to intelligence sharing between al-
  lied nations, they hold an extremely detailed picture 
  of political dissent, high-level arms and narcotics 
  trading, cults, and any other activity that could be 
  construed as threatening national security.
  While this doesn’t immediately call to mind 
  blankbody activity, there are plenty of Anarchs 
  who are, or were, under observation at some point 
  in their lives, or who associate with people who 
  still are. Equally, there are blankbodies who attract 
  cults of personality or religion, and these in turn 
  attract notice. 
  After Felicity Price freed herself of vampiric 
  influence, she added a number of other red flags to 
  NSA and ECHELON monitoring algorithms — 
  this time, monitoring intelligence agents and opera-
  tional outcomes for any of the behaviors Price had 
  exhibited: secrecy, “dabbling” in projects, requests 
  for assignment to specific teams, high proportions 
  of suboptimal outcomes suggesting data leaks, and 
  many others. Suffice to say that blankbodies who at-
  tempt to infiltrate or influence intelligence agencies 
  are rapidly identified and neutralized. 
  A blankbody appears in an intelligence database 
  entirely at the Storyteller’s discretion, based on their 
  actions during the chronicle, in their background, 
  or even in mortal life (for those recently Embraced). 
  Some of the effects of using intelligence databases 
  are easily quantifiable, others are not. 
  ■ Roll Intelligence + Academics to establish either 
  known associates or locations where the target 
  has been frequently spotted. The process takes 
  a week. 
  ■ Roll Intelligence + Investigation to identify 
  and collate known tactics, weapons, etc. for a 
  blankbody. With 3 or more successes the analyst 
  can even make some educated guesses about 
  Disciplines. This has no impact on dice rolls but 
  does ensure that when the UTR team comes 
  face to face with a blankbody, they know exactly 
  what gear and personnel they need to take them 
  down. 
  ■ For internal affairs investigations into intelli-
  gence personnel, use Intelligence + Insight vs the 
  target’s Composure + Subterfuge.
  Effective Against: Anarchs; Nosferatu; some 
  Osirises; Champions; 
  VARIATIONS
  The Society of St. Leopold isn’t closely attached 
  to a specific security agency; they have to work 
  through partners (usually the CIA, or Italy’s AISE) 
  to complete this kind of work, and it takes twice as 
  long. This isn’t true of “internal affairs” investiga-
  tions: the Society’s Censors exist specifically to root 
  out heresy and supernatural influence, and have 
  centuries of practice doing so.
  COUNTERMEASURES
  The best defense against this tactic is a good Mask: 
  every dot of Mask adds 1 point of Difficulty to the 
  analyst’s roll. An Ally in the relevant security agency 
  adds up to 2 points of Difficulty.
  
  Chapter Th ree: Dangerous Games
  9 6
  Channelizing Tactics
  Once they fi nd that fi rst clue, the hunters move in. 
  They apply social and economic pressure to make 
  hunting diffi  cult, or infi ltrate a vampire’s network 
  and move in on their Haven. They have set play-
  books for every way a blankbody can feed itself. 
  Military-minded inquisitors call this phase “defi n-
  ing the battlespace,” or “channelizing,” putting 
  pressure on the enemy to force them into mistakes 
  or into off ering battle.
  Once the net starts to close, there’s little chance 
  of escape. The best thing a vampire can do is sever 
  all ties with their locale and move on to a new city. 
  The next best thing they can do is take a long hard 
  look at their habits… and change them. Fast. 
  For any Channelizing roll, the hunters can add 
  one die for Informants in the blankbody’s circle; 
  add two dice for a Canary (p. 20).
  Blood Supply
  There are only so many places to get blood with-
  out hunting. The Coalition can keep tabs on all 
  of them. They tap into the local black market 
  (blood banks, criminal networks, butchers) using 
  informants, data analysis, and law enforcement and 
  criminal contacts. It’s safe to assume anyone buying 
  blood regularly is a blankbody or one of their serv-
  ants. Once they’ve identifi ed suppliers, the Coali-
  tion either reduces the supply or contaminates it 
  — or both. Having law enforcement threaten parts 
  of the supply chain scares them into shutting down, 
  destroying supplies (even a change in temperature 
  will do it, but so will blowing up a truck), or hurt-
  ing suppliers drives up prices. 
  If the supply comes from a local blood bank or 
  hospital, sabotage or interruption forces blankbod-
  ies to underground suppliers the team can more 
  easily control.
  Once the targets have only one or two viable 
  sources of bagged blood, the next step is to pol-
  lute them. Heavy metals and polonium are fa-
  vorite choices. 
  A Coalition agent makes a Manipulation + 
  Streetwise roll, for every source of blood they iden-
  tify (no more than one a week), at Diffi  culty 3. For 
  every successful roll, it either becomes more diffi  cult 
  or more expensive to buy bagged blood. When it 
  becomes more diffi  cult, a blankbody looking to buy 
  must make a Manipulation + Streetwise roll, with 
  the Diffi  culty increasing by 1 each additional time 
  the hunters restrict supply. When blood becomes 
  more expensive, a vampire must have a minimum 
  of 1 dot of Resources to buy. The Resources 
  requirement increases by 1 each time the hunters 
  increase expense. 
  Heavy metal poisoning is a slow method of 
  weakening blankbodies. Each time one feeds on 
  contaminated blood, they reduce their maximum 
  Health by one. They experience sluggishness and a 
  nagging hunger (can’t reduce Hunger to zero). It’s 
  hard to diagnose: Intelligence + Medicine, Dif-
  fi culty 3. 
  Polonium poisoning is a diff erent beast. A single 
  contaminated blood bag infl icts 8 levels of damage, 
  but a blankbody can discern something’s wrong 
  after a single sip with a Wits + Science roll. They roll 
  Stamina to reduce the damage, with an extra 2 dice 
  if they have the Iron Gullet merit. 
  Eff ective Against: Baggers; sometimes Hunt-
  ing Parties
  VARIATIONS
  The Eighth Direction is particularly fond of polo-
  nium poisoning, and takes credit for originating 
  it. The SAD not only restrict supply, but replace 
  it with their own suppliers, forcing vampires into 
  their debt for blood. Leeches on the hook often 
  give the operatives names of other blankbodies in 
  return for food.
  BOES never use poison. They choke the supply, 
  forcing blankbodies into acts of open murder to 
  feed. That gives away their identity, making it easier 
  to fi nd their Haven and burn it to the ground.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  9 7
  COUNTERMEASURES
  The best response to this tactic is for a vampire to 
  apply pressure of their own. A successful Charisma 
  + Intimidation or Resources roll (against a Diffi  -
  culty equal to the Coalition agent’s margin) negates 
  the eff ect of one Coalition market shift. 
  Introducing a new supplier and keeping the 
  hunters ignorant of them is a viable Project. 
  PICKY EATERS
  Ventrue and other blankbodies with a restricted 
  diet make easy prey for hunters. They can’t just 
  switch to a new food source, and it’s easy to spot 
  their patterns. Whatever tactics they’re using, when 
  agents investigate a blankbody with Prey Exclusion, 
  they add dice equal to the value of the target’s Prey 
  Exclusion fl aw or Bane Severity. This also applies to 
  Hunting Party coteries who specialize in particular 
  types of prey. 
  
  Chapter Three: Dangerous Games
  9 8
  Common Enemies
  It’s rare that the Coalition considers an alliance 
  with its prey, but not unknown. It’s just as rare 
  that a blankbody would consider a pact, however 
  short-lived, with those who hunt them. Nothing is 
  impossible, however, and there are some blankbody 
  threats best handled co-operatively.
  When the Coalition initiates contact, usually 
  via a written or digital message that can’t be traced, 
  along with instructions for a dead drop reply, it’s 
  usually because they face a threat they can’t handle 
  alone, such as an elder too tightly protected for 
  mortals to ever penetrate their defenses, or too well-
  hidden for them to find. They approach another 
  blankbody, usually an ambitious or frustrated one 
  that their Cuckoos and Tails have already identi-
  fied, and convince them to make a power play. The 
  Coalition provides the tools, and the blankbody 
  crafts the opportunity. The Coalition deals with 
  a major threat, and the blankbody moves up a 
  rank — or several. Some hunters agree to forget 
  their little helper exists, afterwards. A few of them 
  even mean it.
  On the flip side, vampires sometimes “throw to 
  the wolves” those who commit the most revolting 
  crimes – diablerists and traitors — or the crime of 
  being in the Prince’s way. Anyone the rulers don’t 
  have the resources to take out themselves becomes 
  fodder for the Inquisition.
  This type of work turns up (or develops) turn-
  coats such as the Lordless and the Daywalker.
  Identifying a subject requires an Intelligence + 
  Streetwise roll. Making contact requires Charisma 
  + Etiquette or Stealth. Convincing a subject to help 
  requires Manipulation + Persuasion. If applying 
  this tactic against players’ characters, don’t make 
  dice rolls: cut straight to making contact, and deter-
  mine the outcome through roleplaying. 
  Effective Against: Blood Leeches; Elder 
  vampires; Commando coteries; Fang Gangs; 
  Plumaires; Regency coteries
  VARIATIONS
  BOES often uses this tactic as an opportunity to 
  send in a sniper or assassin against their temporary 
  ally when they’re done with them. 
  The Newburgh Group often requires a certain 
  amount of incriminating information, future 
  blackmail material, before agreeing to meet with a 
  blankbody who approaches them. The Society of 
  St. Leopold draws out the process through several 
  increasingly risky exchanges and meets — a test of 
  faith, as it were. 
  COUNTERMEASURES
  The most effective way to counter this tactic is to 
  not make enemies, or to sell them out first. Good 
  luck with that. 
  Gentrification
  Blankbodies like certain conveniences, just like any-
  one else. They need people on the streets, whether 
  they’re barflies or people with nowhere else to go; a 
  nice, high crime rate that stops cops from respond-
  ing to every minor incident; to put it cynically, they 
  need to be surrounded by people other mortals 
  don’t care about. What they don’t need is law and 
  order, communities where people take too much 
  interest in their neighbors, and an end to homeless-
  ness, drugs and petty crime.
  So naturally, when JTRG and FIRSTLIGHT 
  want to make an area hostile to blankbodies, they 
  start by making it really quite nice for mortals. A 
  certain subset of mortals, anyway – specifically 
  affluent, usually white ones. Their Politicians 
  and Gentrifiers move in, clearing away undesir-
  able elements.
  Gentrification works especially well in a historic 
  or otherwise distinct neighborhood – one where 
  people will pay to be the first into an “up and com-
  ing” area. In an area with these desirable traits, the 
  Resources cost for gentrification is one dot lower.
  Often, the artists and students come first. 
  The chic bohemian set, who are easy prey for 
  vampires: they eschew tradition, live dangerously, 
  and enjoy the fearsome reputation of their rough 
  neighborhood.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  9 9
  The gentrification process follows 
  common steps:
  ■ Promotion. First, the area is promoted as a place 
  on the edge of prosperity: somewhere cool and 
  ‘authentic’, and more affordable than other 
  choices. A new crowd of people, overconfident 
  and maybe a little naïve, moves in. Vampires 
  who feed on them actually find it easier to hunt, 
  often experiencing reduced difficulty during this 
  stage, which lasts for 12 months, minus the Gen-
  trifier’s successes on a Charisma + Politics roll.
  ■ Simultaneously with Promotion, long-time resi-
  dents move out of the area. This also benefits the 
  leeches: rumors cease to swirl about them, and 
  local history is forgotten.
  ■ Investment. Even FIRSTLIGHT can’t afford 
  to rebuild an area on their own. First they need 
  to attract investors: a six-month process that 
  requires an Extended Charisma + Finance roll. 
  Chain stores move in, new apartments and 
  homes go up, and the original wave of bohemian 
  immigrants is replaced by young families seek-
  ing an affordable home. At this point, a blank-
  body’s Contacts and Influence in local groups, 
  or the size of their local Herd, drops by 2, to a 
  minimum of 1 dot. If a blankbody’s haven isn’t 
  bought and demolished by developers, it loses 2 
  dots of its rating as the area around it changes.
  ■ Cleanup. No drugs, no homeless people, no 
  food banks, no easy hunting grounds. The dif-
  ficulty of hunting increases by 2. Late night ven-
  ues close, there are fewer people on the streets.
  ■ Policing. Neighborhood watch groups, home-
  owners associations, and increased police 
  presence (and willingness by residents to call the 
  cops) all increase. Hunting increases by an ad-
  ditional 1 point of Difficulty. At the Storyteller’s 
  discretion, some blankbodies with Prey Exclu-
  sions (e.g. drug addicts, people of a specific race) 
  may not be able to find food in their territory at 
  all.
  Effective Against: Scene Queens; Champions — 
  who are often so pleased to see their area changing, 
  they don’t see what’s coming until it’s too late; 
  Nomad coteries — it’s hard to return to a place 
  that’s changed utterly; Marechal coteries 
  VARIATIONS
  The Society of St. Leopold prefers a more ground-
  up approach. They tend not to work through Politi-
  cians, but local church organizations. The effects 
  are similar: crime, drug use, and homelessness drop, 
  and eventually the area gets “cleaner.” This ap-
  proach lacks both the first wave of newcomers, and 
  the major investment. Havens remain unaffected, 
  but blankbodies don’t enjoy the brief phase of easy 
  hunting either.
  For gentrification operations aimed at a specific 
  blankbody Domain as opposed to the neighbor-
  hood at large, see the Special system for the Gentri-
  fier (p. 18).
  COUNTERMEASURES
  Blankbodies with strong local Contacts, Allies, or 
  Influence who start counteracting the gentrification 
  before it reaches the investment phase can start a 
  grassroots movement to oppose it. They roll Cha-
  risma + the highest of their relevant Backgrounds 
  each month, reducing the Gentrifier’s Charisma + 
  Finance result by that amount. If, at the end of the 
  six months of Investment, the Gentrifier has fewer 
  than five successes, the gentrification attempt fails 
  and the area reverts to its original state. 
  Surveillance
  This is a very simple, and very useful tactic. One 
  or more Detectives or Lamplighters target a blank-
  body, spending weeks or months tracking the 
  blankbody’s movements, gathering information on 
  the places they visit, the people they meet, and the 
  things that matter to them. Sometimes the goal is to 
  track a blankbody to their Haven, sometimes to as-
  sess a new recruit’s loyalty, and sometimes it’s simply 
  to map out how the city’s power flows.
  Most teams prefer to switch out the shadow at 
  regular intervals: nothing is more suspicious than 
  seeing the same face in the crowd several times over 
  months. There’s also a natural tendency for the 
  shadow to want to become involved. Sometimes 
  
  Chapter Three: Dangerous Games
  1 0 0
  they start to sympathize with their targets and 
  others they feel duty-bound to intervene to save 
  their victims.
  The shadow rolls Wits + Investigation every 
  week that they follow the blankbody. On any roll 
  that accrues three or more successes, they learn:
  ■ A Touchstone
  ■ A Discipline power
  ■ A Background
  ■ The identity of another blankbody the target 
  regularly associates with
  Effective Against: Nomad coteries; 
  Maréchal coteries as a way to reach the Prince; 
  Questari; Vehme
  VARIATIONS
  BOES employs this tactic with the sole intention 
  of identifying a Haven (or, better, an Elysium or 
  other meeting place). When they accumulate twice 
  as many successes as the Haven rating, they learn its 
  location. For every additional week of surveillance, 
  they learn one of the Haven’s features.
  The equivalent of Shadowing for a location is 
  Surveillance, most often practiced by SAD and the 
  Eighth Direction: a Black-Bagger plants surveillance 
  devices, and the team listens to the collected intel-
  ligence. Substitute Wits + Technology for Investiga-
  tion, but results are the same.
  COUNTERMEASURES
  Spotting a shadow requires a Wits + Awareness roll. 
  It starts at Difficulty 5 in the first week of surveil-
  lance and reduces by one each week, to a minimum 
  of 1. Once a blankbody spots a shadow, further rolls 
  to do so are Difficulty 1 until they go a full month 
  with no surveillance.
  Misleading a shadow requires a Contested 
  Manipulation + Stealth roll vs the SI’s weekly Wits 
  + Investigation. If the blankbody wins, the shadow 
  gains no information that week. It’s probably easier 
  just to kill the poor, vulnerable operative, unless 
  the blankbody wants to feed them specific misin-
  formation. 
  DISINFORMATION
  The Five Torches constantly innovate, developing 
  new technology or repurposing existing tools. 
  Their toolbox grows all the time but it takes time 
  and money to fill it. Research and development is 
  expensive but talk is free: it’s much easier to scare 
  leeches with talk of superweapons and hyper-
  advanced tech than to build it. Most of them aren’t 
  particularly tech savvy; those who understand 
  the tech are often too low-placed to counteract 
  credulous elders and ancillae spreading falsehoods.
  Disinformation campaigns “nudge”: they guide 
  blankbodies’ behavior in ways that benefit the 
  Coalition. Current opportunities include: 
  ■
  Convincing them that 5G uses the same 
  frequency as ADS, and thus 5G phones could 
  be weaponized, keeping them using low-tech 
  solutions like dead drops and landlines, which are 
  easily monitored.
  ■
  Claims that there’s a bloodborne disease (that 
  transmits to blankbodies) loose in a population, 
  to push more undead to blood bag feeding where 
  the Coalition can easily keep tabs on them. 
  ■
  Claims that speed traps contain advanced third-
  generation XScopes, to keep vampires from 
  travelling intercity by road and therefore keep 
  them where the Coalition can see them. 
  ■
  Spreading disinformation is best handled as a 
  Project (Core Rulebook, p. 415; for a worked 
  example see p. 108).
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 0 1
  Operational 
  Approaches
  Once the investigation and social maneuvering is 
  complete, it’s time to strike. The wet work teams 
  go in, stakes and special weapons fly, and the local 
  vampire population is significantly reduced. These 
  approaches to combat vary almost as much as the 
  blankbodies they’re conducted against. What fol-
  lows are examples, and every one will need to be tai-
  lored for a specific target. When designing combat 
  operations, keep in mind what the UTR team have 
  already learned about their targets through investi-
  gation and surveillance, and plot accordingly: these 
  are smart enemies, and they use every advantage.
  This chapter can’t cover major operations like 
  the storming of the Vienna Chantry: those depart 
  from any standard operating procedure.
  Rendition
  Rendition is just a fancy word for kidnapping. 
  Sometimes elimination isn’t the goal: the hunter 
  needs additional intel on a blankbody’s associates or 
  projects. With informants and all of the other inves-
  tigative tactics at the Coalition’s disposal, they only 
  use rendition when there’s an urgent information 
  need and no alternative. FIRSTLIGHT performs 
  or tasks the vast majority of Rendition operations, 
  and even they have cut back to a minimum follow-
  ing the 2012 Detroit debacle. GRU-N58 has slowly 
  been building their rendition pace back up after a 
  steep fall-off in 2008.
  Rendition requires detailed knowledge of the 
  target’s routine: deliberately taking on an entire 
  group of vampires just to bag one is far too high-
  risk. A Lamplighter observes for as long as they 
  can — not more than a few days, because the team 
  needs information ASAP. When the Lamplighter 
  knows when and how it’s easiest to find the blank-
  body target alone, A Cuckoo or a lowly Informant 
  lures them somewhere the team can strike. 
  ■ Once per scene, roll Dexterity + Stealth for the 
  Lamplighter’s observation, vs. Wits + Aware-
  ness. 
  ■ Roll Charisma + Persuasion for the Cuckoo’s (or 
  other bait’s) lure, vs. Composure + Insight.
  Snatch Squads always pack full sets of restraints, 
  including a chainmail hood (p. 76). A couple of 
  Warriors take on the target, ideally with support 
  from a Nullifier (p. 40). The aim is to capture, not 
  destroy, so the weapon of choice is stakes, launched 
  from a crossbow or hammered into the chest the 
  old-fashioned way. 
  Note that just taking a prisoner from a differ-
  ent type of operation, for example stuffing a lone 
  survivor into the back of a van, is a different matter 
  and isn’t described or treated as rendition. It’s also 
  not something the Coalition does very often: if 
  they’re taking on a group of blankbodies, they came 
  to eliminate. 
  Rendition is usually followed by interrogation, 
  then one of three choices: recruitment, deterioration 
  into a Brute (p. 47), or the Final Death. There’s no 
  good outcome for a blankbody: even if they make 
  it back from whatever black site they were inter-
  rogated at, their fellow monsters will never trust 
  them again. 
  Effective Against: Loners; people who won’t 
  be missed; Neonates; Regency coteries — 
  relatively weak blankbodies in exploitable 
  positions of power
  
  Chapter Th ree: Dangerous Games
  Chapter Th ree: Dangerous Games
  TORTURE
  Their war against vampires constantly tempts 
  the Order of St. Leopold and every state actor (and 
  plenty of private operators) in the Second Inquisi-
  tion to cross every legal and moral line. Some of 
  those lines barely existed to begin with: the CIA and 
  GRU barely played by the rules even against each 
  other, and the Inquisition has explicitly allowed simi-
  lar extreme measures since the 15th century. Spying, 
  blackmail, kidnapping, murder, and imprisonment 
  are standard operating procedures for such organi-
  zations, and torture of both humans and vampires 
  becomes more common among their ranks. The use 
  of torture is a common hard line for many groups, 
  but if your Storyteller and players consent to depict-
  ing or being exposed to the concept of torture in 
  play, then keep a few things in mind.
  Torture is a sensitive subject to approach in any 
  context. Especially in a game of operatic horrors 
  and cinematic soldiers, avoid presenting torture in 
  a cartoonish or fl ippant manner. Torture violates 
  people, by explicit design. The U.S. Military Code of 
  Justice, the Geneva Convention, and the laws and 
  mores of every civilized country consider torture 
  a crime against humanity. Repressive and openly 
  authoritarian states torture routinely, but developed 
  democracies torture in the shadows, concealed by 
  euphemism as with “enhanced interrogation tech-
  niques” in the CIA, or fobbed off  on third parties via 
  “extraordinary rendition,” or even legally permitted 
  under so-called “defense of necessity” circumstanc-
  es as it remains in Israel.
  NO EXCUSES
  Torture is not just criminal, but ineff ective. Mul-
  tiple studies on the use of torture have shown that 
  while information is always extracted, the victim 
  often says whatever their abuser wishes to hear 
  in order to stop the pain. Torture cannot compel 
  anyone to tell the truth, and on some level those 
  who use torture know that fact. Resorting to tor-
  ture indeed corrupts nations and organizations into 
  lying, excusing brutality, or evading the truth about 
  their actions.
  So what purpose does a criminal, ineff ective, and 
  corrupt technique serve in a Vampire game? Simply 
  1 0 2
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 0 3
  put, torture is revolting and shocking. It elicits extreme reactions, and sometimes a horror story requires ex-
  tremes. Torture also identifies the villains of the story. Player characters face moral and ethical choices while 
  burdened with a monstrous nature – those same choices can break or corrupt mortals, plunging them into 
  depravity without the excuse of the Beast. Second Inquisition torture signals to players that evil also exists 
  outside of their own afflictions. 
  VAMPIRES AS VICTIMS
  Depictions of torture remain best reserved for off-screen moments and implied threats. For outcomes 
  against player characters, use the system in the Corebook (p. 415). Ideally, the rest of the coterie can break 
  the captured Kindred out of the transport plane or holding pen before things get to that point. That said, 
  to clarify the kind of violence the Coalition allows itself to use against humans and vampires alike, here we 
  present a non-exhaustive list of techniques adapted by the Coalition from their patrons’ previous experiences 
  in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ireland, and elsewhere.
  Despite their pursuit, study and extermination of vampires, many hunters only have limited understand-
  ing of their weaknesses. Since torture is a blunt instrument, this generally confines their torture methods to 
  three implements.
  FIRE AND FEAR
  Coalition assets likely discovered blankbodies’ phobia of fire during the first confused missions in 2002. 
  Over the next two decades, FIRSTLIGHT and GRU psychologists slowly built a working theory of operant 
  conditioning, using everything from brands and heated pokers to thermal lances to slowly convince their pris-
  oners of their helplessness. (De-fanging a target with dental pliers contributes mightily to this reaction, when 
  it happens.) This doesn’t make fiery threats any more reliable than other tortures, of course.
  SUNBOARDING
  “Sunboarding,” as FIRSTLIGHT torturers euphemistically call it, is any scenario that uses the sun’s light to 
  threaten vampires with death. Just as interrogators use waterboarding to threaten a victim with drowning, in-
  quisitors weaponize sunlight to terrify vampires with grievous wounds or even death until they talk. This usually 
  entails restraining a vampire and allowing thin beams of reflected sunlight to advance towards them until they 
  comply or are burned. The restraints are often basic, but particularly sadistic hunters have invented iron maid-
  en-like devices to entrap their victims in a sarcophagus that can let in small beams of sunlight as needed. Keep-
  ing a vampire awake during the daytime and out of frenzy are the most complicated aspects of this procedure.
  BLOOD DEPRIVATION
  One thing the Coalition does know about vampires is that they hunger for blood. While they may not real-
  ize how constant or urgent the hunger is for most vampires, they do know that depriving a blankbody causes 
  them extreme discomfort and pain. This is a slow but relatively safe method of torture from the hunter’s 
  perspective. The hunters are less familiar with the particulars of frenzy, but a starving vampire will tell you 
  anything you want to hear for a drop of blood. Some torturers leave a saucer of blood just out of reach of a 
  restrained or locked up vampire for days, unable to reach it as it slowly spoils and clots in front of their eyes. 
  Others bleed the vampire slowly, allowing the hunger to fill the void left behind. 
  The blankbody’s Hunger rapidly increases by 1 for each success on the interrogator’s Manipulation + 
  Medicine roll. At Hunger 5, the blankbody tests for a Compulsion as if they had suffered a bestial failure. 1-9 
  results in Hunger, 0 in the clan compulsion. For a Caitiff or thin-blood, don’t roll: the result is always Hunger. 
  A blankbody under this compulsion will do or say anything to sate their appetite, and the Interrogator is quick 
  to offer a blood bag.
  
  Chapter Three: Dangerous Games
  1 0 4
  VARIATIONS
  FIRSTLIGHT Snatch Squads are highly skilled 
  and well equipped, usually with XTech such as a 
  Tanglefoot Trap (p. 82).
  Some Newburgh Group agents like to think of 
  themselves as a little more sophisticated than their 
  compatriots. They arrange more complex Rendition 
  operations baited with prey precisely to a blank-
  body’s taste, with poisoned blood, See Blood Doll, 
  pg. 16), and strike while the target is weak: injured 
  or lethargic. 
  The bait rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge vs the 
  blankbody’s Wits + Resolve to essentially seduce 
  them into feeding. They’re wearing a GPS tracker 
  and often a listening device (depending on the 
  blankbody’s known feeding style) so their team 
  can reach them quickly and intervene if things go 
  wrong. If the team knows where the blankbody will 
  go to feed, they often include a sniper, positioned to 
  ensure the bait’s safety. 
  EXTORTION
  Winning Hearts and Minds (WHAM) is a com-
  mon catch phrase among hunters from the military, 
  and it’s a credo that espouses the conversion of 
  potential hostiles to the cause of the Second Inquisi-
  tion itself. Their focus is to identify the psychologi-
  cal and emotional levers that drive a blankbody, and 
  use those to turn the captive into an asset or pawn. 
  Tricks learned from the darker corners of counter-
  insurgency serve the Coalition well. Before captur-
  ing the Kindred the hunters identify mortals or pets 
  that are important to them, perhaps even inadvert-
  ently discovering their Touchstones.
  The hunters then inform their prisoner of this 
  identification, with an implied (or explicit) threat. 
  Some FIRSTLIGHT interrogators manipulate 
  recordings of those valued mortals to create seem-
  ing torture soundtracks, audible from the next cell. 
  Vampiric powers can make this tactic tricky as some 
  blankbodies possess exceptional perception; interro-
  gators find it best to starve and weaken the subjects 
  beforehand. Other interrogators go ahead and grab 
  the Touchstone as a convincer.
  COUNTERMEASURES
  Don’t walk alone. Wear a tracking device in the 
  hopes that someone finds you, or at least the loca-
  tion you were abducted from. Stall for time. 
  Once a vampire is in the back of that black van, 
  there’s no effective countermeasure except to try 
  and broker a deal: someone else’s life for theirs, or 
  turning their coat and becoming a Coalition source. 
  Recruitment
  The Coalition needs informants and spies at every 
  level of blankbody society, and occasionally even 
  allows turncoats to become full-fledged operators. 
  Most field personnel remain extremely reluctant to 
  recruit or use them, for excellent reason. In Octo-
  ber 2012, a blankbody “recruit” (and an unknown 
  number of theoretically “safely imprisoned” captive 
  blankbodies) turned key personnel in the SAD 
  and FIRSTLIGHT offices in three states, betray-
  ing a city-clearing operation in Detroit and getting 
  several dozen police and UTR troopers killed. But 
  sometimes, recruitment seems like the only possible 
  way of getting to a target that’s worth more than 
  several dozen lives.
  Recruiting ghouls (or, in extremely valuable 
  cases, blankbodies) is effectively the same process as 
  recruiting double agents. Find a weakness, turn it 
  into a lever, and pull it quickly or slowly. Cuckoos, 
  Informants, Burrowers and previous blankbody 
  traitors all feed information to a Coalition handler: 
  vengeances and rivalries, transgressions that might 
  become blackmail material, disaffection, emotional 
  bonds and Touchstones, or lingering religious be-
  liefs are all fodder for the recruitment process. 
  Handlers combine approaches: a favor for a 
  SAD agent, or a job supplied by a False Flagger can 
  become blackmail material. An emotional bond 
  with a Cuckoo can lead to disaffection or a ven-
  detta. The more strings the handler has to pull, the 
  better. Recruitment is a slow and gradual process, 
  though it might appear sudden to a blankbody. The 
  handler slowly manipulates them into a position 
  where saying yes to treachery is easy; sometimes the 
  blankbody knows they’re dealing with the Second 
  Inquisition, other times the offer of recruitment 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
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  only comes at the fi rst face-to-face meeting. 
  Under normal circumstances the Coalition 
  doesn’t consider “walk-in” recruitment; that is to 
  say, recruitment where the blankbody initiates 
  contact voluntarily. It’s hard enough to be sure of 
  the loyalty of a carefully screened recruit chosen 
  by specialists. It’s impossible to trust a blankbody’s 
  motives for approaching an organization that wants 
  every one of their kind destroyed.
  This tactic plays out in the following stages: 
  ■ Observation: A Detective or Lamplighter, or 
  occasionally a Cuckoo monitors the blankbody 
  for months, ascertaining whether they’re a viable 
  candidate for recruitment. This takes the form 
  of an Extended Intelligence + Investigation roll, 
  requiring 12 successes. Rolls are one month 
  apart. Observation can continue up to 20 suc-
  cesses, reducing the challenge of manipulating 
  the target. 
  ■ Manipulation: The blankbody is slowly guid-
  ed into a position of vulnerability: their money 
  runs out and they have to make some bad deals; 
  they almost breach the Masquerade, only to have 
  their ass hauled out of the fi re by a new contact; 
  they learn a secret about an elder that could ruin 
  them if the elder ever fi nds out they know; that 
  type of thing. Make an Extended Manipulation 
  + Politics test, requiring 20 successes, minus 
  half of any additional successes on Observation. 
  Rolls are one month apart. Manipulation can 
  continue up to 25 successes, making the Ap-
  proach easier. 
  ■ Approach: The handler makes contact and of-
  fers the blankbody a place with their agency, and 
  protection. Roll Manipulation + Subterfuge vs 
  Composure + Resolve. The handler receives one 
  extra die for every excess success in the Manipu-
  lation phase. 
  
  Chapter Three: Dangerous Games
  1 0 6
  The Storyteller should never reduce recruiting 
  the chronicle’s protagonists to mechanics. Play out 
  the approach, and leave the decision to turn to the 
  player, not the dice. Depending on the group’s social 
  contract such a plotline might be worth discussing 
  with all of the players beforehand: a traitor in the 
  coterie is not right for all groups. 
  Effective Against: Malcontents; Thin-bloods; 
  Cerberus coteries — sometimes turning someone 
  on the inside is the only way to gain access to a 
  relic; Sbirri.
  VARIATIONS
  BOES tend not to recruit blankbodies, though they 
  will occasionally consider it for the Duskborn: their 
  mission is far more burn than turn. The Eighth 
  Direction does not recruit former Anarchs, and 
  especially not Brujah. Russia only just crawled out 
  from under leech influence and they’re not eager to 
  welcome the monsters back in.
  The Society of St. Leopold is not, in principle, 
  opposed to the recruitment of suitable blankbodies, 
  but they must demonstrate that they are both re-
  pentant and penitent, and commit to never feeding 
  on a human being. Ventrue recruits are therefore 
  unlikely. 
  COUNTERMEASURES
  For the same reasons recruiting protagonists isn’t 
  reduced to mechanics, opposing that recruitment 
  also depends on roleplaying. 
  Assassination
  The Coalition infiltrates wet workers into a Do-
  main, feeding ground, or other location they know 
  the target blankbody will visit. FIRSTLIGHT 
  sanctions an Assassination when it’s simply too 
  dangerous to storm a location by day, shooting and 
  burning: when blankbodies have enough knowl-
  edge of the local Coalition operation to carry out 
  reprisals, when there are too many mortal retainers 
  and servants and someone higher up has decided 
  they can’t justify the collateral damage, or when the 
  only opportunity to reach a target is when they are 
  out at night amongst civilians.
  Hunters also deploy this style of operation 
  against blankbodies with cover identities that put 
  them in the public eye: a “lone nut” or “stalker cult” 
  assassination is tabloid fodder, but it doesn’t prompt 
  the same public investigations and spotlight lawyers 
  as a full government raid would.
  The team usually comprises one or two War-
  riors, sometimes with a Sniper positioned where 
  they can take out an escaping target as a last resort. 
  If the team anticipates high security or doesn’t feel 
  confident they know the lay of the land, they’ll take 
  a Lone Wolf or a Weaponer with them.
  The team ideally brings XTech, or an ally with 
  arcane or psychic gifts to overcome the obvious risk 
  of a blankbody Obfuscating away. 
  Effective Against: Single targets; individual 
  members of Maréchal coteries
  COUNTERMEASURES
  Fight back; reach somewhere highly public, and 
  hope it’s not in the sniper’s line of sight. 
  Day Strike
  This is the one hunter tactic every blankbody fears: 
  a strike team arriving at their Haven while they 
  sleep behind the door. In some of their nightmares, 
  they awaken for long enough to see the stake aimed 
  at their chest or the fire consuming their home. 
  Day strikes are messy but highly visible. They’re 
  not appropriate for Havens in the nice part of the 
  city — unless the team have pulled some strings 
  with local government and law enforcement in 
  advance, which carries the risk of tipping off the 
  target or another blankbody. For a coterie that lairs 
  together, they’re ideal: taking out five or six blank-
  bodies in one strike is too tempting; for that much 
  value, consequences can always be ironed out. 
  The team incorporates one or more Breachers to 
  deal with security measures, a few Warriors or Lone 
  Wolves (at least one per blankbody target) to do the 
  dirty work of staking then beheading, and prefer-
  ably a Nullifier to suppress certain key disciplines. 
  For high-tech Havens, a Hacker works away back at 
  base, or in an armored van nearby, suppressing any 
  alarms and calls for help. In most circumstances, a 
  Black-Bagger has already been running surveillance 
  for quite some time. 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
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  Politicians and Socialites clean up afterwards, 
  minimizing media ripples and investigations. 
  Effective Against: Most blankbodies; coteries/
  shared Havens. 
  VARIATIONS
  BOES pioneered the block-by-block strategy: a num-
  ber of daytime strikes, co-ordinated and continu-
  ing until the teams have hit every known target 
  on the map. SO13 and Eighth Direction observed 
  this tactic with great approval, and have adopted 
  it themselves. The major point against it is that it 
  unsettles mortals and makes the news, and those 
  agencies exert subtle (and unsubtle) pressures to 
  control that element.
  COUNTERMEASURES
  The best countermeasure is just not to be there 
  when the strike happens. A blankbody might notice 
  surveillance (either by Black-Baggers or Shadows) in 
  advance, or have the right contacts to hear of a large-
  scale operation about to go down when law enforce-
  ment and city authorities are informed in advance. 
  Failing that, high security including ghouls and oth-
  ers awake during the day is the next best defense. 
  Night Strike
  This is the best resourced – because the most 
  dangerous – that hunters ever undertake., (See 
  Night and Fog, p. 156, for reasons Night Strikes 
  sometimes get approved despite the danger.) With 
  IAO or other first-rank actors, no expense is spared, 
  and every possible asset is made available. A Brute is 
  unleashed to wreak havoc and provide a distraction 
  while Breachers and Hackers crack security — or 
  an Informant or Cuckoo opens the doors. Multiple 
  UTR teams with heavy weapons strike at once, 
  some with specific targets and others merely there to 
  do as much damage as possible. Clearance special-
  ists hose down the area with white-hot fire.
  The team uses sophisticated crowd control 
  tools to panic, confuse, and hinder their targets. 
  Burrowers and Lamplighters have already figured 
  out all possible exits from the building’s plans and 
  surveillance, and there more trained killers waiting 
  at each one.
  It’s a highly efficient massacre, and while hunter 
  casualties may be high, it’s always worth the price.
  Effective Against: Gatherings of all kinds; 
  Plumaires 
  COUNTERMEASURES
  This operation is the jewel in the Coalition’s crown. 
  The only hope is that the haven has an exit the 
  hunters haven’t found yet. 
  Auto-da-Fé
  ESOG and their protégés in BOES specialize in the 
  auto-da-fé. The team doesn’t just breach a Haven or 
  Elysium and eliminate everyone inside. They burn 
  it to the ground during the height of the noonday 
  sun, and chase down and execute fleeing, burn-
  ing survivors. The auto-da-fé isn’t just an effective 
  tactic, it’s a threat. 
  It works best when the target is not only secure 
  but well-known in Kindred circles. Arson in a 
  dull, residential district where some nobody Caitiff 
  makes their home is far less effective than firebomb-
  ing a Harpy’s Haven, because the purpose of the 
  auto-da-fé is to spread terror, and panic those who 
  live to bear witness to it. 
  In the week after an auto-da-fé, all blankbodies 
  aware of it make Composure tests at +1 Difficulty. 
  Consecutive weeks of fiery terror impose further 
  penalties to a maximum of +3. 
  Effective Against: Anyone. 
  VARIATIONS
  While BOES like to be up close and personal when 
  they conduct an auto-da-fé, Eighth Direction much 
  prefer mortars from a distance. They’ll bring an 
  entire building down if they need to.
  COUNTERMEASURES
  If the inquisitors are comfortable and embedded 
  enough that they can commit an auto-da-fé, it’s too 
  late. This worst-case scenario happens when the 
  Kindred don’t deal with the threat quickly enough, 
  and why smart ones go to any lengths necessary to 
  stay under the radar. 
  
  Chapter Three: Dangerous Games
  1 0 8
  Second 
  Inquisition Projects
  Some actions by and against the Second Inquisi-
  tion are part of the long game. Like pest control, 
  they’re a steady, ongoing effort to reduce harm. In 
  such cases they’re best handled as Projects using the 
  rules in the Corebook (pp. 415-421). Some examples 
  of Projects that work against the Coalition follow, 
  along with some examples of Projects run by the 
  Coalition for Kindred to oppose.
  New Background: 
  Operational Resources
  Every hunter team or cell has a finite amount of 
  people, weapons, money and time. All of these limi-
  tations are summed up in the team’s Operational 
  Resources background. Use it to determine how 
  many Projects a team can manage concurrently: 
  farm teams low on cash and contacts are probably 
  only positioned to track down one blankbody at 
  a time; a FIRSTLIGHT team in a key target city 
  might work on turning a traitor to their side, locat-
  ing a Primogen’s Haven, and working to counteract 
  a blankbody building contacts in the mayor’s office.
  If you plan to run Projects either for or against 
  the Second Inquisition, assign the local hunters (or 
  local Coalition representatives) a total Operational 
  Resources score for the purpose. (As a rule of 
  thumb, Operational Resources should generally be 
  within one dot of the OPFOR’s Reach background.) 
  Then decide how much of their Operational Re-
  sources they can commit to a given Project.
     
  Map Blankbody Networks
  The reason that FIRSTLIGHT, or the Society of 
  St. Leopold, or their peers, pose a danger is be-
  cause they understand blankbodies. They’re smart 
  enough to make sure they do the job properly: they 
  don’t just eliminate stupid monsters who make 
  themselves targets, they follow them back to their 
  coteries, sires, and the city’s hierarchy. Whether 
  Anarch or Camarilla, knowing how the social 
  bonds of the city hold blankbodies together helps 
  the Coalition identify possible traitors, candidates 
  for blackmail or intimidation, or high value targets 
  whose final deaths would destabilize the city and 
  make the Coalition’s work easier.
  Goal: Create an accurate map of the city’s 
  blankbody networks and power structures, 
  for subsequent manipulation (+5 dice on rolls 
  to identify connections, apply pressure, or 
  manipulate). 
  Increment: Usually weeks. Anarchs, being less 
  hierarchical than the Camarilla, may take twice as 
  long (increment in 2-week periods).
  Stages: identify most visible blankbodies; map 
  first-degree connections; connect networks; profile 
  weaknesses and vulnerabilities. 
  Scope: 3. This is an intensive Project which, if 
  successful, pays off in long term future benefits. 
  Launch Roll: Academics or Technology + 
  Operational Resources, Difficulty 5
  Backgrounds to Commit: Operational 
  Resources; one dot per Canary, Dealer, or other 
  crucial informant (losing the dot gets them killed 
  or turned)
  Suggested Goal Rolls: Intelligence + Academics, 
  Etiquette, or Politics; Wits + Subterfuge.
  Failure: If this Project fails, the team 
  misunderstands connections, mistaking visibility 
  for power, or falling for blankbodies’ attempts to 
  disguise their alliances or enmities. Attempts to 
  manipulate these networks are made with -2 dice. 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 0 9
  — No resources. Work-
  ing in the dark, and 
  with no support. 
  • Highly limited. A 
  few scraps of intel-
  ligence and inad-
  equate fi repower.
  • • Basic. A team with 
  a specifi c mission 
  and the resources to 
  carry it out. 
  • • • Well resourced. 
  Enough money, 
  guns, and people 
  to staff  one major 
  op, or a couple of 
  minor ones. 
  • • • • Important, experi-
  enced team in a high 
  priority location. 
  Able to run more 
  than one major mis-
  sion concurrently.
  • • • • • Top priority mis-
  sion. What the team 
  wants, the team gets.
  
  Chapter Three: Dangerous Games
  1 1 0
  COUNTERACTING THIS PROJECT
  Detecting: Kindred with better, or larger, personal 
  networks are more likely to realize people have 
  been observing and asking questions. Roll the 
  higher of Mawla or Status + Investigation. One 
  success reveals that a hunter’s investigation is 
  afoot; two or more reveal the number on the 
  Project die. 
  Affecting: The blankbody or coterie plants false 
  evidence, plays up (or down) their closeness to 
  other locals, or fabricates feuds or alliances to 
  throw the hunters off the scent. Manipulation + 
  Persuasion, Etiquette, or Politics. 
  Utilizing: The coterie might make themselves 
  look insignificant, or more powerful than they are; 
  they might tempt the hunters to approach one of 
  them as a possible traitor and thereby infiltrate the 
  local SI network. Both of these purposes require 
  Manipulation + Subterfuge rolls.
  Undermine a Background
  The Coalition’s primary goal is to eliminate 
  blankbodies, but it’s hard to disappear someone in 
  the public eye, with millions of dollars, powerful 
  friends, and global fame. Sometimes, the only way 
  to make a target viable is to weaken them, cut them 
  off from their friends and advantages. It makes it 
  harder for them to see the hunters coming, harder 
  to move against them, and less likely to escape when 
  a field team goes in for the kill. 
  Goal: Reduce a target blankbody’s Background 
  by a specified amount. This is usually to zero, but 
  even a small reduction can be beneficial. 
  Increment: Days for a reduction of up to 2 dots. 
  Weeks for more substantial backgrounds. 
  Stages: scope out Backgrounds; select a target 
  Background; dismantle it. 
  Scope: 1 + intended reduction to Background. 
  Launch Roll: Highly dependent on the 
  background affected and the tactics used. For 
  example, Finance + Operational Resources to 
  reduce Resource; Politics + Operational Resources 
  to reduce Influence; Streetwise + Operational 
  Resources to reduce Contacts; Subterfuge 
  + Operational Resources to reduce Allies or 
  Mawla; Investigation + Operational Resources to 
  reduce Mask
  Difficulty 2 + Scope.
  Backgrounds to Commit: Operational 
  Resources; one dot per Gentrifier, Politician, or 
  other major influencer (losing the dot gets them 
  turned or killed)
  Suggested Goal Rolls: Intelligence + Academics, 
  Etiquette, or Politics; Wits + Subterfuge. 
  Failure: If this Project fails, the Coalition’s 
  resources become tied up in untangling the mess; 
  it takes weeks to extricate themselves cleanly. 
  Operational Resources decrease by 1 dot for the 
  same duration the Project was in progress (e.g. a 
  Project that ran for 4 weeks before failing reduces 
  Operational Resources for the same length 
  of time). 
  COUNTERACTING THIS PROJECT
  Detecting: Affected Background + Intelligence. 
  One success reveals that a hunter’s investigation 
  is afoot; two or more reveal the number on the 
  Project die. 
  Affecting: The target might move Resources 
  around with Intelligence + Finance; shore up an 
  alliance with Charisma + Persuasion; work up 
  a publicity stunt to maintain Influence or Fame 
  with Manipulation + Persuasion; retain a Mawla’s 
  respect with Charisma + Etiquette or Politics. 
  Utilizing: With the same rolls as those to affect 
  the Project, the blankbody can entangle the 
  investigators for twice as long as a failure would 
  dictate. They might, at the Storyteller’s discretion, 
  be able to increase the targeted Background by 1 
  dot: creating a news story that makes them more 
  famous, shifting some of their money into a safer, 
  offshore account where it makes more money etc. 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
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  Against the Inquisition: Cleanup
  Slipping away from the Inquisition’s notice is easier 
  said than done. A blankbody might throw them off 
  the trail for a while by countering one tactic, but 
  once they’re in the Coalition’s databases, they’re 
  there forever. The Second Inquisition will be back, 
  no matter how many times a known blankbody es-
  capes their grasp. Slowly and painstakingly, a blank-
  body might be able to erase all traces of themselves, 
  but it’s dangerous: if they’re detected, they rocket 
  up the Coalition’s target list. 
  Goal: Remove the Known Blankbody flaw. 
  Increment: Months. This Project can’t be initiated 
  if the Coalition have actively pursued the vampire 
  within the last month.
  Stages: Identify all records held; locate a weak 
  point (technological, personnel, or other); 
  incrementally remove records.
  Scope: 3
  Launch Roll: Resources or Influence + 
  Investigation. Difficulty 5. 
  Backgrounds to Commit: Influence, Allies, 
  Contacts, Status. 
  Suggested Goal Rolls: Intelligence + 
  Technology; Intelligence + Investigation; 
  Manipulation + Subterfuge.
  Failure: When a player’s character fails at a Goal 
  Roll or otherwise loses control of a Project, 
  they reduce the Backgrounds committed to 
  it (Corebook, p. 416). This is a particularly 
  dangerous Project and if the blankbody fails they 
  incur additional and immediate heat from the 
  Second Inquisition. Move up one step on the 
  Response Algorithm.
  Don’t roll for counteracting a player’s plans, just 
  throw some good old-fashioned complications at 
  them in the course of play. 
  Against the Inquisition: 
  In From the Cold
  Whatever the organizations themselves might say, 
  the personnel recruited into the Second Inquisi-
  tion are not above reproach. Some of them can 
  be bought, others seduced or blackmailed, and 
  some have an attraction to the alluring concept of 
  vampirism that borders on a fetish. It’s very possible 
  for a blankbody with something to offer to turn an 
  inquisitor into an asset. Successful completion of 
  this Project doesn’t guarantee friendship or loyalty, 
  but does convert a Coalition agent (or other major 
  hunter) into an ally… until they regret their betrayal 
  and confess everything to their superiors.
  Goal: Convert a Coalition agent into an Ally, 
  with a Background value one less than the 
  Project Scope.
  Increment: Months or years. 
  Stages: Identify a target; identify weaknesses; make 
  contact; apply pressure. 
  Scope: 1 + intended level of Background. 
  Launch Roll: Contacts, Resources or Influence + 
  Manipulation. Difficulty 1 + Scope.
  Backgrounds to commit: Resources, 
  Influence, Fame.
  Suggested Goal Rolls: Intelligence + Insight 
  or Investigation; Manipulation + Persuasion, 
  Subterfuge, or Persuasion. 
  Failure: If the Project fails, the vampire loses some 
  of the Backgrounds invested in the project. They 
  may also acquire an Enemy, in the form of the 
  agent they tried to recruit or one of that person’s 
  colleagues and superiors. Alternatively, they may 
  find themselves a Known Blankbody. 
  
  Chapter Three: Dangerous Games
  1 1 2
  Coalition 
  Response Algorithm
  The Coalition has set processes for escalating 
  response. They know what works and what doesn’t, 
  and A leads inevitably to B. The Response Algo-
  rithm presented here (like the one on pp. 186-189 of 
  Anarch) helps Storytellers think like a UTR team 
  or regional agent-in-charge, and deliver an appro-
  priate response to the actions undertaken by the 
  players’ characters. A Storyteller can use it continu-
  ously to drive the next step in the story, or mine it 
  for ideas, or adapt it to their particular set of Second 
  Inquisition antagonists.
  Many of the steps in the Response Algorithm 
  align neatly with Tactics presented earlier in this 
  chapter; some don’t, and require more explanation.
  Level 0: Under the Radar
  The algorithm depicted here doesn’t depict this 
  level, but it describes the average vampire or coterie 
  that hasn’t yet done anything to draw inquisito-
  rial notice. 
  Level 1: Observation
  DATA ANALYSIS: HUNTING PATTERNS
  This analysis indicates the characters’ predator type 
  and possibly the goal of their coterie. Generally, 
  characters feeding on bagged blood, Herds, ani-
  mals, or consenting prey are assigned a lower threat 
  level than those feeding on unaware or unwilling 
  mortal victims. 
  DATA ANALYSIS: ACADEMIC SPECIALIZATIONS
  This analysis determines quantitative data such 
  as the characters’ age, and thus an estimate of 
  their strength, their Disciplines, and perhaps their 
  Touchstones and Convictions: weaknesses that 
  the Coalition can use both to understand and 
  target them. 
  INFORMANTS
  The Coalition uses their networks of inform-
  ants amongst blankbody societies, criminal 
  underworlds, and other places where humanity 
  brushes against blankbodies to gather information 
  on the characters’ activities, ambitions, friends 
  and enemies. 
  DATA ANALYSIS: HERDS AND CULTS
  Blankbodies who gather mortals around them hand 
  the Coalition a ready made focus group to reveal 
  information about them, wittingly or unwittingly. 
  Analysts study these groups (usually online) or con-
  tact them (possibly as False Flaggers) to gather intel 
  about the characters.
  INTELLIGENCE ASSETS
  The Coalition searches the databases of its affiliated 
  intelligence organizations for reference to the char-
  acters. Returning any records at this stage instantly 
  elevates the characters to a higher threat level: 
  these are creatures who could conceivably threaten 
  national security.
  Level 2: Investigation
  SHADOWING
  This is the first recourse when the Coalition deems 
  a target too dangerous, or insufficiently understood, 
  for an approach that makes contact. An extended 
  surveillance operation begins, with the intention of 
  learning what levers Bear-Leaders can pull at Level 
  3: Attrition.
  COMMON ENEMIES
  The Coalition approaches the characters’ enemies 
  amongst the blankbody hierarchy of the city, usu-
  ally through cut-outs or False Flaggers, and attempts 
  to agitate them against the characters, or provide 
  intel on their weaknesses. 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 1 3
  INFILTRATION
  A Cuckoo embeds in the blankbodies’ Herd, net-
  work, or possibly even their coterie. Their purpose 
  is twofold: to assess them for any possible inclina-
  tion to work with the Coalition against their fellow 
  blankbodies, and to establish their needs and weak-
  nesses in preparation for Level 3. 
  INTERROGATION
  The Coalition grabs the characters’ associates 
  (Allies, or Touchstones if they know them) either 
  through false arrest, a quick snatch in an SAD van, 
  or a full-fledged rendition. Interrogation has three 
  goals: gain intel about the characters, put pressure 
  on the characters to break their pattern and reveal 
  themselves, and if possible recruit the associate as a 
  double agent.
  Level 3: Attrition
  DEPRIVATION
  Having established the characters’ place in their 
  threat list, the Coalition begins to act against them. 
  At this point they chip away at resources, limiting 
  the characters’ blood supply, draining bank ac-
  counts, turning allies against them etc. The goal is 
  to limit the characters’ potential to harm mortals, 
  and make them vulnerable to further inquisi-
  tion action. 
  GENTRIFICATION
  The Coalition team moves against the characters’ 
  Domain and power base if any. Severing access 
  to Havens and contact networks should force 
  the characters into a rash offensive or a weakened 
  defense; either way, the Coalition can more easily 
  confront them. 
  DEPROGRAMMING
  If the Coalition team has identified the characters 
  (or their ghouls) as potential assets, they target one 
  or more of them for deprogramming and recruit-
  ment. Thin-blood characters often receive this kind 
  of attention. 
  Level 4: Confrontation
  OPERATION
  A Day Strike, Night Strike, Assassination, or Auto-
  da-fe. The blankbodies have progressed so far up 
  the Coalition’s list of targets that there’s no option 
  but to exterminate them. There is no higher level on 
  this branch of the algorithm. 
  BETRAYAL
  Presented with the choice of their own Final Death 
  or the lives of others, the characters are given the 
  chance to save their own skin. They surrender allies, 
  Elders, whoever they can to the Coalition in return 
  for survival — and maybe something more? 
  Level 5: Induction
  RECRUITMENT
  Having sold out everyone they know and care 
  about, the characters are offered one final, tough 
  choice: join the Second Inquisition and undermine 
  blankbody networks from within as Cuckoos, help 
  Deprogram others, or become Warriors for the 
  cause. They can of course choose to say no, but that 
  way leads swiftly to Final Death.
  This level essentially only exists for player char-
  acters; Storyteller character vampires almost always 
  get dusted without regrets.
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 1 4
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 1 4
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 1 5
  Chapter Four:
  FIRE TEAMS
  Wherefore we, being supported by the presence and power of our most dear 
  son Frederick, the most illustrious Emperor of the Romans, always Increaser 
  of the Empire, with the common advice and counsel of our brethren, and other 
  Patriarchs, Archbishops, and many princes, who from several parts of the 
  world are met together, do set ourselves against these heretics, who have got 
  different names ...
  We ordain further, that all earls, barons, governors, and consuls of cities, and 
  other places, in pursuance of the conmonition of the respective Archbishops 
  and Bishops, shall promise upon oath, that in all these particulars, whenever 
  they are thereto required, they will powerfully and effectually assist the 
  Church against heretics and their accomplices. 
  — AD ABOLENDAM, PAPAL BULL ISSUED BY POPE LUCIUS III, 
  ESTABLISHING THE EPISCOPAL INQUISITION (1184)
  T
  he Second Inquisition comprises many 
  conspiracies. Every Bible study club, 
  arms smugg ling gang, hospital night 
  shift , Facebook moms group, and police 
  swing shift  that takes up stakes to hunt an unbe-
  lievable threat necessitates a conspiracy. Some of 
  those conspiracies interlock, unknowingly or by 
  chance, within the greater movement. Not all of its 
  participants use the same methods, or even pursue 
  the same goals. At their basic level, however, they 
  all burn with the sudden epiphany that vampires 
  exist, and shudder with the terror that such a truth 
  entails. 
  The conspiracies within governments, intel-
  ligence agencies, and non-state actors with the 
  most power in the movement turn that terror into 
  organized action. The so-called Five Torches at 
  the highest reaches of the movement draw upon 
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 1 6
  immense tranches of information and funding, and 
  translate their response into organized action. These 
  five partners, along with an increasing number of 
  second-party actors, allies, and assets call themselves 
  the Coalition. To be sure, they almost never call 
  themselves anything at all in public. The Coalition 
  bureaucratically disguises the communications, 
  planning, and liaison operations it requires behind 
  even more anodyne and opaque acronyms like ML-
  CCTSP (Multilateral Liaison Committee for Coun-
  ter Terror Scenario Planning, devolved to working 
  groups in 2017) or SMLCPASCE (Sub-Ministerial 
  Level Consultation Program to Address Stochastic 
  Crisis Events, spun up in late 2016).
  Unfamous staffers and mid-ranking military 
  figures hold bland daytime meetings about logistics 
  and funding on the margins of summits and exercis-
  es. They pass memos in out-of-the-way conference 
  rooms at G20 conferences, and exchange preprints 
  on blankbody biology in very private seminars 
  concurrent with the biennial World Conference 
  on Military Medicine (one of the few international 
  bodies the Vatican holds full membership in). Deni-
  able servers whir, and boring bureaucrats shuffle 
  funds in a glass-walled office building in Vienna 
  officially assigned to the UN Office on Drugs and 
  Crime. An occasional “counter-insurgency expert” 
  or “strategic threat analyst” comes through the 
  building from Moscow or Washington or Rome 
  after touring the ruins of the “Vienna terror site.”
  Bureaucracy and familiarity have increased their 
  collective effectiveness, but blunted their focus. 
  National interest and personal political ambitions 
  often overshadow their zeal to quash the vampire 
  threat. The Coalition has become a nest of overlap-
  ping conspiracies each with their own agendas, 
  paranoias, and rivalries. It is the role of the IAO, 
  FIRSTLIGHT, and the Vatican’s La Entità to keep 
  everyone on board and focused on the conspiracy’s 
  long-term goals when planning operations. This in-
  formal executive committee steers operational plan-
  ning by dint of IAO’s bottomless purse, FIRST-
  LIGHTs command and control, and La Entità’s 
  near monopoly on mystical countermeasures. 
  United States
  Arguably the most powerful of the Five Torches, 
  the United States operates dozens of military and 
  intelligence organizations with very little oversight 
  and a seemingly infinite well of funding. At least 
  some units in every U.S. military branch, and offices 
  in almost every organization of the U.S. intelligence 
  community, know that a supernatural threat exists. 
  They may even have let a few of their ostensible 
  political bosses in on it. So far these various U.S. 
  agencies have agreed to wage war on the supernatu-
  ral in secret, with a special emphasis on blankbod-
  ies because of their potential to pose an existential 
  threat to the United States and their active attempts 
  to undermine the American government through 
  blood slavery and mental domination. To other 
  major players in the Coalition, the U.S. presents a 
  unified front, but domestically a hodgepodge of 
  agencies actively compete against each other for 
  jurisdiction and funding.
  FIRSTLIGHT
  Synonymous with the Second Inquisition to most 
  “clued-in” Kindred in the northern hemisphere, 
  FIRSTLIGHT is the codename of the joint intelli-
  gence operation that gathers intelligence and directs 
  action on the ground against “blankbodies” and 
  other supernatural threats. Originally headed up by 
  the NSA and CIA, FIRSTLIGHT has taken on an 
  interagency life of its own as a conspiracy within the 
  security apparatus of the United States of America. 
  The dispersed nature of the organization within an 
  already secretive regime makes FIRSTLIGHT very 
  difficult for vampires to infiltrate. This is by design, 
  and that paranoia is a hallmark of FIRSTLIGHT 
  that touches every aspect of their work. There are 
  no patches for soldiers in the global war on the para-
  normal, and many of those carrying out their orders 
  will never know if their victims were mortal or not. 
  While the street stereotype of FIRSTLIGHT is 
  the image of a tactical team kicking down a haven 
  door, their obsession with operational deniability 
  makes them prefer to deal with threats remotely 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 1 7
  and from over the horizon. In 99% of cases, FIRST-
  LIGHT acts entirely through the IAO, SAD, or 
  other agencies foreign and domestic, passing off 
  targeting and tasking intelligence and providing 
  surveillance support upon request. When FIRST-
  LIGHT cannot rely on their usual allies they often 
  turn to freelancers and amateur hunters to do their 
  dirty work, leaking just enough information to 
  identify targets.
  But just as the CIA has developed its own 
  pocket military during the War on Terror for tasks 
  it doesn’t want to share with the Pentagon, FIRST-
  LIGHT saves a few special missions for itself.  
  When a blankbody presents itself as a unique op-
  portunity for capture, conversion, or study FIRST-
  LIGHT activates a Special Deployment Team (p. 
  57). FIRSTLIGHT snatch squads disguise them-
  selves as SOCOM teams supported with armored 
  vehicles, surveillance drones and stealth helicopters. 
  While these teams usually compensate for their lack 
  of occult knowledge with sudden, overwhelming 
  firepower, the mission planners sometimes bring in 
  specialists from the Vatican or turncoat blankbody 
  assets on a case-by-case basis.  
  PRESSURE POINTS
  Since FIRSTLIGHT spends a great deal of time 
  covering up evidence of the supernatural and 
  searching for signs of vampiric influence inside oth-
  er parts of the American government and the Coali-
  tion at large, they make gingerly use of thin-bloods 
  capable of resisting or detecting blankbody mental 
  influence. FIRSTLIGHT’s operational head, Felic-
  ity Price, supposedly escaped ratface control while 
  at the NSA. A staunch opponent of blankbody 
  recruitment in general, she has been forced to admit 
  that thin-bloods present a huge potential strategic 
  advantage as double agents. FIRSTLIGHT often 
  promises these vampires a cure for their condition 
  in return for their service, but at the end of their 
  usefulness Price prefers to trade them to the Swedes 
  or other interested second parties for experimenta-
  tion and study.
  FIRSTLIGHT is not shy about using violence 
  but its first concern is always its continued abil-
  ity to operate without any meaningful political 
  constraint or informed public attention. While they 
  do attempt to hide themselves from blankbodies, 
  FIRSTLIGHT’s greater concern is the exposure of 
  the supernatural’s existence to the public and how 
  FIRSTLIGHT has been conducting a global war 
  on the paranormal in secret. 
  FIRSTLIGHT (NSA) FIELD AGENT
  The FIRSTLIGHT field agent is a technical expert 
  with high-level access to sensitive algorithms and 
  digital backdoors that give them unparalleled access 
  to the information landscape around them.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  4, Mental 7 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 8, Firearms 
  5, Subterfuge 6, Technology 8
  Equipment: Pistol (Glock 17), hands free comms, 
  laptop, stingray, Global Hawk drone with XScope 
  Special: When present with a UTR team, the 
  Field Agent contests any attempt by a blankbody 
  to covertly move through their area of operation 
  with a Technology dice pool (9). Failure by three 
  or more successes means that the UTR team 
  has pinpointed the trespassers’ current location, 
  and tracked at least part of their movement. 
  Supernatural powers such as Obfuscate can 
  defeat this special advantage depending on the 
  circumstances and the type of surveillance being 
  used by the UTR team.
  Information Awareness Office
  The IAO directs the U.S. military response to the 
  supernatural, providing command and control for 
  everything from covert insertions into a blankbody 
  compound in Thailand to a deniable Predator strike 
  on a Sabbat meeting in Mozambique. A submarine 
  sinks a ship on the way to the Gehenna War, a con-
  tainer of thermobaric warheads finds its way into a 
  Mexican cartel’s arsenal, a billion dollars drops into 
  the Society of St. Leopold’s hospital network. In 
  its spare time, it greenlights DARPA projects with 
  anti-paranormal promise and launches XScopes on 
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 1 8
  THE HEARTBEAT ALGORITHM
  The IAO grew out of a desire to more effectively share and filter collected intelligence across the entirety 
  of the U.S. intelligence community. Part of the reason behind why a small organization hidden on the back 
  pages of an Intelligence Community flow chart has gained so much power lies in an algorithm known by the 
  codename Heartbeat. Heartbeat was at first only a piece of the IAO strategy that collected data streams 
  from various agencies such as the CIA, DIA, and NSA. That a great deal of that data was initially obtained il-
  legally also meant that Heartbeat was only accessible to a select few. Now Heartbeat sifts through the never-
  ending waterfall of ECHELON’s real time global data streams looking for evidence of vampiric and other 
  supernatural activity. 
  GPS trackers, photo sharing sites, WiFi doorbell cameras, police stingray collections, fitness app biometric 
  data, smartphone cameras and facial recognition software are all Heartbeat’s unwitting accomplices in a never 
  ending hunt for blankbodies. Just as the U.S. government can identify a practicing Muslim or a lapsed Catholic 
  by collecting enough of their private metadata, Heartbeat finds the commonalities in a blankbody’s digital 
  footprint. Long hours of daylight inactivity. Relatively no participation with supermarkets, pharmacies or 
  other businesses that sustain life. Frequent visitation to high risk or low information environments with above 
  average missing persons or assault statistics, and so on.
  FIRSTLIGHT has repeatedly attempted to take over control of Heartbeat from the IAO, but just as FIRST-
  LIGHT wants its own covert strike force, the IAO wants its own intelligence gathering system. Generally, the 
  two agree to share raw Heartbeat product, but it’s not entirely unknown for certain profiles to build up in 
  Pearl Harbor well before they show up on monitors in Langley and Fort Meade. With foreign actors, the IAO 
  proves even stingier with Heartbeat intel. JTRG’s pipeline into GCHQ allows them to offer some degree of 
  parity, and the Society of St. Leopold can usually get what it wants in exchange for a few relics in a Philippine 
  cathedral. However, recent political tensions make the IAO reluctant to share anything beyond the most ur-
  gent intelligence with their Russian partners. While the IAO claims they need to prevent supernatural entities 
  gaining access to Heartbeat feeds from third parties, most within the Coalition suspect it has more to do with 
  how the data is collected. Sharing too much could allow their partners to reverse engineer the exploits and 
  backdoors used by the U.S. intelligence community to gather this information in the first place.
  Vampires fight the battle against Heartbeat every second of their unlife. Every hurried phone call or un-
  covered ATM camera photo creates a potential data point for Heartbeat to exploit. Most Camarilla domains 
  have taken to withdrawing from technology almost completely and reverting to Cold War methods of covert 
  communication with messengers leaving notes in dead drops and encoded in lost Napoleonic cyphers. An-
  archs and other vampires use more direct countermeasures. Destroying street cameras, using burner phones, 
  disguising their features, and targeting local law enforcement for revenge attacks. But in the end Heartbeat 
  always wins, building an identifying pattern out of countermeasures and acts of defiance alike. In a perverse 
  self-fulfilling prophecy, only toppling or dominating the IAO itself would put an end to the world’s foremost 
  digital vampire hunter.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 1 9
  spy satellites. The IAO classifies everything, and 
  disguises what it can’t classify as “training missions” 
  or “counter-terrorist strikes.” 
  Its director, Admiral Roberto Farrier, runs the 
  IAO from Pearl Harbor using primarily Navy and 
  Marine forces inside Pacific Command, but main-
  tains a wide network of contacts in the Army and in 
  other geographic commands who carry out off-book 
  operations when they can. When they can’t, Farrier 
  calls on a company or two of deniable mercenaries 
  or on foreign military commanders who want the 
  U.S. Navy to owe them a favor.
  While FIRSTLIGHT serves as the main repre-
  sentative of the U.S. at Coalition planning sessions, 
  IAO retains an outsized influence on how blank-
  bodies are countered and pursued globally. This 
  influence partly stems from its record of burned 
  havens and terminated leeches, but mostly from 
  money. Master manipulators of the US govern-
  ment’s undisclosed black budget, the IAO can 
  channel billions of dollars direct cash payments or 
  loan guarantees into the coffers of any organization 
  that plays ball with the Coalition – and plays by 
  IAO rules.   
  PRESSURE POINTS
  U.S. military doctrine, and the IAO doctrine that 
  descends from it, treats overwhelming force and 
  full-spectrum dominance as the keys to victory. 
  Thus, the IAO tends to solve problems under the 
  cover of military (or militarized law enforcement) 
  operations. The massive footprint of the American 
  empire engaged in a never-ending global war against 
  terrorism and drugs allows them to do this with 
  relative ease. This also means that IAO  uses the full 
  force of the U.S. military when unconstrained by 
  a potential public relations blowback, or if they’re 
  desperate to protect the Coalition’s own masquer-
  ade. Hellfire-armed Reaper drones, submarine-
  launched cruise missiles, SOCOM strike forces, and 
  other weapons rain death on blankbodies wherever 
  they gather in secret. Vienna and one or two similar 
  operations aside, IAO hasn’t pulled up the even 
  heavier weapons in their arsenal. Yet.
  Keeping their methods of data collection and 
  their personnel connections secret and secure 
  remain IAO’s top rear-area priorities, as data and 
  commanders willing to use it provide their institu-
  tional and bureaucratic power. No mission or target 
  is worth jeopardizing Heartbeat, for example, even 
  if it means endangering the lives of their allies and 
  partners. The IAO often uses its role as the Coali-
  tion’s piggy bank to encourage compliance when 
  its partners and allies seem not to be taking IAO 
  concerns seriously.
  IAO-TASKED SEAL
  The IAO uses elite special operators from every 
  branch of the U.S. military, as many as it can get 
  given other national command priorities. But it 
  especially relies on a classified, formally unnamed 
  squadron of 100 Navy SEALs hidden in other 
  units’ rear-area personnel records, commanded by 
  Lt. Cmdr. John Adams Neguin. The official combat 
  strength of DEVGRU hovers around 1,300 – the 
  extra hundred SEALs under Neguin call themselves 
  the “Fourteenth Century,” recognizing the medi-
  eval nature of their mission. Although capable of 
  staging from any American or allied military base 
  or airfield around the world within ten hours of an 
  alert, “C14” trains and prepares at sunny Naval Base 
  San Diego.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 8, Social 
  4, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 8, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Athletics (swim) 8, 
  Melee (stake) 8, Stealth 8
  Equipment: Assault rifle (Heckler & Koch 
  HK416), pistol (SIG Sauer P226), ENVG night 
  vision, XScope 3/SM, thermobaric rifle grenades; 
  literally anything else within the power of the U.S. 
  military to provide
  Special: In addition to standard special forces 
  training in resistance to interrogation, C14 
  operators receive psychological conditioning to 
  specifically resist blankbody mind control. They 
  never count as “unprepared” for the purposes 
  of Dominate or Presence. They add 2 dice to 
  their Resolve when using it to resist a vampiric 
  Discipline.
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 2 0
  FBI Special Affairs Division
  Supposedly created in secret by FBI Director J. 
  Edgar Hoover to battle the Giovanni mobs and then 
  to counter emerging occult powers within leftist 
  youth movements, the FBI’s Special Affairs Division 
  (SAD) quickly fell out of favor after Hoover’s death. 
  In those early days SAD formed close ties to the So-
  ciety of Leopold and other Vatican-backed hunters. 
  Their orange-colored paperbound reports detailing 
  the threats of communist vampire councils and 
  counterculture shapeshifters no longer made their 
  way to the West Wing. Despite their pedigree SAD’s 
  successes were few and being assigned there was of-
  ten seen as the end of a career, not to mention their 
  suspiciously high rate of death on the job.
  Everything changed after IAO and FIRST-
  LIGHT began looking for willing conspirators 
  within the U.S. counterintelligence and law enforce-
  ment community. While still considered pariahs 
  within the Bureau itself, SAD now has powerful 
  friends looking out for it at the highest levels of the 
  U.S. government and relishes its role as the lead in-
  vestigators of the Coalition, even loaning out special 
  agents to foreign services in need of their expertise. 
  SAD uses modern psychological profiling and crime 
  scene forensics to identify, apprehend, and neutral-
  ize blank bodies. Unlike many other components 
  of the Coalition, SAD has hunted monsters for dec-
  ades and vampires are their specialty. When SAD 
  confronts a supernatural threat they meticulously 
  research their targets and comb through decades 
  of case files and accumulated evidence for counter-
  measures. They prefer elegant and discreet solutions 
  that leverage a monster’s weaknesses to their advan-
  tage and leave the messy stuff to IAO.
  PRESSURE POINTS
  As the only organization within the USG that has 
  been actively aware and interacting with the super-
  natural world for decades, SAD has a deep analog 
  archive of case files, incident reports and a vault of 
  confiscated occult contraband. While SAD agents 
  seem to take an unnatural glee in digging through 
  their non-digital library of the bizarre, their vault 
  on the other hand is strictly off limits except for 
  members of SAD’s executive team. Outside of the 
  Vatican, the SAD vault is arguably the largest cache 
  of mystical artifacts in the Coalition’s possession 
  and their reluctance to make its contents available to 
  FIRSTLIGHT and others has caused tension with 
  its American partner agencies. Both the IAO and 
  FIRSTLIGHT suspect that SAD is hiding more 
  than just artifacts within their vault and that their 
  back channel ties to the Vatican may run deeper 
  than anyone had thought. SAD’s ability to supple-
  ment their budget with seized blankbody assets also 
  allows them a degree of bureaucratic independence 
  from IAO purse strings.
  SAD SPECIAL AGENT
  SAD special agents are the frontline inquisitors 
  inside the United States. Through a mix of police 
  science and applied folklore, they have developed a 
  few reliable and discreet interrogative techniques to 
  identify blankbodies.  
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  4, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Firearms 7, Insight 7, 
  Investigation 7, Occult (Vampires) 6  
  Equipment: Pistol (Glock 19M), baton, FBI badge, 
  handcuffs, police-style sedan
  Special: SAD Special Agents are well versed in 
  vampire lore and any attempt to pass as mortal 
  when questioned by them has its Difficulty 
  increased by +2. Vampires with the Cleaver 
  Predator Type do not suffer from this drawback 
  when they are in their Haven or among their Herd. 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 2 1
  ALPHABET INQUISITIONS
  While FIRSTLIGHT is a conspiracy within a conspiracy, not every vampire hunter in the US government 
  (USG) knows it exists or operates under its control. As the Camarilla hunkers down, their precious Mas-
  querade has all but collapsed in some parts of the United States. This has created a scattered awakening to 
  the truth about vampires within various departments of the USG. Disorganized, unsure and poorly informed, 
  these vampire hunters can not bring the same kind of trouble to bear against a coterie but they are often 
  more in tune with their local community and dealing with them too harshly could attract the attention of 
  “real” hunters.   
  ICE
  Heavily militarized and able to freely operate on both sides of the US border, Immigration and Customs 
  Enforcement (ICE) is an organization deeply penetrated by FIRSTLIGHT conspirators because of its focus on 
  transnational crimes, but ICE has grown so large that even FIRSTLIGHT is unaware that they’re not the only 
  ones using ICE resources to hunt for vampires. As the agency responsible for rounding up and deporting un-
  documented immigrants, ICE agents are experts at breaching homes and holding large numbers of prisoners. 
  Their mandate also grants them the extraordinary power to interrogate and detain anyone within 100 miles 
  of a US border: roughly 75% of the population of the USA. Independent vampire hunters in ICE find easy ac-
  cess to heavy weapons and an institutional culture that places a premium on following orders. Vampires that 
  run afoul of hunters within ICE enjoy the classic paramilitary experience, complete with assault rifles, batter-
  ing rams, flexi-cuffs and tear gas canisters. 
  DEA
  Another agency penetrated by FIRSTLIGHT loyalists, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a 
  strange mixture within the USG, combining both paramilitary and intelligence gathering expertise. While 
  similar to ICE in that its mandate concerns illegal material crossing over the US border, the DEAs singular 
  focus on illegal drugs has also allowed it to expand its operations into over sixty foreign countries where nar-
  cotics and other illegal drugs are either produced or trafficked. Unlike ICE, the DEA has a corporate culture 
  more focused on criminal investigation as opposed to kinetic operations and corrections. While DEA agents 
  have access to small arms, they often work with allied militaries when abroad and local police within the US. 
  Hunters operating out of the DEA would have access to very high end surveillance equipment including wire 
  taps, directional microphones, tracking microdots and stingrays capable of intercepting cellular calls and 
  texts. Particularly motivated DEA hunters could even use their knowledge of local criminal organizations or 
  cartels to frame the vampires as potential rivals and targets. 
  CDC
  While it would seem that an organization concerned with biohazards and contagious threats would have 
  more than its fair share of vampire hunters, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) is a relatively small and 
  underfunded agency that sits outside the USG’s military-intelligence complex. The few independent vam-
  pire hunters that do operate out of the CDC have formed a secret working group of researchers known as 
  ECLIPSE. They are primarily concerned with how vampirism spreads and in the development of a vaccine that 
  would immunize humans against the embrace and stop blankbodies from reproducing altogether. ECLIPSE re-
  searchers are constantly in need of blankbody blood and tissue samples and readily trade narcotics and other 
  restricted substances to obtain them. It’s rumored that at least one cell of freed ghouls and amateur hunters 
  makes a living supplying ECLIPSE with the parts they need.
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 2 2
  COG AND THE DEEP STATE
  He calls himself Cog and he claims to be a whistleblower working for the shadowy deep state that controls 
  several world governments through blackmail, blood magic and an ancient pact with moon aliens. While he 
  offers no proof for any of these wild assertions, Cog lays out his manifesto in a series of cryptic and riddle 
  filled essays that are still widely shared all over the dark web. Originally posted under the name incognito as 
  a series of screenshots on a Youtube channel dedicated to UFO Robot Grendizer, Cog laid the blame for mul-
  tiple terrorist attacks in Europe and Asia on face stealing vampires working for the deep state. Of the many 
  conspiracy theories that have gained traction in the popular mind, Cog’s in particular has drawn a cult like 
  following from a wide swath of Americans trying to explain their own government’s seemingly inexplicable 
  actions.  
  The cracks in the Masquerade have grown as vampires have become politically fractured and all but openly 
  hunted. While many world governments involved in the Coalition do their best to cover what traces of the 
  supernatural they can, the dark web has allowed rumors to spread to a populace ill-prepared to tell truth 
  from fiction. Unable to square their reality with the story provided by the media, many turn to these con-
  spiracy theories to answer their questions. Why are their city’s crumbling while fleets of armed drones patrol 
  the world’s skies? Why are their politicians unable to fight for them but so quick to go to war overseas? Why 
  won’t anyone just tell them what the hell is going on? 
  Cog has filled that gap with a strange and disjointed story hidden in a virtual easter egg hunt spread across 
  multiple websites and USB geocaches. While the first few pages of his manifesto were made public they were 
  incomplete, but between the lines were clues to where the rest of his story could be found. Each time a new 
  piece of the manifesto is unearthed, his followers spend days pouring over the text and any accompanying 
  drawings in hopes of finding clues to the next puzzle. According to Cog a great spiritual war is already being 
  fought in the shadows and the dark corners of the Earth. All people, but Americans in particular, have a holy 
  obligation to arm themselves in this conflict against these infernal forces. 
  In his later posts Cog even details the various strengths and weaknesses of several vampire families, as 
  well as a method for interstellar communication through mirrors. The vampires and moon aliens aside, the 
  ultimate mystery his followers hope to discover is Cog’s identity. Since Cog uses the terms “flavor country” 
  and “my delicious American brothers” so often in his manifesto, many believe he’s the host of a discontinued 
  cooking reality show turned CIA agent or possibly one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Others suspect the culinary 
  turns of phrases may actually hint at why the vampires have aligned themselves with the shadow government.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 2 3
  United Kingdom
  While the organizations that make up the UK 
  branch of the Coalition have limited say in how the 
  global conspiracy is run, their notable successes in 
  London are seen as a test case for how other major 
  urban areas can be purged of blankbodies. The Joint 
  Threat Response Group (JTRG) and their spon-
  sors in FIRSTLIGHT are eager to lay the ground-
  work necessary for a London style accounting and 
  elimination of blankbodies in the EU, but the UK’s 
  Brexit withdrawal from the European community 
  has deeply complicated that effort. Ironically this 
  has postponed an argument that may threaten to 
  split the conspiracy in the future, as few Coalition 
  members outside of the US and the UK want SO13 
  “Headhunter Squads” in their major cities.
  JTRG
  The Joint Threat Response Group answers directly 
  to the United Kingdom working group responsible 
  for directing vampire-hunting activity within the 
  UK. JTRG is a small signals intelligence outfit that 
  supports all Coalition activity in Europe. As the eyes 
  and ears of the European branch of the conspiracy 
  they use biometrics, facial recognition and XScope 
  technology to track blankbodies and mark them for 
  execution. This hit list is known as Chalkboard and 
  is updated and shared in real time with all of the 
  Five Torches. Though names are regularly crossed 
  off, Chalkboard usually has about 300 targets at any 
  one time and boasts a false positive rate of less than 
  8%. In London they maintain a massive surveillance 
  program of cameras and XScope body scanners 
  that allows them to guide SO13 directly to targets 
  as they’re acquired. JTRG is closely aligned with 
  FIRSTLIGHT and the IAO, and as part of the 
  ECHELON global surveillance program they are 
  major contributors to Heartbeat though they have 
  no direct access to the algorithm's output. While not 
  capable of online data mining at the same level as the 
  IAO, FIRSTLIGHT or even the Russian GRU-
  N58, the JTRG is second to none in video and audio 
  surveillance despite its relatively small size.    
  PRESSURE POINTS
  The complete eradication of all vampires within 
  London was made possible by JTRG breathtaking 
  use of the city’s intrusive surveillance and security 
  system. Unburdened by concerns of privacy, con-
  stitutionality or public backlash, they provided the 
  intelligence that allowed the Headhunters of SO13 
  to butcher blankbodies to extinction in the UK’s 
  capital city. Achieving blankbody zero (“BBZed”) 
  was a victory beyond the Coalition’s best forecasts. 
  Now JTRG’s masters within the UK insist that a 
  similar program of blanket surveillance be imple-
  mented in the European Union and the Americans 
  are even willing to pay for it. So far Brexit and the 
  thought of British eyes secretly ogling all of the 
  citizens of the EU has provoked enough resistance 
  to keep that plan off the Coalition agenda.
  More troubling is the state of JTRG’s BBZed 
  program in London. They have become a victim of 
  their own success as any increase in the blankbody 
  population would deeply tarnish their limited 
  clout in the Coalition and threaten the IAO fund-
  ing they desperately need to survive. Everytime a 
  blankbody nest is discovered in or near London, 
  JTRG scrambles headhunters to erase the vampires 
  before their presence is noticed outside of the UK. It 
  also means that when systems failures occur in the 
  sewers of London, JTRG often leaves the cameras 
  dark for weeks in hopes of maintaining the illu-
  sion of BBzed.
  JTRG TECHNICIAN
  The JTRG Technician is responsible for supporting 
  a UTR team that may have to disable or circum-
  vent security measures present at a blankbody nest. 
  Additionally they can crack encrypted data and use 
  real time access to local video and XScope surveil-
  lance to help track a target.
  General Difficulty: 3/1
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 4, Social 
  4, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 4, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 8, 
  Technology 8 
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 2 4
  Equipment: Laptop, Spot tablet controller, Spot 
  Robot Dog hangman variant (p. 78)
  Special: Any vampire attempting to evade an 
  operation with Streetwise or Stealth must win 
  a Contested roll against the JTRG Technician’s 
  Technology Die Pool (8). 
  SO13
  Despite being less than a decade old, SO13 has more 
  confirmed blankbody eliminations than any other 
  organization inside the Coalition save the Society 
  of Leopold. The commingled ashes of London’s 
  once powerful vampire court now rest in a dented 
  tin urn, forgotten in the bottom drawer of a desk 
  at SO13’s headquarters. Originally the brainchild 
  of the shadowy Newburgh Group that also directs 
  the JTRG, SO13 recruited a core cadre of hardened 
  police and military veterans personally victimized 
  by blankbodies. Even Ishaq Khan, SO13’s head of 
  operations, is rumored to have lost all of his imme-
  diate family to a pack of blankbodies when he was 
  a young child. The rugged former police captain 
  prefers to lead from the frontlines and has repaid 
  this debt a hundred fold.
  While the Vatican’s Entity admires their zeal, 
  the rest of the Coalition recognizes SO13 as the 
  most vocal element of the conspiracies’ eradicator 
  faction. To SO13’s headhunters blankbodies are an 
  undifferentiated and monstrous mass that corrupts 
  humans by proximity. If they had their way the 
  Coalition would expand its mandate to capture or 
  kill ghouled blood slaves, so called thin-bloods, and 
  even members of a vampire’s herd. Their adoption 
  of decapitation as a terror tactic, coupled with their 
  ubiquitous use of face masks, has made it difficult 
  for the leadership of the Coalition to sign off on 
  expanding SO13’s methods into the rest of Europe.
  PRESSURE POINTS
  While technically not a major voice in the Coali-
  tion, SO13’s great success in London means that its 
  eradication policy is pointed to as a possible model 
  for the conspiracy as a whole. While many in SO13 
  would love to see their methods enacted globally, 
  their personal loyalty to Ishaq Khan and distrust 
  of “softer” conspirators within the EU make them 
  reluctant to share the details of their operations. 
  Of particular concern to SO13 is the use of ghouls 
  and thin-bloods by FIRSTLIGHT and the Russian 
  GRU. Headhunter squads usually destroy these 
  larval blankbodies when they are encountered to 
  prevent them from metastasizing into more po-
  THE ARCANUM
  The Arcanum have kept their involvement in the Second Inquisition strictly secret and have only estab-
  lished direct channels in the UK with the Newburgh Group and SO13’s commander Khan. Occult scholars and 
  dilettantes with a long history of studying and battling against the supernatural, several prominent members 
  of the English elite are counted among the Arcanum’s secret membership. Their influence is partially respon-
  sible for the formation of the JTRG and they provide what mystical support they can to SO13’s headhunter 
  squads. While not as rich in occult artifacts as the Vatican or even the FBI’s SAD, the Arcanists represent 
  arguably the most organized force of practical sorcerers in Europe. Their expertise was vital in locating and 
  defeating the magical defenses of the Vienna nest and the subsequent scouring of the ruins for valuables. 
  While Arcanum libraries did profit from that attack, the Vatican soldiers on the ground claimed most of the 
  mystical spoils.
  On an operational level Arcanists provide support through briefings on esoteric threats and occasionally 
  by using ritual magic to shape the battlefields. This support is done covertly and by request only, so as to hide 
  their involvement from soldiers who might be captured or enslaved by blankbodies. While they won’t admit 
  this to their allies, the Arcanum’s magical powers are very limited in comparison to the capabilities of blank-
  bodies. The exact nature of their magic is unknown, but for the most part they’ve demonstrated an ability to 
  divine mystically hidden locations and undo magical wards.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 2 5
  tent threats in the future. While SO13 loans what 
  manpower they can to operations outside the UK, 
  Headhunters would likely revolt if forced to work 
  alongside a vampire or former ghoul.
  SO13 “HEADHUNTER”
  The masked soldiers that “cleaned” London 
  in one day. SO13 operatives assume that any 
  blankbody is a potential daywalker and they never 
  capture targets unless directly and specifically 
  ordered to do so. While on a mission they use 
  incendiary ammunition and thermite grenades, but 
  operationally confirm hits by collecting the heads 
  of vampires and ghouls they’ve destroyed. Their 
  penchant for displaying these heads earned them 
  their grisly nickname.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  3, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 8, Firearms 
  8, Melee (kukri) 8, Stealth 8  
  Equipment: Submachine gun (Heckler & Koch 
  MP5), AN thermite grenade, body armor, kukri 
  with high-carbon steel blade (+4 damage), MRAP
  Special: Headhunters train to decapitate vampires 
  in close combat. If a Headhunter scores a margin 
  of five or more successes on a Melee hit with a 
  bladed beheading weapon (axe, katana, kukri, 
  Nightwatchman) on a vampire, the vampire is 
  beheaded. 
  Headhunters usually only operate during the 
  daylight hours and use masks and codenames to 
  keep their identities secret when on the hunt. Any 
  attempt to ascertain a Headhunter’s identity with 
  Backgrounds such as Contacts or Allies has its Dif-
  ficulty increased by +2.
  Russia
  While the Russian military has been ruthlessly 
  destroying vampires within their own territory for 
  over three decades, their role within the Coalition is 
  often to temper operational overreach. The Rus-
  sians are wary of any push from the US/UK axis of 
  the Coalition to create a global rapid response force 
  with a joint command. They know that any such 
  force would quickly become the puppet of FIRST-
  LIGHT and would likely neglect threats that pri-
  marily endangered Russian interests. Moreover, the 
  Russians know better than most that vampires are 
  masters at corrupting institutional power to their 
  own purposes. As long as the Coalition maintains 
  distinct command and control centers it makes it 
  harder for the conspiracy to be turned against itself 
  or subverted. This is particularly true in cases where 
  Coalition resources are employed in active war 
  zones where it’s often unclear if they’re truly being 
  used to target vampires. So far the Vatican has sup-
  ported this position.
  GRU Eighth Direction
  GRU-N58 (Napravleniye 58, the Eighth Direction 
  of the Fifth Directorate) traces its origins to a secret 
  military intelligence unit formed within the Soviet 
  Red Army to root out vampire influence in their 
  own military. Their successes eventually led to the 
  discovery and destruction of a ring of vampires 
  that had infiltrated critical sectors of the socialist 
  republic. While the details remain a state secret, 
  N58 considers itself the most successful vampire 
  hunting organization within the Second Inquisition 
  and only acknowledges the Vatican’s ESOG group 
  as operating at the same level of effectiveness. This 
  often leads to operational differences when action 
  has to be taken near Russian zones of influence as 
  the GRU refuses to risk its assets unless it is given 
  full access to FIRSTLIGHT raw intelligence. This 
  can lead to further delays as GRU signals intelli-
  gence analysts pick over the little the Americans are 
  usually willing to share.
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 2 6
  On the ground, N58 prefers to use surgical 
  violence. The overwhelming force doctrine exem-
  plified by FIRSTLIGHT and the UK’s SO13 is 
  seen as counterproductive to the Russians who see 
  themselves as professionals who are always keeping 
  an eye on the long game. Small N58 UTR squads of 
  well-coordinated (and fully briefed) Spetsnaz troop-
  ers destroy or capture their targets, then often plant 
  captured paraphernalia from a rival blankbody fac-
  tion. (To preserve plausibility, N58 often strikes just 
  before dawn.) False flag operations are a specialty 
  of the GRU, and N58 have even been known to 
  disguise themselves as local paramilitary or foreign 
  troops when on mission.         
  PRESSURE POINTS
  Behind their detached corporate culture the Eighth 
  Direction is dedicated to keeping Russia free from 
  vampiric control. They know that despite disinfor-
  mation produced by Polish reactionaries claiming 
  that the USSR was a blankbody puppet state, the 
  GRU rooted out the few vampires influencing the 
  Politburo by activating rival supernatural factions. 
  Then psyops and applied firepower dissuaded other 
  blankbodies from taking their place.
  To the Russians the rest of the world has simply 
  woken up to a threat that N58 and the Vatican had 
  been fighting alone for years. While they believe 
  that the Coalition serves their short-term interests, 
  N58 also sees FIRSTLIGHT’s information domi-
  nance as a potentially bigger threat to Russia than 
  the vampires in the long term. In coordination with 
  the Akritai, the N58 has begun to leak information 
  to the Vatican and a few other partners in hopes of 
  undermining their confidence in the US/UK lobe 
  of the Coalition, most notably an extended XScope 
  video of drone strikes carried out under FIRST-
  LIGHT operational direction that actually tar-
  geted mortal insurgents in Colombia. N58 has also 
  penetrated the UK’s JTRG Chalkboard program 
  and have come to the chilling conclusion that it is a 
  political hit list with very few vampires on it.
  GRU-N58 PSYOPS SPECIALIST
  The Psyops Specialist is usually attached to tacti-
  cal squads for the purpose of covering their tracks 
  and planting evidence that another group was 
  responsible for their actions. While this often 
  means fingering another nation for their activities, 
  sometimes opportunities arise to pit blankbody 
  factions against each other. The Akritai and GRU 
  have a collection of heretical vampire texts that they 
  modify with false prophecies and misleading clues 
  that hopefully cause conflict. 
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  6, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Larceny 8, Firearms 
  7, Occult (Vampires) 6, Stealth 8, Subterfuge 
  (Disinformation) 7
  Equipment: Assault rifle (AK-74M), knife, torn 
  SOCOM patch, KA-58 “Black Ghost” Stealth 
  helicopter gunship
  Artifacts: Book of Nod fragments (forged)
  Unit 242 Special Purposes 
  Unit 242 is a black budget paramilitary organiza-
  tion that answers directly to the top echelons of 
  Russian military intelligence. Although initially 
  tasked with acquiring and cataloguing occult tomes 
  and objects acquired from neutralized blankbodies, 
  U242’s remit as a tactical force has grown as Rus-
  sia’s active involvement in the Coalition overseas 
  increased. U242 specifically targets the leadership 
  of blankbody communities and draws its recruits 
  mostly from foreign paramilitary forces already 
  penetrated by GRU’s Spetsnaz special operations. 
  This gives U242 some deniability when their 
  operators are caught or killed, as Russia can easily 
  disavow them as foreign terrorists. This methodol-
  ogy has also allowed them to augment their forces 
  with vampires and other supernaturals. Particularly 
  promising soldiers are taken to U242’s Black Sea 
  training compound and those that survive the clas-
  sified ZMEI protocol find themselves imbued with 
  many of the capabilities of a vampire but with only 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 2 7
  a few of their weaknesses. Over time many begin 
  to develop blankbody familial characteristics and 
  drawbacks, but they seldom survive long enough for 
  that to be a problem.
  PRESSURE POINTS
  One of the strengths of ZMEI protocol wet work-
  ers is their ability to operate in hostile controlled 
  areas with little to no support. They live off the 
  land quite literally and feed on their mortal and 
  vampire victims alike. This has had the unintended 
  consequence of turning this group of vampire hunt-
  ers into a powerful diablerie ring. Some have even 
  been out in the wilderness for so long that they’ve 
  adopted bits of the Sabbat’s Gehenna War ideology. 
  For these few their cannibalism has become an al-
  most ritualistic need to empower themselves against 
  unseen blood gods.
  ZMEI PROTOCOL THIN-BLOOD COMMANDO
  While distrusted by other hunters, the GRU has 
  found great success by employing thin-bloods as 
  shock troops. Those who can operate in sunlight are 
  given special training in wet work and are set loose 
  on blankbody nests to disrupt any command and 
  control they may have in place before conventional 
  forces move in to destroy them in detail. While the 
  Commando prefers to eat their victims, they are not 
  above termination at distance if their target is very 
  secure.   
  General Difficulty: 5/3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 7, Social 
  4, Mental 7 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 10, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness 9, Brawl 9, 
  Firearms 9, Melee 9, Stealth 9 
  Equipment: Sniper rifle (Heckler & Koch PSG1 
  7.62mm), garrote, knife
  Disciplines: Fortitude 1 or one dot in any other 
  Discipline
  Special: The Commando is a Daywalker and can 
  function in sunlight without taking damage, 
  though they must still feed on blood regularly. 
  The Commando’s rifle is usually loaded with 
  incendiary ammo.
  THE AKRITAI
  Aligned with the Orthodox Church, Akritai 
  witch hunters have an old pedigree dating back to at 
  least the Byzantine empire. While they have a similar 
  reputation to the Vatican’s Society of St. Leopold, 
  the Akritai tend to prefer modern weaponry and 
  rarely call upon occult powers. Russian intelligence 
  penetrated the heart of the order in eastern Europe 
  after WWII, purging the most stubborn during 
  Communist rule. Most of the remaining non-Russian, 
  independent Akritai died during a confrontation 
  with an immensely old vampire in the Czech Repub-
  lic in 2011.
  Although it continues to present itself as an 
  independent organization of witch hunters, it now 
  operates essentially as an extension of the Russian 
  security state and of GRU-N58. Many of the order’s 
  foot soldiers remain unaware of this subversion and 
  N58 uses the Akritai to gain access to Coalition 
  member nations that might be more wary of their 
  direct involvement in an operation. The Akritai’s 
  reputation proves especially useful for the GRU’s 
  espionage within the Vatican itself, as the church is 
  convinced that the witch hunters possess several 
  relics from Constantinople. While Unit 242 cov-
  ertly confiscated all of the Akritai’s artifacts over a 
  decade ago, the negotiations with the Vatican are 
  allowed to continue in case an opportunity to turn a 
  high-ranking church official into a spy presents itself.
  Most of the Akrtai’s esoteric training has been 
  lost to time and purges; the order now places a 
  greater emphasis on standard combat drills. The 
  GRU keeps the few sorcerers that still practice 
  within the order under heavy surveillance and only 
  allows them to travel outside Russian territory if 
  the operational and political rewards are very high. 
  (Some Akritai sorcerers have been allowed into 
  Georgia and Syria to excavate powerful artifacts 
  under cover of the wars in those nations.) While 
  the ruse of using the Akritai as a cut out is danger-
  ous and complex, it has paid dividends in the past. 
  At least one plot to destabilize a critical oil refinery 
  was rolled up when Akritai priests were approached 
  for support by supernatural terrorists who believed 
  they had some ancient alliance in place.
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 2 8
  Brazil
  Closely aligned with the Vatican on an operational 
  level, Brazilian forces have been hesitant to take a 
  more active role in the Coalition outside of South 
  America. The BOES has been quietly battling 
  supernatural foes for decades without any support 
  besides the occasional Leopoldite hunter. Within 
  the Coalition they are seen as an extension of the 
  Vatican branch of the conspiracy in the Americas 
  and their lonely years holding the line against the 
  blankbody threat are mostly discounted.
  BOES
  The Brazilian Special Police Operations Battalions 
  operate as geographically distinct organizations all 
  over the country. BOES is a cross battalion com-
  mand and training program that recruits dedicated 
  squads within the SPOB for use as vampire hunters. 
  While they do destroy vampire nests found in urban 
  areas and favelas, BOES’ main concern is protect-
  ing critical infrastructure such as government 
  offices, military installations and oil refineries from 
  blankbody influence. While BOES does suspect 
  blankbodies may be common in the favelas they 
  do not wish to ignite a war in the sprawling urban 
  zones where their SPOB soldiers are often treated as 
  an occupying force. When contact with vampires 
  is suspected by informants in normal SPOB units, 
  the call goes out to BOES rapid response teams that 
  converge on the area by helicopter. Vehicle mounted 
  XScopes and infrared are used to identify their 
  targets, and the SPOB clear the area of non-combat-
  ants so that BOES has more flexibility in the type of 
  ordinance they can use with limited civilian deaths. 
  Their close ties to the Vatican also mean that BOES 
  units often employ rare artifacts and other spiritual 
  weaponry that are usually ESOG restricted access.   
  When hunting blankbodies BOES usually 
  prefers to work in tandem with Vatican forces as 
  backup but FBI’s SAD has become a surprisingly 
  dependable ally in Rio and Brazzaville. BOES tacti-
  cal squads make liberal use of incendiary ammuni-
  tion unless operating near a petrochemical facility 
  or the mission calls for the capture of specific blank-
  body needed for questioning. BOES is fighting a 
  holding action in South America and is depending 
  on the Coalition to come up with a global solution 
  to the vampire problem. Operationally BOES com-
  manders are often willing to look the other way as 
  long as blankbodies only operate in marginal and 
  poor areas of society. This allows BOES to concen-
  trate their forces on the protection of more politi-
  cally critical areas.  
  PRESSURE POINTS
  BOES constantly has to make hard choices when 
  confronting the vampire threat in Brazil. Though 
  the military police that make up their foot soldiers 
  are very well funded and have a veritable free hand 
  to operate within major cities, the BOES fears 
  vampire and criminal organizations still have a great 
  deal of influence in SPOB despite their best efforts 
  to vet their officers. Turf wars between different 
  units of the SPOB have come dangerously close 
  to breaking out into open violence and more than 
  one SPOB commander has died under suspicious 
  circumstances linked to organized criminal ele-
  ments. How much of this corruption in the gov-
  ernment and military is controlled by blankbodies 
  is unknown, but it creates an atmosphere within 
  BOES that swings between determined fatalism and 
  paralyzed indecision. They pick and choose their 
  battles carefully because they never know when an 
  operation will expose the deep rivalries within the 
  military and jeopardize their standing within the 
  Coalition. BOES jealously guards its close ties to 
  the Vatican and fears any scenario that would sever 
  those connections or prompt FIRSTLIGHT to 
  operate in Brazil without BOES sanction.  
  Military Police Extraterritorial 
  Operations (PMEX)
  Formed at the request of the Vatican with IAO 
  funding to handle blankbodies fleeing Coalition 
  operations in South America, PMEX has grown 
  into a cadre of special operators that specialize in 
  quickly training up under-equipped local forces 
  into serviceable vampire hunters. Legally restricted 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 2 9
  from working inside Brazil, PMEX depends on Vat-
  ican command and control to direct its operations, 
  which have expanded to include any operational 
  area that has seen a sharp rise in blankbody activity 
  without a local Second Inquisition response. While 
  it avoids active combat zones and countries deemed 
  within the sphere of influence of the US or Russia, 
  PMEX now operates worldwide and targets border 
  areas and other international seam zones.
  Their Liaison Officers teach traditional methods 
  of vampire hunting to militias and insurgents that 
  often have lost family and friends to blankbodies 
  terrorizing their communities. PMEX’s “Machete 
  Men” train them in the basics of staking and 
  decapitation, and the construction of anti-vampire 
  countermeasures to secure their forward positions 
  at night. These countermeasures often consist of 
  incendiary landmines or pitfalls filled with spools 
  of razorwire. Unlike most of the modern Second 
  Inquisition, PMEX often finds itself at a tactical 
  disadvantage when facing hostile blankbodies and 
  their success depends on the clever use of native 
  forces and exploiting the mystical and psychological 
  weaknesses of their foes.
  PRESSURE POINTS
  PMEX operators are not indifferent or ignorant to 
  the nature of the forces that they train and advise. 
  Terrorists, insurgents, militias, war criminals, hu-
  man traffickers and child soldiers are all fair stu-
  dents to the “Machete Men” if they mean to hunt 
  vampires. While this has caused friction with both 
  FIRSTLIGHT and the GRU, so far their funding 
  and support has never been interrupted. PMEX re-
  fuses to be drawn into political or moral arguments 
  about which groups they train, and the Vatican 
  sees their notable preference for training so-called 
  Christian militias a positive feature. In PMEX’s 
  estimation they are simply making the best of a bad 
  situation and using the soldiers available to them 
  in those places abandoned by the rest of the world. 
  It’s not their job to end human suffering or keep the 
  peace. They destroy vampires.
  PMEX LIAISON OFFICER
  The Liaison Officer is seconded to foreign police or 
  military forces who do not have the capabilities to 
  handle the vampire threat. The Liaison Officer is 
  not discreet about his skills or what he is hunting, 
  but trusts that Pai Leo or some other part of the Co-
  alition will clean up the mess after the job is done. 
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  4, Mental 3 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Leadership 6, Occult 
  (Vampires) 6, Streetwise 6, Survival 6
  Equipment: Assault carbine (Taurus Tavor TAR-
  21 5.56mm), body armor, HE grenades, stake, 
  Eurocopter AS532 Cougar support helicopter 
  with XScope
  Artifact: Dagger of Akkad, (See page 87)
  Special: Mortal soldiers under the Liaison Officer’s 
  command benefit from their knowledge of 
  vampires and the supernatural. Their soldiers can 
  use the Liaison Officer’s Occult skill as their own 
  when necessary.
  The Vatican
  As far as they’re concerned the Vatican is the heart 
  of the Second Inquisition and the driving force 
  behind many of the Coalition’s most successful op-
  erations. While the Vatican’s forces may not always 
  have the most modern or sound grasp on battlefield 
  tactics, their knowledge of the vampire threat is 
  far beyond any other member of the conspiracy. 
  Supposedly the coordinating group behind the 
  Vatican’s vampire hunting efforts has an archive 
  containing over 800 years of research and detailed 
  descriptions of the powers and motivations of vam-
  pire overlords that may still be walking the Earth. 
  Not to mention a storehouse of mystical artifacts 
  that they loan out to successful hunters as trophies 
  and badges of honor.
  LA ENTITÀ (THE ENTITY)
  The decision makers behind the Vatican’s involve-
  ment in the Coalition, the exact composition of La 
  Entità is a mystery to even the other conspirators. 
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 3 0
  La Entità is rumored to be directed by nine un-
  known men selected from the church’s hierarchy. 
  This arrangement shields the Holy See from direct 
  involvement in the questionable business of exter-
  minating the world’s supernatural creatures. La 
  Entità has access to vast resources, a globe spanning 
  network of religious safehouses and a deep bench 
  of dedicated vampire hunters. While they had long 
  coordinated the work of the Society of St. Leopold 
  and other inquisitorial eff orts within the Vatican, 
  La Entità’s eff orts had always been small in scale 
  and conservative in scope. The vampires’ so-called 
  Masquerade had been so successful that even others 
  in the Vatican had begun to doubt the good work 
  of their forebears, despite the trove of evidence they 
  had collected over the centuries. They nibbled at the 
  edges of the problem and struck what blows they 
  could in a shadow war with the damned they hoped 
  that seemed both endless and unwinnable.
  Before the Second Inquisition the excesses and 
  failures of the fi rst Inquisition also weighed heavily 
  on the leaders of the La Entità and stayed their hand 
  from taking more dramatic action against the vam-
  pire threat. They knew from their own records that 
  their past eff orts to destroy the vampires had been 
  corrupted by political and ecumenical infi ghting. 
  The great work became an orgy of destruction that 
  brutalized women and religious minorities. This 
  stain ultimately undermined their authority and al-
  lowed the vampires to escape the fi res of judgement 
  while the innocent burned by the thousands. In the 
  dark centuries between the two Inquisitions, La 
  Entità bided its time and nursed the shame of their 
  sinful forebears. Few believed there would be a next 
  time, but if the opportunity came to them again, 
  things would be diff erent.   
  While the leaders of La Entità reject the criticism 
  that the original Inquisition had more to do with 
  terrorizing political opponents than hunting vam-
  pires, they accept that mistakes were made and that 
  this time the Second Inquisition wouldn’t be drawn 
  into internecine confl icts. Now that they stand at 
  the heart of a global enterprise of unprecedented 
  power, they see their role as a compass always urging 
  their partners towards their ultimate goal. They 
  know the temptation to abuse the power of the Sec-
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 3 1
  ond Inquisition for personal gain because it is the 
  trap that defeated their predecessors. La Entita bears 
  that burden and for the last millennium monsters 
  have feasted on humanity and in gilded halls these 
  men whispered mea culpa. This time the flames will 
  find the last vampire.
  Although their ESOG soldiers may be risk tak-
  ers, La Entità is a voice of cold caution in operation-
  al planning. They see their work as a generational 
  task and know that if the conspiracy is exposed 
  it could give the vampires the time they need to 
  regroup and counterattack. The Entity rarely com-
  mits its forces into mixed operations, preferring to 
  offer single advisors on individual missions. It has 
  made exceptions for the Brazilians given their close 
  ties, but prefers to have full tactical control of an 
  operation. For this reason, La Entità created ESOG, 
  to provide command structures even in situations 
  that require them to ally with other national units.
  PRESSURE POINTS
  La Entità thinks of itself as the heart of the Second 
  Inquisition in more ways than one. In their eyes 
  everyone else in the Coalition is expendable in 
  service to the goal. But the heart must keep beating. 
  Just as they survived the collapse of the first Inqui-
  sition and the long years the vampires toyed with 
  the earth and degraded belief in the divine, so too 
  would La Entità survive a collapse of this Second 
  Inquisition… and bide its time in preparation for a 
  third. Much like the vampires they fight, the Entity 
  understands the march of time not in years or dec-
  ades, but in centuries.  
  To this end La Entita is always reluctant to com-
  mit the heart of its forces to any operation, much 
  preferring its Russian or American partners to take 
  the brunt of any mission. Part of the reason behind 
  the creation of the hybrid Gladius Dei/ESOG cad-
  res were to increase the presence of Vatican forces in 
  Second inquisition operations without directly risk-
  ing the units most loyal to La Entita itself. While 
  the Gladius Dei are for the most part expendable, 
  the ESOG are too important to be put under the 
  command of anyone else. It sees ESOG as the key to 
  its survival if the Second Inquisition collapses or is 
  publicly exposed. These teams of trained slayers are 
  its modern praetorians.
  LA ENTITÀ ATTACHÉ
  Operating under cover of a Holy See diplomatic 
  mission, this “cultural attaché” serves the cause of 
  the Entity by keeping watch for vampiric influ-
  ence in diplomatic, academic, and artistic circles, 
  and providing liaison services to other operatives 
  of the Coalition. If he gets an opportunity to do a 
  bit of discreet research in a local occult archive, or 
  even borrow a text clearly left grossly unprotected, 
  he does so.
  General Difficulty: 3/1
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  7, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 9
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Insight 8, Larceny 5, 
  Occult (Vampires) 7, Politics 7, Subterfuge 8
  Equipment: Bible, one-time pad, crucifix
  Special: The Attaché has decades of experience 
  piercing vampiric lies. Oblivion and Obfuscate 
  powers have their Difficulty increased by +2 when 
  used in their presence. Additionally, they can 
  attempt to pierce Obfuscate using Insight (8) with 
  a Difficulty equal to the level of the power used.
  Society of St. Leopold
  Founded by Leopold of Murnau and Pope Gregory 
  IX during the first Inquisition, the newly re-canon-
  ized Society of St. Leopold spent the previous cen-
  tury as a disparate group of independent monster 
  hunters. In the past their operatives pursued their 
  targets with little to no official support in case they 
  were apprehended by mortal authorities or turned 
  by a powerful bloodsucker. While these lone wolf 
  hunters still exist and pursue their personal vendet-
  tas, they are no longer the norm. With the rise of 
  the Second Inquisition, the Society and its many 
  suborders have formed closer bonds to La Entità. 
  They still insist on operating as freelancers even 
  when acting on Coalition intelligence or as Coali-
  tion UTR team advisors, but their own teams have 
  adopted modern squad tactics. 
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 3 2
  Although each suborder has its own tactical 
  doctrines as a whole the Society prefers to operate 
  in small six man fi re teams armed mostly with small 
  arms and melee weapons. Unless they are working 
  with local forces these fi re teams are usually lightly 
  armored and discretely dressed with concealed 
  weaponry so that they can approach their targets 
  without being detected. Society hunters are lightly 
  equipped but sometimes armed with powerful Arti-
  facts, and even Sorcerers have been known to labor 
  alongside them as offi  cial anathemas loosen.
  LEOPOLDITE SUBORDERS
  Many suborders exist within the society and while 
  all see vampires as an existential and spiritual threat 
  to humankind, they have developed many diff erent 
  philosophies and methods over the centuries. (Some 
  suborders focus their attention on other supernatu-
  ral beings, and thus don’t usually play a major role 
  in the Second Inquisition’s eff orts.) They can be 
  found anywhere the Second Inquisition operates, as 
  the Society expands its remit.
  CHILDREN OF LAZARUS
  Founded shortly after the Revolution in Paris, 
  this order of vampire-hunting fanatics allied itself 
  with the conservative Opus Dei prelature in the 
  1930s. With the ascension of their ally Pope John 
  Paul II, this maneuver paid off , and played a major 
  role behind the scenes in the revival of the Inquisi-
  tion under Ingrid Bauer. Considering vampires 
  blasphemy incarnate, they revived the most brutal 
  historical tactics for hunting them, and unlike most 
  suborders, shared them widely. Their maverick 
  hammer and tongs approach to hunting vampires 
  makes them a poor choice for an ESOG team, but 
  exceptionally eff ective lone wolves. Those that are 
  recruited into ESOG are often given frontline roles 
  as shock troopers. The largest suborder within the 
  Society, they interoperate with Opus Dei chapter-
  houses in Europe and North America, but maintain 
  their own safehouses and training grounds across 
  Africa, India, the Philippines, and Latin America.
  HUMBLE BROTHERS OF SAN ROCCO
  Although they have many hunters among their 
  number the Humble Brothers have a special mission 
  to care for the poor and infi rm, especially those who 
  have been disabled by plague or mental illness. They 
  have a special affi  nity for animals and are known to 
  keep meticulous records concerning the genealo-
  gies of various vampire families from Europe and 
  Asia Minor. They rarely practice Theurgy or other 
  arts, and their quiet devotion makes them preferred 
  recruits for ESOG. Based in Venice, the Humble 
  Brothers are deeply involved in the city’s restora-
  tion eff orts and few know the city’s canals and 
  back alleys as well. Their streetwise cunning served 
  them well during the last century when they were 
  almost hunted to extinction by the vampires that 
  controlled the city. The so-called “rats of Venice” 
  earned their name by outsmarting their enemies and 
  now it is the monsters who keep to the shadows.
  SISTERS OF ST. SEBASTIAN
  A small order of emancipated nuns based in Addis 
  Ababa, the Sisters of St. Sebastian were granted 
  membership into the Society by a secret Papal Bull 
  delivered to the Grand Master in the early 1990s. 
  They are not the fi rst sisterhood to be granted 
  membership into the society, having an ambiva-
  lent relationship with the healing Sisterhood of St. 
  Claire. The Sisters venerate the plague saints that 
  guard humanity against the ravages of the Black 
  Death and vampirism, a practice that came from the 
  convent’s original purpose as a sanctuary for lepers 
  and catatonically insane.
  Their members use rare gifts, experiencing pain-
  ful prophetic visions that come at the cost of their 
  health. Their most powerful practitioners are often 
  scarred by pox and bear horrifi c weeping pustules. 
  They rarely take part in ESOG teams because of 
  the Vatican’s overt preference for male candidates 
  in these roles, but Sisters with particularly powerful 
  divine gifts sometimes assist tactical teams on an 
  individual basis. Those Sisters chosen for tactical 
  service have an almost supernatural tolerance for 
  pain and mental anguish.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 3 3
  ORDER OF SAN CARLO
  One of the oldest suborders in the Society still ex-
  tant, the Order of San Carlo is based in Seville and 
  traces its origins to the Spanish Inquisition. Uncon-
  cerned with vampires, the founders of the Order of 
  San Carlo bought their way into the halls of power 
  with treasure stolen from prominent families that 
  were accused of heresy and false conversion. While 
  their past as torturers and thieves is not something 
  the Order dwells on today, their dedication to the 
  Second Inquisition is beyond question. They are 
  one of the richest orders in the Society and maintain 
  a covert training facility in the Spanish town of 
  Constantina with the tacit agreement of reactionary 
  elements in the Spanish military. The Order of San 
  Carlo’s pedigree, funding and well trained opera-
  tives make it a prime recruiting ground for ESOG 
  and their hunters are often marked for command 
  positions. While their hunters prefer to eliminate 
  targets during daytime raids, when forced into bat-
  tle they use incendiary devices to provoke vampires 
  into frenzy and then put them down at range with 
  high caliber rifl es. Any corpses collected are usually 
  staked and then burned unless a high value target is 
  needed for questioning.   
    
  ORDER OF SAO PAULO
  One of the larger new suborders in the Society, the 
  Order of Sao Paulo is based in the Brazilian city of 
  the same name. They recruit heavily from the local 
  population and veterans of the BOES often fi nd a 
  second life serving as offi  cers or advisers in this sub-
  order. Their large size and well-established links to 
  the Brazilian military make them common recruits 
  tives make it a prime recruiting ground for ESOG 
  the Brazilian military make them common recruits 
  tives make it a prime recruiting ground for ESOG 
  the Brazilian military make them common recruits 
  1 3 3
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 3 4
  for ESOG tactical teams. Some of the most danger-
  ous artifacts in the church’s possession are entrusted 
  to the Order of Sao Paulo because of their sober 
  corporate culture and dedication to forging strong 
  bonds between La Entità and the Brazilian military. 
  On the ground the Order of Sao Paulo takes their 
  role as modern day knights almost literally, prefer-
  ring body armor, ballistic riot shields, and heavy 
  bladed weapons in tactical situations.
  FRIARS OF TAVELIC
  Sometimes called the Cult of the Friars, this small 
  fraternal suborder is based in Zagreb but has chap-
  ters all over Eastern Europe. They are known for 
  their obsessive veneration of martyrdom bordering 
  on the suicidal. This has made them one of the most 
  successful of the lone wolf chapters of the Society 
  but completely unsuitable for recruitment into 
  ESOG. The Friars are not reckless maniacs or men-
  tally unstable zealots. In fact they exude the quiet 
  dedication of men who have accepted that their 
  fate is in the hands of the divine, to struggle against 
  that is simply pride. When a Friar joins the order 
  they take part in a ritual in which they are symboli-
  cally killed and resurrected before the bones of the 
  order’s first Grand Master. From that day on they 
  are dead men in service to the cause of the spiritual 
  emancipation of humankind. The Friars lack of fear 
  is legendary and this can make them exceptionally 
  deadly as hunters, willing to sacrifice everything 
  in service to their faith. The Friars are also known 
  to have close ties to the Russian Akritai and La 
  Entità often relies on this suborder as backchannel 
  to the Russians when communications break down 
  between the Americans and the GRU.  
  PRESSURE POINTS
  The Society of Leopold is a sprawling organization 
  with roots deep in the heart of the Vatican. It has 
  never wavered in its mission to burn the filth of 
  vampirism and the supernatural from every corner 
  of creation. Sometimes its zeal has been exploited 
  by those same forces or misdirected by human 
  greed and cruelty, but the Society has survived these 
  missteps and hopefully grown stronger and wiser. 
  But in reality the deep wounds the Inquisition and 
  its Church has inflicted upon humankind have not 
  healed. As the Second Inquisition grows in power it 
  perverts mortal governments in service of a hidden 
  agenda much like the vampires themselves. 
  For instance, the Order of San Carlo happily 
  trains a new generation of inquisitors while corrupt-
  ing the upper echelons of the Spanish military with 
  bribes and political favors. They plan for the day a 
  government more suitable for an open war against 
  the vampires and backed by the same military 
  they are twisting to their purposes takes power. In 
  Venice, fanatics among the “rats” plot to burn the 
  city to ash after decades of being its most patient 
  restorers.
  LAZARENE WITCH HUNTER
  The Witch Hunter is a dedicated soldier of the So-
  ciety of St. Leopold from the Children of Lazarus. 
  Armed with holy relics and trained against the 
  forces of darkness the Witch Hunter is a frontline 
  soldier that burns vampires out of tight urban spac-
  es and into the open where they can be destroyed by 
  the rest of their team.  
  General Difficulty: 4/3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  6, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 9
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Insight 8, Intimidation 
  9, Occult (Vampires) 7 
  Equipment: Flamethrower (LPO-50 Soviet 3 
  shot), bible, cross, Nightwatchman shortsword 
  Artifact: Censer of Absolution, (See page 86)
  Special: The Witch Hunter is resistant to powers 
  of darkness. Oblivion and Obfuscate powers have 
  their Difficulty increased by +2 when used in their 
  presence. Additionally, they can attempt to pierce 
  Obfuscate using Insight (8) with a Difficulty equal 
  to the level of the power used. 
  Gladius Dei/ESOG
  Few things are as arcane as Vatican organizational 
  charts and the Entity Special Operations Group 
  (ESOG) represents an unintended outcome of the 
  renewed power of the Entity. Long the strong arm 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 3 5
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 3 6
  of the Society of Leopold, the warriors of Gladius 
  Dei formed the cadre of the new special operations 
  group when Ingrid Bauer negotiated her first deal 
  with FIRSTLIGHT through the Entity. As a result, 
  Gladius Dei serves the secret masters of La Entità 
  while remaining subordinate to the Society of St. 
  Leopold. Still more confusingly, as the Entity re-
  cruits ever more veterans into its ESOG teams, not 
  all ESOG are Gladius Dei – and not all Gladius Dei 
  joined ESOG. This is often a distinction without a 
  difference on the ground as very few vampires are 
  interested in checking the badges of the UTR squad 
  hunting them through the sewers.
  The Entity recruits further ESOG fighters from 
  other military organizations as they near retire-
  ment. Its criteria include Catholic faith, expertise, 
  and combat hunger. Despite being older than most 
  of the soldiers of the Coalition, these zealots seek 
  out the heart of the action, often taking on opera-
  tions that confront vampires on their own turf. The 
  Society often recruits younger, promising soldiers 
  from Italy, Argentina, and other Catholic militaries 
  as Gladius Dei members; the Entity funnels those 
  with paranormal talents into ESOG Team X. This 
  usually means that new Gladius Dei hunters are 
  younger and less used to military discipline then the 
  rest of their ESOG squad and bring the doctrinal 
  quirks of their suborders with them. Both new and 
  paramilitary, ESOG embraces these differences 
  as tactical flexibility. Thus it’s fairly common for 
  a squad of black-clad ESOG troops armed with 
  assault rifles to also contain hunters sporting riot 
  shields and shortswords.
  ESOG forces represent an attempt to bring the 
  unique abilities of the Vatican’s vampire hunters 
  to the modern UTR squads that have become the 
  backbone of the Coalition. As elite forces they carry 
  the most advanced and experimental weaponry in 
  the conspiracy’s arsenal. And as the Vatican’s elite 
  forces, they deploy weapons nobody else in the Coa-
  lition has, such as the Red Gas. A typical Gladius 
  Dei/ESOG squad wields submachine guns and 
  ballistic riot shields, though many carry incendiary 
  grenades and Nightwatchman shortswords specifi-
  cally to deal with vampires. These hunters under-
  stand that bullets can slow or impair a vampire, but 
  that final blows require fire or dismemberment. 
  Unlike many other Coalition soldiers, Gladius 
  Dei/ESOG is usually called in when an active vam-
  pire threat has to be confronted during an active 
  night cycle and often under suboptimal conditions 
  — such as tracking a pack of creatures through an 
  underground tunnel or assaulting a vampire strong-
  hold. ESOG commonly acts in isolation, but teams 
  up with BOES or IAO forces when the mission 
  requires overwhelming force. These large opera-
  tions are the only time Gladius Dei/ESOG squads 
  operate without the Entity at the top of their chain 
  of command. 
  PRESSURE POINTS
  Gladius Dei/ESOG forces are increasingly being 
  deployed to active war zones where the involvement 
  of vampires is not always clear cut. The Entity is 
  increasingly concerned that their forces are being 
  used to advance the political interests of the United 
  States military, and not the long-term goals of the 
  Second Inquisition. Their allies in the Akritai have 
  fed this concern by leaking drone footage and other 
  collected intelligence to the Vatican that confirms 
  these suspicions. The Coalition has grown so large 
  and powerful that the Entity is unsure how it could 
  refocus the conspiracy on to the vampire threat if it 
  truly drifted off target.
  This increasingly leads the Entity to consider 
  going public with the Second Inquisition as a last 
  ditch effort to pressure the world governments to 
  exterminate the vampires once and for all. Of course 
  the public option is a particularly dangerous gambit 
  from the Vatican’s standpoint because the only 
  thing they fear more than the collapse of the Second 
  Inquisition is if the world powers decide to come 
  to some kind of understanding or detente with the 
  vampires. The Entity understands the nature of 
  the vampire threat is one of spiritual evil, but they 
  fear that some partners within the Coalition seem 
  to think solutions other than extermination are 
  possible.    
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
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  GLADIUS DEI/ESOG RECRUIT
  A vampire hunter of the Society of St. Leopold 
  recruited into the Gladius Dei to serve in an ESOG 
  tactical squad. While used to operating indepen-
  dently and in small teams, the recruit feels at home 
  as long as he’s hunting vampires. He prefers to cut 
  down monsters with his blade while his team deals 
  with human blood slaves.
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 6, Social 
  3, Mental 4 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 8
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Melee 8 (Shortsword), 
  Occult (Vampires) 6 
  Equipment: Shortsword, body armor, riot shield, 
  incendiary grenade, pistol
  Artifact: Ashes of St. Godard (See page 85)
  ESOG TEAM XIII SOLDIER
  Recruited from a foreign military by a Vatican 
  operative because of their military training and 
  Catholic faith, the ESOG soldier is personally loyal 
  to the secret masters of the Entity.
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  4, Mental 5 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Firearms 7, Leadership 
  7, Melee 7 
  Equipment: Submachine gun (MP5), body 
  armor, riot shield, incendiary grenade, knife, 
  crucifix, MRAP
  Artifact: Reliquary of Agios Nicholas, 
  (See page 86)
  Special: A seasoned veteran of the vampire hunt, 
  the ESOG grognard can re-roll any failed test or 
  contest to resist fleeing, surrendering, or yielding 
  to vampiric influence. 
  Partner 
  Organizations
  While only ten nations (or fewer) get a seat at the 
  table when the Coalition plans their strategy, 
  several countries make up the broader conspiracy 
  and have tactical input when action happens with 
  their borders or when using their assets. As with 
  many second party partners in the Coalition these 
  organizations have their own domestic agenda and 
  national interests that will often take precedence 
  over the broader needs of the conspiracy.
  Egypt: Homeland 
  Special Program
  A secretive part of Egypt’s larger Homeland 
  Security services, HSP infiltrates blankbody cults 
  and support networks in North Africa and Eu-
  rope to gather much needed human intelligence. 
  As vampires have become more adept at avoiding 
  signals intelligence collection over the past two 
  decades, the need for human intelligence gathering 
  has increased dramatically. Rather than sending in 
  a trained operator undercover into these networks, 
  HSP usually employs blackmail and threats to turn 
  a vampire’s human allies into assets. Financial debts, 
  sexual orientation and imprisoned family members 
  all become levers that the HSP uses to twist an oth-
  erwise loyal blankbody cultist into a spy.
  While the HSP leaves the actual capture and 
  rendition of suspected blankbodies to the IAO or 
  FIRSTLIGHT, the HSP maintains a network of 
  black sites where an unknown number of vampires 
  from all over the world are kept for interrogation 
  and study. These black sites are undisclosed loca-
  tions not marked on any official map, but freely 
  open to intelligence partners involved in the Coali-
  tion. While Egyptian security services have a long 
  history of using torture on prisoners, the Coalition 
  doesn’t permit HSP to directly question foreign 
  blankbodies kept at their black sites. Instead con-
  tractors or operatives from other member nations 
  are brought in to conduct interviews and in some 
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 3 8
  cases torture the vampires kept there. Ironically 
  HSP has limited operations in the rest of the Middle 
  East outside of Egypt and occupied Gaza. In Gaza 
  they use the same blackmail tactics in coordina-
  tion with Israeli authorities to suppress Palestinian 
  national aspirations.  
  France: La Calcédoine
  Closely aligned with FIRSTLIGHT and guided by 
  the DGSE’s Emeraude threat-identification system, 
  La Calcédoine comprises a pragmatic group of spe-
  cialists that are attached to regular military forces 
  or gendarmes when blankbody activity is suspected. 
  While on board with the broader agenda of the 
  Coalition, La Calcédoine believes that vampires 
  are part of a greater supernatural conspiracy they 
  call la menace secréte. These French hunters often 
  take action in tandem with their military forces in 
  Africa and are known as expert interrogators. It’s 
  thus unsurprising that La Calcédoine prefers to cap-
  ture blankbodies and squeeze them for confessions 
  concerning their role in the secret threat. Currently 
  they are the only second-party partner pushing for 
  an open war, as their intelligence has led them to 
  believe that a powerful vampire ancestor will soon 
  arise and unite the undead against humankind.
  LA CALCÉDOINE QUESTIONNEUR
  La Calcédoine has a deep bench of interrogators 
  that are specially trained to extract confessions from 
  blankbodies and their human accomplices. Before 
  the Coalition they plied their trade against insur-
  gents in former colonies, but have been called back 
  home to serve.
  General Difficulty: 4/1
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 3, Social 
  6, Mental 6 
  Secondary Attributes: Health 5, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Etiquette 8, Persuasion 
  8, Medicine 8, Intimidation 9 
  Equipment: Knife, cigarette case 
  Special: Questionneurs conduct their business in 
  a prison or secure facility outfitted with specially 
  designed implements of torture. While perfectly 
  capable of extracting information without any 
  special equipment, when they have access to all of 
  their tools the Questionneur prevents their victims 
  from regaining or healing any Willpower while 
  under their power.
  Israel: Unit 8211
  Although a very small group, Unit 8211 is valued 
  for its ability to crack complex and proprietary 
  information systems without the bureaucratic and 
  legal hassles often encountered by the Five Torches. 
  Outsourcing this kind of work to 8211 provides a 
  shield of deniability to operators that might other-
  wise run afoul of copyright and espionage laws in 
  their own countries. Usually this means dropping 
  off a stolen smartphone or laptop with a Unit 8211 
  hacker and then returning the device before its ab-
  sence is noticed. Blankbody daytime sleep cycles are 
  both a boon and complication in these kinds of op-
  erations. A drawback of this joint work is that Unit 
  8211 may share any other information gathered off 
  of these devices with Aman (Israeli military intel-
  ligence) or Mossad, and even with foreign services 
  or non-state actors outside of the operation.
  Japan: Third Intelligence 
  Department
  The TID is mostly concerned with the influx of 
  vampires into Japan’s population centers as they 
  are hunted and forced out of their shelters in other 
  parts of Asia. They rely heavily on FIRSTLIGHT 
  and IAO for both information and budgeting, but 
  their operational security makes them reliable and 
  discreet partners in any operation. TID has no 
  official sanction in the Japanese intelligence bu-
  reaucracy and their lack of oversight often attracts 
  zealous agents who see themselves as chosen for a 
  special purpose. Their small size also means that 
  they rely heavily on force multipliers such as drones 
  and robots to make up for their lack of manpower. 
  Despite their zeal, they do not take unnecessary 
  risks with their personnel as they do not have a deep 
  bench of recruits to replenish any losses. A typical 
  TID deployment will be accompanied by multiple 
  tactical drones for battlefield awareness and at least 
  one robotic dog to deal with heavily trapped nests.  
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
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  Poland: Bureau IX
  A paramilitary offshoot of Poland’s Foreign 
  Intelligence Agency, Bureau IX was officially 
  created in 2002 during the country’s reorganization 
  of their intelligence services but its roots are 
  much older. Some within Bureau IX claim the 
  organization's founders were the last of the “cursed 
  soldiers” that opposed Communist rule in Poland 
  after WWII, who were guilty of atrocious crimes 
  and genocide during the war. Whether this 
  connection is true or not is immaterial, but the 
  myth has inculcated within Bureau IX’s leadership 
  an extreme distrust of leftist political groups 
  and Russian influence. In fact, some of Bureau 
  IX’s leaders have been warning the US about the 
  supernatural conspiracy that controls the Russian 
  state and international communist party since 
  the 1990s. Bureau IX sees its involvement in the 
  Coalition as a way to further integrate itself into 
  the US and NATO security apparatus aimed at 
  Russia. They are closely allied to the Vatican and 
  want to expand their hunting activities within 
  Poland but see the current democratic system as 
  an obstacle to effectively safeguarding the country. 
  FIRSTLIGHT intelligence and IAO funding have 
  even been used to garner support from business 
  leaders for a coup that would allow Bureau IX to 
  more radically pursue their anti-Russian and anti-
  vampire agenda.  
  On an operational level, Bureau IX prefers to 
  tackle vampires head on and are one of the few 
  organizations in the Coalition that willingly plans 
  night ops. While this aligns with the Vatican’s 
  operational doctrine it is often seen as a great risk 
  by FIRSTLIGHT given the potential for media 
  exposure. Despite this Bureau IX is still seen as an 
  invaluable ally by the US/UK axis of the Coali-
  tion not least because of its willingness to deploy 
  untested technologies against blankbodies.
  Sweden: G-Kontoret
  A dedicated second party partner to the Coalition 
  since the early days of the conspiracy, G-Kontoret’s 
  (G-K) “parent” organization specialized in eco-
  nomic espionage but relied on occult powers to 
  steal secrets. While they have a rocky relation-
  ship with the UK’s SO13, G-K is closely aligned 
  with the JTRG and the Newburgh Group. In 
  fact, G-Kontoret was founded by members of the 
  FLASH FIRES
  HAITI
  Once an open hunting ground for the Kindred, Haiti has become a dangerous country to be a vampire. 
  The Masquerade was never well kept on the island nation and now it has all but unravelled in the face of the 
  vampire hunters of the Toussaint Brigade. Haiti’s hunters grew out of a decentralized youth network origi-
  nally organized in service of a national strike. Haitian Kindred responded brutally to this threat to their power 
  base but despite murdering several professors and public intellectuals in the movement’s leadership the teen-
  age protesters continued their campaign. Overburdened by the protests the state could no longer carry out 
  the Kindred’s will and a few vampires began to openly use their powers to cow the population back to work. 
  Soon afterward, the young rebels organized into cells and began hunting for vampires. Unable to effectively 
  wield the security services against them, neonates and ancillae fled Haiti en masse and left their sleeping 
  elders to their fate.
  JAPAN
  Long thought a relatively safe place for Kindred to conduct business, Japan has seen an influx of vampires 
  looking for a safe haven to ride out the Second Inquisition. While overcrowding had made feeding more diffi-
  cult, it was only the brutal murder of Tokyo’s Prince by heavily armed amateur “D-Club” hunters that alerted 
  the Kindred that Japan’s Masquerade was no longer intact. While multiple Kindred now claim to rule the city, 
  the court is eager to crown anyone who deals with the hunters the rightful Prince. 
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 4 0
  Arcanum that had reconstructed the archive of the 
  defunct WWII-era T-Kontoret occult study group 
  through black glass scrying circles. Although this is 
  unknown to their allies, G-Kontoret believes their 
  legacy archives point to a mystical weakness in the 
  blankbody condition that may allow them to de-
  velop a treatment for vampirism. To this end they’ve 
  begun experimenting on captured thin-bloods and 
  have had some success in reducing the potency of 
  the curse in their blood. This research requires an 
  endless supply of ambulatory blankbodies. Since 
  their attempts to force blankbodies to infect others 
  in captivity have been unreliable, G-K often has to 
  rely on FIRSTLIGHT and the Russian Akritai to 
  supply new subjects.
  Farm Teams
  The Second Inquisition is a phenomenon, not an 
  organization. Felicity Price’s shift from a Nosferatu 
  asset to a vengeful hunter kick-started it, and gave 
  it a home in the global intelligence community, 
  but the movement goes far beyond the Coalition’s 
  first and second party components. While the great 
  Elders of the Camarilla reel from the shockwaves of 
  what the Coalition brought to pass in London and 
  Vienna, neonates should be equally concerned with 
  smaller, more localized problems. 
  Having access to military grade weaponry and 
  a fearsome network of analysts, not to mention 
  the ability to cover up the aftermath of almost any 
  operation, is absolutely key to the Coalition’s suc-
  cess. However, all it really takes to hunt vampires is 
  a hunch and a sharp stake.
  Beyond the first and second party organizations 
  lie the farm teams: “minor league” groups not of-
  ficially affiliated with the Coalition but part of the 
  same movement, the same cultural moment. These 
  groups range from local law enforcement officers 
  aware that there’s something strange about a pattern 
  of recent deaths, to organized criminals whose busi-
  ness is being hit by the interests of an implacable 
  undead competitor. Even further out on the fringes, 
  hunters come from barely organized conspiracy 
  theorists and lone wolves who saw something they 
  shouldn’t, or lost someone they love. 
  Farm teams make excellent antagonists for 
  newly Embraced Kindred. They’re an opportunity 
  to show the atmosphere of fear and threat that 
  pervades modern nights and allow these neonates to 
  get their feet wet without the severe consequences 
  of coming to the attention of an organization like 
  FIRSTLIGHT or the Eighth Direction. Farm 
  teams can serve as talent agencies for these greater 
  organizations: a local cop or FBI agent encoun-
  tered early in a vampire’s unlife can reappear later 
  with knowledge of their target, and as part of an 
  SAD team. 
  Law Enforcement
  Where there are kine to feed on, there are people po-
  licing them. Local cops, FBI agents, Special Branch, 
  Europol and others all take an interest in assaults, 
  murders, and human trafficking, any of which can 
  be signs of vampiric activity. Even low-key actions 
  that wouldn’t tip off the Coalition, such as a gun-
  fight between Retainers or followers over a piece of 
  territory, can draw the attention of the locals. They 
  lack the equipment and, most crucially, the infor-
  mation that Five Torches UTR teams have access to, 
  but that doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous. They 
  make up for it in connections, local knowledge, and 
  tenacity. Woe betide the neonate who underesti-
  mates the local detective with an eye for detail and a 
  streak of paranoia. 
  Equipment available to law enforcement varies 
  hugely across the globe. In Europe, they have to 
  make do with riot gear, crowd control tools such as 
  LRADs and rubber bullets (though, heads up, you 
  can absolutely fire pointed wooden ‘bullets’ from 
  the same weapons, and they are functionally stakes) 
  and handcuffs, but in the USA and other places 
  police forces have easy access to assault rifles, flash 
  bang grenades, actual grenades and other terrifying 
  military hardware. They can’t always requisition 
  that gear however, and the big difference between 
  law enforcement and the Five Torches is that cops 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 4 1
  can’t tell their superiors they need to use lethal force 
  on a nest of vampires. 
  Law enforcement, like most farm teams, don’t 
  know that superstitions about garlic, holy water, 
  and the like are just that. At first. It usually only 
  takes one successful hunt to figure that out. Because 
  the “v word” is almost unthinkable, most law 
  enforcement teams work slowly. They have to be pa-
  tient, staking out (pun intended) feeding grounds, 
  working their contacts in other law enforcement 
  teams (vice cops see an awful lot), their informants 
  and using the goodwill of the community to put 
  people on alert for suspicious activity. Of course, in 
  communities that are used to a hostile relationship 
  with the police or feds it’s hard for the cops to get 
  a foothold. 
  Being hunted by law enforcement is the death of 
  a thousand cuts. Feeding grounds invest in security 
  measures, police presence makes streets safer for 
  mortals, hangers on and suppliers (like that nice 
  night porter who steals bags from the blood bank) 
  become less willing to risk their necks or be seen 
  with someone under suspicion. At first, their work 
  is more frustrating than dangerous to vampires: eve-
  rything takes a little longer, and they have to work 
  a little harder. The damage a visit from the feds can 
  do to a business relationship or professional reputa-
  tion — or one’s standing in the Camarilla — should 
  not be underestimated. Over time, these hunters 
  grow bolder. They close in on a vampire’s Haven, or 
  their Touchstones, and strike. Underequipped and 
  few in number, they’re careful to work in daylight, 
  and never before they fully know the ground. If a 
  vampire or their Retainers doesn’t spot the cops 
  during the planning phase, they might never know 
  a strike is coming. 
  Law enforcement know nothing about vampire 
  society, but their painstaking investigations are 
  good at turning up connections within a coterie or 
  higher up the city hierarchy. It’s best to deal with 
  them before they see too much and the Masquerade 
  is shaken. 
  Retreating behind a screen of mortals who 
  loathe law enforcement might be a vampire’s best 
  strategy for overcoming them. Killing them would 
  be easy, but law enforcement mobilizes with an 
  unslakable thirst for justice when someone hurts 
  one of their own. A hasty rush to violence creates 
  more problems than it solves. Kill more than one 
  FBI or Special Branch agent, and it’s a fast track to 
  attention from the core of the Coalition. Turning 
  them, on the other hand, is eminently feasible. Law 
  enforcement officials are overworked and under-
  paid, and if a vampire can convince one that it’s 
  the least of their problems — only hurting crimi-
  nals, feeding consensually, etc. — and accompany 
  that blandishment with a regular bribe, they can 
  frequently convert an enemy to an ally. Unless, of 
  course, those agents are already receiving tips and 
  cash from another mysterious benefactor who only 
  comes out at night. 
  LAW ENFORCEMENT (POLICE OFFICER)
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  4, Mental 4
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Brawl 7, Firearms 7, 
  Investigation 6, Streetwise 7
  Equipment: Handgun or taser plus baton. With 
  advance preparation: rifles, body armor, anything 
  from the Mundane Gear section of Chapter 2. For 
  large scale operations: LRADs, ADS, riot foam, 
  and water cannons. 
  Special: Law enforcement have a network of 
  local contacts that gives them an additional 3 
  dice on information gathering rolls in “their” 
  neighborhood. 
  LAW ENFORCEMENT
  (FBI/SPECIAL BRANCH/EUROPOL AGENT)
  General Difficulty: 3/3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  5, Mental 6
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 7
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Academics 7, Firearms 
  7, Investigation 7, Streetwise 7
  Equipment: Handgun. With advance preparation: 
  rifles, body armor, anything from the Mundane 
  Gear section of Chapter 2. With local police 
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 4 2
  cooperation: Helicopters, LRADs, ADS, riot 
  foam, and water cannons.
  Special: Even when they’re acting outside the scope 
  of their official duties, these operatives can call on 
  SWAT teams and other armed support such as a 
  Breacher (p. 31) and Sniper (p. 34).
  Organized Crime
  Organized crime might not seem like a likely 
  origin story for vampire hunters but criminals and 
  vampires’ interest frequently intersect. Shadowy 
  controlling stakes in business empires; using com-
  munities as shields and bank accounts; preying on 
  the vulnerable or addicted; protecting their turf 
  against interlopers. From the infamous Mafia, to 
  the Russian Bratva, narcotraficantes, or postcode 
  gangs, organized criminals’ number one concern is 
  protecting their interests. There’s only room for one 
  group of predators stalking the night in their city, 
  and it’s not going to be a bunch of walking corpses. 
  That’s not to say all criminals are ruthlessly 
  amoral. Plenty of them, especially those from Cath-
  olic communities, see vampires as crimes against 
  God’s design, or just as monsters. Some really do 
  want to rid their domain of these walking night-
  mares, and count it as a victory for the forces of 
  good. It’s just not their primary reason for concern. 
  Organized criminals are different from other 
  farm teams in that they’re not likely to spot a vam-
  pire from their hunting. They may or may not care 
  about that aspect. The major problem they have 
  with blankbodies is that the vampires keep trying 
  to take a bite out of their business. Alternatively, in 
  cities with powerful and longstanding hierarchies, 
  they want a bite of the vampires’ businesses. Ven-
  true have the politicians’ ears and siphon money off 
  the most lucrative businesses; thin-bloods muscle 
  in on drug trades; Tzimisce give “territorial” new 
  meaning; and the “Brujah gangbangers” stereotype 
  holds some water — as does “Brujah vigilante.”
  Organized criminals are the most similar to the 
  Five Torches in the way they operate. They pull 
  financial and social strings, bribing allies to come to 
  their side or intimidating blood cult members into 
  becoming informants. They’ve usually got techni-
  cians and hackers in their crew, committing digital 
  fraud, harvesting personal data, or lifting blackmail 
  material. They’ve got blackmailers. They’ve got 
  their own traitors running from vampiric masters.
  They’re also similar to the Five Torches in the 
  resources they can command. It’s not hard to get the 
  right arsenal together if you know the right people, 
  and criminal organizations generally do. Although 
  their pockets are deep, their budgets aren’t unlim-
  ited and neither is their headcount. One expensive 
  operation could wipe them out for a couple of 
  months. Then again, they’re the farm team most 
  likely to field a damn tank with a flamethrower 
  attachment or a mind-boggling quantity of explo-
  sives. There’s a good chance they even bought it 
  off the same intelligence agencies that make up the 
  Coalition, or direct from the same suppliers.
  By definition, members of organized criminal 
  groups exist slightly outside of the law. If one or two 
  of them die, law enforcement chalk it up to occu-
  pational hazard. If several of them die, law enforce-
  ment start out looking for a gang war and could 
  take weeks or months to figure out that’s not the 
  cause, by which time smart Kindred are lying low. 
  That means that, unlike other farm teams, violence 
  really can be the smartest strategy. Outmaneuver-
  ing organized criminals, pulling those social and 
  financial levers, becomes a game of chicken: at some 
  point one faction is going to snap and set something 
  on fire, and it’s in a vampire’s best interest not to 
  wait too long. 
  Being hunted by organized criminals should be 
  terrifying: a vampire has finally found a group as 
  ruthless and determined as they are. It should, for 
  that reason, also be a glimpse of their own reflec-
  tion. Powerful leaders command ambitious soldiers 
  and exploit anyone beneath them to gain an advan-
  tage. And, of course, a higher power — the leader of 
  the family, the Sheriff of the city — might go over 
  the feuding factions’ heads and broker a compro-
  mise that benefits no one on the ground. 
  ORGANIZED CRIMINAL
  Also see Gangsters, (See Corebook, p. 371).
  General Difficulty: 3/2
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 4 3
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 
  4, Mental 4
  Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 6
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Brawl 7, Firearms 7, 
  Melee 6, Streetwise 7, Subterfuge 6
  Equipment: Handgun and knife or baseball bat. 
  With advance preparation: anything in the Arms 
  & Materiel list in Chapter 2, except XTech. 
  Special: Organized criminals know their turf. Not 
  only do they have allies there, they know every 
  corner. They receive +2 dice on Streetwise rolls, 
  +2 dice on Stealth rolls, and anyone attempting to 
  hide or go to ground on their turf has -2 dice on 
  test to hide.
  Conspiracy Th eorists
  When an Internet community gets something into 
  its collective mind, it’s dangerous. They’ve identi-
  fi ed — and misidentifi ed — mass shooters and other 
  wanted persons, gotten involved with manhunts 
  based only on a few minutes of blurry video 
  footage, and accumulated knowledge bases that 
  rival prestigious universities (hell, Wikipedia is used 
  more often than prestigious universities would like 
  to admit). It’s much easier to speculate from behind 
  the shield of a keyboard and a high-speed internet 
  connection that vampires and other monsters are 
  real than it is to do so offl  ine, face to face with 
  skeptics. So it’s unsurprising that several passionate 
  vampire hunting communities have arisen online. 
  With Kindred increasingly scared to interact with 
  the digital world due to Coalition monitoring 
  operations, it’s harder than ever to nip communities 
  of conspiracy theorists in the bud. 
  These communities seize on Internet rumors, 
  photographs, local urban legends, and any other 
  snippet of evidence as the start of a hunt. Some even 
  trawl through forums like /r/letsnotmeet in search 
  of credible accounts. Most of the time they’re one 
  hundred percent, profoundly wrong: their leads 
  come to nothing, or lead to fi ctional stories or 
  occasional hoaxes. If there were a handful of these 
  people, they’d never get anything done, but there 
  are thousands. The law of averages dictates that 
  occasionally they’ll stumble across a real vampire. 
  Conspiracy theorists’ greatest weapon is the 
  Internet. Through the otherwise laughable concept 
  of “the wisdom of crowds” they dedicate hundreds 
  of person-hours to tasks — like identifying the loca-
  tion in a photo or an account, or piecing together 
  the exact movements of a “suspicious” celebrity — 
  and come up with answers at speed some intel-
  ligence bureaus would envy. And that’s not taking 
  into account that there are usually a couple of 
  people involved with access to specialist databases 
  like police records or university archives. 
  Most don’t ever intend to take on a vampire 
  face to face, but even a small number of true 
  believers with assault rifl es and no concern for 
  keeping things low key can cause trouble. More 
  often they alert local law enforcement, SWAT a 
  Haven, or pass information up to intelligence 
  services (where it is quickly discarded). Most of that 
  eff ort is useless, but the Coalition watches the most 
  diligent of these communities, and often picks up 
  investigations that look promising. So do other farm 
  teams, from law enforcement to amateurs.
  These communities might seem like the perfect 
  target for a vampire to infi ltrate and redirect but in 
  practice the wisdom of the crowd generally fi lters 
  out such attempts. The group as a whole quickly 
  learns the truth of a bad tip, then learns not to trust 
  the account who supplies it, and not to trust new 
  or throwaway accounts at all. The best defense is 
  
  Chapter Four: Fire Teams
  1 4 4
  to simply fly under the radar… or find out who and 
  where these people are, plant some illegal weapons 
  or bomb-making equipment, and let the mortal 
  authorities deal with them. 
  Being hunted by conspiracy theorists is a 
  confusing experience. Many Kindred won’t even 
  know they’ve been reddited; those with a public 
  profile might get a Google alert, or a link to a video 
  or forum post speculating about them. For many, 
  there’s just a sense of paranoia. Did someone take 
  a photo from a passing car? Are they seeing a lot of 
  people in grey t-shirts and dark glasses tonight, or 
  are they oversensitive? Why are the police knock-
  ing at the door? Vampires are more likely to find 
  conspiracy theorists by working backwards from 
  their impact — a SWAT team called to a Haven, or 
  a contact suddenly going to ground — than to real-
  ize they’re being hunted. 
  CONSPIRACY THEORIST (COLLECTIVE)
  General Difficulty: 4/2
  Standard Dice Pools: Physical N/A, Social 
  3, Mental 7
  Secondary Attributes: Health N/A, Willpower 9
  Exceptional Dice Pools: Academics 8, 
  Investigation 8, Politics (conspiracies) 8, Streetwise 
  8, Technology 10
  Equipment: A whole lot of computers 
  and free time
  Special: Conspiracy theorist communities reduce 
  the interval of any Extended test, online or off by 
  one step (from weeks to days, days to hours, etc.). 
  Amateurs
  Amateurs are solo operators. In some ways, they’re 
  the classic hunters: they saw something that scarred 
  them, lost somebody they cared about, or they were 
  raised to believe in monsters and know one when 
  they see one. Amateur hunters aren’t especially 
  dangerous, but they are tenacious. They don’t 
  present a physical threat so much as an external con-
  science: they’re people who’ve been hurt, sometimes 
  even by the very vampire they’re now hunting. Yes, 
  it would be easy to kill them but is it justified? What 
  kind of a monster responds to a parent seeking 
  vengeance for the death of their child with another 
  bloody murder? 
  For some Kindred, amateur hunters are just 
  an enjoyable opportunity to use their power on 
  an unprepared, much weaker opponent. And 
  sometimes that’s fun. Why play a monster blessed 
  with eternal life if you’re constantly constrained 
  by the rules and mores of the living? But doing so 
  should take a toll on Humanity: murder can’t really 
  be called self-defence when the victim couldn’t 
  possibly hurt you. On the other hand, what happens 
  when or if that hunter goes on to harm one of your 
  friends? A childe? A thin-blood less able to defend 
  themselves? What happens if they prove remark-
  ably bad at spotting vampires, and end up as a serial 
  killer who makes it harder for real vampires to hunt? 
  Amateur hunters are great opponents to throw at a 
  vampire with a conscience. 
  Unsurprisingly, amateurs don’t have the best 
  equipment. Most of them assume guns will do 
  them no good against vampires, and they’re right. 
  They have hammers and stakes, maybe a crossbow if 
  they’re fortunate. Some kludge together explosives 
  from fertilizer and bleach. Without body armor 
  they rely on sporting gear like hockey pads and neck 
  braces. A disproportionate number of amateurs 
  have True Faith and some possess artifacts of super-
  natural power (p. 83), which is sometimes enough to 
  make them truly dangerous against a lone vampire. 
  Amateurs’ tactics are as varied as they are, but 
  there’s always a heavy element of luck. A would-be 
  hunter stumbles on a thin-blood “drugs and vitae” 
  operation. Their months-long vigil at a popular 
  nightclub finally yields more than a drunk frat guy 
  assaulting someone on the dance floor. They latch 
  onto a minor celebrity who, they realize, is only ever 
  seen at night. They work alone, so their ability to 
  gather intel is limited. They move fast, and hit their 
  prey at the first opportunity — which may be their 
  first encounter. Some of them, especially those with 
  a personal grudge, act in public: they figure a 
  monster might hesitate or avoid using some of its 
  powers in front of mortals. Yes, they’re likely to be 
  arrested afterwards, but that’s a small price to pay 
  for one fewer vampire on the streets. 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 4 5
  Being hunted by amateurs is obvious and often 
  embarrassing: like having toilet paper stuck to your 
  shoe, or a stray dog following you. Alone, they’re 
  barely an irritant but they crop up at the worst 
  possible times. Delicate negotiation with a rival? 
  Hunter. Stealthy surveillance on the Prince’s ghoul? 
  Hunter. It can be tempting to play this for laughs, 
  but it’s actually an object lesson in “proper planning 
  prevents poor performance”: the hunter becomes a 
  rogue element that has to be addressed in any plan, 
  until the vampire is finally obliged to deal with 
  them permanently. 
  On the other hand, countering amateur 
  hunters is relatively easy. Often they’re just looking 
  for a target, any target. Feeding them information, 
  personally or through a trusted agent, can redirect 
  them onto a new target, perhaps a rival or enemy. 
  A vampire might also choose to inform and equip 
  an amateur, turning them into a skilled, dangerous 
  hunting dog or hitman. It’s risky, but the benefit of 
  turning one into a thrall or ghoul is significant, and 
  a hit of Dominate or Presence might be enough to 
  achieve it.
  Amateurs might have any set of skills or statistics; 
  for a reasonably tough hunter, see Amateur (p. 31).
  Catching Fire
  On their own, farm teams can be dangerous. What 
  they lack in resources they often make up for in 
  determination or deep webs of local contacts. But 
  if a farm team does well and racks up a few hits 
  they might come to the attention of one of the 
  Five Torches. 
  Sometimes, this is a pathway to recruiting some 
  or all of the team members into a first or second 
  party partner of the Coalition. They might recruit 
  one or two because not all of the hunters show the 
  appropriate degree of intelligence, discretion, re-
  straint or skill, or because only one of them survived 
  a particularly bold strike. It’s more common for the 
  Five Torches to recruit from law enforcement than 
  the other likely origins for farm teams: it’s much 
  easier to acclimatize an FBI or Special Branch officer 
  to the Coalition’s SOP and chain of command than 
  a narcotraficante or conspiracy theorist. The Society 
  of St. Leopold makes more exceptions than the 
  others, for Catholic hunters anyway.
  More often, “interest” never goes further than 
  the Coalition making use of a farm team to further 
  their own operations, or stand in for them in 
  locations they’d rather not commit a full squad to. 
  If a farm team looks useful, the Coalition starts by 
  feeding them intel, which appears to come from 
  their own informants or higher up in their 
  organization. This starts as an occasional tidbit of 
  information that helps the farm team clue in to a 
  blankbody the Coalition wants dealt with, but over 
  time can go as far as full dossiers on an individual, 
  tips to their movements and vulnerabilities, 
  or even outright advice from a full-fledged 
  Coalition operative. 
  If a farm team proves their worth, they might 
  gradually receive more material assistance. 
  Weapons, armor, even XTech can make their way, 
  in small amounts, to these small local operators. 
  Occasionally they might even be loaned highly 
  skilled personnel, for example a hacker or a depro-
  grammer, if the m.o. of a blankbody target merits 
  it. These loans are always short term and mission 
  specific, measured in days or sometimes hours. 
  The decision to help is based on whether the 
  farm team might pose a threat to civilians, or only 
  blankbodies. A bunch of conspiracy nuts jumping 
  at shadows don’t get the big guns. Instead, they’re 
  more likely to get warned off, or even executed by 
  vampires the Coalition have tipped off. Better no 
  allies than dangerous, incompetent ones. 
  Not every farm team that does well gets any 
  interest at all: the Coalition is powerful but not 
  omniscient. Some things never come to their 
  notice, and a small group of hunters operating in a 
  backwater city or a small country can go unnoticed. 
  A Storyteller doesn’t have to scale up the threat 
  level, especially in a chronicle where the Second 
  Inquisition exists only in the background, but it’s 
  always an option. Equally, it might be satisfying to 
  let characters re-encounter a farm team that used to 
  be the bane of their existence, and crush them like 
  bugs when the coterie has grown more powerful 
  and better connected. 
  
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  Chapter Five: Mirror Mazes
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  Chapter Five:
  MIRROR MAZES
  To lose beauty in terror, terror in inquisition …
  … multiply variety
  In a wilderness of mirrors.
  — T.S. ELIOT, GERONTION
  A
  ll the tacticool gear and mystical relics, 
  and even the most special of special 
  operators, don’t make a story by 
  themselves. Storytellers mix these ele-
  ments into their chronicles: shadows on the border 
  or fi res in the foreground, as they choose. Th ey set 
  them against the characters, showing them un-
  comfortable truths or off ering unwholesome deals 
  – or sure, just setting their haven on fi re at dawn. 
  Th ose interactions, that interplay, all that gunfi re: 
  whenever and however the antagonists meet the 
  characters, that’s when they become story. Th e 
  following techniques, elements, and structures can 
  help Storytellers decide from among all the options 
  and knowledge in the rest of this book, and help 
  deploy them for maximum eff ect.
  Story Element: 
  Chronicle Structures
  The Second Inquisition burns in hundreds of 
  thousands of hunters’ hearts worldwide, in every 
  city where vampires think to rule. The Coalition 
  and Five Torches operate across continents, with 
  global scope, on every level from “watch-and-wait” 
  solo operators to whole battalions of assault troops 
  guided by satellite. Storytellers can likewise use 
  the Second Inquisition and its embodiments or 
  the Coalition and its agents on any scale they wish. 
  Every Storyteller should create and customize their 
  chronicle for their particular table, and that defi -
  nitely includes the roles of the antagonists.
  This section provides three overarching, 
  chronicle-shaping approaches to the Second Inquisi-
  tion. Feel free to combine them: a Tip of the Stake 
  chronicle can become a Resistance and Attrition 
  chronicle if the players’ coterie doesn’t manage to 
  
  Chapter Five: Mirror Mazes
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  throw back the initial assault. If they successfully 
  weaken the IAO occupation force, the chronicle 
  might then settle into an Open City. Even if you 
  don’t intend to focus the entire chronicle on the 
  Second Inquisition, you can run any of these 
  structures in the background or as a looming pos-
  sibility: Kindred based in the generally Open City 
  of Manchester can just take a quick overnight train 
  ride and disembark in the full-fledged war zone of 
  Liverpool or the occupied-and-surveilled “clean 
  city” of London.
  The Tip of the Stake
  Covert operations are only so covert: when FIRST-
  LIGHT sends the UTR squads into your water-
  front, or the Society of St. Leopold designates your 
  city for a new crusade, you know it soon enough. In 
  a Tip of the Stake chronicle, your story becomes a 
  war story. All your stories become war stories, told 
  against a backdrop of rivals and clan-mates going up 
  in dust in noon raids, or down in fire. Inquisitors 
  zero in on human links between the Kindred and 
  the daylight world: not just herds and tools but con-
  tacts and Touchstones get swept up for questioning 
  and worse. Their panic or confusion threatens the 
  characters almost as much as the guns and crosses of 
  the invaders. The Second Inquisition pulls on every 
  loose thread in your story, trying to drag you into 
  the sunlight: they dominate the chronicle. At the 
  very least, one or more of the Five Torches become a 
  second credible “big bad” along with the Prince, or 
  the coterie’s opposing faction, or whoever else once 
  ruled the city’s night.
  IN CHRONICLES
  Some coterie types (Core Rulebook, pp. 197-199) 
  flourish (narratively at least) at the Tip of the Spear. 
  Cerberus coteries might have to defend their charge 
  from the Inquisition, or resist the orders of the 
  Primogen to divert their attention to the invasion. 
  Commando and Day Watch coteries have clear roles 
  on the front lines, striking back against the para-
  militaries’ support and medical teams or sowing 
  confusion in their planners with daring sunlit raids. 
  Maréchal and Regency coteries find themselves 
  overwhelmed and attempting to keep their own 
  position at court secure while making tactical deci-
  sions on too little information and rallying the city’s 
  Kindred to resist or go to ground. Nomads caught 
  in the dust of the attack find their fluidity both a 
  weakness and an asset: immediately suspected by 
  the city’s Kindred, they also seldom appear on the 
  Inquisitors’ target lists.
  Fiery action sets the obvious tone for a Tip of 
  the Spear chronicle, but it doesn’t have to be non-
  stop gunplay. Kindred politics suddenly becomes 
  a matter of unlife or death, played for literally the 
  highest of stakes. Urgency, the fog of battle, sudden 
  betrayals and losses, the peeling away of false alle-
  giances; all add drama to wartime chronicles. Shake 
  up the characters’ world, twist the tension, and then 
  send in the death squads every couple of weeks to 
  detonate another part of your setting and set up the 
  next shakeup.
  GETTING INVOLVED
  You’re Drafted: When the BOES rolls into your 
  chronicle city, the Primogen calls up the players’ 
  coterie. In front of their mawali and rivals, the 
  Prince offers them a domain where the Inquisitors 
  have struck first or repeatedly. If they turn the 
  offer down, they lay themselves open to charges 
  of cowardice or even betrayal. But accepting the 
  offer comes with its own costs. The coterie has 
  new responsibilities, un-scouted hunting grounds, 
  and collapsing defenses to desperately maintain. 
  Does this offer show the Prince’s trust – or his 
  belief they are expendable to buy time for the real 
  defenders? And what do they do when those “real 
  defenders” show up to take their new domain 
  from them?
  You’re Targeted: For some reason, 
  FIRSTLIGHT chose the players’ coterie as their 
  primary target. Whatever makes their coterie 
  special, that’s apparently a key objective for 
  Leopold or the Russians or somebody. Cerberus 
  coteries probably have a guess or two, but other 
  coteries might need to work out just how they got 
  on the list. Did someone’s sire get grabbed by the 
  Israelis on their way to Gehenna? Did their rivals 
  
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  (or some petty foe they never respect enough to 
  suspect) drop a dime on them? If they made their 
  bones in the 1990s, maybe their names were in a 
  ShreckNET archive somewhere, and it’s just the 
  luck of the algorithm that they resurfaced today.
  Kelly’s Kindred: The SAD doesn’t target the 
  players’ coterie – at least not at first. They players 
  lurk on the sidelines when a raid takes out their 
  most annoying rival, or weakens the defenses 
  around their true Ambition. The Storyteller’s job 
  here consists of dangling advantages or treasures 
  just tempting enough to get the coterie to risk 
  getting obliterated by a collateral firestorm – or 
  making enough waves to get onto St. Leopold’s 
  proscription list for real.
  Open City
  The Coalition holds off attacking an Open City – 
  for the time being. They don’t ignore the city, but 
  they’re not quite ready to pull the trigger on a full-
  scale cleansing. They hold a watching brief, study-
  ing and surveilling, infiltrating the infrastructure 
  and dredging up data. Practically, the UTR team or 
  Leopoldite inquisitors become one faction among 
  many in the city, an axe ready to fall … some night, 
  but not yet tonight. Open City chronicles draw 
  from spy film and fiction, offering stories of balanc-
  ing powers and deniable operations. The Kindred 
  have time to learn who exactly is holding the torch – 
  just as the Coalition has time to learn just where the 
  Kindred hide from the firelight.
  IN CHRONICLES
  Open Cities offer plenty of opportunities for Fang 
  Gang, Plumaire, and Hunting Party coteries to play 
  multiple sides against the middle and build power 
  bases and reputation. Champion coteries need 
  to win human hearts and minds, while Watch-
  men must stay alert for the first signs of crusade. 
  More desperate for sudden leverage than usual, the 
  vampire power structure may suddenly prioritize 
  the Questari objective – and possibly empower a 
  rival coterie to pursue it. The Sbirri flourish nar-
  ratively and thematically, although objectively an 
  Open City constantly threatens to expose their 
  true agenda.
  Open City chronicles place political maneuver 
  and the Masquerade front and center. The Primo-
  gen can’t purge the local Anarchs without suffer-
  ing unacceptable losses – but they can’t allow the 
  Masquerade to fray any further, either. Involve the 
  players’ coterie in these games of hot potato and 
  last-tag, lure them into petty vendettas and perhaps 
  occasionally reward them by vanishing one of their 
  foes into the sunny embrace of the CIA. But whose 
  name did that foe eagerly give up before the sun-
  light took her?
  GETTING INVOLVED
  Not a Sparrow Falls: The Society of St. Leopold 
  sends a cenacle into the coterie’s city, and the 
  Leopoldites begin connecting up to the local 
  Catholic infrastructure: churches, hospitals, 
  charities, police departments, local politics, and so 
  on. One character’s Touchstone works or worships 
  within that sphere, and the Leopoldites want to 
  recruit them. It’s not just a casual coat-trailing, it’s 
  friendship and counseling and career advancement 
  and support: everything they want and perhaps 
  can’t get from an unliving monster. Is this just a 
  coincidence, or is the Society deliberately targeting 
  the character through their Touchstone? What 
  about when the Leopoldites begin helping another 
  Lick’s Touchstone?
  #ACAI: The chronicle city’s police department 
  got a mysterious (but generous) government grant 
  from somewhere: new equipment and cars, better 
  radios and computers, drones and vehicles for 
  “crime and riot control.” One or two specialists 
  came along with the money, trainers and 
  maintainers mostly; a new deputy commissioner 
  transferred in from another city eager to get 
  to work. Kindred allies and contacts in city 
  government (or in the police force) start feeling 
  the heat. FIRSTLIGHT (or SO13 or BOES) seeds 
  its cadre into the police force, planning to flip the 
  whole force into Inquisition assets.
  Shadows in the Wind: Behind the scrim of 
  stalemate, deaths slowly accumulate – and not 
  ones the Kindred caused. Independent occult 
  scholars at the university, one or two thin-blood 
  alchemists, a local hedge magician – they turn 
  
  Chapter Five: Mirror Mazes
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  up dead in locked rooms or with weirdly missing 
  organs. An occultist consultant to the Entity (or 
  to the Newburgh Group, or the SAD) has tracked 
  a particular and powerful book to the city, and 
  they want it, and they have a lot of favors to call in 
  to help them get it. A Questari coterie might hunt 
  the book themselves, or a Cerberus coterie guard 
  it; Tremere might want the tome for its own sake, 
  as might thin-bloods who want to step up their 
  alchemy game. Nobody wants this to turn into a 
  fi refi ght – fi res are even unhealthier for books than 
  they are for Kindred.
  Resistance and Attrition
  In a Resistance and Attrition chronicle, the bat-
  tle is lost – for now. Some aspect or faction of the 
  Second Inquisition dominates the city, its surveil-
  lance intense, its patrols regular. Most importantly, 
  they control (or at least thoroughly interpenetrate) 
  the city’s power structures. In a heavily Roman 
  Catholic city, perhaps the Society of St. Leopold 
  commands the archepiscopal bureaucracy, appoint-
  ing priests and hospital administrators, controlling 
  the political machine that elects the mayor. In other 
  cities, the Coalition might work through cut-outs; 
  former CIA contractors going into local politics 
  “to work for real change on the ground,” or alder-
  men with indiscretions kept safe on a black server 
  somewhere in Cheltenham or Munich. Either way, a 
  bloodless corpse in an alley brings a swift response. 
  The Masquerade has become the underground.
  IN CHRONICLES
  Blood Cult coteries were already underground, 
  and Resistance and Attrition chronicles mitigate 
  the threat of Primogen or Baronial reprisals; the 
  same broadly holds for Fang Gang coteries. On the 
  other hand, a Vehme coterie carrying out exactly 
  such reprisals likely has the implicit support of most 
  Kindred. If the elders got out before the hammer 
  fell, a Regency coterie has to juggle reprisals against 
  resistance. Does a Sbirri coterie in an occupied 
  city encourage the crackdown? The Day Watch 
  becomes even more vital when the city’s eyes open 
  wider at night.
  The rhythm of a Resistance and Attrition 
  chronicle resembles trance, not punk: slowly 
  intensifying feel rather than fast-break violence. 
  The steady squeeze of the Coalition constrains the 
  coterie until they force a dramatic break – or get 
  broken in response. “Rising tension” should be the 
  Storyteller’s watchword, rather than “rising action.” 
  See “Welcome to the Occupation,” below, for more 
  specifi c approaches to this kind of setting. 
  GETTING INVOLVED
  The Cold Past: A Kindred somehow connected 
  to the player coterie appears in the chronicle 
  city – but they’re working for the Coalition now. 
  (Select someone inspirational from among the 
  Turncoats on pp. 46-51.) The coterie has stayed 
  off  everyone’s radar until now – but their options 
  widen and narrow at the same time. Do they turn 
  in their “old friend” to the Baron? That might be 
  announcing their own guilt by association. Do 
  they use their old friend as a back-channel into 
  the occupation, to get a few crucial advantages? 
  Perhaps their old friend has an off er for them: 
  help the Coalition roll up the resistance, and be 
  conveniently left off  the targeting lists.
  Mole Hunt: The inquisitors know an awful lot 
  about the Kindred’s aff airs in the city. None 
  of the old ShreckNET data dump applies any 
  more: those old havens and hunting grounds 
  long abandoned. The Masquerade remains 
  intact, surprisingly strong in fact; even the local 
  Anarchs and thin-bloods keep it willingly after 
  a few sudden renditions. So who’s feeding intel 
  to the SAD or SO13 or the Vatican from within 
  the court? The Prince selects the player coterie to 
  investigate – and if they don’t fi nd anything soon, 
  it was clearly them all along.
  The Fifth Horseman: A Kindred courier 
  from another city appears on the doorstep of 
  a character’s haven, badly wounded and even 
  poisoned by some Russian toxin. The coterie must 
  shelter her from the GRU, and step up its hunting 
  to feed her. (Does the courier have a Boon? 
  Know a great secret? Promise great advantage?) 
  Meanwhile, the occupiers have cracked down, 
  
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  searching the city for the refugee. This story line 
  works best for thin-blood or Anarch coteries, with 
  no real ability to fob their problems off  on older 
  and more important Kindred. Or perhaps the 
  coterie knows that the older and more important 
  Kindred will kill anyone who heard the courier’s 
  message before they did.
  Setting Element: 
  Welcome to the 
  Occupation
  As the new millennium ages, the Kindred lose their 
  grips on city after city – supplanted not by rival 
  vampires, but by their former prey. The tools they 
  once used to pen up their kine are turned against 
  them – police with secret agendas, all-seeing eyes in 
  the night, inhuman accumulations of knowledge, 
  and mysterious death from out of the shadows. The 
  future, it seems, belongs to this Second Inquisition 
  – and in some cities, the future has already arrived.
  Storytelling the Occupation
  Stories under occupation have three crucial ele-
  ments: choice, place, and threat. Every character 
  under occupation – portrayed by the players or by 
  the Storyteller – makes a choice every day: resist or 
  collaborate. The Storyteller should remember that 
  for the vast majority of mortals, collaboration seems 
  to make not just pragmatic but moral sense – vam-
  pires are predators and serial murderers, and should 
  indeed be hunted down. The switch-up comes 
  when the Kindred align their plight with the other 
  people being hunted down by religious fanatics or 
  secret police: the occupation gathers more than just 
  vampires into its fi st. But individual Licks make 
  individual choices, too – perhaps an autarkis prefers 
  1 5 1
  
  Chapter Five: Mirror Mazes
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  destroying an overbearing Archon, or a thin-blood 
  resents cruel elders. Even a recognized and accepted 
  coterie might be tempted to do a deal, for a Touch-
  stone or a neighborhood, or just to get a peaceful 
  day’s sleep.
  Other choices the protagonists (and other 
  Kindred) face include choices of alliances: who 
  do you trust in the resistance? Who do you trust 
  in the occupation? Choice of tactics: fight back, 
  or turtle up? Slowly subvert the occupiers, at the 
  risk of compromising your identity, or openly defy 
  them, at the risk of a noontime dusting? Hunt or 
  go hungry tonight? Stay and face the fire, or leave if 
  you get the chance? Do you protect the resistance, 
  even at the cost of your childe or your Touchstone? 
  Dramatically, the best choices set two characters’ 
  Convictions at odds – or force one Cainite to decide 
  between two of their own Convictions. Give every 
  important choice the protagonists make a powerful, 
  plausible alternative, ideally personified by someone 
  they trust, love, or depend on.
  All those characters, with all those agendas, 
  inform your city and drive its development during 
  the chronicle. If a supporting character starts to 
  get boring or familiar – or too dependable – they 
  change their choices, and die or inform or flee. As 
  the occupation changes the characters, it changes 
  the city. Add an element of the occupation to every 
  story, a background detail or whispered rumor, if 
  not a whole scene. Police raids break up hunting 
  grounds, helicopters and drones whir overhead, 
  unblinking cameras crop up on street corners, cell 
  towers sport extra antennas.
  Your Own Private Inquisition
  Occupation chronicles tend to personalize the local 
  Coalition presence: identifying the local Leopol-
  dite superior, or the FIRSTLIGHT analyst, marks 
  a silent victory. From identification, players look 
  for weaknesses and (hopefully more carefully) for 
  strengths. The Storyteller should have answers 
  ready: is the Leopoldite abbé full of doubts, or 
  full of suppressed lusts? Is the FIRSTLIGHT 
  overwatch preening and overconfident, or bent on 
  vengeance? While the faceless hunters in tactical 
  masks can stay mysterious (and thus scary) their 
  bosses need to be human to make compelling foes. 
  They make choices just like the characters: how con-
  vincing is this intel? Is this warehouse a trap? Can 
  we play one blankbody against another, or should 
  we speak only the language of fire? Tempting, twist-
  ing, and turning the opposition toward the choice 
  you want plays to the strengths of vampires – and 
  of Vampire.
  RANDOM RAIDS
  With everything else the Storyteller has to keep track of, running an occupation can get lost in the weeds. 
  Once every game month, launch a Coalition operation: a raid, a successfully gentrified Domain, a targeted ter-
  mination, something that reminds the players of the threat. Depending on your chronicle city’s geography you 
  might have a place in mind, or you can determine the target randomly. 
  Most paper maps (and many online ones) have grids overlaying them, as a location key. If not, it’s easy 
  enough to draw a ten-by-ten grid on a printed or Xeroxed map. Roll two dice and send the hunters to the 
  location indicated, re-rolling if you get an impossible target like the middle of the lake. If you want another 
  metric, make an Investigation roll for the local Coalition planner (Bear-Leader, p. 23) and use the result to 
  determine the danger and damage to the local Kindred. A critical on that roll targets the Primogen or the 
  main Anarch gang.
  As the occupation intensifies, launch the operations more frequently: once every three game weeks, 
  then once every two game weeks. A once-per-week pace indicates the Coalition has surged into the city, or 
  believes they have almost won; they likely slacken again after three or so straight weeks of major operations. 
  Coterie action can also shift the frequency of attacks: if they anger the occupiers, attacks step up; if they baf-
  fle or bluff them, the Coalition stands down a bit.
  
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  Thematic Element: 
  Fire and Sword
  This is an Inquisition, even the parts of it run on 
  computers by American admirals and Russian 
  atheists. Storytellers should play into those gothic, 
  even medieval elements alongside the surveillance-
  paranoia and technothriller tones. Some examples:
  ■ It’s not likely that a player’s character remembers 
  the first Inquisition, but they may have lore 
  handed down from their sire or uncovered in 
  a dusty parchment (Core Rulebook, p. 388). 
  When an elder describes those times to them, or 
  they read the records, bring it to life with hood-
  THE SUPERWEAPON
  The superweapon has remained a core element, possibly the core element, of the technothriller story 
  ever since Jules Verne invented the subgenre. Robur’s Terror becomes the Soviets’ Red October becomes Hy-
  dra’s INSIGHT Helicarriers. The antagonists build it, and threaten the world with it; the heroes then destroy 
  or steal it. Adding a superweapon to a Vampire chronicle can provide the spine of a single story, or become 
  the climax of the city-wide war. Potential SI superweapons include:
  ■
  The Red Gas (p. 82) is already a superweapon: weaponized holiness that fills a space like a gas but doesn’t 
  disperse like one. Alternatively, consider a chemical weapon nanoengineered to be attracted to aero-
  solized vitae, flowing across the haven to the mouths and noses of the Kindred – the more recently 
  they’ve fed, the faster it reaches them.
  ■
  A high-energy projector, emitting muonic plasma waves. When the waves hit solid walls, they transmit 
  through the obstacle and briefly light up the interior like the sun. Its capacitors take days to charge, and 
  release their energy in one burst, but the improved models should come on line soon, just after a few 
  more field tests … and the really big one they’re building in that isolated building on campus can blanket 
  the city in a nanosecond, lighting up every interior surface at once.
  ■
  A powerful rite that boils the vitae in anyone who hears it spoken. Of course, it’s in only one book, and in 
  a dead language, but even a broken translation proves very effective. And every time the cantor speaks it, 
  it gets clearer, as though Something wants it uttered.
  ■
  A biological-alchemical weapon, the Litharge, deployed in the blood of innocent 20-something civilians 
  through adulterated sports drinks. It acts on the Kindred like borax on ants, building up in their vitae and 
  slowly starving them to death. Possible variants include a radioactive tracer so the Coalition can track them 
  to their lair, or a final catalyst that triggers frenzy when enough infected Kindred gather in one place.
  ■
  Just a really big tank, or deadly helicopter gunship, loaded down with “thermal lances” and Gatling cannon. 
  Its armor invulnerable to anything short of a 105mm shell, its sensor package wrapped around target-
  ing XScopes, it spells true death to any haven it’s deployed against. All the Coalition needs is a big riot to 
  justify bringing it out. This sort of superweapon makes more sense in a chronicle city already on the edge 
  of (or in the middle of) a war zone, from whence the IAO or GRU diverts it from its mortal targets.
  Whatever the superweapon, the story unfolds with hints and whispers. The characters hear of its build-
  ing; maybe they spot (or interfere with) a Burrower gathering needed materials or a UTR squad capturing a 
  crucial designer. Perhaps they follow up and see it under construction, then get driven off by extraordinarily 
  stiff defenses. Or their first glance of it comes as it destroys some other haven, or stomps some Anarch street 
  gang. When it moves against them, they fight it and lose, the only survivors. Now they have only a few nights 
  to find its weakness and destroy it, before the Coalition turns it loose on every Kindred in their city … and 
  perhaps the whole world.
  
  Chapter Five: Mirror Mazes
  1 5 4
  ed monks and fl ickering torches. If the chronicle 
  takes place in Europe or Latin America, the site 
  of an old auto-da-fé takes center stage. Run a 
  Memoriam starring the characters’ sires’ sires to 
  reveal something horrible from the past.
  ■ Play up the resemblance between medieval 
  knights and modern special operators: bulky 
  body armor, riot shields, glints of streetlight off  
  a helmet visor, colorful fl ash of a heraldic unit 
  badge. ESOG even brings swords to a gunfi ght, 
  for God’s sake.
  ■ Speaking of ESOG, the Society of St. Leopold 
  literally exists to reinforce this inquisitorial 
  theme. Even if the big bad in your chronicle 
  uses U.S. Navy SEALs or Russian Spetsnaz, 
  anyone can bring a Leopoldite observer. Every 
  city in the Western world has a Catholic church, 
  and every ambulance sports the red cross of the 
  Crusaders.
  ■ Even outside ESOG, soldiers might pick up on 
  impressive sounding Latin phrases. Sure, the 
  Kansas City SWAT team is unlikely to chant 
  “Deus vult” or “Nobiscum Deus” before hit-
  ting a haven. But a police armored car might 
  boast “fugiet a vobis” (“he will fl ee from you”) 
  stenciled across its front, or the SWAT trooper 
  display “Vox Domini intercidentis fl ammam 
  ignis” (Psalm 28:7) tattooed in a scroll around 
  his arm.
  ■ Fire, and plenty of it. Look at fi re footage on 
  YouTube or stream Backdraft to get a visual 
  language for fi re besides “it’s bright and orange.” 
  Personify it, as it leaps from wall to wall to 
  coffi  n, as though giving relentless chase to the 
  character.
  ■ Dying factories, dockyard warehouses, and ur-
  ban pumping stations sport just as many wheels, 
  racks, and chains as any Piranesi dungeon. Such 
  a backdrop might begin as a Nosferatu haven – 
  until it gets raided, and converted to an Inquisi-
  tion staging ground and temporary interroga-
  tion center.
  
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  Setting Element: 
  Theaters 
  of Operation
  As described above, the Coalition approach to a city 
  helps determine the chronicle structure. Overlap-
  ping with this purely narrative element, the FIRST-
  LIGHT or Leopoldite understanding of the city 
  also aff ects the chronicle setting. Think of these 
  four types of AO (Area of Operations) as the “in-
  game” strategy that complements the Storyteller’s 
  structure.
  Hedgehog
  In a hedgehog, or fortress city, the Coalition ag-
  gressively moves to defend against any perceived 
  incursion and destroy any perceived vampire 
  activity. Hedgehogs require extravagant resources 
  to defend, becoming almost impractical at scales of 
  more than a few miles. Often the Coalition defends 
  the “Green Zone” within a less-secure city as a 
  hedgehog. Vatican City is a hedgehog in the much 
  larger city of Rome, used as a base for aggressive 
  patrols into the city by the Leopoldites, and by 
  their allies and cutouts in the Carabinieri and AISI. 
  FIRSTLIGHT would like to make Washington, 
  D.C. a true hedgehog, but must settle for protect-
  ing the federal district between the White House 
  and Capitol complex, the FBI building, and a few 
  other core locations such as the Smithsonian. A 
  ring of hedgehogs (Langley, Ft. Meade, Andrews 
  AFB, and Camp David) surrounds D.C. proper, but 
  the enormous, labyrinthine Pentagon can’t yet be 
  adequately defended.
  Thus a city with a hedgehog AO in it can 
  simultaneously play out Resistance and Attrition 
  within the hedgehog zone and Open City or Tip of 
  the Stake chronicles outside. Entering a hedgehog, 
  even in a fully occupied city, feels more dangerous 
  for Kindred: any camera might be an XScope, and 
  every vehicle holds three stake-wielding Delta Force 
  troopers with a chainmail hood and an open seat on 
  a plane to Hawaii. Stories that move into or through 
  a hedgehog recapitulate the “journey into fear” 
  trope from spy fi ction: amp up the paranoia and 
  increase those Diffi  culties.
  Sheepfold
  The Coalition counts a few cities as victories, “clear 
  cities” in the jargon of the British bureaucratic 
  hunters. The Leopoldites call these cities “sheep-
  folds,” where their fl ocks can safely graze. Older 
  and more cynical American operators call them 
  “strategic hamlets,” recalling a similar strategy from 
  a less successful war. London, Honolulu, and Las 
  Vegas head any list of successful sheepfolds, and 
  the Eighth Direction claims similar success in the 
  important Spetsnaz base and military staging center 
  Rostov-on-Don.
  But even London and Vegas have a few Kindred 
  lurking deep under cover, or walking the sunny 
  streets semi-secure in their Duskborn misdirection. 
  Sheepfold cities work best for chronicles where the 
  Coalition is always potentially present, but not there 
  right at the moment – a sort of Resistance in Ab-
  sentia. Both the Coalition and the Kindred mount 
  only the most covert of ops, and as few of those as 
  they can get away with. A regular Resistance and 
  Attrition chronicle can develop in a clear city, as the 
  Coalition slowly and unwillingly realizes their sheep 
  aren’t quite as safe as they thought. Lower-powered 
  chronicles (thin-bloods vs. gangsters, perhaps) and 
  Champion coteries work well in sheepfold cities, 
  as do “third force” foes such as faerie or mortal 
  wizards, who don’t ping the FIRSTLIGHT radar as 
  loudly as werewolves might.
  Front Line
  Every arm of the Second Inquisition, and some 
  that aren’t even connected to the body yet, fl exes 
  its muscles against the Kindred. Wherever the 
  Coalition has enough intelligence to mount raids 
  and renditions, or enough fi repower to launch 
  them anyway, they do so in increasing numbers. 
  As the millennium continues and the Masquerade 
  frays, more and more cities wind up on the front 
  line: Prague, Bogota, Liverpool, Marseille, Kigali, 
  
  Chapter Five: Mirror Mazes
  1 5 6
  Luanda, Portland, and scores more. Rio de Janeiro 
  and Detroit, among others, have stayed on the front 
  line since 2012.
  Thus a front line city can host a Tip of the Stake 
  chronicle, or a “late” Open City. The Coalition has 
  made its move but not quite sealed the deal, so mo-
  mentum shifts back to the Kindred. The shock has 
  come, but the awe hasn’t caught up yet. In a front 
  line city, even an Open City might suddenly get an 
  influx of inquisitors as FIRSTLIGHT dumps an-
  other billion on the problem. The characters might 
  evade that deployment (or redirect it at their rivals) 
  or be sent “over the top” to counter-strike the Leo-
  poldite cenaculum or the glass-walled building near 
  the airport with the really tough security guards.
  In Partibus Sanguisugarum
  Every city belongs to God, say the Leopoldites. He 
  just hasn’t moved all His stuff into some of them. 
  In the Dark Ages, as Muslims and Vikings and 
  horse-nomads overran ancient dioceses, the Church 
  referred to those bishoprics as in partibus infideli-
  um, “in the lands of the infidels.” Today, the Society 
  calls cities it hasn’t yet evangelized in partibus 
  sanguisugarum, “in the hands of the bloodsuckers.” 
  FIRSTLIGHT just leaves the cities’ dots red on the 
  map … for now.
  Chicago, Berlin, and many other classic Kindred 
  strongholds still count as IPS, even though most 
  of them have some Coalition outpost inside the 
  boundaries or nearby on a less-traveled highway. 
  Consider these “early” Open Cities, where the 
  Coalition still prioritizes gathering intelligence and 
  scouting missions over full-throated firestorms. 
  Spy stories in these cities become Cold War style 
  counter-intelligence duels, seeking out the Coali-
  tion presence and neutralizing it as invisibly as 
  possible. Day Watch and Watchmen coteries catch 
  and stop Spetsnaz commandos or Leopoldite street 
  preachers, and everyone waits another night for the 
  war to start.
  Thematic Element: 
  Night and Fog
  Any intelligent vampire hunter surely attacks at 
  noon, burning their torpid Kindred targets in their 
  beds under a blue sky and a blazing sun. And indeed 
  an increasing number of 21st-century war and spy 
  thrillers feature daylight raids full of blinding lens 
  flare and shining dust. Daylight raids work fine for 
  attacks on other Kindred, to be discovered upon 
  awakening. But players’ characters deserve scenes 
  that drink from the roots of vampire and espionage 
  stories, and those roots grow best at night. So why 
  does the Second Inquisition mount night raids in 
  your chronicle?
  ■ A high-value target doesn’t leave their address 
  lying around. You have to grab them when they 
  show themselves, operating on last-minute intel 
  that changes fast and expires faster. Yes, the ideal 
  plan is to keep the target in sight and follow 
  them back to their haven, but it’s not that easy 
  to follow something that can blink out of sight, 
  jump over a cyclone fence, or turn into a bat. 
  Sometimes a quick hit under the streetlight is 
  the only hit you get.
  ■ Hunters can’t easily find blankbodies without 
  stable addresses or hunting patterns to plot on a 
  map. Gangrel move around by choice, and oth-
  ers might be homeless or hiding from an angry 
  baron. Hunting such targets requires throwing 
  out a surveillance net and waiting for the target 
  to walk into it – and the target only walks at 
  night.
  ■ Mounting a daylight raid attracts passersby with 
  cell phones, TV news copters, and possibly un-
  witting units of the police and fire department. 
  It’s much harder to cover up something burning 
  on the 5:00 news than something burning at 
  5:00 in the morning. The Coalition has its own 
  veil to maintain, after all, and often informa-
  tional security trumps the other kind.
  ■ Daytime attacks also risk unacceptable collateral 
  damage: innocent shoppers or tourists or drug 
  dealers wander past that haven all day. Better to 
  spend the day scouting the site as thoroughly as 
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 5 7
  possible, and the evening assembling the team 
  covertly. In the best possible case, you complete-
  ly replace the citizens passing by with people 
  who won’t get their fool heads shot off when the 
  balloon goes up.
  ■ If you want to hit a lot of blankbodies, you 
  have to get them when they’re together – when 
  they’re awake. A lead on Elysium, or an Anarch 
  gang moot, or a Toreador art show, or an alche-
  mists’ convention pays off much better if you 
  can grab or dust the whole bunch of them. And 
  that only happens at night.
  Story Element: 
  Shoot or Talk?
  Michael Mann’s crime film Heat features some 
  of the most viscerally thrilling gunfights in all of 
  cinema. But just as important, it features a taut, 
  subliminally intense dialogue between the robber 
  and the cop laying out the emotional stakes for both 
  characters. Storytellers must balance action and 
  interaction in the chronicle, especially with antago-
  nists like the Second Inquisition.
  Silencers
  By and large, the more you know about antagonists 
  in a horror game, the less scary they become. Show 
  them in sudden overwhelming bursts – shadowy 
  figures in hulking tactical armor breaching the 
  haven — or in mysterious flashes – a robed woman 
  seen holding an icon aloft just before things went to 
  shit. Don’t just give the players information about 
  their foes, make their characters work for it by in-
  vestigation and by surviving (even by fleeing) UTR 
  squad attacks. Then break the pattern again: shift 
  up timing and effects and resources as the Coalition 
  responds to the characters’ investigations.
  The operatives and clerics of the Coalition don’t 
  explain themselves to the monsters they hunt. In 
  many cases, they’re forbidden to: not just by monas-
  tic vows of silence, but by NSA Associate Director 
  Price’s burned-in paranoia about Dominate and 
  Presence and temptation and all the other things 
  that the Kindred can do with their voices. The 
  Detroit disaster still hangs over American hunt-
  ers especially. “Never talk, never listen” remains 
  standing orders for FIRSTLIGHT and IAO field 
  operators. Rather than complete black ops silence, a 
  Leopoldite canon or Akritai zealot might substitute 
  white magic noise: endless chanting of Latin exor-
  cisms, or singing of hymns.
  Speeches
  But Vampire is more than just a horror game; it’s a 
  storytelling game. Story requires drama, which is to 
  say characters in conflict. If characters – with needs, 
  and drives, and frailties – emerge from the shadows 
  of the Second Inquisition, then story emerges with 
  them. Perhaps most of the paramilitary troop-
  ers vanish back into the shadows – except one 
  wounded survivor. The robed woman never talks, 
  but her ESOG bodyguard can’t help bragging over 
  a cringing Lick. As the pattern shifts, the coterie 
  slowly pieces together the local Coalition command 
  structure, identifying key players for pressure along 
  with their pressure points.
  One place that an inquisitor surely talks is 
  the interrogation room, even if only in questions. 
  Characters who run the risk of capture can learn 
  much about their opponents’ beliefs and aims. (Spy 
  dramas utilize interrogation scenes as classic dra-
  matic opportunities for a reason.) Somewhat safer, 
  if usually slower, the coterie can goad the Leopol-
  dite judge or SAD agent-in-charge into impatience 
  or overconfidence. If the Coalition superiors keep 
  silent for now, perhaps their informants or allies 
  or tools can be persuaded to boast or complain or 
  demand or bargain.
  Both the Kindred and the Coalition crave 
  information, and both give in to their cravings 
  even when they shouldn’t. Every inquisitor wants 
  something, if only to re-confirm their belief in 
  their cause. Does the BOES trooper seek righteous 
  revenge for a lost sister? Does the Oxford occult-
  ist yearn to command the supernatural? Who’s 
  addicted to the chase, or to adrenaline, or to speed? 
  Learning what mortals want – and offering a cruelly 
  sweetened parody of their desire — should be sec-
  ond nature to vampires, after all.
  
  Chapter Five: Mirror Mazes
  1 5 8
  Thematic Element: 
  Mirror Images
  Killers stalk the night, the worst of them slaughter-
  ing with religious fervor and delighting in the hunt. 
  These killers shelter behind powerful institutions: 
  governments, police departments, spy services, 
  cathedrals. Although riven by internal factionalism, 
  they keep their code of secrecy sacrosanct. Their 
  full powers and abilities remain mysterious, perhaps 
  even to themselves. Remind you of anyone?
  Neither the Camarilla nor the clandestine Coali-
  tion appreciates the many parallels between the two 
  organizations, but that just leaves more ironic meat 
  for the Storyteller to serve up. Extend the parallels: 
  Anarchs see their own refl ection in the increasing 
  numbers of independent hunters drawn into the 
  life but shunned by three-initial agencies, driven to 
  street expedients rather than formal taskings. Fur-
  ther echoes resound as the chronicle builds:
  ■ Especially in Open City chronicles, both Kin-
  dred and inquisitors play the spy game: dead 
  drops, allusive codes, tails and shakeoff s. “The 
  player on the other side” begins as an abstrac-
  tion, and slowly steps into an intricate dance of 
  move and countermove. When the players come 
  up with something clever, their Inquisitor foe 
  comes back with a defense – or uses the same 
  tactic on them.
  ■ Although strictly forbidden by both the Tower 
  and FIRSTLIGHT, prisoner exchanges provide 
  juicy dramatic opportunity along with establish-
  ing a literal equation between inquisitor and 
  vampire. Who is worth trading for? Who do you 
  abandon? How do you grab the top Leopoldite 
  abbot in the city – or an oblivious archbishop 
  – on twelve hours’ notice, without breaking the 
  Masquerade? And can you trust a prisoner who 
  the other side allowed to live?
  ■ Bram Stoker’s Dracula pits science – Dicta-
  phones, medical hypnosis, steam launches and 
  railways — against monstrosity. A century 
  later, they blend and overlap. A Gangrel looks 
  through the eyes of a falcon, an untiring drone 
  feeds images back to the SAD van. Auspex and 
  XScopes, Kevlar and Fortitude, urban camou-
  fl age and Obfuscate, hunter fl owing into the 
  hunted and back again. Are those tiny red glows 
  the eyes of a Nosferatu or the LEDs on a combat 
  helmet cam?
  ■ Play up the emotional similarities between Kin-
  dred and their hunters, especially the front-line 
  operators. Both spend their nights whipsawed 
  between paranoia and exaltation, both must 
  ignore their humanity to survive (“Shoot that 
  little girl in the face! She’s one of them!”), both 
  kill. Both exalt in their addictions, to blood or to 
  adrenaline (or combat amphetamines, in many 
  cases); both swear revenge on the destroyers of 
  their comrades. Storytellers can drop dialogue 
  overheard during a raid, or inhabit the too-fa-
  miliar cold desperation of the warrior across the 
  diner table at sundown. 
  Hubris and Nemesis
  In Greek myth, the goddess Nemesis opposed 
  hubris, the act of challenging the gods. Nemesis 
  represents not just justice, but payback: she carries 
  both scales and a whip. Storytellers can present 
  the Second Inquisition as the deserved response 
  to the hubris of the Camarilla: they dared to rule 
  mankind unjustly, and now mankind brings the 
  scourge in their turn. Perhaps play up the ongoing 
  rumor (especially prevalent among the Anarchs) 
  that the Camarilla (or a specifi c prince) tried to 
  frame the Anarchs for 9/11 and their sloppy subter-
  fuge brought a new Inquisition down on every-
  body’s heads. 
  More specifi cally, cast the Coalition presence in 
  the chronicle city as a reaction to arrogant folly by 
  its Primogen or its barons. Did their over-hunting 
  ping the FBI profi lers? Did they accumulate a 
  secret archive that the NSA just penetrated? Did 
  they whisper the location of a nearby Sabbat haven 
  to the Leopoldites? Not just the high and mighty 
  Kindred draw nemesis upon themselves: one of the 
  coterie hunts the niece or college friend of a CIA 
  analyst, and suddenly their jacket rises to the top of 
  the FIRSTLIGHT inbox with a Terminate order 
  already approved.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 5 9
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 5 9
  
  Chapter Five: Mirror Mazes
  1 6 0
  Setting Element: 
  Enemies of 
  My Enemies
  Every Cainite wakes up at night surrounded by 
  enemies: rival coteries, enforcers from the other fac-
  tion, enforcers from their own faction (or both, for 
  unbound Licks), the Sabbat or Lupines or some oth-
  er bestial outsiders. The Second Inquisition might 
  not even make the list – which makes getting them 
  to take other vampires off the list a tempting choice.
  But how? Do you just call the local FBI office 
  on a burner phone and hope that Special Affairs 
  picks up? Do you affirmatively locate an inquisitor 
  in your city and go through a mortal cut-out? Do 
  you show yourself, and meet face to face? The more 
  help you need from the Coalition, and the quicker 
  you need it, the riskier things get. In the direst cases, 
  you might have to actually take the field with them, 
  turning your back on a lot of very amped-up Brazil-
  ian storm troopers with stake-throwing shotguns. 
  The fact that plenty of your fellow Kindred still 
  seem more dangerous to you than that decision may 
  be the worst thing of all about the “enemy of my 
  enemy” play.
  Storytelling Enemies of Enemies
  There’s enough doubt and uncertainty roiling the 
  players’ minds already: make the Coalition alliance 
  a legitimate option if they go for it. Even if the local 
  SAD agent-in-charge plans to turn on the coterie, 
  there’s no better way to lull them into dropping 
  their guard than offering them real intel and real 
  help for a while. If the coterie has a relatively non-
  murderous ethos (or they’re playing Champions or 
  similar) the inquisitor might even come to them first 
  with a (relatively) honest team-up offer.
  This allows you to slide into the paranoia and 
  suspense themes that Second Inquisition stories 
  batten upon. When will the sudden and inevitable 
  betrayal happen? Should we go first through the 
  door? Miscommunications, lost signals, insufficient 
  backup – bureaucratic snafus, or deliberate slow-
  walking? Is that a priest talking to my Touchstone 
  – is that priest a Leopoldite? Is our haven bugged? 
  Special Branch says they’ve bugged our rivals’ 
  haven, after all… 
  This betrayal tension can build throughout 
  the story, and like all themes it benefits from being 
  personified by supporting characters. Any alli-
  ance between the coterie and the Inquisition goes 
  through human intermediaries; both sides try to 
  suborn the others’ allies, contacts, and staff. As you 
  roleplay those interactions, add twitches and pauses 
  and looking away. You don’t have to decide a sup-
  porting character’s true allegiance immediately, or 
  ever. A mortal pressured by both an inquisitor and 
  a Cainite might well fracture under stress, becom-
  ing a double or triple agent or just helping whoever 
  asked last.
  The final danger in cooperation with the Second 
  Inquisition is not betrayal… it’s joining up for real. 
  Thin-bloods and Caitiff who hate being conde-
  scended to, Anarchs who hate the Camarilla… 
  plenty of Kindred might decide that the possibility 
  of a sunny room beats the certainty of an Archon 
  or a Blood Hunt. Perhaps the local Leopoldites have 
  Sanbenito tendencies, and offer the coterie a chance 
  at martyrdom, or even redemption… in exchange 
  for a very full and detailed confession, and a few 
  surprisingly enjoyable acts of violent penance.
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  1 6 1
  
  Index
  INDEX
  A
  Absolved, 40
  AC-130 Spectre Gunship, 78
  Academic Specializations , 94
  Active Denial System (ADS), 69
  Against the Inquisiton: 
  Cleanup, 111
  Against the Inquisition: In From 
  the Cold, 111
  AISE, 95
  Akritai, 127
  Alchemist, 46
  Amateur, 31
  Amateurs, 144
  Ammunition, 72
  Animalist, 38
  APC, 77
  Arcane Efects, 43
  Arcanum, 124
  Armamenta, 86
  Armor, 73
  Armored SUV, 77
  Armor-Piercing Rounds, 72
  Arms and Materiel, 69
  Artifacts, 83
  Ashes of St. Godard, 85
  Assassination, 106
  Auditors, 53
  Auto-da-Fé, 107
  Avicennan Heart, 85
  B
  B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber, 78
  Basal Ganglia Masking Agent, 79
  Battering Ram, 74
  Bear Trap, 15
  Bear-Leader, 23
  Bernini's Faceless Angel, 83
  Black-Bagger, 23
  Blackmailer, 15
  Blood Deprivation, 103
  Blood Doll, 16
  Blood of Mandagloire, 46
  Blood Supply, 96
  Bloodborne Diseases and 
  Parasites, 79
  BOES, 128
  Brazil, 128
  Breacher, 31
  Breaching Rounds, 72
  Broker, 19
  Brute, 47
  Building OPFOR, 51
  Bureau IX, 139
  Burrower, 24
  Busybody, 21
  C
  C. Hydeii, 79
  Canary, 20
  CDC, 121
  Cenacle, 54
  Cenacle of St. Margaret, 63
  Censer of Absolution, 86
  Chaf, 54
  Chainmail, 73
  Chronicle Structures, 147, See
  Story Elements
  Clearance Specialist, 32
  Cleaver, 49
  Coalition, 6
  Coalition Response  
  Algorithm, 112
  Cog and the Deep State, 122
  Common Enemies, 98
  Community Informants, 91
  Compound Crossbow, 70
  Consent and Respectful Play, 8
  Conspiracy Teorist 
  (Collective), 144
  Conspiracy Teorists, 143
  Cross of Tertullian, 85
  Cuckoo, 15
  Cunning Folk, 37
  D
  Dagger of Akkad, 87
  Dangerous Games, 89
  Day Strike, 106
  Daywalker, 49
  DEA, 121
  Dealer, 19
  Dental Pliers, 74
  Deprogrammer, 16
  Detective, 25
  Disinformation, 100
  Doctor, 26
  E
  Enemies of My Enemies, 160, See
  Setting Elements
  Enochian Sarcophagus, 84
  ESOG, 134
  ESOG Team XIII Soldier, 137
  EV-H07, 79
  Extortion, 104
  F
  Faithful, 38
  False Flagger, 18
  Fang-Stinger, 47
  FBI Special Afairs Division 
  (SAD), 120
  Fiberoptic Scope, 74
  Fire and Sword, 153, See
  Tematic Elements
  
  T H E  S E C O N D  I N Q U I S I T I O N
  Fire Teams, 115
  Firebug, 32
  FIRSTLIGHT, 116
  FIRSTLIGHT (NSA) Field 
  Agent, 117
  Five Torches, 10
  Fixers and Faces: Social, 13
  Flagellant, 39
  Flare Gun, 70
  Flash-bang Grenades, 72
  Forensic Accountant, 24
  Franciscan Aspergillum, 86
  Freezer Fluid, 47
  Front Line, 155
  G
  Garrote, 70
  General Difculties, 13
  Gentrifcation, 98
  Gentrifer, 18
  Ghoul Template, 35
  G-Kontoret, 139
  Gladius Dei, 134
  Gladius Dei/ESOG Recruit, 137
  Global Hawk Drone, 77
  GPS Chips, 80
  GPS Trackers, 75
  Ground Penetrating Radar, 75
  GRU Eighth Direction, 125
  GRU-N58, 125, See
  Eighth Direction
  GRU-N58 Psyops Specialist, 126
  H
  Hacker, 26
  Haiti, 139
  Hammer, 25
  Handlers, 104
  Hedgehog, 155
  Hit Man, 34
  Hitters and Operators: 
  Physical, 31
  Holy Ground, 39
  Holy Veil, 82, See Velum 
  Sanctuarii
  Homeland Special Program, 137
  How to Use Tis Book, 7
  Hunting Patterns, 90
  I
  IAO-Tasked Seal, 119
  ICE, 121
  In Partibus Sanguisugarum, 156
  Informant, 19
  Information Awareness Ofce 
  (IAO), 117
  Intelligence Assets, 95
  Interrogator, 34
  Investigative Tactics, 90
  J
  Japan, 138, 139
  JIC, 95
  JTRG, 123
  JTRG Technician, 123
  K
  Kevlar Vest, 74
  Kidnapping, 101, See Rendition
  KOL-05, 79
  L
  La Calcédoine, 138
  La Calcédoine Questionneur, 138
  La Entità, 130
  La Entità Attaché, 131
  Lamplighter, 28
  Laser Microphone, 75
  Law Enforcement, 140
  Law Enforcement (FBI/Special 
  Branch/Europol Agent), 141
  Law Enforcement (Police 
  Ofcer), 141
  Lazarene Witch Hunter, 134
  Leopoldite Sicarius, 35
  Lockpick Gun, 75
  Lone Wolf, 32
  Long Range Acoustic Device 
  (LRAD), 70
  Lordless, 50
  Lordless Assassin, 50
  M
  Map Blankbody Networks, 108
  Mechanic, 24
  Military Police Extraterritorial 
  Operations (PMEX), 128
  Minotaur, 54
  Mirror Images, 58, See
  Tematic Elements
  Mirror Mazes, 147
  Mirror of Trust, 46
  Monster Squad, 54
  Mother Hen, 28
  MRAP, See APC), 77
  Mundane Gear, 74
  N
  Neck Protector, 74
  Necrophage Cocktail, 80
  Newburgh Group, 11
  Night and Fog, 156, See
  Tematic Elements
  Night Strike, 107
  Night Vision Optics, 75
  Night Watch, 55
  Nightwatchman, 70
  Nullifer, 40
  O
  Occulted Bosch Triptych, 84
  Opening Gambits, 6
  Operational Approaches, 101
  Operational Resources, 108
  OPFOR Backgrounds, 51
  OPFOR Force Mix, 52
  Organized Crime, 142
  Organized Criminal, 142
  Oswobodziciele Liberator, 17
  P
  Parietum of St. Polycarp, 86
  Party Planner, 23, See Bear-Leader
  Phased Motion Detector, 80
  Phone Phreak, 26
  Picky Eaters, 97
  Plastic Explosive, 72
  PMEX Liaison Ofcer, 128
  Police Vehicle, 76
  Politician, 20
  Praetorians, 55
  Predator Drone, 78
  Project Twilight, 11
  
  Index
  Pscout, 40
  Pstriker, 42
  Psychic Surgeon, 17
  Pyrokinetic, 43
  R
  Reaper, 35
  Recce, 56
  Recruitment, 104
  Red Gas, 82, See Velum Sanctuarii
  Relics, 84
  Reliquary of Agios Nikolas, 86
  Rendition, 101
  Restraints, 76
  Riot Foam, 70
  Riot Shield, 74
  Road Flare, 70
  Rovers, 56
  Rubber Bullets, 73
  Russia, 125
  S
  SAD Special Agent, 120
  Saviors, 56
  Screamers, 80, See Phased 
  Motion Detector
  Second Inquisition, 6, 10
  Second Inquisition Projects, 108
  Serre du Garou, 87
  Setting Elements, 151, 155, 160
  Sheepfold, 155
  Shoot or Talk?, 157, See
  Story Elements
  Shroud of Sant'Ellero, 86
  SI Lexicon, 10
  Slayer, 33
  Snatcher, 33
  Sniper, 34
  SO13, 124
  SO13 "Headhunter", 125
  Socialite, 21
  Society of St. Leopold, 131
  Sorcerer, 43
  Special Deployment Team, 56
  "Spot" Robotic Dog, 78
  Standard Operating 
  Procedures, 89
  Story Elements, 147, 157
  Storyteller Style, 7
  Sunboarding, 103
  Sunrise Bomb, 81
  Support Helicopter, 77
  Surveillance, 99
  Surveillance Van, 76
  T
  Tactical Drone, 77
  Tactical Ear Buds, 76
  Tactical Spider Robot, 78
  Tail, 27
  Tanglefoot Trap, 82
  TASER, 71
  Task Force, 57
  Techies and Sleuths: Mental, 23
  Te Entity, 130, See La Entità
  Te Heartbeat Algorithm, 118
  Teaters of Operation, 155, See
  Setting Elements
  Tematic Elements, 153, 156, 158
  Teme and Mood, 8
  Termite, 73
  Termobaric Munitions, 73
  Tird Intelligence 
  Department, 138
  Torture, 102, 103
  Traitors, 57
  Turncoats, 46
  Types of OPFOR, 52
  Tzimisce Monstrosity, 49
  U
  Undermine a Background, 110
  Unit 242 Special Purposes, 126
  Unit 8211, 138
  United Kingdom, 123
  United States, 116
  Unmanned Loitering Swarm 
  Munitions, 78
  V
  Vatican, 129
  Vehicles, 76
  Velum Sanctuarii, 11, 82
  Vitae Tweaker, 50
  W
  Warlocks and Clerics: Magical, 37
  Warrior, 35
  Water Cannon, 71
  Waxen Poetica, 87
  Weaponer, 28
  Weapons, 69
  Welcome to the Occupation, 151, 
  See Setting Elements
  Wet Team, 57
  White Phosphorus, 73
  WHITEHORSE, 57
  X
  XScope 3/SD, 82
  XTech, 79
  XTechnician, 29
  Y
  Z
  ZMEI Protocol Tin-Blood 
  Commando, 127
  
    
  Mature Advisory: contains graphic and  
  written content of a mature nature, including 
  violence, sexual themes, and strong  
  language. Reader discretion is advised.
  renegadegames.com
  /PlayRGS          @PlayRenegade          @Renegade_Game_Studios
  9 781735 993898
  54500>
  ISBN 978-1-7359938-9-8
  $45.00
  Manufacturer: Renegade Games, LLC. 306N West El Norte Parkway #325, 
  Escondido, California 92026. Importers: Renegade France 52 Avenue Pierre 
  Semard 94200 Ivry sur Seine France. P:+33 (0)1 77 37 60 47. Renegade Games, 
  LLC. Juxon House 100 St Paul’s Churchyard, London, England EC4M 8BU. 
  © 2021 Renegade Game Studios. All Rights Reserved.
  Paradox Interactive®, Vampire the Masquerade®, World of Darkness®, 
  Copyright 2018 Paradox Interactive AB (publ). All Rights Reserved.
  Made in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
  An antagonists’ guide to the rising Second Inquisition, 
  this book contains:
  . Opponents of your Kindred, and their special forces 
  and equipment
  . Information on the fires rising against the world’s 
  vampires, stoked by the Society of St. Leopold and 
  the American FIRSTLIGHT black program
  . New tools to expand your chronicles, including 
  eldritch Artifacts, dozens of dangerous antagonists, 
  and the tactics your coterie can use to fight back
  The secret Church and the hidden State, 
  hunting the hunters in cities and across continents
  LOT# 093021-1
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Storyteller [multi]/World of Darkness (WoD) [multi]/Vampire/VtM V5 - Second Inquisition.pdf