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  © 2020 White Wolf Entertainment © 2020 Onyx Path Publishing 
  
  Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition 
  Credits 
  Authors: Chris Allen, Meghan Fitzgerald, Trip Galey, John Kennedy, Cassandra Khaw, 
  Danielle Lauzon, Matt Miller, Allen Turner, Ree Soesbee, Monica Speca, Monica Valentinelli 
  Vera Vartanian, and Pete Woodworth 
  Developer: Monica Valentinelli  
  Additional Development: Danielle Lauzon 
  Editor: Dixie Cochran 
  Art Director: Michael Chaney 
  Artists: 
  Playtesters: 
  Special Thanks: Rose “The Lady of Milan” Bailey, Chuck “Not Today, You Monster!” 
  Wendig, Matt M. “Sit up straight, please!” McElroy, Tony Lee, and the many writers, editors, 
  and developers who’ve worked on Hunter: The Vigil over its long history. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  ONYX PATH/WHITE WOLF LEGAL HERE 
   
  
  Introduction: Heed the Call 
  “But these words people threw around — humans, monsters, heroes, villains — to 
  Victor it was all just a matter of semantics. Someone could call themselves a hero 
  and still walk around killing dozens. Someone else could be labeled a villain for 
  trying to stop them. Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters 
  knew how to play at being human.” 
  — V.E. Schwab, Vicious 
  Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition is a roleplaying game about people who are committed to 
  saving a world overrun by monsters. Once they light a candle and hold it up to the darkness, they 
  cannot turn back. They’ve taken their first step to uphold the Vigil, despite knowing the costs. 
  After they peer into the shadows, they become so obsessed with the monsters lurking there, 
  every hunt pushes them further and further away from a normal, humdrum life.  
  Hunters are underdogs who never stop feeling that chill running up and down their spines. For 
  every bloodsucker they put down, for every haunted house they clear out, another horror lies 
  waiting to strike. Sure, they might make sacrifices or suffer losses along the way, but to them 
  there’s never a time when they’re not hunting. Either they stay sharp and focused, they become 
  hunted themselves, or worse: They become the monster. 
  The Gathering Dark 
  Hunter: The Vigil debuted in 2008 on the heels of several Chronicles of Darkness game lines 
  including Vampire: The Requiem, Changeling: The Lost, and Werewolf: The Forsaken. 
  Since that time, more game lines have emerged introducing new monsters, such as Beast: The 
  Primordial and Deviant: The Renegades.  
  Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition takes note of these new additions by introducing a premise: 
  There are more monsters today than ever before. The rules found in this book are designed to 
  give players and Storytellers new, flexible tools to identify, hunt, and capture monsters while 
  enhancing the definition of hunter.  
  Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition is a standalone game that can be played by new or existing 
  players. The lore has been updated to not only reflect the uptick in monsters, but also the fact that 
  hunting monsters is not exclusive to a location, group of people, or time period. There may be 
  more monsters than ever before, but there are more ways to fight them, too. 
  Themes 
  Most people grow up believing monsters exist in fairy tales and on television. The Thin Man is 
  the product of conspiracy theorists on message boards. Bloody Mary is just an urban legend 
  cooked up by teenaged girls, and the Chupacabra is a rabid dog.  
  You’re not most people, because you know that monsters are real. You’ve seen one. Maybe it 
  murdered your grandfather. Maybe it targeted your dog. Whatever the reason, however you 
  encountered one, the truth shattered you. Instead of running away or hiding in a bunker, you’ve 
  decided to do something. You’ve chosen to heed the call of the Vigil and become a hunter. 
  How? By finding similarly minded people who will fight alongside you. You know you’re 
  outmatched. You know you’re outgunned — but you don’t care. Sometimes you’ll win. 
  
  Sometimes you’ll lose. As long as you draw breath, you’ll never stop fighting, even if you go 
  down screaming. 
  Or, at least, that’s what the Vigil requires. 
  Explained vs. Unknown 
  To be a hunter is to linger in the dark. The character doesn’t know all there is to know about the 
  supernatural — even if player does. Hunters know the unnatural things go bump in the night 
  aren’t regulated to nightmares. Cells understand they’re real — and those “things” can be hunted 
  provided they figure out how to track, capture, contain, or kill them. 
  The strange and unknowable are mysteries for the cell to figure out. A hunter encountering one 
  flesh-eating humanoid might assume they know exactly what’s feeding on people, until another 
  flesh eater comes along and doesn’t fit the profile. When combined with mysterious places — 
  haunted houses, monsters’ lairs, and roadside shrineswith statues that bleed — hunters have their 
  hands full when piecing together what’s happening in that area before moving onto the next. 
  Storytellers are encouraged to leverage what hunters don’t know as narrative tools to remind 
  them they don’t and can’t know everything, no matter how hard they try — and that’s what 
  being mortal in the Chronicles of Darkness is all about. 
  Sacrifice vs. Self-Preservation 
  Hunters are pushed to the edge, but they don’t have to hunt alone. In a cell, they can rely on 
  other hunters to pitch in and get the job done. Compacts and conspiracies add to a hunter’s 
  community but, when push comes to shove, it’s a cell that’s doing the heavy lifting. Sometimes, 
  however, hunters are forced to make hard choices. They must choose between taking down a 
  monster or saving a victim. They must decide if they’ll risk taking a perfect shot at a slasher 
  when their buddy stands in the way. 
  Sometimes, however, hunters don’t just sacrifice other hunters or the victims they’re trying to 
  save. They might be cornered or even kidnapped by a monster who wants to use them to find 
  other hunters. They might be the hunter guarding an exit and, after all their cellmates have fallen, 
  they’re standing between the monster and freedom. When upholding the Vigil, hunters may say 
  they’re willing to sacrifice everything — even their own safety — to fight the darkness. Only the 
  hunt will prove whether there’s any truth to their claims, because somewhere along the way, 
  each hunter will face their darkest fears and be forced to confront their own mortality. 
  In Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition, thematic devices and rules governing a hunter’s place in 
  the world remind them of what they stand to lose. Upholding the Vigil exacts a heavy toll, but 
  it’s ultimately up to the hunter what they’re comfortable sacrificing or preserving. 
  Hope vs. Despair 
  Sometimes, hunters win. Sometimes they lose. Eventually, however, hunters come to the 
  realization that the shadows won’t stop gathering and monsters won’t suddenly give up and 
  remain in the darkness. This realization can happen during a hunt or investigation. It might occur 
  before the cell starts fighting back. Once this terrifying truth is known, however, the hunter and 
  their cell must find a way to keep going — otherwise they’ll lose to utter despair. 
  While despair might be all-but guaranteed, hope is the only thing that can keep it confined. The 
  candle hunters light is a representation of their burning desire to hold the line, but it’s also a 
  
  visual way to show how important it is to feel hope even when the darkness is winning. As long 
  as a hunter has hope in their heart, the darkness can’t truly win. 
  Providing ways for hunters to feel hope in a chronicle is crucial to ensure the game isn’t so dark 
  and depressing it’s no longer enjoyable to play. Storytellers are encouraged to give cells 
  opportunities to win, even if it’s small or temporary. These moments are fuel for the fire and will 
  keep the Vigil — and the players’ interest — burning bright. 
  Will you pledge to uphold the Code? Will you light a candle and stand against the gathering 
  dark? If you do, don’t worry. The flame you hold is not the only fire that burns. You’ll have help 
  from your fellow cellmates, and together you may burn bright enough to hold the line and keep 
  the darkness from swallowing you whole. 
  Lexicon 
  In the world of Hunter: The Vigil, cells do the best they can with the knowledge they have. 
  Often, they can’t find the right words or don’t know a monster’s name — for good reason. As the 
  underdogs, hunters possess varying degrees of knowledge that may or may not be relevant. 
  Though hunters may not understand what they’re in for, a common vocabulary is used in Hunter 
  to present narrative advice and relevant rules. These terms are setting-specific and, when 
  appropriate, notable rules are mentioned in the description. 
  cell: A group of hunters who fight together. They share the emotional, psychological, and 
  physical burdens the hunt requires, and often have similar views of the Code. 
  cellmate: An individual hunter in a cell. 
  blessings: Hunters belonging to a conspiracy receive gifts from their organization that are 
  imbued with the supernatural. They often refer to these gifts as “blessings.” In the rules, these are 
  represented by Endowments (p. XX). 
  bloodsucker: A slang word used to describe a vampire or other monster who drinks human 
  blood. 
  cleansing: A word hunters often use to describe the process of removing the supernatural from a 
  physical location or object. 
  Code, the: The Code represents an individual hunter’s pledge to fight the darkness. This has 
  both a thematic and mechanical effect in the game (p. XX). 
  compact: A regional organization to which multiple cells belong. Compacts (p. XX) may be 
  formed around hunting a specific monster, a view of the Code, a method of hunting, etc. Each 
  compact allows its members to earn status in exchange for additional benefits or resources. 
  Structurally, compacts are represented in a tier-two chronicle. 
  conspiracy: A global organization to which multiple cells belong; each conspiracy often holds 
  many factions. Conspiracies (p. XX) wield considerable resources to fulfill their unique agenda 
  in the fight against the supernatural. Each conspiracy allows its members to earn status in 
  exchange for additional benefits, resources, and Endowments. Conspiracies are represented in 
  tier-three chronicles. 
  cryptid: A strange and unusual animal that may or may not exist. Examples of cryptids include 
  the hodag, bunyip, wendigo, and yeti.  
  
  cursed object: A dangerous mundane or well-crafted occult item that displays supernatural 
  properties. In Hunter, these are also called Bygones (p. XX). 
  darkness, the: A term hunters use to describe the world of the supernatural or its denizens. 
  demon: An infernal monster. Hunters often use language to describe demons through their 
  cultural or religious lens, unaware of their true origins. 
  enemy, the: Anything that threatens a human or animal life. 
  ghost: The spirit of a mortal who has passed.  
  horror: Another word for monster. May also be used to describe disembodied entities or spirits. 
  monster: The primary term used to describe all of the entities hunters fight. 
  mythic: Hunters often use the word “mythic” to identify legendary monsters, locations, or relics 
  that either don’t exist (and therefore can’t be hunted) or are a once-in-a-lifetime find. Examples 
  include: the phoenix, the Lost Continent of Mu, and Poseidon’s Trident. 
  mysterious place: Phrase used to describe locations or areas that have had reports of 
  supernatural activity (p. XX). A nest is a monster’s lair, a tainted place displays supernatural 
  effects, and sentient places are monstrous locations.  
  nest: A common term used to describe a monster’s home. It is a type of mysterious place (p. 
  XX). 
  relic: A term some hunters use to describe a supernatural item that may, with time and study, be 
  safe to handle and provide further benefits. In game terms, a relic is a true Bygone (p. XX). 
  rival cell: A competitive group of hunters that turns the hunt into a contest, whether the other 
  cell wants to compete or not. 
  rogue cell: A group of hunters who operate on their own. Rogue cells are also referred to as 
  “cancer cells.” 
  slasher: Serial killers and mass murderers who, for Hunter’s purposes, are treated as monsters 
  (p. XX). A ripper is still considered human, whereas a slasher is not.  
  spirit: A ghost-like entity that may or may not have been human at one time. Hunters refer to 
  anything that isn’t a ghost, but displays traits like one, as a spirit. 
  supernatural: A term that refers to the strange and unexplained; it is often used as a description 
  for the darkness. Hunters often struggle with the definition and how it affects their view of the 
  Code. 
  Twilight: A word a few hunters use to describe the world in which ghosts and spirits reside. 
  Some hunters use this term without fully understanding what it means. 
  Vigil, the: A hunter’s never-ending fight against the darkness.  
  warlock/witch: A term hunters use to loosely describe occultists, summoners, necromancers, 
  and other types of magic users treated as monsters. 
  How to Use This Book 
  
  Welcome to Hunter: The Vigil. Hunter presents a core set of rules and three options for 
  gameplay. This toolkit is supported by additional rules and narrative systems that can be 
  customized to fit different playing styles. 
  Chapter One: Flickering Candles provides an overview of a hunter’s world, the types of 
  hunters you can play, and three, separate types of gameplay included in this book: tiers one, two, 
  and three. You’ll also read more about Hunter lore and the history of the compacts and 
  conspiracies. 
  Chapter Two: Compacts and Conspiracies are specialized hunter organizations that may be 
  used for tier-two or -three games. In this chapter, you’ll find write-ups for six compacts and six 
  conspiracies, along with rules for tier-three Endowments and how to make them. 
  Chapter Three: Character Creation allows you to build and customize a character. You’ll 
  learn how hunters retain one foot in an unsuspecting world and another in the Vigil. Plus, you’ll 
  discover more about the Code and how it shapes their core identities and beliefs. 
  Chapter Four: Rules of the Hunt dives into the rules for gameplay. It also offers rules for 
  specific aspects of Hunter that includes investigation and socializing.  
  Chapter Five: Monsters Around the World offers a taste of the strange and unusual monsters 
  hunters may come across during the hunt. Sample monsters are presented according to the type 
  of terrain from which they originate along with notes for how these creatures may be modified. 
  Additionally, monster-creation rules, ephemeral-entity rules, and Dread Powers are found in this 
  chapter.  
  Chapter Six: Mysterious Places takes another look at the Hunter setting by introducing where 
  monsters live, locations the supernatural has tainted, and which places are actually monsters 
  themselves. It offers new rules to handle each type of location, along with several examples. 
  Chapter Seven: The Slasher Chronicle is a sample chronicle setting. Yanked from the slasher-
  movie genre, The Slasher Chronicle is a horror movie-themed setting that includes rules for 
  building slashers; customized approaches for tier-one, -two, and -three gameplay; new 
  Storyteller characters; and more! 
  Chapter Eight: Storytelling offers advice for Storytellers to help build and manage a chronicle 
  while fleshing out rules for Storyteller characters. Additional content includes advice for creating 
  player-facing compacts and conspiracies. 
  Appendix 1: Equipment presents lists of equipment and rules for modifying and customizing 
  gear. Equipment is covered in Chapter Four. 
  Appendix 2: Tilts is a list of Tilts that may be used in a Hunter game. Rules for handling Tilts 
  are addressed in Chapter Four. 
  Appendix 3: Conditions is a list of Conditions provided for ease of reference. Rules to use 
  Conditions are found in Chapter Four. 
  Other Chronicles of Darkness Games 
  Hunter is a standalone sourcebook that presents all rules necessary to play the game. It is 
  compatible with the Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook, which acts as an introductory game for 
  a player’s first brush with the supernatural. The rulebook may be used to build a prequel for a 
  group of characters who haven’t committed to the Vigil or to expand options for hunters and 
  
  monsters. Additional rules found in that book range from specialized systems for ghosts to 
  psychic abilities, as well as the God-Machine Chronicle. 
  Dark Eras, the Dark Eras Companion, and Dark Eras 2 are historical collections of chapters 
  set during unique time periods. The line offers Storytellers a deeper look at each Chronicles of 
  Darkness game line through a historic lens; the Hunter chapters offer deeper options for 
  roleplay while highlighting the rich lore of compacts and conspiracies such as The Cheiron 
  Group. 
  Introduction to Roleplaying Games 
  Chances are, you know what a Storytelling — or roleplaying — game is already. But, just like 
  hunters, we enjoy finding new people to uphold the Vigil. So if you’re new here, let’s talk about 
  the basics. 
  In Hunter: The Vigil, you play out stories following a core cast of characters as they fight their 
  way through the Chronicles of Darkness, a version of our own everyday world filled with 
  monsters. It’s a lot like a TV drama, something like The Walking Dead or The X-Files. 
  Individual gaming sessions, generally running two-to-four hours, are like weekly episodes. 
  Secrets will be revealed, relationships will be tested, and blood will be spilled. 
  Around three-to-five players are recommended to play Hunter, but the game can be played with 
  two people. Each player slips into one character’s role: a hunter. You’ll make decisions for your 
  hunter — when their best friend betrays them, you’ll plot a scheme for revenge. When another 
  hunter picks a fight, you’ll decide whether they run or negotiate with them. Perhaps most 
  importantly, you’ll tell the story of how you stand up to monsters even though you’re terrified, to 
  uphold the Vigil. 
  One player, the Storyteller, is responsible for portraying characters who don’t belong to specific 
  players and presenting fictional situations that challenge the other players’ characters. Think of 
  these as the supporting cast of our imagined TV series — both ongoing characters who help or 
  oppose the core cast, and guest stars of the week who turn up to cause unique kinds of trouble. 
  As for challenging the player characters, it’s the job of the Storyteller to come up with scenes 
  where the players must make decisions fraught with conflict and danger. In Hunter, these scenes 
  are often related to the hunt for the supernatural. The Storyteller narrates a situation, then the 
  other players say how their characters respond. The most important question a Storyteller can ask 
  is: “What do you do now?” 
  When a character acts, the outcome of the action is determined by rolling a handful of 10-sided 
  dice. The basics are simple. You add a few numbers on your character sheet (a mini-dossier) and 
  roll that many dice. You’ll find out whether your action works or fails. Failures affect your story 
  by getting your character into more trouble, while successes provide opportunities for your 
  character to move forward as they intended. 
  While players other than the Storyteller will generally be advocates for their characters’ success, 
  planning ways in which they can succeed, a lot of drama and fun comes from those moments 
  when an elaborate plan turns to ash. Again, think of a television series: The most interesting 
  episodes are often the ones where everything goes wrong for the characters until they find a way 
  to turn it around. That said, the Storyteller should make sure characters have a way to bounce 
  back rather than constantly dumping ways to suffer on them. 
  
  Player Responsibilities 
  Each player is responsible for a different part of the story. When combined, your group will 
  weave an elaborative narrative as you fight monsters together. 
  The Storyteller is responsible for… 
  …bringing the Chronicles of Darkness to life through description. 
  …deciding where scenes start and what’s going on. 
  …portraying characters who don’t belong to other players. 
  …involving each player and their character in the ongoing story. 
  …putting players’ characters in tough spots, encouraging interesting decisions. 
  …making sure poor dice rolls affect, but don’t stop, the story. 
  The players are responsible for… 
  …creating their own individual characters as members of the cast.  
  …deciding what actions their characters take. 
  …making decisions that create drama and help keep the story moving. 
  …highlighting their characters’ strengths and weaknesses. 
  …confronting the problems the Storyteller introduces. 
  …developing their characters’ personalities and abilities over time, telling personal stories within 
  the game’s overarching narrative. 
  Everyone is responsible for… 
  …giving other players chances to highlight their characters’ abilities and personal stories, 
  whether that’s by showing them at their strongest or weakest. 
  …making suggestions about the story and action, while keeping in mind the authority of players 
  over their characters and the responsibility of the Storyteller to occasionally make trouble. 
  Sources & Inspiration 
  Hunter: The Vigil is a monster-hunting game where mortals form groups, called “cells” to take 
  back the world from the monsters that slither in the Chronicles of Darkness. Gameplay can be 
  gritty, downright terrifying, or both. 
  Sources include materials drawn upon for the first edition of Hunter: The Vigil and new books, 
  movies, comics, and games to round out the list. 
  Non-Fiction 
  Alien Dawn by Colin Wilson is a nonfiction look at all manner of bizarre phenomena and 
  monstrous incursions into our world. Folklore, ghosts, lost time, psychic weirdness, aliens, and 
  monsters all appear in some form or another. 
  The Science of Vampires by Katherine Ramsland, Ph. D is a deep dive into vampire lore from a 
  scientific perspective. The techniques used in this book can be fuel for science-minded characters 
  and cells. 
  
  Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer is a compelling, easy-to-read book about real parasites: worms, 
  bacteria, and flies. They bore into bellies, bloodstreams, and brains. 
  The Element Encyclopedia series, written by several authors, offers a wealth of knowledge that 
  covers spirits, psychic phenomena, cults and secret societies, witchcraft, spells, monsters — even 
  birthdays that can be used to build compelling and unique characters with their own 
  personalities.  
  For urban legends, check out books by Jan Harold Brunvald, who’s known for popularizing the 
  term. London Urban Legends: The Corpse on the Tube and Other Stories by Scott Wood, Urban 
  Legends: The As-Complete-As-One-Could-Be Guide to Modern Myths, by Ngaire E. Genge, and 
  Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore by Theresa Bane are also 
  great materials to check out. Reference books on urban legends, often tied to myths and folklore, 
  are also published by small presses and sold in museums. Some introductory books, like Yokai 
  Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide written by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt, may be 
  found in the comics section or in specialty bookstores, too. 
  Lastly, several dictionaries can offer new tools to describe strange phenomena. One such 
  reference book is Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon, written by Dan Clore.  
  Fiction 
  Stories are a great way to dive into monster hunting through different perspectives.  
  Modern fantasy and horror are rife with wonderful stories featuring characters who must deal 
  with the supernatural in their own way. The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, the Anita 
  Blake: Vampire Hunter series by Laurel K. Hamilton, and The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra 
  Clare each focus on fighting the darkness in their own way. Additional books to check out are 
  Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom by Julie Kenner, Trail of Lightning by Rebecca 
  Roanhorse, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, The Good House by Tananarive 
  Due, and Hunting Monsters by S.L. Huang. 
  Resources for The Slasher Chronicle 
  The Slasher Chronicle (p. XX) taps into the darkest recesses of the human soul, 
  scoops out whatever’s there, and exposes it for all to see. Slashers in Hunter were 
  first featured in a standalone supplement titled Slasher, published in 2008, and are 
  the titular monster for this chronicle. 
  Want great source material? Read Goth by Otsuichi, Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. 
  Brite, The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, and A Killer’s Mind by Mike Omer. 
  Watch It Follows, Bloody Reunion, The Slit-Mouthed Woman, Nadja, and Session 
  9. Serial killers can also be found in the Japanese manga series Death Note, 
  Monster, Erased, and several others. 
  Hellblazer, from DC/Vertigo comics, spawned occult detective John Constantine and inspired a 
  movie, Constantine, and a TV series of the same name. Along those same lines, the Lucifer TV 
  show, a spin-off from the Sandman comics by Neil Gaiman, dives into the L.A. scene with a 
  touch of the infernal. S.P.O.O.K.S. from Rosarium Publishing is an investigative comic where 
  the characters unravel modern conspiracy theories — perfect fodder to weave behind the scenes 
  of a chronicle while commenting on race. 
  
  The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman is a stellar example of humans trying like hell to win the 
  unwinnable fight, and the popular TV show of the same name highlights how necessary it is to 
  find something to hang on to in our darkest moments. 
  Of course, no list of monster-hunting comics would be complete without mentioning the Bureau 
  for Paranormal Research and Defense or B.P.R.D. from Dark Horse Comics. 
  Films and TV 
  In addition to previously mentioned shows, Supernatural is an American monster-hunting series 
  that aired 15 seasons from 2005 to 2020. As the story swells, brothers Sam and Dean join forces 
  with allied hunters at “The Roadhouse” for several seasons until they join the Men of Letters. 
  This show, while tightly focused on the Winchesters’ perspective, offers story hooks and ways to 
  shape a chronicle around a larger mystery. The X-Files is like an ongoing Hunter chronicle, 
  maybe even featuring a pair of Task Force: VALKYRIE hunters. 
  Monster-hunting movies range from the serious to the comedic and everything in between. 
  Fallen, directed by Gregory Hoblin, is about a detective in pursuit of a supernatural serial killer 
  — a demon that jumps from body to body. Lake Effect is a movie about hunting the Yeti, perfect 
  for cryptid-themed hunts. Dog Soldiers is a spectacular werewolf-hunting movie and The 
  Babadook is about a strange, inexplicable creature who terrifies a young, single mother. 
  Video Games 
  Yes indeed, games can inspire games. The number of monster-hunting video games is limitless, 
  but some bear special mention: Alone in the Dark, F.E.A.R., Half-Life 1 & 2, Silent Hill, The 
  Witcher, and Monster Hunter can all serve as inspiration for a cool, action-oriented Hunter: The 
  Vigil game. 
  
  INTRODUCTION OPENING FICTION 
  August 25, 2001, 3:55 P.M. That dark day was the last time we saw Victor Cheng. He’d been 
  one of us. Great guy. Excellent with numbers. You’d be surprised how useful that is. Big data 
  matters. With the right tools, you can taxonomize anomalies, divine the correlation between 
  disappearances in two counties, even triangulate hot zones with only a 0.0.25% margin of error. 
  Our cell wasn’t — isn’t — very big, but with Victor’s help, we made do. We kept Kuala Lumpur 
  safe. 
  But then Victor vanished. 
  It should have been a routine hit. Like always, it was Victor who’d flagged the first occurrence 
  for investigation: a skirmish in Petaling Street that ended with a mamak owner being bitten. The 
  local rags joked about zombies, but we knew better. We’d seen this before. 
  Twenty-five confirmed incidents over a two-week period. Five sightings of a bipedal rat thing 
  skulking in the back alleys. Our cell was discreet. We didn’t go in guns blazing. Instead, we 
  tightened a slow noose, applying cunning and poison where necessary, thinning food supplies. A 
  month later, we were ready, having pushed our quarry into Lok Ann Hotel. 
  It should have been cut and dry. Nine fully equipped hunters, with a back-up team of recruits. 
  Clearance to investigate the building without interference from civilians. The enemies went 
  down quick in spumes of gore and gristle. They were rats the length of your forearm. Chimerical 
  monstrosities. Wet and squirming newborns, toothless but still ravenous.  
  It should have ended there. But as we made a final sweep of the perimeter, the air sharpened with 
  the reek of salt, and reality became a muzzle flash at point-blank range. When the incandescence 
  burned itself into an afterimage, Victor was gone. 
  • • • 
  In the five years following Victor’s disappearance, our numbers exploded. Kuala Lumpur was 
  sectioned into quadrants, each monitored by multiple cells. The increasing commonality of high-
  speed internet let us talk easier, find each other. The cybercafes became hubs, spokes radiating 
  outwards, that let us connect to other hunters calling out in the dark. We developed a system: 20-
  somethings in corporate wear and teenagers in sweats, old men with bleeding hearts, all 
  slouching behind encrypted VPNs, anonymous amid the cacophony of LAN games. Calling into 
  the worldwide void: Can anyone hear me? Are you there?  
  Throughout that time, I kept Victor’s servers alive. There were reams of data spooled tight as 
  family secrets, acres of untapped knowledge. I didn’t have the knowledge to unravel them. 
  Victor was the computer whiz; I was the homebrew demolitionist. But I might one day. 
  August 25, 2006, 3:55 P.M. I sat down at Victor’s computer and trudged through his archives, 
  hoping I’d find something, anything. An explanation as to what happened to my brother, a lode 
  of information, a string of cryptographed jokes. Anything that might offer a sense of connection. 
  And I did. 
  J-O-H-N, my name spelled in ASCII drawings.  
  F-I-N-D M-E. 
  • • • 
  
  August 28, 2011, 12:05 P.M. Alone, I went to the coordinates Victor provided, arms laden with 
  what he’d asked for: the polished femur of a werewolf we’d saved from a hunt, frangipani petals, 
  slivers and squares of gleaming metal. It was a risk. I knew that. Nine out of ten chance it was a 
  trap. But it could also have been Victor and I wasn’t about to throw that away.  
  I set the stash down at the mouth of the river, the sun transforming the jungle to emerald, and 
  waited. Fifteen minutes after noon, he said. 
  Right on schedule, the air flashed white. When I reopened my eyes, my offerings were gone. 
  • • • 
  I married a civilian earlier this year: Anita Lau, an anesthesiologist I’d met by while recovering 
  from a botched sting. Things were getting bad in Kuala Lumpur. Bad everywhere. There were 
  more hunters every year, more dead bodies, more amber-eyed girls with hair that hissed and 
  whispered, more toyols, more stories of people dead, dying, and dismembered. 
  Maybe that’s why I married her so quickly. She was kind, quiet, competent. Not once did she ask 
  me about the scars intaglioed on my skin, or why my arm had been broken so many times, or 
  who were the people who’d sometimes come to our door, smelling of coal and blood. Anita 
  understood I had a responsibility. She never asked what. 
  August 25, 2011, 3:55 P.M. I sat down at the desk Victor once ruled, its surface still littered with 
  junk. As I dug into the repositories of his hard drive, the screen flickered: 
  J-O-H-N, my name written again in quivering block letters. 
  A-G-A-I-N. 
  • • • 
  This time, his directions led me to Mount Tahan. At the top the highest peak of the peninsula, I 
  set down the items he’d asked for: bottles of bone dust, petrified entrails, the victuals of 
  necromancy. 
  Again, the air roared white. 
  And again, my offerings vanished. 
  Somewhere, my brother was fighting something I could not see. 
  • • • 
  August 25, 2014, 3:55 P.M. 
  His message was different this time, more refined.  No more ASCII text. Instead, he wrote two 
  words in a Google document I had open: Be ready. 
  There were no coordinates this time, no list to fulfill. Be ready. That was all he had to tell me. 
  Anita would divorce me later that year. It was amiable, a mutual decision negotiated over several 
  nights of cheap wine. I gave her the house but kept the car. An aging hunter needs to stay mobile. 
  When she moved out, Anita asked me if I had anything to add, a eulogy for what we’d had.  
  I said nothing. 
  
  But the truth was that I wanted to tell her I was grateful, that I was thankful she’d walk away. 
  The Vigil is a promise. To uphold the Vigil is to uphold the promise you’ll fight the supernatural. 
  Even if it costs you everything.  
  Having said that, I’d sooner die than see her name on a headstone.  
  • • • 
  August 25, 2016, 3:55 P.M. 
  I knew before Victor wrote the words that something was coming. Something big. Something 
  that smelled like the monsoon boiling over the city, warm, wet, reeking of burnt ozone. The 
  forums teemed with rumors. Indonesia and Australia, both overrun with ghost stories, myths that 
  bled over into the cities. Coyotes with human eyes, men and women who chittered like spiders, 
  smiling. Always smiling. No one knew if any of it was real, or if it was just the result of living 
  our lives on subforums haunted by fuckers who couldn’t tell fiction from fact. 
  Coming back, Victor wrote across my search bar. So many things to show you. 
  Fifteen years, I kept the secret of Victor’s messages. Waiting, hoping that it was my brother and 
  not some ghost in the machine, praying that I hadn’t outfitted a demon for escape. Next year, 
  we’ll find out if my gamble paid off. There was still time to tell someone, prepare contingencies, 
  but even if something that looked, talked, and walked like Victor Cheng emerged into the light 
  on the next anniversary, I knew precisely what my peers would do. 
  So, heart banging against my ribs, I wrote instead: Where? 
  END OPENING FICTION 
  Chapter One: Flickering Candles 
  “Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast 
  light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.” 
  — Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man 
  A hunter stands between the people they want to protect and the monsters threatening their 
  safety. You toe the line, knowing your life is at risk, because you made a vow. Night after night, 
  you step into the darkness to track down the enemy. If you are very lucky, you deal with the 
  threat and tie up loose ends before the sun rises. If you’re still in one piece, you’ll patch yourself 
  up, get some rest, and prepare for your next hunt — tomorrow, the next night, or the night after 
  that. 
  You call yourself a “hunter” because you’ve pledged to uphold the Vigil. You don’t get the 
  luxury of a vacation or a day off. The Vigil is a commitment that requires dedication, sheer 
  willpower, and bravery. You, along with your fellow hunters, are taking a stand against the 
  supernatural. Maybe you’re convinced one day you’ll win the fight. Maybe you’re aware you 
  won’t. The Vigil doesn’t care about how you feel, what you know, or what you stand to lose. 
  Every secret you glean is another bullet in your gun. Every mystery you unravel makes the 
  enemy vulnerable. It’s your job, after all. You are a hunter. You will not back down from a fight, 
  not even when you’re staring into the cold, soulless eyes of death itself. 
  
  Will you light a candle? Will you be the hunter your friends need you to be? Will you help battle 
  the encroaching darkness and force the shadows to retreat? 
  Time to find out. 
  Preparing to Hunt 
  The Chronicles of Darkness are filled with horrors that lunge at mortals from the shadows, 
  kidnap victims in broad daylight, and plot elaborate schemes to wield power over human 
  societies. Hunters know this to be true, because they’ve had an encounter with the supernatural 
  and somehow, in some way, survived. Now, they’ve pledged to uphold the Vigil by committing 
  themselves — in body, mind, and heart — to the hunt. 
  For the Player: A Hunter’s Prelude 
  Every hunter remembers what it was like before they made a commitment to uphold 
  the Vigil. This, in game terms, is called a “prelude.” If this is something you or your 
  group wants to do, you have two options. First, you can play through your prelude 
  by building characters and playing a chronicle with the Chronicles of Darkness 
  core rulebook. Second, you can play a prelude in Hunter as a tier-one hunter in a 
  cell. Some rules adjustments may be required if you prefer to use this book instead 
  of Chronicles of Darkness, so be sure to discuss options with your Storyteller 
  before your chronicle begins. 
  In Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition, hunters are assumed to be competent hunters with a few 
  hunts under their belt. Hunters have also figured out how to team up with others by forming a 
  cell, joining a compact, or pledging membership to a conspiracy. Some hunters might hold status 
  in their hunter organization or have figured out how to balance the demands of their day job with 
  those of the hunt.  
  Hunters are different from other mortal characters because the needs of the Vigil often eclipse 
  their foothold in society. The choices a player makes when they create a hunter will reflect how 
  they’ve dealt with changing priorities while retaining one foot in their day-to-day life. A priest 
  who joins the Long Night might switch parishes to accommodate their erratic schedule. A former 
  celebrity might avoid the limelight until they can figure out how to use their fame to their 
  advantage. A teacher might take a sabbatical, transfer schools, or switch jobs altogether. 
  While your hunter could pack up and abandon their old life, their ties to other people keep them 
  grounded and remind them what they’re fighting for. Sacrificing everything to hunt the enemy 
  has a drastic impact on a hunter’s psyche, and the fewer connections they have, the harder it is 
  for them to make the right choices. 
  As you read about hunter society and the types of hunters you can play, think about what life 
  your character led before they encountered the supernatural. Were they a programmer who 
  blogged at night about urban legends? Were they a stay-at-home parent who volunteered at the 
  local fire department? What types of hobbies did they have? Did they go to church regularly? 
  Volunteer at an animal shelter? Most people aren’t defined by their day job; they are shaped by 
  their actions and role in their community. You’ll also be required to identify their connection to 
  the world they’re trying to save, so think about who your hunter loves and trusts, too. 
  
  Who your character was prior to becoming a hunter doesn’t negatively impact their ability to 
  uphold the Vigil. In Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition, anyone can be a hunter — there are no 
  barriers or entrance exams preventing someone from tracking down the supernatural. All you 
  need to become a hunter is the willingness to take a stand knowing your fight never ends. 
  Hunter Backgrounds 
  Hunters are people who pay their bills, buy groceries, and maintain their apartments. The Vigil is 
  expensive to maintain, because most hunters aren’t being rewarded for eliminating a threat. After 
  all, the people they’re fighting to protect don’t believe monsters are real. Most hunters know that 
  upholding the Vigil is often costly. Sometimes, even a “thank you” can be hard to come by. 
  Many hunters join a compact or conspiracy to collect a paycheck or benefit from a pool of shared 
  resources. Despite this, most hunters still have day jobs where they collect a salary and remain 
  tied to the people they’re trying like hell to protect. Listed here are 10 sample recommendations 
  you can use to create a hunter. Each job offers a way to make money and a potential benefit that 
  can be used to study, track, or capture the enemy. 
  When reviewing professions, think about what type of character and game you want to play. 
  Your hunter’s day job might influence which hunter organization you choose. A compact like 
  The Union, for example, would be thrilled to have a mechanic on hand, whereas the conspiracy 
  Council of Bones may be more inclined to welcome a freelancer or occultist into their ranks. 
  Academic: People who work in academia often have access to papers, books, peer research, and 
  relics others may not. Depending upon what job the hunter has, they may be able to spend time 
  away acquiring new materials for an archive or take a sabbatical. 
  Business Professional: White-collar workers who show up from nine to five may not have the 
  flexibility other jobs do but can be great for a steady paycheck and office gossip. Often, stellar 
  business professionals are chosen by compacts because of their ability to navigate office politics 
  and their expertise in their chosen field. 
  Criminal: From gang members to petty thugs, con artists, and thieves, hunters sometimes 
  begrudgingly look to criminals to help them out in a pinch. Being a criminal in Hunter can be 
  challenging in a cell of do-gooders, however, so be sure to talk to your group beforehand. 
  Detective: Investigative skills are crucial to the hunt, and detectives have a knack for tracking 
  down leads and opening cold cases for information. Police detectives also have an “in” with law 
  enforcement, while independent detectives have more freedom to get the job done. 
  Doctor: Medical professionals are crucial in Hunter, because they can provide medical 
  treatment without forcing hunters to fill out paperwork that might raise eyebrows. Doctors are 
  also familiar with what it means to pledge their lives to the greater good, via the Hippocratic 
  Oath. 
  Freelancer: The benefit of being a freelancer is a flexible schedule and the ability to work from 
  anywhere, at any time. The downsides range from getting paid on time to finding fulfilling 
  assignments. Freelancers can be great hunters because networking is part of their day job, so they 
  know how to ask the right questions when needed. 
  Journalist: Journalists come in a variety of shapes and sizes and write everything from gut-
  wrenching feel-good articles to hard-hitting features. Some may work at newspapers, while 
  
  others blog from home to cover the news from day to day. Their value is often measured by how 
  many connections they have — and how much they can spin the truth. 
  Mechanic: Every hunter has equipment that will break down sooner or later. A gun gets 
  jammed, a car’s brakes go bad, a two-way radio is on the fritz. Mechanics can operate out of a 
  garage or vehicle they own or rent. Some mechanics might even work at an old junkyard — the 
  perfect place to set up a command center when needed or find dated parts. 
  Occultist: Modern occultists, in a post-new-age world, tend to linger on forums and in private 
  channels discussing auspicious signs, strange phenomena, and tools of the trade. Usually, 
  occultists don’t “just” uncover the secrets of the supernatural; this, however, is the exception 
  rather than the rule. When choosing an occultist, think of them as an “expert” in their area of 
  study. 
  Religious Leader: Faith is important in the world of Hunter. All hunters, whether they’re 
  religious, spiritual, or atheist, believe in something. The religious leader has a deep connection to 
  their faith and the community they serve. Practitioners include imams, ministers, priests, 
  shamans, rabbis, shepherds, and many more. 
  Scientist: Scientists are familiar with the unexplained. Their purpose is to test, research, 
  hypothesize, and study what they don’t know in their field, whether that’s figuring out ways to 
  increase the production of grain or identifying the reason why a cryptid’s blood was green. 
  Scientists also ground the hunt in analysis and, often, find inventive weaknesses a monster might 
  possess. 
  Want to get started playing Hunter? If you prefer to play in a tierone chronicle, flip to Chapter 
  3: Character Creation on p. XX. Additional professional backgrounds are listed on p. XX. 
  Not sure just yet? Read on for a brief overview of equipment followed by cells, compacts, and 
  conspiracies. Then, check out tier-two and tier-three hunter organizations in Chapter 2: 
  Compacts and Conspiracies on p. XX. 
  Tools and Equipment 
  Combat-heavy Hunter chronicles force hunters to think creatively and improvise with the tools 
  and equipment they have on hand. Whether they’re stocking up on tripwires or not, hunters 
  typically have an array of weapons they’ll use to threaten or kill the enemy.  
  Hunters require access to weapons to uphold the Vigil. How many guns, knives, and bullets they 
  acquire from night to night will depend upon what resources they can safely tap into without fear 
  of being caught or arrested. A hunter who owns a gun range will have more armaments than 
  someone who works part time at one, for example. If that part timer gets reported, a cop isn’t 
  going to buy a wild story that they’re only trying to kill a thing with glistening fangs and sharp 
  claws.  
  Many hunters join a compact or conspiracy because they realize hunter organizations have more 
  weapons than they could acquire or maintain on their own. Often, members don’t realize that the 
  access to greater resources comes with a price: Hunters are expected to perform according to the 
  needs of their group. When they do, they gain status. When they don’t? Every move they make is 
  put under scrutiny. For this reason, some hunters avoid having anyone look over their shoulder, 
  and partner with other cells or individual hunters who have what they need. 
  
  Savvy hunters partner with others to improvise equipment, build traps, and scope out sites to 
  locate the entrances and exits. Some rely heavily on their professional background — especially 
  if they’re a member of law enforcement, freelance security, or the military — to plan an ambush. 
  Others possess encyclopedic knowledge of the supernatural and help pinpoint a monster’s 
  strengths and weaknesses. Lone hunters who favor a gun over a book often find they’re not as 
  effective as groups of hunters who share knowledge, resources, and tactics. Groups of hunters, 
  called “cells” in hunter society, excel because their burdens and costs are shared among 
  members. 
  Experienced hunters know the difference between winning and losing isn’t a well-timed bullet 
  — it’s information. Data, firsthand accounts, and lore can be gleaned from books in the library or 
  online, but also through a hunter’s social network. Sometimes, having a friend in an unusual 
  place, like an independent bookstore, university department, or even a church rectory, helps a 
  hunter cover their bases and ensure they’re not just searching for intel on the internet all day, 
  every day. Other times, these networks aren’t tucked away in a business, university, or house of 
  worship. Regular customers in a coffee house might know more than they’re letting on about a 
  businessman who never takes off his sunglasses. A knitting circle might gossip about what really 
  happened to the mayor that fateful night. A co-ed basketball team that plays in the park might 
  shiver whenever that human-seeming creature walks by. 
  In addition to weapons and information, hunters often work with occultists and collectors who 
  specialize in the supernatural. This aspect of the hunt can generate more frustration than facts, 
  because occult materials are often rife with dated perspectives, myths and folklore, conspiracy 
  theories, and disinformation. If a hunter can get past the 27 different versions of how to perform 
  an exorcism, they might find the one that works. Once they know a demon can be affected by an 
  exorcism, then it’s just a matter of time before a cell finds the right one. 
  Hunter Society 
  Hunters often start fighting monsters because someone they knew got hurt and they want 
  payback. At some point, they’ll decide whether they can commit to the Vigil. Once they do, 
  there’s no going back. Once you pledge to uphold the Vigil, you will always be a hunter.  
  Hunters often whisper that the Vigil isn’t just a promise — it’s a curse that tears you up inside 
  and spits your heart out. If you’re not careful, if you don’t remember to celebrate the small wins 
  and forget your losses as best you can, you could lose yourself to the hunt. Every back alley, 
  basement, or cemetery you see becomes a potential battleground where you’ll fight the enemy. If 
  not this night, you grimly think, it’ll only be a matter of time before you will. 
  The emotional burden of upholding the Vigil is not something hunters can easily bear, because 
  they must keep their job a secret. Humankind is either unaware or intentionally ignorant of the 
  horrors that surround, threaten, and prey upon them. What’s more, hunters are often the first 
  suspects in a sketchy murder investigation. That unusual bite mark? Can’t be supernatural. There 
  must be an explanation, after all.  
  Most people either won’t believe monsters are real or don’t want to know they are. At least, not 
  until they encounter the supernatural and they’re willing to accept the truth. Hunters don’t have 
  the luxury of being skeptics. They know the enemy is real, they understand most people won’t 
  call them heroes or realize somebody saved their lives, and they hunt monsters anyway. Often, 
  
  hunters feel more comfortable in the company of other hunters because they don’t have to hide 
  this part of their lives.  
  The global community of hunters forms a society that is split into three types of groups: cells, 
  compacts, and conspiracies. In Hunter terms, each aspect of society is its own tier or style of 
  gameplay. As a rule of thumb, the higher the tier, the more resources and knowledge of the 
  supernatural the players will have — in addition to a greater emphasis on conspiracy-related 
  politics and a higher threat level. 
  Tier One: Hunter Cells 
  A hunter cell is a small unit of likeminded hunters who fight together night after night. Typically, 
  three to five hunters pool their resources and expertise for the benefit of the cell.  
  All hunters fight in a cell, but not every cell is considered a tier-one group. A tier-one cell 
  operates on a local level, with limited knowledge of the supernatural. Usually, a cell watches out 
  for other people in their neighborhood and patrols each night to ensure no monsters infringe on 
  their turf. That does not mean cells are restricted to hunting the enemy in a small area. A cell 
  might investigate a sighting in a different town, track a monster from their suburb to a bigger 
  city, or take a road trip to research a cold case.  
  At tier one, chronicles tend to be grittier and more immediate. One cell can’t possibly possess the 
  resources required to eliminate every monster. What they do have, however, is the mobility to 
  deal with emergencies and immediate threats. Their view of hunter society, the supernatural, and 
  the Vigil is limited by what they encounter firsthand as a group. Sometimes, this means a cell 
  will be forced to make the tough call no one else wants to. Do they set a trapped monster on fire 
  knowing there are witnesses nearby? Or, do they let that human-seeming fake go free until 
  nobody’s watching?  
  With no one to answer to, a tier-one cell calls the shots. If hunters have a falling out, then the cell 
  falls apart, and they must look for a new one or abandon the Vigil knowing what’s out there. 
  Most well-populated cities contain dozens of hunter cells that protect the streets when no one 
  else is watching. A cell can become so fixated on dealing with “its” problem, it often operates 
  without knowing another cell is tracking a different monster just one block over.  
  Each cell’s mobility is hampered by the larger pattern of supernatural activity they cannot see. 
  Their lack of knowledge and resources hurts them where it counts. Many cells form, fight, and 
  then fall apart within months if they’re not careful. The physical risks hunters take pale in 
  comparison to the psychological and emotional toll on their psyche, which often results in 
  behavioral quirks or unhealthy habits that, if left untended, can lead to trauma and self-harm. 
  Some hunters are aware of the risks and become obsessed with self-discipline to reduce the 
  Vigil’s heavy toll.  
  While outsiders may not notice why a hunter always sits near an exit or why they make sure their 
  phone is charged and handy, those closest to them will eventually notice any change in their 
  behavior. Unless hunters are extremely careful, their personal relationships may become strained 
  or even broken. Some worried family members might even call a doctor or therapist on their 
  behalf, and unwittingly share details hunters prefer to keep secret. Sometimes, cells can also 
  draw unwanted attention from local law enforcement, rival cells, or rogue hunters just by scoping 
  out a haunt, too. 
  
  Hunters who survive multiple confrontations with the enemy will sometimes take a break and put 
  the Vigil on pause. They know what novice hunters don’t: When you’re always fighting, you 
  sometimes forget who you’re fighting for. Hunters who return to their everyday lives, hoping to 
  forget what horrors they’ve faced, have a hard time readjusting simply because they know that 
  peace is an illusion. There are more monsters emerging from the shadows than hunters realize, 
  and their ignorance is not bliss — it’s deadly. The Vigil once required dedicated hunters, but 
  now? When the stakes are higher? Every hunter has a part to play in the fight against the 
  supernatural. Members of tier-one cells know that better than most, because when a fight breaks 
  out on their turf, they’re the first hunters at the scene. 
  Forming a Cell 
  A typical hunter cell is composed of three to five people. New cells often draw less-experienced 
  hunters who are just starting to learn about the supernatural. Cell creation typically occurs when: 
  • A veteran hunter is actively recruiting other hunters to fight a specific threat. 
  • One or more veteran hunters have left an existing cell. 
  • A worried neighbor, friend, or loved one asks for help without realizing what they’re up 
  against. 
  • A hunter seeks peers to replace fallen or missing friends and rebuild their cell. 
  • A member of law enforcement seeks outside help to close a case. 
  • A family who lost a loved one decides to hunt together. 
  • A hunter (or cell) wants to pass on what they’ve learned. 
  • An existing group (gang, patrol, team, etc.) accidentally crosses paths with the enemy. 
  The size and composition of a cell can fluctuate over time for multiple reasons. Some hunters 
  have obligations to their family or career they can’t ignore. Other members leave after they’re 
  seriously injured to piece themselves back together. More than a few hunters have unfinished 
  business they must deal with before it’s too late. Absences in a cell used to operating with four 
  people can be catastrophic; one fewer expert shot, driver, or medic leaves a hole the cell must try 
  to fill. Most cells are always on the lookout for other likely recruits.  
  Strengths and Weaknesses 
  The primary strength of a hunter cell is its size — with only a handful of members, the team is 
  stealthy and agile, able to react to changing situations quickly, take action, then blend back into 
  the crowd. If they are careful and keep their numbers small, cells can operate invisibly for a very 
  long time, avoiding notice until they are ready to strike. By drawing on the individual skills and 
  resources of their members and using their wits, the cell is self-contained, self-reliant and, with 
  time and experience, can become extremely effective. Some cells can survive for years simply 
  because they learned how to pick the right people, plan their hunts, and when to walk away. 
  A cell’s small size is also its number one drawback. Its operations are limited to the availability, 
  resources and skills of its members, and it’s difficult to replace losses quickly. The members of 
  the cell have no one to turn to in a crisis except one another, and no safety net in the event things 
  go catastrophically wrong. These shortcomings are the primary factor in driving hunters to band 
  
  together when possible by taking on hunts with other cells, or by joining a compact or 
  conspiracy. 
  Tier Two: Hunter Compacts 
  Many hunter compacts take shape by starting out as a collection of isolated cells that come 
  together to pursue the Vigil on a larger scale. Cells facing a common enemy or an increased 
  threat level across vast distances often pool their knowledge and resources for a shared purpose. 
  Over time, an elaborate network of contacts forms to support their goal. Greater numbers and 
  more resources often lead hunters to more success on the streets. Before long, multiple cells are 
  given orders to ensure they’re not tripping over each other and they’re more effective on the 
  hunt. Together, these cells form a compact. 
  A tier-two chronicle broadens the scope of the hunt to cover more ground, offer more resources, 
  and explore a greater view of the supernatural to reveal patterns or predict the enemy’s behavior. 
  Hunter compacts are more capable than a single cell because they have a longer reach; a compact 
  tends to operate in a major metropolitan area or entire region and has the means to keep their 
  operations running smoothly and their hunters well-equipped. Most compacts, like SWORN, the 
  Union, and Null Mysteriis, have set up localized chapters in different parts of the world, as well 
  as private forums and chatrooms to facilitate communication.  
  Keeping the Vigil Secret in an Internet Age 
  Chat rooms, private work groups, email, forums, etc. have proven to be effective 
  tools for cells, compacts, and conspiracies. Not only do they help facilitate 
  communication, privacy-related apps can help hunters retain some peace of mind. 
  Unfortunately, some hunters forget that. An email can be copied and posted. A file 
  can be downloaded and shared. An anonymous query from a worried victim could 
  have been sent by the enemy.  
  Despite the likelihood that a hunter’s data will be leaked, most groups don’t worry 
  about the occasional file share. Fortunately, the internet is rife with misinformation 
  and hunters often joke that undeniable proof of the supernatural is just a few search 
  terms away. Savvy hunters are extremely careful not to share anything they 
  wouldn’t want repeated online, while others are too paranoid to conduct hunter 
  business in a public forum. Most groups ensure that at least one member of their 
  cell, compact, or conspiracy knows how to protect their identities and data lest they 
  fall into the enemy’s claws.  
  Larger cities and metropolitan areas offer many opportunities for compacts to set up shop. Most 
  compacts place a representative or cell in a city that doesn’t have a satellite office to ensure 
  they’re receiving reports of supernatural activity in that area. These hunters are free to form 
  alliances with other compact members and chip in when necessary. Sometimes, a compact 
  member might even lend a hand to a cell without ever revealing which organization they’re 
  working for.  
  While rivalries, turf wars, and bitter feuds do affect hunters in their communities, most compacts 
  discourage disagreements. Hunters understand this in theory, but have a hard time wrapping their 
  minds around conflicting orders during a hunt. Null Mysteriis wants to keep that werecrocodile 
  alive, while The Union doesn’t. The Loyalists of Thule steer clear of that person who seems 
  
  possessed, while The Long Night wants to perform an exorcism they’re not sure will work. 
  When the stakes are high and tension increases, hunters often bicker. If they’re not very, very 
  careful, the enemy will pick up on their differences and use them to their advantage. 
  Philosophical disagreements aside, hunter compacts have what many new hunters need: 
  resources, lore, and skilled veterans who’ve spent more time in the field than their other 
  members have. Experienced hunters prefer the camaraderie of other hunters, and compact sub-
  groups provide a framework to connect with other, likeminded hunters. Though cells don’t 
  always have to be compact-centric, many hunters find it’s easier to hunt monsters when your 
  cellmates have the same view of the Code or answer to the same authority. Cells don’t get to 
  make decisions the same way a tier-two group might. Sometimes, a cell is ordered to grab extra 
  supplies, free a kidnapped hunter, help another friendly cell, retrieve a Bygone, etc.  
  Still, hunters know organization leaders have a plan to which they’re not always privy. Tier-two 
  hunters are far less concerned about hidden agendas than tier-three hunters, however. Compacts 
  might want to explore a new area or expose a group of monsters, but they’re not big or powerful 
  enough to treat the supernatural as their plaything. For security reasons, most compacts prefer 
  their agendas to remain secret, and sometimes that doesn’t sit well with other hunters — but not 
  because they’ve changed their minds about the enemy. Though hunters treat the monsters as 
  “them” and people as “us,” people still abuse power, commit crimes, and hurt others. When 
  someone steps out of line, leaves, or is thrown out of the compact, members want to know what 
  happened — especially if that someone turns out to be the enemy. 
  Hunter compacts don’t have the same longevity conspiracies do, but last far longer than an 
  individual cell or alliance. The main reason they don’t stick around is because compacts aren’t 
  thinking long term. Most tier-two groups don’t plan their futures, simply because they don’t have 
  time to. For every enemy they put down, two more pop up. For every hunter they lose, more time 
  must be spent recruiting and training their replacement. Additionally, they must deal with group 
  politics, cell dynamics, economic downturns, and a host of other problems.  
  Forming a Compact 
  Hunter compacts are often formed out of necessity. There is no minimum or maximum number 
  of cells required to form or maintain a compact. If a new compact is created with two cells, 
  however, the hunters should be expected to handle threats in a larger region while recruiting 
  more cells to join their ranks. Compacts typically boast between 50 and 200 members.  
  Unlike cells, compacts typically recruit members with a few hunts under their belt. While new 
  hunters can join a compact, they don’t have a grip on how they feel about other hunters. After 
  all, there’s nothing worse than joining a compact and getting stuck hunting with people you can’t 
  stand. 
  Compacts form when: 
  • A group of hunters from different cells band together to fight a specific threat. 
  • A group of hunters splits off from another compact for ideological reasons. 
  • A community or organization needs more hunters than it currently has. 
  • Tier-one cells hunt together on a regular basis. 
  • Tier-one cells start pooling their resources together. 
  
  • Hunters in an existing organization or community decide to formalize their activities. 
  • Hunters attracted to a specific philosophy or spiritual belief want to apply those precepts to the 
  Vigil. 
  The compact’s approach to the Vigil is often a deciding factor for new members, and it’s one that 
  shouldn’t be ignored. Compact leaders are aware of this, too, and occasionally allow hunters to 
  shadow existing cells for the purposes of recruitment. Sometimes, the more secretive compacts, 
  like the Loyalists of Thule and Null Mysteriis, will help in a fight to gauge whether or not 
  hunters have what it takes to join them. 
  Strengths and Weaknesses 
  The strengths of joining a compact are the money, information, and ammunition it provides and 
  the hunters who’ll pitch in when needed. While compacts don’t have infinite resources, they give 
  gear, finances, medical assistance, and lore to their hunters. Some have deep connections to law 
  enforcement and political figures and will leverage those relationships should a hunter face jail 
  time. Most own or rent a safe house hunters can use when they’re on the run, and help cells 
  connect with one another if they need help or have to lay low. 
  Compacts do tend to be picky, however, and will often favor cells over a lone hunter. Some also 
  care about their members’ loyalty and activities outside of the hunt. The Union, for example, 
  doesn’t peer into their hunters’ lives provided they show up when called. The Long Night won’t 
  double check to make sure their hunters show up to church every Sunday, either, but unlike The 
  Union they expect their hunters to represent their faith. Some hunters feel a compact’s 
  expectations are a strength, because they have an authority to whom they report. Others see their 
  oversight as a weakness, and often resent criticism — especially if they’re asking for help to 
  clean up a monster’s mess.  
  Most hunters rely on compacts for more information about the supernatural. Lore, whether that’s 
  gained from experience, books, and footage or not, is crucial to knowing where to fire and when. 
  Hunters are acutely aware that cells who get cocky wind up missing or dead, and often need 
  verified data drawn from painstaking research. Compacts understand how valuable good intel 
  can be, but they struggle to sift fact from fiction. Many supernatural creatures are described as 
  urban legends, fairy tales, or myths because most people don’t know (or refuse to believe) 
  they’re real.  
  The lack of factual details to which hunters have access is a problem for cells, compacts, and 
  conspiracies. Hunters have a challenging time classifying monsters, because they’re not sure of 
  the best way to do that. Are all living and undead blood drinkers vampires? Are all shapeshifters 
  a type of werecreature? Once they answer those questions, hunters must figure out how many 
  types there are, their strengths and weaknesses, and where they live. The second a cell 
  encounters a monster whose attributes and behavior don’t add up to what they already know, 
  they question the facts they’ve gathered. At best, hunters are guessing how to confront the 
  supernatural. When they win, they cheer. When they lose, their compact helps them pick up the 
  pieces. 
  Compacts do possess a weakness: their size. The more members they have, the greater the risks. 
  Information leaks. Identities can be shared. A poorly executed hunt can cause casualties and 
  property damage. Hunters can go rogue. Worse: some monsters can pretend to be hunters. When 
  these problems combine, they can expose a compact’s existence and get it mislabeled as a threat 
  
  to the very people they’re trying to save. Every time a cell gets arrested or disbands because their 
  loved ones were slaughtered by the enemy, Network Zero sends out a reminder: Yes, we still 
  believe the supernatural should be exposed. Just don’t forget to watch your back, too. 
  Though compacts don’t suffer the same bureaucratic nightmares conspiracies do, they are run by 
  people who often disagree. Those arguments often start small. Maybe a cell shouldn’t have been 
  given that much ammo. Maybe they should’ve told a hunter more about the slasher they were 
  tracking down. Maybe they should close ranks and stop recruiting members for a while. If 
  they’re not careful, bickering can negatively impact the group. Some hunters will abandon their 
  compact and join a different one or worse — resort to sabotage. Others might form a new faction 
  within the compact, rally other members to take a side, or wage an internal war. 
  Compacts also suffer from a lack of communication and camaraderie. Their operations are 
  spread out over a larger area, and no leaders can possibly know what their members are doing 
  from night to night. While the Vigil demands sacrifice, hunters still have lives. They still possess 
  wants and needs that eclipse hunting monsters. Sometimes, hunters want to have a say in how 
  their compact approaches the Vigil, raises funds, treats its members, and archives its information. 
  Compacts, like any other human-led organization, change over time for different reasons. Just 
  like any corporate stooge or politician, members can abuse their power, resort to corruption, or 
  execute secret agendas that hurt the compact and its role in the Vigil.  
  Tier Three: Hunter Conspiracies 
  Hunter conspiracies are influential and well-financed hunter organizations capable of challenging 
  the world’s monsters on an even footing. Many are far older than any existing compact, and 
  surviving conspiracies tend to be longer-lived than any other hunter group. While cells operate 
  on the ground and compacts in the shadows, conspiracies move behind the scenes to install 
  members in foreign and domestic governments to keep one eye on politics and the other on the 
  supernatural. In general, conspiracies know the most about the supernatural denizens who linger 
  in the world, but even so, they don’t know everything. 
  Conspiracy leaders pride themselves on their organizations’ legacies. What a conspiracy believes 
  is worthy of remembering differs from group to group. The Ascending Ones prize their ingenuity 
  to adapt ancient traditions to a changing world. The Children of the Seventh Generation are 
  grateful they aren’t following in the footsteps of their infernal ancestor. The Council of Bones 
  holds ceremonies to honor the dead they’ve helped. While their perspective helps shape the 
  conspiracy’s approach to its members, it also speaks to what each conspiracy values. The 
  Ascending Ones value the ability to remain self-sufficient, the Lucifuge cares what its hunters do 
  from night to night, and the Council of Bones concerns itself with dead victims to set things 
  right. 
  Tier-three groups regard the supernatural as a tool that can be wielded against the enemy. Each 
  conspiracy has its own methods, secrets, Endowments, and hands-on resources to better equip 
  hunters — or so they tell themselves. While compacts care most about hunting monsters and 
  helping humanity, conspiracies possess long-term agendas. Each conspiracy wants something. 
  The Cheiron Group blends capitalism with monster hunting. The Malleus Maleficarum judges 
  who is and isn’t an “agent of darkness” — including mortals. Task Force: VALKYRIE 
  patriotically fights for all Americans to keep them safe from ENEs. 
  The Cheiron Group Exposed 
  
  Recently, hunters have begun to realize conspiracies often intentionally keep their 
  members — and each other — in the dark as much as possible. One such conspiracy 
  is the Cheiron Group who, up until a few years ago, was believed to have been 
  founded in Europe in 1904. While Edward Barrett did own a small pharmaceutical 
  company and did operate under the Cheiron Group name, the conspiracy has been 
  using different aliases for centuries. One of these aliases, the Acheron Shipping & 
  Trading Guild, operated under that company moniker for well over 300 years. This 
  revelation has led other hunters to wonder what else the Cheiron Group is hiding, 
  and if other conspiracies have used the same tactic to obscure their presence over 
  time. 
  While compacts tend to focus on eliminating threats, conspiracies do so much more. Hunters are 
  tasked to carry out short-term missions like acquiring resources, pursuing an enemy, or 
  researching a location. Long-term goals entail spying; public relations; forming relationships 
  with political, commercial, and community leaders; and sourcing funds for expensive equipment. 
  Often, conspiracies expect hunters to remain obedient. Hunters might be told to spy on specific 
  targets, unaware to whom (or what) they’re listening; some are even ordered to infiltrate other 
  cells in the spirit of friendly competition.  
  Of course, hunters do ask questions. Conspiracies skirt the law as much as they can, because they 
  prioritize their activities in the name of the Vigil. Sometimes, the law makes hunting monsters 
  that much harder. If a conspiracy can’t access a private library they know belonged to a vampire, 
  their hunters are forced to break in and steal books. If they can’t sway an up-and-coming 
  politician to their point of view, they might blackmail or bribe that senator to get their way.  
  Should hunters start asking questions, they quickly realize conspiracies are far from the 
  upstanding, innocent groups they’ll profess to be. 
  Forming a Conspiracy 
  Hunter conspiracies take months, if not years, to form. Their operations require more funding 
  than compacts do because wealth takes time to accumulate. Conspiracies boast their membership 
  is high, but numbers can fluctuate from as little as 500 to as high as 10,000 hunters worldwide. 
  Those figures include personnel who never step out into the field and are only marginally aware 
  of what threats hunters face.  
  Most conspiracies are careful to not assign all available hunters to investigate known encounters 
  and prioritize cases to ensure they’re not taxing members and exposing their operation to the 
  enemy. For this reason, approximately 100 to 300 hunters are assigned to active cases worldwide 
  from night to night. When they’re not in the field tracking down a monster, conspiracy members 
  spend their nights on the investigative aspects of the hunt or performing tasks to improve and 
  maintain their status within the conspiracy. 
  Typically, a conspiracy forms when: 
  • A powerful financial, religious, or political organization creates one.  
  • A compact significantly expands their operations. 
  • The remnants of several compacts are reformed to become a conspiracy. 
  • A once-defunct conspiracy is revived. 
  
  • Multiple cells knowledgeable about the supernatural band together. 
  The creation of a conspiracy can follow the same trajectory a large corporation with satellite 
  offices does — but not always. Unlike most conglomerates, hunter conspiracies operate in the 
  shadows. Some, like the Cheiron Group, Ascending Ones, Task Force: VALKYRIE, and 
  Malleus Maleficarum, benefit from having one or more public faces. The Lucifuge and Council 
  of Bones don’t have that luxury, however, and recognize that puts them at greater risk of 
  exposure. 
  A public face offers many benefits and some drawbacks depending upon the group’s financial 
  needs. Most conspiracies require a stream of income to benefit hunters and keep the lights on. 
  When a conspiracy doesn’t have regular funding, members are often stuck footing the bill. For 
  some hunters, that’s not a problem because their weapons of choice are their supernatural gifts 
  and they’ve partnered with other cellmates who do have access to more resources. 
  Strengths and Weaknesses 
  Most strengths conspiracies offer are tangible: medical services, intellectual assets, safe houses, 
  connections, etc. Increased threat levels often demand greater firepower; when a city is in 
  danger, conspiracies offer capable, well-equipped hunters who can make the difference between 
  winning and losing. Their longevity, on the other hand, is both a strength and a weakness. The 
  longer a conspiracy exists, the more lore they tend to accumulate. Conspiracies, however, are rife 
  with flaws because they are extremely slow to change. Leadership takes a long time to discuss 
  new approaches because they understand policy adjustments have long-term ramifications. 
  Members, on the other hand, don’t always understand why a simple request generates multiple 
  meetings and endless discussions. 
  Uncertainty among members is rampant, because hunters eventually see themselves as a cog in a 
  greater wheel. The sense of camaraderie with fellow members tends to become muted or 
  downplayed, and small wins are barely acknowledged. Conspiracies want to see results, and they 
  favor outcomes that benefit their overall goal. After all, the advantages they gift their operatives, 
  in the form of Endowments, aren’t free. Hunters are expected to use their Endowments to uphold 
  the Vigil and their edicts regardless of threat level. Most hunters know this, too, and usually join 
  a group based on what it offers. A hunter who’s more interested in using cutting-edge munitions 
  than holy rites is likely to join Task Force: VALKYRIE instead of Malleus Maleficarum. What’s 
  more: Members forget Endowments are not guaranteed to work, and often affect them physically 
  and psychologically.  
  Lastly, conspiracies should be treated as large and powerful organizations that are buried in 
  layers of red tape. Members rarely encounter a conspiracy’s leader and when they do, it’s usually 
  for a serious reason. Operatives are expected to fulfill the conspiracy’s missions to the letter, and 
  when they don’t carry out their orders, they may suffer unforeseen consequences. To many 
  conspiracies, an individual hunter’s life is not as important as the integrity of their organization. 
  When a conspiracy decides between rescuing a kidnapped hunter or capturing a monster they’ve 
  been desperate to track, they prioritize the hunt — and members have to suck it up or deal with 
  the fallout. 
  History of the Hunt 
  For as long as there have been monsters, there have been hunters. The history, and often the 
  names, of hunter compacts have been lost to time for various reasons. Sometimes, a short-lived 
  
  hunter compact will form out of necessity to deal with a terrifying and unusual threat that wipes 
  out half its members. Other times, a hunter compact suffers simply because their very existence 
  intimidates politicians and citizens who either don’t know the supernatural is real or have been 
  infiltrated by monsters who want to keep their presence a secret.  
  The Vigil is not a modern concept. Monsters have prowled in the shadows since time 
  immemorial preying on mortals. Brave and desperate people have walked out of the protective 
  ring of firelight to pursue what lurks in the darkness. Some die. Many go mad. But someone else 
  always picks up the torch because they want to fight. They must. The Vigil is not an exclusive 
  pledge that can only be upheld by the rich and powerful. Hunters can be heroes, criminals, or 
  both. The Vigil doesn’t care who a hunter was before. It exists because wherever there are 
  people, there are supernatural predators, and the hunters who stand between them and us. 
  Tier-one hunters who work in cells are often fighting a losing battle, because they suffer from a 
  lack of information and resources that other hunters do not. Still, the one thing cells often rely on 
  is their experiences and the archived materials of other hunters. Sometimes, a journal is passed 
  down from one generation to the next, or a grieving best friend will receive the codes to a locked 
  computer in the mail. Of all the groups, tier-one hunters have the mobility to slip in and grab a 
  notebook, file, etc. without anyone noticing them, because other members of hunter society tend 
  to pay attention to the bigger fish. 
  Tier-two hunters start to understand the costs of the hunt when they research the history of their 
  selected groups, or compacts. Some compacts, such as the Keepers of the Weave or the Scarlet 
  Watch, are relics of the past that reflect hunters who are caught between hunting monsters and 
  living their lives in an uncertain world. Most, however, survive for 100 or 200 years, because 
  they form to deal with an immediate threat. Over time, as the compact’s needs, resources, and 
  efficacy changes, membership wanes and the group’s rallying cry falls to a whisper. The Barrett 
  Commission, for example, was founded in the 1790s to prevent vampires from infiltrating the 
  U.S. government — right up until they lost their funding and were reassigned to other agencies. 
  Tier-three hunters claim they know how widespread the threats are, but they face different 
  challenges in their long-lived groups, called conspiracies. Though they do understand the 
  supernatural is not a local or regional phenomenon, tier-three hunters are subject to the 
  bureaucracy and needs of their chosen conspiracy. Many conspiracies have been forged from a 
  political body, like Task Force: VALKRYIE and the Vanguard Serial Crimes Unit, or a religious 
  organization, like Malleus Maleficarum or the Knights of Saint George. 
  The One and the Many 
  Most hunters don’t like to boast about fighting monsters, because the more they 
  think about that writhing mass of worms and venomous fangs, the more they’ll 
  want to write about it. Still, quite a few hunters have sat down to write their magnum 
  opuses over the years. To date, however, not one manuscript has ever been 
  published. Of course, other hunters will blame the lack of “leaks” on a secret cabal 
  of warlocks who’ve targeted hunters or a cluster of vampires. Few dare to whisper 
  an infamous rumor: The supernatural never set eyes on a single autobiography 
  thanks to the work of a subversive hunter called the One.  
  No one — not VASCU’s psychics or the Circle of Bones’ mediums — knows the 
  identity of the One. Some hunters suspect the One is a group of hunters who believe 
  
  the Vigil should be kept secret at all costs. Unlike a compact or conspiracy, the One 
  doesn’t have a hierarchy and can’t bestow benefits on its members — because there 
  aren’t any. Others think the One is either a single hunter who upholds the Vigil by 
  themselves or acts as a supernatural mole to ensure the truth doesn’t get shared 
  publicly. Either way, hunters are curious how the Vigil has been upheld for this 
  long and the truth of their identities hasn’t been broadcast to the enemy. Some fear 
  it already has. 
  Most of the time, conspiracies outlast cells and compacts not because they possess more wealth, 
  but because the organizations touch different locations around the world. Should the conspiracy 
  suffer great losses, as the Council of Bones has time and time again, its members regroup and 
  fall silent until they’re strong enough to emerge and hunt. And, unlike compacts, conspiracies 
  actively maintain their secrecy to protect the identity of their hunters and ensure their 
  organization isn’t exposed to the supernatural. Despite this, the history of most conspiracies is 
  uneven at best, because no hunter has lived long enough to accurately document their pasts. 
  Every member of hunter society knows their greatest weakness is their mortality. Unlike long-
  lived creatures of darkness, a hunter’s short life expectancy affects their physical, mental, and 
  emotional prowess in battle. Most hunt monsters out in the field until they’re no longer able to, 
  and a hunter’s last battle could be anywhere from five years to 20 — but often not much more 
  than that. 
  Recently, hunters have speculated their need for secrecy is affecting their success rate, and are 
  allying with historians, archivists, and students of the occult to piece together a more accurate 
  history and to identify all known and unknown groups. Despite this, most hunters are fully aware 
  hunter society may be older, larger, and more widespread than they ever thought possible. 
  Unfortunately, getting access to ancient scrolls and texts isn’t always easy and dead-language 
  experts who don’t ask questions are hard to come by. Several hunters are concerned the evidence 
  hunters leave behind puts future hunters at risk, even if that means new recruits wrongfully 
  assume the Vigil’s long and storied history is concentrated in western countries. 
  Still, if evidence of the Vigil is scarce in the modern world, it’s all-but vanished from the ancient. 
  Some stories continue to linger, leading many hunters to wonder just how much lore has been 
  intentionally erased or lost during the passage of time. 
  The Nibiru 
  Some hunter historians claim that the earliest evidence of the Vigil can be found on tablets 
  recovered from the Lost Library of Ashurbanipal, an Assyrian library that predates the Library of 
  Alexandria. These tablets describe the first hunter — Marduk — and his cell, the army of the 
  Nibiru. Though others believe Marduk was a Babylonian deity, hunter historians are convinced 
  that his mission, to recover the Tablet of Destinies, was predestined. After all, they say, Marduk 
  was a holy and righteous son of Ea. It was only a matter of time before Marduk would fulfill his 
  destiny by attacking the monstrous goddess Tiamat and her ally, the god-king Qingu, who was 
  using the Tablet of Destinies to command her armies. 
  Hunter historians downplay why Marduk was hunting Qingu and Tiamat, and often focus on the 
  Nibiru and their unflinching loyalty. Not one of the Nibiru had a divine birthright or purpose like 
  Marduk did, and yet they fought alongside him anyway. The tablets tell the story of how Marduk 
  fought Tiamat and was so vicious her body tore in half when he slayed her. When her corpse 
  
  split in two, Marduk unwittingly released scores of terrifying enemies: scorpion-men, howling 
  dragons, the undead, and demons. Of course, Marduk and the Nibiru had no chance of killing all 
  of Tiamat’s children. A handful of hunter historians believe this is the reason why hunters must 
  battle the forces of darkness today. 
  The majority of hunters scoff at the idea that the Vigil exists to rectify a Babylonian god’s 
  mistake. Most laugh when a superstitious hunter whispers about the Nibiru in hallowed tones and 
  point to similar myths, like the story of Pandora’s Box, as more “proof” that one of their 
  ancestors is probably responsible for unleashing the denizens of the supernatural into the world.  
  Hunter societies are filled with tall tales and too-good-to-be-true stories cooked up to inspire and 
  add a certain gravitas to the Vigil and to their legacy. It is not uncommon for friends and family 
  members to hunt together, and occasionally they point to the lore of the ancients or a common 
  ancestor to prove their worth.  
  Aves Minerva 
  Hunters can be found in almost every ancient civilization, including ancient Rome, simply 
  because the enemy has lived alongside humankind from the very beginning. Rome had been 
  besieged by monsters since it was first founded near the Tiber River by the brothers Romulus 
  and Remus in 753 BCE. Its long and storied history, stretching from village to republic to 
  empire, is filled with inexplicable terrors ranging from the undead to skin-stealing owl women.  
  Despite its might, Rome’s mighty armies weren’t enough to fight monsters both home and 
  abroad. Its push to expand into foreign territories was bloody and violent, and the scores of 
  peoples Rome attacked did not go quietly into the night. While its armies were commanded to 
  conquest and subjugate occupied countries, Roman citizens struggled to battle fierce enemies 
  that were more terrifying than a barbarian from Gaul and turned to its gods for help. 
  Some hunter historians believe that cells formed from cults devoted to a specific god or goddess. 
  Desperate for help, worshippers would flock to the temples asking for divine intervention. 
  Eventually, worshippers tired of waiting for the gods and pledged to protect their neighborhood 
  — with their deity’s blessing, of course. These hunters would then form a cell to patrol the 
  streets of Rome. The Aves Minerva, hunters dedicated to the Etruscan-turned-Roman warrior 
  goddess, was one such cell that fought to protect the homes on Aventine Hill. 
  Specific references to the Aves Minerva are scarce, and hunter historians often use poetic license 
  to piece fragments together to infer their deeds. The Aves Minerva, or Birds of Minerva, were 
  rumored to protect Rome from the cannibal Cacus, the god-child of Vulcan who lived beneath 
  Aventine Hill in a labyrinthine cave, who’d nail dismembered body parts to doors in the 
  neighborhood. Modern hunters think Cacus wasn’t a god at all, but a former soldier turned 
  slasher who terrorized Rome because his bloodlust was insatiable. After all, what Roman 
  emperor would allow the story of a monstrous soldier who attacked fellow Romans to circulate 
  broadly? Instead, turn the soldier into a supernatural creature, and publicly thank the Aves 
  Minerva for eliminating the threat. Then, suggest the hunters drag a trussed-up corpse down to 
  the Forum Boarium (cattle market) to proudly display their hunting trophy. 
  Other Roman hunter cells existed alongside the Aves Minerva to deal with werewolves, the 
  undead, vampires, and ghosts. Some cells who worshipped Quirinus were formed for political 
  reasons. Eventually, these cells were commandeered by the Roman senate, given an official-
  sounding name and became one of the first western compacts. The Ordo de Quirinus was a 
  
  secretive compact that was ordered to follow the armies of Rome into foreign lands. Their 
  mission was simple: Destroy inexplicable threats. With the blessing of Rome, the Ordo de 
  Quirinus killed everything and anything in their path and hunted the dog-headed Cynocephali, 
  the long-headed-and-toothed Macrocephali, and the shadow-footed Skiapodes to extinction 
  alongside witches, warlocks, and resistance fighters who did not exhibit any signs of 
  supernatural gifts. 
  Some hunters point to the Ordo de Quirinus as an example of what not to do. Unlike the armies 
  of Rome, hunters don’t think of themselves as genocidal; they are simply people fighting to 
  prevent the enemy from attacking humankind. No matter what decisions a hunter makes, whether 
  that’s to treat monsters as part of the natural order or not, they believe what they’re doing will 
  keep people safe. 
  No wonder it’s easy for a hunter to justify their actions from night to night. It’s far more difficult 
  to think about who they’re attacking and, perhaps most importantly, why that enemy had to die. 
  Scenes of the Forbidden 
  While the Roman armies marched to conquer and colonize, the Xianyun tribe left their homes in 
  northwestern China to reclaim sacred lands from their sworn enemies. The Xianyun wreaked 
  havoc on Western Zhou and its capital city, Haojing, before continuing south. Following this 
  devastation, the spring and autumn period blossomed from the ashes to build the great Eastern 
  Zhou empire, while the Xianyun’s legend continued to spread. 
  Claiming to be descended from two white dogs, the Xianyun carried a sacred relic — a white 
  hound — with them wherever (and whenever) they traveled. Their beliefs in the white hound 
  were popular among many, inspiring poets and artisans to paint violent tales of their attacks on 
  hand scrolls. Over the course of a few seasons, the stories of the Xianyun morphed from a simple 
  tribe into half-man, half-wolf creatures, and the rumor that they were werewolves reached the 
  ears of the Zhou court. Fearing there was some truth to the tales, an unnamed court official 
  sought out the hand scrolls and destroyed all but one. The last hand scroll, which historians now 
  refer to as Scenes of the Forbidden, depicted the Xianyun protecting a giant werewolf. 
  Court documents indicate that a small group of hunters, accompanied by a court academic, was 
  sent to explore the Tian Shan Mountains to find and capture the wolf. Myths speak of the 
  hunters’ heroic deeds, and how they did manage to track down the giant wolf. When they 
  discovered the white wolf could predict the date and cause of a supplicant’s death, however, they 
  abandoned its side and left the cryptid to its fate.  
  The wolf was grateful for their wisdom and told each hunter how they’d die: one by fire, one by 
  blood, one by silver, and two from grief. On their way back to King Ping’s court in Wangcheng, 
  the cell was ambushed by a necromancer who turned one of the hunters into a zombie. To stop it, 
  the dead hunter was lit on fire, and its body burned to ash. The next morning, the hunters found 
  one of their cellmates had died from heartbreak, and couldn’t live knowing their lover had been 
  killed, revived, and brutally murdered once more. 
  With three hunters left, the cell grew paranoid, and traveled all day. Just as the sun fell below the 
  horizon, the remaining hunters found an abandoned shack they believed was unoccupied. It 
  wasn’t, and a vampire snatched one of the hunters and fled into the night. The next morning, a 
  pair of disheartened hunters set out for another day’s worth of travel, and before reaching the 
  next town the duo was attacked by a werewolf. Only one hunter escaped injury-free.  
  
  Just before the final hunter reached the city, however, they were attacked by a werewolf — their 
  former cellmate — and were forced to kill them with the only remaining weapon they had left: a 
  ceremonial knife adorned with silver and jade. That night, the last remaining hunter told their 
  story but then took their own life, unable to cope with the guilt of surviving such horrors. 
  While the truth remains elusive and lost to time, Emperor Ming of the Han dynasty did comment 
  that thousands, if not millions, of people still paid tribute to Xianyang’s great wolf. Modern 
  hunters tend to gloss over the folkloric aspects of the story without realizing that the lesson 
  buried deep within the Scenes of the Forbidden has nothing to do with how the hunters died, but 
  how they lived, and the choice they made after encountering the wolf. 
  Incomplete Histories 
  Modern hunter archivists have pieced together an uneven history of compacts and conspiracies 
  using what they can find in the written record. They’ve recently discovered there are more gaps 
  in the historical record than they first realized. In the past, hunters often used flowery language 
  or code when describing the Vigil in written correspondence; others relied on urban legends, 
  fairytale retellings, and oral histories to share information in a colorful way. The lack of a 
  historical record is sobering to many hunters who want to know if a cell, compact, or conspiracy 
  encountered the enemy before, what methods they used to hunt, and what failures they suffered. 
  These hunters are beginning to wonder if the Vigil should be kept secret but aren’t willing to risk 
  expose hunter society to a public that includes human-seeming enemies. 
  Hunter historians disagree on many aspects of the Vigil’s history and are often conflicted when 
  attempting to reconstruct a timeline of compact formation. Sometimes, a cell is referred to as a 
  compact or conspiracy and vice versa when it doesn’t make sense to do so. Take, for example, 
  the Ahl al-Jabal, which formed during the medieval Crusades to hunt vampires. While it’s 
  commonly accepted that the Ahl al-Jabal did continue to fight monsters well into the 15th 
  century, no one knows if the group is still active in the Middle East. If the rumors are true, it’s 
  possible that modern Ahl al-Jabal hunters are upholding the traditions of the oldest surviving 
  compact in the world today. Hunter historians argue that modern hunters may have simply 
  adopted the name and reformed a compact that hunts bloodsuckers. Others think Ahl al-Jabal 
  wasn’t a compact at all, but a cell of skilled soldiers who hunted on horseback.  
  The Bear Lodge is another group that shows how murky a compact’s history can be. Some 
  archivists speculate its founders may be related to members of Les Voyageurs who learned to 
  hunt werewolves after the official group disbanded in the early 18th century. Though the Bear 
  Lodge has since collapsed in modern times, active hunters have continued to uphold the Vigil by 
  joining other compacts like Ashwood Abbey. Those hunters remember what the Bear Lodge was 
  like when it existed, and unless a hunter historian is willing to find and interview surviving 
  members, what they remember will eventually fade.  
  Unfortunately, the modern era and uneven support from ruling bodies has caused many 
  specialized hunter organizations to rise, fall, or be subsumed into other organizations. In 
  American politics, several government-sanctioned groups have been absorbed, disbanded, or 
  reorganized. Both the vampire-centric Barrett Commission and the witch-focused Division Six 
  have been dissolved and active members were reassigned to Task Force: VALKYRIE. The 
  Merrick Institute, on the other hand, was not able to survive a private congressional inquiry, and 
  its activities were immediately halted. All that remains on the books is Task Force: VALKYRIE, 
  and only time will tell if TFV falls apart or expands to include other allied government forces. 
  
  Recently, some hunters have begun to actively erase and target hunter organizations who “do not 
  hunt in an exemplary manner.” Rumors have begun to circulate that a new group — perhaps a 
  global conspiracy — of hunters is forming to ensure that hunters uphold the Vigil to hunt, 
  capture, and otherwise deal with supernatural threats. Some hunters worry that members of the 
  Promethean Brotherhood, Ashwood Abbey, the Cheiron Group, and the Faithful of Shulpae have 
  forgotten which side they’re supposed to be on. Of course, other hunters point fingers at the 
  morally righteous members of the Long Night, Los Angelitos, and the demon-hunting 
  conspiracies Utopia Now and the Knights of Saint Adrian as the main culprits. 
  Archiving the Hunt 
  Tracking down the historical record of compacts and conspiracies has been challenging for 
  historians who are not members of a given group. Often, hunters look to the publicly available 
  body of artistic works for evidence of the supernatural and the Vigil. On rare occasions, some 
  groups (namely the Circle of Bones and the Aegis Kai Doru) will purchase texts, scrolls, tablets, 
  and archived materials from third parties, hoping to find the evidence they need. 
  Though ancient literature doesn’t always speak of hunters and horrors unseen, some key pieces 
  of linguistic artistry and occult books have survived — only to be copied, mistranslated, or sold 
  to other hunters. Other texts, like the Thet Oera Linda Bok, have been widely denounced as fake. 
  Surviving lore is of great value to many hunters, however, and many groups actively collect 
  private letters and journals knowing that these, too, can also be fabricated by their enemies or be 
  thinly veiled tools used for political or religious propaganda. 
  One of the earliest surviving texts is the 11th-century work Ghayat Al-Hakim, a handbook for 
  astrological magic. Written in Arabic, members of Null Mysteriis point to this text as the source 
  of the scientific method and, when used in conjunction with the lunar cycles, can accurately 
  predict the behavior of werewolves and other creatures of the night. Of course, other hunters 
  scoff at the text’s usefulness in the modern era. Other literary works, like the ever-popular One 
  Thousand and One Nights, not only prove monsters have always existed — hunters have, too. 
  What could an ancient archive teach modern hunters they don’t already know?  
  Several conspiracies including the Circle of Bones, Aegis Kai Doru, Ascending Ones, and now-
  disbanded Five Roses Empire have all tried (and failed) to convince modern hunters they should 
  not automatically discard or reject the distant past’s relics and literature. Unfortunately, most 
  hunters don’t have the resources required to study Sumerian cuneiforms, Mayan glyphs, or 
  Akkadian, not to mention the hundreds of other languages that have fallen into disuse. Despite 
  what scholars might profess, investigating the supernatural requires modern hunters to spend at 
  least half their time in the field. Still, some historians point to the lessons learned in western 
  literature, and often speculate what else might be found should they compare notes with other 
  scholars worldwide. 
  Often, supernatural-themed literature blends myth, folklore, spirituality, and social mores of the 
  era. While it can be hard to pinpoint whether the true monster is a metaphor or a real creature, in 
  many cases stories do hold a grain of truth. Take, for example, the Old English epic poem about 
  Beowulf, the Scandinavian hero. Beowulf is noted for the destruction of the legendary monster 
  Grendel (and that monster’s mother), and theologians have often postured the epic poem has 
  overt Christian themes. However, many hunters believe the poem, like the tablets of Marduk’s 
  battle with Tiamat, proves hunter society has coincided with the rise and fall of many 
  civilizations. 
  
  Of course, most hunters know the Vigil demands secrecy and that comes with a price. The names 
  of many heroes and heroines throughout history have been intentionally erased. Hunter scholars 
  who are searching for traces of cells, compacts, and conspiracies in the historical record are 
  careful not to jump to conclusions, but know they’re often searching for evidence that doesn’t 
  directly tie to hunter activity. Despite the challenges they face, new historic compacts and 
  conspiracies are being discovered all the time. These include hunter groups from pre-Colombian 
  Mesoamerican civilizations, all-female Celtic hunters called the Ban-Gaisgedaig, and several 
  Japanese groups active during the Edo period, namely the Ama-San and Bijin, among others. 
  Shifting Perspectives 
  Hunter scholars who study the enemy know that definitions change over time, and popular 
  references in one century can mean something very different in another. When the Age of 
  Reason replaced a prominent belief in witchcraft and the supernatural, hunters leaned on 
  scientists like Anthonid Cornelis Oudemans for answers. Witches and warlocks were reclassified 
  as psychics and werewolves were simply undiscovered species of homo erectus. All denizens of 
  the supernatural were explained through the lens of science, and the word “magic” became 
  associated with antiquity.  
  Oudemans, a reputable 19th-century biologist and director of the Royal Zoological Gardens in 
  The Hague, was a hunter who attempted to expose the supernatural using his scientific 
  knowledge. Unfortunately for Oudemans, his goal backfired and his first brush with the 
  supernatural led to an unhealthy obsession and a failure to cope with a changing world. 
  Oudemans claimed he encountered a sea serpent and quickly became obsessed with hunting the 
  creature of folklore. Ignoring his fellow hunters’ advice, Oudemans published his findings in The 
  Great Sea Serpents of the World (1892). The book was unpopular among members of the 
  scientific community but was well received by a Victorian audience hungry for more penny 
  dreadfuls. Oudemans was convinced his peers would recognize his brilliant discoveries and tried 
  to present his findings at a conference. Shortly afterward, Oudemans was forced to resign his 
  position and his credibility was never restored. 
  Of course, Oudemans is not the only notable 19th-century biologist turned hunter. The German 
  naturalist Amalie Dietrich, known for her studies in Australia, and the Czech botanist and 
  paleontologist, Josephine Ettel Kablick, both made strides in their discoveries of cryptids that are 
  now believed to be extinct. Still, while scientific discoveries did prevail during that time period, 
  several occultists and spiritualists grabbed the public eye. 
  Despite the popularity of groups such as the Order of the Golden Dawn and spiritualists like the 
  suffragette Laura Cuppy and the medium Emma Hardinge Britten, the general public eventually 
  favored science and technology over “superstitious” belief. Hunter organizations founded in the 
  19th and 20th centuries reflect this cultural shift and, whenever disinformation needs to be 
  spread, most often the supernatural is regulated to oddities in weather patterns; alien abductions, 
  sightings, and landings; or other urban legends that fall well within the range of what may be true 
  versus what can’t be believed. 
  Modern Methods 
  In modern times, most cells, compacts, and conspiracies collate, store, and share their own data 
  for their members’ use. The information each group carries is unique to that organization’s 
  
  needs. The Lucifuge, for example, is rumored to have an archive containing the names and 
  histories of every hunter who has joined their conspiracy since its inception. Even stranger, 
  rumors persist that this archive also includes clandestinely gathered samples of every member’s 
  hair, blood, and uniquely personal articles that include things like family photos, an art project 
  from elementary school, and the desiccated ear of a beloved family pet. No member of the 
  Lucifuge has ever confirmed the existence of this archive, which is believed to be stored beneath 
  Mount Hermon’s Syrian peaks, where Jesus was reportedly tempted by the devil.  
  Most compacts, including The Union, Null Mysteriis, and Network Zero, grant members access 
  to their archive after they’ve been welcomed into their ranks. Unfortunately, new hunters 
  struggle with the secretive nature of their groups. They don’t see why it’s important to keep their 
  information secret because they believe a well-informed hunter has a better chance in battle than 
  one who’s kept in the dark. SWORN takes a different approach, however, and prefers to give 
  hands-on training to members to teach them how to deal with monsters. Both the Long Night and 
  the Loyalists of Thule aren’t secretive, per se, but they are careful to hand out knowledge 
  because they’re both uniquely aware that the denizens of the supernatural — and the greater 
  threats pulling their minions’ strings — have eyes and ears everywhere.  
  While cells and compacts tend to share materials freely, conspiracies have a reputation for doling 
  out intel on a need-to-know basis. Hunters suspect this allows the conspiracies to spot infiltrators 
  when they pop up from time to time, and point to the groups’ longevity as proof that erring on 
  the side of paranoia is sometimes warranted. Still, rumors abound. Task Force: VALKYRIE 
  reportedly uses highly encoded computer databases to keep track of its members’ training and 
  assignment history, the Circle of Bones has been known to send ghosts to “spy” on cells out in 
  the field, the Cheiron Group often encourages regional supervisors to assess its members’ 
  activities, and the Ascending Ones may have cells whose sole purpose is to monitor the reagents, 
  rare ingredients, and formulas provided to its members. 
  More recently, compacts and conspiracies have started to reassess the value of printed and digital 
  materials for non-members. Several groups, including Network Zero and Task Force: 
  VALKYRIE, use publications to calm a wary public or to placate determined conspiracy 
  theorists. Unfortunately, these efforts have caused an unintended side effect: New hunters who 
  treat these materials as evidence aren’t sure how to tell fact from fiction, either.  
  Hunters are often given information with a friendly warning: “Sure, this intel could help you take 
  down the enemy. But it might also get you killed.” Many hunter groups don’t always share their 
  findings until they’ve verified their data will be effective during a hunt. Unfortunately, when it 
  comes to the enemy, there’s no such thing as a guarantee.  
  
  OPENING FICTION 
  Every field agent has a story that ends in a long pause followed by a heavy sigh. We’ve all lost 
  someone: a father, fellow operative, best friend, mentor, lover. We never forget. 
  My story? Our unit was taking a little R&R near Prospect and Downer when we got a call. An 
  ENE had been reported attacking civvies in broad daylight near Bradford Beach, and we were 
  asked to check out the scene and wait for further instructions. 
  I made the decision to go light on munitions. HQ almost always ordered us not to engage the 
  enemy in our first encounter, and I suspected the beach was filled with people. I was able to pop 
  a few grenades, knives, and traps in our backpacks; I also wrapped a handgun in one of our 
  beach towels, just in case, right next to a beer bottle. Sharp glass wasn’t a sanctioned weapon, 
  but our unit knew that emergencies often called for unique solutions. 
  With all the civilians around, we opted to wear shorts, tank tops, and sandals instead of our 
  approved gear. ENEs were dangerous, sure, but nothing was scarier than a mob of angry drunk 
  people on a hot, sandy beach. Despite our casual appearances, each of us had roles to play: Miles 
  sat at a nearby restaurant overlooking the water to run ops, Theron interviewed witnesses, and I 
  was there to back them up. 
  Miles kicked off the mission by revealing our target. “Theron, HQ says you’re green to go. 
  You’re looking for a white man wearing blue basketball shorts.” 
  Theron spoke up. “I see him. He’s sunbathing next to a cooler down by the lake.” 
  So far, so good. I managed to keep Theron in my sights, but it was hard not to stand out. The 
  beach wasn’t covered with people, but there were just enough clusters of volleyball players, 
  families, and sunbathers I had to be careful not to seem creepy or out of place. I found a nice, 
  sunny spot approximately 30 yards from the witness. To blend in, I laid out my towel, grabbed a 
  small bottle of suntan lotion and a book, and secured my ear buds and tiny microphone. 
  “How’re you doing up there, Jennifer?” Miles asked me. “You have line of sight?” 
  “For the moment. There’s a lot of civvies around, sir. Timing’s off.” 
  “I’m sure we’ll have to come back later. For now, let’s make HQ happy and grab some intel for 
  our initial report, okay?” 
  “Yes, sir,” I mumbled. It’s just that—” 
  That’s when I heard Theron yell, “I didn’t mean to kill them!” Then, I heard him scream 
  followed by a loud crackling noise. 
  “Jennifer! Theron’s feed went dark.” Miles barked. “You need to—” 
  Miles did not have to finish their command. Without thinking, I dropped everything, and sprinted 
  to where Theron once stood. I looked around, but he wasn’t there. I saw his footprints, obvious 
  signs of a scuffle, then…nothing. He simply disappeared.  
   “What happened?” I asked the man in the basketball shorts. Thankfully, I managed to avoid 
  breaking cover. “I heard a scream…”  
  
  “Friend of yours?” the man asked, glaring at me. The man’s face was odd and angular, as if the 
  skin was stretched too tight over his cheeks, and his lips were so thin they were as white as his 
  teeth. 
  “Just worried,” I replied. I opted to play the concerned-citizen card. “A scream like that? I hope 
  no one got hurt.” 
  The man snorted. “Yeah, hurt. I guess you’d worry about them more than me.” 
  “Sorry?” I said, praying Miles wouldn’t interrupt. I ripped my earbuds out just in case. “What 
  did you say?” 
  The man lowered his voice, then said: “Go ahead and call the cops. You won’t find him.” 
  My heart was pounding. Was this the ENE we were supposed to locate? “I-I-I don’t understand. 
  Did someone go missing? Here? In front of all these people?” 
  I was telling the truth. How could Theron vanish like that? I wasn’t that far away! 
  “If you are who I think you are,” the man hissed, his eyes flashing yellow. “Take this as a 
  warning. No hunter will ever take down our nests and attack our hatchlings. Never again.” 
  My heart was pounding. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t risk exposing my identity, unit, or 
  VASCU to an ENE. I couldn’t ask Miles for guidance, either, not without looking suspicious. 
  Carefully, I said: “I’m just worried about his safety. Can you tell me if he’s still alive?” 
  The man grabbed a water bottle from the cooler beside him and exposed his forearm. There were 
  gills flapping — no, gasping — in the summer heat. Then, he poured the water on his forearm, 
  whistled, and pointed at Lake Michigan. 
  “You’ll find the body in there, human.” 
  “Body?” I tried not to cry. Soldiers never did. “Why?” 
  “A life for a life. You think that’s sand you’re standing on right now? Where do you think we 
  hide our eggs?” 
  My body tensed and I felt a shiver run up and down my spine. I looked at the sand — really 
  looked — and realized the ENE wasn’t hostile because they hated humans. They were grieving 
  for the loss of their kin. Thousands of gold-colored egg clusters were nestled together all along 
  the shoreline, and their protector, whoever or whatever this human-seeing ENE was, watched 
  over them until they hatched. Theron must have unintentionally smashed them, and that’s what 
  triggered a confrontation. 
  I could tell the ENE was waiting for my next move. No doubt, Miles had already called the 
  police, and I was a witness. I had no weapons — all my gear was stashed by my towel — and I 
  was facing an ENE who had already murdered a member of my unit. My gut told me to scream, 
  to cry, to run, to pummel the ENE and smash all their eggs. Instead, I let my training kick in.  
  I kept my voice steady and said, “Local police are probably on their way. You can either slip 
  back into the water, retrieve the body, and be celebrated as a “hero” or you can be certain my 
  people will wage all-out war. What’s it going to be?” 
  “And the eggs?” the ENE asked. 
  “Body first.” 
  
  Wordlessly, the ENE dove into the water and dragged Theron’s body to shore just as the police 
  and Miles arrived. The ENE glared at me, nodding slightly toward the sand, and I jumped to 
  attention. 
  “This man’s a hero!” I yelled, lying through my teeth. Getting the ENE on camera was more 
  important than putting the locals’ safety at risk. “But we have to be careful. This area isn’t safe. 
  Theron,” I swallowed hard, “drowned.”  
  I barely remember what happened next, and I never saw that ENE again. The next day, I led a 
  team of agents down to the site and all the eggs — and our perp — vanished. I will never forget 
  the hard lessons I learned that day, and those yellow, yellow eyes haunting my dreams. 
  END OPENING FICTION 
  Chapter Two: Compacts & Conspiracies 
  “Know your enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles 
  without disaster.” 
  — Sun Tzu, The Art of War 
  Hunters who’ve seen their fair share of pitchfork-wielding scarecrows, green-skinned kappas, 
  and spooky hitchhikers grimly acknowledge a painful truth: There is no such thing as a world 
  without monsters. Tier-one hunters struggle with this knowledge more than most because, deep 
  down, they pay a higher price to fight. Not only are they shouldering the emotional and 
  psychological burdens of the hunt in one cell, they aren’t fighting alongside other hunters who 
  could help tip the odds in the cell’s favor.  
  While a tier-one hunter is capable, their hunts tend to be tightly focused because they don’t have 
  the luxury of time. When a cell gets a whiff something’s wrong, they drop everything to save an 
  innocent life. The reasons a tier-one cell hunts are often personal, and they’re not afraid to 
  bloody their knuckles when they need to. Their willingness to do what needs to be done costs 
  them dearly, however, because guarding the Vigil’s secrets requires them to tread carefully when 
  dealing with their coworkers, friends, family, and lovers.  
  Some hunters can’t balance the needs of the hunt with their daily lives and withdraw from the 
  people they love to protect them from getting hurt. Most, however, understand those connections 
  prevent hunters from falling into the darkness. Some hunters become so bitter and jaded they 
  avoid forming attachments because it’s easier; these cells almost always forget what they’re 
  fighting for, and eventually turn into monsters themselves. 
  Often, a cell’s lack of connections and resources leads to more challenging and often deadlier 
  hunts. There’s been more than a few tragic cases where two cells were hunting the same monster 
  and didn’t realize it, not until it was too late. The high costs of hunting with a small group almost 
  always means someone they know, at some point, will die. Some cells disband, some throw 
  themselves even harder into the hunt, and the rest? They team up.  
  Tier Two: Compacts 
  Compacts are regional groups filled with multiple cells who swap intel, stories, even ammo. The 
  difference between a tier-one and tier-two group is scope: Compacts glimpse the bigger picture 
  and are just beginning to understand the extent of the hunt. Tier-two hunters have a little 
  
  breathing room, because they trust their compact has their backs. In exchange for membership in 
  the organization, cells gain access to knowledge and so much more. Often, joining a compact is 
  an act of validation, because a cell’s instincts are finally confirmed: Monsters aren’t a new 
  phenomenon, and all those bedtime stories they heard as a kid are probably real.  
  Hunting is dangerous, and while compacts provide hunters with camaraderie, resources, 
  information, and status, they can’t guarantee their members will be safe. Compacts can, however, 
  help hunters shoulder the burden of loneliness by giving them a higher purpose within their 
  organizations. Compacts form for similar-but-different reasons and are shaped by a common 
  purpose, view of the Code, or shared experience. These hunter organizations ensure hunters 
  remain grounded and offer them a sense of community. No longer do hunters track monsters 
  whenever a cell’s leader makes the call; compacts often shape and coordinate the hunt, giving 
  hunters a leg up in the fight.  
  When tier-two hunters want to learn more about the Vigil, they often turn to their compacts for 
  guidance. Unfortunately, the history of compacts is filled with holes. As far as most hunters can 
  tell, most compacts fold within 100 years but can survive for 200 to 300 if they’re lucky. Unlike 
  many monsters, hunters are mortal and can only fight so long; when they stop hunting, if they’re 
  still alive, they mentor and recruit — but it’s hard to replenish their ranks. Some compacts, like 
  Network Zero, struggle to stay on top of technology, while other organizations are decimated by 
  monsters or infiltrators. Other compacts such as the Keepers of the Weave, Les Voyageurs, and 
  the Scarlet Watch were caught between hunting monsters and living their lives in an uncertain, 
  often turbulent world. 
  In this chapter, several compacts are presented from which hunters may choose. Each compact 
  possesses different layers of status for hunters; the higher the status, the more ingrained in a 
  compact’s structure a hunter is. These compacts are: 
  • Long Night: Christian hunters who believe the surge in monster activity is a sign of the end 
  times, and they’re now fighting in the Tribulation War, p. XX. 
  • Loyalists of Thule: Occultists and German descendants from the Thule Society who are in 
  debt to humanity and uphold the Vigil to serve others, p. XX. 
  • Network Zero: Savvy hunters who use technology, photographs, and film to warn people by 
  revealing the truth that monsters are real, p. XX.  
  • Null Mysteriis: Scientists who research the paranormal and selectively share their findings to 
  combat the supernatural, p. XX. 
  • SWORN: Indigenous hunters living in urban areas who defend and help local communities 
  from predatory human and supernatural monsters, p. XX. 
  • The Union: Blue-collar hunters who band together to stop the supernatural from infringing on 
  their home turf, p. XX. 
  In addition to these compacts, Storytellers can create new hunter organizations with the rules on 
  p. XX, using the Scottish thrill-seeking Ashwood Abbey as an example. A new, Hong-Kong-
  based compact of detectives and police officers, Nine Stars, is found on p. XX in the Slasher 
  Chronicle. 
  Is There Such a Thing as Dual Membership?  
  
  While hunters may have enjoyed the benefits of joining more than one compact or 
  conspiracy in the past, the brutal demands of the hunt coupled with a spreading 
  paranoia have all but made dual membership impossible. Hunter organizations are 
  clamping down on outsiders who don’t fall in line with their ideology in some 
  fashion, and while this has caused a lot of members to question their loyalties, it 
  has decreased incidents of rogue hunters, cancer cells, and supernatural infiltrators.  
  This approach, however, has also led to an unfortunate side effect: While compacts 
  and conspiracies want allied hunters to work with them, they are also wary of 
  divulging their secrets to unknown or new hunters in their corner of society. 
  Organizational leaders blame their anxiety on past transgressions and the uptick in 
  supernatural activity, but most hunters understand why they’re distrustful. Anyone, 
  at any time, can become a hunter — and joining every group that approaches them 
  is a bad idea. Sure, some people need to find where they “fit” in hunter society, but 
  building trust requires a lot of time and commitment.  
  Tier Three: Conspiracies 
  If cells are local and compacts are regional, conspiracies are globally active, complex 
  organizations that provide hunters with a purpose. Unlike tier-two compacts, tier-three hunters 
  do more than hunt monsters; their roles aren’t always dedicated to capturing and eliminating 
  threats. Conspiracies can trace their members back decades, if not centuries, and they have an 
  awareness of the supernatural tier-one and tier-two hunters only dream of.  
  Hunter conspiracies represent an interconnected global network of groups that not only know 
  monsters are real but have decided how they want to deal with them. These conspiracies range 
  from legacy organizations like the Cheiron Group to newer groups such as Task Force: 
  VALKYRIE. Hunters who join a conspiracy benefit from the well-documented experiences of 
  hunters who preceded them, enjoy more resources to use on the hunt, and often work toward a 
  clearly defined purpose.  
  Most conspiracies have smaller, regional factions that function similarly to a compact. Due to 
  most conspiracies’ size, tier-three hunters often deal with more bureaucracy and disagreements. 
  While a conspiracy might claim their method is the best way to deal with monsters, all the 
  philosophies in the world don’t matter when a life is on the line. 
  Motivated by a deeper desire, conspiracies add a layer of storytelling to a Hunter chronicle that 
  intersects with the advantages and disadvantages of not only knowing the supernatural is real, 
  but also understanding more about its denizens than most hunters. 
  Conspiracies introduced in this chapter are: 
  • Ascending Ones: Spiritual and practical alchemists who use rare elixirs to deal with the 
  supernatural, p. XX. 
  • The Cheiron Group: Corporate-minded hunters who experiment on monsters and modify their 
  bodies with supernatural flesh, p. XX. 
  • Council of Bones: Scholars, archivists, and occultists who serve the living by contacting 
  ghosts and spirits, p. XX. 
  
  • The Lucifuge: Children of the Seventh Generation who claim to be descended from Lucifer, 
  pledged to fight evil and drive the darkness back, p. XX. 
  • Malleus Maleficarum: Devout Catholics, blessed by the Pope, who serve the Church by 
  upholding the Vigil, p. XX. 
  • Task Force: VALKYRIE: U.S. government agents who use high-tech armaments to identify 
  and kill monsters, p. XX. 
  In addition to these conspiracies, Storytellers can create new global organizations with the rules 
  found on p. XX using the relic-wielding Aegis Kai Doru hunters as an example. A new slasher-
  based conspiracy, VASCU is found on p. XX. Each conspiracy also offers hunters the chance to 
  wield the powers and resources at their disposal to round out their hunts. These special abilities, 
  called Endowments, follow at the end of the chapter beginning on p. XX. 
  The Long Night 
  The Tribulation Militia 
  Quote: “The End Times are upon us, and we must stand against the darkness.” 
  The signs of an impending apocalypse are clear. Markets crash, entire governments fall, and 
  horrors gather in the shadows waiting to strike. The world isn’t just going to end soon — for 
  members of the Long Night, the slide into decay has already begun. Some cling to a shred of 
  belief that, one day, God will pluck His true believers and carry them to heaven. A few 
  acknowledge the Rapture may have already happened. Most hunters, however, don’t have the 
  luxury of hope because they’re too busy fighting the oldest battle between doing what is right 
  and what is necessary. This is the Tribulation. This is the war, and prayers aren’t enough. Good 
  Christians can’t rely on a promise they might be saved; they must save themselves from the 
  forces of darkness that have come to prey on us all. 
  The roots of the Long Night are tied to American survivalist movements that gained traction in 
  the mid-1970s. Members cannot pinpoint any one specific founder and take issue with anyone 
  pointing out similarities to any other group. Its past is murkier than other compacts, for its former 
  members have included Branch-Davidian-style, gun-worshipping cults and anti-government 
  doomsday preppers that have fought alongside ultra-conservative “family values” campaigners, 
  affluent Southern fundamentalists, and middle-class Midwestern evangelicals. 
  Now, members of the Long Night have spread beyond the southern United States. They tend to 
  cluster around notable preachers in states like California and Texas, but may be found in 
  Northern Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and England. What they share is a belief in God and 
  the grim philosophy that Satan is winning — and it will take more than guns and their tight-knit 
  communities to drive the devil back to hell. 
  Hunters in the Long Night do not share one nationality, one belief in God, or one view of the 
  Code. What they do have in common, however, is the realization that mortals are living in 
  desperate times. The Long Night knows there are more monsters than ever before, because they 
  can no longer count the losses they’ve experienced. Some monsters have dared to wear the skin 
  of their members and profess to uphold God’s will while punishing “those wicked liberals.” This 
  tactic worked right up until some hunters started realizing they’d devoted their energy to fighting 
  other people and were forgetting how to battle the true monsters. 
  
  Many Long Night members agree their faith is being examined through the lens of the Code. 
  After all, the Vigil isn’t about helping “some” people, it’s about saving human lives — even if 
  they don’t agree with or like them. To set aside their hubris, the compact has an open-door 
  policy; all hunters are welcome, even if they don’t necessarily ascribe to conservative ideals, 
  provided they share Christian beliefs and the fear a biblical apocalypse is nigh.  
  When hunting, the Long Night views the war against the supernatural as their God-given duty. 
  Though some members are convinced the Tribulation must happen before humanity can 
  spiritually evolve, they fear the costs of the war more than they’d care to admit. To end the 
  current crisis, members are given the support and encouragement to step up and fight. Some turn 
  to their churches, to take comfort in sermons that preach every person has the power to prepare 
  the way to bring about the Second Coming. Others recruit their families to fight, knowing a 
  painless victory cannot be guaranteed, and keeping the Vigil a secret does more harm than good. 
  The Enemy 
  More monsters prowl, feed, and manipulate the innocent than in decades past. The Long Night 
  struggles to categorize these creatures neatly. as the Bible doesn’t mention them. Some hunters 
  are convinced all new monsters are infernal. They point to the seven deadly sins — wrath, lust, 
  sloth, pride, gluttony, envy, and greed — as proof that demons are not a figment of a good 
  Christian’s imagination, and they could be to blame for the creation of new monsters. 
  Most members agree that the cause of supernatural activity isn’t as important as saving the souls 
  upon whom monsters prey. Many hunters are convinced that wicked or cursed mortals, namely 
  warlocks, witches, mediums, fae-touched victims, and some slashers can be saved, if not 
  redeemed. Of course, the Long Night isn’t naïve. They understand a spiritually compromised 
  person will lie when desperate. After all, reformation takes time and a willingness to renounce 
  the darkness that has already seeped into their souls. 
  The Long Night’s members work tirelessly to hunt and convert. The damned, whether they are 
  vampires, werewolves, demons, or other abominations, must be dealt with swiftly lest they tempt 
  or feed on the living. Wayward souls, however, must be carefully approached and brought into 
  the fold slowly and considerately. In both cases, vigilance is required for the compact 
  understands their hunters aren’t free from sin either, and their members can fall to the darkness 
  just as easily as the lambs they’re trying to save. 
  Hunters 
  You hit rock bottom, reached out, and no one was there to catch you. You have reveled in your 
  sins even though you knew every heinous crime was wrong. The taint spread so deep inside your 
  soul that you convinced yourself you were beyond redemption, but just after you knocked that 
  thing unconscious in the alleyway you had a moment of clarity. Sure, you peered into the 
  darkness and it stared back at you with beady yellow eyes, but you were saved. There can be 
  only one explanation: The Lord smiled upon you and gave you a chance for redemption. Now, 
  you atone for your misdeeds by putting the monsters to the torch, cleansing your sins one 
  screaming demon at a time. 
  You see the truth. You see how others turn their backs and ignore the headlines. Destabilized 
  governments, mass protests, acts of terrorism, falling markets. The signs of the apocalypse are 
  everywhere, and they’re getting worse. You’ve spent decades filling scrapbooks and journals 
  with evidence, and years trawling forums and chat rooms. Other people laugh at you, call you 
  
  paranoid, crazy, a conspiracy nut. Before, you could only shake your head, but the signs are 
  unmistakable. The apocalypse is here. You’re going to save them even if they won’t save 
  themselves. 
  You are a Good Samaritan. You saw a woman cornered in the parking lot just after midnight. At 
  the time, you weren’t one of the faithful; you just didn’t want to see another woman get mugged. 
  When you stepped up to help her, she told you the man cornering her was her brother. You had a 
  choice: Fight or run. You stayed. She tossed you a tranquilizer gun, and you managed to help 
  subdue him. When you asked her what he was on, she told you the truth: vampire blood. At first 
  you didn’t believe her, not until you helped cleanse him of his addiction. Then, you realized 
  other people need help, too. Now, you save others from the taint of the supernatural.  
  Doctrines 
  The Long Night contains several factions and religious denominations. They all are unified on 
  one major idea — Armageddon is here. Despite this, there are particular doctrines of how and 
  why they fight for God that divide them. 
  The Hopeless are sinners who hunt to redeem themselves. Maybe they tasted a bloodsucker’s 
  blood and killed for more. Maybe they were a powerful warlock and used spells on the innocent. 
  Or, maybe they stole, carjacked, dealt drugs, or trafficked people. Whatever the cause, the 
  Hopeless feel the weight of their sins, acknowledge the stains on their souls, and fight the 
  darkness to absolve themselves of their past or prevent others from falling like they did. 
  The Faithful believe they are ordained by God to fight in the Tribulation Army and are 
  convinced their actions are justified in the eyes of God. They see everyday life as a battle 
  between “them” and “us,” and people who get in the way are casualties of war. To them, the 
  apocalypse is God’s last warning that the monsters must be wiped out by any means necessary 
  — and they’re the only hunters blessed with this understanding. The Vigil is God’s will. 
  The Merciful use compassion and empathy to redeem mortals who’ve been tainted, used, or 
  manipulated by the supernatural. They believe that God loves all His children and it is their job 
  to save souls when possible. While they will use violence when necessary, the Merciful seek 
  ways to rehabilitate the fallen, awaken victims to God’s will and service, and bring warlocks and 
  witches back into the fold. 
  Status 
  Hunters in the Long Night gain status by serving the compact’s evangelical needs. 
  • You understand why the Long Night must fight, and effectively argue its theological beliefs 
  with ease to recruit other likeminded hunters. Gain Evangelism as a free Specialty of either the 
  Persuasion or Expression Skills. 
  ••• Your growing reputation has impressed other members of the Long Night, and they’ve 
  entrusted you with secrets of the hunt. Take two dots in the Merit: Allies (Long Night). 
  ••••• You’ve established yourself as a popular internet evangelist who uses colorful metaphors to 
  spread the Good Word and talk about the hunt. Gain three interns who work for you; this is 
  equivalent to three, one-dot Retainer or Staff Merits. 
  Loyalists of Thule 
  
  The Indebted 
  Quote: “Our debts can never be repaid, but we have no choice: we try or we die trying.” 
  In the early 20th century, German occultists of the Thule Gesselshaft believed that the Aryan 
  race, the inhabitants of Lost Thule, planted the roots of modern society. In time, the Thule 
  Gesselshaft’s belief that Germans were descended from a master race spread like a cancerous 
  plague. Two of their members helped establish the German Workers’ Party that led to the 
  formation of the Nazi Party.  
  While many of Thule’s early members were Nazi sympathizers, most left after Hitler severed ties 
  with the group in 1920. The group slowly fell into decline and Loyalists studied privately until 
  after World War II. Some Loyalists remained obsessed with finding the Aryan race and left 
  Germany to explore hidden cities, sunken ruins, and ancient necropoli. Eventually the scattered 
  members realized the truth: they were wrong. There was no such thing as a master race. 
  In the aftermath of WWII, disbanded members regrouped in Germany to discuss their next steps. 
  Most were shocked to learn how the Thule Gesselshaft’s beliefs had been weaponized by the 
  Nazis to justify attempted genocide. Recognizing the role they played, hunters aided Allied 
  forces by pointing out supernatural creatures, facilitating reparations, and identifying Nazi 
  survivors they once knew.  
  Despite their earnestness, the once-revered professors, archaeologists, and philosophers of the 
  Thule Gesselshaft were largely ignored or forgotten. The Allied forces were more interested in 
  German technology and scientific discoveries than the occult. Devastated by the lukewarm 
  reception, the Thule occultists spent the next decade forming the Loyalists of Thule. Their 
  mission: Use their occult knowledge to save lives.  
  For many years, the Loyalists of Thule fed valuable intel to other hunters. The organization’s 
  founders, three former members of the Thule Gesselshaft, orchestrated assistance from Munich. 
  The elusive founders met weekly to prioritize the Indebted’s activities and spent hours arguing 
  with a spiteful bitterness that grew into deep hatred. Despite their lack of camaraderie, the 
  founders decided what information to act on, what data to share, and which secrets to keep. 
  Largely, the organization’s secretive nature and tightly controlled modus operandi have remained 
  static for over 50 years. Members are descended from one of the Indebted, recruited 
  aggressively, or blackmailed into joining. Intel is doled out to members using antiquated 
  equipment and World War II-era ciphers, and hunters are expected to carry out orders without 
  question. Unfortunately, no one has met or talked to the Munich-based founders for a few years, 
  and Loyalists who’ve done the math have realized the elders, if they’re still alive, would be well 
  over 100 years old. So who’s issuing orders now? Some higher-ranking members are threatening 
  to break protocol and fly to Munich to find out what’s happening, but thus far the Loyalists have 
  yet to do so.  
  Now, the Loyalists of Thule remain suspicious, if not worried, that their organization is 
  compromised. Its members cannot deny the growing threat of fascism spreading across the world 
  yet struggle to understand why supernatural activity is clearly on the rise. While the Loyalists are 
  not naive enough to believe that real world atrocities should be blamed on the occult, every act of 
  fascism reminds them of their organization’s dark past. Most Indebted believe that hate-filled 
  atrocities caused by mortals are just as bad — if not worse — than the soulless creatures who 
  prey on humankind and help where they can. 
  
  The Enemy 
  While the Loyalists of Thule are trained to defend themselves, they pride themselves on their 
  intellectual prowess. Members are academics, investigators, reporters, antiquarians, auctioneers, 
  bibliophiles, occultists, ritual magicians, archaeologists, and curators. As scholars, first and 
  foremost, the Indebted seek to understand the true nature of monsters by identifying, monitoring, 
  and studying them for the benefit of others. 
  As an organization, most of the Indebted understand the importance of studying the supernatural 
  but are anxious they’ll lose sight of the people they’re trying to save. Members deal with this 
  plight in different ways by adding charitable works to their day-to-day studies. Some volunteer 
  in their communities to prevent hate crimes, bring transgressors to justice, and help victims; 
  others study cold cases to track down serial killers and mortal predators; and a third group has 
  started a mentorship program to replenish the organization’s numbers with eager proteges and 
  talented, college-aged intellectuals.  
  Ideally, the astute Loyalist passes the information they’ve learned (or have received) to the best 
  equipped hunters. The Indebted have traditionally viewed themselves as supportive of other 
  hunters in The Union and SWORN but actively seek contact with other groups. Despite their 
  scholarly reputation, many Loyalists are training to become more physically capable in response 
  to their recent findings. Of all the compacts, the Indebted have their finger on the pulse of 
  supernatural activity, and they have proof that the creatures of the night are more aggressive than 
  ever before. 
  Hunters 
  You are a data analyst who recently lost your wife in a car accident. At the funeral, you met the 
  German side of her family, and noticed how they kept exchanging looks whenever a certain 
  uncle tried to get your attention. You were grieving too much to deal with family drama, so you 
  let him corner you and tell you the truth: Your wife was murdered by a poltergeist. After 
  everyone else left, you read old letters and discovered your wife’s other life and why she felt 
  compelled to keep secrets from you. Your wife’s uncle then asked you to honor her memory by 
  joining them.  
  You are studying to be a naturalist at the Free University of Berlin. While reviewing the works of 
  Elisabeth Schmid, the world-renowned author of the Atlas of Animal Bones, you found an odd 
  folio filled with fantastic anatomical sketches of no known animal. You were tersely informed 
  Schmid had an overactive imagination, but you couldn’t let the academic’s findings go. 
  Eventually, you were approached by the head of your department who asked you to return the 
  folio. You refused and told her you had a hunch the sketches were based on real bones. She 
  quietly asked if you’d continue her work by studying live subjects in the field.  
  Your ability to skate that line between good and downright evil worked for years — until you 
  were caught. You are a father of five who traded securities by day and sold fake mutual funds at 
  night, bilking millions out of the elderly. Unfortunately, you hustled the wrong grandpa, and he 
  came knocking on your office door with a pair of bodyguards and a dossier filled with proof of 
  your illicit activities. You asked him what he wanted, and he gave you a choice: Serve “time” by 
  putting your skills to good use, or he’ll hand over all the evidence he’s collected — and more — 
  to the feds. Now, you work for him.  
  
  Philosophies 
  The Loyalists of Thule study the supernatural by researching its denizens to death, both literally 
  and figuratively. Most of the time, the Indebted agree how to hunt, capture, and kill monsters 
  based on communications received from Munich. Beyond this, the Indebted tend to follow one of 
  three approaches. 
  Many Loyalists are Scholars who feel the best way to save humanity is by quietly gathering 
  intel, sharing valuable information, and forming better connections with well-armed hunters who 
  can act on their findings. Scholars hold differing views on their personal stake in the fight but 
  agree they have a job to do and will take orders from other Loyalists when needed. 
  Some academics, called the Penitent, refuse to sit on the sidelines. These hunters raid haunted 
  tombs, track down mystical artifacts, and dig up mausoleums to “cleanse” the supernatural taint 
  from ancient, hidden places. While the Penitent do work with other hunters, their methods are 
  often dangerous and highly illegal. They believe that getting their hands dirty is the only way to 
  atone for the sins of the past. 
  The Advance loudly proclaim they, of all the Loyalists, are “true” members of the organization. 
  Not only do these hunters pledge to atone for all the Indebted’s sins, they prefer to be the first 
  hunters called to help. Other Loyalists worry their grand speeches will attract new members who 
  want to join the Indebted for all the wrong reasons. Still, though members of the Advance lack 
  humility, they are effective recruiters and spokespeople who shed the organization’s veil of 
  secrecy when Munich asks them to. 
  Status 
  Status within the Indebted is earned by repaying the organization’s debt to humanity. 
  • You have to atone for past atrocities and understand the knowledge you gain will save lives. 
  When risking Willpower on an Academics- or Occult-based roll, gain two Willpower instead of 
  one regardless of your current rating.  
  ••• You have reached out to other Loyalists and formed a bond with an experienced member to 
  whom you report. Gain a two-dot Mentor: Loyalist of Thule Merit. 
  ••••• You were summoned to Munich and “spoke” to the founders hidden behind a screen. 
  You’ve been given the names and addresses of three expert scholars in the occult. Pick three, 
  one-dot Contacts who study a specific monster type such as vampire, werewolf, ghost, demon, 
  etc. 
  Network Zero 
  The Secret Frequency 
  Quote: “The truth about the supernatural will set humanity free, and it’s our job to make sure 
  that happens.” 
  Almost everybody’s seen that grainy video of two glowing orbs taken in a haunted Romanian 
  castle. There’s also a popular clip of a tall, thin man dressed in a neat black suit hovering behind 
  two kids camping in the Appalachian Mountains. Oh, and who could forget that viral, eight-
  second gif of pitch-black, red-eyed lions lunging at a tourist’s jeep in the savannah. The videos 
  
  are unsettling, they’re shared across social-media platforms, and most of them are fake. A few, 
  however, are very real — thanks to Network Zero. 
  An “ancient” group by internet standards, members of Network Zero also call themselves the 
  Secret Frequency. This organization has been using its members’ camera phones, tablets, 
  handheld video cameras, and expensive production equipment to capture and broadcast occult 
  secrets for almost 30 years. Their mission is simple: They know the supernatural is real, and they 
  believe the best way to save humanity is to show them the truth. 
  Network Zero was founded by an independent filmmaker, Jim Harrison, who aired anonymous 
  footage from the 1970s on a public-access cable show in Dallas, Texas on Sunday, September 
  22, 1991. Each clip showed the impossible: a giant black dog with red eyes, a man with horns, 
  and a building-sized mass of writhing, translucent tentacles. Not long afterward, Harrison 
  received letters and additional reels from other people who’d seen the impossible.  
  Whenever Harrison received footage he could verify as authentic, he publicly shared it on his 
  show. Over time, other people chipped in to review clips. As Jim’s web of contacts grew, he 
  noticed patterns he could not ignore. The more Harrison saw, the more he became obsessed with 
  the hidden world of the supernatural. Eventually, his obsession cost him his job, marriage, and 
  his friendships, too.  
  Not to be deterred, Harrison kept pushing his videos and eventually his cable show’s popularity 
  exploded thanks to the internet. In 1999, Jim launched the Secret Frequency online and set up 
  Network Zero as a fully-fledged hunter organization accessible by anyone with an internet 
  connection. Just when Jim thought people were starting to believe him, his real footage was 
  engulfed by a never-ending stream of disinformation and internet trolls debunking his reveals.  
  At first, Harrison responded by putting out an SOS to members for help, but eventually 
  succumbed to paranoia and became a shut-in. Unfortunately, Jim’s erratic behavior deterred 
  modern viewers, and ad revenue plummeted despite boasting active members in places like 
  Helsinki, New Delhi, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Dallas, San Francisco, and Shanghai. 
  Fortunately, one of Harrison’s former friends, Tony Pizzelli, returned to help him get his life 
  back in order. 
  Now, Network Zero is officially “rebuilding” its operation by recruiting members with 
  backgrounds in programming, telecommunications, and computer networking. Several online 
  personalities, including social-media darling Gracie Jefferson, have stepped up to organize 
  crowdfunding campaigns to help pay for private proxy servers and encryption software. Most 
  members, however, are focused on combating disinformation by sharing the truth, one video at a 
  time. 
  The Enemy 
  Members of Network Zero know monsters are real, and want everyone — the police, the mayor, 
  local reporters — to come to the same conclusion. Despite their efforts, most people either don’t 
  listen or laugh off their warnings, but that hasn’t stopped the Secret Frequency from trying. With 
  Jim’s health in decline, members worry the future of their organization is in jeopardy. 
  While most Network Zero members aren’t out to kill monsters, they do understand the enemies 
  they digitally capture must be dealt with. Still, members have conflicting views on what to do 
  next. Some feel they should observe and remain neutral, while others hunt with a live feed. Even 
  
  when that’s the case, members are more likely to partner with seasoned hunters than go off on 
  their own. 
  Members of the Secret Frequency split their time between scouring the web for misinformation, 
  uploading new content, managing their communities, and networking with other hunters. They 
  are acutely aware of a change in hunter society. Serious hunters are not as approachable as they 
  were in the past, and many avoid the spotlight. Instead of agreeing to being on film, hunters in 
  the field often refuse or wear disguises to avoid being recognized. Still, that doesn’t stop 
  Network Zero’s hunters from filming the hunt despite their struggles to find funds and traditional 
  avenues of distribution. 
  Despite the volume of evidence at their disposal, members simply want to capture the 
  supernatural on film and don’t want to be considered experts. While they know what lens to use 
  and which equipment to manage, they’re not academics. Members of Network Zero are 
  desperate to share what they know because they believe it’s their duty to open people’s eyes. 
  Unfortunately, this can and does lead to unwanted attention from monsters who want the truth to 
  remain hidden.  
  Hunters 
  They ridicule you at school for being a quiet nerd who prefers a camera to people. You’ve never 
  told them why you hide in your dorm’s stairwells at night, what you’ve captured on film, or why 
  you spend hours online. You’re too busy to care about all their petty bullshit. You’ve had the veil 
  ripped from your eyes and know what really matters. If your parents only knew half the things 
  you’ve done and seen they’d shut down your internet access. But they don’t. No one suspects 
  you’re a hunter documenting the supernatural, and a damn good one, too. 
  You were prone to blackouts and woke up with strange bruises on your wrists and neck. Your 
  doctors couldn’t figure out what was causing them and accused you of taking drugs. Desperate 
  for answers, you set up a hidden camera in your bedroom, and eventually it captured a flickering 
  image that turned your blood to ice. While you were sleeping, the footage captured something 
  crawling through your window to suck on your flesh. You found help online in a chatroom, set a 
  trap for it, and you killed that thing. Now, you hunt with your new friends. 
  You’re a detective who’s always prided yourself on being rational; you’ve never bought into 
  those viral videos you see online. At least, not until you uncovered a web of lies covering up a 
  rash of John Doe victims that suddenly disappeared from the morgue. You dug a little deeper, 
  and your boss told you to forget the case. When you wouldn’t, you were reassigned to a new 
  precinct and given a job issuing parking permits. You can’t let that case go, but know you’re 
  being watched. Now, you’ve carefully rebuilt your contacts and hunt down the truth. 
  Crews 
  “The truth will set humanity free” may be Network Zero’s overarching ideology, but members of 
  the Secret Frequency don’t always agree on how the facts should be treated. Among its crews, 
  three notable groups stand out. 
  The Record Keepers are the largest, and most conflicted group. Members are citizen journalists, 
  vloggers, and amateur filmmakers who take an objective stance when filming the supernatural. 
  They try not to judge the scene or a hunter’s methods to ensure their footage is authentic, but 
  often do — especially when a victim’s life is in danger. Several Record Keepers have taken a 
  
  more active approach by wearing a wire and live cameras for a first-person perspective of the 
  hunt.  
  Soldiers in the Army of Truth are activists who use more aggressive tactics. Members thrust the 
  truth into the public eye and will hack websites, news feeds, and broadcasts to insert their clips. 
  Unlike other members, the Army of Truth doesn’t rely on other hunters outside the organization; 
  they form cells with clearly defined responsibilities to find leads, verify activity, and confront the 
  supernatural on their own terms. 
  Lastly, the Secret Keepers believe assaulting the public with proof won’t gain their trust. 
  Members are convinced the harder Network Zero fights the constant stream of misinformation 
  and internet trolls, the more their organization is at risk of being compromised. Instead, members 
  vet contacts who might listen to them and scour through videos, digital photographs, and other 
  forms of evidence to piece together supernatural activities.  
  Status 
  Members in Network Zero gain status by smartly extending their influence or reach without 
  causing harm to themselves or the organization. 
  • You’re a talented filmmaker who’s been given access to a private network and has mastered 
  how to encrypt and decrypt files. Gain a free Skill Specialty in Computers or Crafts reflecting 
  your technological prowess or skill with filmmaking. 
  ••• You know how to blend in with other influencers online and network with other, higher-
  ranked personalities in Network Zero. Take two dots in Contacts that represent popular social-
  media icons who’ll spread the word when you need them to. 
  ••••• You believe in the Secret Frequency and know how to share vital intel while protecting 
  yourself. You’ve acquired a free dot in the Safehouse Merit; if you don’t already have it, you 
  gain the Merit for free.  
  Null Mysteriis 
  The Organization for the Rational Assessment of the Supernatural 
  Quote: “There’s no such thing as supernatural. Want an explanation? Try science.” 
  The Members of the Null Mysteriis do not believe in magic or the paranormal. They often quote 
  Arthur C. Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from 
  magic.” Thus, there are only natural phenomena that mortals have yet to observe, study, and 
  experiment on long enough to understand what they are, how they work, and where they fit in 
  nature. 
  Despite its modern, rational leanings, the origins of Null Mysteriis sit at the intersection between 
  the occult, religion, psychology, and science. In 1893, Jean-Pierre Brattel attended a few 
  Theosophical Society meetings and was eventually inspired to create a group of his own. The 
  first members included Jean-Pierre’s lover, Michel Pouget; his sister, Mireille Brattel; and his 
  mentor, Sophie Lisowski, who was rumored to be good friends with Madame Blavatsky. Despite 
  his kinship with fellow Theosophists, Brattel felt his approach was more scientific. A true 
  scientist, in Jean-Pierre’s mind, would approach the supernatural as a skeptic.  
  
  Brattel established the nascent beginnings of the Null Mysteriis to study the paranormal. 
  Eventually, Jean-Pierre’s group took on a life of its own; members swore by the Latin phrase 
  “Nullum Mysteriis Processit” which translates loosely to “out of the unexplained comes 
  nothing.” Alongside Theosophy, Brattel’s group gained momentum across Europe. By the time 
  the Great War began, the Null Mysteriis grew to 1,000 members. During WWI, the organization 
  spread to the Americas through academic and military circles. 
  Unfortunately, human losses eclipsed the organization’s lofty goal. Not only did the Great War 
  claim millions of lives, many great minds died, research funds were swallowed, and the public 
  turned its back on anything that didn’t help them cope, survive, and rebuild. Following WWII, 
  Null Mysteriis was decimated, with only a few clusters surviving, and the Organization for the 
  Rational Assessment of the Supernatural was largely forgotten — along with the once-popular 
  Theosophic Society. 
  One Null Mysteriis group managed to survive post-WWII by privately selling their services to 
  interested parties without any bureaucratic entanglements or police interest. Though many 
  European governments turned them down, a few eccentric collectors and intellectuals funded 
  their London-based operation until the 1970s. Then, following advances in quantum theory and 
  particle physics alongside a growing interest in science fiction, the organization replenished its 
  numbers by claiming they would prove the supernatural was not “super” after all.  
  Over time, Null Mysteriis expanded its base of operations from London to other metropolises 
  including technology-rich cities like Tel Aviv, Dublin, and Osaka. Despite this, the 
  organization’s membership remains small and focused. Null Mysteriis isn’t a corporate, 
  government, or academic entity buffered by layers of red tape and funding; its members are 
  hobbyists who pay membership fees to cover administrative salaries, newsletters, and some 
  supplies. While this loose structure has attracted experts in physics, zoology, biology, chemistry, 
  psychiatry, etc., it has also drawn a lot of marginally skilled hobbyists who practice more 
  pseudoscience than science.  
  Currently, the organization is disarray. The former general secretary, Scottish astrophysicist 
  Alexander Watt, and his rumored replacement, Watt’s charismatic rival and eccentric 
  psychologist, Vincent Fielding, have both gone missing. Until their absences can be satisfactorily 
  explained by a member of Null Mysteriis, their positions won’t be filled. 
  The Enemy 
  Members of Null Mysteriis are savvy investigators who don’t usually care about killing monsters 
  or cleansing tainted places. To them, the paranormal is normal, and predators are neither good 
  nor evil: they’re merely a different species, if not genus. This approach gives them an edge when 
  tracking predators, because members spot details others might overlook. Most Null Mysteriis 
  hunters can be difficult to work with, however, because its members are a tight-knit group who 
  know each other by name — or at least by reputation. 
  While other hunters are convinced the supernatural is real and the Vigil is a call to action, Null 
  Mysteriis hunters want to disprove its existence using math and science. Then, after years — 
  perhaps centuries — of scientific discoveries, no one will have to sacrifice their lives upholding 
  the Vigil any longer. Thus, creatures, humanoid monsters, relics, weather events, and places that 
  register as anomalous will draw the group’s attention. This includes psychic phenomena, ghosts, 
  UFOs, ancient civilizations, cryptozoology, etc.  
  
  Unlike other groups, Null Mysteriis hunters are not told what to do, where to hunt, and how to 
  handle a situation; they’re expected to investigate, experiment, and report back — but that’s 
  about it. Still, newer hunters romanticize the idea that their findings could “cure” vampirism or 
  lycanthropy, even though there is no cure to be found. Others are convinced the right formula, 
  released as a gas, could stop ghosts from manifesting. This cultural shift could yield new results 
  or spell disaster for its members, and veterans are becoming more selective with their 
  investigations and choice of friends. 
  When it comes to the hunt, members of the Null Mysteriis aren’t known for their physical 
  acumen. They excel at subterfuge, stealth, and analysis, and prefer avoiding one-on-one 
  confrontations whenever possible. As such, members of the Organization for the Rational 
  Assessment of the Supernatural will voluntarily work with other hunters, provided they get to 
  use their EVP recorders, Kirlian cameras, and petri dishes in the field to collect data and samples 
  while their cellmates eliminate threats. Of course, hunters are discouraged from sharing their 
  findings, but until Null Mysteriis gets its house in order the group cannot dictate what its 
  members can and cannot do. 
  Hunters 
  You’re a professor of earth science who doesn’t buy into all that fringe crap. You’ve witnessed 
  anomalous events firsthand, have seen demons speaking in tongues, and even managed to 
  translate a word: “machine.” If you can’t give a rational explanation, you return to the scene and 
  investigate it even more thoroughly. Then, perhaps you’ll publish your findings in the next 
  newsletter. 
  You live to wonder, and your imagination is captured by the fringe stuff. The Lunar effect. 
  Megalithic geometry. Orgone and ley lines. Unfortunately, not everyone shares your passions, 
  and you barely graduated. Now, you can’t land an academic position — but that doesn’t stop 
  you. You’re on the verge of identifying the chemical composition of ectoplasm and, thanks to 
  your new friends, you’ll one day reveal it to the world. 
  You were camping at a state park with your family one night. When you came back from your 
  beer run, you found your family slaughtered, their tents covered with acid burns. How was that 
  possible? You sent email after email to every scientist you could find until you got a response. 
  Their rational reply didn’t sit well with you. Now, you realize the close-mindedness of a hyper-
  rational scientific community is hiding behind their facts. You intend to correct their ignorance at 
  all costs, before it’s too late. 
  Theories 
  Null Mysteriis prides itself on being open to new theories until they can be disproven. The 
  theories that have stuck around the longest can be categorized into one of three groups. 
  The Rationalists, who’ve sided with Alexander Watt in the past, make up half of the 
  organization. Hunters believe anything can be proven (or disproven) given enough time and data. 
  Members have recently started to apply their expertise to forensic investigations to find Watt, 
  and some hunters have concluded the astrophysicist may have staged his disappearance.  
  The second largest group is the Cataclysmicists, who currently follow Zane Abara, a naturalist 
  working at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum in Vancouver. Once passed off as “loud-mouthed 
  doomsayers,” Abara boosted the Cataclysmicists reputation after discovering several, new 
  
  invasive avian species that could not be explained by climate change. Other tenured scientists 
  have shared similar findings, and they’ve concluded a cataclysmic event is nigh. 
  The smallest, and often socially ostracized, group is called the Open Minds. These hunters, who 
  followed Vincent Fielding, argue that each case must have a plausible explanation and their 
  methods aren’t as important as the conclusion. Other members might shy away from the Open 
  Minds because they believe their push for results is unscientific and don’t always trust their 
  findings. Currently, the Open Minds have theorized that Fielding has evolved to become a higher 
  being, and this is the reason no one can find him. 
  Status 
  Status within Null Mysteriis is gained by finding and sharing scientific revelations with other 
  members.  
  • You are an academic who’s welcome to attend any Null Mysteriis meeting you wish. You gain 
  a free Paranormal Skill Specialty in either Academics, Occult, or Science. 
  ••• You maintain regular contact with several Null Mysteriis members hailing from different 
  scientific backgrounds and know many of them personally. Gain a free dot in Contacts, 
  representing a Null Mysteriis hunter who specializes in a different field of science than you do, 
  and a dot in Allies (Null Mysteriis). 
  ••••• You’ve been in the field a long time, and you’re considered a veteran member of the 
  organization. You may raise Academics, Occult, or Science to five dots to reflect your expertise. 
  SWORN 
  Strong Warriors of All Red Nations 
  The Indian Termination and Indian Relocation Acts of 1956 pulled many Native Americans 
  away from their homes on reservations, forcing them to relocate to urban areas under the 
  pretense of rehabilitation. The public was told indigenous families were encouraged to move to 
  find vocational skills necessary for employment, but the government’s end goal was to 
  depopulate the reservations in the wake of decreasing subsidies and increasing urbanization. 
  Relocated Native Americans struggled to navigate their new environs and social circles, and 
  naturally connected with other Natives to form new communities. The more stories they 
  swapped, the more they realized how unsafe their cities were. They’d talk about how they never 
  walk down a certain dark alley or how they ignore a strange man who doesn’t feel right. While 
  some did report their sightings to local authorities, Native Americans were either ignored or 
  patronized, so they turned back to their own. They found Native circles gave these stories more 
  attention than other groups would. When people were afraid, they listened. When they started to 
  disappear, they sought answers. 
  The roots of SWORN, or Strong Warriors of All Red Nations, grew from tragedy. Chicagoan 
  Michelle TwoCrow, a member of WARN (Women of All Red Nations) and AIM (American 
  Indian Movement), was desperate to find her son Eddie, who never came home from work one 
  fateful night. At first, Michelle sought help from the police, but after hitting a dead end she 
  turned to her local Native community for assistance. Unfortunately, they didn’t help Michelle 
  either, because they claimed Eddie had been spotted hanging around with a known drinker and 
  drug user; some community members assumed Eddie was probably still out partying — even 
  
  though Michelle knew that couldn’t be true. To her, it seemed Native resistance groups were so 
  focused on fighting oppression they had little time to wage war in the shadows. 
  When Michelle investigated deeper, she not only discovered Eddie had been attacked by the 
  undead, the police had covered up the incident, too. Turning back to her community for help, 
  several members threw their hands up and said the problem was beyond them. Michelle was 
  determined to bring Eddie home — dead or alive. Many people told her to give up because they 
  didn’t feel safe; forced out of their homes due to the Relocation Act, they were frightened by 
  what Michelle was telling them. Worse: the Native community was aware monsters were real but 
  since their traditions to deal with the monsters had been lost, their response was to look away. 
  Ultimately, the community decided they had to deal with bigger threats. Eddie TwoCrow was 
  disposable and not worth the fight. 
  Michelle disagreed and managed to find help by drawing on the other communities of which she 
  was a part. Because of her determination and the things they’d seen, Michelle sought help from 
  Angie Decora, a lesbian biker; Ida Miller, a mixed black and Lakota bartender; Danny Romero, a 
  LagunaChicano man who worked as a gang intervention social worker; Kara Dittami, a Pequot 
  literacy worker; and Derrick Moser, an Ojibwa homeless man to form a cell.  
  The hunters found Eddie, but unfortunately it was too late. After hunting and killing the creature 
  responsible for his death, the Native hunters swore an oath to never give up, no matter how 
  intimidated they were, to keep fighting. Soon afterward, the cell broke up and each member 
  formed a new cell of their own to create SWORN. 
  The Enemy 
  There are countless stories circulated through hundreds of tribes warning others about strange 
  spirits and predatory creatures. The little tree-dwellers, Canoti, from Lakota and Dakota nations. 
  The humanoid tricksters Mannegishi from Cree folklore. The half-human, half-animal 
  cannibalistic Kee-wakw from the Abenaki tribe. For thousands of years, tribes and Native nations 
  had their own ways of dealing with the supernatural and bands of warriors and warrior societies 
  devoted to slaying them.  
  As the forces of colonization swept across the land and survivors were compelled to adopt 
  Christian religions and erase their cultural knowledge, more and more of these groups — and 
  their secrets — were wiped out and the monsters they kept at bay were better able to operate and 
  propagate. Now, SWORN operates in large cities and keeps an eye out for creatures that hunt in 
  their members’ shadows. Initially, their focus was geared toward protecting the marginalized 
  Native population, due to the uncertain, if not dangerous, sociopolitical climate that forced 
  intertribal communities together, creating fresh opportunities for predators to hunt vulnerable 
  people. As time passed, their approach has broadened to be more aggressive rather than 
  defensive. 
  SWORN reframes supernatural denizens and their categorizations often shape what they’re 
  members do next. Hunters identify two primary types: natural monsters and predators. Natural 
  monsters have a place in the ecological system much like a bear or wolf, whereas predators are 
  intelligent creatures that harm. Among natural monsters, Native hunters may further distinguish 
  between an invasive or hybrid species. 
  Today’s members benefit from Michelle TwoCrow’s efforts to catalogue and cross reference 
  strange phenomena and known monsters across Native urban environments, reservations, and 
  
  folklore. With this information, hunters work to contain natural monsters, manage their numbers, 
  and eradicate predators when they can. While SWORN is not opposed to helping or working 
  with other hunters, members tend to avoid outsiders who try to roll in and “take charge” of their 
  hunt. 
  Hunters 
  You’re a Native daughter who has seen the ugly side of the world. You’ve got a long history of 
  activism in your family. You weren’t much for protesting, but eventually you spoke up their way 
  — even though you knew something was wrong. That time, that protest, was different and 
  something was more wrong than anyone knew. Then, you lost some sisters. When you started 
  fighting back, you brought the fire with you, and you’ll never be the same. 
  You joined a gang for safety. Running the streets, you saw somebody get jumped and had to run. 
  What you thought were rival gangbangers turned out to be something far worse. You had 
  nowhere else to go, so you begged the Indian Center to let you stay. The janitor let you in, asked 
  you what was going on, and taught you how to fight. Now you’ve got a new posse and a real 
  enemy to take down. 
  You’re an ecologist focused on water rights. You didn’t see why everyone made such a big fuss 
  about developing that bad area. You assumed a little urban development could help clear the 
  waters and reclaim the woods around it. Then, you found out why the woods were that way and 
  what lived in those waters. You knew it should never be set free. Now you make sure the sacred 
  creatures are left alone and help maintain their domains. 
  Factions 
  Members of SWORN are broken up into three groups who help communities in different ways. 
  Most follow the path of Cante Glonice (chan-TAY glow-NEE-chay) or Unyielding Hearts 
  Society. These hunters focus on their local Native communities and quietly investigate reports. 
  Cells work hard to extend their protection to all people who claim Native blood or traditions, 
  regardless of identity. Additionally, some hunters in Norway, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and New 
  Zealand have adopted some of SWORN’s monster classifications. Now, they actively establish 
  protected zones while maintaining boundaries between people and monsters. 
  A modest-sized faction is called Lugh’s Fist. Founded by ethnobotanist Choctaw Kathy Owens, 
  this group teaches outsiders Native ways in emergency situations. While she was in Ireland 
  presenting a talk about how Natives helped the Irish survive the potato famine, Kathy learned 
  famine threatened a Ghaeltacht area near the western coastline. After identifying that hungry 
  grass was to blame, Kathy established a new faction and taught the people in the area her ways. 
  The smallest group is the Tribal Investigation and Protection Initiative (TIPI), a militant, 
  sexist organization that emerged in the early 1980s. The initiative is a male-dominated faction 
  that only hunts monsters threatening Native people on reservations; they also only recruit Native 
  people who can present their tribal registration. Other SWORN members knock heads with them 
  due to TIPI’s lack of multiculturalism and their attitudes toward women and queer-identifying 
  Natives. 
  Status 
  
  Members of SWORN gain status by helping members of their community stay safe using the 
  lessons they’ve learned. 
  • You’ve been taught how to deal with monsters according to your Native traditions and know 
  how to apply lessons to the hunt. Gain a free Skill Specialty in Investigation, Streetwise, or 
  Stealth. 
  ••• You are a respected member of your community and other SWORN hunters look up to you. 
  You gain two dots in the Mentor Merit to reflect the SWORN elder who teaches you how to 
  lead. 
  ••••• You’ve applied the lessons you’ve learned, taught others, and saved the lives of many 
  grateful people. Now, you can call in favors when needed. Distribute three dots among 
  Resources, Allies, or Contacts to help you continue your great work.  
  The Union 
  Regular Schmoes 
  Quote: “Not here. Not today. You’re on our turf now.” 
  At the dawn of the 20th century, the Labor Movement thrust socioeconomic inequality into the 
  spotlight. Unions organized in response to the growing divide between greedy capitalists who 
  preyed on everyday workers struggling to put food on the table, not fully realizing their members 
  were battling more than one type of monster. In Pennsylvania, people scoffed when coal miners 
  told them they heard someone scraping the ceilings above them and ignored their warnings even 
  after the mine collapsed. In Chicago, no one batted an eye when a strange “disease” swept 
  through a shoe factory manned by children. In New York, shirtwaist makers shouted, telling their 
  bosses something was preying on them from the rafters, but no one listened — not even after the 
  factory burned down. Every industrialized country around the globe, from England to Australia, 
  is filled with stories of common laborers fighting for their lives, both figuratively and literally. 
  Though skilled laborers continued to protest and organize throughout the 20th century, some 
  workers noticed that, despite their conditions slowly growing better, people were still dying. As 
  stories spread, the common worker began to understand they weren’t as powerless as they 
  believed. Alone, each worker was weak and vulnerable. Together? They were unstoppable. Over 
  time, casual conversations led to local investigations and coordinated hunts. As workers 
  developed a common lexicon to name monsters and identify where they slept, hunters organized 
  “work parties” to deal with the problem, clean up the aftermath, and then disband.  
  For decades, most “work parties” were small, localized, and short-lived. Unlike other hunting 
  organizations, members dealt with monsters only when they had to. Sometimes, groups would 
  disband because a certain warehouse would burn down or a company would suddenly go out of 
  business. Other times, laborers would move around to find work or to forget what they’d seen. 
  Most workers were happy to forget what they’d done and preferred the pretense of a normal life 
  for them and their families. 
  Officially, The Union didn’t form as a hunter organization until Holly Ramirez, an active “work 
  party” member, started connecting cells together in 1999. Having survived her own encounters, 
  she began to reach out using the internet and noticed how similar other stories were to hers. Of 
  course, hunters used colorful metaphors to disguise their fear and what they knew, but Holly 
  
  knew what was really being said and was confident they could help each other. In March 2000, 
  Holly set up a public bulletin board online to help coordinate and connect other members around 
  the globe. Less than four months later, the board was gone and several of its more visible 
  members were reported missing or dead.  
  Devastated but not defeated, Holly and her trusted associates learned their lesson and adopted 
  anonymous profiles on a private forum they moderate. Each time they upgraded the forum, they 
  changed addresses, passwords, even web hosts to secure their communication. Now, members 
  use a private-message service that’s invite only. Still, that doesn’t stop the occasional spy from 
  stumbling onto their turf, but Holly developed a rigorous method to test and deal with what she 
  referred to as “the enemy.” Occasionally, she’d release false intel using herself as bait; other 
  members believe that’s what got her killed back in 2005. 
  Now, The Union has taken on a life of its own. New and secure forms of communication allow 
  members to talk face to face, and several micro-communities have branched off the main 
  network. Holly Ramirez’ community is stronger than ever. New community managers, like Bob 
  Saltzman and Jefferson Willis, have emerged to help coordinate the hunt and, if necessary, 
  funerals and fundraising for hospital bills. 
  The Union’s “work parties” are typically composed of skilled laborers and everyday people who 
  don’t work a nine-to-five job. Often, hunters step up because there’s a need for a warm body, an 
  improvised trap, an electric fence — or bait. Sewer workers and cable-service people know 
  unseen, less-trafficked routes, beat cops know the crime hot spots and have access to weapons, 
  and ambulance drivers and emergency responders have access to medicine. Though most of its 
  members are blue-collar workers, The Union is inclusive and pragmatic because to them? There 
  are enough problems in the world without monsters. The Regular Schmoes will take all the help 
  it can get — and that includes migrant workers, homeless, and sex workers, too. 
  The Enemy 
  The thing about The Union is that they don’t care what makes a monster tick, what its powers 
  are, or what kind it is. Vampire, werewolf, ghost, demon, or the occasional slasher — they’re all 
  just targets. Members aren’t obsessed with the hunt; they focus on getting through the day, living 
  their lives, and raising their families. As such, they don’t become obsessed with myths or legends 
  or conspiracy theories. If they catch wind of a monster who might be in the area, they don’t make 
  a move until a sighting has been confirmed. 
  Unfortunately, their lack of organization is also a weakness. While they can respond quickly, 
  they don’t have the resources or knowledge other groups do. Members chip in where they can, 
  but they’re not rolling in dough. Unfortunately, other compacts know it, too. Often, when 
  Regular Schmoes partner with other cells they provide manual labor or muscle — and that sets 
  their teeth on edge. The Union knows there’s a storm coming. When and if they get their 
  numbers up, maybe then they’ll finally organize. Until then, if you’re a hunter who can aim and 
  fire, The Union will gladly take you. 
  Hunters 
  You fight fires and saw the flickering shape of a child-sized shadow right before the mayor’s 
  house burned down. You were told not to say anything, but you can’t get that image out of your 
  mind. Every time you ride your truck, you pay close attention to the scenery, and you’ve 
  managed to put your buddies on high alert, too. Now, your chief calls you a “human smoke 
  
  detector,” because you’ve stopped a few fires well before they’ve had a changed to spread — by 
  killing the thing that caused them. 
  You’re a streets-and-sanitation worker who made a gruesome discovery: piles of skeletal bodies 
  deep in the sewers, their bones gnawed on and the marrow sucked out. You’ve stumbled across 
  larders filled with harvested organs, and underpasses where dark rituals were being performed. 
  You know what happens beneath the city’s notice and you’re obsessed with ensuring that others 
  do, too. 
  You’re a traffic cop who monitors the street cameras all over town. Every so often, you catch a 
  blurry glimpse of a creature that gives you nightmares. You take images when you can and share 
  them with local hunters. The only thing keeping you upright is knowing that every time you find 
  one of those monsters, you are saving somebody’s life. Watching them through your cameras is 
  the only way you can stay one step ahead of them. 
  Factions 
  Alliances in The Union tend to form out of shared interests as opposed to bigger, philosophical 
  ideas. There are three such groups. 
  Most people within The Union advocate for a simple, defensive approach: Home First. Hunters 
  look after their own friends, lovers, families in their neighborhoods, factories, and schools, and 
  they never bring the fight to the monsters.  
  Hunters who claim membership in The General Strike take a more aggressive stance. They 
  believe it is their duty to fight monsters, because they are the worst kind of oppressors. There 
  aren’t many members left, however, and most are either missing or dead. A few have even 
  “come back” to prey on their cellmates, right before they were lit on fire. 
  Politicals, on the other hand, hunt and organize to ensure their people are free to live the life they 
  choose, in the way they want to live it, despite their fear of the supernatural. Though their 
  members used to be extremists living on the fringes of society, their numbers have grown in 
  response to a general anxiety about the future. Most Politicals range from protestors fighting for 
  gun rights to doomsday preppers. These hunters join other demonstrators and protestors, moving 
  from city to city, hunting enemies under cover. 
  Status 
  When the shadows grow longer, and people are reported missing — The Union swings into 
  action. Something, somewhere, needs to die and they gain status when it does. 
  • You’ve been invited to join The Union, and your expertise has helped you on the hunt. You 
  may use the 8-again quality when performing Teamwork or Tactics relevant to your trade. 
  ••• You’ve managed to develop several friendships with other Union members, and they’re ready 
  to pitch in when needed. Gain two dots in Allies (The Union) representing individuals who 
  specialize in killing two, separate types of monsters. 
  ••••• You’ve saved lives, raised funds to help survivors rebuild their homes, and bailed 
  somebody out of a tight spot from time to time. Your efforts have paid off, and your reward is 
  two dots of Resources you can use to help yourself or your cellmates. 
  MIKE: THIS NEXT SECTION REPRESENTS THE CONSPIRACY SPLATS. 
  
  Ascending Ones 
  The Cult of the Phoenix 
  Quote: “Our war is eternal. Our sacrifices, endless. Our draughts, prepare us.” 
  According to legend, by the time Upper and Lower Egypt unified around 3150 BCE, the Cult of 
  the Phoenix and the Cult of Set were already ancient. Both sects of soldiers fought the darkness 
  in a time beyond memory, one by day and one by night. The Cult of Set lit their fires, stayed near 
  the people, and protected their villages during the long nights. The other sect, the Cult of the 
  Phoenix, hunted the shadows by day and slayed the monsters they found with righteous fury. 
  Unfortunately, no mortal group of hunters is infallible, and the Cult of Set slowly fell to 
  corruption. Nightmares wormed their way into the night warriors’ ranks, and infiltrated the sect 
  forcing the hunters to fall. Over time, the two sects grew more and more distant. The 
  compromised Cult of Set faded away, absorbed by the shadows with which they unwittingly 
  comingled, leaving the Cult of the Phoenix to hunt on its own. 
  The burden of an endless hunt quickly overwhelmed the remaining hunters in the Cult of the 
  Phoenix. Their leaders sought answers by brewing potions to bolster their soldiers’ resolve and 
  tonics that enhanced their physical prowess in battle. The first elixir was successful and gave the 
  soldiers an edge; its formula required constant consumption, however, and the ingredients were 
  toxic. Eventually, the elixir proved fatal and their numbers fell. 
  For several years, the Cult of the Phoenix devoted itself to the art of alchemy experimenting with 
  wondrous herbs and mystical components to concoct the perfect formula. Over time, they also 
  realized how certain ingredients destabilized their essences, and had to be neutralized in the 
  body. By developing a metaphysical training regimen that blended alchemy with their faith, 
  members learned how to metabolize poisonous concoctions after ingestion. 
  Elixirs gave the Cult of the Phoenix power to rise from the ashes as the Ascending Ones, restore 
  their membership, and renew their pledge to fight. Once the alchemists built a stable of potions 
  that yielded predictable results, their methodology remained stable for 1,000 years. The 
  Ascending Ones spread their influence from Egypt into other parts of North Africa, the Middle 
  East, and into Roman-occupied territories; they courted members who hailed from different 
  faiths, incorporating the followers of Christ, Muhammad, Hermes, Horus, Ashoka and others. 
  As cultural traditions, laws, and boundaries continued to change, the Ascending Ones shifted 
  tactics and applied their alchemical knowledge to a mercantile craft. Their potion-brewing skills 
  created a sustainable trade to sell legal and illicit medicinal powders, tonics, drugs, and spirits 
  which in turn funded their operations, allowing them to follow trade routes and extend their 
  reach — and their hunt — globally. 
  While the Ascending Ones thrive in the modern era, many of them are conflicted. They no longer 
  possess the freedoms they once enjoyed in ancient times to distribute narcotics, alcohol, and 
  illicit herbs. Some members have turned to organized crime to sell drugs while others sell 
  formulas and rare plants to pharmaceutical companies. Most members apply their alchemical 
  knowledge to a trade of some kind; this allows them to remain vigilant while earning a living. 
  In recent months, leaders have grown concerned that their organization is at great risk of falling 
  prey to the same forces that claimed the Cult of Set so long ago. Not only have they tasked the 
  
  Ascending Ones to walk a righteous path, they’ve also been keen to check in with members more 
  frequently by conducting face-to-face meetings. Alchemists whisper that their leaders are up to 
  something, but don’t possess the means to unlock their secrets — yet. 
  The Enemy 
  The Ascending Ones protect people by keeping the supernatural a secret, dealing with threats, 
  and putting the lives of others before their own. Stopping monsters often means the hunters kill 
  them, but not always. As one of the oldest (and most secretive) surviving hunter organizations, 
  the alchemists have a reputation and are known to the elder denizens of the supernatural. Time 
  and experience have taught members that monsters don’t always have to be slayed; some can be 
  reasoned with, others can be calmed or convinced that murdering people is not in its best 
  interests. 
  Most of the Ascending Ones lean heavily on their faith for answers. The Cult of the Phoenix has 
  many legends, and the alchemists know several of them are true. One such legend is the idea that 
  monsters live in communities of their own. When war is brewing, a designated alchemist acts as 
  an intermediary and engages in diplomacy to broker a peace between monster factions in an 
  Arabic tradition called Sulha. Much like a cop trying to mediate a fight between rival mobsters, 
  the Ascending Ones know neither side is without sin, but they also know a battle would claim 
  innocent lives. 
  Despite the organization’s history, the Ascending Ones do not possess an encyclopedic 
  knowledge of monsters or their societies. In part, this lack of understanding is because most cells 
  operate independently of one another, and it is very rare that the organization gives a top-down 
  order. 
  Hunters 
  You’re an imam who serves an Islamic community in the inner city. You’ve heard the cries of 
  the faithful and want to protect them as best you can. When you visited Egypt, you were 
  approached by an alchemist who told you about the ancient ways. You were skeptical but agreed 
  to a strict training regimen. Now, you’ve found a few likeminded members of the faithful and 
  together you keep the peace. 
  You watched a new type of drug being brought into your neighborhoods, and immediately knew 
  something was off. You saw how the people controlling them were not what they appeared to be. 
  You played the game, joined a gang, even wound up in jail. After you got out, you were 
  approached by someone who told you the truth: You weren’t crazy, and the skills you learned 
  could help people. Now, you’re back on the streets but playing an altogether different game and 
  keeping the peace. 
  You follow the seven Hermetic Principles for Self-Mastery and uphold the traditions of Hermes 
  Trismegistus. A practicing Gnostic, you walked a spiritual path in deed and word — but that 
  didn’t stop you from being kidnapped by a creature beyond your understanding. For several days 
  you were trapped in a sewer, until a group of mysterious people rescued you. After you were 
  freed, you begged the hooded heroes to let you help, to save others from the horrors you 
  experienced. Now, you hunt from the shadows, too. 
  Factions 
  
  The lineage of the Ascended order is ancient and its branches are varied. Sometimes, individual 
  cells may not recognize each other because they practice their alchemical arts through the lens of 
  their specific faith, culture, or community. Within the order, most groups are connected to one of 
  three main factions. 
  The militaristic, faith-based Knife of Paradise can trace its roots back to the Cult of the Phoenix. 
  While some alchemists still follow Ma’at, members also include Christians, Muslims, and Jews. 
  Members hold the belief they are Shurat, which translates to “having sold their souls to god.” 
  The Knife does not denounce Egyptian or Gnostic mysticism and avoids petty squabbles about 
  religion. Instead, they prioritize the needs of the hunt and seek common ground among the 
  faithful to ensure they remain on task. 
  The Order of the Southern Temple emerged as the influence of western mystical traditions 
  spread and settled on Hermeticism as the foundation for their beliefs. Members have embraced 
  the writings of Hermes Trismegistus and practice the Hermetic traditions to live by example and 
  explore new formulas for elixirs. Unlike other alchemists, the Order does not recognize any 
  Egyptian gods, such as Thoth, Seshet, Isis, Neter, or Heka, and considers Hermes Trismegistus to 
  be the inventor of all occult knowledge. 
  The Jagged Crescent is the most modern faction of the three. Located in urban areas, many 
  alchemists focus on survival. The Jagged Crescent spurred interest in mercantile trade and has 
  profited from drug trafficking and organized crime. While many alchemists have been selling 
  formulas to pharmaceutical companies and government agents, members are often moles planted 
  deep within society’s underbelly where monsters thrive. 
  Status 
  To be an alchemist is to practice discipline of body and mind. Status is gained by applying the 
  knowledge you’ve learned to endure the hunt.  
  • You’ve completed the intellectual, spiritual, and physical tests required to become an 
  alchemist. You may use the 8-again quality when attempting to regain Willpower once per 
  session. 
  ••• You have devoted time, energy, and knowledge to raise funds for your fellow alchemists. 
  You now possess two extra dots of Resources you can use to help you hunt. 
  ••••• You are considered a “master alchemist” and have obtained the services of an initiate, 
  represented by a three-dot Retainer. 
  The Cheiron Group 
  The Field Projects Division 
  Quote: “Let me tell you about our benefits package. The perks are out of this world.” 
  The European-based Cheiron Group (TCG) is one of the few organizations whose origins remain 
  unclear. The name “Cheiron” was first used in 1905, but the Cheiron Group is far older and may 
  have formed in antiquity. No one — not even its own members — is certain, because the 
  organization has used many names including the Acheron Shipping & Trading Co., the House of 
  Katz, the Helios Society for the Infirmed, and the Octavian Apothecary. The one constant found 
  throughout its history is the Cheiron Group’s logo — the head of a horned, bearded man wearing 
  a laurel wreath superimposed on a caduceus. This symbol has been found engraved on a 15th-
  
  century Bavarian suit of armor, a third-century Roman centurion’s short sword, a 2,400-year-old 
  Greek ship, on cuneiform tablets describing the location of Mardaman, and in the Temple of the 
  Flayed Lord in Mexico. 
  Only the board of directors — whose identities have yet to be revealed — know the truth. In fact, 
  only one director has ever been listed: founder Edward Barrett, who retired in 1921 and died in 
  1983. Portfolio managers who’ve paid attention to the company’s inner workings often wonder 
  how TCG has managed to maintain a high profile, stable stock prices, and ever-increasing 
  profitability for so long by avoiding the public eye. In fact, the Cheiron Group’s public face is far 
  less enigmatic than its history. To the average citizen, TCG is a progressive, philanthropic 
  corporation that globally distributes affordable drugs and treatments covering a wide range of 
  ailments and diseases. Its growing list of partners manufactures prosthetics, radiation technology, 
  and monitoring equipment — even pacemakers and artificial hearts.  
  Now, of course, the newly-appointed brand manager, Melanie Sweetwater, appears so often in 
  the news and online some broadcasters have jokingly wondered if she’s been cloned. The 
  Cheiron Group’s salaried employees can’t always explain how Sweetwater seems to be in three 
  places at once, and why she reports solely to the board of directors. What they don’t realize is 
  that Sweetwater’s appointment is tied to the corporation’s true interest: the supernatural. In 
  recent months, Sweetwater has emerged in the field to oversee investigations, containment areas, 
  experiments, and surgeries carried out in the Field Projects Division of TCG. Despite her 
  presence, most TCG employees don’t know anything about her, because she has yet to act on her 
  observations. Often, she’ll pop in and out of a scene without saying more than two words and 
  never takes notes. The going theory is that Sweetwater is the first of several brand managers 
  who’ll be assigned to different regions in the coming months. 
  On the books, the Field Projects Division (FPD) is the so-called experimental arm of TCG that 
  deals with cutting-edge science — if you can call capturing, dissecting, and experimenting with 
  monster parts science. In exchange for their service, FPD employees sign an ironclad contract to 
  receive a hefty salary, full health benefits, and a pension. The legalese is hard to read, and agents 
  often don’t realize what they’re signing up for. In addition to extensive surgery, implants, and 
  body modifications, FPD employees also sign the rights away to their bodies before and after 
  death. While their enhancements help them face down the supernatural, employees aren’t always 
  happy with the terms of their deal. 
  Over the past decade, reports of “rogue agents” have skyrocketed, and it’s rumored more than a 
  few new recruits have been forced to sign contracts simply because they knew a missing FPD 
  employee. Many fear what will happen if TCG decides to renegotiate their contracts, and assume 
  Sweetwater is pooling data to making suggestions. 
  The Enemy 
  The Cheiron Group doesn’t view the supernatural as a threat. They think of them as “assets” and 
  their victims as “casualties.” Most of the time, members speak in code using words like 
  “potential asset” or “PA” to describe a monster they haven’t captured yet, and agents as “field 
  resources.” Each agent is given the power to conduct their operation the way they see fit, 
  provided they meet their PA quota. When a field resource has identified and captured a PA, they 
  call in a Dedicated Pickup Team (DPT) to retrieve and remove it. Dedicated Pickup Teams are 
  glorified security guards who’ll only transport a PA if it is secured and neutralized; they won’t 
  
  assist in the field under any circumstance. Many agents learned how unhelpful the DPT is the 
  hard way — because they didn’t decode or read the handbook. 
  Most agents think the current edition of their field resource manual is a joke; it’s an encrypted 
  book of “first-person accounts” given to agents after their contract has been signed and delivered 
  to HR. It has no TCG identifiers, never actually names the company, lists no authors, and has no 
  ISBN or other book coding. The previous edition, a plain brown book that was billed to be a 
  comprehensive guide, was far more official-looking than its successor. While that handbook 
  contained a great deal of information, most of the data was either useless or severely outdated. 
  Unfortunately, that bad intel led to “the incident” — an event so horrifying, management is 
  forbidden to speak of it. 
  While recruits don’t always feel prepared for field work, they have memorized three rules: 
  Directives 53, 68, and 99. Directive 53, which refers to Safety Phrase 53 in an old EEC Council 
  Directive (67/548/EEC), instructs companies to avoid public exposure to dangerous substances 
  and to obtain special instructions before using them. Directive 68, on the other hand, states that 
  field resources must ensure no member of the public believes a threat exists. Lastly, Directive 99 
  demands its field agents comport themselves as exemplary employees both on duty and off. 
  Most field resources don’t have time to worry about the details, because they’re too busy 
  working to fulfill their quotas — which are often moving targets. Sometimes, field resources will 
  work with the competition (e.g. other hunters), to bag and tag a PA, while others will 
  intentionally mislead their peers. The competition is fierce, the requests are piling up, and 
  bonuses are being paid…for now. 
  Hunters 
  You were a top salesman who was told your skills were wasted and then offered a top, 
  commission-based position at the Cheiron Group. You jumped at the opportunity to work for 
  them and believed in their politics. Now, you miss your phone and wish you could surrender the 
  new ears you got after you signed up. 
  You trained as a special forces agent and toured all over the world. When you were finished, 
  your country thanked you, but you couldn’t find a job for someone with your talents. You started 
  taking odd jobs and one of them landed you in jail. That’s where the Cheiron Group found you. 
  They paid your bail, gave you a lawyer, and you signed a contract. Now, you have new 
  nightmares. 
  You worked in Human Resources. You liked your job. You loved crushing candidate’s dreams 
  and enjoyed watching your fellow employees squirm when you denied their raises. You thought 
  no one was watching. Unfortunately, someone was. At first, you thought your boss was going to 
  fire you. Then, you were offered a promotion to work with the Field Projects Division. You took 
  the job. When you told your coworkers, one of them started laughing. The irony was lost on you 
  then. It isn’t now. 
  Field Projects Divisions 
  TCG is a global corporation with satellite offices in dozens of countries. In the Field Projects 
  Division there are three sub-divisions to which field resources are assigned. 
  
  Most agents report to the Retrieval Division. Field resources take a file, hunt down a target, and 
  neutralize them — or die trying. Then, they call in a DPT, which consists of two agents and a 
  driver or pilot who’ll transport their catch to a secure location. 
  The Recruitment Division agents focus on finding potential new hires. Often, these agents 
  infiltrate the competition by feigning victimhood to watch other cells work. They also visit 
  prisons, high schools, colleges, and mercenary units to broaden their search and replenish lost 
  field resources. 
  Lastly, the Field Research Division represents FPD’s information-gathering and retrieval arm. 
  Agents masquerade as other hunters to spy on conspiracies who have access to supernatural 
  powers or equipment. FRD spies infiltrate cells and lend assistance until it’s time to disappear — 
  often taking files, relics, elixirs, formulas, and anything else they can get their hands on. 
  Status 
  To earn status in the Field Projects Division, you must know when to use flattery, when to keep 
  your mouth shut, and how to get results.  
  • You’ve been given an encrypted handbook and managed to break the code. Gain a free Skill 
  Specialty reflecting your talent in Academics, Computers, or Investigation.   
  ••• You’ve allied with other agents and can call in backup when needed. Gain two dots in Allies 
  (the Cheiron Group) representing hunters who’ll lend a hand. 
  ••••• You’ve earned several bonuses and well-deserved raises. Add three dots in the Resources 
  Merit to spend how you see fit. Oh, and one more thing. Sweetwater is watching. 
  Council of Bones 
  The Marked 
  Quote: “Death is not the enemy you should fear.” 
  For centuries, the Council of Bones has attracted hunters who believe the denizens of the 
  supernatural are subverting the natural order. The Marked view the undead as abominations that 
  should not exist, and work with ghosts to set things right. Members include wise elders, 
  occultists, religious seers, post-war spiritualists, and television mediums who hide in plain sight 
  to investigate the supernatural in a crowd of pretenders and novice hunters, keeping mostly to 
  themselves and their cellmates. 
  Most hunters do not realize the Council of Bones is one of the few conspiracies that continues to 
  resurface through the ages. Throughout its long and uneven history, membership has waxed and 
  waned in different parts of the world. Following the end of the Cold War, as many as 3,000 
  hunters reported to the Council before its untimely collapse. Every time the Council falls, more 
  than half of its members disappear or die. Veterans believe communicating with ghosts and 
  seeing into the spirit world, which few members recognize as Twilight, puts all members at risk. 
  Whole chapters have been wiped out after the undead targeted councilmembers who unwittingly 
  crossed paths with ancient, dangerous foes aided by a ghost; other chapterhouses have collapsed 
  because they couldn’t physically defend themselves from a major attack.  
  The current incarnation of the Council of Bones has formed in response to a growing number of 
  incidents, wars, and natural disasters occurring over the past 40 years. The conspiracy recognized 
  
  that the supernatural was intentionally making these events worse, and wanted to leverage their 
  resources to help survivors find closure. Local chapters stepped in after the 1985 earthquake in 
  Mexico City that claimed over 10,000 lives, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, the 
  earthquakes in Gujarat, India, and following Hurricane Katrina. Where there is fear, the Council 
  of Bones knows the supernatural will prey on survivors. Members feel its their duty step in and 
  offer aid, comfort, and closure when they can. 
  Members who are initiated into the Council of Bones are told their organization is the oldest 
  among hunters. During the ceremony, they learn the Council was formed after the first monster’s 
  victim suffered an untimely death and became a ghost. That unfortunate soul became so 
  desperate for justice, they begged Death for help. Death responded by gifting a living hunter with 
  a unique mark enabling them to communicate with the dead. This symbol, called the Mark of the 
  Scythe, is made from pure ectoplasm. Of course, most members don’t believe the Mark of the 
  Scythe is real — though it very much is. 
  The Council of Bones is organized into independent chapters. Unlike its past incarnations, the 
  Council does not have a headquarters that oversees all. Chapter headquarters are now led by an 
  elected president and can be found in Mexico City, New Orleans, Karachi, Manila, and other 
  cities across the globe. Presidents use code words to keep their identity secret; the Mexican 
  president prefers to be called Calavera, for example, while the New Orleans chief is Monsieur 
  Os. Whatever secrets the conspiracy possesses are found in a chapterhouse — if a president is 
  willing to release them. 
  While the Council of Bones heavily recruits scholars, archivists, mediums, and diviners to 
  investigate the supernatural, the conspiracy doesn’t dictate a hunter’s spiritual, religious, or 
  cultural beliefs or require its hunters to possess certain skills. Of all hunter organizations, the 
  Council of Bones is perhaps the most egalitarian because they know death does not discriminate. 
  Eventually, everything dies (or at least, in their eyes, everything should).  
  The Enemy 
  The Council of Bones is painfully aware the supernatural is real and the ambulatory dead 
  threatens the natural order. When living beings are murdered before their time, the Council of 
  Bones steps in to investigate potential threats. 
  The Council’s approach to the supernatural prioritizes dead creatures over living threats. 
  Vampires, zombies, and ghosts are much higher priority than a sorcerer. If a witch or member of 
  the fae isn’t killing anyone, the Council won’t pursue them, putting them at odds with other 
  hunters. Slashers, rogue hunters, and cryptids are also considered dangerous, but aren’t typically 
  found until after they’ve killed.  
  In its current incarnation, the Council of Bones is reforming its ranks to brush up on lore, spy on 
  the dead, and help other hunters deal with vengeful ghosts. Most councilmembers agree that 
  communicating with the spirit world offers a mutual exchange of information to help both 
  parties. As such, the Council of Bones prohibits using spirits and their knowledge for personal 
  gain and forbids its members from working as mediums or spiritualists. 
  The Marked favor a secretive approach to the Vigil and avoid any unnecessary attention. As 
  such, other hunter organizations stereotype the Council of Bones as a needlessly cryptic, 
  snobbish organization. In turn, the Marked often feel they’re operating behind the scenes, 
  because they don’t treat the supernatural as a tool as the Cheiron Group or Ascending Ones do. 
  
  The Council views the darkness as a deadly infection that will worsen in time, and are wary of 
  other hunters who use potions, relics, augmentations, and the like to hunt. Of course, 
  councilmembers don’t regard themselves as tainted; their natural gifts serve Death. 
  Hunters 
  The last time you spoke to your kidnapped mother, you had a fight about your then-fiancé. You 
  regret not picking her up after her car broke down, but you needed time to cool off. Three weeks 
  later, after you’d reported her missing, she spoke to you in a dream. She showed you a gray 
  house with a red window. You woke up in a sweat. The next morning, you drove around for 
  hours — and you found it. You snuck inside, discovered your mother’s body, and found a 
  creature sleeping. Then, you remembered the rest of your dream, and you killed it. You’ve been 
  listening ever since. 
  You were a tarot-card reader at a renaissance faire. You liked meeting people and reading the 
  cards, but you never really believed in the symbols. At the end of the faire, a man asked you to 
  read his fortune. You rambled off some generalities. Then, he showed you a technique to read 
  the cards, and asked you to try again. You did what he asked, and possibilities appeared in your 
  mind. You told him what you saw. Afterward, he invited you back to his “club.” Your world has 
  never been the same. 
  You were a mortician who’s always been dedicated to bringing your clients peace. Your 
  colleagues said you could calm a grieving heart just by being in the same room with them. Your 
  family has always wanted to know if you believe in ghosts, but you’ve never been a believer — 
  not until you helped bury an elderly gentleman. During the wake, his friends spoke to him as if 
  he was still in the room. When you asked to whom they were talking, they showed you. Now, 
  you serve the living in other ways. 
  Chapters 
  The modern incarnation of the Council of Bones is organized into regional chapters and local 
  chapterhouses formed around three primary approaches to the hunt: 
  Councilmembers in the Mediums Chapter solve cases by conversing with spirits to find 
  answers. The method of communication is not as important as getting results. The Marked’s goal 
  is to identify and work with certain ghosts to help them bring justice, find survivors, etc. Most 
  members belong to this chapter, and often compare notes with one another to ensure they’re not 
  being manipulated by the ghost. 
  The Academics Chapter takes a scholarly approach to the hunt. They treat occult texts as 
  investigative tools and won’t discount a manuscript’s age as readily as other hunter organizations 
  might. Councilmembers are convinced that no monster is “new” to this world, and the secrets to 
  trapping, confining, and killing them are found in a book or scroll. Academics spend hours 
  poring through stacks of books referring to a specific subject or monster type, scrutinizing them 
  for answers. 
  The smallest group forms the Diviners Chapter. They believe ghosts and spirits are no longer 
  human and should be treated as threats. Instead of talking to ghosts for answers, councilmembers 
  rely on divinatory tools such as crystal balls, tarot cards, runes, marked bones, pendulums, tea 
  cups, scrying mirrors, etc. for answers. Members are savvy enough to know when a spirit is 
  
  “pestering” them but can’t always tell the difference between friend or foe. They will often 
  attempt to cleanse or exorcise a spirit, even when it’s benign, to put the ghost to rest. 
  Status 
  Status in the Council of Bones is earned whenever a councilmember upholds the organization’s 
  traditions without being forced or prompted.  
  • Your expertise helped you solve a case no one else could. Gain a free Skill Specialty in Occult 
  or Investigation relating to the case you brought to a satisfying close. 
  ••• You’ve successfully navigated hunter society and have made friends in unique places. Gain 
  two dots in Allies (Hunter Conspiracies) representing other hunters who belong to different 
  conspiracies. 
  ••••• You’ve kept secrets, saved victims, and have unraveled enigmas while maintaining the 
  Council’s ideals. Gain a three-dot Retainer (Ghost) with which you can interact to retrieve 
  information or spy on targets. 
  The Lucifuge 
  Children of the Seventh Generation 
  Quote: “Our souls may be damned, but we still have free will.” 
  For millennia, humankind has sought undeniable proof of evil. The Great Adversary is referred 
  to by many names in religious and cultural traditions in both the east and west including Little 
  Horn, Lucifer, Set, Shaitan, Yen-Lo Wang, Baal, etc. Some people believe the embodiment of 
  evil is not one entity, but myriad lesser creatures, while others are convinced there is one 
  Deceiver at work. In the western world, some believers have identified this Accuser as a single 
  figure: Satan. To the agents of the Lucifuge, however, they know the Devil by another name: 
  patriarch. 
  Once or twice a century, Lucifer and his companions seduce mortals for pleasure, producing sons 
  and daughters prone to evil, greatness, and guilt. These children then grow up and have children 
  of their own, spawning an infernal lineage of people who move around, intermarry, adopt, and 
  create their own families. Over time, the mark of the Devil is naught but memory, and falls 
  dormant. Every seven generations, however, the mark flares back to life. Suddenly, a woman 
  dreams of a fiery throne and an imp begs her to sit upon it. A man hears cryptic whispers in the 
  shadows, begging him to reveal the names of his enemies. All, however, feel the infernal power 
  burning in their minds and hearts, whether they want it to or not. 
  Some of the Devil’s children succumb to their dark heritage and deceive, betray, and harm 
  unwitting victims. Other Children of the Seventh Generation recognize the darkness lingering in 
  their veins and fight against the urge to hurt. The progeny who reject their heritage find the 
  Lucifuge in Milan — or she discovers them. 
  The Lucifuge is a mysterious noblewoman whose actions can be traced back to 853 CE. Using 
  the resources at her disposal, the Lady employed a group of genealogists and occultists to track 
  down the awakening bloodlines of Lucifer found in Europe. After watching the families for 
  many years, after a child was born and its heritage became clear, the Lady’s messengers would 
  approach them with an offer: renounce Satan and his wiles, and fight hell’s forces instead. Those 
  who refused were either killed or kidnapped and forced to comply. 
  
  Now, over 1,000 years later, the Lady of Milan and her team of occultists, genealogists, and 
  messengers remain ever vigilant. Headquartered in Milan, the Lady only answers to one name — 
  the Lucifuge — and her statuesque appearance has not changed since the ninth century. Unlike 
  other hunter organizations, the Lucifuge is the only authority, and only she can issue commands 
  to the Children of the Seventh Generation — whether they want her to or not. 
  The Enemy 
  When facing a creature of darkness, most agents of the Lucifuge will investigate the monster, its 
  purpose, and its nature. By taking a careful approach, agents can accurately assess whether their 
  target is connected to the Devil, either as an enemy or ally, and deal with it accordingly to stave 
  off destruction. Agents take special interest whenever a monster claims demonic heritage and 
  alert their allies when such a creature reveals themselves as infernal. Some vampires believe 
  they’re descended from Baal. Certain werewolves are devoted to the spirits of vice, and some 
  warlocks traffic souls with demons. 
  The Children of the Seventh Generation possess a great deal of lore referring to angels and 
  demons, and this knowledge is not limited to Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions. Recently, 
  agents have expanded their studies to include cryptids, and have become convinced they do not 
  commonly exist in nature, but are mutated animals tainted by a supernatural or alien power. This 
  has led some agents to question their heritage and beliefs, while others have renewed their 
  commitment to the hunt and avoid thinking too deeply about the nature of good and evil. 
  Agents of the Lucifuge regard demons as beings to hate and angels as entities to fear. 
  Unfortunately, some agents are stuck with small, demonic companions, attract the occasional 
  devil, or possess the ability to summon, command, or banish them. Most of the time, agents only 
  address demons as a last resort — especially since most angels aren’t as forgiving as the 
  Lucifuge and have been known to destroy the Children of the Seventh Generation before an 
  exchange of words. Agents are also wary of working with demons, because the forces of evil 
  often treat the Children of the Seventh Generation as royal celebrities and follow them around 
  hoping they’ll issue a command to do harm. 
  Despite the leniency agents show other creatures of darkness, when crossing paths with other 
  descendants of Lucifer they go for blood. Satan’s children who revel in their infernal powers 
  have either slipped through the Lucifuge’s fingers or can no longer be redeemed. Though many 
  tools exist, records aren’t infallible, and many Children of the Seventh Generation remain 
  undiscovered for years before their dark deeds are noticed. 
  Hunters 
  You didn’t join the Lucifuge, you were born into it. You have always been aware of your lineage 
  as a Child of the Seventh Generation and hold the names of your ancestors close to your heart. 
  You are descended from former agents of the Lucifuge and know there are many others who 
  share your burden. Satan spread his seed far and wide, and your “relatives” are diverse indeed. 
  Despite your differences, you are committed to fighting evil. Some might say it’s your birthright. 
  You’ve had invisible friends since you were a child. Strange little imps whose whispers landed 
  you into more and more trouble. They asked you to do worse and worse things. One day, you 
  were kidnapped by agents of the Lucifuge, dragged to Milan, and thrown into a cell where they 
  brainwashed you to repent your evil ways. Now you force your imps to “be good” and they hate 
  you for it. Sometimes, you fear you hate yourself. 
  
  You’ve never believed in the Christian God or Devil. Then, you were approached by a shadow in 
  the dark who begged you to command them — but you resisted. You’ll never forget what 
  happened next: the Lucifuge found you and revealed the identity of your ancestor. Her story 
  went against everything you were taught, but it was the only answer you had. Now, you fear the 
  idea of Satan is a distraction and a colonization of an older idea of which your people spoke. 
  Your truth can only be found by battling the darkness. 
  Factions 
  The Lucifuge’s team in Milan acts as the head of a large “family,” and monitors genealogies and 
  global news using modern technology. Individual agents are given free rein to work with other 
  hunters and are unaware who their fellow agents are — save for 13 other Children of the Seventh 
  Generation who are geographically close to their location. Despite this, some philosophies have 
  emerged among agents. 
  The Denial believes anyone connected to the Devil, who’s the source of all evil, must renounce 
  him and their infernal nature. Those who relish and embrace the Devil, however, cannot be saved 
  and must be destroyed. If a monster displays signs of guilt or remorse, agents will either leave 
  them alone or help them find the path to redemption in rare cases.  
  The Reconciliation believes the steps they take to destroy evil in the world create an opportunity 
  for Lucifer’s redemption. According to them, if Lucifer is redeemed, then Hell will cease to 
  exist, and humanity’s suffering ends forever. The followers of this ideal believe this is the 
  Lucifuge’s destiny, and they are tasked with reversing the Fall. 
  The Truth represents the smallest number of agents, and those who hold this philosophy don’t 
  express their beliefs openly. Members of The Truth are skeptics who are suspicious of the 
  Lucifuge, her motivations, and the secrets she keeps from them. They want to know who she is, 
  why she’s so old, and what her real connection to Satan is. Though they’ll continue to fight the 
  forces of evil, The Truth is worried they’re mere pawns in a greater game. 
  Status 
  The Lucifuge operates at the head of the organization and is the only one who can grant status. 
  Typically, status is earned when an agent successfully fights a monster, recruits a target, or 
  fosters trust with other Children of the Seventh Generation. 
  • You have just joined the Lucifuge and now have access to answers. Choose a free Skill 
  Specialty that reflects a supernatural creature, such as angels, demons, or witches, about which 
  you wish to know more. 
  ••• You have developed a reputation among your kind for being trustworthy. You’ve visited 
  Milan and may consult the library upon request. You’ve been granted access to two extra dots of 
  Resources, which can only be used to uphold the Vigil. 
  ••••• You’ve met with the Lucifuge and she has personally tasked you with secret missions. You 
  suspect her agenda and may have guessed her identity — of course, you’d never tell. Gain the 
  Lucifuge as a four-dot Mentor. 
  Malleus Maleficarium 
  The Shadow Congregation 
  
  Quote: “Show no mercy to heretics and evil-doers, no matter how human they seem.” 
  The persecution of witches and warlocks predates modern history, and remnants of ancient, anti-
  sorcery laws such as the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi’s description of a trial by water are still 
  ingrained in superstitious belief. Throughout history, witches were hunted during eras of great 
  socio-political change and devastation caused by plagues, wars, and environmental catastrophes. 
  The words “witch hunter” conjure images of a black-clad Inquisitor recruited, trained, and 
  commanded by the guiding hand of the west’s oldest institution: the Catholic Church. 
  During the Middle Ages, grim-faced Inquisitors throughout Europe were granted power to arrest 
  and torture anyone deemed a heretic, whether they wielded magic or not, to force their 
  confession whether they were guilty or innocent using scourges, brands, thumbscrews, and 
  chains. Then, in 1487, Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger published the Malleus Maleficarum, 
  a witch-hunting book whose popularity was only eclipsed by the Bible. This tome, which 
  primarily targeted women, was so influential it whipped the populace into a frenzy resulting in 
  the deaths of thousands. Within a few years, the pope condemned the Malleus Maleficarum as 
  heretical, but that did not stop the hysteria or the witch hunters from abandoning their 
  interrogations. 
  Officially, Church records show that Pope Paul III did not form the Shadow Congregation to 
  fight the forces of Satan until 1567. Modern archivists have pieced together an unconfirmed 
  secret history of the conspiracy drawing on letters and journals written by Mother Mary 
  Margaret, High Inquisitor Matteo Napolitano, and others who were charged by the Church to 
  fight Satan’s forces. According to Isabella Calderon, these firsthand accounts prove the Shadow 
  Congregation operated in secret, without the pope’s formal blessing, for several years prior to the 
  16th century. 
  To date, no evidence of Pope Paul III’s true goals has been found. Some Church scholars believe 
  he needed to officially recognize the Malleus Maleficarum. Others are convinced the pope was 
  being manipulated by dark forces, and the formation of the Malleus Maleficarum allowed the 
  Church’s enemies to infiltrate and expose witch-hunters to discredit the organization. 
  Unfortunately, few people alive today know the true founder of the Malleus Maleficarum was a 
  man named Ambrogio Baudolino, a savvy political influencer who inspired the pope to formally 
  recognize the Shadow Congregation for his purposes: to hunt vampires. 
  Baudolino was a slave to a vampire for many years, until he managed to break free of the 
  creature’s power and slay it. Following this, Baudolino pledged to hunt Satan’s ilk so no one else 
  would suffer as he had. While others believed witches were to blame for society’s ills, Baudolino 
  not only knew vampires were real, he was convinced they were manipulating political and 
  religious leaders. Following the formation of the Malleus Maleficarum, Baudolino quietly 
  asserted control and taught witch hunters how to redirect their efforts to hunt vampires, instead, 
  forcing many bloodsuckers to go into hiding. 
  Now, in modern times, the Malleus Maleficarum is in danger of losing their war against 
  vampires. Not only has the Church’s political influence waned over the years, previously 
  colonized groups that were forced to welcome members of the Shadow Congregation are now 
  declining help and dealing with the supernatural in their own way. Recent talks among interfaith 
  organizations have encouraged the Malleus Maleficarum to share its knowledge with other 
  religious groups and participate in group hunts. Strangely, this has resulted in the addition of new 
  
  members who are loosely connected to the Church, and the Shadow Congregation has been 
  recruiting lay people in greater and greater numbers. 
  Despite their outreach, the Malleus Maleficarum’s methods haven’t changed much since its 
  inception. Members know evil is real and find strength in their devotion to prayer and meditation 
  to slay Satan’s forces brutally and viciously. Sure, innocents sometimes get caught in the 
  crossfire, but the needs of the many always outweigh the soul of one. 
  The Enemy 
  The Malleus Maleficarum specializes in hunting vampires, and studies the living dead as much 
  as possible. While their knowledge is impressive, members have only skimmed the surface of 
  vampiric lore. The Shadow Congregation is aware that vampires congregate in societies and have 
  their own traditional and radical factions but avoid focusing on politics to concentrate on how to 
  isolate, locate, trap, and kill them. Members might catch wind that vampires are meeting in an 
  abandoned warehouse or high-security office building, for example, but will avoid groups of 
  vampires. Hunters are much more likely to set fire traps or attack vampires during the day. 
  The Shadow Congregation also knows vampiric blood is addictive, and mortals who drink it fall 
  prey to the vampire’s influence. They aren’t aware this blood can grant immortality to humans 
  under the right circumstances, because this secret has been kept from them by Baudolino, 
  himself, who is still alive. 
  Officially, Ambrogio Baudolino died in 1601. In truth, Baudolino, who doesn’t look a day over 
  60, maintains his immortality by sipping vampire blood sourced from different vampires before 
  they die. There is a handful of people within the Shadow Congregation who know about 
  Ambrogio and were charged to keep his secret, and even fewer know he meets secretly with the 
  Lucifuge in Milan, who’s even older than he is. 
  While vampires are its specialty, the Shadow Congregation also investigates witches, warlocks, 
  demons, and anything that smacks of infernalism. Their libraries, many of which have been 
  digitized, contain investigations into the world of warlocks and witches, which led to them 
  pulling together a rather complete and somewhat accurate bestiary of demons and devils. Though 
  the Malleus Maleficarum concentrates on hunting Satan’s forces, members will participate in 
  hunts to address other threats if necessary. Most often, however, they’ll follow the pope’s orders, 
  never realizing Baudolino is still issuing commands. 
  Hunters 
  You were a priest trained as an exorcist. Your parish thought you were an embarrassment and 
  begged the bishop to send a replacement. The Shadow Congregation stepped in and recruited 
  you, confirming your belief that evil was real. You agreed to join them and are proud to take 
  your orders from Rome. Now you are kept so busy you don’t have time to think about the weird 
  rumors you hear while hunting vampires and demons. 
  You were a devout believer whose mother fell gravely ill. You attended to her every need but 
  knew something wasn’t right. When she died and came back, you were forced to hunt her down 
  to put her to rest. You were horrified and confessed what happened to your local priest. Not long 
  afterward, the Malleus Maleficarum approached you and asked you for help.  
  You were in a gang, but you were still a good Catholic at heart. When you heard Father 
  Gutierrez had gone missing, you went to look for him. Eventually, you found him trapped by a 
  
  possessed parishioner and freed him. Then, Father Gutierrez taught you evil was real, and 
  showed you how you can help keep the streets safe. Now you’ve got a new gang, and you do 
  God’s work. 
  Brotherhoods and Orders 
  Within the Malleus Maleficarum, unofficial sub-groups have formed, each operating with their 
  own focus and methodology. 
  The Order of St. Longinus was named to honor the Holy Lance’s original bearer. Strangely 
  enough, the Malleus Maleficarum found some vampires venerate Longinus, but don’t understand 
  why. The order is filled with ruthless and dedicated vampire hunters who give no quarter to 
  vampires or their servants, however innocent they may seem. 
  The Order of Saint Ambrose welcomes scholars, archivists, occultists, and investigators who 
  take a careful and measured approach. Members rely heavily on their cunning strategies to take 
  down foes. Often, their desire to increase their occult knowledge forces them to cross paths with 
  sorcerers who want the same thing, and the two groups compete for rare tomes and magical 
  artifacts. 
  Working alongside the Order of Saint Ambrose is the Brotherhood of St. Athanasius, a militant 
  wing that delivers swift and violent resolution to supernatural threats. Usually, the Brotherhood 
  waits for Ambrosians to uncover enough evidence pinpointing a creature’s identity and locations, 
  and then goes in guns blazing. Though the two groups need each other, they bicker over minutia 
  and the need for caution. 
  Status 
  Though the Malleus Maleficarum is a religious organization, status is granted to members who 
  defeat and destroy the forces of Satan. 
  • You have been initiated into the Shadow Congregation and have been taught how to identify 
  and hunt vampires. Add a free Skill Specialty to either the Occult, Investigation, or Streetwise 
  Skills to reflect this knowledge. 
  ••• You’ve gained respect among faithful Catholics for your loyalty to the conspiracy, without 
  saying who you are. Gain one extra dot in Status (Malleus Maleficarum). 
  ••••• You have access to Rome’s ample coffers. Forces within the Vatican have gifted you with 
  additional resources. Take three dots in Resources to help you fight the forces of evil.   
  Task Force: VALKYRIE 
  Agents in Black 
  Quote: “We’ll save your life, but you’ll never know our names.” 
  America is the land of the free, home of the brave, and a conspiracy theorist’s playground. Fact: 
  in December 1927, the U.S. Army raided several coastal towns in Massachusetts for reasons 
  unknown. Fact: in 1947, an unidentified object crashed near a USAF base in Roswell, New 
  Mexico. Fact: in the 1960s and 70s, the Zodiac Killer stalked northern California. Though no one 
  caught him, the killings stopped. 
  
  If Roswell was just about a weather balloon crash, why the smoke and mirrors? What happened 
  to the Zodiac Killer? Ultimately, conspiracy theorists want to prove a secret government 
  organization is behind every mystery. Enter Task Force: VALKYRIE. Sure they know who 
  killed Kennedy, but they also know the truth about demons, vampires, and werewolves, too. 
  Though Task Force: VALKYRIE was a rumor for years, modern records date back to World 
  War II. After learning the Nazis had recruited the supernatural to fight alongside them, TFV 
  allied with US and British forces to invade Europe from June 1944 to April 1945. Together, they 
  eliminated threats with naught but their fists and guns. In fact, they were so good at taking down 
  ENEs, the government kept assigning them to fight ENEs right up until Roswell. 
  After Task Force: VALKYRIE successfully employed a disinformation campaign following the 
  Roswell incident, the agency covered their tracks and disappeared. Their new mission? Secretly 
  protect the U.S. from extra-normal forces. For decades, only a handful of government officials 
  — excluding the president — knew TFV existed. All that changed, however, after the identities 
  of several TFV agents were leaked online in 2013.  
  Since then, TFV has refocused its efforts to ensure its operatives’ safety remains a priority and 
  spends considerable resources to spread misinformation. The average conspiracy theorist will 
  point to tales of “Agents in Black,” special-forces units forcing entire towns to disappear, alien 
  cover ups, strange black ops, and aliens in Congress as proof of TFV’s existence. It’s no accident 
  that Task Force: VALKYRIE seems to be behind every modern conspiracy — that’s just what 
  they want people to believe. 
  Despite lost funding, scandals, and political upheaval, TFV is a little-known government agency 
  that suffers from the same bureaucracies and nepotism rampant in Washington, D.C. With the 
  agency on high alert, intelligence gatherers are generating miles of red tape to ensure they’re 
  giving field operatives the right information. Unfortunately, every TFV agent knows intel 
  doesn’t matter if they’re staring down an ENE. Sometimes, they need an address right now. The 
  delays in information are compounded by a tiny budget. 
  Now, Task Force: VALKYRIE operatives have stopped griping and wonder if a mole — or 
  several — has infiltrated their ranks. If they’ve been charged to protect the U.S., why are there so 
  many restrictions when it comes to killing highly dangerous ENEs? If they’re a task force, why 
  have they been discouraged from working with foreign organizations? Why is there an 
  underground prison filled with captured ENEs? Why is it that, when an agent asks too many 
  questions, the operative is reassigned or disappears? 
  Task Force: VALKYRIE has always been a shadow organization, but their new specialty is to 
  create illusions. Unfortunately, their operatives can’t always tell the difference between fact and 
  fiction — even when a civilian’s life is on the line. 
  The Enemy 
  Despite its problems, Task Force: VALKYRIE is a well-oiled machine that uses strict procedures 
  to deal with ENEs. Every operative is trained to report, observe, assess, report again, then 
  neutralize or call for backup. 
  Most agents can’t apply internal procedures in the field but will file reports making it seem like 
  they’ve followed orders. Somebody at HQ is clamping down on agents who don’t have the 
  authority to take command, however, and cells that don’t follow orders tend to disappear. While 
  
  there is a strict cell structure in place, operatives know layers of red tape prevent them from 
  acquiring immediate resources to hunt that rampaging beast tearing down 6th Avenue. Often, 
  agents refer to the rules as “guidelines,” and actively reach out to other hunters and cells with 
  whom they cross paths. 
  Most TFV operatives do what they can to survive in the field. However, any agent who gets 
  comfortable bending the rules might find themselves dragged to an offshore prison complex or 
  worse. In general, TFV agents hunt because they love their country, know their skills are needed, 
  and are uniquely poised to use the advanced weaponry at their disposal. Unfortunately, the push 
  to keep their identities, activities, and locations secret often leaves agents feeling more isolated 
  and at risk of being exposed.  
  Hunters 
  You were once an FBI agent. You started digging into the archives and suspected aliens were 
  real. Curious, you dug deeper and found another conspiracy. All that alien info you read? Not 
  only was it fake, the “evidence” was covering up a stranger truth: Demons are real. You started 
  keeping your own files and added data when you found it. Then, one day, your files disappeared. 
  That same day you got a call and were transferred. Now, you wish you never learned the truth. 
  You were a children’s librarian who specialized in folk and faerie tales. The kids used to tell you 
  their own stories of the weird things they’d seen and you were inspired to write about them. One 
  day a strange, intense, suit-wearing man approached you at the library; he wanted to talk to you 
  about your new book on cryptozoology. The problem was you hadn’t told anyone about it. The 
  next day you had a new job at TFV. 
  You’re a former member of a special-forces unit. One night an op went bad, real bad. Your 
  target, a weapons dealer, shrugged off your bullets then turned into a hairy beast with teeth. Your 
  team freaked, but you kept your cool. You fought all night but managed to kill it and made it to 
  the rendezvous point on time. Your extraction team was filled with unfamiliar faces, and when 
  your helicopter rose into the sky you knew you’d never see your squad again. 
  Departments 
  Task Force: VALKRYIE is a conglomeration of special units and departments that, for the most 
  part, operate independently of one another. Most units have their own leadership, funding, and 
  miles of paperwork that are routinely audited by HQ. Once an agent is recruited to TFV, they 
  may list their unit preferences for assignment. 
  Many field agents work with Project TWILIGHT. This department oversees missions targeting 
  human-seeming ENEs classified as P (Para-human) and S (Social). These ENEs tend to operate 
  in groups and infiltrate covens, tribes, cabals, conspiracies, and other hidden societies. Field 
  agents are often told to avoid wasting resources to take down one SP/ENE and are directed to 
  track their movements and gather intel instead. Agents assigned to Project TWILIGHT are not 
  afraid to go deep under cover in enemy territory to find the truth, even if that means infiltrating a 
  friendly cell of civilian hunters.  
  Agents assigned to Operation FORT specialize in ED (extra-dimensional) and ET (extra-
  terrestrial) ENEs and phenomena that includes aliens, fairies, ghosts, demons, and so-called gods 
  who hail from another plane of existence. While some technology exists to track ED and ET 
  ENEs, FORT agents don’t have the funds or the scientific resources to back up their findings. 
  
  Often, they rely on info gleaned from folklore, mythology, and urban legends to identify their 
  targets as well as unsolved cases and missing persons reports. Despite their reputation for being 
  cranky, most FORT agents are up to date on gossip and conspiracy theories and will share 
  rumors in exchange for better resources. 
  Operation ADAMSKI agents fabricate and spread disinformation to cloak TFV missions and 
  prevent the truth from leaking to civilians. This department was named after a notorious hoaxer 
  who convinced many people he communicated regularly with advanced beings from Venus. 
  ADAMSKI agents intentionally leak falsified documents, faked photographs, doctored videos of 
  alien autopsies, etc. to self-righteous conspiracy theorists and “truthers” hungry for proof that the 
  government is keeping secrets from them.  
  Status 
  Status in Task Force: VALKYRIE is nebulous, and agents are promoted for a variety of reasons 
  ranging from nepotism to merit-based rewards. 
  • You’re a new recruit and have a small chip implanted in your shoulder or thigh, enabling you to 
  access and operate TFV’s high-tech resources. Gain a free Skill Specialty in Weaponry reflecting 
  your armament of choice. 
  ••• You’ve survived several missions, and someone back at HQ was paying attention. You’ve 
  earned two dots in Allies (TFV Backup) you can call on for help. Better use the backup when 
  you really need it, though. 
  ••••• You have your pick of missions and, when you go out in the field, you’re provided the best 
  equipment and vehicles TFV has on hand. You keep trusted secrets, know who really killed 
  Kennedy, and have the ear of several government officials. Assign a different government 
  agency to three dots in Contacts representing these relationships. 
  THIS ENDS THE CONSPIRACY SPLATS. 
  Endowments 
  For tier-three hunters, Endowments are the difference between winning and losing the fight 
  against the supernatural. While not always inherently supernatural, Endowments are powerful 
  tools that imbue a hunter with the ability to deal with the supernatural on their level — but that 
  kind of power always comes with a price. Endowments represent both the learned power and 
  institutional wisdom of an entire conspiracy, and the struggle to maintain a Code while still 
  protecting the ones who are the most important to the hunter.  
  Conspiracy leaders encourage their hunters to acquire Endowments and are willing to risk 
  hunters leaving their hallowed halls with that knowledge if it means the monsters in the dark 
  have a deadly opponent. Endowments themselves are a dangerous gamble, but the conspiracies 
  are willing to take risks despite any backlash that may come crashing down upon them or their 
  members. With the seemingly endless stream of monsters on the move, the risk is more than 
  worth it.  
  The cache of supernatural relics, potions, rituals, and spells, when combined with stockpiles of 
  armaments and psychic abilities, is far more than the average hunter dreams about. Sometimes 
  these abilities are accepted as a gift from the heavens, while other times they’re wielded as a 
  
  shield to force the darkness back into the shadows. Whatever the methodology, Endowments 
  mark their wielders in some way and, like the Vigil, it’s not something you can un-see. 
  The Endowments provided in this book are some of the bread-and-butter Endowments used by 
  their respective conspiracies. These are the ones that most hunters in a conspiracy will know or 
  learn over time, but we also include rules for making your own using select Relics from the 
  Aegis Kai Doru in Chapter Eight: Storytelling on p. XX.  
  Conspiracy-related Endowments include: 
  • 
  Advanced Armory: Task Force: VALKYRIE, p. XX. 
  • 
  Benediction: Malleus Maleficarum, p. XX. 
  • 
  Castigation: The Lucifuge, p. XX. 
  • 
  Elixir: The Ascending Ones, p. XX. 
  • 
  Perispiritism: Council of Bones, p. XX. 
  • 
  Teleformatics: VASCU, see the Slasher Chronicle on p. XX. 
  • 
  Thaumatechnology: The Cheiron Group, p. XX.  
  Using Endowments 
  Each conspiracy has access to a completely unique set of powers. While they may look similar in 
  structure, how they function is vastly different. One may look as mundane as high-powered 
  weapons while another is literally fueled by the hunter’s demonic blood.  
  How a hunter gains access to his Endowments, how he activates them, and what kind of backlash 
  comes from using them is defined in each individual Endowment. For our purposes though, 
  Endowments are distinctly supernatural powers and using them creates some internal conflict for 
  the hunter who is bound by a Code to defeat monsters. This isn’t to say that hunters view using 
  Endowments as Code violations, otherwise only the most unscrupulous hunter would use them. 
  But it does mean that using them often or choosing to use an Endowment instead of a mundane 
  solution is a conscious choice the hunter makes, and she justifies it however she can. This is 
  where Touchstones come in handy, as she uses these people to remind her why she is different 
  from the monsters she hunts. 
  Hunters are not supernatural, but the Endowments they use are. As such, they can be used by any 
  hunter regardless of their physical abilities. There is, however, a cost to using them. Sometimes 
  the toll of using these powers shows itself in the way of a backlash. Particularly powerful or 
  overtly supernatural Endowments have a backlash listed for each use. Some Endowments have a 
  baked-in backlash that isn’t specific to the individual powers. 
  Against the Supernatural 
  Hunters fight the supernatural. They fight against the creatures of the night and to protect the 
  ones they love. Every now and then, they might fight another hunter, or a mortal in thrall of a 
  monster, but they reserve their most dangerous Endowments for the creatures themselves.  
  Some Endowments are contested or resisted. The dice pools listed are for use against normal 
  mortals and monsters alike. But some monsters have a better ability to resist powers. If a monster 
  has a Supernatural Tolerance rating (see p. XX), then it applies that rating as normal to Contested 
  
  rolls against a power. Additionally, sometimes an Endowment’s powers will directly oppose a 
  monster’s power (or another Endowment). For example, a Lucifuge who commands a demon to 
  attack a child of the Seventh Generation who can also command demons may find themselves in 
  opposition, and a hunter who uses an Endowment to see the hidden may come into direct conflict 
  with a monster that has a Dread Power that makes it invisible. 
  When this happens, there is a Clash of Wills. All characters using conflicting powers enter a 
  contested roll-off, each using a pool based on her type. Hunters use their Highest Resistance 
  Attribute + Occult, while Monsters use their Potency + their Dread Power rating. Supernatural 
  creatures without Dread Powers, such as those found in other Chronicles of Darkness games, use 
  different rolls depending on what they are. Ties reroll until one player has accrued more 
  successes than all others. The effect invoked by that player’s character wins out and resolves as 
  usual, while all others fail. Victory of one power in a clash does not mean the immediate 
  cancellation of the others, save in cases where only one power can possibly endure. 
  Characters may spend Willpower to bolster the contested roll, but only if they are physically 
  present and aware that powers are clashing. Certain powers, such as those with exceptionally 
  long durations, are more enduring in a clash. Night-long effects add one die to the clash roll, 
  weeklong effects add two, month-long effects three, and effects that last a year or longer add 
  four. 
  Gaining Endowments 
  You may purchase Endowments related to the conspiracy of which your character is a member. 
  She must have at least one dot in the correct conspiracy Status Merit (p. XX) to purchase new 
  Endowments. Each hunter begins the game with two Endowments at character creation. 
  Purchasing a new Endowment costs three Experiences each. Some Endowments are collections 
  of powers, which are rated one through five (such as Elixir, Benediction, and Advanced 
  Armory). In this case, when you purchase an Endowment, you gain a dot rating in that collection. 
  This purchase still gives you an individual Endowment, but it might also serve another purpose 
  such as dictating how many items you can carry, or how powerful your Endowment is. 
  A hunter can only learn Endowments from the conspiracy to which she currently belongs. If she 
  leaves a conspiracy and joins another, she does not lose the Endowments she gained in the old 
  conspiracy but cannot learn new Endowments from her past organization. The only exception to 
  this is if the hunter belonged to Task Force: VALKYRIE, as they no longer have access to the 
  armory when they leave, and even if they take equipment with them, they are likely to run out of 
  ammunition. Using Endowments from a past organization may cause that group to come asking 
  questions. Conspiracies might allow the risk of a hunter running off with their secrets, but that 
  doesn’t mean they don’t act to prevent a hunter from doing so. Lucifuge who leave the 
  conspiracy are particularly at risk for their past to come hunting them down. A hunter who leaves 
  a conspiracy and chooses to lose her Endowments — or has to, in the case of TFV — benefits 
  from the Sanctity of Merits rule, which allows her to regain her spent Experiences on the 
  Endowments to spend elsewhere on her sheet, or on new Endowments from a new conspiracy. 
  Advanced Armory 
  Task Force: VALKYRIE isn’t in the business of supernatural wares. They don’t send prayers to 
  gods who won’t listen, they don’t drink poison hoping it isn’t worse than the monster’s bite, and 
  they certainly don’t treat with monsters to gain their powers. Instead, they rely on the cold, hard 
  
  truths of guns and ammunition. Now, those guns might be barking something as dangerous as 
  hellfire, but at least agents know it is technology that fuels their fight, not magic. Or at least they 
  hope so. 
  While no one would slight the courage of TFV operatives (at least, not within earshot), no one 
  can deny the surge of monsters is dangerous, unpredictable, and often extremely hard to capture. 
  Thankfully for TFV, if there’s one thing the American military-industrial complex is good at, it’s 
  overkill — but unlike rites or special abilities, ammunition is not a renewable resource. An agent 
  must keep their weapon in proper working order and replace ammunition when spent.  
  Task Force: VALKYRIE recognizes that it operates on a fine line. Since they don’t use 
  supernatural methods to fight monsters, their operatives are at greater risk than other hunters. 
  They take security and the safety of their agents extremely seriously. Each agent gets a small 
  RFID chip implanted in their body shortly after recruitment. This RFID chip serves two 
  purposes. The first is that it gives the agent access to the armory and every item inside contains a 
  reader that recognizes TFV RFID signals. Each weapon is built with hard locks that will not 
  disengage unless it can detect a chip’s frequency. The second is to store information about the 
  agent in case they are lost in the line of duty.  
  Accessing the Armory 
  All TFV Endowments are readily available to any agent with an RFID chip, but they are also 
  consumable; even if the advanced weapon is still in working condition its ammo gets depleted. 
  This is represented by the item’s Loadout, which is how often an agent needs to bring the 
  advanced armory weapon back to base for ammunition, cleaning, or changing out.  
  Loadout is automatically refreshed when operatives resupply by checking in with their local field 
  office. At that time, a TFV operative may swap out their existing Endowments for something 
  new, provided their RFID implant is working correctly and the weapon is available. Though TFV 
  is capable, it is also a small agency and some of its armaments are unique. 
  If a hunter leaves TFV, they deactivate her RFID chip and deny her access to the armory. She 
  still knows where they keep their armories, but only a heist will give her access to equipment. 
  She effectively loses access to the Endowment and any Experiences she spent are refunded to 
  her. 
  TFV encourages agents to change out Endowments as often as necessary depending on what they 
  are hunting. This flexibility in the agent’s repertoire is represented by the Endowment’s cost. 
  Advanced Armory is rated one to five; each dot she purchases represents access to a new piece 
  of equipment from the armory. Essentially, it represents what she’s allowed to check out at one 
  time. Instead of purchasing each Endowment separately, the hunter simply picks a number of 
  Endowments at the beginning of each session based on her Advanced Armory rating, and that is 
  what she has. If she wishes to change out an item through the course of the game, it may require 
  a scene to make the exchange, but she can easily do so. 
  Equalizer Grenade 
  Monsters come in all shapes and sizes, though plenty of them wear human faces, hiding their true 
  form from humanity in the slim chance no one will notice them. They lose all precepts when in a 
  fight though, turning into the monstrosities that they are, and making it harder for a team to take 
  them down. The equalizer grenade stops that kind of activity right in its tracks. 
  
  Using a flashing light that tricks the brain, it somehow disrupts the shape-change process before 
  it can start. As long as the grenade is flashing, the monster is incapable of changing its form, for 
  good or ill. Agents aren’t sure why it works, but some squint in a lab somewhere figured it out, 
  probably with several failed field tests no one talks about. Either way, the agency has them in 
  abundance and agents can get as many as 6 grenades per Loadout. 
  Loadout: Two sessions 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  The agent simply has to pull the pin and throw the grenade. It doesn’t do any damage, but emits 
  a flash of light. If a monster attempts to use a shapeshifting Dread Power, such as Animal Shift, 
  it provokes a Clash of Wills, with the hunter rolling the highest of his Resistance Attributes + 
  Advanced Armory instead of Occult. If the hunter wins, the monster remains in its mortal guise. 
  Etheric Goggles 
  Ghosts and spirits reside just beyond the veil, biding their time and building strength. These 
  creatures gain influence, manipulating people’s souls and energies in places until they finally 
  have enough power and influence to manifest and cause all sorts of havoc. With Etheric Goggles 
  though, Task Force: VALKYRIE agents can pierce the veil and take sight of their targets before 
  they come across. Etheric Goggles look like normal, night-vision goggles, but have a small 
  button on the side to transfer vision into the Twilight. They work for every hunter, regardless of 
  sight. 
  Loadout: Three sessions 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  With a quick flick of a button, the agent can peer into Twilight. Any entity in Twilight appears to 
  glow a phosphorescent blue. The goggles don’t let the agents touch or speak with the entities, but 
  they can trace or track them. Additionally, if an agent is trying to locate something with the 
  Anchor Condition, the goggles grant a +3 bonus to investigation rolls. 
  Etheric Capsule Rounds 
  Etheric Capsule Rounds resemble normal bullets — save for the glossy tips that glow faintly in 
  the dark. When fired, the propellant excites the etheric compound inside the projectile, causing it 
  to expand violently upon encountering another etheric field or when striking a physical target.  
  Nicknamed “Ghost Paint,” EC rounds directly injure ephemeral entities. When shot at an 
  ephemeral entity who is Manifested, the soft-shelled bullet causes a painful burning sensation on 
  the target’s exposed skin and mucous membranes. Against mortals, EC rounds aren’t as 
  effective, though they will sting and cause welts when they contact the skin. Otherwise, EC 
  rounds are nonlethal. 
  Loadout: 1 session 
  
  When used against an ephemeral entity that is Manifested, the bullets deal lethal damage instead 
  of bashing. Additionally, if the entity is not Manifested, the bullets can affect entities in Twilight 
  and deal bashing damage. EC rounds deal bashing damage to objects, mortals, and monsters. 
  Teaming Up with Who? Missing Scientists What? 
  Task Force: VALKYRIE know it’s better to take orders than to ask questions, but 
  some operatives are starting to feel that their commanders are keeping more secrets 
  than usual. TFV operatives recognize the need to change or alter their munitions, 
  but don’t understand why they’ve seen other conspiracy members visiting 
  headquarters. Thus far, the Ascending Ones and the Cheiron Group’s field agents 
  have both been spotted chatting up Operation ADAMSKI agents, leading some 
  TFV operatives to believe the rumors are true. For months, operatives have been 
  receiving the all clear, signaling nothing is wrong at HQ — even though one of 
  Project FORT’s team leaders, Rodrigo Garcia, knows this can’t be true.  
  According to Garcia, several TFV scientists have either been kidnapped or were 
  found dead of natural causes. Garcia speculates this can only mean one of two 
  things: either TFV’s command is compromised, or their leaders suspect an enemy 
  has infiltrated their ranks. In any case, it’s clear TFV has suffered from a security 
  breach, which would explain why the conspiracy is forging alliances with other 
  hunters they normally wouldn’t. 
  Huginn Visor 
  Monsters of all stripes have ways of trying to manipulate the minds and hearts of their prey. Task 
  Force: VALKYRIE technicians have learned that this invariably requires eye contact to perform. 
  The Huginn visor appears as a set of normal dark sunglasses, but it is coated with a special film 
  that gives the agent some protection against mind-altering powers.  
  Agents joke that whatever chemical they put on it must come from space. Maybe it does, but no 
  one really cares when it keeps their heads on straight. 
  Loadout: One session 
  Whenever a monster’s Dread Power (or other supernatural creature’s power) necessitates eye 
  contact or needs line of sight to the victim to function, the creature suffers a −3 penalty to 
  activate the power against any hunter who wears the visor. 
  Mjolnir Cannon 
  Nothing in the TFV arsenal represents overkill like the Mjolnir Cannon. The portable version of 
  the system consists of two elements: a heavy battery, typically carried in a backpack, and a 
  modified rocket launcher with integrated lenses, electrodes, and heavy shielding. At its lowest 
  power setting, the Mjolnir functions as a long-range taser, paralyzing the target with rapid pulses 
  of electricity channeled down the ionized path created by the taser.  
  At higher power levels, the Mjolnir earns its name, firing nothing short of a man-made lightning 
  bolt — hearing protection and grounding equipment are required for all teams employing the 
  Mjolnir Cannon. The etheric battery used to power the Mjolnir is notoriously finicky, and, if 
  overused, has been known to detonate. 
  Loadout: One session 
  
  On its low setting, the Mjolnir Cannon is a ranged weapon a damage rating of 1, range 20/40/80, 
  Clip 4, Initiative −1. When the Mjolnir deals damage, it inflicts the Stunned Tilt on the target. 
  When its Clip is exhausted, the Mjolnir must recycle its batteries for two turns. 
  When used on its high setting, the Mjolnir Cannon is a ranged weapon with a damage rating of 4, 
  Clip 2, Initiative −3. The Mjolnir Cannon inflicts the Knocked Down Tilt to its target if it hits. 
  Any targets within shouting distance of both the weapon and the target suffer from the Deafened 
  Tilt unless they’re wearing hearing protection. 
  Muninn Serum 
  No matter how well prepared, how careful, and how special ops a Task Force: VALKYRIE team 
  may be, there’s always the chance someone might witness the action going down. It isn’t always 
  the team’s fault, either. It might be a case of bad circumstances, or just the fact that they had to 
  save someone from a monster’s grasp. Every hunter knows that once you’ve had a brush with the 
  supernatural, you’ll never forget it. 
  That is, unless someone helps you along with a little chemical assistance. Task Force: 
  VALKYRIE scientists have developed a more potent and targeted form of the strongest drugs 
  that cause temporary amnesia and short-term memory loss. The result is Muninn Serum and, 
  with a single injection, an agent can wipe away a whole night’s worth of bad memories. 
  Loadout: One syringe per session. 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  The operative must administer the dose intravenously. If the target is unwilling, the agent must 
  make an attack roll to inject the serum. The drug has a mild burn to it, but nothing worse than a 
  tetanus shot. Once injected, the subject is inflicted with the Drugged Tilt. During this time, the 
  agent can ask the subject to recount memories, which the subject will do to the best of her ability. 
  Once recounted, she forgets it ever happened. Even if she chooses to lie about specific portions 
  of the event, she forgets everything at the end. 
  Odin Reticle 
  The all-seeing eye of Odin is, in this case, a small LCD screen and camera combination that 
  feeds a specialized display to the wearer. This device is designed to attach to any other goggle 
  type, such as the Etheric Goggles or the Huginn Visor. It isn’t perfect, but few things can trick 
  the various cameras attached to the Odin Reticle’s display. 
  Loadout: 3 sessions 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  When activated, it grants a Clash of Wills against anyone attempting to hide themselves using 
  supernatural means that trick the mind. Hunters using the Odin Reticle for the Clash of Wills roll 
  their Highest Resistance Attribute + Advanced Armory rating instead of Occult. 
  
  V.D.S.B. 
  Every TFV operator knows monsters prefer shadows to sunny daylight and understands that 
  sometimes the difference between winning and losing is a well-lit field of battle. While creatures 
  like vampires might be allergic to sunlight, most monsters aren’t happy when the full force of 
  ultra-bright, white light hits them directly in the eye. 
  The V.D.S.B. (Victim-Detonated Sun Bomb) is a rigged explosive device that is triggered with a 
  combination of infrared, motion, and thermal sensors. Coded to find vampires specifically, 
  anything that falls within a specific infrared spectrum or motion profile will detonate the bomb. 
  Agents have found that most monsters seem to fit the bill, though they don’t know how the 
  technicians programmed the device to be so precise as to not trip with human activity. 
  The resultant effect is a flash of light bright enough to blind anyone and everyone in the vicinity. 
  Agents often wear special sunglasses that protect them from the bright light as they come in to 
  deal with the hopefully stunned monster. The agency generally only provides one such bomb per 
  Loadout. 
  Loadout: One session 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  When tripped, a searing, bright, phosphorescent light fills the space. Anyone in view of the bomb 
  when it detonates must roll for surprise. If they fail, they gain the Stunned Tilt. For the rest of the 
  scene, sighted players who are not wearing special eyeglasses will acquire the Blinded Tilt. 
  Benediction 
  Arcane rituals and rites codified within the Catholic Church from before ancient times, 
  Benediction rituals serve as a bulwark between man and monster. Used throughout history to 
  protect the masses from the darkness, from exorcism rites to the creations of holy and blessed 
  weapons, Benediction is not just a toolset  the Catholic Church uses, it is a holy scripture the 
  Malleus Maleficarum use to smite evil. 
  With the aid of God and the intercession of the saints, the Malleus Maleficarum’s hunters 
  produce miracles in their war against wickedness. In modern times, knowledge of these rituals is 
  not enough to perform them; a hunter must be Catholic and receive the pope’s blessing to get a 
  hotline to Heaven. Should any hunter fall from grace, the penalty is the revocation of their 
  membership in the Catholic Church and, as a result, the Malleus Maleficarum conspiracy as well. 
  Malleus Maleficarum hunters are not required to be clergy members, but they are expected to 
  walk the path of the just and righteous by maintaining the Code, their Integrity, and their 
  Touchstones. 
  Virtuous Rituals 
  Benediction comes in the form of rituals. The Lucifuge must spend time, effort, and possibly 
  even small material sacrifices to draw upon the blessed. Malleus Maleficarum hunters learn their 
  Endowments slightly differently than others. When the player purchases Benediction she gets a 
  dot in the Benediction Endowment (each dot costing three Experiences) and learns a ritual. She 
  
  can purchase additional rituals for 3 Experiences each. Her Benediction rating affects both her 
  activation roll on rituals, and how powerful her rituals are. The highest her Benediction rating 
  can ever be is 5. 
  Additionally, Benediction requires the user to be appropriately virtuous to work properly. The 
  hunter’s Benediction rating is modified by her Integrity beyond 5. Each dot below 5 subtracts 
  one from her effective Benediction rating for purposes of roll results and ritual benefits. 
  When the hunter wishes to cast a ritual, she must spend a Willpower and say a specialized 
  prayer. Each ritual specifies a target success total the ritualist must gain to complete it. Rituals 
  last until the next day unless otherwise noted in the text. A hunter cannot benefit more than once 
  from the same ritual at a time. For example, she may be able to call upon the blessing of St. Luke 
  multiple times a day to heal someone, but she can only gain the blessing of St. George once a 
  day.  
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult + Benediction 
  Action: Extend. Target successes are listed per ritual. Ritualists may roll as many times as their 
  unmodified dice pool. The base time per roll is one hour. A ritual must be completed in one 
  attempt. The ritual automatically fails if interrupted, and the ritualist does not gain the benefit of 
  her Defense while casting. Many rituals are also contested or resisted, as noted in their 
  description. 
  She gains the benefit of Merits that may reduce the time it takes to take an Extended action. 
  Duration: One day (or variable) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The ritualist accumulates successes as normal. If the target number of successes is met, 
  the ritual finishes immediately. 
  Exceptional Success: The ritualist makes great strides in finishing the ritual. The player decides 
  which of the following effects takes place in addition to accumulating successes. If the target 
  success total is met, the ritual finishes immediately. 
  • 
  Reduce the target success total by her dots in Benediction. 
  • 
  Reduce the time per roll by 15 minutes. 
  • 
  Apply the Steadfast Condition if and when the ritual succeeds. 
  Failure: The ritualist is having difficulty and accumulates no successes. The player decides 
  whether to abandon the ritual or continue. If the ritualist continues, she gains the Stumbled 
  Condition. 
  Dramatic Failure: The ritualist is having a crisis of faith. Not only does the ritual fail, but she 
  gains the Shaken Condition. 
  Armor of St. Martin 
  Target success total: 7 
  The forces of darkness against which the Malleus Maleficarum hunters stand are numerous and 
  dangerous, with claws, fangs, and terrifying powers that shred the faithful. The hunter prays to 
  
  St. Martin, the patron saint of soldiers, to provide a shield against the darkness. The hunter gains 
  an armor rating equal to her Benediction rating against both general and ballistic attacks, with 
  full-body coverage. When the Armor of St. Martin is active, its presence is imperceptible to the 
  natural senses. This armor does not stack with other forms of armor. 
  The Boon of Lazarus 
  Target success total: 8 
  Calling upon the power of God himself, the hunter channels his power like he did with Lazarus 
  in the tomb. The hunter prays over the corpse and imbues it with holy light and life. The target 
  comes back to life with full health, but no Willpower. The ritual takes a toll on the ritualist as 
  well. Instead of the normal 1 Willpower cost, performing the ritual costs a dot of Willpower. The 
  ritual cannot restore missing limbs, and if used on someone decapitated or dismembered, then 
  they remain so after the ritual is complete. 
  This ritual can only be performed on the recently deceased and must start within minutes (no 
  more than five) of death. If the ritualist attempts to perform this on a body that has been dead 
  longer, it comes back alive, but has the Soulless Condition, which can never be resolved. 
  Epipodian Safeguard 
  Target success total: 7 
  The ritualist says a prayer to St. Epipodius, the patron saint of the betrayed, to help protect her 
  mind from attacks that would cause her to betray her friends. She gains a bonus equal to her dots 
  in Benediction to resist mental domination, either by a Dread Power, Numen, or other 
  supernatural ability. If this is a contested roll, she gains that number of dice to the roll; if it is 
  resisted, the number is subtracted from her attacker’s pool along with any other resistance she 
  may have. 
  Fortitude of St. George 
  Target success total: 6 
  The hunter calls upon the blessing of St. George, slayer of dragons and one who endured great 
  torment and hardship at the hands of the Romans. The ritualist is imbued by his strength, 
  allowing them to continue forward against all odds. The ritualist gains a single dot of Stamina 
  (which increases her Health by one as well). If she would suffer from a Condition or Tilt from 
  exertion, hunger, thirst, or exhaustion she may roll her Stamina + Benediction to resist having it 
  applied. 
  A Malevolent Force Within the Church? 
  Buried deep within the Order of St. Ambrose’s archives is a pamphlet so insidious 
  it is under constant surveillance and guard to prevent other hunters from laying eyes 
  on it. The tract, published and distributed in 2012, urges the Shadow Congregation 
  to abandon the Vatican and side with a rising power — led by a so-called “black 
  pope” or anti-pope — to end the spreading darkness once and for all. The pamphlet 
  goes on to list the benefits of siding with the anti-pope, which includes the stunning 
  proclamation that hunters who receive the anti-pope’s blessing may retain use of 
  Benedictions as a sign that God favors this new authority. 
  
  Malleus scholars have verified the authenticity of the tract, but don’t know how 
  many copies were distributed or printed. Within the Order of St. Ambrose, hunters 
  argue, wondering why this tract must be kept hidden and why more resources aren’t 
  being dedicated to its investigation. Only Malleus hunters with the highest status 
  know the truth: A secret order, named after the patron saint of desperate situations, 
  was founded within the last year. Dubbed the Order of St. Jude, the hunters have 
  been charged to go so deep undercover even other Malleus members don’t know 
  they exist. 
  Hands of St. Luke 
  Target success total: 8 
  With a prayer to St. Luke, the patron saint of physicians and surgeons, the hunter can call upon 
  his divine power to fix limbs and reduce hurt in an instant. Once the ritual is complete, the hunter 
  immediately heals a number of bashing or lethal damage either on herself or another target equal 
  to her dots in Benediction. Or, she can reduce aggravated damage down to lethal damage at the 
  same rate. Additionally, the target resolves the Crippled Condition. If the hunter spends a 
  Willpower dot on activation, she can resolve the Persistent version of the Crippled Condition. 
  Shepherd’s Blessing 
  Target success total: 6 
  The hunter makes a short prayer, though this can go to any saint. He asks for general protection, 
  sight unseen. For a scene, people overlook the hunter as though he isn’t there. This isn’t the same 
  as being invisible. Cameras will still pick him up on film and people still see him, they just don’t 
  register him as there at the time. They may remember him being there if recalling the scene later, 
  but he does not alert people or arouse suspicion, even if no one else is supposed to be around. If 
  someone is using a supernatural power that lets them see through illusion or protects against 
  mental effects, it provokes a Clash of Wills, and the hunter adds his Benediction rating to his 
  roll. 
  Vade Retro Satana 
  Target success total: 7 
  Contested by: Power + Resistance 
  The hunter calls upon the Vade Retro Satana, a prayer designed to exorcise spirits and ghosts. 
  Using repeated prayer, religious symbols, and calling upon God’s aid, the ritualist damages an 
  ephemeral entity with his holy wrath. Not only does this ritual count as a successful use of an 
  exorcism, abjuration, warding, or binding, but the ritualist inflicts lethal damage to the ephemeral 
  entity target equal to his Benediction rating. 
  Wrathful Sword of St. Michael the Archangel 
  Target success total: 7 
  The hunter calls upon St. Michael, the general of the heavenly host, to imbue an Earthly weapon 
  with the divine power to smite the devils that haunt humankind. The ritual must be performed in 
  the presence of a melee weapon the hunter is attempting to bless. Upon success, the weapon 
  glows with a bright, white light. When wielded against a monster, the weapon has a lethal 
  damage rating equal to the hunter’s Benediction rating. 
  
  Castigation 
  The Lucifuge sit as living contradictions. They pledge their lives to fighting off the darkness, but 
  they use that very same darkness in their veins to do so. Using these dark powers is a struggle for 
  even the oldest Lucifuge. They justify it to themselves; they tell themselves that if they don’t use 
  their darkness for the good of all, then no one will. But in the end, they are addicted to the rush 
  of the power, and simultaneously terrified of what that means. No one wants to wake up in the 
  morning and realize she is the very monster she hunts, though the Lucifuge wonder this upon 
  waking every day. 
  For centuries, members of the Lucifuge have performed the rites of Castigation by sacrificing 
  fresh, human blood. The source of this blood, whether it flowed through their own veins or 
  through another’s, did not matter until recently. Whether by design or circumstance, Lucifuge 
  hunters must now hurt themselves and use their own blood in their infernal rites. This has 
  impacted the conspiracy in subtle and significant ways, and many hunters wonder what this 
  means. Did the Morningstar find the means to punish the Seventh Generation? Is the Lucifuge 
  herself involved? Or, is there another mechanism at work, tampering with the infernal to 
  experiment on this unique lineage of infernalists turned hunters? Many members of the Lucifuge 
  are troubled by their experiences and are secretly investigating the nature of demons and the 
  infernal when they’re not on a hunt. While the Lucifuge members can and do hunt in mixed 
  company, the side effects of their Castigation rites may make other hunters skittish or openly 
  hostile. 
  Unlike other hunters, a Lucifuge can’t just leave their conspiracy and decide to eschew their 
  Endowments. Sure, they could try to stop using Castigation, but the singing in their blood brings 
  them right back around to it. They cannot rid themselves of it any more than they could teach 
  another to utilize it. If a Lucifuge attempts to leave the conspiracy, she becomes hunted, painted 
  as a creature who finally embraced her demonic roots. Though this might be farthest from the 
  truth, the Lucifuge feel they need to keep a tight rein on their members and the infernal power 
  they control, for the sake of all humanity. 
  Using Castigation Rites 
  Castigation is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, the Lucifuge has access to a terrifying 
  and effective set of powers. On the other hand, the use of those powers marks her as demonic in 
  the eyes of others, and leaves a mark on her soul. It’s a balance that all Lucifuge must maintain, 
  otherwise get hunted by their peers. That mark on her soul is one she cannot will away, and one 
  that haunts her even as it tempts her. Using Castigation in a scene in which a character also 
  suffers a breaking point counts as a −3 modifier to the roll. Additionally, the player must 
  immediately roll Resolve + Composure after using Castigation for the character to resist the 
  temptation to do it again. This roll suffers a −1 cumulative penalty for each time she has used a 
  Castigation in the same day. If she fails, she gains the Addicted Condition for using Castigation. 
  She can shake the addiction by resisting the urge to use Castigation for a full day. 
  Despite all this, the Lucifuge have an ally in the Lady of Milan. She helps them hone their 
  ability, learn to control their urges, and gives them a path to walk that keeps them from trouble. 
  The Lady calls the Children of the Seventh Generation to stand before her and make a terrible 
  choice: to join her and fight the darkness in all its forms, or to die. When they join the Lucifuge, 
  
  she gives them a gift: a virtuous path that may, one day, save them from their unholy heritage. 
  Hunters who are active members of the Lucifuge gain the Will of the Lucifuge Condition. 
  Demons or Demons 
  The Lucifuge are the mortal descendants of Lucifer, a literal demon and ruler of 
  Hell. For the purposes of Hunter, the demons Lucifuge hunt are monsters with the 
  Infernal Dread Power. There are other creatures called demons in the world, but 
  unless they are infernal demons, the Lucifuge have no power to command or call 
  them. 
  [THE FOLLOWING IS A CONDITION, FORMAT APPROPRIATELY] 
  Will of the Lucifuge (Persistent) 
  In exchange for a hunter’s vow to uphold the Vigil and to do the Lucifuge’s bidding, hunters 
  may treat the Will of the Lucifuge as a second Virtue. When the hunter acts in accordance with 
  the Lady of Milan’s decrees in a way that poses difficult or risk to their personal safety, they 
  regain all their spent Willpower points. 
  Resolution: When the hunter’s membership in the Lucifuge ends. 
  Beat: If the character resists the Lucifuge’s Will, gain a Beat. 
  [END CONDITION] 
  Calling Forth the Pit 
  The Lucifuge hold a tenuous connection to their dark ancestor, and as such a connection to all he 
  is and does. When Lucifer was cast down to Hell, he used his power and will to create a home 
  for himself and his demonic followers. He put his own flesh and blood into making the unholy 
  city, and as such is an intrinsic part of it. This means the Lucifuge, too, have a connection to Hell 
  and even the very demons who reside there. A Lucifuge may command the pit to either bring 
  forth a demon or cast one back into it. This summoning is, in effect, both within and outside the 
  mortal realm. Summoned demons may be treated with and bound to oaths but the Lucifuge does 
  not have control by default when it arrives — care should be taken, lest the demon break free and 
  wreak havoc. 
  Cost: 1 point of lethal damage 
  Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult − Resistance 
  Action: Extended. Each roll represents 30 minutes of ritual casting and the ritualist must achieve 
  10 successes to summon or banish a demon. 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The ritual acquires successes. If enough successes are gathered to finish the ritual, the 
  demon is summoned (or banished). If summoned, a demon acts of its own free will unless the 
  Lucifuge immediately uses the Mandate of Hell Endowment. In general, the demon will 
  recognize the Lucifuge as one of its own and not attack her, but that protection does not extend 
  to her friends. If banished, the demon immediately leaves the mortal world. 
  Exceptional Success: The ritualist makes great strides in summoning the demon. Choose one of 
  the following: Reduce the number of successes required by the character’s Occult dots, reduce 
  
  the time between rolls by 10 minutes, or gain the 8-again rule for future interactions with the 
  demon once it’s summoned. 
  Failure: The ritualist falters, and the demon struggles against the ritual’s pull. The ritualist can 
  continue but must take the Spooked Condition. 
  Dramatic Failure: The hunter loses control over the ritual and the demon lashes out (even from 
  afar if a summoning). The ritualist gains the Shaken Condition. The demon is immune to similar 
  ritual attempts for the next 24 hours. 
  Forged in Fire 
  Hell is well-known for its fiery pits and brimstone décor. The very concept of infernal recalls the 
  idea of burning flesh and intense heat. It’s little wonder then that the Lucifuge are also drawn to 
  fire in all its forms. Those who have the blood of Hell’s creator running through their veins have 
  a bit more resilience toward it than the average person. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Reflexive 
  Duration: One scene 
  A Lucifuge may activate this Endowment to become immune to damage caused by fire for the 
  rest of the scene. While her clothes and armor may burn up in flames, her skin remains 
  undamaged by fire’s effects. And while smoke won’t burn her lungs if she inhales it, she is not 
  immune to the after effects of filling her lungs with ash, or the lack of oxygen that comes along 
  with it. If she is in an area where she suffers from the Extreme Heat or Inferno Environmental 
  Tilts, she suffers no damage from the fire itself. She halves any damage or penalties that come 
  from smoke or inhalation. 
  Backlash: The Lucifuge’s skin isn’t fire-resistant exactly, instead her infernal blood acts to 
  shield her from the fire’s effect. This means that any time she is exposed to fire or the Extreme 
  Heat Tilt, her skin lets off a soft red glow, which imposes a −2 penalty to Social rolls with most 
  people. 
  Gaze of the Penitent 
  If there’s one thing the Lucifuge know better than anything, it’s a desire to repent. To scour the 
  soul of its stains and sins and be reborn anew. Hell, to them, is a place not only of eternal 
  torment, but one where those fires cleanse souls, a place of penitence and understanding of guilt.  
  The Lucifuge can draw upon Hell’s burning wrath to inflict the pain of guilt and the desire for 
  repentance on someone else. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy vs. Resolve 
  Action: Instant 
  Roll Results 
  
  Success: The hunter’s victim feels a burning desire to repent all his sins and seek forgiveness. 
  The victim suffers from the Guilty Condition. Additionally, for the rest of the scene, the 
  Lucifuge gains +2 on Social rolls against her victim. 
  Exceptional Success: The victim suffers the Broken Condition instead of Guilty. 
  Failure: The Lucifuge brings forth the wrath of Hell, but his victim fails to care. 
  Dramatic Failure: The Lucifuge brings forth the burning pain of Hell but inflicts it upon 
  himself. He gains the Guilty Condition. 
  Hellfire 
  In western occultism, the infernal realm called “Hell” is marked by fire and brimstone that burns 
  ever more. Lucifer Morningstar, the fallen “Light Bringer,” wields hellfire to smite his enemies 
  and punish the wicked — and his Children of the Seventh Generation may do the same. 
  Lucifuge members bear a hidden flicker, a tiny flame of white-hot hellfire they may call forth at 
  will. Hellfire is no ordinary incendiary device, however, its flames ache to spread and burn. Its 
  fires reek of rotten eggs, alerting all who near them the infernal is nearby. Hunters who are 
  careless (or arrogant) with hellfire often watch in terror as the flames spread, claiming innocent 
  lives. 
  Cost: 1 point of lethal damage 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  The hunter summons hellfire, which quickly sets everything else on fire. If the Lucifuge attempts 
  to use this as an attack, it counts as a +2 lethal weapon modifier to an athletics attack as he hurls 
  the flame at his target. If the victim is wearing armor, it works as normal against the fire attack, 
  but does catch on fire. Otherwise, the hellfire catches the surrounding area on fire. The next turn, 
  the area (size of a small room or the confines of whatever room the Lucifuge is in) gains the 
  Inferno Environmental Tilt. The Lucifuge cannot control this fire once its spread and suffers any 
  ill effects of the fire just like anyone else caught in the blast unless he has the Forged in Fire 
  Endowment. 
  Mandate of Hell 
  By their very nature, the Lucifuge carries Lucifer’s blood within her veins. No matter how 
  diluted that blood, every demon recognizes her position as akin to royalty. The Lucifuge can 
  leverage this blood tie to bend demons to her will. With time, she can learn how to subjugate 
  these demons, giving a command with a simple look or single meaningful word used to convey 
  her desires. Of course, mastering such a trick is one that most Lucifuge have no interest in doing, 
  as it only cements their place in hell. 
  If the hunter knows the name of the demon she is commanding, she gains a +2 bonus to her dice 
  pool. 
  Prerequisite: Calling Forth the Pit 
  Cost: None or 1 Willpower (see below) 
  Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidation vs. Resistance 
  
  Action: Instant 
  Roll Results 
  Success: Without spending Willpower, the hunter can issue a single, short command, no more 
  than a few words. This command has to be direct and actionable such as “attack him” or “bow to 
  me” — it cannot be something vague such as “listen to me” or “do what I say.” If the hunter 
  spends a Willpower at activation, she can give a more complex command with no more than two 
  steps in it: “Go to the church and bring me back the priest” or “attack him, but do not kill him.” 
  The demon acts immediately to enact the command given, though it chooses its route or how to 
  go about the action. If the hunter wants to give it more actions to take, she must use this 
  Endowment again. 
  Exceptional Success: The hunter may give an additional command to the demon or add an 
  additional step to a complex command. 
  Failure: The demon ignores her commands. 
  Dramatic Failure: The demon listens to the order and carries out the exact opposite action, 
  wreaking chaos and havoc. 
  Sense Weakness 
  Everyone has a weakness, for most people it’s their connection to their loved ones, or a vice they 
  can’t help to indulge. Monsters also have weaknesses, though never as mundane as vice or love. 
  Lucifer, The Great Deceiver, uses it to infiltrate, undermine, and tempt. His descendants have a 
  knack for sensing weakness in their prey and utilizing it to great effect. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy vs. Finesse 
  Action: Instant 
  Roll Results 
  Success: With a quick study of its name or just a description, the Lucifuge learns his foe’s 
  greatest weakness. He can learn one of the following about his enemy: one of its banes, any 
  Dread Powers that give it a weakness, or the name of an infernal demon. 
  Exceptional Success: The Lucifuge also gains the Informed Condition about his subject. 
  Failure: The hunter cannot glean any information about her target. 
  Dramatic Failure: The hunter looks too far and sees a darkness within. She gains the Spooked 
  Condition. 
  Tongue of Babel 
  Shortly after the flood, humanity was united under a single language in the ancient city of Babel. 
  But they reached too far and sought too much and, when God noticed, he dispersed humanity 
  across the globe and ensured they all spoke different languages. Rumor abounds that this was a 
  design by Lucifer to grant humanity access to heaven. His attempt failed, though remnants of his 
  language persist today in everything humans do. 
  
  While the language is lost, the Lucifuge can hear it singing still in their blood. Those who have 
  studied it know it forms the foundation for all other languages in humanity, and through their 
  connection can parse understanding from any spoken language. 
  Cost: None 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  The hunter may activate this Endowment to understand any spoken language for the rest of the 
  scene. He can speak and understand literally any language on Earth. He does not necessarily 
  know those languages, but instead knows the universal language well enough that when he 
  speaks it, his blood works to allow anyone who hears it to interpret it as their own language. As 
  well, when he hears someone speak, he translates it automatically into a language he 
  understands. This doesn’t always translate to the written word, as the ancient humans in Babel 
  didn’t write their language down. Nor does it allow him to understand languages supernatural in 
  nature, such as those spoken by demons or monsters, or incantations used by witches. 
  Whenever using Tongue of Babel, the Lucifuge can pick up on all aspects of language use, 
  including social cues and body language. When she attempts a Social Maneuver against a person 
  while Tongue of Babel is active, she moves up one position on the Impression chart (p. XX). 
  Elixir 
  Alchemy is the art of transforming one substance into another. Truly advanced practitioners of 
  the art need no laboratory or tools to perform their miracles — their own body and enlightenment 
  suffices. The Ascending Ones guard the secrets of internal alchemy, for they are easily abused 
  and dangerous to the uninitiated. Many elixirs are highly toxic without an alchemical touch, and 
  a few may seriously harm or cause a fatal reaction. 
  Elixir Endowments represent the knowledge and training needed not only to prepare the 
  alchemical cocktail the hunter imbibes, but to transform the reagents within herself and redirect 
  that energy as needed.  
  Elixir Endowments require consumable exotic reagents and substances. The Ascending Ones 
  have stockpiles of reagents available to their members, and members know where and how to 
  acquire new reagents for their most used Endowments. Ingredient lists for elixirs are well-kept 
  secrets to which members only gain access after demonstrating ability and knowledge. While 
  members are assumed to have ready access to the reagents they need, rouge hunters using elixirs 
  have a harder time procuring reagents. The Ascending Ones warn that reagents bought outside of 
  their auspices can be dangerous or impure. Despite these warnings, there is a growing number of 
  reports that rogue alchemists are stealing and stockpiling ingredients to sell on the black market. 
  At present, the conspiracy has not revealed how it plans to resolve the issue and appears to be 
  more concerned about their current members. 
  When Ascending Ones first learn alchemy, they learn not only to mix potions and brews, but 
  how to imbibe such without poisoning themselves. This process is not fast, and hunters in the 
  field using elixirs have been members for years before finally mastering the technique. But each 
  new elixir requires a new skill set. Learning a new elixir, both how to make it and how to proper 
  
  imbibe it takes time and training which is represented by several days of uninterrupted study 
  (and spending the requisite Experiences). 
  Developing a whole new concoction used to take months, if not years, but with access to a few 
  specific lab spaces, an abundance of reagents, and proper training, making new elixirs now takes 
  a matter of weeks. To invent a completely new elixir (never seen before), the Ascending One 
  must perform an extended action and net 10 successes using her Intelligence + Medicine, with 
  each roll representing a week of time. New elixir creation is subject to Storyteller approval. 
  Using Elixirs 
  Elixirs are by nature one-use items. When a hunter purchases the Elixir Endowment, she is 
  buying the ability to utilize new recipes. She purchases dots in Elixir instead of each individual 
  Endowment. At each dot of Elixir, she gains a new recipe for free. She can purchase additional 
  recipes for three Experiences each. The Ascending One can only hold as many prepared elixirs 
  on her person as she has dots in Elixir plus her Stamina rating. Making a new elixir takes an 
  hour, but does not require a roll. When the hunter wishes to use her elixir, she must apply the 
  elixir to herself in some way (apply a salve, imbibe a liquid, inhale a smoke). Elixirs may have 
  additional costs other than this action to activate. Using most elixirs requires an instant action 
  using the following rules. Some may be extended actions in which case they have their own roll 
  results.  
  If someone without at least one dot in the Elixir Endowment attempts to use the elixir (or it is 
  applied to someone without training) then they suffer the dramatic failure result. Applying an 
  elixir this way requires a touch attack, or a maneuver during a grapple. 
  Cost: Variable 
  Dice Pool: Stamina + Elixir 
  Action: Instant (Some actions may be contested or resisted) 
  Duration: Variable 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The hunter succeeds in converting the alchemical compound and produces the desired 
  effect. 
  Exceptional Success: Variable depending on the effect. 
  Failure: The reaction fizzles and the Ascending One gains the Drugged Tilt. 
  Dramatic Failure: The alchemist fails to convert the alchemical compounds and suffers the 
  lesser version of the Sick Tilt. If it is used outside of combat, she suffers the  moderate version of 
  the Poisoned Tilt instead. 
  Amun’s Water 
  Taking their cues from the monsters they hunt, the Ascending Ones have developed an elixir that 
  allows them to pass unnoticed. By drinking this potion, they can become invisible to the naked 
  eye. 
  The potion is a combination of adder venom crushed with queen of the night flowers and mixed 
  with ethyl alcohol. It tastes cloyingly sweet but burns as it goes down. 
  
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Duration: One scene 
  The alchemist becomes invisible to the naked eye. This isn’t just a trick of the light, or a psychic 
  impression. Cameras fail to pick her up and electronics fail to register her presence. If she takes a 
  hostile action, she breaks the effect. 
  Someone with the ability to see the unseen or view something that is invisible prompts a Clash of 
  Wills.  
  Exceptional success: If she takes a hostile action, she does not break the elixir’s effect entirely. 
  Only the attacked person can perceive the hunter, but others may be able to follow her 
  movements based on situational cues in the middle of a fight. 
  Backlash: The elixir acts as a hallucinogen. While active, the hunter suffers a −2 penalty to all 
  actions as she has a hard time determining reality from mental images. 
  Breath of Ma’at 
  Though the Ascending Ones walk the path of righteousness, that path regularly leads them into 
  shadow and sin — often, they must commit wickedness in the name of fighting wickedness. The 
  Breath of Ma’at is a thick, musky incense, the vapors of which must be inhaled and transmuted 
  by the Ascending One. Once under its effect, the whispers of their soul contort to justify once-
  indefensible behaviors as entirely reasonable courses of action. 
  Cost: None 
  Duration: One scene 
  The hunter does not roll for breaking points while under the effects of the Breath of Ma’at. Once 
  the elixir wears off, she makes a single roll for a breaking point no matter how many acts she 
  committed. If she is under the effects of a hunter Condition, she gains a +2 to resist the breaking 
  point. 
  Exceptional success: She gains the 8-again quality on her breaking-point roll when the effect 
  wears off. 
  Backlash: If, while under the influence of the Breath of Ma’at, the Ascending One takes an 
  action that would violate the Code, she automatically gains the Demoralized Condition, even if 
  she is successful on her breaking-point roll. 
  Breath of the Dragon 
  Breath of the Dragon is a fine, silvery powder consisting of sulfur, finely milled magnesium 
  shavings, and several rare reagents. When transmuted in the alchemist’s body, the “breath” 
  becomes weaponized and poisonous. This powder must be inhaled to be properly activated; 
  afterward, the alchemist can expel a powerful jet of toxic gas.  
  Breath of the Dragon is harsh on the user’s throat and the hunter is left hoarse afterward; overuse 
  can even lead to temporary laryngitis at the discretion of the Storyteller. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Stamina + Medicine vs. Stamina 
  Action: Contested 
  
  The hunter expels the toxic gas at her victim, which inflicts the grave version of the Sick Tilt. 
  Additionally, the vapors act to increase the severity of pain sensors in the target. Her next attack 
  gains an additional weapon rating of 2 bashing, which stacks with any other weapon damage. 
  Exceptional Success: Instead of Sick, the target gains the grave version of the Poisoned Tilt. 
  NOTE TO LAYOUT: THIS SIDEBAR CAN BE PLACED ANYWHERE IT FITS. 
  Harvest Markets and Silent Auctions 
  Hunter conspiracies may profess they want to work together but behind the scenes 
  several organizations have been clamping down on cooperative hunts, sharing tips 
  and connections, as well as the occasional drink. The reason? There’s been a run 
  on phoenix feathers, rare-earth alloys, crystals — even necrotic blood and holy 
  water. Someone — or a group of someones — has been buying up every icon, 
  organ, relic, and reagent hunters are bidding for. The Cheiron Group, who once 
  enjoyed a healthy, if not friendly, relationship with Task Force: VALKYRIE to 
  exchange money for monster parts, has forfeited payment for the last three 
  transactions, claiming they “stole” the parts from their Retrieval Division and were 
  trying to resell them. The Ascending Ones are pointing fingers at the Cheiron 
  Group, the Council of Bones, Aegis Kai Doru, and Malleus Maleficarum, claiming 
  they’re attempting to hinder the conspiracy by making it even more challenging to 
  find their needed ingredients. Meanwhile, the Lucifuge, Aegis Kai Doru, and Task 
  Force: VALKYRIE have forged a temporary alliance to find the culprit, be they 
  hunter or monster — or both. 
  Bennu Feather 
  The Bennu is the mythical bird revered by Egyptians for rebirth, the sun, and creation. Thought 
  to be a part of Ra’s soul, the Bennu inspired legends of the phoenix who is immortal and 
  everlasting, a symbol of rebirth.  
  The feather, pulled from the tail of a living bennu, is ground with potent opiates and antiseptic 
  and analgesic plants. The resultant thick, brown paste can help speed up a hunter’s natural 
  healing. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  For each success garnered on the roll, the hunter heals two bashing damage or one lethal damage, 
  which come from the character’s rightmost health boxes first. 
  Exceptional Success: Additional successes are their own reward. 
  Eye of Ra 
  A mixture of sandalwood, sacred herbs, and kohl (ground stibnite commonly used as a cosmetic 
  in southwestern Asia and Africa), the Eye of Ra grants the user heightened visual acuity.  
  Traditionally, the elixir is applied in the shape of the Wedjat, an ancient Egyptian symbol of 
  protection, but it retains its effectiveness if applied in other shapes, such as the Eye of Jibril, or 
  simply used as eyeliner.  
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Duration: One scene 
  
  When attempting to notice something or investigate for the rest of the scene, gain exceptional 
  success on three successes instead of five. 
  Exceptional success: The roll gains the 8-again quality as well. 
  Incense of the Next World 
  This carefully concocted incense releases a powerful hallucinogenic fume, which the user must 
  breathe in while meditating for at least an hour. During this time, the alchemist’s awareness and 
  connection to their body gradually fades, until their soul detaches from it. 
  Though Incense of the Next World has its uses, especially when investigating a haunted house or 
  crumbling temple, most alchemists have heard cautionary tales. Rumors swirl that some hunters 
  are stuck, waiting for someone to rescue them, or had their bodies slain by monsters while their 
  souls still walked. Worse: some alchemists believe the Council of Bones is actively trying to buy 
  ingredients to prevent the Ascending Ones from using this elixir. 
  Cost: 2 Willpower 
  Duration: One scene 
  The user leaves her physical body behind and walks unseen. She is free to move about in this 
  state for the rest of the scene, but her body remains comatose in the physical world. In this state, 
  she can identify ghosts and spirits. She may take actions as normal but cannot use her 
  Endowments. If she gets into combat, she uses her Willpower as her Corpus rating. If she loses 
  all her Willpower in this state, she returns to her body unconscious and with the Soulless 
  Condition. 
  Exceptional Success: As a success, but the user may transfer any active Endowments along with 
  her soul as she leaves her body. These have their normal durations. 
  Backlash: If she is not near her body when her soul returns at the end of the scene, her soul is 
  forcibly pulled toward her body, leaving the Ascending One confused and dissociated. She 
  suffers a −2 penalty to all rolls for the next scene. 
  Mesmeric Vapors 
  Classically, this elixir takes the form of specially treated herbs, which resemble loose-leaf 
  tobacco in their unburnt state and are lit in an urn. Its odor varies according to the individual 
  smelling it. When the leaves are rolled into a cigarette or packed into a pipe, the smoke takes on 
  a warm, golden hue.  
  The Ascending One has to inhale the smoke first to catalyze it, then breathes it out to affect her 
  victim. Inhaling the Mesmeric Vapors the hunter emits erodes a target’s will, making them so 
  suggestible they might as well be a puppet. Some modern Ascending Ones, conscious of inhaling 
  burning plant matter for any reason, use vaporizers instead — the effect is no different. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Stamina + Presence vs. Resolve 
  Action: Extended and contested; each roll takes one minute. The target success total is equal to 
  the victim’s Stamina. 
  Duration: One scene 
  
  Roll Results 
  Success: If the target success total is met, the victim is completely under the Ascending One’s 
  sway. 
  Exceptional Success: No additional benefit other than additional successes. 
  Failure: The Ascending One is having trouble with the target. She can choose to stop the 
  treatment or continue. If she continues, she suffers the Drugged Tilt.  
  Dramatic Failure: The attempt fails. The Ascending One suffers the moderate Sick Tilt and the 
  target snaps out of their false sense of security and might lash out at the Ascending One.  
  Upon completion, the victim is completely pliable and will answer any questions asked of them. 
  If the Ascending One wants to command or manipulate the person into acting in a specific 
  manner, then rolls to do so gain the 8-again quality. The victim is under the Ascending One’s 
  sway for the rest of the scene.  
  Backlash: Breathing in the vapors can be a heady process, and though the alchemist is immune 
  to its effects, she is not immune to the feeling. Each time she uses this elixir she must succeed on 
  a Composure roll or gain the Addicted Condition to her own elixir. 
  Perispiritism 
  The Council of Bones knows the human soul, though imperishable, is only tenuously anchored to 
  the flesh, and once that link is severed the soul cannot truly return. However, that anchor, the 
  perispirit, may be flexed like a muscle and with proper tools and training the living may 
  commune with the dead and reach across the veil to seek hidden knowledge. 
  Perispiritism is an induced trance state that draws on several historical techniques appropriated, 
  aggregated, and syncretized by the west following the American Civil War and Victorian era. 
  Some techniques require time to achieve a trance state, while others are states of mind that can 
  be entered at will. Costs are typically (but not always) paid through the strenuousness of the 
  technique itself, rather than through some form of sacrifice. 
  To some Council members, these methods are considered modern, but they agree the techniques 
  should not be limited to popularized western approaches just because they might be easier to 
  visualize. What most won’t say, however, is that the only reason these (or any other) methods 
  work is because each hunter is marked as part of their initiation into the Council — and no one 
  knows why. This mark, which takes the form of an invisible, skull-shaped tattoo with two 
  numbers in place of eyes on the bottom of their foot, uses an ink made from ghost corpus and as-
  yet-to-be-identified materials. Though most members don’t believe that to be the case, it’s 
  assumed the Mark of the Scythe grants the bearer the ability to use common tools of divination 
  — and not just Bygones — to talk to ghosts. Others think the mark allows the Council to find its 
  members beyond the veil should they get lost; of course, a third rumor circulates that the mark is 
  necromantic, and is an undying flame that attracts ghosts to the hunter. 
  After witnessing how hunter society at large has treated the now defunct Les Mystéres, the 
  Council is reticent to reveal its secrets. Members may come and go, but using Council 
  Endowments in front of others, or specifically sharing their secrets to outsiders, is a crime 
  punishable by death. 
  Mark of the Scythe 
  
  While the Council of Bones avoids necromancers and the undead as much as humanly possible, 
  more than once their chapters have fallen prey to the creatures of the night. In modern times, the 
  Council now goes to great, if not unnecessary, lengths to ensure their members are mortal and 
  are not agents of darkness. When a hunter pledges to become a member of their organization, 
  they are initiated barefoot in an elaborate, formal ceremony. During this ritual, which takes place 
  in a cemetery during twilight, the hunter contacts their dead ancestors and asks them for 
  protection. 
  This night is largely symbolic, grandiose, and intentionally designed to impress its members, for 
  it covers the true reason for the rite of passage: following this rite, the bottom of the hunter’s foot 
  is branded with the faint outline of a skull that fades by midnight. The mystical tattoo, which has 
  been rumored to contain secret messages, grants the user the ability to learn Perispiritism 
  Endowments. Thus far, no reason has been given for the mark following its discovery, but that 
  doesn’t stop members from speculating widely. Few know the truth: the Mark of the Scythe can 
  only be placed on a living host. 
  Having the mark is what lets members learn new Perispiritism rituals. Lore keepers dole out 
  rituals freely but check the mark each time someone requests a piece of legend or a scroll. Older 
  and more experienced hunters know that their mark is the real key, allowing them to tap into the 
  collective knowledge of the ghosts under their command, even if they do so unwittingly. Most 
  Perispiritism rituals focus on the hunter’s own innate power and simply understanding ghosts. 
  Communication and seeing them are the strict limit, though these things rarely net the kind of 
  information councilmembers are looking for. Council elders suggest that ghosts just can’t 
  remember their lives well enough to impart any useful information, but other hunters think there 
  is something deeper going on. But since the Council forbids anyone to enter Twilight, they can’t 
  really go looking for answers. 
  Councilmembers may conflate the idea of ghosts and spirts as one, but in truth, they only ever 
  deal with ghosts. Their power is fueled by ghost ephemera, and not spirit ephemera, which 
  means they cannot see or contact spirits unless they are manifested in front of them, just like any 
  normal mortal. See ghost rules on p. XX. 
  The mark serves another purpose, which is that it grants a loose communion between all people 
  who have one. A hunter with the Mark of the Scythe can read and write ephemeral messages that 
  only she and other people with the mark can read. She spends a Willpower when writing with her 
  finger, or some other instrument on any kind of surface, and anyone with the mark can read the 
  written words, even if there is no ink left behind when she wrote it. The hunter is manipulating 
  ephemera, even if she has no idea what she is doing. 
  Auric Shield 
  The elders of the Council of Bones consider this Endowment an essential tool. The Auric Shield 
  is a visualization technique that hunters use to bolster their psyche. Some hunters picture the 
  Auric Shield as a flexible, golden bubble, while others picture a translucent orb or a circle of 
  brightly lit flames that’s tied in a knot above the crown of their head. 
  The Auric Shield, rumored to be a technique perfected by occultist and fabled Council member 
  Dion Fortune, is activated through force of will. It is unknown whether the shield is visible to 
  ghosts, but hunters tend to ignore the specifics because of its effectiveness during a hunt. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One Scene 
  The hunter’s aura is bolstered by meditation and training. While the Auric Shield is active, any 
  use of ghost Numena, or Dread Powers that deal with death or the hunter’s soul, provokes a 
  Clash of Wills. The aura provides armor 2 against a ghost’s physical attack if it is Materialized. 
  Backlash: The Auric Shield is draining on the user. She takes a −2 penalty to actions the scene 
  after she uses this power. 
  Borrowed Power 
  Ghosts have little-to-no agency in the world without a lot of power or without the help of 
  someone who can know their desires and act for them. Mediums can call forth ghosts and banish 
  them, but sometimes speaking just isn’t enough. While the Council of Bones forbids its members 
  from entering Twilight in body or soul, and has many prohibitions against allowing ghosts to 
  manifest in their presence, little is said about this power, which skirts the lines of both. 
  The ritualist reaches into the Twilight, not for long and not with his soul. As he does, he grasps 
  the power of a ghost, giving it a small, manifested life through him. This isn’t a partnership 
  though; the ghost doesn’t have agency over its own powers. While most councilmembers ask for 
  a ghost’s consent before borrowing their power, there is nothing stopping them from just taking 
  what they want.  
  Cost: 2 Willpower; a ghost must be in the vicinity to use this Endowment. 
  Dice Pool: Stamina + Occult 
  Action: Instant (see below) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The hunter pulls a part of the ghost into this realm and can use it as he wishes. If the 
  ghost is unwilling, it can make a contested roll using its Finesse. This is not a Manifestation and 
  the ghost has no control over what is happening. The hunter may use a single ghost Numen from 
  the following list: Awe, Blast, Drain, Firestarter, Regenerate, and Speed. When using a Numen, 
  the hunter uses Willpower in place of Essence. Once the hunter uses the Numen, the ghost 
  regains control and separates from the hunter. 
  Exceptional Success: As with success, but the hunter may use the Numen a second time before 
  the ghost separates from him. 
  Failure: The councilmember cannot bring the ghost forward but deals one bashing damage to it. 
  Dramatic Failure: The hunter does not pull the ghost forth and is partially in Twilight. He 
  suffers a −3 penalty to act until the next sunrise. 
  Backlash: Reaching into Twilight and ripping a ghost forth is traumatic, not only for the ghost 
  but also for the ritualist. Both the ghost and the hunter suffer one lethal damage from the contact. 
  Additionally, the hunter gains the Open Condition toward the ghost for the rest of the scene. 
  Command Ghost 
  
  The Council of Bones treats with ghosts for a variety of reasons. The most widely accepted 
  reason is to find out information, generally to gain clues about an area or something they are 
  investigating. They view ghosts as complex entities with complex motivations and actions. 
  Though one thing is universal: They belong on their own side of the veil, though ghosts are 
  rarely so obliging. In fact, ghosts are rarely obliging regarding any requests a Council member 
  may have, at least not without coercion from the hunter. But many have learned how to express 
  their will in no uncertain terms. 
  The Council frowns on members who command ghosts for personal gain, claiming they are not 
  servants of the living. But that doesn’t stop members from sometimes commanding ghosts to 
  perform tasks for them. 
  Prerequisite: Ghost Speech 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidation vs. Resistance 
  Action: Instant 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The hunter can give the ghost a single simple command. The command can be a few 
  words or a single sentence. It can’t be something vague, such as “do what I say,” or “listen to 
  me.” The command must be simple enough for the ghost to comprehend in a single step. Such as 
  “lead me to your anchor,” “attack that target,” or “leave the area.” The ghost will attempt to 
  follow the command to the best of its ability, though it chooses its route or how to go about the 
  action. The hunter may command a ghost to attack a target, but not which Numen to use to do so. 
  If the ghost is not in the Manifested Condition, the hunter can make the command after 
  activating Ghost Speech. If the hunter wants to give it more actions to take, she must use this 
  Endowment again. 
  Exceptional Success: The hunter may give an additional command to the ghost after it has 
  finished the first. 
  Failure: The ghost ignores her commands. 
  Dramatic Failure: The ghost listens to the order and carries out the exact opposite action, 
  wreaking chaos and havoc. 
  Dark Reflection 
  The practice of scrying for messages from the other world is as old as time itself. It’s rumored 
  that some divinatory practices happened entirely by accident: a hunter peered into the surface of 
  an ice-covered lake and saw their death, a merchant glanced at a polished brass plate and 
  received a vision they’d be destitute by morning, an ancient astronomer stared up at the stars and 
  witnessed the rise and fall of the Mayan civilization. 
  Dark Reflection allows Council members to use a time-honored scrying tradition: peering into a 
  treated mirror to share their visions with others nearby. Upon activating this ability, hunters 
  pierce through the veil, see into the beyond, and project their impressions onto the reflective 
  surface. Such colorful images are fleeting, blurry, and often ghastly. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  The hunter can project his visions onto a reflective surface. Usually this takes the form of a 
  mirror he holds, but a still lake or reflective glass works just as well. Anyone who can see the 
  reflective surface can see the vision he projects. If he is using an ability to peer through time and 
  space, such as using the Clairvoyance or Psychometry Merits, or the Ghost Speech Endowment, 
  the vision appears as it would to him on the reflective surface. 
  Those without access to Merits or Endowments that would give them such visions can help the 
  character interpret them. This does not grant the ability to speak with ghosts in Twilight through 
  Ghost Speech, though everyone can see them and hear them if they speak. 
  Ephemeral Weapon 
  Ephemera is the substance by which ghosts and spirits exist. It exists almost entirely within 
  Twilight, unless an ephemeral entity currently has the Manifested Condition. Members of the 
  Council of Bones have learned that they don’t always need to deal with a ghost directly to 
  accomplish their goals, and sometimes the best weapon is one born of the same essence as the 
  monster you’re attacking. 
  The Council member reaches just enough into the Twilight to pull forth a small portion of 
  ephemera. While normally just goop, the hunter’s ephemera is hard and jagged through her will.  
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  The hunter fashions a small, bladed weapon out of ephemera with a weapon rating of 1L. If 
  wielded against an ephemeral entity, its weapon rating increases to 3L. This weapon can harm 
  ephemeral entities even if they are not manifested, though the hunter must have a way to see 
  them to attack them. 
  Backlash: Reaching into Twilight is a dangerous practice that opens the hunter up to whatever 
  might be on the other side. She sometimes sees things in there, things she would rather not see. 
  Each time the hunter uses this Endowment, she must roll Resolve + Occult to resist gaining the 
  Shaken Condition. 
  Expulsion 
  While the Council of Bones recognizes that some ghosts have unfinished business and other 
  ghosts can assist in hunter investigations, most members are wary of stereotypes — with good 
  reason. Plenty of books spew dangerous ideas that ghosts are always here to help the living, and 
  Council members know this isn’t the case. Some ghosts are jealous, some are hateful, and some 
  aren’t ghosts at all, but spirits of vengeance or even demons.  
  Expulsion is a type of warding that comes with a supernatural oomph from the hunter. Unlike 
  abjuration, which pits the hunter’s soul against the ghost’s, or needing to know its bane for a 
  ward, the hunter uses her knowledge of ghosts in general and her Mark of the Scythe to protect 
  
  an area and remove ghosts. The area must be self-contained, such as a house or a fenced-in 
  parking lot. The size of the area may affect the dice pool (see Warding and Binding on p. XX). 
  The roll is modified by the hunter’s Integrity as in abjuration, p. XX. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Presence + Occult 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One day 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The hunter makes the area act as a bane for any and every ghost who might want to 
  enter the area for the duration. If the area has the Open Condition, then it is reduced immediately 
  to Anchor. Ghosts who are manifested in the area immediately discorporate. 
  Exceptional Success: Additionally, if the area serves as an Anchor to a ghost, the Anchor is 
  immediately broken, and the Condition resolved. 
  Failure: The hunter falters and fails to complete the ritual. 
  Dramatic Failure: The ritual fails and the hunter gains the Anchor Condition for a ghost in the 
  area. If a ghost is not in the area at the time of the ritual, then the failure summons all nearby 
  ghosts to the area. 
  Ghost Speech 
  Any medium can hear the voices of the dead, and even concentrate and speak to them. But the 
  Council of Bones has perfected the ability, making it easier and less unstable to do so. With just 
  a simple utterance, the member can turn on his ability to detect and interact with ghosts. He does 
  not suffer from hearing their voices constantly, and he does not have to open himself up to them 
  and endanger himself with an attack or possession. Instead, he peers beyond Twilight and just 
  sees them.  
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  The hunter peers through Twilight and can sense all ghosts in the area. If he concentrates on one 
  ghost, he can communicate with it just by speaking. As long as it understands the language, it 
  can understand him and speak back. If that ghost has an Anchor nearby, the hunter can sense it. 
  While he’s concentrating on this one ghost, the other ghosts in the area can hear him, but he must 
  spend all his concentration to hear just the one he’s talking to. 
  Backlash: Looking into Twilight is both disorienting and dangerous. While the hunter doesn’t 
  have to open himself with Conditions to speak to the ghost, he draws their attention to him.  
  Know Death 
  Councilmembers use mental techniques to view Twilight and ghosts in their mind’s eye. Even 
  when she isn’t attempting to speak with the dead, she knows how to glean all she can from those 
  
  on the other side. Know Death takes this ability one step further, by allowing the hunter to 
  perceive the wrongfulness of death through a ghost’s eyes — even when carefully hidden behind 
  a mask. Monsters, such as vampires, revenants, zombies, possessed corpses, etc. wear a death 
  mask that allows them to interact with the living, and councilmembers can “crack” this illusion, 
  revealing them for what they really are.  
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Wits + Investigation vs. Composure 
  Action: Contested 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The hunter causes a Clash of Wills against ghosts and dead monsters attempting to hide 
  their true nature through any means (such as invisibility or just an illusion to make them look 
  human). If the hunter is successful in the Clash of Wills, the masquerade breaks. Without the 
  Unseen Sense Merit, the hunter may not know what kind of monster she is dealing with, but she 
  still reveals it. 
  Exceptional Success: As with a success, but the hunter can identify details of the monster’s 
  nature, letting her know it if she has come across it before. 
  Failure: The ghosts reveal nothing to her. 
  Dramatic Failure: The hunter doesn’t just miss her mark, she thinks she has it right, seeing 
  death where there is none. She gains the Spooked Condition. 
  Third Eye 
  Trained to look beyond the body’s mundane senses, a medium can intuitively feel the presence of 
  spirits and the psychic residue on objects, places, or living subjects. How she registers this sense 
  varies, but clairvoyance typically operates through synesthetic means — flashes of sound, 
  sensations, and bright colors — which the medium must learn to interpret through time and 
  practice. This effort, honed by the Council of Bones’ particular predilection to dealing with the 
  dead, leaves councilmembers with a slew of heightened senses and the ability to puzzle out even 
  the strangest of enigmas.  
  Hunters who have learned to use psychic impressions to aid them call it Third Eye, but others 
  call it a sixth sense, or sometimes just a higher sense of awareness. Whatever she calls it, no one 
  can doubt that the flashes and impressions of Twilight guide their hand.  
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  The hunter opens her senses to the supernatural for the rest of the scene. It gives her impressions 
  and information about anything she is investigating. Over the course of the scene, if the character 
  rolls for research or investigation to uncover general Clues, she gains an additional Clue element 
  on a success. If her roll is a failure, her Clue does not gain the Incomplete Tag. 
  
  Backlash: While the hunter is hyperaware of her surroundings, she is also open to the psychic 
  impressions on people, places, and the objects surrounding her. Such stimuli can result in 
  information overload. At the end of the scene, the player must succeed on a Composure + Occult 
  roll or her character will suffer from the Shaken Condition. 
  THIS SIDEBAR MAY EITHER BE PLACED IN THE COUNCIL OF BONES 
  ENDOWMENTS SECTION OR IN THE MALLEUS MALEFICARUM’S. 
  Hammer and Bone 
  As a conspiracy, the Council of Bones takes a neutral stance with respect to 
  exorcising ghosts, because they understand death is not unique to a religion or 
  culture. The identities of their members are an indication of this, for they may be 
  Buddhist, Hindi, Christian, Muslim, or atheist, and entire cells may share a moment 
  in prayer while on the job. Mostly, the conspiracy doesn’t want to dictate their 
  hunters’ beliefs knowing how widely variable perspectives are, and they find this 
  increases their efficacy and willingness to support the conspiracy when 
  investigating haunted houses, mysterious places, possessed people, Bygones, etc.  
  The Malleus Maleficarum, however, is firmly rooted in the Catholic Church and 
  the rituals they use have been handed down through the Vatican’s long and storied 
  history since the days of the Holy Roman Empire. They veer toward a more 
  conservative stance with respect to exorcisms and will often politely insist their 
  rites are “better” because they can be used on multiple malevolent forces instead of 
  just ghosts. In any case, the Council has left the decision to work the Malleus 
  hunters up to individual cells.  
  Thaumatechnology 
  Members of the Cheiron Group have convinced themselves they’re being pragmatic, rather than 
  terrifying, when they surgically replace a human’s limb with a monster’s. Sure, other 
  conspiracies realize that, no matter their agenda, they must still protect the innocent. 
  Unfortunately, the Cheiron Group’s definition of what passes for innocent these days is sketchy 
  at best. Viewing their hunters as sacrificial lambs to a greater cause, leaders are desperate to find 
  answers by demanding each member be subjected to their experiments. 
  Thaumatechnology is the literal bleeding edge of science. Hunters who work for the Cheiron 
  Group have barely understood supernatural flesh, fur, teeth, or scales grafted onto their bodies. 
  Some hunters benefit from the edge these surgeries provide, while others go mad before their 
  bodies and minds have had time to process that thing attached to their arm. While the Cheiron 
  Group tells its members to hunt and harvest supernatural monsters, their thaumatechnologists 
  actively try to reverse engineer them through body modification. Hey, it’s a living.  
  Hunters who leave the Cheiron Group face a world of hurt, because no one asks to leave the 
  conspiracy. Members who do leave are forced to spend time in a hospital the organization owns 
  and operates. After a period of trials, to test the efficacy of the hunter’s thaumatechnology 
  modifications, doctors perform extensive surgeries to remove the implants, which result in 
  fatality more often than not. Hunters who go on the run instead become targets; their 
  Endowments are too expensive and the research too precious to just let it walk away. 
  
  Surgical Installment 
  Getting a new Endowment from the conspiracy is an act of bureaucracy that can take a great deal 
  of time and patience. Typically, a hunter files a requisition naming her preferred 
  Thaumatechnology Endowment, her request goes to human resources, who sifts through her file 
  and reviews her hunter status at that time. Weeks later, the hunter arrives at a hospital where a 
  Cheiron doctor performs the surgery in a sterile operating theater with bleeding-edge medical 
  equipment and a host of shadowy onlookers from the Thaumatechnology Division watching 
  carefully from the viewing gallery. 
  Installed implants are sometimes mechanical and sometimes biological, but always inhuman. 
  The Cheiron Group has instituted an artificial limit to the number of implants a hunter may have. 
  The maximum is her Stamina + Size. Doctors will refuse to perform a new surgery unless it is to 
  remove an implant if a hunter has her maximum allotment. Hunters with more obvious implants 
  begin to look inhuman after a while, and Cheiron doctors claim that more than their limit in 
  implants makes the person completely inhuman. This doesn’t account for the subtler 
  replacements, but the Cheiron Group is firm in its insistence. 
  The surgery takes time, and if not done with precision could lead to a slow, painful recovery. 
  When gaining a new Thaumatechnology Endowment (or having one removed for that matter), 
  the player must roll for her character to resist becoming overtaken by the monstrous nature of the 
  implant. This is both a pain issue and one of becoming the monster inside. Better-connected 
  hunters get more skilled surgeons, leading to better results all together. Changing out one implant 
  for another takes a single surgery. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Stamina + Resolve 
  Action: Extended. Each roll represents one hour of surgery and the player must gain successes 
  equal to 10 – the character’s Status (Cheiron Group) rating. 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The hunter resists the implant’s nature. If she has enough successes the surgery is 
  completed satisfactorily. 
  Exceptional Success: The hunter resists the implant’s nature and makes things easier for the 
  surgeon. Choose one of the following effects. 
  • 
  The hunter gains the Steadfast Condition when the surgery is completed. 
  • 
  Reduce the time between rolls by half. 
  • 
  Heal a point of lethal damage. 
  Failure: The hunter fails to resist the implant’s nature but does not become monstrous. The 
  surgery does not end, but she takes one point of lethal damage. 
  Dramatic Failure: The hunter cannot resist the monstrous effects of the implant. Not only does 
  the surgery fail, but the hunter suffers a point of aggravated damage and gains an appropriate 
  Persistent Condition (such as Amnesia, Crippled, Fugue, or Soulless). The hunter can resolve the 
  Condition by undergoing another surgery to remove the corrupted implant. 
  Devil’s Eyes 
  
  No one is entirely sure from which monster the Devil’s Eyes were extracted — or if the 
  muckety-mucks do know but won’t tell anyone. This pair of oversized, glistening orbs has 
  vibrantly yellow irises and vertical black slits for pupils. When grafted onto a human patient, 
  they quickly change and take on the appearance of the subject’s natural eyes. A computer chip 
  moderates and translates the nerve impulses of the eye for the human brain — early tests resulted 
  in messy side effects without this filter in place. 
  The filter is programmable, and with specific movements of the eye the subject can increase and 
  decrease the degree to which the eye’s visual input is moderated, in effect granting her 
  superhuman visual acuity.  
  Costs: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  The hunter gains an overlay over his normal vision into Twilight. She can see ephemeral entities, 
  though she cannot interact with them. She also gains a chance to see things that would otherwise 
  be invisible, such as a vampire using a power to make itself invisible, or an Ascending One using 
  Amun’s Water, provoking a Clash of Wills. 
  If the hunter has the Unseen Sense Merit (p. XX), she can forgo gaining the Spooked Condition 
  to pinpoint where the source of her feeling is coming from. 
  Backlash: Seeing into Twilight draws the attention of ephemeral entities nearby, who might be 
  overly interested in the hunter who is looking at them. 
  New Field Project Division: P.R. Retrieval 
  Tucked away in a small arm of Cheiron Limited, the parent company of the Cheiron 
  Group, is a new office that has the words “P.R. Retrieval” stamped on the door. 
  Members working in Recruitment whisper about this secretive arm of the 
  conspiracy and wonder why they’ve been kept in the dark about its day-to-day 
  operations. Certain veterans in Field Research and Retrieval are cheering the new 
  division on, because they know exactly what P. R. Retrieval’s purpose is: to catch 
  and capture rogue Cheiron agents who’ve attempted to leave the conspiracy’s 
  ranks. 
  The initials “P. R.” stand for the Pruth River in Romania, a suspected location 
  where a rogue cell of Cheiron agents has recently been spotted. The cell, which 
  kept its augmentations before going on the run, uses a coded messaging system that 
  creates anagrams of its messages. While a few veteran Field Research agents have 
  spied on the cell, it may take weeks — if not months — to decode their schemes. 
  In the meantime, Cheiron Group members are encouraged to be on alert and report 
  any suspicious activity to their local Retrieval contacts. 
  Hand of Glory 
  The Cheiron Group’s new-and-improved version of the Hand of Glory represents the latest in 
  hand-reattachment technology. Enhanced with post-biological materials engineering, the 
  
  conspiracy can “all-but guarantee” a patient’s body won’t reject the augmentation. In layman’s 
  terms, a dead hand is grafted onto a living subject’s stump, and functions from that point forward 
  as a perfectly ordinary hand. Though occult tradition demands the Hand of Glory be 
  “manufactured” from a thief’s left hand, the Cheiron Group doesn’t appear to follow folklore. 
  Many hunters wear a glove on their replaced appendage to cover its wrinkled and discolored 
  appearance with makeup. The hand is curiously resistant to fire, and the fingers may be lit like 
  the wicks of candles —when they do, they burn with a mesmerizing, resilient flame. 
  The specifics of the Hand of Glory’s manufacture aren’t important for test subjects, but are 
  rumored to involve a hanged corpse, pickling the relevant limb in disgusting and bizarre 
  reagents, and letting it sit under the light of a new moon for several hours. Subjects are 
  repeatedly warned to only douse the flames in cow’s milk — other substances will not work. 
  Some members suspect the Cheiron Group stole the formula to create a Hand of Glory from the 
  Ascending Ones. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Presence + Occult vs. Resolve + Supernatural Tolerance 
  Action: Contested 
  Duration: One scene (see below) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: Anyone who can see the hand is fascinated by its light. They gain the Immobilized Tilt 
  as long as they can see the flames. Additionally, this fascination effect fills their mind, occupying 
  it to the detriment of all else. Those affected by the flame’s light forget anything that happened 
  while under its spell. They do not remember the hunter using the hand, nor the hand itself.  
  When the victim can no longer see the flames, she regains her ability to move and remember 
  within a minute. An attack or threat of attack immediately breaks the spell’s effects. While 
  active, the hunter suffers a −2 penalty to rolls that require manual dexterity. The flames on the 
  hand are not enough to deal damage or set anything other than paper or small items aflame. 
  Exceptional Success: Attacks against the victim no longer immediately break the spell. Instead, 
  the victim must roll Resolve to break the spell when attacked or threatened.  
  Failure: The hand does not catch flame, and the power fizzles. 
  Dramatic Failure: The hunter is mesmerized by his own hand and suffers from the Immobilized 
  Tilt until the flames are doused or he can no longer see the flame. 
  Backlash: The Hand of Glory periodically takes small actions of its own without the user’s 
  consent or knowledge. The Storyteller may impose a −2 penalty to rolls for one scene each day 
  due to the hand’s antics. 
  Personal Defense Swarm 
  Unlike other implants, this device doesn’t replace a vital organ or limb. Instead, a small, flexible, 
  silicon sac is implanted just above the wrist. Inside are tiny metal beads that, when injected with 
  a special solution, come swarming out of the sac in the user’s defense. Even the scientists who 
  made the swarm aren’t sure where they came from. One night, a box full of tiny mechanized 
  
  creatures was dropped on their desk. After playing with them for some time, they figured out that 
  vampire blood activated them.  
  Cheiron didn’t question its mysterious benefactor, and doesn’t really care where they came from. 
  Whatever they were before the Cheiron scientists got ahold of them, they were certainly not 
  living creatures on their own. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  The user summons a small swarm of insect-like creatures that defends the hunter. The swarm 
  cannot be directed, but it won’t fly more than 10 yards away from its host. It attacks anyone it 
  perceives as aggressive toward the user. The swarm can make simple actions, mainly to attack 
  with 4 dice, with a weapon rating of 1L. The swarm has a Defense rating of 4 and can take up to 
  4 damage (of any kind) before it stops functioning. Otherwise, it does not go away unless the 
  user recalls it by cutting open his arm. If he does not recall it before the end of the scene, the 
  swarm deactivates and falls to the ground. 
  Backlash: Activation of this power is particularly painful. The user suffers one lethal damage 
  each time he uses the swarm. Recalling them causes the user to suffer an additional one lethal 
  damage. If he doesn’t recall them before the end of the scene, he needs to collect each creature 
  for later reinsertion.  
  Regenerative Nodule 
  This wad of meat and scar tissue may not be much to look at, but it’s a medical miracle. When 
  attached to a patient’s circulatory system — a surgical feat in and of itself, considering the thing 
  heals over almost instantaneously — it vastly augments the subject’s natural healing capabilities. 
  Wounds that would require a lengthy hospital stay vanish in days.  
  When physically triggered by the subject, the nodule kicks into overdrive, hyper-saturating the 
  bloodstream with, well, whatever the nodule contains, causing the subject’s wounds to knit 
  themselves closed while someone watches. If there’s a downside, it’s the metabolic cost — early 
  test subjects died of dehydration in less than an hour.  
  Users are advised to gorge themselves — constantly — when employing the nodule to quickly 
  heal their bodies of serious or deadly wounds. Otherwise, they may rapidly starve to death before 
  they realize they’re hungry. 
  Cost: None 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  By simply pressing the nodule, the hunter can initiate quick healing. Aggravated damage heals at 
  a rate of one every two days, lethal damage heals at a rate of one every 15 minutes, and bashing 
  damage heals at a rate of one per turn. While the Regenerative Nodule is in use, the user ignores 
  wound penalties.  
  
  The user may trigger the Regenerative Nodule as a reflexive action before they fall unconscious 
  from damage. 
  Backlash: The Regenerative Nodule can only be used once per story. Every bashing damage 
  healed counts as a day without food; every lethal damage counts as a day without food or water. 
  The Regenerative Nodule does not heal damage caused by this deprivation. If the user doesn’t 
  eat, they suffer a −3 penalty to all actions until they do. 
  Sonic Resonance Attenuator 
  This tiny implant goes just behind the ear, a small bump barely noticeable to anyone who isn’t 
  looking for it. The device is derived from something the Cheiron Group doctors call “special 
  pets” because they pull a great deal of implants from whatever the monster is. They claim it is a 
  reverse engineer of their hearing apparatus, but most hunters just assume they are getting a 
  monster’s cochlear bone implanted directly into their skulls. They aren’t wrong. 
  The device enhances hearing, but not just by a little bit. It somehow drowns out all background 
  noise and lets the hunter listen in on the one thing she wants to hear, no matter how unlikely it is 
  she would normally hear it. 
  Costs: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene (see below) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The hunter concentrates on something she wants to hear within 10 yards per success, 
  and everything else but that thing fades out of her awareness while it comes into sharp relief. She 
  doesn’t have to see it, but she must know it is there. For example, she could concentrate on a 
  conversation going on behind a closed door down the hallway, but she couldn’t try to listen in on 
  a conversation she has no idea is happening, even if it’s in the same room. She could listen in to 
  the other side of a phone conversation though, knowing the person she is watching is surely 
  talking to someone else.  
  Exceptional Success: The hunter can pick up on conversations she doesn’t know are happening. 
  Failure: The hunter fails to narrow down the conversation to which she wants to listen. 
  Dramatic Failure: The hunter focuses on a conversation but cannot tune out everything else. 
  The feedback is painful, causing one lethal damage. 
  Backlash: The dampening of sound is not without consequence. The hunter gains a −2 penalty 
  to react to situations in her own vicinity, and is always surprised unless she can see an attack 
  coming. 
  Time Attenuator 
  Time moves on, marching ever forward without fail. Except some monsters seem timeless, or 
  even in some cases separate from time. They interact in a way that defies all logic or physics, and 
  yet it exists. And of course, Thaumatechnology researchers are fascinated by these abilities. And 
  while many of them are impossible to capture, collect, or even recreate, someone clever has 
  
  come up with the Time Attenuator. This small device goes at the base of the hippocampus in a 
  relatively easy surgical procedure that inserts it via the nose. 
  The user can use the attenuator to slow down how time affects her body — just for herself, and 
  only for a short amount of time. Her body stops bleeding, bones do not break, and skin does not 
  burn as time refuses to pass. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Intelligence + Medicine 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The user’s body resists the effects of time for the rest of the scene. Anything that would 
  worsen with time, such as bleeding out, diseases, or poisons and toxins, stops affecting her. She 
  does not suffer from new Tilts or Conditions while this is active. 
  Exceptional Success: The hunter does not suffer the ill effects of Persistent Conditions while the 
  Time Attenuator is active. 
  Failure: The hunter’s body functions in normal time. 
  Dramatic Failure: The hunter not only fails to slow time but speeds up the process for a vital 
  organ, dealing one aggravated damage. 
  Backlash: While the attenuator is active, the hunter cannot heal normally, nor can she benefit 
  from medical care or Endowments to heal wounds. Her body resists the changes being applied to 
  her. 
  The Twitcher 
  Cheiron Group scientists are adept at thinking outside of the box — it’s a basic job requirement 
  for them, considering what they work with. Take the Twitcher, for example: only Cheiron Group 
  professionals would ever have the inspiration, much less the skill, to take a strange stick-insect-
  like creature and implant it in the base of a human’s spine. The little pink symbiote makes itself 
  right at home, tapping the user’s senses and sipping on cerebrospinal fluid.  
  Whenever the host is threatened, the Twitcher drives the host’s nervous system to hyperactive 
  levels, leading to reaction and reflex times that verge on superhuman. Unfortunately, the creature 
  doesn’t seem to understand that dreams aren’t normal sensory stimuli, and tends to react to REM 
  sleep as though it is violence — most hosts report a significant increase in night terrors, anxiety, 
  and paranoia compared to their pre-implantation norm. 
  Cost: None (see below) 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Reflexive 
  Duration: Indefinite (see below) 
  
  The hunter receives a +3 bonus to all Initiative rolls, which is always in effect. As a reflexive 
  action, the hunter may spend 1 Willpower to use the higher of her Dexterity or Wits to determine 
  Defense, rather than lower, even when surprised for the turn. 
  Backlash: The Twitcher causes the hunter to suffer from terrible nightmares. If she uses her 
  inhuman reflexes, that night she has night terrors that leave her feeling unrested. She suffers a −2 
  penalty to Mental actions until she gets a good night’s sleep. 
  Tools of the Trade 
  Not every job requires a lot of firepower and a little flash; the Cheiron Group values subtlety — 
  at least in the Silent Acquisitions Division. In cases where a mystical flaming hand might be 
  overkill, the Cheiron Group offers the Tools of the Trade when stealth and finesse are required. 
  These weapons are claws or fangs surgically removed from monsters, reconditioned, and then 
  grafted to a host’s living tissue. Special care has been taken to ensure the augmentations are 
  easily overlooked when not in use. 
  With physical therapy and exercise to work the affected muscles, the relevant grafts are fully 
  retractable, allowing the patient to live a normal life — and bring an unexpected “weapon” into 
  areas or fights where it might otherwise be impractical or impossible. 
  Costs: None 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: None 
  The user’s unarmed and bite attacks act as weapons with a rating of 1L. While not in use, the 
  Tools of the Trade are undetectable without close medical examination. The hunter can spend a 
  Willpower after a successful bite attack to inflict the Immobilized Tilt on her victim. 
   
  
  OPENING FICTION 
  Everyone has a story about how they became a hunter. Most of these stories end on a sentence 
  fragment, with an exit wound of a full stop. Dead fathers, dead mothers, dead spouses, an ocean 
  of lost children. Every hunter has a story that starts in blood. 
  But only some of us get to see that joke to the punchline. 
  Before the world went to black, I was just another college student trying to get by, trying to fit 
  their biracial self into the jigsaw of Tokyo’s cultural landscape. Because of circumstances, I 
  shared a dorm with another kid, Akira Sakamoto. Engineering enthusiast but artsy, despite that. 
  He had a thing for creepypasta, too. SCP foundation, those Korean webcomics that came with a 
  nasty GIF, r/nosleep — if it had anything to do with urban legends, he’d be on it. 
  I remember when he did a fan film of the Red Room.  
  I wasn’t okay with that. 
  But overall, Sakamato was a great dude. We bonded over takoyaki, McDonald’s specials, and too 
  many crates of cheap beer. Life eventually happened, though. The months wound by. 
  Examinations took center stage. We drifted. Sakamoto did his thing and I did mine. Then, 
  graduation came and it was time to move on. 
  Except — 
  Three weeks before we graduated, Sakamato took up with a girl. At least, that’s what he told me. 
  He didn’t actually say much. Men don’t do that. We don’t talk to each other. But from what I 
  saw, it was love. Whoever she was, Sakamoto was absolutely smitten. They’d talk for hours into 
  the night. I’d hear him whispering to her. Giggling. A foreigner, I thought, given that they’d only 
  talk at unreasonable hours.  
  The human mind is funny that way. Confronted with the unknown, it cozies up with excuses. I’d 
  known something was wrong. I’d seen the truth. But I hid from myself because a lie’s always the 
  easier fit. 
  I knew he was lying when he told me she was local. When I asked if we could meet, he’d paused 
  and told me she was not a people person. “Sorry, I don’t think she wants to meet you,” Sakamoto 
  mumbled, staring into the gloom. I didn’t push. 
  I wish I had. 
  Sakamoto’s relationship ate him up. By graduation, he’d transformed into a full-time recluse. I 
  suspect he’d flunked out of college at some point, but no one showed up at the dormitories to 
  kick him out.  And throughout that time, I did nothing at all. 
  I remember the evening I left. I remember looking back into the room and catching sight of 
  something between the slats of the cupboard. A dart of motion. Hair. I didn’t think too much 
  about it. I left, quickly, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. Somewhere in the 
  recesses of my memory, eyes blinked back at me. Dark and thoughtful. Staring from between the 
  cupboards, a half-smile suspended between the gap. 
  Years later, I’d regret walking away like that. 
  • • •  
  
  The Girl from the Subway. That’s what the internet called her. There were myths, mixed stories 
  of how someone would not leave their house because she was watching, because she was waiting 
  for them through the crack in the door, because she was hiding under their beds. The accounts 
  get confused. 
  She played games with people, sometimes. Hide and go seek. 
  We met her a few times, my cell and I. Always too late. Always ending with someone folded 
  through a slit between the doors, pleated, mashed-up, broken to component parts. She’d never 
  confront us head on. She always ran away. Each and every goddamned time.  
  Until one day, she said my name. She said my name exactly the way that Sakamoto used to say 
  it, complete with the messed-up umlaut, and that was when I knew. 
  • • •  
  I couldn’t find Sakamoto online. No trace of him. No relatives on Facebook. No one from our 
  year knew his whereabouts, either. As far as anyone could tell, he never left. 
  So I went back on a hunch. 
  Sakamoto was still there. Still alive. Still talking to the girl of his dreams. Still whispering to her, 
  their fingertips touching, through the slats in the cupboard.  
  How she’d kept him alive like that, I’d never know. But she did. He was — there wasn’t much 
  left of him. Sprawled on his side; you could count the descent of his vertebrae, his ribs against 
  his skin. His skin hung in flaps, puddled between the crevices of his bone.  
  He stank.  
  Of piss, bedsores, his own excrement. A crusting of cockroach eggs sleeved his legs. I was 
  surprised that they hadn’t eaten him. But I guess that had to something to do with the Girl from 
  the Subway. See, I think she loved him back in her own way. 
  He didn’t notice us until she did. The Girl from the Subway hissed and Sakamoto rolled his eyes 
  up so he could look at us, and he smiled, and his lips cracked and bled from the effort. And at 
  that point, it was all I could do not to throw up. 
  “We see you,” I told the Girl from the Subway. “Let’s play a game.” 
  • • •  
  Usually, this is where the narrator says they lost. 
  But not this time. 
  We won. With hook and no small amount of research-powered crook. And Sakamoto screamed 
  as the Girl from the Subway evaporated into curls of smoke and the reek of burned meat. He 
  scraped his fingers raw against the tatami as we dragged him back out into the sun. Sakamoto 
  screamed for her. Eight years is a commitment, I guess. 
  Shockingly, Sakamoto didn’t die from sepsis. He’s in the ICU right now, to be fair, and the 
  doctors aren’t particularly happy with our unwillingness to explain how he ended up in this 
  condition. But he should come out in one piece.  
  When he does, I’ll give him the talk. It’s time to light our candles. It’s time to fight. 
  
  END OPENING FICTION 
  Chapter Three: Character Creation 
  “Come,” he said, “come, we must see and act. Devils or no devils, or all the 
  devils at once, it matters not. We must fight him all the same.” 
  — Bram Stoker, Dracula 
  Hunters see the shadows move in dark corners and recognize them for the monsters they are. 
  Others force themselves to forget, choosing to bury their heads in the sand for a chance at sanity 
  and comfort. Hunters can’t look away, because when they do, someone dies. They are driven to 
  confront the monsters, because they lurk in their own backyards. Then, when their homes are 
  safe, hunters realize the terrible truth: Someone must stand up to the darkness, and that someone 
  is them. 
  An individual hunter is a candle in the dark — just one small light— until they join forces with 
  other hunters. Then, they can truly make a difference. Hunters gather in cells, compacts, and 
  conspiracies because with greater numbers comes greater effect. For a hunter, the cell is the 
  lifeblood of successful work, and the only real protection against the darkness. 
  This chapter gives you everything you need to create your own hunter persona: the character 
  with whom you’ll explore the Vigil. Characters in Hunter: The Vigil are mostly just like any 
  other human being, with a few key differences. We suggest that when you go to create your 
  hunter character, you do so with all the other players who will be part of your cell. Let your 
  Storyteller guide you, and let the other players help shape and craft a cohesive cell among all 
  characters at creation. This is only the beginning; the cell will grow and change from here, but it 
  should have a solid foundation.  
  Character Creation 
  The following is a review of character creation, step by step. Later in the chapter, there is more 
  detailed information on character options. You can find a handy quick reference for character 
  creation on p. XX. 
  Step One: Character Concept 
  Your character concept is a short phrase that quickly paints your hunter’s place in the world, 
  your character’s rough sketch that grounds them. One way to formulate a basic idea is to figure 
  out what your character is good at and what habits or tendencies they have. They might be a 
  “savvy detective with a drinking problem,” a “scientist and overprotective parent of three,” or a 
  “skeptical religious scholar.” If you’re not sure, that’s okay. Your hunter will emerge through the 
  choices you make to customize their rules and purpose. Right now, all you need is a loose 
  framework to help shape your character. 
  Are you completely stuck? The previous chapters are filled with compacts, conspiracies, and 
  setting details that can help you brainstorm what type of hunter you want to play. Once you have 
  an idea, jot it down — that’s important to your concept. Don’t worry about why your character 
  hunts or who your companions are. That’ll come later. 
  All characters start the game with three Aspirations. An Aspiration is a goal that you, as a 
  player, want to make part of your character’s story. Aspirations are a way for you to signal to 
  
  your Storyteller the kinds of stories you want to tell and ways to connect with the other 
  characters at the table. You and the other players may decide to give your characters similar 
  starting goals to help give the cell cohesion at the beginning of the game. Unlike personal goals, 
  Aspirations don’t have to positively affect your character; they are storytelling tools that impact 
  gameplay and help your character advance by earning Beats (p. XX). Your Aspiration can be a 
  goal you want to accomplish, such as “banish a ghost,” or it could be an unlikely, dramatic event 
  that affects the shape of your character’s story, such as “sacrifice myself for my cell.” 
  For the Storyteller: Cluing Players In 
  Prior to character creation, let the players know what type of chronicle you’re 
  running. Each tier will affect how players build their characters. Some players may 
  prefer more physical characters to hunt in a tier-one chronicle while others may 
  want hunters knowledgeable in the occult for a tier-three story. Lastly, if you decide 
  to run Hunter with the Slasher Chronicle (Chapter Seven, p. XX), tell players up 
  front so they can appropriately plan and prepare for that style of game. 
  Consider how long it will take you to accomplish an Aspiration in your chronicle. Short-term 
  Aspirations are goals that should be easy to accomplish in a single game session. Long-term 
  Aspirations are goals that might take many sessions to accomplish. Try to pick a mix of goals 
  that are short- and long-term; we suggest starting with two short-term and one long-term 
  Aspiration at game start. Try to choose at least one Aspiration that pertains to your character’s 
  life as a hunter — maybe you want to convince another hunter to change their mind about the 
  Code, meet a werewolf, or even learn how to perform an exorcism. This Aspiration can also 
  pertain to your life or history outside the cell: Your girlfriend is suspicious of your late-night 
  activities, you’re dealing with a past criminal record or professional rival, or you want to find a 
  more forgiving day job. The more general and flexible an Aspiration is, the more likely it is 
  you’ll fulfill it. 
  Aspirations are the main way your character is going to earn Beats and thereby Experiences (p. 
  XX), but they are also the main tool for you to communicate to your Storyteller what you want to 
  do in the game. The Storyteller should take note of them and provide opportunities to bring them 
  into play often. Sometimes the plot of a chronicle takes an unusual turn and your Aspiration is 
  suddenly irrelevant. That’s okay. If that happens, you can replace an Aspiration with a new one 
  between sessions. Be sure to let your Storyteller know what changes you’re making, too, to help 
  you earn more Beats. 
  Step Two: Create Anchors 
  With a basic idea of who your character is, you can flesh out their drives and what’s important to 
  them. A hunter has three Anchors: A Virtue, a Vice, and their Touchstones. A hunter’s Anchors 
  help define who they are as a person and motivate them to hunt when a situation looks bleak. 
  They’re important ways to regain spent Willpower during play, and they provide hooks to get 
  your character more involved in the story. 
  Virtues and Vices are one-word traits that describe your character’s personality and defining 
  motivations, such as Ambitious, Righteous, or Greedy. Your character’s Virtue reflects their 
  best self, a strength that’s difficult to act on and easy to ignore but fulfilling when they do act on 
  it. Your character’s Vice reflects their worst self; it’s a weakness they fall back on easily for 
  instant gratification.  
  
  A Touchstone is someone whom you feel safe around but isn’t a hunter. This character is 
  someone whom your character trusts, reminds you what you’re fighting for, and helps keep you 
  grounded. Every hunter starts the game with one Touchstone. You can begin with additional 
  Touchstones by purchasing the Touchstone Merit (p. XX). 
  Step Three: Select Attributes 
  Attributes represent essential traits every character possesses by default. These serve as the 
  foundation for most die rolls in Hunter: The Vigil.  
  Every character has nine Attributes that are slotted equally into three, separate categories: 
  Mental, Physical, and Social (p. XX). Each Attribute begins with a one-dot rating. Decide which 
  of the three categories is most important, second-most important, and least important to your 
  character. Consider what type of character you’d like to play and how they’ll be of use during the 
  hunt. At this stage, you should review your character concept one last time. Is your character a 
  skeptical researcher who’s also a crack shot? You’d rank them Mental, Physical, then Social. Is 
  your character a chatty socialite who easily makes friends? You’d rank them Social, Mental, then 
  Physical. 
  After ranking your categories, distribute five dots to the Attributes in your primary category, four 
  in your secondary, and three in the tertiary. You can allocate dots wherever you like, but no 
  Attribute can have more than five total dots. 
  Step Four: Select Skills 
  Skills represent areas of expertise or tasks your character learned through training and studying. 
  Skills are divided into the same three categories as Attributes: Mental, Physical, and Social. 
  However, Skills do not start with any dot ratings. Just like with Attributes, determine which of 
  the three categories is most important, second-most important, and least important to your 
  character. After ranking your categories, distribute 11 additional dots to Skills in your primary 
  category, seven in your secondary, and four in the tertiary. You can allocate dots wherever you 
  like, but no Skill can start higher than 5. 
  When selecting Skills, review your character concept and make sure you’re comfortable with 
  your choices. Using a Skill with no dots incurs a penalty. For Physical and Social Skills, it levies 
  a −1 die penalty to the roll. For a Mental Skill, it’s a −3 die penalty. 
  Your character’s Skill categories don’t have to be prioritized the same way as her Attributes are. 
  For instance, you may prioritize Physical Skills for your chatty socialite, even though you chose 
  Social Attributes as most important; she may have dedicated herself to learning the art of self-
  defense. Alternatively, you may decide your skeptical researcher who’s excellent on the shooting 
  range needs to prioritize Mental Skills to better reflect their training and insight. 
  Step Five: Choose Skill Specialties 
  Skill dots represent training and experience with a broad range of techniques and procedures. 
  Skill Specialties allow you to refine a few Skills and show where your character truly shines. 
  You define your own Skill Specialties. They reflect a narrow focus and expertise in a specific 
  Skill. For example, your character may have an Occult Specialty in Demons or a Brawl Specialty 
  in Grappling. 
  
  After allocating dots in your Skills, choose three Skill Specialties. This is an opportunity to better 
  understand who your character is, and who they were before they took up the Vigil. A character 
  with Persuasion (Seduction) is wildly different from a hunter with Persuasion (Fast Talking).  
  You can select Skill Specialties from the suggestions in the Skill descriptions, or you can create 
  your own. The Storyteller is the ultimate arbiter of what constitutes a Specialty and what doesn’t; 
  Specialties that are too broad or too narrow can hurt the story or never come into play.  
  Step Six: Apply Tier-Specific Rules 
  The Storyteller ultimately decides the tone and shape of the chronicle at tier one, tier two, or tier 
  three. Characters may (or may not) all belong to the same compact for tier two or conspiracy for 
  tier-three chronicles, but they must belong to the same tiered group. The list of compacts and 
  conspiracies is found in Chapter Two. Additionally, the Storyteller may also create new custom 
  organizations for characters to join; these rules are found on p. XX in the Chapter Eight. 
  All hunters, regardless of tier, may employ the use of specialized teamwork actions called 
  Tactics to help them hunt monsters. Any hunter can perform any Tactic, provided they’re willing 
  to risk Willpower (p. XX). However, the cells that learn how to play to their strengths will favor 
  certain Tactics above others. There is a full list of example Tactics on p. XX, as well as advice 
  on how to create your own custom Tactics. 
  In a tier-one chronicle, the player characters are part of an individual cell. They may partner or 
  communicate with other hunters from time to time, but they hunt primarily on their own. Unlike 
  other characters who may have a brush with the supernatural, tier-one hunters are fully aware of 
  the dangers that await them in the shadows and they’ve promised to fight back. The scope of 
  these chronicles tends to be tightly focused on a specific, localized area. 
  At tier two and three the players’ characters are members of a compact. Tier-two hunters belong 
  to regional groups that are well-organized and have their backs. Tier--three hunters understand 
  there are larger mechanisms at work that may pull the monsters’ strings. The scope of these 
  chronicles tends to be global. 
  Choosing Tactics: Hunter cells of any tier may choose three favored Tactics for the cell. Any 
  time the cell performs these Tactics, the primary actor’s roll gains the 8-again quality. Players 
  may purchase additional Tactics with Experiences. When purchasing new Tactics, all players 
  may contribute Experiences to meet the required amount. 
  Joining a Compact or Conspiracy: Hunters are granted a free dot in the Status Merit for their 
  compact or conspiracy and may purchase additional dots during character creation. They also 
  gain the Status benefits presented in their compact or conspiracy’s writeup beginning on p. XX. 
  Selecting Endowments: Tier-three hunters also have access to their conspiracy’s Endowments. 
  These gifts are unique techniques, powers, or resources that give members an edge both on and 
  off the battlefield.  
  Characters begin play with two Endowments from their conspiracy. Endowments represent the 
  hunter’s commitment to the conspiracy and learning a new one often takes time or a request to 
  the higher ups. Provided a hunter has at least one dot in his conspiracy’s Status, he can continue 
  to learn new Endowments by spending the requisite Experiences. 
  Restrictions for which Endowments may be purchased during character creation is at the 
  Storyteller’s discretion. 
  
  Tactics and Cell Creation 
  The hunter you create starts out as a capable member of a cell. This is by design; the characters 
  your troupe creates during this process have already been through a few hunts together. They’ve 
  learned how to shore up each other’s weaknesses and how each of their strengths can best serve 
  the cause. They’ve adapted to the dangers they’ve faced together and practiced certain useful 
  Tactics enough to perform them admirably even under duress.  
  If your group would rather play out the cell’s formation as part of the game, you can save this 
  step for later and choose favored Tactics one by one as you go along, responding to the trials 
  your cell faces during the first few sessions of your chronicle. 
  This is also a good time to consider other aspects of how your cell operates as a unit. Do they 
  have a safe, clandestine place to meet up and keep their hunting gear? If so, consider pooling 
  some of your starting Merit points for a Safe Place. Have they already made enemies by treading 
  on another cell’s turf, or stumbling into a much larger problem than the original hunt they 
  thought was over? Have they attracted the attention of some underground monster society? If so, 
  consider giving the characters an Aspiration they all share that pertains to these intrigues. 
  Consider, too, what brought your cell together, and what keeps them together. They might have 
  Allies, Contacts, or a Mentor in common, which you can represent through Merits. Some of them 
  might even share a Touchstone — a prime opportunity for interpersonal drama as the story 
  progresses and shit gets real. 
  Step Seven: Select Merits 
  Merits are important facets of your character that don’t fall under other Traits. A Merit can 
  represent a knack, special training, people your character knows, or even things she owns. Merits 
  are a good way to make your character more unique. 
  You have seven dots to distribute across any combination of Merits. Your character must meet 
  all a Merit’s prerequisites to purchase it. 
  Additionally, every hunter has (or had) a life outside the Vigil. Your character also receives a 
  free dot of the Professional Training Merit (p. XX) which represents a field of knowledge the 
  player either already has or seeks to acquire knowledge in. 
  The Merits you choose might affect other Traits on your character sheet. Make sure you review 
  them when calculating Advantages in the next step. 
  Step Eight: Determine Advantages 
  Hunter characters have certain advantages, some of which depend on their Attributes, Skills, 
  and Merits. Determine the following advantages with the given calculations and note them on 
  your character sheet. A specific Merit or Endowment that modifies your character’s Advantages 
  calls that out in its text. 
  • 
  Size: 5 
  • 
  Health: Size + Stamina 
  • 
  Speed: 5 + Strength + Dexterity 
  • 
  Willpower: Resolve + Composure 
  
  • 
  Integrity: 7 
  • 
  Initiative: Dexterity + Composure 
  • 
  Defense: (Lower of Wits or Dexterity) + Athletics 
  A starting hunter also receives three additional Experiences to spend on any Traits the player 
  wishes. This reflects the need for characters pursuing the Vigil to adapt quickly and stay on their 
  toes. Experience costs for character advancement are on p. XX. 
  [THE FOLLOWING IS A QUICK-REFERENCE TABLE] 
  Character Creation Quick Reference 
  Here are the basics for creating a Hunter character. 
  Step One: Character Concept 
  Choose a concept for your character and three Aspirations. 
  Step Two: Anchors 
  Choose a Virtue, Vice, and Touchstone(s). 
  Step Three: Attributes 
  Prioritize categories. You have 5/4/3 dots to assign within each. 
  Step Four: Skills 
  Prioritize categories. You have 11/7/4 dots to distribute within each. 
  Step Five: Skill Specialties 
  Choose three Skill Specialties. 
  Step Six: Apply Tier Template 
  Decide which tier you’re playing: one, two, or three. 
  All hunter cells may choose three Tactics. 
  Choose a compact (tier two) or conspiracy (tier three) if applicable. Choose two Endowments 
  from your conspiracy. 
  Step Seven: Add Merits 
  Select seven dots of Merits. Receive Professional Training • for free. Tier-two and -three 
  characters also receive compact or conspiracy Status • for free. 
  Step Eight: Determine Advantages 
  Calculate the following advantages: Size: 5, Health: Size + Stamina, Speed: 5 + Strength + 
  Dexterity, Willpower: Resolve + Composure, Integrity: 7, Initiative: Dexterity + Composure, 
  Defense: (Lower of Wits or Dexterity) + Athletics 
  Spend three starting Experiences on any Traits you like. 
  [END QUICK REFERENCE CHART] 
  
  Character Advancement 
  Characters in Hunter: The Vigil advance through earning Beats in a variety of ways. A Beat is a 
  measurable moment of drama that reflects how your character has grown in some way. Often, 
  the Beat is earned after a character fulfills an Aspiration. 
  When characters earn five Beats, they are converted to one Experience. You can spend 
  Experiences to acquire or increase character Traits. 
  Earning Beats 
  You gain Beats when one of the following occurs: 
  • 
  Your character fulfills an Aspiration, take a Beat. Replace it at the end of the session. 
  • 
  At the end of a game session, take a Beat. 
  • 
  Once per scene, when resolving a Condition, take a Beat. 
  • 
  Some Conditions provide Beats for actions other than resolution.  
  • 
  Any time you fail a roll, you may opt to make it a dramatic failure and take a Beat. This 
  doesn’t apply to rolls on which you risked Willpower (p. XX). 
  • 
  If your character surrenders during a fight, take a Beat. 
  • 
  If you succeed in a roll that risks Willpower (not including Tactics, p. XX), take a Beat. 
  • 
  If your character takes damage in one of her three rightmost Health boxes, take a Beat. 
  • 
  Any time your character risks a breaking point (p. XX). 
  • 
  If your Storyteller deems it appropriate following a major or dramatic event. 
  You can only receive one Beat from each of these criteria per scene. 
  Beats and Storyteller Characters 
  The Storyteller doesn’t earn Beats. Whenever a Storyteller character does 
  something that would earn a Beat, such as resolve a Condition or participate in a 
  Tactic, they gain a Willpower point instead. This point vanishes at the end of the 
  current scene if it’s not used. 
  Group Beats 
  Hunters do not work alone; the cell functions almost as a single body. This means that when the 
  members of a cell work together in a meaningful way, they learn and grow together and from one 
  another. This reflects not only their growing experience with the Vigil, but their growing loyalty 
  to each other. The cell’s high-risk, high-reward lifestyle, delving into dark mysteries and 
  confronting terrifying foes, teaches them lessons ordinary people never learn. 
  Group Beats are the reward for these kinds of actions, and they are simply another way to earn 
  Beats. Unlike how players normally earn Beats, with each character earning them individually by 
  default, these Beats are shared by the entire troupe. When a Group Beat is rewarded, all members 
  of the cell earn a Beat. 
  
  Players earn Group Beats based on the criteria listed, but only during scenes in which the cell 
  confronts the supernatural directly in some way. Investigating a monster by following it back to 
  its lair is a confrontation; doing so by researching it at the library or examining a day-old crime 
  scene is not. Likewise, chatting with a vampire ally who isn’t currently endangering anyone 
  doesn’t count, but a tense negotiation or exchange of threats with a vampire does. 
  • 
  Whenever two or more members of the cell experience a breaking point during any 
  scene, take one Group Beat instead of gaining normal Beats. 
  • 
  Whenever the cell successfully performs a Tactic in a qualifying scene, take a Group 
  Beat. 
  • 
  Whenever more than one member of the cell fulfills or make significant headway toward 
  an Aspiration that is directly related to the Vigil during a qualifying scene, take a Group Beat 
  instead of a regular Beat. 
  • 
  Whenever the cell destroys a monster or otherwise renders it permanently harmless to 
  humanity, take a Group Beat. 
  As with regular Beats, each of these criteria only grants one Group Beat per scene. 
  Optional Rule: Beats for Everyone 
  If the players and Storyteller wish, players can pool their regular Beats together into a shared 
  pool. Then, following a session, they may divide all Beats equally. This methodology means the 
  characters advance at the same rate, but it also means advancement is affected by how much the 
  players engage with the rules.  
  Grouping Beats can be a boon and a detriment. A shy or nonconfrontational player will benefit 
  from this way of earning Beats; they may also feel embarrassed they didn’t earn enough Beats to 
  help their cell advance. However, this system can offer an incentive to be more involved without 
  feeling pressure to perform for advancement. Grouping Beats can also incentivize not being 
  involved, since their character continues to advance without as much engagement. 
  Earning Beats this way is an advancement system that can be used at the beginning of a session 
  as a trial run or for an entire chronicle. Though there is no hard-and-fast rule, Storytellers are not 
  encouraged to switch between the two systems on a regular basis. 
  Players and Storytellers are encouraged to open a dialogue to choose which advancement system 
  would work best for their group before gameplay begins. 
  Experiences 
  Each time you earn five Beats, they combine to make one Experience. You can spend 
  Experiences at any time to increase your character’s existing traits or purchase new ones. An 
  Experience is a sign of meaningful progress in your character’s story. Traits have varying 
  Experience costs, as follows: 
  [START TABLE] 
  Experience Costs 
  Trait Experiences 
  Attribute 
  4 per dot 
  
  Skill 
  2 per dot 
  Skill Specialty 1 
  Merit 1 per dot 
  Integrity 
  2 per dot 
  Endowment 
  3 
  New Tactic 
  5 
  Lost Willpower dot 
  1 
  Replenish Willpower points 1 Beat* 
  * Willpower dots increase whenever Resolve or Composure increases, and have a maximum 
  rating of the combined dots in both Attributes. This cost is to replenish Willpower points; at any 
  time, the player may spend 1 Beat (not a whole Experience) and roll Resolve + Composure with 
  no modifiers. The character regains Willpower points equal to successes rolled, up to their 
  maximum; even if the roll fails, they still regain one Willpower point. 
  [END TABLE] 
  Experienced Starting Characters 
  Storytellers may allow players to make more experienced hunters prior to their first session. 
  These bonus Experiences allow characters to start with more hunts under their belt, in addition to 
  the three, free Experiences every starting character receives. 
  Membership in a compact or conspiracy does not necessarily reflect greater experience with the 
  hunt; a member of Task Force: VALKYRIE can be just as green (or greener) than a hunter on 
  meaner streets. A hunter with more experience has simply been on the road far longer than the 
  rookie fresh out of training. 
  When advancing your character, refer to the table (p. XX) and the cost for purchase using 
  Experiences. 
  [START TABLE] 
  Rank Bonus Experiences 
  Survived First Contact 
  15 
  Been At it a While 
  25 
  Seasoned Soldier 
  35 
  Seen Too Much 
  50 
  Grizzled Veteran 
  100 
  [END TABLE] 
  Anchors 
  Hunters may function well in their cells, but they are still just human. They suffer from isolation, 
  fear, desperation, and depression maybe more than a normal person does. Anchors are what 
  keeps the character level — they define her personality, how she acts, and what she cares the 
  
  most about — and affirming them assures her she is still just a person, not a monster like the 
  things she fights. Every hunter has three Anchors: Virtue, Vice, and Touchstones.  
  All Anchors provide ways to recover Willpower. Virtues are exemplary attributes the character 
  aspires to, and acting on them is difficult, but rewarding. Vices are actions to which the character 
  falls in times of stress, and ones from which she tries to abstain when possible. Touchstones 
  provide multiple ways to regain Willpower. The easier option recovers a single Willpower point, 
  while the harsher refreshes all Willpower. 
  A hunter’s Virtue and Vice are one-word descriptors that form the core of their personality. They 
  should reflect behavior, beliefs, or motivators, rather than capabilities. “Athletic” is not a Virtue, 
  because your character already has an Athletics Skill to define how athletic they are; but 
  “Competitive” makes a good Virtue because it describes how they behave. Acting on their Virtue 
  or Vice reaffirms their sense of self.  
  The hunter’s Touchstone is something that keeps her grounded, a person or ideology that 
  reminds her why she keeps the Vigil and is a touchstone to keep her human. 
  Virtue 
  While your character’s Virtue is undeniably a positive influence in their life, they should 
  absolutely be able to fulfill their Virtue while suffering a breaking point (p. XX) at the same time 
  — even Virtues can drive people to do terrible things. 
  Whenever your character acts in accordance with their Virtue in a way that poses difficulty or 
  risk to their personal safety, they regain all their spent Willpower points. They may regain 
  Willpower this way up to twice per chapter. 
  Example Virtues are: 
  • 
  Competitive: Your character always pushes themself to excel and be the best at whatever 
  they do. It’s not about defeating others, but about the rush they get from honest competition, and 
  the thrill of knowing they pushed themselves to stay ahead of their rivals. Regain Willpower 
  when you honestly compete with someone who outclasses you, for stakes that you will feel if 
  you lose. 
  • 
  Generous: Your character feels best when giving to others. They may give to charity or 
  simply lend items to friends with no questions asked. A Generous character may be taken 
  advantage of sometimes, but they aren’t in it for thanks or hope of repayment. They give because 
  other people need. Regain Willpower when deprive yourself of an important resource or put 
  yourself at risk because of your Generous nature. 
  • 
  Just: A sense of fairness and justice drives a Just character. They want everyone to get 
  what they deserve and will stick their neck out to make sure it happens. Regain Willpower when 
  you set your own goals aside to ensure justice is done. 
  • 
  Loyal: Loyalty to a person or a group is your character’s guide. This group could be 
  other players’ characters, a company, a family, a community, or even a country. This Virtue may 
  also extend to your hunter’s cell, compact, or conspiracy. The character is not necessarily foolish 
  or blind to the flaws of his chosen group. Regain Willpower when you risk yourself rather than 
  act against the group’s interests. 
  
  • 
  Patient: Your character is a solid rock, waiting for the right moment to act or accepting 
  of others who take their time. She does not fluster easily, and she makes sure to take careful 
  consideration before committing to an action. Regain Willpower when you miss an opportunity 
  for a personal goal while waiting for someone or something else. 
  Vice 
  A Vice is the personality trait your character falls back on when they’re taking the easy way out. 
  Indulging your Vice is a cop out to avoid dealing with your feelings and problems. It makes you 
  feel better for that moment even if it’s self-destructive, but it’s not healthy behavior in the long 
  term.  
  Whenever your character indulges their Vice, they regain one spent Willpower point. This 
  doesn’t have to pose any difficulty or risk to your character. 
  Example Vices are: 
  • 
  Ambitious: Your character wants to get ahead, to move up the ladder — no matter the 
  cost. They want advancement, rank, and authority in advance of what they’ve actually earned. 
  Regain a point of Willpower when you jockey for position or try to advance socially instead of 
  pursuing a more constructive goal. 
  • 
  Arrogant: Your character is good at something and makes sure everyone knows it. They 
  define themself by being “better” than everyone else to a degree that exceeds justifiable pride in 
  their abilities. Regain a point of Willpower when you take an opportunity to lord your superiority 
  over someone else. 
  • 
  Cruel: Your character has a mean streak. Her first instinct is to twist the knife and inflict 
  pain even when a character begs for mercy. She might habitually refuse surrender in combat or 
  be the bastard boss who humiliates employees just because it makes her feel better. Regain a 
  Willpower point when you needlessly victimize someone in your power. 
  • 
  Lazy: Your character would rather let something fester than do work. His first instinct is 
  to give up when things get hard, even if continuing would result in a benefit for him. He might 
  shirk work duties, forget important dates, or simply neglect his friends and family rather than do 
  the work it takes to keep up relations. Regain a Willpower point when you neglect important 
  tasks. 
  • 
  Violent: Your character loves getting their way through physical means. They frequently 
  settle conflicts with fighting, and they fight because they want to hurt people. Regain a 
  Willpower point when you resolve a scene by using needless violence. 
  Touchstones 
  A Touchstone is an “in game” term that describes someone a hunter feels safe around when 
  they’re not spending time elbow deep in monster guts and thwarting demonic sacrifices. Fellow 
  hunters don’t qualify — you trust your cellmates with your deepest secrets and your life every 
  time you hunt. Cells already share a common bond: your pledge to uphold the Vigil and the 
  Code. The hunting life has a downside, however, because hunters who become too insular and 
  spend all their time researching, tracking, interviewing, and fighting lose their edge. Hunters who 
  forget the people, pets, and places they’re desperate to protect are in danger of becoming so 
  hardened they’re not much better than the monsters. 
  
  Your character’s Touchstone is your lifeline. Touchstones are deeply personal, and can often 
  keep you from falling into despair, becoming overwhelmed, or lashing out at someone who 
  doesn’t deserve it. Hunters instinctively understand the need to take a break from the hunt or 
  share the horrors they’ve seen with someone who won’t judge. Deep down, hunters know it’s not 
  healthy to abandon everyone they know and love to immerse themselves in the hunt.  
  Touchstones are not without conflict. Arguments often break out among hunters about who 
  should know the truth. Is it better to lie to a lover than drag them into their dangerous life? Or, 
  are hunters putting families in danger when they don’t know their next-door neighbor was a 
  werewolf? If someone hasn’t witnessed a monster firsthand, can they believe a hunter’s “tall 
  tale?” Or, do hunters push people away the more they try to convince them they’re in danger? 
  Most Touchstones are people. Sometimes, a hunter finds another way to deal with the emotional 
  and psychological burden of the hunt. When choosing a Touchstone, consider how your 
  character might lose it. Think of how your hunter protects it, how they react when it’s threatened, 
  how they smooth tense situations over when the Vigil encroaches on it. 
  Systems: Touchstones help a hunter maintain Integrity (p. XX) by adding dice to breaking-point 
  rolls. You gain +2 dice when the hunter has one attached Touchstone, or +3 when she has more 
  than one. These affects do not stack; in other words, if she has two Touchstones, you don’t 
  receive +5 to breaking-point rolls. When a hunter has no Touchstones attached, you make 
  breaking-point rolls at −2 instead.  
  Mark your character’s Touchstones next to her Integrity track, with her first one next to her sixth 
  dot of Integrity. A Touchstone is attached when there is a dot next to it. For example, if your 
  character has five dots of Integrity, her first Touchstone is no longer attached. Any time your 
  character defends their relationship to an attached Touchstone or engages in a scene of positive 
  or cathartic engagement with it, they regain a Willpower point. If this causes your hunter serious 
  setbacks or harm, they regain all spent Willpower points. 
  Touchstones hold thematic and material weight in your story. Your hunter’s Touchstone is 
  something they need to maintain, and only regaining lost Integrity will reattach a Touchstone. 
  She may lose a Touchstone through death, or extreme alienation. An ideology may be challenged 
  so drastically that it is lost to the hunter. When she loses a Touchstone, it is a breaking point 
  whether the Touchstone was attached or not.  
  If the character loses her last Touchstone, she has a choice. She can lose a dot of Integrity 
  immediately and attempt to replace the Touchstone. She has a month to do so but establishing 
  the right kind of relationship can take longer and hunters are slow to trust. Close friends and 
  confidants take time to cultivate. This is by design; this means hunters are encouraged to build 
  and maintain relationships with other characters that aren’t mandated by Touchstones, Merits, 
  and their cell. If she can’t find a new Touchstone in that time, she gains an appropriate 
  Condition, such as Obsession. The player can also choose to take the Condition immediately. 
  The character isn’t choosing so much as resigning herself to the Vigil forcing her to lead a life of 
  isolation. This happens whether Touchstone was attached or not. 
  Your character can gain additional Touchstones with the Touchstone Merit (p. XX). Write the 
  new Touchstone next to the appropriate Integrity dot. Replacing a lost or dead Touchstone 
  requires the character to regain a dot of Integrity. Replace the Touchstone on her Integrity track. 
  Sample Touchstones 
  
  The following is a list of Touchstone examples. You can choose one from this list “as is” or 
  customize your own — after all, your hunter’s Touchstones should feel real and personal. 
  Blissfully Unaware 
  Your girlfriend doesn’t suspect a thing, and you plan to keep it that way. You love the way her 
  face lights up whenever she talks about your happy future together. You don’t have the heart to 
  tell her about all the blood and secrets that stand in the way and you know she’ll think you’re 
  crazy if you try, so you just keep on pretending. 
  The Child 
  Your daughter just wants to spend more time with you, but you refuse to drag her into the Vigil. 
  You bring her gifts to make up for the way you always drop everything and leave when duty 
  calls. Soon, she’ll be old enough to realize those aren’t enough, and to ask why you own so many 
  guns. 
  Confessional 
  The priest listens to you confess your sins and tells you how to repent, no matter what outlandish 
  shit you tell him. He can’t possibly believe the things you say, right? But he says God will 
  forgive you anyway, and that’s enough. Who knows, maybe he does believe you, and roots for 
  your crusade against evil. 
  In on It 
  He’s a dedicated cop or part of the local underworld, and he knows what you do for this town. 
  He doesn’t want to be personally involved, but he helps you out when you need a body to 
  disappear, records falsified, or evidence from classified files, so you tell him everything. Maybe 
  someday he’ll decide you’ve stepped over the line — but of course, he’s complicit. 
  Nosy Neighbor 
  She lives down the street and invites you to her book club every week. She’s the neighborhood 
  gossip, and you like the way she keeps you connected with people’s everyday lives. You just 
  have to make sure the thing you buried in the backyard doesn’t become next week’s gossip. 
  The One You Couldn’t Save 
  He was a monster’s victim, and now he’s gone. Maybe his death drove you to take up the Vigil 
  in the first place, or maybe you just failed him. You visit his grave whenever you’re nearby and 
  spill all your regrets to a tombstone. You secretly hope his ghost will come back and forgive you 
  but, so far, it’s just you and the worms. 
  The One You Saved 
  She was a monster’s victim, and you saved her from the jaws of death or worse. Now she knows 
  what’s out there, and she’s terrified of it. Your presence makes her feel safe, and hers makes you 
  feel like you’re making a difference. You fear letting her down more than anything. 
  Part-Time Lover 
  He knows your name and ID are fake, and he’s seen you stumble into bed with wounds you can’t 
  explain, but he never asks questions or whispers a word of it. He lets you forget for a night here 
  and there, and that’s enough for you both. You just hope you’re not followed next time. 
  
  The Regulars 
  Your favorite bar is a dive with the same clientele every night, and you like it that way. It’s a 
  place where nobody knows your name, where you can shoot the shit and play some pool and 
  smoke a cigarette or two, and nobody’s lives are in your hands for once. You didn’t used to be 
  this change-averse, but now you hate when newcomers show up. 
  The Rookie 
  He might be your kid or someone else’s. A teen who stumbled across the pastor’s stash of 
  exorcism rituals and shotguns. A student at the haunted high school who can see the spirits. 
  Whoever he is, he knows what you do and he wants in. He wants you to train him. You can’t 
  keep dodging the question forever. 
  Separated 
  She couldn’t bring herself to sign divorce papers, but she kicked you out of the house. She says 
  you’ve changed and she can’t handle all the lies. She likes to have coffee on the weekends, and 
  she says she’ll take you back anytime — just as soon as you tell her the truth. 
  The Therapist 
  He’s the only one you trust not to judge you when you admit to all your blackest thoughts and 
  most paralyzing fears. He thinks you speak in metaphors when you talk about ghosts and 
  monsters, and that’s fine with you. You hope you never screw up so royally that he’ll have to 
  share your file with the court. 
  Your Rock 
  She’s your sister, your best friend, your mentor. She’s been through it all with you. You know 
  she’ll support you no matter what, and that’s the problem. You’re desperate to keep her from 
  tumbling down the Vigil’s rabbit hole with you, because you don’t want to lose the one person 
  who makes you feel like yourself again. 
  Integrity 
  Humans in the Chronicles of Darkness have a trait called Integrity, which represents their 
  psyches’ stability. It measures their acceptance of their own self-image and how secure their 
  psychological well-being is. When they perform terrible acts, witness atrocities, or experience 
  supernatural things they can’t explain, they risk losing Integrity via breaking points (p. XX). 
  Their Integrity score, in turn, measures how well they handle further trauma. 
  Hunters have Integrity just like other human beings, but the unnatural stresses to which they 
  constantly expose themselves affect them more deeply than anything most people ever see or do. 
  Someone who hunts monsters has a choice: Let it fundamentally change them or lose all ability 
  to cope. Those who succumb to the latter can no longer function in society. Those who choose 
  the former take up the Vigil and call themselves hunters. Their Integrity changes with them; 
  Integrity is still a measure of their stability, but it’s impacted differently because of their new 
  role in the fight against the darkness. 
  A hunter’s greatest saving grace is her companions. A lone hunter doesn’t make it far before she 
  spirals into self-loathing or forgets why she’s fighting, living from one bloody thrill to the next. 
  She needs people — not just any people, but people she can trust. People she can open up to and 
  be vulnerable with, even if it’s just for a night here and there. Without the occasional reprieve 
  
  from living on a hair trigger, paranoia consumes her. Touchstones help remind her why she took 
  up the Vigil to begin with and who she is behind the flamethrower. 
  System 
  A hunter’s Integrity trait ranges from 10 to 0. Characters start out with seven dots of Integrity. 
  Whenever a hunter violates the Code (see below) or experiences something that drastically 
  shakes his confidence, his player rolls a breaking point and risks losing a dot of Integrity. A 
  player can buy Integrity dots with Experiences (p. XX), but to purchase a dot of Integrity, a 
  character must first spend a scene opening up to someone in a frank and honest manner, trusting 
  that person with his rawest feelings and deepest secrets, or with his life or the lives of those he 
  cares about. It could be anyone — a fellow hunter, a Touchstone, even an enemy, as long as he’s 
  genuine. This trust must not be betrayed before the player purchases the Integrity dot. 
  Characters with high Integrity (7-10) see themselves in more or less the same way they always 
  did. The Vigil is a major part of their lives, but they can see beyond it to pursue other things — 
  relationships, hobbies, even careers. They can draw a clear line between themselves and the 
  monsters they despise. 
  Characters with middling Integrity (4-6) fully internalize the hunt, reacting more instinctively 
  to perceived threats. They tend toward the paranoid and are more prone to violence or 
  Machiavellian behaviors. They wonder whether their actions are justified while the Code pushes 
  them to keep hunting anyway, or they double down on their lifestyles and become cynical. 
  Characters at this level of Integrity gain the persistent Vigilant Condition (p. XX). 
  Characters with low Integrity (1-3) allow the hunt to consume them utterly. They lash out at the 
  slightest hint of a threat, throw themselves gleefully into bloodshed at every opportunity, or 
  scheme like a spider to take out the enemy before it makes a move. They can’t remember or 
  imagine being anything but a hunter. Some hate themselves for what they’ve become. Others 
  steadfastly refuse to admit they’ve fallen from grace, thoroughly fixated on the job. Still others 
  survive more than they live, jaded to the point of singlemindedness. Characters at this level of 
  Integrity gain the persistent Merciless Condition (p. XX). 
  A hunter who falls to Integrity 0 is barely recognizable as human anymore, a relentless engine of 
  violence and obsession. Characters who drop this far become Storyteller characters and are prone 
  to becoming slashers (p. XX). 
  The Code 
  You go from hunted to hunter when something inside you hardens to steel, sharpens to a knife’s 
  edge, and you take a stand. You leave your old life behind so you can act as torch, sword, and 
  shield. Once your eyes are open and your fist clenched, you can never go back to the halcyon 
  days, try though you might. Yeah, ignorance is bliss, but you’ve left bliss far behind. Maybe you 
  made a pact, or you just feel it in your bones, but either way you recognize the Code as your new 
  compass for what’s okay and what isn’t. 
  When a hunter takes up the Vigil, she vows — whether out loud or just to herself — to abide by 
  certain precepts, ones that separate her from common murderers and unnatural predators. She 
  justifies her life of violence, crime, and paranoia with strict rules which, if followed, keep her 
  from being like them: the monsters that prey on the innocent, kill for fun, leech off society, and 
  care about nothing but themselves. The hunter tells herself she’s different, that she’s doing it all 
  
  for the greater good. If she can cling to her Integrity, she might even be right. The more she 
  violates this Code, the hollower her insistence rings. She builds a wall of scars around her heart 
  so she can live with herself. Do the job, slay the fiend, save the day. But the more Integrity she 
  loses, the less she knows herself anymore. The further she falls, the harder it is to see the 
  difference between herself and any other killer. 
  For the average person, excessive violence and exposure to the dark supernatural underbelly of 
  the world cause trauma — she questions her sanity or the truth of everything she’s ever known. 
  Brutality shocks her, numbs her. This is true of hunters when they start out, too, but at some 
  point, they make a permanent choice to stop being victims. They draw a line in the sand and say, 
  not me. Not my people. Never again. An ordinary person becomes a hunter in that moment. She 
  may not realize it at first, but she has dedicated herself to the Code, trading away her safe 
  worldview for the unforgiving mentality it takes to fight the impossible. 
  Psychological stress destabilizes a hunter’s self-image the same way it does for anyone else, and 
  in fact this self-image is the crux of what hunters call the Code. It’s just a question of what 
  constitutes “psychological stress” for people who obsess over monsters for a living. The basic 
  aspects of the Code are universal, like the idea that human lives have inherent worth and 
  monsters are a threat to them, or that a hunter’s first duty is to the Vigil. No mystical force makes 
  these tenets true; it’s just that the mindset necessary to take up this torch — whether to light the 
  darkness or burn it down — affects the human psyche in these ways. Anyone who lasts more 
  than a few weeks in this gig learns to follow these instincts. 
  For characters, the Code is sometimes an unspoken understanding, and sometimes a tangible set 
  of principles that hunters vow to each other to uphold. It could be a mission statement for a 
  conspiracy that every member signs. It could be an oath a cell swears over a freshly dug grave. 
  Some just wax philosophical about it over beers late at night. Whatever the form it takes, when 
  two hunters’ interpretations of the Code come into conflict, they’re willing to shed tears and 
  blood over it. 
  Breaking Points 
  Characters in Hunter suffer breaking points. Innate breaking points are those a character carries 
  with her from before she took up the hunt, and those that remind her of just how unsettling her 
  life has become. Most innate breaking points involve doing or encountering something traumatic 
  for the first time; even the most seasoned hunter hasn’t seen everything that’s out there, and 
  surprises in her line of work are never pleasant. A character also reaches a breaking point when 
  she violates the Code. 
  The Code’s fundaments may be universal, but no two hunters interpret them exactly the same 
  way. They argue over what constitutes a “monster” or a “person” all the time, although the Code 
  draws a few indelible lines that guide a hunter’s hand when things get messy enough that she 
  needs something concrete to fall back on. The Code’s breaking points aren’t indicative of how a 
  hunter feels or what she wants; they’re ways in which her psyche has had to adapt, 
  subconsciously, to her life of darkness and deliberately exposing herself to terrible things. If it 
  hadn’t, her lifestyle would have already reduced her to Integrity 0 long ago. 
  If a hunter believes that a kind zombie who chooses not to eat brains is not a monster, that’s fine; 
  however, when that zombie loses control of himself and preys on someone, a hunter who’s come 
  far enough down this road to dedicate herself to the Vigil can’t just ignore the fact that the 
  
  zombie is dangerous for ordinary people, and an ordinary person’s life has value in and of itself. 
  Thus, letting that happen is a breaking point — a moment of personal crisis and a difficult 
  decision. Breaking points aren’t a punishment; they’re a mechanical representation of wrestling 
  with the stresses of experiences human beings weren’t meant to have. 
  From an out-of-character perspective, Code breaking points consider any creature that wields 
  Dread Powers or Numina a monster — as long as the hunters know it is such a creature — as 
  well as slashers and other obviously inhuman beings; this is because horrors, slashers, and 
  ephemeral beings make up the totality of supernatural antagonists presented in this book, giving 
  the Storyteller the ability to create any sort of dangerous mystery they like. This doesn’t mean a 
  Storyteller character who is human but uses Dread Powers to express psychic abilities is a literal 
  monster; it just means that for purposes of the Code’s breaking points, the hunter psyche 
  considers the psychic a threat to humanity that’s more unnatural than someone with a gun. 
  Code breaking points usually don’t count ordinary humans or other hunters as monsters, no 
  matter what kind of terrible deeds they perform, unless they exhibit obviously monstrous 
  abilities; however, most hunters can give at least a partial pass to hunters wielding supernatural 
  Endowments if they know that’s what they’re seeing, reflected in the modifiers in the chart 
  below. If a hunter sees someone summoning a demon and she doesn’t knowthey’re a member of 
  the Lucifuge doing it to take down something worse, the Storyteller should treat the situation as 
  though that member of the Lucifuge is a “monster” for purposes of Code breaking points until 
  the hunter learns the truth; once she does, it’s up to her player to decide how she views such 
  powers wielded in service to the Vigil. 
  Systems 
  Whenever a hunter suffers a breaking point, her player takes a Beat and rolls Resolve + 
  Composure, with a modifier based on the level of the breaking point (listed below). Only 
  breaking points at or below a character’s current Integrity score apply to her. 
  Other modifiers may apply to the roll as well, at the Storyteller’s discretion; modifiers can’t 
  exceed + or −5. The following are some examples: 
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  Breaking Point Modifiers 
  Situation 
  Modifier 
  Deliberate act of significant personal sacrifice 
  +3 
  You have more than one Touchstone attached 
  +3 
  Acting in defense of another person or on behalf of a cell, compact or conspiracy +2 
  Your quarry is another hunter +2 
  Interacted meaningfully and positively with someone you trust within the last full scene +2 
  You have one Touchstone attached +2 
  Acting in accordance with your Virtue 
  +1 
  
  Acting in self-defense +1 
  Acting in accordance with your Vice −1 
  Acting under duress or coercion 
  −1 
  You have no Touchstones attached −2 
  With no control over your actions 
  −2 
  Betrayed by someone you trusted within the last full scene −2 
  Actively and willingly helping a monster 
  −3 
  [END TABLE] 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The character keeps her Integrity, forging scar tissue around her soul thick enough to 
  take the strain. She gains the Obsession (temporary), Stoic, or Vendetta Condition. 
  Exceptional Success: The character not only keeps her Integrity but pushes a wedge between 
  herself and the rest of humanity, justifying it all in the name of the Vigil. She gains the persistent 
  Addicted Condition with regard to some visceral or unsettling aspect of the hunt, such as earning 
  a monster’s flattering attentions, killing one, or causing one pain or the persistent Obsession 
  Condition with regard to a particular monster. In addition, gain a Willpower point. 
  Failure: The character loses a dot of Integrity and questions herself. She gains the Guilty, 
  Shaken, or Spooked Condition (or a custom one with Storyteller approval). 
  Dramatic Failure: The character loses a dot of Integrity and experiences a moment of awful 
  clarity, as the full weight of what she must do to keep the Vigil descends upon her like a crushing 
  avalanche. She gains the Demoralized or Violent Condition. 
  But What Is a Monster, Really? 
  This book uses the word “monster” as a general term for “unnatural things hunters 
  investigate.” That’s because characters in Hunter aren’t assumed to be hunting the 
  protagonists of other Chronicles of Darkness lines. The Vigil necessitates a 
  worldview wherein dangerous supernatural beings and phenomena are threats to 
  humanity; their Integrity works differently from that of Chronicles of Darkness 
  Core Rulebook protagonists because the tone and themes of a Hunter game differ, 
  too. 
  A hunter is someone who goes out of their way to hunt down the weirdest, darkest, 
  most threatening occult entities, to stop them from being threats. That doesn’t mean 
  they always kill such entities, though the nature of the supernatural world means 
  that’s often the most expedient solution to “something is preying on people.” They 
  may want to reform their behavior, or lock them away, or expose their secrets to 
  the world — but all of those goals come down to “stop the supernatural from 
  threatening ordinary humans.” 
  Therefore, the Code differentiates between “monster” and “person.” Hunters are 
  perfectly capable of befriending sympathetic monsters or helping a ghost 
  
  communicate with its living loved ones; they’re also perfectly capable of taking 
  matters into their own hands when the law can’t sufficiently protect people from a 
  mundane serial killer. The Code doesn’t prevent or even discourage any of that. 
  What the Code does do is draw a line between how ordinary people approach 
  unnatural threats and how hunters do, when those worlds collide. A hunter whose 
  vampire friend minds his own business needn’t stake him to avoid a breaking point. 
  When she faces a choice between saving a human life and protecting that vampire 
  friend, and she chooses the vampire over the human, that’s when the Code kicks in 
  and she must justify that choice to her own Vigilance. When such situations get in 
  the way of empathy for the plight of a creature that had no choice in becoming what 
  it is, or one that’s trying its best not to harm anybody, it forces a hunter to confront 
  the consequences of the Vigil she swore to uphold. That’s what creates dramatic 
  story hooks and personal horror: The further you go to dig up what’s hidden for 
  good reason, the harder it gets to tell right from wrong, friend from foe, or person 
  from monster. 
  List of Breaking Points 
  The following list includes the universal tenets of the Code, as well as baseline innate breaking 
  points. The Code allows for indirect actions in the spirit of its edicts, such as collecting or 
  sharing information about a monster so that someone else can trap it. 
  Storytellers and players should work together to decide whether other actions or experiences in 
  play constitute innate breaking points for a character, depending on his circumstances and his 
  past. Estimate the level of such breaking points using the list below as a guideline. 
  If a single action or event would fit multiple breaking points at once, use the one lowest on the 
  Integrity scale. 
  High Integrity (7-10; −0 modifier) 
  • 
  First time personally encountering a particular type of supernatural trait or power (Innate) 
  • 
  Causing significant harm to a person (Code) 
  • 
  Allowing harm to come to a person in pursuit of your Vigil (Code) 
  • 
  Causing a person to suffer a breaking point from exposure to the supernatural (Code) 
  • 
  Refusing aid to a fellow hunter in need (Code) 
  Middling Integrity (4-6; −1 modifier) 
  • 
  First time killing a particular type of monster (Innate) 
  • 
  First time enduring physical torture (Innate) 
  • 
  First time enduring psychological torture or a mental or emotional supernatural attack 
  (Innate) 
  • 
  Killing a person (Code) 
  • 
  Learning a monster harmed a person when you could have stopped it but didn’t (Code) 
  • 
  Putting the well-being or autonomy of a monster over that of a person (Code) 
  
  Low Integrity (1-3; −2 modifier) 
  • 
  First time torturing a particular type of monster (Innate) 
  • 
  Torturing a person (Innate) 
  • 
  Suffering a significant loss (e.g. a loved one, a home) at the hands of the supernatural or 
  because of the Vigil (Innate) 
  • 
  Gaining or bestowing power from an obviously monstrous source (Code) 
  • 
  Betraying a fellow hunter (Code) 
  Breaking Points and Tiers 
  When a hunter joins a compact or conspiracy, she’s joining a likeminded group of people just as 
  obsessed and driven as she is. Together, they agree on certain rules of engagement with the 
  Vigil, whether unspoken or written. members of the Lucifuge vow to use the power of their own 
  monstrous blood to strike back at the darkness. Network Zero tacitly encourages members to 
  expose the truth as blatantly as they dare. Upholding these agreements sometimes means 
  violating the Code — after all, exposing the truth may sound noble, but it also gets people killed, 
  and hunters of demonic heritage struggle with questions of how human they really are every day. 
  For many, these hard choices are simply what they signed up for. 
  Hunters are nothing if not resourceful, though. A character who runs afoul of this conundrum 
  can, if she chooses, dedicate herself to the creed of her compact or conspiracy so completely that 
  her Code shifts to accommodate it. When she reaches a moment of truth, the evil she decides is 
  lesser may forever change the compromises she’s willing to make to get the job done. 
  Systems: A tier-one hunter character experiences breaking points as above. At tiers two and 
  three, whenever a character would suffer a Code breaking point in direct pursuit of the Vigil, she 
  may instead trade that breaking point out permanently for a new Code tenet specific to her 
  compact or conspiracy, which is always at low Integrity on the breaking point scale. She may 
  only do this once. The player and Storyteller should work together to come up with an 
  appropriate new breaking point that embodies the character’s commitment to her organization. 
  A hunter whose Code deviates from that of the majority of her brethren is hard to trust; if a 
  player trades out a breaking point this way, she suffers a −3 penalty on Social rolls to deal with 
  any hunter who’s not part of her compact or conspiracy. 
  The Code and Switching Memberships 
  Characters may switch their compacts and conspiracies. While it affects their 
  membership, it does not impact the hunter’s definition of the Code. Just because a 
  hunter joins The Long Night after hunting with Network Zero doesn’t automatically 
  mean their beliefs have changed to reflect their new membership. When a character 
  switches membership to a different compact or conspiracy, let the player discover 
  what happens to the Code through roleplay. Then, should they suffer a breaking 
  point, they may reexamine their feelings and redefine the Code to reflect their 
  commitment to the new group. 
  Attributes 
  
  Every character possesses nine Attributes that measure their innate capabilities, split into three 
  categories: Mental, Physical, and Social. If a game rule refers to a “Social roll,” or a “Mental 
  action,” that means the dice rolled will include the appropriate Attribute category. Each dot 
  represents one die you’ll add to your roll.  
  One dot in an Attribute reflects below-average capacity. Two dots represent the human average. 
  Three and four reflect a high level of competency, while five reflects the height of human 
  potential in that arena. 
  Mental Attributes 
  Mental Attributes reflect your character’s acuity, intellect, and strength of mind.  
  Intelligence  
  Intelligence is your character’s raw knowledge, memory, and capacity for solving difficult 
  problems. This may be book smarts or a wealth of trivia.  
  Attribute Tasks: Memorizing (Intelligence + Composure, instant action) 
  Wits 
  Wits represents your character’s ability to think quickly and improvise solutions. It reflects your 
  character’s perception and ability to pick up on details.  
  Attribute Tasks: Perception (Wits + Composure, reflexive action) 
  Resolve 
  Resolve is your character’s determination, patience, and sense of commitment. It allows your 
  character to concentrate in the face of distraction and danger or continue doing something in 
  spite of insurmountable odds.  
  Attribute Tasks: Resisting coercion (Resolve + Stamina, reflexive action) 
  Physical Attributes 
  Physical Attributes reflect your character’s bodily fitness and acumen.  
  Strength 
  Strength is your character’s muscular definition and capacity to deliver force. It affects many 
  physical tasks, including most actions in a fight.  
  Attribute Tasks: Breaking a barrier (Strength + Stamina, instant action), Lifting objects (Strength 
  + Stamina, instant action) 
  Dexterity 
  Dexterity is your character’s speed, agility, and coordination. It provides balance, reactions, and 
  aim.  
  Attribute Tasks: Keeping balance (Dexterity + Composure, reflexive action) 
  Stamina 
  Stamina is your character’s general health and sturdiness. It determines how much punishment 
  your character’s body can handle before it gives up.  
  Attribute Tasks: Staying awake (Stamina + Resolve, instant action) 
  
  Social Attributes 
  Social Attributes reflect your character’s ability to deal with others.  
  Presence 
  Presence is your character’s assertiveness, gravitas, and raw appeal. It gives your character a 
  strong bearing that changes moods and minds.  
  Attribute Tasks: Good first impressions (Presence + Composure, instant action) 
  Manipulation 
  Manipulation is your character’s ability to make others cooperate. It’s how smoothly she speaks 
  and how much people can read into her intentions.  
  Attribute Tasks: Poker face (Manipulation + Composure) 
  Composure 
  Composure is your character’s poise and grace under fire. It’s his dignity, and ability to remain 
  unfazed when harrowed.  
  Attribute Tasks: Meditation (Resolve + Composure, extended action) 
  Skills 
  While Attributes represent innate ability, Skills reflect behaviors learned and honed over a 
  lifetime. A character can learn them through practice or from a book. Similarly to Attributes, 
  Skills are divided into Mental, Physical, and Social categories.  
  A Skill without dots means your character is deficient or barely capable. Skills with a single dot 
  reflect a cursory training. Two dots are sufficient for professional use. Three is a high level of 
  competency. Four is outstanding, and five is absolute mastery of the discipline. 
  Each Skill lists sample actions; these lists are common acts and are by no means comprehensive. 
  Further, each action suggests dice pools, but it’s important to look at the context of the scene and 
  apply the best Attribute + Skill combination for the events at hand. Also, remember that 
  equipment and environmental modifiers can shift a dice pool. Each Skill lists some sample 
  equipment and factors that could enhance its usage. 
  A Skill Specialty is a tightly focused area of expertise attached to each Skill. If a Specialty 
  applies to your roll, add a die. Multiple Specialties may apply to a single roll, within reason. If 
  you find yourself going to great lengths to justify a Specialty, it probably shouldn’t apply. 
  Multiple suggestions are offered for each Skill; you will add Skill Specialties in the next step. 
  Mental Skills 
  Mental Skills are largely learned, as opposed to practiced. They reflect knowledge and 
  procedure, lore and understanding.  
  Academics 
  Academics is a broad Skill representing your character’s higher education and knowledge of the 
  arts and humanities. It covers language, history, law, economics, and related fields. 
  
  Sample actions: Recall trivia (Intelligence + Academics, instant action), Research (Intelligence + 
  Academics, extended action), Translation (Intelligence + Academics, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Head Librarian, Lawyer, Rare Book Dealer 
  Suggested equipment: Internet access (+1), Library (+1 to +3), Professional consultant (+2) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Anthropology, Art History, English, History, Law, Literature, 
  Religion, Research, Translation 
  Computer 
  Computer is your character’s advanced ability with computing. It allows her to program 
  computers, hack into systems, diagnose major problems, and investigate data. This Skill reflects 
  advanced techniques and tricks; almost everyone can operate a computer for email and basic 
  internet searches. 
  Sample actions: Hacking a system (Intelligence + Computer, extended action, contested if 
  against a security administrator or other hacker), Internet search (Wits + Computer, instant 
  action), Programming (Intelligence + Computer, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Anonymous Network Zero Liaison, Hardcore Computer Gamer, White-Hat 
  Hacker 
  Suggested equipment: Computer system (+0 to +3, by performance), Custom software (+2), 
  Passwords (+2) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Data Retrieval, Graphics, Hacking, Internet, Programming, Security, 
  Social Media 
  Crafts 
  Crafts reflects your character’s knack with creating and repairing things. From creating works of 
  art to fixing an automobile, Crafts is the Skill to use. 
  Hunters have options when it comes to crafting and modifying equipment. The system for 
  building equipment and improvising is on p. XX, and optional systems for customizing existing 
  equipment — including vehicles — and setting traps start on p. XX. 
  Sample actions: Appraisal (Wits + Crafts, instant action), Counterfeit item (Intelligence + Crafts, 
  instant action), Create art (Intelligence + Crafts, instant action), Repair item (Wits + Crafts, 
  instant action) 
  Sample contacts: Custom Weapons Expert, Neighborhood Mechanic, Police Sketch Artist 
  Suggested equipment: Point of reference (+1), Quality materials (+2), Tools (+1 to +3, depending 
  on utility and specialty), Well-equipped workplace (+2) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Automotive, Cosmetics, Fashion, Forging, Graffiti, Jury Rigging, 
  Painting, Perfumery, Repair, Sculpting 
  Investigation 
  Investigation is your character’s skill at solving mysteries and putting together puzzles. It reflects 
  the ability to draw conclusions, to find meaning out of confusion, and to use lateral thinking to 
  find information where others could not. 
  
  Sample actions: Examining a crime scene (Wits + Investigation, extended action), Solving 
  riddles (Intelligence + Investigation, instant or extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Medical Examiner, Paranormal Blogger, Private Investigator 
  Suggested equipment: Forensic kit (+1), Unrestricted access (+2), Reference library (+2) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Autopsy, Body Language, Crime Scenes, Cryptography, Lab Work, 
  Riddles 
  Medicine 
  Medicine reflects your character’s knowledge of the human body, and of how to bring it to and 
  keep it in working order. Characters with Medicine can make efforts to stem life-threatening 
  wounds and illnesses. 
  Sample actions: Diagnosis (Wits + Medicine, instant action), Treating wounds (Intelligence + 
  Medicine, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Cheiron Group Researcher, Chronic Patient, EMT 
  Suggested equipment: Medical tools (+1 to +3), Trained assistance (+1), Well-stocked facilities 
  (+2) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: First Aid, Pathology, Pharmaceuticals, Physical Therapy, (Specific 
  Types of Monsters), Surgery 
  Occult 
  The Occult Skill is your character’s knowledge of things hidden in the dark, legends, and lore. 
  While the supernatural is unpredictable and often unique, the Occult Skill allows your character 
  to pick out facts from rumor. 
  Sample actions: Identify the sliver of truth (Wits + Occult, instant action), Relate two similar 
  myths (Intelligence + Occult, instant or extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Anthropology Professor, Compact or Conspiracy Mentor, Former Demon 
  Cultist  
  Suggested equipment: Well-stocked library (+2) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Casting Lots, Divination, Hauntings, Phrenology, Specific Types of 
  Monsters, Urban Legends, Exorcisms, Witchcraft 
  Politics 
  Politics reflects a general knowledge of political structures and methodologies, but more 
  practically shows your character’s ability to navigate those systems and make them work the way 
  she intends. With Politics, she knows the right person to ask to get something done. 
  Sample actions: Cut red tape (Manipulation + Politics, extended action), Identify authority (Wits 
  + Politics, instant action), Sully reputations (Manipulation + Politics, extended action) 
  Sample contacts:  Governor’s Personal Assistant, Mob Associate, Political Blogger 
  Suggested equipment: Official position (+1 to +5, by Status) 
  
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Bureaucracy, Church, Compact or Conspiracy Intrigue, Democratic, 
  Local, Monster Societies, Organized Crime, Scandals 
  Science 
  Science is your character’s knowledge and understanding of the physical and natural sciences, 
  such as biology, chemistry, geology, meteorology, and physics. 
  Sample actions: Assess variables (Intelligence + Science, instant or extended action), Formulate 
  solution (Intelligence + Science, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Experimental Physicist, Geology Professor, Mad Inventor 
  Suggested equipment: Reference library (+1 to +3), Well-stocked laboratory (+2) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Physics, Neuroscience, Virology, Alchemy, Genetics, Hematology 
  Physical Skills 
  Physical Skills are those practiced, trained, and learned through action.  
  Athletics 
  Athletics reflects a broad category of physical training and ability. It covers sports, and basic 
  physical tasks such as running, jumping, dodging threats, and climbing. It also determines a 
  character’s ability with thrown weapons. 
  Sample actions: Acrobatics (Dexterity + Athletics, instant action), Climbing (Strength + 
  Athletics, extended action), Foot chase (Stamina + Athletics, contested action), Jumping 
  (Strength + Athletics, instant action, one foot vertically per success) 
  Sample contacts: Neighborhood Skater, Physical Therapist, Yoga Instructor 
  Suggested equipment: Athletic shoes (+1), Rope (+1) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Acrobatics, Archery, Climbing, Jumping, Parkour, Swimming, 
  Throwing 
  Brawl 
  Brawl reflects your character’s ability to tussle and fight without weapons. This includes old-
  fashioned bar brawls as well as complex martial arts. 
  Sample actions: Breaking boards (Strength + Brawl, instant action), Hand-to-hand combat 
  (covered in the combat section, p. XX) 
  Sample contacts: Club Bouncer, Self-Defense Teacher, Sparring Partner 
  Suggested equipment: Brass knuckles (+1) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Boxing, Dirty Fighting, Grappling, Martial Arts, Threats, Throws 
  Drive 
  Drive is the Skill to control and maneuver automobiles, motorcycles, boats, and even airplanes. 
  A character can drive a car without Drive dots; the Skill relates to moments of high stress, such 
  as a high-speed chase or trying to elude a tail. It’s assumed that most modern characters have a 
  basic ability to drive. Drive can also reflect your character’s skill with horseback riding, if 
  appropriate to her history. 
  
  Sample actions: Impressive maneuvering (Dexterity + Drive, instant action), Pursuit (Dexterity + 
  Drive, contested action), Tailing (Wits + Drive, contested action) 
  Sample contacts: Bush Pilot, Mechanic, Street Racer 
  Suggested equipment: Performance vehicle (+1 to +3) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Defensive Driving, Evasion, Off-Road Driving, Motorcycles, 
  Pursuit, Stunts 
  Firearms 
  Firearms reflects your character’s ability to identify, maintain, and otherwise use guns. This Skill 
  covers everything from small pistols, to shotguns, to assault rifles, and anything else related.  
  Sample actions: Firearms combat (see p. XX for more on how firearms combat works) 
  Sample contacts: Gun store owner, Local law enforcement, Sharpshooter 
  Suggested equipment: See p. XX for a full list of firearms 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Handguns, Rifles, Shotguns, Trick Shots 
  Larceny 
  Larceny covers intrusion, lockpicking, theft, pickpocketing, and other (generally considered) 
  criminal activities. This Skill is typically learned on the streets, outside of formal methods. 
  However, stage magicians and other entertainers learn these skills as part of their repertoire. 
  Sample actions: Bypass security systems (Dexterity + Larceny, extended action), Lockpicking 
  (Dexterity + Larceny, extended action), Pickpocketing (Dexterity + Larceny, contested action) 
  Sample contacts: Parole Officer, Shady Pawn Shop Owner, Three-Card Monte Dealer 
  Suggested equipment: Crowbar (+1), Crowded area (+2), Lockpicks (+2), Partner in crime (+1) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Breaking and Entering, Concealment, Lockpicking, Pickpocketing, 
  Safecracking, Security Systems, Sleight of Hand 
  Stealth 
  The Stealth Skill reflects your character’s ability to move unnoticed and unheard, or to blend into 
  a crowd. Every character approaches Stealth differently; some use distraction, some disguise, 
  and some are just hard to keep an eye on.  
  Sample actions: Losing a tail (Wits + Stealth, contested action), Shadowing (Dexterity + Stealth, 
  contested action) 
  Sample contacts: Bow Hunter, Burglar, Lookout from a Former Job 
  Suggested equipment: Binoculars (+1), Dark clothing (+1), Smokescreen (+2), Spotters (+1) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Camouflage, Crowds, In Plain Sight, Rural, Shadowing, Stakeout, 
  Staying Motionless 
  Survival 
  Survival represents your character’s ability to live off the land. This means finding shelter, and 
  food, and otherwise procuring the necessities for existence. This can be in a rural or urban 
  environment.  
  
  Sample actions: Foraging (Wits + Survival, extended action), Hunting (for animals, Wits + 
  Survival, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Homeless Person, Off-the-grid Survivalist, Scout Master 
  Suggested equipment: Survival guide (+1), Survival knife (+1) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Foraging, Hunting, Navigation, Shelter, Weather 
  Weaponry 
  Weaponry is the ability to fight with hand-to-hand weapons, from swords, to knives, to baseball 
  bats, to chainsaws. If the intent is to strike another and harm him, Weaponry is the Skill. 
  Sample actions: Attacking another (see p. XX for more on Weaponry combat) 
  Sample contacts: Fencing Instructor, Gang Member, Martial-Arts Enthusiast 
  Suggested equipment: See p. XX for a full list of weapons 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Chains, Clubs, Improvised Weapons, Spears, Swords 
  Social Skills 
  Animal Ken 
  Animal Ken reflects your character’s ability to train and understand animals. With Animal Ken, 
  your character can charm beasts or even rile them to violence, under the right circumstances. 
  Sample actions: Animal training (Manipulation + Animal Ken, extended action), Cowing an 
  animal (Presence + Animal Ken, contested action) 
  Sample contacts: Cat Lady, Rodeo Horse Trainer, Zoo Veterinarian 
  Suggested equipment: Treats (+1), Whip (+1) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Canines, Felines, Reptiles, Calming, Training 
  Empathy 
  Empathy represents your character’s ability to read and understand others’ feelings and 
  motivations. This helps discern moods or read deceptive behavior in discussion. It is not 
  inherently sympathetic; one can understand another’s positions without agreeing with them. 
  Sample actions: Finding someone’s pain (Wits + Empathy, contested action), Sense deception 
  (Wits + Empathy, contested action), Soothing nerves (Manipulation + Empathy, instant action) 
  Sample contacts: Shoulder to Cry On, Police Profiler, Psych Student 
  Suggested equipment: Muted clothing (+1), Relaxing environment (+2) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Calming, Emotion, Lies, Motives, Personalities, Specific Types of 
  Monsters 
  Expression 
  The Expression Skill reflects your character’s ability to communicate. This Skill covers written 
  and spoken forms of communication, journalism, acting, music, and dance. 
  
  Sample actions: Composing (Intelligence + Expression, extended action), Performance (Presence 
  + Expression, instant action) 
  Sample contacts: Investigative Journalist, Political Speech Writer, Reclusive Poet 
  Suggested equipment: Quality instrument (+1 to +3) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Dance, Drama, Journalism, Musical Instrument, Performance Art, 
  Singing, Speeches 
  Intimidation 
  Intimidation reflects your character’s ability to influence others’ behavior through threats and 
  fear. It could mean direct physical threats, interrogation, or veiled implications of things to come. 
  Sample actions: Interrogation (Wits + Intimidation, contested action), Stare down (Presence + 
  Intimidation, contested action) 
  Sample contacts: Barroom Tough Guy, High-Powered Executive, Police Interrogator 
  Suggested equipment: Fearsome tools (+2), Gang colors (+2), Isolated room (+1) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Direct Threats, Interrogation, Stare Down, Torture, Veiled Threats 
  Persuasion 
  Persuasion is your character’s ability to change minds and influence behaviors through logic, 
  fast-talking, or appealing to desire. It relies on the force of your character’s personality to sway 
  the listener. 
  Sample actions: Fast-talk (Manipulation + Persuasion, extended action), Firebranding (Presence 
  + Persuasion, instant action), Seduction (Manipulation + Persuasion, extended action) 
  Sample contacts: Car Salesman, Speech Coach, Trial Lawyer 
  Suggested equipment: Designer clothing (+1 to +3), Reputation (+2) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Confidence Scam, Fast-Talking, Inspiring, Sales Pitch, Seduction, 
  Sermon 
  Socialize 
  Socialize reflects your character’s ability to present herself well and interact with groups of 
  people (or monsters). It reflects proper (and setting-appropriate) etiquette, customs, sensitivity, 
  and warmth. A character with a high Socialize is the life of the party. 
  Sample actions: Carousing (Manipulation + Socialize, instant action), Fitting in (Wits + 
  Socialize, instant action), Getting attention (Presence + Socialize, instant action) 
  Sample contacts: Diplomat, Drinking Buddy, Society Matron 
  Suggested equipment: Drugs (+1), Knowing people (+1), Money (+1 to +5) 
  Specialties: Bar Hopping, Church Lock-in, Dress Balls, Formal Compact or Conspiracy 
  Ceremonies, Frat Parties, Political Fundraisers, The Club 
  Streetwise 
  
  The Streetwise Skill is your character’s knowledge of life on the streets. It tells her how to 
  navigate the city, how to get information from unlikely sources, and where she’ll be (relatively) 
  safe. If she wants to get something on the black market, Streetwise is how. 
  Sample actions: Finding a shortcut (Wits + Streetwise, instant action), Working the black market 
  (Manipulation + Streetwise, instant action) 
  Sample contacts: Bartender in a Rough Part of Town, Drug Dealer, Undercover Cop 
  Suggested equipment: Burner phone (+1), Known nickname (+2), Valuable contraband (+1 to 
  +3) 
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Black Market, Gangs, (Monster Type) Territories, Navigation, 
  Rumors, Undercover 
  Subterfuge 
  Subterfuge is the ability to deceive. With Subterfuge, your character can lie convincingly, project 
  hidden messages in what she says, hide motivations, and notice deception in others.  
  Sample actions: Disguise (Wits + Subterfuge, instant action), Lying (Manipulation + Subterfuge, 
  contested action) 
  Sample contacts: Con Artist, Crooked Politician, Out-of-work Actor  
  Suggested equipment: Costume supplies (+2), Fake ID (+1),  
  Suggested Skill Specialties: Detecting Lies, Doublespeak, Hiding Emotion, Little White Lies, 
  Misdirection 
  Merits 
  Lacking the tremendous innate powers of their targets, hunters rely on their own capabilities as 
  well as their social networks in order to even the odds. Merits represent additional benefits a 
  hunter may possess to help them hunt. Often, hunters must weigh the costs of tracking a monster 
  in broad daylight, hacking into a security system, or breaking a fellow hunter out of jail. 
  Before making their final selection, it is strongly recommended that players coordinate with their 
  fellow players and Storyteller. Merits often look good in the text, but their benefits may not be 
  apparent to your group until you mull over how they’ll be used in your game. Merits may also be 
  selected independently of the character’s tier. 
  Style Merits 
  Merits marked as Style Merits allow access to specialized maneuvers. Each maneuver is a 
  prerequisite for the next in its sequence. So, if a Style Merit has a three-dot and four-dot 
  maneuver, you must purchase the three-dot maneuver before accessing the four-dot. 
  Sanctity of Merits 
  While Merits represent assets, innate traits, characters, and other items that support your 
  character in your chronicle, most Merits are out-of-character resources that are functions of 
  character creation and advancement. Merits often represent things that can be lost, stolen, 
  destroyed, etc. Retainers can be killed. Mentors can get impatient and stop dispensing wisdom. 
  So, while Merits may represent temporary facets of your character, most Merit dots continue to 
  
  exist. At the end of any chapter where your character has lost Merits, you can replace them with 
  another Merit.  
  For example, say your character has a three-dot Retainer, a collector of occult artifacts you’ve 
  paid handsomely for information. One day, that collector purchases a haunted locket and is 
  murdered by a spirit of vengeance. At the end of the chapter, you may reallocate the three 
  Retainer dots. You may decide to find an exorcist, or you may opt to purchase dots in the Safe 
  Place Merit, to reflect your character’s choice to rest and recover after losing such a valuable 
  ally. How you distribute the three dots is entirely up to you; you may use them to purchase three 
  separate Merits or concentrate on one. 
  When replacing a Merit, consider what makes sense in the story. Pursue the new Merit during the 
  course of the chapter if possible and make the new tie meaningful to your character.  
  With Storyteller permission, you may “cash in” a Merit voluntarily and replace it with 
  Experiences (p. XX). This should not be used to purchase a Merit, take advantage of its benefits, 
  and then cash it out for something else. But if a Merit’s run its course and no longer makes sense 
  for your character, you may use those points elsewhere. 
  Merits such as Ambidextrous, Eidetic Memory, and the various Fighting Styles reflect abilities 
  and knowledge your character has, and therefore shouldn’t be cashed in or replaced. Then again, 
  if an Ambidextrous character loses his left hand, exceptions can be made. 
  For the Player: Switching Compacts or Conspiracies 
  Your character selects which compact or conspiracy to which you belong to during 
  character creation. Over time, however, you may decide your character want to 
  break ties with that organization and join a different group. The ability to switch is 
  ultimately up to the Storyteller and must reflect the fiction. If you are a member of 
  the Lucifuge, for example, you cannot suddenly “stop” being part of that 
  conspiracy.  
  Switching compacts or conspiracies is difficult by design. If this is allowed in your 
  tier-two or -three chronicle, you must adjust your Status dots to reflect your new 
  membership. For example, if you are a three-dot member of the Aegis Kai Doru 
  and want to join the Cheiron Group, your dots do not automatically transfer to your 
  new conspiracy. Remaining dots may be reallocated to other Merits or cashed in 
  for Experiences. However, you may not repurchase Status in your new group with 
  those Experiences. If you want more Status, you must earn it through roleplay. 
  Mental Merits 
  Area of Expertise (•) 
  Prerequisites: Resolve •• plus one Skill Specialty 
  Effect: Your character is uncommonly specialized in one area. Choose a Specialty to assign to 
  this Merit. Forgo the +1 bonus afforded by a Specialty in exchange for a +2. 
  Back Road Atlas (•) 
  Prerequisites: Wits •• and Drive •• or Athletics •• 
  
  Effect: Your character has a knack for memorizing local back roads, shortcuts, detours, and 
  other routes that don’t pop up on a digital map or GPS system. All rolls that require you to travel 
  discreetly to escape an antagonist’s notice receive a +2 bonus. Additionally, your hunter has the 
  Edge in a chase scene (p. XX) provided you’re not on highways or main streets.  
  Back Road Atlas most often applies to vehicular travel but can just as easily apply to foot or bike 
  chases as well. However, there must be a visible road or path for you to follow.  
  Drawback: This Merit does not apply to trackless wilderness. It applies to any area in which the 
  character has travelled; to employ this Merit for unfamiliar streets, the character must make a 
  successful Intelligence + Wits or Drive roll after reviewing a physical or digital map to commit 
  the routes to memory. 
  Danger Sense (••) 
  Effect: You gain a +2 modifier on reflexive Wits + Composure rolls for your character to detect 
  an impending ambush. 
  Your character’s reflexes are honed to the point where nothing’s shocking 
  Direction Sense (•) 
  Effect: Your character has an innate sense of direction and is always aware of their location. 
  They always know which direction they’re facing, and never suffer penalties to navigate or find 
  their way out — even when trapped in a haunted house or labyrinthine cave. Provided your 
  character is conscious, they can accurately estimate how far they’ve traveled and in roughly what 
  direction, regardless of the clues they have at their disposal. 
  Eidetic Memory (••) 
  Effect: Your character recalls events and details with pinpoint accuracy. You do not have to 
  make rolls for your character to remember past experiences. When making Intelligence + 
  Composure (or relevant Skill) rolls to recall minute facts from swaths of information, take a +2 
  bonus. 
  Encyclopedic Knowledge (••) 
  Effect: Choose a Skill. Due to an immersion in academia, pop culture, or a hobby obsession, 
  your character has collected limitless facts about the topic, even if they have no dots in the Skill. 
  You can make an Intelligence + Wits roll at any time your character is dealing with her area of 
  interest. On a successful roll, the Storyteller must give a relevant fact or detail about the issue at 
  hand. Your character knows this fact, but you must explain within the scope of your character’s 
  background why she knows it. For example, for Encyclopedic Knowledge: Medicine: “Do you 
  remember that time on that show, when the doctor said it doesn’t manifest before puberty?” 
  Fast Reflexes (• to •••) 
  Prerequisites: Wits ••• or Dexterity ••• 
  Effect: +1 Initiative per dot. Your character’s reflexes impress and astound; she’s always fast to 
  react. 
  Good Time Management (•) 
  Prerequisite: Academics •• or Science •• 
  
  Effect: Your character has vast experience managing complex tasks, keeping schedules, and 
  meeting deadlines. When taking an extended action, halve the time required between rolls. 
  Gut Feeling (••) 
  Prerequisites: Occult •• 
  Effect: Deep down, your character knows when something’s out of place. They might not 
  suspect the supernatural is to blame, but their gut tells you when something’s otherworldly or 
  unnatural. After reviewing testimony, photographs, or other forms of evidence, you can 
  determine the presence of the supernatural and trace it back to it source. Receive +2 to Occult-
  based rolls during an investigation. 
  Drawback: Hunters who peer deep into the shadows can’t look away. During an occult-based 
  investigation, the hunter suffers from the Obsessed Condition until the case is solved. 
  Holistic Awareness (•) 
  Prerequisites: Survival ••• or Medicine •  
  Effect: Your character is skilled at non-traditional healing methods. While life-threatening 
  wounds are beyond their abilities, they can provide simple relief and basic medical care with 
  natural means. They know what herbs can stem an infection, and what minerals will stave off a 
  minor sickness. Unless their patient suffers wound penalties from lethal or aggravated wounds, 
  they do not need traditional medical equipment to stabilize and treat injuries. With access to 
  woodlands, a greenhouse, or other source of diverse flora, a Wits + Survival roll allows your 
  character to gather all necessary supplies. 
  Indomitable (•••) 
  Prerequisites: Resolve •••, Occult ••  
  Effect: Your character possesses an iron will and are firmly grounded in the real world. The 
  powers of the supernatural do not shake their resolve, and they are resistant to a monster’s 
  attempts to scare or manipulate them. They’ve learned how to stand up to a vampire’s mind 
  control, how to thwart a warlock’s charms, andf how to ignore a ghost’s scares. Any time a 
  supernatural creature uses a Dread Power to influence your character’s thoughts or emotions, add 
  two dice to your pool to contest their action. If the roll is resisted, the Storyteller subtracts two 
  dice from the monster’s pool. 
  This Merit only applies to a monster’s Dread Powers and does not affect non-supernatural forms 
  of manipulation. 
  Investigative Aide (•) 
  Prerequisites: Chosen Mental Skill at •••+ 
  Effect: Your character has a knack for applying a certain area of expertise to an investigation. 
  Choose a Mental Skill when purchasing this Merit; when making rolls to Uncover Clues (see p. 
  XX), they achieve exceptional success on three successes instead of five. As well, Clues that 
  come from their use of that Skill start with one additional element. 
  Natural Tinkerer (••) 
  Prerequisites: Wits •••, Crafts ••• 
  
  Effect: Your character has an affinity for piecing together useful equipment out of piles of junk. 
  Whether it’s a natural aptitude or something they’ve developed over time, their inventions come 
  in handy when they least expect it. Ignores penalties for using improvised materials or 
  equipment, as well as penalties involved in making scratch repairs. Additionally, the Storyteller 
  may adjust the cost of your spare parts, depending upon the components involved. 
  Language (•) 
  Effect: Your character is skilled with an additional language beyond her native tongue. Choose a 
  language each time you buy this Merit. Your character can speak, read, and write in that 
  language. 
  Library (• to •••) 
  Effect: Your character has access to a plethora of information about a given topic. When 
  purchasing this Merit, choose a Mental Skill. The Library covers that purview. On any extended 
  roll involving the Skill in question, add the dots in this Merit. 
  This Merit can be purchased multiple times, to reflect different Skills. Additionally, its benefits 
  can be shared by various characters, with permission. 
  Professional Training (• to •••••) 
  Effect: Your character has extensive training in a select profession. When choosing this Merit, 
  choose or create a Profession for your character (see the sidebar). Then, mark the two Asset 
  Skills on your character sheet. The advantages of Professional Training relate directly to those 
  Asset Skills when applicable.  
  Networking (•): At the first level of Professional Training, your character builds connections 
  within her chosen field. Take two dots of Contacts relating to that field. 
  Continuing Education (••): With the repeated efforts in her field of choice, your character tends 
  toward greater successes. When making a roll with their Asset Skills, they benefit from the 9-
  again quality. 
  Breadth of Knowledge (•••): Due to their advancement in their field, they’ve picked up pieces 
  of information and skills unique to their work. Choose a third Asset Skill and take two 
  Specialties in your character’s Asset Skills. 
  On-the-Job Training (••••): With the resources at their disposal, your character has access to 
  extensive educational tools and mentorship. Take a Skill dot in an Asset Skill. Whenever you 
  purchase a new Asset Skill dot, take a Beat. 
  The Routine (•••••): With such extensive experience in their field, their Asset Skills have been 
  honed to a fine edge, and they’re almost guaranteed at least a marginal success. Before rolling, 
  spend a Willpower point to apply the rote action quality to an Asset Skill. This allows you to 
  reroll all the failed dice on the first roll. 
  Special: The term profession is deliberately defined loosely. So long as it has Skills that are 
  employed regularly and a community of similarly dedicated individuals that can be consulted for 
  advice and tradecraft, any field may potentially qualify for this Merit.  
  Tactical Insight (••) 
  Prerequisites: Wits •••, Survival •• or Streetwise •• 
  
  Effect: Your character has a keen eye for reading body language and can anticipate where an 
  antagonist might strike. You’ve quickly scouted the field of battle and are crystal clear on what 
  you should do next. Once per session, after Initiative has been decided, you may roll Wits + 
  Survival or Streetwise. On a success, you may choose when you’d like to take your turn. On an 
  exceptional success, you may also Dodge as a free action. 
  Tolerance for Biology (•) 
  Prerequisites: Resolve ••• or Medicine •• 
  Effect: Most people turn away at the sight of blood, other bodily fluids, or exotic biology. Your 
  character has seen enough that nothing turns their stomach. When other characters must resist 
  shock or physical repulsion from the disgusting and morbid, your character stands their ground. 
  You do not need to make Composure, Stamina, or Resolve rolls to withstand the biologically 
  strange. This doesn’t mean your character is immune to fear; they’re just used to nature in all its 
  nasty forms. 
  Trained Observer (•, or •••) 
  Prerequisites: Wits ••• or Composure ••• 
  Effect: Your character has spent years in the field, catching tiny details and digging for secrets. 
  They might not have a better chance of finding things, but they have a better chance of finding 
  important things. Any time you make a Perception roll (usually Wits + Composure), you benefit 
  from the 9-again quality. With the three-dot version, you get 8-again. 
  Physical Merits 
  Ambidextrous (•••) 
  Effect: Your character does not suffer the −2 penalty for using their off hand in combat or to 
  perform other actions. 
  Cover Tracks (•) 
  Prerequisites: Survival •• or Stealth •• 
  Effect: Sometimes, a hunter needs to cover their tracks to avoid being caught by the security 
  guard or worse — by a monster. From obscuring their route through a muddy alleyway to wiping 
  up fingerprints, hunters with this Merit know how to make it seem as if they were never there. 
  The player makes an Intelligence + Survival or Stealth roll after leaving a specific location. On a 
  success, your character automatically wipes all physical traces of a desired target’s movement 
  after they’ve left the scene. Each success covers a different target’s tracks. On an exceptional 
  success, all traces of suspicious movement are automatically erased. Leftover successes cannot 
  be banked and are immediately discarded. 
  This Merit’s effects does not erase significant damage (cracked TV screen) or pieces of evidence 
  (bullet holes in walls or corpses) from a scene. 
  Drawback: This sought-after ability is known to the supernatural. Monsters may attempt to 
  manipulate or charm the character to Cover Tracks for them. The player may resist this attempt 
  with a Wits + Resolve roll.  
  Crack Driver (•• or •••) 
  Prerequisites: Drive ••• 
  
  Effect: Your character’s an ace at the wheel, and nothing shakes their concentration. When 
  tightly focused on driving and keeping the car safe, add their Composure to any rolls including 
  Drive. Any rolls to disable your character’s vehicle suffer a penalty equal to their Composure as 
  well. With the three-dot version, once per turn you may take a Drive action reflexively. 
  Double Jointed (••) 
  Prerequisite: Dexterity ••• 
  Effect: Your character might have been a contortionist or spent time practicing yoga. She can 
  dislodge joints when need be. She automatically escapes from any mundane bonds without a roll. 
  When grappled, subtract her Dexterity from any rolls to overpower her, as long as she’s not 
  taking any aggressive actions. 
  Face in the Crowd (••) 
  Effect: Your character has an ordinary and unremarkable appearance. You can blend into a 
  crowd and make it difficult for witnesses to accurately recall you. Your character receives a +3 
  bonus on any rolls involving tailing or evading in a crowded place; due to your natural 
  anonymity, antagonists trying to find you suffer a −3 penalty to such attempts.  
  Drawback: This Merit is used in place of the Striking Looks Merit. Face in the Crowd does not 
  make the hunter invisible, just harder to find. Monsters may utilize Dread Powers or other senses 
  to track the hunter down. 
  Fleet of Foot (• to •••) 
  Prerequisites: Athletics •• 
  Effect: Your character is remarkably quick and runs far faster than their frame suggests. They 
  gain +1 Speed per dot, and anyone pursuing them suffers a −1 per dot to any foot-chase rolls. 
  Hardy (• to •••) 
  Prerequisites: Stamina ••• 
  Effect: Your character’s body goes further than it rightfully should. Add one die per dot 
  purchased in this Merit to any rolls involving the resistance of disease, poison, deprivation, 
  unconsciousness, or suffocation. 
  Iron Stamina (• to •••) 
  Prerequisites: Stamina ••• or Resolve ••• 
  Effect: Each dot eliminates a negative modifier (on a one-for-one basis) when resisting the 
  effects of fatigue or injury. For example: A character with Iron Stamina •• is able to ignore up to 
  a −2 modifier brought on by fatigue. The Merit also counteracts the effects of wound penalties. 
  So, if all of your character’s Health boxes are filled (which normally imposes a −3 penalty to 
  their actions) and they have Iron Stamina •, those penalties are reduced to −2.  
  This Merit cannot be used to gain positive modifiers for actions, only to cancel out negative 
  ones. 
  Last Stand •• 
  Prerequisites: Resolve ••• or Stamina •••  
  
  Effect: Once per session, your character has a burst of adrenaline. Your sheer determination to 
  shake off your injuries and get back into the hunt gives them superhuman strength. With a 
  successful Wits + Resolve or Wits + Stamina roll on your turn the character may immediately 
  attempt a penalty-free action of your choice.  
  Lucky Charm (•) 
  Prerequisites: Resolve •, Occult • or Academics • 
  Effect: When the chips are down and all seems lost, hunters sometimes need a reason to keep 
  fighting. Lucky Charm represents a symbol into which the hunter has put their faith. Its presence 
  steadies their nerves, strengthens their resolve, and gives them an edge.  
  Lucky Charm is a Merit that represents a physical object the character favors. It might be a cross, 
  pentacle, four-leaf clover, coin, amulet, worry stone, favored weapon, etc. This object boosts the 
  character’s resolve in dire situations. Provided the hunter is wearing or holding their Lucky 
  Charm, you may make a Resolve + Composure roll once per session at the beginning of a scene 
  for a maximum of two per session. 
  Roll Results 
  Success: Conditions affecting the character’s mental state do not affect them for the remainder of 
  the scene. 
  Exceptional Success: Conditions affecting the character’s mental state do not affect them for the 
  remainder of the session. 
  Failure: No positive or negative effect. 
  Dramatic Failure: The character believes their luck has backfired and obtains a Condition 
  relevant to the scene at the Storyteller’s discretion. 
  Drawback: A Lucky Charm may be lost, damaged, stolen, or destroyed. When a Lucky Charm 
  is no longer in the character’s possession, the Sanctity of Merits rule applies. 
  Masked Scent (•) 
  Prerequisites: Survival •• or Streetwise •• 
  Effect: Experienced hunters know all mortals have a scent dangerous predators know how to 
  track. A hunter with this Merit is adept at masking their scent to prevent an antagonist from 
  catching up with them during a chase (see p. XX). On a successful Wits + Survival or Streetwise 
  roll, the character finds something nearby (mud, blood, swamp water, garbage, sewage, oil, etc.) 
  to throw their pursuer off their trail. The characters have the Edge (p. XX) and gain a +1 
  modifier to all rolls during the chase. 
  Quick Draw (•) 
  Prerequisites: Wits •••, a Specialty in the weapon or fighting style chosen 
  Effect: Choose a Specialty in Weaponry or Firearms when you purchase this Merit. Your 
  character has trained in that weapon or style enough that pulling the weapon is their first reflex. 
  Drawing or holstering that weapon is considered a reflexive action and can be done any time his 
  Defense applies. 
  Relentless (•) 
  
  Prerequisites: Athletics ••, Stamina ••• 
  Effect: Your character will not stop running, whether away from a pursuer or toward prey. In 
  any chase (see p. XX) your opponents must achieve two additional successes against yours to 
  catch or elude them. 
  Robust Health (••) 
  Prerequisites: Survival •••  
  Effect: Whether due to extensive training, a lifetime spent recovering from injuries, or a quirk of 
  genetics, a hunter with this Merit heals quicker than the average person. To heal their injuries, 
  you may roll Intelligence or Dexterity + Survival instead of Medicine.  
  Sleight of Hand (••) 
  Prerequisites: Larceny ••• 
  Effect: Your character can pick locks and pockets without even thinking about it. They can take 
  one Larceny-based instant action reflexively in a given turn. As well, their Larceny actions go 
  unnoticed unless someone is trying specifically to catch them. 
  Social Merits 
  Allies (• to •••••) 
  Effect: Allies help your character. They might be friends, employees, associates, or people your 
  character has blackmailed. Each instance of this Merit represents one type of ally. This could be 
  an organization, a society, a clique, or an individual. Examples include the police, a secret 
  society, criminal organizations, unions, local politicians, or the academic community. Each 
  purchase has its own rating. Your character might have Allies (Local 543) ••, Allies (609 Style 
  Gang) •••, and Allies (Barrens Community College) •. Each dot represents a layer of influence in 
  the group. 
  One dot constitutes small favors and passing influence. Three offers considerable influence, such 
  as the police overlooking a misdemeanor charge. Five dots stretches the limits of the 
  organization’s influence, as its leaders put their own influence on the line for the character. This 
  could include things such as massive insider trading or fouling up a felony investigation. No 
  matter the request, it has to be something that organization could accomplish. 
  The Storyteller assigns a rating between one and five to any favor asked. A character can ask for 
  favors that add up to their Allies rating without penalty in one chapter. If they extend their 
  influence beyond that, their player must roll Manipulation + Persuasion + Allies, with a penalty 
  equal to the favor’s rating. If the roll is successful, the group does as requested. 
  Failed or successful, the character loses a dot of Allies. This dot may return at the end of the 
  chapter (see Sanctity of Merits, p. XX.) On a dramatic failure, the organization resents them and 
  seeks retribution. On an exceptional success, they don’t lose the dot. 
  One additional favor a character can ask of their Allies is to block another character’s Allies, 
  Contacts, Mentor, Retainer, or Status (if they know the character possesses the relevant Merit). 
  The rating is equal to the Merit dots blocked. As before, no roll is necessary unless the target’s 
  Merit exceeds the character’s Allies. If the block succeeds, the character cannot use the Merit 
  during the same chapter. 
  
  Alternate Identity (•, ••, or •••) 
  Effect: Your character has an alternate identity. The level of this Merit determines the amount of 
  scrutiny to which it holds up. At one dot, the identity is superficial and unofficial. For example, 
  your character uses an alias with a cheap, basic, forged driver’s license. Only the most cursory 
  examinations will be fooled; they haven’t established the necessary paperwork to even approach 
  a bureaucratic background check, let alone pass one. At two dots, they’ve supported their 
  identity with paperwork and identification. It’s not likely to stand up to extensive research, but 
  it’ll turn away private investigators, internet hobbyists, and even minor arrests or court 
  proceedings. At three dots, the identity can pass a thorough inspection. The identity has been 
  deeply entrenched in relevant databases, with subtle flourishes and details to make it seem real, 
  even to trained professionals. 
  Additionally, the Merit reflects time the character has spent honing their persona — learning to 
  respond automatically to an assumed name, having a life story ready, and other common tricks 
  for maintaining a false persona. At one or two dots, they gain +1 to all Subterfuge rolls to defend 
  the identity. At three dots, they gain +2. 
  This Merit can be purchased multiple times, each time representing an additional identity. 
  Barfly (••) 
  Prerequisite: Socialize •• 
  Effect: Your character is a natural in bars and taverns and often gets invited to fancy cocktail 
  lounges, private parties, or VIP areas where other characters wouldn’t normally be welcome. 
  Whereas most characters would require rolls to blend into social functions they’re unfamiliar 
  with, you don’t. You are a natural partier who blends into a backyard BBQ with brews and 
  burgers just as easily as you do at anEDM club. Rolls to identify you as an outsider suffer your 
  character’s Socialize rating as a penalty. 
  Contacts (• to •••••) 
  Effect: Contacts provide your character with information. Each dot in this Merit represents a 
  sphere or organization the character can leverage for more intel. For example, a character with 
  Contacts ••• might have Reporters, Bankers, and Local Homeless for connections. Contacts do 
  not provide services, only information. This may be face to face, via email, by telephone, or even 
  by séance. 
  Garnering information via Contacts requires a Manipulation + Social Skill roll, depending on the 
  method the character uses, and the relationship between the characters. The Storyteller should 
  give a bonus or penalty, dependent on how relevant the information is to that particular Contact, 
  whether accessing the information is dangerous, and if the character has maintained good 
  relations with the Contact by paying them, performing favors, or keeping them safe. These 
  modifiers should range from −3 to +3 in most cases. If successful, the Contact provides the 
  information. 
  One use of a Contact is to dig dirt on another character. A Contact can find another character’s 
  Social Merits, and any relevant Conditions (Embarrassing Secret is a prime example.) A 
  character can have more than five Contacts, but the Merit’s rating is limited to five, for the 
  purposes of Allies blocking. 
  Custom Gear Broker (• to •••) 
  
  Prerequisites: Socialize ••  
  Effect: Your character is known locally, or throughout their compact or conspiracy, as the one to 
  see when a hunter needs hard-to-find modifications and strange equipment. She might do the 
  work herself, or simply act as intermediary, like an under-the-table pawn shop for custom gear.  
  Once per chapter, you may swap out any piece of equipment of an Availability equal to your 
  character’s dots in this Merit for any other of the same Availability or lower, without a roll. 
  Additionally, once per story you may treat another Merit’s rating as one higher per dot in this 
  Merit, to a maximum of five total dots, for purposes of acquiring custom gear. This usually 
  benefits Resources, but could apply to others as appropriate, such as Allies or Status. 
  Fast-Talking (• to •••••, Style) 
  Prerequisites: Manipulation •••, Subterfuge •• 
  Your character talks circles around listeners. They speak a mile a minute, and often leaves their 
  targets reeling but nodding in agreement. 
  Always Be Closing (•): With the right leading phrases, your character can direct a mark to say 
  what they want, when they want. This trips the mark into vulnerable positions. When a mark 
  contests or resists your character’s Social interactions, apply a −1 to their Resolve or Composure. 
  Jargon (••): Your character confuses their mark using complex terminology. You may apply one 
  relevant Specialty to any Social roll you make, even if the Specialty isn’t tied to the Skill in use. 
  Devil’s Advocacy (•••): Your character often poses arguments with which they don’t agree in 
  order to challenge a mark’s position and keep them from advancing the discussion. You can 
  reroll one failed Subterfuge roll per scene. 
  Salting (••••): Your character can position themselves so a mark pursues a non-issue or 
  something unimportant to them. When your character opens a Door using conversation 
  (Persuasion, Subterfuge, Empathy, etc.) you may spend a Willpower point to immediately open 
  another Door. 
  Easy Mark (•••••): Your character can take advantage of their mark’s greed and zeal. When the 
  mark does particularly well, it’s because your character was there to set them up, and to 
  subsequently tear them down. If a target regains Willpower from their Vice while your character 
  is present, you may immediately roll Manipulation + Subterfuge to open a Door, regardless of 
  the interval or impression level. 
  Inspiring (•••) 
  Prerequisite: Presence ••• 
  Effect: Your character’s passion inspires those around them to greatness. With a few words, they 
  can redouble a group’s confidence or move them to action. Make a Presence + Expression roll. A 
  small group of listeners levies a −1 penalty, a small crowd a −2, and a large crowd a −3. 
  Listeners gain the Inspired Condition. The character may not use this Merit on themselves. 
  Iron Will (••) 
  Prerequisite: Resolve •••• 
  
  Effect: Your character’s resolve is unwavering. When spending Willpower to contest or resist in 
  a Social interaction, you may substitute your character’s Resolve for the usual Willpower bonus. 
  If the roll is contested, roll with 8-again. 
  Mentor (• to •••••) 
  Effect: This Merit gives your character a teacher who provides advice and guidance. They act on 
  your character’s behalf, often in the background, and sometimes without your character’s 
  knowledge. While Mentors can be highly competent, they almost always want something in 
  return for their services. The dot rating determines the Mentor’s capabilities, and to what extent 
  they’ll aid your character. Mentors are not required to know you’re a hunter, nor do they need to 
  be a hunter themselves. 
  When establishing a Mentor, determine what the Mentor wants from your character. This should 
  be personally important to him, and it should reflect on the dot rating chosen. A one-dot Mentor 
  might be incapable of dealing with modern society and want to live vicariously through your 
  character. This might mean you go to them and tell stories of your exploits. A five-dot Mentor 
  wants something astronomical, such as an oath to procure an ancient, cursed artifact that may or 
  may not exist, in order to prevent a prophesized death. 
  Choose three Skills the Mentor possesses. You can substitute Resources for one of these Skills. 
  Once per session, the character may ask their Mentor for a favor. The favor must involve one of 
  those Skills or be within the scope of their Resources. The Mentor commits to the favor (often 
  asking for a commensurate favor in return) and, if a roll is required, the Mentor is automatically 
  considered to have successes equal to his dot rating. Alternately, you may ask the Storyteller to 
  have the Mentor act on your character’s behalf, without their character knowing or initiating the 
  request. 
  Resources (• to •••••) 
  Effect: This Merit reflects your character’s disposable income. Characters are assumed to have 
  basic necessities without Resources unless the player specifically desires otherwise. The dot 
  rating determines the relative amount of disposable funding the character has available, 
  depending on your particular chronicle’s setting. The same amount of money means completely 
  different things in a game set in Beverly Hills compared to one set in the Chicago slums. One dot 
  is a little spending money here and there. Two is a comfortable, middle class wage. Three is a 
  nicer, upper-middle-class life. Four is moderately wealthy. Five is filthy rich. 
  Every item has an Availability rating. Once per chapter, your character can procure an item at 
  her Resources level or lower, without issue. An item one Availability above her Resources 
  reduces her effective Resources by one dot for a full month, since she has to rapidly liquidate 
  funds. She can procure items two Availability below her Resources without limit (within reason). 
  For example, a character with Resources •••• can procure as many Availability •• disposable 
  cellphones as she needs. 
  Retainer (• to •••••) 
  Effect: Your character has an assistant, sycophant, neighbor, servant, or follower on whom they 
  can rely. Establish who this companion is, and how they were acquired. It may be as simple as a 
  paycheck. They might owe your character their life. However it happened, your character has a 
  hold on them. A Retainer is more reliable than a Mentor, and more loyal than an Ally. On the 
  other hand, a Retainer is a lone person, less capable and influential than the broader Merits. 
  
  The Merit’s dot rating determines the relative competency of the Retainer. A one-dot Retainer is 
  barely able to do anything of use, such as a pet that knows one useful trick, or a homeless 
  derelict that does minor errands in exchange for help. A three-dot Retainer is a professional in 
  their field, someone capable in their line of work. A five-dot is one of the best in their class. If a 
  Retainer needs to make a roll, and it’s within their field, double the dot rating and use it as a dice 
  pool. For anything else, use the dot rating as a dice pool. 
  Special: This Merit can be purchased several times to represent multiple Retainers. 
  Safe Place (• to •••••) 
  Prerequisites: Resources • 
  Effect: This Merit represents access to a site where the hunter can rest and recuperate. The Safe 
  Place also acts as a place where the hunter may stash their weapons, relics, and trophies and train 
  for the hunt without fear that someone’s peeking in through their windows to see what they’re up 
  to. The hunter who is attacked in their Safe Place cannot be Surprised (p. XX) even if their Home 
  Security Feature has been disabled. 
  Regardless of dots purchased, a Safe Place gained during character creation also comes with one 
  Feature. Features are building modifications used to accommodate a hunter’s needs. All players 
  may select one Feature during character creation for free. (See Special, below.) They may also 
  propose a new Feature to the Storyteller to meet their needs. Unless otherwise noted, Features 
  may not be installed more than once at a time. 
  Anathema: This Feature is a sigil, ward, or other physical enhancement that repels a specific 
  type of monster as defined by a Dread Power the creature possesses. When this monster attempts 
  to infiltrate the Safe Place, it must make a Wits + Resolve roll. The number of successes required 
  equals the number of dots purchased in the Merit. On a successful roll, the monster suffers −3 on 
  its next attempt to enter. On a failed roll, the monster suffers from an appropriate Tilt 
  (Immobilized or Stunned) and may not attempt entry until it’s resolved. The hunters are free to 
  engage the monster however they see fit. 
  Arsenal: The Arsenal offers hunters additional storage for munitions and provides facilities for 
  repairing and modifying equipment. All rolls involving cleaning, fixing, or improvising 
  equipment enjoy a +2 bonus when the hunter is present. 
  Concealed: Safe Places that are Concealed are impossible to find on a digital or physical map. 
  When installing this Feature, the hunter pulls in some favors, camouflages the exterior, and 
  erases the address from most directories and physical records to obscure its location. Having a 
  Concealed Safe Place doesn’t mean no one can find it, however, but it does make it a lot harder. 
  Characters attempting to track down the Safe Place’s location suffer a −2 to all relevant rolls. 
  Escape Hatch: This Feature provides the Safe Place with an emergency exit. Trapped or fleeing 
  occupants may quickly and covertly escape the premises whenever needed. The location of an 
  Escape Hatch should be clearly stated after purchasing this Feature to avoid confusion. 
  Suggested locations include: garage, attic, basement, etc. Provided the characters reach the 
  Escape Hatch in time with a successful Dexterity + Athletics or Survival roll, they may leave the 
  Safe House without suffering damage caused by environmental hazards (collapsing floors, fire, 
  etc.). 
  
  Infirmary: With this Feature, a Safe Place is stocked with essential medical supplies and 
  functions as a field hospital. Surgical procedures may be performed here without penalty or risk 
  of infection. Medicine rolls receive a +2 bonus, provided the hunter has at least one dot in 
  Medicine. For the purposes of healing and recovering from injury, the Infirmary may be treated 
  as any other hospital provided at least one person with medical training can supervise a patient’s 
  recovery. 
  Home Security: A well-protected Safe Place has basic defenses that may include sophisticated 
  home security systems, reinforced steel doors and hardened locks, or homemade traps and 
  tripwires around the perimeter. This Feature’s strength is tied to dots purchased and reflects the 
  Safe House’s defenses. At one dot of Safe House, intruders suffer a −1 on attempted break-ins 
  conducted through supernatural or non-supernatural means. At five, they take a −5 penalty. 
  Storytellers should note the Home Security Feature is treated as a defense system tied to the Safe 
  House. Depending upon the nature of the system, Home Security may be affected by electrical 
  outages, storms, fire, etc. In the event of a loss, this Feature may be repurchased. 
  Library: The Library is a secure room in the Safe Place loaded with antique books and maps, 
  prized journals, or a protected server filled with digital files. This Feature represents ownership 
  of a substantial collection of useful lore and information beneficial to hunters. A permanent 
  installation, the Library cannot be moved on a whim. Hunters who need to research the occult or 
  track down additional clues on a target gain a +2 to relevant rolls. It should be noted the Library 
  is filled with information and a wealth of important facts; having this data doesn’t automatically 
  mean the hunter has read, translated, or memorized the library’s contents. 
  Special: The Safe Place and its Features are not immune from harm and may be damaged 
  following an attack or through a monster’s use of Dread Powers. When the Safe Place is lost, 
  refer to the Sanctity of Merits rule. If your character’s well-stocked cabin in the woods burns 
  down, for example, you may repurchase the Safe Place Merit to rebuild it or reallocate your dots 
  to a different Merit.  
  Additional Features may be purchased at the cost of two Experiences each after character 
  creation. Hunters may only install one new Feature at a time; doing so takes at least one chapter 
  and may have more requirements at the Storyteller’s discretion. An Arsenal might require a 
  separate Resource expenditure, for instance.  
  If an additional Feature you installed is irreparably damaged, you regain two Experiences. If the 
  primary Feature is destroyed, you may purchase a new Feature but you don’t gain two 
  Experiences for the loss. 
  There is no penalty for remodeling a Safe Place; new Features do not grant a bonus until they are 
  fully installed. 
  Séance Devotee (• to •••••) 
  Prerequisites: Occult •• 
  Effect: Your character knows how to conduct a séance. You understand that sometimes you 
  need willing participants to contact the other side; believers you can rely on to show up at the last 
  minute who’ll free up your fellow hunters during an investigation. Each dot you purchase in this 
  Merit reflects one person who will drop everything to help you perform a séance. Unlike other 
  Merits, you do not have to maintain a close relationship with or reward your participants for their 
  
  service. Just being there, close to the spirits, is thanks enough for them — provided they return 
  home safe. 
  Drawback: A Séance Devotee will be on call and at the character’s disposal unless they suffer 
  from a damaging Tilt (Insane, Insensate) during the night of the séance or Condition that occurs 
  as a result of the contacted spirit attaching itself to the participant. When they get hurt, they are 
  no longer at the character’s beck and call — and the hunter may have to rescue them. 
  Spin Doctor (•) 
  Prerequisites: Manipulation •••, Subterfuge •• 
  Effect: Your character can fast-talk and sell bullshit stories as if they were completely flawless. 
  When suffering from tainted Clues (see p. XX), your character does not ignore successes. 
  Instead, apply a −1 penalty for each relevant tainted Clue. Using a tainted Clue only levies a total 
  −2 penalty with this Merit, which includes the −1 taken in lieu of ignoring successes. 
  Staff (• to •••••) 
  Effect: Your character has a crew of workers or assistants at their disposal. They may be 
  housekeepers, designers, research assistants, animators, cheap thugs, or whatever else makes 
  sense. For every dot in this Merit, choose one type of assistant and one Skill. At any reasonable 
  time, your staff can take actions using that Skill. These actions automatically garner a single 
  success. While not useful in contested actions, this guarantees success on minor, mundane 
  activities. Note that your character may have employees without requiring the Staff Merit; Staff 
  simply adds a mechanical advantage for those groups. 
  Status (• to •••••) 
  Effect: Your character has standing, membership, authority, control over, or respect from a 
  group or organization. This can reflect official standing or merely informal respect. No matter 
  the source, your character enjoys certain privileges within that structure. Hunters can purchase 
  the Status Merit to reflect their organization at each of the three tiers. With a single dot of a 
  conspiracy’s Status, the hunter gains access to the conspiracy’s Endowments. 
  Each instance of this Merit reflects standing in a different group or organization. Your character 
  may have Status (The Luck Gang) •••, Status (Network Zero) ••, and Status (Police) •. Each 
  affords its own unique benefits. As you increase dot ratings, your character rises in prominence 
  in the relevant group. Hunters may have Status in only a single conspiracy, but may belong to a 
  conspiracy and a compact, or multiple compacts. 
  Status only allows advantages within the confines of the group reflected in the Merit. Status 
  (Police) won’t help if your character wants to smuggle drugs to another state, for example. Status 
  provides a number of advantages: 
  Your character can apply her Status to any Social roll with those over whom she has authority or 
  sway. 
  She has access to group facilities, resources, and funding. Depending on the group, this could be 
  limited by red tape and requisitioning processes. It’s also dependent on the resources the 
  particular group has available. 
  She has pull. If she knows a character’s Mentor, Resources, Retainer, Contacts, or Allies, she can 
  block their usage. Once per chapter, she can stop a single Merit from being used, if it’s of a 
  
  lower dot rating than her Status, and if it makes sense for her organization to obstruct that type of 
  person’s behavior. In our Police example, if your character knows a local reporter has Contacts 
  (Police Insider), they may opt to block usage by threatening to reveal the insider if they continue 
  to talk. 
  Each compact and conspiracy offers specialized benefits (starting on p. XX) related to increasing 
  dots in the Status Merit.  
  Drawback: Status requires upkeep, and often regular duties. If these duties are not upheld, the 
  Status may be lost. The dots will not be accessible until the character re-establishes her standing. 
  In our Police example, your character may be expected to work the beat, sit in on additional 
  training, or give an assist to a colleague. 
  Additionally, hunters who dive deep into their conspiracies find it difficult to care or concern 
  themselves with lesser issues. A hunter’s Status in non-conspiracy or -compact organizations is 
  capped at 6 minus her maximum dots in a compact or conspiracy Status. Meaning if she has 
  Ascending Ones Status 4, the maximum rating her Police Status (or any other Status) can be is 2. 
  If increasing her compact or conspiracy Status makes her lose Status in other organizations, the 
  Merit is subject to the Sanctity of Merits, p. XX. 
  Striking Looks (• or ••) 
  Effect: Your character is stunning, alarming, commanding, repulsive, threatening, charming, or 
  otherwise worthy of attention. Determine how your character looks and how people react to that. 
  For one dot, your character gets a +1 bonus on any Social rolls that would be influenced by their 
  looks. For two dots, the benefit increases to +2. Depending on the details, their appearance might 
  influence Expression, Intimidation, Persuasion, Subterfuge, or other rolls. 
  Drawback: Attention is a double-edged sword. Any rolls to spot, notice, or remember your 
  character gain the same dice bonus. Sometimes, your character will draw unwanted attention in 
  social situations. This could cause further complications. 
  Sympathetic (••) 
  Effect: Your character is very good at getting close to other people. Their ability to sympathize 
  with others’ feelings gives them an edge, and helps them get what they want. At the beginning of 
  a Social maneuvering attempt, you may choose to accept a Condition such as Leveraged or 
  Swooned in order to immediately eliminate two of the subject’s Doors. 
  Table Turner (•) 
  Prerequisites: Composure •••, Manipulation •••, Wits ••• 
  Effects: Your character can turn any attempt to leverage their social skills into an opportunity. 
  Any time a character initiates a Social maneuvering action against yours (see p. XX), you may 
  spend a Willpower point to preempt that attempt with one of your own or take another Social 
  action. 
  Tight-Lipped (••) 
  Prerequisites: Resolve •• or higher. 
  Effect: Your character excels at keeping secrets. Gain +2 for Social rolls when being 
  interrogated by non-supernatural means. 
  
  Touchstone (• to •••••) 
  Effect: Your character has an additional Touchstone. (See p. XX.) Dots purchased do not reflect 
  a “stronger” Touchstone or one to whom you’re more attached; they indicate how many 
  Touchstones your hunter has. For example, if your character rekindles a friendship with an ex-
  boyfriend and decides to treat them as a Touchstone, you would allocate one dot. The ex is then 
  treated as your second Touchstone. If, however, they have five ex-boyfriends with whom they’d 
  like to interact, you’d purchase five dots. 
  Special: Purchased Touchstones do not replace a missing primary Touchstone; they count as 
  secondary or additional. This Merit may be purchased multiple times to a maximum of five. 
  Untouchable (•) 
  Prerequisites: Manipulation •••, Subterfuge •• 
  Effect: Your character commits crimes and is always one step ahead of their pursuers. Because 
  of their methodical planning, any roll to investigate them suffers the Incomplete Clue tag (see p. 
  XX) unless it achieves exceptional success. 
  Fighting Merits 
  Some Merits in this section have other Merits as prerequisites. These are refinements of form and 
  additional areas of expertise. For example, Armed Defense requires Defensive Combat. This 
  means you must have one dot in Defensive Combat before buying dots in Armed Defense. 
  Many Fighting Style Merits require a character to sacrifice their Defense. Defense cannot be 
  sacrificed multiple times in a turn; this prevents certain maneuvers from being used together. 
  Armed Defense (• to •••••; Style) 
  Prerequisites: Dexterity •••, Weaponry ••, Defensive Combat: Weaponry 
  You’re able to use a weapon to stop people who are trying to kill you. Often deployed by police 
  officers using riot shields or telescoping batons, it’s just as effective while using a chair leg. 
  Cover the Angles (•): Whenever you take a Dodge action, reduce the Defense penalties for 
  multiple attackers by 1. You can apply your full Defense against the first two attacks, suffer a −1 
  penalty against the third, and so on. 
  Weak Spot (••): Your character swings against their opponent’s arm, rather than their weapon. 
  Use this ability when defending against an armed attacker. If your Defense reduces their attack 
  pool to 0, they’re disarmed. If you Dodge, you disarm your opponent if your Defense roll 
  reduces their attack successes to 0. 
  Aggressive Defense (•••): Anyone careless enough to come near your character is liable to get 
  hurt. When you take a Dodge action, if you score more successes than any attacker, you deal one 
  point of lethal damage to the attacker per extra success. Your weapon bonus doesn’t apply to this 
  extra damage.  
  Drawback: You must spend a point of Willpower and declare that you are using Aggressive 
  Defense at the start of the turn. You cannot combine this maneuver with Press the Advantage or 
  Weak Spot. 
  Iron Guard (••••): Your character is one with their weapon. At the start of each turn, you can 
  choose to reduce your weapon bonus (down to a minimum of 0) to increase your character’s 
  
  Defense by a like amount. If you take a Dodge action, add your full weapon bonus to your 
  character’s Defense after doubling your pool. 
  Press the Advantage (•••••): You create an opening with a block and lash out with a fist or foot. 
  When you’re taking a Dodge action, if your Defense roll reduces the attacker’s successes to 0, 
  you can make an unarmed attack against that opponent at a −2 penalty. Your opponent applies 
  Defense as normal. 
  Drawback: Spend a point of Willpower to make the attack. You can only make one attack per 
  turn in this way. 
  Cheap Shot (••) 
  Prerequisites: Street Fighting •••, Subterfuge •• 
  Effect: Your character is a master at bait and switch and fights dirty. They can glance in an odd 
  direction and prompt their opponent to do the same or step on their toes to distract them. Make a 
  Dexterity + Subterfuge roll as a reflexive action. The opponent’s player contests with Wits + 
  Composure. If you score more successes, the opponent loses their Defense for the next turn. 
  Each time a character uses this maneuver in a scene, it levies a cumulative −2 penalty to further 
  uses since the opposition gets used to the tricks. 
  Choke Hold (••) 
  Prerequisites: Brawl •• 
  If your character can get her grip on someone, they’re putty in her hands. When grappling, your 
  character can use the Choke move: 
  Choke: If you rolled more successes than twice the victim’s Stamina, he’s unconscious for (six − 
  Stamina) minutes. You must first have succeeded at a Hold move. If you don’t score enough 
  successes at first, you can Choke on future turns and total your successes. 
  Note: Choke Hold cannot be used on monsters that don’t need to breathe. 
  Close Quarters Combat (• to •••••; Style) 
  Prerequisites: Wits •••, Athletics ••, Brawl ••• 
  Effect: Your character knows that hitting someone in the face is an easy way to break the little 
  bones in their hand. To that end, they’ve perfected the art of using the environment to hurt 
  people. 
  Firing Lines (•): In some situations, your character’s best option is a tactical retreat — 
  especially if they’ve inadvertently brought a knife to a gunfight. You can run for cover as a 
  reaction to a ranged attack instead of dropping prone. You give up your action for the turn, but 
  your character can get to any cover that’s within twice your Speed. 
  Hard Surfaces (••): Bouncing someone’s head off a urinal, computer monitor, or brick wall is a 
  handy way to increase the amount of hurt inflicted. When your character is grappling someone, 
  you can bounce them off a hard surface with a Damage move. You deal lethal damage, then 
  immediately end the grapple. 
  Armored Coffin (•••): The problem with protection is simple: The very things that protect your 
  opponents can be turned against them. That holds true for body armor just as much as anything 
  else. Sure, it blocks bullets and knives, but get in a clinch and your character’s opponent might as 
  
  well be wearing a straightjacket. When grappling an opponent, add their general armor rating to 
  your dice pool. When they use a Damage move, ignore your opponent’s armor. This technique 
  can’t be used in conjunction with Hard Surfaces. 
  Prep Work (••••): If your character has a second to look around, they can catch someone by 
  surprise almost anywhere. When launching a surprise attack, your Dexterity + Stealth roll 
  becomes a rote action. 
  Drawback: Your character can’t use this Merit to set up sniper attacks — their ambush must use 
  Brawl or Weaponry. 
  Turnabout (•••••): If your character is caught short in a fight, his opponent’s weapon suits him 
  just fine. When they attempt to Disarm their opponent, step the results up one level — on a 
  failure, the opponent drops the weapon. On a success, your character takes possession of their 
  opponent’s weapon. On an exceptional success, your character has the weapon and the opponent 
  takes two points of bashing damage. 
  Defensive Combat (•) 
  Prerequisite: Brawl • or Weaponry •; choose one when this Merit is selected 
  Effect: Your character is trained in avoiding damage in combat. Use her Brawl or Weaponry to 
  calculate Defense, rather than Athletics. Your character can learn both versions of this Merit, 
  allowing you to use any of the three Skills to calculate Defense. However, you cannot use 
  Weaponry to calculate Defense unless she has a weapon in her hand. 
  Heavy Weapons (• to •••••; Style) 
  Prerequisites: Stamina •••, Strength •••, Athletics ••, Weaponry •• 
  Effect: Your character is trained with heavy weapons that require strength, wide range, and 
  follow through more than direct speed and accuracy. This Style may be used with a two-handed 
  weapon such as a claymore, chainsaw, pike, or an uprooted street sign. 
  Sure Strike (•): Your character doesn’t always hit the hardest or the most frequently, but they 
  guarantee a deadly strike when they do hit. You can reflexively remove three dice from any 
  attack dice pool (to a minimum of zero) to add one to your character’s weapon damage rating for 
  the turn. These dice must be removed after calculating any penalties from the environment or the 
  opponent’s Defense. 
  Threat Range (••): Your character’s weapon is immense and keeps opponents at bay. If you opt 
  not to move or Dodge during your turn, any opponent moving into your character’s proximity 
  suffers one lethal damage and a penalty to their Defense equal to your character’s weapon 
  damage rating. This penalty only lasts for one turn. This cannot be used in a turn the character is 
  Dodging. 
  Bring the Pain (•••): Your character’s strikes stun and incapacitate as well as causing massive 
  trauma to the body. Sacrifice your character’s Defense to use Bring the Pain. Make a standard 
  attack roll. Any damage you score with Bring the Pain counts as a penalty to all actions the 
  victim takes during their next turn. So, if you cause four lethal damage, the opponent is at −4 on 
  their next attack. 
  
  Warding Stance (••••): Your character holds her weapon in such a way as to make attacks 
  against her much harder. If her weapon’s drawn, spend a point of Willpower reflexively to add 
  their weapon’s damage rating as armor for the turn. This will not protect against firearms. 
  Rending (•••••): Your character’s cuts leave crippling, permanent wounds. By spending a 
  Willpower point before making an attack roll, her successful attacks cause one level of 
  aggravated damage in addition to her weapon’s damage rating. This Willpower point does not 
  add to the attack roll. 
  Improvised Weaponry (• to •••; Style) 
  Prerequisites: Wits •••, Weaponry • 
  Effect: Your character is good at making do with what they’ve got. Sometimes they’re lucky — 
  if your character’s in a bar, they have a lot of glass bottles, or maybe a pool cue, with which to 
  improvise. They’ve got something like a sixth sense and can find a weapon almost anywhere. 
  For hunters, this Merit can make or break a fight. 
  Always Armed (•): Your character can always get their hands on something dangerous, and they 
  have an instinctive understanding of how to put it to good — and deadly — use. At the start of 
  your turn, make a reflexive Wits + Weaponry roll to grab an object suitable for use as a weapon. 
  (The player is encouraged to work with the Storyteller to determine an appropriate item — a 
  large, jagged rock in the wilderness, for example, or a heavy, glass ashtray with one broken edge 
  in a dive bar.) Regardless of what you pick up, the weapon has no weapon modifier −1 Initiative 
  penalty, Size 1, Durability 2, and Structure 4. On an exceptional success, increase the weapon 
  modifier and Size by 1, but the initiative penalty increases to −2. Whatever your character grabs 
  doesn’t cause them to suffer the normal −1 penalty for wielding an improvised weapon (see p. 
  XX). 
  In Harm’s Way (••): Your character’s got a knack for putting their weapon in the way of an 
  oncoming attack, no matter how small or inappropriate for blocking it might be. While they’re 
  wielding an improvised weapon acquired with Always Armed, you can treat the Structure of 
  your character’s weapon as general armor against a single Brawl or Weaponry attack. Any 
  damage they take inflicts an equal amount of damage to the improvised weapon, bypassing 
  Durability. Your character can use the weapon to attack later in the same turn but can only use 
  this ability when applying his Defense to an attack. 
  Breaking Point (•••): One sure way to win a fight is to hit a monster so hard they don’t get back 
  up, even if that means losing a weapon in the process. When making an all-out attack with an 
  improvised weapon acquired with Always Armed, you can reduce the weapon’s Structure by any 
  amount down to a minimum of 0. Every 2 points of Structure spent in this way adds 1 to the 
  weapon modifier for that one single attack. Declare any Structure loss before making the attack; 
  this Structure is reduced even if the attack does no damage. If the weapon is reduced to 0 
  Structure, it is automatically destroyed after the attack. You can use this technique in conjunction 
  with In Harm’s Way, allowing your character to parry an attack made on a higher Initiative and 
  then go on the offensive, provided that the weapon wasn’t destroyed. 
  Light Weapons (• to •••••; Style) 
  Prerequisites: Wits ••• or Fighting Finesse, Dexterity •••, Athletics ••, Weaponry •• 
  
  Effect: Your character is trained with small, hand-to-hand weapons that favor finesse over raw 
  power. These maneuvers may only be used with one-handed weapons with a damage rating of 
  two or less. 
  Rapidity (•): Your character moves with swiftness to find just the right spot to strike. You can 
  sacrifice your character’s weapon damage rating to add his Weaponry score to his Initiative for 
  the turn. The weapon becomes a zero-damage weapon for the turn. 
  Thrust (••): Your character knows when to defend himself, and when to move in for the kill. At 
  any time, you can sacrifice points of Defense, one for one, to add to attack pools. This cannot 
  happen if you’ve already used Defense in the same turn. If you use this maneuver, you may not 
  sacrifice your full Defense for any other reason. For example, you cannot use Thrust with an all-
  out attack. 
  Feint (•••): With a flourish in one direction, your character can distract an opponent for a 
  cleaner, more effective follow-up strike. For example, if Feinting with a two-damage weapon 
  with three successes, the attack causes no damage. However, your next attack ignores five points 
  of Defense, and causes three extra points of damage. 
  Flurry (••••): Your character moves quickly enough to stab opponents with numerous pricks and 
  swipes in the blink of an eye. As long as your character has their Defense available (if it’s not 
  been sacrificed for another maneuver, or denied from surprise, for example), any character 
  coming into their immediate proximity takes one point of lethal damage. This damage continues 
  once per turn as long as the enemy stays within range, and it occurs on the enemy’s turn. This 
  can affect multiple opponents and cannot be used during a turn in which the character is 
  Dodging. 
  Vital Shot (•••••): Your character can use their smaller weapon to get into an opponent’s 
  defenses and hit where it hurts most. Sacrifice your character’s Defense for the turn to use this 
  maneuver. If the attack roll succeeds, the attack causes one point of aggravated damage, in 
  addition to the damage rating of the weapon. 
  Marksmanship (• to ••••; Style) 
  Prerequisites: Composure •••, Resolve •••, Firearms •• 
  Effect: When prepared and aimed, a gun is an ideal killing machine. Your character has trained 
  to take advantage of the greatest features of a gun, usually a rifle, but this Style can be used with 
  any gun. Because of the discipline and patience required for Marksmanship, your character 
  cannot use her Defense during any turn in which she uses one of these maneuvers. These 
  maneuvers may only be used after aiming for at least one turn. 
  Through the Crosshairs (•): Your character is a competent sniper, able to sit in position and 
  steel her wits. Usually, the maximum bonus from aiming is three dice. With Through the 
  Crosshairs, it’s equal to her Composure + Firearms. 
  Precision Shot (••): With this level of training, your character knows how to effectively disable 
  a victim instead of focusing on the kill. When attacking a specified target, you may reduce your 
  character’s weapon’s damage rating one for one to ignore penalties for shooting a specified 
  target (see p. XX). For example, if your character is using a sniper rifle (four damage weapon) 
  and attacking an arm (−2 to hit), you could choose to use three damage for −1 or two damage to 
  eliminate the penalty entirely. 
  
  A Shot Rings Out (•••): A master sniper, your character has no worries or lack of confidence. 
  She can fire into a crowd and strike a specific target without penalty. If she misses, it’s because 
  her shot goes wide. She will never hit an unintended target. 
  Ghost (••••): Your character has trained to shoot unseen and vanish without a trace. Her 
  Firearms score acts as a penalty on any roll to notice her vantage point, or any Investigation or 
  Perception roll to search the area from where she was shooting. 
  Martial Arts (• to •••••; Style) 
  Prerequisites: Resolve •••, Dexterity •••, Athletics ••, Brawl •• 
  Effect: Your character is trained in one or more formal martial arts styles. This may have come 
  from a personal mentor, a dojo, or a self-defense class. It may have been for exercise, protection, 
  show, or tradition. These maneuvers may only be used unarmed, or with weapons capable of 
  using the Brawl Skill, such as a punch dagger, or a weapon using the Shiv Merit (see below). 
  Focused Attack (•): Your character has trained extensively in striking specific parts of an 
  opponent’s body. Reduce penalties for hitting specific targets by one. Additionally, you may 
  ignore one point of armor on any opponent. 
  Defensive Strike (••): Your character excels in defending herself while finding the best time to 
  strike. You can add 1 or 2 points to your character’s Defense. For each Defense point you take, 
  subtract a die from any attacks you make. This can only be used during a turn in which your 
  character intends to attack. It cannot be used with a Dodge. 
  Whirlwind Strike (•••): When engaged, your character becomes a storm of threatening kicks 
  and punches; nothing close is safe. As long as your character has her Defense available, and is 
  not Dodging, any opponent coming into arm’s reach takes one bashing damage. This damage 
  continues once per turn as long as the enemy stays within range and occurs on the enemy’s turn. 
  If you spend a point of Willpower, this damage becomes two bashing until your next turn. 
  The Hand As Weapon (••••): With this degree of training, your character’s limbs are hardened 
  to cause massive trauma. Her unarmed strikes cause lethal damage. 
  The Touch of Death (•••••): Your character’s mastery has brought with it the daunting power of 
  causing lethal injury with a touch. If she chooses, her unarmed strikes count as weapons with two 
  damage rating. 
  Police Tactics (• to •••; Style) 
  Prerequisites: Brawl ••, Weaponry • 
  Effect: Your character is trained in restraint techniques, often used by law enforcement or 
  security guards. This may reflect formal training, or lessons from a skilled practitioner. 
  Compliance Hold (•): Gain a +2 bonus to overpowering rolls to disarm or immobilize an 
  opponent. 
  Weapon Retention (••): Opponents attempting to disarm your character or turn their weapon 
  against them must exceed your character’s Weaponry score in successes. 
  Speed Cuff (•••): Against an immobilized opponent, your character may apply handcuffs, cable 
  ties, or similar restraints as a reflexive action. 
  
  Unarmed Defense (• to •••••; Style) 
  Prerequisites: Dexterity •••, Brawl ••, Defensive Combat: Brawl 
  Effect: Your character is better at stopping people from hurting them than they are at hurting 
  other people. Maybe they practice a martial art that redirects an opponent’s blows or are just very 
  good at not being where their opponent wants them to be. 
  Like a Book (•): Your character can read their opponents, knowing where they’re likely to 
  strike. When facing an unarmed opponent and not Dodging, increase your character’s Defense 
  by half of his Brawl (round down). 
  Studied Style (••): Your character focuses on reading one opponent, avoiding their attacks and 
  frustrating him. Attacks from that opponent do not reduce your character’s Defense. If your 
  character’s Defense reduces their opponent’s attack pool to zero, their further attacks against you 
  lose the 10-again quality. 
  Redirect (•••): When your character is being attacked by multiple opponents, they can direct 
  their blows against one another. When they Dodge, if their Defense roll reduces an attack’s 
  successes to zero, their attacker rolls the same attack against another attacker of your choice. 
  Drawback: Your character may only redirect one attack in a turn. They cannot redirect an attack 
  against the same attacker. 
  Joint Strike (••••): Your character waits until the last possible second, then lashes out at their 
  opponent’s elbow or wrist as they attack, hoping to cripple his limbs. Roll Strength + Brawl 
  instead of Defense. If you score more successes than your attacker, you deal one point of bashing 
  damage per extra success and inflict either the Arm Wrack or Leg Wrack Tilt (your choice). 
  Drawback: Spend a point of Willpower to use this maneuver. 
  Like the Breeze (•••••): Your character steps to one side as his opponent attacks and gives them 
  enough of a push to send them flying past. When dodging, if your Defense roll reduces an 
  opponent’s attack successes to zero, you can inflict the Knocked Down Tilt. 
  Drawback: Declare that you’re using this maneuver at the start of the turn before taking any 
  other attacks. 
  Supernatural Merits 
  Hunters often run across the supernatural and develop a sensitivity to them. This can be honed 
  through training with a cell, compact, or conspiracy, and sometimes just because the longer you 
  spend with the supernatural, the more like it you become.  
  These Merits require the character to remain human. If she loses her last dot of Integrity or 
  becomes a monster, the Merits disappear. Per the Sanctity of Merits (see p. XX), these Merits 
  can be reallocated. 
  Note that the Children of the Seventh Generation are considered human and may purchase 
  Supernatural Merits, just like any other hunter might. 
  Aura Reading (•••) 
  Effect: Your character has the psychic ability to sense auras, the ephemeral halos of energy that 
  surround all living things. This allows her to perceive a subject’s emotional state, and potentially 
  
  any supernatural nature. The colors of an aura show a person’s general disposition, and the ebbs, 
  flows, tone, and other oddities reveal other influences. Note that your character may not know 
  what she’s looking at when seeing something odd in an aura. For example, she may not know 
  that a pale aura means she’s seeing a vampire, unless she’s confirmed other vampiric auras in the 
  past.  
  To activate Aura Reading, spend a point of Willpower and roll Wits + Empathy minus the 
  subject’s Composure. Perceiving an aura takes an uninterrupted moment of staring, which could 
  look suspicious even to the unaware. For every success, ask the subject’s player one of the 
  following questions. Alternatively, take +1 on Social rolls against the character during the same 
  scene, due to the character’s understanding of their emotional state. 
  • 
  What’s your character’s most prominent emotion? 
  • 
  Is your character telling the truth? 
  • 
  What is your character’s attention most focused on right now? 
  • 
  Is your character going to attack? 
  • 
  What emotion is your character trying most to hide? 
  • 
  Is your character supernatural or otherwise not human? 
  Determine how your character perceives auras. Maybe she sees different hues as different 
  emotions. Perhaps she hears whispers in the back of her mind, reflecting subtle truths about her 
  subject. 
  Drawback: Because of your character’s sensitivity to the supernatural, she sometimes appears to 
  know a little too much. No more than once per chapter, when first meeting a supernatural 
  creature, the Storyteller can roll Wits + Occult for the creature, penalized by your character’s 
  Composure. If successful, they get a strange feeling that your character is aware of their nature. 
  They’re not forced to behave in any particular way, but it could cause complications. 
  Clairvoyance (•••) 
  Effect: Your character can project her senses to another location. She sees, hears, smells, and 
  otherwise experiences the other place as if she were there. This ability requires a point of 
  Willpower to activate, successful meditation, and a Wits + Occult roll. 
  Suggested Modifiers: Has an object important to the place (+1), never been there (−3), scrying 
  for a person and not a place (−3), scrying for non-specific location (−4), spent significant time 
  there (+2), touching someone with a strong connection to the place (+1) 
  Drawback: When choosing this ability, determine how your character can scry. It may be 
  through a crystal ball, through a drug-induced trance, with esoteric computer models, or any 
  other reasonable method. She cannot scry without that tool or methodology. 
  Medium (•••) 
  Prerequisite: Empathy •• 
  Effect: Your character hears the words and moans of the dead. If he takes the time to parse their 
  words, he can interact with them verbally.  
  
  Your character has more than just a knack for knowing when ephemeral beings are lurking 
  nearby: He can reach out and make contact with them. By conducting a ritual, meditating, or 
  otherwise preparing to commune with the unseen, and succeeding at a Wits + Occult roll, he 
  temporarily increases the relevant Condition one step along the progression from nothing to 
  Anchor or Resonance to Open. (see p. XX for more on Conditions as they relate to ephemeral 
  entities). The effect lasts until he spends a Willpower point, but if an Influence was used to 
  progress the Condition further, doing so only reduces it by one step. 
  Drawback: Speaking with ghosts can be a blessing, but your character cannot turn the sense off 
  any more than he can turn off his hearing. The character hears the words of the dead any time 
  they’re present. Once per game session, usually in a time of extreme stress, the Storyteller may 
  deliver a disturbing message to your character from the other side. You must succeed in a 
  Resolve + Composure roll or gain either the Shaken or Spooked Condition. 
  Psychometry (•••) 
  Effect: Psychometry is the psychic ability to read impressions left on physical objects. Your 
  character can feel the emotional resonance left on an item or perceive important events tied to a 
  location with this ability. The ability automatically homes in on the most emotionally intense 
  moment tied to the item.  
  Spend a Willpower point to activate Psychometry. The successes scored on a Wits + Occult roll 
  determine the clarity of the visions. For each success, you may ask a single yes or no question of 
  the Storyteller, or one of the following questions. For questions pertaining to specific characters, 
  if your character hasn’t met the person in question, the Storyteller may simply describe them. 
  • 
  What’s the strongest emotion here? 
  • 
  Who remembers this moment the most? 
  • 
  Am I missing something in this scene? 
  • 
  Where was this object during the event? 
  • 
  What breaking point caused the event? 
  Suggested Modifiers: Character has read impressions from this item before (−2), important 
  event happened more than one day ago (−1), more than one week ago (−2), more than one month 
  ago (−3), more than one year ago (−5), item was used in a violent crime (+2), item is only 
  vaguely tied to the event (−2), spirits pertaining to the event are nearby (+3) 
  Drawback: Once per chapter, the Storyteller can force a Psychometry vision any time an 
  important place is visited, or an important item is touched. This doesn’t require a roll or a 
  Willpower point to activate. The Storyteller can give any information pertaining to the event in 
  question. Additionally, the Storyteller can impose one Condition relevant to the event. 
  Unseen Sense (••) 
  Effect: Your character has a “sixth sense” for a type of supernatural creature, chosen when you 
  buy the Merit. For example, you may choose Unseen Sense: Vampires, or Unseen Sense: Fairies. 
  The sense manifests differently for everyone. Her hair stands on end, she becomes physically ill, 
  or perhaps she has a cold chill. Regardless, she knows something isn’t right when she is in the 
  immediate proximity of the appropriate supernatural being. Once per chapter, the player can 
  accept the Spooked Condition (p. XX), in exchange for which the character can pinpoint from 
  
  where the feeling is coming. If the target is using a power that specifically cloaks its supernatural 
  nature, however, this does not work (though the Condition remains until resolved as usual). 
  
  OPENING FICTION 
  May 7th, 2016, at approximately 7:30 p.m., we made contact on Tinder with an individual named 
  Michael S. In his profile, he appears to be a Caucasian male, blonde with strong bone structure, 
  somewhere between his late 30s and early 40s. During our brief conversation, he divulged he 
  was a professor of medieval literature at the University of Oxford, an Akira Kurosawa 
  aficionado, and a mediocre cook. The aforementioned data matches our reports and several 
  verified testimonies.  
  We — or more specifically, Lesley, our designated Judas — have set up a date for next weekend. 
  • • •  
  May 14th, 2016. It was always going to have to be Lesley. She was precisely his type. Young, 
  with an Eastern-European cast to her features and something coquettish about the crooked line of 
  her mouth. We dressed her for innocence: knee-length skirt and cardigan, opaque tights and 
  sensible flats — attire reminiscent of a college student. No weapons were provided. Instead, I, 
  Bishop, and Saraswati would function as back-up.  
  At approximately 8:20 p.m., Lesley convened with Michael S. for their scheduled encounter. He 
  appeared exactly as he did in his photos; at worst, slighter paler, as though the winter had 
  blanched his skin. Michael S. brought flowers for Lesley. Red carnations, with a sheaf of baby’s 
  breath. She accepted them genially, threading her arm through his proffered elbow, before they 
  meandered into a side street.  
  Through the microphone we’d taped to the inside of Lesley’s collar, we heard their conversation: 
  LESLEY: “Thanks for coming out on, well, such relatively long notice.” 
  MICHAEL: “The pleasure’s mine. Tinder moves too quickly for an old man like me, so I 
  appreciate this opportunity to savor a courtship.” 
  LESLEY: “Why go on Tinder, then?” 
  MICHAEL: *hesitation* “Because I am told that it is the only way to meet people.” 
  LESLEY: “I suppose. There are other dating sites, too.” 
  MICHAEL: “None with the same immediacy of contact. Too much stalking. Too much circling 
  profiles, like a wolf out of time. I suppose I’m just hopelessly complicated. 
  LESLEY: “I can get behind that. Anyway, I was thinking — do you want to do Chilango, or a 
  bar, or – have you eaten yet?” 
  MICHAEL: “I have. But there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to eat.” 
  LESLEY: “Oh! I’m sorry! In that case—” 
  MICHAEL: “No. Please. If you haven’t had dinner yet, I’d be more than happy to accompany 
  you. I like watching people eat.” 
  We followed the pair to the local Chilango without incident. Michael S., despite rumor, behaved 
  in an exemplary fashion, and the meal concluded without event. The two did not extend their 
  encounter past dinner. Instead, they exchanged chaste kisses on the cheek before separating, 
  Michael S. citing the need to attend family obligations.  
  
  • • • 
  May 16th, 2016. Two more incidents were reported on campus. Michael S. made contact again, 
  this time through Telegram. Since the initial encounter, we have maintained close 
  communications with the man, building a rapport and exchanging anecdotes. Throughout these 
  conversations, Michael S. made no overtures towards a second encounter.  
  So we did it for him. 
  • • • 
  May 21st, 2016. We spent the afternoon rigging a rental coupe for this evening’s encounter. 
  IEDs beneath the seats, inside the headboard, and in the trunk. Anywhere they’d go. Whatever 
  space remained we then lined with pressurized canisters of kerosene. 
  Once prepared, we had Lesley drive to the gates of the university, where Michael S. waited. The 
  latter evidenced mild surprise at the manifestation of the vehicle, but Lesley was able to convince 
  him of its innocuousness. Said it was easier than walking. Satiated, Michael S. entered the car. 
  Together, they proceed through the motions of early courtship: small talk, an uninteresting 
  movie, drinks in a bar.  
  At the end of the night, Michael S. acted as we’d predicted. He asked to see her again. Here, 
  Lesley escalated with a direct proposition, which her counterpart laughingly accepted. Because 
  of course, he fucking would. 
  The two agreed to make their way back to Michael S.’ accommodations, although not before first 
  picking up essentials from Lesley’s apartment. Michael S. exhibited neither interest nor 
  suspicion as Lesley exited the car.  
  Then, I hit the button. 
  For the purpose of minimizing collateral damage, we chose a site slightly outside the center of 
  Oxford. We’d scouted the location beforehand. The few people who lived in the wide cul-de-sac 
  worked nights; the worst they’d come home to was property damage.   
  Which was a pity, I think, because the resultant bonfire was beautiful.  
  The explosion sent the car geysering upward into flames and black twists of ruined metal. It spun 
  over itself to land on its roof with a brittle shriek of broken glass. It took our target two long 
  minutes to writhe from the wreckage, skin boiled away in places, yet somehow still impossibly, 
  horrifically alive.  
  Or at least whatever passed for alive with his kind. 
  Lesley and I didn’t waste any time. I came out of my car, swinging a bag of bullets on one 
  shoulder, a shotgun over the other. Lesley emerged with an axe. There was nothing supernatural 
  about what we did next. It was old-fashioned human brutality: hosannas of lead, heavy steel 
  through the point. Michael S. didn’t go down easy. But between our weapons and another 
  canister of gasoline, we succeeded. 
  Don’t know if you knew, but old bones burn bright. 
  The public nature of our assault, however, required us to evacuate sleepy Oxford as quickly as 
  humanly possible. As of the time of writing, our cell is fine. No one is injured or at risk of 
  
  discovery. We have temporarily relocated to [REDACTED], but we have every intention of 
  coming back.  
  In the meantime, should you wish to continue the fight for us, included is an inventory of 
  everything we’ve learned: names, social-media accounts, peekyou reports, whatever other dirt 
  we could dig up. 
  To our knowledge, there are over 100 members of the undead living on the campus. Let’s not 
  talk about the rest of Oxford.  
  Be careful.  
  It is easy to assume that your proximity to London puts you in the aegis of the local compacts. 
  But London is subsumed by its own problems and frankly, that city doesn’t give a rat’s arse 
  about anyone else.  
  You’re on your own out here. 
  But you already knew that. 
  END OPENING FICTION 
  Chapter Four: Rules of the Hunt 
  “Being brave means to know something is scary, difficult, and dangerous, and 
  doing it anyway, because the possibility of winning the fight is worth the chance 
  of losing it.” 
  — Emilie Autumn, American Singer-Songwriter 
  This chapter contains the basic rules for playing Hunter: The Vigil. It also includes additional 
  rules that expand your options when your characters take risks and work together in the name of 
  the Vigil. 
  Rolling Dice 
  When your character is trying to accomplish something and the outcome is in doubt, you roll a 
  number of 10-sided dice. The result of that roll determines whether your character succeeds and 
  accomplishes their goal, or whether they fail and don’t do what they set out to. Failure doesn’t 
  mean “nothing happens,” just that your character doesn’t get what they want and they’re in for 
  complications. 
  You might also score an exceptional success or suffer a dramatic failure (p. XX). 
  Dice Pool 
  The number of dice you roll depends on the action your character is taking. Most of the time, it’s 
  the value of one of your Attributes plus one of your Skills, or the value of two different 
  Attributes put together; for example, fast-talking your way past a bouncer might be a roll of 
  Manipulation + Subterfuge, which means you roll a number of dice equal to your Manipulation 
  rating plus your Subterfuge rating. (Sometimes you’ll roll a different pool, but those are special 
  cases the text calls out when necessary.) 
  Circumstantial factors, appropriate equipment (or lack thereof), or opposition from another 
  character can add or subtract dice from the total; see below. 
  
  The total number of dice you roll is called your dice pool. 
  The Storyteller determines the appropriate dice pool based on what you’re trying to do and how 
  you’re trying to do it, using the descriptions of the various traits involved. In the above example, 
  if you explained to the Storyteller that you weren’t trying to lie your way past the bouncer but 
  schmooze her into liking you enough to let you in, the Storyteller might revise the dice pool to 
  Manipulation + Socialize.  
  Most of the actions described in this book tell you what the dice pool should be, but it’s fine to 
  come up with dice pools for other actions on an ad hoc basis. Just try to be fair and consistent — 
  if you decide bashing down a door is Strength + Stamina in one session, it should always be 
  Strength + Stamina unless the situation radically changes. 
  Roll Modifiers 
  Sometimes, fortune favors your character, or they’re packing the right tools for the 
  job. Other times, the odds are stacked against them or they don’t have the right gear 
  at all. The Storyteller should weigh how circumstances or equipment affect a 
  character’s chance of success and assign an appropriate modifier. A slight 
  advantage — picking an old and damaged lock — might be worth a bonus die, 
  while a stressful situation — trying to pick a lock while people are shooting at you 
  — might subtract three dice from your pool.  
  Dice Rolling Basics 
  • 
  Building a Pool: Unless otherwise noted, a dice pool is always Attribute + different 
  Attribute or Attribute + Skill. 
  • 
  Modifiers: Bonuses add the indicated number of dice; penalties remove them. Unless 
  otherwise specified, modifiers never exceed +/−5. Add all bonuses before subtracting penalties. 
  • 
  Successes: Any die showing 8, 9, or 10 counts as a success. 
  • 
  10-again: Any die that shows a 10 is counted as a success, then rerolled. Rerolled dice 
  count successes as normal. Continue counting successes and rerolling as long as you keep rolling 
  10s. 
  Chance Die 
  If penalties ever reduce your dice pool to 0 or fewer dice, roll a single die anyway. This single 
  die is called a chance die, and it follows slightly different rules. 
  Chance Die Basics 
  • 
  Success: A chance die showing a 10 counts as a success. 
  • 
  No 10-again: Do not reroll 10s on chance dice. 
  • 
  Dramatic Failure: A chance die showing a 1 is a dramatic failure (p. XX). 
  Roll Results 
  Once you’ve rolled all the dice, counted all your successes, and finished any rerolls or other 
  permutations, it’s time to see how your character fared. On most actions, you’ll only worry about 
  
  whether your character succeeded or failed. Sometimes, however, the outcome of an action is 
  more dramatic. 
  Roll Result Basics 
  • 
  Success: 1-4 successes. Your character’s action succeeds. 
  • 
  Exceptional Success: 5+ successes. Your character’s action succeeds and your character 
  gains a beneficial Condition (p. XX). Usually, the Inspired Condition is the most appropriate. 
  Specific actions might have additional effects on an exceptional success. 
  • 
  Failure: 0 successes. Your character’s action fails.  
  • 
  Dramatic Failure: chance die shows a 1. Your character’s action fails and something 
  goes significantly awry. Specific actions might have additional effects on a dramatic failure. 
  Otherwise, the Storyteller decides on an appropriate turn of events. 
  • 
  Voluntary Dramatic Failure: Take a Beat and convert a failure into a dramatic failure, 
  up to once per scene. 
  • 
  Risked Willpower Dramatic Failure: 0 successes for an action on which you risked 
  Willpower (p. XX). Take two Beats and apply the effects of a dramatic failure. 
  Additional Rules 
  These additional rules explain options that are unlocked through various Merits, Endowments, or 
  other rules which intersect with the dice-rolling mechanics. 
  • 
  9-Again: Reroll dice that show 9 or 10, as opposed to just 10. Keep rerolling until you 
  get a result that isn’t a 9 or 10. Certain Conditions, Merits, or other special circumstances may 
  award you 9-again on specific kinds of rolls. If you gain 9-again on a roll that already had that 
  quality, it becomes 8-again instead. 
  • 
  8-Again: Reroll dice that show 8, 9, or 10 — any successful die — and keep rerolling as 
  long as your dice show successes. Certain Conditions, Merits, or other special circumstances 
  may award you 8-again on specific kinds of rolls. If you gain 8-again on a roll that already had 
  that quality, it may become a rote action, at the Storyteller’s discretion. 
  • 
  Extra Successes: Assuming your roll succeeds, you get a number of extra successes 
  added to your total. This permutation mostly applies to weapons, which add their damage bonus 
  as extra successes on your attack roll. 
  • 
  Rote Actions: When you’ve got plenty of training and the steps you need to follow are 
  laid out in front of you, you’ve got a significant chance of success. When you make a roll with 
  the rote quality, reroll any dice that do not show an 8, 9, or 10. If you’re reduced to a chance die 
  on a rote action, don’t reroll a dramatic failure. You may only reroll each die once. Certain 
  Conditions, Merits, or other special circumstances may award you the rote quality on specific 
  kinds of rolls. 
  • 
  Successive Attempts: When you fail a roll, you may be able to try again. Normally, you 
  make successive attempts with your full dice pool. If time is short and the situation is tense, each 
  subsequent attempt instead has a cumulative one-die penalty — so the third time a character tries 
  to break down the door that’s keeping her from chasing her prey, her roll suffers a −2 penalty. 
  Successive attempts do not apply to extended actions. 
  
  • 
  Teamwork: Working together is crucial for hunters fighting to overcome impossible 
  odds. See p. XX for rules about teamwork, as well as special group actions called Tactics. 
  When to Roll Dice 
  You don’t need to roll dice for every action you want to take. If your character isn’t in a stressful 
  situation — nobody’s actively trying to tear his throat open or demolish the building as he works 
  — you don’t need to roll; as long as it’s something your character could reasonably do, he just 
  does it. As a general guideline, roll dice when a success or failure impacts the narrative. 
  When the dice hit the table, the Storyteller should have some idea of what happens if the roll 
  fails or succeeds. Sometimes that’s coded in the rules. If you fail on an attack roll, for example, 
  you don’t deal any damage. Other times, it’s up to the Storyteller. If you fail a roll to jump 
  between buildings to catch a group of necromancers, do you make it but fall on the other side, 
  grab the next building by your fingertips, or plummet to the alley below? 
  Time 
  Time in the story can speed past or slow to a crawl compared to time in the real world. Weeks or 
  months might pass in the space of few words, while a tense negotiation plays out in real-time — 
  or takes even longer. 
  In addition to years, days, hours, and so on, Hunter also uses five units of dramatic time. These 
  build upon one another, from shortest to longest. 
  • 
  Turn — The smallest increment of time, a turn lasts for about three seconds. A character 
  can perform a single instant action and move their Speed in a turn. Turns normally only matter in 
  action scenes, like fights, chases, and other dramatic and stressful situations. 
  • 
  Scene — Much like a scene in a play, a scene in a roleplaying game is the time spent 
  dealing with a single, specific event. The Storyteller frames the scene, describing what’s going 
  on, and it’s up to the players to resolve the event or conflict. A scene might be played out in turns 
  (called an action scene), progress in real-time, or skip forward depending on dramatic necessity. 
  • 
  Chapter (or Session) — A chapter is the collection of scenes that happen during one 
  game session. From the moment you sit down and start playing to the point where you pack up 
  your dice, you’re playing out a chapter of your story. 
  • 
  Story — A story tells an entire tale, following the dramatic arc of a related series of 
  events. It might comprise several chapters or be completed in just one. It has an introduction, 
  rising tension, a number of twists, and a climax that brings things to a conclusion. 
  • 
  Chronicle — The big picture, a chronicle is the collection of interlinked stories that 
  involve your characters. They might be linked by a common theme or overarching plotline, or 
  they may only share characters and locations. As your story progresses, the players and 
  Storyteller work together to create an ongoing chronicle by linking chapters together in thematic 
  and dramatic ways. 
  Actions 
  Hunter: The Vigil rates each action by two criteria: how long it takes to attempt and whether 
  another character opposes it. All actions fall into one category in both arenas: an action might be 
  
  instant and simple (usually just abbreviated to “instant”), extended and contested, or reflexive 
  and resisted, for example. 
  Actions by Time 
  • 
  Instant: The action is resolved in a single roll. Unless otherwise noted, an instant action 
  only takes a few seconds and takes up your turn in an action scene. 
  • 
  Reflexive: The action takes no appreciable time or effort, and is resolved in a single roll, 
  or may not require a roll at all. In an action scene, you can take reflexive actions on other 
  characters’ turns, and reflexive actions don’t take up your turn. Contesting someone else’s action 
  is always reflexive. 
  • 
  Extended: The action requires multiple rolls over time to complete; as such, an extended 
  action is not usually an option in action scenes, unless otherwise noted. 
  Actions by Opposition 
  • 
  Simple: No opposition. Calculate dice pool and roll results as normal. 
  • 
  Contested: Calculate dice pool as normal and roll. The target rolls a dice pool specified 
  by how they contest the action. If your total successes exceed the target’s, your action succeeds; 
  if their total successes exceed yours, your action fails. If you and your target roll the same 
  number of successes, both of you reroll the same pools until someone comes out on top. The 
  exception is when hunters use teamwork; the primary actor always wins ties on contested actions 
  in that case. 
  • 
  Resisted: Calculate dice pool, then apply a penalty equal to one of the target’s Resistance 
  Attributes (Stamina, Resolve, or Composure) or Defense. Roll, and calculate roll results as 
  normal. 
  If you’re not sure whether to use resistance or a contested action, use this guideline: Resistance 
  applies in situations where the number of successes on the roll is an important factor. If what 
  matters is just whether the roll succeeds or not, use a contested action. For example, combat 
  applies Defense as a resistance because the number of successes on the roll determines how 
  badly the attacker messes up his victim. A Tactic that traps a demon uses a contested action, 
  because the number of successes you roll doesn’t matter. 
  Extended Actions 
  Some actions require a great deal of effort over time and represent the sort of project you can 
  abandon and resume later. Such actions are modeled as extended actions, and they’re a little 
  more complex than instant or reflexive actions. 
  When you take an extended action, the Storyteller determines how many total successes you 
  require. Most actions require between five and 20 successes. Five reflects a reasonable action 
  that competent characters can achieve with the right tools and knowledge. Ten represents a 
  difficult action that’s still realistic for a professional in the field. Twenty represents a very 
  difficult action that even a particularly skilled character has trouble pulling off.  
  The Storyteller also determines the interval between rolls. If an action would take weeks to 
  complete, she might consider one roll per week. If it’s likely to take a day’s work, one roll per 
  hour makes for a solid timeframe. 
  
  Once those factors are determined, you make a number of rolls, counting up the total number of 
  successes across all your rolls. If you earn the required number of successes before you run out 
  of time, you accomplish your goal. 
  Extended Action Basics 
  • 
  Multiple Rolls: You roll your dice pool multiple times over the course of the action. 
  Successes earned on all rolls count toward completing the action. 
  • 
  Roll Limit: You can make a total number of rolls equal to your base dice pool for the 
  action, before factoring in any modifiers. The Storyteller may reduce this value if time is short. 
  • 
  Time Interval: Each roll takes a certain amount of time, determined by the Storyteller. 
  • 
  Required Successes: The Storyteller sets the total number of successes required for the 
  action, usually between five and 20. 
  Extended Action Roll Results 
  These apply to each roll of an extended action. Specific extended actions may have additional 
  effects. 
  Success: Add the successes earned on the roll to your running total. Work with the Storyteller to 
  determine what steps your character takes toward his goal. 
  Exceptional Success: Choose one: Reduce the total number of successes required by your 
  character’s Skill dots, reduce the time interval for each following roll by a quarter, or apply the 
  exceptional success result of the entire action when you complete your goal. 
  Failure: You face a setback. The Storyteller offers you a choice: Take a Condition (p. XX) of 
  her choice or abandon the action. You can offer a different Condition if you think it makes sense. 
  If you refuse or cannot agree on a Condition, you lose all accumulated successes. 
  Dramatic Failure: Lose all accumulated successes. In addition, the first roll on a subsequent 
  attempt suffers a two-die penalty. 
  Use the following guidelines to decide when to call for an extended action vs. an instant action 
  that takes a defined amount of time: 
  • 
  Time Pressure: If the hungry ghosts manifest at dusk and the characters need to fix their 
  car before that happens, the question of “how long does it take?” has real stakes and tension. If 
  the characters aren’t under time pressure, extended actions can feel like a lot of tedious rolling 
  for no reason. 
  • 
  Take a Break: Extended actions are best suited for things the character could 
  conceivably abandon for some time and then resume later: fortifying a safehouse or researching a 
  monster, for example. If it’s something that has to be done all in one go, like preparing a magical 
  binding ritual or casing a scene, it’s probably better modeled as an instant action unless time is 
  short. 
  Common Actions 
  The following list represents some of the more common actions characters might undertake in a 
  Hunter: The Vigil game. 
  
  [PRODUCTION: DO A QUICK REFERENCE GRID FOR EACH OF THESE, AS 
  IN COFD CORE P. 70] 
  Argument (Instant and Contested; Intelligence + Expression vs. target’s Resolve + 
  Composure) 
  You try to sway someone with a rational argument. (If arguing with a crowd, use the highest 
  Resolve in the crowd.) (See also Social maneuvering, p. XX.) 
  • 
  Success: They accept the truth (or apparent truth) of your words. 
  • 
  Exceptional: They’re convinced and become recruits to your point of view, though they 
  might change their minds if they find themselves at risk. 
  • 
  Failure: They listen but are ultimately unaffected. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You convince them of quite the opposite. 
  Carousing (Instant; Presence + Socialize or Streetwise) 
  You mix with a group, bringing fancy cocktails and flasks filled with whiskey, and use your gifts 
  to loosen tongues and help strangers feel at ease. 
  • 
  Success: You impress a party-goer for the night who might be willing to whisper secrets 
  or go with you somewhere private. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You make a friend you can contact again. 
  • 
  Failure: You’re a wallflower sipping on a drink in your hand you don’t want. 
  • 
  Dramatic: A faux pas reveals you don’t belong in this social circle, and some people are 
  wondering what you’re really up to. 
  Fast-Talk (Instant and Contested; Manipulation + Subterfuge vs. victim’s Composure + 
  Empathy) 
  You may not be able to win the argument with facts, but you can try to get out of trouble with a 
  little judicious spin. 
  • 
  Success: The other party swallows your story. 
  • 
  Exceptional: The other party believes you so thoroughly they’re even willing to offer a 
  little aid…though they won’t put themselves at any kind of risk. 
  • 
  Failure: The other party doesn’t believe you. 
  • 
  Dramatic: The other party has a good idea what the truth is. 
  Hacking (Extended and Contested; Intelligence + Computer vs. victim’s Intelligence + 
  Computer) 
  You overcome network security and computer passwords to gain access to digital files and 
  resources. 
  • 
  Success: You access the computer or network as though you had proper clearance, but 
  you only have a short time before someone notices. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You access the computer or network, and no one notices until you’ve got 
  what you came for. 
  
  • 
  Failure: You’re locked out of the system and you can’t access anything. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You trip an alarm or corrupt your own flash drive beyond use. 
  Interrogation (Extended and Resisted; Manipulation + Empathy or Intimidation − victim’s 
  Resolve) 
  You try to dig secrets out of a reluctant informant. (See also Social maneuvering, p. XX.) 
  • 
  Success: You get the information you were looking for; one piece per success rolled. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You get the information you were looking for, and the informant is willing 
  to continue cooperating. 
  • 
  Failure: The informant blabs a mix of truth and falsehood — even he may not know the 
  difference. 
  • 
  Dramatic: The informant is so alienated or injured that he no longer reveals information. 
  Intimidation (Instant and Contested; Strength or Manipulation + Intimidation vs. victim’s 
  Resolve + Composure) 
  You try to get someone to do what you want by making them afraid of you. 
  • 
  Success: They’re coerced into helping you. 
  • 
  Exceptional: They develop a lasting fear of you, which could make them easier to coerce 
  in the future. 
  • 
  Failure: They’re unimpressed with your threats. 
  • 
  Dramatic: They don’t take you seriously, even if you knock them around a bit. They 
  won’t be doing what you want. 
  Investigating a Scene (Extended; Intelligence + Investigation) 
  You look for clues to what’s happened in the recent past…or tidy up so that no one else can find 
  them. (See also Investigation, p. XX.) 
  • 
  Success: You find a clue of exactly the sort you need or manage to significantly confuse 
  future investigators. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You find a clue, and know exactly how it fits in, or you leave the scene 
  immaculate and impossible to decipher. 
  • 
  Failure: You find evidence, but it’s damaged and hard to interpret. Or you miss a spot in 
  your clean-up that you won’t find out about until later. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You find clues but you contaminate them, or you leave evidence of your 
  presence. 
  Jumping (Instant; Strength + Athletics – (yards or meters of distance)) 
  To get past an obstacle or out of danger, you leap into the air. 
  • 
  Success: You clear the obstacle or avoid the danger. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You may attempt another instant action in the air or upon landing. 
  
  • 
  Failure: You don’t achieve any significant distance at all — you jump too early, get a 
  false start, or lose your nerve. 
  • 
  Dramatic: The task not only fails, but you lose your balance. 
  Research (Extended; Intelligence + Academics or Occult) 
  Using your existing knowledge, you look for information on a current mystery. (See also Tactics, 
  p. XX.) 
  • 
  Success: You find the basic facts you were looking for. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You find what you were looking for, which leads towards a much bigger 
  score of information. 
  • 
  Failure: You turn up a lot of promising leads, but they’re all dead ends. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You learn something, but it doesn’t help. In fact, it sets you back. If using 
  Occult, this could mean dangerously false assumptions. 
  Shadowing a Mark (Instant and Contested; Wits + Stealth or Drive vs. Wits + Composure) 
  You follow someone, perhaps in the hopes of ambushing them, or of finding out their 
  destination. (See also Tactics, p. XX.) 
  • 
  Success: You follow the mark to his destination. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You find some means by which you can continue following the mark, such 
  as an unlocked entrance into the building he arrived at. 
  • 
  Failure: The mark senses he’s being followed and manages to lose you. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You’re caught, either by the mark or some observer that’s become suspicious 
  of you. 
  Sneaking (Instant and Contested; Dexterity + Stealth vs. Wits + Composure) 
  You’re trying to avoid notice by someone, or something…or multiple somethings. Maybe you 
  want to get into a place undetected. Maybe you’re trying to break out. 
  • 
  Success: You avoid notice and get closer to your goal. 
  • 
  Exceptional: You avoid notice and get away before anyone has another chance to catch 
  you. 
  • 
  Failure: You’re noticed but still have the chance to slip away. 
  • 
  Dramatic: You attract a lot of attention…enough that now it’s going to be hard to get 
  out. 
  [END QUICK REFERENCE] 
  Willpower 
  A hunter’s Willpower represents their determination and ability to go above and beyond what 
  should be possible to achieve their goals. 
  Spending Willpower 
  • 
  Reflexive Action: Unless otherwise specified, spending Willpower is a reflexive action. 
  
  • 
  Roll Bonus: Spend 1 Willpower to gain a three-die bonus on a single dice pool. 
  • 
  Increased Resistance: Spend 1 Willpower to gain +2 to resistance (see above) against a 
  single action. 
  • 
  Other Expenditures: Other abilities may require Willpower expenditure, as noted under 
  their Cost. 
  • 
  Per Turn Limit: Characters may only spend 1 Willpower per turn. 
  Regaining Willpower 
  • 
  Rest: Regain 1 Willpower after a full night’s sleep. 
  • 
  Anchors: Regain full Willpower when meaningfully acting in accordance with your 
  Virtue, up to twice per chapter; regain 1 Willpower when meaningfully acting in accordance 
  with your Vice, up to once per scene (p. XX). 
  • 
  Touchstones: Regain 1 or full Willpower when defending your relationship with your 
  Touchstones (p. XX). 
  • 
  Experiences: Spend 1 Experience (p. XX) to roll Resolve + Composure, with no 
  modifiers. Regain 1 Willpower for each success rolled, up to your maximum Willpower. Even 
  on a failed roll, regain 1 Willpower. 
  • 
  Risking Willpower Successfully: Regain the Willpower you risked on a successful 
  action and one more. (See below.) 
  • 
  Maximum Willpower: Your total Willpower can’t exceed your maximum (p. XX) 
  unless otherwise indicated by a power or Condition. 
  Risking Willpower 
  Lighting a candle against the darkness isn’t easy. By dedicating themselves heart, body, and soul 
  to the Vigil, hunters can call upon reserves of dedication that far surpass anything an ordinary 
  person can muster. Hunters who use Willpower stick their necks out, ignore the voice inside their 
  head screaming for self-preservation, and stand up to powers beyond human ken. 
  A hunter’s player can risk one point of Willpower instead of spending it to enhance a single 
  action, once per scene. They may only do so when the action their character takes is in direct 
  pursuit of the Vigil and carries some risk. The outcome of risking Willpower is determined by 
  the roll results. 
  Examples of eligible actions include: attacking or defending oneself (or others) against a monster 
  in a fight, interrogating a known monster’s minion, sneaking into a monster’s lair or a place that 
  holds information about a known monster, resisting a monster’s powers, and setting a trap for a 
  monster. 
  The following actions are never eligible for risking Willpower: 
  • 
  Perception-based actions and actions to investigate possible monster involvement, unless 
  it’s a Tactic. 
  • 
  Avoiding ambush, resisting toxins or fatigue, and other actions to preserve the hunter’s 
  own safety at the expense of the hunt. However, protective actions on behalf of other people, 
  such as warding someone else’s house against a monster’s entry, are eligible. 
  
  • 
  Activating Endowments. 
  When a player risks Willpower, they may choose two of the following benefits to apply to a 
  single roll: 
  • 
  Gain a three-die bonus. 
  • 
  Achieve exceptional success on three successes instead of five. 
  • 
  Gain +1 to an attack’s weapon damage bonus. 
  • 
  Gain the 9-again quality. 
  • 
  Remove the 10-again quality from an opponent’s roll that contests yours. 
  • 
  Enact a Tactic (p. XX), which counts as two benefits. 
  Risking Willpower Roll Results 
  • 
  Success: In addition to the action’s success, gain one Beat and regain the Willpower you 
  risked plus another point of Willpower, up to your usual Willpower maximum. 
  • 
  Exceptional Success: As success, with the action’s usual exceptional benefits. 
  • 
  Failure and Dramatic Failure: As the action’s usual dramatic failure effects, and you 
  gain two Beats. Your risked Willpower point remains spent. 
  Conditions 
  Conditions represent ways in which the story affects a character, and what they can do to move 
  past those events. Players cannot “buy” Conditions; events in the game apply them and they 
  remain until certain resolution criteria are met.  
  A character can only have one instance of a specific Condition unless each applies to a distinctly 
  different circumstance — for example, they may be Informed about both the occult symbol he 
  stayed up all night to research and the innerworkings of the corporation they infiltrated. Each 
  Condition is resolved independently of each other. Various systems and supernatural powers 
  bring Conditions into play, and the Storyteller can do so based on story circumstances. 
  For a full list of sample Conditions, see p. XX.  
  The listed resolutions for each Condition are the most common ways to end its effects; other 
  actions may also resolve it if they would reasonably cause the Condition’s effects to end. When a 
  character resolves a Condition, the player takes a Beat. However, if a Condition has a natural 
  time limit and then fades away without proper resolution, he doesn’t take a Beat. If a Condition 
  lingers beyond its relevance in the story, the player and Storyteller may agree to simply let it 
  fade. 
  Some Conditions are marked as Persistent. These Conditions last for a long time and can only be 
  resolved permanently with a specific and impressive effort. Once per chapter, a player may gain 
  a Beat when a Persistent Condition impacts their character’s life. 
  Improvising Conditions 
  A Condition typically consists of a modifier between +2 and −2 dice to a certain type of action, 
  or to any action taken with a certain motivation. Conditions can also consist solely of roleplayed 
  
  effects until resolution, such as the Shaken Condition (p. XX), in which the mechanical effect is 
  the resolution. 
  A Condition resolves when the character does something significant to act on it, or when she 
  addresses the original source. The sample Conditions in this book (p. XX) give examples of how 
  to resolve them, but players can also resolve them following the conclusion of an event if the 
  Storyteller feels that makes sense in the story. Resolution criteria for improvised Conditions offer 
  a way for the Storyteller to encourage certain kinds of dramatic action, especially when they 
  want a story point to have lingering effects on characters. For instance, a Condition that resolves 
  when the character deals lethal damage to someone clearly reflects the violent nature of that 
  story point. 
  It’s best to keep the resolution criteria for a new Condition somewhat general, rather than 
  requiring one specific action. For example, a Condition that resolves when the player commits 
  any act of vengeance allows the player flexibility in exactly what the character does, while a 
  Condition that resolves when the character kills a particular person restricts the player’s options. 
  More options are usually better. 
  Exceptional successes are the most common opportunities for creating new Conditions. When 
  none of the given example Conditions seem to apply, or the player has an idea for a different 
  way the momentous event affects their character, Storytellers should feel free to invent a 
  Condition. The Storyteller can also invent Conditions whenever they want to offer Beats for 
  roleplaying significant behavioral or situational shifts, or for some mechanical effect that they 
  want to impose, such as a lingering penalty. 
  Action Scenes 
  Sometimes it’s useful to zoom in on the action and track movements moment by moment. 
  Having a clear understanding of who does what in what order is useful and necessary in a game 
  of Hunter, to prevent misunderstandings regarding who shot first. 
  Action scenes take place when multiple characters take actions in a short (or simultaneous) unit 
  of time. To keep everyone’s actions straight, they proceed by turns in order of Initiative. The 
  most common action scenes are fights but are not limited to combat. They may also extend to 
  tense, dramatic events where the hunters are pressured to act. These might include an escape 
  from a burning haunted house or crumbling mine, a heist to steal a relic from a warlock’s well-
  guarded library, or rescues to save victims trapped by their captors. 
  Turns 
  • 
  What You Can Do: On your turn, move up to your Speed and take one instant action, or 
  move twice your Speed. 
  • 
  How Long It Lasts: A turn is roughly three seconds. If an effect says it lasts “until your 
  next turn,” it lasts until the beginning of your next turn. 
  • 
  Order of Action: Characters involved in an action scene take turns one at a time in order 
  of Initiative, from highest to lowest. 
  • 
  Cycle: Once all characters involved in the scene have acted, the order of action returns to 
  the character with the highest Initiative. Initiative can change from turn to turn, if for instance 
  one character delays his action, or a supernatural power makes a character faster or slower. 
  
  Initiative 
  • 
  Calculating: When you come into the action scene, roll one die and add the result to 
  your Initiative modifier (p. XX). This is the only roll in the game on which you treat the result of 
  the die as a number rather than a success or not. Wielding a weapon inflicts a penalty to Initiative 
  based on the type of weapon (p. XX). 
  • 
  Delaying: You may choose not to act when your turn comes up and instead act at any 
  point later in the scene, even if the order of action resets. When you do act, change your 
  Initiative to the Initiative you acted on for the rest of the scene. 
  • 
  Surprise: If the start of the action might take a character unawares, the Storyteller may 
  call for a surprise roll. Roll the character’s Wits + Composure, possibly contested by an 
  opponent’s relevant dice pool (Dexterity + Stealth for an ambush, Manipulation + Subterfuge if 
  they lull you into a false sense of security, etc.). If the surprised character’s roll fails, they cannot 
  act or apply their Defense until their second turn. 
  Speed  
  Your character’s Speed is the number of yards or meters they can travel in a single turn. This 
  trait is a combination of their Strength, Dexterity, and a species factor that reflects age, physical 
  configuration, Size, and other considerations. The species factor for a human adult is 5; that of a 
  human child is 3. 
  Other species, such as horses and many monsters, have physical configurations that lend 
  themselves to high travel rates. 
  Defense 
  Defense measures your character’s ability to react to danger and mitigate harm to oneself. It’s 
  most often used when violence breaks out but is sometimes used to resist harm from other 
  sources as well. 
  Defense Basics 
  • 
  Resistance: Defense counts as a Resistance Attribute (p. XX) for any rule that interacts 
  with Resistance (e.g. spending Willpower). 
  • 
  Multiple Hazards: In an action scene, each time you resist an action with your Defense, 
  you suffer a cumulative –1 penalty to Defense. This penalty goes away at the beginning of your 
  next turn. You can choose not to resist an action with Defense; if you do, the penalty doesn’t 
  increase. 
  Tilts 
  Tilts apply temporary circumstances to both characters and the environment during action 
  scenes. Outside action scenes, use Conditions instead. 
  Tilts do not grant Beats when they end, but the effects of a Tilt can easily cause a Condition. For 
  instance, a character in a fight gets a handful of road salt flung into his eyes and receives the 
  Blinded Tilt. When the action scene ends, this shifts to the Blind Condition. Resolving this 
  Condition grants a Beat as usual. If the character enters an action scene again before the 
  Condition is resolved, the Blinded Tilt applies again. 
  
  Tilts come in two forms: Personal and Environmental. Personal Tilts only apply to one character 
  and include ways in which that character can overcome the effect. Environmental Tilts affect the 
  whole scene and offer ways for individual characters to mitigate their effects. 
  For a full list of sample Tilts, see p. XX.  
  Violence 
  Few hunters avoid violence for long. Even those who prefer research to rifles come face to face 
  with a monster eventually, and the Code doesn’t like letting threats to humanity walk the streets 
  unchecked. Protecting the innocent usually means spilling blood when the thing you’re 
  protecting them from has claws bigger than your head, and some hunters live for the kill more 
  than anything. Hunters might even come into conflict with each other that can’t be reconciled 
  without them beating the living shit out of each other…and sometimes, other people get in the 
  way of the Vigil, and have to be removed. Below are rules for resolving violent conflict. 
  Intent 
  Everybody wants something out of a conflict. The very first thing you need to do — before 
  worrying about who attacks first — is determine what each character wants to get out of the 
  fight. Boil it down into a simple sentence that starts with the words “I want:” “I want to kill that 
  vampire,” “I want the book Frances is holding,” or “I want to rescue my cellmate.” 
  Declaring Intent 
  • 
  By Violence: Intent must be something achievable by violence within the current scene. 
  • 
  The Price: If your intent doesn’t include causing harm and your character ends up killing 
  someone, lose one Willpower point. 
  Down and Dirty Combat 
  The Storyteller might decide your character can get what they want without focusing on the 
  details of the fight. Maybe they’re picking on a weak antagonist. Maybe the details of the fight 
  aren’t all that important. In these cases, the Storyteller can opt to use Down and Dirty Combat. 
  This system resolves the entire fight in a single roll. If multiple hunters have separate intents, 
  such as one character trying to exorcise a spirit while another beats information out of a flunky, 
  resolve each intent as a separate Down and Dirty Combat action. If the group only has one intent 
  but multiple hunters are participating, they can use teamwork (see p. XX) on the roll. Players and 
  the Storyteller must agree to reduce a fight to Down and Dirty Combat. 
  Action: Instant and contested; takes anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes. 
  Dice Pool: Combat pool (Dexterity + Firearms, Strength + Brawl, or Strength + Weaponry) 
  versus either the opponent’s combat pool (as above) or an attempt to escape (Strength or 
  Dexterity + Athletics).  
  Roll Results 
  Success: Inflict damage equal to the difference in successes + weapon modifier and achieve your 
  intent — including killing, if that was on the table.  
  Exceptional Success: As success and gain 1 Willpower. 
  
  Failure: You don’t achieve your intent. If the opponent rolled a combat pool, suffer damage 
  equal to the difference in successes + opponent’s weapon modifier. Opponent escapes if they 
  want to. 
  Dramatic Failure: The opposite of your character’s intent happens, they’re knocked out, or they 
  suffer other serious consequences. 
  Detailed Fight Scenes 
  When the fight is a significant event in the story, or Down and Dirty Combat doesn’t suit, these 
  rules apply for this type of action scene. 
  Fight-Related Actions 
  The most common action in a fight is to attack. Characters can also dodge or push themselves to 
  the limit, sacrificing Defense for greater effect. 
  Attack 
  All attack actions are instant actions. Unarmed, melee, and thrown attacks are resisted, while 
  ranged attacks and touching an opponent are simple actions. 
  • 
  Unarmed Attack: Strength + Brawl – Defense; bashing damage 
  • 
  Melee Attack: Strength + Weaponry – Defense; lethal damage 
  • 
  Ranged Attack: Dexterity + Firearms; lethal damage 
  • 
  Thrown Attack: Dexterity + Athletics – Defense; lethal damage 
  • 
  Touching an Opponent: Dexterity + Brawl or Dexterity + Weaponry; inflicts no 
  damage. 
  • 
  Damage: A successful attack inflicts damage equal to the number of successes rolled + 
  weapon modifier (p. XX), if any. 
  • 
  Pulling Blows: Set a maximum damage value up to the highest trait in your attack dice 
  pool and grant the target +1 Defense. Your attack cannot inflict more than the maximum damage 
  you set. 
  • 
  Offhand Attack: Take a two-die penalty to attacks made with the character’s non-
  dominant hand. 
  Specified Targets 
  A normal attack is aimed at the target’s center of mass. You can aim for specific body parts by 
  taking a penalty on your attack roll. Attacking a specific body part can bypass armor (p. XX) or 
  inflict a Tilt (p. XX) on the target. Attacks against specified targets aren’t a way to inflict extra 
  damage or instantly kill people; that’s covered by simply rolling a lot of successes on the attack 
  action. 
  The following modifiers assume a target roughly human in size and shape. The Storyteller can 
  adjust these for more unusual targets. 
  • 
  Arm (–2): If damage exceeds victim’s Stamina, inflicts Arm Wrack Tilt. 
  • 
  Leg (–2): If damage exceeds victim’s Stamina, inflicts Leg Wrack Tilt. 
  
  • 
  Head (–3): If damage equals or exceeds victim’s Size, inflicts Stunned Tilt. 
  • 
  Heart (–3): If damage equals or exceeds 5, the attack pierces the victim’s heart. This 
  isn’t instantly fatal but may have special effects against certain monsters (like vampires). 
  • 
  Hand (–4): If the attack deals any damage, inflicts Arm Wrack Tilt. 
  • 
  Eye (–5): If the attack deals any damage, inflicts Blinded Tilt. 
  Dodge 
  Dodging is a reflexive action, but after dodging your character loses their next turn. 
  • 
  Contested Attacks: Attacks made against your character become contested instead of 
  resisted until your next turn. Contest attacks with double your Defense as your dice pool, and 
  unlike a normal contested action, your successes cancel out the attacker’s successes on a one for 
  one basis.  
  • 
  Multiple Attackers: Apply the Defense penalty for multiple attackers before doubling. If 
  your character’s Defense is reduced to 0, roll a chance die. 
  • 
  Dramatic Failure: Defense suffers a –1 penalty until your next turn. 
  Special Maneuvers 
  To enact any of the following instant actions, the character sacrifices their Defense until their 
  next turn. If the character has already lost their Defense, by being surprised or attacked by 
  enough opponents in one turn to reduce their Defense to 0, they cannot take any of these actions. 
  • 
  Charge: Move up to twice your character’s Speed and make an unarmed or melee attack. 
  • 
  All-Out Attack: Make an unarmed or melee attack with a two-die bonus. 
  • 
  Aim: Keep an opponent in your sights with a ranged weapon to gain a one-die bonus per 
  consecutive Aim action on your next attack against that target, to a maximum of three bonus 
  dice. Incompatible with autofire (below). 
  Other Actions 
  These are all instant actions. 
  • 
  Drop Prone/Stand Up: Ranged attacks against prone characters suffer a two-die penalty 
  but unarmed and melee attacks against prone characters gain a two-die bonus if the attacker is 
  standing. 
  • 
  Reload a Weapon: If rounds must be loaded individually, lose Defense until your next 
  turn. 
  • 
  Killing Blow: Inflict damage equal to your attack’s dice pool + weapon bonus. Requires 
  an unconscious, immobilized, or otherwise helpless target. May prompt a breaking point. 
  Unarmed Combat 
  These rules present special cases that come up when fighting without weapons. 
  Bite 
  Biting counts as an unarmed attack action. 
  
  • 
  Damage: Human teeth inflict −1 bashing damage (so an attack that rolls only one success 
  inflicts no damage). Animals and monsters may treat their teeth as weapons, with a bonus 
  between +1 and +4. 
  • 
  Grapple Required: Humans must first grapple an opponent to bite them. 
  Grapple 
  Grappling counts as an unarmed attack action. To start grappling, you have to grab your 
  opponent. 
  • 
  Grab: Make an unarmed attack. On a success, inflict no damage but start a grapple. On 
  an exceptional success, also choose a grapple option to enact reflexively. 
  • 
  One Action: All participants in the grapple act on the highest Initiative among them. The 
  only action they can take is the grappling action. 
  • 
  Grappling: Instant and contested; Strength + Brawl vs. Strength + Brawl. The character 
  with the most successes chooses a grapple option to enact immediately, or two grapple options 
  on an exceptional success. On a tie, the characters continue to grapple but nothing else happens. 
  Grapple Options 
  • 
  Break Free: The grapple ends, and your character may take another instant action 
  immediately. 
  • 
  Control Weapon: Take firm hold of a weapon, either your character’s or her opponent’s. 
  Lasts until your character’s opponent chooses Control Weapon. Required for other grapple 
  options. 
  • 
  Damage: Treat the grapple action as an unarmed attack, inflicting damage equal to your 
  rolled successes. If you have control of a weapon, this counts as a melee attack with the 
  weapon’s modifier. 
  • 
  Disarm: Remove a weapon from the grapple entirely. Requires Control Weapon. 
  • 
  Drop Prone: Throw all participants to the ground. Requires Break Free to stand back up. 
  • 
  Hold: Immobilize an opponent. Both characters lose Defense. 
  • 
  Restrain: Your opponent suffers the Immobilized Tilt (p. XX). Requires Hold. If your 
  character uses equipment to restrain her opponent, she can leave the grapple. 
  • 
  Take Cover: Any ranged attacks against your character automatically hit her opponent. 
  Lasts until your next turn. 
  Ranged Combat 
  These rules apply when shooting at a moving target that can resist being shot by firing back, 
  using Dread Powers, dodging, taking cover, etc. 
  Autofire 
  Automatic weapons can fire a short, medium, or long burst in place of a single shot. 
  • 
  Short Burst: Uses three bullets. +1 bonus to attack action. 
  
  • 
  Medium Burst: Uses 10 bullets. +2 bonus to attack action. Can attack multiple targets, 
  up to three. 
  • 
  Long Burst: Uses 20 bullets. +3 bonus to attack action. Can attack multiple targets, with 
  no limit. 
  • 
  Multiple Targets: −1 penalty per target after the first. Roll individually against each 
  target. 
  Range 
  Ranged attacks suffer a dice penalty the farther away the target is. Ranged weapons have a short, 
  medium, and long range listed on the weapons table (p. XX). 
  • 
  Short Range: No penalty. 
  • 
  Medium Range: −1 
  • 
  Long Range: −2 
  Concealment 
  If the target of a ranged attack is partially or fully obscured, they are concealed. Concealment 
  applies a penalty to the shooter’s dice pool. 
  • 
  Barely Concealed: −1 (hiding behind an office chair) 
  • 
  Partially Concealed: −2 (hiding behind the hood of a car, with upper body exposed) 
  • 
  Substantially Concealed: −3 (crouching behind a car). 
  • 
  Shooting from Concealment: Barely concealed: no penalty; partially concealed: −1; 
  substantially concealed: −2. You can ignore this penalty, but if so, you lose your own 
  concealment until your next turn. 
  Cover 
  If a target’s entirely hidden by a substantial object, they have found cover. 
  • 
  Tough Cover: If the cover’s Durability (p. XX) is greater than the attacker’s weapon 
  modifier, the attack can’t penetrate the cover. 
  • 
  Less Tough Cover: Subtract the cover’s Durability from the attacker’s damage roll. Both 
  the object and the target take any remaining damage. 
  • 
  Transparent Cover: If the cover is transparent (bulletproof glass, for example), subtract 
  half the cover’s Durability, rounding down. Both the object and the target take any remaining 
  damage. 
  Covering Fire 
  With a weapon capable of autofire, a character can lay down covering fire to keep anyone from 
  entering his target area. 
  • 
  Action: Instant 
  • 
  Dice Pool: Dexterity + Firearms 
  • 
  Bullets: Uses 10 bullets. 
  
  • 
  Characters in Area of Effect: On their next turn, they must either take cover within 
  range of their Speed or drop prone, to avoid suffering damage equal to successes on covering fire 
  roll + weapon modifier. 
  In Close Combat: Wielding a ranged weapon larger than Size 1 in close quarters grants the 
  opponent (weapon’s Size +1) as a bonus to Defense. 
  Shooting into Close Combat: Take a two-die penalty for each character involved in close 
  combat with your target that you want to avoid hitting, or a four-die penalty if they’re grappling 
  your target. You can’t selectively avoid targets this way with autofire. 
  Weapons and Armor 
  Weapons are one of the fastest ways to end a fight and help level the playing field between 
  hunters and monsters. Armor keeps hunters safe and shields them from an antagonist’s deadly 
  attacks. Traits for specific weapons and armor are in the Appendix starting on p. XX. 
  Weapons 
  Ranged and melee weapons share certain common traits. 
  • 
  Type: A weapon’s type is a general classification that fits any number of specific 
  weapons. A metal club might be a crowbar or a length of rebar, while a light revolver might be 
  one of any number of .22-.38 caliber weapons. 
  • 
  Damage: Added to successes rolled on attack to determine total damage inflicted. 
  • 
  Initiative: The penalty to Initiative when wielding the weapon. 
  • 
  Strength: The minimum Strength needed to use a weapon effectively. A wielder with a 
  lower Strength suffers a −1 penalty on attack rolls. 
  • 
  Availability: The cost in Resources dots or level of Social Merit needed to acquire the 
  weapon. 
  Improvised Weapons 
  Characters who grab lamps and pool cues still stand a chance of dealing serious damage. 
  • 
  Use Existing Weapon Traits: If it’s close enough to a weapon in the chart on p. XX, use 
  the associated weapon traits. For example, a pool cue might count as a sap. 
  • 
  Improvised Weapon Traits: If it’s not similar to a weapon in the chart, its damage 
  modifier is (object’s Durability −1); Initiative penalty and Strength requirement equal to 
  weapon’s Size. 
  • 
  Attack Modifiers: −1 to attack roll. If successful, the improvised weapon takes the same 
  damage it inflicts; Durability applies. 
  Armor 
  Armor provides protection against a variety of attacks and reduce damage from bullets, knives, 
  and fangs. 
  Armor Basics 
  • 
  Ballistic Armor: Each point of ballistic armor downgrades one point of lethal damage 
  from firearms to bashing. 
  
  • 
  General Armor: Each point of general armor reduces the total damage taken by one 
  point, starting with the most severe type of damage. 
  • 
  Order of Operation: If armor has both ballistic and general ratings, apply the ballistic 
  armor first. 
  • 
  Minimum Damage: When applying armor to an attack inflicting lethal damage, you 
  always suffer at least one point of bashing damage from the shock of the blow. 
  Armor-Piercing Damage 
  Some weapons have an armor-piercing rating, usually between 1 and 3. When attacking someone 
  wearing armor, subtract the armor piercing rating from the target’s armor. Subtract from ballistic 
  armor first, then general armor. Armor-piercing attacks in close combat subtract from general 
  armor only. 
  When shooting at an object — or a person in cover — subtract the armor piercing quality from 
  the object’s Durability. 
  Injury and Healing 
  Characters can suffer three types of damage. Fists and feet, along with other kinds of low-impact 
  trauma, deal bashing damage. Brass knuckles, knives, and speeding trucks deal lethal damage. 
  Some horrifying powers deal aggravated damage. When something deals aggravated damage 
  directly, it’s quite obvious. Flesh bubbles and sloughs away. Foaming pustules taint the victim’s 
  flesh. Blackened veins streak out from the site of the injury. 
  The following rules apply to humans and animals. Monsters have their own rules regarding the 
  effects of damage (p. XX). 
  Suffering Damage 
  When a rule tells you to suffer an amount of damage, you mark off that many Health boxes, 
  starting from the leftmost side and continuing to the right. A box marked with any kind of 
  damage is called a point. 
  Damage Basics 
  • 
  Bashing: Mark bashing damage with a (/) in the leftmost empty box of the Health track.  
  • 
  Lethal: Mark lethal damage with an (X) in the leftmost box that is empty or filled with 
  bashing damage. If you mark over bashing damage, move that bashing damage to the rightmost 
  empty box of the track. If no empty boxes are left, that damage is overwritten but not moved. 
  • 
  Aggravated: Mark aggravated damage with an (*) in the leftmost box that does not 
  already contain aggravated damage. If you mark over bashing damage, move that bashing 
  damage to the rightmost empty box. If no empty boxes are left, that damage is overwritten but 
  not moved. If you mark over lethal damage, move that lethal damage to the rightmost box that is 
  empty or contains bashing damage. If no empty boxes or boxes containing bashing damage are 
  left, that damage is overwritten but not moved. 
  • 
  Upgrading Damage: If your character suffers bashing damage but has no empty Health 
  boxes in which to mark it, upgrade each point of bashing damage to lethal damage. If she suffers 
  lethal damage but has no empty Health boxes or boxes marked with bashing damage, upgrade 
  her leftmost Health box that’s filled with lethal damage to aggravated damage. 
  
  Effects of Damage 
  • 
  Wound Penalties: If your character has any damage marked in their third-to-last Health 
  box, they suffer a −1 penalty to all actions except Stamina rolls to stay conscious. This increases 
  to −2 when their second-to-last Health box is filled, and −3 when their last Health box is filled. 
  • 
  Unconscious: If your character’s rightmost Health box is filled with bashing or lethal 
  damage, roll their Stamina every turn as a reflexive action. Failure means they fall unconscious 
  until their rightmost Health box is empty. 
  • 
  Bleeding Out: If your character’s rightmost Health box is filled with lethal damage, they 
  suffers 1 lethal damage per turn until they receive medical attention (p. XX).  
  • 
  Dead: If your character’s rightmost Health box is filled with aggravated damage, she is 
  dead. 
  Example of Marking Damage 
  Cassidy has seven boxes of Health. She’s just taken two points of bashing damage. Her Health 
  boxes look like this: 
  [PRODUCTION: SEVEN HEALTH BOXES, FIRST TWO CONTAINING A 
  SLASH] 
  If a vampire later bites her and deals a point of lethal damage, her Health boxes looks like this: 
  [PRODUCTION: SEVEN HEALTH BOXES, FIRST ONE CONTAINS AN X, 
  SECOND AND THIRD CONTAIN A SLASH] 
  If Cassidy next suffered a point of aggravated damage, her Health boxes would look like this: 
  [PRODUCTION: SEVEN HEALTH BOXES. FIRST HAS AN ASTERISK, 
  SECOND HAS AN X, THE THIRD AND FOURTH CONTAIN SLASHES] 
  Healing 
  Characters need time to heal once they’ve been beaten to a pulp. Normally, a character can heal 
  without medical attention, though use of the Medicine Skill helps them recover (see below). The 
  only exception is if a character has all her Health boxes full of lethal damage — they’re bleeding 
  out. they can’t recover from that without urgent medical attention and emergency surgery. 
  Healing Basics 
  • 
  Rightmost Box: Natural healing only affects the rightmost point of damage. Once the 
  rightmost box is cleared, healing time for the next-rightmost box starts. 
  • 
  Bashing: Clear bashing damage after 15 minutes of in-game time. 
  • 
  Lethal: Clear lethal damage after two days of in-game time. 
  • 
  Aggravated: Clear aggravated damage after a week of in-game time. 
  Example: Cassidy escapes the scuffle with the vampire and lays low for a while, eschewing 
  hospitals to avoid awkward questions. Her health track looks like this at the end of the fight: 
  [PRODUCTION: SEVEN HEALTH BOXES. FIRST HAS AN ASTERISK, 
  SECOND HAS AN X, THE THIRD AND FOURTH CONTAIN SLASHES] 
  
  Her rightmost wound heals first. Since it’s a bashing wound, she clears it after 15 minutes. After 
  another 15 minutes, her second bashing wound clears. Her lethal damage then heals over the 
  course of the next two days. Finally, her aggravated wound heals over the course of the next 
  week. In all, it takes a little over a week and two days for her to recover from her injuries. 
  Medical Care 
  Characters can use the Medicine Skill to speed up healing. 
  • 
  Action: Extended and simple 
  • 
  Dice Pool: Dexterity + Medicine with a one-minute interval, for emergency treatment; 
  Intelligence + Medicine with a one-hour interval for long-term hospital care. 
  • 
  Benefits of Emergency Care: Requires total successes equal to total damage the patient 
  suffers. Successful treatment heals one point of bashing damage. 
  • 
  Benefits of Long-Term Care: Successful treatment downgrades one point of aggravated 
  damage to lethal, or one point of lethal damage to bashing. Requires 10 total successes per 
  aggravated wound, five per lethal. 
  • 
  Long-Term Care Limitations: Heals the leftmost injury first and can only downgrade 
  one wound per patient per day. 
  Optional Rules: Beaten Down & Surrender 
  These optional rules only apply to people who would incur a breaking point for committing (or 
  attempting) “murder.” Monsters that don’t have a problem killing people can ignore Surrender 
  and never suffer the Beaten Down Tilt from damage taken. Hunters only abide by these rules if 
  they suffer a breaking point (p. XX) in the process of taking damage or ignoring surrender. 
  • 
  Beaten Down: A character who takes more than his Stamina in bashing damage or any 
  amount of lethal damage suffers the Beaten Down Tilt (p. XX): they’ve had the fight knocked 
  out of him. 
  • 
  Surrender: A character can choose to surrender and give their attacker what they want. 
  If your character surrenders, regain a point of Willpower and take a Beat. This signals the end of 
  your participation in the fight. Your character’s opponent must spend a point of Willpower to 
  attack you. 
  If one side’s intent involves violence for its own sake, their intended victims don’t get Beaten 
  Down and can’t surrender. When someone wants to kill you, the only thing you can do is to try 
  to stop them. Run like hell, unload a clip, or fight until one of you is left standing. 
  Sources of Harm 
  In addition to damage suffered in fights, characters face peril from a variety of sources. These are 
  just a few of them. 
  Disease 
  Supernatural horrors and mundane diseases can expose hunters to sickness. 
  Disease Basics 
  • 
  Tilt: During action scenes, sick characters suffer the Sick Tilt (p. XX). 
  
  • 
  Moderate Disease: Outside action scenes, moderate sickness might impose a –1 or –2 
  penalty on actions where concentration or stamina are required. 
  • 
  Grave Disease: Outside action scenes, grave diseases inflict a certain amount of damage 
  at specified time intervals, as determined by the Storyteller. The sick character’s player makes a 
  reflexive Stamina + Resolve roll to resist; success means no damage this time. 
  • 
  Recovery: Most diseases simply run their course over a certain amount of time. Others 
  require a minimum number of successful resistance rolls, require medical intervention, or merely 
  go into periodic remission as determined by the Storyteller. 
  • 
  Conditions: The Storyteller may represent short-term illnesses with Conditions and long-
  term illnesses with Persistent Conditions, which earn players Beats whenever the illness causes 
  significant harm or inconvenience for the character. 
  Poison 
  Whether from the sting of a venomous monster or a pinch of arsenic in the food, poison can lay 
  even the craftiest hunter low. 
  Poison Basics 
  • 
  Tilt: In action scenes, poisoned characters suffer the Poisoned Tilt (p. XX). 
  • 
  Toxicity: Outside action scenes, the Storyteller assigns the poison a Toxicity rating. The 
  poisoned character suffers lethal damage equal to Toxicity. Mild poisons only inflict damage 
  once. More severe poisons may inflict damage every hour or even every turn for a period of time 
  determined by the Storyteller. 
  • 
  Resistance: The poisoned character’s player rolls Stamina + Resolve – Toxicity every 
  time the poison inflicts damage. Each success cancels one point of damage. 
  Drugs 
  Many hunters turn to alcohol and narcotics to escape the stresses of their lifestyle, and subtle 
  menaces might drug a hunter to keep him off their game. 
  Drug Basics 
  • 
  Tilt: In action scenes, drugged characters suffer the Drugged Tilt (p. XX). 
  • 
  Effects: Drugs can have a wide variety of effects, ranging from dice penalties to 
  imposing Conditions. Most drugs last for a scene, but some burn through a character’s system 
  more rapidly or linger for more time. 
  • 
  Resistance: A drugged character can shake off the effects temporarily by succeeding on 
  a reflexive Stamina + Resolve roll. Depending on the potency of the drug, this roll might be 
  required every hour, scene, or even turn. 
  Overdose 
  • 
  Poison: Characters who overdose on drugs treat the drug like a poison, with a Toxicity 
  somewhere between 3 and 7. The drug inflicts damage once per hour. 
  • 
  Duration: The overdose typically runs its course after (8 – Stamina) hours, though the 
  Storyteller may adjust that. 
  
  Electricity 
  Electric shocks inflict damage based on the strength of the current. 
  [BEGIN CHART] 
  Source Damage 
  Minor; wall socket 
  4B 
  Major; protective fence 
  6B 
  Severe; junction box 8B 
  Fatal; main line feed/subway rail 
  10B 
  [END CHART] 
  Electricity Basics 
  • 
  Damage per Turn: Electricity inflicts damage every turn if the current is continuous. 
  • 
  Breaking Away: Characters in contact with a continuous electrical current must succeed 
  on a reflexive Strength roll to pull away. 
  • 
  No Armor: Worn armor provides no protection against electrocution. 
  Falling 
  In their line of work, hunters run the risk of getting shoved off rooftops by flying monsters or 
  mind-controlled into jumping from bridges. 
  Falling Basics 
  • 
  Damage: Falls of fewer than 30 yards inflict one point of bashing damage per three yards 
  fallen. Falls of 30 yards or more inflict 10 lethal damage. 
  • 
  Armor: At the Storyteller’s discretion, armor may reduce damage from falls of less than 
  30 yards. 
  • 
  Reduced Damage: If there’s a reasonable way for a character to slow her fall, she makes 
  a reflexive Dexterity + Athletics roll. Each success reduces damage from a fall of fewer than 30 
  yards by one point. 
  • 
  Soft Landing: Landing in water or snow, or on another soft surface, may automatically 
  reduce damage from falls of fewer than 30 yards at the Storyteller’s discretion. 
  Fire 
  Hunters often play with fire, as it makes an effective weapon against monsters that are otherwise 
  difficult to harm, but isn’t easy to control. Fire automatically inflicts lethal damage per turn of 
  exposure (no attack roll is required). The damage inflicted depends on both the size and intensity 
  of the flames. 
  [START TABLE] 
  Size of Fire 
  Damage 
  Torch 
  1 
  
  Bonfire 
  2 
  Inferno 
  3 
  [END TABLE] 
  [START TABLE] 
  Heat of Fire Damage Modifier 
  Candle (first-degree burns) 
  — 
  Torch (second-degree burns) 
  +1 
  Bunsen burner (third-degree burns) +2 
  Chemical fire/molten metal 
  +3 
  [END TABLE] 
  Fire Basics 
  • 
  Combustion: Exposure to fire for longer than a turn ignites anything combustible on the 
  character; they continue to take full damage even after escaping the source of the flame. 
  • 
  Firefighting: Fighting a fire typically requires an instant action but no roll. At the 
  Storyteller’s discretion, an action might immediately put out the fire (e.g. diving into water) or 
  reduce its size by one level (e.g. stop, drop, and roll). 
  • 
  Armor: Most armor can block its general rating in fire damage automatically for a 
  number of turns equal to that rating. 
  • 
  Uncontrolled Blaze: If an area containing flammable objects is set on fire, it may 
  acquire the Inferno Environmental Tilt (p. XX). 
  Objects 
  Objects such as lead pipes, walls, and cars have three traits: Durability, Size, and Structure. 
  Mostly, these relate to how easy the object is to destroy.  
  Object Traits 
  • 
  Durability: How hard the object is to damage. Subtract Durability from any damage 
  inflicted on the object. Durability has no effect against attacks that inflict aggravated damage. 
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  Durability 
  Material 
  1 
  Wood, hard plastic, thick glass 
  2 
  Stone, aluminum 
  3 
  Steel, iron 
  +1 
  per reinforced layer 
  [END TABLE] 
  • 
  Size: How large the object is. Objects smaller than Size 1 can fit entirely in a person’s 
  palm. 
  
  [BEGIN TABLE] 
  Size 
  Object 
  1 
  Pistol 
  2 
  Crowbar, sawn-off shotgun 
  3 
  Assault rifle 
  5 
  Door 
  10 
  Sports car 
  15 
  SUV 
  [END TABLE] 
  • 
  Structure: An object’s Structure equals its Durability + Size.  
  Damaging Objects 
  • 
  Damage: Each point of damage removes a point of Structure. Objects do not differentiate 
  between bashing and lethal damage. 
  • 
  Reduced Functionality: Once it’s taken more damage than its Durability, anyone using 
  the object suffers a −1 die penalty.  
  • 
  Destruction: When an object’s Structure hits 0, it is destroyed. 
  • 
  Repair: See p. XX for rules on how to repair damaged objects. 
  Equipment 
  Equipment, tools, and technology help to solve problems. Having the right tool for the job can 
  mean the difference between life and death — or in Hunter: The Vigil, the difference between 
  life and a fate worse than death. There is a list of sample equipment in Appendix I, starting on p. 
  XX. This list is not all-inclusive but features many of the tools that hunters might have at their 
  disposal. 
  Equipment is divided up by the Skills with which they typically assist. Mental equipment 
  typically assists with Mental Skills, for example.  
  Equipment Traits 
  • 
  Availability: The minimum level of a relevant trait a character must have to acquire the 
  equipment with a single roll. Resources is the most often used trait, but other Social Merits or 
  Skills may work at the Storyteller’s discretion (e.g. Larceny to steal it, or Compact Status to take 
  it out on loan from The Union’s stockpile). 
  • 
  Size, Durability, Structure: See above. 
  • 
  Dice Bonus: The bonus the equipment adds to relevant actions. 
  • 
  Effect: Any special rules that apply to using the equipment. 
  See p. XX for rules on how Hunter characters can build their own equipment, and p. XX for 
  optional rules expansions for customizing gear and building monster traps. 
  Vehicles 
  
  A hunter may need to get across town in record time before the sun goes down, navigate rough 
  terrain in an off-road vehicle to find the reclusive priest who can properly bless a specific 
  talisman, or just run down a monster in the street with something that deals more damage than a 
  bullet can. 
  Vehicle Basics 
  • 
  Dice Modifier: Dice subtracted or added from the driver’s Dexterity + Drive pools. 
  • 
  Size, Durability, Structure: See “Objects,” above. 
  • 
  Speed: How fast the vehicle can safely go. Apply the vehicle’s dice modifier (positive or 
  negative) as an additional dice penalty when operating the vehicle above its safe Speed and treat 
  all failures as dramatic failures. Penalties can’t exceed −5. 
  • 
  Dangerous Maneuvers: At safe speeds, only particularly dangerous maneuvers call for a 
  roll; above the vehicle’s safe Speed, sharp turns and other relatively common maneuvers also 
  may require a roll. These are instant and simple actions unless characters are engaged in a chase 
  (p. XX) or a contested action. 
  • 
  Acceleration: Vehicles normally increase their Speed by 5 per turn. With the High 
  Acceleration modification, they gain 10 Speed per turn. Characters can take an instant action 
  with Dexterity + Drive to increase normal acceleration by 5 Speed per turn. 
  • 
  Examples and Modifications: See Appendix 1: Equipment, starting on p. XX. 
  Crashes 
  Vehicles can crash into characters, other vehicles, or objects like lampposts and walls. 
  • 
  Hitting Light Objects: vehicle hits something equal to or less than half its Size. Object 
  suffers one-tenth the vehicle’s current Speed in bashing damage + half its Size (rounded down). 
  Driver rolls Dexterity + Drive – vehicle’s Dice Modifier; failure means the vehicle takes damage 
  equal to half the struck object’s Size + one-tenth its own Speed. 
  • 
  Hitting Light Objects Deliberately: requires an instant action with Dexterity + Drive – 
  Defense if applicable. Add successes to damage inflicted on the victim, but not the vehicle or 
  people inside; however, the driver must still roll again to avoid damage, as above. 
  • 
  Hitting Heavy Objects: vehicle hits something greater than half its Size. Both objects 
  suffer one-half the other object’s Size (rounded down) + damage based on one-tenth their 
  relative Speeds. If the objects collide head on or perpendicularly, add the Speeds together and 
  divide by 10; if they’re moving parallel to each other, subtract the lower Speed from the higher 
  and then divide by 10. Both drivers roll Dexterity + Drive; each success reduces vehicle damage 
  by two. 
  • 
  Damage to Driver and Passengers: Damage that exceeds a vehicle’s Durability is also 
  applied to anyone in the car as bashing damage; safety equipment such as seat belts and air bags 
  halves this damage. 
  Chases 
  A hunter may find herself running for her life when a witch calls for reinforcements or chasing 
  down a fleeing pack of werewolves in a pickup truck rigged with silver weapons. In most action 
  scenes, a character’s Speed trait determines how much she can move. This means you can 
  
  usually figure out who is faster without dice. The following rules let you turn the chase into the 
  focus of the scene instead, adding excitement and drama. 
  Chase Basics 
  • 
  Set the Terms: By default, each party requires five total successes to prevail. Apply 
  modifiers to this total as follows. 
  [BEGIN CHART] 
  Circumstance Modifier 
  Opponent’s Speed is higher than yours 
  +1 
  Opponent’s Speed is twice yours 
  +3 
  Opponent’s Speed is at least 10 times yours +5 
  Initiative modifier is higher than opponent’s -1 
  Initiative modifier is twice the opponent’s 
  -2 
  Initiative modifier is at least three times the opponent’s 
  -3 
  Your character knows the territory somewhat 
  -1 
  Your character knows the territory intimately 
  -3 
  Your Size is lower than your opponent’s 
  -1 
  Opponent immune to fatigue +2 
  Actively dangerous environment 
  +1 to +3, Storyteller’s discretion 
  Opponent starts with a one-turn lead +1 
  Opponent starts with at least a two-turns’ lead 
  +2 
  [END CHART] 
  • 
  Determine the Edge: Whoever has better manipulated the environment, terrain, and 
  circumstances to his advantage based on the ever-changing situation gains the Edge, not counting 
  circumstances listed above to modify required successes. If the character with the Edge isn’t 
  obvious, make a contested roll for each involved character using a relevant pool determined by 
  the player, with Storyteller permission. Relevant Skills could include Athletics, Streetwise, 
  Survival, etc. If the context of the scene changes significantly, determine who has the Edge 
  again. 
  • 
  Turns: Each turn represents roughly 30 seconds to a minute of chase time. The character 
  with the Edge rolls first. If she accumulates the requisite total successes before others have a 
  chance to roll, she wins immediately. 
  Optional Rule: Seizing the Edge 
  In Hunter: The Vigil, characters often contend with foes who outclass them in 
  sheer physical power, speed, or supernatural advantages. Introduce this optional 
  rule if you want a chase to favor the underdog. 
  
  After the side with the Edge determines the dice pool for the turn, each side predicts 
  how many successes they will roll that turn. Write down these predictions and don’t 
  show them to anyone. After each roll, uncover that party’s prediction. The first 
  person to correctly guess how many successes they would roll gains the Edge for 
  the next turn, regardless of contested rolls or circumstances. 
  Pursuit and Evasion 
  Both pursuit and evasion use the same chase action. 
  Action: Instant 
  Dice Pool: Determined each turn by the side with the Edge, based on the current situation. You 
  can use a different pool, but unless you have the Edge, you lose the 10-again quality on your roll 
  and suffer a cumulative one-die penalty that increases each turn you don’t have the Edge and use 
  the wrong pool. These turns don’t have to be consecutive. 
  Roll Results 
  Success: You overcome the immediate challenge and make headway. Add rolled successes to 
  your running total. 
  Exceptional Success: As success and inflict the turn’s terms of failure upon your opponent 
  regardless of his roll. 
  Failure: Determined each turn by the side with the Edge, before dice are rolled. Choose from 
  among the following: lose one accumulated success from your total, suffer two points of bashing 
  damage or one point of lethal, or suffer an appropriate Tilt. 
  Dramatic Failure: As failure, and the Storyteller may impose a negative Condition as well. 
  Other Kinds of Chases 
  The chase system may also be used to represent other kinds of contests that fall outside the 
  immediate timing of an action scene, such as tracking a monster through the woods by its trail, or 
  as an alternative to the Social maneuvering system to finesse another character into a particular 
  position or behavior. 
  Social Maneuvering 
  A hunter tries to banish a ghost by convincing it to let go of its obsession with its murderer. Two 
  cells struggle to resolve their compact’s desires to deal with a monster that affects both 
  organizations. Agents from two conspiracies make equally tantalizing offers to recruit the cell, 
  each with its own private agenda. All of these scenes are rich with potential drama and 
  complexity, which might be undercut if they’re resolved in a single throw of the dice. When you 
  want to spotlight interpersonal relationships and conflicts that may be solved without violence, 
  Social maneuvering is the system to use. It is a flexible set of rules that can work in tandem with 
  other systems and offers more choices for Storytellers and players who prefer to resolve conflicts 
  without always resorting to combat in their Hunter chronicles. 
  In a Social maneuver, you start by stating your character’s goal. Maybe you want to convince the 
  police chief to keep his officers out of the Tenderloin tomorrow night or get One-Eyed Jack to 
  tell you where the Reverent Lodge of the Crow holds their sacrificial rites.  
  
  Once you and the Storyteller have agreed that the goal is reasonable, you’ll have to overcome the 
  other character’s resistance by taking actions that make them more likely to agree to your terms. 
  Successful actions open Doors (as in, “the door is open for further discussion,” not literal doors).  
  How often you can try to open Doors depends on the impression your character makes — the 
  more they like you, the more often you can try to sway them.  
  Goals 
  When using Social maneuvering, the first step is to declare your character’s intended goal. This 
  is as simple as stating what you want the subject to do and how your character is going about 
  making it happen. You need only announce the initial stages, as the effort will likely occur over 
  multiple rolls, reflecting different actions. 
  At this point, the Storyteller determines whether the goal is reasonable. A character might, with 
  time and proper tactics, convince a rich person to give him a large sum of money. He probably 
  isn’t going to convince the wealthy individual to abandon all of his wealth to the character, 
  though it might be possible to get him to name the character as heir, at which point the character 
  can set about speeding up the inheritance process. 
  Doors 
  Once you’ve declared your character’s goal, the next step is to determine the scope of the 
  challenge. We represent this with Doors, which reflect a character’s resistance to coercion: her 
  social walls, her skepticism, their mistrust, or just his hesitance with intimacy. It’s abstract and 
  means different things in any given case.  
  Calculating Doors 
  • 
  Baseline: The subject starts with Doors equal to the lower of their Resolve or 
  Composure. 
  • 
  Breaking Point: If the stated goal would be a breaking point (p. XX) for the subject, and 
  the subject is aware of that fact, add two Doors. 
  • 
  Aspiration: If the stated goal is in opposition to one of the subject’s Aspirations, and the 
  subject is aware of that fact, add one Door. If the goal would clearly help the subject achieve an 
  Aspiration, remove one Door. 
  • 
  Virtue: If the stated goal is in opposition to the subject’s Virtue, and the subject is aware 
  of that fact, add one Door. 
  • 
  Adding Doors: If things change such that the Breaking Point, Aspiration, or Virtue rules 
  above apply during the Social maneuver, add Doors to the remaining total (two for Breaking 
  Point, one each for Aspiration or Virtue). If your character goes back on her word during the 
  maneuver, add two Doors. 
  Impression 
  The Storyteller sets the first impression based on any past history between the characters, the 
  circumstances of their meeting, the nature of the favor being asked (if the acting character is 
  asking right up front — sometimes it’s a better idea not to lead off with what you want!) and any 
  other factors she deems relevant. Most interactions default to an average impression, which 
  makes the maneuver a long, drawn-out process. Your character can take steps to improve that 
  
  such as meeting the subject at their favorite restaurant, wearing their favorite perfume, and so on. 
  The Storyteller is the final arbiter of whether any particular action raises the impression level, but 
  she should be open to working with the players to develop a plan. 
  Impression level determines how frequently you’re allowed to roll to open the subject’s Doors — 
  the more they like your character, the more often you can roll. If the impression is too hostile, 
  you might not be able to roll at all. 
  [BEGIN CHART: SHOULD BE ON THE SAME PAGE AS “IMPRESSION”] 
  Impression 
  Time per Roll  
  Perfect 
  One turn 
  Excellent 
  One hour 
  Good 
  One day 
  Average 
  One week 
  Hostile  
  Cannot roll 
  [END CHART] 
  Adjusting Impression 
  • 
  Favorable Circumstances: A comfortable environment, appealing clothing, or similar 
  pleasant situations can raise a hostile impression to average, or an average impression to good. 
  • 
  Actions: Success on an appropriate action, like a Wits + Socialize action to create the 
  ideal guest list for a party, can raise an average or good impression to excellent. 
  • 
  Soft Leverage: A bribe, gift, or offer of service or payment raises the impression level 
  one step if the subject accepts the offer. 
  • 
  Vice Leverage: An offer that indulges the subject’s Vice (or equivalent trait) raises the 
  impression level one step if the subject accepts the offer. 
  Opening Doors 
  At each interval, you may make a roll to open Doors and move closer to your character’s goal. 
  The roll might be different each time, depending on the character’s tactics. Some of the rolls 
  might not even be social. For example, if your character is trying to win someone’s favor, fixing 
  his computer with an Intelligence + Computer roll could open a Door.  
  As Storyteller, be creative in selecting dice pools. Change them up with each step to keep the 
  interactions dynamic. Similarly, consider contested and resisted rolls. Most resisted actions or 
  contested rolls use either Resolve or Composure, or a combination of the two, but don’t let that 
  stand as a limit. Contested rolls don’t necessarily require a Resistance trait. For example, Wits 
  might be used to notice a lie, Strength to help a character stand up to threats, or Presence to 
  protect and maintain one’s reputation at a soiree.  
  Roll Results 
  Success: Open one Door. 
  Exceptional Success: As success and open an additional Door. 
  
  Failure: Open no Doors. Subsequent actions as part of the Social maneuver suffer a cumulative 
  one-die penalty. The Storyteller may choose to lower the impression level by one step; if she 
  does so, take a Beat. 
  Dramatic Failure: The Social maneuver fails utterly. No further rolls can be made. Any attempt 
  to achieve the same goal must start from scratch, likely with a worse impression. 
  Resolution 
  The outcome of a Social maneuver is either success or failure. Don’t confuse this with the 
  success or failure of any particular action that’s part of a Social maneuver; here we’re talking 
  about the whole thing. 
  Success 
  Once your character opens all the Doors in her path, the subject must act. Storyteller characters 
  abide by the intended goal and follow through as stated. How they feel afterwards might vary, 
  but they always do what you and the Storyteller agreed on. 
  Failure 
  A Social maneuvering attempt can fail utterly under the following circumstances:  
  • 
  Dramatic Failure: The player rolls a dramatic failure on an attempt to open a Door. 
  • 
  Deception: The target realizes that he is being lied to or manipulated. This does not apply 
  if the target is aware that the character is trying to talk him into something, only if the target feels 
  betrayed or conned. 
  • 
  Bad Impressions: The impression level reaches “hostile” and remains so for the rest of 
  the current story. The character can try again during the next story. 
  Forcing Doors 
  When a character just can’t wait to get what she wants, she can force Doors open instead. This 
  degree of urgency is high risk, high reward. Forcing Doors leads to burned bridges and missed 
  opportunities but provides instant gratification. 
  • 
  One and Done: Forcing Doors achieves the character’s goal immediately in a single roll 
  if successful. The roll takes a penalty equal to the opponent’s Doors and the subject contests it as 
  normal. 
  • 
  Hard Leverage: Forcing Doors requires a threat, drugs, intimidation, blackmail, 
  kidnapping, or other heavy-handed forms of coercion. Hard leverage that makes the character 
  employing it suffer a breaking point removes two Doors if the base modifier would be −3 or less, 
  or one Door if it would be −4 or higher. 
  • 
  Roll Results: On a success, proceed to resolution as normal. On a failure, the subject is 
  immune to further Social maneuvering from the character. 
  Social Maneuvering and Consent 
  Social maneuvering is designed to allow one character to manipulate or convince another 
  character to perform favors or undertake actions. This system can be used for a variety of actions 
  ranging from conning a mark or convincing a shell-shocked witness to provide them with 
  information. It can work on groups as well. 
  
  Under a strict read of the rules, this system can also be used to seduce or abuse an intended 
  target. A member of the Ashwood Abbey compact might seduce a vampire or a charming hunter 
  turned slasher could lure a nurse back to their hotel room. The specific goal would be to “get that 
  character to sleep with my character,” the number of Doors is the decided, and impressions along 
  with other factors play into the final result. This is not too different from how seduction and 
  other, less carnal forms of persuasion actually work — the persuader tries to make the offer as 
  enticing as possible. 
  The rules were designed to put the spotlight on the player and some hunters may opt to use 
  Social maneuvering instead of resorting to violence. But, because the persuader’s player makes 
  the roll determining the outcome, the target is left without a way to say “no.” As such, this 
  system is intended for use by player-controlled characters vs. Storyteller characters instead of 
  player vs. player. Storytellers are encouraged to let players make their own decisions. If one 
  player’s character wants to seduce, persuade, convince, or intimidate another’s, let the players 
  make their own decisions about what their characters do through roleplay. 
  Optional Rule: Negotiating Outcome 
  Social interactions in Hunter aren’t always cut and dry. Sometimes, two players may want to 
  willingly participate in a Social maneuver when one character is an antagonist attempting to 
  undermine or thwart a fellow hunter. This modification may be used in the Slasher Chronicle 
  (page XX) when appropriate, provided all affected parties consent to this rule. Further, Social 
  maneuvering does not prevent or stop a hunter from become a slasher; it can, however, slow 
  them down.  
  In this situation, the characters’ identities matter to the fiction; one player character is a subject 
  and the other is the initiator. One is a hunter and the other is either a hunter turned slasher or one 
  who’s in danger of becoming one. For the purposes of this example, the subject is a hunter and 
  the initiator is a hunter turned slasher. The slasher’s goal is “come into my van alone.” 
  First, gameplay proceeds as previously described up to the resolution stage. Once the player 
  characters reach the resolution stage, the subject must choose a resolution: 
  Go with the Flow: If the subject does as requested and abides by the initiator’s intended goal, 
  their player takes a Beat (p. XX). The initiator’s player does not earn a Beat. The hunter decides 
  to go into the slasher’s van alone; their player earns a Beat. 
  Offer Alternatives: The resolution stage proceeds as a negotiation, rather than a mandate, with 
  two possible outcomes. The subject may choose to offer an alternative that benefits the initiator 
  in some way. Instead of heading into the slasher’s van alone, the hunter proposes they take her 
  car instead. 
  This offer occurs between players and does not need to exist in the fiction — though it can when 
  appropriate. The alternative must be truly beneficial and not a twist of intent. The Storyteller is 
  the final decision maker to ensure the negotiation is fair. In some cases, it might make sense that 
  one (or both) of the player characters incurs a Condition following their negotiation. Any further 
  rules applied following the resolution are at the Storyteller’s discretion; they should, however, be 
  applicable to the fiction. 
  Investigation 
  
  Monsters hide their existence and predations from common awareness, lurking just beneath the 
  everyday reality to which humanity clings. Police reports don’t include the strange wounds on 
  homicide victims’ bodies that the medical examiner can’t explain. People whose nightmares are 
  more than just dreams deny anything is wrong, desperate to believe the horrors aren’t real. A 
  hunter trying to get to the bottom of these mysteries so she can get rid of what’s causing them 
  has a daunting task ahead of her — and connecting the dots can make for exciting stories. 
  When you want an investigation to play a large role in the tale, with entire scenes, chapters, or 
  even stories dedicated to a single mystery, you can use this system rather than boiling it down to 
  a single action. Characters uncover Clues they can use to benefit the later actions the 
  investigation enables — for instance, hunters who investigate the scene of a gruesome killing to 
  determine what kind of monster was involved can later use that information to track the monster 
  down. 
  Investigation Basics 
  • 
  No Hard Answers: The Storyteller doesn’t need to come up with all the potential Clues 
  and answers ahead of time. Letting the players fill some of them in themselves as they succeed in 
  finding Clues gets them invested in the outcome and creates “a-ha!” moments. If players put 
  Clues together to reach conclusions that don’t match the outcome the Storyteller had in mind, she 
  should consider changing it to match. 
  • 
  No Binary Rolls: Failing to find information crucial to the characters’ progress when 
  players roll unsuccessfully only slows the game down to no satisfying end. Instead, the 
  Storyteller should raise the stakes or introduce complications when a roll fails. Failure doesn’t 
  mean the players didn’t find a Clue — instead, it means they miss out on extra benefits success 
  would have afforded them and must adjust to new challenges. 
  • 
  Frame the Action: The Storyteller can intersperse Clue-finding actions with other events 
  in the story to keep the momentum going and give players opportunity to choose which set of 
  heightening stakes to address first. 
  • 
  Clues: Clues are a specialized type of equipment that represent objects, facts, and 
  deductions. They have elements players can spend for benefits, either to solve a particular 
  mystery or to stockpile for other uses: leverage in Social maneuvering, proof of supernatural 
  influences in someone’s life, etc. 
  Scope 
  First, the players declare a goal to accomplish via investigation. Decide how many total Clues 
  the characters need to uncover to achieve their goal. For smaller-scope investigations, this 
  usually falls between one and five Clues. For broad investigations spread out across the 
  chronicle, the total should equal at least half the number of planned chapters and can range up to 
  twice the number of planned chapters in an investigation-focused chronicle. 
  Interval 
  Each roll to find a Clue is an instant action but takes some amount of time based on the kind of 
  action the players take. For instance, if a hunter cases a room from which a monster fled, it might 
  only take a few minutes. If she’s diving to a sunken ship to find a chipped goblet the monster 
  owns, that could take an hour or more. The Storyteller can add challenges and obstacles to these 
  attempts to turn simple die rolls into interesting scenes of their own — maybe the monster left 
  
  behind a dangerous contaminant the characters must overcome to case the scene, or maybe the 
  characters must traverse shark-infested waters to get to the ship. If they perform particularly well 
  in these efforts, the Storyteller can offer bonuses to the roll to uncover the Clue. 
  Uncovering Clues 
  Once the characters get where they need to be, they roll to uncover the Clue. 
  Action: Instant 
  Dice Pool: Varies. Players can use any pool that matches the action they take to uncover the 
  Clue. The Investigation Skill is appropriate to case a scene or search through files and evidence, 
  while other Mental Skills can be used to perform research, experiments, or autopsies. Social 
  Skills can be used to interview witnesses or interrogate a monster’s lackeys. 
  The pool suffers a cumulative one-die penalty each time the same Skill is used again in an 
  investigation. However, if hunters use teamwork to uncover Clues, only the primary actor suffers 
  this penalty, and only his roll contributes to further such penalties in the same investigation. 
  Roll Results 
  Success: Clue is uncovered, with one element plus one more if the character has four or more 
  dots or a Specialty in the relevant Skill; each Specialty or Skill can only contribute to extra 
  elements once per character per investigation. 
  Exceptional Success: As success, and the Clue gains one bonus element; character gains a 
  beneficial Condition. 
  Failure: Clue is uncovered but incomplete: Its elements may only be used to uncover other 
  Clues. 
  Dramatic Failure: Clue is uncovered but tainted. Each accumulated tainted Clue forces the 
  player to ignore one success rolled on any future actions pertaining to the investigation; these are 
  cumulative and all apply to each such roll. The Storyteller may impose an appropriate Condition 
  as well. 
  Clue Elements 
  Players can spend Clue elements to add a one-die bonus per element to any roll pertaining to the 
  investigation, including, but not limited to, rolls to uncover more Clues. A player can only spend 
  elements from one Clue at a time, or Clues equal to her character’s Investigation dots, whichever 
  is higher. She may spend any number of elements at a time from a single Clue. 
  Elements from tainted Clues impose a two-die penalty when spent instead of a bonus; however, 
  this is the only way to get rid of tainted Clues, since once all its elements are spent, it sheds its 
  tainted nature. 
  Uncovering the Truth 
  Players don’t need to roll to put their Clues together once the investigation is over. Once they 
  accumulate the requisite number of Clues specified by the investigation’s scope, the characters 
  learn the truth. 
  Players may choose to uncover the truth before they’ve accumulated enough Clues, as long as 
  they have at least one that isn’t tainted. If they do, they still learn the truth, but the Storyteller 
  
  introduces one major complication per Clue they fall short. Perhaps the monster escapes or takes 
  a hostage. Perhaps cornering the monster would risk legal consequences or attract the wrong 
  attention. Perhaps the monster is part of a larger group of monsters with which the hunters must 
  now contend. 
  Building Equipment 
  While hunters can gain access to equipment of all kinds through purchase, borrowing, blackmail, 
  or theft, some prefer (or are forced) to make it themselves. Sometimes, a hunter has to scrounge 
  up a contraption made of duct tape and hairpins in the middle of an infiltration. Sometimes, she 
  needs to pull together an ad hoc shotgun-toting mob before the undead horror catches wind and 
  leaves town. If it will offer a bonus to an action, or would make actions possible that were 
  previously not, it can be considered “equipment,” and you can build it.  
  Equipment Types 
  • 
  Physical Objects: the most common type. Items listed in the Appendix (p. XX) are 
  physical objects, as are weapons and armor. Creative works also fall into this category. 
  • 
  Organizations: small groups of people assembled to address a particular need, like a 
  cadre of bodyguards or research assistants. Organizations built as equipment disband after one 
  chapter unless purchased as Merits afterward. 
  • 
  Repositories: collections of research materials and information sources on a particular 
  topic, like a library of books, a database, or an assortment of security footage. This reflects 
  gathering materials for repeated future use, not benefiting from an existing source. Repositories 
  linger; if you purchase the Library Merit (p. XX) for a repository your character built, it stacks 
  with the equipment bonus, to a maximum of +5. 
  • 
  Plans: abstracted plans that orchestrate complex encounters with specific goals involving 
  multiple people, like heists or rescues. A plan grants its bonus to all participants but ceases to 
  exist when the endeavor succeeds or definitively fails. Plans can’t grant bonuses to Tactics, as 
  they are already plans. 
  • 
  Mystical Equipment: anything that carries minor supernatural potency, such as a circle 
  of protection using salt and bone, a protective amulet, or a werewolf trap made of silver. 
  Build Equipment Basics 
  • 
  Scope: Build Equipment actions never take longer than the time between one scene and 
  the next. If it can’t reasonably be built in a few hours or less, the character needs to acquire it 
  another way. 
  • 
  When to Roll: If the character has plenty of time, isn’t under any duress, and has dots in 
  the relevant Skill equal to the equipment bonus a standard example would provide, don’t roll. If 
  the character is under pressure or in danger, roll. Likewise, if she’s trying to build something 
  beyond her casual expertise — i.e., something with an equipment bonus greater than her dots in 
  the relevant Skill, something with higher traits than the standard example, or something the 
  Storyteller determines is too complex — roll. 
  • 
  Built-In Penalty: The roll always suffers a penalty equal to the intended equipment 
  bonus. Each other intended benefit, like a new function, an increased trait, or access to a 
  resource, counts as a one-die bonus for this purpose, as well as to determine whether 
  
  to roll in the first place. Weapons impose a penalty equal to their weapon modifier; armor 
  imposes a penalty equal to its highest armor rating (general or ballistic). Penalties can’t exceed 
  −5. 
  • 
  Requirements: The Storyteller may require the use of Resources, Contacts, or other 
  Merits, or a separate research action, to reflect extra effort necessary before you can roll. This 
  should only apply to enhance the drama of the story or introduce interesting plot elements to the 
  action. 
  These rules don’t replace the need to discover a creature’s weakness before creating ritual 
  equipment to bind or ward against a particular monster; the best you can do is an equipment 
  bonus or minor benefit without that information. See p. XX for how to use Tactics for more 
  powerful rituals. 
  • 
  Time: ranges from a few minutes to a few hours, but the important factors are whether 
  you finish before something else happens, and what else happens in the meantime. 
  During an action scene, a Build Equipment action takes a number of turns equal to the built-in 
  penalty; the Storyteller may rule that something can’t be built during an action scene. 
  Build Equipment Action 
  Action: Instant 
  Dice Pool: Determined by the type of equipment. Wits + Crafts for physical objects, or Wits + 
  Expression for creative works; Presence or Manipulation + Socialize or Streetwise for 
  organizations; Intelligence + Academics for repositories; Wits + Occult for mystical equipment; 
  Wits + Composure for plans. The Storyteller or player can suggest alternatives if appropriate. 
  Roll Results 
  Success: You build the equipment. 
  Exceptional Success: As success and add one equipment bonus die or other benefit; bonuses 
  still may not exceed +5. 
  Failure: You build the equipment, but it carries the Fragile (p. XX) or Volatile (p. XX) 
  Condition. 
  Dramatic Failure: You fail outright and suffer a consequence at the Storyteller’s discretion, 
  such as taking damage from an explosive reaction, suffering a Condition like Leveraged or 
  Embarrassing Secret, or leading a supernatural threat directly to your location. 
  Improvise 
  When you’re dangling from a grappling hook 30 feet above the cold concrete with an angry 
  vampire on your tail, you don’t have the luxury of time. That Molotov cocktail you’re mixing 
  gets done now or never. That’s where improvising comes in. 
  Improvising always takes place in action-scene timing. 
  Action: Instant; takes one turn 
  Dice Pool: Same as above. The Storyteller may rule that some equipment is too complex to be 
  improvised. 
  Roll Results 
  
  Success: You build the equipment, but it carries the Fragile (p. XX) or Volatile (p. XX) 
  Condition. 
  Exceptional Success: You build the equipment. 
  Failure: As dramatic failure. 
  Dramatic Failure: You fail outright and suffer a consequence at the Storyteller’s discretion, 
  such as taking damage from an explosive reaction, suffering a Condition like Leveraged or 
  Embarrassing Secret, or leading a supernatural threat directly to your location. 
  Repair, Modifications, and Upgrades 
  A character may want to fix or alter a piece of equipment that already exists. These actions 
  usually only apply to physical objects, though exceptions are possible. 
  These rolls use the normal Build Equipment action, with the following exceptions: 
  Repair, Modification, and Upgrade Basics 
  • 
  Built-In Penalty: equals the difference between the object’s current state and the bonus 
  or benefits the player wants to add. Broken objects are considered to have an equipment bonus of 
  0. Partially functional objects may have a bonus only one or two dice lower than their usual 
  bonus. For instance, if a computer would normally grant +2 to research rolls but won’t start and 
  is therefore currently at a 0, the roll to repair it would suffer a −2. 
  • 
  Increased Traits and New Functions: treat each modification or upgrade as a +1 
  equivalent. You can replace one function with another at no penalty — for instance, reversing 
  the function of a walkie talkie to cause interference instead of receiving signals. 
  • 
  Modifying Vehicles: see p. XX. 
  • 
  Customizing Gear and Traps: see p. XX. 
  Taking Your Time 
  You may build equipment as an extended action instead; you’ll take no built-in penalty to any of 
  the rolls. Instead, the target number of required successes equals the total intended bonus and 
  benefits of the equipment +1. 
  Typically, players do this to avoid taking large penalties for complex equipment, or when they 
  have small dice pools to begin with and don’t want to risk a chance die. The Storyteller 
  determines the time between rolls as usual. Overall success and failure work as normal for the 
  Build Equipment action. 
  The Storyteller may also allow a player to build equipment that normally lies beyond the scope 
  of this system, such as a car or a business, with an extended action. In this case, the time between 
  rolls and total successes required should match the effort involved. Building a car may take a 
  week between rolls and require 15 total successes, for example. Storytellers should keep in mind, 
  however, that it’s usually much easier to acquire such equipment in other ways, like stealing or 
  purchasing a car, or using Social maneuvering to convince a potential business partner to take the 
  bait. As a result, building this kind of equipment with extended actions should only be done if 
  the player really wants to make it from scratch. 
  Teamwork and Tactics 
  
  A living nightmare of teeth and whirling shadows lunges for a lone hunter when they least expect 
  it. Without backup, a solitary hunter is vulnerable and often finds themselves in mortal danger. 
  When the shit hits the fan, hunters must find a way to uphold the Vigil. When they don’t, they’re 
  in danger of falling into despair, taking dangerous risks, or becoming so corrupted they’re no 
  better than the monsters themselves. Even hunters who hate each other grudgingly acknowledge 
  they must set aside their differences when it matters. Otherwise, they’re easy prey for the 
  darkness. 
  Hunters have two ways to work together. The first is teamwork: one person performs a single 
  action, like breaking down a door or researching Bloody Mary, and the others help. The second 
  is with Tactics. A Tactic is a specialized group action that is usually more complex than a single 
  action. Tactics allow participants to roll dice in pursuit of a specific, desired outcome. 
  Teamwork 
  When two or more characters wish to help unravel a clue, break into a safe, or pick a lock, one 
  person takes the lead. That character is the primary actor, and others who wish to help are called 
  secondary actors.  
  To use teamwork, the following steps must occur in order: 
  • 
  Primary actor assembles their dice pool. 
  • 
  Secondary actors assemble their dice pools to match the primary actor’s. 
  • 
  Secondary actors roll dice. 
  • 
  Primary actor rolls their dice pool. Secondary actors’ roll results are then added or 
  subtracted. 
  • 
  Primary actor’s roll results are calculated as normal.  
  While there are no prerequisites for teamwork, remember Skills are not interchangeable. The 
  Skills in the roll must match for all participants; the primary actor sets which Skills they want to 
  use. Each success from a secondary actor gives the primary actor a bonus die. If one of the 
  secondary actors rolls a dramatic failure, the primary actor takes a four-die penalty. 
  Tactics 
  A hunter alone may not have what it takes to deal with a situation, no matter how well-prepared 
  or trained he may be, but with several highly trained professionals working together, there is 
  little they can’t get done. Tactics are not just teamwork actions professionals can use, but instead 
  represent self-contained group activities that require coordinated training and specialized 
  instruction.  
  Only hunters can use Tactics, as learning them requires the cell to work together regularly to 
  perfect the technique. They allow hunters to accomplish larger-scale goals using different dice 
  pools by leaning on each other’s strengths. Each Tactic is unique. Some have prerequisites that 
  shape the dice pools and what the outcome might be. Others only function in specific situations, 
  or may fail, even when successful, depending on the monster. Any hunter may choose to 
  participate in any Tactic, but only hunters can. Many Tactics are designed for use in desperate or 
  otherwise-impossible situations to save the day. A cell tracked a venom-spitting humanoid back 
  to its lair and wants to corner the monster. A group found a nest of slimy, oozing eggs and plans 
  
  to burn them. Tactics allow hunters to face the darkness because they’re putting their faith in a 
  leader and upholding the Code together.  
  Teamwork Vs. Tactics 
  Teamwork draws on similarities between hunters, while Tactics allow any hunter 
  to participate. While Tactics do not necessarily involve a monster, in many cases 
  they will — unlike teamwork. Tactics also exist as a tool to do something one hunter 
  could not typically accomplish by themselves, whereas teamwork increases the 
  chance for a single action’s success.  
  Storytellers should note that increasing threat levels may incur a greater desire for 
  team-based actions, and Tactics are a great way of facilitating a possible win. 
  Tactics work similarly to teamwork actions with the following notes: 
  • 
  Risking Willpower: To perform a Tactic, the primary actor must risk a Willpower point 
  (p. XX) on its outcome, and they do so before anyone makes any rolls. Once the Tactic begins, 
  the group must follow it through to its end, even if it goes horribly awry in the middle. Enacting 
  the Tactic takes up both benefits of risking Willpower for the primary actor. All usual roll results 
  for risking Willpower apply. Secondary actors may risk Willpower normally on their rolls if they 
  wish. 
  • 
  Participants: For a Tactic to work, multiple hunters are required. However, sometimes 
  the number of players isn’t enough. Storytellers are encouraged to be flexible during gameplay 
  when a cell comes up short. Should more characters be required, consider adding Storyteller 
  characters as secondary actors to round out the difference. Then, let the players roll dice for any 
  additional secondary actors to complete the Tactic. 
  • 
  Multiple Moving Parts: The secondary actors in a Tactic each perform their own 
  actions, meaning they roll their own dice pools based on what they are doing rather than the 
  same dice pool as the primary actor. 
  • 
  Initiative: If a Tactic takes place during an action scene, all participants must delay their 
  actions to the lowest Initiative among them so they can all act at the same time. 
  • 
  Time and Place: Tactics aren’t supernatural powers and don’t automatically function if 
  the situation doesn’t allow it. For instance, Controlled Immolation doesn’t work if the target is 
  immune to fire, or if the environment is soaked in gasoline, and the primary actor requires a 
  method to set the fire in the first place. Hunters work to set up situations that make their best 
  options viable. If the characters enact a Tactic and discover through doing so that it was never 
  possible to begin with — e.g. they didn’t know the monster was immune to fire or the place was 
  soaked with gasoline until after they used Controlled Immolation — the Tactic automatically 
  fails. 
  Tactics Overview 
  The following is a view of what you will find in every Tactic description. 
  Requirements: Some Tactics have basic requirements the participants must meet to perform 
  without penalty, such as a minimum number of dots in a particular Skill or Merit, or a type of 
  Specialty. A participant without these requirements suffers a −1for each dot or Specialty that 
  falls short, in addition to suffering from any untrained penalties, on their roll. 
  
  In some cases, the requirements include a required action or presence of a circumstance, such as 
  “target must be injured” or “during an investigation for Clues.” 
  Action: Each Tactic specifies the type of action it uses; some Tactics may give options. 
  Dice Pools: Each Tactic includes a list of its dice pools for the primary and secondary actors, 
  with a note in parentheses to indicate which roll goes with which action. Numbers in the 
  parentheses after a listed pool for secondary actors denote the minimum and maximum number 
  of participants for that pool. For instance, Dexterity + Firearms (1/2) means that one participant 
  must use Firearms for the Tactic to work, but more than two using Firearms won’t contribute any 
  dice to the primary actor’s roll. 
  Occasionally, an optional dice pool is included for secondary actors whose successes don’t 
  contribute dice to the primary actor’s pool; instead, they grant the Tactic some other benefit, 
  noted under the roll results. These optional pools include (ND) in parentheses after the listed roll, 
  meaning “no dice.” 
  Primary Actor Roll Results: The roll results given for each Tactic generally affect the primary 
  actor only. Secondary actors abide by the usual roll results for teamwork, given above, unless 
  otherwise noted. 
  For the Player: Tactics, Teamwork, and Endowments 
  Tactics are all-hands-on-deck plans to perform a specific action, usually during a 
  hunt. Teamwork, on the other hand, represents a considered effort to complete a 
  task among similarly-skilled characters. Endowments are unique gifts a tier-three 
  conspiracy grants to each, individual hunter as rewards for their service and status 
  in the organization. 
  Teamwork and tactics are group undertakings that carry more risk than a typical 
  action and reflect cell members’ natural desire to help one another. Action-related 
  Endowments are tied to a specific hunter just like any other Endowment that does 
  not require a roll. As such, only that hunter may utilize their conspiracy’s blessings 
  when a situation calls for it. If two hunters possess the same Endowment, they 
  simply make two separate die rolls (or actions) if necessary. 
  Mental Tactics 
  The following Tactics use primarily Mental Attributes and Skills or are useful in primarily 
  Mental contexts. 
  Bind/Ward 
  Hunting a spirit, a ghost, or a demon isn’t as straightforward as shooting a monster with silver 
  bullets; it requires arcane lore and a way to pin down the incorporeal or keep it out of a cell’s 
  safehouse. 
  Secondary actors gather the necessary materials and prepare runes, talismans, and rites in 
  prescribed ways, marking out the desired area — drawing a binding circle, for instance, or lines 
  of salt across doors and windows. Once the hunters have the monster where they want it, the 
  primary actor finishes the job with the right kind of chanting or ritual actions, either trapping the 
  foe within a particular area or warding a place against its entry. These materials and rituals vary 
  
  depending on the specific entity; the hunters must learn what they are, per the Tactic 
  requirements below. 
  This Tactic doesn’t ensure the monster enters or leaves the desired area once the characters have 
  prepared it; that requires other actions, or Tactics such as Corral or Lure. 
  Requirements: Primary actor: Occult 2. Secondary actors: Occult or Crafts 1. The characters 
  must already know a weakness the creature has that can be used to bind or ward against it, and its 
  identity if it’s unique. If their information is wrong, the Tactic fails. 
  Action: Contested: Each secondary actor’s roll requires 15 minutes to prepare the area. The 
  primary actor’s roll is Instant and Contested. 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Presence + Occult − Potency (for monsters) or Rank (for ephemeral 
  entities). Secondary: Intelligence + Occult (preparing the area, 1/2); appropriate Attribute + Skill 
  roll or possessing dots of an appropriate Merit equal to or exceeding Availability (procuring 
  required materials, 1/3). 
  The primary actor’s roll may be modified by the size of the area being warded: 
  [TABLE] 
  Area 
  Modifier 
  Small area within a location, up to a six-foot area 
  +1 
  Single room, a vehicle 
  0 
  Two story, suburban building −1 
  [END TABLE] 
  Larger structures levy increasing penalties; an additional −1 for every equivalent of a family 
  home. Most superstructures, like skyscrapers, trains, government buildings, and hospitals are too 
  large to be effectively warded. 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The ritual binds the monster within the confines of the area or prevents it from entering 
  a warded location for a number of days equal to successes rolled. The monster can’t break the 
  binding or ward no matter what, but someone else can by disrupting the proscribed area.  
  Exceptional Success: As success, and the binding or ward lasts for an extra day. 
  Failure: The hunters fail to perform the Tactic. 
  Dramatic Failure: The monster disrupts the proscribed area before the ritual is complete or is 
  too powerful for the hunters to contain. It may immediately use an automatically successful 
  supernatural power without paying its cost or inflict a Tilt on a character or the environment. 
  Identification 
  Hunters must take care not to jump to conclusions about a potential monster too quickly, lest 
  they accidentally murder an innocent human being. With careful observation, they can make a 
  definitive call without having to show up on someone’s doorstep and douse her with holy water 
  when she comes to the door. 
  
  The secondary actors tail the target, collect evidence, and perform research. Then, the primary 
  actor puts it all together. 
  If a secondary actor fails dramatically, the target captures or compromises that actor in some way 
  in addition to the usual effects. 
  Requirements: Primary actor: Occult 2. 
  Action: Contested: Everyone must spend one hour researching or putting information together 
  before rolling. 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Intelligence + Occult vs. Manipulation + Subterfuge + Potency. Secondary: 
  Wits + Investigation (collecting evidence, 1/3, or 0/3 if someone tails the target); Wits + Stealth 
  (tailing target, 1/1, or 0/1 if someone collects evidence); Wits + Occult (research, 0/3). 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The hunters discern whether the target is an ordinary human, a hunter, or a supernatural 
  creature; if the latter, they learn the type of creature. They also learn one of the following about 
  the target: one Anchor, one Aspiration, the location of her lair or home, or the identity of one 
  character important to her. All participants gain the Informed Condition regarding the target. 
  Exceptional Success: As success, but players learn two specific pieces of information. 
  Failure: The hunters fail to learn anything. 
  Dramatic Failure: The target becomes aware of the investigation and takes one group of 
  secondary actors by surprise with an ambush, an automatically successful supernatural power, or 
  a disadvantageous circumstance. 
  Monster Lore 
  Too often, the information hunters need to prevail against their foes is badly diluted by urban 
  legends and pop culture or hidden in forbidden tomes that haven’t seen the light of day since 
  their writers perished centuries ago. Even monsters that loom large in the public imagination, 
  like vampires, usually don’t follow the rules everybody “knows,” and a hunter who relies on 
  television for his lore is usually a dead hunter. 
  The secondary actors call in favors, consult with experts, locate hard-to-find resources, and shake 
  down information brokers in the supernatural underground. Then, the primary actor hits the 
  books and finds the key to stopping the threat. Each roll represents one hour of work. 
  Requirements: Secondary actors: 2+ in a relevant Social Merit, such as Contacts or Compact 
  Status. Characters must research a specific type of monster. 
  Action: Extended: Successes required are 2x the monster’s Potency. 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Intelligence + Occult. Secondary: Presence or Manipulation + Socialize 
  (calling in favors/consulting with experts, 0/3); Resolve + Academics, Investigation, or 
  Computer (tracking down rare resources, 1/3); Strength or Presence + Intimidation or Streetwise 
  (interrogation, 0/2) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: For each successful roll within the extended action, the hunters learn one weakness the 
  creature type in question generally possesses, one common Dread Power or other capability it 
  
  usually has, or one piece of information about where it comes from and how it came to be. This 
  doesn’t grant information about a specific monster unless it’s the only one of its kind. The 
  primary actor gains the Informed Condition about the monster type. 
  Exceptional Success: As success, and the hunters learn one additional piece of information. 
  They also learn whether a specific monster they’re hunting follows the usual pattern or not, but it 
  requires further investigation to find out how it differs. 
  Failure: The hunters fail to learn anything useful about the monster. 
  Dramatic Failure: The information the hunters discover is not only wrong but will lead to 
  catastrophic results when used. 
  Profiling 
  Some monsters crawled out of malefic hellholes or were built by human hands, but many were 
  once human themselves. Others have mortal minions whom savvy hunters can exploit, or cover 
  stories that give them false human identities. Those who can uncover dirt on who a monster or its 
  lackeys really are and where they came from has leverage to use against them. 
  Secondary actors talk to witnesses, hack into databases, take incriminating photos, or dig into 
  public records to collect information, and then the primary actor uses the gathered intel to profile 
  the target and match it up to a human identity. It could be that of a monster’s previous life or its 
  current fake persona, or it could be someone who works for the monster — whichever is most 
  relevant to the characters’ goals. 
  At least two secondary actors must participate, and at least one must perform a non-research 
  action. If a secondary actor fails dramatically, the target captures or compromises that actor in 
  some way in addition to the usual effects. 
  Requirements: Primary actor: Empathy 2 and Investigation 2. Secondary actors: 2+ in the Skill 
  used for the Tactic. Characters must already have basic knowledge of the target, such as from 
  casing a crime scene or personal interactions. 
  Action: Contested: Everyone must spend one hour researching or putting information together 
  before rolling. 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Intelligence + Investigation vs. Wits + (Subterfuge or Investigation) + 
  Potency. Secondary: Presence or Manipulation + Persuasion (talking to witnesses, 0/2); 
  Intelligence + Computer (hacking, 0/2); Wits + Stealth or Expression (taking photos, 0/1); 
  Intelligence + Academics or Occult (research; 1/3) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The hunters profile a monster and pinpoint a human identity associated with it, as 
  above. They learn the following about the monster: its Anchors, one of its Aspirations, its 
  Potency, and the rating of one of its Mental or Social traits (players’ choice). 
  Exceptional Success: As success, and the players may ask one yes or no question of the 
  Storyteller regarding what the target is likely to do next and receive an accurate answer. 
  Failure: The hunters fail to gather information. 
  
  Dramatic Failure: The monster catches wind of the investigation and deliberately plants false 
  information, pointing the hunters definitively to the wrong person. The monster also learns 
  information about one of the secondary actors as though it had successfully profiled her. 
  Tactics and Investigation 
  Tactics such as Identification, Monster Lore, and Profiling may be regarded as a 
  shortcut in an investigation, since they take less time and effort than using the full-
  blown investigation system (see p. XX). This is by design; a Tactic is a risky gamble 
  a cell can take to cut to the chase more quickly in exchange for potential dire 
  consequences. Use the full system for larger and more complex mysteries, or when 
  the characters want to play it “safe” (at least, more so). Use these Tactics for 
  smaller, more focused investigations, or when the characters are ready to throw 
  caution to the wind for a chance at pay dirt. 
  Sweep 
  Sneaking into monster lairs to find human hostages or steal powerful tomes from vampiric 
  scholars is risky business. A cell needs to sweep the perimeter and meticulously check room by 
  room to make sure no nasty surprises await them, both swiftly and thoroughly. 
  Secondary actors ensure access to every nook and cranny of the area, kicking down doors or 
  picking locks, and uncover any hidden passages or cubbyholes where a monster could be lying in 
  wait. Then, the primary actor does a final sweep to make sure the area is clear — and if it isn’t, 
  to clear it out by any means necessary or make sure everyone escapes with their limbs intact. 
  Action: Instant or Contested 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Wits + Composure. If one or more foes lie in wait in the area, each one 
  contests the roll with Wits + Stealth + Potency. Secondary: Strength + Athletics or Dexterity + 
  Larceny (opening portals, 1/5); Wits + Investigation or Survival (spotting hiding places/traps, 
  0/5) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: If the area is clear, the characters confirm this and need fear no ambushes or traps for 
  the rest of the scene; the primary actor gains a +2 equipment bonus to any rolls to investigate the 
  area. If not, the characters avoid any trap they come across, find anyone hidden in the area, and 
  gain +2 to Initiative, Speed, and Defense for the first turn of any action scene that ensues. 
  Exceptional Success: As success, but the dice bonuses are +3 instead. 
  Failure: The characters find nothing of note. 
  Dramatic Failure: The characters miss something crucial — a trapdoor with zombies behind it, 
  a monster behind a curtain, a trap they spring in their haste, or a prisoner they mistake for an 
  enemy. Every foe present gets a surprise attack or other immediate advantage, such as grabbing 
  an allied Storyteller character to use as a hostage or escaping without the possibility of pursuit. If 
  a trap is present, the primary actor springs it and falls prey to its effects. If a prisoner or other ally 
  is present, the primary actor makes an attack against them, ignoring Defense. 
  Physical Tactics 
  
  The following Tactics use primarily Physical Attributes and Skills or are useful in primarily 
  Physical contexts. 
  Called Shot 
  Some monsters have particular weaknesses that require unwavering accuracy and a good, clear 
  shot to strike. Others have claws, fangs, or bestial speed that give them the edge while standing 
  toe to toe; taking them out first is a hunter’s best chance to even the playing field. Either way, a 
  cell can work to set one among their number up for the perfect blow.  
  The secondary actors bait the target into exposing the crucial part of its body and then tackle it to 
  hold it in position. Finally, the primary actor takes the shot, whether with a hand-held weapon or 
  a ranged one. 
  The primary actor takes the usual specified target penalty to his roll in addition to the target’s 
  resistance, as noted on p. XX. 
  Action: Resisted 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Strength + Weaponry or Dexterity + Firearms − target’s Defense. 
  Secondary: Manipulation + Persuasion or Subterfuge (baiting, 1/2); Strength + Brawl (tackling, 
  1/2) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The opponent suffers the appropriate Tilt for a successful hit on the specified target, 
  and the hunter’s attack deals damage as normal with a +1 to his weapon modifier. The target 
  takes a penalty to Initiative equal to the number of participants for the rest of the scene. 
  Exceptional Success: As success, and the Storyteller offers an immediate surrender in exchange 
  for a non-lethal outcome to the scene. If the players accept, the Tactic’s target submits to 
  whatever fate the hunters choose that can be enacted within the current scene, such as capture or 
  giving something up, as long as it doesn’t involve further violence against the target. 
  Failure: The target evades the attack. 
  Dramatic Failure: The target twists or ducks at the last minute, and the primary actor makes a 
  reflexive attack against the secondary actor closest to the target, ignoring Defense. 
  Capture 
  Hunters may wish to capture a monster rather than kill it, for any number of reasons. It’s 
  dangerous, but worth the risk — hunters can force a captive monster to provide information or 
  perform services, use it as a hostage or lab specimen, or harvest it for parts. 
  The secondary actors corner the target and wrestle it to the ground, so the primary actor can 
  secure it with rope, chains, a metal box, or whatever else is on hand. 
  Action: Contested 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Dexterity + Survival or Crafts vs. Dexterity or Strength + Athletics, or 
  Brawl + Potency. Secondary: Wits + Athletics (cornering, 1/3), Strength + Brawl (wrestling, 1/3) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The target suffers the Immobilized Tilt and takes a penalty equal to the number of 
  participants to attempts to break free. 
  
  Exceptional Success: The target cannot attempt to break free at all for the rest of the current 
  scene. 
  Failure: The target evades capture. 
  Dramatic Failure: The target breaks free, ruining whatever the characters tried to capture it 
  with, and makes a reflexive attack on the nearest hunter, who loses Defense. Alternatively, the 
  target fools the participants into thinking it’s restrained, and may break out at any time. 
  Controlled Immolation 
  Fire is a staple weapon in a hunter’s arsenal. It is a primal force that lights, warms, purifies, and 
  destroys with primal abandon — the bane of many creatures that otherwise defy harm. 
  Unfortunately, fire burns hunters, victims, and their gear, too. Controlling a blaze to target a 
  monster without causing an accident requires bold and decisive action. 
  The primary actor sets the monster on fire and keeps it burning. Some secondary actors ensure it 
  doesn’t escape, while others keep the flames from spreading to other flammable objects (and 
  people) in the area. 
  Action: Contested 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Stamina + Firearms or Athletics vs. Stamina + Athletics + Potency/Rank. 
  Secondary: Wits + Weaponry or Brawl (contain the monster, 1/4); Wits + Survival or Science 
  (contain the blaze, 1/5) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: Target is set on fire at the bonfire level, with torch-level intensity (see p. XX), and 
  suffers the Blinded Tilt (p. XX). The flames don’t spread beyond the target, and the target cannot 
  put them out, no matter what it does. The hunters may continue to make the contested teamwork 
  roll each turn to keep the Tactic going; as soon as the primary actor fails a roll or anyone decides 
  to stop, the Tactic ends and the fire goes out immediately. 
  Exceptional Success: The monster remains on fire even after the hunters end the Tactic and 
  must douse the flames in usual fashion. 
  Failure: The monster puts itself out. 
  Dramatic Failure: The monster is not set on fire, and all flammable objects in the immediate 
  vicinity combust instead, giving the area the Inferno Tilt (p. XX). 
  Corral 
  Forcing giant, albino alligators to steer clear from snatching New Yorkers or head straight for a 
  trap is no mean feat. Whether they’re targeting an unusual cryptid or not, hunters must figure out 
  what the monster fears to temporarily control their movement. 
  The primary actor threatens the monster, causing it to move in a specific direction at its full 
  Speed. Some secondary actors ensure the monster has nowhere to hide while others herd it 
  toward a dead end or trap. 
  Action: Contested 
  
  Dice Pools: Primary: Strength or Manipulation + Intimidation vs. Composure + Empathy + 
  Potency/Rank. Secondary: Wits + Composure (keeping target in sight, 1/5); Manipulation + 
  Subterfuge or Survival (herding target, 1/3) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: Target goes where the hunters wish. If it takes more than a turn to get there, the hunters 
  must continue to make the contested teamwork roll each turn to keep the Tactic going until either 
  the target arrives, the primary actor fails a roll, or anyone decides to stop. If the target arrives, the 
  players may declare that something reasonably likely happens when it gets there, such as the 
  monster opens a particular door or loses line of sight to someone in another room. 
  Exceptional Success: The hunters surround the monster upon arrival and may choose one 
  character to take an immediate instant action regardless of Initiative. 
  Failure: The hunters lose track of the monster. 
  Dramatic Failure: The monster catches wind of the ruse. It may take an action immediately, 
  regardless of Initiative, even if it has already taken one before Initiative resets. 
  Harvest 
  Not all hunts are about the kill. Hunters who want to study their prey or claim supernatural 
  advantages for themselves need to harvest samples from monsters in the field, and few monsters 
  sit quietly for the syringe. 
  The primary actor collects the sample, while some secondary actors hold the monster still and 
  others provide the necessary knowledge to ensure they collect what they need. 
  Requirements: Any actor: Occult 2. Any actor: a Specialty related to the target’s monster type 
  in any Skill. 
  Action: Contested 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Dexterity + Medicine vs. Strength + (Athletics or Brawl) + Potency. 
  Secondary: Strength + Brawl (restraining, 1/3); Intelligence + Occult (knowledge, 1/2 or 0/2 if 
  characters have previously researched the monster) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The primary actor collects one sample — they yank out a fang, extract a vial of blood, 
  cut out a venom sac, etc. The hunters may continue to make the contested teamwork roll each 
  turn to keep the Tactic going and collect another sample per additional turn. As soon as the 
  primary actor fails a roll or anyone decides to stop, the Tactic ends. The primary actor gains the 
  Informed Condition regarding the creature. 
  Exceptional Success: As success, but the hunters may also either collect a number of samples on 
  the first turn of the Tactic equal to the total participants, or fully restrain the monster, inflicting 
  the Immobilized Tilt. 
  Failure: The monster eludes the hunters. 
  Dramatic Failure: The monster lashes out at the primary actor, inflicting the Stunned Tilt, and 
  automatically escapes any grapple or restraints. 
  Lure 
  
  Setting traps to turn the tables on would-be predators is useless without bait. Hunters who want 
  to lure a monster out of hiding or to a particular location use this Tactic to make use of hard-won 
  knowledge. 
  One secondary actor presents — or is — the bait, while others draw the target in with rituals or 
  clever word of mouth, and carefully hide the ruse. Once they’re ready, the primary actor drops 
  the other shoe. 
  Requirements: Any actor: Occult 2. Characters must know something about the target they can 
  use to entice it, such as an Aspiration, a weakness, or a favored type of victim. 
  Action: Contested: The primary actor’s and baiting secondary actor’s rolls take their actions, 
  while other secondary actors’ rolls take half an hour each 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Wits + Composure vs. Wits + Composure + Potency; Secondary: Presence 
  + Persuasion or Subterfuge (bait, 1/1); Manipulation + Occult or Streetwise (drawing target in, 
  1/2); Dexterity + Larceny (concealing lure, 0/2) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The target falls for the ruse or is drawn to the hunters by arcane rites, and comes to a 
  place of their choosing, taking the bait. If the primary actor springs a physical trap, she 
  automatically catches the monster. If she attacks, she takes it by surprise (p. XX). Other actions 
  should similarly have their desired effects as long as they only take one turn; for instance, she 
  may snap the perfect photo that proves the monster’s existence or tear away a tarp to let in 
  sunlight. However, the character who offered the bait remains within arm’s reach of the monster 
  — inside the trap, if they spring one. 
  Exceptional Success: The hunter who presented or posed as bait manages to get out of the trap 
  or line of fire, and the monster can’t target him for a full turn. 
  Failure: The monster does not fall for the ruse. 
  Dramatic Failure: The monster wises up to the lure and takes the hunters by surprise instead, 
  ambushing them or preparing some worse fate that they walk into unawares. This reverse trap 
  needn’t be sprung immediately — the Storyteller can hold it in abeyance for a later dramatic 
  moment. 
  Scatter 
  When a plan falls apart disastrously, the cell has to get the hell out of there and live to fight 
  another day. Hunters are rarely so lucky as to stumble across opportunities to do that against 
  superhuman foes, though, so usually, one of them has to take one for the team. 
  The primary actor coordinates the group’s efforts to scatter and ensures they know where to meet 
  up later, while most of the secondary actors find places to hide and escape routes without giving 
  the plan away. One secondary actor instead stays behind to distract the threat. 
  Action: Contested 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Wits + Composure vs. Wits + Composure + Potency. Secondary: Dexterity 
  + Stealth (escape, 1/5); Presence + Expression or Intimidation (distraction, 1/1) 
  Roll Results 
  
  Success: All participants except the distraction escape the scene immediately with no further 
  harm or risk, and the primary actor gains the Informed Condition regarding the threat they 
  escaped. The one left behind must fend for herself. 
  Exceptional Success: As success, and the character left behind automatically finds a way to 
  escape the scene as well after a number of turns equal to the total number of participants. 
  Failure: The hunters fail to leave the fight, which continues. 
  Dramatic Failure: The players have a choice. The ruse fails completely, inflicting the Beaten 
  Down Tilt on all participants and no one escapes; or they can successfully escape at the cost of 
  letting the threat catch the distracting character outright and achieve its intent in the fight, as long 
  as it isn’t lethal. It might capture her, put her under a spell, or knock her unconscious and leave 
  her lost and alone without her phone, for instance. 
  Social Tactics 
  The following Tactics use primarily Social Attributes and Skills or are useful in primarily Social 
  contexts. 
  Adrenaline Rush 
  Taking on a foe with unholy advantages is daunting, to say the least. Hunters can pump each 
  other up beyond reason to push themselves past their usual limitations and banish fear, for a 
  time. 
  The secondary actors enact a ritual of sorts, and the primary actor leads it. It could be a literal 
  rite, with focusing chants and blessings of aid, or it could be more akin to a football team’s 
  pregame traditions — or a little of both. The primary actor provides a capstone for the ritual to 
  shove all the participants into overdrive. 
  Action: Instant 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Presence + Expression; Secondary: Resolve + Occult (rite, 1/6, or 0/6 if 
  someone pumps the group up), Resolve + Empathy (pumping up, 1/6, or 0/6 if someone 
  performs a rite) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: For the next full scene, the participants don’t fall unconscious if their Health boxes fill 
  with bashing damage, and they don’t suffer wound penalties. They gain the successes on the 
  primary actor’s roll as a bonus to all Resistance traits for the purpose of resisting (not contesting) 
  actions or supernatural powers that would inflict fear or cause them to question themselves, to a 
  maximum of +5 or the number of participants, whichever is higher. 
  Exceptional Success: The primary actor may grant a beneficial Condition to all participants, 
  rather than just herself. 
  Failure: The hunters fail to rile themselves up. 
  Failure: High on danger, the participants work themselves into a frenzy, losing their better 
  instincts in the rush of adrenaline. They all suffer the Insane Tilt for the next full scene and can’t 
  end it early. 
  Freeing Mind 
  
  As people who survive on hard-won trust in their comrades, hunters fear mind control and 
  demonic possession more than most horrors. When one among them is compromised, the other 
  cell members exhaust all their options before admitting defeat and losing one of their own. This 
  Tactic lets them fight through the false memories and feelings to restore someone’s mind to the 
  state it was in before a ghost, spirit, demon, or other antagonist took over. It is a social means of 
  connecting to the person’s mind as opposed to an exorcism which uses occult and religious 
  methods to drive an unwelcome antagonist out of their body. 
  The primary actor antagonizes the target to force her subconscious into fighting the influence, 
  while the secondary actors call upon bonds of friendship and shared experience to remind the 
  target what she’s fighting for. In certain circumstances, another secondary actor might need to 
  fend off interruptions or outside attempts to poison the target against her fellows or stop the 
  target from fleeing the scene. 
  This Tactic is an extended action, and the time each roll takes depends on the effect the hunters 
  are up against. For an effect that would last a scene or less, each roll represents five minutes of 
  work. For an effect that would last longer than a scene, each roll represents one hour of work. 
  If any participants devote rolls to controlling the situation and succeed, nothing from the outside 
  may interrupt or sabotage the extended action. The target cannot attempt escape. If any of these 
  secondary actors fails dramatically, the hunters must deal with an interruption, such as the target 
  escaping or a monster crashing the party; the extended action can resume later without ending 
  the Tactic, but all participants suffer a cumulative one-die penalty for each such dramatic failure 
  rolled. 
  Requirements: The target must suffer a Mental or Social effect imposed by a supernatural 
  power or phenomenon that causes her to act counter to her best interests or out of character. 
  Examples include possession, a magical command, false love, or unnatural memory loss. 
  Action: Extended and Contested: Successes required are 2x the monster’s Potency. 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Manipulation + Intimidation or Subterfuge vs. subject’s Composure + 
  Resolve + the Potency of the monster that inflicted the effect. Secondary: Presence + Persuasion 
  or Empathy (appealing to emotions, 1/2); Wits + Brawl, Weaponry, or Intimidation (controlling 
  the situation, 0/3, ND) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The target spends a Willpower point; if she can’t, the Tactic fails. 
  For simple effects like Tilts or single commands, the effect ends immediately. For more complex 
  effects, such as those represented by Conditions or those that would last longer than a scene, the 
  effect is suppressed for the rest of the current scene and the Storyteller offers a new, alternate 
  way for the target to resolve the Condition or end the effect permanently, such as sacrificing 
  something significant, gaining Willpower through their Virtue, or harming the monster that 
  inflicted the effect.  
  For Persistent Conditions or effects that last longer than a day, the effect is suppressed for the 
  rest of the current scene but can’t be ended this way; however, the target gains bonus dice equal 
  to their Resolve on the next roll they make to resolve or end it permanently. Conditions that 
  resolve as a result of this Tactic still grant Beats as normal. 
  
  Exceptional Success: As success, but the target’s player (or Storyteller, for characters they 
  control) may instead end the effect immediately even if it’s more complex. If they do so, 
  Conditions grant no Beats for resolution. 
  Failure: The hunters fail to goad the target. 
  Dramatic Failure: The hunters do or say the wrong thing and prompt the target to either attack 
  someone, ignoring Defense, or succumb to some side effect or worsening of the influence, and 
  then escape the scene. 
  Expose 
  Sometimes it’s more important to shine a light on the darkness and expose it for all the world to 
  see than to simply get rid of it. With the right combination of investigative technique and clever 
  setup, hunters can force their prey into tipping its hand. 
  The secondary actors find the right times and places to take pictures, catch the target on 
  surveillance cameras, and record incriminating statements. Then, the primary actor corners the 
  target and either holds the evidence over their head or blurts it out in front of just the right people 
  — to hell with consequences. 
  If a secondary actor fails dramatically, the target captures or compromises that actor in some way 
  in addition to the usual effects. 
  Requirements: The characters must already know or have the means to easily discover the 
  identity and nature of the target, represented by a Condition like Informed, a previously 
  successful Tactic like Identification or Profiling, Clues from an investigation (p. XX), or 
  information the characters gained another way. 
  Action: Contested: Secondary actors spend an hour before rolling, the primary actor must spend 
  five minutes. 
  Dice Pools: Primary: Wits + Presence or Manipulation vs. Manipulation + Subterfuge + 
  Potency; Secondary: Wits + Investigation or Stealth (gathering evidence, 1/4); Wits + Socialize 
  (finding key people to tell, 1/3) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The hunters may inflict either the Leveraged (Primary Actor) Condition or the 
  Notoriety Condition (p. XX) on the target, depending on whether they choose to blackmail the 
  target or expose it once and for all. If they choose Leveraged, the target must submit to two 
  requests to shed the Condition. If they choose Notoriety, their impressions for Social 
  maneuvering with other hunters in the area improve by one for the rest of the story. 
  Exceptional Success: As success, and each hunter gains a temporary dot of a relevant Merit 
  thanks to their efforts for the rest of the story. For instance, one might gain an extra dot of Status 
  in his compact, while another gains a new Mentor eager to capitalize on her success, or a dot of 
  Fame as a paranormal reporter. 
  Failure: The characters all gain the Leveraged or Notoriety Condition instead, at the 
  Storyteller’s discretion, depending on how the target turns the tables. 
  Creating New Tactics 
  
  Players may want to create their own Tactics in play, as situations arise that seem ripe for 
  complex, team-based actions. A Tactic doesn’t need requirements unless it’s hard to imagine 
  succeeding without a specific background or piece of knowledge. Most Tactics give players 
  more options in combat than kill or be killed and help introduce fun complications to the story as 
  the drama of their risks pays off — whether in success or in failure. 
  The Storyteller should work with the players to create a new Tactic using the following 
  guidelines.  
  Concept 
  A good Tactic has a specific, desired outcome. Some Tactics can have any kind of target, while 
  some only make sense when used against a monster. In general, Tactics can: 
  • 
  Combine what would normally be multiple and separate rolled actions into a single 
  Tactic to save the characters time 
  • 
  Grant benefits a simple teamwork action doesn’t by itself 
  • 
  Create new actions the characters can’t otherwise perform with mundane Skills 
  • 
  Allow the characters to do something in action timing that they otherwise can’t 
  • 
  Allow more people to contribute to a teamwork action than normal 
  Remember, Tactics incur great risk, so they should always confer greater benefits than a simple 
  teamwork action on its own could achieve. Likewise, since every failure is dramatic, the stakes 
  should be higher than usual. 
  Dice Pools 
  Keep in mind that secondary actors usually use different Skills than the primary actor does. 
  Typically, Tactics also offer secondary actors more than one way to participate. Tactics allow all 
  characters to shine with their various strengths as they work together to achieve a common goal, 
  so keep that in mind when you’re forming dice pools for your new Tactic. 
  
  OPENING FICTION 
  I saw the girl again: black hair, a slender frame in silhouette, the warm circle of a child’s face. 
  Between each slant of shadow, her appearance flickered. Wolf to youth, youth to wolf. No 
  footprints followed behind. 
  I exhaled into my scarf. My breath unwrapped in slow plumes of white. 
  Not an amarok, though I’d thought she was one in the beginning. Werewolf was my second 
  guess. But once, I saw her transform into a gargantuan boar, tusks curving from her snout, four 
  too many. And once, when the moon was a cut of silver, I thought I saw her untangle from her 
  skin and take flight. 
  “Aswang,” my Greenland contact had said. But what could one be doing here in Duluth so many 
  miles from home? 
  • • • 
  It had been three weeks since the aswang arrived in my woods. 
  Three weeks and no reports of death on the radio. No disappearances. No miscarriages, no 
  deflated wombs pierced by a proboscis tongue. Nothing.  
  Yet. 
  I dialed down the volume of my little box radio and flipped through the channels until I found 
  something jazzy. Rose as Skip James began to moan, fingerpicking through the chorus of “Be 
  Ready When He Comes.” Small ironies. Far below, the aswang continued pacing through the 
  pines. 
  I sighed. At some point, the aswang would need to eat. Even the dead require nourishment. And 
  what kind of watchman would I be if I permitted such to happen? So, I loaded my rifle cartridges 
  with salt, holy water, the dirt from the church. I holstered a bolo and unwound the cured tail of a 
  stingray from my right wrist. There are so many ways to kill an aswang. It is a wonder they 
  aren’t just myth. 
  Then, I waited as the dusk gorgeted the horizon, rose and drips of gold, staining the mountains 
  orange until the stars seeped into the encroaching blackness before descending from the 
  watchtower.  
  The air shivered with ice. The wind dragged veils of snow across the air, thick upon the steps and 
  my shoulders, the brim of my Yankees cap.  
  The woods were quiet, of course. If the aswang noticed my entrance, she made no sign of it. 
  Nonetheless, I paused at the foot of the steps, gripping my rifle. Nothing emerged to challenge 
  the loud clack when I cycled the bolt. Somewhere, something howled — a ragged sound, full of 
  grief.  
  Still nothing. 
  I slid a vial from a pocket and decanted its contents onto the snow. The oil — a rare attar, 
  imported at considerable expense — began to smoke at once, the substance lurching forward as 
  though propelled by some invisible breeze. I followed its tendrils into the dark. 
  
  I went deeper, the pines closing like teeth behind me, their shadows transformed into an oil slick. 
  Between their branches, the constellations burned softly, like candles at a midnight mass.  
  “I am not afraid to die.” Her voice was soft, older than her appearance let on, a puff of sound and 
  heat against my ear. It carried in its lilt decades in America but also decades more in the 
  monsoon-steeped Philippines. For all of its proximity, I could see nothing of its owner. 
  I stilled. “I’m not here to hurt you.” 
  “No? But you brought so many, many toys to hurt me with.” A rattling laugh, tired. “I can smell 
  all of them. Liar. It is alright, however. I understand your kind.” 
  “Precaution.” I told her. “You are dangerous, after all.” 
  “I am exhausted. That is what I am.” 
  Slowly, I unslung my rifle and placed it atop the snow. “In that case, I have something for you. A 
  gift.” 
  “A gift.” She repeated, her voice swooping upwards. The aswang had moved into the trees. I 
  could hear a flutter of wings pulled together, rested against a slim spine.  
  From my bag, I pulled a thermos and unscrewed the lid. A warm, copper scent flooded the cold. 
  “I figured you might be hungry.” 
  “Blood?” 
  “Body-temperature blood.” I held the thermos aloft. Sometimes, to kill a monster, you have to 
  give them what they need most. 
  There was twitch of motion and she took the container. I heard the rustle of leaves and branches 
  settling as the aswang returned to her perch. “Why?” 
  “You haven’t fed in three weeks. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.” I paused. “You are an aswang, 
  right?” 
  The darkness returned no reply. 
  “Why are you here?” I said to her. 
  “Because there is no safe place for us left in America. I came here with those who were once my 
  family, who were my blood, and for a while, it was a place of plenty. Hard work, certainly. 
  Thankless work. But we did what was needed. And now, with what is unfolding, it’s no longer a 
  place I wish to be.” She stopped then. 
  “You’re not making any sense.” 
  “The truth, then? The werewolf you hunt slaughtered my kind. I want it dead just as much as 
  you.” The aswang laughed. “My turn for questions: We share a common enemy. Can we…set 
  aside our differences for now? You know you are outmatched.” 
  I swallowed the sourness that rose — a lode of bile at the base of my tongue — at the thought of 
  teaming up with a monster. In my spit, I could taste sulfur and cinders, but I knew the vampire 
  was right. “For now.” 
  She laughed again, slow and rich. “A hunter with manners. Interesting.” 
  
  I smiled. “Make no mistake. We are not friends; we are enemies. When this is over, I will find 
  you. Do we understand each other?”  
  “Yes.” And she rose into the firmament, a spiral of flesh and bare spine, membranous wings, the 
  curve of a smile flashing bright. 
  It was only much later that I realized she’d had taken my thermos as well.  
  I sighed, went home, and tried not to think about the aswang. At least, not until that werewolf 
  was dead. 
  END OPENING FICTION 
  Chapter Five: Monsters Around the World 
  “Villains used to always die in the end. Even the monsters. Frankenstein — 
  Dracula, you’d kill them with a stake. Now, the nightmare guy comes back.” 
  — Benicio del Toro, American Actor 
  Since the dawn of time, monsters have always preyed on the innocent and naïve. Their existence 
  is so terrifying most people can’t accept the truth: Their nightmares could be real, and the 
  darkness teems with life. Human fears manifest when personal anxieties and phobias take the 
  form of crawling spiders crawl and mysterious humanoid shapes linger in the shadows. To help 
  them cope, victims share urban legends about bizarre animal attacks and spirits of vengeance to 
  warn people away. To know fear is to be human. To understand what shape those fears take, 
  however, is to be a hunter. 
  In Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition, the definition of monster can range from a giant alligator 
  slithering through the sewers in New York City to a shape-shifting soucouyant from Trinidad. 
  Monsters fall into several different classifications including cryptids, spirits, humanoids, 
  elementals, bloodsuckers, were-creatures, fae-touched, and more, and they exist all around the 
  globe. Some monsters are fiercely intelligent while others act on pure instinct — which forces 
  hunters to ask questions they may not want to answer.  
  Some hunters like to keep it simple: Monsters are supernatural creatures that attack and harm 
  victims. Those who don’t wrestle with their conscience. Should a cell feel sorry for a werewolf 
  who’s desperate to find a cure for their condition? Is it right to exorcise a ghost simply because 
  they’re a nuisance? Or kill a cursed shapeshifter who helped the cell track a dangerous warlock? 
  When the hunt is easy and the monster is no longer a problem, hunters feel like heroes. When it’s 
  not, however, they’re forced to examine their thoughts and feelings before making a move. 
  Either way, it’s up to the hunters to figure out how to deal with the strange and unusual, because 
  if they don’t act, the monster will. 
  Footprints and Sightings 
  The core of a Hunter chronicle is the hunt. Sometimes, to track down a monster a hunter needs 
  more information than witnesses or evidence can provide. Experienced hunters know all too well 
  how cloudy a victim’s memory can be and must learn how to distinguish coyote from werewolf. 
  To help point a cell in the right direction, leverage the strengths of your chronicle’s tier. Tier-one 
  chronicles could benefit from a legendary hunter’s journal filled with clues, tier-two chronicles 
  might leverage what information compacts such as Network Zero have gathered, and 
  
  conspiracies in tier-three chronicles could tap into their considerable resources to provide 
  internal memos and reports.  
  The second way hunters can find information is by introducing knowledgeable Storyteller 
  characters. Hint that tier-one hunters are not alone and lend the cell a hand with a grizzled 
  veteran when the situation calls for it. Introduce a tier-two compact to which the player 
  characters don’t belong and round out their expertise with like-minded or competitive hunters. 
  Show how other members of a tier-three conspiracy have their own goals that coincide and 
  oppose a cell’s. 
  By offering two different ways to find information, hunters will have plenty of opportunities to 
  expand their knowledgebase during a hunt and delve deeper into hunter lore and relationships. 
  This chapter first explains the nuts and bolts of building your own monsters for this chronicle, 
  including rules for ghosts and spirits. Storytellers are encouraged to create their own monsters or 
  customize existing creatures presented in this chapter. Storytellers looking to drop a slasher into 
  their chronicle may reference slasher-creation rules found on p. XX. 
  Then, this chapter provides a sampling of monsters found in different parts of the world rooted in 
  modern myths and urban legends. Some monsters are portents to warn players they’re about to 
  face a bigger, nastier threat while others are more straightforward to hunt. These creatures 
  comprise, by no means, an exhaustive list of threats hunters might face, because sometimes the 
  “monsters” are human. A broad range of examples have been included to give Storytellers more 
  tools to add plot twists and reduce “monster-of-the-week” hunts that may feel too repetitive over 
  the course of a chronicle. 
  Building a Monster 
  Hunter antagonists can range from a cult leader bent on protecting their master to an epidemic of 
  parasitic plants, a rogue hunter cell, or a spirit forced to do its summoner’s bidding. What makes 
  a monster unique is its set of Dread Powers and it’s place in a hunter’s world. 
  When building a monster, save the rules for last. Instead, figure out what place the antagonist has 
  in a chronicle, and build its purpose and backstory first. Otherwise, one monster is 
  indistinguishable from another — save for its Dread Powers. This method will help ensure 
  Storytellers are better prepared to handle how hunters explore an antagonist’s storytelling 
  potential in their cell, compact, or conspiracy. 
  Step One: Concept and Motivation 
  What does it want? All monsters want or need something — even if they act on instinct. A spirit 
  of vengeance’s motivation may be clear, while a ghost’s desperate attempts to contact a cell may 
  not be. Frame the monster’s motivation according to what role it has in your story. Then, think 
  about what the hunters might assume the monster wants. The space between why a chupacabra is 
  terrorizing Phoenix, Arizona and why the hunters think that creature is doing so creates tension 
  and drama. 
  How does it achieve that? What sort of actions would a demon take? Does La Llorona convince 
  people to help her find her children and, when they don’t, share visions of her grief with them? Is 
  the Bell Witch the source of nightmares? This is where you get an idea of the monster’s place in 
  the setting and how the hunters may first hear about them. Be sure to sketch out a few ideas to 
  help you decide which Dread Powers are appropriate.  
  
  What are the physical details? What does your monster look like? Is it humanoid or more 
  animalistic? What color are its eyes? What’s the shape of its mouth? How old is the monster? 
  Details allow Storytellers to embellish what a monster looks like through the eyes of a witness, 
  police officer, or fellow hunter. Appearance is important to hunters, because sightings are often 
  counted as evidence. When deciding your monster’s appearance, think about how this affects its 
  Dread Powers, too. 
  What is its history? Does the monster “belong” to the location in which it was sighted, or does it 
  appear to be out of place? Where does it come from? How old is it? Flesh out the monster by 
  deciding what secrets it holds. Hunters may unlock these details over the course of a chronicle to 
  track a monster down. Monsters with mysterious origins or dark pasts may be harder to track;the 
  Storyteller should have answers so the hunters may uncover them. During this step, you may 
  want to assign a Storyteller character who possesses one or more pieces of the puzzle. 
  Step Two: Potency  
  Potency measures a monster’s raw supernatural power and is rated from 1 to 10 dots, with 1 
  being the weakest and 10 being the highest. This trait determines a suggested range of points 
  you’ll spend on Attributes, Skills, Merits, and Dread Powers.  
  All monsters have a minimum Potency of 1. Additionally, Storytellers should note how Potency 
  confers the following effects: 
  Willpower Capacity: Monsters add their Potency to their Resolve + Composure to determine 
  their Willpower.  
  Willpower Expenditure: A monster may spend 1 point of Willpower in a turn per dot of Potency. 
  It may not, however, spend more than 1 Willpower on the same effect. A Potency 3 monster may 
  not spend 3 Willpower points to give itself a +9 bonus on an action, for example, but it can spend 
  those 3 Willpower points to bolster its action, increase its Defense, and activate a Dread Power in 
  the same turn.  
  Supernatural Tolerance: Monsters are more resistant to the supernatural. Add the monster’s 
  Potency dots to any contested roll to resist a supernatural power. This power may originate from 
  a variety of sources including an Endowment, Bygone, or Dread Powers used by other monsters. 
  INSERT TABLE 
  Potency 
  Trait Limits* Attribute Dots Skill Dots 
  Dread Power Ranks Merit Dots 
  1 
  5 dots 15-18 10 
  3 
  3 
  2 
  6 dots 19-22 15 
  5 
  5 
  3 
  7 dots 23-26 20 
  7 
  7 
  4 
  8 dots 27-30 25 
  9 
  9 
  5 
  9 dots 31-34 30 
  11 
  11 
  6 
  10 dots 35-38 35 
  15 
  13 
  7 
  10 dots 39-42 40 
  19 
  15 
  8 
  10 dots 43-46 45 
  23 
  17 
  9 
  10 dots 47-50 50 
  27 
  19 
  
  10 
  10 dots 51+ 
  55 
  31 
  21 
  * Maximums are permanent ratings, not Traits boosted by Dread Powers. 
  END TABLE 
  Step Three: Anchors and Aspirations 
  Monsters generally have Virtues and Vices (p. XX) like most characters. Monsters are not 
  human, however, so what they might believe to be virtuous (Gluttony, for example) could be the 
  exact opposite to a hunter. Virtues and Vices are strongly recommended for recurring antagonists 
  and human-seeming monsters: vampires, werewolves, ghosts, shapeshifters, warlocks, demons, 
  etc. The more animalistic or elemental a monster is, the less a Virtue and Vice will matter in a 
  chronicle. 
  Storytellers must choose a minimum of one Aspiration, up to three, per monster. These may 
  build off the antagonist’s motivation or spin the monster’s purpose in a new direction. 
  Aspirations connect the monster to the setting and give it something to do in the story.  
  When creating Aspirations, think about what the monster knows about hunters. Are they aware 
  they’re being tracked? Have they had run ins with it before? This detail adds a layer of intrigue 
  and deepens a cell’s reason to find out more about the monster. 
  Sample Aspirations are as follows: 
  • 
  Locate a safe place to hibernate for the season. 
  • 
  Enact vengeance on the people who tried to murder me. 
  • 
  Find food to satiate my ravenous hunger. 
  • 
  Make myself invaluable to a hunter cell, compact, or conspiracy. 
  • 
  Erase evidence of my existence. 
  Step Four: Dread Powers  
  Choose a number of Dread Powers (p. XX) as determined by your monster’s Potency. Some 
  Dread Powers have multiple dots you can purchase; each dot typically counts as an additional 
  Dread Power. The dot ratings are noted in each description when applicable.  
  During this stage, take note of which Dread Powers support your vision of the monster’s 
  appearance. Remember: hunters often use evidence to track down a monster; visual cues and 
  witness testimonies are part of every Hunter investigation. As the Storyteller, use what hunters 
  don’t know to throw them a curveball. After all, more than one type of creature can have 
  glowing red eyes or the ability to shapeshift into a slithering pile of snakes. 
  The Dread Powers you choose also help inform the decisions you make when allocating dots in 
  Attributes, Skills, Skill Specialties, and Merits. If you do not wish to spend all of the Dread 
  Power dots, you may allocate them to Merits. 
  Step Five: Attributes 
  Unlike characters, monsters do not prioritize Attribute categories (p. XX) for point allocation. 
  They simply receive a lump sum of points that are spent according to the Storyteller’s wishes.  
  
  Though you may want to build a monster by evenly distributing points, most antagonists 
  function best when their strengths and weaknesses are clear. A monster with five dots in 
  Intelligence and one in Strength is more compelling than one with three in each. Hunters can 
  quickly form strategies to attack an intelligent monster who’s not strong but won’t know where 
  to start if they’re average at everything. 
  When assigning points, identify in which Attribute the monster is strongest and in which they’re 
  weakest. For example, if you decide the witch in the woods with a Potency of one is best at 
  Presence but weakest at Dexterity, assign five dots to Presence and one or two to Dexterity. 
  Step Six: Skills 
  Now that you’ve assigned Attributes, it’s time to figure out what Skills the monster has. You 
  may assign points to Skills derived from the monster’s Potency as you see fit, and do not have to 
  prioritize categories.  
  Before assigning Skill points, cross out the Skills that don’t make sense for the monster. Then, 
  determine two Skills at which the monster is best and two in which it’s weakest; max out its Skill 
  points for the first two, and assign one dot for the second two. Following this, distribute Skills 
  that make sense for the monster’s abilities. Monsters don’t really bother with Skill Specialties; 
  just assign an additional dot. 
  In some cases, you may get stuck. A wendigo may not physically be able to pick up a gun, so 
  that Skill isn’t relevant to it. It can, however, use its claws to attack, so put dots in Brawl instead. 
  After exhausting all options, if you can’t select any more relevant Skills, you may move on to the 
  next step. After monster creation, leftover points are discarded. 
  Step Seven: Merits 
  Assign Merits (pp. XX-XX) if applicable but be careful to balance them against any Dread 
  Powers the monster might have. You may safely ignore innate Merits that modify the monster’s 
  traits. Size and Speed are calculated in the next step and feel free to give them a little more than 
  they would have based on their Attributes. 
  When considering in which, if any, Merits to purchase dots, review Social Merits (p. XX). 
  Humanoid monsters who can pass as everyday citizens may have Allies, Contacts, Retainers, and 
  Staff. These Merits provide more hooks to draw players into the monster’s orbit.  
  For physical, violent monsters, refer to the Dread Powers you’ve chosen. Additional Physical 
  Merits may tip the scales in the monster’s favor and force the hunters into a vicious, extended 
  battle when confronted. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because hunters possess teamwork, 
  Tactics, and other gifts like Endowments geared torward dealing with a wide array of threats. 
  The key here is balance. If the hunters have an impressive set of physical skills, you might 
  decide the monsters need to match their prowess so a fight is more satisfying.  
  Step Eight: Advantages 
  Finally, calculate the monster’s Advantages. If any of the numbers derived here don’t feel right, 
  you are free to change them. The formulae for calculating Advantages are there to give you a 
  ballpark range and are based on the values for an average person. 
  Willpower 
  
  A monster’s Willpower equals its Resolve + Composure + Potency. A monster may spend a 
  number of Willpower points to activate Dread Powers equal to its Potency each turn.  
  Integrity 
  Monsters with Dread Powers do not have Integrity. A human being who possesses an innate 
  supernatural gift, however, is still mortal and has Integrity. Some monsters, like shapeshifters 
  and warlocks, may seem human. Ultimately, it is up to the Storyteller if a monster has Integrity 
  or not. Should you decide that Integrity is crucial to your antagonist, refer to p. XX and assign an 
  appropriate rating. 
  Size 
  There is no restriction on a monster’s size. It can be as big or as small as needed. A typical adult 
  human’s Size is 5. Remember that Size factors into a monster’s Health as well. 
  INSERT TABLE 
  Size 
  Object 
  1 
  Handheld Object or Tool, Rodent 
  2 
  Infant, Cat, Sword, Shotgun, Skateboard 
  3 
  Mid-size Dog, Child, Window, Two-handed 
  Tool, Stool 
  4 
  Spear, Teenager, Chair 
  5 
  Adult, Door, Electric Scooter 
  6 
  Large Adult, Deer, Bicycle 
  7 
  Alligator, Bear, Coffin 
  8 
  Vault Door, Compact Car 
  10 
  Sports Car, Moose 
  12 
  Shark, Luxury Car 
  15 
  SUV, Elephant 
  20 
  Light Airplane, Yacht, Semi Truck 
  25 
  Dump Truck, Houseboat, Tour Bus, Semi with Trailer 
  30 
  Small House, Whale 
  40 
  Large House, Small Cemetery 
  50 
  Massive Airliner, Mansion 
  60 
  Small Apartment or Office Building 
  80 
  Large Apartment Building, Retail Store 
  100 
  Skyscraper, Shopping Mall, Stadium 
  END TABLE 
  Speed 
  
  A monster’s Speed is equal to Strength + Dexterity. Some monsters may have a Speed of 0 if 
  stationary. Some monsters have multiple Speeds that vary according to their shape or method of 
  locomotion. If your monster can fly, swim, slither, burrow, etc., note those movement modes and 
  Speeds here as well. For more overtly supernatural forms of movement, like turning into fog or 
  stepping through mirrors, see Dread Powers.  
  Health 
  A monster’s Health is its Size + Stamina. 
  Initiative Modifier 
  A monster’s Initiative Modifier is equal to the monster’s Dexterity + Composure. 
  Defense 
  Defense is equal to the lower of a monster’s Wits or Dexterity, plus its Athletics Skill. 
  Weakness (Optional) 
  Not all monsters have an explicit weakness, but many do. If it seems appropriate, give your 
  monster a Ban or a Bane, or both, as described on p. XX. Use the monter’s Potency (halved and 
  rounded up) as its Rank for determining the severity of the effect. 
  Finishing Touches  
  Do one last check to make sure your monster is doing what you need it to in the story. If you 
  anticipate the monster confronting players head on, spot check its dice pools against the 
  characters’. Check the cell’s teamwork, Tactics, Endowments, Skills, and equipment to see what 
  capabilities the hunters have. 
  If, at first glance, it looks like the monster will completely outclass the players, even the playing 
  field by giving the players another way to survive the monster or by toning down the creature’s 
  rules. Conversely, if the players’ dice pools outmatch the monster’s, don’t be afraid to beef up 
  the monster’s traits. 
  Dread Powers 
  Dread Powers are a streamlined way of handling the staggering variety of supernatural abilities 
  possessed by targets of the Vigil. These rules do not make a distinction between different 
  creature types — vampires, shapeshifters, witches, and stranger things all make use of the same 
  Dread Power system. This allows the Storyteller to customize each creature’s powers without 
  worrying about whether a monster is “eligible” to own or use a specific ability. Dread Powers, 
  when used, are also clues the hunters can use when researching, identifying, and encountering a 
  specific monster.  
  Storytellers will note that while costs are provided in each Dread Power’s entry, there isn’t a 
  suggested dice pool for use. This is because different creatures might activate the same power in 
  different ways according to their nature and abilities. Storytellers are encouraged be creative 
  when determining what dice to roll. Some Dread Powers do not require a dice roll, however, and 
  only cost Willpower. For example, an occultist unleashing a Blast of unholy energy might use 
  Intelligence + Occult − Stamina, representing how she uses her knowledge of the dark arts to 
  cast a deadly spell. By contrast, a hellhound’s howl might also be a Blast, but use Strength + 
  
  Intimidate − Stamina to reflect the unearthly hound’s physical power. Then, if successful, inflict 
  an appropriate Condition to narratively reflect how the hunter responds to a show of force.  
  Likewise, the Storyteller should feel free to adjust a power’s name and description to better suit 
  the creature they’re introducing in a chronicle. For example, the Fire Elemental power might be 
  renamed to Heart of Darkness for a demonic warlock. Instead of being wreathed in flames, the 
  warlock is described as a roiling nimbus of cold shadows. The game mechanics are the same, but 
  the narrative effect is unique to the monster. This technique can also help Storytellers increase 
  the more mysterious aspects of the hunt and avoid revealing a tell that gives the hunters a boring 
  win. 
  As a general guideline, Dread Powers do not have range restrictions or suffer from other 
  penalties by design. The monster you create is not natural, and their Dread Powers often defy 
  logic; this is partly what makes them so terrifying — even for hunters. But also consider what 
  your monster is and if a range is necessary, a demon might need to have a conversation to steal 
  someone’s soul, while a more esoteric monster may suck it straight from a person 10 yards away. 
  Most Dread Powers are recurring abilities a creature can use multiple times in the same session; 
  the Willpower cost applies each time the power is used. A few Dread Powers may only be used 
  once, like Last Gasp, and have been included to add variability and help Storytellers increase 
  tension. 
  Agonize 
  Since I joined my cell I’ve been shot twice, bitten six times, and broken more bones than I can 
  remember. Hell, we were even been struck by lightning after a warlock spit at me. Bad as those 
  were, though, I don’t ever want to feel what the headmaster did again. Not for an instant. My 
  advice? If he’s got you cornered, use that last bullet wisely. 
  The creature spends 1 Willpower and rolls to cause excruciating torment for a specific target 
  who is incapable of saying more than a few pained sentences at a time. On a success, Agonize 
  inflicts the Immobilized Tilt as the monster maintains eye contact with the victim or concentrates 
  on the target in some other manner. 
  Animal Shift (•-•••) 
  I was visiting a friend in Japan, touring several historic sites, when we found ourselves in front 
  of a waterfall. I stopped to admire its beauty, and heard a woman singing. I turned around, and 
  saw a gorgeous lady draped in cobwebs. She reached out to me, but my friend stopped me cold. 
  “Don’t do that. Just run!” “Why?” I asked. “Look! She’s a jorōgumo!” When I looked at the 
  woman, I mean really saw her, I could tell she wasn’t human. When she turned into a spider, we 
  ran so fast and hard we never looked back. 
  Animal Shift allows the monster to change into the form of a specific animal by spending 2 
  Willpower. Shapeshifters can turn into ants, spiders, snakes, wolves, bears, seals, or any other 
  animal the Storyteller deems appropriate. This effect lasts as long as the monster wills it; if the 
  creature falls unconscious in their animal state, it may revert to its natural form after several 
  hours. 
  This Dread Power may be purchased up to three times with each purchase granting an additional 
  animal into which the monster can shift. 
  
  Special: Willpower does not need to be spent when reverting to the creature’s natural form. It 
  only needs to be spent when activating the power. 
  Black Gate  
  Got a text that the tooth fairy was spotted all over town. Sounded strange. The tooth fairy? Gotta 
  be a hoax, right? Managed to correlate a series of thefts with the tooth fairy’s appearance. The 
  perp had a fondness for ivory, of course. Anyway, we figured it’d hit the local museum 
  eventually, so we hacked into security and watched for signs of movement outside in the van. We 
  didn’t have to wait long. Of course, the tooth fairy wasn’t a fairy at all — it was a shriveled thing 
  that ate old bones. We decided to rush it, but never had the chance. Damn thing opened a portal 
  right next to a mummy, stepped into it, and vanished. 
  The monster has infernal knowledge allowing it to instantaneously travel. The method for 
  creating a Black Gate may be a ritual sacrifice, spell, or some other mechanism chosen at 
  purchase. The monster can travel a distance based on its Potency at 20 yards per dot for a 
  maximum of 200 yards. This allows the creature to enter locked rooms, vaults, and other secure 
  locations. 
  To open the porthole, the creature spends 3 Willpower and takes an appropriate extended action. 
  When a Black Gate is created, it opens a direct route from a fixed point in the physical plane to 
  another of the creature’s choosing for minutes equal to the monster’s Potency. When the time 
  expires, the doorway slams shut. The monster may step back and forth through the Black Gate as 
  much as it likes during that time. The portal can only be used by the monster who opened it and 
  any victims it drags through. 
  Blackout 
  We thought were well prepared to take on the mothman. We heard every witness’ testimony, read 
  every article, even did a little surveillance of our own. We had all the right tools to capture it: 
  stun guns, tranquilizers. Hell’s bells, we even had an electric net. So what went wrong? We 
  managed to draw the creature into a trap we set up in a storage unit, but before we got inside? 
  The damn thing sucked the shadows into its body, spit ’em back out, then everything went dark. 
  We didn’t stand a chance. 
  When successful, the area is plunged into total darkness. The creature gains a +2 on subsequent 
  rolls to reflect its ability to hunt, hide, or run better in the shadows. Blackout costs 2 Willpower. 
  Damnation 
  I can’t explain it. I wish I could. It’s like nothing else could satisfy me — not food, not sleep, not 
  the hunt, nothing but…you know. Pick any sin, and that’s what I did. Shoplifted. Armed robbery. 
  Driving drunk. Even… Well, I don’t want to think about that. I swear, I didn’t mean to fall so 
  hard so fast, but what could I do? Being wicked was my new normal, and anything else felt so 
  wrong it hurt. 
  A monster with this Dread Power taps into a character’s Vice and forces them to take quick 
  action to fulfill their darkest desires. The roll is contested, and the character does not regain 
  Willpower should they fall prey to this power.  
  Special: If Damnation is used during combat, it inflicts the Stunned Tilt. Following a success, 
  the character then suffers −2 to any action that does not indulge their Vice. 
  
  Discorporate 
  “Don’t let a single rat get away!” Seanan yelled, stamping furiously on the squeaking, biting 
  rats that poured out of the shapeshifter’s discarded dress. Becca stomped on a rat and nearly 
  vomited at the sickening crack; there were so many. Too many. How could they possible kill 
  them all? And if they didn’t, how long until the shapeshifter returned to human form? 
  Discorporate is used when the monster wants to escape the scene. When the creature suffers 
  damage, is cornered or captured, or wants to quickly escape notice, it discorporates. The 
  monster’s body dissolves into a huge swarm of vermin, carrion eaters, or similar small, repellent 
  beasts, running in all directions. If even one tiny pest escapes, the creature’s spirit survives, and 
  it may return whole after a period of time (hour, day, week, etc.) passes.  
  Dread Attack (• or ••) 
  When we signed up for our first hunt, we were told to track a nest of bloodsuckers that had sharp 
  teeth. I remember cracking a joke. “What?” I said, “You mean we’re hunting Dracula? Nice 
  pearls that vamp had. They’d look good as a pendant.” Then I saw a picture of what we were 
  hunting. Didn’t know its name, where it was from, how old it was. Didn’t care. All I could see 
  were rows and rows of needle-thin teeth. “We gotta fight that thing?” I asked. “Do they sell 
  body armor for your neck?” 
  The monster has an innate natural weapon it can use for attacks. Examples include fangs, claws, 
  spiky spines, or a whip tail, which act as weapons. When this Dread Power is chosen, decide if 
  the weapon has a damage rating of 2 lethal or inflicts a Condition or Tilt upon a hit. With the 
  two-dot version, the attack does both. This Dread Power can be taken multiple times to represent 
  different natural weapons. 
  Eye Spy 
  “It’s these creepy oil paintings,” Morgan explained. “I’m telling you, it’s something in the 
  paintings. Every room in the damn place has at least one, and it seems to know what goes on in 
  there no matter what. If we want to surprise it, we’re going to have to take those down quickly 
  and quietly. Just trust me. 
  The creature falls into a trance to practice its preferred form of remote viewing. The creature has 
  a specific form of remote viewing it can practice. It might be able to see through any surveillance 
  camera attached to a network it is accessing, or view from the eyes of a raven it touched; perhaps 
  it can pluck one of its eyes out and leave the bloodied organ behind to observe. Using this ability 
  requires the expenditure of 1 Willpower per hour. The creature remains aware of its surroundings 
  while surveilling. 
  Glitch (• to •••••) 
  We managed to follow the warlock into the middle of a grove of trees. There was an altar in the 
  center, but no victim. I tried to warn my fellow hunters. “Hey!” I cried out. “Something’s wrong. 
  Watch out for—”,but it was too late. The warlock managed to put Roberto in a headlock and 
  dragged his unconscious body to the altar. Wasting no time, I grabbed my rifle and aimed at the 
  warlock’s head. I…I don’t know what happened. I had that infernal warlock. I took my shot, but 
  the bullet missed the summoner’s head and curved to hit Roberto in the leg, instead. 
  Glitch comes into play once per scene when the monster spends Willpower to add dice to a pool, 
  or to bolster a resistance trait. After the roll, reroll a number of failed dice up to the monster’s 
  
  Glitch dots. When spending to bolster a resistance trait, you may force the opponent to reroll 
  successful dice equal to the monster’s Glitch dots. 
  This manifests as subtle shifts in expectation, or bouts of remarkable luck. Really, what’s 
  occurring is that the fabric of reality shifts to suit the monster’s immediate needs. Sometimes 
  insignificant objects appear or disappear from the environment in order to facilitate the monster’s 
  desires. 
  Hex 
  We were visiting some friendly hunters in Brighton when they got a call from a biology student. 
  Three-eyed toads, they said. A bad omen, they said. We’d never dealt with one, so we weren’t 
  sure what to do. We joined our mates and dropped by the uni to investigate. By the time we got 
  there, the entire lab was covered in three-eyed frogs from floor to ceiling. “Looks like you’ve 
  been hexed,” I said. Simple explanation, right? The problem was we didn’t know who did the 
  hexing. 
  The monster causes its victim to suffer through magical means. On a success, the monster inflicts 
  one of the following Tilts on their victim: Arm or Leg Wrack, Blinded, Drugged, or Winded. 
  Hex costs 1 Willpower. 
  Home Turf (• to •••••) 
  I’ll never forget how it felt heading into Echo Hill Penitentiary that dreadful night. We were all 
  there — Luke, Cameron, Jack, Sean, even the doc. We knew it was the warden’s territory, but we 
  had to finish the job, because that’s what hunters do. If we’d known just how much scarier that 
  damn ghost was on his own turf, though, we might have said our goodbyes first. 
  The creature has a lair that is well-protected. The location might be an abandoned warehouse, 
  forgotten cemetery, condemned sanitarium, mystical grove, or a network of caves, subway 
  tunnels, or sewers. While on its Home Turf, the creature adds a die, one per dot purchased, to its 
  rolls to reflect its supernatural and natural defenses. 
  Special: Effects for Home Turf linger when the monster is not present. Characters who tread on 
  a monster’s Home Turf suffer a penalty equal to its dots in this Dread Power to investigate it 
  there. 
  Infernal 
  Lawrence told us that he was going to Hell one day. We didn’t know that he meant he was 
  literally a spawn of Hell and intended to go there to kick his great-great-great-something or 
  other’s ass. But when one of those infernal, fire-and-brimstone types came around fucking up the 
  neighborhood, the thing just bowed down to Lawrence and called him “my liege” or some shit. 
  Anyway, I’m glad Lawrence is on our side. 
  The monster is an infernal demon from hell. This Dread Power must be taken on any infernal 
  demon. Infernal creatures are immune to the effects of fire and can spend 1 Willpower and make 
  an appropriate roll to inflict the Inferno Environmental Tilt in an area. 
  Special: All demons have a true name. If anyone knows and uses that true name, they gain a +2 
  bonus to all rolls against the demon. The demon has an additional ban that it must come when it 
  hears its name called, though it does not have to reveal itself. 
  Know Soul 
  
  That damn cult didn’t bother torturing me. I was waiting for that, for the razor blades and pliers 
  and hooks to come out, but they never did. The cultists just brought a big bowl over, and I looked 
  inside at a giant orb — a ruby-red eye — and that was it. The eye chittered to them and suddenly 
  the cultists started reciting my whole life story. How the hell did it do that? 
  The creature peers into the depths of its victim’s soul. Spend a Willpower and make a contested 
  roll. On success, it automatically learns the victim’s Virtue, Vice, Aspirations, and current 
  Integrity. By spending an additional Willpower point, it learns the circumstances of the 
  character’s most recent failed breaking point. Subsequent Willpower points reveal older breaking 
  points. If the creature uses its knowledge against the victim, it earns an exceptional success on a 
  roll of three successes or more. 
  Last Gasp 
  “Whatever you do,” Connor said, staring at each member of our cell. “We take our final shot, 
  we drop that asshole to the ground, and we run like hell. You all remember what happened to 
  Sam and Desi? Don’t you dare hesitate. We kill this thing, we’re not safe yet. And we are not 
  putting another hunter in the ground. Not today. Don’t ask me why. Just do it.” 
  After a creature dies, its corpse explodes into hot fiery lava, acidic slime, shards of ice, or some 
  other deadly substance. Treat the Dread Power as a weapon with a rating of 3 lethal damage, and 
  no trace of the monster’s body remains. This Dread Power may create an appropriate 
  Environmental Tilt instead of causing direct damage.  
  Special: One-time use. After Last Gasp is activated, the monster is no more. 
  Madness and Terror  
  I used to walk my dog in the park. I used to go grocery shopping, run to the post office, drop by 
  my neighbors, go about my day. I used to have a life. Now? I know what’s out there. What’s 
  lurking everywhere in broad daylight. Yellow, yellow, all of them yellow, whispering, shrieking, 
  begging me to unwrap their blood-stained bandages fluttering in the wind like autumn leaves. I 
  used to go outside, you know? But not anymore. Not while it’s so yellow. 
  The monster destabilizes a target’s mind. By expending 1 Willpower and making a roll of an 
  appropriate dice pool contested by the victim’s Composure, the monster may inflict the Guilty, 
  Shaken, or Spooked Condition for the duration of one scene. For 3 Willpower it may instead 
  inflict the Broken, Fugue, or Madness Condition for a scene.  
  Maze 
  Took us a while, but we figured out who was attacking all those athletes: a skinwalker who wore 
  a soccer mom’s face. We had no idea where a skinwalker might sleep, but we figured it probably 
  moved into the victim’s house — and we were right. Damn thing settled into that three-bedroom 
  house on the corner of Pine Street, and nobody suspected anything was wrong. So, we snuck in 
  through the back door but didn’t see anything. After we wandered inside, we were led right back 
  out again. There was no basement, no attic, not even a second floor. How did we get lost?! 
  The creature can turn a physical structure into an impossible maze. By spending 3 Willpower and 
  touching the building, this Dread Power contorts the space into a tangled mess of doors, 
  corridors, stairwells, and rooms. This effect is not permanent, however, and lasts for the duration 
  of one hour or one scene when activated.  
  
  Visitors in the monster’s maze must succeed at a Wits + Composure check minus the creature’s 
  Resolve each time they attempt to leave an intersection or progress through the labyrinth to find 
  a specific door, room, etc. On a failure, the maze swirls and the visitors must find their bearings 
  once again. 
  Multiply  
  We were underground in this mine, scouting out some strange noises for this corporate stooge. 
  We figured it was good money. I mean, sure we’re hunters but we gotta eat, right? Anyway, we 
  hit a corridor and heard an eerie, hissing sound. We turned into a cramped area and saw clumps 
  of eggs stuck to the ceiling. The minute I saw those, I gave the signal. “Light ‘em up.” I swear, 
  when those eggs started to catch fire? I thought I heard them scream, “Help me!” 
  Multiply allows the monster to replicate and reproduce through supernatural means. Maybe it 
  lays eggs or converts a normal person into one of its own. For egg laying or creating new 
  monsters that does not require a victim, the monster simply spends 1 Willpower to do so. Eggs 
  hatch new monsters in a matter of days or weeks. 
  To convert a person, the monster spends 3 Willpower and makes an extended action of an 
  appropriate roll contested by the victim’s Stamina. This effect is limited to corporeal creatures 
  and does not work on ghosts, spirits, or other disembodied entities such as demons. Multiply can, 
  however, be a power the undead possess. 
  Numen 
  We thought the thing was just a normal run of the mill shifter. That is until it pulled out some 
  fire-starting shit and started throwing blasts of energy at us like some ghost. It wasn’t a ghost 
  though; the thing was material as you or me. Good thing silver did the trick, or we’d be goop by 
  now. 
  In lieu of a Dread Power, the creature may select a Numen from the Ephemeral Entities rules 
  (see p. XX). The Numen costs Willpower instead of Essence, and if it has a dice pool, select an 
  appropriate Attribute + Skill for the monster.  
  To select additional Numen, this Dread Power may be purchased multiple times.  
  Poison Mist 
  We chased a grandmother of four who ran on all fours into an alleyway. She glared at us with 
  the eyes of a cat. Then, she asked us, “Are you hunting me?” Tommy couldn’t help but laugh. 
  “Not anymore.” The rest of us, we just started giggling, too. Grandmothers aren’t monsters. 
  They bake cookies and put bandages on sore knees. Right? Then, she started to laugh. So now 
  we’re all laughing, right? Yeah, so funny. Granny winked at us, then shifted into a cloud of mist. 
  Floated right over our damn heads and got away! 
  By spending 1 Willpower, the creature shifts into a gaseous form such as toxic air, a nauseous 
  miasma, or headache-inducing fog. Its movement is equal to its base Speed. In this form, which 
  lasts for a maximum duration of one scene, the Poison Mist may affect targets that come into 
  contact with it. On a successful attack roll, the victim suffers from the Poisoned Tilt. 
  Predator’s Sense 
  I’m the last. I’m sure of it. I don’t know what my family did or why, but that insurance salesman 
  was so angry. He picked them all off, one by one, and now I’m the only one left. I thought I lost it 
  
  for a little while. Tried ditching him by flying up north, but he was waiting for me when I got 
  there, watching me jog in the park. I can’t run anymore. But maybe I can fight back. 
  The creature has incredibly honed senses for a specific type of prey, chosen when this power is 
  selected. Against that prey — redheads, beginner occultists, families descended from hunters 
  who killed it long ago — the creature gains a +3 bonus to all rolls related to tracking and 
  identifying those targets and applies 8-again to these rolls.  
  Raise Dead  
  I sleep with the lights on. Everybody makes fun of me, but I don’t care. When we hunt, I don’t 
  want to go out alone. When I grab a cup of tea, I don’t want to be on my own, either. My cell 
  thinks I’m needy, but I’m the only witness left breathing after my last cell fell. We were hunting a 
  warlock, and, after an anonymous tip, we found the bastard in a cemetery. By himself, no less! 
  We lined up a shot but missed the mark. Then, he raised his arms, called to the sky, and a hand 
  — a skeletal corpse’s hand — shot up right through the ground. 
  The monster can raise the dead to create an army of mindless servants. This can be used on 
  anything Size 5 or lower. The monster spends 3 Willpower and makes an appropriate roll to 
  infuse the servant with a modicum of life. The roll is penalized by how long the subject has been 
  dead. For a week −1, a month −2, a year −4, and anything longer −5. Anything that’s been dead 
  less than a week retains its Attributes, Skills, Health, Size, Stamina, and Speed. They do not 
  possess any other traits, including Dread Powers, and can communicate using a limited 
  vocabulary. Otherwise, it loses a single dot in an Attribute or Skill for each week it’s been dead 
  to a minimum of 2 in each Attribute or Skill. 
  The necromancer may manipulate or control the creature with subsequent rolls. The summoned 
  corpses will remain in a state between life and death until either the necromancer or the risen 
  bodies are destroyed. 
  Reborn 
  Everyone else in my class went off to college, to jobs, to travel the world. They think because I 
  stayed, I’m just some small-town nobody. That’s okay. They don’t know what I know. I had to. 
  My family has been living in this damn town for hundreds of years. No matter how many times 
  we’ve torched that damn cypress tree, it keeps growing back…and every time it does, it brings 
  the nightmares back with it. Nothing works — not even exorcisms! 
  The creature has an immortal soul and can be reborn into a new, supernatural body of its own 
  making. As the monster dies, it can reflexively spend all its remaining Willpower to separate its 
  soul from its body. It loses all its Traits and Dread Powers except its Willpower rating and 
  instead functionally becomes a Rank 1 ghost with the Numen Drain. It must drain enough 
  Willpower to refill its Willpower completely to reconstitute a body. This can occur over a long 
  period of time; there is no time limit for the use of Reborn. Once completed, the monster takes 
  the guise of a typical, mortal child and grows at a preternatural rate. At this time, it regains all its 
  previous Traits and abilities. When corporeal, the Reborn creature suffers −2 to all its die rolls 
  until it grows into an adult. 
  Regenerate 
  We heard werewolves could heal, but we didn’t know how fast. Oh, we hunted our fair share of 
  werewolves, but this one? Every time we shot it, the bullet pushed out of its fur. Every time I 
  
  slashed its arm, the cut healed. To put it down, we were forced to fill it up with tranquilizers until 
  it fell unconscious. Thank God we were prepared! 
  The creature possesses incredible powers of regeneration. As a reflexive action once per turn, the 
  creature can spend 1 Willpower, healing one point of lethal damage or two points of bashing 
  damage. The monster must reactivate this Dread Power to heal more severe wounds. Bashing 
  damage is healed first, then lethal. 
  Special: The monster’s body still heals when unconscious or stunned, even if the creature can no 
  longer take an action. 
  Shadow Attraction 
  “It went this way,” Micah said, pointing down the ruined hallway. “Careful.” The rest of the 
  team followed, flashlights and silver stakes in hand. We went room by room, checking the 
  corners carefully, leading with the light, hitting each dark patch with at least two beams. It could 
  use the barest scrap of shadow to hide. But we knew. We weren’t losing anyone, this time. 
  Shadows are pulled toward the monster. By spending 1 Willpower, the creature becomes cloaked 
  in shadows and effectively invisible. Monsters may not attack, move quickly, or use other Dread 
  Powers without breaking the effect. The creature may whisper, slowly manipulate small objects, 
  open unlocked windows and doors, and move up to its regular Speed while maintaining this 
  power. 
  Sigh 
  I was working at a senior center to keep an eye on my dad. I heard the place was haunted, but I 
  couldn’t afford Whispering Pines. Too fancy for a truck driver like myself. Anyway, I was happy 
  Pops was making friends, until I noticed a specific gentleman was taking interest in him. Sure 
  enough, I found the damn thing hovering over my dad’s body in the middle of the night. I didn’t 
  have a gun on me, but I did have a scalpel. I lunged for that creature and slit its throat. It fell to 
  the ground, hard, blood everywhere. Then, it looked up at me and sighed. Damn thing vanished!  
  The monster may willingly shed its corporeal body and become a ghost when it has only three 
  health boxes remaining without lethal damage. When it does so, the creature leaves no trace of 
  its existence behind save for its clothes and worldly possessions. The monster spends 3 
  Willpower and makes an appropriate roll to discorporate and become a ghost in the next session. 
  The monster is remade with the Ephemeral Entity rules (p. XX) with a Rank equal to half its 
  Potency rounded up. If unsuccessful, the monster simply remains in its body and continues to 
  suffer damage as normal. The creature may make subsequent attempts provided it has Health 
  left. 
  Special: This Dread Power may not be used in conjunction with Reborn. 
  Skin Thief (• or ••) 
  Everyone thinks we’re crazy. Why shouldn’t they? The fingerprints match. The dental records 
  match. Even the damn DNA is perfect. And this time, I’m sure it got rid of what was left of 
  Ryan’s body. But we saw the whole thing. We know that’s not Ryan. And if we can’t prove it in 
  court, we’ll just have to take care of it ourselves.  
  The creature can steal the face and skin of another. At three dots, it must kill the victim first, then 
  spend 2 Willpower to merge the corpse’s features with its own. At five dots, the victim may 
  
  already be dead. The change is permanent; it cannot return to an earlier face and appearance. 
  However, the disguise is flawless; only supernatural powers of perception have any chance of 
  seeing that the creature is anything but the person whose skin it has stolen. Scientific tests detect 
  nothing out of the ordinary.  
  Special: This Dread Power does not work on the living. 
  Soul Stealer 
  We finally killed the Painter, so our nightmare should have been over, right? Wrong. To get 
  Lucky’s soul back, we had to find their portrait and release it. When we finally broke into the 
  Painter’s vault, there were thousands of tiny paintings, stacked floor to ceiling in impossibly neat 
  rows. And the paintings? Each one had a human face with eyes that moved as we walked past, 
  silently pleading, begging us to set them free. But how? 
  The creature is capable of stealing and collecting human souls. When you give a creature this 
  Dread Power, specify some restriction or condition it must fulfill for the soul extraction to work. 
  Maybe the monster tricks the victim to sign a contract, sacrifice it willingly, or sit in a specific 
  chair. Once the restriction is met, the creature may spend 3 Willpower and roll an appropriate 
  dice pool, contested by the victim’s Resolve.  
  If successful, Soul Stealer inflicts the Soulless Condition on a victim. This Condition is 
  persistent, but it is not permanent. The target or their allies may find a way to restore the soul by 
  freeing it from its prison. The Storyteller should determine how the Condition may be resolved. 
  Perhaps when the creature is killed the soul is restored, or maybe the object in which the monster 
  is storing it only needs destroying. 
  Taint 
  We were told the rotting seaweed and bloated fish corpses washing up on the beach were caused 
  by climate change, but none of us were buying it. Sure, that’s a logical, rational explanation, but 
  monsters don’t care what’s scientifically possible — that’s why I want to catch and study them. 
  This one I’ve been tracking? Haven’t seen it yet, but I am analyzing patterns to find its lair. 
  Nature is giving us signs to point the way: Wherever this predator walks, its footprints taint the 
  sand and poison the salty water. 
  Monsters aren’t always aware of the damage they cause. Whether they force wood to age or skin 
  to blister, their touch is an unnatural taint. This Dread Power occurs after the monster interacts 
  with its environment. When it nears a living thing, the body mutates or starts to break down. 
  When it interacts with an inanimate object, the material begins to disintegrate. Hunters use 
  evidence of this Dread Power to track a creature’s movements, but even they must proceed with 
  caution. A tainted area has one of the following Environmental Tilts: Filthy, Unstable, or 
  Viscous. 
  Unnatural Step (• to •••••) 
  This time we didn’t bother trying to fight the old man. We just blocked the doors from the outside 
  and burned the place down. Seemed like the smart move, and we felt pretty good about it, at least 
  until we saw that Neanderthal climbing out of the wreckage. It was using the smoke like a ladder 
  and kept climbing higher and higher until it was out of sight. We didn’t find it again until days 
  later. Well, more like the old man found us. 
  
  The monster has an unusual mode of travel. Maybe it can walk on walls, hover, or appear to 
  teleport between steps, warping the world around it as it does. Each time Unnatural Step is 
  purchased, choose a new mode of movement or terrain type the monster can cross with ease. It 
  moves its Speed, though it may appear to teleport, float across fire, or walk on water.  
  If the chosen substance is normally harmful or toxic, the monster suffers no harm from walking 
  on it. By spending an additional Willpower point, it can choose not to leave tracks behind. 
  Weathervane (• to •••••) 
  When I was growing up, I heard the stories of thunderclouds that followed naughty teenagers 
  wherever we went. Of course, I never listened to them. Oh, I got into a lot of trouble. Sure. But 
  then, one day a cloud started chasing me and I was zapped by a bolt. I had nightmares for weeks 
  after that, but I straightened up my act. Now, after I found out the creepy crawlies are real? I 
  have to wonder if a witch was to blame. Time to find out. 
  After concentrating for 10 minutes, the monster can affect the earth, air, fire, or water. One dot 
  purchased in Weathervane equals one element. The range of a monster’s abilities is tied to how 
  much Willpower the creature spends to achieve a desired outcome. See table below for 
  suggestions. After Willpower is spent, the targeted area is affected by a related Environmental 
  Tilt; the characters then deal with the Tilt as they normally would. 
  INSERT TABLE 
  Dot Rating 
  Weathervane 
  Effect 
  • 
  Trembling soil, slight breeze, candlelit flame, glass of water freezes 
  •• 
  Bumpy ground, strong wind, roaring fire, icicles 
  ••• 
  Boulders move, biting winds, whipping flames, falling snow or rain 
  •••• 
  Rock or mud slides, wind or sandstorm, towering inferno, thunderstorm or blizzard 
  ••••• 
  Earthquake, tornado, raging wildfires, hurricane 
  END TABLE 
  Making New Dread Powers 
  This chapter includes a wide range of powers, each of which can be tweaked or customized as 
  needed. Given the variety of monsters in the Chronicles of Darkness, however, more Dread 
  Powers may be required to serve a chronicle’s needs. When creating a Dread Power, think about 
  how similar that ability is to existing rules. If it’s too similar, tweak the original rule instead. 
  Concept: First, decide what you want the power to do. Try to think in terms of an essential 
  concept: move, fight, sense, alter, control, etc. Beware of “one size fits all” abilities — Dread 
  Powers are intended to be focused. If it starts to cover too many situations, it’s probably best to 
  break it into several distinct powers instead.  
  Field Guide: How will you describe the power in your chronicle? Strive to make powers 
  engaging from a descriptive point of view. Generic powers are dull and lifeless, but an evocative 
  Dread Power can add tremendous mood and atmosphere to relay how terrifying a monster can 
  be.  
  
  Assign Ranks: Many powers scale from one to five dots, which equates to their rating in Ranks. 
  Some powers do not need to scale — for instance, breathing underwater doesn’t really have 
  degrees. Other powers might have two versions, a weaker and a stronger, such as being able to 
  glide and the full power of flight. In such cases, assign a static cost in Ranks — minor or rarely 
  useful powers at Rank 1, serious or commonly useful powers at Rank 2, and devastating or far-
  reaching powers at Rank 3.  
  Create Dice Pool: Not every Dread Power requires a dice pool, but if it does, it is formed as 
  Attribute + Skill. Select the Attribute and Skill that make sense for the power and how the 
  creature operates. If something provides a bonus to Resistance, such as wearing a certain color 
  that makes it harder to affect a target, list that bonus as well. Some dice pools may be better 
  decided during a scene, so be flexible when thinking about these rules. 
  Determine Resistance: If a Dread Power affects other characters, select a Resistance attribute 
  targets can roll; if it’s an attack, decide whether targets apply Defense against it instead. As a 
  rule, supernatural beings add their Supernatural Tolerance rating to any resistance rolls unless 
  something about the power specifically defeats it (which should be rare). 
  Determine Action Type: Decide whether the power is a reflexive, instant, or extended action. If 
  it is extended, figure out how long each rolling interval is and how to determine how many 
  successes are required for the power to work.  
  Assign Cost: Unless it is a constant, low-level ability such as night vision, every Dread Power 
  should have a Willpower cost. Most common powers cost 1 or 2 points per use, but truly 
  impressive or permanent powers can cost as much as 5 points. Any Dread Power that affects 
  targets or areas beyond the creature itself should always have a cost.  
  Determine Results: Figure out what dramatic failure, failure, success, and exceptional success 
  mean after the power is activated. Success and failure are usually straightforward — the power 
  either works or it doesn’t — but a dramatic failure may invert a power, deny use of it for a time, 
  or grant a target heightened resistance to it instead. Exceptional success typically adds a bonus: 
  extra effect, wider area, extended duration, or similar benefit. If the power inflicts a Tilt or 
  Condition, specify its duration and any special conditions to remove it ahead of time. 
  Note Special: You may decide a Dread Power has a unique requirement, such as the purchase of 
  another Dread Power or limited use. To wrap up your Dread Power, note any special 
  circumstances to ensure this stands apart from the rest of the rule. 
  Ephemeral Entities 
  Monsters encompass a large array of inhuman creatures, from blood-sucking vampires to shape-
  changing werewolves to witches. But the one thing they all have in common is that they are all 
  very much in this realm of existence. Other entities lurk in the worlds connected to our realm 
  through tenuous gates and a between area called Twilight. Incorporeal and mostly invisible, 
  these entities stay just on the other side waiting for the right conditions to Manifest, and can 
  cause just as many problems as a monster. 
  Crossing Over 
  The physical world is not the only realm, and a multitude of other realms lie just on the other 
  side of a barrier, in parallel to our own. These barriers are porous, though, and entities come 
  
  through all the time for various reasons. These inhabitants are not material creatures like 
  monsters, and often their thoughts and motivations are inscrutable to hunters.  
  Hunters know little to nothing of the realms from which these creatures hail, other than knowing 
  there are far worse things that never deign to make their way into our world. Hunters deal with 
  these entities in the physical world, unprepared and unwilling to take the fight into an alien place. 
  Hunters don’t always know what they are dealing with when an ephemeral entity shows up but 
  they have two general categories they use to define and describe these entities. 
  Ghosts are the remnants left behind when people die. They are not souls, but afterimages given 
  form and function. Ghosts can range from weak creatures unable to Manifest or affect the 
  physical world to powerful entities bent on revenge or filled with rage over their deaths. Hunters 
  deal with both kinds, knowing full well that a weak ghost left alone could eventually grow into 
  one of these vengeful entities. At least, that’s what they tell themselves. Some hunters view this 
  as putting people to rest, as ghosts often form after a particularly violent or traumatic death, 
  meaning monster victims are more vulnerable to leaving a ghost behind. 
  Spirits are anything else that is not a physical entity. While this classification is a gross 
  mischaracterization of the variety of entities that exist outside the physical world, hunters don’t 
  care provided their methods can remain the same when dealing with them. Hunters rarely deal 
  with spirits and don’t know much about them; spirits’ actions tend toward subtle and covert 
  manipulations. Hunters are more likely to run into a spirit in the presence of a witch or werewolf 
  rather than on its own. That isn’t to say they don’t find spirits around, but when they do it’s 
  because the spirit has Manifested in the physical world. 
  Manifestation and Possession 
  Ephemeral entities do not have a physical form. Instead, they are made up of something called 
  ephemera, a kind of spiritual essence that is both invisible and intangible to anything not made of 
  the same ephemera. Ghosts and spirits do not interact with one another, as they rarely even know 
  the other exists. Normally, they cannot affect the physical world, but they all have the ability to 
  Manifest, which gives them enough of a solid form to both become visible and touch the 
  physical, and even possess physical entities — including people. Manifestation can only happen 
  if the situation is right. Ephemeral entities require Conditions to ease their passage, otherwise 
  they cannot cross over. 
  Ghosts require Anchors — people, places, or things that link them to who they were when they 
  were alive. Spirits require emotional or spiritual resonances in a person or area to match their 
  own. Manifestation comes in stages, from simply reaching across to full Manifestation, and each 
  of these requires a different level of Condition to accomplish.  
  When dealing with these creatures then, a hunter must change the environment allowing these 
  entities to Manifest. And, for the people attempting to contact these entities, they must create 
  favorable conditions in which to attempt. 
  Game Systems  
  Ghosts and spirits share a broad set of rules, with minor variations.  
  The State of Twilight  
  
  While an ephemeral entity might make it into the physical world from their own realm, that 
  doesn’t mean they get to Manifest immediately. Most spend their time in a spiritual in-between 
  state. This is called “Twilight.” While hunters may describe Twilight as a place, it is more a state 
  of being in which ephemeral entities exist when incorporeal. Nothing in Twilight can affect a 
  material object, and the reverse is true.  
  The only things that exist in Twilight are the entities there, and ghost structures. Whenever a 
  physical building or structure is destroyed, its afterimage lingers in Twilight, made up of the 
  same ephemera as ghosts. Ghosts cannot pass through these structures, which are as real to them 
  as buildings are to hunters. Without a ghost structure to stop them, ephemeral entities can move 
  at a walking pace in any direction. There is no gravity or physics really guiding Twilight, though 
  ghosts tend to stick to what they knew in life, rather than flying about. 
  A Manifested being leaves this Twilight state, and no longer exists there. Some hunters can see 
  and interact with Twilight beings through the use of Endowments, allowing them to deal with 
  threats before they ever Manifest. Though these fail to be useful once the entity has Manifested. 
  Some hunters have learned how to separate their consciousness from their own body to walk 
  around in a Twilight state, gaining an ephemeral body much like a ghost. 
  Ephemeral Traits 
  Ephemeral beings aren’t alive the way humans are alive. They aren’t biological creatures, and 
  don’t have the divides between body, soul, and mind mortals and once-mortal supernatural 
  beings possess. In game terms, ephemeral beings are represented by simplified game traits. 
  Rank 
  All ephemeral beings have dots in an Attribute called Rank, which notes how self-aware and 
  powerful the entity is. Rank ranges from one to five dots for the purposes of what hunters will 
  deal with. Anything more powerful than that just doesn’t cross over from its own realm. 
  Rank determines not only the entity’s power, but also the maximums it can have in its traits, as 
  described in the table below. All ephemeral entities have the ability to sense the relative Rank of 
  other entities and may attempt to conceal their own Rank by succeeding in a contested Finesse 
  roll. Success means the entity appears to be of the same Rank as the being sensing the relative 
  Rank. Ghosts can’t increase Rank outside of the Underworld and come into existence as either 
  Rank 1 or 2 depending on how much self-awareness they have. Nonsapient ghosts are Rank 1, 
  while those that retain most of their living memories are Rank 2. Ghosts summoned back from 
  the Underworld, however, may be of any Rank. Spirits run the full range of Ranks, depending on 
  how old and successful a spirit is. 
  [THIS IS A TABLE] 
  Rank 
  Rank* Trait Limits** Attribute Dots Maximum Essence 
  Numina 
  • 
  5 dots 5-8 
  10 
  1-3 
  •• 
  7 dots 9-14 
  15 
  3-5 
  ••• 
  9 dots 15-25 20 
  5-7 
  •••• 
  12 dots 26-35 25 
  7-9 
  
  ••••• 
  15 dots 36-45 50 
  9-11 
  *Each Rank gives a −1 penalty to attempts to bind that entity and acts as a Supernatural 
  Tolerance trait. 
  ** These represent permanent dots, not temporarily boosted ones. 
  [END TABLE] 
  Essence 
  Essence is the life force and fuel for ephemeral entities. Without Essence they go dormant, and 
  they use Essence to fuel their powers, Manifest, and do myriad other things. Essence is much 
  like Willpower in that each entity has a permanent maximum Essence rating and an equal 
  number of Essence points it can spend to achieve effects. Maximum Essence is determined by 
  Rank. Entities can sense sources of Essence appropriate for their needs up to a mile away. The 
  Seek Numen (p. XX) increases this range. Entities can use Essence in the following ways: 
  • 
  Ephemeral beings must spend a point of Essence per day to remain active. If they have 
  run out of Essence, they fall into hibernation until something happens to regain at least 1 point, 
  which can then be spent on returning to activity. Such dormancy is dangerous — the entity 
  remains in Twilight and can be destroyed if it loses all Corpus and Essence at the same time.  
  • 
  Ephemeral beings outside of a suitable Condition bleed one point of Essence per hour. 
  The Influence and Manifestation Conditions, starting on p. XX, state whether they protect from 
  Essence bleed for different types of ephemeral being. Entities that run out of Essence due to 
  bleed suffer a single point of lethal damage and enter hibernation. 
  • 
  Ephemeral beings can spend Essence to boost their traits for a single scene on a point-
  per-dot basis. They can’t boost a single trait by more than Rank + 2 dots; boosting takes a turn 
  and they can only boost a single Attribute in a turn.  
  • 
  Ephemeral beings regain 1 point of Essence per day that they are in proximity to any 
  Condition relating to them. 
  • 
  Ephemeral beings can attempt to steal Essence from beings of the same type — ghosts 
  from ghosts and spirits from spirits. The attacking entity rolls Power + Finesse, contested by the 
  victim’s Power + Resistance. If the attacker succeeds, it steals up to the number of successes in 
  Essence, as long as the victimized entity has Essence remaining to lose. 
  • 
  Ghosts regain a point of Essence whenever someone remembers the living person they 
  once were. Visiting their grave, simply sitting and remembering them, or recognizing their 
  Manifested form as the person they used to be all qualify. 
  • 
  Spirits may attempt to gorge themselves on a source of appropriate Essence. Once per 
  day, when in proximity to a suitable Condition, a spirit can roll Power + Finesse, regaining 
  successes in Essence. 
  Attributes and Skills 
  Ephemeral entities use a simplified set of the Power, Finesse, and Resistance categories into 
  which mortal Attributes fall. When creating an ephemeral being, look at the Rank chart earlier in 
  this section to determine how many dots are available and what the trait maximum is. Ghosts 
  
  usually use the average rating in each category from when they were alive — for example, a 
  person with Strength 3, Intelligence 2, and Presence 2 would become a ghost with Power 2. 
  Power describes the raw ability of the entity to impose itself on other ephemeral beings and the 
  world at large. It is used in all rolls that call for Strength, Intelligence, or Presence. 
  Finesse describes how deft the entity is at imposing its desires with fine control. It is used for all 
  rolls that call for Dexterity, Wits, or Manipulation. 
  Resistance describes how well the entity can avoid imposition from its peers, and how easily it 
  is damaged. It is used for all rolls that call for Stamina, Resolve, or Composure. 
  Ephemeral beings don’t possess Skills, but don’t suffer unskilled penalties as long as the action 
  they’re attempting is appropriate to their former self or nature. They roll the appropriate 
  Attribute + Rank for actions relating directly to their concept, or Attribute + Attribute for actions 
  like surprise and perception. 
  Advantages 
  Ephemeral beings differ in how they treat Integrity, Virtues, and Vices. Ghosts retain their Virtue 
  and Vice from life, but they are reversed in effect — ghosts regain all spent Willpower by 
  fulfilling their Vice, but can only do so once per chapter, and regain up to 1 Willpower point per 
  scene by fulfilling their Virtue. Alone among ephemeral beings, ghosts also possess Integrity, set 
  at the level they had before death. Their Integrity scores don’t change, however, as ghosts do not 
  suffer breaking points. Their self-image is fixed, unless something happens to push them back to 
  the level of cognizance and self-awareness they had in life. If this should happen somehow, they 
  can suffer breaking points the same way living people can.  
  Spirits don’t have an Integrity trait, a Virtue, or a Vice. Instead, they regain 1 point of spent 
  Willpower per 3 points of Essence they consume by gorging or stealing as described above. 
  Other Traits 
  Because they have simplified traits, ephemeral entities calculate derived traits a little differently 
  from mortal characters. 
  Corpus: This replaces Health and is a measure of how intact the Twilight form is. Permanent 
  Corpus is equal to Resistance + Size, and grants Corpus boxes, filling when the entity suffers 
  injury. Corpus boxes don’t have wound penalties associated with them. 
  Willpower: Entities have Willpower dots equal to Resistance + Finesse, with a maximum of 10 
  dots for entities with the Ranks presented in this book. In addition to the Willpower-gaining 
  methods described above, all ephemeral beings regain 1 spent Willpower per day. 
  Initiative: Initiative is equal to Finesse + Resistance.  
  Defense: Defense is equal to the lower of Power or Finesse, except for Rank 1 spirits which use 
  the higher of the two Attributes. 
  Speed: Speed is equal to Power + Finesse + a species factor. Spirits of inanimate objects usually 
  have a species factor of 0. 
  Size: Ephemeral beings can be of any size. Ghosts are usually Size 5, while spirits often use 
  Rank as Size, growing larger as they become more powerful. 
  
  Language: Rank 1 ghosts can’t communicate verbally; they don’t have enough of their sense of 
  self left to employ language. Rank 2 and higher ghosts know whichever languages they knew in 
  life. Spirits all speak the native tongue of Shadow, a strange, sibilant language that resembles 
  ancient Sumerian, but often learn the human languages common around their Essence feeding 
  grounds. 
  Bans 
  All ephemeral entities suffer from a mystical compulsion known as a ban, a behavior the entity 
  must or must not perform under certain conditions. A ban can be as simple as “the ghost cannot 
  cross the street,” complex as “the spirit must always follow the scent of fear,” or difficult as “the 
  ghost must have candles lit in her honor weekly at a Catholic church or lose Essence equal to 
  Rank.” Bans increase in both complexity and consequences with Rank. 
  Rank 1 entities have mild bans that do not endanger or deeply inconvenience them. The ghost of 
  a musician must sing along when he hears music. 
  Rank 2 and 3 entities have moderate bans that curtail the creature’s activities. A ghost of a serial 
  killer must visit his crime scenes once a month or lose all Willpower. 
  Rank 4 and 5 entities have complicated bans that put an end to whatever the creature is trying to 
  do — often in an explosive fashion. They have consequences in game traits or long-term actions, 
  but esoteric requirements. Lady White, the ghost of a schoolteacher, is immediately banished to 
  the Underworld if anyone can recite the roster of her first class. 
  Banes 
  Ephemeral entities are not of the material world and react strangely to some elements of it. The 
  interaction between their ephemeral Twilight form and physical substances always contains a 
  flaw — a bane — that damages the entity’s Corpus through symbolic or mystical interference. 
  The bane is a physical substance or energy the entity can’t abide. 
  • 
  Ephemeral beings voluntarily attempting to come into contact with the bane must spend a 
  Willpower point and succeed on a Power + Resistance roll with a dice penalty equal to their 
  Rank. 
  • 
  Banes are solid to entities, even when they are in Twilight. 
  • 
  Simply touching the bane — even voluntarily — causes a level of aggravated damage per 
  turn if the entity is Materialized and causes the relevant Condition to end unless the entity 
  succeeds on a roll of Rank in dice. The roll must be repeated every turn if contact persists. 
  • 
  If a subject being possessed by an entity touches the bane, the entity takes a point of 
  lethal damage per turn it remains in contact. 
  • 
  Touching the bane while in Twilight causes a point of lethal damage per turn to non-
  Manifested entities. 
  • 
  If the bane has been used as a weapon against the entity, the wounds suffered are 
  aggravated for Manifest entities and lethal for entities still in Twilight.  
  Banes are increasingly esoteric and obscure for entities of increasing Rank.  
  Rank 1 entities have common substances and phenomena as banes. Ghosts burn at the touch of 
  salt. The spirit of a forest is poisoned by the fumes of burning plastic. 
  
  Rank 2 and 3 entities have difficult-to-obtain, but still “natural,” banes. A powerful ghost is 
  repelled by holy water. A spirit must be killed by a sharpened stake made of pine. 
  Rank 4 and 5 entities have highly specific banes that require great effort to acquire. The Gray 
  Lord, a powerful ghost, can be killed by an obsidian blade marked with the names of his 
  biological parents. The spirit of the U.S. Treasury Building can be killed by a silver bullet made 
  from a melted-down silver dollar minted prior to 1850. 
  The hierarchical nature of ephemeral beings also plays a part — Rank isn’t a social convention 
  for them, but a fundamental part of their nature. Ephemeral entities of two Ranks or more above 
  an opponent of the same type (a Rank 5 spirit attacking a Rank 3 spirit, for example), count as 
  their opponent’s bane when using unarmed attacks, claws, or teeth. 
  Combat 
  Ephemeral entities apply Defense against all attacks, even firearms. They roll Power + Finesse to 
  attack. Their attacks inflict bashing damage unless the nature of the entity (a spirit with metal 
  fists, for example) indicates it should inflict lethal wounds instead. Some entities use weapons, in 
  which case roll Power + Finesse, then apply weapon damage on a successful attack. 
  Entities in Twilight can only attack or be attacked by other ephemeral beings of the same type, 
  unless the attack utilizes the entity’s bane.  
  Physical attacks on a Manifested entity that would normally cause lethal damage only cause 
  bashing damage unless the attack utilizes the entity’s bane. Despite appearing to the naked eye 
  and being solid, a Manifested ghost or spirit doesn’t have any internal organs to injure. 
  Ephemeral entities record and heal from wounds in the same way as material characters but lose 
  one point of Essence for every aggravated wound they suffer. Ephemeral entities that lose all 
  Corpus from lethal or aggravated wounds explode into a burst of ephemera, stylized to their 
  nature. A forest spirit dies in a hail of rapidly vanishing pine needles, while ghosts crumble, 
  screaming, into the ground. The entity isn’t dead, though, unless it has also run out of Essence. If 
  it has even a single Essence point remaining, it reforms, hibernating, in a safe place (a 
  Conditioned location, usually). Once it has regained Essence points equal to its Corpus dots, it 
  spends an Essence point and reawakens. As the entity can’t act while hibernating, this means it 
  must wait for the one Essence a day for being in a suitable area to slowly build up to Corpus, and 
  that more powerful entities take longer to recover from being “killed.” 
  Influence 
  All ephemeral entities have a degree of Influence over the world, which they can leverage to 
  control and shape the basis of their existence. Ghosts have influence over their Anchors while 
  spirits influence elements that align with their natures. Entities begin with dots in Influence equal 
  to Rank. Although Rank is also the maximum rating for an Influence, ephemeral beings can split 
  their dots to have more than one Influence. A Rank 3 ghost, for example, might have Influence: 
  Childhood Home •• and Influence: Car Crashes •. 
  Entities may reduce their number of Numina granted by Rank to increase Influence dots, at a 
  cost of 1 Numen per dot. Ghosts have influence over their particular Anchor, but not all instances 
  of it, while spirits have Influences that relate to their natures — the dog spirit, for example, has 
  Influence: Dogs, not Influence over a particular dog. 
  
  Influence is measured in both scale and duration. To use an Influence, compare the entity’s 
  Influence rating to the total dots of the intended effect and how long it will last. The total must be 
  equal to or less than the entity’s Influence rating in order for the Influence to be attempted. The 
  entity pays the listed cost in Essence and rolls Power + Finesse, with success creating the desired 
  effect. If the Influence is altering the thoughts or emotions of a sapient being, the roll is contested 
  by Resolve or Composure (whichever is higher) + Supernatural Tolerance. 
  [THIS IS A TABLE] 
  Influence Effects 
  Level Effect 
  • Strengthen 
  The entity spends 1 Essence to enhance its sphere of influence. It can add to 
  someone’s Defense, make an emotion stronger, or grant Health or Structure to an object. This 
  influence can also shift the Anchor or Resonant Condition to Open for its duration. 
  •• Manipulate The entity spends 2 Essence to make minor changes within its sphere of 
  Influence. It can change the nature or target of an emotion, change an animal’s actions, a plant’s 
  growth, or an object’s functionality. 
  ••• Control 
  The entity spends 3 Essence to make dramatic changes within its sphere of 
  influence. It twists emotions entirely, dictates an animal’s actions, makes an object function, or 
  changes how a plant grows. 
  •••• Create 
  The entity spends 4 Essence to create a new example of its sphere of influence. It 
  instills a new emotion, creates a new sapling or young plant, a new animal, or brand-new object. 
  The entity can cause a temporary Anchor or Resonant Condition in a subject for the duration of 
  the Influence. 
  ••••• Mass Create 
  The entity spends 5 Essence to create multiple examples of its sphere of 
  influence, just like Create. Alternately, the entity may create one instance of its sphere of 
  influence — including creating the base Condition for its type — permanently, although an 
  ephemeral entity can’t permanently alter the mind of a sapient being. 
  [END TABLE] 
  [THIS IS A TABLE] 
  Influence Durations 
  Level Duration 
  Cost 
  0 
  One minute per success 
  No additional Essence cost 
  • 
  Ten minutes per success 
  No additional Essence cost 
  •• 
  One hour per success 1 additional Essence 
  ••• 
  One day per success 2 additional Essence 
  •••• 
  Permanent 
  2 additional Essence 
  [END TABLE] 
  Manifestation  
  
  Ephemeral beings can interact with the mortal world in many ways, but the one that hunters 
  know about and deal with most is Manifestation. Just as Influence traits determine what level of 
  control the creature has over their environment, Manifestation traits define which forms of 
  Manifestation are possible for an entity. 
  Entities begin with the Twilight Form Manifestation and a number of Manifestation Effects 
  equal to Rank. Some effects are only available to certain kinds of entities. Entities may increase 
  their capabilities by reducing the number of Numina they are granted by Rank, at the cost of 1 
  Numen per Manifestation Effect. 
  All Manifestation Effects require a Power + Finesse roll to use. Most have an associated cost in 
  Essence, and some are contested or resisted. 
  If something falls into an ephemeral being’s sphere of influence, this is handled mechanically by 
  declaring an Influence Condition. Influence Conditions resemble Tilts and character Conditions. 
  The different forms of Manifestation Effects are also Conditions, applied to the location, object, 
  or character into which the entity is Manifesting, or in cases like Reaching, to the entity itself. 
  Unlike many Conditions, Influence and Manifestation Conditions are tiered and interrelated; 
  Manifestation Conditions have Influence Conditions as prerequisites and vice versa. The lower 
  tiers are naturally occurring, while the higher ones must be created by entities using Influences 
  and Manifestations. 
  In the most advanced forms of Influence and Manifestation, entities may attempt to create a 
  long-lasting Condition that has a prerequisite of a very temporary one. When one Condition is 
  advanced into another, the remaining duration of the prerequisite Conditions is “frozen.” 
  If a prerequisite Condition is removed from a character (for example, a Possessed character’s 
  Open Condition is removed by exorcism) any Conditions relying on it, any Conditions relying on 
  them, and so on, are immediately removed. The most advanced remaining Condition then 
  resumes its duration. 
  The Gauntlet 
  Spirits rarely spend their time in Twilight unless commanded to do so by another monster or 
  attempting to Manifest. Hunters have no way of piercing the Gauntlet or dealing with spirits in 
  Shadow, meaning they mainly deal with spirits who are already in Twilight. For this reason, we 
  won’t talk much about the Gauntlet or its effects on spirits.  
  If you would like to use the full Gauntlet rules for spirits in your Hunter game, use the 
  information on pp. XX-XX in the Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook. 
   [[TABLE]] 
  Manifestation Effects 
  Manifestation Effect 
  Twilight Form If the entity enters the material world, it does so in Twilight (see p. XX). The 
  effect has no cost. 
  Discorporate In emergencies, the entity can voluntarily Discorporate as though it had lost all its 
  Corpus to lethal injury — a painful way to escape a greater being threatening to permanently kill 
  it. The effect has no cost. 
  
  Gauntlet Breach 
  (Spirit Only — requires the Resonant Condition) By spending 3 Essence, 
  the spirit forces itself through the Gauntlet — returning to Shadow from the material world or 
  appearing in Twilight Form by entering the material world. 
  Gateway 
  (Requires Open Condition) By spending 3 Essence, the entity opens a portal into 
  its home realm, and can pass through the Gateway. This is a one-way trip and only the entity 
  using the effect can use the Gateway. 
  Image (Requires Anchor or Resonant Condition) By spending 1 Essence, the entity may make 
  its Twilight Form visible to material beings for a scene. 
  Materialize 
  (Requires Open Condition) By spending 3 Essence, the entity may shift from 
  Twilight Form into the Materialized Condition. 
  Possess 
  (Requires Open Condition) By spending 3 Essence, the entity gains temporary 
  control over an object, corpse, or creature, applying the Possessed Condition to the subject. 
  Living subjects contest the roll with Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance. 
  [[END TABLE]] 
  [THE FOLLOWING ARE FORMATTED LIKE CONDITIONS] 
  Conditions 
  Anchor 
  The subject of this Condition — usually a location or object, though it can be a person in rare 
  cases — is within the sphere of influence of a ghost. Ghosts in or within (Rank x 3) yards of their 
  Anchors do not suffer Essence bleed. 
  Causing the Condition: This Condition is immediately created when a new ghost is formed, 
  based on whatever subject anchors the ghost’s identity. Summoning rituals intended to release 
  ghosts from the Underworld or call them from elsewhere temporarily create this Condition in 
  their target. Finally, a high-Rank ghost can use a Create Influence to mark a target as an Anchor. 
  Ending the Condition: The easiest way to end an Anchor Condition is to destroy the subject. 
  Some ghosts cling to Anchors that represent unfinished business, in which case resolving those 
  issues can remove the Condition. Abjuration temporarily suppresses the Condition, as described 
  on p. XX, forcing the ghost to retreat to another Anchor if it has one. Ghosts without Anchors 
  bleed Essence until they fall into dormancy, at which point a Gateway Effect happens 
  immediately and the ghost is banished to the Great Below. 
  Materialized 
  The entity has shifted from ephemeral to material substance, manifesting in physical form. All 
  the rules for ephemeral entities’ traits still apply, except for the effects of being in Twilight. This 
  Condition protects the entity from Essence Bleed for its duration. 
  Causing the Condition: This Condition is created by an entity using the Materialize 
  Manifestation Effect on an Open Condition. If the Open Condition used is on an object or 
  person, the entity must materialize within its Rank in yards. 
  Ending the Condition: Materialization lasts for one hour per success on the activating roll. 
  When the duration ends, the entity fades back into Twilight. Physical contact with a Bane or 
  removal of a prerequisite condition can cause the Condition to end early. 
  
  Open 
  Prerequisites: The Anchor or Resonant Condition for the same phenomenon to which this 
  Condition is tagged. 
  The place, object, animal, or person covered by a previous Condition has now been conditioned 
  to accept the entity. It can attempt to Possess the subject of the Condition, or, if the Condition is 
  on a location, Manifest. 
  Causing the Condition: This Condition is usually the result of an entity fine tuning the 
  prerequisite Condition as part of an extended action involving the subject and entity acting in 
  concert, for a number of scenes equal to Rank or a living subject’s Resolve, whichever is higher.  
  Ending the Condition: The Condition ends if the prerequisite Condition is removed. Exorcism 
  rituals work by removing this Condition, reverting it to the prerequisite. 
  Possessed 
  This object, corpse, or living being is temporarily controlled by an ephemeral entity. Living hosts 
  are put into a coma-like state while Possessed; they experience the possession as missing time, 
  aside from flashbacks that might come out in dreams or times of stress such as losing Integrity. 
  The entity may not use Numina or Influences while controlling the host but is safe from Essence 
  Bleed for as long as the possession lasts. 
  The entity may pay one Essence per turn to heal a lethal or bashing wound or a point of structure 
  lost to damage. Corpses that died from damage begin Possession incapacitated and must 
  be “healed” with Essence. Entities possessing inanimate objects or corpses have a great deal of 
  control over their host. An entity controlling an object can’t make it do anything it couldn’t do 
  while being operated, but it can turn switches on and off, operate machinery, use keyboards, and 
  turn dials. Use the entity’s Finesse if dice rolls are necessary. Corpses and other articulated hosts 
  capable of movement, like shop mannequins or industrial robots, use their own Physical 
  Attributes, but use the entity’s Attributes in Social or Mental rolls. By spending a point of 
  Essence, the entity can use its own Attributes instead of the host’s for Physical tasks for a turn 
  but doing so causes one point of lethal damage or structure loss to the host.  
  Living hosts require more time for the entity to gain full control, and always use their own 
  Attributes. The entity may read the host’s mind with a Finesse Roll at a −4 penalty, use the 
  host’s Physical Skills at a −3 penalty, and use their Social and Mental Skills at a −4 penalty. 
  These penalties are all reduced by one die per day that the entity has possession of the host. 
  To possess a host, the entity must remain in Twilight, superimposed over the host. This means 
  that if the host touches the entity’s bane or is injured by a weapon made of the bane, the entity 
  will suffer wounds to its Corpus. 
  Causing the Condition: This Condition is created by an entity using the Possess Manifestation 
  Effect. The object or victim must be under the Open Condition, tagged to the entity. 
  Ending the Condition: The possession lasts for a single scene, unless the entity abandons it 
  early or the host is killed or destroyed. Abjurations, exorcisms, strong bans, and forced contact 
  with banes can all motivate an entity to release a host. 
  Resonant 
  The subject of this Condition is within the sphere of influence of a spirit. 
  
  Causing the Condition: This Condition is common and occurs naturally; if an object, 
  phenomenon, person, or place matches the spirit’s purview in some way, it has this Condition. 
  Anything matching the description of one of a spirit’s Influences counts as having this Condition 
  tagged to the spirit. 
  Summoning rituals intended to entice a particular spirit to a location work by instilling the 
  qualities that result in this Condition. Finally, a high-Rank spirit can use a Create Influence to 
  cause the prerequisites for the Condition itself. 
  Ending the Condition: The Condition ends if the phenomenon creating it ends. A forest stops 
  being Resonant for a tree spirit when all the trees are logged, a grief spirit can’t Influence 
  someone who has healed and let go of his pain, and a fire spirit must move on when the fire is 
  extinguished. Abjuration and exorcism may temporarily suppress the Condition or be the cause 
  of it “naturally” ending, if the ritualists remove the causal phenomenon as part of the ritual. 
  [END CONDITIONS LAYOUT] 
  Numina 
  In addition to Influence and Manifestation, all ephemeral entities have a number of discrete 
  magical powers called Numina. Each Numen is a single ability — activated by a successful 
  Power + Finesse roll unless stated otherwise — linked to the entity’s nature. 
  The Numina described here are deliberately generic. Individual ephemeral beings display their 
  Numen in ways reflecting their type, theme, and biases — a ghost’s Blast is an empty, freezing 
  cold in the bones of its victim, while a spirit of light’s is a jolt of energy. 
  Aggressive Meme 
  The entity speaks to a person (it must have a Condition making it capable of doing so), and 
  plants an idea in their mind. When that person tells someone else the idea, it takes hold in their 
  mind, too, as well as in the minds of whomever they tell. The Numen costs 7 Essence to activate 
  and is contested by Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance. 
  Awe 
  The entity causes terror in anyone who can see it. The Numen costs 3 Essence, and its activation 
  is contested with Presence + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance individually by anyone 
  looking at the entity. Anyone achieving fewer successes than the entity is unable to move or 
  speak for a turn. If the entity gains an exceptional success, the effect lasts three turns. 
  Blast 
  The entity may wound opponents at a distance. Range is equal to 10 yards per dot of Power, and 
  the entity does not suffer range penalties. If the activation roll succeeds, the Blast wounds as a 
  lethal weapon. The entity may increase the lethality of its Blast by paying Essence — every 2 
  Essence spent increases the “weapon” by one lethal damage. The maximum weapon bonus is 
  equal to the entity’s Rank. 
  Dement 
  The entity may torture its victim’s mind via psychic assault. The Numen costs 1 Essence, and the 
  activation roll is contested by the victim’s Intelligence + Supernatural Tolerance. If the entity 
  succeeds, the victim suffers the Insane Tilt (p. XX) for the rest of the scene. 
  
  Drain 
  The entity can steal Essence or Willpower (chosen at activation) from a material being. The 
  activation roll is contested by Stamina + Resolve + Supernatural Tolerance. Whichever character 
  — entity or target — gains the most successes receives points of Willpower or Essence equal to 
  successes, while the other party loses the same number. 
  Emotional Aura 
  The entity sends out a wave of powerful — and distracting — emotion. This Numen costs 1 
  Essence, and lasts for a scene, or until the entity uses another Numina. The activation roll is 
  made once, but anyone coming within five yards of the entity must make a Resolve + 
  Composure + Supernatural Tolerance roll. If the activation roll had more successes, the victim 
  suffers a −2 dice penalty to all actions as long as the aura remains. If the victim gains more 
  successes, he is immune to the aura unless the entity uses the Numen again. 
  Essence Thief 
  The entity may steal Essence from and consume ephemeral beings other than its own type — for 
  example, spirits with this Numen may consume ghosts and angels. The Numen costs 1 Essence 
  to activate. 
  Firestarter 
  The entity causes flammable materials to combust. This Numen costs 1 Essence and causes a 
  small fire to break out per activation success within the entity’s Power in yards. 
  Hallucination 
  The entity may create an illusion experienced by a single target; anything from a sight or sound 
  to an imaginary person that holds a conversation. The Numen costs 1 Essence and is contested 
  by the victim’s Wits + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance. Each success over the contesting 
  roll alters one of the victim’s senses. 
  Innocuous 
  This Numen does not require a roll to activate and has no cost. The entity is very good at being 
  overlooked. Rolls to notice the entity suffer a −2 penalty.  
  Left-Handed Spanner 
  The entity disables a device, paying 1 Essence and touching the object if Manifested, or moving 
  its Twilight Form to superimpose over it if not. The device must be a human-manufactured 
  object with at least three moving parts. If the activation roll succeeds, the device malfunctions 
  for the number of successes in turns. Using this Numen in combat requires the entity to Grapple 
  and gain control of the object, so it can’t be used this way in Twilight unless the target is as well. 
  Mortal Mask 
  This Numen disguises a Materialized entity as a human and can be used at the same time as the 
  Materialize Manifestation Effect. Using the Numen costs 1 Essence, and the human seeming 
  lasts for activation successes in hours. The human “costume” is flawed — witnesses may make a 
  Wits + Composure roll penalized by the entity’s Finesse to realize that something is wrong. 
  Characters able to sense the entity in Twilight do not suffer the penalty. 
  Pathfinder 
  
  This Numen allows an entity to know the quickest route to a destination. The fastest route isn’t 
  always the safest, and the Numen doesn’t reveal any dangers on the way, only a set of directions 
  to the target. If the destination is the subject of the Safe Place Merit, the activation roll is 
  contested by the lowest Resolve + Supernatural Tolerance among any owners. The Numen costs 
  1 Essence and lasts for a scene. If the destination is too far away to reach that quickly, the entity 
  must use the Numen again. 
  Regenerate 
  The entity can use Essence to heal bashing and lethal wounds on its Corpus. This Numen does 
  not require a roll to activate, but costs 1 Essence and heals one level of damage. The entity must 
  reactivate the Numen each turn to heal more severe wounds. Bashing damage is healed first, then 
  lethal. 
  Seek 
  The entity can sense the presence of suitable Conditions from a distance. The base range is two 
  miles per Rank; entities may spend an Essence to multiply this by 10. If successful on a Finesse 
  roll, the entity becomes aware of the direction and distance to the nearest suitable Anchor or 
  Resonant Condition. 
  Speed 
  The entity accelerates into a blur of movement. The entity chooses whether to spend 2 or 4 
  Essence when activating this Numen. Spending 2 Essence doubles its Speed for the remainder of 
  the scene, while spending 4 Essence triples it. 
  Sign 
  The entity creates messages or images in any media in the same way that media can be used by a 
  mortal— it can write in the condensation on cold glass, produce images on computer screens, 
  and send audible messages via phone lines. The Numen costs 1 Essence to activate, and if 
  successful creates a single message. 
  Stalwart 
  The entity appears armored in Twilight form and uses Resistance instead of the lower of Power 
  or Finesse as its Defense score. 
  Telekinesis 
  The entity can manipulate objects without using a Manifestation Effect. This Numen costs 1 
  Essence, and successes on the activation roll become the entity’s Strength when attempting to lift 
  or throw an item. Fine motor control is impossible using this Numen. 
  The Hunt 
  Mortals can interact with ephemeral entities in more ways than just as victims. Some people 
  actively seek out ghosts of their loved ones with whom to speak, or seek spirits from whom to 
  entreat power. Characters with an Unseen Sense for spirits or ghosts can sense their presence 
  even in Twilight. Hunters seek them out to fight them and eliminate the threat they pose to 
  humanity. 
  Research 
  
  Just like everything else hunters have to deal with, the best way to handle an ephemeral entity is 
  to learn everything they can about them first. Finding out a ban or bane is the best way to deal 
  with an ephemeral entity, though some hunters have Endowments that let them bypass the need. 
  If met with an ephemeral entity mystery, hunters can research them just like anything else. 
  Generally, the roll is Intelligence + Occult, and all sorts of information from Anchors, 
  resonances, bans, and banes are the result of Clue gathering. 
  Exorcism and Summoning 
  For dealing with an ephemeral entity, the ability to summon or banish is the most basic tool in a 
  hunter’s repertoire. These aren’t perfect, and they don’t always work. The concept behind them 
  is that if the hunter knows the ideal atmosphere the entity needs to exist in the physical world, 
  then he can manipulate it and force the entity to comply with his wishes. 
  As such, exorcism and summoning are functionally the same. They require a series of research 
  actions (Intelligence + Occult rolls, with bonuses and penalties depending on access to proper 
  literature) to narrow down the requirements for the rest of the rites. The remaining actions serve 
  as alternate ways to cause the Manifestation Conditions in the desired source. 
  For the most part, hunters engage in exorcisms more than summoning, though some hunters want 
  to end the fight quickly by demanding an entity appear before the cell. Some other mortals, 
  cultists and the like, summon entities for more nefarious purposes. These people tend to pose 
  severe moral questions to hunters, especially those whose Code prohibits harming other humans. 
  Abjuration 
  While exorcism is an attempt to tackle the Conditions underpinning an entity’s presence by 
  mundane means or the use of bans and banes, abjuration fights the supernatural with the 
  supernatural, pitting a hunter’s soul and Resolve against the entity he is attempting to force 
  away.  
  Hunters learn exorcism through necessity, and while some exorcists tend to be religious, it is not 
  necessary for either exorcism or abjuration. By concentrating on the higher self, a skilled abjurist 
  can cause his soul to affect Twilight, forcing ephemeral beings away and clearing an area of 
  Influence. The abjuration effect must be performed as a meditative exercise that helps the user 
  stay calm, even in the face of a rampaging, Materialized ghost. Religious abjurists use repeated 
  prayer, while more secular occultists rely on incantations learned from their research. Anything 
  that instills the proper calm and reverence will work, though — a soldier might attempt to abjure 
  a ghost by reciting the patriotic oath of his country. 
  The abjuration itself is a Resolve + Composure roll contested by the entity’s Power + Resistance. 
  As abjuration channels the higher self, working the ritual by a means that matches the abjurist’s 
  Virtue provides a +2 bonus to the dice pool. A strong psyche is also useful — characters with 
  Integrity 10 receive a +3 bonus, Integrity 9 characters gain +2, and Integrity 8 gain +1. 
  Conversely, if the abjuration calls on the abjurist’s Vice, the dice pool is penalized by two dice. 
  Low-Integrity characters suffer a cumulative −1 penalty per Integrity dot below 6: −1 for 
  Integrity 5, −2 for Integrity 4, and so on. 
  If the abjuration is successful, all Conditions tagged by the entity in the abjurist’s Willpower in 
  yards are suppressed for one day. On an exceptional success, the abjurist also becomes an extra 
  bane for the entity until its Conditions return. 
  
  Warding and Binding 
  Beyond just sending an ephemeral entity away for a day, hunters can ward an area, or bind a 
  particularly difficult entity into a specific location. By using the entity’s bane and a specific kind 
  of abjuration, a hunter can force it to stay away from or remain in certain areas. 
  Instead of confronting the entity directly as in abjuration, the ritualist marks the boundary she 
  intends to protect with the entity’s bane. She doesn’t have to mark a complete boundary — her 
  concept of the area she’s protecting is what’s important. Marking doors and windows with 
  lamb’s blood to keep out a ghost who can’t touch it will prevent that ghost from simply floating 
  through the wall while in Twilight, and carefully drawing a sigil on the floor will serve to trap 
  the ghost whose name it is. 
  If the ritualist doesn’t have the proper bane for her ritual’s subject, it fails automatically, so the 
  most important part of warding is getting that detail right. Once that’s done, and the area has 
  been marked, the ritualist performs whatever abjuration method she knows, focusing on 
  suffusing the area with the essence of the entity’s bane. Performing the ritual requires a Presence 
  + Occult roll, modified by the ritualist’s Integrity as per an abjuration, and further penalized by 
  the entity’s Rank. A further modifier depends on the size of the area being warded. 
  [TABLE] 
  Area 
  Modifier 
  Small area within a location, up to a six-foot area 
  +1 
  Single room, a vehicle0 
  Two story, suburban building −1 
  [END TABLE] 
  Larger structures levy increasing penalties; an additional −1 for every equivalent of a family 
  home. Most superstructures, like skyscrapers, trains, government buildings, and hospitals are too 
  large to be effectively warded. 
  If successful, the entity described in the ritual treats attempting to move into or out of the warded 
  area as though it is against its ban. The effect lasts for successes in days or is broken if the 
  marking of the boundary is disturbed — a determined entity can suffer the injury from touching 
  the bane material marker in order to break the ward. 
  Monsters by Region 
  Any Time, Anywhere 
  Ghosts and spirits are the most common types of monsters that can appear at will. The ghosts 
  that don’t haunt a house or the bones of their corpse are often tied to a possessed object, relic, or 
  person, while others manifest because someone summoned them. Ghosts that inhabit physical 
  objects are still ghosts, however; if a doll, computer, mirror, or mannequin is destroyed, the ghost 
  isn’t automatically vanquished. These physical items are often Anchors for the ghost and add 
  flavor to the hunt, a touch of misdirection, and a deep sense of history that isn’t grounded in a set 
  of coordinates. Spirits don’t have Anchors, but they usually have bans that give them a 
  predictable pattern of behavior. Sometimes, the effects of a witch’s curse or a supernatural virus 
  
  may be misidentified as a ghost’s or spirit’s handiwork — most people admit ghosts are real, and 
  pass everything else off as anxiety or superstition. 
  For the Storyteller: Hunting on a Map 
  The monsters and examples provided scratch the surface of a world filled with the 
  strange and unexplained. It is assumed that a local hunter will have more 
  knowledge, resources, and connections to deal with an incident at home than an 
  outsider would. When switching locales, keep in mind the hunters are strangers to 
  a new location and will have to earn trust of local experts or ally with other, local 
  hunters before taking action.   
  Take Robert the Doll for example. Originally owned by Key West painter and author, Robert 
  Eugene Otto, this life-sized doll is possessed by a ghost with a taste for mischief and violence. 
  The doll was once a display piece in a toy store in Germany, gifted to Otto by a wealthy relative. 
  In the past, Robert the Doll allegedly attacked household staff, started fires, and played pranks on 
  the humans with whom he’s lived. Robert the Doll has straw-blonde hair, glass buttons for eyes, 
  faded rosy cheeks, and wears a blue-and-white sailor’s suit. Despite being possessed by a ghost, 
  the Doll is made of cloth. When the ghost speaks through Robert, his button eyes glow softly 
  with an aura of lurid light most visible in the darkness. Burn the doll, however, and the ghost 
  moves on. So, while the mischief Robert caused may seem like it’s been dealt with, the true 
  monster hasn’t been. 
  Spirits and monsters aren’t bound to an environment or any one place. They don’t need a 
  grassland or a swamp to survive, and they aren’t tied to a specific gravesite or ancient battlefield, 
  either. Creatures that can appear anywhere are still connected to the world of the living, however, 
  and often reveal their malicious intent after they strike. 
  Black Dog 
  You are a British assistant manager working at a fish-and-chips restaurant in Sheffield. After 
  your shift, you walk back to your car when you hear a loud, menacing bark. Is that a stray dog? 
  No, you think, it can’t be. You don’t see anything. You ignore the noise as each ear-splitting bark 
  grows louder and louder. Whatever it is — it’s coming closer! You suck in your breath and don’t 
  make a sound. You feel goosebumps up and down your arms. That’s when you see it: a massive, 
  ink-black hound with glowing red eyes is running right for you. 
  Location(s): Prominent in Great Britain. Can be found in any country. 
  The Black Dog is a malevolent spirit tied to ill will and fear. Witnesses refer to the Black Dog by 
  many names including Black Shuck, Church Grim, El Cadejo, Lobizon, Perro Negro, or Padfoot. 
  Black Dogs are often portents of ill will; anyone who sees the creature is doomed to a dark fate, 
  disaster, or death. Some report seeing the dog before a large-scale calamity such as a hurricane, 
  an earthquake, or a terrorist attack. Still other reports state this dog is a familiar summoned by 
  witches and warlocks to murder their intended victims. 
  In some Latin American legends, the Black Dog’s counterpart is a White Dog that appears as a 
  benevolent force trying to warn victims they are about to befall a great tragedy.  
  Appearance: This spirit manifests as an enormous black dog with glowing red eyes and 
  possesses the combined qualities of the fiercest breeds: snapping jaws, rippling muscles, and 
  
  flesh-tearing claws. The dog’s bark or howl can always be heard by the intended, doomed target 
  no matter where they may try to hide, and they possess excellent hearing. 
  Storytelling Hints: The Black Dog is a storytelling tool perfect for any tier. When it makes an 
  appearance, this malevolent canine can serve Storytellers as a thematic clue. For example, the 
  Black Dog may show itself to a hunter who’s been cursed and is in danger. On a less-personal 
  scale, a cell might wake from a dead sleep, right before a supernatural or natural disaster, to hear 
  Black Dogs howling at the moon. In this way, the Black Dog adds fear and tension to the 
  chronicle because hunters may not always have opportunities to capture, study, or murder it.  
  Storytellers may also use the Black Dog as a sign that they’ve run afoul of a different monster; a 
  cell may have crossed paths with a shapeshifting warlock who summoned the Black Dog and 
  commanded it to pursue them. The Black Dog may also be used as a standalone monster that 
  haunts a sleepy neighborhood. 
  Power: 5 
  Finesse: 4 
  Resistance: 4 
  Manifestation Effects: Gateway, Materialize 
  Numina: Aggressive Meme, Blast, Emotional Aura, Seek 
  Ban: The Black Dog must spend one day out of every seven in a forested area or take 1 lethal 
  damage for each day it cannot get to a forest. 
  Bane: Any blade carved from obsidian. 
  Rank: 2 
  Influence: Fear 2 
  Willpower: 8 
  Essence: 15 
  Corpus: 9 
  Initiative: 8 
  Defense: 4 
  Speed: 15 
  Size: 6 
  Slender Man 
  You are a South African hunter who has a few hunts under your belt. This time, however, you’re 
  facing your first real threat: A mythic impundulu has been spotted near Johannesburg, feeding 
  on its citizens. You and your cell are stumped. You have no idea why such a creature would fly 
  into a well-populated city, so you decide to track it with a spell you’d found. It’s your first time 
  using magic, but you have no time to find a different solution. You perform your spell and you’re 
  not sure if it worked — but now you’ve got bigger problems. Out of the corner of your eye, you 
  
  spot an impossibly tall man. You whirl around, don’t see anything, and return to your task. When 
  he reappears, you know the impundulu is not the only monster you need to tackle head on.  
  The Slender Man’s origins are as obscure and mysterious as the reasons for its appearance. Some 
  speculate that the Slender Man is attracted to people who open a grimoire or try a spell for the 
  first time and preys on their curiosity, while others believe he targets the young and emotionally 
  vulnerable. The briefest contact with him inflicts paranoia and nightmares, while prolonged 
  exposure to the otherworldly creature can be fatal. 
  Whether it’s an internet construct or a spirit made flesh, the Slender Man is one of the most 
  dangerous monsters because it’s shrouded in one too many mysteries. Why appear now? Why 
  target magical initiates? How would a force connected to technology become real?  
  Slender Man also inflicts “slender sickness” on his victims, a pathology that drives the afflicted 
  to fits of rage and violence. Those who survive prolonged contact with the monster often leave 
  behind an “operator mark” (a circle with an X through it) to warn others of its presence. 
  Slender Man rarely aggressively attacks his victims and instead frightens them by looming at the 
  edges of a target’s perception. Hunters are searching for ways to lure or trap the Slender Man, 
  but the process is slow going; the monster’s presence causes electronic devices to malfunction 
  within a wide radius, and files have been known to disappear.  
  Appearance: Slender Man is commonly described as an impossibly tall, thin, spectral man 
  dressed in a fine black suit, white shirt, and dark tie. He has a blank, featureless white face, and 
  unnaturally long arms that, according to some accounts, are replaced by tentacles. Often, the 
  edges of his silhouette are blurry, as if he hasn’t fully materialized. 
  Storyteller Hints: Slender Man adds a layer of mystery to any chronicle and may be introduced 
  as a recurring antagonist. People are uncertain if he is a ghost or a spirit, so making that 
  determination for your game is important. Attracted to magic, this entity may end up in the same 
  places as the hunters. If an unfurling mystery suits the tone of the chronicle, Slender Man poses 
  an unknowable, insidious threat that seemingly targets people at random and leaves those who 
  survive the encounter shaken and unstable.  
  The Storyteller is encouraged to shape the Slender Man into a monster the hunters can, with a 
  little creativity, track and hunt. The monster can lead the cell into deeper mysteries of the 
  supernatural, or he can simply cause chaos and panic. Either way, this spirit is more than a vision 
  in the dark. He appears and attacks, but the hunters can unlock his weaknesses eventually. 
  Power: 10 
  Finesse: 8 
  Resistance: 9 
  Manifestation Effects: Image, Materialize, Possess 
  Numina: Aggressive Meme, Dement, Drain, Innocuous, Left-Handed Spanner 
  Ban: The Slender Man cannot use Aggressive Meme, Dement, or Drain without touching the 
  skin of his victim. He cannot use Left-Handed Spanner without touching the object. 
  Bane: A blade etched with the Slender Man’s true name. 
  Rank: 4 
  
  Influence: Fear 2, Death 2 
  Willpower: 10 
  Essence: 25 
  Corpus: 15 
  Initiative: 17 
  Defense: 8 
  Speed: 24 
  Size: 6 
  Cities, Towns, and Villages 
  Where there are people, there are monsters. Cities are filled with humanoid predators that require 
  a mortal’s blood, flesh, and soul to survive. Most hunters believe a supernatural predator’s 
  motivation is simple and straightforward: they track, pursue, haunt, study, or feed on mortals. 
  For this reason, many cells operate under the assumption that anyone who can pass as human — 
  vampires, ghosts, were-creatures, shapeshifters, witches, and warlocks — might be more 
  dangerous than the unusual and bizarre because they can blend in or infiltrate hunter 
  organizations. Hunters are often warned that they, themselves, are a target, and their cell should 
  take precautions even before they realize what they’re dealing with. When they don’t, however, 
  that’s when the real challenge begins. 
  Large, concentrated populations are often the source of fast-spreading urban legends that spawn 
  rumors and hints of truth. Sometimes, these beliefs are grounded in cultural, personal, or 
  location-specific experiences that may be unfamiliar to the players sitting around the table. Take, 
  for example, Nurse Janet. In East Malaysia, there is a story of how a young nurse named Janet 
  went missing in the 1960s. Her disappearance was linked to the construction of a local bridge. It 
  was said that whenever development was delayed, its owners would offer human sacrifices to 
  something: restless spirits, perhaps, or demons. Any number of dark forces demand worship; the 
  account is never clear. What is known, however, is that these sacrifices invariably involved 
  decapacitating the victims and embedding their heads in the concrete. This was the fate many 
  believed befell poor Janet. True enough, her parents would eventually find her headless corpse a 
  few days later, untouched save for that one act of mutilation. In their despair, her parents did the 
  only thing they could: They dressed her in scarlet, hoping to help their child one last time. 
  Ghosts, whether they are out for vengeance or a poltergeist, are tied to cultural experiences, 
  identities, and beliefs. Each one has a history grounded in a living person’s former life. In Nurse 
  Janet’s story, the color red holds cultural significance. In Chinese culture, some believe if you 
  clothe a corpse in red, its spirit will find its way back to our world, seeking the vengeance it’s 
  been owed. As a spirit of vengeance, hunters who hold similar beliefs know Nurse Janet may act 
  like other types of ghosts, for instance a Woman in White, but she isn’t one. She’s an example of 
  a different threat, a Woman in Red, who is just as determined to wreak havoc on the living as 
  other spirits. 
  The monster selected for a chronicle is more than a thing to hunt; it adds depth and layers of 
  meaning to the city it inhabits. The Cheonyeo Gwishin are another excellent example of how 
  urban legends are not only tied to locations, but to the people who live there. While these women 
  
  are native to South Korea, the Women in White can be introduced in any city where tragedy has 
  befallen a victim.  
  When introducing a chronicle, the Storyteller is encouraged to treat a city, town, or village as its 
  own character that has its fair share of beautiful flaws and ugly scars waiting to be uncovered. 
  Cheonyeo Gwishin 
  You are a South Korean student who’s recently moved into a new apartment building. You hear 
  someone knocking on your door. You open the door and call out, “Who’s there?” A feminine 
  voice answers, telling you to close your eyes and count to a hundred. Is this a game, you 
  wonder? Then, the voice tells you that if you don’t start counting — you’ll die. You’re not sure if 
  someone’s playing a prank on you or not. You double check the abandoned hallway, go back 
  inside, and close your eyes. Then, you start reciting the numbers. You feel silly, so you stop 
  counting at fifty. When you open your eyes, you are shocked to find a ghostly figure — a woman 
  in white with dark, flowing hair — glaring back at you. 
  Location: The Cheonyeo Gwishin hail from South Korea. They are a type of apparition known 
  as the Women in White; these ghosts may be found worldwide.  
  Depending on who you ask, the Cheonyeo Gwishin are either the ghosts of virgins or unmarried 
  women, pinioned by whatever traumatic event prevented them from moving on. In some stories, 
  that event is the grief of never having fulfilled their purpose as Korean women: to uphold the 
  family name, to experience matrimonial bliss. In others, it is a case of innocence betrayed. 
  Cheonyeo Gwishin can be found haunting abandoned buildings and schools — the quiet places 
  in the bustle of South Korea. Many are simply visual aberrations, a flicker at the periphery of the 
  eye. They are echoes, suspended in their moment of agony. Other Cheonyeo Gwishin, however, 
  move with purpose. 
  Every prefecture, every town in South Korea possesses some variation of this story: sightings of 
  a girl in a white dress, her black hair trailing like a veil, accompanied by accounts of how she 
  caused death and madness. In life, that unfortunate girl is always said to have been lovely and 
  kind, the paragon of girlish virtue, adored by those who knew her. Yet, somehow, no one ever 
  takes notice when she goes missing for days, and no one ever presses charges against her 
  murderer.  
  Hunters investigating Cheonyeo Gwishin will inevitably find more than the town is willing to 
  confess, because the oldest legends always come back to blood. That said, the Cheonyeo 
  Gwishin are a type of apparition called Women in White and are only found in South Korea. 
  Women in White that appear elsewhere possess unique histories and sets of abilities tied to their 
  personal background and the location they haunt.  
  Appearance: Cheonyeo Gwishin are pale, alluring Korean women. Their black hair is worn long 
  and loose, and often ripples behind them — even if there is no wind. Typically, the Cheonyeo 
  Gwishin are spotted in a traditional sobok — a white funerary gown that stretches from the 
  corpse’s neck to their ankles. The sobok has billowing sleeves that reach from shoulder to wrist 
  and may be tied with a long bow at the neck. 
  Storytelling Hints: At first, the Cheonyeo Gwishin may seem harmless. They are an apparition 
  that has perhaps terrified a family from their home, or an interloper in a small neighborhood. As 
  the cell continues to dig deeper into the local history, the Cheonyeo Gwishin moves with 
  
  purpose. One way to point out morally gray areas is to present a Woman in White as a tragic 
  ghost who deserves vengeance for what has happened to her. Depending upon her backstory, a 
  cell might struggle with their next move. 
  At increased threat levels, the Cheonyeo Gwishin lose any pretense of innocence. Suicide cults 
  rise in chat channels. A video circulates on the internet. Anyone who watches the clip drops 
  dead, frothing black at the mouth. Of course, that makes everyone want to send the cursed video 
  to their enemies.  
  Power: 4 
  Finesse: 5 
  Resistance: 5 
  Manifestation Effects: Materialize, Possess 
  Numina: Aggressive Meme, Dement, Hallucination, Speed 
  Ban: If the Cheonyeo Gwishin harms an unwed woman, she suffers 1 lethal damage for doing 
  so. 
  Bane: Salt 
  Rank: 2 
  Influence: Family Home 2 
  Willpower: 10 
  Essence: 15 
  Corpus: 10 
  Initiative: 10 
  Defense: 4 
  Speed: 14 
  Size: 5 
  Fatal Fare Passenger 
  A panicked passenger enters your cab. You can’t quite make out what she looks like; her hood is 
  pulled tight against the rain and obscures her thin face. “Where you headed?” you ask. “Make a 
  left here at the light,” she responds. “No, wait! Make a right on this side street!” You barely 
  manage to make the turn and miss rear ending a semi. Your passenger shivers, then tells you to 
  head for a quiet neighborhood — it’s just off the highway. Anxious to be rid of your eerie 
  passenger and get paid, you follow her instructions as best you can. Deep down, you fear you’re 
  one bad turn away from flipping your cab over. 
  Location(s): Worldwide 
  The Fatal Fare Passenger or Haunted Hitchhiker is a global phenomenon. In the reported cases of 
  “fatal fare,” almost every story begins the same way: A stranded citizen, desperate to go home, 
  hails a cab. Some accounts report the ghost can also be a hitchhiker or a passenger waiting for a 
  pick-up from a ride-share service. Upon entering the vehicle, the Fatal Fare Passenger gives the 
  
  driver directions “home.” As the ride continues, the ghost frequently changes their instructions to 
  force the driver to crash their vehicle and die. Though a Fatal Fare Passenger may seem like a 
  class of ghosts or the work of a serial killer, each individual passenger acts on its own. An 
  untrained eye may not realize a Fatal Fare Passenger isn’t human until it’s too late.  
  Appearance: A Fatal Fare Passenger is a ghost who Anchors almost solely to the location of 
  their death. Unlike other ghosts or undead, this monster is a near-perfect fit to the village, town, 
  or city they wander in. The Fatal Fare Passenger even goes so far as to adopt the mannerisms and 
  dress of the local population to blend in as best they can. The only way to tell if a Fatal Fare 
  Passenger exists is to closely inspect their translucent skin and hair. For this reason, these 
  monsters often target victims at night or during inclement weather to better conceal their true 
  identities. Hunters should be wary of anyone begging for a ride who does not show their face, 
  even after entering their vehicle.  
  Storyteller Hints: A Fatal Fare Passenger is a good choice to open a session or chronicle, 
  because this monster type doesn’t possess a lengthy history or elaborate agenda. Storytellers are 
  encouraged to make this attack personal; a Fatal Fare Passenger might target a hunter’s 
  Touchstone, ally, or mentor. To ratchet up the tension, shroud the Fatal Fare Passenger in 
  mystery. Drop in newspaper clippings, forum chatter, and cryptic texts to breathe personality into 
  the hitchhiker.  
  Eventually, a Fatal Fare Passenger will target a cell when all the hunters are together; one of the 
  best ways to ensure the cell is together, is to encourage safety in numbers. Then, when the Fatal 
  Fare Passenger attempts to hitchhike or share a ride with them, the hunters will fight for their 
  lives in a swerving vehicle. This monster can also be employed as a red herring to distract or 
  slow the hunters down while on another hunt. To step away from its ghostly origins, the Fatal 
  Fare Passenger can also be undead or a warlock in disguise, intent on targeting the hunters. 
  Power: 6 
  Finesse: 4 
  Resistance: 4 
  Manifestation Effects: Image, Materialize 
  Numina: Emotional Aura, Left-Handed Spanner, Mortal Mask, Speed, Telekinesis 
  Ban: The Fatal Fare Passenger must try to hitch a ride and kill a driver once a month or lose all 
  its Willpower. 
  Bane: Turmeric 
  Rank: 2 
  Influence: Cars 2 
  Willpower: 8 
  Essence: 15 
  Corpus: 9 
  Initiative: 8 
  Defense: 4 
  
  Speed: 15 
  Size: 5 
  Rawhead the Bogeyman 
  Rawhead and Bloody Bones/Steals naughty children from their homes/Takes them to his dirty 
  den/And they are never seen again.  
  Location(s): Great Britain, United States. Rawhead is a type of bogeyman present in several 
  myths. Depending on its guise, it can be found worldwide. 
  Rawhead is a type of bogeyman that targets ill-behaved children and terrorizes families. The 
  bogeyman can possess masculine, feminine, or animalistic traits. Other known guises include: 
  Mummelmann, Popelmann, Homem do Saco, El Roba-chicos, Złota Baba H’awouahoua, 
  Gurumapa, Cuca, and the Jersey Devil.  
  Almost everyone grew up with a story that the bogeyman would snatch a naughty kid out of bed 
  if they misbehaved. Rawhead and Bloody Bones is one such monster. In Great Britain, Rawhead 
  is the reason you don’t peek between your ankles at the slats under the stairs. Parents caution 
  their children away from ponds; children tell each other to watch out for old, dark cupboards. 
  That is where Rawhead lives, scalped and streaked in blood. 
  In America, the story is told a little differently. Rawhead was the favorite pet of a woman named 
  Old Betty, and when a hunter made the mistake of killing the boar, she moved its soul into 
  another body to let it get revenge. He came back from the dead, swaying on two legs, because 
  the hunter had eaten up everything that he was and Old Betty could only find a poor farm boy’s 
  corpse. But the head was right. He still had his porcine skull. 
  Now the monster he wasn’t before, Rawhead staggered off to look for the man who killed him. 
  He found him, of course. The boar ate its murderer, but he didn’t drop back dead. Instead, he 
  went on to the woods to look for more meat — young meat, preferably fresh from the warm bone 
  of a child. 
  Of course, this means Rawhead doesn’t seem to have respect for international borders. Hunters 
  have found the beast haunting staircases and armoires in Bristol, Kentucky, Wyoming, Scotland 
  — wherever his story is told. They always find him on a pile of bloody bones, ravenous, even as 
  he smiles at them from hollow sockets, blood running tracks down his eyes. 
  Appearance: Rawhead’s appearance can differ depending on region. In Europe, he is hunched 
  under a drape of leather, with bloodied bones and overlong limbs, always smiling from within 
  the gloom. Americans say that Rawhead is a massive creature and frighteningly powerful, a 
  hideous amalgamation of pig and man. His head is always the same: a boar’s skull, its eye 
  sockets burning with red light. 
  Storyteller Hints: If Rawhead is dropped into a chronicle to add tension and make people 
  uneasy, he’s usually a household nuisance straight out of a fairy tale. When he’s hungry, he 
  preys on the innocent and easy pickings. As soon as he’s thwarted, however, he’ll move on to 
  another town or city and try to find fresh meat.  
  Storytellers who want to add a twist to the bogeyman may expand his pool of victims to include 
  the elderly or infirmed. In a house, Rawhead is scary but can be thwarted. In a hospital filled 
  with patients, this monster emerges as a deadly threat. Storytellers may also treat Rawhead as a 
  
  summoned spirit bound to a set of bloody bones. Hunters will then have to figure out who — or 
  what — had the power to call forth Rawhead and determine what, if any, plans they have for his 
  victims. 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 4, Resolve 3 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 4, Stamina 6 
  Social Attributes: Presence 4, Manipulation 2, Composure 3 
  Mental Skills: Investigation 4, Occult 2 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 7, Survival 3, Stealth 4, Weaponry 3 
  Social Skills: Intimidation 4, Streetwise 1 
  Merits: Choke Hold, Cover Tracks, Relentless 
  Potency: 5 
  Willpower: 11 
  Virtue: Naïveté 
  Vice: Gluttony 
  Aspirations: Eat naughty children and adults who misbehave. 
  Initiative: 7 
  Defense: 6 
  Size: 7 
  Speed: 17 
  Health: 13 
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type Damage 
  Range Dice Pool 
  Bone Fists 
  2L 
  Melee 13 
  Bite 
  2L 
  Grapple 
  13 
  Dread Powers: Dread Attack (Bite, Bone Fists), Home Turf 2 (Nest), Predator’s Sense 
  (Children), Regenerate 
  Deserts and Sandy Terrain 
  Monsters spotted in the deep desert are not hunted by the faint of heart. Though not as devoid of 
  life as stereotypes proclaim, sandy terrain is challenging for inexperienced hunters who don’t 
  have the right gear or training. Filled with myths, local hunters may venture into the deep desert 
  on a dare or to hone their survival skills. After all, a hunt in the desert requires a vastly different 
  set of skills than scouting out abandoned warehouses and condemned office buildings. 
  Some deserts can be found just outside a metropolis. These include Las Vegas, Nevada; Tucson, 
  Arizona; and Casablanca, Morocco. Many deserts, however, stretch for miles and miles like the 
  Mojave, Gobi, Thar, Sahara, and Atacama Deserts. Hunters called in to help must weigh the 
  
  benefits and drawbacks of venturing out into the desert, knowing how dangerous hunting under 
  the hot sun can be. For this reason, some cells tack on an extra hunt or two when they’re visiting 
  a desert-adjacent village or city, just in case. 
  For the Storyteller: Relics and Rumors 
  Remote environments, whether they’re in the Sahara or the middle of the Atlantic, 
  are perfect locations to drop into a chronicle when the hunters want to find mystical 
  or ancient relics owned by the supernatural. Occult bookstores and black markets 
  can only yield so many artifacts, and some hunters may want to do their own 
  legwork. Tier-one hunters may abandon the hunt to find a cursed object, called a 
  Bygone (p. XX), to give them an edge. Tier-two hunters may stumble across a 
  Bygone someone tried to get rid of — but couldn’t. Tier-three hunters may acquire 
  anything they find for the benefit of their organization. The Aegis Kai Doru, for 
  example, could launch a expedition to Namib, the world’s oldest desert, to retrieve 
  an unusual object rumored to be a mythical Wheel of Fire. 
  Storytellers who want to set a session or a chronicle in the desert can research other reasons for 
  the hunters to travel in sandy regions that range from assisting a local cell at their request to 
  tracking a different monster that’s in hiding. 
  Devalpa 
  You and your brother are hunters from Tehran. You heard rumors that visitors have gone 
  missing in Kavir National Park, so you pack your gear and plan for a long trip. You reach an 
  immense stretch of desert that, at first glance, seems harmless enough. As you start to cross the 
  expanse, however, you hear an old man cry for help! You rush to the man’s side, and he begs you 
  to help carry him. That’s when you notice something strange — the man is half-buried in the 
  sand. Your brother, who’s close behind, wonders why you stopped. You tell him something’s not 
  right, but he doesn’t listen. He rushes in to help the man, and as soon as he lifts the creature 
  from the sand, long tentacles wrap around your brother’s body. 
  Location(s): Iran (Deserts) 
  The devalpa is a type of shapeshifter that preys on people’s desire and need to help others. It 
  communicates with its victims telepathically, so they “hear” its voice in their native tongue. 
  Unlike other humanoid creatures, the devalpa is telling the truth: It does want its victims to help 
  it carry out tasks it normally cannot and enslaves those who pick it up off the ground by 
  wrapping its long, thin tentacles around their bodies. 
  Once attached, the devalpa takes control by telling its victims where to go and what to do. Its 
  motivations range from helping it escape the desert and scavenging for food to finding others of 
  its kind. Despite its seemingly benign needs, the devalpa does not care about the safety or health 
  of its victims and will often make demands that cannot be fulfilled. To date, no one knows much 
  about the devalpa other than the occasional eyewitness report, because most people first 
  encounter the creature after reading the tale of Sinbad the Sailor. People are quick to point out 
  disappearances — even in the deep desert — should be thoroughly investigated to rule out 
  criminal activity first, before claiming a devalpa is to blame. 
  
  Hunters are beginning to suspect the devalpa is a symbiotic creature that cannot survive for long 
  periods of time on its own. Because so little is known about its strengths and weaknesses, 
  however, hunters who encounter the devalpa are often unprepared to fight it. 
  Appearance: The devalpa is a reptilian shapeshifter that preys upon the kind-hearted. At first 
  glance, it appears to be an old, deeply wrinkled man with long, white hair and thin arms stuck in 
  the sand. Scrutinizing the creature further doesn’t yield any clues; it’s not until the creature is 
  removed from the sand that its  tentacles are revealed. 
  Storyteller Hints: This type of predator is an example of a monster that appeals to a victim’s 
  emotions. Though its natural habitat is the desert, the devalpa can move from place to place by 
  wrapping its tentacles around a victim’s body.  
  Depending upon what Dread Powers are used to flesh out this antagonist, the devalpa might feed 
  off a victim’s emotions, blood, or soul. This food is how the devalpa retains its strength; its grip 
  tightens as its victims become more fearful or anxious. The opposite could also be true: The 
  devalpa might deposit a hallucinogenic toxic when its tentacles contact a target’s skin, reducing 
  inhibitions, fears, etc.  
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 6, Wits 5, Resolve 5 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 1, Stamina 3 
  Social Attributes: Presence 1, Manipulation 5, Composure 2 
  Mental Skills: Investigation 3 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 2 
  Social Skills: Persuasion 5, Subterfuge 3 
  Potency: 4 
  Willpower: 11 
  Virtue: Altruistic 
  Vice: Petulant 
  Aspiration(s): Attach myself to a mortal and ensure they carry out my every command. Multiply 
  and make more devalpa. 
  Initiative: 3 
  Defense: 3 
  Size: 2 
  Speed: 5/15 (tentacle) 
  Health: 5 
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type Damage 
  Range Dice Pool 
  Special 
  Grasping Tentacles 
  2L 
  Melee 5 
  Inflicts the Drugged (Hallucinogenic) Tilt 
  
  Dread Powers: Discorporate (Tentacles), Dread Attack 2(Tentacles), Multiply (Eggs), Numen 
  (Hallucination, Mortal Mask) 
  Special: When the devalpa lays its eggs in a victim, they don’t necessarily know they’re in their 
  system. 
  Mongolian Death Worm 
  You are a Chinese biologist who studies the flora and fauna of the Gobi Desert. Your 
  predecessor was recently fired, and you never bothered to ask why. While preparing for your 
  next expedition, however, your peer tracks you down and begs you not to return to that area. You 
  don’t want to listen to their warning but when you turn away, they hand you a file packed with 
  reports and photos. You part ways and examine the file as soon as you get home. One photo in 
  particular catches your eye. It shows a massive, segmented worm spitting vivid green liquid from 
  a ringed maw into the air against the backdrop of the afternoon sun. Included is a sticky note 
  that reads: No photo manipulation.  
  Location(s): Gobi Desert 
  The Mongolian Death Worm has been sighted in the most desolate areas of the Gobi Desert. A 
  predatory beast, the worm can grow several feet long and threatens the safety of travelers, 
  residents, and livestock that wander near it. Reports attribute many supernatural abilities to this 
  monstrous worm. It can spit acidic venom, attack with electrical discharge, lay eggs in the bodies 
  of its prey, and is lethal to touch. As far as the average hunter is concerned, all stories could be 
  true but are hard to verify. While rumors swirl that Mongolian Death Worms can survive in 
  captivity, they have never been spotted out of their natural habitat. 
  Many hunters believe the worm is a natural anomaly, while others argue that the creature is the 
  product of a Cold War experiment. The latter is demonstrably false, as Mongolian Prime 
  Minister Damdinbazar cited its existence back in 1922. Still others speculate that the worms are 
  not from Earth; they are creatures who slipped into our dimension from their nightmarish home. 
  Provided the Mongolian Death Worm remains in the remote regions of the Gobi Desert, most 
  hunters avoid the area at all costs. Unfortunately, Mongolian and Chinese hunters have recently 
  discovered evidence that hatchlings are venturing further and further into well-populated areas.  
  Appearance: Mongolian Death Worms are massive, segmented worms with thick, spiked 
  exoskeletons. Its toothy maw is wide enough to bite an adult in half, and its eyes are sheltered 
  behind curving, chitin plates. Some death worms have metallic nodes in place of spikes on their 
  shells which they use to conduct electricity. Sand-colored Mongolian Death Worms are non-
  venomous while those capable of generating venom display bright colors: violent yellows, deep 
  indigos, and angry reds.  
  Storyteller Hints: The Mongolian Death Worm is the kind of monster players can hunt down 
  for a good, old-fashioned fight. The creature is a giant, aggressive predator; it has no agenda, it’s 
  not secretly hiding in plain sight, and it doesn’t vanish at daybreak. The worm is a mindless 
  monster that slithers and eats.  
  For Storytellers who want to add more mystery to the hunt, place the Mongolian Death Worm in 
  a different desert or worse — a zoo. What was once a simple hunt takes a darker turn when the 
  hunters realize someone has managed to snatch the Mongolian Death Worm from its home to 
  
  test its ability to survive outside Asia. If successful, the worm’s presence in other habitats has 
  frightening implications.  
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 1, Wits 2, Resolve 5 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 7, Dexterity 1, Stamina 5 
  Social Attributes: Presence 1, Manipulation 1, Composure 3 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 4, Brawl 7, Survival 3, Stealth 2 
  Social Skills: Intimidation 5 
  Potency: 3 
  Willpower: 11 
  Aspiration: To hunt. 
  Initiative: 4 
  Defense: 5 
  Size: 60 
  Speed: 12 
  Health: 65 
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type Damage 
  Range Dice Pool 
  Maw 2L 
  Melee 14 
  Dread Powers: Dread Attack (Bite), Home Turf 3, Numen (Blast), Weathervane 1 (Wind) 
  Fields and Forests 
  Monsters that make their homes in fields and forests can be found near remote villages or in 
  Central Park. Often, those who need to live in these environments are fiercely protective of their 
  homes and attack if threatened regardless of intelligence. Some creatures, like the dryad, unicorn, 
  or satyr, are simply the stuff of fairy tales, while there may be truth to some creatures’ existence, 
  such as Jenny Greenteeth and the Finnish Ajatar. 
  Storytellers are encouraged to leverage fields and forests as common locations hunters can 
  investigate. These areas complement urban landscapes and enhance the hunt by adding a 
  different set of challenges they must overcome. City parks are perfect hunting grounds for 
  predators waiting to ambush the unprepared, and hunters trying to catch a monster before a 
  victim’s life is claimed must deal with concerned parents, pet owners, sports enthusiasts, and 
  local police. After all, vampires, werewolves, and shapeshifters may lurk in a spooky grove, but 
  they don’t need a specific environments to survive. Humanoid monsters who use parks, botanical 
  gardens, arboretums, and abandoned fields to live near, but not next door to, the people upon 
  whom they prey know their backyards well. 
  Despite all their efforts, sometimes hunters come up empty and can’t find the source of harm. A 
  jogger disappears without a trace. A couple takes a stroll with their dog and all three never return 
  home. After exhausting all other options, they might discover a humanoid monster isn’t to blame 
  
  after all. Eventually, hunters learn supernatural threats aren’t restricted to monsters such as the 
  Bulgarian Vrkolak, which shifts from a werewolf to a vampire after it dies.  
  Sometimes, the trees and plants are monsters, too. Storytellers should treat a lone weeping 
  willow that’s possessed by a mournful lover as an antagonist that’s part of a location; if, 
  however, the entire swamp or grove is haunted, then that wider area is a Mysterious Place (p. 
  XX). Some plants, regardless of size, can move of their own volition or be transplanted to freshly 
  tilled soil. 
  Hungry Grass 
  You’re an Irish tourist taking a stroll through a part of your country you’ve never seen before. 
  You’re enjoying your walk through the emerald-green fields when you approach the base of what 
  the locals call “Hungry Hill.” You’ve heard them warn you. You’ve been told to avoid it but you 
  don’t bother listening. You take your first step and laugh. You feel a little peckish, but you’re 
  okay! With each step you take, your hunger grows: Now, there’s a gnawing pit in your stomach, 
  you feel lightheaded, and your body starts to shiver. Suddenly, you begin hallucinating. Long, 
  thin tendrils of grass slither around your ankles. Damn! Your blood sugar must be dropping — 
  or is it? It isn’t until you stumble and fall, yanked hard by the Hungry Grass, that you realize you 
  shouldn’t have been rude to the locals. 
  Location(s): Ireland. It may grow elsewhere when transplanted. 
  While its precise origins are unclear, Hungry Grass (or Cursed Grass) originates in Ireland and 
  reports trace back its existence to the Great Hunger in 1840. Others believe that Cursed Grass is 
  extradimensional in origin — a product of the fairy world — and should be left alone lest its 
  disappearance attract darker forces. Still others believe Hungry Grass marks the location of a 
  sinner’s corpse. 
  Thankfully, Hungry Grass cannot move its entire mass on its own; it drains and weakens anyone 
  who’s unfortunate (or stubborn) enough to walk through the blades of grass. The length of time 
  spent crossing Hungry Grass does not matter; it distracts victims by igniting a terrible hunger. 
  Some reports state that the grass whispers hateful curses to solitary listeners, while others claim 
  the grass instead tries to lure bystanders to walk through it. Following capture, it “grows” around 
  the victim so it can devour their flesh. Any clothing or inorganic items are then swallowed up by 
  the grass, leaving no evidence behind. 
  Hungry Grass disorients victims who walk through it, forcing them to wander through its blades 
  long enough to inflict them with its starving curse. While native to Ireland, Hungry Grass can be 
  uprooted and planted anywhere grass grows. It takes root immediately and spreads until all 
  ordinary grass is gone, as far as the eye can see.  
  Appearance: At a cursory glance, Hungry Grass is indistinguishable from normal sod. With a 
  moment’s study, the viewer realizes the grass has a bluish tint and wide blades that reach 
  upwards like miniature, snaring vines. If an observer spends additional time watching the grass, 
  it moves subtly of its own accord and independently of any breeze.  
  Storyteller Hints: Hungry Grass is an interesting threat to throw at hunters who are neck-deep 
  in an investigation of a creepy location or other monster. Thematically, Cursed Grass is excellent 
  for chronicles set in Ireland, but its nature may be adjusted to fit any location. Storytellers 
  planning to introduce Hungry Grass as a threat should weigh its placement. Another monster, for 
  
  example, might transplant a patch of Hungry Grass in a hospital lawn or a public park. The 
  question is, “Why?” 
  Hungry Grass is a fun antagonist to drop into hints and rumors, because it’s an unexpected plant-
  based creature. Eventually, hunters might grimly suspect that Hungry Grass can spread after 
  being buried along with a corpse. Others could learn Hungry Grass is immune to fire, can survive 
  in low-light conditions, and is hardier than most types of sod. 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 2, Resolve 4 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 1, Stamina 5 
  Social Attributes: Presence 1, Manipulation 2, Composure 4 
  Mental Skills: Occult 4 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 4, Survival 3 
  Social Skills: Intimidation 3 
  Potency: 4 
  Willpower: 12 
  Aspiration(s): To suck the nutrients out of victims. To multiply. 
  Initiative: 5 
  Defense: 2 
  Size: 10 
  Speed: 0 
  Health: 15 
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type Damage 
  Range Dice Pool 
  Special 
  Strangling Grass 
  1L 
  Melee 6 
  Will only attack if victim doesn’t have food. 
  Dread Powers: Multiply, Numen (Drain), Regenerate, Reborn 
  Owl Man 
  You’re a British minister tending to your church in the village of Mawnan. You’re surprised to 
  find several large owl feathers. Could it be? You’ve heard the stories — two young girls spotted 
  a hybrid creature all those years ago — but you’ve never put much stock in them. ‘Course, you 
  can’t deny you find the idea fascinating. More than one villager has confessed seeing the Owl 
  Man, and they’re terribly embarrassed about it. When they first asked you if the Owl Man was a 
  devil in disguise, you told them you weren’t sure. You still aren’t. But, just in case, you grab a 
  vial of holy water and make sure you’re not out too late tonight.  
  Location(s): England 
  First sighted in 1976 in the village of Mawnan, Cornwall, the Owl Man is a shapeshifter who’s 
  half-man, half-owl. Two young girls spotted a giant birdman with great feathers and black claws 
  hovering in the sky just above the village’s church tower. Others reported the creature had 
  
  glowing, red eyes and hissed when it swooped near them in the woods nearby. Strange, glowing 
  red lights hanging in the night sky are often thought to be the Owl Man peering down from high 
  above. 
  The story of the first sighting was published in “Morgawr: The Monster of Falmouth Bay,” a 
  pamphlet distributed locally. Since that time, there have been several other sightings outside of 
  the village in Cornwall. Witnesses report the Owl Man has tall, pointed ears like a bat and is 
  covered in mottled, gray-brown feathers. It peers at them with an intelligent malevolence and 
  studies passersby. Some have even started referring to it by another name: Death Raptor. 
  Hunters are curious about the Owl Man because no reported deaths have been attributed to the 
  creature. Still, that doesn’t stop them from wondering — is there more than one Owl Man? Is he 
  related to the Mothman and other similar creatures? Is he tied to the appearance of the Black 
  Dog? Still others believe the church of Mawnan holds answers but understand investigating the 
  area without just cause may incite a panic. 
  Appearance: The Owl Man has a unique and specific appearance that is easily recognizable. It 
  stands between five and six feet tall, its ears are sharply pointed, its eyes glow red, and its sharp, 
  black talons threaten to rend flesh from bone. Covered in giant, spotted feathers, the Owl Man’s 
  coloring is gray and brown, and it possesses the ability to fly. The Owl Man doesn’t force an 
  encounter with groups of witnesses and will hover in the sky so it cannot be attacked. It is not 
  known how the Owl Man’s appearance changes if it interacts with only one person; hunters 
  suspect it may change color or return to human form. 
  Storyteller Hints: To drop the Owl Man into a chronicle, determine what it wants and where it 
  might get it. Its motivations are unclear, and its physical nature is also mysterious, leading to a 
  deeper investigation that could stretch across the Atlantic. The Owl Man could either be a 
  shapeshifter who dons a human guise during the day, or a summoned demon who’s lost their 
  warlock. Maybe the Owl Man is searching for a cure for their condition and believes they’re 
  suffering from a witch’s curse. Maybe the Owl Man is an accident of nature — a cryptid — and 
  wants nothing more than to be left alone. Or, maybe the reason the Owl Man remains in 
  proximity to the church is because something’s buried beneath it, something old and forgotten, 
  something that could help the shapeshifter return home. 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 4, Resolve 2 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 6, Stamina 3 
  Social Attributes: Presence 1, Manipulation 2, Composure 3 
  Mental Skills: Investigation 4, Occult 1 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 4, Brawl 2, Firearms 2, Survival 2 
  Social Skills: Intimidation 3, Subterfuge 2 
  Merits: Alert, Masked Scent 
  Potency: 3 
  Willpower: 8 
  Virtue: Stalwart 
  Vice: Pride 
  
  Aspiration(s): Glean secrets from those I watch. Use their weaknesses to ensure my safety. 
  Initiative: 9 
  Defense: 8 
  Size: 5 
  Speed: 14/20 (Fly) 
  Health: 8 
  Dread Powers: Animal Shift (Owl), Eye Spy, Numen (Emotional Aura, Mortal Mask, 
  Pathfinder), Home Turf 2 
  Hills and Mountains 
  Rocky, hilly terrain is often a deterrent for hunters, because of the technical challenges hunting 
  in a variable environment. From sudden shifts in weather to falling rocks, hills and mountains are 
  beautiful to hike but can be dangerous for unskilled hunters who don’t have the right gear or 
  allies. 
  Monsters native to a giant hill or mountainous region often hitch rides with an unsuspecting 
  hiker to infest or plague people in larger populations. Though several creatures, like the 
  Mountain Giant or Yeti, tend to remain in caves or on plateaus, other, smaller monsters blend 
  into the local flora and fauna so well they’re harder to spot. Most of the time, the supernatural 
  live out their days until they are disturbed. When they’re homes are threatened, either because 
  they’re being attacked by a different predator or resources are scarce, they’ll migrate toward 
  settlements to find food and shelter. Then, once their appetites are sated, that’s when the real 
  trouble begins.  
  Storytellers should keep in mind vast mountain ranges incorporate other types of varied terrain 
  ranging from freshwater lakes to dark, underground caves. Several cities are also bordered by 
  steep hills and mountains. In the United States, these cities include Boulder, Colorado; San 
  Francisco, California; and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Other locations include Cusco, Peru; 
  Shimla, India; and La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland. Unusual sightings, animal attacks, and 
  missing-person reports are rampant in these areas, and anyone who owns a cabin in the woods 
  suspects something unnatural may be lurking nearby — they’re just not sure what. 
  Brain-Eating Ants 
  You are a Brazilian travel writer who’s just returned from a week-long scenic hike near the Pico 
  da Neblina. Exhausted, you fall asleep for two days and promise to call the doctor when you 
  wake up. Though you’re still tired and have a killer headache, you have an article due yesterday. 
  So, you break out your laptop and start to write about your travels. Unfortunately, the words 
  won’t come, and you’re worried something is very, very wrong with you. You try typing a 
  sentence but can’t work with all those scritch-scratch-tsk’ing noises. Pissed, you pack up your 
  things and head to the nearest cafe. That’s when you realize why you can’t think. Those terrible 
  sounds? They’re coming from something that’s eating away at your brain.  
  Location(s): Worldwide. There are multiple species of Brain-Eating Ants that flourish in 
  mountainous regions. 
  
  Almost everyone has heard an urban legend about what happens when you neglect to take care of 
  yourself. Brain-Eating Ants, however, don’t crawl into your ears because you forgot to clean 
  them. These common insects devour flesh and brain matter because they’ve been altered to be 
  unnatural. Whether they’re the byproduct of a horrific experiment or an accident caused by a 
  supernatural taint or side effect, Brain-Eating Ants exist when they shouldn’t. 
  The popularity of these myths makes it easy to brush them off as hearsay, but the problem is 
  they’re real. Medical personnel say hornets can’t possibly burrow through a human skull to lay 
  their eggs, but it is entirely feasible for a cockroach to scurry up the nasal cavity. More than one 
  camper has gone to their doctor, begging to be rid of the beetles that had taken residence in their 
  ears. As for tapeworms? Those parasites can squirm and burrow their way into any organ. 
  Knowledgeable hunters will tell you that these medical personnel are both right and wrong. 
  Ordinary ants might not be able to tunnel through bone, but Brain-Eating Ants are anything but 
  normal and they are always cruel. More than one hunter has gone to a retirement home to find 
  elderly victims transformed into living nests, their muscles and bones hollowed out, the pores of 
  their skin seeded with eggs and newborn larvae.  
  Appearance: Most hunters have trouble preventing Brain-Eating Ants from claiming a victim, 
  because they look like the common ant. Usually, a cell stumbles onto a giant anthill at a remote 
  camp or an understaffed hospital. Each time a cell tracks these cryptids down, there is almost 
  always evidence a deliberate, malevolent force is at work: bright yellow slime, hollowed brains, 
  cold spots. What’s more, for every report that is publicized, hunters say there are 10 more that 
  unmentioned. 
  Storyteller Hints: Brain-Eating Ants are an everyday horror that can infest mundane locations 
  or natural locales and can be commanded or controlled by non-supernatural means. They prey on 
  humans and animals alike — which is part of the reason their colonies grow larger in remote 
  regions. This monster is perfect for mortal Storyteller characters who operate with malicious 
  intent. To introduce them, focus on the mundane. Maybe a group of neighbors keeps rushing to 
  the doctor for headaches. Maybe doctors are threatening to call the CDC. Then, up the ante by 
  devising an infestation of a specific location. A prestigious hospital has been shut down, but 
  there are still patients in the facility, all sitting quietly in their rooms, dying in degrees.  
  The moment the cell has a grip on the infestation, encourage the hunters to identify patterns of 
  intent. Maybe the infestations aren’t random. They’re moving. Somewhere. Maybe, the Brain-
  Eating Ants can be traced back to a specific location, and when the hunters investigate they 
  discover something much, much worse.  
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 1, Wits 1, Resolve 1 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3 
  Social Attributes: Presence 0, Manipulation 0, Composure 1 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 4, Brawl 5, Survival 2 
  Potency: 1 
  Willpower: 3 
  Aspiration(s): Find a warm, bloody, living organ. Lay eggs. 
  Initiative: 4 
  
  Defense: 5 
  Size: 1 
  Speed:  
  Health: 8 
  Dread Powers: Madness and Terror, Multiply (eggs), Taint (Viscous) 
  Nekomata 
  You are a Japanese veterinarian who enjoys keeping animals healthy. You grew up hearing 
  about the yōkai, but never quite believed the stories. Oh, you saw your fair share of strange and 
  unusual animals and have spent a lot of time reassuring your clients that the supernatural isn’t 
  real. You stuck to that theory — until someone brought a stray, older cat in from the cold. Its 
  mottled fur was thick, its claws were broken, and the poor creature was missing several teeth. 
  You examine the cat further and listen to its heart — but you can’t find a pulse. You try to draw 
  blood next, but before you can pierce the cat’s skin it turns to glare at you with an intelligent 
  malevolence. That’s when you notice other signs of decay — festering wounds, distended belly, 
  milk-white eyes — and realize the yōkai are very, very real. 
  Location(s): Japan 
  Prominent in Japanese folklore, yōkai is a word that describes the denizens of the supernatural 
  ranging from demons to spirits. The nekomata is a type of cat yōkai that possesses the power of 
  necromancy. Some believe the nekomata were once domesticated cats that were abused and 
  unloved, while others say they hail from the mountain regions of Japan, which includes Mounts 
  Fuji, Kita, and Haku. Once the cats reach old age, their bodies begin to mutate and during this 
  process they become nekomata.  
  The nekomata are shapeshifters who wield the power of necromancy, can transform from cat to 
  human, and feed on human flesh. Vengeance drives them, for they never forgive those who hurt 
  and neglected them in life. According to legend, the nekomata are capable of steering reanimated 
  corpses with the flick of a paw. Despite these powers, the nekomata aren’t as antagonistic as 
  other yōkai and are often confused with the bakeneko. Though they aren’t aggressive unless 
  provoked, the nekomata have been known to torment their victims.  
  The nekomata are not harmless, however; they’re evil cats that often begin tormenting a victim 
  with commonplace annoyances. A grouchy neighbor complains of strange, eerie yowls in the 
  middle of the night. Dead birds are dragged onto their doorstep. Then, the nekomata attacks — 
  biting their ankles and shredding their flesh. 
  Japanese hunters have heard reports of cat yōkai but have a hard time sorting fact from myth. 
  These hunters believe that the nekomata have migrated from the mountains to the cities, 
  compelled by necessity and lured by the chance for vengeance. 
  Appearance: Some nekomata grow a second tail while others dangle their molted skin from the 
  base of their spines. Though they can possess a variety of physical characteristics, the nekomata 
  share common traits. In cat form, they can appear as any breed, but are almost always old. In 
  human form, they can take the guise of any person they come across, but retain certain feline 
  features such as their fangs, eyes, and whiskers.  
  
  Storyteller Hints: The nekomata can be challenging for hunters to identify because they may be 
  mistaken for were-creatures, other yōkai, or rabid animals. When signs of necromancy start to 
  appear, a cell might assume a witch or warlock is to blame. The connective tissue between 
  strange claw marks and the dead rising to life is the human form of the nekomata. Introduce an 
  encounter with a cat-eyed shapeshifter who eerily resembles an eyewitness and give the hunters 
  an opportunity to hunt the nekomata before they claim a victim. 
  Storytellers who want to add a twist may hint that competing forces are hoping to trap, capture, 
  and study the nekomata to unravel their shapeshifting and necromantic powers. These forces may 
  range from cults, to black-market opportunists, or other hunters. 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 4, Resolve 2 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 4, Stamina 2 
  Social Attributes: Presence 2, Manipulation 4, Composure 2 
  Mental Skills: Occult 5 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 3 Stealth 4, Survival 2 
  Social Skills: Persuasion 4 
  Potency: 3 
  Willpower: 7 
  Virtue: Loyal 
  Vice: Demanding 
  Aspiration(s): Find a new owner who will take care of me. Take revenge on the owner who 
  didn’t. Make new (undead) feline friends. 
  Initiative: 6 
  Defense: 7 
  Size: 2/5 
  Speed: 8 (Cat)/11 (Human) 
  Health: 4 (Cat)/7 (Human) 
  Dread Powers: Animal Shift (Cat), Hex, Know Soul, Raise Dead, Skin Taker  
  Rivers, Lakes, Oceans 
  Deep, dark waters hold secrets waiting to be uncovered beyond the occasional lost shipwreck or 
  underground ruin. Mortals have long been fascinated by the aquatic creatures that swim oceanic 
  depths, but have also wondered if other, more predatory beasts breathe underwater. For 
  centuries, giant kraken and lake monsters, like Bessie, Champ, and the Lariosauro, have been 
  blamed for strange weather conditions and unfortunate accidents in open waters. Sometimes, 
  when a lover drowns or a boat crashes, the best and easiest explanation is to blame a monster 
  instead of human error. 
  Hunters know there may be some truth to fish tales about bunyips, snallygasters, and sea monks. 
  Finding evidence is tedious and time consuming, however, and superstitions are rampant. 
  
  Everyone has heard of selkies, nymphs, and mermaids, and yet most people are too embarrassed 
  to admit they might believe in them and that if they are real, they may not be benign. Worse: 
  stories of haunted ships and ghosts of drowned sailors are so common, eyewitness accounts favor 
  spirits as the cause for most strange sightings in open waters. Mysterious fog, bouncing lights, 
  and eerie screams are often attributed to local tragedies that never took place. 
  Smaller lakes and rivers can yield unexpected clues when hunters participate with the Coast 
  Guard to find survivors — a scaly carcass, a waterlogged trunk, a cache of gold coins. Monsters, 
  too, know that deep waters shield them from sight. Creatures who can breathe underwater, hold 
  their breath, or swim great distances can hide for months, perhaps years, without anyone noticing 
  they’ve holed up in an underwater cave. While the hunters are chasing after a vampire in their 
  car, the bloodsucker ditches them at the marina. Frustrated, members of the cell don’t understand 
  how a slasher is choosing victims; days later they find out the slasher pretends to fish near a 
  popular swimming hole.  
  Wise hunters know that they can’t rule anything out, but all-too often bodies of water are 
  overlooked during a hunt. Hunters need to consider all types of terrain on a hunt, and the ones 
  who do will find more than they bargained for. 
  Muldjewangk 
  You are an experienced Australian fisherman who avoids certain fishing spots near Lake 
  Alexandrina, because you know what lurks beneath the waters. You spot a group of tourists on a 
  boat sailing up the Murray River, and you feel a chill crawling up and down your spine. You beg 
  them to turn back. After an uncomfortable silence, they ask why, so you tell them how your best 
  friend died. You describe the giant, scaly hand that exploded from the water and snatched your 
  friend off your boat. Then, you tell them you sailed away as fast as you could before the creature 
  attacked you, too, and you will only return when you are skilled enough to hunt it. 
  The muldjewangk is a monstrous mercreature native to Australian waters that is part human, part 
  fish. Rooted in aboriginal legends, the muldjewangk is the name for an ancient creature that lives 
  underwater — only emerging to claim a victim.  
  Eyewitness accounts stretch back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Most people do not heed 
  the warnings that giants live under the water and pass them off as tall tales or rumors. Survivors 
  who share their encounters often tell similar stories, however. Sometimes, a tourist rents a boat 
  and accidentally provokes the ire of a great river monster. Other times, a fisherman spots 
  movement in the water and doesn’t realize they’re attacking the muldjewangk. In most cases, the 
  muldjewangk mauls the boaters and smashes their craft. In others, the monster is annoyed and 
  curses them instead. The afflicted then contract rare diseases, or break out in itching, painful 
  boils.  
  Muldjewangk are intelligent predators that prefer to be left alone. Fiercely territorial, they 
  tolerate boaters unless they linger or cross paths. These giant fish monsters protect their homes at 
  all costs and have been rumored to attack commercial freight liners and cruise ships. Historically, 
  the muldjewangk were thought to be creatures that only existed in aboriginal lore, until a viral 
  video proved otherwise. Rumor has it they attack by filling their mouths with water and spitting 
  it out at sailors nearby. 
  Appearance: Some reports describe the muldjewangk as an immense merperson, while others 
  give it more serpent-like qualities. Most images of the creature are blurry, as it is almost always 
  
  caught in motion, but they all reveal glistening, triangular scales in shades of murky- or bluish-
  green — whatever best helps it blend in with its watery environment.  
  Storyteller Hints: More cunning than most, the muldjewangk plans its ambushes and strikes 
  when its prey least expects it. After all, who expects a giant fish person to destroy their boat? 
  Muldjewangk aren’t discerning about who or what they consider prey, and any Australian 
  hunters sailing on the Murray River are warned to keep their wits about them. Storytellers are 
  also encouraged to introduce different types of aquatic creatures, such as the bunyip or fabled 
  taniwha, to increase the threat level. 
  Storytellers who want to introduce rumors and intrigue might introduce rival hunters or a group 
  of commercial business owners who are hoping to capture merfolk such as the muldjewangk. 
  With the right motivation, a clever person could even train one of these aquatic monsters to 
  attack specific crafts. While one trained Muldjewangk is terrifying enough, opportunists might 
  use them to seek out even bigger, more terrifying sea creatures like the kraken; the ancient 
  Filipino sea dragon bakunawa; or the giant, island-shaped turtle aspidochelone. 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 2, Resolve 3 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 3, Stamina 5 
  Social Attributes: Presence 4, Manipulation 2, Composure 2 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 5, Brawl 4, Stealth 4, Survival 5 
  Social Skills: Animal Ken 4, Intimidation 2 
  Potency: 4 
  Willpower: 9 
  Virtue: Courageous 
  Vice: Territorial 
  Aspirations: To capsize boats that come near me. 
  Initiative: 5 
  Defense: 7 
  Size: 15 
  Speed: 24 
  Health: 20 
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type Damage 
  Range Dice Pool 
  Special  
  Massive Webbed Fists 
  1B 
  Melee 10 
  Inflicts the Stunned Tilt 
  Dread Powers: Dread Attack (Fists), Home Turf 4, Numen (Blast, Pathfinder), Poison Mists 
  Special: To use Blast, the mercreature gathers water in its mouth then spits it back out at its 
  targets. 
  Sea Trow 
  
  You’ve never been whale watching before, but it was on your bucket list and it sounded fun. You 
  and your husband hop onboard a boat docked in Dalvik, Iceland and settle in to see the sights. 
  You’re told you can see humpback whales on the fjord, so you excitedly lean on the rail, hoping 
  you’ll spot one. You spend several minutes but the only thing you see is a small fishing boat. 
  Before you turn around, you spot movement along the shoreline. Is that…a rock? Whatever it is, 
  it’s swimming fast, and it’s headed right for that lone fisherman!  
  Location(s): Atlantic Ocean 
  The Sea Trow, or Trowis, is a type of aquatic vampiric creature that capsizes boats and feeds on 
  entire crews. Known as a Draugr Sea in Iceland, the superstitious claim the shapeshifting 
  revenant is a curse from the fae who “gifted” the victims with immortality. After drowning in the 
  sea, the victim’s corpse begins to mutate, and its unconsecrated spirit lingers on to plague the 
  living. The newly formed Sea Trow develops powers and succumbs to its darkest urges, targeting 
  sailors, feeding on their fresh blood.  
  Some sailors are convinced the Sea Trow is a myth cooked up to ensure drowning victims 
  receive a proper burial, while others wonder if the dark, shadowy shapes moving under the 
  surface of the water will lunge and attack them. Scandinavian hunters suspect that both theories 
  are correct, for the Sea Trow only shows itself to its next victim. Its chameleon-like abilities 
  allow the supernaturally strong creature to blend in with its surroundings — which makes 
  hunting it a challenge. Worse: The Sea Trow’s hide is so thick an ordinary blade cannot pierce it, 
  and bullets cannot puncture it. 
  Like other vampires, most hunters believe the Sea Trow was once human. It is a grotesque 
  mimicry of its former, human self and has its own personality, memories, and terrible hatred. A 
  rank monster, the Sea Trow does not lure or speak to its victims, but its intentions are clear: It 
  hates mortals, and will gorge on their blood even when it doesn’t need to. 
  Appearance: The Sea Trow is a giant humanoid creature; its charcoal-colored body is bloated, 
  filled with dead blood, and is covered with tangled hair and seaweed. Its shapeshifting ability is 
  unusual, even among vampires, and it can shift into boulders, rocks, and other debris usually 
  found along a shoreline. 
  Storyteller Hints: On the surface, the Sea Trow is a clear-cut antagonist: it’s a hard-to-kill 
  vampire that drinks blood, murders freely, and wrecks boats. It’s so vicious, it might even pose 
  as a lone survivor to target a rescue ship. To leverage this monster in a chronicle, think about the 
  identities of the Sea Trow’s victims. Does the creature target all the ships in a specific area or is 
  the Sea Trow more selective? An entire session can be built around investigating who’s at risk of 
  being attacked and killed. Then, from there, the hunters may scout around to discover who the 
  Sea Trow used to be.  
  Clues about the past can help a cell find justice for a wrongful death by drowning, or it can 
  present clues to prevent another attack. Though the Sea Trow represents a dangerous 
  supernatural threat, its connections to the living have a lot of storytelling potential and offer a 
  twist on other maritime monsters. 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 5, Resolve 5 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4 
  Social Attributes: Presence 5, Manipulation 5, Composure 4 
  
  Mental Skills: Investigation 3, Occult 4 
  Physical Skills: Athletics (Swim) 4, Brawl 3, Drive (Boats) 3, Stealth 4, Survival 3, Weaponry 2 
  Social Skills: Empathy 3, Expression 2, Intimidation 4, Persuasion 3, Subterfuge 4 
  Potency: 8 
  Willpower: 17 
  Virtue: Pride 
  Vice: Gluttony 
  Aspiration(s): To feed. To destroy all things I cannot eat. 
  Initiative: 8 
  Defense: 4 + Athletics Skill 
  Speed: 8 
  Health: 9 
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type Damage 
  Range Dice Pool 
  Special  
  Claws 1L 
  Melee 7 
  N/A 
  Bite 
  2L 
  Grapple 
  7 
  Inflicts the Drugged Tilt 
  Dread Powers: Black Gate, Dread Attack 2 (Bite), Multiply, Numen (Drain), Predator’s Sense 
  (Swimmers) Raise Dead, Shadow Harvest, Unnatural Step 1 (Water) 
  Special: The Sea Trow uses Multiply by first biting and weakening its victim. Then, the Trow 
  dribbles its toxic blood into their mouth, drowns them, and waits for them to be reborn as a Sea 
  Trow. The Sea Trow can use Black Gate underwater. 
  Ice, Snow, Tundra 
  Frozen wastelands and vast, empty spaces are filled with urban legends many people recognize. 
  The Himalayan yetis are creatures of the most common myth; it is so common, in fact, that 
  hunters often argue whether the giant, hairy, two-legged beasts exist. Omnipresent in fictional 
  and nonfictional accounts, some hunters point out many explorers romanticize the “abominable 
  snowman” and its North American cousin, Bigfoot. Cells might scoff at the idea and think only 
  amateurs believe they’re a lost species waiting to be found. After all, wealthy magnates have 
  spent millions exploring remote areas hoping to find proof of their existence — but have come 
  up empty-handed. Other hunters suspect the beasts have been misidentified and believe yetis are 
  either subterranean humanoids who live in underground caves or yet-to-be-named were-
  creatures. 
  Though yetis are infamous, they aren’t the only monsters who prefer wintry conditions. Some 
  hunters grudgingly admit that the more they hunt across snow and ice, the less they know. Polar 
  regions are demanding environments in which to travel, and outsiders often find themselves in 
  over their heads if they venture off on their own without help from local hunters. Due to 
  
  changing climates, however, monsters native to Antarctica and the Arctic Circle are on the move. 
  Some travel by boat. Some never make it that far south. Others, however, can and will.    
  Amarok 
  You are an Inuit professor and hunter who teaches at the University of Lapland. A group of 
  Finnish hunters claims a giant, yellow-eyed wolf is attacking the citizens of Rovaniemi; the last 
  cell that ventured out into the cold never came back. You mark the incidents on a map of the area 
  and assess possible locations of the creature. There can be only one place sturdy and safe 
  enough to house such an impossible wolf: an ancient, winding network of caves rumored to be 
  haunted. You grab your gear and extra medical supplies. You’re not sure if you can corner this 
  wolf, but you do know one thing: Your fellow hunters won’t face this terror alone. 
  Location(s): Primarily in the Arctic Circle; it may venture further south into Canada, Finland, 
  Norway, Greenland, Iceland, and Alaska in the United States during the winter months. 
  More than one Arctic hunter has spoken of the Amarok, a lupine creature that stalks victims in 
  the bitter cold. Most hunters agree the Amarok is a species of wolf but have yet to confirm if 
  there’s more than one creature or species.  
  Though the word has found its way into different languages, the word “amarok” originated in the 
  languages of the Inuit people and holds special significance to their cultures. Most hunters, 
  however, agree that while the Amarok they seek possesses the same name as the Inuit’s 
  legendary wolf, the monster they seek is a deadly threat and not the benevolent creature found in 
  those legends.  
  Hunting the Amarok is difficult for several reasons. The Amarok shows itself to victims who are 
  isolated; survivors’ accounts describing the wolf change from one to another. Further, many 
  academics and cryptozoologists want to believe there’s nothing otherworldly or supernatural 
  about the creature, so they lean too heavily on the 19th-century works of Danish geologist and 
  explorer Hinrich Johannes Rink. Because of this, some hunters abandon a scientific study of the 
  Amarok and claim the reason they’re hard to identify or capture is that they are not wolves — 
  they’re reclusive were-beasts that have shunned civilization.  
  Finding the Amarok is difficult, but not impossible. Given that most hunters have only 
  encountered the Amarok in isolation, and never in the company of their cells, it is difficult to say 
  who is right. 
  Appearance: Eyewitness accounts shift frequently. The Amarok is often described as a colossal 
  wolf, but unfortunately that’s where the similarities end. Some say the creature is big enough to 
  take down a grown reindeer, while others are convinced the Amarok is the size of a small 
  glacier. Its eyes are bright yellow, green, or blue, and its fur has been described as shades of 
  smoke and ash. A few witnesses claim the Amarok can speak in human tongues but have never 
  seen more than one giant wolf at a time.  
  Storyteller Hints: The Amarok only shows itself to an isolated individual and possesses an 
  above-average intelligence. Storytellers are encouraged to use this to their advantage. To 
  increase the threat level, change the Amarok’s behavior and location. Instead of isolating and 
  attacking victims in the wilderness, place it near a small town or village. Mimic what a slasher 
  might do and let the bodies pile up. Then, when the hunters believe they know what they’re 
  dealing with, introduce a broken claw or torn fur to get them back on track. 
  
  Longer chronicles featuring the Amarok have room to address contemporary themes. Think 
  about how climate change affects this wolf in its natural habitat. With temperatures shifting in 
  the Arctic Circle, ecosystems must now adapt or die. The Amarok, a hardy breed of wolf, will 
  not perish with the ice. Like many cryptids, it does whatever it takes to survive — even if that 
  means adapting to city life. 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 2, Resolve 2 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4 
  Social Attributes: Presence 2, Manipulation 1, Composure 3 
  Mental Skills: Investigation 1 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Stealth 4, Survival 3 
  Social Skills: Animal Ken 3, Intimidation 2, 
  Potency: 3 
  Willpower: 8 
  Virtue: Protective 
  Vice: Wrath 
  Aspiration(s): Find new hunting grounds. Keep my hunting grounds safe. 
  Initiative: 7 
  Defense: 5 
  Size: 6 
  Speed: 17 
  Health: 10 
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type Damage 
  Range Dice Pool 
  Special  
  Claws 2L 
  Melee 5 
  N/A 
  Bite 
  2L 
  Grapple 
  4 
  Inflicts the Poisoned Tilt 
  Dread Powers: Animal Shift (Wolf), Dread Attack 1 (Claws), Dread Attack 2 (Fangs), Multiply, 
  Regenerate 
  Special: If introducing the Amarok as a large cryptid instead of a werewolf, the Amarok has Size 
  4 and does not inflict the Poisoned Tilt when it bites. The Amarok can spread its taint through its 
  saliva. After the Amarok bites a victim, they inflict the Sick (Virus) Tilt. If the virus isn’t purged 
  from the victim’s body in days equal to the Amarok’s Potency x 2, they begin exhibiting signs 
  their body is changing. 
  Snow Wasset 
  You are a Canadian deer hunter. Though you’re no stranger to the beauty of Canadian forests, 
  you didn’t come out today to hunt a buck. One of your sister’s friends went missing overnight, 
  and you’re worried they were accidentally shot, trapped in their tree stand, or worse — mauled 
  
  by a bear. You manage to find their stand and a shredded, camouflage coat covered with stains. 
  You try to find tracks in the snow, but you discover something else: a gnawed, human hand. You 
  pray you have enough time to return to camp for more ammo before this monster hunts you.  
  Locations(s): American Upper Midwest around the Great Lakes region in the wintertime. It 
  migrates north to Canada in the summer.  
  The Snow Wasset is a creature that migrates north during the summer months but remains in 
  colder areas during the winter. During the summer, the Snow Wasset is easy to avoid; its green 
  fur allows it to blend in with lush foliage, and it moves slowly on short, stunted legs. A fierce 
  predator, it preys on animals during the summer months and typically avoids human encounters 
  — unless it can’t find food. Thankfully, the Snow Wasset spends half the summer hibernating in 
  marshes that camouflage its presence. 
  The Snow Wasset’s attacks more frequently during the winter than in the summer. Often, it is 
  mistaken for a large beaver or weasel during the warmer months, and some hunters don’t 
  recognize the monster until its body changes. As the nights grow cold and dark, the cryptid 
  migrates further and further north. Eventually, its front and hind legs break off and its fur turns 
  white, allowing it to blend in with the snow-covered bushes, trees, and grass. With each passing 
  winter day it grows hungrier and hungrier. Scurrying rabbits, deer, badgers, and other woodland 
  creatures do not satisfy the Snow Wasset’s appetite, and eventually the monster starts to prey on 
  people. 
  Unlike other creatures, the Snow Wasset is solely interested in one thing: satisfying its voracious 
  appetite. The monster is incredibly quick and can burrow its way through several feet of snow in 
  mere seconds. Its size, when combined with its speed, forces it to consume several times its 
  weight in fresh meat just to survive. Unfortunately, changing climates is forcing the Snow 
  Wasset to relocate to new areas — and fresh victims. 
  Appearance: The Snow Wasset is approximately 150 feet long and has a medium-sized snout 
  and beady black eyes. During the summertime, its fur-covered body is green, and it grows four, 
  stunted legs. Its limbs die and fall off by the first significant snowfall, and its fur turns white. 
  Storyteller Hints: The Snow Wasset is an example of a creature that may be misidentified as 
  two separate monsters due to its migratory habits. If introduced in a chronicle, the monster may 
  make an appearance twice: once in the summer, in its less fearsome state, and again in the 
  wintertime. 
  Some cells may think the monster is fabricated by deer hunters who want to tell a wild story. As 
  a standalone monster, the Snow Wasset may represent a challenge for hunters and taking it down 
  can be a good way to encourage teamwork. Storytellers may also want to relay a sighting in an 
  unusual location to reflect its changing migratory patterns. Perhaps the Snow Wasset was sighted 
  in Montana or Colorado during ski season instead of Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Michigan. 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 4, Resolve 2 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3 
  Social Attributes: Presence 2, Manipulation 1, Composure 1 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 5, Stealth 2, Survival 3 
  Potency: 2 
  
  Willpower: 5 
  Virtue: Opportunistic 
  Vice: Gluttony 
  Aspiration(s): Feed until I’m full, then feed again.  
  Initiative: 5 
  Defense: 6 
  Size: 30 
  Speed: 15 
  Health: 33 
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type Damage 
  Range Dice Pool 
  Special 
  Claws 2L 
  Melee 8 
  N/A 
  Body Slam 
  0L 
  Melee 8 
  Incurs the Stunned Tilt 
  Dread Powers: Dread Attack (Claws, Slam), Unnatural Step (Snow) 
  Caves, Sewers, Subways 
  Hunters are aware that some monsters require deep, dark places to survive and others, like 
  slashers, live underground to hide. They build nests where it’s safe, but they do not stay dormant 
  beneath the streets of Tokyo, London, Paris, or Chicago. When they emerge, they lure their prey 
  underground to torture and feed on them in forgotten necropolises, crumbling tunnels, and 
  condemned mines. Creatures that live beneath the surface are terrifying on a good day, and when 
  they attack, they cause panic and mayhem.  
  Most people don’t want to think about what can and does live right beneath their sleepy suburbs 
  and sprawling communities. When an animal is to blame for collapsing pillars beneath a city 
  street, citizens breathe a little easier. But, when a pair of glowing red eyes glares at them through 
  a sewer grate? They walk just a little faster, hoping to get home where they think it’s safe. 
  Underground, hunters may investigate a network of tunnels or a secret road that snakes beneath 
  the city. They might head to a long-forgotten necropolis tourists don’t know about, or an ancient 
  cave that’s barely been explored. What lurks beneath the soil can emerge in the cellar of a city 
  mayor or a condemned sanitarium. Vast underground cities of the dead, like the French 
  Necropolis of Bougon, date back to Neolithic times and are rife with legends of the intelligent 
  undead snatching tourists from the surface. When logical explanations don’t suffice, however, 
  people claim monsters are to blame for accidents caused by human error. 
  Whether the things that go bump in the night are spirits of forgotten victims buried beneath a 
  building or not, hunters forced to search in dank basements and old root cellars have their hands 
  full. Cells are often one or two flashlights away from total darkness and nothing but the dripping 
  of a leaky pipe. In these conditions, hunters have no choice but to rely on each other to unlock 
  the deadly mysteries that slither and crawl right beneath them. 
  Subterranean Humanoids 
  
  You are a sanitation worker from Chicago. It’s your day off, but that didn’t stop your boss from 
  calling you in to check out a busted pipe. You immediately see the problem: Part of the pipe’s 
  been crushed. You turn to grab a wrench when your phone rings. The office tells you to come 
  back up on the double. When you ask why, they tell you police are on their way. Then, they play 
  you a message from the last worker they sent down: “Hey! You, you can’t be in here. Hey! Oh, 
  fuck. Oh, my God. Don’t kill me!” Pissed, you stomp over to the nearest ladder and hope the 
  traffic isn’t too terrible. You get halfway up when something grabs your ankle. 
  Location(s): Worldwide 
  Reports of subterranean humanoid species are rampant. Some are two-legged creatures who 
  possess animal characteristics: fur, scales, or claws. Others, however, are humanoid predators 
  that lurk beneath the surface and use urban legends as a means of scaring off inquisitive 
  teenagers, local officials, and hunters, too. Sightings that occur are almost always traced back to 
  a specific location, however, which makes finding the truth challenging. Reptilian humanoids 
  who shun sunlight are often “spotted” in mining colonies, sewers, subways, and old tunnels used 
  during wartime maneuvers — but not always.  
  Many hunters suspect that there may be more than one species of subterranean humanoid living 
  beneath the surface of most villages, towns, and cities. These hostile monsters likely view 
  surface dwellers as predators intruding on their territory, coming into their homes to attack their 
  children. Some hunters believe these creatures won’t attack unless they’re provoked; others, 
  however, are more vocal about the need to map, track, and clear out any underground nests and 
  lairs they find.  
  Hunting underground is a technical challenge, because most underground creatures navigate 
  perfectly in their domain. They know which boulder will cause a cave-in to kill miners or 
  wayward spelunkers. They know where to snatch victims from the surface and take them back to 
  their nests for feeding. They know which root cellars make perfect hiding places and which 
  entrances to the surface are they should avoid, too.  
  Appearance: Descriptions of subterranean humanoids vary widely, but are almost always alien 
  in nature. The reptilian species are lithe, scaly humanoids with clawed hands and lashing tails. 
  The human-seeming creatures are paler and hairier than surface-dwellers but can pass for a 
  modern human with the right clothes. Some have learned to dress like miners, but don’t do so out 
  of modesty. As intelligent predators, subterranean humanoids think, plot, and plan for their 
  survival first, and sometimes that means learning how to blend in with their surroundings. 
  Storyteller Hints: Subterranean humanoids are a great tool and a starting point for many 
  chronicles. Rumors of their existence beneath the surface can facilitate several different styles of 
  gameplay ranging from investigative to action-oriented. Hunters may head to City Hall to speak 
  to officials, scour old maps and architectural plans, or get permits for construction. Others may 
  hit up a supply store and head down into the sewers with guns blazing.  
  This type of creature, however, can highlight what hunters don’t know. The terrain and this type 
  of monster introduces storytelling possibilities that can be tailored to a cell’s needs. 
  “Subterranean humanoid” might also simply refer to a feral murderer — a slasher — who seems 
  inhuman. It could refer to a vampire who uses the tunnels to travel about the city by day, a 
  crocodile that escaped from the zoo, or the undead that shambles through the subways to distract 
  the hunters from a necromancer’s true quarry.  
  
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 5, Resolve 3 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3 
  Social Attributes: Presence 1, Manipulation 1, Composure 2 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 2, Stealth 5, Survival 3, Weaponry 2 
  Social Skills: Intimidation 3, Streetwise 2 
  Potency: 3 
  Willpower: 8 
  Virtue: Tenacious 
  Vice: Envy 
  Aspiration(s): Deter outsiders. Reach the surface. Force other mortals to stay underground. 
  Initiative: 5 
  Defense: 6 
  Size: 5 
  Speed: 13 
  Health: 8 
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type Damage 
  Range Dice Pool 
  Claws 2L 
  Melee 7 
  Dread Powers: Blackout, Dread Attack (Claws), Home Turf 2, Weathervane 3 (Earth) 
  Teke-Teke 
  You are a policeman patrolling the Yokohama Subway. Someone called your unit, and your 
  sergeant wants you to make sure everyone is safe. You reach the general area you were told to 
  investigate and ask the passengers if they saw anything strange. Suddenly, you hear a scream! 
  You ask the passengers to move aside and hope there hasn’t been an accident. You spot a lump 
  on the tracks. It’s a girl, but it’s not. It’s half of a girl. You pull out your gun and your phone. 
  You feel your hand shaking, and almost forget to call for backup. Whatever that thing is, it can’t 
  be real. Can it? 
  Location(s): Japan 
  The teke-teke is a dangerous creature that stalks the subways in Japan. It is a monster created 
  after a person commits suicide by throwing themselves in front of a subway train. The victim’s 
  distressed spirit remains attached to the upper half of their body, and the possessed corpse 
  hungers for human flesh. A ravenous predator, the teke-teke has an insatiable appetite and preys 
  on the living. These undead creatures drag themselves towards their victims by their arms, and 
  frighten victims with their unusual appearance. Their name is tied to the unsettling sound they 
  make as they inch closer to their victims.  
  
  Though teke-teke are stealthy, their victims have a moment’s warning before they strike as the 
  scuttling sound of the approaching monster resonates through the subway tunnel. After leaping 
  onto their target, the teke-teke tear the body in half and feed on its legs and torso. Following this 
  terrifying sight, the victim slowly awakens as a teke-teke after they die. Japanese hunters know if 
  one teke-teke is found, it must be eliminated quickly. Otherwise, more are sure to follow.  
  Appearance: At first glance, a teke-teke looks like any other ordinary Japanese citizen. 
  Witnesses are often shocked to realize a teke-teke is only half a person; they drag their bodies 
  along the ground with clawed hands, and have matted hair, wild eyes, and blood-stained mouths. 
  Some teke-teke still wear the tattered clothes they wore when they died, while others are naked 
  and covered with blood, dirt, and grime. Where their severed torso ends, some of the teke-teke’s 
  bodies are cleanly cut, while others drag a wet train of entrails and shredded flesh.  
  Storyteller Hints: The teke-teke are both undead and spirits of vengeance. It is a type of 
  revenant perfect for a survival horror-themed chronicle, because the teke-teke can quickly 
  replicate. Though this antagonist’s motivations are clear — to feed on flesh and create other 
  teke-teke — an encounter can quickly spiral out of control. To balance the threat level, consider 
  where potential victims might be located before springing the teke-teke on an unsuspecting 
  group of hunters. Storytellers are encouraged to drop clues through eyewitness reports, too. After 
  all, the teke-teke’s abilities are simple but deadly.  
  To add a twist, introduce the teke-teke to a different subway. As the hunters investigate, hint how 
  the teke-teke hails from Japan, and this flesh-devouring monstrosity shouldn’t be crawling 
  through the Shanghai Metro, London Underground, Madrid Metro, or New York Subway. If 
  encountered elsewhere, the teke-teke’s presence creates chaos and havoc — a perfect distraction 
  for a rogue hunter who’s captured the teke-teke and has released it to make the hunters’ lives 
  miserable. The teke-teke might also have accidentally escaped after a well-meaning cell wanted 
  to study it abroad. 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 4, Resolve 3 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Stamina 3 
  Social Attributes: Presence 2, Manipulation 3, Composure 4 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 3 
  Social Skills: Intimidation 5 
  Potency: 5 
  Willpower: 12 
  Virtue: Adaptable 
  Vice: Greed 
  Aspirations: To make more like me. To feed. 
  Initiative: 9 
  Defense: 4 
  Size: 3 
  Speed: 12 
  
  Health: 6 
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type Damage 
  Range Dice Pool 
  Special  
  Claws 2L 
  Melee 7 
  Inflicts the Immobilized Tilt 
  Bite 
  1L 
  Grapple 
  7 
  Inflicts the Poisoned Tilt 
  Dread Powers: Dread Attack 2 (Claws), Dread Attack (Bite), Multiply, Madness and Terror, 
  Regenerate, Unnatural Step 2 (Walls, Ceilings) 
  Special: When introducing this monster, the Storyteller is encouraged to present more than one 
  in the initial scene. 
  
  BEGIN CHAPTER FICTION 
  The man on the sofa could have been anywhere between 28 and 39, but his sister-in-law said he 
  was 22. He sat with a knee pulled to his hunched frame, stomach concave, sucking at his teeth 
  like he was trying to get rid of some meat fiber. Blond hair fell across his face in oily clumps. He 
  rarely blinked. 
  “Sorry, Charlie don’t like strangers,” his sister-in-law explained. Cara Cook was tall for a 
  Peranakan woman, blocky, mostly hip and grimace. In contrast, her husband — Mr. Cook, no 
  known first name — was rotund and squat, with a sparse thatch of chestnut hair and worried 
  eyes. He did not smile, only wrung his gloved hands endlessly. 
  “Mhm.” Sasha grinned, all teeth, and sat the rest of us down at the dining table. The Indian 
  woman was a bona fide psychic, but we’d set it up so that Singapore would only look at her like 
  a fraud: hoop earrings, tasseled skirt, even the mandatory crystal ball. We needed people to tell 
  her stories, but we didn’t want anyone to believe she could do something about them.  
  “So, tell me. When did these disturbances start occurring?” Sasha had a fake Cajun accent for 
  customers who wouldn’t take the word no. She laced her fingers together and set her chin on 
  them. 
  The Cooks’ residence wasn’t unimpressive. The interior decor was dark wood and antique 
  furniture where it wasn’t Norwegian chic. Photos of the couple, airbrushed into near anonymity, 
  lined the beige-colored walls.  
  “L-last week?” Mr. Cook said. He looked to his wife for affirmation. 
  She nodded. 
  “Funny,” I said. “Thought you visited Sasha three weeks ago.” 
  Cara’s smile faltered. Her left hand — sleeved in yellow latex — lacked two fingers: the index 
  and the pinky. Beside her, William rolled his eyes and mouthed a warning. I shrugged. 
  “We go to see Sasha for different reasons.” she said. 
  “Fertility charms.” Sasha didn’t miss a beat. She stretched out her arms — mahogany-brown, 
  more muscular than they had right to be — with their palms turned up, a slight crooking in her 
  fingers to denote invitation. I laced my fingers with hers. 
  I hated this part. The ceremony constricted my range of motion. It’d been a problem before. But 
  ritual needed to be obeyed. “Let us call the spirit of this house to this table. Let it speak through 
  us, we simple mortals. Let its desire be known so we may help it find it peace.” 
  The house was too hot. The ceiling fan creaked as it wafted damp air through the room. Even in 
  the suburbs, Singapore smelled of heat and smog. For all their money, the Cooks didn’t seem to 
  believe in air conditioning. I could see Charlie staring at us from the threshold of the living 
  room. He’d hardly moved. 
  “Some spirits are shy, Mrs. Cook. But if we can visualize the entity together, it may become 
  easier to summon it. How would you describe the manifestation?” 
  “Very scary.” 
  Mr. Cook hesitated and then added: “It was very, very skinny.” 
  
  “Very tall also.” 
  “I’m beginning to see something, yes. Something old. Something sad.” Sasha paused. “What did 
  its mouth look like?” 
  “Like someone’d used a needle to prick a hole in its face.” said Mr. Cook. 
  “And what did it do?” 
  Both Cara and Mr. Cook froze, their mouths drooping into nervous grins.  
  “It—” began Cara. 
  “—watched us.” finished her husband. The man slotted his thumb between his teeth and began to 
  gnaw at the pad of meat. “It followed us from room to room.” 
  “Did it do anything else?” 
  “I don’t think — no, nothing.” said Cara. She bit her knuckles once. “Nothing else. Not that I 
  remember. But we want to have privacy again, so we call you, people.”  
  “Mmm.” Sasha exhaled. “The spirits bless your truths.”  
  That was code for “something is wrong.” I released Sasha’s hand and covertly hit the red button 
  on Fatimah’s app. Thank god for the public university wunderkind. 
  “Has the entity appeared to Charlie?”  
  “Charlie—” Cara worked the stub of a finger into her mouth and chewed. “He said that the thing 
  liked to watch him hurt himself.” 
  “Hurt himself how?” 
  I flexed my hand into a fist. Tried to loosen the seized-up tendons in my right arm. The other 
  continued to hang limp. Across the table, William did the same. I glanced down as my phone 
  began to thrum. In position, said the message.  
  “Can you call the spirit or what?” Blood ran down Cara’s forearm in dark, thin tributaries. 
  However, the woman took no notice. 
  “Can,” said her husband, sweating rivers. 
  We discovered early that certain incantations could be recorded for repeated use. Every line still 
  had to be recited in full for the spell to activate, but there was a difference between relying on a 
  human and trusting in the audio output of a warded machine.  
  I hit the button on the app just as William and Sasha kicked away from the table, weapons freed. 
  The program might be able to say the words, but all rites of Castigation required sacrifice. I 
  slammed my knife into my left palm and cut between metacarpals, splitting the web of skin 
  between my third and fourth finger. Blood gushed and splashed onto the runes we’d inked onto 
  the Cooks’ expensive floor. I shuddered as the unholy psalm drove its hooks into my soul and 
  pulled. Nothing gave. 
  William speared Cara through the shoulder. The woman did not scream. Charlie did. The air 
  rippled like oil and something torpedoed from his screaming mouth. 
  It was exactly as the Cooks had described: too many vertebrae, its maw a pinhole in its waxy 
  face. A proboscis unrolled from the opening. The thing — gluttony spirit, Fatimah had guessed 
  
  — had only one target: William. No one, especially not abominations like this, appreciated it 
  when you messed with the food supply. 
  Unfortunately for the thing, we were ready. We knew this house was haunted, and the Cooks 
  weren’t the first victims to call a hunter for help. 
  The entity slammed into a barrier before it could reach William and wailed its rage. 
  “Are you sure you’re up for the next part?” Sasha asked hesitantly, angling a look toward me.  
  “Yeah.” 
  Other people had the benefit of deciding what they wanted to do with life. Not me. Not as a 
  member of the Lucifuge. I dragged my tongue over my bleeding flesh, savoring the salt and the 
  copper pang. I breathed in and began to murmur the words to the second invocation. One day, 
  Lucifer will be redeemed. 
  END CHAPTER FICTION 
  Chapter Six: Mysterious Places 
  “It was a house without kindness, never meant to be lived in, not a fit place for 
  people or for love or for hope. Exorcism cannot alter the countenance of a house; 
  Hill House would stay as it was until it was destroyed.” 
  — Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House 
  The hunt takes a cell to strange and mysterious places that are more dangerous than they first 
  appear. A vampire might hang out in a pub to find a victim, lure them into the back alley by the 
  dumpsters, and then feed before disappearing into the night. The victim may never know who or 
  what they encountered. Hunters hot on a bloodsucker’s trail want to know one, important thing: 
  Where is the vampire going next? 
  In Hunter, the supernatural can be found in mundane and remote locations — and monsters are 
  on the move. Often, hunters have their hands full and don’t formulate elaborate criteria when 
  investigating a new, unknown place to determine how much the supernatural has tainted it and 
  what type of location it is. A house may be haunted, sure, but beyond that? Hunters don’t 
  typically categorize locations based on what they find there for a variety of reasons, because they 
  concentrate on dealing with the monster who lives there. Toss in a healthy dose of urban legends, 
  unreliable eyewitness accounts, and historical mysteries rooted to individual locations, and it’s 
  easy to see why hunters don’t shuffle places into neat categories. 
  Though hunters don’t share a common vocabulary to classify mysterious places, Hunter does to 
  accommodate attached rules. In game terms, mysterious places fall into one of three broad 
  categories of sites: nests, tainted places, and sentient places. 
  Classifications 
  Nests are the homes and lairs of monsters. A nest is defined and shaped by the monster using it. 
  Typically, a nest is a mundane, perhaps abandoned location with features that suit the monster’s 
  needs. It is possible the nest itself is supernatural, either twisted by the monster or it already was 
  prior to occupation. What makes it a nest, however, is that the creature rests, recuperates, feeds, 
  hides, etc. in this specific location. In other words, a nest is where the monster feels safe — 
  which means that, for hunters, it is very, very dangerous. 
  
  Tainted places are locations that are just…wrong. They are twisted, cursed, or corrupted in such 
  a way that a mortal’s mere presence in that place is a hazard. What makes a tainted place 
  dangerous are the strange effects it has on those who try to access or use it. A tainted place will 
  force people to see shadows that don’t exist or say and do things they wouldn’t normally dream 
  of. Tainted places may drive people mad, alter the flow of time, or even change their physical 
  nature independent of a monster’s touch. Like an unnatural form of radiation, something 
  permeates each tainted place to alter the environment through instinct. Entering one is always a 
  risk. 
  Perhaps strangest of all are sentient places. Unlike nests or tainted places, sentient places are 
  intelligent monsters that actively pursue agendas known only to themselves. A sentient place can 
  think and reason. It feels. It hates. It may even communicate, move, or alter its dimensions to 
  attack those within its reach. Hunters who encounter a sentient place often do not know what 
  they are dealing with until it is too late. 
  Mysterious places attract people for a variety of reasons. Because they are static, these locations 
  often have well-documented histories outlining who owned or occupied that space, who lived or 
  died in it, and what it was used for. Anchored in a physical place but steeped in urban legends, 
  these locations often attract hunters, police officers, detectives, and amateur investigators who 
  are hoping to find more than a monster’s lair. 
  Bygones and Strange Places 
  In the Chronicles of Darkness, some physical objects may radiate with a supernatural taint. This 
  type of object, called a Bygone, is a rare and unusual find. 
  In Hunter, a Bygone may be found in a mysterious place, and is further defined as an object of a 
  reasonable (and manageable) size that possesses strange abilities. An eerie crypt is not a Bygone, 
  for example, but an urn found inside might be. Bygones fall into one of three types: temporary, 
  semi-permanent, or true. 
  Temporary Bygones 
  A temporary Bygone is an object of manageable size that contains supernatural power but isn’t 
  irrevocably tainted by it. They are considered temporary Bygones because despite appearances 
  they are still dangerous and should be handled with care. Temporary Bygones may be spelled or 
  hexed to inflict a Condition when opened, tampered with, or broken.  
  Ghosts and spirits inhabiting objects act as their source of supernatural power. A ghost that 
  possesses a porcelain doll technically creates a temporary Bygone; when the doll is destroyed, 
  however, the ghost remains and must be dealt with. After the ghost is exorcised or moves on, the 
  doll reverts to its (hopefully) less-frightening state. Other temporary Bygones include lockets, 
  amulets, poison rings, urns, etc. 
  Some temporary Bygones may eventually shift into semi-permanent Bygones with the passage of 
  time depending on their power source. When one does so, anyone who comes near the item 
  begins to experience strange side effects, and it’s no longer safe to handle without training. 
  Temporary Bygones may be discovered in nests and tainted places. On rare occasions, a sentient 
  place may create a temporary Bygone, as another monster might, to lure the unsuspecting to 
  come near. 
  
  Semi-Permanent Bygones 
  A semi-permanent Bygone is an object that inflicts a variety of strange and unusual effects. 
  Mechanically, these effects are represented by Tilts and Conditions that are activated by touch or 
  by proximity to the object. Thematically, the object may whisper or sing to the owner, begging to 
  be used. The source of this Bygone’s power is variable and can be caused by witches, warlocks, 
  or demons creating cursed objects that inflict two opposing effects. A Hand of Glory, for 
  example, promises to grant the user who lights its grisly wick wondrous powers — but at what 
  cost? An auctioneer might gain the Connections Condition, for example, but suffer the Shaken 
  Condition at the same time, so they’re too afraid to socialize and use the hand’s “gift.” 
  Semi-permanent Bygones are found in undiscovered or locations lost to time. Sometimes, other 
  monsters live near a Bygone of this type because they are unwittingly drawn to its supernatural 
  power. Often, however, this type of Bygone may be responsible for a variety of unusual 
  behaviors told through the guise of an urban legend. In this way, a mysterious place may not be 
  that strange after all; a Bygone may be to blame. 
  True Bygones 
  Lastly, a true Bygone is a legendary object drenched in supernatural power. For Hunter’s 
  purposes, storied relics that bestow Endowments to tier-three hunters may be considered true 
  Bygones. This type of Bygone is usually one of a kind, shrouded in myth, and incredibly 
  powerful — even warded. Often, true Bygones are priceless, ancient relics or mechanisms that 
  have been lost to the ages. Those who know they exist may become obsessed with finding them 
  to unlock their secrets, not knowing their mysterious source of divine or infernal power. Some 
  true Bygones are terrifying relics that have been soaked with the blood of 1,000 martyrs, while 
  others are rumored to be blessed by the gods. No one knows for sure. 
  Unlike other types, true Bygones require years, if not decades, of study to piece together how 
  they work, how they can be safely stored, and how they’re best used to mitigate any unwanted 
  side effects. Their very existence is a lure, however, and true Bygones can be stolen and possibly 
  destroyed with concerted effort. Most hunters would be reticent to set fire to a true Bygone 
  because as far as mythic relics go, no one can be certain what would happen if such an attempt 
  were made. Examples of rumored-but-unconfirmed Bygones include: Hades’ Helm of Darkness, 
  the Monkey King’s staff, the Book of Thoth, and Dagda’s staff. 
  True Bygones are a once-in-a-lifetime find and require considerable time and resources to 
  discover. If semi-permanent Bygones are rare, true Bygones are even rarer. Often, these mythical 
  relics defy the laws of physics because they each go against the natural order in their own way. 
  As far as the Chronicles of Darkness are concerned, Bygones that bestow blessings are not of 
  this world. True Bygones are also more than a legend; to find one is to fulfill a collector’s 
  wildest dreams.  
  Of course, hunters who do manage to track a true Bygone down are in over their heads. Raw, 
  supernatural power is not to be trifled with, and most hunters know better than to fidget and 
  experiment with the unknown. 
  The Response 
  Mysterious places can be area-specific or draw cells, compacts, and conspiracies from a broader 
  region. Everyone knows the Varela family’s house is haunted, for example, and can tell you in 
  
  exquisite (if not strictly accurate) detail about the death of a young couple on a specific stretch of 
  road.  
  Tier One: Backyard Hunts 
  Local mysterious places do more than provide a novel or unusual encounter for any cell; they can 
  make up a part of the setting’s character or reflect the themes of a chronicle. For example, the 
  Theatre Royal provides local history while spinning lies. Many of these locations grow out of 
  local communities or are hidden in remote places with little connection to — or influence on — 
  the outside world. Strange places in villages, towns, and cities are not unknown to residents. 
  Someone knows about them. Someone must. Either they live nearby, brokered a deal to sell the 
  land, or always shiver when they walk by. 
  Tier-one hunters might not always track a monster back to its nest. A cell of hunters who stumble 
  into a tainted or sentient place may be capable of tackling it, but they can just as easily be 
  overpowered due to their small numbers. When that’s the case, the cell must find the allies and 
  resources required to make their move. Often, cells suffer from a lack of knowledge and 
  resources that forces them to do more research, interview more witnesses, and take extra 
  precautions.  
  Mysterious places can be challenging for cells depending upon their size, location, history, and 
  occupants. The older the place, the more time is required to know what the cell is dealing with. 
  They can also teach cells a lot about the paranormal, because they sit between the world of 
  mortals and the supernatural. Though they are not imbued with darker powers, nests can yield 
  proof that a witness wasn’t telling tall tales. They can also, however, act as lures to ensnare 
  victims and trap hunters who’ve put their faith in the wrong informant. Tainted places may force 
  tier-one hunters to confront their worst fear: The fight against the supernatural never ends. Then, 
  if they confront a sentient location, they might decide to collaborate with multiple cells and form 
  a compact — transitioning the characters from tier one to tier two. 
  Often, confronting or cleansing a mysterious place in a local area means tier-one hunters must 
  face the darkness that gave rise to them. Unfortunately, that taint isn’t always caused by the 
  supernatural, and hunters who peer into it may not like who or what they find.  
  Tier Two: Amassing Resources 
  For compacts, mysterious places may require all hands on deck to investigate, explore, study, 
  control, and neutralize them. Even when small or confined, some locations cast long shadows 
  and compacts may have dealt with that place before. Other times, the targeted area has an 
  important purpose that has nothing to do with the supernatural. Entire counties can depend on the 
  output of a copper mine for economic survival; when that mine is revealed to be a nest, hunters 
  who clear it out save more than people’s lives. Towns and villages built near ancient wellsprings 
  might depend on the fresh water a stream provides; the stream is protected by a sentient shrine. 
  Now the hunters have a choice: clear out the shrine and potentially affect the water or leave it 
  alone? Mysterious places such as these are likely to attract a compact’s attention for a variety of 
  reasons. The bigger the rumor, the more likely it is a compact will order its members to scope out 
  the mysterious place. After a while, more cells might show up — or even competing compacts. 
  Compacts won’t tell hunters they can’t investigate a mysterious place or acquire a Bygone. Their 
  attitudes will affect how easy it is for hunters to find resources or pull favors, however. Their 
  positions are rumored to be as follows: 
  
  • The Long Night: Religious leaders have their finger on the pulse of the faithful, and are often 
  called in to say a prayer, cleanse a cursed house, or even perform an exorcism. While their 
  methods don’t always work, the Long Night will reach out to other compacts as needed to deal 
  with a mysterious place on behalf of its congregations. 
  • Loyalists of Thule: The Loyalists struggle to figure out how important mysterious places are to 
  the hunt. While their primary focus is disabling (or disarming, as some members put it) Bygones 
  when they appear, they’re not sure if spending considerable time and resources dealing with a 
  mysterious place is worth the effort. That said, the Loyalists aren’t above helping when needed, 
  but they likely won’t investigate an area by themselves without seeing a benefit for their time. 
  • Network Zero: Compact members were some of the first to realize the increase in monster 
  activity had certain side effects on various locations. Rumor has it that additional factions within 
  the compact are forming to investigate haunted houses and monster lairs to prove the 
  supernatural is real. However, for every area that’s been filmed there are dozens of false reports 
  — often about the same locale.• Null Mysteriis: Members of Null Mysteriis are excited by the 
  prospect of expanding their research opportunities and knowledge of the supernatural. Several 
  hunters are thrilled that they can study where a monster feeds or sleeps, while others are eager to 
  test the properties of inorganic materials that are clearly imbued with the supernatural. Of all the 
  compacts, however, Null Mysteriis comes across as more authoritarian when dealing with 
  Bygones and mysterious places, because they want to control the field to produce great results. 
  • S.W.O.R.N.: Every major metropolitan area is filled with forgotten or derelict buildings, and 
  S.W.O.R.N. is aware of which places to avoid. They know their city well and will gladly share 
  intel — especially if other hunters are willing to investigate. Unless someone is in danger, 
  however, compact members tend to agree with The Union and leave dangerous areas alone.  
  • The Union: Members of The Union are hyper-vigilant, and their frequent patrols to keep the 
  neighborhood safe act as a deterrent to outsiders — including monsters who need to find cover 
  for the night. When their hunters find a mysterious place, it’s usually one that’s just out of reach 
  or several miles away. Thus, when a cell does investigate, it often stumbles because they don’t 
  have the experience other compacts do.While some compacts — like the Loyalists of Thule — 
  closely guard knowledge, others — like Network Zero — gladly share their findings. Banding 
  together to investigate or fight in a mysterious place could even lead to the formation of a new 
  compact. Larger and more powerful threats introduce the possibility of additional allies or 
  enemies as well as conflicting motives. Hunters may gladly enjoy the added resources their 
  compacts provide to cleanse a mysterious place or mount a fact-finding expedition. Of course, to 
  do so a cell must first figure out what they’re investigating and, when it comes to hunting, no two 
  compacts hunt precisely the same way. 
  Unless a compact has a history investigating Bygones, tier-two hunters are marginally aware that 
  they exist. The reasons for this are simple: Hunters capture, study, and eliminate monsters 
  because they represent an active threat and a higher priority. John Dee’s grimoire by itself isn’t 
  as compelling as a scary clown stalking and killing tourists at a county fair.  
  Compacts filled with hunters can go bankrupt, and their resources are not unlimited. Members 
  are aware of supernatural threats but weigh the benefits and risks of investigating each one. 
  Though most compacts have their own goals and motivations, they tend to agree that keeping a 
  community safe is more important than hunting down a rumored Bygone unless it’s actively 
  threatening or causing harm. 
  
  Tier Three: Global Effort 
  Conspiracies understand that civilizations are built upon common and scarce resources. Control 
  certain assets or information and entire nations can be manipulated with a well-timed phone call. 
  Mysterious places scattered across the world are a draw for many conspiracies, because they 
  have what hunters seek: a better understanding of the supernatural world. Though no hunt is ever 
  guaranteed to produce information or rare and unusual Bygones, like the Dropa stones, such sites 
  draw the attention of global conspiracies seeking an edge in their fight against the supernatural. 
  Because mysterious places and Bygones hold supernatural secrets, the conspiracies tend to react 
  to the “bigger fish” as opposed to the haunted shack down the street.  
  • Ascending Ones: The Ascending Ones are less interested in mysterious places than they are in 
  experimenting with Bygones. Unlike other conspiracies, hunters want to explore their uses by 
  either coating them with potions, using them to contain their magical elixirs, or crushing them 
  into fine powders that can be used as ingredients. Ascending Ones haven’t shared their intent 
  with other hunters outside the conspiracy, and there’s no telling what other hunters will do when 
  they learn how far this conspiracy is willing to go. 
  • Cheiron Group: The Cheiron Group is tight-lipped and hasn’t revealed its stance on 
  mysterious places or Bygones — not even to their own members. Naturally, this has spawned 
  several rumors and conspiracy theories. Some recruits are being forced to experiment with 
  acquired Bygones to test their effects. The leaders of the conspiracy are draining the Cheiron 
  Group’s war chest to purchase mysterious places under the name “Lambent Development 
  Corporation.” What members are figuring out is that the Cheiron Group seems to be tightening 
  its belt, even outright refusing equipment requests, while simultaneously increasing its 
  recruitment efforts. 
  • Council of Bones: The Council of Bones has an unusual stance on mysterious places and 
  Bygones, because it’s only concerned with relics and locations connected to the spirit world. 
  Some members believe they need to protect what they find, while others agree each instance 
  should be treated as its own case. In general, hunters aren’t opposed to investigating or sharing 
  information provided the Council’s interests to guard the living are protected. Secretly, some 
  hunters fear the Council could lose sight of the Vigil by focusing too much on places lost to time 
  and artifacts better left untouched. 
  • The Lucifuge: Members of the Lucifuge are concerned that demons and spirits of vengeance 
  are gathering in abandoned places and are using them as a base of operations. While hunters 
  aren’t panicking, they will investigate leads that reek of the supernatural. The Lucifuge are often 
  the first to show up at a scene marked by satanic symbols or evidence of a rite. Sometimes, this 
  results in a case of mistaken identity, which is partly why hunters have began working with local 
  authorities to ensure they’re viewed as allies rather than antagonists. 
  • Malleus Maleficarum: In its storied history, the Malleus Maleficarum has investigated sites 
  plagued by vampiric, demonic, and ghostly activity. For centuries, with the backing of the 
  Vatican, hunters — and some conspiracy theorists — believe they’ve acquired several Bygones 
  and a stockpile of cursed relics. While there may be some truth to the rumors, conspiracy 
  members have been told to check in before proceeding. Additionally, leaders are considering the 
  formation of a new order within their ranks to specialize in cleansing cursed objects and places. 
  
  The promise of undiscovered supernatural power when combined with the hunt brings an equal 
  measure of excitement and danger, and hunters wishing to neutralize dangerous sites have their 
  work cut out for them. Entire chronicles may be built around the acquisition, exploration, and 
  defense of such mysterious places; subsequent chronicles could be built on unlocking a Bygone’s 
  power or freeing a trapped creature. Some, like Haw Par Villa, may even act as a Black Gate (p. 
  XX) frozen in a moment of time, allowing the wielder to travel wherever they wish.  
  Though conspiracies tend to have more resources at their disposal, their members deal with more 
  politics and approvals than tier-one or -two hunters. Information — the right intel — is at a 
  premium, because the story of what happened shifts depending upon who’s telling it. Rival 
  factions within a conspiracy might sabotage each other to get their hands on the Pettakere cave’s 
  latest, untouched map; competing cells or conspiracies might easily do the same. The more 
  hunters involved in the search, the greater the chance a hunt may go terribly, horribly wrong — 
  especially when investigating a sentient place. 
  Unlike monsters, mysterious places don’t usually up and relocate on a moment’s notice, and their 
  place in the world does not go unnoticed. After all, if one conspiracy shuts down a tourist 
  attraction, like the Khewra Salt Mines in Pakistan or St. Patrick’s cemetery in New Orleans, 
  other interested parties are sure to take notice. As much as conspiracies want to control the 
  supernatural to various degrees, their members uphold the Code to remind themselves of their 
  humanity.  
  Nests, tainted places, and sentient places may attract tier-three hunters, but the real challenge is 
  figuring out how dealing with these locations fits into their agendas and how they affect other 
  mortals who have no idea conspiracies exist. Should the Cheiron Group reveal all its secrets to 
  accept an archaeologist’s help? Will the Council of Bones stretch its view of the Code to work 
  with a warlock who has more information? Just how far will the Aegis Kai Doru go to get their 
  hands on a new Bygone? 
  No mysterious place surrenders its secrets easily, and conspiracy members need to tread 
  carefully when dealing with the unknown. Setting their concerns about the supernatural aside, 
  conspiracy members must balance the physical requirements of the hunt against the resulting 
  politics and ethical considerations of such an undertaking. 
  Nests 
  Even monsters need a place they can call home. A pack of dog-sized creatures covered in rusting 
  metal plates hides within an old junkyard. The old lady’s house, abandoned since she died, is a 
  nest of catlike beasts she unwittingly cared for. Some nests might be more accurately called a 
  “haunt” or a “resting place” for the ghosts within. 
  Whatever you call it, whatever form it takes, a nest is a monster’s lair or refuge. Nests are suited 
  to the creatures living in them, and hostile to any hunters who dare enter. Going into a nest is 
  extremely dangerous, because the monster has the upper hand. Unfortunately, hunters often need 
  to follow their prey back to its lair to save a victim, capture or kill the monster, and make their 
  city a bit safer — at least for a night. 
  Using Nests 
  Nests are often the setting for confrontations with a monster. This might be the set piece for the 
  climax of a story or a set up to highlight how the hunters aren’t fully prepared. In either case, 
  
  dealing with a monster on its home ground should always be presented as a dramatic and 
  dangerous scene. 
  A nest can also be used a setting for tense investigation scenes. Entering the lair of a flesh-eating 
  beast to find more information is common, but risky. In this case, the nest itself is a source of 
  clues, but also represents a terrible gamble — will the information hunters gain be valuable 
  enough to make it worth their while? What happens when they find out another monster also 
  lives there? 
  Savvy hunters should pay attention to the nest’s environment. What kind of lair a monster 
  chooses can tell you a great deal about it. A nest will often provide hints about a monster’s 
  weakness; a condemned factory with blacked-out windows probably indicates the creature is 
  sensitive to light. Additionally, the nest might provide hints as to its abilities or Dread Powers. 
  Hunters can enter a nest of a creature they assumed was unintelligent and find a collection of 
  museum artifacts, instead. 
  The specific nest a monster chooses can also tell hunters something about its background. Its 
  proximity to a hospital, police station, house, or other building says a lot about its habits. The 
  activities it conducts inside can also deepen the mystery. Why does a slasher always drag its 
  victims to the Oncology Ward in an abandoned hospital before carving them up? Why would a 
  vampire sleep beneath a popular jazz club and never feed or interact with the musicians? 
  By fleshing out a monster’s home, hunters have more information when deciding what to do 
  next. 
  Destroying a Nest 
  The easiest way to neutralize a nest is to destroy a monster. Unlike other types of mysterious 
  places, nests are typically not threats by themselves. Once the monster is destroyed, the nest 
  itself is no longer a problem in most cases. 
  However, abandoned nests can still harm those who wander in. A cave on the verge of collapse 
  or a dump site full of toxic chemicals are both extremely hazardous. Some intelligent humanoid 
  monsters might set traps to catch or deter unwanted visitors, too. And, if the nest remains intact 
  following its destruction, it could attract other monsters who need a home or are trying to find 
  out what happened to the previous occupant. For cells and compacts, focused on immediate, 
  local problems, cleaning up nests is a strong motivator to ensure their communities remain safe.  
  Hunters who physically destroy a nest deprive a monster of its lair (or drive a group of creatures 
  out into the open) and can confront it in a new area. Fire, explosives, or other types of demolition 
  equipment are obvious choices for hunters, but outright destruction of public and private 
  properties can create headaches. Abandoned places are usually owned by someone, and 
  authorities will want to know who blew up the old cistern without a permit. 
  Driving a monster out of its nest may cause other complications, as well. If the hunters aren’t 
  thorough, destroying a haunted house may cause the scattered ghosts to latch on to a new 
  location — or the hunters themselves. A collapsed cave might cause the monsters within to 
  attack more frequently, as they desperately search for a new home. Or perhaps there are more 
  monsters in the nest than the hunters initially expected, and now they are pouring out of a 
  burning building, howling for blood.  
  Systems 
  
  A nest is notable because it favors its monstrous occupants and hinders unwelcome visitors. 
  Mechanically, the hindrances are represented by Conditions and Tilts. Some monsters may set 
  traps (p. XX) as well, reserving their Dread Powers for the real fight. 
  The relationship between the monster and its nest, or the structure of the nest itself, can make 
  navigating or exploring difficult. A living doll chooses a lair in an apartment building full of 
  narrow hallways and cluttered with old furniture, where it can move freely, but the hunters can’t 
  easily defend themselves from its knife. The doll’s nest would have both the Detritus and Tight 
  Tilts. A featureless slasher in a gas mask swinging a pickaxe takes up residence in chemical 
  factory, where the fumes inflict a Poisoned or Sick Tilt on anyone else who enters. The slasher 
  stalks the weakened invaders and picks off the hunters one by one. 
  The Tilts inflicted by a nest are almost universally Environmental and apply to any unapproved 
  visitors attempting to navigate the nest. Unless otherwise noted, leaving the monster’s nest will 
  remove the Tilt or Condition. Abandoning the nest to remove these effects will not grant Beats, 
  however. Additionally, a monster may have Dread Powers that further shape the environment. 
  Mechanically, destroying a nest requires an extended action that may be opposed by a monster or 
  Storyteller characters. The difficulty of starting a fire or determining just the right amount of 
  explosives to level a nest is at the Storyteller’s discretion. 
  Arthur Kill Ship Graveyard 
  Quote: “Sure, we know about that ship’s graveyard, but nobody’s fool enough to actually clean 
  it up. Why? Pick a reason: too expensive, too dangerous, too many nasty migraines.”   
  Location: New Jersey, New York. U.S.A. 
  Description: Records indicate the official name of the Arthur Kill Ship Graveyard is the Donjon 
  Iron and Metal Scrap Processing Facility. It is an array of rusting hulks and broken-down engines 
  that sits on the Staten Island sound, staring across the water at New Jersey. Around 100 ships 
  have found their final resting place here, mired in mud and muck. Most have been stripped of 
  their useful parts, and their skeletal hulks decompose at differing rates.  
  Decaying ships from as early as 1901 can be spotted in the graveyard. These range from a NYC 
  Fire Department boat, to a random assortment of tugboats and merchant vessels, to a World War 
  II submarine chaser. Many of the corroded ships are not worth salvaging and are hazardous 
  because they contain toxic substances; they’ve been left to rot at the sound’s marshy edges, 
  staining the water red with rust. 
  Gaining access to the site is difficult and dangerous. Hunters must trudge through mud and 
  seven-foot-tall reeds or try to navigate unstable paths made of broken boards. 
  All of this makes the graveyard a perfect hiding place for monsters to hide and find shelter in. 
  Storyteller Notes: Over the decades since the salvage yard was established, monsters have taken 
  up residence within on at least four separate occasions. The combination of access to potential 
  victims, the difficulty of getting into the place, and the vast array of hiding places within the ship 
  graveyard have proven irresistible. At least two of the monsters are rumored to have been 
  amphibious; some hunters believe the creatures swim out and attack people far away from their 
  lair. Tracking these creatures back to the ship graveyard was as much a case of luck as good 
  hunting. 
  
  To introduce this location into a chronicle, think about how much time the cell may spend there. 
  Maybe the cell has tracked a dangerous monster to its hiding place in the Arthur Kill Ship 
  Graveyard. Maybe there’s a wrinkle: another hunter cell has tracked a completely different 
  monster there. How are these two creatures coexisting within the same nest? And can both cells 
  work together to flush them out? 
  Suggested Tilts: Detritus (Environmental), Filthy (Environmental), Tight (Environmental) 
  Theatre Royal 
  Quote: We were just about to leave, when we heard someone shout, “Goddamn you for a 
  blackguard, rascal!” Turned out to be Charles Macklin! 
  Location: Drury Lane, London, England 
  Description: Several different buildings claiming the title of Theatre Royal have loomed over 
  Drury Lane throughout London’s long and storied history. The first and third iteration burned to 
  the ground, and the fourth still stands.  
  Each theater has claimed its fair share of lives and plays host to the ghosts of its predecessors. 
  The most famous spirit is known only as the Man in Gray, a ghost with a penchant for 18th-
  century attire, complete with tri-corner hat. Many believe the spirit is connected to a body 
  discovered in 1848, sealed up in one of the theater’s walls with a dagger between its ribs.  
  The Theatre Royal’s ghosts are not the only challenge hunters face. London is a busy metropolis 
  and its police, citizens, and tourists frequently stroll past. To top things off, the titillation of the 
  theater combined with a good old-fashioned ghost hunt may be just the thing to attract the 
  interest of local hunter cells, debunkers of the supernatural, or even stranger denizens of the 
  night. 
  Storyteller Notes: The Theatre Royal is an iconic part of London and is a wonderful example of 
  a haunted nest. The theater is the source of many superstitions that grant ambience and mystery 
  to a chronicle featuring its renowned stage. The ghost light, for example, is a single light left on 
  to placate ghosts. Supernaturally touched plays, such as Macbeth, Goethe’s Faust, and The King 
  in Yellow, might even be performed during an investigation. The ghosts — and actors — will 
  resist efforts to cleanse or exorcise the site. 
  The Theatre Royal isn’t the type of nest hunters can burn down on a whim; they must deal with 
  the spirits if they want to cleanse the site. Its fame, however, may attract other monsters. Maybe 
  an enterprising director scheduled performances of a newly discovered play with occult 
  overtones. Since rehearsals started, there’s been an uptick of paranormal activity in and around 
  the theater. Eventually, the hunters may learn the play is riling up the ghosts haunting the old 
  theater. But is the director doing it deliberately? And, if not, who is? 
  Suggested Tilts: Faltering, Reeling 
  Ophiology Lab 
  Quote: Why didn’t anybody tell me we’re investigating snakes? 
  Location: Ota, Gunman Prefecture, Japan 
  Description: Hidden almost in plain sight among the newer facilities of the popular tourist 
  attraction, the Japan Snake Center, is a collection of rotting, wooden shacks. Filled to bursting 
  
  with decaying specimens, preserved ophiological treasures, unknown piles of research, and other 
  paraphernalia, the neglected lab space is unnaturally permeated by the stench of decomposition.  
  The Ophiology Lab is no longer routinely used, and while it has every appearance of being 
  securely locked up, it’s hard to tell for certain. With so many specimens in such disarray, the lab 
  is rumored to attract several types of snake yōkai: Nomori, Uwabami, and Nure-onna to name a 
  few. 
  Whether the Ophiology Lab is protected by its rumored inhabitants or not, some hunters are 
  skittish and may not investigate it because the area taps into their fears and phobias. Cells that 
  want to visit this nest must research it thoroughly before paying it a visit by investigating former 
  reports and interviewing spooked witnesses. 
  Storyteller Notes: The Ophiology Lab’s placement is so close to the Japan Snake Center, it 
  works best as an introductory, unexplored mysterious place that may or may not be a nest. The 
  appearance of snake yōkai could turn out to be a rumor, falsified report, or frantic statement from 
  a tourist scared of snakes. It could, however, also be a place where thieves scope out the Japan 
  Snake Lab to steal from tourists, or simply a set of extra storage units that a scientist hasn’t 
  gotten around to cleaning up. 
  If one of the snake yōkai has moved in, the cell will need to figure out how to gain access to the 
  site. Maybe they befriend a scientist who witnessed something strange, or maybe they ask the 
  facility’s administrator if they can help clean up the site. 
  Suggested Tilts: Detritus (Environmental), Filthy (Environmental) 
  Tainted Places 
  A sturdy oak tree where victims were once hanged until dead is eternally cursed. An isolated 
  military base where experiments in psychic warfare were conducted has a lingering aura of pain 
  and fear. The forest where a group of invaders slaughtered the families hiding from the ravages 
  of war and famine twists the perceptions of anyone who draws near. That cistern in the basement 
  of a centuries-old farmhouse is believed to be a doorway to hell. Whatever the reason, these 
  places are dangerous. They are tainted. 
  Tainted sites are the places that have weird and terrible stories about them, places that people 
  avoid without entirely knowing why. This is for good reason. In areas around a tainted site, 
  nature often acts…odd. Plants grow in unusual ways; animals skitter strangely. Rain falls 
  sideways. These oddities extend to people who spend too much time in a given site. As the taint 
  of the place begins to take hold, their perceptions are altered, followed by their innermost 
  thoughts and behavior. Eventually, they may become a danger to themselves and those around 
  them. 
  Tainted places are not aware, however. They don’t have goals or feelings. They simply are. And 
  their very existence is a powerful threat. 
  Cleansing Tainted Places 
  Hunters tell a wide variety of tales about how they have dealt with tainted places. In some cases, 
  burning down the cursed house was a simple (if unsubtle) way of cleansing the site. In other 
  cases, more elaborate rituals were required. No one has been able to discover a surefire way for 
  dealing with the dangers of these places, as each tainted site is unique. 
  
  For many places, destroying the physical location is enough. If the curse or taint is tied to a 
  specific building, tree, or landmark, then destroying that landmark will remove the threat of the 
  tainted place. Fire, explosives, and demolition equipment attract attention, and anyone who owns 
  a building is unlikely to be happy with someone burning it down. Worse: Some tainted places are 
  immune to fire and may act strangely when attacked. 
  Some tainted places cannot be cleansed so easily. If the land beneath the building is cursed, then 
  bulldozing the house is meaningless. In these cases, hunters will need to dig deeper into the 
  history and cause of the tainted place, to find another means of cleansing the site. 
  Tainted Systems 
  Tainted places, though dangerous, are not monsters who think, feel, or plan. Tainted places 
  simply react. The following rules apply. 
  • Potency: All tainted places have a measure of a curse (or taint). This is reflected by its Potency 
  rating and the Dread Powers it possesses. 
  • Dread Powers: Dread Powers are often a sign of a malevolent presence at work. Unlike 
  monsters, tainted places do not choose to use Dread Powers the same way they do, because 
  they’re not alive or sentient. Dread Powers are activated reflexively. 
  • Types of Actions. A tainted place can only take a reflexive action when a Dread Power is 
  activated. They do not have Initiative, nor do they participate in combat. If necessary, defensive 
  rolls comprise the tainted site’s assigned Potency rating plus or minus modifiers. If an unusual 
  roadside attraction has a Potency rating of 8, the tainted site’s dice pool is eight dice. If, 
  however, the tainted site is attempting to use the Agonize Dread Power, the victim’s Stamina is 
  subtracted from the roll as normal. 
  • Durability. The physical objects (doors, windows, traps, etc.) within a sentient place have a 
  Durability rating; they are treated as form of equipment (p. XX) and is rated 1 to 5. In general, 
  the higher the Durability rating, the more challenging it is to destroy. 
  • Structure. A sentient place may have several structures within a given location. When 
  calculating Structure, add the object’s Size to its Durability. 
  • Variable Size: Tainted places can vary in size but start at Size 10. Often, they are large or 
  sturdy enough that destroying them may require explosives, construction equipment, or a long-
  term project that need permits and additional crewmembers. The amount of damage required to 
  physically destroy a tainted place is at the Storyteller’s discretion. If a tainted place is destroyed 
  before it’s been neutralized, its ruins will still present signs of the supernatural. 
  • Other Threats: Any location, whether it’s a nest, tainted place, or sentient place, can be home 
  to other threats. When assigning traps, monsters, Bygones, etc., specificity is required to help 
  hunters clearly understand what they’re dealing with. 
  Dread Power Adjustments 
  Dread Powers represent a tainted place’s ability to inflict Tilts and Conditions or alter its 
  environment in response to actions characters take. 
  The Dread Powers used by tainted places do not require Willpower, because they are activated 
  reflexively. This means that Dread Powers requiring Willpower expenditure beyond initial 
  
  activation won’t work in a tainted place. Tainted places don’t use Numen either, but ghosts who 
  haunt a tainted place will.  
  Dread Powers are purchased according to their rank and are tied to their Potency rating. 
  Dread Power Triggers 
  Dread Powers become available to tainted places after initial purchase and are not powered by 
  Willpower. Each Dread Power has a unique trigger.  
  The Dread Power trigger is a thematic device that causes the Dread Power to activate in a 
  specific location within the area. They represent the years, decades — even centuries — of 
  malevolent power that’s seeped into wood, drywall, bricks, and stone. Dread Power triggers are 
  activated by characters and cannot be created by them (or by monsters); they are firmly 
  connected to the tainted place. Once tripped, the trigger will not be reactivated. 
  Tainted places are not considered neutralized until hunters perform a successful ritual to cleanse 
  the site. The ritual should be thematically appropriate to the tainted site and may be performed as 
  teamwork or Tactics. Tripped Dread Power triggers will reactivate after a period of one week if 
  the hunters don’t neutralize the taint. They will, however, appear in the same place as before; 
  savvy hunters will take note of where the effect occurred and avoid that location in the future. 
  INSERT TABLE 
  Potency 
  Number of Triggers Dread Power Ranks 
  1 
  10-15 3 
  2 
  16-20 5 
  3 
  21-25 7 
  4 
  26-30 9 
  5 
  31-35 11 
  6 
  36-40 15 
  7 
  41-45 19 
  8 
  46-50 23 
  9 
  51-55 27 
  10 
  56+ 
  31 
  END TABLE 
  Multiple triggers tied to a specific Dread Power may be found in a tainted place but may not be 
  activated more than once per session. The trigger is considered “tripped” when the Dread Power 
  has successfully affected a single character. Technically, a cell could temporarily neutralize a 
  tainted site by activating all its triggers; doing so will not cleanse the taint. 
  The trigger for a Dread Power may require a specific interaction with an object, stairwell, 
  hallway, or room; they may also necessitate a character’s specific action. A tainted place triggers 
  Maze whenever someone accidentally trips. A hospital that traps ghosts may force Agonize on a 
  monster who dies inside. A cave may have several, hidden caverns that inflict Blackout on the 
  hunters once they venture further in. 
  
  Storytellers are encouraged to place triggers in unusual places and think about using interesting 
  Dread Powers to give the tainted place its own personality. Part of the mystery will be to figure 
  out how to avoid getting hurt while exploring and neutralizing the site, saving trapped occupants, 
  and dealing with monsters who’ve taken up residence. 
  Joelma Building 
  Quote: “Thirteen deaths multiple times? That’s too many tragic losses to be a coincidence.” 
  Location: São Paulo, Brazil 
  Description: Standing 25 stories tall, the Joelma Building is a towering skyscraper in the middle 
  of São Paulo. It is also a historic site because of the tragedy that occurred three years after it was 
  built. In 1974, an electric fire started on the 12th floor of the building, trapping people on the 
  upper 13 floors. Soon, the entire building became a towering inferno, and claimed so many lives 
  it forced the world to take notice and spurred fire-safety discussions and laws to prevent future 
  disasters. By the time the fire died out, 179 people were dead and over 300 people injured. 
  Wherever there is tragedy, urban legends swirl in its wake. Paranormal researchers believe the 
  land is now cursed, and the stories blend fact with fear. During the blaze, 13 people were trapped 
  in one of its elevators and died. The victims were never identified, and no one came forward to 
  claim the bodies. These unknown 13 souls haunt the Joelma Building site and never leave. Since 
  the fire, there have been numerous reports of people seeing ghostly figures on the upper floors of 
  the Joelma Building.  
  To this day, these hauntings continue. Workers see apparitions in the reconstructed building’s 
  offices and hallways and consider this to be a normal, everyday occurrence. 
  Storyteller Notes: Through careful research, the hunters can discover the truth of stories 
  claiming the terrible Joelma fire was not the first tragedy to happen on the site. One story asserts 
  that, at the founding of São Paulo, 12 cursed Jesuit priests and an altar boy committed suicide at 
  or near the site. Another states that, before the Joelma building was built, a home on the same 
  land was the site of a murder-suicide: A young chemist returned home and shot 11 people before 
  killing himself. After emergency personnel arrived, one worker became ill and was forced to 
  leave the scene. That worker died the next day, of an infection apparently contracted at the scene, 
  bringing the death toll to 13. 
  In addition to being a tainted place that claimed the lives of 13 victims, the Joelma Building 
  could also be a nest, haunted by the 13 souls who died during the fire. Cleansing an office 
  building in the middle of a busy city is a daunting task for any hunter, especially since there’s no 
  telling if the site is actively attempting to claim 13 new victims or not. 
  Systems: The Joelma Building is Size 100 and Potency 3. The Dread Power triggers are found in 
  odd places that been built up or reconstructed since the fire took place. Suggested Dread Powers 
  include Blackout, Agonize, Madness and Terror.  
  Haw Par Villa 
  Quote: “Welcome to the horrific ride of your afterlife!” 
  Location: Singapore 
  Description: Crowning a hill in Pasir Panjang, Haw Par Villa is a theme park dedicated to 
  Confucian ideals and Chinese folklore, myths, and legends. Built in the 1930s by Aw Boon Haw 
  
  for his brother, Boon Par, Haw Par Villa was a popular tourist attraction when it first opened. 
  Over the years, however, interest in Tiger Balm Gardens waned despite its cultural prominence 
  among Singaporeans, and the colorful attractions have continued to gently age or fall into 
  disrepair. Despite this, Haw Par Villa holds a place in many a tourist’s imagination and has 
  spawned a peculiar urban legend: The site is thought to conceal a literal portal to hell.  
  Though many of its attractions are beautiful renderings, the Villa is most famous for its 
  gruesome depictions of the 10 Courts of Hell. Abandoned, expanded, and renovated repeatedly 
  over the years, the villa has been a staging point for the Japanese army and a “moral excursion” 
  for thousands of children.  
  Some believe the infernal gateway is only open at midnight or during certain astronomical 
  events. Whether or not these urban legends are true, the rumors persist. Several sections of the 
  park are closed off or no longer in use, and the location is often shut down for months at a time 
  to ensure the public’s safety. When the park is operational, it is only open during the daytime, 
  which further complicates matters.  
  Storyteller Notes: Aging theme parks, carnivals, traveling sideshows, and tourist attractions are 
  interesting sites for hunters to explore even without the presence of the supernatural. These 
  locations may seem perfectly innocuous during the day but take on horrific attributes at night 
  when shadows fall ominously on cheerful statues. Haw Par Villa is a unique cultural site because 
  it combines the mundane with the supernatural. The location isn’t tainted in its entirety; the 
  supernatural is only active in the 10 Gates of Hell exhibit. 
  A gateway to hell represents a significant threat for hunters and acts as the reason a site is tainted 
  while pointing to the source of its Dread Powers. Chronicles that include Haw Par Villa’s 10 
  Courts of Hell or similar exhibits may take a dramatic, if not demonic, turn. The goal is 
  straightforward: Shut the gate and figure out how to keep it closed. The methodology, on the 
  other hand, may not be. Demons, witches, warlocks, spirits, and other thematic monsters may 
  prowl around the hellmouth, while others might try to escape. Hunters may have to prioritize or 
  call for backup to deal with an increasing threat. 
  Systems: Haw Par Villa is not the tainted site — but the 10 Courts of Hell exhibit is. It is Size 50 
  and Potency 6. The Dread Power triggers are hard to find, because they’re located in, near, and 
  around the exhibit in the underground tunnel. If hunters visit when the park is open, they’ll 
  attract attention for being too hands on with the demonic statues and icons in the tunnel. 
  Suggested Dread Powers are Black Gate, Damnation, Hex, and Maze. 
  Fairchild Oak 
  Quote: “That tree…I think it wanted me…to hurt.” 
  Location: Florida, U.S.A.  
  Background: The Fairchild Oak, which is also known as the Haunt Oak, is a centuries-old 
  Florida landmark tainted by death. Many believe the tree attained supernatural qualities in 1880 
  when Norman Harwood killed himself beneath its outstretched limbs or following the 
  immigration of Scottish plantation owner James Ormond II and the fight led by Seminole 
  resistance leader Coacoochee — though its origin may precede the horrors of colonialism. 
  Regardless of origin, the Fairchild Oak is neither benign nor malevolent. After witnessing 
  centuries of grief and trauma that escalated during the Seminole War, the Fairchild Oak can no 
  
  longer be sustained by water and sunlight alone. The oak tree thirsts for human blood and grief. 
  It compels anyone nearby to sit beneath its boughs; when they do, it drives them to self-harm or 
  suicide.  
  The massive, ancient tree stands at least 200 feet tall and 30 feet wide. The oak’s immense, 
  spidery limbs twist in unsettling rows from the mass of its trunk like gnarled, grasping arms. The 
  tree dwarfs the palms that grow around it and draws the viewer’s eye. Visitors to the state park 
  feel compelled to stop and admire the impressive tree. Those who are wise feel its quiet intent 
  and do not linger on.  
  Storyteller Hints: The Fairchild Oak is a stationary force of nature stained by historical events 
  that stretch back thousands of years. Unlike other threats, Storytellers are encouraged to build a 
  session’s plot or chronicle around the landmark’s locale. A chronicle involving supernatural 
  events in Floridian state parks is ripe with possibility, because the story can incorporate a larger 
  mystery in addition to the Fairchild Oak’s use as a tainted place. The threatening presence of the 
  Fairchild Oak might also be a beacon for other, dangerous monsters: slashers, cryptids, and even 
  weirder threats.  
  Hunters who approach the Fairchild Oak may not find anything wrong with it at first; the longer 
  they linger, however, they more they’ll experience intrusive thoughts of self-doubt and anxiety. 
  This inner monologue grows in intensity, culminating in thoughts of despair and self-harm. The 
  longer a hunter is exposed to the Fairchild Oak, the harder it is to escape its boughs.  
  Systems: The Fairchild Oak is Size 30 and Potency 3. The Dread Power triggers are found in the 
  tree’s branches and roots. Suggested Dread Powers are Agonize, Dread Attack, Eye Spy, and 
  Soul Stealer. 
  Sentient Places 
  Strangest of all, sentient places are far more than accursed buildings or haunted forests. These 
  places are aware. They think; they plan. In some cases, they move. They almost always hate. 
  The mountain overlooks the town, and locals swear it controls the weather on a whim. A 
  sprawling haunted house lures new buyers and then murders them — trapping their corpses and 
  ghosts inside. A shrine in a cave whispers secrets, turning visitors into its agents of destruction.  
  Every sentient place is a unique monster and should be treated accordingly. They plan, attack 
  enemies, and repel intruders. They also have deep desires — and these goals usually spell trouble 
  for anyone nearby. Hunters believe these places are motivated by a specific need that can only be 
  fulfilled with time and careful planning. It has reasons for what it does, even if those reasons 
  don’t always make sense to anyone that isn’t a ravenous ghost train or a malicious grove of trees.  
  Defeating a Sentient Place 
  For many sentient places, particularly smaller locations, hunters might try to destroy them 
  outright. A house can be burned down, a glass tower smashed, a railway station blown up. Some 
  sites are just too large for this to be practical. A sentient mountain, cave complex, or ghost town 
  are not only extremely dangerous, but are too large to be reasonably destroyed without notice. 
  Some compacts and conspiracies might be able to muster the means to wipe a place off the map. 
  Doing this without further investigation or approvals is often too risky — even for them.  
  
  When dealing with a sentient place, there are so many factors for hunters to consider that often 
  they can’t neutralize one in the span of a single session. The only true way to neutralize a site, is 
  to deal with its spirit. Identifying that spirit presents a challenge to most hunters, especially when 
  other ghosts and monsters inhabit that physical location. 
  After the Sentient place is destroyed, a tainted place may eventually emerge from its ashes.  
  Nautilus: a Hunter’s Urban Legend 
  Tier-two hunters are not immune to urban legends pertaining to compacts they’ve 
  never encountered before. Nautilus is rumored to be an internet-based compact that 
  organically formed online in chat rooms, private channels, and the comment 
  sections of multiple websites. Its members are anonymous and immensely wealthy, 
  operate on the Dark Web, and are known only by their cryptic handles. Nautilus, 
  which takes its name from the submarine in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand 
  Leagues Under the Sea, was formed for a specific purpose: to deal with mysterious 
  places in its own, unique way. 
  Hunters whisper that Nautilus specializes in buying and selling real estate; the 
  compact’s mission is to collect mysterious places until they have the means to 
  neutralize them. When Network Zero visits a church and gets caught trespassing, 
  they blame Nautilus. When The Union gets ready to throw down in an abandoned 
  field and ends up interrogated by the cops, they also blame Nautilus 
  For some hunters, Nautilus is too good to be true. A mysterious force that buys and 
  sells property? Only to flip over a site after it’s been cleansed? And what, if 
  anything, does specializing in real estate have to do with the Code? The hunters 
  who believe Nautilus exists would love to expose its members’ identities and find 
  out if the other rumors are true: that all their members have already pledged their 
  loyalty to other compacts who have access to the information Nautilus requires. 
  Sentient Systems 
  Sentient places are caused by spirits wreaking havoc in the physical plane. Unlike haunted 
  houses, sentient places are extremely rare. Most hunters encounter a sentient place once or twice 
  in their lives — if they survive the experience.  
  Use the Ephemeral Entities rules found on p. XX to create an ancient spirit trapped in the 
  physical world. 
  Transi De René De Chalon 
  Quote: “There is nothing I wouldn’t do to get my heart back.” 
  Location: Bar-le-Duc, France 
  Description: Standing on display at the Saint Etienne church in Bar-le-Duc, France is a funerary 
  statue of René de Chalon, the fallen 25-year-old Prince of Orange. The figure was rendered in 
  the 1540s by French sculptor Ligier Richier after the prince died from an injury suffered during 
  the siege of St. Dizier. The statue, referred to as “The Skeleton,” is a life-sized rotting corpse; 
  strips of decaying skin flap over the deceased’s ribs, and one hand is raised to heaven, empty. 
  The grasping hand once held the prince’s heart, which was removed, dried, and concealed in a 
  
  reliquary placed in the statue’s hand. The heart has since disappeared and may have been stolen 
  during the French Revolution. 
  Thought to be an immortal corpse, the limestone statue is an eerily accurate depiction of a 
  decomposing body three years after its death. Since the heart was lost or stolen, the Cadaver 
  Tomb of René de Chalon has exhibited strange properties, and its grisly features have spawned 
  rumors and urban legends, despite its sacrosanct location. Visitors sometimes report leaving the 
  church with a terrible longing, a deep desire to find the statue’s reliquary and return the heart to 
  its rightful place.  
  Storyteller Notes: The site is a manageable size for a cell of hunters to deal with, but its 
  placement inside a place of worship raises more issues than it solves. The statue is more likely to 
  be active on the anniversary of the prince’s birth and death, or those times of day and year when 
  the veil between this world and the next grows thin: twilight, Samhain, etc. Cleansing the Transi 
  isn’t simple as smashing the stone and, even if the cell does so, it’s possible the restless spirit of 
  René de Chalon will appear to avenge the destruction of his tomb. 
  Power: 3 
  Finesse: 4 
  Resistance: 3 
  Rank: 1 
  Essence: 10 
  Corpus: 28 
  Willpower: 7 
  Initiative: 7 
  Defense: 4 
  Speed: 7  
  Size: 25 
  Ban: De Chalon flexes his fingers when someone inside the church says the word “heart.” 
  Bane: The statue burns when sea salt touches it. 
  Influence (Statue): 1 
  Numina: Emotional Aura, Essence Thief, Hallucination 
  Bhangarh Fort 
  Quote: “Was that rock there a minute ago? Why is that wall shaking?” 
  Location: Rajasthan, India 
  Description: Bhangarh Fort is a 16th-century complex built in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The 
  site is popularly believed to be the most haunted and mysterious location in the entire country, 
  and the sprawling ruin is off limits to explorers, academics, and tourists to ensure their personal 
  safety. To this day, the Archaeological Survey of India forbids anyone to enter Bhangarh Fort 
  after sunset or spend the night. Bhangarh Fort presents other challenges, however, for while it is 
  
  located outside major population centers, the complex is a protected cultural landmark and hasn’t 
  been outfitted with electrical wiring. After the sun falls, the ruins are plunged into darkness even 
  when the moon is full. 
  Its construction and history have spawned many rumors and folktales attempting to understand 
  the site’s unusual and paranormal activities. One popular theory is that Bhangarh Fort suffers 
  from a warlock’s curse, a punishment incurred after a Bhangarh princess named Ratnavati 
  rejected him. One story tells how the warlock, named N.K. Sinhai, tried to bewitch the virtuous 
  princess by offering her a dangerous love potion. The princess refused to drink it, and when she 
  dashed her cup against a nearby boulder, the seductive potion immediate set to work. The potion 
  was so powerful the land itself fell in love with the warlock, and the boulder began to roll, 
  crushing him to death. 
  Many believe the warlock’s death released the black magic stored in his body and triggered a 
  terrible curse on Bhangarh Fort, one that can only be removed by Princess Ratnavati herself, 
  reborn. 
  Storyteller Notes: Hunters wishing to explore Bhangarh Fort find themselves in a difficult 
  situation. The Indian government would never allow the site to be razed, nor would they allow 
  local or foreign hunters to investigate without proper approvals. The fort’s place in history, pop 
  culture, and Indian culture is significant and not to be ignored or downplayed in a chronicle. 
  Some Indian hunters wonder if the sprawling complex contains hidden Bygones created by the 
  warlock, while others think the site may not be haunted in the traditional sense.  
  Though Bhangarh Fort can be treated as a nest filled with trapped, mournful ghosts and spirits of 
  vengeance, its walls move with a darker intent. The ruins long for all who come near — mortal 
  and monster alike. The fort’s size, when combined with its significant ability to defend itself, 
  requires coordination on a massive scale. Worse, spirits trapped within Bhangarh Fort cannot be 
  released by any means the hunters possess until the site is neutralized and the warlock’s curse is 
  lifted. 
  Power: 12 
  Finesse: 10 
  Resistance: 11 
  Rank: 4 
  Essence: 25 
  Corpus: 111 
  Willpower: 10 
  Initiative: 21 
  Defense: 10 
  Speed: 22 
  Size: 100 
  Ban: Bhangarh Fort’s spirit will immediately return to the underworld if a descendant of 
  Princess Ratnavati successfully performs an exorcism at the site. 
  
  Bane: Areas of Bhangarh Fort will fall dormant if the hunters can recreate the love potion the 
  warlock presented to the Princess. 
  Influence (Bhangarh Fort): 4  
  Numina: Blast, Dement, Drain, Emotional Aura, Essence Thief, Hallucination, Telekinesis 
  Special: Zombies, spirits, and other monsters present at the site are treated as their own monsters 
  and should be presented with their own rules. 
  Following the death of a mortal, newly created ghosts will remain haunting Bhangarh Fort until 
  it’s neutralized. These spirits can be treated as discrete monsters at the Storyteller’s discretion. 
  Bhangarh Fort is an example of an ancient site that has multiple locations within its sprawling 
  area. When introducing the site into a chronicle you may reduce the Rank, per the Ephemeral 
  Entity rules, and treat each unique location as its own mysterious place. 
  Nan Madol 
  Quote: “What we’re looking at here is proof our ancestors were geniuses. What monster 
  wouldn’t want to take advantage of that?” 
  Location: Pohnpei, Micronesia 
  Description: Rising from the waters off the eastern coast of Pohnpei is the megalithic city of 
  Nan Madol, built over 2,000 years ago. The stones of the millennia-old city are so massive and 
  well-placed, no modern historians have been able to figure out how Nan Madol was constructed. 
  A historic and notable landmark used for religious purposes, Nan Madol is a testament to human 
  ingenuity to some. Its architecture and unique features have spawned several myths, however, 
  leading others to speculate that Nan Madol, which translates to “spaces between,” is a surviving 
  relic of the lost continent of Lemuria. 
  Local legends point to a supernatural reason for the site’s construction. The twin warlocks 
  Olisihpa and Olosohpa, who hailed from Lemuria, arrived near the site to build an altar for god 
  worship. After failing time and time again, their efforts were eventually successful, and the 
  twins’ altar was built near Temwen Island. 
  Formerly the royal seat of the Saudeleur Dynasty until the 1620s, there is no fresh water nor 
  naturally growing food present within the city. Modern efforts to preserve the site have recently 
  increased, and along with them renewed interest in the brothers and their altar. 
  Storyteller Notes: Nan Madol is an ancient city rife with history, and without the presence of 
  the supernatural it is a wonder to behold and investigate. Many of the basalt outcroppings were 
  used for funerary purposes and the altar was used to perform many rituals lost to time. 
  Physically, the way the stones are situated, the movement of the tides are likely to play an 
  important part in exploring the city. Low tide may reveal entrances and chambers usually 
  drowned and inaccessible, while high tide presents physical challenges to navigate the area 
  safely. 
  Nan Madol is a rich, mysterious location that’s well-equipped to fuel a solid story arc. It may 
  point to a Bygone, the altar built by the brothers, or evidence of fabled Lemuria. As a sentient 
  site, the city may not have been built to harness the supernatural, but over time the spirit 
  summoned and wielded here has remained in the stones. Now, Nan Madol resonates and vibrates 
  with power, hungering for more. To what end? Thus far, no one knows.  
  
  Power: 7 
  Finesse: 9 
  Resistance: 9 
  Rank: 3 
  Essence: 15 
  Corpus: 109 
  Willpower: 10 
  Initiative: 18 
  Defense: 7 
  Speed: 16 
  Size: 100 
  Ban: The spirit must reveal a path to the altar during the Summer Equinox or it loses half its 
  essence. 
  Bane: The stones react to blessed water by falling dormant. 
  Influence (Nan Madol): 3 
  Numina: Awe, Drain, Hallucination, Regenerate, Telekinesis 
  Other Mysterious Places 
  The world is vast and is filled with modern and ancient secrets. The older the site, the more 
  mysterious it is, and the more likely it is to remind hunters of their mortality. The sites they 
  explore may be older than recorded history or may have been constructed for bizarre and 
  inexplicable reasons. Hunters may not know “why” they explore a nest, tainted or sentient site, 
  other than the simplest of reasons. Wherever the supernatural is found, they must deal with the 
  threats to hold back the lingering dark — even when those shadows or spirits creep from the 
  most unlikely of places. 
  Blue Lake Grotto, Brazil 
  Gruta do Lago Azul, or the Blue Lake Grotto, is part of one of the largest flooded cavities on 
  Earth. Its waters are hundreds of feet deep and fed by no known source. When a beam of sunlight 
  shines on the lake via a hole at the surface, the waters turn the bluest of hues. Among the lake’s 
  secrets is a vast trove of bones, culled from ages past. The skeletons of giant sloths, saber-
  toothed tigers, and other extinct creatures are piled beneath the waters. It prompts the question: 
  what else might swim in the waters’ depths?  
  The grotto’s remote location makes it more straightforward to access than other well-trafficked 
  and protected sites, provided cell brings the right equipment. Unprepared hunters may be hurt 
  through non-supernatural means, like falling or drowning. If Dread Powers are used, either by 
  the site itself or the supernatural horrors concealed within, the area could be deadly. The promise 
  of long-forgotten secrets concealed within the grotto’s depths may draw more inquisitive hunters 
  who seek to discover ways to increase their own power — for good or ill. 
  Recommended Use: Nest, tainted place 
  
  Aokigahara Forest, Japan 
  Covering the northwestern flank of Mount Fuji is the forest of Aokigahara. The trees grow thick 
  and unnaturally dense in the forest, and scientists claim this is due to the rich, volcanic soil upon 
  which it sits. Others believe the trees are sustained by a grislier source of nutrients: the hundreds, 
  if not thousands, of people who have committed suicide here for centuries.  
  Aokigahara, or Suicide Forest, is an important icon in Japanese culture. It’s said in times of 
  famine and strife, many suffering people came to die in the forest. Structurally, the area is 
  difficult to explore; caves lead deep into the hardened lava beneath the trees. Between the 
  denseness of the foliage and the sound-swallowing volcanic rock, the forest can be unnaturally 
  still and its eerie quiet is a silent tribute to its tragic victims. Despite the quiet, the forest is well-
  trod; many come to wander through the trees, either to honor and mourn the dead or to discover 
  if it’s truly haunted. 
  Recommended Use: Nest, sentient place 
  Mount Mulanje, Malawi 
  Mulanje is a monadnock, a lone mountain rising out of the surrounding plains in the East African 
  country of Malawi. The highest peak is often shrouded in clouds and is nicknamed “Island in the 
  Sky.” Some believe Mulanje inspired the Lonely Mountain, Erebor, in The Hobbit by J.R.R. 
  Tolkien. A massive landmark, Mulanje is home to many local legends as well. Strange, 
  diminutive creatures are believed to live on its higher plateaus, a mythical flying serpent has 
  been spotted in the clouds around the peak, and countless mysterious disappearances have 
  occurred on its slopes. 
  Mount Mulanje possesses several sub-peaks, valleys, and plateaus lush with life. A complex 
  ecosystem of the mundane and supernatural, the area is a preserved and well-maintained 
  landmark. Finding the source of strange activity is challenging due to mountain’s sprawling size. 
  Hunters might find more than one mysterious place in, around, and on Mount Mulanje, should 
  they choose to hike this beautiful mountain. 
  Suggested Use: Nests 
  Canfranc Railway Station, Spain 
  The once-beautiful Canfranc Railway Station sits nestled in the Spanish Pyrenees near the 
  village of Canfranc. Many of its buildings have been falling into elegant disrepair for some time. 
  The entrance to a monumental tunnel pierces the mountain range, and once allowed trains to 
  carry supplies and passengers through to France on the other side. The station, which first 
  opened in 1928, was once called the “Titanic of the Mountains.” Over the years, the train station 
  has seen many uses, from a luxury railway connecting Spain and France to a key strategic 
  holding of the Third Reich. Rumors of lost gold shipped by the Nazis persist throughout the 
  years, and some hunters believe this gold carries a terrible curse. 
  Though the railyard carries a handful of trains to local destinations, the station is no longer in use 
  and is overgrown with bushes, trees, and grass. After several years, and at great expense, the 
  Canfranc site was recently renovated into a posh hotel that caters to the wealthy. 
  Suggested Use: Tainted place 
  House on the Rock, Wisconsin, U.S.A. 
  
  House on the Rock is a tourist attraction that prompts many urban legends and reports of 
  supernatural activity due to its ever-expanding collections and exhibits. The house’s construction 
  took several years before the site, precariously built upon Deer Shelter Rock by the architect 
  Alex Jordan, Jr., first opened to tourists in the 1960s. Since that time, House on the Rock has 
  expanded significantly over the years to include warehouses filled with several collections of 
  museum relics and icons. 
  Besides the house, each building contains a small museum’s worth of items including the 
  nautical exhibit “The Heritage of the Sea,” an indoor carousel, vintage posters, a large collection 
  of room-sized automated music machines displayed in “The Music of Yesterday,” and thousands 
  of other oddities. Some relics are rumored to be mere replicas while others may be priceless. 
  With the multitude of artifacts contained within the site, local hunters believe a Bygone must be 
  present. Reports of supernatural activity include feelings of being watched, judged, and followed.  
  Suggested Use: Tainted place 
  Karak Highway, Malaysia 
  A stretch of asphalt bridging the capital of Malaysia and one of its bordering states, the 
  expressway looks like every other road that has ever been made. But there’ve been stories. 
  Terrible ones. Over the years, the highway’s become associated with a multitude of tragedies and 
  natural disasters such as freak landslides and car accidents, some fatal, some not. Unsurprisingly, 
  this has given rise to numerous ghost stories and urban legends.  
  Most people in Malaysia have heard of the Karak Highway’s haunted nature. There are accounts 
  involving beautiful women lingering at the side of the road calling to drivers, begging for safe 
  passage; creatures in the jungle, waiting to strike; accident victims dialing radio stations, 
  mournfully recounting the events of their own demise; and a boy with glass shards in his eyes, 
  whimpering over and over, “Have you seen my mother?” 
  But one of the most repeated stories is that of a yellow Volkswagen. According to legend, when 
  the night is deepest, drivers sometimes find themselves cruising behind the vehicle. It is always 
  moving too slow, an unhappy nuisance but one easily overtaken. However, each time the driver 
  moves past the Volkswagen, they inevitably find themselves behind the vehicle again. 
  Suggested Use: Nest, tainted place 
  
  BEGIN CHAPTER FICTION 
  Friday, 17th May 2016, at approximately 4:25 PM, our precinct received a distress call from a 
  local firefighting unit. We were informed someone was attempting to disrupt attempts to 
  extinguish a house fire in the Belmont neighborhood. I, Officer Lopez, along with Officer 
  Huang, Officer Jacobs, and Sergeant Akintola were dispatched to the location to assist.  
  It took us 17 minutes to travel from the station to the site of the disturbance. We arrived to 
  witness a massacre.  
  The residence was burned to cinders. Strewn across its front yard were dismembered remains, 
  heaps of offal, bones cooked black. We believe the viscera belonged to the seven firemen who 
  arrived on scene. The number of uniforms found in the area matches that assumption. There 
  appeared to be no survivors. Their fire truck remained parked outside of the house. There were 
  keys in the ignition. Peculiarly, despite the breadth of the disaster, we didn’t encounter any 
  bystanders. Nor we find any traces of the possible assailants.  
  Once we secured the perimeter, Sergeant Akintola gathered footage from the body cameras still 
  tethered to the victims. What we saw was horrific. Included below is the collated transcript of 
  what we saw:  
  • • • 
  When the team arrived, the fire was beginning to wick from the second-floor windows. 
  However, the blaze was largely contained. None of the adjacent vegetation had caught fire yet. 
  The first leg of the operation proceeded as normal.  
  Halfway in, an unshaven man in tattered clothes arrived on the scene. He resisted attempts to 
  move away from the area. Two of the firemen were forced to physically remove him. Footage 
  from their bodycams showed the man rambling about “his red lady of sawdust and smoke,” 
  “celestial alignment of their wedding gifts,” and “his dreams of her subtle lines,” before he drove 
  his fists into their chests.  
  There was no blood. There was no crunch of bone.  
  There was a soft hissing instead. 
  Like a hot knife through a slab of steak. 
  The noise corroborated with the injuries we found. The wounds had been cauterized and the ribs 
  were pulverized to bone meal. The hearts were missing. After the man extracted the organs, the 
  two firemen collapsed. The footage from the bodycams showed him moving back toward the 
  burning house. 
  At that point, smoke began billowing from the house, reducing visibility. From what we stitched 
  together, the man attacked the remaining firemen in turn, and always in isolation. He moved 
  quickly and with purpose, contrasting initial impressions. Each time, he used his hands.  
  His target was not always the heart. 
  With one, he extracted the intestine; the gray coil incinerated in his hand. With the others, he 
  removed a lung, another heart, several unidentifiable pieces of organ meat, and judging by the 
  dribble of green bile, one fireman’s stomach. Jonathan Carpenter, who contacted our precinct, 
  
  was the last to die. At no point was the suspect visible to any two firemen at a time. They went 
  down quickly, most without even the time to scream. 
  Throughout the butchery, the man droned unceasingly in French. Officer Jacobs translated some 
  of what we heard in the recording. 
  Oh, red lady, red lady of / Sawdust and smoke, / Grant me your benediction, / Your candlewick 
  kiss, / Your divine presence, the / Red gold of your lips. 
  We cannot accurately determine what followed as the bodycams lost any advantage of 
  perspective. But in the last clear shot of the suspect, it appeared as though he was burning, 
  embers wicking through his melting cheekbones. He didn’t seem unhappy. The man entered the 
  house. 
  No one emerged after. 
  • • • 
  I, believe that there was a second suspect at the crime. The original suspect’s methods seemed 
  precise. His interest was not to cause suffering, but to eliminate opposition as efficiently as 
  possible. The corpses of the firemen show the attention of someone far less neat, someone who 
  relished the messiness. Both culprits possessed an unusual facility with high temperatures. There 
  was minimal blood at the scene. It is unknown how the first suspect accomplished the murders. 
  Officer Huang suspects military-grade augmentations. 
  The house revealed no trace of the suspects. According to records, the residence had been 
  unoccupied for over five years. Its last occupants were the Robinsons, a family consisting of a 
  husband, a wife, and three children. Five years back, they vacated the premises and put the house 
  on the sale. It has remained untenanted since. 
  However, we discovered two anomalies requiring possible investigation. The first could be the 
  result of pareidolia. In the basement of the building, Officer Jacobs discovered what appeared to 
  be drawings of a woman’s face seared into the concrete, along with ideograms of unknown 
  origins. Sergeant Akintola was able to make out the face as well. Officer Huang and I saw 
  nothing in the charcoal strokes.  
  Regardless, we have sent photographs to relevant departments.  
  The second item of interest is more sinister. Preliminary research revealed a similar case in 
  Corvallis. Another house burned down. Another team of firefighters was found dead at the scene. 
  This occurred two years ago. The case was never solved. Three years before that, a similar 
  incident took place in Salem. Again, a culprit was not found. 
  Eleven firemen dead. There should have been a national manhunt. Yet, not even cable news paid 
  the incidents any heed. Every case was quietly shut down, relegated to anonymity. No one spoke 
  up for the murdered men. Their obituaries were a brief square of facts, tucked away between 
  news of collegiate sports and advertisements for hiking gear. 
  Something is wrong.  
  I believe that someone is actively targeting firemen within Oregon, although for what reason I 
  cannot begin to imagine. I believe someone in the government is protecting them. But whatever 
  the case, I will not rest until the culprit is brought to justice. I cannot. I refuse to let these men die 
  
  like this. Eighteen firemen. There won’t be another. I refuse. Even if it means bringing the roof 
  down on whoever did this, I’ll find a way.  
  END CHAPTER FICTION 
  Chapter Seven: The Slasher Chronicle 
  “Becoming a monster sometimes isn’t a choice that you have. We’re all that; 
  we’re all ‘the other’ in one way or another.” 
   — Emil Ferris, American Writer and Cartoonist 
  The Slasher Chronicle contains tools Storytellers can use to run a chronicle featuring this type of 
  monster in a unique story. The chronicle may be introduced for tier-one, -two, or -three games 
  and requires some customization to fit the needs of a particular group. It is strongly 
  recommended that Storytellers sketch out scenes and sessions before running a slasher-based 
  chronicle to manage the pace and mood. 
  Recently, reports of serial killers have dramatically increased all over the world; this rising tide 
  of murderers birthed from the darkest recesses of the human soul threatens everyone in some 
  way. The world’s authorities struggle against the outbreak of brutality as best they can, but they 
  are not aware these killers aren’t human — at least, not anymore. The police might refer to them 
  as killing machines, but hunters have a different, more accurate name for these monsters: 
  slashers. 
  For the Storyteller: Trauma and Personal Horror 
  Though the world is filled with shadows, the Slasher Chronicle is set in its darkest 
  and most violent corners. By focusing on slashers, stories set in this chronicle will 
  be squarely placed within a genre built upon the villains found in slasher movies. 
  The type of horror that emerges during gameplay may be generated from human 
  failings but will ultimately veer toward terror, body horror, and death. 
  Storytellers are advised to closely work with players before running the Slasher 
  Chronicle and, if needed, after sessions to ensure players retain their agency. These 
  discussions should include preferences regarding gore, phobias, and personal 
  comfort levels, but they should also offer ways for players to communicate their 
  needs during a session, like the X-Card p. XX or a consent form, to help facilitate 
  strong themes and moods. Additionally, the Storyteller is encouraged to use 
  downtime p. XX to help players mitigate trauma through therapy sessions or a 
  debrief. 
  In every cell, compact, and conspiracy hunters feel palatable tension — even fear. Though no 
  obvious links connect the uptick in slasher activity and sightings, paranoid hunters have shared 
  dozens of theories pointing fingers at what (or who) is behind the global phenomenon. 
  Storytellers are encouraged to customize or create rumors for their chronicle to help give players 
  a long-term goal that goes beyond stopping a slasher from claiming yet another victim. These 
  whispers include: 
  • 
  There is no reason. The epidemic is a statistical aberration, an unlikely confluence of 
  events that cells, compacts, and conspiracies are misinterpreting as evidence of some grand 
  
  design. The plague will recede, eventually, having winnowed the ranks of hunters down to a 
  bloody, traumatized few survivors, but no greater purpose or intent lies behind it. 
  • 
  Mass hysteria spawned a nightmare. The world is more interconnected than ever. Horror 
  stories, nasty viral videos, and filthy internet memes sink their claws deeper into humanity’s 
  collective unconscious. The slasher epidemic is a manifestation of that psychological obsession 
  with fear, the accidental genesis of a new, deadly type of mass hysteria.  
  • 
  Humanity is sick. The slasher epidemic is an expression of humanity’s fallen state. Too 
  much sin, too much cruelty, too much hurt has finally taken its toll. Every atrocity, every 
  dehumanizing act, is just another symptom of the larger disease — as some slashers might even 
  proclaim. Now, the pressure is too great, and the virus must spread. Every slasher is a victim 
  overwhelmed by that shared illness, their soul and mind unwittingly affected by centuries of 
  crime and sadism. 
  • 
  Hunters are turning into slashers. Even though movie-goers are still transfixed by silver-
  screen killers, the real monsters stalk them on crumbling city streets and in moonlit 
  neighborhoods. Most people have trouble believing monsters are real — but not hunters. Despite 
  their efforts to contain the epidemic, the slashers just keep on killing, carving their red journey 
  through humanity’s collective flesh and psyche with cruel acts of depravity. Some hunters 
  believe this batch of slashers is more skilled and enhanced than their predecessors and that points 
  to one of two chilling scenarios: Either hunters are helping slashers or the slashers are former 
  hunters. This spells doom for hunters everywhere, whether they’re active in a cell, compact, or 
  conspiracy, and will force hunters to face their deepest fears. 
  • 
  Monsters are using slashers. Most hunters agree that slasher sightings are more 
  prominent than any other. While many cells are preoccupied with resolving the immediate threat, 
  some hunters are noticing that other monsters have all but disappeared. This has spurred several 
  conspiracy theories, but only one has caught on: Other monsters are using slashers to cull the 
  population and weaken hunters. Some hunters, who are comfortable working with supernatural 
  creatures, worry an “all monsters must be hunted” stance will affect their ability to hunt slashers. 
  Others fear the exact opposite is true: Slashers have become so great at murder and mayhem, 
  they’ve emerged as the dominant monster. 
  • Hunters are creating slashers. All hunters understand that upholding the Vigil puts themselves, 
  their friends, and their loved ones at risk. For centuries, hunters have suffered tremendous, 
  personal losses — but no longer. For some bizarre reason, this new crop of slashers is not 
  targeting hunters or their loved ones. To explain this phenomenon, some hunters have concluded 
  that other hunters must be experimenting with slashers and have found the means to create, 
  control, and command them to hunt other monsters. 
  The Slasher Chronicle is marked by blood, screams, and sweat. Slashers live on the edge of a 
  knife; they can only sate their impossible hunger by snatching victims and torturing them. What 
  is the nature of the disease that drives this eruption? What will it take to bring it to an end? 
  Only a hunter knows the answer to these questions. Only hunters can rescue victims from 
  slashers, put them down for good, and stop the epidemic. 
  Defining a Slasher 
  
  A slasher is a monster wearing human skin, because a slasher is part human, part something else. 
  This type of mass murderer is more terrifying than the gut-churning horror of a serial killer’s 
  compulsive murder spree. A slasher’s human soul has been bathed in blood and pain until it 
  shattered and there’s nothing left to do except force others to feel what it feels. Make no mistake: 
  Slashers are serial killers, but most serial killers are not slashers. Murderers are often angry or 
  desperate people, but they’re not legendary butchers. At least, not yet. Not until the light in a 
  slasher’s psyche is snuffed out, drowned by silent waves of darkness, and replaced by a sinister, 
  living force. This supernatural shadow brings power in its wake, a profane vigor that grants a 
  slasher preternatural conviction, capability, and utter lack of compassion. 
  Sometimes, slashers are ex-hunters. Most cells won’t admit they lost a soul to the darkness and 
  are terrified to think of the implication that each hunter can, if they’re not careful, fall into 
  darkness. Other hunters believe it’s just a matter of time before they lose their way. What is a 
  hunter other than a weapon cutting through the veil to fight an eternal war against the darkness? 
  When hunters forget they’re more than a sharpened blade, they start to lose faith in themselves, 
  in their lovers, friends, families, and in the Code. Abandon all that, and hunters start looking for 
  excuses to murder that bully who clearly deserved it, to track down that kidnapper who should 
  never have stepped foot in their backyard, to exact justice turned vengeance when they want to, 
  however they want to. For these hunters, killing “bad guys” overpowers reason, and that morphs 
  into a self-righteous addiction. Oh, they may be great at tracking down bloodsucking vampires, 
  all right, but can cells look away when a hunter doesn’t differentiate between a bully and a flesh-
  eating zombie?  
  Hunters turned slashers are terrifying reminders of just how necessary the Code really is.  
  Most of the time, slashers are born from the bloody chrysalis of a career in mundane murder, 
  killing until their integrity is so ruined, their identity is re-forged into the shape of slaughter. 
  Some slashers are experiments by darker forces; their unending abuse and torment is not the kind 
  of hurt from which they can heal. To find refuge, they must carve apart the world that wrecked 
  them — starting with their tormentors. Other slashers are forged by outright supernatural 
  influences, the cracked and castoff vessels of spiritual possessions gone wrong, or the cursed 
  victims of a furious entity’s malice. Then there are some who just...snap one day, for the pettiest 
  of slights, and suddenly the yawning chasm within their soul craves death. 
  Types of Slashers 
  Slashers are defined by Undertakings. An Undertaking is part modus operandi, part compulsive 
  craving, and part supernatural force that slithers in the back of their mind whispering, watching, 
  and waiting for the opportunity to strike. Within an Undertaking, the slasher is either a ripper or 
  a scourge.  
  A ripper is still mortal. They may be hollowed out by the need to kill, but they’re largely held in 
  check by the limits of human ability. They are no longer mentally shackled by society’s 
  restraints, however, and a ripper may demonstrate monstrous will or incredible determination. 
  Everything they can do can be explained in criminal or scientific terms, which is why they’re 
  often easy to miss. Hunters might never identify a ripper as a slasher, and let the authorities 
  handle their viciousness until they have no choice but to deal with them. Sometimes, cells cross 
  paths with a ripper and a monster, choose to fight the monster instead, and later realize that the 
  ripper is now a scourge.  
  
  A scourge, by comparison, is no longer considered mortal. Rippers can become scourges, and 
  scourges can manifest on their own. They represent a slasher who’s emerged from a bloody, 
  gruesome trail of carnage with a stain on their soul; this stain is represented by dark, supernatural 
  powers. One scourge shrugs off a hail of bullets with an irritated grunt and just keeps coming, 
  hatchet hefted. Another dies, doused in gasoline and set alight by terrified teenagers, but is 
  reborn a week later, unhurt, waiting for them. A scourge is formed from nightmares and urban 
  legends, a horror that has flesh and blood and a simple purpose: kill, and keep killing. 
  Undertakings 
  Undertakings present two sides of one infernal coin. Each slasher archetype may either be a 
  ripper or a scourge. 
  Avengers seek vengeance; each ripper is obsessed with a supposed wrong which they can never 
  forget and never forgive. Relentless and deeply personal in their pursuit, these rippers can be 
  found wherever one mortal feels maligned by another. Legends are scourges who have lost 
  themselves to the stories sprouted from their murderous deeds. Most Legends spring up in urban 
  areas or tightly bound communities, where the terrified whispers of their heinous acts quickly 
  spread as urgent warnings. 
  Slashers, Bygones, and Mysterious Places 
  Every slasher needs to find the right creepy morgue, run-down factory, or 
  abandoned warehouse to do their grisly work. In the Slasher Chronicle, the areas 
  they frequent are considered tainted (p. XX). While a slasher might also have a nest 
  (p. XX), either inside or at a different location, tainted places are a consequence of 
  the the unnatural tide of murder, death, and mayhem sweeping through 
  communities at an alarming rate. 
  While slashers have been given supernatural heft for the purposes of running the 
  Slasher Chronicle, they do not use or have access to Bygones. Their traits, abilities, 
  and Dread Powers are specifically honed to torment and kill their victims according 
  to their Undertakings, and their knowledge of the supernatural is limited at best in 
  most cases. 
  Brutes are rippers that embody pure, angry strength. Everyone is a target to a ripper of this 
  Undertaking; bestial in behavior, they cannot be reasoned with, only driven off or killed. A Brute 
  isn’t necessarily less intelligent than other slashers and can often maintain shallow relationships. 
  Ultimately, their purpose for interactions is to lash out and kill. Masks, on the other hand, are 
  scourges who’ve shed all pretenses of their humanity. While a Mask’s behavior and choice of 
  victims may be bound by taboos and compulsions, they are otherwise more like a force of nature, 
  a machine made just for killing. 
  The Charmers are serial-killing stereotypes made flesh — murderous intent hidden behind a 
  cold smile. These rippers are often selective in their choice of victim and use their charm and 
  guile to achieve positions of respectability or influence in society that let them take their pick of 
  prey. Hypnos are scourges driven by their darkest urges to force people to their point-of-view; 
  they see their charnel achievements as the fulfillment of their beliefs, purifying the world or 
  testing their philosophy’s strength through murder. Killers burdened with this Undertaking are 
  more common in regions where strong political or religious ideologies clash. 
  
  Undesirables are rippers who lash out because they’ve either been rejected by society or they 
  see themselves as superior to it. Though Undesirables are often stereotyped physically, the 
  Undertaking draws its power from the slashers’ perception of themselves as outcasts. A Mutant 
  is that feeling of rejection and self-loathing in a physical form; these scourges are atavisms, 
  prisoners of truly distorted flesh, or with bodies warped by supernatural power. Slashers of this 
  Undertaking, rippers and scourges alike, usually dwell in the margins of society and civilization, 
  and are the most likely to band together. 
  The greatest weapon a Virtuoso ripper possesses is their mind. Whether they’re tormented by 
  their twisted thoughts or are convinced of their superiority to “lesser” humans, these sociopathic 
  rippers plan elaborate murders to play games of cat and mouse with the detectives they know 
  will pursue them. Puppeteers believe they possess brilliant insights the human mind cannot 
  conceive and are destined to share their tainted theories with unsuspecting victims. Each scourge 
  is a corrosive element in society that brings about madness in all its varied and terrible forms. 
  Slasher Undertakings 
  The Avenger (Ripper) 
  You’ll pay for what you’ve done. You’ll all pay. 
  As the name suggests, the Avenger wants vengeance. Sometimes, the motivation is a desire for 
  justice; sometimes, it’s just furious retaliation. The Avenger may feel they’ve been individually 
  wronged or might lash out because of a perceived problem in the wider world; either way, the 
  Avenger hurts, and the only way to ease the pain is to inflict in on those responsible. An 
  Avenger’s journey of vengeance might be deeply personal at first but will rapidly include more 
  victims as the ripper never stops blaming others for all that’s wrong in the world. The Avenger 
  can never move on, will never be satisfied, and can never have enough blood on their hands. 
  An Avenger usually follows a chain of twisted logic to hunt, either working down a list of 
  chosen prey or investigating connections between victims to find more. Many an Avenger 
  believes they’re fulfilling the letter of their moral law; they’re so girded with self-justification 
  they’ve rationalized murdering a victim after a petty slight. Innocent bystanders caught in the 
  blast are either acceptable collateral — or were clearly guilty themselves. 
  The quest for vengeance is a story as old as civilization itself, but while Avengers are a global 
  phenomenon, they’re thickly clustered in societies and cultures that hew to myths of nation and 
  identity centered on self-reliance or suspicion of authority. It’s no surprise they’re most common 
  in Western countries, namely the United States. 
  Tell: An Avenger’s Tell relates to the justifications she lives by. Whether a calling card or a 
  particular form of execution, the Tell proclaims that none of the guilty are safe, or that she is 
  acting where the regular authorities cannot. 
  Examples: Doctor Guilt is a hunter turned slasher, a broken surgeon who rages at his former 
  cellmates for turning on him in their darkest hour and forcing him to uphold the Code no matter 
  what. Lars settles in the frigid snow, rifle in the crook of his arms and axe lying ready, waiting 
  for the hikers who violated the sanctity of the serene wilderness he protects. Seong-ja brings a 
  slow, agonizing death with her power tools to all those she deems responsible for her family’s 
  death — the thugs, their boss, everyone in their whole jopok, the corrupt cops who take the 
  gangsters’ bribes, and her husband’s employer who sent him out to that place on that day. 
  
  Talent: Working the Room — An Avenger’s Defense does not suffer any penalty from being 
  attacked by multiple opponents over the course of a turn; always apply the slasher’s full Defense 
  to all incoming attacks. This does not protect the Avenger from attacks that completely 
  circumvent Defense, such as firearms. 
  Frailty: Mission-Focused — An Avenger is utterly obsessed with their mission. If the slasher 
  must choose between pursuing their target or another course of action, the Avenger must succeed 
  on a Resolve + Composure roll or be forced to pursue their prey even if it puts them in harm’s 
  way. 
  The Legend (Scourge) 
  I’m baaaaaack! 
  The Legend can’t stop killing and is bound by the story told of their murderous deeds. The 
  details say the Legend only kills certain people under specific circumstances. Leashed to the 
  narrative that has sprung up from the scourge’s deeds, the Legend is caught in a prison of rumors 
  and empowered by the fearful whispers that follow them. This is no mere psychological 
  compulsion; the story is in control now, and it’ll twist the Legend to fit, even bend reality around 
  their actions to keep the narrative going. 
  Whatever the Legend’s original motivations, their past actions had an identifiable pattern; 
  perhaps the slasher preyed on hunters, abusers, or police; perhaps they always killed at a 
  crossroads, on a certain street, or after a loud party. It doesn’t matter what the Legend’s 
  reasoning was, the pattern has been woven into the story’s logic. Now, that pattern of behavior is 
  set, and the Legend must obey it; if the wild tales say The Dentist is toothless and that’s why he 
  always plucks victims’ teeth out, he must yank them out — even if he’s never lost one. 
  Traditionally, the stories that fuel Legends emerge in large populations or tight communities 
  where urban legends have a chance to take on a life of their own. The rising tide of the slasher 
  plague has mixed with the viral nature of the internet, however, and this has allowed Legends to 
  flourish in unusual places on a global scale. 
  Tell: The Legend’s Tell is the all-consuming underpinning of the scourge’s existence. Whether 
  murdering young lovers out by Devil’s Lake or leaving victims alone if a specific prayer is 
  repeated in their presence, the Legend is defined by the rules storytellers have laid out as their 
  modus operandi. Crucial to hunters, the Legend is uniquely vulnerable provided their urban 
  legends outline a weakness, location, or clue that can lead cells to a confrontation.  
  Examples: The Painted Bride murders husbands-to-be, clad in her blood-spattered wedding 
  dress as she stalks her victims; they say she was murdered by her own fiancé, and claws her way 
  out of the grave to visit vengeance on his ilk. When a maintenance worker vanishes in the metro 
  tunnels under Moscow, the passengers shake their heads and agree he must’ve crossed to the 
  wrong side of the tracks without greeting old Artyom and offended the slasher. Rusty Nail goes 
  after drunks, and pounds nails into their skulls; the story’s been circulating since the Prohibition, 
  and always seems to find a new copycat whenever the newspapers run a story on the serial 
  killer’s morbid history. 
  Talent: Living Legend — Once per scene, when someone fulfills one of the tenets of the 
  Avenger’s “rules,” the player can roll the slasher’s chosen Attribute + Occult. Successes on this 
  roll may be applied on one of the following: restoring spent Willpower, healing damage (one 
  
  success for a bashing wound, two for lethal, three for aggravated), or applying the bonuses to 
  rolls in pursuit of their goal.  
  After this has been activated, successes that haven’t been spent are discarded. They may not be 
  banked to use in a following scene. Additionally, the Legend may use Dread Powers that 
  specifically highlight its storied nature. These might include: Eye Spy, Taint, or Hex. 
  Frailty: Narrative Chains — The Legend gains a unique and specific frailty enforced by the 
  nature of the tales surrounding them. Additionally, characters investigating the scourge’s Tell 
  (see p. XX) gain an exceptional success on three successes rather than five. 
  The Brute (Ripper) 
  People ain’t nothing more than animals. 
  The Brute is rage, strength, and a hunger for killing all wrapped up in one unstoppable package. 
  Pushed to the edge of their humanity, the Brute lashes out to satisfy their rage by crushes 
  windpipes and breaking necks. The Brute gains pleasure from watching the life slip from their 
  victims; murder validates their every action to keep their anger at bay. 
  Brutes can’t be reasoned with. Any attempt to persuade them not to kill either won’t work or will 
  backfire. A Brute isn’t necessarily a monster frothing at the mouth. Despite their reputation, a 
  Brute can function in society and often does — right up until their interactions reinforce why the 
  Brute prefers killing to socializing. Murder is easy. Resolving conflict in nonviolent ways is 
  infinitely harder.  
  Most Brutes live at the fringes of a metropolis or larger community. Often, the Brute wanders 
  near a city to keep up appearances, but never stays longer than the time required to pick up 
  supplies. In the current crisis, Brutes stand out as slashers of pure rage. When a Brute is on the 
  prowl, reports circulate widely of their vicious murders to ensure hunters know to take them out. 
  Tell: Brutes don’t think of people as people anymore; other humans exist for the Brute to ignore 
  or kill. As a result, the Brute rarely attempts to communicate through their Tell; the slasher’s not 
  making a statement by killing. They just do. Brutes’ Tells lie in the savage acts caused by their 
  raw, uncontrollable anger. 
  Examples: Phelps’ superiors feared her excessive use of force on the job would one day cause 
  her to snap, and she did. A former police officer, Phelps believes she must kill “the enemy,” and 
  everyone is a potential villain in her mind. When customers drop by the butcher to pick up their 
  orders, Arturo invites them in, then hangs them up with the rest of the carcasses in the meat 
  locker. They call him “Pig Man” because all he does is grunt like an animal. 
  Talent: Unstoppable — A brute never suffers wound penalties for any reason, and 
  automatically passes any roll to remain conscious due to damage or pain. 
  Frailty: Tunnel Vision — A brute suffers a −3 penalty to all Perception rolls, and to rolls to 
  avoid being surprised in combat. 
  The Mask (Scourge) 
  (Heavy breathing) 
  All traces of the scourge’s humanity have gone. All that’s left in the Mask is a body and the 
  burning need to kill. The Mask does not understand compassion, guilt, or mercy; some targets 
  
  simply do not interest them, but they aren’t spared because the scourge is kind. The Mask 
  doesn’t speak or try to communicate. This scourge is the embodiment of murder in a human 
  body. 
  Masks often wear physical masks that further distance themselves from society. The Mask is 
  faceless; their former identity is subsumed beneath a desperate need to kill. These remorseless 
  slashers may be able to feel heartache, guilt, and remorse, but they don’t show it. To their 
  victims, the Mask is an organic machine, deriving no pleasure from murdering victims, and 
  following the only routines left in their shattered mind. 
  Hunters who believe the slasher epidemic is the work of a greater organization wonder if Masks 
  have been captured and experimented upon. Has someone twisted these mindless puppets for 
  their own, merciless purpose? The evidence isn’t clear, but patterns are suspicious. As new 
  Masks emerge, they appear to be preying on one, specific target: hunters. 
  Tell: Some Masks grasp the scraps of their former, mortal lives; a Mask can never pretend to be 
  human, but might react oddly to stimuli like colors, songs, or pictures that remind them of who 
  they once were. This insight into the Mask’s origins might offer some clues to predict the 
  scourge’s next move. Once a hunter has studied their patterns of behavior, they are easier to find 
  — but not necessarily to catch.  
  Examples: The Tin Angel is a failed experiment by a venture capitalist; he comes for anyone 
  who takes from his junkyard lair in Philadelphia and impales their corpses on metal debris like a 
  shrike. In the favelas of Rio, they say the imparavel is a brutal secret agent who was shot during 
  a drug raid and got up again to keep on killing; he never left the city, and emerges to exact his 
  brand of “justice.” They tortured Sumeyye until her mind took refuge in its own recesses, and 
  something else stepped into the gap; now she stalks Ankara’s suburbs, butchering anyone who 
  looks like her tormentors. 
  Talent: Killing Machine — Like a Brute, a Mask does not suffer wound penalties and passes 
  rolls to remain conscious due to damage or pain. Additionally, the Mask does not need to sleep 
  or eat, and only suffers a single point of damage from any attack regardless of the damage or 
  number of successes. This applies to mundane and supernatural forms of attack; only 
  environmental damage such as fire, electrocution, or falling bricks applies damage normally. 
  The Mask might use Dread Powers like Agonize, Dread Attack, or Unnatural Step. 
  Frailty: Only the Kill — A Mask has lost the ability to communicate. They are illiterate and are 
  limited to simple gestures or grunts. To understand what’s been said to them, they must succeed 
  at an Intelligence + Composure roll. 
  The Charmer (Ripper) 
  Good morning, ma’am! Have you heard the good news? 
  The Charmer is compelling and magnetic. Their warm smile masks the chill behind their eyes; 
  the trustworthy tone in their voice allows them to push boundaries and kick in doors before 
  victims understand what’s happening. The Charmer has a knack for seeking out vulnerable 
  people and exploiting their frailties. Many of these rippers manipulate their way to positions of 
  social influence and authority to get a bird’s eye view before selecting their next victim. It’s just 
  so easy to con trustworthy people to do whatever the Charmer wants. 
  
  Deep down, Charmers are disgusted by other people and find them repulsive. Some may even go 
  so far as to make analogies about culling the herd or forcing animals back in their place. This is 
  because the Charmer is a sadist who craves power over everyone and anyone they encounter. A 
  Charmer is a wolf in sheep’s clothing who easily blends in because they’ve pulled the right 
  strings to pick off weaker prey. 
  Charmers are drawn to well-populated urban areas that teeter on the edge of growth and decay. 
  Some hunters have heard a terrifying rumor: Charmers are building a network of slashers. Others 
  heard a puzzling observation; other slashers are picking off Charmers when they can to even the 
  playing field. If the most paranoid conspiracy theorists are to be believed, Charmers are now 
  organizing grotesque little business conventions. 
  Tell: Charmers usually loathe something that gets under their skin. The moral question of 
  whether their angst is valid doesn’t matter. They might stroll by a burlesque club and be pissed 
  off the dancers were too exposed, drop by a church and berate a priest for not being faithful 
  enough, or enter a bookstore and lament how nobody reads those books anymore. Whatever that 
  thing is, that’s a Charmer’s Tell, because it breaks their charming façade and temporarily topples 
  their sense of superiority. 
  Examples: “John Smith” is an identity thief par excellence, sliding into a target’s life like a 
  murderous cuckoo and killing them once he’s passed for them; he doesn’t remember who he 
  really is any more. The Passenger, a late-night Lagos hitchhiker, is armed with a battery of 
  probing questions for anyone who offers her a lift; those she deems sinful won’t survive the 
  drive. The Little Green Man uses drugs and sedatives to torture his victims; he likes to leave a 
  survivor or two behind, too confused and traumatized to properly recall who cut their tendons 
  and flayed their skin. 
  Talent: Disarming — The Charmer is a master manipulator and knows how to use Social 
  Maneuvers (p. XX) to produce excellent results. They enjoy +2 dice when rolling to open a 
  Door, and get a bonus die when making a first impression. 
  Frailty: Thin Veneer — During a scene, when a Charmer fails to maintain their persona after 
  falling prey to their unique trigger, the ripper must spend a point of Willpower or lash out at the 
  target of their ire. Further consequences to their Social Maneuvers may result depending upon 
  which character the Charmer has shown their “true face” to. 
  The Hypno (Scourge) 
  This is all a battle between our beliefs, detective. Whoever is right, lives. Whoever is wrong, dies. 
  The Hypno’s driven by an ideal that underpins every kill. Much like the Charmer, the Hypno is 
  disgusted or repulsed by a specific some element of the world, and that belief of their superiority 
  has hardened into an unstoppable force. The Hypno sees the world as a bigger picture, a clash 
  between philosophies and ideologies. All that matters to the slasher is fighting in this great war, 
  proving their warped beliefs are correct through the medium of murder. 
  Hypnos tend to fixate on rivalries with those in their orbit; they see everything through the lens 
  of a challenge — whether real or imagined. A Hypno will taunt and provoke an investigator to 
  push the boundaries of their beliefs against the detective’s. Every time the scourge gets away 
  with murder, it validates them. Often, hunters who encounter Hypnos fall prey to their aggressive 
  force of personality, and stumble when they can’t hold on to their own ideals. 
  
  Scourges of this kind are a hunter’s bane. The Hypno might watch a cell deal with another 
  slasher with great interest, and “help” point out what they missed just to mess with them. Other 
  Hypnos might target hunters who struggle with the Code and show them why they’ve gone 
  horribly wrong. Then, when hunters are vulnerable and confused, the Hypno strikes to emerge as 
  their superior. 
  Tell: A Hypno’s choice of victims is paramount, because it is an expression of her ideology. 
  Right or wrong, the Hypno acts as judge, jury, and executioner to anyone they feel deserves to 
  die. One might murder con artists, for example, because the Hypno feels justified ridding the 
  world of charlatans. Another targets coma patients and pulls the plug because they’re “wasting” 
  too much money. The Hypno’s calling card is the pattern of the tell, the confessions they leave 
  behind, and the desperation they have to inform hunters and criminal investigators their murders 
  serve a purpose. 
  Examples: Camo Mike is a trophy hunter playing the most dangerous game: He claims mortals 
  were born to hunt and picking off weaker prey is a favor to others. In Argentina, the police chase 
  the Confession Killer, who arranges her victims in grotesque caricatures of their greatest vices; 
  the hypocrisy of sinners disgusts her. In Italy, Mio Padre selectively targets politicians, reporters, 
  and academics to sway public opinion, hoping to “return” l’Italia to the 1600s, because 
  unification of the city states clearly isn’t working. 
  Talent: Compelling Words — When making a Social roll of any kind to get a target to drop 
  their guard for a moment or to heed the slasher’s words, the Hypno treats any success as an 
  exceptional success. If using this moment to get close to the target and attack them, the scourge 
  treats the victim as vulnerable to a Killing Blow, dealing damage equal to their dice pool for the 
  attack plus any bonus for a weapon, with no roll required. If using this to demoralize or sow 
  doubt in a target’s mind, the scourge can instead drain a point of Willpower from the victim to 
  regain it; they cannot drain Willpower from a target more than once per scene. 
  The Hypno has access to an array of Dread Powers that might include: Know Soul, Agonize, and 
  Predator’s Sense. 
  Frailty: Can’t Let Go — Whenever a Hypno experiences a failure on a Social roll against a 
  target she intends to kill, she becomes absolutely obsessed with the desired victim. She loses a 
  point of Willpower at the end of every scene wherein she does not directly attempt to torment or 
  attack the target. This effect ends when the target dies, or if the target manages to inflict damage 
  on the Hypno. 
  The Undesirable (Ripper) 
  I’ve seen the disgusted glances you give me when you think I’m not looking! 
  The Undesirable glances in the mirror, sees a disgusting monster, and wants murderous revenge 
  on those responsible for their twisted features. It’s all someone else’s fault —the burn scars, the 
  wiry, unkempt hair, the haunting shadows in their red eyes — and they need to suffer in kind. In 
  some cases, the rejection fueling the Undesirable’s hatred either did happen, or didn’t quite occur 
  the way they remember. In other cases, being spurned is a fiction repeated by the slasher; they’ve 
  convinced themselves they’re unlovable, that everyone laughs at their repulsiveness, or some 
  other delusion fanning the flames of self-loathing and resentment to a bloody crescendo. 
  
  Some Undesirables revel in their status as an outcast and monster, and feel free to inflict 
  punishment on a society that judged them by its own cruel standards. Others are miserable 
  wretches, unable to control their own monstrous impulses and desperately wishing for a way out. 
  In both cases, the Undesirable acts bestial because they believe they are a monster — even if 
  they don’t fit the conventional definition of one. 
  Hunters are terrified of Undesirables because of their unusual tendencies for camaraderie 
  amongst other slashers. Undesirables naturally gravitate toward others of their kind and form 
  hateful cabals at the fringes of society. Some go a step further, seeking out “true” monsters to 
  emulate and serve.  
  Tell: Undesirables usually limit their depredations to specific geographical areas; denied the 
  gregarious bonds of society, the slasher instead builds and maintains a well-protected nest for 
  reassurance. Leaving their nest can be disorienting or even frightening for the Undesirable. The 
  Undesirable’s physical appearance is often memorable, whether due to an actual deformity or a 
  self-inflicted harm caused by their self-loathing; this trait looms large in urban legends once 
  they’re spotted. 
  Examples: The Nurse hides in an abandoned hospital; she covers her bleeding mouth, a festering 
  wound of blackened teeth and roughly cut edges, with a thin hospital mask while cutting her next 
  victim’s face. The Contortionist hangs from the ceiling of an ironworks by hooks in their bare 
  skin, and “invites” their victims to do the same. Buck can always be found with a cigarette in his 
  hand; he squashes the lit butts on his bare skin, obsessively scarring it until he can find a pristine 
  canvas to start all over again. 
  Talent: Natural Compass — A Undesirable has a near-perfect sense of direction, and gains a 
  +3 bonus to Perception, Athletics, Investigation, and Survival rolls when present in their nest. 
  Frailty: Rejection — The Undesirable suffers a −4 penalty on Social rolls that do not involve 
  slashers and other monsters. 
  The Mutant (Scourge) 
  So weak and flimsy, this frail human flesh of yours. Comes apart so easily. 
  The Mutant stares down at their body and doesn’t see a human being anymore. Their flesh and 
  features are no longer recognizable as mortal, and those who encounter the Mutant may wonder 
  if they’re a cryptid. A Mutant’s grotesque appearance may be a terrifying accident of birth, a side 
  effect incited by an experimental drug treatment, or a symptom of a warped influence. In rare 
  cases, the weight of a nascent slasher’s self-loathing is enough to stir a cancerous 
  transmogrification, sculpting skin and bone to match their broken self-image. 
  A Mutant cannot blend in; most dwell in remote nests or in a city’s underbelly. The Mutant’s 
  appearance is not the source of their inhumanity; the scourge wants and needs to kill. Some 
  Mutants cling to twisted ideals justifying this urge; their slithering thoughts convince them the 
  next step in humanity’s evolution is to transform the body through pain and torture. For others, 
  the driving force behind their transformation is a desire to become a knife honed and pointed at 
  their next victim. 
  Mutants are the easiest Undertakings to track in the current epidemic, because they stand out as 
  soon as they are spotted. While they are rarer than other scourges, their nests have been found 
  with increasing frequency across Europe and Asia. 
  
  Tell: A Mutant often leaves clear signs of their horrific nature behind after they strike. These 
  might include shed hair or fingernails, claw marks on the walls, ichor that has dripped from their 
  sores, or bloodied instruments of torture. 
  Examples: The Crocodile Killer squeezes through pipes, then savages his chosen victims in their 
  private pools with his filed teeth; he indulges in the luxuries of their palatial homes for a day or 
  two, then escapes back into the sewers. The Taotie craves the taste of human viscera and shovels 
  the guts of his prey into an impossibly wide maw. Contagion Chrissie kills doctors and nurses, 
  blaming medical professionals for the infections that have warped her body into a cauldron of 
  festering diseases. 
  Talent: Warped Form — A Mutant possesses natural weaponry that has a weapon modifier and 
  armor-piercing quality of 2, with no Initiative modifier, as well as 2 points of Armor. This Talent 
  is supported by the Mutant’s available Dread Powers like Dread Attack, Crushing Blow, and 
  Regenerate. 
  Frailty: Sensitivity — As well as the Social penalty suffered by Undesirables, a Mutant is 
  sensitive to a stimulus chosen by the Storyteller. This might include bright light, the scent of 
  roses, the feel of velvet, the sound of classical music, cats, extreme heat, etc. When exposed to 
  the stimulus, the Mutant must spend a Willpower point or attempt to flee the scene immediately; 
  if unable to flee, they either attempt to hide, or lash out to destroy or remove the stimulus. 
  Regardless of spent Willpower, they suffer a −2 penalty on all dice pools provided the stimulus 
  remains present. 
  The Virtuoso (Ripper) 
  They call that game “cat and mouse,” right? Well, I’m the board. 
  The Virtuoso knows they’re better than everyone else. Their keen intellect separates them from 
  the dullards sleepwalking through their pointless little lives. Virtuosos see the “truth” where 
  others stare at the ground in front of them, and this justifies their actions. Where others might 
  stick to a moral code, the Virtuoso revels in the ability to judge idiot peers, treat naïve customers 
  as playthings, or exercise their hateful spite on unwitting stooges before murdering them in a 
  glorious-to-them fashion. When it comes to the kill, it’s the Virtuoso’s intellect that serves as 
  their greatest weapon. Each murder is a clear demonstration of their superior mind. 
  Slashers of this Undertaking are in their element when devising elaborate plans, traps, and 
  careful profiles of their targets. The Virtuoso lures victims into their well-defended nests when 
  they’re not present. If the victims get hurt, of course, the Virtuoso has an alibi. The ripper will 
  often make their efforts personal to get under their victims’ skin. Every time the victim 
  succumbs to their baser instincts, or the detective can’t figure out the riddle, it’s proof the 
  Virtuoso is still in control. 
  Most of these rippers emerge in densely populated cities, and they’re comparatively rare 
  elsewhere. They’re often on the move, perhaps more so than other Undertakings, and gravitate 
  toward areas where existing slashers have achieved a high profile — to compete with them by 
  putting another deadly challenge on the board. 
  Tell: Most Virtuoso rippers have an area of expertise that features strongly in their killings. This 
  misguided sense of pride is a chance to show off how skilled they are — but also acts as a 
  potential lead. Of course, the Virtuoso is often smart enough to realize this, so the fact that every 
  
  killing features a clever use of chemicals might just be a bluff to lure hunters down the wrong 
  trail of chasing maintenance workers or chemists. 
  Examples: Cinderella’s Prince Charming never turned up, so she used her abusive stepmother 
  and stepsiblings as guinea pigs to refine her understanding of the poisoner’s art; now everyone’s 
  a lab rat in her eyes, and she does love to experiment. The Red Librarian drops his captives into 
  absurd death-trap puzzles that test their intelligence with lethal consequences; he picks his prey 
  from those he deems academic bores or frauds. “Judge” Kelly’s victims consider her attention a 
  privilege; she serves as spiritual adviser in a demented cult, setting supplicants life-threatening 
  tests that will — if they survive — reveal a flaw or weakness within them that she has observed. 
  Talent: Profiling — After observing a target, the Virtuoso may roll Intelligence + Empathy, 
  contested by the victim’s Manipulation + Subterfuge if they are actively attempting to conceal 
  their motives or disguise their nature. Should the Virtuoso succeed, they can predict the victim’s 
  actions with alarming accuracy; they win ties in contested rolls against them, may raise Initiative 
  one higher than the target’s Initiative result at the beginning of combat.  
  If able to spend an entire scene socially interacting with the target before making a roll, the 
  ripper learns one unique trait: Virtue, Vice, Integrity or Willpower rating, Conditions suffered, 
  Endowments, etc. 
  Frailty: Control Freak — Whenever a Virtuoso fails on an Intelligence-based roll, or on a roll 
  using one of the Skills bolstered by their Undertaking, they lose two points of Willpower. 
  The Puppeteer (Scourge) 
  I need you to understand. Let me cut away your ignorance. 
  The Puppeteer’s perspective is irretrievably cleft away from any understand a hunter might 
  possess. The scourge is in thrall to an inexplicable belief or insight that seems utterly rational to 
  them and must be shared with others. The Puppeteer may be frantically attempting to 
  communicate this message to an unwitting public or may believe their knowledge is a gift 
  bestowed on victims they torment and kill. The Puppeteer is more than just an irredeemable 
  killer with a shattered mind; they’re a vector for a corrosive perspective and eager to let it spread. 
  Puppeteers are often followed by cultists beguiled and manipulated to believe their mad gospel. 
  Some Puppeteers never actually kill in person and work entirely through the hands of their 
  faithful. Other scourges prefer to corner and torture each victim in delicious isolation, hoping to 
  find a glimmer of truth in the eyes of their prey. The Puppeteer might believe a shadow god 
  waits behind reality’s pallid skin and it must be sated with blood. Or, they might be convinced no 
  more murders will be required if just the right amount of lives is brutally taken within a specified 
  period. 
  Hunters worry that emerging Puppeteers are connecting to “hash out” an infernal doctrine on 
  which they can all agree. Some hunters scour the internet grasping for fraying threads of their 
  presence online. To this end, some cells have devoted all their efforts to hunting Puppeteers 
  because they perceive them to be the most dangerous of all.  
  Tell: Everything the Puppeteer does is filled with meaning, albeit filtered through their delirium. 
  This meaning is often expressed by details found in the slasher’s crime scenes; they might daub 
  the killing room with prayers to impossible gods or bloody sigils. A Puppeteer plans their 
  murders to match greater, often mundane, patterns investigators can follow. Since Puppeteers are 
  
  often surrounded by a cult of true believers, their presence can also point to where and when 
  they’ll strike next. 
  Examples: The slasher called “Y” is a self-proclaimed liberator of the downtrodden, abused, and 
  mistreated —their “problems” can only be solved by killing. The Orchid Killer travels across the 
  Middle East and into Southeast Asia, hunting with a deft touch; she carves flesh and bone into 
  gruesome flowers to understand the secrets hidden in the natural patterns she sees. The Prophet 
  of Black Frequencies sends his cult to carve out the brains of the “agents” serving alien angels on 
  the dark side of the moon, but now he’s at war with the New Messiah of the Static Song; his 
  former protégé became his rival. 
  Talent: Compelling — A Puppeteer can profile a victim much like a Virtuoso, but additionally 
  benefits from the 8-again quality on any contested roll against a profiled target. They also impose 
  a penalty equal to the scourge’s Intelligence on victims’ rolls to notice traps or react to ambushes 
  set for them in their nest. 
  Additionally, the Puppeteer may use Dread Powers. These might include Agonize, Eye Spy, and 
  Madness and Terror. 
  Frailty: Falter — Whenever a Puppeteer fails a Social roll, it becomes a dramatic failure. 
  Creating a Slasher 
  In the Slasher Chronicle, rippers and scourges are emerging at an alarming rate while other 
  monsters fade into the shadows. This epidemic of broken murderers with their dizzying variety 
  of methods and motivations follows one of three patterns notable for slasher creation. 
  Each slasher has one of the 10 Undertakings that cover the possible methodologies and purposes 
  of slashers, divided among the five rippers and the five scourges. The Storyteller chooses 
  whichever Undertaking best fits the antagonist’s backstory, modus operandi, and intended place 
  in the chronicle. 
  The Tell 
  Every slasher has a Tell, a consistent and identifying marker that acts as the killer’s personal 
  signature for every murder they commit. The Tell might be tied to a slasher’s preferred victim 
  type, the way they stalk victims, the methods used to “decorate” the crime scene, the torture 
  implements they use, or the way they interact with investigators. The Storyteller determines the 
  slasher’s Tell after creating the character to flesh out the killer’s thematic representation in the 
  story. 
  The Tell is a source of pride for slashers, but it’s also an extension of their personality. It acts as 
  the last remaining shred of their mortality to say: “Here’s why I kill and am such a monster.” A 
  slasher might engage in infernal rituals or even prayer during their slayings; one may be due to a 
  feeling of guilt, the other a sense of power. In either case, the Tell is the linchpin of a slasher’s 
  identity.  
  Slashers must perform the Tell each time they kill. If they don’t, they suffer the Deprived 
  Condition if unable (or unwilling) to do so. The resolution to the Deprived Condition is to 
  perform the Tell for that murder; implementing the Tell restores one Willpower point. This can 
  happen in a few different ways. Maybe the slasher finds another victim and returns to that scene. 
  
  Maybe the slasher records a video marking or marring a different crime scene and delivers it to 
  police, to “sign” their murders. Or maybe they inflict self-harm to do what’s required.  
  The Tell is also crucial to hunters, because it gives them a way to find and deal with the slasher. 
  Tracking a murderer, while using the Investigation Rules (p. XX), will uncover the Tell as an 
  important Clue. Despite this piece of knowledge, the Tell may be too unsettling or gruesome for 
  the hunters to bear, as no two Tells are precisely the same. Storytellers are encouraged to balance 
  the needs of the investigation against the potential for psychological and emotional trauma by 
  using Tilts and Conditions when appropriate. 
  Slasher Rules Summary 
  Rules adjustments provided relay a frenetic and desperate feel to this story, as the slasher is the 
  primary antagonist and monster the cells will encounter. This may be summarized as: 
  • 
  A newly created ripper emerges to prey on a village, town, or city and, if not dealt with, 
  they quickly become a scourge after the bodies pile up. Rippers are created similarly to other 
  antagonists (p. XX) and intentionally seek ways to inflict pain, push characters to breaking 
  points, and force them to suffer Tilts and Conditions. Following the death of their fifth victim or 
  the end of a chapter, whichever comes first, the ripper becomes a scourge. Rippers can, however, 
  be saved prior to their first kill. 
  • 
  A scourge crawls and creeps to prey on victims whenever and wherever they can. 
  Scourges, for the purpose of the Slasher Chronicle, are imbued with the supernatural, have 
  limited Potency, and can wield certain Dread Powers. Suggestions have been included in their 
  Undertakings. Keep in mind slashers cannot fundamentally and significantly alter reality, nor can 
  they actively manipulate their environment by changing the weather, affecting electronic objects, 
  etc. While narrative effects may occur reflexively in their presence, the Dread Powers chosen 
  must be a good narrative fit for the slasher’s Undertaking. If they don’t, the scourge is no longer 
  a slasher and should be treated as a new monster. 
  • 
  Once a slasher is aware the hunters are on their trail, they may retaliate by conning, 
  stalking, kidnapping, or even murdering people they know. These characters could be a hunter’s 
  Touchstones or connected to applicable Merits such as Allies and Contacts. When these 
  characters die or are terrified and no longer want to communicate with the hunter, the hunter 
  feels this loss. The Touchstone needs to be replaced, and the Merit dots are redistributed. For 
  more, refer to the rules for losing Touchstones (p. XX) and the Sanctity of Merits (p. XX).  
  • 
  A hunter may become a slasher. First, they become a ripper; when they do, they retain 
  membership in their cell, compact, or conspiracy until they are discovered. As a new ripper, they 
  may be saved from the darkest parts of themselves. The fallen hunter must work to regain 
  Integrity before killing a victim; when it’s clear the hunter has been permanently changed into a 
  ripper or scourge, they can no longer be redeemed. At that point, they become a Storyteller 
  character. The Code has been shattered, and the hunter has fallen back into the shadows to 
  become a monster. 
  If using a slasher in a regular chronicle, the following modifications apply:  
  • 
  Rippers appear and transform at a more reasonable rate. They are treated as deadly 
  antagonists that may eventually become a scourge. The chance for their redemption is at the 
  Storyteller’s discretion. 
  
  • 
  Rippers close to becoming a scourge may acquire Potency and start to use Dread Powers 
  at the Storyteller’s discretion. 
  • 
  A scourge’s appearance is notable, and sightings occur in a wider region rather than 
  within the confines of a city. When they do, their presence does not typically go unnoticed. 
  • 
  A scourge may have a Potency rating like other monsters, at the Storyteller’s discretion, 
  but it is not required. Supernatural effects surrounding scourges may also be subdued depending 
  on its Undertaking. 
  • 
  The phenomenon of hunters becoming slashers is infrequent and ultimately rare. When a 
  hunter turns into a ripper, this becomes the focus of an entire chronicle. The same rules apply, 
  but the scope is tightly focused on dealing with that hunter as the antagonist. Ultimately, it is up 
  to the Storyteller if their group wants to explore this theme. 
  Creating a slasher may be treated as building a type of monster (p. XX). In addition to Dread 
  Powers (p. XX) and slasher-specific Merits, their Undertaking shapes which type of slasher they 
  will be. 
  Ripper Systems 
  Rippers appear more frequently in the Slasher Chronicle than they would in a typical Hunter 
  game. The rate of sightings depends on the Storyteller’s focus and the cell’s capabilities. One 
  group may decide to tightly focus on hunters becoming slashers (p. XX), while another wants to 
  prevent rippers from becoming scourges. The number of rippers in an area will vary accordingly. 
  To create a ripper, keep the following in mind: 
  • 
  Attribute: Each ripper gains a favored Attribute appropriate to their Undertaking. This 
  Attribute rating is raised to five at no cost.  
  • 
  Skills: Next, the Storyteller picks two Skills that best represent the slasher’s motivations 
  or methods; the slasher receives a free Skill Specialty in each. 
  • 
  Virtue and Vice: Rippers must be assigned a Virtue and Vice. 
  • 
  Slasher Merits: Rippers have access to slasher-specific Merits when created; the 
  Storyteller must decide if the ripper has already made their first kill or not. 
  • 
  Size: Rippers may have a Size of 4, 5, or 6 at character creation. 
  • 
  Integrity: All slashers have an Integrity score of 0 as a representation of their murderous 
  intent. The lack of Integrity doesn’t mean the slasher has suffered trauma or abuse, however, nor 
  does it automatically speak to a history of ghastly acts; some slashers “break” for trivial or banal 
  reasons.  
  • 
  Addiction: Every slasher possesses the Addicted Condition to reflect their addition to 
  killing. The specifics of the Condition vary from slasher to slasher; some are possessed of a 
  bloodlust that means they crave the release of regular murder, whereas others can bide their time 
  and are satisfied with only the occasional spot of brutal carnage.  
  If the Condition is suppressed (or removed) but the slasher’s Integrity is not raised above 0, it 
  will eventually resurface in a later session at the Storyteller’s discretion. 
  
  • 
  Mortality: Unlike scourges, rippers do not possess Potency. For all intents and purposes, 
  rippers are still human. They may be monstrous, but they are not supernatural with few 
  exceptions. 
  • 
  Rehabilitation: Rippers may be rehabilitated before their first victim dies. To save a 
  ripper from themselves, two things must happen: The Addicted Condition must be resolved, and 
  their Integrity rating must be raised to 1. 
  • 
  Transformation: When a ripper becomes a slasher, their Merit dots may be reallocated 
  to purchase up to three relevant Dread Powers. The total number of Merit dots informs the new 
  scourge’s maximum Potency rating. For example, if a ripper has a total of nine allocated Merit 
  dots, then their maximum assigned Potency as a scourge would be five. The Storyteller is 
  encouraged to make further adjustments to the scourge’s Potency rating to balance them against 
  the cell’s capabilities. 
  Scourge Systems 
  Like rippers, scourges are preying on communities at an alarming rate. The number of sightings 
  depends on the Storyteller’s focus and the cell’s capabilities. A chronicle focused on dealing 
  with scourges increases the threat level and the grisly details. 
  To create a scourge, keep the following in mind: 
  • 
  Attribute: Each scourge gains a favored Attribute appropriate to their Undertaking. This 
  Attribute rating is raised to five at no cost.  
  • 
  Skills: Next, the Storyteller picks two Skills that best represent the slasher’s motivations 
  or methods; the slasher receives a free Skill Specialty in each. 
  • 
  Virtue and Vice: Scourges also require a Virtue and Vice. 
  • 
  Slasher Merits: Scourges have access to slasher-specific Merits when created in addition 
  to Dread Powers. 
  • 
  Size: Scourges may have a Size of 4, 5, or 6 at character creation. 
  • 
  Integrity: All scourges have an Integrity score of 0. 
  • 
  Addiction: Every scourge possesses the Addicted (Murder) Condition. If the Condition is 
  suppressed (or removed), but the slasher’s Integrity is not raised above 0, it will resurface in the 
  following session. 
  • 
  Taint: Scourges have a Potency rating and may purchase Dread Powers applicable to 
  their Undertaking. However, Scourges have a maximum Potency rating of 6 and cannot have 
  more than three Dread Powers. 
  • 
  Rehabilitation: Scourges may not be rehabilitated, even if their Integrity raises to 1. 
  Hunter’s Fall from Grace 
  The grim truth of the Vigil is that it exacts a terrible toll from the hunters who uphold it. The 
  world is revealed to be a terrible place of nightmare powers and devious conspiracies, where 
  predators wait in the shadows for the slightest opportunity to kill, maim, or torment. A hunter 
  risks — and likely loses — life and limb on a regular basis, for little or no reward beyond the 
  
  immediate satisfaction of doing what is right. The wages of the Vigil are often pain, madness, 
  and eventually death. 
  It’s little wonder that an alarming number of slashers emerges from the embattled ranks of 
  hunters. Hunters are exposed to a mix of thoughts, feelings, and experiences that can incubate the 
  slasher’s broken mind and soul. A hunter can become a slasher via several means. 
  Hunter-to-Slasher Systems 
  For the Storyteller: Winning Scenarios 
  The Slasher Chronicle offers a set of tools to tell a story and isn’t presented to 
  introduce horror for horror’s sake. As such, you’ll need to decide if, when, and how 
  the players can earn a win. While the supernatural may be overwhelming, 
  reminding the cell that the odds are always too great doesn’t encourage them to 
  fight.  
  One way to balance the pace, tone, and emotional weight of the story is to give 
  hunters opportunities to win. All hunters, regardless of tier, can save victims, solve 
  crimes, help other hunters, or figure out how to stem the rising, red tide. These 
  moments of hope give the narrative heft and keep the players’ interest to see the 
  chronicle all the way through.So how does a hunter become a slasher? 
  The hunter may simply be ground down by the relentless weight of the Vigil. Each time the 
  hunter kills, she loses a little piece of herself; each time, it becomes easier to justify the loss of an 
  innocent. Convictions give way to practicality and idealism gives way to bitterness and spite. 
  The hunter might decide it’s acceptable to torture a cultist because, after all, they really need that 
  information to catch up with the monster they seek. Soon enough, that hunter pushes the line 
  because it gets the job done. 
  • 
  Integrity: When a hunter’s Integrity score falls to 0, they are in danger of becoming a 
  ripper. 
  • 
  Losing Touch: Touchstones, Allies, Mentors, and other supporting characters are not 
  automatically lost. When they come into the hunter’s orbit, they become part of the hunter’s 
  rehabilitation or fall. Rules for losing them continue to apply as normal. 
  • 
  Rehabilitation: A hunter who hasn’t transformed may be saved before their first victim 
  dies. Their Integrity rating must be raised to 1. 
  • 
  First Transformation: When a hunter becomes a ripper, their Merit dots may be 
  allocated to purchase relevant Slasher Merits that fit the fiction.  
  • 
  Addiction: The hunter acquires the Addicted (Murder) Condition after making their first 
  kill. If the Condition is suppressed (or removed) but the slasher’s Integrity is not raised above 0, 
  it will eventually resurface in a later session at the Storyteller’s discretion. 
  • 
  Victims Claimed: When a fallen hunter can no longer regain Integrity and it’s clear 
  they’ve permanently become a ripper, they are no longer playable as a character. The Storyteller 
  may make an exception to increase drama and tension by extending the number of victims to 
  three instead. 
  
  Additionally, hunters with low Integrity begin to have an impact on their cell, compact, or 
  conspiracy, but they aren’t lost yet — not until they emerge as a ripper before or after they make 
  their first kill. 
  Across the Tiers 
  Mechanically, a hunter may be a ripper — but the characters may be unaware that’s the case. 
  The following adjustments occur when the hunter has shattered the Code and thwarted the Vigil. 
  • 
  Tier One: The cell may not know their cellmate is a ripper, but it’s clear something’s off. 
  Teamwork and Tactics no longer work as intended, as the ripper cannot participate in them. This 
  effect is a clue to help the cell uncover and deal with what’s wrong. 
  • 
  Tier Two: As above. When the hunter is discovered, they immediately lose membership 
  in their chosen compact and any other benefits, including Hunter Status, they may have enjoyed. 
  This may also strain relationships the hunter forged during their time in the compact. The 
  Storyteller is encouraged to leverage Social Maneuvers to help facilitate this part of the story. 
  • 
  Tier Three: As above. In addition to losing the ability to use teamwork and Tactics, the 
  hunter cannot use their Endowments at an Integrity rating of 0. This may occur before they leave 
  (or are forced out of) their conspiracy. 
  Once a hunter leaves their cell, regardless of tier, it is assumed their participation in the story 
  builds to a climactic moment. However, narrating a session of underdogs when one character is 
  acting as the antagonist can be incredibly difficult — especially since Hunter is a game about 
  teamwork.  
  Ultimately, how to handle the finite details of hunters becoming slashers is up to the Storyteller. 
  Slasher Merits 
  The following new Merits are only available to slashers. They may either be used for the 
  purposes of the Slasher chronicle or in a regular chronicle. 
  Atavism (•) 
  Prerequisite: Dexterity ••• or Wits ••• 
  Effect: The slasher is a throwback, closer to beast than human in either body or mind. They run 
  on instinct, completely lacking any hesitation or restraint when it comes to violence and reacting 
  swiftly in accordance with fight-or-flight reflexes rather than taking the time to stop and think. 
  They use the higher of Dexterity and Wits when calculating Defense, rather than the lowest, and 
  cannot be subject to the Beaten Down Tilt. 
  Drawback: In the heat of the moment, the slasher finds it tricky to think and plan rather than just 
  go with what their instincts are saying. They always suffer the untrained penalty for using a 
  Mental Skill while undertaking vigorous physical activity — whether combat, pursuing, or 
  fleeing — regardless of whether they actually have any dots in the Skill. 
  Cover-Up (••) 
  Prerequisite: Intelligence •••; one of Crafts •••, Investigation •••, or Medicine ••• 
  Effect: The slasher is an expert at covering their murderous tracks; they disguise their killings to 
  mask the method or motivation of each deed. If the slasher spends at least an hour in either 
  
  preparation for the killing or clean up afterwards, roll Intelligence + Crafts, Investigation, or 
  Medicine (depending on the method used) to implant false clues into the scene. Success means 
  any Clues derived from the scene via investigation are tainted. 
  Damnable Certainty (•••) 
  Prerequisite: Composure ••• or Resolve •••  
  Effect: The slasher possesses utter conviction that what they’re doing is right. Every time they 
  kill, it scours away even the slightest traces of doubt or guilt that worry them. Once per scene, 
  when the slasher kills another character, they regain a single point of Willpower. 
  Hands of a Killer (•) 
  Prerequisite: Dexterity •••, Weaponry ••  
  Effects: Everything is a potential weapon for this slasher, and every environment a plethora of 
  opportunities to kill in intriguing new ways. They ignore the penalty for using an improvised 
  weapon, can reflexively grab an improvised weapon from her environment if unarmed, and add 
  their Weaponry dots to their Initiative score when doing so. 
  Telltale Murder (••) 
  Prerequisite: Intelligence •••, Investigation •• 
  Effect: The slasher can use their Tell as just another weapon in their arsenal — a way to avert 
  would-be pursuers or taunt an investigator. The character spends at least five minutes arranging 
  the scene of the crime to match her message — moving bodies into a symbolic display, carving 
  messages into flesh, or other macabre stagecraft. Afterwards, any character who attempts to use 
  the slasher’s Tell to investigate must spend a point of Willpower before doing so. 
  Weaponry Obsession (••) 
  Prerequisite: Weaponry •, a specialty in the chosen weapon 
  Effects: For whatever reason, the slasher is obsessed with a specific weapon and it has become 
  their murderous signature. When using that favored weapon — the specific knife with which the 
  teenagers stabbed them, the specific rifle they used while deployed in the war — they gain the 8-
  again quality on all dice pools involving its use. 
  Drawback: The slasher cannot voluntarily dispose of the weapon; it’s almost a part of them, and 
  they can’t bear to let it go. If separated from it by circumstances outside of their control, they 
  gain the Deprived Condition until they get it back. 
  Slashers Around the World 
  In the Slasher Chronicle, an epidemic of remorseless killers erupts across the globe. It is a 
  chronicle setting Storytellers may customize for their purposes.  
  In Hunter: The Vigil, slashers are not a new phenomenon — but the fact that hunters are 
  bombarded with slasher sightings and police reports on a weekly basis certainly is. Whatever’s 
  happening, the increase in slasher activity is driving other supernatural denizens into hiding. 
  Slashers are so terrifying they’ve become what other monsters fear. 
  This chronicle setting is tightly focused on an increase in slasher sightings and activities all 
  around the world. To facilitate this view, the rest of the supernatural community has fallen silent, 
  
  and waits anxiously to see who’ll emerge from the oncoming storm: hunters or slashers. 
  Storytellers seeking to add more variety to a chronicle may drop in brief encounters with other 
  antagonists who are either on the run or who’ve ended up in a slasher’s crosshairs and need help. 
  Who are the slashers? They’re not all freshly minted murderers or copycat killers. Many slashers 
  have been forged in the brutal crucible of modern life; their empathy for the rest of humanity has 
  been choked out of them by the growing urban and industrial sprawls where most people are 
  reduced to mere cogs in the vast, unfeeling machine. 
  For the Player: New Slasher Compact and Conspiracy 
  A new compact and conspiracy have been added for use in the Slasher Chronicle. 
  Nine Stars is a brand new concept inspired by true crime movies set in Hong Kong. 
  VASCU, which appeared in first edition, is a conspiracy filled with chemically-
  modified hunters who exhibit psychic powers. Both Nine Stars and VASCU may 
  be used outside of the Slasher chronicle in regular gameplay. The Storyteller will 
  have to make an adjustment to their view of the enemy and their motivation to hunt 
  in a setting where slashers are not the primary antagonist.   
  Crime enthusiasts have picked up that something’s feels unnatural in their city and long-
  forgotten urban legends are getting revived. Unfortunately, there’s more truth to the rumors than 
  hunters are comfortable admitting. Masked figures drag themselves out of the dirt to take up the 
  knife and the hunt once more. Wily old predators, once soaked in the blood of 100 screaming 
  victims, know it’s time to set aside that whole idea of retirement. Murderous cults and wild-eyed 
  sects that were long since disbanded start to drift back together, looking to foster a fresh 
  generation of executioners.  
  The addiction to cruelty, to the sense of power over life and death, never really releases its grip. 
  Whatever tide of darkness now rises, it’s like an alarm bell in the psyche that wakes the monster 
  within. The wolf in sheep’s clothing can only lie to itself so long that it’s just another face in the 
  herd. 
  Of course, no one’s clear how many slashers there are, because the authorities are tight-lipped. 
  Cells have their hands full trying to extract information out of allies, because local governments 
  are desperate to prevent a widescale panic. Most people sense the world’s that much more 
  dangerous around the edges. Those who uphold the Vigil, though? Oh, hunters know. They 
  know, because the darkness nestling in the human soul is coming for them, eager to snuff out 
  their candle, and threaten the peace they’re so desperate to maintain. 
  Tier One: Neighborhood Killers 
  Tier-one chronicles tend to be the most reminiscent of the horror movies that inspire them, 
  because the scope of the story is focused and can be resolved within hours, weeks, months. That 
  does not mean a tier-one cell cannot make connections between similar events or understand that 
  the issue is happening elsewhere, however. The challenge of running the Slasher Chronicle for 
  tier-one hunters is simply the knowledge they possess and the resources they have at their 
  disposal. 
  All games thrive on personal connection. In a tier-one chronicle, the cell doesn’t have the 
  framework of a compact or conspiracy to back them up, so they’ll be forced to forge new 
  connections with law enforcement, lone hunters, or cells new to the Vigil. Somebody needs to 
  
  stand up and do something, and new Storyteller characters can be introduced as allies to show 
  just how bad the problem is. This helps keep the cell in the spotlight as the experts: they’ve taken 
  down a monster or two, after all, and they can teach or even mentor other characters. This may 
  also point to a deeper tragedy should one of the cellmates fall. 
  The Slasher Chronicle may be the cell’s first brush with the supernatural, or it may not be. A 
  good narrative tool to use is a series of hauntings caused by recently deceased victims; though 
  technically these ghosts would be considered monsters, for narrative purposes they may simply 
  inflict the Obsessed Condition on the players, and the nature of that Obsession is “Solve My 
  Murder.” Once that Condition is resolved, the spirit departs, satisfied justice has been done.  
  Tier Two: Forging Connections 
  Tier-two chronicles have a larger scope that narratively weaves in and out of hunter compacts in 
  a tangled mess of fallen hunters, pointed fingers, and conflicting motives. Tier-two chronicles 
  allow Storytellers to broaden a cell’s knowledge of who else is out there trying like hell to 
  uphold the Vigil and failing miserably. 
  Members of The Long Night act as moral compasses — until one of their own becomes an 
  Avenger. The Loyalists of Thule suddenly fall silent and test each of their members to ensure 
  they haven’t fallen. Network Zero hunters question exactly how and when were they able to take 
  that particular video. Null Mysteriis is hard at work, attempting to find a reasonable and 
  scientific explanation for what’s happened; its leaders might even give members ultimatums to 
  ensure they solve the problem quickly. The Union, S.W.O.R.N., and Nine Stars take a more 
  pragmatic view. People are dying, and that means hunters must step up and help when they can, 
  wherever they can. 
  The scope of a tier-two story can reveal more of the mystery behind the epidemic, but at the 
  same time it doesn’t necessarily have to. Some Storytellers may decide that hunters becoming 
  slashers is enough, and concentrate on that as both the hook and foundation for the chronicle. 
  Should supernatural elements be dropped into the chronicle, either through ghosts and spirits, 
  scourges, mysterious places, or other monsters, the Storyteller should prepare a compact’s 
  reaction that will affect the cell. 
  Tier Three: Impossible Design 
  Tier-three hunters have more abilities, resources, and knowledge than other hunters, but they also 
  have something else, too: a greater chance to lose Hunter Status in their chosen conspiracy 
  should they take matters into their own hands. 
  VASCU will assume command as the authority in most cases — whether other hunters want it to 
  or not; Task Force Valkyrie will back them up by lending firepower to their investigations while 
  keeping an eye on them. The Ascending Ones will be hard at work trying to find a “cure” for the 
  slasher condition, while The Cheiron Group will be in disarray as many of its members refuse to 
  play ball with those in charge. Upper management has given an unusual order to “monitor, but 
  not capture” at all costs, even when the hunt becomes personal, when a slasher is one of their 
  own. What most of their members are unaware of, is that The Cheiron Group considers the 
  slasher epidemic is a perfect opportunity to sit back and watch a full-scale gruesome experiment. 
  The Lucifuge has turned its attention to other pressing matters, fearing the epidemic is designed 
  to spread until it claims the Lady of Milan. Members understand how violent and deadly slashers 
  
  can be but must weigh their dedication to finding Lucifer’s children and protecting the Lady’s 
  interests against the other demands of the Vigil. The Malleus Maleficarum is more fixated on the 
  other troubling news it’s learned and sends its hunters to investigate scourges and mysterious 
  places that inflict supernatural harm. 
  Lastly, the Council of Bones is busier than it has ever been, instructing members to conduct 
  séances and communicate with victims whenever possible. Unfortunately, the uptick in victims 
  has caused a surge of ghosts, and the Council isn’t always getting the right information on which 
  to act. What’s more, some members feel uncomfortable interacting with VASCU agents and fear 
  they’ve assumed control to learn the Council’s methodology and secrets. 
  Storytellers have a wealth of possibilities for a tier-three chronicle that can focus on the 
  epidemic, figuring out why scourges are imbued with the supernatural, or simply getting their 
  house in order. Because there’s so much story for tier-three hunters to explore, the Storyteller is 
  encouraged to think of its scope and, if necessary, plan an additional chronicle to explore desired 
  themes. 
  Teleinformatic Endowments 
  Teleinformatic Endowments are available to VASCU agents (p. XX) and may be selected during 
  character creation. The Wintergreen Process is a free Endowment all agents receive, but it is 
  their choice whether or not they want to go through it. It is, however, required if a VASCU agent 
  wants to use Teleinformatic Endowments. 
  Wintergreen Process 
  Named after Dr. Barbara Wintergreen, this process uses a series of chemical and unconventional 
  therapy techniques to unlock an agent’s mind. Dr. Wintergreen’s process is a refinement of 
  methods used in the 50s and 60s for altering human mental patterns. Agents undergo an 
  extensive process where they are injected with a series of psychoactive drugs from 
  hallucinogens, growth hormones, dimethyltryptamine (DMT) with a heavily modified Harmala 
  alkaloid, to other chemicals to spur a physiological change in their brain. This is followed with a 
  number of therapy techniques used outside their intended purpose, such as EMDR, hypnosis, and 
  ASMR sensitization. The unlikely result of these techniques is that the agent is able to “unlock” 
  a part of her mind she could not access before, giving her access to Teleinformatic Endowments. 
  Not every VASCU agent receives the drug therapy, but to use Teleinformatics, one must undergo 
  the process.  
  When agents use their power, it is an act of will. Her mind goes into overload and it can 
  sometimes cause damage, such as a nosebleed or headache, as her body tries to keep up with her 
  mental capacity. 
  When purchasing a new Teleinformatic Endowment, the agent must go through another chemical 
  process for the Endowment to take hold in the hunter’s mind. VASCU administers the treatment 
  to any agent in good standing, though the process generally takes a day in the labs to complete. 
  At this time, it is not clear if the Wintergreen Process can be reversed, but agents suspect several 
  attempts have been made. Agents who leave VASCU undergo monitoring and, as long as they 
  don’t use their abilities in an overt way, are often left to their own devices. Hunters who might 
  pose a threat to others are not treated with such leniency and are instead returned to VASCU 
  headquarters indefinitely. 
  
  Codex 
  A side effect of an increased mental capacity and processing power is the ability to remember 
  literally anything an agent has ever read, and to recall, collate, and process that information at 
  speeds of which most people could only dream. This doesn’t just make recalling information 
  easy, but it makes the hunter a hyper-effective researcher and investigator. 
  Cost: 1 point of lethal damage and 1 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Halve the time it takes for the agent to perform a single investigation or research action as she 
  cross-references available information with information she has already read. Additionally, she 
  achieves exceptional success on three successes instead of five successes when performing these 
  actions. 
  Hall of Mirrors 
  The Hall of Mirrors is a mental meditation technique VASCU agents use to meditate on the 
  future. These agents take what they know about a situation and meditate on it while viewing 
  possible futures. While VASCU claims the Hall of Mirrors is not a physical place, but some a 
  hallucination shared among all agents, many agents believe they go somewhere else when they 
  do this meditation. They claim they don’t just look inside themselves for answers but go to an 
  actual place. There, they view the future through “looking portals” stationed throughout the hall.  
  The Hall of Mirrors shows probable futures — the most likely outcomes if nothing changes. 
  Because the future is malleable by action, the Hall of Mirrors is unable to show anything more 
  than a week into the future. Unfortunately, the experience is trying on operatives and visiting the 
  hall causes them pain. 
  Cost: 1 point of lethal damage 
  Dice Pool: Wits + Occult 
  Action: Extended. Each roll represents 5 minutes spent meditating and searching in the Hall of 
  Mirrors for a specific subject, such as a person or event. The meditation requires five successes 
  to complete. 
  Success: The hunter advances toward finding information in the Hall of Mirrors. If the required 
  number of successes is met, the character is successful.  
  Exceptional Success: The agent is so positively overwhelmed by visiting the Hall of Mirrors, 
  they gain the Inspired Condition until the end of the session, may ask an additional question 
  regarding the information they seek, and reduce the time between rolls by two minutes. 
  Failure: The agent fails to acquire information. She can abandon the attempt or continue in 
  meditation but must gain the Spooked Condition. 
  Dramatic Failure: The agent gets too deep into her own mind and cannot reach the Hall of 
  Mirrors. The attempt fails and she gains the Guilty Condition.  
  Upon completing the mediation, the player may ask the Storyteller a single question pertaining to 
  her subject’s future. This cannot be more than a week out, or the meditation fails. The question 
  must pertain to the subject and be specific: “Will Marcel get the job he’s interviewing for?” or 
  
  “What does Janette plan to do tomorrow?” The Storyteller determines what is going to happen in 
  the future and gives the player information, though it doesn’t have to be perfectly detailed: 
  “Marcel doesn’t get the job, but he interviews elsewhere.” or “Janette follows her daily routine 
  without any changes.” The hunter gains the Informed Condition about her subject. 
  Polygraph 
  Every investigator knows that sometimes suspects lie. VASCU agents can tun into the churning 
  emotions of a target’s thoughts and can draw the truth out from their treacherous emotions. 
  Cost: 1 point of lethal damage 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  The agent attunes herself to her subject, watching the rise and fall of emotions during the 
  interrogation. For the rest of the scene, the player’s rolls achieve exceptional success at three 
  successes rather than five successes when dealing with the subject. 
  Postcognition  
  Some people have the ability to feel the psychic impressions left on an area, recalling emotional 
  resonance and gathering clues about what happened. A well-trained VASCU agent can relive a 
  crime scene as though she were the victim, taking what little she already knows and turning it 
  into hard facts by extreme deductive reasoning. She can even will herself into seeing the crime as 
  it happened through the victim’s eyes. 
  The agent must be at the location the crime took place to use this power, she cannot simply look 
  at pictures to recreate the crime. The psychic residue of a location touches the echoes of what has 
  gone before. Unfortunately, this causes some agents to suffer due to the excruciating toll reliving 
  traumatic events takes on their mind. 
  Cost: 1 point of lethal damage (and 1 Willpower, see below) 
  Dice Pool: Wits + Investigation – Time (see below) 
  Action: Instant 
  This power’s roll is modified by how old the crime scene in question is: over a day old (−1), over 
  a week old (−3), over a year old (−5) 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The agent concentrates on the crime on which she wants information as she activates 
  this power. She gains a Clue per success on her activation roll, pertaining to this crime. If she 
  spends a Willpower during activation, she may instead relive the last five minutes of the crime as 
  though she were the victim. This nets the same number of Clues, but additionally gives her the 
  Informed Condition about the crime for further investigation. 
  Exceptional Success: Additional successes are their own reward. 
  Failure: The agent is overwhelmed by the psychic impressions left in the area and she cannot 
  make sense of the scene. 
  
  Dramatic Failure: The scene grips the agent. Though she cannot make heads nor tails of what is 
  happening, its violence marks her. She suffers a breaking point. 
  Speed of Thought 
  Every VASCU agent needs an edge, but Speed of Thought gives them several. When active, the 
  agent kicks their nervous system into overdrive, becoming hyperaware of the world around them. 
  Details come through with crystal clarity and time itself almost seems to slow — though they’re 
  bound by physical limitations as they struggle to cope with the flood of information crashing into 
  their mind. 
  Cost: 1 point of lethal damage 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Reflexive 
  Duration: One scene 
  The agent may immediately move to the top of the Initiative order. Additionally, he may use the 
  higher of his Wits or Dexterity to determine his Defense, rather than the lower.  
  Talon 
  The agent focuses their thoughts and feelings into a honed spike of anger, fear, and confusion. 
  Then, the agent rams that psychic talon into the mind of a target, punching through their psyche 
  in a disorientating surge of emotions. 
  Cost: 1 point of bashing damage 
  Dice Pool: Resolve + Intimidation vs. Composure 
  Action: Contested 
  Roll Results 
  Success: Through sheer force of will, the agent focuses on a single target to attack them with a 
  toxic mix of emotions. The attack acts as a mental assault with a weapon rating of 2 bashing 
  damage. A successful hit inflicts the Insane Tilt on the victim.  
  Exceptional Success: The agent inflicts the Insensate Tilt instead of Insane. 
  Failure: The hunter is unable to affect her target’s emotional state. 
  Dramatic Failure: The agent’s emotional spike rebounds and slams into her instead. She gains 
  the Shaken Condition. 
  Tag 
  The agent can extend her senses into nearby cameras and through an unseen network to spy. The 
  cameras do not need to be networked together for the hunter to utilize them; anything from a 
  smartphone’s camera to a CCTV camera works. She can even jump between cameras as long as 
  they can see each other. The agent can co-opt the senses of simple animals, such as rodents or 
  small birds, but nothing larger than that. This is a one-way viewing window — she can’t 
  command or direct animals to, say, follow her target. 
  Cost: 1 Willpower 
  
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  The agent can send her sense into any nearby camera or small animal to begin spying. The agent 
  can then follow the network to find her target instantly. Each viewing target (such as jumping 
  from one camera to another or one animal to another) must be within line of sight of one another. 
  The agent doesn’t need to know where the next camera is, she just flows into it. She can watch 
  her target for up to one scene. Her cell gains a +2 bonus to track the target or on investigation 
  rolls regarding the target’s location for the duration of this power. Additionally, the hunter gains 
  the Informed Condition regarding her target once the scene is over. 
  Backlash: The hunter must concentrate to use this power. She suffers a −2 penalty to take any 
  other action and cannot react to being surprised. 
  Slasher Sightings 
  Slashers are appearing all over the world and hunters are on high alert. Many struggle to balance 
  the demands of the Vigil while keeping their loved ones safe, fearing someone they know will be 
  a slasher’s next target. 
  No matter how or where the slashers are presented, it is strongly recommended that cells have a 
  few successful hunts and lingering mysteries under their belt to make the story more compelling. 
  This will also allow more opportunities for players to master and create new Tactics, acquire 
  more equipment, and beef up their characters before tackling the horrific epidemic. 
  Rumored sightings and reports may be modified at the Storyteller’s discretion to fit their 
  chronicle’s needs. Each city yields more clues for the hunters to piece together, and reveals more 
  about the supernatural and their connection to slashers.  
  Philadelphia, United States 
  Philadelphia’s homicide rate has always been high, and the official figures don’t account for the 
  tally of kills the city’s many hunter cells rack up each year. Now, though, both have shot up. 
  Every single one of Philadelphia’s seven regions that hunters recognize as being a distinct 
  territory has seen the emergence of its own terrifying slasher, all within the span of roughly six 
  months. 
  All seven slashers are rumored to be connected. One may be a former minister, a hunter turned 
  slasher who’s widened her net to encompass any “sinner” who catches her attention. Another is a 
  Brute who masquerades as a maintenance worker and likes to leave his victims on the city’s train 
  tracks. The Blood Mummer is a Mask with a craving for the red stuff; Crimson Blade is a 
  grotesquely warped Mutant, their flesh broken and twisted by a spirit of murder. The rest are just 
  as strange and varied. They all share the same Tell, though, and leave a message in the crime 
  scene; a Sator Square, accompanied by the statement You will reap what you sow.  
  As far as anyone knows, the slashers are not acting in conscious concert; they may be largely 
  unaware of each other — though at least one copycat has sprung up in their wake. What little 
  communication leaks out to the press indicates they all experience the same dream of an endless 
  field of black soil under a red sun.  
  
  Some veteran hunters, remembering stories passed between those who uphold the Vigil — of a 
  slasher called “the Sower” — are frightened of what this may portend. Has the bloodshed of the 
  Vigil here in Philadelphia primed the city as some sort of hunting ground for the Sower? Does 
  the Sower come to aid the hunt, to take a bloody toll, or both? Is there anything they can do to 
  stop what the signs seem to be pointing toward — the return of the legendary slasher? 
  For now, the fractured hunters of Philadelphia struggle to contend with the killers painting their 
  territories red, refusing to look across their borders for help from one another and instead 
  tackling each symptom separately. As the  killings intensify, hunters wonder if or when the 
  harvester of this grim crop will arrive. 
  They have yet to figure out that it’s already here. 
  The Sower (Legend) 
  Quote: “You’ve let this whole mess get out of hand. I’m here to clean everything up, you 
  included.” 
  Background: There’s always been a Sower, so the stories go. When the Sower walks the Earth, 
  hunters die — and so do monsters. One life for one life; the Sower slays a beast, and a hunter 
  pays the tithe. Over the centuries, hundreds of men and women have taken the Sower’s mantle, 
  letting the Legend live on in their bodies and minds for a little while. Now, it’s back — but 
  vastly more powerful than ever before.  
  All the bloodshed in Philadelphia has served as a libation in its honor, and it rides the tide of 
  slashers unleashed across the globe. The Sower’s not behind that wider epidemic, and it doesn’t 
  control the slashers currently tearing paths of carnage through Philadelphia — they’re just 
  symptoms of its arrival. It’s only here as a presence, for now, a lingering chill at the nape of the 
  neck, a stirring of anger deep in the gut. It’s watching the hunters as they work, waiting for one 
  of them to step over the mark, and then it’ll call to them, and they’ll come to the field of dark 
  earth, and accept its bargain. 
  Then, the Sower will kill them all: all the monsters of Philadelphia, the sick broods of parasites 
  left to fester and grow fat by the discord in the Vigil, and all the hunters, a grand tithe paid for 
  this great cleansing. Once it’s done, the City of Brotherly Love will be clean of darkness, all 
  traces of the Vigil washed away in a tide of blood. 
  Appearance: Whoever becomes the Sower displays the traits associated with its legend: hands 
  and feet caked in dirt, a burlap sack over the head with eye slits cut into its fabric, and a physical 
  frame that seems to strain and bulge at its fleshly limits, barely containing the power within. The 
  Sower can take on a mundane appearance if they desire but stepping on bare earth immediately 
  sheds the illusion and shows the slasher for who they truly are. 
  Storytelling Hints: Once the Sower appears, they will begin to systematically purge the city of 
  hunters and monsters, hitting each in turn to grow matching tallies of kills. The very slashers 
  who precede the Sower’s coming are on the target list, too. The Sower isn’t obeying their usual 
  protocol of two monsters for every hunter killed and will attempt to take down multiple targets in 
  one go. They can restrain themselves from killing for a week at most while gathering information 
  on potential prey and maneuvering for their next attack, after which they are compelled to strike 
  again. 
  Virtue: Conviction 
  
  Vice: Wrath 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Resolve 5 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 3, Stamina 5 
  Social Attributes: Presence 5, Manipulation 3, Composure 4 
  Mental Skills: Academics 2, Crafts 3, Investigation 4, Occult 5, Medicine 3 
  Physical Skills: Athletics (Foot Chase) 5, Brawl 4, Firearms 3, Stealth (Shadowing) 4, 
  Weaponry 5 
  Social Skills: Intimidation (Physical Threats) 4, Persuasion 3, Streetwise 4, Subterfuge 3 
  Merits: Fast Reflexes 3, Fleet of Foot 3, Hands of a Killer, Iron Stamina 3 
  Health: 10 
  Willpower: 9 
  Integrity: 0 
  Size: 5 
  Speed: 17 
  Defense: 8 
  Initiative: 10 
  Armor: None 
  Special: Suffers from the Addicted (Murder) Condition. For the purposes of the Slasher 
  Chronicle, the Sower has a Potency rating of 5 and may use the following Dread Powers: 
  Regenerate, Madness and Terror, and Dread Attack.  
  Tier One 
  Small cells of hunters focusing on the local picture mirror the wider problem in Philadelphia — 
  everyone’s looking after their own backyard, and few take kindly to anyone nosing into their 
  turf. A cell is likely having to deal with both the slasher marauding its section of the city and a 
  population of monstrous horrors who are increasingly active, as if something were stirring the 
  hornets’ nest. Pursuing leads is tricky, though; the moment the cell leaves its usual stomping 
  grounds, its hunters face delicate negotiations with belligerent hunters who have little interest in 
  helping them out. 
  Old and the New: Many of the fresh crop of slashers are somehow linked to the city’s old 
  problems. Spirits, monstrous denizens, and old traitors serve as the source material that instigates 
  the creation of the new killers. If someone brings the district’s slasher down, a new one will pop 
  back up from among such lingering scars. If the cell can catalog such relics of Vigils past, it 
  might be able to predict where or how the next slasher will come to be. 
  Building Bridges: It should rapidly become clear to the cells on the ground that the fractured 
  situation of Philadelphia’s Vigil is untenable. The boots on the ground need to start working 
  together, if they want to make any headway. Building those bridges requires the cell to make 
  itself vulnerable, take a risk, and reach out — and given the fear of slashers emerging from 
  among the ranks of the hunters, everyone is exceptionally paranoid of outsiders right now. 
  
  Tier Two 
  Compact members will struggle with the slasher outbreak in the city for a variety of reasons. 
  Locals are fiercely territorial, rival cells and compacts have little patience or inclination to give 
  ground, all while the slashers keep anointing the city’s streets with libations of blood. Something 
  dark and horrific is coming, but the compacts might have the power and influence needed to put 
  a stop to it. 
  Active compacts in Philadelphia include: 
  The Hunt Club: Things are about to take a sharp turn from bad to worse. The situation in 
  Philadelphia has garnered the attention of a sinister compact with a blood-soaked history: the 
  Hunt Club, a gentleman’s club of serial killers and even outright slashers, with a hankering to 
  hunt for the most dangerous game and pat one another on the back for the cruelest or most stylish 
  murders. Sometimes the club’s efforts coexist with real hunters, going after exciting and 
  supernatural prey, but more often it picks its victims from average citizens. The outbreak of 
  slashers in the city has caught the club’s eye, and members wonder if it’s time to extend an 
  invitation to increase their ranks. More broadly, though, club members speculate about hosting a 
  grand hunt of slashers in the city, ignoring its old, entrenched divisions in favor of a wide-
  ranging spree of killing the killers. The fact that new slashers may emerge from this bloodbath 
  isn’t a downside — it just makes the city into an incredible hunting ground of challenging targets 
  that will restock itself after each hunt. 
  The Union: Slowly but steadily, the Union is getting ready to make a move. Naturally 
  predisposed to a decentralized structure built from informal ties, the Union’s inherent flaws 
  resonate with those of the wider Vigil in Philadelphia — but when ties are forged between 
  comrades in the compact, they’re strong as steel. Many in the compact remain deeply suspicious 
  of VASCU, and component cells are having a tough time overcoming their naturally territorial 
  tendencies, but the Union’s efforts are gaining pace. They’ve cottoned on to the fact that taking 
  one slasher down just seems to bring another out of the woodwork, and now realize they need to 
  seek a permanent solution to the problem. 
  Tier Three 
  The connections between the slashers has caught the attention of several conspiracies who are 
  converging on the city in record numbers. Understanding the slasher phenomenon could yield 
  incredible insights into the connections between slashers on the wider, global scale, a prize that 
  can hardly be passed up. Once the nature of the Sower’s great harvest becomes clear, it could stir 
  the conspiracies into more drastic, even unwise, actions. 
  Active conspiracies in Philadelphia include: 
  Task Force: VALKYRIE: Until recently, the TFV presence in the city was pared down to a 
  lean, efficient team called the Liberty Unit, whose commander can count his agents with one 
  hand. Now, the diminished unit struggles to cope as the situation in Philadelphia threatens to 
  flare wildly out of control. Agents attempt to keep a lid on news of the slasher sprees, strong-
  arming whatever local government assets they have influence over into cover-ups and damage 
  control. Local hunters assume the shadowy TFV agents are just trying to stop anyone finding out 
  the truth, but they’re hoping to keep the problem contained until back-up arrives. Thankfully, 
  reinforcements are on their way; the Unit’s commander has finally managed to hammer the 
  
  critical nature of the crisis through to the high-ups. Once their ranks are bolstered, the conspiracy 
  is likely to take a heavy-handed approach to the problem. 
  VASCU: VASCU hoped for a fresh start but its members worry Philadelphia may be their 
  undoing. Their relationship with the FBI remains frosty but the detente between the two agencies 
  should have ensured a smooth transition to the new order of things. Obviously, that hasn’t 
  happened. The global reach of their operations means most agents spend their time deployed in 
  far-flung regions, and the HQ staff grows nervous that a lack of manpower in Philadelphia could 
  leave them open to attack — whether from slashers or paranoid hunters. Agents primed with the 
  Wintergreen Process are attempting to investigate the slasher sprees in the city, but they’re often 
  rebuffed by unfriendly locals who feel the psychics are intruding on their turf. Of all the 
  organizations caught up in the crisis, though, it’s the VASCU agents who have the best sense of 
  the bigger picture here; through psychic analysis of potential future outcomes, they’ve come to 
  believe the Sower is already present in the city. 
  London, England 
  In London, the uptick of slashers has started a rash of copycat murders, inspired by timeless 
  slasher villains and the resurging interest in horror movies. Each attack is splashed on the covers 
  of weekly rag magazines throughout the city, chronicling the gruesome course of killers as they 
  act throughout the city. The surge has caused a significant upswing in tourists and fans hoping to 
  see a real-live slasher. Sensationalism is the word of the day, and “helpful” vigilantes, reporters, 
  and curious tourists do little more than clog up any serious attempt to identify and locate the 
  serial killers. 
  Another result of the phenomenon is that Scotland Yard has received multiple confession letters, 
  detailing recent crimes  as well as crimes planned for the future. These letters appear to come 
  from several sources, and it is difficult to determine which to take seriously until a crime is 
  committed. The letters were sorted, and some of the less-graphic sections were published in local 
  papers, in order to ask the public to assist in finding the perpetrators of these violent crimes. 
  The local tabloids are taking it all in stride. Some assert these murders are occurring because of a 
  government conspiracy to give the economy a boost, others because the Queen’s family is 
  actively hiding a scandal that could rock the throne;, or because the killings are nothing more 
  than a publicity stunt for a new novel. There are hundreds of reasons given for these occurrences, 
  each more fanciful than the last. What is certain is that people are dying, and there seems to be 
  no clear path to the end. 
  Smiling Jake (Puppeteer) 
  Quote: “It’s all about the story.” 
  Background: Jake Edwards is the editor of the Daily Windmill, a cliché-spouting political 
  newspaper that makes its money from sensationalist headlines, illegal wire-tapping, and reckless 
  paparazzi. Although Smiling Jake has a degree in business from Oxford, Jake turned his minimal 
  writing talent (and proclivity to be bombastic) into a career, and his weekly newspaper is now 
  one of the most widely read in the city. He hires private detectives, solicits tips from corrupt 
  police, and buys interviews or pictures from anyone who comes to him with a good story. He’s 
  currently making a grip on the copycat killer fad for an insidious purpose: to throw detectives off 
  his trail. No one suspects the oh-so-charming Jake Edwards is a scourge who selectively targets 
  anyone who manages to put the pieces together. Surrounded by groupies and socialites, Smiling 
  
  Jake is well integrated into London society and knows exactly which strings to pull to get his 
  way. 
  Appearance: Smiling Jake is tall and lean; he has a sharply angled face and clear blue eyes. His 
  hair is dark, and his clothing is carefully chosen to maintain his crafted image as a middle-class 
  scion — while still carrying designer labels and high price tags. Smiling Jake is recognized by 
  his winning, world-class smile. 
  Storytelling Hints: Smiling Jake has no conscience, no need for ego, and an almost incalculable 
  greed. Before he became a slasher, he was driven to use one person after another, burning them 
  out in pursuit of a story or greater revenue.  
  Virtue: Determined 
  Vice: Egotistical 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Resolve 3 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2 
  Social Attributes: Presence 4, Manipulation 5, Composure 3 
  Mental Skills: Academics 2, Investigation 3, Politics 3 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 1, Drive 2, Larceny 2, Stealth 1 
  Social Skills: Empathy (Vices) 2, Expression (Writing) 1, Persuasion (Readers) 3, Socialize 
  (Politicians) 3, Investigation 3, Weaponry 2, Subterfuge 1 
  Merits: Contacts 4 (Informants, Journalists, Police, Politicians), Resources 4, Fame 1, Staff 
  (Investigation, Streetwise) 2, Cover Up 2, Hands of a Killer 1 
  Health: 7 
  Willpower: 5 
  Integrity: 0 
  Size: 5 
  Speed: 9 
  Defense: 3 
  Initiative: 4 
  Armor: None 
  Special: Suffers from the Addicted (Murder) Condition. In the Slasher Chronicle, Jake has a 
  Potency rating of 4 and uses the Know Soul and Eye Spy Dread Powers. 
  Tier One 
  At the local level, hunters with minimal resources and only a handful of connections are going to 
  interact with the slasher problem as a very personal issue. In London, these hunters have become 
  reactive and intuitive, responding when they hear a crime has happened, and trying to put 
  together enough information to predict — and hopefully stop — the next one. They watch 
  hotspots of activity, staking out alleys and well-trafficked areas of the city, and listen to police 
  broadcasts in order to get ahead of the slasher. Due to the high-profile nature of the cases, many 
  
  of the city’s local hunters have bumped into significant police and political resistance to their 
  efforts, and the curfew continues to restrict these hunters from operating at their full capability. 
  On the Beat: The killer has their finger on the pulse of the city, and their methods can be studied. 
  A London hunter or hunter cell might stumble upon the aftereffects of their activities: ritual 
  circles, possessed innocents, or a cursed implement. Worse, the murderer may be creating spirits 
  of vengeance to possess a new host — one of the hunters. That knowledge could cause the cell to 
  come under fire both from the slasher (who wants to get it out of the way) and the police (who 
  will arrest its members for possible involvement). How can hunters trust anyone when ghosts are 
  being weaponized against them? 
  Rescue Mission: An overeager tourist is taken captive in the London Underground, and is being 
  held in a condemned tunnel by one of the copycats sending letters to the police. Clues in the 
  letters lead the players toward the copycat’s hiding place and their hostage — but an ambush is 
  certain. When the hunters follow the trail and rescue the tourist, they discover the kidnapper was 
  a front for the real slasher, who manipulated the post and engineered the trap to throw hunters 
  off their scent. The real killer’s out there, using a network of groupies as a front to keep the 
  police guessing. However, the groupies are starting to get out of control and may turn into 
  slashers themselves. Can the information they know be turned against their master? 
  Tier Two 
  Compacts in the city of London are well-established, and their years of investigation might help 
  stem the bloody tide. 
  Active compacts in London include: 
  Ashwood Abbey: These hedonists and thrill seekers are all but native to London and the U.K. 
  While they have been instrumental to many London-based investigations for decades, their 
  loyalty to the Vigil is in question. The latest uptick in slashers has caught their attention, but 
  there’s some reticence to dig deeper as members are concerned that this moment could be the 
  compact’s fall from grace. They’ve all heard of the fabled Hunt Club and worry that the steps 
  they take to solve the hunt will finally, irrevocably, shatter the Code and spawn the very thing 
  they’ve been tasked to hunt. 
  Null Mysteriis: Local Null Mysteriis members have been fixating on the problem, using the 
  latest scientific advancements to perform handwriting analyses, test recovered forensic evidence, 
  and build a “foolproof” method of determining who has the potential of becoming a slasher with 
  99.9 percent accuracy. Further, hunters have focused their attention on connected crimes: 
  hauntings, false accusations, breaking and entering, petty theft, and car accidents. These 
  scientists are also hard at work extrapolating new data from old evidence, utilizing ultramodern 
  techniques and technology they hope will shape the course of slasher investigations going 
  forward. 
  Tier Three 
  A campaign centered on global conspiracies and overarching hunter agencies might see the 
  copycat murders in a larger perspective, related to the global uptick of slashers worldwide. 
  England occupies a select place in pop culture, and conspiracies worry the popularization of 
  slashers will eventually spread to reviving historical killers in body or spirit. 
  Active conspiracies in London include: 
  
  Council of Bones: Members of the Council of Bones are angry with the way London’s media 
  and government are dealing with the outbreak. Some members think the unusual ghost sightings 
  prove the supernatural is real, and welcome new hunters who want to join their ranks. Other 
  council members believe the coverage of the slasher epidemic is a total disaster, because it’s 
  forced hunters to spend more time sifting fact from fiction and dealing with charlatans who have 
  no business conducting a séance without training. This level of infighting in the London chapter 
  threatens to bring the conspiracy’s hunts to a standstill. Should the two factions resolve their 
  differences, they might be able to utilize their swelling numbers in a more productive way to 
  solve the matter at hand. Unfortunately, the conspiracy may be unaware that introducing more 
  members without careful procedures can lead to monsters infiltrating their ranks.  
  The Lucifuge: Members of the Lucifuge have been drawn to London to investigate a series of 
  copycat killings rumored to be demonic sacrifices. As one member put it, “London’s a mess.” 
  Some of the “murders” are elaborately staged mannequins with fake blood and prosthetic scars 
  — and real demonic sigils. Others are gut-wrenching scenes that seem demonic but are regulated 
  to the dark and twisted corners of one slasher’s mind. To date, members of the Lucifuge haven’t 
  found any signs of demonic activity or cults in the area, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. 
  The conspiracy is worried, however, that what’s happening in London is a ruse to distract their 
  members while they strike elsewhere — maybe at the Lady of Milan, herself.  
  New Delhi, India 
  New Delhi’s developers have a unique vision to integrate information and communication 
  technology into the municipality. This includes local information systems, schools, 
  transportation systems, law enforcement, and other community services to protect them with 
  advanced technology and updated security measures. Facial-recognition systems are utilized 
  through every security camera watching the city, and new chip cards maintain individual 
  information on a secure level. Sensors integrated with real-time monitoring systems provide up-
  to-the-minute data that’s collected from citizens and their smart devices; this information is then 
  processed and analyzed by law enforcement and other agencies maintaining city security. 
  With all these modern techniques, slashers in the city of New Delhi tend to possess high 
  intelligence and big-picture ideologies that veer toward their vision of a hopeful future — with 
  only the right kinds of people, of course. Some scourges find targets on social media and dating 
  apps by evaluating their activities, profiles, and reach. Meanwhile, other slashers are rejoicing in 
  the ability to scrub their identities by hacking into the tech on which law enforcement is so keen 
  on relying. Any hunter who wants to catch this new breed of slasher must be able to think three 
  — or five — steps ahead of them, or they will simply vanish away into the populace, never to be 
  found. 
  For the Storyteller: It’s a Slasher’s Bloody World 
  The cities, Storyteller characters, and hints provided can be woven into a single 
  chronicle or act as the set piece for a unique story. When building a chronicle, start 
  with the truth. You, as the Storyteller, know who is murdering innocent people, why 
  they’re doing it, and where they can be found — even if that “who” is a cabal of 
  scourges or a nascent community of rippers. You also know why the slasher 
  epidemic is occurring, too. Maybe a rogue hunter cell is the cause of it all. 
  
  Using the truth as a starting point, create a rumor at the other end of both spectrums. 
  Instead of five scourges, there’s none. Instead of rogue hunters, a devious monster 
  is to blame. Following this, you can flesh out the story’s clues and enigmas to offer 
  plausible leads on which the hunters can follow up regardless of tier. Lastly, attach 
  one or more leads to relevant characters who radiate around the slasher in a wide 
  arc. Be sure to give them movement and placement in the setting, to ground the 
  epidemic in a place the hunters can explore. For more Storytelling advice, visit p. 
  XX.  
  One of the more popular slashers in New Delhi has recorded their kills, releasing the victim’s 
  complete personal data along with a video file of their horrible demise. The slasher calls 
  themselves the “Herald” and claims the victims were all high-profile members of the upper class; 
  the division in caste is less important than the individual’s wealth and corporate success. This has 
  brought a great deal of interest to these cases, and technology experts worldwide have been 
  brought in by the New Delhi law enforcement, to investigate the crime and hopefully catch the 
  individual(s) involved. 
  Hunters, however, have recently learned from artist Amrita Vyarawalla that the Herald isn’t just 
  one slasher, there’s a group of them who are working together. Amrita, who hasn’t decided 
  whether she’ll take up the Vigil yet, accidentally uncovered the connection after reviewing the 
  audio and visual recordings from her most recent installation, “The Body”, a gallery-sized 
  exhibit that mimicked the functions of the human body. In place of eyes, Amrita used monitors. 
  In place of a brain, she connected a giant server — and even went so far as to use LED lights, 
  dry ice, and battery acid to replicate certain functions. The popular exhibit spawned several 
  thousand visitors over the course of six weeks, and Amrita is convinced she’s found evidence the 
  Herald is kidnapping and torturing in greater numbers than ever before. Rumor has it the slasher 
  even managed to hack into the city’s power grid, to selectively shut off power in the dead of 
  night.   
  Amrita Vyarawalla 
  Quote: “Through technology, we upgrade not only our world, but the very nature of the human 
  soul.” 
  Background: Amrita Vyarawalla is an installation artist in New Delhi, specializing in exhibits 
  that utilize technology and modern instrumentation — computer parts and working mechanical 
  assets, among other materials — to create three-dimensional works designed to transform the 
  perception of space and time. Her art has been featured in many popular areas of New Delhi, 
  usually in lower-wealth neighborhoods as limited-run installations.  
  Appearance: Amrita is extremely tall but has a great deal of grace and elegance. She is often a 
  featured speaker for artistic workshops and seminars, as well as for corporations interested in 
  utilizing the most updated technologies within their organizations. 
  Storytelling Hints: Amrita is an artist, and enjoys both the creation and installation of modern 
  art. She has several disciples and students, and a great deal of pull in the society pages (as well as 
  a number of social invitations). Many of her works contain cameras and other recording devices, 
  even accessing and recording in wavelengths humans can neither see nor hear. She uses her art to 
  maintain a watch throughout the city, alerting her whenever anything supernatural or violent 
  
  happens near the art piece. Amrita is not aware she sits at the fulcrum of events in New Delhi, 
  but often knows more than she’s willing to admit. 
  Virtue: Vigilant 
  Vice: Obsessive 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 3, Resolve 3 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 4, Stamina 2 
  Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 2, Composure 3 
  Mental Skills: Academics 3, Crafts 3, Investigation 3, Occult 2, Politics 1, Science 3 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 2, Stealth 3, Weaponry 1 
  Social Skills: Empathy 3, Expression 3, Persuasion 2, Socialize 2, Subterfuge 2 
  Merits: Contacts 2 (Artists, High Society), Fame 1, Fast Reflexes 3, Resources 3, Trained 
  Observer 3 
  Health: 7 
  Willpower: 6 
  Integrity: 7 
  Size: 5 
  Speed: 11 
  Defense: 5 
  Initiative: 10 
  Armor: None 
  The Dollmaker (Charmer) 
  Quote: “Don’t cry, honey. This is really for your own good.” 
  Background: Bette Sleet doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t play with her dolls. From a 
  young age, she loved her dollhouse and spent hours rearranging the toy furniture and her dolls to 
  her satisfaction. Sometimes, Bette would recreate scenes she’d watch on television, and carefully 
  craft new pieces of doll furniture to match her vision of an idealized world. Her parents let her 
  play by herself and she would spend all her time rearranging dolls and staying out of trouble — 
  at least until someone tried to mess with her carefully arranged creations. 
  As she grew older, Bette abandoned her dolls. Her plastic figurines weren’t as much fun to 
  manipulate, because they were always within her control. Instead, she found a new plaything: 
  real people. At first, they were more of a challenge for someone like her; it was fun to watch 
  them squirm. Of course, she could never make someone do what she wanted them to. That’s why 
  she had to pick the right person: someone vulnerable, maybe even lost.  
  Bette is interested in only one thing: control. She treats people like inanimate objects. When they 
  do what she wants, they make her very, very happy. When they don’t, she flies into a rage and 
  shows them who’s in charge. “Just a little cut,” she tells herself. A tiny punishment — or so she 
  
  believes — until there’s so much blood pooling all over the floor. Of course, she’ll clean it all up 
  and put her toys away. It’s what a good girl should do, and Bette is always good. 
  Bette is now a self-appointed guru who attaches herself to people seeking the help of an expert. 
  Under her direction, hopeless souls can learn to dress and talk and act the way they should. That 
  is to say, the way Bette thinks they should — which is often a problem for her clients. The 
  socialite decides his new makeover isn’t the look he wants. The technophile realizes Bette isn’t 
  getting his grand vision. The couple knows their therapist isn’t helping them work out their 
  problems, but they’re afraid to leave and find someone else. When her clients are unhappy, that’s 
  when Bette throws a tantrum, causes an accident, and then cleans up yet another mess right 
  before she finds someone else to play with.  
  Eventually, the police will get another call: another body was found in the same condition as the 
  others. The corpse was carefully dressed, hair fashionably styled, even their makeup was perfect. 
  Next to each corpse lay a doll, dressed and styled to match. By the time the police think they 
  have a lead, the Dollmaker has already moved on. 
  Appearance: Bette is an attractive woman in her 30s who uses makeup, wigs, and clothing to 
  change her appearance. She can look up to 10 years younger or older, and dresses according to 
  the needs of her personas. Bette is never spotted with a wrinkled shirt or a missing button; she is 
  impeccably neat and is on top of the latest styles. 
  Storytelling Hints: Bette’s behavior toward an intended victim comes across as earnest because 
  she’s convinced herself that she can help them. At first, she’ll show no signs or hints of a temper 
  and will cringe at the sight of blood. Right from the beginning, though, she won’t hesitate to 
  incapacitate, disable, or kill anyone she believes threatens her relationship with her target. When 
  an established relationship begins to sour, she’ll concoct an elaborate plan to “put away” her 
  latest toy and will carry it out with no remorse. 
  Virtue: Idealistic 
  Vice: Jealousy 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 3, Resolve 3 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 1, Dexterity 4, Stamina 2 
  Social Attributes: Presence 4, Manipulation 5, Composure 1 
  Mental Skills: Academics 2, Crafts 4 (Fashion), Politics 2 
  Physical Skills: Athletics (Gymnastics) 4, Stealth 2, Weaponry (Knives) 3 
  Social Skills: Empathy 4, Intimidate 3, Persuasion 5, Socialize 3, Subterfuge 4 
  Merits: Barfly, Contacts 5 (Celebrities), Trained Observer 4, Damned Certainty 3, Hands of a 
  Killer 
  Health: 7 
  Willpower: 4 
  Integrity: 0 
  Size: 5 
  Speed: 10 
  
  Defense: 7 
  Initiative: 5 
  Armor: None 
  Special: Suffers from the Addicted (Murder) Condition.  
  Tier One 
  On the local level, New Delhi is a microcosm of the modern world. The slasher in the city uses 
  updated technology, illegal tracking and investigation programs, and has their thumb on the 
  pulse of the city — however fast it moves. To keep up (and hopefully get ahead), the hunters 
  must be capable of predicting the city’s movements and adjusting to a constant flow of 
  information. Slashers have a keen eye even for forensic technology, and no bodies have been 
  recovered by law enforcement. Most of the evidence obtained comes in the carefully recorded 
  and processed video and audio files released by the Herald. 
  Lost in Recording: For every rumor about the Herald, another one pops up to relay that the 
  slasher is only one killer — but a powerful one, an elite citizen with brains and connections. 
  Certainly, the slasher’s access to technology is remarkable: They find ways around every 
  precaution that law enforcement puts into place. As such, New Delhi police are constantly 
  searching for more cutting-edge and creative solutions to track down the murderer. Hunters who 
  focus on social connections will become embroiled in New Delhi’s high society of venture 
  capitalists, social-media darlings, and technophiles. Can technology solve these murders before 
  other victims are claimed? 
  Ghost in the Machine: Some hunters believe the killer was made of flesh and blood at one time 
  — but no longer. Through the wonders of modern technology, the Herald is more machine than 
  mortal and now “inhabits” a fleet of identical drones — some human-shaped, and others more 
  utilitarian — to remotely murder their victims as a warning to humanity. Unfortunately, catching 
  one of these drones does little to harm the killer’s true purpose, and gives investigators even less 
  to go on. Hunters worry the drones are not inert, even when turned off, and wonder if the slasher 
  is setting up deadly targets at police, fire, and hospital stations.  
  Tier Two 
  Compacts in New Delhi operate with a great deal of latitude. The population of the city is 
  massive, and it’s easy to operate in secrecy — so long as hunters don’t get caught on the city’s 
  security grid.  
  Active compacts in New Delhi include: 
  Network Zero: In a city like New Delhi, you might expect Network Zero to have a significant 
  edge. Certainly, members are attracted by the city’s patronage of technology, and their attitude 
  toward integrating the best tech into their law enforcement and communications technology. 
  Several Network Zero servers are hosted in New Delhi, and many of their agents spend their 
  time protecting those valuable assets. However, the Herald’s activities have put a significant hold 
  on Network Zero’s operations. The slasher’s technology seems to veer more paranormal than 
  cutting-edge science, and even their best agents have difficulty keeping up with the curve. 
  Several cells are dealing with the issue by forging stronger ties with local police and coroner’s 
  offices, instead, to uphold the Vigil by watching out for them and warning them of suspicious 
  activities. 
  
  Together Now: Together Now is a Hindu-based compact that focuses on the comfort of the 
  survivors and their families by encouraging them to light a candle and stand united against the 
  darkness. Together Now feels the best way to deal with the slasher epidemic is to keep their 
  communities alert but not paranoid. Often, they provide the muscle for weddings and other 
  celebrations, hold midnight vigils to light up the night, and maintain city watches to keep New 
  Delhi safe. When they do encounter a possible suspect, there are plenty of Together Now 
  members that can go toe to toe with a slasher, but some hunters think the only way to deal with 
  the slasher is to use more teamwork than bravado. As such, Together Now has managed to do in 
  real time what tech does automatically: build an unstoppable whisper network. 
  Tier Three 
  Every time a conspiracy devises or acquires new technology to capture the Herald, its members 
  realize the slasher has already been utilizing the same advancements to cover up their murders. 
  This killer is connected to the hunting community, has a significant amount of money to 
  dedicate, and has a keen eye for up-and-coming scientific disciplines and techniques. 
  Active conspiracies in New Delhi include: 
  Aegis Kai Doru: The Aegis Kai Doru has suddenly taken an interest in New Delhi, believing the 
  cause of all the city’s ills is due to a rumor so bizarre even conspiracy members question its 
  accuracy. Some members think a lost relic holds the key to the slasher’s gift with technology. 
  The item in question? The Iron Pillar of New Delhi — or at least that’s what the conspiracy 
  theorists believe. Buried far beneath the city, lost to time, some members propose that a series of 
  Iron Pillars built to act as a supernatural conduit has been manipulated by a slasher. Somehow, 
  this monster found the means to not only get underground, but also manipulate the fabled relics 
  for supernatural purposes — to turn New Delhi into their personal playground. 
  The Cheiron Group: One of the largest global conspiracies, the Cheiron Group has a long 
  history of sticking its nose in the fringes of science. In New Delhi, it maintains corporate 
  interests in the medical field, from chemists and burgeoning pharmaceutical companies, to 
  hospitals and large-scale research initiatives for new treatments and modern medical 
  advancements. Unknown to most, the Herald’s killings have come uncomfortably close to the 
  Cheiron Group’s interests — several of the dead are Cheiron researchers or employees, and those 
  murders utilized the Cheiron Group’s most secret, potentially explosive research methods. 
  Hong Kong, China 
  Like other major metropolises, Hong Kong has always been a draw for supernatural predators to 
  attack its everyday citizens. The stresses of modern life, when combined with the feeling of 
  disconnection, also create opportunities for the criminally-minded to prey on the lonely. Now, 
  the rising epidemic of slashers has had an interesting effect on the city’s dark underbelly: Gangs 
  are working with police to anonymously inform them of suspicious activity, violent crime is 
  down 40 percent as vigilante patrols (a mix of rogue hunters, gangs, and off-duty cops) watch the 
  streets, and victimless crimes have skyrocketed. The police believe there are at least six slashers 
  operating in the city and have been recruiting members of gangs, such as the Triad, and local 
  police. Whenever one murderer is caught, another pops up to take their place. Worse, these are 
  just the slashers of whom the authorities are directly aware. 
  Some of the slashers gaining notoriety in Hong Kong seem like they’ve stepped out of a movie 
  and onto the streets. The gluttonous Dumpling Wife is a Mutant so warped in form and hunger 
  
  she can’t possibly be mistaken for anyone else. The Needle Man is aggressive toward other 
  slashers and actively chases them out of the nests he claims. Copycats are a problem, though, and 
  in some cases it’s not clear if urban legends are professing the situation is worse than it seems. 
  Unfortunately, the sensationalized Dinner Party Killer murders has frightened tourists and the 
  city’s economy is showing signs of wear and tear. Despite the slasher’s capture, the gruesome 
  depiction of the crime scenes has had a profound effect on the city’s psyche; victims were 
  strangers plucked off the streets, their bodies carefully arranged in different apartments at tables, 
  and the meats were their organs cooked into grisly, “gourmet” meals. In one terrifying video, the 
  victims were dressed as police officers and were still alive. 
  Despite this, neither Hong Kong police nor its citizens are giving up and won’t abandon the city 
  to a grisly fate. Instead of stepping down, the police force’s numbers swell as capable citizens 
  step up to help analyze and process evidence. Some officers are so desperate to find answers, 
  they are hunting slashersby using themselves as bait.. Their aggressiveness has driven some 
  monsters out into the open, but not the slashers they were hoping to find. Now the police are just 
  starting to realize slashers aren’t the only terrifying creatures to fear.  
  Out of their desire to save Hong Kong from the supernatural, a new compact has formed — Nine 
  Stars — while other police officers, like Kenneth Hua, contribute to the problem by becoming 
  slashers themselves.  
  Kenneth Hua 
  Quote: “The only good hunter is a dead one.” 
  Background: Kenneth, a former marathon runner, was a rising star in the Hong Kong Police 
  Force until his temper got the best of him. When the Dinner Party Killer first began cutting their 
  bloody path through the city, Kenneth was the one who made the decision to release early 
  information about the investigation to the media, hoping to protect future victims and to 
  encourage anyone who knew more to come forward. Unfortunately, the affair blew up into a 
  media circus, driving journalists to perform their own investigations that resulted in the slasher’s 
  capture. Heads had to roll, but luckily Kenneth wasn’t in the line of fire — not until he beat up a 
  hunter with their own camera. Despite having been relieved of active duty, Kenneth’s still 
  hounded by the media and faces accusations that he’s withholding key details about multiple 
  cases — even from his former colleagues. 
  Appearance: Kenneth is wiry, and his long years of marathon training have kept his body in 
  peak physical condition. Though some find him affable, he has a temper that gets the better of 
  him. Kenneth rated top of the class in firearms training and is always prepared to fight. Usually 
  soft-spoken, Kenneth’s voice begins to rise whenever he talks about the Dinner Party Killer, 
  Hong Kong’s rising problem with serial murderers, and the hunters’ interference in police 
  investigations.  
  Storytelling Hints: Kenneth’s a dedicated officer who believes he was wronged by the 
  journalists, a.k.a. Network Zero hunters, who brought the Dinner Party Killer to justice. While 
  Kenneth cares for his city, he firmly believes law enforcement, rather than vigilante hunters, 
  should be in control of the slasher epidemic. He’s aware of the existence of the Nine Stars 
  compact (see p. XX) and has already turned down a membership offer. With each headline, 
  Kenneth’s anger grows, and it’s only a matter of time before he replaces the Dinner Party Killer 
  as Hong Kong’s number-one slasher to murder hunters, and let the real police do their job. 
  
  Virtue: Loyal 
  Vice: Stubborn 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 5, Resolve 3 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4 
  Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 4, Composure 1 
  Mental Skills: Academics 2, Crafts 1, Investigation (Hunters) 4, Occult 1, Politics 2 
  Physical Skills: Athletics (Running) 3, Brawl (Subduing) 3, Firearms (Sidearms) 4, Stealth (City 
  Streets) 2, Weaponry 2 
  Social Skills: Empathy 2, Intimidate 3, Persuasion 3, Socialize 2, Streetwise (Criminal Gangs) 4, 
  Subterfuge 1 
  Merits: Contacts 2 (Criminals, Police), Fleet of Foot 2, Iron Stamina 2, Resources 2, Small Unit 
  Tactics 2, Trained Observer 3, Damned Certainty 2 
  Health: 9 
  Willpower: 5 
  Integrity: 0 
  Size: 5 
  Speed: 14 
  Defense: 7 
  Initiative: 6 
  Armor: None 
  Special: Kenneth’s rash of violent acts have gotten him fired recently. He is a ripper — even 
  though he hasn’t made his first kill…yet. Hunters have the option of working with Kenneth to 
  save him or may wind up pushing him over the edge. When Kenneth encounters a hunter, he 
  must successfully roll Wits + Composure to retain his sense of calm. 
  Tier One 
  The city’s a target-rich environment for a hunter cell; leering hives of nightmares made flesh lurk 
  in the city’s forgotten spaces, plucking their prey from the teeming masses, and a fresh crop of 
  dangerous monsters is on its way to Hong Kong.  
  Hunters must navigate a complex and tense situation to figure out where they fit in the city. 
  Hong Kong’s tightly knit communities may reject well-meaning local and foreign hunters, and a 
  sense of loneliness and isolation among some civilians translates to an overall feeling of distrust. 
  Despite the police’s best efforts, plenty of citizens are still falling through the cracks, and are 
  victims in one sense or another. 
  Spreading Cancer Cells: Hong Kong-based cells that hunted before the slasher epidemic are 
  seeing a rash of new hunters form poorly organized teams. They worry these new hunters don’t 
  care about The Code or solving the problem, and are simply using the murders as an excuse to 
  stalk people and rough up witnesses. Some hunters believe these cancer cells are causing bigger 
  
  problems in the city and wonder just how many there are. They may not know there’s only one 
  cancer cell — because the amateur cell’s M.O. is to make it seem like there’s more hunters than 
  there are slashers. 
  Desperate Cover-up: The Dinner Party Killer case is a sore spot for local cells. Shoddy 
  investigations, rushed analyses, missing evidence, lost eyewitness accounts, and a questionable 
  arrest is forcing hunters to wonder if the Dinner Party Killer was one of Hong Kong’s finest. 
  Was the department struck by freakish misfortune, or is someone like Kenneth Hua actively 
  covering for the real slasher? Worse: some hunters are convinced the Dinner Party Killer is still 
  on the loose, and it’s just a matter of time before they strike again. 
  Tier Two 
  Compacts in Hong Kong must navigate the city’s bureaucracy and cultural kaleidoscope to track 
  the movements and activities of slashers within the city. 
  Network Zero: Despite a clear and desperate need for other compacts to work with Nine Stars in 
  Hong Kong, hunters are reticent to form ties because they fear that once the slasher epidemic is 
  resolved, the compact will fall apart, leaving their operations exposed to the authorities. Network 
  Zero is one of the few compacts that has a chance to monitor Nine Stars while providing 
  assistance when needed. Though local members have informed American cells to “keep out” due 
  to heightened fears Hong Kong’s slashers will trash the city and move on to other major 
  metropoli, the compact’s leaders don’t want them to leave just yet. Increasingly, however, the 
  slasher outbreak is dragging Network Zero’s attention toward more sensationalized cases, which 
  distracts some members from lending a hand to Nine Stars. Should they be able to regain their 
  focus, Network Zero may be able to find key intel needed to end the epidemic once and for all. 
  Nine Stars: Nine Stars (see p. XX) is a Hong Kong-based compact; its formation is a reaction to 
  the police force’s recent cases involving slashers and the supernatural. As police officers, Nine 
  Stars is a hidden organization that operates within the framework and limitations of their 
  precincts while exploiting their connections when they can to help keep citizens safe. That said, 
  Nine Stars has recently told its members that they’re going all in, In the founders’ minds, either 
  their members prioritize the hunt over everything else — jobs, families, friends, etc. — or they 
  can leave the city and uphold the Vigil elsewhere. Some officers believe the push for a round-
  the-clock hunt is not going to work, but for now tensions are running high and the compact is 
  desperately trying to get the slasher epidemic under control. 
  Tier Three 
  In a world where violent crime is sharply on the rise everywhere, Hong Kong’s bustling streets 
  easily swallow up the symptoms of its bloody illness caused by slashers. Only when the 
  conspiracies dig a little deeper will they see the particularly strong and malevolent thread of 
  commonality that binds the slashers of the city together. The killers of Hong Kong are hungry, 
  driven, and gluttonous; many are cannibalistic, or mutilate their mouths or their victims’. 
  Slashers who burn out are often driven to stomach-churning self-mutilation. The same gory 
  message is daubed on walls by murderers who have never met one another and share nothing but 
  that whispering voice in the back of their mind: Eat your own name. Swallow it down. Kill who 
  you are and find freedom in murder.  
  Regardless of what’s happening on a global scale, something monstrous and ravenous simmers 
  in the bones of Hong Kong, taking the minds of the vulnerable and the cruel firmly in its grasp 
  
  and twisting them to a darker purpose. Conspiracies with the power to capture and question true 
  creatures of the night will find some horrors are just as afraid as the hunters are, becausethe 
  slashers of Hong Kong are targeting them, too. Like rats fleeing a sinking ship, the transient 
  population of monsters is thinning out; more flee the city than come into it. Given enough time, 
  will the slasher epidemic simply purge the iconic city of its monstrous parasites? 
  Aegis Kai Doru: Several agents of Aegis Kai Doru live and work within Hong Kong, operating 
  as leaders of prominent business and financial interests within the city, and utilizing Hong 
  Kong’s thriving black markets to deal in the acquisition of unusual, historical, or supernatural 
  items. Though Aegis Kai Doru has not found any mythic relics to add to its considerable 
  collection, it has uncovered several cursed objects. In fact, local members are convinced a cursed 
  object may have been wielded by the Dinner Party Killer; an eternally sharp knife once owned 
  by a Qing emperor that has a white jadeite scabbard and a bronze handle.  
  The knife, which vanished from the Hong Kong Museum of History, was linked to decadent 
  feasts held for nobles, politicians, and wealthy merchants while the less fortunate starved to 
  death. Similarly, Aegis Kai Doru agents who were hoping to purchase a bronze funerary jar 
  etched with a taotie motif have noticed most objects depicting the Chinese demon have all but 
  disappeared. Unfortunately, the answers to these riddles may lead members to the truth: A 
  slasher has infiltrated their ranks hoping to use their considerable resources to acquire the Sword 
  of Goujian, which some scholars compare to Excalibur. 
  Ascending Ones: While other hunters focus on saving victims, the Ascending Ones have figured 
  out that some slashers can be saved — before their first kill. Their presence in Hong Kong has 
  not gone unnoticed by other hunters, because while cells often track down slashers to confront 
  them or rescue kidnapped victims, the Ascending Ones have been capturing murderers to 
  rehabilitate them in an unnamed facility. Local members are tasked with capturing, detaining, 
  and transporting rippers to random locations throughout Hong Kong, no questions asked. Others 
  have been ordered to wipe out any scourge they see and have clearly been told that any inhuman-
  seeming murderer must die.  
  Those who catch wind of the conspiracy’s comings and goings see a pattern but have leapt to the 
  wrong conclusion. Cancer cells believe the conspiracy is coming for them, even though that’s not 
  the case. Police are beginning to draw lines tracing the conspiracy’s activities to certain murders 
  and have assumed the group is a criminal organization snatching slashers to release them in other 
  cities all over Southeast Asia. Though this is not the case, it has caused some Ascending Ones to 
  second guess their orders to avoid being harassed by the cops. Unfortunately, no one is certain if 
  the conspiracy’s efforts have made a difference or if the Ascending Ones have managed to save a 
  few blackened souls from themselves.  
  Nine Stars 
  Quote: “We will not let slashers destroy the people of Hong Kong.” 
  Like a rising tide, slashers crawl from the margins in ever-greater numbers, indulging their 
  monstrous appetites upon Hong Kong’s unwitting populace. Blood pools in the gutters of Hong 
  Kong. The city’s lights are ever bright, bathing its streets in a neon glow through the deepest 
  hours of night, throwing the shadows into even starker contrast. The growing epidemic throws 
  officers of the Hong Kong Police Force face to face with relentless killers, weird phenomena, 
  
  and stomach-churning crime scenes caused by the supernatural. In this roiling crucible of horror 
  and carnage, Nine Stars is forged. 
  Nine Stars is a recently formed compact founded out of necessity following the plague of 
  slashers terrorizing Hong Kong. The compact is almost entirely embedded within the city’s 
  police force, drawn from among officers who have witnessed a slasher’s anomalous capabilities 
  or experienced the terrifying wake of a rampage — but held their nerve and asked the questions 
  no one else dared to. It’s convenient for the administration to treat slashers as nothing more than 
  serial killers, brushed under the carpet of the yearly violent-crime figures, but Nine Stars 
  members know how dire the situation truly is. They know the supernatural is real. 
  The compact principally values investigative skill in its members, backed up by a selfless 
  dedication to duty. Members know that, at any point, they could be fired for taking the law into 
  their own hands and disobeying orders. Ultimately, Nine Stars often prioritizes saving victims 
  over killing slashers, and many members join the compact because they want to save the city 
  from the supernatural. Other hunters believe that the sooner an individual slasher can be studied, 
  predicted, and brought to a halt, the lower the cost in innocent lives will be. The compact craves 
  a greater understanding of the slasher epidemic; discovering the cause might let them strike at 
  the root of the problem, rather than always chasing after the gore-spattered symptoms. 
  Strung out across the departments of the Hong Kong Police Force as an informal network, 
  members share information and evidence, use their leverage to promote other compact agents, 
  and shift cases featuring supernatural or anomalous elements onto the laps of their own people. 
  Agents are well-equipped, highly motivated, and backed by colleagues willing to cover up their 
  trails and make problematic paperwork go away. They are often skeptical of outsiders, however, 
  and don’t always treat visiting hunters as allies until they’ve proven they can be trusted. 
  Members worry they have more to lose because their careers are a tangled mess of pursuing 
  justice while upholding the Vigil. 
  The closest Nine Stars has to a leader is Chief Superintendent Annie Kin-Lau, one of its 
  founding members. She’s a tough-as-nails hunter who’s willing to go toe to toe with any slasher, 
  but also has the political instincts the compact needs to survive. Under Kin-Lau’s oversight, Nine 
  Stars has gone from a last-ditch effort to wielding considerable power behind the scenes. Now, 
  though, Nine Stars risks becoming a victim of its own success; it’s drawn the attention of the 
  Complaints and Internal Investigations Branch. After all, from the outside Nine Stars looks like 
  any other conspiratorial network of supposedly crooked cops. Rules, when broken, tend to draw 
  interest and hunters need to balance the weight of the Code against the demands of being a police 
  officer. 
  The Enemy 
  Nine Stars members hold the line fearing no one else will. They know something’s wrong, deep 
  in the city’s bones. It’s a hunger, a ravening appetite that seethes in Hong Kong’s shadows and 
  twists citizens into monsters. Nine Stars may not know the source of this malign presence, but 
  they do recognize the fruits of its human corruption — the slashers plaguing the city. The 
  compact focuses its efforts to end the corruption that threats the safety of all and is slowly 
  piecing together ways to capture, detain, and find new slashers before they strike. 
  Despite this focus, Nine Stars’ members do not intentionally shy away from dealing with other 
  supernatural predators. At its core, the compact is served by retired veterans who were 
  
  traumatized by overseeing cases in areas that now spawn urban legends, such as Sau Mau Ping in 
  the Kwun Tong district in Kowloon, the Lake Ad Excellentiam (or Lotus Pond) at Chung Chi 
  College at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Bride’s Pool Road. The compact has 
  learned the hard way that spirits of vengeance may be more dangerous than a cold-blooded 
  slasher but has its hands full. Until the slasher epidemic subsides, its primary focus will be 
  figuring out how to keep Hong Kong safe. 
  Hunters 
  You literally stumbled onto The Glutton as he was hunched over a victim, plucking out viscera 
  and feeding it into his wide mouth as if each gobbet was a delicacy. You welcomed the Hong 
  Kong Police Force’s counseling afterward, until they kept trying to convince you your memory 
  was faulty, that the slasher hadn’t shrugged off bullets or picked you up with one hand. You 
  were there later, in that dimly lit room, with the other officers who were too disgusted, scared, 
  and anxious to do something. You swore the oath that forged Nine Stars. 
  No one could figure out how the Cardboard Killer got into her victims’ homes, but something in 
  your gut told you Mrs. Fang was next on the list. You broke the rules, broke into Mrs. Fang’s 
  home, and saw the stomach-churning way the Cardboard Killer entered the apartment. You were 
  disciplined for your actions — but you also saved Mrs. Fang. The superintendent pressed a 
  single gleaming star into your lapel and told you to come meet him in the bar that night. 
  You’re on the Serial & Spree Killer Special Response Task Force, a hotshot young officer armed 
  to the teeth with the best gear your precinct could provide. The veterans keep muttering about 
  killers who are inhumanly strong or tough. You haven’t yet gone on your first dispatchment, but 
  you’ll show the timid old timers you’ve got what it takes. You’re not afraid of anything and scoff 
  at urban legends about bulletproof murderers and hungry ghosts. 
  You never caused trouble. You spent months methodically putting together the villain-hitting 
  case; the woman practicing da siu yun who made sure her petty “curses” always worked because 
  she brutally murdered the targets. You carefully cracked the mysterious Cure Murderer cases and 
  discovered a doctor who was injecting a deadly cocktail of drugs and viruses that drove his 
  patients mad. You dutifully excised every part from the reports that would upset your senior 
  officers. One day, Chief Superintendent Kin-Lau called you to a meeting, more interested in 
  what you’d been leaving out than what you’d been keeping in. 
  Fellowships 
  Compact members are awarded stars following their service to the people of Hong Kong. A case 
  or incident where an officer successfully saves any lives wins them one star — with nine stars 
  being the highest grade that can be achieved. Additionally, Nine Stars is roughly divided among 
  three fellowships. 
  Those officers under the umbrella of Special Response focus on the slasher epidemic troubling 
  Hong Kong. Forming the bulk of the compact, Special Response coordinates the analysis of 
  slasher outbreaks and helps reassign members to cases involving suspected or confirmed slasher 
  activity. 
  By comparison, Five and Nine is a smaller, informal network of retired officers. Five and Nine 
  is assigned to investigating other supernatural phenomena the Hong Kong police stumble upon 
  and includes the compact’s most learned occultists and experienced agents. When a breath-
  
  drinking vampire or shapeshifting demon rears its head, Nine Stars looks to these grizzled 
  veterans for guidance. 
  Most Nine Stars members are officers on active duty in the Hong Kong Police Force, but the 
  Friendly Hands are outsiders who’ve been temporarily welcomed into the fold. Used as a 
  sarcastic term, the Friendly Hands are kept at a safe-but-useful distance, for its members are a 
  motley group of gang members, ex-cons, petty thieves, and dirty politicians who’d rather work 
  with police to end the slasher epidemic than flee the city. Though many members believe this 
  branch will fold following the arrest or capture of the last remaining slasher, for now the officers 
  begrudgingly accept their help to save Hong Kong. 
  Status 
  Members of Nine Stars earn recognition by performing a service to their community. Exemplary 
  deeds are also awarded with the gift of a star-shaped pin.  
  • You’ve saved a family’s life from a slasher through your savvy investigation. You gain a free 
  Skill Specialty in the Investigation or Occult Skill. 
  ••• You know success doesn’t come from being a loose cannon, but from working together as a 
  team. When you participate in a Tactic, your successes gain the 8-again quality. 
  ••••• You’re a founding member of Nine Stars, or you’ve reached the full nine stars on your lapel 
  and just kept going. You gain the three-dot Trained Observer Merit, even if you don’t meet the 
  usual prerequisites. 
  VASCU 
  Quote: “There is no mind we can’t unlock. No secret we can’t find.” 
  The Vanguard Serial Crimes Unit (VASCU) discreetly serves an international portfolio of clients 
  that includes a mixture of governmental bureaus, law-enforcement agencies, and wealthy 
  magnates. Officially, VASCU’s specialists aid with the investigation and profiling of serial and 
  spree killers on a freelance basis through a corporate front called the Vanguard Initiative; the 
  Unit also produces reports and writes papers tracking rates of mass murders and violent crime on 
  an international scale. Due to the dramatic rise in monster activity, VASCU has branched out to 
  include hunting true monsters as well slashers.  
  Most of VASCU’s clients know their agents possess unusual talents — every operative is a 
  psychic — and they specifically hire the conspiracy for this reason. Only certain retirees who 
  once worked at the Federal Bureau of Investigation know the full truth, because they were part of 
  VASCU’s creation and oversaw the group’s efforts through its final reorganization in 1982. For 
  most of the 1980s, despite a dramatic rise in violent crimes, the FBI allowed VASCU to lead the 
  charge, expecting their newly reconstructed arm to step up where other agents could not. For 
  over 30 years, VASCU agents doggedly tracked serial killers and mass murderers all over the 
  country, informing FBI agents when they could of a suspect’s hideout or a victim’s location. In 
  fact, VASCU’s success rate was a little too high for some FBI agents, who began to distrust their 
  psychic abilities and favor data, hard sciences, and cutting-edge technology instead of what some 
  agents called “an artifact of the Cold War.”  
  Following yet another change in leadership, VASCU eventually lost enough funding it could no 
  longer maintain its core function and was officially shut down in 2008. Then, a few years later, 
  
  an anonymous private citizen broke ground on the Vanguard Institute in Philadelphia, collected 
  what remained of VASCU’s agents and administration, and allowed them to move in and resume 
  operations on a freelance basis. To date, rumor has it no one inside VASCU is certain who’s 
  footing the bill for their expenses — which is extremely odd for a group that prides itself on its 
  psychic abilities. Most members believe VASCU is being secretly funded by a bipartisan 
  committee in Congress but is largely left alone to avoid undue scrutiny.  
  Using a bioengineering research group called the Vanguard Initiative as a front, VASCU remains 
  headquartered in Philadelphia, and continues to work with US government interests as a 
  contractor — including, upon occasion, with the few VASCU agents who remained in the FBI. 
  However, as word of the institute’s talents worm their way through the dark underside of 
  international law enforcement, VASCU increasingly sees profitable opportunities overseas.  
  VASCU psychics now operate on every continent, whether in long-term partnerships with law 
  enforcement branches and wealthy private citizens, or short-term deployments for emergency 
  situations. Thankfully, the group is profitable and can refuse services when required. Some 
  VASCU agents are rumored to abandon their duties, however, and take on extra work 
  themselves. 
  VASCU’s secret weapon is the Wintergreen Process, a drug-based therapy that inductees 
  undergo in order to overclock the information-processing centers in the brain to preternatural 
  heights. The process is dark fruit born from the sinister tree of the MK-ULTRA psychic research 
  program run by the CIA, and VASCU’s possession of this classified information is one of the 
  key sources of contention between them and FBI. 
  The Enemy 
  Much like its previous incarnations, VASCU is under attack. Someone — or something — fears 
  its psychic agents and will stop at nothing to destroy the agency despite the fact that its existence 
  is well-cloaked within the Vanguard Initiative. Reports of slasher attacks against agents and 
  support staff, uncannily timed warnings to slashers, and political sabotage have forced VASCU 
  agents to face the possibility they’ve been compromised. Worse, many VASCU agents are 
  starting to think the only reason they’re still around is because the FBI wants them to find Doctor 
  Wintergreen, the missing pioneer who championed the Wintergreen Process. 
  Modern VASCU agents share a burden with their predecessors — their actions are restricted by 
  the laws and regulations of the countries in which they operate. “I know he did it because I read 
  his mind” won’t pass as evidence in most courts. This fosters an atmosphere of cynicism mixed 
  with frustration, as VASCU agents often believe themselves to be superior to other hunters. After 
  all, they’ve managed to do what other conspiracies could not: tap into the power of the mind. 
  Of course, when it comes to dealing with monsters, the rules don’t apply. New VASCU recruits 
  are even taking their cues from other agencies such as Task Force: VALKYRIE or the Cheiron 
  Group. 
  Hunters 
  You were part of VASCU before the conspiracy went freelance. So many dark secrets, so many 
  cold truths you can’t tell anyone after you signed all those ink-smeared documents. At the end of 
  your first term of service, you signed on to work or you were packed off to the bright new 
  Vanguard Institute, with its sterile Philadelphia headquarters and its new, international remit. 
  
  You remember your old buddies in the FBI, though, and the price VASCU paid in blood, sweat, 
  and tears. 
  The college recruiter had a funny look on her face when she read through your test results. Next 
  thing you know, you were being offered a chance to join some hotshot bioengineering group 
  with a serious pay package. Once you got to the Vanguard Institute, you were put through even 
  weirder tests, and apparently, you’re psychic. Things can’t possibly get any stranger than this, 
  right? 
  You’re an angry ex-pat who left your country after losing everything you loved. It’s a cold rage, 
  burning in your guts, and it won’t ever go away. You can’t get them back, not after the killer 
  finished with them. VASCU offered a way to take that fury and harness it, to steal something 
  back from the killer and make it your own. You keep an eye on VASCU’s reports to glean news 
  from your homeland. One day, you’re going to tear that bastard’s mind apart, thought by 
  agonizing thought. 
  A career in law enforcement left you disillusioned. It was corruption and brutality from top to 
  bottom; you joined to serve and protect, and instead you found out that bad apples filled the 
  whole fucking barrel. Thing is, you were a damn good investigator — so good that VASCU’s 
  recruiters were waiting to pounce when you handed in your notice to the police chief. 
  Retirement’s going to have to wait a little longer. 
  Departments 
  Most of VASCU’s staff are professionals who are not gifted with psychic abilities. Candidates 
  suitable for the Wintergreen Process are rare, and VASCU treats every agent as a valued asset.  
  By far the largest department is the Operations Department, consisting of agents deployed to 
  clients in order to profile, investigate and, when necessary, aid in bringing down serial killers and 
  slashers. Ops agents deal with the vicissitudes of the conspiracy’s rather mercenary approach to 
  clients, and sometimes compete with one another for the choicest assignments. 
  Agents are assigned to Field Liaison based on operational need or prior experience with the 
  supernatural. This department deals with other organizations like its front, the Vanguard 
  Institute. Liaison’s agents build contact networks among other hunters to work with local cells in 
  areas VASCU visits. These agents also trawl through such communities for potential recruits; the 
  conspiracy is not above poaching conspirators suitable for the Wintergreen Process. 
  Finally, the innocuously named Synergies & Market Growth Potential takes up the darkest 
  corner of VASCU’s organizational chart. The name’s just another veneer; this department is 
  dedicated to exploiting psychic potential for more than just tracking down slashers in the wild. 
  Synergies agents use their Teleinformatic Endowments to conduct industrial espionage, sway 
  politicians, and dig out blackmail material VASCU can use to protect itself. The department 
  justifies its operations through its outrageous claims: Plenty of inhuman monsters dwell in the 
  upper echelons of government and corporate power, and until mortals are back in charge they’ll 
  do what it takes to stop them. 
  Status 
  Status in VASCU is earned when the conspiracy’s goals are met. For the time being, the 
  conspiracy is less concerned about personal glory and is more focused on bigger initiatives — at 
  least until the Slasher epidemic ends. 
  
  • When you signed up for VASCU, you didn’t know they’d run you through a series of tests for 
  psychic aptitude you’d pass with flying colors. Your new job scares the shit out of you, but you 
  know this is the best place for you to hunt. Gain a free psychic-related Skill Specialty in Occult.   
  ••• You’ve been doing this for a while. You’ve traveled the world, worked with law enforcement 
  and investigators across the globe, and have seen how the horrors of human atrocities are 
  repeated time and time again. You’re hardened by what you’ve experienced, and you’ve earned 
  respect among those who matter. You gain a bonus dot of the Status Merit with the government 
  or law enforcement agency of your choice. 
  ••••• Few hunters understand what it’s like to get a bird’s-eye view of the Vigil on a global scale. 
  You’ve seen and stopped innumerable killers in more countries than you can count. You gain the 
  Tactical Insight Merit, whether you would normally qualify for it or not. If you already have the 
  Merit, you may reroll your dice pool when performing a Tactic once per session. 
  
  BEGIN OPENING FICTION 
  Administrator’s note: Yo, this is your boy Goliath, coming straight at you from you don’t need to 
  know where, motherfucker. We intercepted this recording from Austin earlier this week and let 
  me tell you: this ain’t a good look, hunters. Do not — I repeat, do not — use public areas to 
  conduct your business unless you’re ready to tell the public the truth. Especially not in 
  surveillance-happy US of A. And for god’s sake, don’t mess with the enemy. 
  Since I believe in freedom of information, at least among trusted peers, here’s the incriminating 
  clip transcribed. Now, have a good fucking day. 
  INT. SMOKY DIVE BAR  
  The footage shows two men and two women in the back room of a seedy bar. There are three 
  tables but only one chair, which is occupied by one of the two men. Empty bottles cover every 
  flat surface. One woman is smoking an e-cigarette, its tip flaring neon blue.  
  Door opens. A woman walks inside. She is 40-something, East Asian, with black hair worn 
  short. Her attire is functional: jeans, shirt, and denim jacket. 
  DARK-HAIRED WOMAN is silent at first but then she staggers backwards. 
  “What—who the hell are you? Your face. Your...your face—” 
  SMOKING WOMAN pushes from the wall.  Her features, though younger, bear a strong 
  resemblance to those of the new arrival’s. Unlike her counterpart, she is dressed for war: black 
  leather, functional boots, gloves. The headlights of a passing car reflect off the buckles of her 
  leather jacket. 
  “The person whose life you stole.” 
  MAN WITH MUTTONCHOPS looks up from under the brim of a cowboy hat; he’s a big man 
  in his 30s, thick muscle already going to fat.  
  “Easy, Lin.” 
  SMOKING WOMAN 
  “My name is Clementine, asshole.” 
  DARK-HAIRED WOMAN  
  “What is going on here?” 
  WOMAN IN HIGH-COLLARED COAT joins the conversation. Of the five, she appears the 
  youngest, dark-skinned, with chandelier earrings.  
  “Guys, you’re scaring her. Don’t forget the point of what we’re doing—”  
  CLEMENTINE flings her e-cigarette at the wall.  
  “The point? The point? The point is that she’s wearing my face. Sixteen years. She’s been living 
  my life for sixteen years. Holding my children. Sleeping next to my husband. Sixteen years—”  
  DARK-HAIRED WOMAN  
  “Please, I don’t understand what’s happening.” 
  
  MAN WITH MUTTONCHOPS gestures with a hand, expression kind.  
  “Just relax, darling. We’re going to tell you some things that might seem real strange, but there’s 
  nothing to be afraid—”  
  CLEMENTINE snarls and pulls out revolver. 
  “Fuck. That. If you don’t say what I wanna hear, you’re dead.”  
  The DARK-HAIRED WOMAN screams and staggers back. She is caught by the 
  BESPECTACLED MAN that had been silent throughout. He is bespectacled, pale, and slim-
  built with a kind face. His voice is a deep, comforting bass. 
  BESPECTACLED MAN 
  “Don’t scream.” 
  DARK-HAIRED WOMAN  
  “But she...but she—” 
  WOMAN IN HIGH-COLLARED COAT 
  “Clementine is — I’m sorry for, uhm, how our friend reacted. But this isn’t anything personal.” 
  DARK-HAIRED WOMAN  
  “She pulled a gun on me.” 
  BESPECTACLED MAN 
  “We know, we know. But you have to understand her circumstances. And yours. Your kind is—
  ” 
  DARK-HAIRED WOMAN writhes away from the BESPECTACLED WOMAN, stumbling 
  until she has her back pressed to a wall. 
  “What are you trying to tell me? You keep dancing around the subject. My kind? And I’m 
  — I’m wearing her face? What is going on?” 
  MAN WITH MUTTONCHOPS. 
  “Keep your voice down.” 
  DARK-HAIRED WOMAN 
  “I don’t understand. Please, someone tell me what’s going on.” 
  CLEMENTINE’s features ripple.  
  “You really gonna do that? You really going to pretend that you’re some kind of helpless 
  housewife? No clue at all as to what you’ve done and what you are?” 
  DARK-HAIRED WOMAN 
  “I don’t—” 
  WOMAN IN HIGH-COLLARED COAT 
  “We’ll explain later, if you want us to. Tell you everything. But I promise we’re not here to harm 
  you.” 
  
  DARK-HAIRED WOMAN sinks to her knees, hands over her head. 
  “No, no. None of this makes sense. Who are you? Who are you people?” 
  BESPECTACLED MAN. 
  “Maya, be careful.” 
  MAN WITH MUTTONCHOPS 
  “We’re — it’s not important who are, darlin’. What you need to know that we’re here to help.” 
  CLEMENTINE 
  “Why are you being nice to it? This is just a pile of walking kindling.” 
  WOMAN IN HIGH-COLLARED COAT 
  “You’re in no position to talk, Clementine.” 
  CLEMENTINE 
  “Excuse me? Am I the monster here?” 
  WOMAN IN HIGH-COLLARED COAT 
  “You tell me. Would the woman from sixteen years ago raise a weapon at an unarmed person?” 
  MAN WITH MUTTONCHOPS 
  “Maya, what are you doing—” 
  CLEMENTINE 
  “What the fuck?” 
  MAYA 
  “Our role is to protect the innocent from things like you. Of the two of you, only one of you has 
  pulled a gun.” 
  CLEMENTINE jabs her gun in MAYA’s direction, fury and despair warping her features. 
  “You’re taking its side over mine—” 
  BESPECTACLED MAN 
  “Everyone needs to calm down right now. We don’t need—” 
  CLEMENTINE 
  “Back the fuck off or I’m going to put a bullet between her eyes.” 
  BESPECTACLED MAN lowers to a squat, frowning, an arm encircling the DARK-HAIRED 
  WOMAN’s quivering shoulders. 
  MAN WITH MUTTONCHOPS 
  “You have five seconds to lower your weapon.” 
  CLEMENTINE glances away from MAYA. 
  “You gonna make me? I— ”  
  
  MAYA blurs into motion; a flash of steel is all the camera captures. CLEMENTINE goes down, 
  crumpling forward, hand about her bleeding throat. 
  MAN WITH MUTTONCHOPS 
  “Shit, Maya.” 
  MAYA wipes down a gleaming icepick as she gazes at CLEMENTINE’s spasming body. Her 
  voice is soft. 
  “I should have listened to you. But I had to give her a chance. Now, let’s go before someone 
  comes in to check on the noise.” 
  BESPECTACLED MAN 
  “What about her?” 
  MAN WITH MUTTONCHOPS and MAYA come to flank the DARK-HAIRED WOMAN, who 
  is still weeping. 
  MAN WITH MUTTON CHOPS 
  “Darling, we’re going to have to ask you to follow us.” 
  DARK-HAIRED WOMAN 
  “W-where?” 
  MAN WITH MUTTON CHOPS 
  “Don’t matter. Right now, we’re your best chance of staying alive.” 
  DARK-HAIRED WOMAN 
  “You killed...I...am I in danger?” 
  BESPECTACLED MAN assists DARK-HAIRED WOMAN to her feet, expression grave. His 
  smile is apologetic. 
  “At the risk of sounding crass, that depends entirely on how willing you are to cooperate with 
  us.” 
  END OPENING FICTION 
  Chapter Eight: Storytelling 
  “Gore isn’t required for a good story, but adversity is.” 
  — Celeste Ng, American Author 
  The Vigil forges heroes. The Vigil spawns nightmares. The Vigil is a duty, a burden, and 
  cathartic for anyone who wants a little payback at those things that snatched their father, sister, 
  kid, or lover from them. Above everything else, the Vigil is a promise that a hunter will keep 
  battling the darkness no matter if the fight costs them their soul. 
  The Storyteller’s role in a Hunter chronicle is to facilitate the story and be the arbiter of the rules 
  that support it. There will be times when the hunters are successful. Somebody will stake a 
  vampire on their first try, thanks to a roll of the dice, and tell stories about their heroics. Then, 
  other times, a monster will slip through their grasp and that escape will hurt. The cell might 
  
  witness the moment when that same monster snuffs the light from a victim they couldn’t save. 
  They might even watch a monster they killed walk again — a terrifying thought — and learn that 
  some creatures just won’t die. 
  The Vigil is never easy, but for many hunters, it’s the only option. Either they fight, or they 
  suffer. Sometimes, hunters do both. 
  Out for Blood 
  Hunter: The Vigil is a game about being the underdogs in a fight against the supernatural. Even 
  characters who join conspiracies with ample resources and Endowments to aid them face 
  supernatural threats who form communities and guard ancient secrets. Nothing makes monsters 
  more willing to lash out and risk their privacy than an organization dedicated to wiping them off 
  the planet or dissecting them for parts. Hunters seek answers in darkness for countless reasons 
  and they don’t all start out looking for blood, but ultimately, protecting themselves and those 
  they care about is dangerous, and they must fight for it. 
  That’s not to say every encounter hunters have with monsters is a matter of life or death. Not 
  only does that make it hard to keep a chronicle afloat and explore the characters to their fullest 
  potential, it also tends to flatten the mood and diffuse a story’s drama. The characters might live 
  their lives on a hair trigger, but the players shouldn’t.  
  Each encounter with a monster should be unique and fraught with complications. Maybe the 
  hunters want to kill the undead thing preying on their neighborhood, but they don’t know how 
  yet, so every time they cross paths with it they must get creative. Maybe they have no choice but 
  to team up with a witch to get to the undead thing — but nobody said they had to be nice about 
  it. Monsters have an infinite variety of reasons to not want to just kill the cell outright; they can 
  get more use out of living humans than dead ones, after all. 
  As the Storyteller, save violent confrontations for story climaxes and major dramatic moments. 
  Make strategic use of the Beaten Down and surrender rules (p. XX). When the characters have 
  every reason to want blood — and they will — make sure they have reasons to do other things 
  on the way there. Tactics are a great way to encourage players to think outside the box of deadly 
  violence and pace the story according to a satisfying arc. 
  Hunters and the Code 
  All hunters wrestle with their conscience eventually, because while the denizens of the 
  supernatural may struggle to gain power and dominion in the mortal world, hunters must 
  abandon part of their life to hold them back. Unfortunately, not every monster is a clear-cut 
  villain that must be dealt with to save lives. Sometimes, what a hunter calls a “monster” is a 
  human being who possesses supernatural powers but doesn’t pose a threat. Sorcerers, witches, 
  and mediums — even other hunters — may study and use supernatural forces to varying degrees.  
  When hunters pledge to uphold the Vigil, they’re often not aware of the nuances they will deal 
  with. Their promise, reflected in the Code, might start off simple. “I hunt monsters because they 
  don’t belong.” That phrase frames every action they take to ensure the supernatural doesn’t step 
  foot in the daylight, but it also creates conflict the longer they hunt. Their worldview shapes 
  everything they do. Does the hunter trap a monster and kill it no matter what? Or hear a human-
  seeming horror’s side of the story and then decide what to do next? 
  
  The Code doesn’t have to be vague, either. When framing the Code through a faith-based 
  context, for hunters pledged to the Long Night or Malleus Maleficarum, the statement might 
  change to: “I hunt monsters because God wills it” or “I hunt monsters to protect God’s creation.” 
  In this way, the Code is practiced through a religious lens, and when a hunter’s core beliefs of 
  the Vigil are challenged, it’s usually because their faith is as well. Keep in mind that the Code 
  doesn’t have to frame hunters as “good” and monsters as “evil,” but it may imply that’s the case. 
  Sometimes, the Code can be more practical to fit a hunter’s style. A member of the Cheiron 
  Group might claim, “I hunt monsters to use their bodies against them.” A scientist belonging to 
  Null Mysteriis would say, “I hunt monsters to study, find, and test their weaknesses.” Hunters 
  who attach themselves to an organization’s interpretation of the Code are treading water, 
  however, because should they change groups, lose status, or have a revelation, more than their 
  loyalty will be tested. Hunter organizations can shape a hunter’s view of the Code, but even 
  within these groups differing views exist. 
  The Code shapes a hunter’s worldview and provide a framework for their actions and beliefs. 
  This agreement may be spoken or unspoken as the player sees fit; they are not required to write 
  down what their interpretation of the Code is and uphold the letter of the law. The space between 
  why the character believes they hunt and what happens when they do is where you’ll find 
  narrative potential. Ultimately, it is up to the player to decide how defined they want this aspect 
  of the hunt to be. 
  As the Storyteller, you’ll poke and prod a hunter’s conscience to challenge them and see what 
  they really think. These trying moments are represented by rules for breaking points (p. XX) and 
  the Code (p. XX). When combined, the player characters will not only hunt monsters, they’ll 
  deal with what it means to fight, too. When they agree, cellmates get along great. When they 
  disagree, usually due to differing views of the Vigil — outlined by the Code — is to blame. In 
  those moments, that’s where you’ll find great, narrative conflict. 
  Types of Conflict 
  Fear. Fury. The unknown. The forbidden and the impossible. Hunters interact with the denizens 
  of the Chronicles of Darkness as outsiders peering in through a dusty window. The longer 
  hunters linger on the fringes, the more desperate they become to fight anything that preys upon 
  their communities. Should they stop to think about when the fighting will end, they might realize 
  that it’s only a matter of time before they’ll die holding the line, praying another hunter will take 
  their place. 
  Hunters versus Society 
  Hunters don’t always recognize their underdogs, but they do see themselves as outsiders. In the 
  supernatural world, they’re stumbling around in the dark, picking off monsters when they can. In 
  the human world, they’re trying to maintain a life without exposing everyone they know to the 
  dangers of the Vigil and the knowledge that the supernatural is real. 
  Despite the threat monsters pose to human society, not everyone is ready to acknowledge they 
  exist, and even the precious few who do have different ideas on how to deal with them — well 
  beyond what the Code requires. Should the government, after finding out vampires exist, tell 
  everyone they’re real? Or, by exposing this truth, do political bodies increase the risk and 
  likelihood monsters will wage war on humankind?  
  
  In most cases, society looks the other way by framing supernatural sightings and attacks using 
  language they’re familiar with. A werewolf didn’t shred that schoolteacher; they died after a 
  vicious animal attack. A ghost didn’t haunt that old house on Elm Street; the floorboards creaked 
  and a gas leak caused hallucinations. Oh, that tunnel no one wants to use at night? That’s just a 
  group of teenagers being superstitious. 
  In this way, a hunter’s greatest challenge isn’t the monster they’ve fought, it’s dealing with the 
  people they’re trying like hell to save. Most people will pretend the supernatural isn’t real, even 
  when they suspect otherwise, because it allows them to sleep at night instead of worrying about 
  those “things” that are crawling around in the sewers. Hunters, however, not only want to know 
  what those “things” are, they also want to know if they’re dangerous, and how to stop them. 
  They must extract information from people who don’t listen to their gut and convince themselves 
  the shadows won’t yield monsters — at least, not the supernatural kind. 
  Cells don’t always interact with other hunters; sometimes they must call in a favor from a local 
  detective or ask a clerk at the mayor’s office to waive the need for a permit. These connections, 
  reflected through the characters with whom a hunter is allied (see Merits, p. XX), don’t always 
  know the supernatural exists. Sometimes, they’re happy to help because they’ve known that 
  hunter for a while. Other times, they might suspect something is up, but know better than to ask 
  too many questions. 
  When a hunter doesn’t have these connections, the hunt is that much more difficult. Suddenly, 
  when they have a dead body on their hands, they become suspects in a murder. Oh, that building 
  that just burned down? Traffic cams recorded the hunters blowing it up. The allies and resources 
  a hunter may access determine how easy (or how challenging) it is to uphold the Vigil. Smart 
  players will discuss their Merits ahead of time for this reason. 
  Hunters versus Cults 
  Sometimes, hunters don’t just fight monsters. Sometimes, a monster will slip through their grasp 
  because the cell encounters their protectors: a cult of believers. Cults appear in two broad types. 
  One type of cult serves one or several monsters (be it something that walks the Earth or 
  something that lurks in some other realm), while another cult has crafted its own dogma. 
  The first type serves its monster in various ways. The adherents may bring it food. They may do 
  its dirty work. They may simply worship it. The fiend gains something, whether blood (drained 
  as wound levels) or Willpower (granted as one point per 10 cultists worshipping the monster, 
  gained once per week) depending upon which Dread Power the monster uses. 
  Cult leaders can gain up to five total dots of Dread Powers if the monster so chooses — note, 
  however, that usually only one or two cultists gains this boon. It’s typically only reserved for the 
  leaders or those who truly please the beast. The cultist who uses Dread Powers in this way can 
  do so because the monster gifted them with that ability. Once the monster dies, the cultist’s 
  power wanes at the Storyteller’s discretion. In either case, the cultist is mortal and should be 
  treated as such. 
  Sodality of Licentia 
  At the top of Lomax Street lies a former church turned hot nightclub called Licentia. 
  The club, which has been around since 2004, is so popular that any time other 
  nightclubs or cocktail lounges move nearby they shut down within a month or two. 
  
  Licentia attracts socialites, technophiles, venture capitalists, and social-media 
  darlings who funnel money and resources to the venue. Some detectives have 
  suspected the nightclub is a front but haven’t been able to uncover what’s being 
  smuggled or dealt there. 
  Hunters know the truth: Licentia’s patrons form a cult worshipping a demon named 
  Licentia, the Daughter of Sitri and Calipha of Sin. Many years ago, the club’s 
  founders performed a ritual hoping to solve their academic problems — and it 
  succeeded. Two of the original owners, Michael Palmer and Walter Sorvino, are 
  dead and no one ever sees Cynthia Lomax who spends all her time in the basement. 
  Rumor has it that Cynthia only emerges on Tuesday nights to DJ the club’s 
  members-only, ecstasy-filled parties. While hunters have been able to get inside the 
  club, thus far they haven’t been able to find Licentia or figure out why Lomax has 
  been acting so strangely. 
  The second type of cult cobbles together a bizarre dogma that often only makes sense to them. 
  Cults of this stripe may be religious, scientific, political, social, or academic — any field of study 
  that can be used to justify their beliefs. 
  Cultists of this type are also mortal, but they do not manifest Dread Powers nearly as often. 
  Some still develop strange powers as a provenance of their devotion to the cause. Any time one 
  of these cultists performs an action in service to their cult, they may gain a new dot in a Dread 
  Power, though they may never gain more than three total dots of Dread Powers.  
  Hunter Versus Hunter 
  Whether through conflicting interests, overlapping territories, misperceptions, or other 
  extenuating circumstances, hunters can often be one another’s worst enemies. 
  Hunters may face several types of conflicts when interacting with other hunters. They include: 
  • 
  Turf Wars: Some hunter cells may protect a specific location and won’t entertain any 
  competition. This may especially be true for cells operating under orders. 
  • 
  Conflicting Motives: Cells, compacts, and conspiracies may incur rivalries over time for 
  a variety of reasons, including differing views of the Code, and can range from friendly to 
  antagonistic. Most often, however, hunters understand that a petty feud can and does interfere 
  with the hunt, so they tend to set feelings aside unless one group is actively antagonizing them. 
  • 
  Hunting Methods: Hunters might share similar views, but they won’t always agree how 
  to best deal with a monster. Whether they kill a zombie by decapitating or shooting them may 
  not matter, but some hunters operate with conviction.  
  • 
  Coincidental Targets: One cell might be tasked with exorcising a demon, while another 
  cell might want to capture and study it. When two cells have the same target, their conflicting 
  goals prevent them from finishing the job. 
  • 
  Desperate Measures: Over time, the Vigil takes its toll on a cell — especially if its 
  members have been hunting a specific monster who just keeps eluding them. The more desperate 
  hunters get, the more likely they are to be at odds with another cell, and each other. 
  Individual hunters operate according to their conscience and beliefs. Sometimes, hunting with 
  other hunters is easy. Members of a cell can all agree that a vampire needs to be staked — no 
  
  matter what. Other times, hunters can’t decide what to do next. Maybe a cell is outgunned and 
  outmanned. Maybe a pair of hunters wants to head into a haunted house while the others think 
  they should do more research first. 
  Hunters Versus Monsters 
  Conflict with the supernatural is the driving force in Hunter. The threats cells may face are 
  dreadful abominations that defy what hunters once considered normal. Increased threat levels 
  and sightings spell disaster for hunters who must face a terrible truth: Monsters won’t stop 
  emerging from the shadows. 
  A cell’s encounter with a monster teaches them more about the denizens within the Chronicles of 
  Darkness each time they hunt. They might learn that some monsters… 
  …have infiltrated human (or hunter) society. 
  …have human-seeming desires and beliefs. 
  …can reproduce. 
  …can influence human behavior. 
  …are tragic, more than horrific, figures. 
  …may be immortal. 
  …can’t be stereotyped.  
  …are willing to exchange information. 
  …use mortals to cover up their existence. 
  …don’t fit a neat definition of “evil.” 
  … feel pain. 
  … use their powers to fight other monsters. 
  …could technically be considered mortal. 
  What a cell does (or doesn’t) learn about a monster will differ based on its type and how that 
  encounter is resolved. Each time a hunt begins, hunters find clues and test theories to 
  successfully end a hunt. Over time, these pieces of information add up and hunters become more 
  confident in their capabilities, but as every hunter knows — what a hunter doesn’t know can kill 
  them. 
  Compacts and conspiracies understand the value of information and do their best to either share 
  data broadly or restrict its access to members only. As more monsters appear in greater numbers, 
  however, all hunters must eventually decide what they value more: their pride or the hunt. 
  Horror and the Unknown 
  Everybody, whether they’re hunters or not, knows about monsters. Omnipresent in stories, 
  games, comics, and films, monsters fill pages’ worth of media and are often defeated by a plucky 
  hero or three. Only hunters understand that monsters are real. Some creatures, like demons, are 
  easily defined while other monsters, like La Llorona, are passed off as urban legends and 
  therefore are “nothing to worry about” when the lights are on.  
  
  Until a cell’s members get a few hunts under their belt, they can’t tell the difference between this 
  version of the haunted hitchhiker legend or the eyewitness accounts of the ghost that’s 
  possessing college students. The space in between what the hunters think they know, what they 
  don’t, and what story you’re trying to tell is where you’ll find the means to leverage their worst 
  fears.  
  For most monsters, a well-placed bullet or stab wound might end them, but the second-greatest 
  weapon hunters can wield is knowledge. Almost everyone knows a zombie can be killed by 
  aiming for their brain, but few hunters learn about the ritual of filling their mouth with salt and 
  sewing it shut as they recite the prayer to silence the zombie’s spirit forever. This knowledge 
  often comes at a price and discovering where to find occult knowledge is just as important as 
  practicing with weapons. 
  The X Card 
  The X card is a technique to help participants signal moments in a session that don’t work for 
  them. Designed by John Stavropolous. A card or sheet of paper with an “X” drawn on it is placed 
  in the middle of the table. At any point, a player or the Storyteller may touch the X card to call a 
  halt to any action that makes them uncomfortable or is causing harm. If they would like to 
  explain themselves, they may, but none is needed. The Storyteller should continue gameplay 
  after everyone is settled and ready to start again. 
  Fear and Trauma 
  The world isn’t black and white. The shadows aren’t always pitch black, and sometimes hunters 
  see more shades of gray than they’re comfortable with. Simple philosophies and scientific 
  equations cannot accurately describe the reason why horrors are emerging in increasing numbers 
  to prey upon mortals. Hunters may try to find one, but the more they pull back the veil the less 
  they’ll be able to stomach what they find. 
  Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition gives narrative tools that allow players to deeply experience 
  the costs of the hunt. Unlike supernatural characters, hunters are mortal, first and foremost, and 
  they must pierce the veil that separates them from the world of the supernatural. Tilts (beginning 
  on p. XX) and Conditions (beginning on p. XX) are tools that serve a significant role in Hunter; 
  they temporarily, and sometimes permanently, affect a character’s psyche, body, and 
  environment as a result of their encounters. They are mechanical effects that should not be used 
  to reflect a character’s permanent disability. They are designed as a response to sudden acts of 
  violence or harm caused by interacting with the supernatural. 
  Hunter Rules vs. Personal Safety 
  Rules shouldn’t be used to punish players or make the hunt more difficult for its 
  own sake. Rather, they exist to present a more realistic view of the hunt and tap into 
  experiential horror. Sometimes, these experiences can be challenging for players 
  and a little too gritty. Other times, their interpretation of the Code might cause an 
  escalating argument that can’t be solved through roleplay. 
  Supporting the narrative is important, but the comfort and safety of your players 
  should come first. Should you desire to drag them deeper into the darkness, talk to 
  your players about what you want to do. Strong sessions can emerge with a player’s 
  
  investment, still yield shocking surprises, and be enjoyable for everyone at the 
  table. 
  Once a hunter suffers from a Condition or Tilt, they may seek ways to resolve it, so they can 
  proceed with gameplay to finish a hunt. This may impact their next action or movement in a 
  scene. Other times, the resolution isn’t obvious, and the player doesn’t know what to do next. 
  When this happens, leverage Storyteller characters in the scene. Maybe their best friend calls 
  them on the phone and talks them through possible solutions. Maybe a cop nearby sees they’re in 
  trouble and wants to help. In both cases, the story doesn’t stop because the player didn’t know 
  how a rule affected their character. 
  Horrors and Invisible Threats 
  Sometimes, a monster’s origin can be traced back to a story told around a campfire. The 
  boogeyman lurks under your bed and swipes at your feet as you hop into the sheets. Sasquatch 
  roams the great forests of North America. Trolls live under bridges. Ghosts haunt graveyards. 
  These words immediately conjure images that are as recognizable as Santa Claus. 
  In the Chronicles of Darkness, these horrors are obvious: there are so many urban legends about 
  that condemned house on the next street, no one buys the lot when it’s up for sale. The monsters 
  that creep and crawl and lash out are typical threats hunters will face; these are the obvious 
  creatures who can, if encountered, cause serious harm.  
  The longer a hunter upholds the Vigil, the more they’ll start to realize some monsters 
  intentionally keep themselves hidden and do not want to risk being exposed. Creatures that defy 
  description lurk in alleyways or in abandoned homes on the fringes of major cities, and hunters 
  know them for the danger they pose. Horrors who operate behind the scenes take longer to 
  expose, because they surround themselves with the naïve and unsuspecting and often have 
  considerable resources at their disposal, too. 
  Of course, no hunter wants to admit the reason some monsters can hide in plain sight is because 
  they are able to somehow pass as human beings. The most potent and deadly threats can not only 
  shield their existence from hunters, they also know how to blend in. Worse: a hunter may even 
  begin to glean words like “circle” or “prince” that make no sense at first, until they begin to 
  realize some monsters don’t just hide in plain sight, they’ve formed complete societies that 
  operate in the shadows. 
  What a hunter knows about humanoid monsters is impacted by the chronicle’s tier. In general, 
  tier-one hunters are often left wondering what the hell they just learned, tier-two hunters may 
  eventually piece together that some monsters organize, and tier-three stories often deal with the 
  political upheavals and conspiracies as part of the hunt. This knowledge, however, doesn’t 
  always hold true and a horror can have a strange immunity to fire or be slain with an iron dagger. 
  Still, fighting a smart cryptid is dangerous for hunters, but encountering an intelligent humanoid 
  carries more risks than potential rewards. Cells who rush into an encounter risk exposure of the 
  Vigil and getting arrested. To witnesses, the bloodsucker they’ve cornered is human. This makes 
  the hunt extremely difficult because to the rest of the world, that vampire is an ordinary human 
  being — and the hunters are trying to murder them. Knowing the town mayor is possessed is one 
  thing but being able to prove it beyond a doubt is entirely another. Throwing salt at a news 
  anchor can be considered a misdemeanor—and the law doesn’t end there. Kidnapping, identity 
  
  theft, car theft, selling drugs, breaking and entering, and attempted murder are a few ways 
  monsters can use the law against their pursuers. The confines of living in a just and lawful 
  society often shield the monsters more than they help hunters. 
  Recurring Nightmares 
  Sometimes, a cell can’t exorcise a ghost or stake a vampire. Sometimes, hunters do everything 
  right, and they still lose. Eventually, they learn. Some monsters defy human understanding. They 
  dissolve into a poisonous mist or a flock of ravens. Sometimes, their body does die — but their 
  spirit is reborn a few days later. 
  Recurring nightmares in Hunter deepen the mysteries of the supernatural, increase the threat 
  level, and remind hunters that no matter how much they win, they’re still mortal. These 
  nightmares never walk alone; they actively plot and scheme to fulfill their own agendas of which 
  hunters may not always be aware. In game terms, these agendas are described through the 
  antagonist’s Aspiration (p. XX).  
  Cells who encounter a recurring antagonist shouldn’t lose heart, however. Hunters may not be 
  able to stop an immortal, but they can put an end to a cult’s schemes or save the victims on 
  whom they’re feeding. If hunters realize they can’t take down a demon, they must shift their 
  focus to figure out what they can do. 
  Mister White (Greater Demon) 
  Quote: “You call yourself an instrument of justice. Can a murder be justified?” 
  Background: In the space between dreaming and meditation, Mister White imagines he has 
  been sent home. His home isn’t the one his body occupies now. No, Mister White belongs in a 
  quiet corner of hell where he can’t hear a sinner’s screams. Reveling in his vision, Mister White 
  almost forgets his mind is trapped in the body of a man who’s seen death. When he snaps back to 
  reality, he remembers his other name: Detective Max Robinson, homicide. He recalls a party 
  where his peers celebrated his retirement. Can demons ever retire? No, not really. Not when 
  there’s a murder to solve. Not when there’s a murderer to punish. 
  Mister White can’t remember what he was like before he became Max Robinson. His memories 
  aren’t like his dreams. In his mind’s eye, he pictures a basement. There’s a rat that squeaks past 
  him and a cobweb glistening in the window. He almost forgets the dark blood that’s congealed 
  on the floor, the limp hand with broken fingernails, the long hair tangled up with brain matter. 
  He remembers the cold knot at the pit of his stomach, the clenched fists, the hair standing on the 
  back of his neck. Then, he spots something out of order that everyone else missed. One of the 
  bricks in the wall doesn’t look right. Hmm…he pushes it, the door swings open, and the killer’s 
  just sitting there. Waiting. For him.  
  Who’s “him”? Mister White or Max Robinson? Whatever the truth, Mister White is a demon 
  now, one who punishes murderers. Those killers, they’re gumming up the works. The machine 
  won’t work the way it’s supposed to, and that can’t happen. Mister White stands up, sighs, then 
  leans on his cane. Reality isn’t supposed to be messy. There’s a natural order to it, a clockwork 
  mechanism, and it’s his job to maintain the system. His wrath? It sets things right. 
  Appearance: Mister White is an elderly gentleman. The lines in his thin face betray the years 
  he’s lived, and his black eyes are filled with personality. White is tall, lean, and requires a cane 
  to walk. Sometimes, he’ll wear a trench coat. Sometimes, he’ll wear an old suit. True to his 
  
  name, several details of his appearance are ghostly white: his teeth, the whites of his eyes, the 
  jasmine boutonniere pinned to his chest. 
  Storytelling Hints: Mister White is careful not to reveal his name to just anyone. He splits his 
  time between enjoying life as a charming, older gentleman and a hard-nosed homicide detective. 
  If he stumbles across any hint of a murder, his back straightens and his demeanor sharpens. 
  When he’s on the case, he calls himself “Max” and let the detective’s expertise take over.  
  A convincing and capable impersonator, Mister White might approach hunters when they’re 
  stuck. He will ally himself with their interests under the right circumstances, provided they bring 
  the murderer to justice. If hunters respond to the enemy by killing them (or others), Mister White 
  will make a citizen’s arrest and drop them off at the authorities. If they don’t, Mister White will 
  urge them to take violent retribution, and then do the same thing.  
  True Name: Anamalech 
  Aspiration: Find murderers and turn them in for justice. 
  Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 2, Resolve 5 
  Physical Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3 
  Social Attributes: Presence 2, Manipulation 3, Composure 3 
  Mental Skills: Computer 1, Investigation (Crime scene) 3, Occult 3 
  Physical Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Drive 1, Stealth 3, Weaponry (Cane) 2 
  Social Skills: Empathy 1, Intimidation 1, Persuasion 1, Streetwise 1 
  Merits: Contacts 4 (Police, Forensics, Morgue, Journalists), Eidetic Memory, Fast Reflexes 2, 
  Face in the Crowd, Untouchable 
  Potency: 9 
  Willpower: 9 
  Integrity: 0 
  Virtue: Justice 
  Vice: Wrath 
  Initiative: 7 
  Defense: 2 
  Speed: 10 
  Health: 8 
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type Damage 
  Range Dice Pool 
  Special 
  Cane 1(B) 
  n/a 
  7 −1 Improvised 
  Dread Powers: Black Gate •••, Dread Attack (Balefire) •, Know Soul •••, Looming Presence •, 
  Predator’s Sense (Murderer), Madness and Terror •••, Reborn ••••• 
  Special 
  
  Forensic Reminder: By spending a Willpower point, Mister White can cause forensic evidence 
  to return from obviation or to appear more readily. His breath restores fingerprints on glass. 
  Bloodstains blossom again in his shadow, and skid marks reappear at accident sites. Animals 
  expose the corpse of a monster returned to its human form. Once restored, such evidence is 
  indelible. Efforts to wipe away blood simply result in it appearing again: a re-buried body turns 
  up in a dumpster next to police headquarters. 
  Burning Obsession: When Mister White is on a murderer’s trail, he suffers from the Obsessed 
  Condition (Find Murderer) until their identity and location is revealed. 
  A Losing Fight 
  No matter how hard a hunter fights, eventually they will lose touch with their lovers, families, 
  and friends. Sometimes, strained relationships are perfectly understandable. It is difficult for 
  hunters to maintain friendships outside of hunter society due to the demands of the hunt. It might 
  be hard to get excited when your favorite sports team comes into town when you have to focus 
  on deciphering a cryptic message. It’s hard to attend PTA meetings or meet with probation 
  officers when your fellow hunters need your help to stop the Mothman from swooping down on 
  unsuspecting hikers in the mountains. 
  Losing touch with friends and family is a heavy burden for hunters. It is also dangerous. The ties 
  a hunter has to their life keep them grounded, remind them for whom they’re fighting, and ensure 
  they remember the hunt isn’t the only thing worth caring about. These relationships are 
  represented by Touchstones (p. XX), and indicate who the hunter was before they pledged to 
  uphold the Vigil. 
  Hunters sometimes forget how important these characters are, because they’re so busy fighting 
  monsters or trying to cover their tracks. Eventually, these relationships fray and the hunter 
  remembers what they have to lose. 
  The Vigil incurs a lot of loss, because sooner or later hunters realize they’re not “just” fighting 
  monsters. They’re also fighting to retain a sense of self — especially since the horrors just keep 
  coming. 
  Crafting The Hunt 
  Hunter: The Vigil is roleplaying game that presents a toolkit of ideas and rules you can use to 
  facilitate multiple styles of gameplay. Before planning a chronicle, it’s important to recognize 
  that each player might want something different. Some players might only be interested in 
  fighting, while others will want to focus on investigations and interactions with Storyteller 
  characters. To find that careful balance, ask the players up front what they want before deciding 
  on a tier and style. 
  What types of characters do you like to play? Instead of asking a player what kind of game 
  they enjoy, talk to them about their character. Ask them leading questions like: “What do you 
  think your character looks like?” “What do you feel they’re good at?” “What do they need to 
  improve upon?” These types of queries help players visualize who they want to play and get to 
  know their character. Their answers will also guide your decisions along the way. If the entire 
  troupe isn’t interested in learning more about the occult, for example, then that element may be 
  subdued in your chronicle — at least at first. If, however, your players say they want to infiltrate 
  
  supernatural communities, their characters must be better equipped to face them, and you’ll 
  likely run a tier-three chronicle. 
  What kind of stories or scenes should I avoid? While Hunter touches upon real-world 
  phobias, fears, and body horror, the story isn’t as important as the player’s comfort level. Some 
  players might want to explore darker themes, while others may not at all. Typically, players are 
  much more willing to play a horror game if they have help and reassurances their character won’t 
  be unduly punished. Violence, even in Hunter, is part of the story and represents both conflict 
  and cost. Before the chronicle begins, find out what types of violence make your players 
  uncomfortable. This can open more discussions about what types of scenes the player would love 
  to explore, too. 
  What long-term goals does your character have? While every character has an Aspiration, 
  they may want to accomplish a longer-term goal. Some players might want to give the character 
  a rich backstory and their goal is “to avenge my father’s killer” or “rise in rank to control the 
  Loyalists of Thule.” They may form loftier goals such as “learn how to read this occult tome” or 
  “explore the Pyramids of Giza.” These goals help shape characters and give the players 
  something to look forward to outside of the hunt. These goals can also be pursued during 
  downtime between sessions, too. 
  Are your players hoping to hunt, capture, and kill week after week? Or, do they want a deeper 
  story that allows them to explore the mysteries of the world through their unique, and often 
  outmatched, perspectives? Finding out this information ahead of time will give you more options 
  to plan your chronicle. 
  Creating Storyteller Characters 
  Storyteller characters surround the characters and help weave your narrative’s threads together. 
  In a chronicle, treat your supporting cast members as dynamic characters who act independently 
  of the player characters. By doing so, the hunters’ relationship with other characters doesn’t 
  remain static. 
  Hunters, whether they’re allies, rivals, rogues, or fallen, should be built using the character 
  creation rules on p. XX. Mortal characters can be created using Hunter character creation rules 
  with the following guidelines and modifications: 
  • All Storyteller characters, whether they’re antagonists or not, need a character concept. 
  Aspirations are optional. 
  • Storyteller characters can have a Virtue and Vice, but it’s not required. These rules are 
  recommended for recurring antagonists. Storyteller characters do not get Touchstones. 
  • Attribute categories and Skills are prioritized as normal. Storyteller characters may also have 
  three Skill Specialties. 
  • Hunter characters can have Status and use Endowments. They can’t use Tactics or teamwork 
  without the involvement of the player characters, however. Storyteller characters who are hunters 
  should have access to rules that fit the fiction. Fallen, disgraced, or rogue hunters should not 
  have Endowments, for example, if you can’t justify why they still have them. 
  • Storyteller characters spend Merit dots as normal, but they do not receive Professional Training 
  or Status for free. 
  
  • A Storyteller character may start with variable advantages as best fits the narrative. For 
  example, they can be Size 4, 5, or 6; have a lower (or higher) Integrity or Willpower rating; etc. 
  The rules for monster creation are found on p. XX, and cover characters who are supernatural. 
  For Hunter’s purposes, all potential members of the Lucifuge who possess demon blood are 
  treated as mortal unless they are clearly monstrous. Likewise, any fallen or rogue hunters with 
  supernatural body modifications (e.g. they once belonged to the Cheiron Group) are also 
  regarded as such. 
  The rules for mysterious places, which expand the setting and provide locations in which 
  monsters can live, are found on p. XX. 
  Plotting Chronicles by Tier 
  Each tier requires different Storytelling techniques to balance the player characters’ role in 
  Hunter society against the needs of the hunt. Now, more than ever, hunters are faced with threats 
  in that put them — and everyone they know — in harm’s way. While every chronicle focuses on 
  an individual cell of hunters, some aspects are unique to each tier. 
  Tier One: Eyes Wide Open 
  Tier-one hunters are usually new to the Vigil or come from a long line of hunters in their family 
  or neighborhood. Most often, they tend to be more focused on the demands of everyday society 
  than the world of supernatural. Tier-one hunters are the nurses who work at night clinics so they 
  can help their cell stalk an undead creature who steals organs. They are the janitors who pilfer 
  dusty books from the campus library to ensure a local warlock doesn’t find what they’re looking 
  for. They are the hunters who prefer to fight alone, and are too jaded to ask other cells for help. 
  Often, tier-one hunters suffer from stereotyping, which shapes how other characters treat them. 
  They’re “weak,” because they don’t have back up. They’re “anti-social,” because they’re not 
  immersed in hunter society. They can’t be challenged, because they’re not strong enough to hunt. 
  When plotting a tier-one chronicle, keep the following in mind: 
  • 
  An individual cell doesn’t have to hunt alone. Hunter societies can form in a tier-one 
  chronicle, and cells may team up with other hunters or compete with rivals. These societies 
  might form around a bar hunters frequent, a shooting range, or even at the back of a bookstore. 
  • 
  Tier-one hunters have more to lose. Tier-two and -three hunters have more resources and 
  connections at their disposal, and hunters can switch their allegiances if necessary. Tie-one 
  hunters don’t have that option. If they tarnish their relationship with their cell, most hunters don’t 
  have any place else to go. Worse: Should they also lose their ties to their daily lives, they might 
  not find a couch on which to crash. 
  • 
  Cells can and should have a route they patrol. Hunters who defend their home turf know 
  those streets better than any digital assistant will. No matter where they live — inner-city 
  neighborhood or sleepy suburb — tier-one hunters care about what happens in their backyard. To 
  facilitate this, suggest the players form a route they monitor from night to night. They might 
  swap routes with another cell or edge a little further out, too. 
  • 
  Hunters are not restricted by their location. While tier-one chronicles tend to be set in a 
  hunter’s backyard, cells are not required to stick close to home. A hunter is a hunter no matter 
  where they sleep at night, and their confined hunting grounds tend to keep the scope of a story 
  
  smaller than a tier-two or tier-three chronicle. That said, if a cell only wants to scout out their 
  immediate area, they’ll need a variety of monsters and mysterious places to explore. Otherwise, 
  another night on the town becomes routine. 
  • 
  Cells do have backup if they know where to look. By leveraging the cell’s connections, 
  hunters may be helped by local police officers, detectives, doctors, security guards, etc. Yes, the 
  cell might have to get creative when they explain why they need the architectural plans for a 
  sewage system or explosives that will level a building, but they can still ask. 
  • 
  Hunters who don’t know anything about the supernatural, can learn. From lesser-known 
  museums to eyewitness accounts, a cell can glean information they need to keep hunting. 
  Rumors and gossip can also yield invaluable clues about a monster’s whereabouts or the secrets 
  they’ve been hiding. 
  • 
  The rule of law still applies to hunters. A hunter who accidentally smashes a store 
  window during a fight is still subject to arrest or questioning. A cell who’s speeding to get away 
  from a monster can’t always explain they’re running from a slasher. A dead body, even if it’s a 
  supernatural one, is hard to explain to the authorities. Mortal laws still exist, reminding hunters 
  that the rest of the world doesn’t know or care about the Vigil. 
  • 
  Hunters are capable. In Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition, hunters are given powerful 
  capabilities to accommodate greater threat levels. Hunters are accomplished in their chosen field 
  and have less restrictions to practice teamwork and Tactics. These rules support player characters 
  who can and should be confident in their abilities. 
  • 
  Hunters can get creative. Sometimes, the players will surprise you. No matter how many 
  times you drop hints that the monster is using Know Soul to find out more about them, the 
  hunters might accuse other Storyteller characters of being spies, instead. Though you might feel 
  pressured to steer the hunters back on course, let them choose how they deal with the problem at 
  hand. 
  Tier-one chronicles are also a great way to introduce new players to Hunter without pressuring 
  them to learn more about the Chronicles of Darkness. Hunter does have lore, but often that 
  knowledge is regulated to one of two things: the history of a hunter’s organization or the 
  monsters themselves. Both are sketchy at best, because what hunters know about the 
  supernatural and the history of the hunt changes depending upon who’s archiving what. Many 
  hunters, after all, intentionally spread disinformation when they can to throw others off the scent. 
  By starting with players who are in the dark, you can slowly introduce other narrative elements 
  over the course of a chronicle. This cuts down on character interactions that focus on 
  explanations of Hunter politics and deeper mysteries.  
  Going it Alone 
  Sometimes, a player may want their character to go off on their own. Maybe they need a breather 
  from a heated argument or maybe they’re hoping to follow up on a new lead. When a character 
  leaves the cell, what happens next depends upon several factors. Sometimes, the player may split 
  from the group because they’re bored and are hoping for more action. While the hunter may 
  claim they found a new clue, the player may have abandoned the cell because they’re spending 
  too much time figuring out what to do next. Differing views of the Vigil may also cause players 
  to take a time out or do something rash — especially if they’re hoping to be the hero that night. 
  
  A player whose character breaks away from the cell has the potential to be disruptive or 
  antagonistic. When they do, it’s important to figure out what the character wants. During the 
  session, a Storyteller character might call them or run into them on the street to find out what’s 
  up. In this way, you can use the narrative to weave their departure into the story without 
  resorting to a monster’s surprise attack. If this technique doesn’t work, try finding a natural way 
  to take a break. Maybe you’ve reached the end of the scene or maybe the character’s departure 
  has signaled a shift in the story. Then, take the opportunity to pull the player aside and find out 
  what their plans are and how you can help. 
  Using Downtime for Research 
  Downtime, or the time between sessions, can be leveraged to manage the finer, 
  more painstaking details of a hunt. Instead of spending an entire session surfing the 
  internet for clues, for example, the characters can search through a few email 
  exchanges. This can yield a lot of interesting developments, because you’ll have 
  more time to respond to their questions and drop hints or names the group can check 
  out when it’s back together. 
  Research is a necessary evil in a lot of Hunter games, because most cells won’t 
  know the difference between one werewolf and another. They might think they 
  know, but hunters often win through sheer perseverance and a whole lot of luck. 
  The more knowledge they glean, the more informed decisions they’ll make, and the 
  better you’ll be able to cue off their actions. Therefore, some sessions can open by 
  ascertaining what the hunters want to do, instead of what background info they must 
  learn before taking that next step. 
  Tier Two: Clubs, Gangs, and Rivalries 
  Compacts allow hunters to feel like they belong to something greater and more important than 
  themselves. Sure, compacts can supply more guns and intel than another cell might, but they also 
  sharpen a hunter’s purpose by giving them a place in hunter society. That oh-so-important sense 
  of teamwork motivates a hunter to keep fighting even though they’re bruised and bloody, 
  because they’re not just fighting for their friends, family, and cellmates — they’ve got an entire 
  compact of hunters they don’t want to disappoint, too. 
  Working together to face enormous threats is not a new concept. Though some hunters go rogue 
  because they’re convinced their way is better, many find solace and friendship in their chosen 
  compact. Knowing someone has their back is essential in the heat of battle and knowing 
  everyone is fighting for the same goal gives them hope. 
  When working with compacts, here are some things to keep in mind: 
  • 
  A cell can contain members of more than one compact. A four-character chronicle 
  containing only members of Null Mysteriis is much easier than a chronicle filled with Network 
  Zero, The Union, the Long Night, and SWORN. However, just because it’s harder to narrate a 
  multi-compact story doesn’t mean it can’t be done. The main, and perhaps most important, thing 
  to remember is that the player characters should have similar interpretations of the Code. 
  Without that, the cell will eventually fall apart — more quickly than you might think — because 
  some differences of opinion can’t always be resolved without someone getting hurt. 
  
  • 
  Hunters don’t automatically get access to everything their compact has to offer. Just 
  because a hunter suddenly has the backing of The Union doesn’t mean the entire compact will 
  converge on a rundown sanitarium when needed. Nor does it mean the compact’s secrets will be 
  revealed, either. Hunters who join a compact, regardless of status, must work for what they want 
  by talking to other members, putting in requisitions, or even swapping favors. 
  • 
  The members of a compact are not homogenous. Though it is easy to stereotype what a 
  typical Loyalist of Thule might do or say, the reality is that compacts comprise several different 
  kinds of people. Compact members may share similar beliefs or even interests, but each member 
  is a unique character who acts of their own volition. 
  • 
  A hunter’s compact status is not static. The Status Merit (p. XX) shapes the player 
  character’s role in their compact. In the narrative, this status is something that should be 
  maintained, nurtured, and acknowledged from time to time through character interactions. 
  Hunters who ignore their role may lose status and cause tension between members. 
  • 
  Favors can be expensive. Hunters, like anyone, can get into trouble they can’t fix on their 
  own. Their car breaks down and they need a tow — but all their credit cards are maxed out. 
  They’ve learned a skinwalker may be at a fancy party with the nouveau riche, but don’t have an 
  invitation or a thing to wear. Compact members enjoy many benefits to their membership, but 
  they don’t always get a favor for free. Sometimes, a kindness must be repaid. 
  • 
  Each compact has its own culture. Members of The Union might kick back with beers 
  and brats, while the Long Night’s hunters prefer to get together during a Friday-night fish fry. 
  While compacts provide a great many benefits to a hunter, each organization also has its own 
  quirks and nuances that makes it unique. This, too, is part of what it means to be a member of 
  hunter society and deepens the player characters’ connection to the Vigil. 
  At the core of any chronicle is the hunt. Tier-two stories tend to be broader in scope and cover a 
  wider area, but not always. When compacts are involved, chronicles are enhanced by their 
  involvement and presence, and hunters are required to check in. For this reason, you are 
  encouraged to ask the player characters to devise a compact-related Aspiration both during 
  character creation and after they’ve completed their first one. 
  Roles for Compacts 
  The compacts operate in a variety of ways. Some, like The Union, consider themselves to be 
  regular people who keep in touch with their friends and kin across the globe. They fight monsters 
  lurking in cornfields or on the streets of Chinatown in San Francisco. Others, like Null Mysteriis, 
  confront the unknown through their scientific approach, to find answers where others have 
  failed.  
  Though they may differ in their goals, culture, location, and method of operation, all compacts 
  are willing to work with other hunters when it matters. 
  Here are some tips for unlocking a compact’s potential in your chronicle: 
  • 
  Long Night: Members of the Long Night must balance the needs of the Vigil against 
  serving the faithful, and they are often caught wondering if they made the right choice. Hunters 
  can experience crises of faith when they must choose between pursuing a demon and baptizing 
  the newest member of their congregation or conducting a hunter’s funeral. The Long Night’s 
  members feel they’ve got their finger on the pulse of monster activity, and they can predict — 
  
  with some accuracy — when a storm is brewing in their neighborhoods. Partly, this is because 
  many compact members are leaders in their own right and watch over their communities. 
  Sometimes, however, this means members tend to be short-sighted, because they can’t appear or 
  be everywhere at once. Most hunters still breathe a sigh of relief when a member of the Long 
  Night steps up, because their ability to inspire hope is greatly needed in these dark and dangerous 
  times. 
  One of the best ways to broaden the scope of a Long Night chronicle is to expand their reach by 
  connecting them to other communities. Until they start interacting with Muslim, Buddhist, or 
  Hindu religious leaders, they may not know what else is happening in their town or city. Then, 
  when they find out which monster is in the area, they can put their knowledge of the hunt to good 
  use. Other members may face a crisis of faith along the way when they realize that, despite all 
  their efforts, the monsters just keep coming. 
  • 
  Loyalists of Thule: A compact of scholars, the Loyalists of Thule tend to know more 
  than they’re letting on. They work well with other compacts because they have what they need: 
  occult knowledge. While Null Mysteriis leans heavily on science, and the Long Night relies on 
  its faith, the Loyalists of Thule are somewhere in between. Their pragmatism allows them to 
  remain clear-headed when hunting the supernatural. The Loyalists excel in this, but often fail 
  when trying to make sense of current events. In this way, they’re split between two ideologies 
  that shape their desire for atonement: Make sure the Nazi party never regains power, in any form 
  that might take, and help other hunters deal with the supernatural. 
  A chronicle involving the Loyalists of Thule can involve modern politics as well as new 
  discoveries of occult artifacts (see Bygones, p. XX), investigation of mysterious places, and 
  trying to ascertain why so many monsters are appearing in greater numbers. Of all the compacts, 
  the Loyalists of Thule are the most likely to piece together theories and unravel dusty rumors to 
  find out what’s really going on. This can put the compact’s members in the spotlight or force 
  them into an uncomfortable position as they try to convince other hunters their insights are 
  correct. 
  • 
  Network Zero: One of the biggest challenges members of Network Zero will face, 
  regardless of how many monsters lurk nearby, is the volume of information they must sift 
  through and process — or produce. In the age of too much information, hunters might have a 
  hard time collating and analyzing data without the help of a computer program. The rapid spread 
  of information via the internet is, by far, the biggest threat to this compact’s members. 
  Fortunately, Network Zero can couch raw footage as “modern fantasy” or “science fiction” when 
  asking outsiders for help. Members of this compact pair extremely well with members of Null 
  Mysteriis who can help analyze data. 
  Researching or producing content for its own sake isn’t enough to sustain a chronicle. The 
  compact needs something to do, whether that’s investigating a cryptid or tracking the movements 
  of a monster. To get hunters off their tablets and computers, leverage Dread Powers and 
  Environmental Tilts that impact electricity. You might also kick off a chronicle with a missing 
  hunter who’s gone off the grid. For a higher-stakes chronicle, rogue or fallen hunters in Network 
  Zero could be trying to expose other hunters in the Vigil. 
  • 
  Null Mysteriis: Though it may sound cliché, some scientists take exception to god-
  fearing or even blue-collar hunters while others will be more accepting. Members, however, 
  aren’t “just” scientists who sit in a lab all day. They practice their own faiths and have hobbies 
  
  and interests. One of the biggest challenges when using this compact is its push for secrecy to 
  control its research. While a Storyteller character may be reluctant to help, try not to make them 
  needlessly antagonistic. Members of Null Mysteriis make great Storyteller characters when 
  introducing cells to other hunters, too, because they enjoy discussing the finer aspects of the hunt 
  with a curious mind. 
  When plotting a chronicle, make sure there are questions that can be explored through a 
  scientific lens. Chronicles involving a mysterious place or a monster behaving oddly work well 
  for Null Mysteriis members. 
  • 
  SWORN: SWORN members are new to the fold, but they’re not new to hunting 
  monsters. As a compact formed around its members’ cultural experiences, SWORN’s hunters 
  have a strong bond and set of beliefs that helps them fight the supernatural and keep each other 
  safe. The compact’s newness is its biggest strength; because they don’t have decades of 
  experience that others do, they also don’t have as many preconceptions about other hunters, 
  compacts, or monsters. Members reach out when they can and have been focusing on making 
  friends with other cells, hunters, and compacts to build and maintain their community. They’re 
  also likely to join other hunters to help them fight. 
  Chronicles set in a major metropolitan area like Chicago offer a wealth of storytelling potential 
  beyond the hunt. Maybe members of SWORN stumbled upon a group who’s covering up for a 
  mysterious donor keeping the city police afloat. Maybe they are welcoming a lot of new 
  members over the course of a few weeks, and this triggers internal discussions to find out what’s 
  responsible for terrorizing their fresh batch of new hunters. 
  • 
  The Union: Through and through, The Union’s members are hard workers who hold 
  factory jobs, drive trucks, and are loyal to their friends and families. Some hunters might look 
  down on their members because they equate blue collar with less intelligent — though this isn’t 
  true. The Union exists as an “every hunter” compact, where anyone with an honest day job can 
  join. While members try to keep the hunt simple, the proverbial devil is in the details. Hunters 
  don’t always know how to fight a monster, just that they should. Members can work well in 
  mixed player-character groups for this reason. 
  Threatening friends and families is a good way to start a chronicle, but may not sustain it. Think 
  about introducing monsters who live in plain sight or houses that keep hurting the new owners to 
  broaden the scope of the story. 
  Creating a New Compact 
  Can’t find a compact that fits your needs? As the Storyteller, you may create a compact your 
  players can join.  
  Concept: When thinking about the compact you want to make, sketch out a few generic details. 
  Then, think about whether it makes more sense to open a new location for an existing compact 
  instead of creating a whole new one. For example, members of The Union are pro-labor, pro-
  family, and pro-safety from monsters. Based in the United States, they can be found anywhere 
  those three things matter. These three tentpoles aren’t unique to the U.S., however, so a similar 
  compact could be based in Iceland, Sweden, Belgium, or Italy, where membership in labor 
  unions is high. Though the relocated compact would culturally be unique from The Union in 
  America, its core purpose and status remain the same. This technique also grants built-in 
  allegiances among compacts and gives hunters an excuse to travel. 
  
  Example: You want to create a compact that takes a different approach to the hunt, so you form 
  a hedonistic society based in Scotland called Ashwood Abbey, which hunts monsters for sport 
  and pleasure.  
  Choose a Foundation: If you have your heart set on a new compact, try to find its roots. The 
  basis for a new compact could be to hunt a monster type, use a specific methodology to hunt, 
  reveal a truth or fact, keep a community safe, or hunt because your faith or morals demand it. 
  You may have already done this in the previous step and, if so, this is a good opportunity to 
  codify that idea. 
  Example: Ashwood Abbey’s members are thrill-seekers who put themselves in dangerous 
  situations to hunt monsters. 
  Write Its History: Every compact has a history that is known to its members. It doesn’t have to 
  be pages’ worth of information, nor do all the facts have to be true. The history helps frame the 
  compact and give it a place in hunter society. 
  Example: Shortly before it became an official compact, Ashwood Abbey was one of the 
  notorious Hellfire Clubs found in Great Britain during the mid-1850s. Its leader, the Reverend 
  Doctor Marcus Ogilvy, was a hedonist who sought pleasure in forbidden places — even by 
  today’s standards. One fateful night, Ogilvy and a handful of partiers wandered into the woods 
  to have an orgy and stumbled upon a sacred artifact used by a pack of werewolves. Outraged by 
  this slight, the werewolves attacked them and several members died horribly. Following this, 
  Ogilvy, unable to find the werewolves again, began hunting monsters shortly afterward until his 
  untimely death 10 years later. 
  Now, Ashwood Abbey’s members continue to hunt for the thrill of it, and often scare other 
  hunters with their lurid and sadistic methods that push them right to the razor-sharp edge. 
  Note Factions: Following the history, each compact has three sub-groups, or factions, that make 
  up the larger group. Factions are distinguished by their differences in ideology that add a 
  nuanced perspective to the hunt. Each compact may also rename what their sub-groups are 
  called. 
  Example: You decide that Ashwood Abbey calls its factions “cliques.” Competitors treat the 
  Vigil as a sport, and other hunters — even within Ashwood Abbey — as competition. Members of 
  the Pursuit are obsessed with learning and archiving dark, forbidden secrets. Some hunters 
  record their experiences to analyze encounters. Libertines are taboo breakers. They push the 
  limits of what’s considered “acceptable,” and frighten most other hunters. 
  Assign Status: Player characters can earn dots in Status within their compact, rated one through 
  five. Three of these ratings are described per compact; they provide hunters with an in-game 
  benefit. When assigning Status, think about how a hunter might gain or lose it, too. 
  Example: Status within Ashwood Abbey is gained when other members recognize the boundaries 
  you’ve pushed. 
  • You’ve already done things you’d never tell anyone else about, but you still know how to party. 
  You gain the Barfly Merit for free, if you didn’t have it already. 
  ••• You can use rooms in the local chapter’s clubhouse as a place to stay. This is equivalent to a 
  two-dot Safehouse, with the dots assigned to Home Security, Arsenal, and Escape Hatch.  
  
  ••••• You can call Ashwood Abbey and get the address lists of members across the world, who 
  will supply arms, sex workers, and bait, and arrange hunting parties for you. You just need to 
  ask. This is equivalent to four new dots of Contacts. These dots are assigned to Legal Aid, Vice, 
  Arms Trafficking, and Ashwood Abbey Networking. 
  Following this step, consider how your new compact might be used in a chronicle. Ashwood 
  Abbey members, for example, can be employed as rogue or fallen hunters who ignore the Code 
  and their consciences. 
  Tier Three: More Theories Than Facts 
  Members of conspiracies know more about the supernatural than other hunters do, but even then, 
  their knowledge might be outdated or downright false. When running a tier-three chronicle, 
  consider the following: 
  • 
  Hunters usually don’t think in the long term. A mortal’s short lifespan is nothing 
  compared to an immortal creature’s. Unlike hunters, monsters understand how to plan in the long 
  term, because they can hide for decades if needed by surrounding themselves with cultists or 
  others of their kind. So, while conspiracies may have existed for centuries, their organization and 
  goals may not be the same as they were 10, 50, or 100 years ago. 
  • 
  Conspiracies don’t know everything. Many conspiracies’ members suspect the denizens 
  of the supernatural have communities of their own and have adapted to modern society. Other 
  than a few monsters’ names or identifiable types, however, most conspiracies fail to recognize 
  that what they know is a drop in a deep and vast ocean of occult knowledge. 
  • 
  Conspiracies can be arrogant. Some conspiracy members have the audacity to think they 
  will win the fight against the supernatural, not knowing a monster has already infiltrated their 
  cell and will pounce when they least expect it. 
  • 
  Hunters benefit from a conspiracy’s resources. The conspiracies are global hunter 
  organizations that wield their considerable resources and knowledge to achieve their goals. 
  Whether they own meticulously curated libraries of forbidden lore or the latest computational-
  behavior algorithms, conspiracies have the power, knowledge, and willingness to go toe to toe 
  with the most powerful and brutal of terrors — or so they think. What’s more, conspiracies often 
  have contingency plans and alibis set up for their members when things go horribly wrong. 
  • 
  Conspiracies don’t dictate belief. A conspiracy’s overarching view of the Code tends to 
  be more flexible to justify how its members use their occult knowledge against the supernatural. 
  Often, a conspiracy’s agenda is more important to it than taking down an over-sized sewer rat, 
  especially if it means putting one of its own at risk. 
  Tier-three chronicles that incorporate conspiracies tend to include the supernatural, but often 
  involve politics and a fair number of rumors, enigmas, and mysteries that surround each 
  organization and their members. 
  Roles for Conspiracies 
  While the conspiracies seem like they should be unstoppable forces who serve humankind, 
  ultimately their agenda is more important than the occasional casualty in battle. Hunters who 
  belong to these groups are bound by even tighter codes of conduct and political intrigues than 
  others — but the others don’t require constant check-ins. 
  
  When plotting a chronicle with a conspiracy, consider which faction the player characters belong 
  to and how that puts them at odds with other hunters. Conspiracy factions are so different from 
  one another that a group of Ascending Ones might argue more than a mixed group. Below are 
  some ideas for using these conspiracies in your next Hunter game. 
  • 
  Ascending Ones: The Ascending Ones are interesting to drop into a chronicle, because 
  their members can be scientists engineering the perfect potion, alchemists mixing science and 
  faith, or mystics embracing the magical aspects of their art. They can be holy warriors for their 
  faith or criminals who trade drugs. This level of nuance grants their members agency in many 
  social spheres; threads connecting characters often form the basis for a scam or front. What’s 
  more, the players may not necessarily be aware of what they’ve gotten themselves into. 
  Conspiracies often have secrets for a reason, and what the player characters learn will affect what 
  they do next. 
  • 
  Cheiron Group: The Cheiron Group is secretive, manipulative, and can be brutal. 
  Members are recruited and then forced to alter their bodies using the flesh and bones of 
  supernatural creatures. Chronicles involving the Cheiron Group can be horrific or conspiratorial 
  — even vicious. This conspiracy is also a good candidate for infiltration by characters who 
  belong to a different group; after all, catching and experimenting upon monsters with the intent 
  of grafting their skin is terrifying, but what happens when that “monster” is a psychic member of 
  VASCU? Or a medium? Ultimately, the Cheiron Group can be used as antagonists or unwitting 
  allies, but they aren’t necessarily the heroes their members believe. This, too, can underline an 
  all-Cheiron Group chronicle as the player characters discover their innermost secrets. 
  • 
  Council of Bones: On paper, Council of Bones’ members say they don’t believe in 
  necromancy, but that doesn’t mean some hunters aren’t exploring that forbidden rite. Certainly, 
  the Council of Bones has a reputation for being creepy, since its members prefer dusty books to 
  electronic files and don’t let outsiders in unless it’s necessary. This conspiracy can veer toward 
  arrogance because it believes it’s the authority on death. Hunters who can talk to the dead do 
  solve problems, but they don’t always know to whom they’re speaking. 
  • 
  The Lucifuge: Members of the Lucifuge are usually treated as outsiders in hunter society 
  because of the possibility that demon blood runs through their veins, and this is something that 
  should be avoided when possible. Despite their heritage, the Lucifuge’s hunters are mortals who 
  wield innate powers to serve humanity. In a chronicle, the Lucifuge is an excellent choice 
  whenever demons are involved, but an unlikely one when attempting to redeem a rogue hunter 
  organization. 
  • 
  Malleus Maleficarum: As conspiracies go, Malleus Maleficarum is the most 
  straightforward of the bunch. Its members want to put an end to the supernatural, and they justify 
  their actions through their faith. Though the organization can and does specialize in vampires, its 
  hunters are not restricted by monster type. Constant hunting, even when using Endowments, 
  doesn’t make for a good story. In a chronicle, leverage the conspiracy’s history and that 
  vampires survive far longer than any mortal does. When an old vampire starts pulling the 
  characters’ strings, they find themselves peering into history’s darkest corners. Maybe, Malleus 
  Maleficarum isn’t as straightforward as it seems, after all. 
  • 
  Task Force: VALKYRIE: TFV chronicles can be more political than supernatural 
  because of their secret connection to the American government. As a conspiracy, it’s centered on 
  American interests, both domestic and overseas, and could serve as a model for similar 
  
  conspiracies for other, foreign governments. Simply, TFV members recognize they don’t have 
  the jurisdiction to work with NATO or the United Nations, but desperately want other countries 
  to be empowered to protect their own interests. What works against TFV is, of course, the 
  lengths its members go to obscure their identities and actions. The conspiracy that shouldn’t exist 
  is one other hunters want to track down, however, and TFV hunters may have to choose between 
  confronting a monster and risk exposure or forging alliances with other hunters. 
  The trade off to any limitations a conspiracy has is the immense payoff hunters gain. Tier-three 
  hunters have more freedom of movement than tier-one or -two, because they’re located 
  worldwide and aren’t restricted to a single area. Running a tier-three chronicle means the hunters 
  do not have to focus solely on one threat at once, instead keeping tabs on numerous problems at 
  the same time. Their contacts allow them to find out the knowledge needed to face these threats 
  head on, which is an incredible boon to their fellow hunters. 
  For an example of a conspiracy thematically tied to a chronicle, check out VASCU on p. XX. 
  Creating a Conspiracy 
  If you’d like to create your own conspiracy, the guidelines follow.  
  Concept: The greatest challenge when creating a new conspiracy is to remember its size and 
  influence will have weight in hunter society — but it is still mysterious enough that non-hunters 
  don’t know they exist. Start with a basic concept that frames what the conspiracy does. Do they 
  experiment on monsters like the Cheiron Group or create potions like the Ascending Ones? Once 
  you have a basic concept, think about how similar or dissimilar it is to existing conspiracies. 
  Each tier-three organization has a lot of room to spread its influence, and their sub-groups can 
  facilitate different methods or beliefs. 
  Example: You’ve decided you want to create a conspiracy that searches for magical relics.  
  Choose a Hook: Unlike cells or compacts, conspiracies tend to be more flexible with the Code. 
  The reasons for this are varied, but usually a conspiracy simply doesn’t have the time to watch 
  over a hunter’s daily activities or encounters with the supernatural. Their goals are big-picture 
  and often world-shattering, should they be achieved. 
  Example: You want to add a mystical nuance by forging the Aegis Kai Doru: an ancient 
  conspiracy shrouded in myths and legends. Its members hunt for relics and use their knowledge 
  against the supernatural, but don’t dictate how or when that information must be used. 
  Write Its History: Conspiracies have what the Cheiron Group calls “the company line.” This is 
  the information new recruits get before they start training, and often it’s an account that can leak 
  to other hunters without revealing the group’s innermost workings. Note: the Aegis Kai Doru has 
  a mystical, otherworldly feel, and this is reflected in its history. 
  Example: Members of the Aegis Kai Doru, the Shield and Spear, believe it is their sworn duty to 
  guard the magical treasures of countless lost worlds and use them against the supernatural. 
  It is the oldest conspiracy known to humankind. The Guardians tell initiates that their ancestors 
  can be traced back across the ages, before the great flood, to a mythical island. Some even call it 
  Atlantis, or Lemuria, or Pan, or Mu. On the island, or so they say, the Guardians lived in a vast 
  labyrinth that contained powerful magical relics.  
  
  Unfortunately, at some point the Guardians disagreed with the island’s other inhabitants and a 
  petty quarrel resulted in their forced ejection. The Guardians had planned to return, but by the 
  time they set sail, the island had already sunk to the bottom of the ocean.  
  Soon, escaped islanders joined the Guardians, and blamed the loss of their paradise on shape-
  shifting invaders who’d broken an ancient taboo. The Guardians refused to be fooled, however, 
  and held a grudge — that remains to this day — against the islanders who cast them out. 
  Now, while the Aegis Kai Doru’s leaders continue to practice their ancient traditions at the heart 
  of Greece, Guardians scour the Earth searching for magical relics in the hopes they’ll restore 
  their power one day. 
  Decide Recruitment: Unlike most compacts, conspiracies may want to keep their numbers 
  small and ensure that they don’t actively recruit hunters who don’t “fit” their group. Most 
  conspiracies have an arm that specializes in searching for initiates. 
  Example: The Aegis Kai Doru is extremely selective about who it welcomes and makes sure that 
  individual is thoroughly vetted before making an offer. 
  Note Factions: Following the history, each compact has three sub-groups, or factions, that make 
  up the larger group. Factions are distinguished by their differences in ideology that add a 
  nuanced perspective to the hunt. Each compact may also rename what their sub-groups are 
  called. 
  Example: You decide the Aegis Kai Doru has three separate groups. There may be more, and as 
  a global organization you have room to explore new possibilities if a situation calls for it. 
  The Sword comprises militant and proactive hunters who use their physical prowess to fight 
  monsters.  
  The Temple is made up of guards and locates the relics that give the Aegis Kai Doru its power. 
  The Scroll employs archivists and lorekeepers who test, record, and catalogue items of power. 
  Assign Status: Like compacts, conspiracies grant player characters dots in Status, rated one 
  through five. Three of these ratings are described per conspiracy; they provide hunters with an 
  in-game benefit they’ve earned as a reward for belonging to the compact. When assigning Status, 
  think about how a hunter might gain or lose it, too. 
  Example: The Guardians of the Labyrinth gain Status through finding relics, discovering what 
  relics do, and using them against their ancient enemies. 
  • You own at least one relic. When investigating a new, potential relic, you gain +2 to your 
  Investigation roll. 
  ••• You’ve spent so long doing research that it’s second nature to you. You get +1 on Academics-
  based dice pools pertaining to relics and archaeology. 
  ••••• You’ve experienced the Second Initiation; your senses don’t work the way they used to. You 
  begin to be able to sense the old enemies of your sect. You gain the Gut Feeling Merit. 
  Create Endowments: Endowments are blessings the conspiracy offers in exchange for loyalty 
  and, occasionally, devotion. The rules for creating Endowments are found on p. XX. For the 
  Aegis Kai Doru, their Endowments involve using a relic the hunter guards with their life. 
  
  Following this step, think about how your tier-three chronicle intersects with your new 
  conspiracy. A hunter organization that specializes in the acquisition and study of magical relics 
  adds a layer of intrigue to any hunt or exploration of a mysterious place. 
  Endowment Research and Development 
  Hunters are coming up with new ways to fight against their chosen enemies all the time. While 
  the Endowments presented on pp. XX-XX might be fine for the basic hunter, eventually players 
  will want new Endowments to use during a hunt. This section discusses the design philosophy 
  behind Endowments to give guidelines on how to create them. 
  Keep in mind, these guidelines are suggestions to try to make balanced powers. There are some 
  effects or factors that you might think about that aren’t covered here. If that’s the case, you can 
  still use the following to best extrapolate. 
  Every Endowment contains the following pieces: 
  • 
  An effect that is represented by a price (or cost of effects). 
  • 
  A cost of activation, generally in Willpower or damage, which gives a discount. 
  • 
  A backlash that gives a further discount. 
  This means that the most basic powers may cost nothing to activate and have no backlash. More 
  serious powers may have high costs in terms of what the hunter must spend to activate, or in the 
  subsequent backlash. Some limitations, such as the limitation on equipment from Advanced 
  Armory, the Integrity limitation on Benediction, or the inherent backlash built into Castigation 
  further modify the cost. 
  Every Endowment is designed by using a simple equation: 
  (Cost of Effects – Discounts) 
  Effects 
  Effects grant mechanical benefits and narrative license to accomplish great feats, represent 
  special attacks or powers, or place restrictions or penalties on targets. The wider or more extreme 
  the Effect, the higher the value associated with it. 
  Because all Endowments start with at least a baseline experience cost, there is a level of effect 
  already baked into that cost. This is why there is a value of 0 for effects. Any Endowment can 
  have at most two 0 value effects before those effects start to add +1 to the value. 
  START EFFECTS TABLE 
  Effects Table 
  Value*† 
  Mechanical Effect 
  Narrative Effect 
  Duration 
  0 
  Give a specific roll the 8-again quality 
  “You can smell fear.” Immediate effect 
  1 
  Inflict a Condition or mild Tilt 
  “You can open any door.” 
  One scene 
  2 
  Provoke a Clash of Wills, inflict a severe Tilt 
  “You can speak with ghosts.”
   
  Multiple scenes 
  3 
  Exceptional success at 3 successes rather than 5 
  “You can breathe anything.” 24 
  hours 
  
  4 
  Apply a Persistent Condition “You can fly.” One week 
  5 
  Give a specific roll the rote quality 
  “You can walk between worlds.” 
  Indefinite 
  * If the Endowment modifies a dice pool, the number of dice added or removed is equal to the 
  value − 1. 
  † If the Endowment deals or heals damage, the damage modifier of the Endowment or the 
  amount of Health restored is equal to the value − 1. 
  END TABLE 
  Costs 
  Endowments are often fueled with Willpower or damage to the user. A Willpower expenditure 
  represents an act of will or focus necessary to trigger an Endowment, or the psychological or 
  physiological cost of doing so. More extreme physiological effects are represented by using 
  lethal damage as the cost; such Endowments are always fatiguing and often painful to use. 
  Endowments with variable results, or that directly affect a target require an activation roll.  
  Additionally, certain Endowments require circumstances such as having proper materials, 
  maintaining equipment, or saying the right words. These minor actions are considered 
  circumstances, and factor into the cost. For the purposes of example, we use specific 
  requirements found within Endowments as our examples. 
  START COST TABLE 
   Cost Table  
  Value* Action Equivalent Willpower or damage** Circumstances† 
  −1 
  Instant Action with an activation roll 1 
  - 
  Common; saying a prayer, speaking 
  a passphrase 
  −2 
  Contested or Resisted Action 2 
  Uncommon; e.g., access to a holy relic; hard to find 
  ingredients; a consumable†† 
  −3 
  Multiple Actions 
  3 
  -  
  −4 
  Extended Action (minutes) 
  4 
  - 
  −5 
  Extended Action (hours) 
  5 
  - 
  *For extended actions, base target number of successes is 5, increasing the target number 
  changes the value by −1 per. 
  **Lethal damage. This may reduce to bashing damage in some cases where a narrative effect is 
  between two number values. Increase to aggravated damage for an additional −1 value. 
  † Circumstances that generally benefit the player should read the value as positive rather than 
  negative. 
  †† If an Endowment has an expendable component, such as ammunition, read the number of 
  uses as a cost instead of a refund, and then subtract the −2 refund for being consumable. 
  END TABLE 
  Backlashes 
  
  Backlashes are the downsides to using Endowments. Backlashes are often something bad that 
  happens to the hunter for using the supernatural. It might just be the aftereffects of a particularly 
  vivid vision, or it could be the visible ramifications of the type of Endowment she was using. 
  Most commonly, they impose a small penalty to certain actions but can also impose Conditions. 
  START BACKLASH TABLE 
  Backlash Table 
  Value* Example Backlash 
  −1 
  Minor Drawback; lack of sleep, being hunted 
  −2 
  Significant Drawback; imposes a Condition 
  −3 
  Painful Drawback; imposes a Persistent Condition 
  * If the backlash penalizes a dice pool or imposes damage, give a −1 value on a one-for-one 
  basis. 
  END BACKLASH TABLE 
  Creating New Endowments 
  The first step in creating a conspiracy’s Endowments is to think about its concept; this informs 
  how they’ll be used and designed. Here’s a summary of the Endowment concepts presented thus 
  far: 
  • 
  Advanced Armory: Following the implant of an RFID chip, Task Force: VALKYRIE 
  members gain an impressive array of armaments, p. XX. 
  • 
  Benediction: Blessed by the pope, the Malleus Maleficarum receive divine Benedictions, 
  p. XX. 
  • 
  Castigation: The Lucifuge’s hunters gain power through their infernal ancestry, and 
  Castigation rites are powered by their blood. These rites cannot be unlearned even if they leave 
  the conspiracy, p. XX.  
  • 
  Elixir: The Ascending Ones use rare potions that must be alchemically manipulated in 
  their bodies, and these create an array of dizzying effects, p. XX. 
  • 
  Perispiritism: The Council of Bones employs a variety of techniques, powered by the 
  mysterious Mark of the Scythe, as if they were natural mediums, p. XX. 
  • 
  Teleformatics: VASCU agents undergo extensive processing with chemicals to unlock 
  potent mental powers, p. XX. 
  • 
  Thaumatechnology: The Cheiron Group members are augmented with the blood and 
  flesh of monsters. Hunters acquire these Endowments by having surgery, and installation is 
  permanent unless removed by a specialist, p. XX.  
  Each Endowment concept addresses the source of its power: potions, surgical grafts, a 
  mysterious tattoo, infernal blood, divine blessing, a security clearance, and a chemical enhancer. 
  This helps understand not only how the hunter is accessing the Endowment, but the kinds of 
  Endowments hunters from each conspiracy would create. Also think about the way hunters get 
  their Endowments through their Conspiracy. Is it an item they can walk away with, or a special 
  
  magical tool they must spend hours researching and learning? How does the Endowment work? 
  A potion must be imbibed or inhaled, but a ritual must only be spoken. 
  Before creating a new Endowment, think about the conspiracy to which it’s tied. Are you 
  creating an Endowment for an existing conspiracy? Or a new one like the Aegis Kai Doru? 
  Relic Concepts 
  The Aegis Kai Doru is an eclectic mix of hunters who devote their time to unlocking the secrets 
  of strange, mystical artifacts and using them in their hunts against witches and shapeshifters. 
  These Relics are called Bygones, p. XX. They believe that if the Relics fall into the wrong hands, 
  they could cause great harm to innocent people. The threat of a supernatural creature or rogue 
  hunter getting their hands on a Relic is omnipresent. 
  Right off the bat, there’s a significant idea that needs to be incorporated into the Endowment 
  concept — Relics can be stolen. If we look at the costs table, “access to a holy relic” is 
  considered a −2 value. Since this will apply to every Relic Endowment, every Relic Endowment 
  must have that cost associated with it. If a Relic is lost for more than a chapter, the Storyteller 
  should allow the player to select another Relic Endowment to stand in for the missing one, 
  provided it make sense in the story. 
  Something else to consider is whether these mystical artifacts are unique, or whether it’s possible 
  for two people to wield the same type of Relic. To avoid limiting Endowment creation, 
  especially in instances where a Relic may be created or consumed, some Relics are truly unique, 
  while others may be twins, triplets, or one of many. Perhaps the rituals needed to create them are 
  even known to modern savants but exact such a heavy price they cannot be manufactured lightly. 
  Even the least powerful Relic is still so mystically great it empowers its wielder to do the 
  impossible.  
  Relic Endowments 
  Relic Endowments require membership in the Aegis Kai Doru. They also represent items to 
  which the hunter has access and has learned how to safely use. It may have some trick of 
  activation, or a word or incantation necessary for use that only the hunter knows. Relics may 
  describe a class of objects with a similar or identical function, or a unique artifact with no true 
  equal. 
  Combining these concepts, we’re ready to use this to determine how Aegis Kai Doru hunters 
  gain access to their Endowments. Maybe they have a reliquary full of Relics they must check 
  out, much like Task Force: VALKYRIE, or they make them as they need them more like the 
  Ascending Ones. Maybe each hunter has their own stash of Relics and some arcane force which 
  allows them and only them to activate them.  
  Since the conspiracy deals in Relics, it makes sense to have a cache of these somewhere in which 
  agents can get new ones. But since the Relics are rare and obscure, it also makes sense that they 
  wouldn’t be as easily exchanged as items from say TFV’s Advanced Armory. Instead, let’s say 
  that Aegis Kai Doru characters are gifted with Relics, and these Relics stay with them.  
  Based on this, we know that the Relics should not be single use, or consumable the way 
  Advanced Armory is. Instead, a Relic’s power should be something that either has unlimited use 
  or recharges on its own. On that note, a Relic is a powerful, likely magical, artifact. This means 
  
  they should have some kind of activation, maybe a chant or an action, that the hunter must 
  perform to unleash its power. 
  With that in mind, build this into the basic Endowment structure. Each Relic is an item, it’s 
  something rare that you must get from the conspiracy to use. But because it’s an item, the hunter 
  could possibly lose it, or it could get stolen. Each Relic requires a certain activity, let’s say a 
  keyword or activation gesture to use, and if the user doesn’t know the correct sequence or word, 
  it won’t work. Once again, there is a built in, general −1 value of needing an instant action to use 
  into each Relic. So that means it has a −3 value to start. Below are two examples of Relics with 
  differing power levels. 
  Aegis Talisman 
  The Aegis Talisman is unique and powerful, so it should have a lot of punch. First, assign its 
  effects to figure out what the Talisman can do before it’s negated with costs and backlashes. To 
  start off, the Gorgon’s Skin makes the user incredibly durable: Armor 3, for 2 points of value. 
  Second, Gorgon’s Solitude guards against magical attacks: a +3 to contested rolls for another 2 
  points of value. This effect lasts for a scene, which is another +1 value. 
  Right now, our Endowment value is 5. We have one more effect to add. Gorgon’s Terror 
  paralyzes the target with a relevant Condition or Tilt (+1) which incurs a cost of 1 Willpower 
  (−1). These costs are baked into the Endowment, bringing us to a new total of 5. To drop the 
  value back down to 0, we’ll subtract 2 due to the talisman being a Relic and another 2 because it 
  takes a contested action to activate, but it’s still at a +1, so the armor activation should also cost a 
  Willpower, bringing the Willpower cost value to −2. Now, the calculation is as follows: 
  (Effects: +2 + 2 + 1 + 1) – (Costs: 2 + 2 + 2) = 0 
  The resulting Endowment looks like this: 
  Legend describes the Aegis as a shield or as the skin of a goat, sometimes bearing the head of 
  one of the Gorgons. This indestructible shield, wielded by the gods, struck terror in all who 
  beheld it, and thus made the user all-but invincible in battle. The Aegis Talisman, forged from 
  silver, is roughly the size of an outspread hand and bears a relief of a gorgon’s face. The talisman 
  is not as powerful as its mythical cousin, but it guards against both physical and mystical assault 
  and, with a focused and trained will, can even paralyze onlookers. 
  Cost: 1 or 2 Willpower 
  Dice Pool: Presence + Occult vs. Resolve 
  Action: Instant 
  Duration: One scene 
  Upon activation, the talisman provides 3 armor, which applies to both general and ballistic 
  attacks. This armor also provides a defense against supernatural attacks, giving her a +3 to rolls 
  to contest an action or a −1 to her resistance Attribute when targeted by a Dread Power or 
  supernatural effect. 
  Additionally, if the hunter spends an additional Willpower on activation, she can attempt to 
  freeze a target in their tracks. 
  Roll Results 
  
  Success: The hunter inflicts the Stunned Tilt on a single target who can see the talisman. 
  Exceptional Success: The hunter inflicts the Immobilized Tilt instead. 
  Failure: The talisman fails to catch anyone’s eye. 
  Dramatic Failure: The hunter blinds herself with her own talisman. She gains the Stunned Tilt. 
  Skeleton Key 
  This Endowment is called the Skeleton Key. It’s a useful Relic and isn’t one of a kind, but is the 
  kind of object the Aegis Kai Doru might lend to its hunters. 
  The Skeleton Key’s concept is simple enough: It opens doors. Before deciding its costs and 
  backlashes, think about its potential effects. The Skeleton Key should be able to unlock any door. 
  Keep in mind the Skeleton Key is a Relic that can be stolen, so we’ll need to remember that −2. 
  Our equation would be: 
  (Effects (+1) − (Costs 2)) = -1 
  Right now, this Endowment is a little underpowered and isn’t compelling. Anyone with a 
  lockpick can open a door. What if the door has a monster guarding it with a ward or some other 
  Dread Power? In this case, our hunter should have to make a roll, which is covered under Clash 
  of Wills. Add “provoking a Clash of Wills,” which is a +2 Effect. 
  (Effects (+1, +2) − (Costs 2)) = +1 
  Now, we’re at a +1, so it should cost a Willpower to use for a −1 value. That is balanced, but 
  because there is already an expenditure of 3 Experiences to make this effect, apply some free 
  effects to give it a little more oomph. Apply the 8-again quality to the hunter’s Clash of Wills 
  roll for free. 
  (Effects (+1, +2, +0) − (Cost 2+1)) = 0 
  The Skeleton Key Endowment is now ready for a hunter to use, and its new effects make sense 
  in the context of the narrative. Though the hunter doesn’t have to pay a point of Willpower or 
  roll the dice every time they want to open a door, the Skeleton Key’s usage reflects its common 
  availability. Besides, opening doors is far more interesting than leaving them closed.  
  The resulting Endowment looks like this: 
  It’s said that no lock, no matter how sturdy, can keep out death. Bar yourself behind doors and 
  wards and mystical barriers all you like, but death has a key for all of them. The Skeleton Key 
  Relic might not literally be death’s enchanted key, but it does give hunters an uncanny ability to 
  bypass obstacles in their path. 
  The Skeleton Key is a small, silver key in an archaic style, tarnished from long use. The teeth are 
  grooved in such a way as to suggest human dentition, and the bow is an intricately detailed 
  model of a human skull with tiny flecks of sapphire in the eye sockets. The key is always cold to 
  the touch, even if carried in the hand or worn next to the skin for hours. 
  Cost: None 
  Dice Pool: None 
  Action: Instant 
  
  The Skeleton Key unlocks any locked door. If a monster used a Dread Power to seal the door, or 
  made it difficult to pass through (such as Maze, p. XX), the key prompts a Clash of Wills, and 
  the player gains the 8-again quality on the hunter’s roll. 
  Now you’re ready to develop your own. Start with what effect you want the Endowment to have, 
  then think about how its rules might affect its usage. From there, you can write up new 
  Endowments to model various powers. Remember that any new Endowment should get approval 
  from your Storyteller before purchasing. Good luck and happy hunting! 
   
  
  Appendix One: Equipment, Custom Gear, and Traps 
  This appendix lists sample equipment, details an optional system for further customizing hunting 
  gear, and provides rules for building traps. 
  Equipment 
  The following are lists of basic equipment Hunter: The Vigil characters can use. For additional 
  Mental, Physical, and Social equipment, see the Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook, starting on 
  p. 270. 
  Weapons 
  Melee Weapons Chart 
  [BEGIN CHART] 
  Type  
  Damage 
  Initiative 
  Strength 
  Size 
  Availability Special 
  Sap 
   
   
  0 
  −1 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Stun 
  Brass Knuckles 
  0 
  0 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Uses Brawl to attack 
  Baton  
   
  1 
  −1 
  2 
  2 
  n/a 
  Crowbar 
   
  2 
  −2 
  2 
  2 
  • 
   
  Tire Iron 
   
  1 
  −3 
  2 
  2 
  •• 
  +1 Defense 
  Chain  
   
  1 
  −3 
  2 
  2 
  • 
  Grapple 
  Shield (small)  
  0 
  −2 
  2 
  2 
  •• 
  Concealed 
  Shield (large)  
  2 
  −4 
  3 
  3 
  •• 
  Concealed 
  Knife  
   
  0 
  −1 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Rapier  
   
  1 
  −2 
  1 
  2 
  •• 
  Armor piercing 1 
  Machete 
   
  2 
  −2 
  2 
  2 
  •• 
  Hatchet 
   
  1 
  −2 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Fire Axe 
   
  3 
  −4 
  3 
  3 
  •• 
  9-again, two-handed 
  Chainsaw 
   
  5 
  −6 
  4 
  3 
  ••• 
  9-again, two-handed 
  Stake*  
   
  0 
  −4 
  1 
  1 
  n/a 
  Spear** 
   
  2 
  −2 
  2 
  4 
  • 
  +1 Defense, two-handed 
  Stun gun (melee) 
  1 
  1 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Stun; bonus successes don't add to 
  modifier for damage 
  Stunbolt/stakebolt gun* 
  2 
  −3 
  3 
  1 
  •••• 
  Armor piercing 2; stun 
  [END OF CHART] 
  
  Type: A weapon’s type is a general classification that can apply to anything your character picks 
  up. A tire iron might be any metal club, such as an antique mace, a metal baseball bat, or a 
  hammer, while a hatchet might be a meat cleaver or an antique hand axe. 
  Damage: Indicates the number of bonus successes added to a successful attack. Weapons always 
  deal lethal damage against ordinary people. The type of damage may vary against supernatural 
  opponents. 
  Initiative: The penalty taken to Initiative when wielding the weapon. If using more than one 
  weapon, take the higher penalty and increase by 1. 
  Strength: The minimum Strength needed to use a weapon effectively. A wielder with a lower 
  Strength suffers a −1 penalty on attack rolls. 
  Size: Size 1 items can be hidden in a hand; two Size 2 items can be hidden in a coat; Size 3+ 
  items cannot be hidden. 
  Availability: The cost in Resources dots or the level of Social Merit needed to acquire the 
  weapon. 
  Concealed: A character that wields a shield but doesn’t use it to attack can add its Size to his 
  Defense and uses its Size as a concealment modifier against ranged attacks. 
  Grapple: Add the chain’s weapon modifier to grappling dice pools. 
  Stun: Halve the victim's Size when aiming for the head with intent to stun. 
  Two-handed: This weapon requires two hands. It can be used one-handed but doing so increases 
  the Strength requirement by 1. 
  * To pierce the heart, a stake must target it specifically (−3 to attack rolls) and must deal at least 
  five damage in one attack, or four with a stakebolt gun. 
  ** The reach of a spear gives +1 to Defense against opponents who are unarmed or wield 
  weapons of Size 1. 
  Ranged Weapons Chart 
  [BEGIN CHART] 
  Type Damage 
  Range Clip 
  Initiative 
  Strength 
  Size 
  Availability
   
  Example 
  Special 
  Revolver, light1 
  20/40/80 
  6 
  0 
  2 
  1 
  •• 
  SW M640 (.38 
  Special) 
  Revolver, heavy 
  2 
  35/70/140 
  6 
  -2 
  3 
  1 
  •• 
  SW M29 (.44 
  Magnum) 
  Pistol, light 
  1 
  20/40/80 
  17 + 1 0 
  2 
  1 
  ••• 
  Glock 17 (9mm) 
  Pistol, heavy 2 
  30/60/120 
  7 + 1 −2 
  3 
  1 
  ••• 
  Colt M1911A1 (.45 
  ACP) 
  SMG, small* 1 
  25/50/100 
  30 + 1 −2 
  2 
  1 
  ••• 
  Ingram Mac-10 
  (9mm) 
  SMG, large* 2 
  50/100/200 
  30 + 1 −3 
  3 
  2 
  ••• 
  HK MP-5 (9mm) 
  
  Rifle  
  4 
  200/400/800 5 + 1 −5 
  2 
  3 
  •• 
  Remington M-700 
  (30.06) 
  Assault Rifle* 3 
  150/300/600 42 + 1 −3 
  3 
  3 
  ••• 
  Steyr AUG (5.56mm) 
  Shotgun** 
  3 
  20/40/80 
  5 + 1 −4 
  3 
  2 
  •• 
  Remington M870 (12-
  gauge) 
  Crossbow*** 2 
  40/80/160 
  1 
  −5 
  3 
  3 
  ••• 
   
  Repeating crossbow*** 
  1 
  20/40/100 
  9 + 1 −3 
  3 
  3 
  ••••• 
  Stun gun (ranged)*** 1 
  5 
  1 
  0 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  Taser Stun; bonus 
  successes don't add to the modifier for damage 
  Pepper spray 0 
  1/2/3 n/a 
  0 
  1 
  1 
  • 
   
  Stun; Penalty, deals 
  no damage 
  Civilian flamethrower max 4 10/30/— 
  30 
  −4 
  3 
  4 
  ••• 
  N/A
   
  Incendiary**** 
  Military flamethrower max 4 30/50/— 
  30 
  −5 
  3 
  4 
  ••••• 
  N/A
   
  Incendiary**** 
  Homemade flamethrower 
  max 3 5/10/— 
  10 
  −2 
  1 
  1 
  • 
  N/A
   
  Incendiary**** 
  [END CHART] 
  Damage: Indicates the number of bonus successes added to a successful attack. Weapons always 
  deal lethal damage against ordinary people. The type of damage may vary against supernatural 
  opponents. 
  Ranges: The listed numbers are short/medium/long ranges in yards/meters. Attacks at medium 
  range suffer a −1 penalty. Attacks at long range suffer a −2 penalty. 
  Clip: The number of rounds a gun can hold. A +1 indicates that a bullet can be held in the 
  chamber, ready to fire. 
  Initiative: The penalty taken to Initiative when wielding the weapon. If using more than one 
  weapon, take the higher penalty and increase it by 1. 
  Strength: The minimum Strength needed to use a weapon effectively. A wielder with a lower 
  Strength suffers a −1 on attack rolls. 
  Size: Weapons of Size 1 can be fired one-handed; Size 2 weapons must be fired two-handed and 
  can be hidden in a coat; Size 3 weapons can be fired two-handed, but not hidden on one’s person. 
  Availability: The cost in Resources dots or the level of Social Merit needed to acquire the 
  weapon. 
  Stun: Halve the victim's Size when aiming for the head with intent to stun. 
  Penalty: Pepper spray inflicts a −5 to all actions, reduced by one for every turn the victim spends 
  rinsing his eyes. 
  * The weapon is capable of autofire, including short bursts, medium bursts, and long bursts. 
  
  ** Attack rolls gain the 9-again quality. 
  *** Crossbows and ranged stun guns take three turns to reload between shots (stun guns must 
  replace the compressed air cartridge); a repeating crossbow takes five turns to reload fully. A 
  crossbow can also be used to deliver a stake through the heart (−3 to attack rolls; must deal at 
  least five damage in one attack). 
  **** Flamethrowers inflict the Burning Tilt if they deal any damage to the target, but each attack 
  can only deal damage up to the flame’s size + heat. See p. XX for details. 
  Armor 
  [BEGIN CHART] 
  Type Rating  
  Strength 
  Defense 
  Speed Availability Coverage 
  Modern 
  Reinforced clothing* 1/0 
  1 
  0 
  0 
  • 
  Torso, arms, legs 
  Kevlar vest* 1/3 
  1 
  0 
  0 
  • 
  Torso 
  Flak jacket 
  2/4 
  1 
  −1 
  0 
  •• 
  Torso, arms 
  Full riot gear 3/5 
  2 
  −2 
  −1 
  ••• 
  Torso, arms, legs 
  Archaic 
  Leather (hard) 2/0 
  2 
  −1 
  0 
  • 
  Torso, arms 
  Chainmail 
  3/1 
  3 
  −2 
  −2 
  •• 
  Torso, arms 
  Plate 4/2 
  3 
  −2 
  −3 
  •••• 
  Torso, arms, legs 
  [END CHART] 
  Rating: Armor provides protection against normal attacks and firearms attacks. The number 
  before the slash is for general armor, while the number after the slash is for ballistic armor. 
  Strength: If a character’s Strength is lower than that required for her armor, reduce her Brawl 
  and Weaponry dice pools by one. 
  Defense: The penalty imposed on a character’s Defense when wearing the armor. 
  Speed: The penalty to a character’s Speed when wearing the armor. 
  Availability: The cost in Resources dots or the level of Social Merit needed to acquire the 
  armor. 
  Coverage: The areas of a character protected by the armor. Unless an attacker targets a specific 
  unarmored location (see “Specified Targets,” p. XX), the armor’s protection applies. Wearing a 
  helmet increases the armor’s coverage to include a character’s head. 
  * This armor is concealed, either as normal clothing (e.g. biker leathers) or from being worn 
  under a jacket or baggy shirt. Attackers have no idea the target is wearing armor until after they 
  land a successful hit. 
  Services 
  
  [CHART] 
  Service 
  Availability Die Bonus 
  Academics 
  Historical specialist consulting 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Research assistance from grad students 
  •• 
  +2 
  Translation of a dead language 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Computer 
  Custom phone application 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Digital image enhancement •• 
  +3 
  Graphic design/forgery 
  •• 
  +2 
  Crafts 
  Antiquities restoration ••• 
  +2 
  Auto repair 
  •• 
  +3 
  Custom equipment modifications 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Investigation 
  Consultation on evidence 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Investigative photography 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Private investigation/background check 
  •• 
  +2 
  Medicine 
  Black-market surgeon •••• 
  +3 
  Expert medical witness 
  •••• 
  +2 
  Rush plastic surgery •••• 
  +2 
  Occult 
  Esoteric consultant/sage 
  •••• 
  +3 
  Exorcist 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Protective amulets or wards •••• 
  +1 
  Politics 
  Campaign assistant 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Cutting red tape (read: bribe) ••• 
  +2 
  Spin doctor 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Science 
  Fact checking •• 
  +3 
  Falsifying research/coverup ••• 
  +2 
  
  Lab access 
  •• 
  +2 
  Athletics 
  Meditative assistance ••• 
  +2 
  Personal trainer 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Throwing an athletic competition 
  •••• 
  +4 
  Brawl 
  Arrange underground boxing ring 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Bodyguard service 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Self-defense classes • 
  +1 
  Drive 
  Chauffer 
  •• 
  +2 
  Stunt performance/mock crash 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Tour bus rental 
  •••• 
  +2 
  Firearms 
  Antique gun repair 
  •••  
  +2 
  Cover fire from gangs ••• 
  +3 
  Procuring smuggled military arms 
  •••• 
  +2 
  Larceny 
  Breaking and entering ••• 
  +2 
  Security consulting 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Stealing a protected relic 
  •••• 
  +3 
  Stealth 
  Strategic distraction ••• 
  +3 
  Tailing a suspect 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Targeted vandalism 
  •• 
  +2 
  Survival 
  Field dress and preserve an animal 
  ••• 
  +1 
  Trail guide 
  •• 
  +3 
  Weatherproof a shelter 
  •• 
  +2 
  Weaponry 
  Properly forged sword••• 
  +2 
  Identify wound from obscure weapon 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Training in archaic warfare 
  ••• 
  +2 
  
  Animal Ken 
  Buy a trained animal ••• 
  +2 
  Identify animal droppings 
  •• 
  +1 
  Rule out natural causes of death 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Empathy 
  “Good cop” interrogator 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Neutral arbitrator  
  ••• 
  +2 
  Therapy session 
  •• 
  +1 
  Expression 
  Document forgery 
  ••• 
  +3 
  Ghostwriting •• 
  +2 
  Motivational speech ••• 
  +1 
  Intimidation 
  Anti-interrogation training  
  •••• 
  +3 
  “Bad cop” interrogator 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Deprogramming therapy 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Persuasion 
  Defense attorney  
  ••• 
  +3 
  Hostage negotiator 
  •••• 
  +3 
  Pickup artist ••• 
  +2 
  Socialize 
  Catering 
  ••• or •••• 
  +1 or +2 
  Elocution consulting ••• 
  +1 
  Escort ••• 
  +2 
  Streetwise 
  Arrange a rave or block party ••• 
  +2 
  Black market access •• 
  +2 
  Find crash space  
  •• 
  +1 
  Smuggling contraband 
  ••• 
  +1 
  Subterfuge 
  Amateur actor/actress •• 
  +2 
  Con artistry 
  ••• 
  +2 
  Gambling ringer 
  ••• 
  +2 
  
  [[END CHART]] 
  Vehicles 
   [BEGIN CHART] 
  Vehicle 
  Dice Modifier Size 
  Durability/Structure Speed 
  Motorcycle 
  −1 
  7 
  2/9 
  100 
  Compact car −2 
  8 
  3/11 
  90 
  Station wagon −3 
  12 
  3/15 
  80 
  Sports car 
  −1 
  10 
  2/12 
  140 
  Limousine 
  −4 
  20 
  3/18 
  60 
  Van 
  −3 
  18 
  3/21 
  80 
  Pickup truck −2 
  15 
  4/19 
  80 
  SUV −2 
  15 
  4/19 
  100 
  Motorboat 
  −2 
  10 
  2/12 
  60 
  [END CHART] 
  Customizing Gear 
  While a hunter has plenty of options for acquiring fieldwork gear, sometimes even the military 
  and the black market can’t help with the kinds of modifications necessary to bring down a 
  werewolf or detect spirits. Some hunters just don’t have the resources or connections for the 
  fancy stuff and must make do with what they can scrounge up at the hardware store. And 
  sometimes, all they’ve got is a pickup truck, a fence post, barbed wire, and five minutes. That’s 
  where custom gear comes in. 
  This book presents basic rules for building and modifying equipment on p. XX. If players want 
  to dig a little deeper into the world of custom gear, use these optional expansions. 
  Vehicle Modifications 
  A vehicle can support a number of modifications equal to twice the mechanic’s Crafts rating; 
  each modification requires four hours to install. Characters don’t need to roll unless the character 
  is under stress or lacks proper tools, in which case the Storyteller can require an Intelligence + 
  Crafts instant action for each modification. 
  Example Vehicle Modifications 
  • 
  +1 dice modifier, to a maximum of +5 
  • 
  +2 dice to a secondary equipment bonus, e.g. a masterful paint job granting a bonus to 
  Persuasion rolls 
  • 
  +2 Structure 
  • 
  +5 Speed 
  • 
  Two modifications add the High Acceleration modification 
  
  • 
  Two modifications add 1 Size rank, which also increases Structure 
  • 
  Two modifications add 1 Durability, to a maximum of 5 
  Long-Term Modifications 
  Hunters are in it for the long haul, which means most eventually end up with a personal arsenal 
  of signature weapons, gadgets, and gear. A member of the Lucifuge doesn’t want to recalibrate 
  her EMF reader to pick up the presence of different kinds of demons each time, so she modifies 
  it to easily cycle through the three frequencies she needs in seconds. Someone who hunts 
  primarily vampires has a variety of creative ways to put a pointy wooden object through a dead 
  heart on hand at all times. Every hunter’s private cache is unique, and some turn a decent profit 
  by buying, selling, and trading modified equipment to other cells. 
  Below is a more detailed list of common modifications hunters make to various kinds of 
  equipment. The Availability of a modification adds to that of the original item and reflects how 
  difficult it is to acquire the materials necessary to make the modification. If this would increase 
  an item’s Availability beyond five dots, it requires multiple intervals of a Merit’s use or multiple 
  Skill rolls to acquire the custom version, or clever bartering and roleplay; nothing can have an 
  Availability beyond ten effective dots. Modification penalties given are the built-in penalties 
  imposed on Build Equipment rolls to modify the original item. 
  [THIS IS A CHART] 
  Modification Equipment Type 
  Availability Build Equipment penalty/Vehicle mods 
  +1 weapon modifier Weapons 
  •• 
  −1 per +1 bonus, max. +3 
  +1 general or ballistic armor rating Armor •• 
  −1 per increase, max. +3 
  +10 short/medium/long range Ranged weapons 
  •• 
  −1 per 10 yards, max. double 
  original range 
  Bane mods* Weapons/Armor 
  •-••••• −1-3 depending on complexity 
  Balance optimization/recoil reduction (−1 Str req., min. 1) Weapons/Armor 
  •• 
  −1 
  Built-in flashlight 
  Weapons/Armor 
  •• 
  −2 
  Vehicle ramming weapons** Vehicles 
  ••• 
  2 vehicle mods 
  * Salt shells and salt-and-pepper spray (p. XX) are simple examples of bane mods; others include 
  using antiballistic gel made with holy water in a bulletproof vest, making bullets or knife blades 
  out of silver, or sewing bells into a suit of body armor. 
  **For example, blades or stakes jutting from the front bumper. When hitting light objects, the 
  weapons take the reciprocal damage on a failed Dexterity + Drive roll instead of the vehicle, and 
  damage dealt to the target is lethal.  
  [END OF CHART] 
  Sample Custom Gear 
  Below are some examples of modified gear hunters keep handy to even the odds against 
  monstrous foes or track down the untraceable. 
  Armaments 
  
  Bayonet 
  Availability • or ••, Modification Penalty −1 or −2 
  Effect: A rifle or shotgun can mount a bayonet, which is a blade attached to the barrel so the 
  wielder can engage in melee combat without switching weapons, onto a built-in metal lug; but 
  many hunters simply duct tape a knife to a gun and call it a day. The former has higher 
  Availability and levies a greater Build penalty but is more stable. Any long-barreled firearm with 
  a bayonet attached can use the traits for a spear (p. XX) at close range. The Availability 1 version 
  snaps clean off when the wielder rolls a dramatic failure. Many hunters attach knives made of 
  silver or iron to their rifles for use as bane weapons. 
  Flamethrower 
  Effect: Ordinary flamethrowers come in two types: civilian, for clearing out vegetation, and 
  military, for dealing with enemy fortifications. See the Ranged Weapons chart above for their 
  traits; the capacity given is its equivalent clip size for purposes of knowing when to reload the 
  tank with fluid or propane. Flamethrowers are incendiary, meaning they inflict the Burning Tilt 
  if they deal any damage to the target, but each attack can only deal damage up to the flame’s size 
  + heat. Normal flamethrowers inflict flames of bonfire size (Damage 2) and Bunsen burner heat 
  (+2 damage). Attacks use Dexterity + Firearms but suffer a −2 if the attacker doesn’t have an 
  appropriate specialty. A flamethrower is capable of short, medium, and long bursts just like an 
  automatic firearm (p. XX), and the target’s Defense doesn’t apply against long bursts. Armor 
  only applies if it’s specifically fire-resistant, or a monster has a particular power that protects it. 
  A hunter can customize a flamethrower with an adjustable nozzle that changes the kind of stream 
  it creates, with a modification Availability of • and penalty of −3. A focused jet stream increases 
  its ranges by 10 yards each and the heat of its flame by +1. A wide spray reduces the total 
  multiple target penalty for medium and long bursts by 2. A mist spray allows the weapon to fire 
  only at its short range but eliminates the multiple target penalty entirely and allows multiple 
  targets on a short burst. Such nozzles have a normal setting as well. Switching nozzle modes is 
  an instant action. 
  Actual flamethrowers can be hard to come by, not to mention cumbersome to carry into a fight, 
  but fire is such an essential part of a hunter’s arsenal that few leave home without knowing how 
  to make one in a pinch. A character can jury rig a civilian-level flamethrower with a gun casing 
  or garden hose, fuel, and a lighter. She can also make a homemade version (modification 
  Availability •, penalty −1) that’s much cheaper and easier to build but less effective and more 
  dangerous. Rigging a lighter to line up with the barrel of a water gun and ignite when someone 
  pulls the trigger, and then filling the gun’s chamber with lighter fluid, WD-40, or another 
  flammable liquid, is a quick-and-dirty way to set monsters on fire. These flames are smaller 
  (Damage 1), and they only cause the Burning Tilt after at least one full turn of continuous fire. 
  Dramatic failures with such weapons set the wielder herself on fire. Hunters can jury rig less-
  permanent versions of this in the moment with nothing more than a lighter and an aerosol can of 
  hair spray. 
  Mirror Darts 
  Availability ••, Modification Penalty −1 
  Effect: Cautious hunters take few chances when it comes to a deadly monster spotting them 
  before they’re ready. By attaching small mirrors to magnetic or sticky darts loaded into an air 
  
  rifle or blowgun and fired at strategic points on walls or other surfaces, a hunter can keep out of 
  sight while spying around corners and give themselves better line of sight for shooting past 
  obstacles. Placing a mirror dart requires a successful Dexterity + Firearms roll, which the target 
  may oppose with Wits + Composure −2 to notice the dart. Using it to help aim a ranged attack 
  reduces all penalties for concealment by one, including those for firing from concealment. 
  Repeating Crossbow 
  Availability ••, Modification Penalty −3 
  Effect: The crossbow’s biggest downside is its incredibly slow rate of fire due to the time it 
  takes to reload a single bolt. Hunters rig repeating crossbows that can load and fire additional 
  bolts quickly from a magazine atop the shaft or replace the string entirely with a compressed air 
  mechanism that can propel bolts from a rotating cylinder. These don’t fire as far or as forcefully, 
  but six tries in a row can make up for that. 
  Retractable Weapons 
  Availability •, Modification Penalty −2  
  Effect: Hunters who prefer small melee weapons like daggers, stakes, and batons rig them up to 
  spring-loaded mechanisms they wear on their forearms. This way, they can hide their weapons 
  under jacket sleeves and bring them to hand with a flick of the wrist; a character can draw a 
  loaded retractable weapon reflexively, but it takes three turns to reload the mechanism to do it 
  again. 
  Salt-and-Pepper Spray 
  Availability •, Modification Penalty −1 
  Effect: While pepper spray does a good job of distracting everyday assailants, monsters often 
  don’t react the way a human would to an eyeful of capsaicin. Dissolving a measure of salt into 
  the mix makes creatures that can’t abide salt flinch like anyone else, suffering the normal effects 
  of pepper spray in addition to the usual bane effects. The victim suffers the Stun Tilt. An 
  opponent struck suffers a -5 penalty to all actions. This penalty can be reduced by one for every 
  turn spent rinsing the eyes with water. 
  Salt Shells 
  Availability •, Modification Penalty −1 
  Effect: Normal shotgun shells are filled with shot — a cluster of tiny, round metal pellets. A 
  hunter can fill a shotgun shell with rock salt instead, a trick for making the guns less lethal to 
  normal targets (−1 damage modifier) but also allowing them to fire a spread of salt at a monster 
  that treats it as a bane. 
  Stun Gun/Cuffs 
  Availability •, Modification Penalty −2 
  Effect: An ordinary stun gun is either handheld or fires darts tethered to the gun itself by wires 
  up to 15 feet long. The handheld version can attack up to 50 times before its battery must 
  recharge, and uses Dexterity + Weaponry − Defense. The ranged version has similar battery life, 
  but the attacker must reload the darts after each shot, and it uses Dexterity + Firearms − Defense. 
  Either version only deals one point of lethal damage on a hit, but the rolled successes subtract 
  
  from the target’s next dice pool. The ranged version leaves the darts embedded in the target’s 
  body, adding three successes automatically each turn; the target can remove them with a Strength 
  + Stamina roll, penalized by the initial rolled successes. With the handheld version, the attacker 
  can roll Strength + Weaponry − (greater of the target’s Strength or Defense) to similarly 
  maintain the shock. Once accumulated successes exceed the target’s Size, the target collapses 
  into neuromuscular incapacitation. Once the shock ends, this lasts for (10 − target’s Stamina) 
  turns. 
  Hunters who need to capture prey can attach a stun gun’s leads to a pair of handcuffs or set of 
  shackles and run 15-foot wires from the cuffs to the trigger mechanism, creating a convenient 
  way to restrain (and potentially torture) creatures that shrug off mere steel. Once the character 
  successfully restrains the target (p. XX), no attack roll is necessary to apply the shock each turn, 
  and he may leave it active continuously or not as he chooses. 
  Stunbolt/Stakebolt Gun 
  Availability •, Modification Penalty −1 
  Effect: A stunbolt gun, or captive bolt pistol, delivers a swift blow of incredible force at close 
  range using compressed air or a blank firearm round to propel the rod inside just a few inches. 
  Hunters use them as-is to punch through thick monster hides, but those who fight things that die 
  when you drive wood through their hearts can replace the steel rod with a sharp wooden stake. 
  When used to target the heart, the stakebolt version only needs to deal 4 damage in one attack to 
  penetrate rather than 5. 
  Hunters can substitute other things for the rod as well, such as a syringe or silver knife that needs 
  extra oomph to pierce thick skin. 
  Despite the name, a stunbolt gun is a melee weapon, with traits on p. XX. 
  High-Tech Devices 
  Radiation Imaging 
  Availability ••• or ••••, Modification Penalty −5 
  Effect: A hunter can modify a camera, either still or video, to pick up more of the 
  electromagnetic spectrum than just the visible range of light. Infrared is the most common 
  wavelength viewed this way, to find fluctuations in temperature that reveal the presence of living 
  things (or ghost possession) even in complete darkness; but if a monster’s known for giving off 
  ultraviolet radiation or x-rays, a hunter could find those too with some work. At Availability ••••, 
  she can also add software to a modified digital camera (or pair of augmented reality glasses) to 
  recognize and filter for specific radiation patterns that suggest the presence of certain kinds of 
  monsters. 
  Signal Jammer 
  Availability •• or •••, Modification Penalty −1 or −3 
  Effect: A hunter can modify anything that transmits signals, from walkie talkies to cell phones 
  and Bluetooth devices, to jam signals or cause feedback instead by flooding usable frequencies 
  with noise. Most do it to stop monsters that pretend at civilization from calling for backup, but in 
  some cases the monsters themselves or their inscrutable devices receive otherworldly signals that 
  
  use radio frequencies. Disrupting these can give a hunter precious seconds that can turn a fight 
  around. 
  If a hunter knows the specific frequency she wants to jam, the modification has lower 
  Availability and a lower penalty. Jamming a wide spread of common frequencies requires much 
  more specialized equipment, a generous power supply to drown out other signals, and delicate 
  work. 
  Hunters can also simply acquire a signal jammer without modifying other equipment; these have 
  Availability ••••. 
  Investigation Aids 
  Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Detector 
  Effect: An ordinary EMF detector is a handheld device that electricians use to pick up traces of 
  electromagnetic fields in appliances and wiring. It has an equipment bonus of +2, Availability •, 
  Durability 1, Size 1, and Structure 2. Hunters use them to detect the presence or recent passage 
  of ghosts and other spirit-like entities, some of which emit electromagnetic fields of varying 
  strengths depending on the Potency of the entity. If the character actively watches an EMF 
  detector when such an entity uses a Dread Power nearby, no roll is required to notice the spike in 
  results. 
  Some EMF detectors are narrower in usage, picking up only a certain frequency of readings. 
  Others are broadband, picking up a wide variety. A hunter can modify an EMF detector to 
  quickly cycle through a selection of specific frequencies common to various types of spirits, 
  increasing the equipment bonus to +3 to find evidence of those types. This modification has an 
  Availability of • and a penalty of −1 per specific type of spirit for which the hunter wants to 
  calibrate; switching frequencies is a reflexive action. 
  Hunter’s Best Friend 
  Availability ••, Modification Penalty −3 
  Effect: The so-called “Hunter’s Best Friend,” or “Vigil knife,” is like an oversized Swiss Army 
  knife containing a collection of fundamental monster-hunting necessities. Any given example 
  may provide different tools depending on who made it, but the basics include several 
  pocketknives made from different materials, like silver and iron; lockpicks; wire-cutters; 
  penlights; blacklights; lighters; and tubes of useful substances, such as C4, blood for leaving 
  false trails, poisons, chemicals, holy water or oil, and ritual components. 
  Building and Setting Traps 
  The Build Equipment rules on p. XX detail how characters can make five types of equipment: 
  physical objects, organizations, repositories, plans, and minor mystical talismans. Hunters can 
  also make a sixth type of equipment: traps. Making a trap can involve actually building it from 
  scratch, or just setting it up to await its prey. The dice pool for building a trap uses either Crafts 
  or Survival. 
  A trap doesn’t grant an equipment bonus to actions. Instead, it imposes a penalty to all attempts 
  to escape its effects, whether the victim must free itself from captivity, avoid triggering the trap 
  in the first place, or dive clear of an explosion. Building a trap uses this trait instead of an 
  equipment bonus to determine the built-in penalty for the Crafts roll. 
  
  For roleplaying purposes, a trap’s Build Equipment penalty can reflect different things. Traps 
  that rely on electronic components or explosives require more care and more skill to set in the 
  first place, while cruder mechanical traps are relatively simple to set but harder to hide 
  effectively. 
  A trap with the Fragile Condition (p. XX) can only hold a monster until it falls apart, even if the 
  monster fails its roll to escape. Traps meant to deal damage, like a land mine, simply become 
  inert after Fragile resolves. A dramatic failure to build or set a trap usually results in the hunter 
  herself falling victim to the trap’s effects. Hunters can risk Willpower (p. XX) to set or spring 
  traps for monsters and can Jury Rig (p. XX) traps during action scenes, but can’t combine the 
  two, since every failure on a Jury Rigging action is already a dramatic one. 
  If a character uses a creature’s bane in a trap’s construction, the creature suffers all the usual 
  effects of coming into contact with the bane (p. XX). The Storyteller may impose additional 
  penalties to the creature’s attempts to escape in this case, but these don’t factor into the Build 
  Equipment penalty. However, characters can only build physical traps with these rules, which are 
  only capable of affecting corporeal creatures. To catch ghosts, spirits, and other things that 
  require mystical binding to contain, hunters must use the Bind/Ward Tactic (p. XX). 
  Trap Triggers 
  Some traps take effect when the victim activates a certain trigger, like stepping on a pressure 
  plate or turning a doorknob rigged with a hidden switch. Each type of trigger carries an innate 
  trap penalty of its own, reflecting how difficult it is to notice or avoid. A trap’s overall penalty is 
  a combination of the trigger’s penalty and the effects’ penalty, rolled into one as an abstraction 
  of the trap’s overall effectiveness, to a maximum of −5. 
  For instance, a bear trap triggers when someone steps on its pressure plate, which carries a −1 
  penalty. The trap’s effect is a pair of metal jaws that shut tightly on the victim’s leg; escaping 
  those represents another −1 penalty, bringing the total trap penalty to −2. Players and Storytellers 
  improvising traps on the fly can estimate the penalty imposed by its intended effects and then 
  add the necessary trigger penalty. 
  Here are some example triggers: 
  [THIS IS A CHART] 
  Trigger 
  Penalty 
  Pressure plate/Spring −1 
  Tripwire/Snare 
  −1 
  Hidden switch/Booby-trapped device −2 
  Manual trigger (detonator, lever, etc.) 
  −2 
  Motion sensor −3 
  [END OF CHART] 
  Avoiding a Trigger 
  
  A character who’s about to trigger a trap rolls once to both notice and avoid it. This action is 
  only contested for traps with manual triggers, such as an explosive that a hunter must detonate by 
  hand. 
  Action: Reflexive 
  Dice Pool: Wits + Composure — trap penalty vs. Wits + Dexterity 
  Roll Results 
  Success: The character notices the trigger in time to avoid the trap’s effects. 
  Exceptional Success: The character avoids the trap’s effects and manages to deactivate the trap, 
  ruin it, or make it temporarily inert without another roll. 
  Failure: The character sets off the trigger but notices it immediately. 
  Dramatic Failure: The character sets off the trigger and doesn’t even notice until the trap’s 
  effects take hold; he forfeits any rolls to escape these effects for a number of turns equal to the 
  Crafts rating of whoever set the trap. 
  Example Traps 
  Below are some example traps that hunters build or set. The trap penalty listed here is for the 
  trap’s effects only; any trap that notes activation by trigger adds the appropriate trigger penalty, 
  as above. 
  Bear Trap 
  Trap Penalty −1, Durability 3, Size 2, Structure 5, Availability •• 
  Effect: A bear trap is a large metal contraption that looks something like a set of deadly jaws. 
  For this reason, they’re also commonly called jaw traps. When a creature steps into the bear trap, 
  it triggers the built-in pressure plate, snapping the jaws shut on the creature’s leg. Due to the 
  serrated edges on the trap, this can cause massive bleeding or even broken bones. 
  The jaw trap deals three points of lethal damage and ignores two points of armor or Durability. 
  In an action scene, it also imposes the Leg Wrack Tilt (p. XX). A character trapped in the jaws 
  can attempt to escape as an instant action. Doing so requires a Strength + Stamina roll. Failure 
  causes another point of lethal damage as the jaws dig in further. Creatures without opposable 
  thumbs cannot escape this way and must rip themselves free. 
  Rolls to hide a bear trap suffer its trap penalty. It’s difficult to hide due to its awkward shape and 
  weight. 
  Deadfall Trap 
  Trap Penalty −1, Durability 2, Size 5, Structure 7, Availability • 
  Effect: At its simplest, a deadfall trap is a heavy object or pile of rubble suspended above a 
  trigger. When activated, the object falls and crushes the victim beneath its bulk. Controlled 
  demolition can also create a deadfall trap by destroying structural supports and causing a wall or 
  ceiling — or even an entire building — to collapse on top of the victim. 
  A deadfall trap deals three levels of lethal damage and imposes the Immobilized Tilt. Escaping 
  requires a Strength + Athletics roll to shift aside the object or rubble. Dramatic failures often 
  inflict the Arm or Leg Wrack Tilt to reflect twisted ankles and the like. 
  
  Mine 
  Trap Penalty −2, Durability 3, Size 1, Structure 4, Availability ••• 
  Effect: A mine is anything designed to do harm when a victim activates the trigger. It could be a 
  proper land mine, but more often hunters create makeshift explosives using gunpowder or 
  chemicals. A mine could release toxic gas or flames instead of exploding or could deal additional 
  shrapnel damage with nails or other sharp objects. 
  Mines that release tear gas or toxins use the rules for poisons (p. XX) but apply to everyone 
  within a few yards. An incendiary mine sets the victim and objects nearby on fire, per the rules 
  on p. XX. Explosive mines have the following traits: Damage +2, Blast Area 1, Force 2. An 
  explosive mine packed with shrapnel has Damage +3 instead. Mines built to deal damage to 
  vehicles as they pass, rather than individuals, have Blast Area 3 and Force 3, and increase the 
  trap penalty to −3. 
  The character who triggers a mine doesn’t get a roll to dive for cover; he’s already doomed 
  himself by failing to avoid the trap in the first place. The Storyteller might allow other characters 
  in the area to roll depending on circumstances. 
  Explosives 
  Explosive equipment, such as a grenade or a land mine, has the following traits: 
  • Damage: automatically inflicted on everyone and everything in the blast radius. 
  Aggravated at ground zero, lethal in primary blast area, bashing in secondary area. 
  Objects downgrade levels equal to Durability; remaining aggravated damage 
  bypasses Durability entirely. 
  • Blast Area: listed blast area is the primary area; secondary area is twice that. 
  Ground zero is a smaller area in the explosive’s immediate vicinity. 
  • Force: roll Force as an attack dice pool to inflict additional damage; only apply 
  Defense if a victim has supernatural speed. Mundane armor only counts for half its 
  ballistic rating. Add the explosive’s Damage trait as a weapon modifier to the rolled 
  successes. 
  • Tilts: anyone who takes damage from an explosive also suffers the Deafened Tilt. 
  Individual explosive types may impose other Tilts also.  
  Net 
  Trap Penalty −1, Durability 1, Size 3, Structure 4, Availability • 
  Effect: Characters can deploy nets in many ways. The Restrain grappling move (p. XX) and the 
  Capture Tactic (p. XX) are the most common, but hunters can fire a weighted net from a net gun, 
  or from a camouflaged rocket-powered launcher to catch monsters unawares (which counts as a 
  manual trigger). They can also rig a net with a snare trigger, hiding it underfoot until the prey 
  stands in its center and then hauling it up to hang suspended with the creature inside. 
  The key to trapping a monster in a net is to entangle it in the mesh, limiting its movements. An 
  entangled target suffers the Immobilized Tilt (p. XX) but attempts to free itself don’t cause any 
  damage unless the net is made of razor wire or something similar, in which case it deals one 
  point of lethal damage per escape attempt and has Durability 3 instead. 
  
  Pit Trap 
  Trap Penalty −1 or −2, Durability 1, Size 6, Structure 7, Availability • 
  Effect: By default, a pit trap is just a deep hole dug into the ground, then covered with foliage, a 
  tarp, rickety planks, or something else to keep it hidden. If it’s a permanent feature, it might have 
  walls lined with wood, stone, or another material, which could increase the Durability. Hunters 
  usually build pit traps near something that will attract a monster, like enticing prey or the 
  entrance to a building. If the concealment fools the creature, it falls into the pit when it steps on 
  whatever hides the hole from view and can’t climb back out. Ordinary pit traps are usually about 
  two meters deep, but hunters dig them deeper to keep foes with superhuman abilities from 
  leaping out. 
  Regular pit traps inflict falling damage as normal and impose a −1 total trap penalty, increased 
  by one for every additional meter of depth beyond two meters. A hunter can line the pit with 
  barbed wire or sharp spikes to deal an additional one point of lethal damage and impose a −2 trap 
  penalty instead. She can even tip the spikes with poison to make the trap even meaner. Escaping 
  a pit trap requires a Strength + Athletics − (trap penalty) roll to climb or jump out. 
  Rigging a pit trap with a trapdoor that the hunter can operate with a lever or electrical controls is 
  an equipment modification with a Build Equipment penalty of −1 or −2 depending on how 
  complex and reliable the mechanism is. 
  Silent Alarm 
  Trap Penalty −2, Durability 1, Size 1, Structure 2, Availability •• 
  Effect: A hunter can rig a silent alarm by pairing a trigger with a device that sends out a signal. 
  A character might receive the signal via radio, cell phone, or something else. Hunters set silent 
  alarms when they want to know when a monster has taken their bait, or when it’s too dangerous 
  to directly engage. The alarm has no effect on the monster. 
  Spring Gun 
  Trap Penalty −1, Durability 2, Size 2, Structure 4, Availability •• 
  Effect: Characters can rig a gun, such as a shotgun or rifle, or anything else that launches 
  projectiles, to fire when a victim activates the trigger. Hunters most commonly use these to trap a 
  door, shooting anyone who opens it. Ordinary firearms deal their usual damage. A hunter can use 
  this type of trap to launch just about anything: tranquilizer darts, weighted nets, or even a 
  distinctive scent for tracking. Such a trap might not target the victim directly, but simply exist to 
  make a loud noise and alert the hunters to an intruder’s presence. 
  
  Appendix B: Tilts 
  Tilts provide Condition-like mechanical expressions that may be employed during an action 
  scene. This section contains Tilts to add further dimension and flavor to your chronicles. Each 
  presented Tilt is optional and intended for use to set the tone of the story you desire to tell; new 
  Tilts may be created by the Storyteller to accommodate their needs.  
  Many of these Tilts are mechanical expressions that reflect a sudden and immediate impact to a 
  character’s physical or mental health following a dramatic moment or act of violence. They are 
  not to be used to represent long-term disabilities in your game. It is assumed that disabled 
  characters uphold the Vigil just as well as abled characters do. 
  Arm Wrack 
  Personal 
  Description: The character’s arm is painfully (and debilitatingly) injured. 
  Effect: The affected character drops whatever they’re holding in that arm and can’t use it to 
  attack opponents. If this effect spreads to both limbs, roll only a chance die on any rolls that 
  require manual dexterity, and take −3 to all other Physical actions.  
  Causing the Tilt: Supernatural power or targeted blow (−2). 
  Ending the Tilt: Mark an X under the leftmost Health box affected by the attack. The Tilt ends 
  when the damage that caused it heals. 
  Beaten Down 
  Personal 
  Description: The character has had the fight knocked out of him. 
  Effect: The character cannot take active part in the fight without extra effort. The player must 
  spend a point of Willpower each time he wants the character to take a violent action in the fight. 
  He can still run, Dodge, and apply Defense. If he wishes to take another action, the Storyteller 
  should judge whether the action is aggressive enough to require the expenditure.  
  Causing the Tilt: The character suffers bashing damage in excess of his Stamina or any amount 
  of lethal damage. 
  Ending the Tilt: The character surrenders and gives the aggressor what he wants. At this point, 
  the character regains a point of Willpower and takes a Beat but can take no further action in the 
  fight. If the aggressor’s intent is to kill or injure the character, obviously surrendering isn’t a 
  good option. 
  Blinded 
  Personal 
  Description: A sighted character’s eyes are suddenly damaged. 
  Effect: The character suffers a −3 penalty to any rolls that rely on vision — including attack rolls 
  — and halves his Defense if one eye is blinded. That penalty increases to −5 and loss of all 
  Defense if both eyes are affected. 
  
  Causing the Tilt: The normal way to inflict the Tilt is to deal damage to the target’s eyes, a 
  specified attack with a −5 penalty (see Specified Targets, p. XX). A successful attack 
  normally damages one eye. It takes an exceptional success to totally blind an attacker. An 
  attacker can inflict temporary blindness by slashing at her opponent’s brow, throwing sand 
  into his eyes, or kicking up dirt. This requires an attack roll of Dexterity + Athletics with a −3 
  penalty, and the victim’s Defense applies to this attack. If it succeeds, the target is Blinded for 
  the next turn.  
  Ending the Tilt: If an attack against the character’s eye does any points of damage, mark an X 
  under the leftmost Health box affected by that attack. If the damage inflicted is aggravated the 
  character loses vision in that eye permanently. Otherwise, the condition ends when the damage 
  that caused the Tilt is healed. 
  Crowded 
  Environmental 
  Description: Bodies press in on all sides. Sweat and perfume cling to the air. Passers-by in a 
  hurry give you little room to move. 
  Effect: After every missed attack, roll a chance die. On a dramatic failure, something or 
  someone in the background gets harmed. Ranged attacks are also made at a −1 penalty, as aiming 
  for a specific target is difficult when droves of others are in the way. 
  Causing the Tilt: Any place packed with people can cause the Crowded Tilt. The Tilt can also 
  be used to reflect any location crammed full of objects. Either way, when the Tilt is in effect, it 
  means that collateral damage matters. 
  Ending the Tilt: Waiting until the crowd clears or taking the fight elsewhere. 
  Crowded: Traffic 
  Environmental 
  Description: For places crowded with people and things, the Crowded Tilt provides an ideal 
  mechanical expression for the dangers of collateral damage. Use this Tilt for a more traffic 
  specific environmental threat. 
  Effect: The chance that cars or people will get damaged is the same as the Crowded Tilt — roll a 
  chance die. Roll damage against cars as you normally would for any large inanimate object. This 
  fight is highly visible and dashboard cams or cell phones are certainly recording the altercation, 
  which may have dramatic repercussions later. Every other turn, the Storyteller rolls a chance die. 
  On a success, traffic starts moving again. 
  Causing the Tilt: Fighting in traffic. 
  Ending the Tilt: Getting the fuck out of there. 
  Deafened 
  Personal 
  Description: The character suddenly can’t hear. 
  
  Effect: If the character is deaf in one ear, he suffers a −3 penalty to hearing-based Perception 
  rolls. A character deaf in both ears only gets a chance die on hearing-based Perception rolls and 
  suffers a −2 penalty to all combat related dice rolls.  
  Causing the Tilt: A particularly loud noise within 10 feet of the character may cause temporary 
  hearing loss, as though the character were deaf in both ears. Alternatively, a targeted attack on 
  the ear — at a −4 penalty — can deafen a character. 
  Ending the Tilt: Deafness caused by loud noises fades after (10 − the victim’s Stamina + 
  Resolve) turns. If an attack against the character’s ear does any points of damage, mark an X 
  under the leftmost Health box affected by that attack. The Tilt ends when the damage that caused 
  the it is healed. 
  Desperate 
  Personal 
  Description: You’re on your last legs, but that’s not going to stop you. 
  Effect: A character at the end of her rope may exchange two dice from her attack rolls to 
  increase her damage by 1 (of the same damage type she’d normally cause). This cannot result in 
  more than a −6 penalty for 3 damage. This supersedes the normal limit of −5 on penalties. For 
  example, if her Dexterity + Firearms is 7, she may reduce herself to a Chance die to add 3 
  damage. 
  Causing the Tilt: To become Desperate, a character must be suffering a wound penalty and have 
  no Willpower points remaining. 
  Ending the Tilt: Tilt ends at the end of the scene, or when the character becomes unconscious. 
  Detritus 
  Environmental 
  Description: Fragments of rock litter the ground. Shards of glass gleam and the flickering light 
  of a streetlamp. 
  Effect: Crossing this area, moving faster than half Speed requires a Dexterity + Athletics roll. 
  Failure means that the character loses his footing and tumbles onto the loose detritus and takes 2 
  bashing damage. At the Storyteller’s discretion, shrapnel or glass may deal lethal damage 
  instead, or inflict the Arm or Leg Wrack Tilt (p. XX). 
  Causing the Tilt: Any other circumstances in which characters fight somewhere with dangerous 
  fragments on the ground. 
  Ending the Tilt: The best solution is to take the fight elsewhere, unless the combatants desire to 
  spend their time tidying up the area instead. 
  Drugged 
  Personal 
  Description: The character’s mind is addled by mind-altering substances, such as alcohol or 
  drugs. 
  
  Effect: A generic narcotic can be represented with one set of modifiers; the character suffers a 
  −2 penalty to Speed (and static Defense, if used) and a −3 penalty to all rolls in combat, 
  including Initiative. The character also ignores wound penalties. 
  Causing the Tilt: If the character has chosen to take drugs, he suffers their effects. To 
  administer drugs to another character is a Dexterity + Weaponry attack, suffering a −1 modifier 
  for the improvised weapon. If the drug has to go into a specific body part (such as an arm or 
  mouth), it requires an attack against a specified target. 
  Ending the Tilt: A generic narcotic lasts for (10 – the victim’s Stamina + Resolve) hours. 
  Medical help, such as pumping the victim’s stomach or flushing his system, halves this time. 
  Extreme Cold 
  Environmental (sometimes Personal) 
  Description: Bone-chilling winds bite through the character or trudging through knee-deep snow 
  takes all of the sensation from his limbs. 
  Effect: When the temperature is below freezing, characters can’t heal bashing damage. 
  Characters who heal faster than normal instead halve their normal healing rate. For every hour 
  that a character is continuously affected by this Tilt, he accrues a −1 penalty to all rolls. When 
  that penalty hits −5, he instead suffers a point of lethal damage per hour. 
  Causing the Tilt: A frozen environment, outside in the Arctic tundra, a walk-in freezer, etc. 
  Ending the Tilt: The best way to escape the freezing cold is to find a source of warmth. A 
  character with hypothermia requires medical attention. 
  Extreme Heat 
  Environmental (sometimes Personal) 
  Description: The character might be in a desert with the sun beating down on him or running 
  through the steam tunnels surrounding an old boiler room. This Tilt can also be personal, the 
  result of a fever.  
  Effect: Characters can’t heal bashing damage — the extreme temperature deals damage at the 
  same rate normal characters heal it. Characters who heal faster than normal instead halve their 
  normal healing rate. For every hour that a character is continuously affected by this Tilt, he 
  accrues a −1 penalty to all rolls. When that penalty hits −5, he instead suffers a point of lethal 
  damage per hour. 
  Causing the Tilt: This Tilt is usually caused by environmental factors — being out at noon in 
  the desert or spending too long in a sauna or forge. 
  Ending the Tilt: Get out of the heat. Find shelter or shade or remove yourself from the heat 
  source. 
  Filthy 
  Environmental 
  Description: Stratified filth covers the ground. The smell of decay and refuse clings to the air. 
  Flies buzz at your ears and cockroaches slither at your feet. 
  
  Effect: A character with open wounds in a Filthy environment runs the risk of becoming 
  infected, resulting in the Sick Tilt and potentially a worse Condition. For the purposes of this 
  Tilt, define an open wound as any levels of lethal damage or a wound caused by the Bloodied 
  Tilt (p. XX). Depending on the type of filth represented, assign a −2 penalty to Speed and −1 to 
  Dexterity rolls (mounds of trash to navigate, slippery decomposing things on the ground), 
  perception-based rolls (the cloying stench of garbage), fighting rolls (uneasy footing, 
  distractions) or anything else applicable; though unless characters are wading waist-deep into 
  bio-hazardous material, the penalty should not be higher than −1. 
  Causing the Tilt: Entering a rat-infested, trash-strewn area. Spilling hazardous waste, upending 
  a dumpster or emptying a garbage truck could cause an area to become Filthy. 
  Ending the Tilt: Leaving the area. Any place befouled enough to be considered Filthy can’t be 
  cleaned up in any small amount of time. 
  Immobilize 
  Personal 
  Description: Something holds the character fast, preventing him from moving. 
  Effect: The character can’t do anything but wriggle helplessly. He can’t apply Defense against 
  incoming attacks and can’t take violent actions. If someone’s holding him down, he can spend a 
  point of Willpower to deliver a head butt or similar attack, but even that might not free him. 
  Causing the Tilt: This Tilt may come from the Restrain grapple move, and some monsters’ 
  Dread Powers may inflict the Tilt. 
  Ending the Tilt: An Immobilized target can break free by escaping from a grapple or snapping 
  whatever binds her. If held by an item, roll Strength + Athletics penalized by the item’s 
  Durability. If a character’s arms and legs are both bound, gain a −2 penalty, up to −4 if hogtied. 
  On a success he breaks free. Each roll, successful or not, deals a point of bashing damage. If held 
  by a Dread Power, the power’s effect will fade at the end of the scene. The character can spend a 
  Willpower to gain a Clash of Wills to break free. 
  Inferno 
  Environmental 
  Description: The area is on fire. Anything flammable is either already burning or will be soon. 
  Effect: All characters suffer a −2 to all rolls due to smoke and heat. After two turns, any 
  character that breathes also suffers 2 bashing per turn due to smoke inhalation. After three turns, 
  the character also suffers 1 lethal per turn from burns and must succeed on a Dexterity + Stamina 
  roll each turn to avoid catching fire (see p. XX). 
  Ending the Tilt: Different types of fire require different methods to extinguish; in general, 
  cutting off the fire from its fuel sources does the trick. Water, carbon dioxide, sand, and baking 
  soda can be useful, depending on the size and type of the fire. Eventually all fires burn 
  themselves out, but that can be cold comfort in the aftermath of a destructive blaze. 
  Insane 
  Personal 
  
  Description: The character suffers from a panic attack, sudden imbalance, or a full-on psychotic 
  break.  
  Effect: The character gains a +1 bonus to all combat rolls but takes actions after everyone else 
  (if two characters suffer from the Insane Tilt, both act after everyone else but compare Initiative 
  as normal). A character suffering from this Tilt cannot spend Willpower in combat and suffers a 
  −3 penalty to all Social rolls. 
  Causing the Tilt: Any character with an appropriate Condition may acquire the Insane Tilt. The 
  Storyteller can call for a Resolve + Composure roll to resist a general anxiety that gnaws at the 
  character’s mind. If the character witnesses something truly horrific the Storyteller can rule that 
  the Tilt is unavoidable. 
  Certain monsters with mind-affecting powers can apply this Tilt, even to characters who do not 
  have an appropriate Condition. 
  Ending the Tilt: The specific effects of this Tilt don’t normally last beyond the end of the scene. 
  To end it earlier, roll Resolve + Composure as an instant action, contested by a dice pool of (10 − 
  her Willpower). She can’t take any other actions that turn and doesn’t apply Defense against any 
  attacks. 
  Insensate 
  Personal 
  Description: The character shuts down, either due to extreme fear or sudden pleasure.  
  Effect: The character can’t take any actions until the Tilt is resolved. He can apply Defense to 
  incoming attacks, and if he takes any damage from an attack, he’s knocked free of whatever 
  fogged his brain. 
  Causing the Tilt: Several supernatural powers can leave their victim in a trance-like state of 
  heightened emotion. A great deal of alcohol or a hallucinogenic drug might have similar effects; 
  administering such a drug is a Dexterity + Weaponry attack, which suffers a −1 modifier. 
  Ending the Tilt: The Tilt wears off at the end of the scene. The victim can spend a point of 
  Willpower before then to act normally for one turn. A successful attack will also end the Tilt. If a 
  character has been knocked insensible by drugs, then when this Tilt ends it is replaced with the 
  Drugged Tilt. 
  Knocked Down 
  Personal 
  Description: Something knocks the character to the floor.  
  Effect: The character is knocked off her feet. If she hasn’t already acted this turn, she loses her 
  action. Once she’s on the ground, a character is considered prone. The character can still apply 
  Defense against incoming attacks and can attempt to attack from the ground at a −2 penalty. 
  Causing the Tilt: A melee weapon with a damage modifier of +2 or greater, or a firearm with a 
  damage modifier of +3 or more can be used to knock a character down with the force of the 
  blow. Alternatively, a melee weapon or unarmed attack can knock an opponent down with a 
  targeted attack against the legs (−2 modifier). The attacker declares that he wants to knock his 
  
  opponent down, and halves the total damage done (rounding down). On a successful attack, the 
  target is knocked down.  
  Ending the Tilt: The easiest way to end this Tilt is to stand up, which takes an action. A 
  character who hasn’t yet acted can make a Dexterity + Athletics roll, minus any weapon 
  modifier, instead of her normal action. If successful, she avoids the effects of this Tilt. 
  Leg Wrack 
  Personal 
  Description: Pain or numbness in the leg. 
  Effect: If the leg is broken, sprained, or dislocated, halve your Speed and suffer a −2 penalty on 
  Physical rolls that require movement (and Defense). If both of your legs are wracked, you fall 
  over — taking the Knocked Down Tilt — and cannot get up. Your Speed is reduced to 1; 
  moving precludes other actions. Physical rolls that require movement are reduced to a chance 
  die. 
  Causing the Tilt: Some supernatural powers can cripple a victim’s limbs. A character can have 
  his leg knocked out by a targeted blow to the leg (−2 penalty) that deals more damage than their 
  Stamina.  
  Ending the Tilt: If the Tilt is inflicted as a result of an attack, mark an X under the leftmost 
  Health box affected by that attack. The Tilt ends when that damage that caused it has healed. 
  Moving 
  Environmental 
  Description: Your stage of battle charges forward, shuddering beneath you as it goes. It’s a 
  struggle to keep your footing and fight at the same time. 
  Effect: At the end of every turn, characters must make Dexterity + Athletics rolls or suffer the 
  Knocked Down Tilt. Other movement rolls (such as leaping from seat to seat on a bus or a 
  subway car) and Dodge rolls are penalized by −1, −2 if the ride is rough or the vehicle moving 
  extremely fast. If the struggle takes place in a small vehicle, such as the back seat of a car, apply 
  the effects of the Tight Tilt (p. XX) as necessary. If your characters fight on the outside of a 
  moving vehicle, failing the roll to stay upright may have other consequences, such as falling a 
  great distance or into traffic. Fighting outside the vehicle imposes the full -2 penalty, and may 
  also require that your characters dodge debris, overpasses, low-flying birds, and so on. 
  Causing the Tilt: Fighting in a moving vehicle. The vehicle may already be in motion before the 
  fight breaks out, such as a clash on an airplane. A bus or a train may lurch into motion after the 
  fight has already begun, or a driver may floor it when his passengers draw knives. 
  Ending the Tilt: When the drive slams on the breaks, when the vehicle reaches its destination, 
  or when the object in motion is enacted upon by another force. 
  Poisoned 
  Personal 
  Description: You’ve got poison inside you. 
  
  Effect: This Tilt applies a general sense of being poisoned to a character without worrying about 
  Toxicity during combat. For the purposes of this Tilt, a poison is either “moderate” or “grave” — 
  a moderate poison causes one point of bashing damage per turn of combat, while a grave poison 
  ups that to one point of lethal damage per turn. If the Storyteller cares to continue the effects of 
  the poison outside of combat, he can apply the standard rules for handling poisons and toxins 
  when combat is complete. 
  Causing the Tilt: Ingesting a poison inflicts this Tilt. Injecting your opponent with a poison 
  counts as a Dexterity + Weaponry attack and suffers a −1 modifier. Certain monsters may inflict 
  this Tilt as a part of a normal attack. 
  Ending the Tilt: Immediate medical attention. Roll Stamina + Resolve as a reflexive action each 
  turn. If your character intends to act (meaning, takes a non-reflexive action), the roll suffers a −3 
  penalty. Success counteracts the damage for one turn. 
  Pinned 
  Personal 
  Description: Your limb is caught or trapped beneath something heavy. 
  Effect: Your character is held down by an inanimate object, rather than grappled. The character 
  cannot move as her body is pinned. If the object has a Size less than the character's Strength, she 
  may move at half Speed but risks taking damage for doing so. Depending on how the character is 
  pinned (one arm trapped between a dumpster and a wall, for example), she may still take other 
  actions with her free appendages. 
  Causing the Tilt: A character may force her target between two objects, or throw an object with 
  the intent to pin, both requiring opposed Strength + Athletics rolls. Scenery can also tumble 
  down and entrap characters who do not get out of the way fast enough. An attacker may also 
  throw knives or fire arrows to pin her target, which functions as a called shot. If the attack hits, 
  rather than dealing damage, this Tilt is applied. 
  Ending the Tilt: A character must spend the time and effort to work her body away from 
  whatever has her pinned. She may need the assistance of other characters. Depending on how the 
  character finds herself pinned, she may also suffer from the Arm or Leg Wrack Tilt after being 
  freed. 
  Sick 
  Personal 
  Description: The character suffers symptoms related to illness, such as nausea or fever. 
  Effect: The sickness is either “moderate” or “grave.” A moderate sickness causes a −1 penalty to 
  all actions during combat. That penalty increases by one every two turns (the first two turns, the 
  character suffers a −1 penalty, the next two turns the penalty is −2, and so on up to a maximum 
  of −5 on turn nine). A grave sickness inflicts the same dice penalties as a mild sickness, plus 1 
  point of bashing damage per turn of combat. 
  Causing the Tilt: Certain supernatural effects may cause sickness. Otherwise, exposure to the 
  disease or a sample may cause it. 
  
  Ending the Tilt: Penalties fade at a rate of one point per turn once the character has a chance to 
  rest, but any damage inflicted remains until the character can heal. 
  Stunned 
  Personal 
  Description: The character is dazed an unable to think straight. 
  Effect: A character with the Stunned Tilt loses her next action, and halves her Defense until she 
  can next act.  
  Causing the Tilt: A character can be stunned by any attack that deals at least as much damage as 
  her Size. Some weapons have a “stun” special ability. These double the weapon modifier only 
  for the purposes of working out whether the attacker inflicts the Stunned Tilt. Attacks against the 
  target’s head (see Specified Targets, p. XX) count the character’s Size as 1 lower. Certain Dread 
  Powers may cause this Tilt. 
  Ending the Tilt: The effects of this Tilt normally only last for one turn. The character can end 
  the Tilt during her own action by reflexively spending a point of Willpower to gather her wits, 
  though she suffers a −3 modifier to any actions she takes that turn. 
  Tight 
  Environmental 
  Description: You and your opponent can barely throw punches in these close quarters. You 
  stand close enough to smell each other’s sweat and resort to knees and elbows. 
  Effect: The characters fight in in a narrow or enclosed space, which leaves little room to 
  maneuver. Any of the following options can be used to reflect fights in a tight space: 
  • 
  Size 3 or higher weapons cannot be used  
   
  • 
  −2 penalty to fighting rolls actions requiring space, such as Firearms, thrown weapons, 
  two handed weapons, or lavish kicks and punches 
  • 
  Halve Speed  
  • 
  Reduce all damage ratings by 1 
  Causing the Tilt: Fighting in a cage match, clashing with an opponent in a narrow hallway, 
  ambushing a target in an airplane bathroom, and so on. 
  Ending the Tilt: Moving to a less cramped space. A character with a Specialty in close-quarters 
  fighting may also ignore applicable penalties while fighting in tight spaces. 
  Unstable 
  Environmental 
  Description: The structure beneath your feet shudders as you move. It’s moments from 
  collapsing beneath you. 
  Effect: Any kind of movement requires extreme care, imposing a −2 penalty to movement rolls, 
  which can include violence at Storyteller’s discretion. Characters may move at half Speed 
  without issue but must make Dexterity + Athletics rolls to move faster than that. Failure leads to 
  
  a swift fall onto whatever lies below, incurring damage as appropriate. Depending on how far 
  your character falls, a slip from an unstable place may be fatal. 
  Causing the Tilt: A condemned building, hastily erected barricade, a makeshift ladder or any 
  other construct on the verge of breaking can be sources of the Unstable Tilt. A character could 
  also sabotage something stable. 
  Ending the Tilt: The Tilt ends when the combatants move away from the Unstable area, when 
  the unstable structure is secured or collapses. 
  Viscous 
  Environmental 
  Description: Mud, tar, swampy water or worse clings to your legs, pulls on your shoes and 
  threatens to suck you in. 
  Effect: Clinging goop halves Speed. The longer characters fight in viscous material, the more 
  difficult it becomes as the wet and sticky substance weighs down clothing. For every turn after 
  the first, characters accumulate a −1 penalty to physical actions, to a max of −3. If at any point a 
  character falls or is thrown into the viscous goo, he automatically accumulates the maximum 
  penalty. 
  Causing the Tilt: Throwing down in a swamp, mud-soaked vacant lot, tar bed, or something 
  stranger or more horrifying. An area could be flooded with goop ahead of time, or a fight could 
  take place in a small room rapidly filling with mud or sewage. 
  Ending the Tilt: Getting out of the affected area. 
  Winded 
  Personal 
  Description: The character’s chest tightens, and she can’t breathe. 
  Effect: As the character struggles to breathe, all Physical rolls actions suffer a −1 penalty. 
  Depending on how the character lost her breath, this penalty may increase as high as −3. 
  Causing the Tilt: Air may be knocked from an opponent by a targeted strike with a −2 penalty. 
  If this inflicts at least 1 point of damage, the default −1 penalty applies. If this exceeds the 
  character’s Stamina, inflict a cumulative −1 as she struggles to breathe. Similarly, a character 
  that falls and lands hard can become Winded. Any damage taken from a fall exceeding Stamina 
  incurs the full −3 penalty. 
  Ending the Tilt: Taking at least a minute to do nothing but catch your breath ends the Tilt. In 
  the thick of a fight, a character may try to pause and catch her breath, requiring a success on a 
  penalized Stamina + Composure roll. 
  
  Appendix C: Conditions 
  Conditions in Hunter may be acquired after visiting mysterious places, encounter a monster’s 
  Dread Powers, or through normal gameplay. They represent mechanical effects a character 
  experiences following a dramatic moment in a chronicle, and are not to be used to add rules to a 
  character’s permanent disability. 
  The use of Conditions is at the Storyteller’s discretion, but should be addressed with players 
  prior to gameplay. 
  Addicted (Persistent) 
  Your character is addicted to something, whether it’s drugs, gambling, or other destructive 
  behaviors. She needs to indulge her addiction regularly to keep it under control, and it takes over 
  her life. Choose a specific addiction upon taking this Condition; characters can take this 
  Condition multiple times for different addictions. Being unable to feed the addiction results in 
  the Deprived Condition. 
  Possible Sources: Alcoholism, substance abuse, an exceptional success on a breaking point. 
  Resolution: Gain or lose a dot of Integrity. 
  Beat: Your character chooses to get a fix rather than fulfill an obligation or causes significant 
  complications for her cell by indulging her addiction. 
  Amnesia (Persistent) 
  Your character is missing a portion of her memory. An entire period of her life is just gone. This 
  causes massive difficulties with friends and loved ones. 
  Beat: Something problematic arises, such as a forgotten arrest warrant or old enemy. 
  Broken (Persistent) 
  Whatever you did or saw, something inside you snapped. You can barely muster up the will to 
  do your job anymore, and anything more emotionally intense than a raised voice makes you 
  flinch and back down. Apply a −2 to all Social rolls and rolls involving Resolve, and a -5 to any 
  use of the Intimidation Skill. 
  Resolution: Regain a dot of Integrity, lose a dot of Integrity, or achieve an exceptional success 
  on a breaking point. 
  Beat: You back down from a confrontation or fail a roll due to this Condition.  
  Crippled (Persistent) 
  Your character has limited or no ability to walk. Her Speed trait is effectively 1. She must rely on 
  a wheelchair or other device to travel. A manual wheelchair’s Speed is equal to your character’s 
  Strength and requires use of her hands. Electric wheelchairs have a Speed of 3 but allow the 
  character free use of her hands. 
  An injury can cause this Condition temporarily, in which case it is resolved when the injury 
  heals, and the character regains mobility. 
  Beat: Danger or severe inhibition due to the disability.  
  
  Demoralized 
  Your character is shaken by the harsh realities of the Vigil and hesitates in the face of the enemy. 
  Spending a Willpower point only adds one die to the pool rather than three when she takes an 
  action against a monster, and you cannot risk Willpower at all. Take a −4 to Initiative rolls, and a 
  −2 penalty to contested actions and resistance rolls that use Resolve or Composure. 
  Resolution: Achieve an exceptional success on an attack or contested roll against a monster, win 
  a fight against a monster, or escape an encounter with a monster unharmed. 
  Deprived 
  Your character suffers from an addiction. Because your character is without it, she’s unable to 
  focus and contain herself. Remove one die from her Stamina, Resolve, and Composure dice 
  pools. This does not influence derived traits; it simply influences dice pools that use these 
  Attributes.  
  A character suffering from addiction may take this Condition as a Persistent Condition. 
  Resolution: Indulge in the deprived Vice, therapy. 
  Embarrassing Secret 
  Your character has a secret from his past that could come back to haunt him. If this secret gets 
  out, he could be ostracized or maybe even arrested. If the secret gets out, the Condition becomes 
  the Notoriety Condition (below). 
  Resolution: The secret gets out. 
  Fragile 
  The equipment the character is using to aid his action won’t last long for some reason, whether 
  because it’s an object put together with duct tape and bubble gum, or because his relationship 
  with the people involved sours, or because his computer ends up suffering a blue screen of death 
  and the data is corrupted. A plan may be Fragile because of disrupted communication between 
  the characters, or because of an unexpected hurdle, etc. The equipment ceases to exist in any 
  usable form after a number of uses equal to its creator’s dots in the Skill used to build it. 
  Possible Sources: Achieving a failure on a Build Equipment roll. 
  Resolution: The equipment falls apart one way or another. Plans grant one Beat to each player 
  whose character is involved when this Condition resolves. 
  Fugue (Persistent) 
  Something terrible happened, and rather than deal with it or let it break you, your mind shuts it 
  out. You are prone to blackouts and lost time. Whenever circumstances become too similar to the 
  situation that led to you gaining this Condition, roll Resolve + Composure. If you fail the roll, 
  the Storyteller controls your character for the next scene, but your character, left to his own 
  devices, will seek to avoid the conflict and get away from the area. 
  Resolution: Regain a dot of Integrity, lose a dot of Integrity, or achieve an exceptional success 
  on a breaking point. 
  Beat: You suffer the effects of this Condition. 
  Guilty 
  
  Your character is experiencing deep-seated feelings of guilt and remorse. This Condition is 
  commonly applied after a failed breaking point roll, for hunters. While the character is under the 
  effects of this Condition, they receive a −2 to any Resolve or Composure rolls to defend against 
  Subterfuge, Empathy, or Intimidation rolls. 
  Resolution: The character makes restitution for whatever they did; the character confesses their 
  crimes. 
  Informed 
  Your character has a breadth of research information based on the topic she investigated. When 
  you make a roll relating to the topic, you may shed this Condition. If the roll failed, it is instead 
  considered to have a single success. If it succeeded, the roll is considered an exceptional success. 
  The roll that benefits from the Informed Condition can be any relevant Skill roll. For example, a 
  character with Informed (ghosts) might gain its benefit when using researched information to 
  build a weapon from its bane using the Crafts Skill. Combat rolls cannot benefit from this 
  Condition. 
  Resolution: Use the Condition for its benefit. 
  Inspired 
  Your character is deeply inspired. When your character takes an action pertaining to that 
  inspiration, you may resolve this Condition. Gain a Willpower point and consider the roll an 
  exceptional success on three successes, instead of five. 
  Resolution: Use the Condition for its benefit. 
  Leveraged 
  Your character has been blackmailed, tricked, convinced, or otherwise leveraged into doing what 
  another person wishes. Note this Condition as Leveraged (Character). You may have Leveraged 
  multiple times, for different characters. Any time that character requests something of yours, you 
  may shed this Condition if your character does as requested without rolling to resist. 
  Resolution: Shed the Condition as noted; turn the tables on the person. 
  Madness (Persistent) 
  Your character saw or did something that jarred her loose from reality. This isn’t a mental illness 
  born of brain chemistry. This madness is the product of supernatural tampering or witnessing 
  something that humanity was never meant to comprehend. The Storyteller has a pool of dice 
  equal to (10 − the character’s Integrity). Once per chapter, the Storyteller can apply those dice as 
  a negative modifier to any Mental or Social roll made for the character. 
  Beat: The character fails a roll because of this Condition. If you regain a dot of Integrity, lose 
  another dot of Integrity, or achieve an exceptional success on a breaking point, you can shed this 
  Condition. 
  Merciless (Persistent) 
  The hunt is all you are. You can’t imagine a life without it anymore. Maybe you love it so much 
  you can’t give it up, or maybe you just forgot who you were without it. Monsters lurk around 
  every corner and you’re ready to do what’s necessary to stop them, one way or another. You 
  must spend a Willpower once per chapter to avoid following up on evidence that might indicate a 
  
  new monster’s presence or activity, within one full scene of your exposure to it. Each distinct 
  presence or activity requires a separate Willpower expenditure. You no longer regain Willpower 
  when you sleep unless you’ve made progress in finding or eliminating a monster that day. The 
  first failure you experience on an Empathy or perception-based roll in a chapter inflicts the 
  Spooked Condition. 
  When you risk Willpower on an action that would fulfill your Vice, the Willpower point you 
  gain from doing so may exceed your maximum Willpower pool by one. This excess Willpower 
  point must be spent before the end of the chapter or it vanishes. 
  Resolution: Gain a fourth dot of Integrity. 
  Beat: Alienate an ordinary person or another hunter in pursuit of your Vigil. You may choose to 
  automatically fail a Social roll against such a person to gain the Beat. 
  Notoriety 
  Whether or not your character actually did something heinous in the past, the wrong people think 
  he did. This causes disgust or ostracism by the common public. Your character suffers a -2 on 
  any Social rolls against those that know of his notoriety. If using Social Maneuvering (p.XX), the 
  character must open one extra Door if his target knows of his notoriety. Oftentimes, this 
  Condition comes from rumors and smear campaigns. 
  Resolution: The story is debunked, or the character’s name is cleared. 
  Obsession 
  Something’s on your character’s mind, and you just can’t shake it. When you’re abiding by that 
  obsession, exploring that emotion, or otherwise pursuing the object of the obsession, enjoy the 
  10-again quality on all rolls. When you’re not, you lose the 10-again quality. 
  Resolution: Fulfilling the obsession, therapy. 
  Shaken 
  Something has frightened your character extensively. Any time your character is taking an action 
  where that fear might hinder her, you may opt to fail the roll (before you’ve made the roll) and 
  shed this Condition. This Condition can be imposed by a successful breaking point roll. 
  Resolution: Fail a roll, as noted. 
  Soulless (Persistent) 
  A creature or phenomenon has stripped the character of their soul. Without a soul, they can’t 
  attempt abjuration, warding, or binding. They are also more susceptible to possession – any dice 
  pools to resist being take over or possessed by another entity are at a −2 dice penalty.  
  The effects on Integrity and Willpower, though, are more severe. For as long as they have this 
  Condition, they do not regain Willpower through surrender or rest, and their use of Virtue and 
  Vice is reversed. They may regain on Willpower point per scene by fulfilling their Virtue and 
  regains full Willpower once per chapter by fulfilling their Vice. Regaining Willpower through 
  Vice, however, is now a breaking point with a −5 penalty unless the character has reached 
  Integrity 1. 
  Resolution: This Condition is only resolve when the character regains their soul. 
  
  Beat: Gain a beat whenever the character loses Integrity because they indulged their Vice.  
  Spooked 
  Your character has seen something supernatural — not overt enough to terrify them, but 
  unmistakably otherworldly. How your character responds to this is up to you, but it captivates 
  your character and eats their attention. You can shed this Condition when your character’s fear 
  and fascination causes them to do something that hinders the group or complicates things (they 
  go off alone to investigate a strange noise, stay up all night researching, runs off instead of 
  holding their ground, etc.) 
  Resolution: Shed the Condition as noted. 
  Steadfast 
  Your character is confident and resolved. When you’ve failed a roll, resolve this Condition to 
  instead treat the action as if you’d rolled a single success. If the roll was a chance die, you may 
  resolve this Condition and roll a single die instead.  
  Resolution: Use the Condition, as noted.  
  Stoic 
  Your character shut down the parts of herself that care. She won’t open up to anyone and 
  pretends she’s fine when she isn’t. Gain a two-die bonus to Subterfuge rolls to hide her emotions 
  or avoid talking about a traumatic experience. She doesn’t suffer the untrained penalty for any 
  Subterfuge roll. Until she resolves this Condition, she can’t purchase dots of Integrity, and she 
  can’t spend or risk Willpower on actions that would reveal her true feelings. 
  Resolution: Opt to fail a roll to resist Empathy or a supernatural effect that would read your 
  character’s emotions or mental state. 
  Swooned 
  Your character has butterflies in his stomach. Note this Condition as Swooned (Character). He 
  may have multiple instances of this Condition, reflecting affection for multiple characters. He 
  suffers a −2 to any rolls that would adversely affect the object of his affection. The object of his 
  affection gains +2 on any Social rolls against him. If the object of the Swoon is attempting social 
  maneuvering on the Swooned character, the impression level is considered one higher 
  (maximum of perfect; see p. XX). 
  Resolution: Do something for the object that puts your character in danger; opt to fail a roll to 
  resist a social action by the object. 
  Vendetta 
  Your character will stop at nothing to punish whoever she blames for what’s happened to her or 
  what she’s done. Her vengeance needn’t be violent, but one way or another it must ruin her 
  nemesis. Until she resolves this Condition, she gains Vengeful as an additional Vice, though she 
  still may only gain Willpower through a Vice once per scene. She enjoys a two-die bonus to rolls 
  that work toward her vendetta and suffers a two-die penalty to those that don’t. 
  Resolution: Achieve revenge or suffer another breaking point that convinces your character to 
  abandon her vendetta. 
  Vigilant (Persistent) 
  
  The hunt is bone-deep. It’s your life now. You accept that some things must be done for the good 
  of humanity, and you’re the one who has to do them. Monsters could lurk around any corner and 
  you’re ready to do what’s necessary to save innocent lives. You must spend a Willpower point 
  once per chapter to avoid following up on evidence that might indicate a new supernatural 
  danger to a human being, within one full scene of your exposure to it. Each distinct danger 
  requires a separate Willpower expenditure. The first failure you experience on an Empathy or 
  Perception-based roll in a chapter inflicts the Spooked Condition (p. XX). 
  When you risk Willpower on an action that would fulfill your Virtue, the Willpower point you 
  gain from doing so may exceed your maximum Willpower pool by one. This excess Willpower 
  point must be spent before the end of the chapter or it vanishes. 
  Resolution: Gain a seventh dot of Integrity or lose your fourth dot. 
  Beat: Alienate an ordinary person because of the Vigil. You may choose to automatically fail a 
  Social roll against such a person to gain the Beat. 
  Violent 
  Your character throws herself into the hunt with a single-minded fervor, driven to senseless acts 
  of violence by a spate of self-loathing and a rejection of common sense. Violent actions gain a 
  two-die bonus, while nonviolent actions suffer a two-die penalty. At the end of each scene during 
  which this Condition applies, if she has not committed a violent act in that scene, she must spend 
  a Willpower or attack the character that is closest to being an enemy in her vicinity, even if that’s 
  just someone who disagrees with her. 
  Resolution: Deal damage to another character equal to or exceeding the hunter’s Resolve. 
  Volatile 
  The equipment the character is using to aid his action is ready to blow at any moment, 
  figuratively or literally. One wrong word, one badly placed rune, and it’s time to duck and 
  cover. A plan may be Volatile because it backfires terribly, or because a Storyteller character 
  betrays the group, etc. Any failure achieved while benefiting from the equipment is 
  automatically a dramatic failure. The equipment may continue to exist after this Condition is 
  resolved, but if so, reduce its equipment bonus by two dice. This can create equipment penalties 
  if the original bonus was fewer than two dice. 
  Possible Sources: Achieving a failure on a Build Equipment roll. 
  Resolution: The character suffers a dramatic failure while using the equipment. Plans grant one 
  Beat to each player whose character is involved when this Condition resolves. 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Storyteller [multi]/World of Darkness (WoD) [multi]/CofD/Hunter - The Vigil/Hunter the Vigil 2E Manuscript Preview Complete.pdf