Hermit
William checked his watch again by the glow of the street light. Quarter-past nine. The wind gusted around his feet, blowing papers about and chilling him. He thrust his hands back into his pockets and shuffled uncomfortably. Quarter-past nine on a cold, dull fall night. It would be quiet. It had to be quiet. There wasn’t much time left. Resolved, he set off along the empty sidewalk.
As he approached the grocery store, he could see light flooding forth coldly from its windows, throwing everything nearby into stark relief against the night. He got close and looked in, checking one of the aisles. No one around. Good. He moved quickly to the next pane and glanced in again. Still empty, apart from one clerk. He sighed, relieved, and entered. The girl at the cash register didn’t even glance up from her magazine.
William grabbed a basket and hurried down an aisle. He moved around the store quickly, almost aimlessly, grabbing a few things from the shelves. Cornflakes. Peas. Juice. Ground beef. Just odds and ends. Enough that anyone could see it was food for a few days. He didn’t look closely at what he was selecting. It was all the same, really. A quick dash through the store and he had enough. He looked around again, but he was still the only customer. He crossed reluctantly over to the checkout counter and put his basket next to the till. The girl looked up, dull-eyed and sullen at being disturbed, a greasy lick of blonde hair hanging in front of her face.
She pushed the hair back and forced a disinterested smile. “Is that everything, sir?” Her voice was a flat, hostile, nasal whine. William just nodded. “Would you like a bag?” she asked, as if she expected him to carry everything in his hands. He nodded again, and she started ringing up items and bagging them for him.
He looked around the store once more, nervous. Still empty, thank God. The world beyond the store window also seemed devoid of life. Not even car headlights broke the desolation. A noise interrupted his scrutiny of the street. He looked at the girl blankly.
“That’ll be $18.36 please.” She sounded impatient, unfriendly.
William reached into his pocket, pulled out a twenty and threw it down on the counter to avoid con tact with the cashier. Rather than wait for his change, he grabbed the bag and made straight for the exit before anyone else came along. Around the corner of the store, beyond the light, he paused to catch his breath. There, that wasn’t so bad. He shifted his groceries in his arms and headed for home.
As William approached the turn to his street he heard voices — loud, angry voices. He flinched and looked around wildly. A group of teenagers had stopped a man, a business type in his forties. It looked as if they were bumming change. William froze, horrified. Suddenly, a gale blew up behind him, whipping his clothes, and a voice that sounded as if it were from the pits of hell whispered, “DEATH LOOMS.” The words ripped through him, though no one else seemed to hear them. William tensed in anticipation. Suddenly, a storm of voices, images and impressions rose, welling up as transient shards in his mind. “THE CHILDREN Of”—“IT WALKS”—“THEY SAY”—“WITH THEM”—“IT MUST”—a black-eyed child suckling at its mother’s breast—“THIS EVIL”—“THE MOTHER KNEW”—“ADEPTS”—“TO DRINK”—a beetle crossing loose, bare earth—“Of OLD”—“FEEDING”—“NOT BE PERMITTED”—“AMONGST MANKIND”—“DEALING”—a man in unlikely glasses staring—“Of THE UNWARy”—“HAVE A WAY”—“THEM.”
William roared, his own voice hoarse in his ears but still not loud enough to drown out the interior clamor. And somehow, despite the cascade, he was still aware of the group ahead. His mind felt torn, frag ments of him forced to pay attention to myriad conversations and images, while still looking out at the world. The man in the suit was wrong, corrupted, rotting. His flesh was a clammy gray; his throat, a mass of torn, protruding tissue; his fingernails, abnormally long and sharp.
All of them, kids and thing, looked at William, their stares like hammer blows. William wanted to turn and run, somewhere, anywhere. The teenagers clearly didn’t understand, couldn’t hear the crush of voices, couldn’t see that the man was dead. The threat needed to be made clear in terms they could comprehend. If William couldn’t make it clear, claws and fangs certainly would.
“He’s going to kill you,” William shouted. “He… he’s got a knife.” The kids started backing away, and the thing surged forward, grabbing one of them by the throat. Thin trickles of blood showed where long claws broke the boy’s skin. The other kids ran. The thing turned to look for a moment at William, threw the injured boy to the ground and fled.
William pressed his hands to his head, praying for the pounding to stop. It seemed to diminish a little once the monster was gone.The Lost
Shut up. Please, shut up. You’re not making this any easier.
You were always a good communicator. A problem solver. Taking the long view was vital to getting perspective on whatever was happening, whether in politics, a relationship or just in a crowded room. You knew how to convey information, to show people what they hadn’t considered. Most importantly, you knew how to listen. All of these capabilities might have been professional if you were a counselor, teacher or social worker. Maybe you were just the one your friends turned to. Whichever it was, listening, considering and talking were probably the most natural parts of your personality and life.
Now they bring you pain.
The voices ebb and flow like the tide, like the seasons, like consciousness itself. They might fade to the background or crash to the fore, but they’re always there, cramming all sorts of things into your head. Strange, half-remembered glimpses of unknown places. Odd words that seemingly have to be whispered to you — or screamed at you. Cryptic snatches of haunting verse. Colors, shapes, smells — any and all sensory input, layer upon layer, crashing through your head until it feels like you’ll explode. But you don’t. Your mind just gets more and more crowded. The clamor usually doesn’t make sense — mostly it’s just random static — but when it does, you’ve learned that it’s important, maybe even life-saving. If you can understand it, that is.
One thing you noticed early on is that the voices are worse around other people. Or more specifically, around crowds of people with others who had been “chosen” hidden inside. A lot of the time you can handle being around some people — until the wrong kind turn up. They’ve been shown the truth, too, but
together you know too much for you alone to handle. The Messengers, or whatever is to blame, barrage you with signs that another hunter is nearby, like you’re supposed to
do something about it. But what can you do when you’re being deafened? If don’t learn how to ignore the voices, you’ll go nuts.
Then there are the
things, the monsters. You can see them for sure. They aren’t alive or even human, and they can make the voices and flashes almost unbearable, too. When you discover that there are other “imbued” out there like you — and then things that you can’t even describe — you want to warn everyone. You want to tell what you know and empty out all the chaos in your head. But all the noise makes it hard to be around anyone who could understand, so it’s hard to share what you know you have to. That means some of you never come to terms with your calling. A few just run away, trying to get as far from everyone as possible. When you’re completely alone, with no one else near, the voices almost fall silent. Unfortunately,
you don’t have the luxury of retreating from the world and the truth. You know you can save people, if you can find it in you.
The two pressures that build in you, to silence the voices and to pass on what you experience, seem almost contradictory. That makes your new life hard, maybe harder than any person was meant to handle. Remember that no matter how bad it gets, no matter how far you run or how deep you hide, you’re never alone in your pain. There are others who can understand you, if you can bear their presence.
Given who you might have been before, your aptitudes probably lie in information gathering and distribution, whether you know it or not. Being artistic is perhaps the most natural form of communication. There can be as much artistry in conveying information through journalism, research or programming as there is in painting or sculpture. Maybe your open mind or free spirit is what lets God or the Messengers or whatever to be in constant contact. You’re quicker to listen than you are to fight or pass judgment. When the voices do share something intelligible, it’s almost always critically important to you or someone around you. With such information at your disposal, and your talent for passing it on — whether as a writer, public speaker, web designer or illustrator — you’re instrumental to the hunt. Your input, when you can control it, can help set goals, establish plans and avoid tragedy.
But all that comes at a terrible price. Every time you force yourself to go out there, the chorus gets louder and more painful until you’re convinced you’re going mad — or you already are. You won’t do anyone any good in a straightjacket, though. It’s a balancing act of finding your inner peace while continuing the fight. No one promised the hunt would be easy. But then, no one offered you a choice at all.
Weaknesses: It should come as no surprise that you have problems dealing with other people. Psychologists talk about “aversion therapy,” training yourself to dislike something by associating it with pain. If that’s not what’s happening to you, it’s damn close. You’re withdrawn because that’s the only way you can find peace. You can be paranoid, aggressive, depressed or even manic around other people, because it hurts to be around other imbued. And how do you tell them from anyone normal?
But the real risk lies in losing track of
why you suffer. You might refuse to have anything to do with the calling, or even with other people. Your pain may become a general hatred of others in general, and of monsters and the imbued in particular. You can grow really bitter and twisted. You need to avoid both traps if you want to hold onto anything of yourself from before.
Apocrypha: You might be somebody who always shunned company, who lives in his own head, who feels that what goes on there is far more interesting than anything happening out in the world. Somebody who sees this ugly, monster-riddled reality as God’s punishment for having turned your back on the world. Or did you always feel unworthy to breathe the same air as “normal” people, until you realized they need someone like you to save them from the
abnormals they can’t see?
Or maybe you’re more in touch. So in touch that your quest for meaning in it all succeeded in ways you never imagined possible. You saw people numb themselves to life and swore you’d find a better way for people to live. Did you look inside yourself, only to find God
and Satan, and somehow unleash both as walking — if not always breathing — aspects of your own will? You know something changed, and recently, but most people missed it and still do. Somebody has to make them all see, and you mean to find a way.
Or are you the once-gregarious type who feels attacked by unseen forces that want you to understand what’s at stake yet also want you to do nothing about it? People matter to you more than your own comfort, though, so you periodically sacrifice it for them. You isolate yourself only reluctantly because you know that no man is an island… unless he lets himself become one. And your greatest fear is that such surrender into self-imprisonment is what (and
how) your invisible tormentors hope to win. One person at a time…
The Imbuing: When your first message comes, it probably isn’t an isolated phrase like other imbued describe. It’s the opening of a floodgate. That first, clear signal starts a deluge, and in the confusion of sensory input and the sudden horror of seeing monsters, you probably recoil or withdraw and take stock of the scene before doing anything. You don’t flee altogether, but you certainly see and skirt the action while you try to understand what’s going on, to comprehend what’s happening and pass that information or warning on to anyone who would understand or even listen. Insight, perspective and direction are as active as swinging a fist or lending a hand.
Character Creation: Hermits typically have high scores in Perception and other Mental Traits, and they place minimal emphasis on Social Attributes. Knowledges are commonly valued over Talents and Skills. Every Hermit gets the Patron Background, rated 3, automatically and for free (levels 4 and 5 can be acquired as if they were ratings 1 and 2, respectively). Hermits also start play with a derangement that hampers social interaction considerably, such as Hysteria, Manic-Depression or Paranoia. While within 100 feet or so of monsters or other imbued, all of a Hermit’s difficulties increase by one. Zeal edges are uncommon compared to Vision’s, followed by Mercy’s.
Starting Conviction: 3
A.K.A.: Ostriches, Loners, Schizos, Outsiders
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Stereotypes
Avengers — “Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Bystanders — A joy to be with compared to the rest. Amazingly, we can approach some of them without invoking the noise — and they understand what it’s like to be on the outside looking in.
Defenders — Their concern for others means they’re interested in any useful information. Unfortunately, their opinion of “useful” can be narrow.
Innocents — Gentle people, if naive. Some of them can even be quite soothing company. Though they almost always listen, they sometimes pay attention to
how you say something, not
what you say.
Judges — For all their claims of impartiality, they can be extremely stubborn when they think they know what’s right.
Martyrs — They feel the pain of the hunt so keenly that they neglect their own well being, sometimes suicidally. We can sympathize.
Redeemers — Not everyone can be saved. They don’t all want to hear that, though.
Visionaries — Extremely creative, full of ideas, always questioning. If they could only see inside our heads, they’d have all the answers.
Waywards — Lunatics, every last one, even if they are absolutely committed. At least they’re interested in tactical information. It’s a miracle that maniac on TV didn’t try hacking up the talk-show host, instead.
The Enemy — They’re to blame for all of this. We have to stop them from preying on mankind. Maybe then the voices will go away.
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Source: Hunter Players Guide (WW8120), Page 16-19Edges For most hunters, the powers they manifest during and after the imbuing are terrifying, bizarre phenomena that, if considered too long, might make a person question her own sanity and even humanity. After all, normal people can’t stop beings in their tracks with a single word, or hide in plain sight at will. Those capabilities seem to exceed what it means to be human, and could make an imbued wonder how different she really is from the creatures with which she contends.
Hermits are no different. They’re ordinary people granted anything but ordinary powers. And yet, their situations, and therefore their edges, are considerably different from any that other hunters manifest. Perhaps Hermits’ seeming proximity to the Messengers makes them privy to special capabilities. Maybe their inherent madness broadens their minds sufficiently to inherit and master powers beyond even the imbued norm. Or Hermits could just be cursed with capabilities that they’re not meant to comprehend or even deal with — they’re just meant to use them to get a job done.
Specifically, most hunters are restricted in their powers. Those of other creeds are tied to or bound by the material world. Almost all hunters’ edges impact on the physical reality that the imbued live in, understand, can see and can touch. Some edges might affect ghosts that haunt the physical world, but those powers still have foundation in that world. Other dimensions, spirit realms and layers of reality available to some monsters — and perhaps to the Messengers themselves — are denied to hunters’ capabilities and perception, almost as a rule.
Hermits’ edges allow them to perceive and touch realms beyond the physical plane. They can project their senses across distances, communicate with other minds without speaking, and travel as spirits without form — things that no other hunters can do or comprehend (and perhaps neither can Hermits). Ask an outcast how he knows what he knows or has seen what he’s seen and he won’t be able to explain it rationally. He just knows and sees, and is undoubtedly afraid of what he can do. After all, other hunters are frightening for both the amazing things they can do and the pain they inflict in a Hermit’s mind. But what does that say about an outsider who can do so much more? Is his humanity even a possibility anymore?
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Other Edges
Hermits are transformed by their imbuing, often more so than any other creed members. Their edges are tied closely to their intended mission, whatever that might actually be, and require intense contact with the Messengers. As such, Hermit edges put tremendous strain on the minds of the few other hunters who acquire them. Followers of other creeds cannot gain Hermit edges until their Vision rating reaches at least 4. Furthermore, for each Hermit edge that adherents of the Mercy and Zeal creeds gain, they automatically develop one derangement from the following list: Paranoia, Megalomania, Manic-Depression, Compulsive-Aggressive Disorder, Dissociation, Agoraphobia, Addiction or Demophobia. (These ailments are detailed in the
Hunter rulebook and in the various creed sourcebooks.) These derangements cannot be removed, just as with high-Virtue disorders. Visionaries and Waywards, being fellow followers of Vision and more attuned to Hermits, do not suffer these derangements but must still have 4 Vision before Hermit edges can be acquired.
The edges of other creeds are not similarly restricted for Hermits, perhaps due to the outcasts’ connection to the Heralds. If a Hermit pulls even a fragment of meaning out of the static when he encounters another hunter, he might easily manifest and understand an Innocence or Defense edge. In some cases, Hermits demonstrate edges from other creeds even if they haven’t seen them in use or heard about them. After all, they’re tuned into the Heralds at all times; the Heralds empower Hermits in any enigmatic way the entities like. Hermits naturally tend toward Mercy-based more than Zeal-based edges, however. They typically hang back, observe and learn rather than leap into the fray. If Zeal-oriented powers are developed, they usually assist in a Hermit’s information-gathering goals and should be rationalized as such.
• REACH Reach is the power to send one’s senses elsewhere. Just as some Visionaries can see and hear events that occurred at a location at a different time, Hermits can perceive events that occur nearby at the
same time, as if they extend their mind’s eye beyond themselves.
Reach applies to all five senses — touch, taste, sight, scent and hearing. However, just because a Hermit can feel what an opponent has in his pocket doesn’t mean he can affect that object. The power offers clairsentience, not telekinesis.
This edge is not without its dangers. While a Hermit’s senses are elsewhere, he cannot hear or feel what happens to his physical body. To an outsider, it looks like the Hermit is simply asleep — but attempts to waken him don’t work until his sentience returns.
Furthermore, particularly perceptive people (or beings) may sense that they are being watched by a reaching Hermit. The outcast has no “ghostly” form of any kind while projecting, but can suggest a “presence” to the receptive.
System: Roll Perception + Vision, difficulty 6, and spend one action to activate the edge. For each success, your character can go “out of body” for a maximum of approximately 10 minutes, and you can make standard Perception rolls from a perspective other than your character’s physical location. He can return to his body instantly, at will. He returns forcibly if his body is ever rendered Incapacitated while his senses are elsewhere, at which point he is unconscious thereafter in body and mind. If his body is killed while reaching, his senses die, too.
Your Hermit can attempt to activate second sight (and its associated protection) through Reach, but doing so is not automatic. In addition to the usual Conviction cost, you must make a successful Perception + Awareness roll, difficulty 6. Second sight is active for the remainder of the scene and protects both his sentience and body from supernatural tampering. If the roll fails, a Conviction point is still lost and neither part receives special awareness or protection; your reaching character sees and detects only what he can with his regular, human senses. Second sight may be activated
before reaching, but the Perception + Awareness roll is still required to maintain it while out of body. Repeated attempts to activate second sight are allowed.
Reach has a range of about 30 yards per point of Vision that your character has. Your Hermit can move his senses around at a “fast sprint” anywhere within that range, and is not impeded by physical barriers. He can pass through walls, suffers no harm when “hit” by a car and can pass through people. (All these incorporeal capabilities assume your character can grasp their possibility, though. It’s human instinct to try to use a door before walking through one, and it may take some time for your character to realize that he can move through solid items. Likewise, he probably avoids traffic until he’s had considerable experience reaching and masters his fear of being “run over.”)
The static still applies to your character when he reaches. Creatures or hunters within range of the approximate location of your character’s senses,
not his body, invoke the noise. All static rules apply normally thereafter (difficulty modifiers may even interfere with attempting to activate second sight while reaching).
If your Hermit’s body is within a yard or so of a Visionary, the range he can reach is doubled. Outcasts who have discovered this benefit suspect some kind of intended teamwork for the hunters involved, but can’t explain it specifically. The proximity of some other imbued simply helps with reaching, which contradicts Hermits’ normal relations with other hunters.
A subject of Reach may get an uneasy feeling of being watched. Roll Perception + Awareness, difficulty 9, for normal people (including other imbued). The difficulty drops to 8 for animals and supernatural creatures. It’s 7 for creatures with supernatural senses or anyone with the Awareness Ability.
•• SEND With this capability, a Hermit can transmit words and images directly into the mind of a fellow imbued. In theory, this tool is invaluable: The Hermit and fellow hunters can communicate silently and clearly without fear of being overheard. But of course,
in theory Hermits weren’t supposed to be socially challenged recluses.
In practice, such communication tends to be similar to messages received from the Heralds — garbled, cryptic, distracting and unpleasant. Recipients can be frightened, startled, disoriented or dimly aware of an idea forming in their head without apparent source. Message recipients who have the Patron Background, however, are unlikely to mistake a sending for a genuine contact with the Heralds. Herald messages are painful and confusing because they’re pure intent transmitted into an impure human medium. Hermit sendings are painful and confusing because they come from a
different impure human. Also, some sendings communicate more than a Hermit intends.
An outcast can only send to someone he can see or hear directly with his naked eyes or ears. Sending should not be confused with telepathy or mind reading: Only messages projected deliberately can be sent to or received by a target. This edge can’t be used to eavesdrop on others’ thoughts.
System: Roll Intelligence + Vision and spend one action to activate this edge. The difficulty is based on your character’s target: 7 for another hunter with second sight active; 8 for an imbued with the sight inactive; 9 for a bystander. If your roll is successful, your character can communicate a simple message — typically a sketchy mental picture or something he could say in five words or less. The more successes gained the clearer the communication.
Successes | Clarity |
1 | A murky feeling that could be ignored easily. |
2 | A fairly simple sense of what your character means. |
3 | Good communication. Your character gets some sense of the recipient’s reaction. |
4+ | Instant rapport! Your character can mentally “talk” to that person for 30 seconds as if they were on a telephone. |
A botch means that instead of making a “conscious to conscious” connection, your Hermit makes an “unconscious to unconscious” one. Instead of what your Hermit wants to show, the receiver gets a taste of his deepest fears, hopes and desires — but only in
her unconscious mind. She may dream your character’s dreams or recognize his hopes when she sees him next. In any event, her next Social rolls in regard to your character are at -1 difficulty due to her uncanny understanding of him. (If she’s not your Hermit’s ally, she may get a feeling of his identity, if he seeks to keep it secret.)
This power can be used successfully on a single subject no more than once per scene.
Your character cannot send a message while also using the level-one Reach power. Messages can be sent only when your character’s senses are still in his own body.
Send cannot be used to deliver messages to normal people or monsters.
••• EDICT A Hermit locks eyes with a target and — for a split second — that person or thing sees itself as the Messengers see him. It’s not verbal or visual communication. It’s a sudden visceral perception of the vastness of the universe and the insignificance or undesirability of the subject in that milieu. The Hermit virtually becomes a transmitter for the Heralds’ judgment, burdening a target with the static.
For supernatural creatures, Edict often inflicts excruciating rage or despair. (Imagine if God spoke to you from a pillar of flame and His first words were, “You are worthless.”) For ordinary humans, it’s less painful. Some people are unaffected, some are depressed and a very few (who are particularly humble or selfless) are actually buoyed by their own sense of worth. For other imbued, Edict can be a curse (when they perceive the extremely long hard road they have ahead) or a blessing (when they get confirmation that they’re on the right path).
System: Roll Manipulation + Vision, difficulty 6, and spend one action as your character and the subject’s eyes meet.
If the target is a supernatural creature, it automatically loses a point of Willpower for every success you achieve, to a minimum rating of zero. Ancient or powerful creatures are as likely to be affected as young ones, the former glimpsing the abominations they have become and the suffering they have caused, the latter sensing the misdirection their lives have taken and the humanity they have lost.
If the target is a regular person (or bystander) who serves the forces of the supernatural, whether wittingly or not (such as being a human pawn or agent of monsters), he or she loses one point of Willpower, no matter how many successes you achieve in your Manipulation + Vision roll. Other normal people who live selfish or even abusive lives, but who do not directly serve monsters in any way, suffer no effect. Meanwhile, those rare people who seek to live some kind of deserving or rewarding life can gain a sense of encouragement or worth in the encounter with your character. They gain a point of Willpower.
If the subject is a hunter, the Storyteller decrees whether that person has been true to her personal beliefs and values in the hunt (i.e., her creed) or has denied or abandoned her ethics of late. The former gains a point of Conviction and the latter loses a point. Those who behave neutrally — staying on and straying from their respective paths in equal measure — get a sense of being analyzed, but are not judged.
No hunter can gain or lose more than one Conviction point per chapter from use of this edge. Hermits and Waywards, being in close contact with the Messengers at all times, are completely unaffected by this edge. High-virtue Hunters are similarly more challenging to affect — the difficulty of your roll equals the extremist’s highest Virtue rating, which should be 7 or more. No monster or person can be affected by this power more than once per game session.
Whether a target is a monster, hunter or a regular person, being evaluated by a Hermit’s piercing gaze is unnerving. Being found wanting is horrible; the creature feels insignificant, irrelevant and sinful, and inexplicably understands that its goals are in direct contradiction to the natural order. This is extremely upsetting and depressing and might even prove frightening, driving a creature off. On very rare occasions, this judgment may be accompanied by actual physical pain. By contrast, hunters who fulfill their roles are heartened and encouraged, gaining new levels of self-belief and personal worth.
Edict has no effect on animals or creatures with subhuman intelligence. One needs a certain level of intellect to suffer an existential crisis.
This edge cannot be used in conjunction with Reach, since your Hermit does not use his physical eyes when seeing remotely.
•••• TRANSCEND With this edge, a Hermit can step out of his body as a spirit, not just with his senses as he can with Reach. He can move instantaneously to any point on Earth that he has previously visited physically or astrally, or from which his body holds an object. He can travel to these places at speeds of up to 1,000 miles per hour (250 miles per 15 minutes). In addition, some other edges can be used by the disembodied spirit. Physical edges such as Cleave don’t work, but nonphysical ones like Send, Burden and Discern do. Your character can also make
very small changes in the physical world — not enough to do damage or even turn on a light switch, but maybe enough to knock a piece of paper to the floor or to write a message in the condensation on a window.
Astral existence is not safe. A Hermit feels solid to other spirit entities (most notably ghosts) and they feel solid to him. This means hand-to-hand fights can occur between otherwise immaterial beings. A Hermit is also visible to hunters with active second sight or perception-based edges such as Discern, Witness or Illuminate. Hunters perceiving the “spirit Hermit” are likely to think him a ghost, unless he takes the time — perhaps using Send — to try to inform them otherwise.
System: Spend a point of Conviction and roll Stamina + Vision, difficulty 8. Your character must also spend an action to activate this power. If successful, your character leaves his body and enters a different realm, one that surrounds the material world but doesn’t affect it directly. For each success rolled, your Hermit can remain “astral” for 15 minutes. At the end of that time, he returns to his body instantaneously and cannot leave it again for at least 24 hours. He may also return prematurely at will.
In astral form, Wits is used instead of Dexterity, Intelligence instead of Stamina, and Manipulation instead of Strength. This change applies for all interactions between astral bodies, but
not for the use of edges.
Astral forms can fight. The Hermit’s astral body has the same health levels as his physical body at the moment he projects. If he’s killed while astral, the character dies and his body becomes an empty shell in a coma — easy prey for any possessing spirit. All “astral damage” is healed when your Hermit returns to his physical form. It is absolutely impossible for any Hermit to enter any vessel other than his own physical body — he cannot possess any creature or object, even another Hermit who is in a “projecting coma.”
Your character can activate second sight and its protection while projecting, but it affects his astral self only, not his dormant body. The static also applies to your character when he projects. Creatures or hunters within range of the approximate location of your character’s spirit,
not his body, invoke the noise. All static rules apply normally thereafter.
As with Reach, a Hermit using Transcend cannot sense what happens to his physical body. He returns forcibly if his body is ever rendered Incapacitated while his spirit is elsewhere, and he is unconscious thereafter in body and soul. If his body is killed while transcending, his spirit dies, too.
It costs one Willpower point to affect the material world in a meager way when projecting, as described above. Your character’s spirit can also pass through material objects as discussed under Reach. It’s impossible to speak to physical beings while projecting, although the Send edge can be used to communicate.
Anyone in your projecting character’s vicinity may sense his presence. Roll Perception + Awareness, difficulty 9, for normal people (including other imbued). The difficulty drops to 8 for animals and supernatural creatures. It’s 7 for creatures with supernatural senses or anyone with the Awareness Ability. “Spectral displays” performed by your character, such as writing in the condensation on a mirror, are blatant evidence of some kind of presence. Ordinary people and hunters without active second sight who successfully sense or perceive evidence of such otherworldly existence lose control of themselves as if they had seen a ghost (
Hunter Storytellers Companion, p. 13). Other hunters might have a chance to activate second sight reactively (
Hunter, p. 133) and can then see your character as an incorporeal being — although not necessarily “wrong” as a genuine ghost might look.
The level-five Redemption power Suspend can trap a Hermit’s transcending spirit in the Redeemer’s presence. Other hunter edges that affect spirits can affect a projecting Hermit if they are used on him.
••••• Proclaim With Edict, a Hermit can show a creature its insignificance or blasphemy in the world. With Proclaim, she can actually bring that being to the Heralds' attention.
This is not an imbuing, bur it sure brings back memories to those who are already imbued. The effect conjures the same overwhelming sense of need and duty backed by otherworldly power and intelligence - the same pain and revelation.
As for its effects on the unnatural, it seems to be maddeningly agonizing - literally. They generally go into hysterics and don't seem to be the same afterward.
Proclaiming to a creature is not necessarily easy or safe. The Hermit becomes a conduit through which the power of the Messengers flows, and their view of How It Is goes head to head against the will and worldview of the monster. If the Hermit was a perfect medium for the Messengers' will, it would be no contest. But, as we know, Hermits are far from perfect. If a monster's will to resist is greater than the Hermit's desire to proclaim, the Hermit may suffer from grievous psychic trauma.
Most amazing of all, proclaiming to an existing bystander gives her a second chance, bringing her back to the Messengers' attention as a potential new recruit. Unless the bystander deliberately shies away a second time, she can join the imbued as a genuine hunter. Proclaim has no effect on humans who have not already been exposed to the imbuing - it cannot be used to spontaneously imbue people.
This edge is triggered by speaking in tongues. Some theorize that the words spoken are a heretofore unknown spoken equivalent of hunter code.
System: Spend two points of Conviction and roll Vision. If proclaiming to hunters or bystanders, the difficulty is 6. If proclaiming to creatures, the difficulty is the highest current Willpower in the group, maximum 10. Potential targets must be within your character's sight. Your character spends one full turn blathering at the targets to activate the power.
For each success rolled while addressing imbued, one of them enters close contact with the Messengers as if she possesses the Patron Background, assuming she doesn't already, and it is active for the rest of the scene. The Storyteller may take this opportunity to confront each and all recipients with hallucinations, dreams, spoken messages - like those of any imbuing - to communicate information directly to the chosen. These signs and symbols can be as disorienting and nonsensical as ever, but they should allude to something important to hunter origins or purpose, or to dangers or important events yet to come in the chronicle. It's a great chance to give characters prophetic roles in the game, all thanks to the channeling Hermit. The Storyteller decides if hunter subjects of Proclaim suffer difficulties to actions attempted while confronted with messages from above.
If your character allocates at least two successes to a bystander when proclaiming, and in the presence of at least one monster, that bystander has a chance to be imbued again. The bystander's reaction determines creed as it would at any imbuing. If he fails to respond again, he remains a bystander forever thereafter. (No further uses of Proclaim grant another opportunity.)
The effect of proclaiming to supernatural creatures depends on the number of successes achieved. Successes are allocated to or among monsters as you choose.
Successes | Result |
---|
Botch | Your Hermit gains a derangement or loses a point of Intelligence, permanently. |
1 Allocate | The creature gains a derangement that lasts for the rest of the scene. |
2 Allocated | The creature gains a derangement that lasts for 24 hours. |
3+ Allocated | The creatures gains a permanent derangement or loses a point of either Willpower or Intelligence, permanently. |
Derangements inflicted on creatures by Proclaim are typically phobias, fugues or paranoia. The Storyteller decides exactly which derangement affects each creature, and how the creature reacts to the sudden onslaught of mental torment. (For a quick and dirty system, assume the creature loses a die from every pool for the duration.)
If fewer successes are rolled than hunters and/or monsters are present, you have to choose which ones are the recipients of these effects, and how many successes apply to each target in the case of bystanders and monsters.
A Hermit can use this power only once per day. It has no effect on other Hermits or Waywards; they're already close to the Messengers and subject to intense contact. The Storyteller has the option of making truly ancient or powerful monsters immune to Proclaim, or they might be subject to it only if enough successes are applied to them.
Source: Hunter Book: Hermit (WW8112), Page 87-91