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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?
Greetings, hunters!
The purpose of these campaigns is stated plainly on the main page, but broken down simply - Onyx Path is hoping to take an idea and make it real. And, thanks to our support - that's happened!
Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition is FUNDED! Onyx Path will be publishing a hardcover rulebook for backers and distribution into the game and hobby trade.
Just like the Hunters in this game have realized that monsters aren't just ideas... they're real!
Or something like that. Look, not all metaphors work right from the get-go. We've got 28 days to figure it out... and maybe add a few more ideas and expand our project.
Also, it's time for a wardrobe change. I've asked my tailor to suit me up as a monster hunter...
Now that the book will be a reality, let's see if we can add a few more options to this campaign.
As we increase the overall funding and support for the project, we’re able to add additional resources to the project, expand the rewards listed, and add in new offers and opportunities. Each Stretch Goal will have a target that, once reached, will add a project to the reward list. We will continue to build on this list when we achieve these targets during the campaign. Whenever we achieve a stretch goal, the image will be updated to reflect the achievement.
At $40,000 in funding - Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition Storyteller Screen — We’ll create a Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition Storyteller Screen, which can be added on to any reward tier containing a hardcover book for only +$20.
At $55,000 in funding - Tending the Flame: Cells — Help us fund a Player’s Companion for Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition. This PDF supplement would feature a chapter Cells, giving players narrative and systems’ support to successfully hunt at Tier One, as well as tips for navigating hunter society. All backers receiving the Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition PDF will automatically have the Player’s Companion PDF added to their rewards list.
Sure, these are some big numbers - we're hunting big targets here. But, just like our characters in the game, we overcome the odds and keep working until the mission is accomplished! And look what we've already made happen in just 140 minutes!!
So, spread the word in your social circles and on your social media! Let's light the flames of this Vigil and get more Hunters to help us achieve these targets.
Hello Potential Hunters!
I see you there, eyeing this campaign. Wondering if it's for you. Looking for more information.
Just like a Hunter would. Heh.
To all kickstarter curious and inquiring investigators, here's a bit more info to maybe help answer some questions.
Well, the best way to get more info - go right to the source. Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition developer Monica Valentinelli was interviewed by the team at The Story Told podcast. Listen to her talk about development, mechanics, and the feels and heart of Hunter.
Do I need the Chronicles of Darkness Core Book to play this game?
Will there be information on how to fight [insert Chronicles of Darkness game line here]?
I just want to hunt monsters. Will I need all of these subsystems you're introducing?
On Update #1, I saw the list of topics for the next two weeks. Where’s the Aegis Kai Doru (conspiracy) and Ashwood Abbey (compact)?
Looking at the list of chapters and contents, the Slasher Chronicle sounds cool, but… will it have enough material in it?
I see some of the old 1E Hunter titles offered as an Add-On option, but not all of them. Any chance you can add those old titles as additional Add On options?
I was a big fan of Hunter: The Vigil 1E. How can I be sure this game is for me?
Well, that's all the Qs I have As for at this time. As we dig further into the book, I'm sure we'll have more topics to cover. And also more answers! There's so much more to come... an entire Leap Month of manuscripts and fiction and previews.
So, start your vigil! Join our campaign and check out our Backers-Only updates which will contain sections of the Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition manuscript. I'll be posting one just about every other day.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.