[Hunter: The Vigil 2e] Slayer J vs The Hunger (Part 3)

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Slayer J vs The Hunger

(Part 3)

I actually wrote this short story in 2007 to feature an NPC who had recently started his Vigil. Sources Taken from the nWoD Antagonists sourcebook, it actually picks right up the story header for The Hunger from the Antagonists book and incorporates it into a larger story.  This is the third and final part.  It reminds me of a cross between an Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) monster battle and the Supernatural TV show, which I hadn't seen until 2009.

I find this next part kinda racist.  But this is Jack Slayer's retelling, and he is a tactless cowboy with no cultural sensitivity and plenty of down-home white privilege.  This is the only apology I'm putting out for this.

I parked across the street, the restaurant had closed about an hour earlier but lights indicated people were still bustling about inside.  I knocked on the door a few times until a young China-man answered the door. 

"We closed."  He declared impolitely.

"I have to have some more." I cried, clutching my stomach. "I have money" I waved a few $20 bills in his face with my shorty-gloved left hand.

"You come back tomorrow!"  He said impatiently, beginning to close the door.

"You must let me eat more of the Hunger Special!"  

That stopped him; he eyed me and looked around behind me to see if anyone was watching.  "You Hunger?"

"I Hunger" I declared unhappily, making a great show of being famished.  

"Come in, fetch you to go."   

"Oh!" I stopped him as I walked into the dimly lit restaurant.  "And I would like mine extra rare please, cook very little!"  I smiled at him, doing my best to seem crazy with hunger.  

He smiled and scurried off.  I sat down at a table with the whole place to myself.

Sometime later he returned from the kitchen with a few of those little doggy bags and I opened before paying.  In the slimy stir-fry I thought I could see raw little pieces of grey soft material with pinkish edges.  It had groves that looked very familiar.  I looked up and smiled hungrily at the man and he smiled back.  I continued to inspect it until my head clicked and I realized I was starring at brain matter.  I smiled again as I tried to keep my supper down and made a reach into my jacket as to get my wallet.  Instead I drew the shotgun out and sighted it on his chest.  

"Me love you long time."  I said through clenched teeth as the China-guy threw up his hands.  I got to my feet and kept him out of grab-my-gun range.  "Now just what the fuck is going on here?  Is that human brain in there?  And why does it make people into monsters!?"  

The man stuttered in Chinese, quivering with fear, I was furious and thought about coring out this guy’s head with my shotgun… like Audrey… she didn’t deserve that shit.

"Don’t kill him, he is my nephew…" said a gravelly voice from the kitchen.  I walked around the man, putting my back to the door the nephew between me and the cook.  A hunched, lumbering creature came out from the shadows to stand off to the side of his nephew.  

Just like Daniel only her it had progressed further… he was a hairless pointed head with tan sandpapery skin and at least three rows of serrated teeth in his over sized mouth.  His fingers were elongated and ended in black wicked talons.  He stood still as if he knew the score; I'd blow them both away at first excuse.  But that fucker was huge.

"Kay, ugly, spill your guts, why are you turning people-"

"It’s called The Hunger," sharky interrupted me, somehow moving that huge horrid maw in ways in which to speak.  "It is the curse that befalls those who feast on the hearts and brains of his fellow man."

"You speak very clean English, for a mouth like that.  So you were a cannibal before this happened…"

"I had no choice," the monster said, beseeching me with his long fingered gestures.  "The angered spirits told me I had to infect ten others with The Hunger, by eating human brains and hearts, and then I would be forgiven and freed from the curse.  It was not easy, brains and hearts don’t always have the curse and eaters don’t contract it.  It has been very difficult, to get the resources, and after the first six the government wised up and I was forced to leave my ancestral home.  Then we came to America… I only need a few more… and I will be free of this."  

At this point he was getting a little angry or agitated I couldn’t really tell which.  His face was drawn over those teeth and his pitch black eyes seemed bigger than before.  He was getting really dialoguey and it was making me nervous. 

Sure enough, before I could mount a response to these new revelations I was jumped by another cook who must have been sneaking around from another door from the kitchen.  He knocked my gun down with a broomstick and then struck my face. 

I reeled backwards.  I clutched the shotgun with everything I had.  As the second bald half-beast in an apron tripped me the shotgun went off in my hands as I clenched it to hang on.  It was a real hip-shot, a misfire. Regardless, the buckshot was like a cannon next to my ear and hit the nephew square in the chest.  I couldn’t hear a fucking thing at this point, but I did see the nephew fall, his stomach a blossom of red through his black apron.  I landed on my ass and cocked the shotgun as I rolled under a table.

I heard the inhuman roar of the Hunger-stricken monster as it sprinted around the side of the tables to flank me.  I emptied a shell into the top of the table as the broomstick guy tried to jab his tool under the table.  He ran for cover after that, not sure if I had hit him.  

I cocked it for number three as the monster tore a beeline for me, showing immense strength through its shoulders and legs as it flung tables and chairs from its path with ease.  Even through that ridiculous uniform I could see this man was ripped.  I didn't know if he was a linebacker before he was an monster and it didn't matter right now.

I fired at his legs as he ran forward but he leaped as I fired.  I don't think I even grazed him.  I had a second to react before his massive body landed on the table I was under and it collapsed under his weight like a ton of bricks.  I rolled and cocked the gun as it came down on my head and chest, leaving me legs pinned under his weight and fragments of table.  

He lay on top of me, keeping the gun pressed against my chest and pointing at my feet.  With him on the table he set to work on my leg.  I could see my feet by looking at the bottom corner of my eyes.  A huge circular mouth of jagged sharpies clamped down on my right thigh.  I cried out and debated firing my gun between my legs, it was a tough call but I wanted to live.  As he bit deeper, dangerously close to the Femoral artery, I used the jolt of pain to flex my whole body up giving me a clearer shot as a fired.  If I wasn’t already deaf this would have blown out my ears.    I felt a few pellets burrow into my foot where the thing’s had had been a moment before.  Same damn foot that got bite earlier.  Blood splatted everywhere and the weight vanished from me.

I scrambled with my mangled leg out from under the table.  I cocked the my trusty shotty and noted I only two shots left before I would have to reload, and that would kill me for sure.  Once I was free and on my feet I noticed the monster crouched over his dead nephew, eating his chest and head with equal vigor.  The creature that had tried to protect relative had given into The Hunger quite literally and was fatally distracted.  

I sighted on the creature's bulky back when the broom handle come down over my neck.  I had a second to go with it.  I rocked back with the broom handle and head butted the sweeper guy in the nose.  I ducked under his stunned arms and hit backward with the butt of the gun as hard as I could.  He was down like a puppet with his strings cut, out of breath.  His head slammed into the floor and he stopped moving.

I spun around to kill the monster.  He was on his feet, hearing the commotion perhaps, and heading my way.  I sighted and fired, too quickly, the shot blasted into the monsters left arm as it sprung forward and rushed me.  I backed up to the wall, cocked, and fired again hitting him square in the chest.  He staggered and I had just enough time to dive behind a buffet table.  The creature darted past and become tangled in two chairs before falling over in a crash of broken wood.

No shells, I had to act fast, take this thing to hell. I could hear him getting up and moving closer, heavy malformed feet pounding the tile floor.  I pulled a pipe bomb from a cargo pocket and produced a lighter.  I had the thing lit with a 3 inch fuse... about 9 seconds.  

I got back to my feet as fast as I could, the fuse burning too fast and I wanted to make I made it count.  I peered over the buffet table.  Sharky was now crouched over the broomstick man, enjoying another free meal from one of his kin.  

I wasn’t a good fighter, I was a lucky fool, and that thing was a slave to its appetite.  I rolled the pipe across the floor.  The creature spun its big ugly head in time for me to give him the bird with one hand and pull out another pipe bomb with the other, the hissing bomb rolled between his legs and I ducked.  

"Fuck you!"  I cried from behind the buffet bar.  

KABOOM!  A piece of shrapnel simply appeared in my my left shin.  Same Goddamn leg again!  At least I still had one complete leg with no damage.  The metal was a burning lance of pain and I went down screaming as I struggled to get enough control of myself to light another pipe bomb. 

I heard a horrible howling sound.  I limped back over to the end of the table and looked out in time for both my legs to get scooped up by long talons.  He had me good; I kicked desperately, keeping that bloody mouth away from me, the pain in my right leg excruciating, pick a spot.  I didn’t let my head get smacked as I was pulled off my feet.  I slapped my arms down to prevent me from getting bonked on the head.  

I clenched the lit bomb like a lifeline.  It had about 2 inches left leaving me with a few seconds to get rid of it.  I could toss it away or behind him and let it eat me.  Maybe some shards would slow him down… yeah right.  The lower half of this thing was a bloody mess, legs torn to ribbons. Good.
But It wasn’t going to stop for a few more pock marks in its back.  At half an inch left on the fuse I plunged the bomb into that huge mouth with my right hand (my good hand) and it clamped down reflexively on it.  There was no getting my arm out of that, but it didn’t like the burning fuse in his mouth and opened again as I flung myself down and covered my head.  

His face exploded, jaw falling free and skull hitting the ceiling.  Of course I didn’t see that as more shrapnel torn into my body.

I lay there bleeding, feeling numb and stupid.  Luck and stupidity had seen me through to the revenge of Audrey and now I was sure I was bleeding out on the floor.  "Smile you sumbitch."  

I’m not sure how long I lay there, it could have been hours or minutes.  I didn't die.  The smell of smoke roused me from my fetal position of agony followed immediately by the fire alarms going off. Apparently my pipe bomb had started a small fire.  It was a crappy building and had no sprinkler system built in.  Somehow I dragged myself painfully to my feet and staggered all the way to my pickup outside.  It’s kind of a blur; I think I stopped off up the street due to loss of blood.

I woke up in the hospital and had to do a lot of explaining.  They pulled one of those shark-teeth out of my leg, and now I wear it as a necklace.  Long story short, I use private Doctor or myself from here on out.  From then on I had a new addiction. Hunting down the supernatural nasties.  Every time I kill one of them I get a piece of my old reality back.  A little more normal back into the world.

"Maybe someday I can forgive myself for letting Audrey die.  I work as a bartender when I can, travel, keep a light life so I can pick up and run if I have to.  I pay with cash, leave little trace, and keep a very low profile.  I’m not the only one either, I have some contacts with a homegrown organization called the Union and sometimes they point me in the right direction.  Their collective advice has saved my hide more times than I can count.  Most of the time I let the drunk people talk and try to steer the conversation to the weird and bizarre, I changed my name to Jack Slayer, to protect my remaining family and create an alias-"

“Ever kill a vampire?”  The man interrupted as casually as possible.  Jack was stunned.  First time he had spoken in a long time.  

“Once."  Jack replied, voice guarded.

“Ah yes, so it was you… I had doubts until this moment.”

"What do you mean?” Jack asked, he suddenly felt like he was rooted to the spot and unable to move.

“You killed my Sire.”  The pale man flashed a fanged grin.  Now Jack knew the score, he was being mentally manipulated by vampire and paralyzed.  He should have noticed.  It had started so subtly.

“Now we are going to take a little stroll outside so no one will see whatever happened to ole’ Jack Slayer,"  the man-in-white said as he got to his feet.

Jack felt the pull of the vamp’s will against his own and he was losing.  He would walk out of here and stand still and quiet while this dead thing drank him dry.  Unless he could by time, play upon the vampire's notoriously short temper and lack of self control when it comes to blood.

“Come along Jacky, my Sire will meet you there... in hell.”  The man stood, coaxing him out from the security of the counter.  The crowd had died down by then were largely ignoring them.  More vampire tricks, perhaps.

The man-in-white suddenly felt Jack resist and mentally pull away.  Jack hadn’t moved, it took all he could not to take the first step to his doom.  Jack got angry, fought against the chains wrapped around his brain.  He smiled suddenly, and clenched his fists and teeth.

“You’re Sire? Is that like your daddy?”  The vampire was surprised, and his frustration deepened.  Jack's smile widened.  “Guess that means I’m your daddy now…”  

That did it; the vampire released his mental grip and roared.  Drunken people yelled, screamed and dove out of the way as he tore forward and made to jump over the counter and attack Jack.  

Jack was nimble, Jack was quick, Jack grabbed his lighter and bottle of ever-clear.  And as the undead lord dove onto the counter to claw at jack with inhuman claws that had sprouted in an instant, Jack lit the top of the bottle and smashed it into the creatures head.  Flames roar over the counter as Jack withdrew quickly and the man-in-white became a screaming man-of -blazing-agony. 

Jack had learned from fighting the last vampire that they lit up like Christmas trees and were very scared of fire.  The anger had now turned to stark terror and the not-so-human torch bolted through the crowd.  It was time for Mr. Slayer to make a hasty exit.  He grabbed his bottle of Lord Calvert and ran out the back door after the vampire.  He would have to quit the job now, get a bartender job in another town.  It was a pity too many people saw that, he was just getting cozy here.

The vampire, completely engulfed in flame, tore around the back of the building, flesh blackened, and screaming.  He rolled around on the ground like a man having a seizure, moving supernaturally fast.  It put the flames out and clawed the ground, unaware of a few glimmering flames on its back.  

Jack walked purposefully around the building behind the smoking vampire.  Jack took one last long swig from the bottle of Lord Calvert and then chucked it at the vampire.  The bottle shattered across his back and the flames came back in full force.  The creature rolled around for a time and then stopped.  Then it popped like a bloated tick and burning entrails spilled across the ground.  It smoldered into a pile of tar and ash in a few minutes.

Jack was already gone.  He walked the other way muttering a little rhyme under his breath and fingering his toothed necklace.  “There once was a man who had a plan and his name was Slayer J…”

[Hunter: The Vigil 2e] Slayer J vs The Hunger (Part 2)

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Slayer J vs The Hunger

(Part 2)

I actually wrote this short story in 2007 to feature an NPC who had recently started his Vigil. Sources Taken from the nWoD Antagonists sourcebook, it actually picks right up the story header for The Hunger from the Antagonists book and incorporates it into a larger story.

I watched in horror at Audrey’s slumped body lying on the floor, her lifeless eyes ringed in blood.  Still warm, her heart still pumped and blood spurted out of the huge gaping hole taking up the entire back of her head, pooling rapidly on the linoleum.  I watched her die, the only woman I will ever love.  How had this happened?

At first I thought Daniel just looked like shit, like a meth head or something, standing there in jeans and a blood stained tank top.  But after a few seconds I took in the impossibly wide mouth and I was certain.  Not human.  Reality shattered as I beheld the ex-boyfriend, changed to something else.  He stalked forward as the other students screamed out in complete terror.  Daniel scarcely looked like himself; his eyes  black pits, his fingernails sharp and thick.  He had a mix of normal and serrated pointy teeth and his hair was just a few thin patches on his pale head.

In the moments it took for the students to flee in a panic, crying out and tripping over each other as they did anything to get out of the wing, I was changed forever.  Something inside me snapped.  Students would later attribute Daniel’s freakish behavior on drugs and compounding mental disorder.  But I wasn’t fooled, he was a monster. Monsters existed. 

I have never since escaped this dark truth.  They say life is but a dream, well it always feels like I am dreaming when I see things like Daniel, except it’s a nightmare, and it’s as real as you and me friend.  I was filled with a simple and blind rage that I never known I contained.  I ran out and stood in front of the creature, my face twisted with anger and blind determination to put an end to Daniel, to the nightmare I was seeing, and avenge Audrey.  I tried to speak but my voice just came out as a low, guttural grunt.

I looked in its eyes, these cold reptilian eyes, and they saw me as food or an obstacle.  There was nothing understanding about it.  It opened its mouth filled with those horrible misshapen and overlapping teeth as wide as a basketball and lunged at my head.  I darted to the side and jabbed my elbow into one of Daniel’s eye sockets as hard as I could.  He staggered under the blow but wrapped his arms around my chest digging in with those filthy coke-nails.  He opened his mouth, attempting to clamp down on my chest and tear me and new one, but I brought my knee up into his chin, slamming his mouth closed with a teeth-breaking crunch. 

I drove my fucking knee into his chin again and again, breaking off those shark teeth and keeping that huge mouth away from me.  Then he got wise and grabbed my free leg.  We fell forward breaking one of the common room’s end table, which felt groovy by the way.

He pretty much had me mounted and tore at my hands with his sharp nails pinning me to the ground as he leaned in to eat my face.  I was a mass of tiny cuts and all blind hatred.  Daniel had never been this tough, it seems whatever had changed him added some muscle to him as well, or maybe it was adrenaline. 

As he came in to clamp his pack-man-from-hell face on mine, to core my brain out like Audrey, I beat him to the punch.  I gambled my brains and head-butted him in the nose as hard as I could.  His nose crushed in too easily but blood squirted from the small deformed nostrils.  His head rocked back and he sprayed blood and teeth out of his mouth and into my face. 

I had one chance… I used the fact he was off balance to get my legs up and my hands free.  I grabbed the collar of his sticky shirt and pulled him forward while ramming my knee up his ass with everything I had.  He soared over me as I rolled forward and his head went right into the cheapy dorm wall.  I rolled out from under him and staggered to my feet, desperate to find a weapon.

I ran forward to grab a broken  table leg from the end table I broke before I realized my mistake. Audrey had died from behind, running, and I had turned my back on the thing.  Those cold sand-papery hands shot out from behind me and wrapped around my head, jerking me backwards off my feet and towards the gaping maw.  I could feel hot rotten breath at my neck, sense his eager, salivating mouth.  I actually saw the row of teeth chomping down on my forehead when I jabbed my stick back over my head and down Dan Dan’s throat.  He croaked and I used the leverage from hitting him to rock myself back forward and out of eating range.

Big mouth didn’t like the way things were going and so with his hands still around my face he flung me into the opposite wall.  I went head first into the plaster of the wall with a muffled crunch and went limp from the blow.  I saw blackness and stars.  I couldn’t even remember where I was anymore.  Cold rough hands with needle-nails pulled me out of the wall by the hair on the back of my head and slammed me unceremonially into the floor with an explosive boom.  The wind knocked out of me.

I was losing pretty bad; I could feel warm blood seeping out of my head.  I was in a great deal of pain, and adrenaline was doing little to help me anymore.  I was going to get eaten.

I rolled up so I was sitting and leaning against the wall, I couldn’t really see anything through the waterfall of blood in my eyes.  I must have got cut on his teeth or maybe when my head went in the wall.  Daniel the human mouth crawled over to me on his arms and legs like some lanky bleeding bug, face dripping saliva.  Then his face split into that huge mouth and with some last reflex I threw my left arm up to protect my face.  He clamped down on my arm and blood welled up as he shook and torn my flesh.  I cried out and flexed my right hand to discover it still clenched the sharp wooden end-table leg.

Without a second thought I jabbed it into his neck.  He spit putrid blood into my face and I had a moment to reflect and hope that whatever it was that made him like this wasn’t blood borne.  I viciously pulled the wood fragment back out with a twist and blood sprayed out of the arterial wound in rhythm with his heart.  I screamed at him, screamed into that bloody horrible face chomping on my arm.  Its jaws loosened slightly as I drove the stake into one of its eyes sockets and I finally could reclaim my bloody arm.  I kicked at the beast as I staggered to my feet; it managed to bite into my foot.  I screamed again as the teeth sank in, but the boots and the fact that half it's lifeblood was on the floor made the bite not as strong.  I managed to kick my foot free, the bloody boot left behind. 

It was a mad thing now, bleeding out with only its anger and hunger driving it.  But it was getting up again.  I half-limped and half ran to the other side of the room.  He was between me and the stairwell now.  I had to finish this fight to the death, delay until the neck wound wore it down, I prayed that it would kill him.  It slowly staggered up and clawed after me, the stake sticking out of its face like a lop-sided reddish brown unicorn horn.  I picked up the nearby furniture and threw them at Daniel the monster.  A chair, another chair, an end table, a small love seat.  He was five feet away when I flipped the cheap dorm couch over him.  A ratty hand shot out from under the couch, followed by the horrible face with an oozing wood chunk for an eye. 

I was in a shitty state, and I was just a bit frustrated with this things lack of dying.  In utter desperation I  curb stomped the top of Daniel’s head, I did this for what seemed like forever, long after the he stopped moving, long after I couldn’t recognize a face under that bloody mess.  I collapsed next to Audrey and grasped her cool hand.

The death match had lasted only a minute or two but had seemed like a half an hour.  I was still in a dream world (it could have been the blood loss at this point), and I knew that students and cops would be coming soon.  How to explain all this?  It was time to leave… and that’s one lesson I have never regretted learning:  When you live in the nightmare world of monsters, no sane person can help you.  They’d lock me up and put me on death row.  And just what had done this to Daniel?  I don’t suppose he was a monster all along?  I dragged my mangled body into his room.

His floor was covered with those little Chinese food boxes, contents empty except for a fresh batch near the bed.  I looked in the box; I saw stir-fry… but now I wasn’t so sure.  Was that chicken, pork, or something that makes people into the broken thing in the commons?  I looked at the receipts; they were all from the Golden Dragon.  He always ordered the Hunger Special.   

I minded my boots, not getting in Audrey's blood trail and noticed I was dripping blood from the bite in my foot.  I heard commotion on the stairwell and ran up the stairs instead of down.  When a veritable crowd of people entered the floor I just left I crept down to the basement.  There used to be bunks and an old restroom that no one used anymore for back when the dorms were under renovation and some of the students had to stay there.  I cleaned up with a shower with my clothing on and then wrapped my deep wounds with pieces of cloth from my shirt.  My head wound had already stopped bleeding, and my left arm was the worst of it. This is the first of many self-medicinal sessions I would have to have in my life.  Thank goodness I had been a Boy Scout for a few years.

I pulled the fire alarm an hour later and joined the massive crowd of students shuffling out of the building, annoyed at the disturbance.  I had my coat zipped up and kept my head down, I wasn’t noticed. The police and ambulances were already on scene from the deaths upstairs.  Daniel and Audrey.

I went back to my dorm, luckily my roommate wasn’t in.  I cleaned up more properly and dressed my wounds with a first aid kit I usually kept in my car.  Then I headed out in the thickest jacket and pants I could find.  My hunting coveralls and jacket made the best teeth protection.

I was working at a hardware store downtown as a part time job to supplement my college expenses.  It was 8:00pm and they were still open long enough for my purposes.  It was no Cabela’s but it didn’t leave me wanting.  And hey, employee discount.  I convinced the guy working that night that I was actually going to close and convinced him he should have himself a nice time.  He said a few boxes had come in that day and he hadn’t had time to put the stuff away or even receive the shipment in the computer.  I would make it so that a few of the boxes wouldn’t ever arrive. 

I walked out at 10 with a Remington M870 and more shells then I could possibly need.  I also used some cannon fuses and black powder to make me half a dozen pipe bombs.  I sawed off the barrel of the Shotgun so I could hide it in my coat… just like the movies.  I was going to pay the Golden Dragon a little visit and see how good their Hunger Special really was.

[Hunter: The Vigil 2e] Slayer J vs The Hunger (Part 1)

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Slayer J vs The Hunger

(Part 1)

I actually wrote this short story in 2007 to feature an NPC who had recently started his Vigil. Sources Taken from the nWoD Antagonists sourcebook, it actually picks right up the story header for The Hunger from the Antagonists book and incorporates it into a larger story.

“That’s a nice scar you got there.” The gentlemen in the expensive white suit said casually, pointing to the bartender’s neck and the thin white line marked into the flesh there. It was barely visible in the low light. His suit made his face glow white, strobed by the lights from the dance floor.

“So nice of you to notice... so what‘s your poison bub?” The bartender replied, turning to him with a shot glass in one hand and a rag in the other. He regarded this new comer with a slight frown. He noted the man, sitting on the stool stiff as a board. As if he was a pointer dog on a hunt. He felt a little uneasy at first, but this gave way to curiosity and even admiration, as if he was warming himself on the suit-man’s charisma alone.

“I’ll have some red wine if you please,” the man replied with a smile of pearly white teeth.

Jack the bartender’s frown deepened.

“Buddy I think this is the wrong place for that. Look around. This isn’t exactly a gentleman’s club.” He gestured to the room swinging his rag in a small circle. The place was a cross between a small dance club and a truck stop longue. Sure they had a few pool tables, a DJ, and some Black Jack tables to boot. But nothing that would suggest that you would see a strange man like this in an all white suit ordering wine like he was going to kick back in a leather arm chair and talk stock exchange.

 Jack hoped the man wasn’t going to bore him with the details; he hadn’t waited for an answer and already had a small wine glass in front of him.

“Tab or run it?” He asked politely, moving on from the first question. The customer was always right after all. This guy seemed like one cool cat, why the hell did he feel uneasy one second and ready to have some wine with the guy the next?

The man handed him a discover card with a graceful gesture and Jack took it without looking at it.

“Start a tab, I have a feeling I will be having a lot to drink tonight.” He said slyly.

“My kinda fella” Jack said smiling wider than intended. He took note of that too. He started the tab and made sure everyone else crowding around the bar was taken care of. It was past midnight so the crowd was pretty tanked and was in full club mode. He had to shout to be heard over the din of some rap tune or other dance music. He made his way back to the man in white, continuously drawn back.  Interesting fellow.  If he had touched his wine Jack didn’t notice.

“So are you coming from a party or something?” Jack asked politely. The man shrugged, “I’m going to a party actually, thought I would warm up here first.”

“Pretty late party you got going on tonight...” Jack said.  Jack planned to later ask about what kind of party it was. This strange ethereal man beat him to the next conversational punch.

“I want to talk about that scar Jack.” The man said with the warmth of familiarity.  He looked directly into the bartender’s eyes and Jack felt himself twist on the inside.  Jack could hear him clearly, despite the confidential tone.

When did I tell this guy my name? Wait I know this guy! Jack stared, trying to figure out where he had seen the man before. He felt vaguely familiar. Why couldn’t he remember such a trusted friend? Maybe it was one of his poker buddies from college…

“You spend a great deal of time in this bar Jack, you like to let people talk about themselves. You like to use what information you find. Isn’t it about time… that you told someone about your problems?”

The piercing gaze of the man burrowed into Jack, compelling him to confide his secrets, imploring silently that Jack’s soul take a load off… and why the hell not? He had never told anyone what happened after she…. Wasn’t it time for some closure? Some penitence and confessional? He could trust this guy; he's was more trustworthy Jack's mother, that was for sure.

“I thought you would never ask buddy, a lot has happened since we had a talk, it’s been like a goddamn razor blade Ferris-wheel.  Damn man, now I need a drink.” He took a swig from a bottle of Lord Calvert he kept under the counter just for him.

“I know Jack, just start at the beginning.” The man implored further, he became the only thing in the room as everything else faded into a blurry background. Jack kept serving drinks, and kept coming back until he got another bartender to talk over.  Sitting next to the man in white, Jack held his bottle and started talking, occasionally taking deep droughts.  He didn't stop until he had told this pale man what had changed his life.

I grew up in Pittsburg, the eldest child to my Irish/German parents. Dad loved the drink; they divorced right before I turned 18. I also got a younger brother Jacob but enough about the mushy stuff. Everyone has or had a family, that’s not important.  That part of my life has damn near vanished when you see things from this point of view. I’ve always liked mechanical stuff, building car engines, wiring the basement. It was only natural that I went to Boston U to get my Mechanical Engineering Degree.

College was an eye opener for me, as it usually is for kids. I was far away from home in a big city where Jack didn’t mean shit. I just stuck my nose in those books and kept my head out of trouble. 

That was until I met Audrey. She was smart, beautiful, and really hot too. Blonde hair, blue eyes, long legs, a regular California girl. She was going to be a nurse... or something, kind of hard to remember… and not that any of that really matters anymore. Only problem was, she wasn’t single. She was dating this asswhipe Daniel.

I’ll never forget the first time I met her. It was the fall semester of junior year and it was raining. She was sitting under a gazebo, her long blonde hair in her face, her head drooped down. She was crying. She and ass-master had been fighting and she had been forced to dump him. Apparently they were high school sweethearts or something and went to college together; from So Cal I am pretty sure. Normally I would have kept walking but seeing someone so beautiful so sad I approached to ask if she was okay. She whispered something, probably ‘I’m fine’ but I didn’t hear and sat down next to her.

Now I am no Jackonova, but I did get her to calm down and tell me her problems. Normally I wouldn’t really listen to some girl talk about another guy but I decided to make an exception on account of her cans. She was some woman, Daniel was really missing out. Apparently they recently went out for their anniversary at the new Chinese joint that opened up near campus.  Shortly after that they had started growing apart. He became so consumed with homework or video games or anything he could think up to keep ditching her and lock himself up in his room. 

She hadn’t seen him in weeks, she had to dump him over the phone.  He wouldn’t even meet her anywhere, even his friends hadn’t seen him in days. Well I asked her if she wanted to eat at this steak place and after some reluctant protests and my promises of just friendship we went. I even got her to smile that first meal we spent together. I know this is some sappy shit but bare with me, we are almost to the… horrible parts.

After that, she didn’t want to be alone, didn’t want to return to her room where she would look at the walls and wonder what Daniel was doing. They were usually so inseparable it was disgusting to listen to. I asked her if she liked booze and scary movies since these were my two favorite things other than her. She accepted and we stayed over, my roommate Craig was thankfully away for the weekend. We got scared, we got smashed and we fell asleep next to each other in bean bag chairs.

Ah, Audrey, after that things were awesome. She used me to distract herself from the break up, and I got eye candy and a buddy to drink and watch movies with. She loved my rough and tumble attitude and cow boyish mannerisms and I had her yams to think about. Sooner or later another drunk night, an innocent kiss, and I was head over heels, I think she was too.

Then the inevitable day came when I became the real sucker. Apparently she and Daniel had some kind of a lame heart to heart and had made some sort of break through with his shitty behavior. They were going out and have dinner tonight, and this time she was sure that he would come to his senses and it would be like back before they came to college. 

They had done some bouncing back and forth like this before so at first I wasn’t worried but she was sure that this time would be different somehow. I didn’t raise a fuss, but later that night after some Lord Calvert I realized I loved her and I didn’t want to lose her to that abusive loser. I knew they were meeting at his dorm at around 6:00. So I snuck over there and hid in a suite entryway across the room from Daniels’ dorm room. 

By the time I got there I was too late. She was already at his door and she didn’t look happy, from the sound of it Daniel was blowing her off again. I started to step out to comfort her and sneak her off, to confess my undying love and other mushy stuff but the door to the room opened and she entered. 

I had failed, The new Daniel got to her first…

Audrey stood outside the closed door of her boyfriend’s dorm room, arms crossed over her chest, her

face petulant. “You said we were going to go out tonight, Daniel!” she shouted loudly enough that several students came out of their rooms. The curious wanted to watch the show about to unfold.

“You… you don’t understand Audrey. I have to… I need to finish this term paper.” Daniel’s reply was slow and quiet, as if his attention were somewhere else.

Audrey could hear papers and aluminum cans being shuffled around inside the room.

“Well, could you at least open the door so I can see you?” When no reply came, Audrey knocked hard on the door. “Damn it, Daniel, open the door! This isn’t funny!”

“All right, we can share my dinner,” Daniel said.

Slowly the door opened. Audrey stepped inside, taking a moment to glare at several of the people watching. When the door closed, several students emerged from their respective dorms to talk.

“I don’t know why she stays with him. Isn’t this the second time in two weeks that he’s done this to her?”asked a petite, blonde girl.

“Ever that Chinese restaurant opened down the street, he’s been holing himself up in his room, getting delivery after delivery of the stuff,” offered a young man in a frayed sweater. “I mean, Neil couldn’t take it anymore and went to stay with his brother while Housing’s looking for another room for him.”

He looked like shit, like his hair was falling out,” said another girl. The trio exchanged nervous glances at each other and then at the door. Not a sound.

“Do you think they’re making up in…”

Audrey’s scream pierced through the door and echoed through the hallway. The trio scattered with just enough time to watch the door shatter off its hinges. Daniel stood in the doorway, his mouth hanging open impossibly wide, showing bloody, serrated teeth. His eyes were as black as a shark’s and just as emotionless. His face, shirt and hands were completely covered with blood. Audrey’s body lay behind him, her head open and hollowed out like a Halloween pumpkin.

“Anyone else for dinner?”

[Chronicles of Darkness] The Hunger Curse

 Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

The Hunger Curse

More groundwork for our next Chronicle. Sources Taken from the nWoD Antagonists sourcebook, as well as Boston Unveiled and Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition.  Quotes on cannibalism are taken from the cult classic video/web game Fallen London.

Audrey stood outside the closed door of her boyfriend’s dorm room, arms crossed over her chest, her
face petulant. “You said we were going to go out tonight, Daniel!” she shouted loudly enough that several students came out of their rooms. The curious wanted to watch the show about to unfold.

“You… you don’t understand Audrey. I have to… I need to finish this term paper.” Daniel’s reply was slow and quiet, as if his attention were somewhere else.

Audrey could hear papers and aluminum cans being shuffled around inside the room.

“Well, could you at least open the door so I can see you?” When no reply came, Audrey knocked hard on the door. “Damn it, Daniel, open the door! This isn’t funny!”

“All right, we can share my dinner,” Daniel said.

Slowly the door opened. Audrey stepped inside, taking a moment to glare at several of the people watching. When the door closed, several students emerged from their respective dorms to talk.

“I don’t know why she stays with him. Isn’t this the second time in two weeks that he’s done this to her?”asked a petite, blonde girl.

“Ever that Chinese restaurant opened down the street, he’s been holing himself up in his room, getting delivery after delivery of the stuff,” offered a young man in a frayed sweater. “I mean, Neil couldn’t take it anymore and went to stay with his brother while Housing’s looking for another room for him.”

He looked like shit, like his hair was falling out,” said another girl. The trio exchanged nervous glances at each other and then at the door. Not a sound.

“Do you think they’re making up in…”

Audrey’s scream pierced through the door and echoed through the hallway. The trio scattered with just enough time to watch the door shatter off its hinges. Daniel stood in the doorway, his mouth hanging open impossibly wide, showing bloody, serrated teeth. His eyes were as black as a shark’s and just as emotionless. His face, shirt and hands were completely covered with blood. Audrey’s body lay behind him, her head open and hollowed out like a Halloween pumpkin.

“Anyone else for dinner?”

Background:
While most of humanity has no problem with feasting on animals, to eat another human is to become a monster. Even though some cultures lack this taboo, seeing cannibalism as a form of ancestor worship or method of gaining the strength of an enemy, this fear thrives. The fear of cannibalism is an extension of the fear of being eaten, which most modern-day people never have to contend with.

Human beings sit at the top of the food chain, for all practical purposes. And yet, something of that primal fear still lingers in the minds of mankind. Creatures lurk in the dark that can and do feast on human flesh, and humanity keeps that knowledge and the terror it engenders, even if no one would ever admit to it. Did the Hunger arise from that fear, a malady created from one of our oldest nightmares, or did the curse come first, doing its part to create that fear? The question is academic. The Hunger exists, and even if it was born from fear its effects are horrifyingly real.

Description:
"Now the hunger has you - the deeper hunger, lower than the belly, louder than the heart. It grips and shakes you like a rat."

The Hunger is a curse that can affect anyone who eats the heart or brain of another human being, at any time. The curse does not differentiate between those who willingly partake of human flesh and
those who are tricked into it. Not all human meat carries the Hunger, of course. The Hunger isn’t a disease or bacteria in the flesh, it is a supernatural affliction. Sometimes it arises spontaneously, especially in those who eat human flesh repeatedly. Other times, a powerful mage or spirit can deliberately afflict a cannibal with the Hunger. Those cursed by the Hunger have no way of knowing
it until the physical and mental effects begin to kick in.

These afflictions can start anywhere from an hour to a month after eating a human heart or brain. Throughout the curse, the afflicted person begins to take on shark-like characteristics, his mentality devolving into a hungry, instinct-driven beast. The curse goes through several distinct stages, each happening after the afflicted consumes another heart or brain, compounding each other until the afflicted becomes nothing more than the embodiment of Hunger itself.  The Hunger affects human beings, mages, werewolves and other supernatural beings. The undead cannot suffer from this curse.

Hunger Curse Stage One:
"You remember the hollow voice you heard in your dreams. The gnawing hunger in your belly. The way the darkness seemed populated with tiny movements. The sense you had that your bones were outgrowing your skin... perhaps you shouldn't go back. It's more peaceful here."


The afflicted person begins to crave the taste of human hearts or brains, and his dreams are filled
with scenes of gruesome cannibal feasts. Systems: At this point, the victim is little more than disturbed and disgusted.

System: Inflicts the Condition: Nightmares (preventing willpower recovery from sleep) and forcing the victim to recover willpower points from Vice and Virtue.  They also gain the  Condition: Hunger Curse Stage I: all Mental and Social rolls suffer a –1 penalty.  Whenever the character is exposed to human (dead or alive) gore or blood (ST discretion) they must roll Resolve + Composure (a willpower point can be used to avoid the roll for a scene).  If they win they don't give into the impulses to try to eat the blood or gore.  If they lose they make active efforts to intelligently (and stealthily) try to eat human flesh and blood.  If they are hungry or fatigued penalties can apply to this roll.  They can expend a willpower point to turn their impulse to other raw meat at the first opportunity as an emergency alternative.

Hunger Curse Stage Two

"The more you eat, the more you need. Your belly gnaws at you as you gnaw at raw meat, fungus, tent-poles, fresh cats, childhood memories, your own limbs. Perhaps you should continue."

The victim now constantly craves the taste of human organs and develops a bad habit of staring at healthy people (as they would make good meals). His pupils seem to overcome his irises, turning them black. He still retains the white of his eyes, however. Hair thins all across his body, even falling out in small patches. Fingernails grow hard and pointed. The most disturbing part of this stage is that a few of his teeth fall out every night, only to be replaced by pointed and serrated teeth resembling a shark’s. The dreams cease at this point.

System:  The character also gains Condition: Hunger Curse Stage II: While the afflicted person’s fingernails and teeth seem to become weapons.  Brawl attacks with fingernails and teeth do Lethal Damage but take -1 to the attack roll as if they were improvised weapons. Social rolls that involve eye contact or general appearance incur a –1 penalty because of the afflicted’s eyes and hair. Intimidation is unaffected.They still make Resolve + Composure rolls to resist feeding on wounded or dead people but an added penalty of -2 is added to the roll. A willpower point can be used to avoid the roll for a scene.  If they are given no alternative they can expend a willpower point to turn their impulse to other rare meat at the first opportunity.

Hunger Curse Stage Three

"In the morning your sheets are crusted with blood. Your fingernails clogged with skin. There is a taste beneath your tongue."

The third stage of the Hunger curse is horrifying. The victim’s eyes lose all trace of humanity, all of his hair falls out, his fingernails become claws and his teeth turn into fearsome shark teeth. His skin texture turns to that of sandpaper. The victim begins to experience violent mood swings, going from lethargic to enraged at the smallest provocations. The dreams return, more intense than before, but the afflicted wakes up every morning ravenously hungry.

System:  Condition: Hunger Curse Stage III is added along with the other Stages. All Social Attributes fall to 1, while Physical Attributes increase by one dot each (Health, Willpower and other derived traits adjust accordingly). The character now inflicts lethal damage with his claws and teeth (1L). The character suffers a –2 penalty to all Mental rolls except for those directly relating to finding food. Finally, the character’s Vice changes to focus on cannibalistic gluttony and one of their Aspirations changes to: Eating human flesh.  They still make Resolve + Composure rolls to resist feeding on wounded or dead people but an added penalty of -3 is added to the roll. A willpower point can be used to avoid the roll for a scene.  If the character is out of willpower they automatically fail the roll.  They can no longer turn this hunger on non-human flesh.

Hunger Curse Stage Four
"For I was hungry, and I ate you. I was thirsty, and I drank you." What happened in there? Your memory is patchy. The cutlery. The difficulty with the tablecloth. That business with the mouse. If only it had moved faster. If only the sous-chef had been more cooperative."


While the third stage tortures the mind and transmutes the body, the fourth stage focuses directly on the victim’s physicality. The victim evolves into a powerful hunter. His body strength increases dramatically, along with his physical stamina. He is able to open his mouth past the normal human limit, wide enough to engulf a small child’s head. His claws and fangs elongate, allowing him to tear open a person’s chest cavity or bite open someone’s skull. He also loses the fleshy part of his ears and nose, leaving only holes.

System: Condition: Nightmares goes away forever. Condition: Hunger Curse Stage IV is added to the remaining 3 Hunger Curse conditions. All Social Attributes fall to zero while both Strength and Stamina increase by another two dots each, which may take Attributes above 5 (again, derived traits adjust accordingly). The afflicted’s Size also increases by one, as he gains inhuman muscle bulk. The afflicted does (+2L damage) when attacking with claws or teeth. It can also make bite attacks outside of a grapple.  They still make Resolve + Composure rolls to resist feeding on wounded or dead people but an added penalty of -3 is added to the roll. A willpower point can be used to avoid the roll for a scene.  If the character is out of willpower they automatically fail the roll.

The fourth stage is the last stage recommended for a player character. At this point, the character should either have a chance to undergo a cure or the player should relinquish control to the Storyteller. If the players and the Storyteller are comfortable with one player taking on the role of a flesh-crazy maniac for a Chapter (or however long it takes the other characters to hunt down the Hunger sufferer), feel free.

Hunger Curse Stage Five
"Drown each secret in wine. They scream like buried children. Drink them down; drink them deep. They will rise in you like the water below the well and flower like red spring. You are thirstier now. No. Hungrier."


The fifth stage is the last stage of devolution caused by the Hunger. The victim loses himself completely to the curse. The character is unable to think past his own hunger, which at this point never dies away, no matter how many hearts or brains he eats. Only through an extreme show of determination can the character recover his sanity for a small amount of time.

Systems: Condition: Hunger Curse Stage V is added to the remaining 4 Hunger Curse conditions. The victim’s Intelligence drops to 1, and his Wits and Resolve are reduced by one dot each (again, recalculate derived traits as necessary). At the beginning of a Chapter the victim may make a Resolve + Composure roll to gain control of himself. Each success gives the victim control for one hour/one scene. During this time, the victim still suffers from intense hunger and barely controlled rage, but has enough self control to remove himself from populated areas… or to lay an ambush.  His remaining Aspirations are changed to: Consume a human heart or brain, and feed on whatever flesh you can find.  At this point the afflicted is unable to use any supernatural powers unless they are reflexive in nature.  They no longer roll Resolve + Composure but must spend a willpower point for a given scene or immediately feed on human flesh.

 Complications:

"She is thirsty: so thirsty. She ravages your pantry, overturns water-jugs and milk-bottles, laps and laps. Her eyes are a different colour each time she blinks. "I'm going," she breathes. "I'm going North. Rats will eat my flesh. They will mount my bones to be a throne for their emperor. I can't wait." She arches her back. She bends her head to drink again."

The Hunger is a potent adversary because it is a spiritual or magical curse with direct, physical results. While sufferers of the Hunger, especially in the later stages, pose a significant combat threat for sleepers, curing the Hunger is a different matter entirely.  The Hunger tends to work as a “wrinkle” to complicate other adversaries, too.  Like a killer cult (see whose membership is comprised of Hunger victims.

Suspected Cures:

• The sufferer simply needs a place to “detox” for a month or two, letting the curse work itself out of her system.
• A certain spell or chemical can cure the victim; or perhaps the affliction is permanent, but with treatment the character can curb her desire for human flesh.
• The Hunger can extend past the need for flesh, too, especially if the sufferer retreats to the wilderness. Maybe the sufferer starts taking bites out of whatever is nearby — trees, rocks, beehives, or anything else that it can catch.

Case Studies:
In 2003,  powerful mage from Salem fell victim to the Hunger and sinked into the fourth stage, but through his magic retains enough self-control to keep from running amok. He bargained with Abyssal spirits to remove the curse; these entities agreed to cure him if he “infects” six other people with the Hunger.  When some of “dinner guests” realize that something is wrong with their food, the can simply try again the following week with different guests, using the previous victims as the main course until he was stopped.

In 189l, fresh graves all over the Boston were being emptied and the bodies torn to pieces. A late-stage Hunger sufferer is desecrating graveyards and eating the organs of the deceased, but the chemicals used to preserve them are poisoning her.

In the 90s there were several east coast incidents of Chinese restaurants that were spreading the affliction by putting human meet into the food.

Conclusions:
In 2002, the Boston concilium concluded that the Hunger Curse had originally come from an Abyssal manifestation or summoning.  The entity itself is nothing more than the fact that "tainted" hearts and brains can spread the affliction.  There have been several reported cases of shadow cults on the East Coast and in China that were afflicted as part of membership.  There was a spike in doomsday cult activity outside of Boston in 2012 but the prevalence of this inflection and these cults has fallen in the last 5 years.  Either that or they haven't been visible, growing and bidding time.  Concentrations of cases will sometimes crop up in New England but are met with swift action by the local Arrows.