Approved Characters

Chloe Moore dresses in simple clothes, mostly because she doesn’t have much money to spend on anything expensive and really doesn’t care much about it. She always carries a brown leather messenger bag, where most of her books are kept, alongside other useful items and some spare cash. Aside from the bag she never loses sight, she carries headphones and an Ipod. On her left wrist, she wears a chain with a cross attached at the end.

-Aside from the music she listens, her Ipod contains rituals in Latin recorded by her father.
-She absolutely believes she is one of the chosen of God, and that everything she does is in his name.
-Besides the books she has managed to collect with useful information about ghosts, demons and more, she carries a copy of Pride & Prejudice, which she keeps secret.
-She has Achluophobia and Autophobia.
-She can read & speak in Latin.
-Chloe doesn’t like other people touching her, and tries to avoid it whenever possible.
-Does not talk much, but when she opens up with someone, she will tell them almost everything.
-Her mother died of a heart attack.
-Most often than not, when she sleeps, she tends to dream of a wedding.

Chloe was raised mostly by her father, her mother having died more than ten years ago, the victim of a heart attack. She grew up, attending the church almost daily, and constantly reading the bible, and any religious book or text that came to rest in front of her. She attended public school, and while she knew not everyone shared her believes, she was still perplexed by the religious beliefs in that place, and the things boys and girls did.

It was, during her sixteenth birthday that she found herself trapped in a collapsed tunnel, for three days she was there without food or water, only with the darkness surrounding her. When she was rescued, she found out that she had developed fear of being alone, and fear of the dark, due to her imprisonment, and the things she had heard below. Since that day on, she always had to travel anywhere with someone else, whoever they be, and slept with a light on.

She was in the local church alone, the figure of Jesus looming on top of her, the only thing that helped her ignore her phobias, even if momentarily. The shadow of a man crept up slowly towards her, she heard him, but pay no attention, it was not uncommon for people to come and pray. It was only when she heard her name did she turn her head, only to gaze into the depths of the other man’s eyes, black as the darkness she feared. Chloe did not know what was it, but she knew there was something wrong with him.

A whispered voice in her head, a bright light, and she was alone, with only Jesus protecting her. Tears of blood in its eyes. Then the voice spoke again, told her she had been chosen for a job in earth, she was a messenger and there was something he needed her to do. And she knew it was God’s voice. When she told her father, he blessed the day and helped her gather whatever she needed; there was no doubt in his heart, why would he doubt his only daughter.

Ben tends to dress in loose fitting durable dark brown cargo pants (lots of pockets are important) which he tucks into his dark brown lightweight hiking boots. Shirts tend to vary but they always have at least one pocket. Over his shirts he tends to where a g-man 40 pocket jacket. Otherwise he tends to wear clothes for functionality and efficiency over style.

Ben grew up your typical bookworm of a fairly well to do family. He was physically and emotionally challenged but mentally superior. He did well in public school academically speaking but horribly socially especially since he had skipped a few grades already and was a couple of years younger than his classmates. As a result he spent most of his time in his recreational books. He particularly loved the Sherlock Holmes series as well as stories by Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft, and Arthur Machen. He would later consider these latter authors as visionaries as well as occultist who tried to inform the world of the dangers by publishing it under the guise of fiction. At some point in his childhood he had stumbled across something somewhere that suggested that there were truths hidden within folklore and horror fiction and from that point on he was bound and determined to find them. He fancied himself a sort of young investigator digging into all kinds of books on folklore, the occult and horror trying to find the real truths that were held within.

Ben was at a youth group rally as part of his investigation into religion and how it fit into the grand scheme of things what he found though would change his life forever. On that evening Ben met Chloe, not only was she absolutely gorgeous but she was nice and friendly to him, as a result he fell in love on first interaction. From there he did his best to be where she was and learn as much about her as he could. One could say he was a stalker of sorts but he kept to the fringes doing his best not to let her know. He truly felt that if she knew she would reject him and that would be something he did not want to contemplate. Safer to wait and watch for an opportunity.

The opportunity ??? – this depends on some negotiations which are not completed yet.

The incident of the being trapped in the tunnel had changed Chloe to some degree. A degree that Ben actually enjoyed because it meant she wanted someone with her nearly 24/7 and that was something Ben was more than willing to do. Sure at first he had to share time with her and other friends of hers but even when he wasn’t there he was there as before. Eventually she became more and more comfortable with his presence and even began to open up to him some. Hanging with Chloe was as nearly second nature to him as reading books. The only difference now was that she knew he was there rather than him carefully and secretively watching from afar and she was talking to him and they were getting closer. Patience was indeed a virtue and a virtue that had paid off in spades for Ben.

Then life took another turn. Chloe came to him with some really strange stuff. He listened and went with it perhaps even augmenting as he shared with her some of the stuff he had unearthed thus far. Granted his stuff was theoretical conjecture but surely some of it had to be true especially with what she had just shared with him. He continued to work with her, they even met horror together face to face and his lack of physicalness had almost gotten him killed that night. Chloe had later, just before going out on the hunt once more, had confronted him with this and stated they this was the last one she was going to take him on because he was just physically suited for it. He had implored of her that if he changed that would he be able to join her again and she had concurred. However that night would prove to be there parting of ways in a slightly different manner. They had cornered a vampire in an old building. The situation soon degraded and in order to save Chloe's life Ben had started the house on fire. However, he had to start in fire in a manner that trapped him inside it along with the vampire. He thought he was dead but fate would be with him and he fell into a rather deep cistern that had a small pipe that allowed air to come in from outside. The fall rendered him unconscious and aided in his suffering amnesia, although truth be told most of the amnesia was due to his own mind protecting him from the horrors of that night.

When he finally woke up in the hospital he initially could not recall the events of that night nor much of that which proceeded that night. He however did have an overwhelming urge to become stronger and much more physically adept. Once he got out of the hospital he delved into doing just this. He spent a lot of time in the gym working out and building up muscle, while taking Kung Fu to help him become a better fighter, he studied gymnastics and as result got into Parkour and found he enjoyed the thrill of the "chase". Lastly he took some time and joined a gun club. As time pasted he had dreams of what he had forgotten and after two years he finally could remember all that had transpired and as such began his next hunt. Not a hunt for a monster but the hunt for his love. He needed to find her and be with her once more.

Mental (-4 Unskilled) ●◌◌◌◌ Academics is a broad-based Skill that represents a character's degree of higher education and general knowledge in the Arts and Humanities -- everything from English to history, economics to law. Dots in this Skill do not directly correlate to a given level of education. The character could have entered a doctorate program but spent more time partying than studying, resulting in low dots. Conversely, a self-taught individual who read voraciously and studied intensively could have high dots without ever earning a diploma. This skill also covers Research. Academics ●◌◌◌◌ Characters possessing this Skill have the necessary training or experience to operate a computer. At high levels (3 or more), a character can create their own computer programs. People with high levels in this Skill are familiar with a variety of programming languages and operating systems. Note that dots in Computer do not apply to manually fixing or building machines, only to operating them. Construction and repair is the province of the Crafts Skill. This skill also covers Hacking Computer ●●◌◌◌ Crafts represents a character's training or experience in creating works of physical art or construction with their hands, from paintings to car engines to classical sculpture. Characters possessing this Skill typically have the knowledge, but not necessarily the tools or facilities to make use of their capabilities. A character might be an exceptional mechanic, for example, but still needs to sweet-talk their boss into opening up the garage after-hours to work on their friend's car. Crafting a piece of art or creating an object is almost always an extended roll, with the length of time and number of successes required determined by the complexity of the piece. The Storyteller has final say on the time required and the number of successes needed for a particular item. This skill also covers Create Art and Repair Items. Crafts ●●●◌◌ Investigation is the art and science of solving mysteries, examining seemingly disparate evidence to find a connection, answering riddles and overcoming paradoxes. It not only allows the character to get into the head of a killer to grasp their motives or plans, it allows them to look beyond the mundane world to guess at answers to mysterious problems, or to have a "eureka" moment that offers insight into baffling circumstances. The character might realize that all murder victims have the same digits jumbled in their phone numbers, they might interpret a dream that has striking similarities to events in the real world, or they could recognize why an intruder took the time to paint a room red. Certain individuals such as law-enforcement officers, forensic specialists, scientists and investigators are trained in the art of examination, while others simply develop the knack through years of practice. Note that Investigation is different from the Perception Attribute task. Perception (Wits + Composure or Wits + another Skill) is typically checked when a character could spot something unusual or amiss when they are not actually looking for it. Investigation-based rolls are typically made when a character actively studies a situation. Dots in Investigation do not give a character sudden insight or capability in the realms of other Skills, however. They cannot miraculously identify changing brushstrokes in a painting, for example. That would be the realm of Academics or Crafts. But they might identify how the placement of paintings throughout a house creates a pattern and imparts a message. This skill also covers Examine Crime Scene and Solve Engima. Investigation ●◌◌◌◌ The Medicine Skill reflects a character's training and expertise in human physiology and how to treat injuries and illness. The trait represents knowledge of human anatomy and basic medical treatments. Characters with a low level in this Skill (1 to 2) often possess only rudimentary first-aid training, while characters with high levels (3+) are the equivalent of physicians or surgeons. This skill is also used to Heal Wounds. Medicine ●●●◌◌ The Occult Skill reflects a character's knowledge and experience with the world's various legends and lore about the supernatural. A character with this Skill not only knows the theories, myths and legends of the occult, but can generally discern "fact" from rumor. Characters may come by this Skill in a variety of ways, from oddball college courses to learning legends and myths from the lips of superstitious family members. Occult ◌◌◌◌◌ Characters possessing this Skill are not only familiar with the way the political process works, they are experienced with bureaucracies and know exactly who to call in a given situation to get something done. The character keeps track of who is in power and how they got there, along with their potential rivals. They have a grasp of the issues of the moment and how they affect the political process, and knows whose palms to grease. It is possible that the character acquired this Skill by running for political office at some point, or by working on a campaign or as a public servant. Or they could simply be someone who follows the news and understands the money trail. Politics ●◌◌◌◌ This Skill represents the character's understanding of the physical and natural sciences: biology, chemistry, geology, meteorology, physics. Science is useful not only for understanding how the world works, but it helps characters make the most of the resources at hand to achieve their goals. A character with a strong Science background could describe the chemical process for plating metals, for example, allowing another character with Crafts to make a silver-edged steel sword. Science

Physical (-1 Unskilled) ●●◌◌◌ Athletics encompasses a broad category of physical training, from rock climbing to kayaking to professional sports such as football or hockey. The Athletics Skill can be applied to any action that requires prolonged physical exertion or that demands considerable agility or hand-eye coordination. In combat, the Skill is combined with Dexterity to determine the results of Throwing. This skill is also used for Catching, Climbing, Foot Chase, and Jumping. Athletics ●●◌◌◌ Brawl defines the character's prowess at unarmed combat, whether they are a black belt in karate, a hard-bitten street tough or a college student who has taken a few self defense courses. Characters with this Skill know how to hit an opponent, where to hit for maximum effect and how to defend themselves from attack. It can mean using fists, but also elbows, knees, shoulders, head butts wrestling, joint locks and choke holds. Characters with several dots could be familiar with multiple techniques of unarmed combat. Expertise in such techniques is reflected in the Fighting Style Merits, which are based on Brawl. Brawl is added to the character's Strength to battle people in unarmed combat. Brawl ◌◌◌◌◌ The Drive Skill allows the character to operate a vehicle under difficult or dangerous conditions. Characters do not need this Skill simply to drive a car. It is safe to assume in a modern society that most individuals are familiar with automobiles and the rules of the road. Rather, this trait covers the training or experience necessary to operate at high speeds, to tackle hazardous road conditions and to push a vehicle to the limits of its performance. Drive is the difference between a typical suburban parent with a minivan and a police officer, car thief or race car driver. The Skill also applies to piloting and controlling boats; the character's Drive dots are applied equally to handling boats. In order for your character to be able to pilot a plane, he needs a Pilot Specialty in the Skill. With that, efforts to control a plane call for a Drive-based roll, plus one die for your character's Pilot Specialty. A character with the Drive Skill who does not possess a Pilot Specialty cannot effectively operate a plane. Their efforts to fly are based on Attribute alone, at a -1 untrained penalty. Note that dots in Drive do not apply to manually fixing or building vehicles, only to operating them. Construction and repair is the province of the Crafts Skill. This skill also covers Vehicle Pursuit and Vehicle Tailing. Drive ●◌◌◌◌ Firearms allows the character to identify, operate and maintain most types of guns, from pistols to rifles to military weapons such as sub-machine guns, assault rifles and machine guns. This Skill can represent the kind of formal training provided to police and the military, or the basic, hands-on experience common to hunters, criminals and gun enthusiasts. Firearms also applies to using bows. Your character can use guns and bows equally. Note that dots in Firearms do not apply to manually fixing or building guns, only to wielding them. Construction and repair is the province of the Crafts Skill. Firearms ◌◌◌◌◌ Larceny is a broad Skill that covers everything from picking locks to concealing stolen goods and everything in between. Most characters obtain this Skill the hard way, by committing crimes and often paying the price for their mistakes. Some individuals such as government agents and members of the military receive formal training in bypassing security systems and stealing valuable assets. This skill also covers Lock Picking and Sleight of Hand. Larceny ◌◌◌◌◌ The Stealth Skill represents a character's experience or training in avoiding notice, whether by moving silently, making use of cover or blending into a crowd. When attempting to sneak silently through an area or to use the local terrain as concealment, roll Dexterity + Stealth + equipment. When trying to remain unseen in a crowd, Wits + Stealth is appropriate. The Storyteller should make Stealth rolls secretly on the character's behalf, since the character usually has no way of knowing they have been noticed until it is too late. If the character attempts to avoid notice by a group of alert observers, a contested roll versus the observers' Wits + Composure + equipment is required. This skill also covers Shadowing. Stealth ◌◌◌◌◌ Survival represents the character's experience or training in "living off the land". They know where to find food and shelter, and how to endure harsh environmental conditions. The more capable the character is, the fewer resources they need in order to prevail. A master survivalist can walk into a forest, desert or mountainous region with little more than a pocketknife and the clothes on their back and survive for weeks if necessary. Note that Survival is not synonymous with Animal Ken. The former helps your character stay alive in the wilderness, living off the land with whatever supplies they have brought with them. The latter involves understanding animal behavior and interacting directly with animals. Your character could be knowledgeable in creating shelter and gathering plants to eat (Survival), but might know nothing about anticipating the actions of a bear in his camp (Animal Ken). This skill also covers Foraging. Survival ●●◌◌◌ As the name implies, the Weaponry Skill represents the character's experience or training in fighting with everything from beer bottles to pipes, from umbrellas to swords. While formal instruction in Weaponry is uncommon (restricted to military and law-enforcement training and a few martial arts), any character who has grown up on the streets or spent a lot of time in seedy bars has had ample opportunity to learn this Skill. A character's Weaponry is added to their Strength to stage armed attacks. Note that dots in Weaponry do not apply to manually fixing or creating weapons, only to wielding them. Construction and repair is the province of the Crafts Skill. Weaponry

Social (-1 Unskilled) ◌◌◌◌◌ Anticipating and understanding human emotions is one thing, but being able to interpret and recognize the behavior of animals is something else entirely. The character intuitively grasps or has been trained to read animals to know how they react to situations. The Skill also involves innately understanding how the animal mind operates, and what may appease or enrage beasts. The knack often coincides with a respect for animals, but it could derive from the analytical observation of a lab scientist or from years of abuse inflicted by a callous animal handler. Animal Ken could be applied to grasp the thoughts or intentions of supernatural animals, if the Storyteller allows. Sometimes these beings have human or greater intelligence and cannot be read by this Skill alone. This skill also covers Animal Training Animal Ken ◌◌◌◌◌ This Skill represents the character's intuition for reading people's emotions. For some, it is a matter of observing body language and non-verbal cues. Others employ an extraordinary sense that helps them divine a person's true mood. As the name implies, Empathy also involves the capacity to understand other people's views and perspectives, whether the character agrees with those positions or not. This is useful in everything from negotiations and crisis counseling to reading faces in a crowd and looking for potential trouble. If a subject actively conceals their emotions or motives, make a contested roll versus the person's Wits + Subterfuge + equipment. Empathy ●●◌◌◌ Expression reflects the character's training or experience in the art of communication, both to entertain and inform. This Skill covers both the written and spoken word and other forms of entertainment, from journalism to poetry, creative writing to acting, music to dance. Characters can use it to compose written works or to put the right words together at the spur of the moment to deliver a rousing speech or a memorable toast. Used well, Expression can sway others' opinions or even hold an audience captive. When composing a poem or writing a novel, roll Wits or Intelligence (depending on whether the work is poetic or factual) + Expression. When reciting to an audience, roll Presence + Expression. Playing an instrument involves Intelligence + Expression for a known piece, and Wits + Expression for an improvised one. Dance calls for Dexterity + Expression. Expression ◌◌◌◌◌ Intimidation is the art and technique of persuading others through the use of fear. The character can intimidate someone with a show of brute force (Strength + Intimidation), through more subtle means such as verbal threats (Manipulation + Intimidation), or simply through menacing body language (Presence + Intimidation). It can be used to get other people to cooperate (even against their better judgment), back down from a confrontation, or reveal information that they would rather not share. This skill also covers Interrogation. Intimidation ●◌◌◌◌ Persuasion is the art of inspiring or changing minds through logic, charm or sheer, glib fast-talking. Though it can be taught to varying degrees of success, most characters with the Skill possess a natural talent and has honed it over years through trial and error, practicing their delivery until it rolls effortlessly off the tongue. Persuasion is the Skill of convincing others by force of personality alone, making one's point through carefully chosen words, body language and emotion. This skill also covers Cutting A Deal, Fast Talk, Oratory, and Seduction. Persuasion ◌◌◌◌◌ Socialize reflects the character's ability to interact with others in a variety of situations, from talking people up at bars to comporting himself with dignity at state dinners. This Skill represents equal parts gregariousness, sensitivity, etiquette and custom. Knowing how to make friends is no less important than understanding how to treat guests in formal situations. Characters with low dots might be naturally entertaining or approachable, but unschooled in the finer arts of social interaction. Or they could be punctilious with their manners but difficult to approach. Conversely, characters with high dots could have the social graces of a practiced diplomat or raconteur, knowing just what to say and when to say it in any given situation. This skill also covers Carousing. Socialize ◌◌◌◌◌ Characters possessing this Skill know how life on the streets works and are adept at surviving by its harsh rules. Streetwise characters can gather information, make contacts, buy and sell on the black market, and otherwise make use of the street's unique resources. The Skill is also important for navigating urban dangers, avoiding the law, and staying on the right side of the wrong people. This skill also covers Working The Black Market Streetwise ●◌◌◌◌ Subterfuge is the art of deception. Characters possessing this Skill know how to lie convincingly, and they recognize when they are being lied to. Subterfuge is used when telling a convincing falsehood, hiding one's emotions or reactions, or trying to pick up on the same in others. The Skill is most often used to trick other people, but characters also learn it to avoid being tricked themselves. This skill also covers Disguise Subterfuge

Specialties: Investigation (Hidden Meanings); Occult (Folklore, Vampires); Athletics (Gymnastics); Craft (Jury Rig)

●●●●●◌◌◌◌◌ Willpower ■■■■■□□□□□ Virtue: Other Names: Dreamer, Optimist, Utopian Being hopeful means believing that evil and misfortune cannot prevail, no matter how grim things become. Not only do the hopeful believe in the ultimate triumph of morality and decency over malevolence, they maintain steadfast belief in a greater sense of cosmic justice -- whether it's Karma or the idea of an all-knowing, all-seeing God who waits to punish the wicked. All will turn out right in the end, and the hopeful mean to be around when it happens. Your character regains all spent Willpower points whenever they refuse to let others give in to despair, even though doing so risks harming the character's own goals or well being. This is similar to Fortitude, except that the character tries to prevent others from losing hope in their goals. They need not share those goals themselves or even be successful in upholding them, but there must be a risk involved. Hope

●●●●●●●◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌ Health □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ Vice: Other Names: Addictive Personality, Conspicuous Consumer, Epicurean Gluttony is about indulging appetites to the exclusion of everything else. It is about dedicating oneself to sensual pleasures or chasing the next high. A glutton makes any sacrifice to feed their insatiable appetite for pleasure, regardless of the cost to themselves or those around them. They might be considered a junkie or even a kleptomaniac (they steal things they do not need just for the thrill of it). The character regains one spent Willpower point whenever they indulges in their addiction or appetites at some risk to themselves or a loved one. Ben's particular craving is the excitement and adrenalin rush one gets from the Hunt/Chase and eventual face of against the Evils that are out there. Gluttony

Size: 5

Defense: 2

Initiative: 6

Speed: 10

●●●●●●●◌◌◌ Morality

Eidetic Memory (2 pts)
●●◌◌◌ Eidetic Memory
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Prerequisites: Strength ●●, Dexterity ●●, Stamina ●● and Brawl ●●

Effect: Your character is trained in one of the many forms of Kung Fu, conditioning his mind and body for the purposes of focus and self-defense. They may have begun their training at an early age, following in the footsteps of family or friends, or they may have joined a school as an adult for the purposes of exercise or protection.

Dots purchased in this Merit allow access to special combat maneuvers. Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the next. So, your character cannot have "Iron Skin" until they have "Focused Attack". The maneuvers and their effects are listed below, most of which are based on the Brawl Skill.

●◌◌◌◌ Focused Attack Physical conditioning and accuracy allow your character to deliver blows at vulnerable spots on targets. Penalties to hit specific targets are reduced by one. See "Specified Targets", p. 165. Even when a specific part of an opponent is not targeted, armor penalties to your character's Brawl attacks are reduced by one.

●●◌◌◌ Iron Skin Your character has hardened his body to physical blows, allowing them to withstand repeated hits with minimal effect. They have an effective armor trait of 1 against bashing attacks only.

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Prerequisites: Dexterity ●●●, Athletics ●●

Effect: Your character has become proficient in the art of Parkour, whether by specific training with a club or simple necessity because of enemies in his city. Dots purchased in this Merit allow access to special athletic maneuvers. Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the next. So, your character can't have "Cat Leap" until they have "Flow." The maneuvers and their effects are described below, most of which are based on the Athletics Skill. A note on Parkour and werewolves: since werewolves can shapeshift reflexively, whether by taking advantage of moon phase or simply expending Essence, they can change form in mid-leap. This allows a Hunter (or any werewolf, as this Merit is by no means limited to the Meninna, or to the Uratha, for that matter) to jump using a strong form such as Urhan or Urshul and then switch to Hishu or Dalu to catch a ledge or another handhold as the jump ends. You can easily find videos of Parkour using an Internet search; watch a few and imagine what would be possible with the Gifts and shapeshifting of the Uratha mixed in.

●◌◌◌◌ Flow Your character has some basic training in the techniques of Parkour, allowing them to react instinctively to obstacles and jumps. When using running or using the Foot Chase rules (see the World of Darkness Rulebook, page 65), your character may negate hazardous terrain penalties equal to their rating in this Merit. In addition, the roll to gauge a jump distance (see the World of Darkness Rulebook, page 67) is a reflexive action.

●●◌◌◌ Cat Leap Your character has mastered some of the twisting leaps, landing rolls and wall taps used by Traceurs. When using a Dexterity + Athletics roll to mitigate damage from falling (see the World of Darkness Rulebook, page 179), your character gains one automatic success. In addition, add one per dot in this Merit to the threshold of damage that can be removed through this roll. Thus, if the Storyteller decrees that only three successes may be garnered to reduce falling damage, the traceur with three dots in this Merit may actually use six successes (assuming the player accumulates that many, including his automatic success).

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Effects: This Merit measures your character's material resources, both possessions and wealth. All characters are assumed to have a job or a source of income (trust fund, parents) that is sufficient to cover their basic needs: food, shelter and transportation. Dots in this Merit represent disposable income - wealth and assets that can be liquidated for more money in case of emergency. The number of dots indicates your character's general level of wealth.

●◌◌◌◌ Suggests low disposable income: $500 a month and approximately $1,000 worth of assets.

●●◌◌◌ Suggest moderate disposable income: $1,000 a month and approximately $5000 worth of assets.

●●●◌◌ Suggest significant disposable income: $2000 a month and maybe $10,000 worth of assets.

●●●●◌ Suggest substantial disposable income: $10,000 a month and $500,000 worth of assets.

●●●●● Suggest significant wealth: $50,000 a month and as much as $5,000,000 worth of assets.

Resources can be used to determine if your character can reasonably afford a purchase or expenditure. Equipment, weapons and items throughout these rules are assigned costs in dots. The Storyteller can assign cost dots to other items during play based on what's here. If your character has the same or more dots in Resources, they can afford the item on their disposable income. That does not mean they have a blank check with which to buy everything they see. They might be able to afford one or two items with a cost equal to their Resources dots in a single month. Items with lower costs can be acquired more often. The Storyteller has final say on what is too much or what is too often. Your character's Resources dots are not spent and do not go away. They represent available cash at any given moment. The only means by which your character's Resource dots might decrease is if story events conspire against them. Perhaps your character's fortune is wiped out, they lose their job or their company is subjected to a hostile takeover. The Storyteller therefore influences how your character's dots might decrease, and whether they can be salvaged.

●◌◌◌◌ Language: Latin

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Effect: This Merit gives the character a friend and teacher who provides them with advice and guidance. The character's mentor acts on their behalf, although the Storyteller determines exactly how. A mentor usually offers advice, allowing the Storyteller to use them to help guide the character through tough situations. A mentor may also use their influence or abilities to help the character out, although they probably want to see their charge do things for themselves. A mentor is likely to give up in disgust on a pupil who constantly asks for aid. Mentors may also ask for something in return for their assistance, which can lead the character into some interesting situations.
The number of dots purchased in this Merit determines the relative power, knowledge and experience of the character's teacher.

●◌◌◌◌ This indicates a mentor with one or more specialized Skills and a small amount of experience in the character's field of interest.

●●◌◌◌ This indicates a mentor with a wide range of capability and experience in the character's field of interest.

●●●◌◌ This indicates a mentor possessing a broad range of Skills, years of experience and significant influence in the character's field of interest.

●●●●◌ This indicates a mentor who not only possesses a broad range of Skills and decades (or in some cases, centuries) of experience, they are also a preeminent figure with major influence in your character's field of interest.

●●●●● This indicates a mentor with towering influence and power in the character's field of interest. A five-dot patron watches over your character and influences their life in ways both obvious and subtle, and likely has an agenda in which the character is pivotal.

Note: This is actually going to eventually be a 5 dot Mentor but is for right now a rather mysterious individual providing minor guidance -- also a possible plot device for pointing him in various directions ... They say they are a fellow writer that wants to stay anonymous for now. In actuality they are an Angel perhaps even the "real" reason Ben survived that house fire situation.

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Effect: Your character has been on the job for a while, and has grown skilled in the areas important to their Profession. This Merit reflects the character’s job experience, natural prowess at the talents important to their line of work and how well they can learn and grow within their field. The Professional Training Merit is progressive; a character cannot have Continuing Education until they have Networking. The Professional Training ranks listed in the individual write-ups of the Professions allow a good shorthand for how well trained a given character is (see below).

Professional Training
●◌◌◌◌ Dabbler
●●◌◌◌ Occultist
●●●◌◌ Initiate
●●●●◌ Acolyte
●●●●● Crowley

An Occultist character with two dots of the Professional Training Merit can be called a “Occultist”, while one with five dots is a “Crowley”. Characters, of course, do not use this nomenclature, but it can be handy way for players to note roughly how experienced their hunters are.

●◌◌◌◌ Networking: Your character has amassed the contact information for people in their chosen Profession. At low levels of the Merit, they are an up-and-comer, asking questions of older and more established colleagues. As their Professional Training increases, people start coming to them with questions, requests for advice and consultations, offers to coauthor papers, and invitations to speak at conventions. In game terms, the character is considered to have the Contacts Merit equal to their rating in Professional Training, in addition to the other benefits that later levels provide. Every time a hunter character gains a dot of Professional Training, the player must choose a sub-field of the Profession for this portion of the Merit.

Note that the Networking facet of this Merit does not preclude the player from purchasing the Contacts Merit separately, nor does it imply any special relationship with any one particular person in the areas specified. It simply means that the character saves business cards, writes down numbers, buys drinks at conventions or otherwise pays attention to the people they meet.

●●◌◌◌ Continuing Education: As part of their growth within their field, the character learns new skills that are applicable to what they do. Sometimes, the character finds themselves learning things they never thought would apply to their Profession. An Academic might take a class in physiology and find they have a passion for it, signing up for gross anatomy classes, learning first aid and thus gain dots in the Medicine Skill. When the player purchases this dot of Professional Training, the player chooses a third Asset Skill. If the player takes this Merit at character creation, they can take their free Specialty in any of their three Asset Skills. The Storyteller is the final arbiter of whether a given Skill is an appropriate choice.

●●◌◌◌ Professional Contacts (Hunters, Occultists)

Panel van Converion for VW Super Beetle

Glock 35C (●●)

Ammo Box 1 (●)

Ammo Box 2 (●)

KSG Bullpup (●●)

ScubaMax Sword Knife (●)

Ninjato (●)

X-2 Gauged CO2 Pistol (●●)

Carrying Case (●)

Medical Pouch (●)

Occultist's Kit (●)

Digital Recorder (●●)
Black Duct Tape 20 rolls (●)
Earplugs (●)
EMF Detector (●)
Electronic Sound Amplifier (●●)
Glowsticks (●)
Stink Bombs (●)
Multi-tool (●)
Thermal Scanner (●●)
Lighter (●)
Smartphone (●●)
Crime-Scene Kit (●●)
Luminol (●)
Gun-smithing Kit (●●)
First-Aid Kit (●●)
Stab Vest (●)

(2 pts) Merit: Mentor 1
(4 pts) Merit: Kung Fu 2 (+1 Dot) <-- The rest of his intensive training
(4 pts) Merit: Parkour 2 (+1 Dot) <-- The rest of his intensive training
(6 pts) Merit: Profession Training 2 (+2 Dots) <-- He's been talking to a few folks already and developing the skills
. . . . .Contacts 2 (Hunters, Occultists)
. . . . .Asset: Crafts
(6 pts) Skill: Craft 2 (+1 Dot) <-- This goes along with his learning to make/repair things.
(3 pts) Specialty: Craft (Jury Rig)

Borne in East Glacier Park Village, a small town with barely 2,000 residents, Alex was poverty stricken from his first breath. Alex's father, Alber Shaw, was the town drunk, unemployed for nearly a decade and something of a troublemaker. Married to Jennie Shaw, Alber spent most of his time either passed out, in the local county jail cells for drunk and disorderly, or beating his wife and son.

Never having owned anything that was brand new or even in a reasonable condition, Alex struggled to make friends or find much of a purpose in school, which was a good thirty minutes away for most East Glacier Park residents making Alex's trek even more difficult. From a young age, he questioned the usefulness of school, the practicality when his mother worked sixty hour weeks at a diner on the highway.

Growing distant from the scholastic community, and increasingly resentful of his home life, Alex spent more and more time in the bast tracks of lands to the west, the massive Glacier National Park. To him, the park itself was a playground, it provided him everything he needed. He was more at home in the wilderness than he ever was at his real him.

Soon enough, Alex found his way onto the more populated Blackfeet lands to the north. While East Glacier Park was technically on the Blackfeet reservation, it had little in the way of contact with the tribe itself. It didn't take long for Alex to fall in with the Blackfeet, quickly engrossed with their culture, mythology, and way of life, riding along with many of the Blackfeet natives who worked in the park.

Among them, Alex made strong bonds with a girl his age, Kanti, and her father, Apisi. The two acted as surrogates for Alex, a shelter to which he could run when his father entered into his drunken rages. More and more he skipped school, spending time among the Blackfeet and less time with his own family, learning hunting, survival, and self defense from them.

When Alex was 15, Kanti and Apisi were brutally murdered in what the local news labeled as a bear attack. Apparently, one of the animals had someone gotten into their home and mauled the two, all while the neighbors and other locals were none the wiser. It wasn't too uncommon to see bears at the time of year, or even to see them wander towards human settlements, but the entire scene ... it was wrong.

Alex knew it. So did the Blackfeet people.

Spending the next two weeks trying to find out what had happened, the Blackfeet wouldn't tell him what happened. They were tight-lipped, seeing Alex as an outside despite his close connections with Kanti and Apisi. Two more attacks would occur on the Blakcfeet reservation, both much the same as the first. Huge claw marks in the doors and walls, bodies mutilated and seemingly devoured.

Disregarding what warnings had been given, Alex grabbed a knife and a gun and followed the barest of tracks into the woods. Even to the most unskilled tracker, if they were shown the tracks, they would be forced to admit they weren't a bears. But no one would admit it, talk about it. A day of tracking, non stop running and hunting, Alex found it's lair.

Driven by rage and desperation, he plunged headlong into the cave, only to come head to head with a Mhuwe, an offshoot of the Windigo. The creature nearly killed him, and nearly would have done so had it not been for the three Hunters who had been following him. Alex, half conscious, recognized he men. They had been digging around the murder sites, saying they were FBI.

One of the three was Thomas Holmes, a veteran hunter. After the incident, the trio tried to convince him it was a bear. To lull him back into society, to get him to go home or the reservation. But he couldn't go back. Not with creatures like that out there.

So he apprenticed to Thomas and his two hunter partners, Alejandro Teixera and Chris Maddison. Dropping out of school, he did what most hunters do, and seemed to drop off the face of the earth. Swapping identifies, masquerading as a host of other people, he learned every facet of the trade. A few months after his nineteenth birthday, Maddison got killed during one of their jobs.

It was a massive blow to all three men. Thomas retired, looking at the three boys likes his sons, and urged the other two to do the same. Teixera went back south, to hunt with some of his friends in the Texas/New Mexico area, while Alex tried to give the hunting game the quits. But he couldn't. He was a high-school dropout with no job history or employable skills. Six months he spent washing dishes, feeling his life slip away.

Then he got back into the game. A local vampire nest disturbed his new life, something he took as a sign, and from there six years of hunting came. More and more he established himself as a well respected Hunter in the North of America, well regarded for his ability and expertise in tracking and hunting woodlands inhabiting monsters. Werewolves, Vampires, Windigo, and hordes of others fell within his realm of specialty.

Bluntly, Amber does not fear Hell, not if it looks anything like the decaying steeltown in northern PA where she grew up. Her father was into alcohol and womanizing, but not a particularly charming sort of drunk. Mom endured, physically present but emotionally detached. One day when Amber was about seven, her dad (perhaps too deep in his cups) tried to touch her. Amber managed to push him away and ran crying for Mom. Before any scenes could ensue, he tried to run from it, drove too fast on a wet, curving road and crashed into a tree. Her paternal grandmother, who adored her son beyond reason, blamed Amber for everything, citing the fact Amber didn't cry during her own father's funeral as proof positive that the child was unnatural and unloving. Mom refused to discuss the incident or its aftermath, even to defend Amber against her mother-in-law. She left one day and never returned, and Grandma loved to drag out the claim that Amber was such a terrible child her own mother didn't want her. Since Mom was MIA, Dad was dead, and there seemed to be no one else, the judge was lazy and assigned Amber's custody to Grandma. Ten long, emotionally abusive years followed.

Amber fled her grandmother's house the day after she graduated high school, taking only a hand-suitcase, a backpack, her diploma, and Grandma's bingo cache. She bought a bus ticket and landed in Syracuse NY, where she took a job as a receptionist at a walk-in clinic and worked her way through school, eventually becoming a nurse-practitioner. She bounced a few places before finding a niche in Laurel WV, at an area clinic that was in danger of shutting down due to losing its physician. For this area, Amber is sometimes the closest thing they will see to a doctor, unless they take the trip to Parkersburg WV or Marietta OH for a hospital. She settled in to the business of tending everything from colds to heart ailments, and over time, grew to love a place and people that had mostly ignored the crush of contemporary life. The people in turn found a receptive learner who was brave enough to try squirrel burgoo, bright enough to learn the old songs, and loving enough for a child to fall asleep in her lap. It has come to be a good match.

Amber's upbringing in the supernatural happened late by hunter standards. A strong vein of Appalachia runs through the area, and a few grannies and grandpas offered her various charms, herbs and such as thanks for her work. Amber didn't want to offend them by calling the gifts silly superstitions, and she tried to listen politely about their use. When she was 30, a young man came to her clinic needing treatment for a horrible set of scratches across his chest, practically falling down at her door. While she was working on him, the one who made the scratches came calling – a strange, furry... whatever it was (she never did learn its name). Running on pure instinct from the grannies' instructions, she threw down barriers of salt and brick dust at the doorway, pulled out the herbs, recited the charms, and when the thing was reduced to staring at her in surprise, she filled her shotgun with rock salt and fired, finally driving it off. The man seemed impressed with her handling of things and started asking unnerving questions about how she learned her workings. When the grannies heard about the incident, they believed they had found the one they could pass their secrets to and couldn't wait to start teaching her. Neither was comforting to Amber, and it took another run-in with the supernatural (a nasty Spectre-type ghost), a few visits from other curious hunters, and the grannies' own brand of persuasion before Amber bowed to what seemed inevitable and took on learning about the hidden world. She is most versed in Appalachian rootwork and superstition, which has roots in English, Irish and Scottish folklore. Her location is also a hotbed of cryptid activity, from phantom cats to Mothman (the latter is a pet project of hers).

Laurel is “Call of the Wildman” territory; heck, Amber probably knows someone just like him, along with a moonshiner, the local preacher, the local sheriff (who's a complete skeptic and not very bright to boot), several artisans, a half-dozen granny-women (including Fiona Ritchie, Granny Fee, the one who loves her best and calls her daughter), and some kinds of folks that others might not realize exist outside of Foxfire or Manly Wade Wellman's stories. For arriving so late to this place, she has come to be embraced and loved wholeheartedly. She has learned the manners, hailing houses and using “yes, ma'am” and “no, sir” as easily as breathing. She attends church on Sunday only because everyone else does and to do otherwise would be problematic. There's a few families who would give their right arms to match her to their son or brother, but no one's quite clicked for her yet, and given how rotten her parents' marriage turned out, she'd rather not inflict herself on some unsuspecting guy. While it might seem that the grannies can't be much help outside the hollers, they do have networks of relatives and correspondents – Granny Nedra knows Roscoe Grant's son who went into the Navy and now lives out West with a local girl he married, and he knows all sorts of people out that way, etc., etc. Sometimes saying, “Granny So-and-so sent me” opens many doors.

About a year ago, between the hunters finding their way to Laurel and Amber's increasing involvement in the local supernatural scene, Granny Fee decided that she should make a journeyman's quest of sorts – go out into the world of the hunters and learn what she couldn't in Laurel. Amber was torn between fury and tears, and came up with a dozen reasons why it was such a bad idea: the clinic would get closed, what happened if X critter came back, etc. Unspoken was the “why are you throwing me out?” panic. Granny Fee stood firm, answered every reasoning with one of her own (including that she loved Amber and this was just part of the growing up), and Amber reluctantly acquiesced. She packed the necessaries in her pick-up and off she went.

Amber looks like a healthy young woman of 34, who stands about 5'5” and weighs about 125 lbs. with a slender build. She has straight brown hair with a streak of silver on the right that she usually pulls away from her face, and brilliant hazel eyes that recall the stone of her name. She is pretty, in a fresh, unmade-up way, but the hardness of working and living on the supernatural side is starting to etch around her eyes. When out of the scrubs and lab coat she wears when working, she is usually in jeans, leather boots and henley shirts under a red Carhartt jacket. She is almost never without a piece of amber jewelry on her.
OOP -- Amber does actually not have any tattoos; this just happened to be the picture I found.

Amber has a strong streak of adaptability that allowed her to survive leaving her grandmother's house and then moving to Laurel. Wherever she is, she does her best to learn how to fit in but remain true to her morals. She hates to see suffering if there's the slightest thing she can do about it; healing is in her very blood. She has learned to let things play out at their own pace, whether to feed out the rope to hang themselves or give her all the details people will never outright say. Being the center of attention is a very uncomfortable place for her, and she deflects it as quickly as possible.

In retrospect, Amber realizes she has treated hunters in the past without knowing it; some of them she would never willingly deal with again. Now she's on the other side of the fence, and she's not especially liking it. The “profession” seems misogynistic, at least, and does not appear to value what Amber does – compassion, observation, healing. Given the option, Amber would rather try to talk to the target at least once before shooting it. The grannies taught her that many times these things are hurting and need doctoring like the living. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When it works, the others don't remember; when it doesn't, they don't forget. No one has ever been killed by her efforts, but most insist it's only a matter of time. Imagine her as the granddaughter of Silver John and niece of Clarice Starling.