Wayland’s Smithy – A Hunter Conspiracy

Danke. I'm happy that I could be such a help. I also really, really like the Dumuzi Blade. The whole Fetter bit is a very nice touch!

Also, DavidT, that's not a sorry excuse, if I may delve into that can of worms once more. I'd like to relate a story to you about a Hunter game I was STing.

The intrepid Cell that were the protagonists of the chronicle had followed a lead into the disappearances of local children. They found a priest who "might've known something". The Cell asks him a few well-concealed questions about the abductions, until a dramatic failure made the priest start running. One of the characters tackled him, KO'd him, loaded him into the Cell's van, and took him to their collective safehouse.

Lacking the Torture Suite Merit, the Hunter who had tackled the priest improvised. He dunked his head in the toilet while screaming questions at him. Everyone: characters, players, and myself, were appaled. The player's OOC rationale?

"Guys, this is the WoD. If he's not a child molestor, he's a cultist. Guaranted."

Course the flip side of this is that the priest could had been a normal priest that is generally good.  Not a saint, but could be a morality 8 man of god.  Maybe he was threaten, or had people he cares about being threaten.  Then again he might had known nothing at all.  Which begs the question of who is the bad guy here?

Yeah I am not in on your game, but that is scary if you think about it.  You let a member of your cell torture a innocent priest who had nothing to do with the disappearing kids.  Only you spoke him out and he ran.

Just wanted to pop in and say good work! This is great stuff, love the tone and mood. Couple of things:

Galt might be a little more fun if he were a purified from Immortals. Fits quite well with the emphasis on spirits I think.

Also, do you have Shadows of the UK? It's got some great material in it that would fit beautifully here. It's a bit Werewolf-centric, but because of this has a focus on the British shadow (or the Other, as it's known over here), that seems apt. The first chapter comprises a general overview of the kinds of things that go 'bump' in the British night without that much werewolfish-ness and in my opinion is probably worth the price of the book alone. The section on homegrown spirits is inspiring.

Anyway, keep up the good work. Really, good stuff.

No6:

Galt might be a little more fun if he were a purified from Immortals. Fits quite well with the emphasis on spirits I think.

DavidT:

Yeah I am not in on your game, but that is scary if you think about it.  You let a member of your cell torture a innocent priest who had nothing to do with the disappearing kids.  Only you spoke him out and he ran.

No. The character decide that the potential gain outstripped the uncertainty. Parallels to this are present everywhere. Be it the torture scandals of Abu Ghuraib, the habeas corpus issues of 'illegal combatants', the decision of a german Chief of police to threaten pain if the kidnapper would not reveal the location of the missing child or the police man who leaves his partner alone with the suspect because he 'knows' that the guy is guilty.
I think this is also an overall theme of Hunter. After all you kill, in no small measure, people for what they are. Hunters are also not responsible to any institution or any law, because their 'war' is largely clandestine and secret in nature.
About the Darkness Part.
I tend to see the WoD a lot darker than you. The existence of malvolent spirits, vampires, pandorians, prometheans, hunters, werewolves and True Fae alone makes the world a lot more dangerous. Along with the weakening of longheld convictions and weakening of law and order (the WoD seems to be a lot less orderly and a lot less law abiding than the real world) leads to a lot of areas where a man's concience is the only thing to enforce doing the 'right' thing. And a man only beholden to his conscience is indeed a terrible thing.

About the rationalization of necromancy:
Of course you can always cited the 'higher good'.
But there is also the fact that necromancy has possibly the worst of reputations. As science or magic goes, it is the domain of the evil overlord who wants to rape the queen and burn the kingdom. Along with other facts this means that anybody exposed to this kind of things will hold a quite negatice look of the instigators and will probably not stop to ask question (this, though, will not make it any harder to run a Waylandian hunter in a group than say a Cheiron operative or a reformed vampire).
But it also tells something about the people of the Smithy. They are so far gone in their quest to fight the good fight, that they possibly won't mind to go another step (and another, and another). The road to hell and all this.
As for my personal outlook:
I would have felt cheated. It is no fun shooting british who are already dead. ;)

As a last note i would like to say, that i never intended to imply that i thought the whole conspiracy was lacking proper... whatever. I just think that with the proper highlights on the possible snares and traps, it is much easier to use and adapt for other STs.

Friedrich vom Berg:

But there is also the fact that necromancy has possibly the worst of reputations. As science or magic goes, it is the domain of the evil

Friedrich vom Berg:

But it also tells something about the people of the Smithy. They are so far gone in their quest to fight the good fight, that they possibly won't mind to go another step (and another, and another). The road to hell and all this.

In its original incarnation, the Smithy was surrounded by death and destruction on such a scale that supernatural evils like necromancy seemed like lesser sins to them. I liked the idea that true evil comes from humanity and the the shadow world, for all its affectations, is never more than a pale reflection of that. The Smithy are far gone, as you say, but not because of the monsters drove them to it. Their fellow human beings did.

Friedrich vom Berg:

As a last note i would like to say, that i never intended to imply that i thought the whole conspiracy was lacking proper... whatever. I just think that with the proper highlights on the possible snares and traps, it is much easier to use and adapt for other STs.

I think it's a lot better for the feedback it's got here. I was surprised and pleased at how much there was. And at least if something gets critiqued, it means that someone's interested enough to think about it! 

Friedrich vom Berg:

I would have felt cheated. It is no fun shooting british who are already dead. ;)

JezMiller:

In its original incarnation, the Smithy was surrounded by death and destruction on such a scale that supernatural evils like necromancy seemed like lesser sins to them. I liked the idea that true evil comes from humanity and the the shadow world, for all its affectations, is never more than a pale reflection of that. The Smithy are far gone, as you say, but not because of the monsters drove them to it. Their fellow human beings did.

Of course. But i also think that this 'true evil'-thing is anyways the best and maybe meanest trap in Hunter. The Moment when the players realize that they may be far worse than the things they pretend to hunt for the good of humanity.
But i also think the necromancy bears mentioning because if it is interpreted as using the beloved dead of others, this would at least strain the realtions with MM and the Long Night. Hunters who believe in an afterlife mind also not be thrilled.
That is not a bad thing, merely the uniquely wrong thing for wayland's.

JezMiller:

Shhhhh. Don't mention the war!

 Pssst. Which one?! ;)

Um..Not to be a pain but where are the seterotypse?

In my chronicle the "management" of other organizations don't (proir to the players) know about other conspiracies unless they have a sterotype about them...
heheheh Luifuge meet TF:V...go BOOM! heheheheh

Sorry. I have silly players. They rub off on you.

Help yourself.
Chruch groups like MM or the Long Night are most likely to see them as witches or worse, so there won't be a lot of cooperation on that front. The NM-Scientist will most likely  see them as straying from the right path, employing scientific method but believing in something as silly as Ghosts. Taskforce Valkyrie possibly won't have any interest in dealing with them. They are British and strange and the Taskforce has enough Problems as it is. The Union won't have any contact points with them. The Abbey could have soaked up some of their former members, but i see no points of mutual interest.
The Cheiron Group and KD might be interested in snatching up some of their tech, Lucifuge will most likely have no connection.
Have i forgotten anyone?

No, that is plenty.
Thanks.

No Educated Person in the history of Western Civilization from 300 B.C. onward has believed that the world is flat. Not even Christians. This misconception stems from the latin word orbis that can mean circle or orb.

Other than that i like the stereotypes.