Bestiary

Relentless, they pursue you — the Hunter and its hounds. Through tortured forests of the mind, down boundless hallways and pounding rains, this Avatar chases the magus away from complacency and toward some deeper realization. Unlike, say, Crush or Manic Pixie, this spirit is no friend of yours. Its weapons hurt. Its purpose terrifies. The teeth of its hounds tear your psychic self, devouring confidence and inflicting bitter pain.

In certain aspects, the Hunter is male; in others, fe­ male, and quite often neither. Gender is meaningless to the Hunter’s role. Pursuit is this Avatar’s only purpose… pursuit and, if need be, destruction. A veritable demon driving its host onward, the Hunter typically adopts a rustic medieval guise when seen by Verbena or Hermetic mages, a modern gun-toting form when hunting mages of a more technological inclination, a frightening robotic aspect when pursuing tech-obsessed hosts, and a “tribal” manifestation when chasing folks whose tastes (or terrors) involve the bygone world. In all aspects, however, the Hunter’s not alone. Dogs, wolves, ravens, monsters, cyborgs — the Hunter has them at its beck and call, and wherever the mage flees, these creatures follow.

Seekings with the Hunter Avatar take place in awful dreamscapes where rugged terrain trips the mage and hides his pursuers. Occasionally, an especially potent form of this Avatar manifests physically, chasing the magus through the waking world as well. Although the Hunter’s weapons and the teeth of its pets inflict no physical harm (even if the Hunter itself is physical), this Avatar can indeed hurt you. A mage caught by the Hunter and its pets suffers one unsoakable health level of damage per turn until either the mage escapes or the damage eliminates the mage’s health levels. At that point, the mage either wakes up out of the Seeking, or falls unconscious from the pain if he was being chased through the physical world. Either way, the mage wakes up sometime later, sore but physically unharmed, with the knowledge that the Hunter won again.

How can someone beat the Hunter? With tricks, courage, or knowledge gained over the course of the Seeking. The mage must be willing to dare something he has not done before, demonstrate a new skill or power, or do something unusually clever or brave. The Hunter is not fooled by the same tricks or tactics twice, however. In order to best this Avatar, you’ll need to keep learning, thinking, exploring, and growing. Mere speed or strength or magic cannot beat the hunter, after all, because deep inside this terror lives within you.