The first thing he notices when he takes her hand is just how cold she is. Not merely chilly, but unnaturally cold, like a statue cut from Arctic ice. He shudders noticeably. She offers a sad half-smile.

“I’m sorry about that, but I want you to know what you’re dealing with, here, so that there are no misunderstandings.” He nods once in reply. She slowly withdraws her hand, but her posture remains tense as she continues. “As agreed, I’ve brought one of the files for you; something that I think you can use. I make no guarantees, though.”

He accepts the parcel from her and opens it, right there, on the booth’s battered old Formica tabletop. He sets aside the CD in its case and instead concentrates on the printed pages and the photos, marveling at the details. After a long moment, he looks back up, warm hazel eyes meeting glacial blue ones, and asks, “Why are you doing this, really?”

She sighs softly. “Because a good man dared to care about me even when he knew it was a stupid thing to do. He braved a terrible fate in order to save me from what I deserved. He made me feel warm, even if only for a little while, and you have no idea how much that means to me. I just want to try to help finish the work he left behind.”

The hunter nods once more as she starts to walk away, only to pause a few paces off and glance back over her shoulder. “Whatever you might accomplish with that file, remember that it’s because of Bryan.”

He notices, as the diner’s door closes behind her, that things do feel a little warmer now and he wonders if it’s due to more than just her leaving.

The Collection of Horrors is an anthology of Storyteller tools inspired by the Horror Recognition Guide that you can either use in conjunction with the Guide or as part of your existing Hunter: The Vigil chronicle. You can get a free introduction here.

Each story kit in the Collection of Horrors (which you can buy individually, as a bundle or as a subscription) contains variety of appropriate tools; usually an SAS scene, a character with a character sheet, and props ranging from maps and reports to print out and hand to your players, to short imbedded audio files that you can play at your gaming table. These kits represent a collection of evocative story tools that you can write a story around, drop into an existing SAS or even string together. They aren’t stories in their own right, but rather pieces that you can snap together into whatever shape you want. Using the Guide can add even more props and ideas to this anthology, but it’s not required to use the various story kits in the Collection of Horrors.

Please note: Due to the nature of the embedded audio file, it cannot be paused, rewound or fast-forwarded once started.

Fight back the shadows.  Collect the Hunter: The Vigil.