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Witch Hunters is an umbrella term for those Aware humans who are experts in defeating and killing Others and Practitioners.[1] Sometimes because they cross too many lines,[2] sometimes just because.[3]

Methodology[]

As with any discipline, the individual exponents will vary amongst themselves, if not actively compete against each other.[4] In some cases Witch Hunter, individuals or groups, can have knowledge that rivals Practitioners.[5]

Training of a Witch Hunter has been shown to include things like the use Innocence to work around Others camouflage and memory effects,[6] and protecting that same innocence from further erosion.[7] There are of course limitations.[5][8]


They can lie, and are freely allowed to invade Demesnes without reservation because they aren't bound by the same rules as those who practice,[9] many demesnes will have protections of course but this can be worked around. They can be thought of as having a kind of scarred-up innocence that provides them with inconsistent protection.[10][8]

They're known for having large collections of weapons and Magic Items that they keep for particular targets.[11]

As they are informed of the supernatural it is hard to leave all that behind and live an ordinary life with the world working against them.[12] Practitioners will likely be on the lookout for witch hunters and Lords might try to target them.[13] It's just as likely for such people to try to work with agreeable witch hunters to keep the more crazy witch hunters away.[14]

In some cases a Witch Hunter may have a strong pattern around them established by past successes or family history, even if Witch Hunters aren't known for having families.[15] This might make magic less effective on them (similar to a Skeptic) or draw them into being a Witch Hunter against their will (similar to a Designated Victim.)[16]

Known Witch Hunters[]

See Also[]

  • Inquisitor, similar only more uncompromising.
  • Blackguard, practitioner ally that lacks Witch Hunter combat training

Trivia[]

  • In PactDice it is an acceptable option to play as a With Hunter as opposed to a practitioner.[25][5]

References[]

  1. My question is what is the point of Witch Hunters?
    Specialists in handling/'policing' some heady problems, when practitioners and Others can be very, very problematic. - Wildbow on Witch Hunters
  2. 2.0 2.1
    The Rieth Library studies Others, traces them back to origins or realms of origin (Abyss, warrens, spirit world, courts) and maintains contact with several higher-ups. Alabasters, Spirit Kings, Goblin rulers, etc. When they set their sights on a particular Other or Practitioner it's typically for a major reason. They then cite old rules, precedent, deals, and stuff dating back hundreds of years, or otherwise appeal to specific individuals, to obtain permission at the source to have their target dealt with. When successful, which is often, practitioners can be cut off from their practice, or Others weakened and cut off from allies or power sources. Their executioners are 'The Blind', men and women raised from birth to be steeped in doubt and skepticism, while the higher ups are the opposite. The doubt is a blessing that affords The Blind further protections and diminishes every Other and practice in an area. This combines with the Big Karmic O.K. they get from the higher-ups to make them very matter-of-fact, to-the-point Witch Hunters. Their victims typically have their eyes gouged out, eardrums pierced, and hands cut off, before being bound as necessary in power suppressing restraints, if Other or nonhuman enough. - Wildbow on Witch Hunters
  3. 3.0 3.1
    Long and Mayes are a Witch Hunter pair who rove around in motorcycles. Mayes is a Designated Victim. Whatever fate the universe weaves, it keeps putting her in the way of hostile Others and monstrous practitioners. Kind of like a Gilded Lily (someone who, by dint of circumstance or shenanigans on the universe's part chronically stumbles onto magic items). Between the two of them, they've survived enough crap that the pattern's been established, and practices don't really affect them anymore. What's more, their return to sender vibe is really, really strong. They're scrappers, with a few cursed items that don't really affect them, and a strong survivor vibe. Most of the time they crash into a scene, with a whole lot of chaos, start crashing into wards and summons, rebound them, and follow them back to the head of the snake. This does mean L&M sometimes let things loose or screw up balances, but they can often kill their way through those things, or they'll just kill the people who swoop in to deal with them; They're not the strongest, but have a way of turning up in delicate situations and have enough momentum they'll probably get 5-10 years of 'work' done before they get turned into paste or worse. - Wildbow on Witch Hunters
  4. What's stopping Witch Hunters from just assembling a force numbers and just wiping everything else out?
    Differing methodologies, ideologies. No guarantee it'd work. - Wildbow on Witch Hunters
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2
    How are they able to survive against the kind of capabilities that Practitioners and Others can bring to bear?
    It might help to think of witch hunters as practitioners who make countering Others and practice their focus. Often this is rooted in avoiding the explicit use of practice themselves, gaming the systems of awareness, innocence, establishing methodologies in dispatching practitioners that then become power, and using the trophies and scraps of whatever they get from defeated practitioners to then use against practitioners (items & things they can use without being practitioners themselves). - Wildbow on Witch Hunters
  6. When we got our training and they gave us all the tools we need to do this, they kept going on about how important the diaries are. They made us read some too.

    I think my problem is that I think too much. Most of us who start this when we’re kids, we don’t live long enough to leave anyone behind. Humans have an instinctive desire to leave a legacy. I don’t like myself enough to want to leave anything of myself behind.
    [...]
    Rose feels different than when she left, somehow. Now, as I think about how her predecessor handled everything… I think about how Rose coped, and I wonder ‘how did she handle it?’ and I can’t come up with much.

    When I asked Eva, Eva reminded me of the techniques we learned. Right off the bat, she found the discrepancy.

    When we ask, “How did Rose manage?”, we struggle to answer.

    When we ask, “How did the second Thorburn heir manage?” we can mutually agree that the heir was almost eerily in step with this world.

    As witch hunters, free of any vows or ties to the world the monsters and practitioners inhabit, we’re protected against the trickery. A measure of innocence can challenge that reality, and clearly see the emperor without his clothes.
    [...]
    When we got our training and they gave us all the tools we need to do this, they kept going on about how important the diaries are. They made us read some too.

    • One Nightmare-type monster was invading dreams. Targeting normals. Not affiliated with Johannes or Sandra. Found wandering the streets in a human guise, spotted through the trickery with innocence, cut down with katana.

    Mags looked up. “Thirteen tolls.”
    [...]
    He offered her a light smile. A witch hunter could lie. Oaths weren’t binding.

    One of these days, after years of loyal service, when it didn’t put too many people in danger, he’d skip the council meeting, and act while they were all in one place.

    He had a rocket launcher at home for just that purpose. - Excerpt from Gathered Pages: Andy's Notes
  7. “Hmm,” Lucy said. “Interact, protect, eye, access. Maybe family. Fits for a throwaway item. I don’t get the feeling there’s a lifeline… again, throwaway item, recently made or prepared. It’s a ward of sorts. Can Witch Hunters, uh, do what we do?”

    “They can utilize some techniques,” John said. “Many lean on superstition and find their way to certain patterns, or they have one trick or one servant they steal from someone they’ve gone after and they use that. Combine that with what your friend Melissa can do, and keep their eyes closed or minds turned away when it comes to certain things, so they remain… innocent.” - Excerpt from One After Another 10.2
  8. 8.0 8.1 “At least she didn’t use it on you!”

    “I wish she’d tried!”

    “Protections aren’t absolute.”

    So it wouldn’t have worked after all? - Excerpt from Summer Break 13.5
  9. “If they don’t kill the others,” Ty said. “Because Witch Hunters can kill people. Even innocents.”
    [...]
    The explosion, I suspected, caught everyone by surprise.  There was no clink of metal on hardwood.  Nothing thrown.

    Andy’s work.

    Light, noise, disorientation.  I recovered fast, but I could feel my eyes crawling, as if they were healing from some minor damage.

    I saw Eva striding into the room.  If Callan was able to see, he would have only caught a glimpse of the girl with the machete before she disarmed him, blade striking the poker.  He was doubled over, and she brought her knee up into his chin.

    I had never, not once in my varied years, seen someone deliver a roundhouse kick in real life.  Eva did it like it was easy.  One step forward, another, pivot, kick.
    [...]
    Christoff ran, staggering, disoriented.  He reached the hallway, and walked right into Andy’s waiting attack.  A jab with the taser.

    The kid was barely a teenager.

    Eva’s kick hadn’t taken out Kathryn, or Callan for that matter.  That wasn’t how it really worked.  One well-executed blow didn’t usually knock someone out, and when it did, it often came with brain damage and long-term impairment.  It did, if done right, essentially take them out of the fight.

    Eva thrashed Kathryn, blow after blow, until Kathryn fell and made no motion to get up.  She stepped back to assess the situation, saw Callan trying to struggle to get up on all fours, a crawling position, and stomped on his shoulderblades.  His already-bleeding chin collided with the floor. - Excerpt from Malfeasance 11.7


    Eva replied.  Rather than attach another person to the radiator, she cuffed Christoff to Callan’s right leg and Kathryn’s left.  “Should we check for phones?  Wait, nevermind, the jammer.”
    [...]
    I heard Eva humming as she headed for the back door.  She paused, peered over one stack of books, them kicked it aside, using the toe of her boot to mess up a diagram in chalk.  She turned on the spot to resume her previous path.
    [...]
    I entered the mirror upstairs, and found myself face to face with Alexis, Tiff, and Ty.  They had a group of bogeymen and goblins in their company.

    “The others are captured,” I said.  “They’ve been beaten up and restrained.  Evan’s waiting downstairs.”

    “We’re safe here, right?” Ty asked.

    “Probably not,” I admitted.  “I don’t know what they’re planning, but if a hiding spot like this was all it took to stay safe from a witch hunter, I don’t think witch hunters would be that big of a concern.”
    [...]
    “Getting our defenses in order was a problem even before any of this started,” Alexis said.  It seemed like she was taking point among the three.  “I don’t know if it’s even possible.”

    “Especially since the witch hunters are removing defenses as they see them,” I said.
    [...]
    Okay,” Alexis said.  “Those are the broad strokes, the notes we have to hit.  We can’t do much about the witch hunters, agreed?  Their whole schtick is that they’re really hard for a practitioner to work around.  We can send a mob at them and hope it keeps them distracted until we can make another move.”
    [...]
    “Blake.  Witch hunters.  They’re the one thing Rose was most worried about, the reason she finally caved and did the dead man’s switch.  Even if we manage to beat them, the house is going to get raided at nightfall.  We-” - Excerpt from Malfeasance 11.8
  10. Some stuff on innocence
  11. More subtly, she could conclude, objects had a kind of importance in this room. Stuff that might have been family knick-knacks in another house took up odd positions here, sort of akin to how a museum might arrange things. Giving objects a kind of prominence.

    Odd objects. A figurine of a bear, a frame that held a strip of cloth with an embroidered knot on it taut, a kettle, a small statue of a pig, a mannequin’s hand, a metronome…

    Andy unlocked the cabinet. A drawer slid out, heavy enough that the desk momentarily rocked when it reached its full length. Part of the drawer had to be recessed in the wall.

    Knives, swords, and something that looked like a mace or a scepter, but hollow, with holes punched through the surface.

    He saw her looking. “Censer. When you want to hit something and you need a particular kind of smoke, both at the same time.”

    Five seconds later, he had another drawer open. Guns, many of which were old fashioned, ammo, and lead pipes.

    “Take your pick,” he said.

    “For real?”

    “Some things I wouldn’t let you take, but that’s like, uh, that gun there, it’s the first gun I bought for myself, personal attachment. And that sword right there is impregnated with the blood of a fox-woman. And maybe that obsidian knife, unless you had a specific use for it, it’s sort of niche, and it’d be a pain to replace. Just about everything else, well, if you lost it, it’s an excuse to get a replacement, or it’s less clutter. Win win.” - Excerpt from Signature 8.5
  12. “Their lives were in shambles. Roberto fell in love with Angie and tried to be better for her, and ended up in kid jail. A lot of the time, these weird cases will pop up where Aware will cause a ton of problems, including problems for themselves, and because they face problems when it comes to actually doing stuff… this is a whole complicated concept-”

    “The Aware run into resistance if they try to climb the rungs and become a politician or make a billion dollars with their talents,” Lucy said.

    “Yeahhh,” Yadira said. “So you know that much. But not even top rung stuff. Even like… if Roberto became a car salesman and he used his asshole power to become the top seller at the biggest car dealership in his city, wherever he is, that’d draw too much attention. So he becomes the top seller at a place where there’s enough other crap going on people don’t pay him a lot of attention, and he doesn’t make that much money. So a lot of Aware will find themselves in similar places on the social ladder, and in the same neighborhood in a town or whatever, and then they crash into one another. And they may not survive those crashes.” - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.3
  13. Right. They were witch hunters. They knew stuff, and it was hard to leave all that behind and live an ordinary life. Practitioners could very well be unhappy or unsettled by the appearance of the twins in their town. Lords or local powers could seek to control them, even abuse them. - Excerpt from Signature 8.5
  14. Why are they not a bigger thing that people are afraid of?
    People are plenty afraid of them. Sometimes you can deal with them by making unofficial contracts and whatever. Bringing Andy & Eva onto the council; if (m)any witch hunters show up those two will say 'this is our turf'. And they're tied into a network that knows what's going on and keeps tabs on the people out there, so they could get tipped off if Long and Mayes drifted their way. Of course, Andy is plotting for the contingency where he needs to blow them all up, so it's not all sunshine and daisies. - Wildbow on Witch Hunters
  15. I think my problem is that I think too much. Most of us who start this when we’re kids, we don’t live long enough to leave anyone behind. Humans have an instinctive desire to leave a legacy. I don’t like myself enough to want to leave anything of myself behind. - Excerpt from Gathered Pages: Andy's Notes
  16. “He keeps strange tenants. Some are complicated. A gilded lily, who stumbles on magic items by accident on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Many are cursed. Someone who saw something so bent and broken it drove him around the bend. A child of a witch hunter who survived the rest of her family, who knows something is afoot in the shadows of this world. The pattern of that family seeks to wrap her up in its flows. [...] Some of them remain and are power sources. I imagine that swarm tenant is both steady income and a trickle of power. Others balance out the other tenants. A skeptic that dulls practices around her to help take the bite out of the worst cursed items. An elusive man to keep the witch hunter scion’s attention without ever bearing fruit.” - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.8
  17. The quartet in ‘Magog picked up all the C4 we had to dole out before I could get your bid in. Supplies are running low, with the last source we had getting arrested. I know you said Eva was messing around with your grenades, and I know Mac taught you how to rig a daisy chain pin pull. I stuck a belt of pineapples in your shipment. I can’t imagine it’s unwanted.

    Rocket? I have serious reservations about giving you that RPG launcher, boy. Either you’re using it, and I don’t think you’re equipped for it, or your sister is using it, and we’re talking a slew of other problems.

    Consider asking for help instead. Offer still stands. I trust your sensibility, Andy boy. If you think you need seven (now eight) good witch hunters to cut down the riff raff, you know we’re good for it. We’re all in this together, Andy boy. You two, me and my guys, the Magog nuts, the Montreal organization. - Excerpt from Gathered Pages: Andy's Notes
  18. One After Another 10.d
  19. Estrella Vanderwerf
    Estrella leads her family practice at 17, after all family practitioners over the age of eighteen were executed by the Montreal Witch Hunters. - Bonus Material: Student Guide
  20. “What we do,” Cleo told Verona, in her heavy accent, “is we act like sports recruiters.  Go to schools, find the untapped.  The angry, the abused, the talented ones who’ve gone down the wrong track.  If you can run and hit hard and you’re a good little boy, you might make the lacrosse team.  If you can run, hit hard, and you’re angry as all hell at the world, or if you want more than chasing a ball, we offer.”

    “What-[...]-what are the perks?”

    “I could tell you about money, nice apartments, connections, sometimes you dial in a favor, and someone that’s really good at hurting people will take your abusive mom and pop into their custody, keep ’em for a few years to try their tools and techniques on.  But mostly?  Mostly, we all feel, deep down inside, it isn’t fair, and gosh…”

    Cleo shook her head.  Verona couldn’t take her eyes off the Other to focus on her, but she could see it in the background.

    “…Assholes like you are cheating and making it all more unfair than anyone else.” - Excerpt from Summer Break 13.5
  21. The Abbots keep an Augur bound in shackles and charms they've picked up, as well as the Augur's child. The Augur identifies targets for them in riddle-speak, which they use to narrow down the type of Other or practitioner they're dealing with, reaching out to home base a state away. They then tailor their munitions and approach appropriately, aiming for devastating opening moves, not giving targets a chance to respond. Typical attacks are two snipers with specially made bullets at two different angles, each with a spotter, and a team of five midrange guys. Their bullets go through barriers, protections, hurt even Others that can't normally be affected by bullets (immaterial, etc). Each wear charms that make them harder to see with the Sight, not easier. Everyone and everything they take down gets butchered and taken apart to serve as more charms for the same purpose, protecting them, their hideouts and homes, their families, etc. The Augur cooperates because they know when they die or finally break down under the accumulated costs of Seeing that much, their child is next in line. - Wildbow on Witch Hunters
  22. “Each of the Witch Hunter groups have a different philosophy,” Mr. Samaniego said.  “Montreal is mean, they want to hurt.  Cleo came from that group.  They’ll lie, cheat, steal, deal with organized crime.”“[...] Long and Mayes travel across North America. Mayes is like you, Clementine, except instead of finding things, Others find her. She and Long have gotten very good at self defense, and very good at sending problems back to the source. Rebounding curses, returning summons. There’s Folk. There’s Hayden. More itinerants.”

    “Lots out there,” Avery said.

    “We work with them all. Long and Mayes stop in, we supply them, they teach my guys to rebound stuff. Montreal’s Witch Hunters teach us about items and practice. We supply the Magog five, Magog helps us deal with the nasty ones, when what the Lighthouse has available isn’t enough. It’s not easy. Long and Mayes are chaos incarnate, Magog is uncompromising in a way that makes me look like a dream. Clem knows what I’m talking about. Balances.” - Excerpt from Crossed With Silver 19.5
    • The Eilands have been dealing with others, practitioners, and cursed items for several generations. At this point they consist of three teenagers/young adults, as well as their father and uncle, with the father & uncle being retired after bad injuries and trauma. Each of the kids roams, looking for Others, while carrying a device or tool.
      • Eula drives around with a camper at the back of her truck, filled up with the electric engine created by an Alchemist practitioner, made to create a gateway to the dead. When she flips it on, power goes haywire all across whatever town or area of the city she's in, and the immaterial becomes material, practices and power transfers go buggy, many Others are slowed, crippled, and agitated, and she uses a tesla cannon in combination with a very amped-up cattle prod to subdue Others. Once they're weak enough, she drinks them up with her device (if immaterial) or cages them in specialized electric fields (if physical), and drags them back home. They get added to the 'vault'.
      • Lester works with a giant 7.5 foot Other with a smiling cartoon face painted on his helmet and baggy clothes that hide everything from the neck down. Lester likes to use a shotgun, explosives tuned to the Other (salt grenades, silver nailbombs), and similar methods to get an Other weak enough for his Other friend to grab and hold onto. Then they get dragged to the Abyss, where the Other gets to play with them until Lester gets back home. When he gets back, the Other, according to the terms of the deal, brings the target back, bound in a small child-like doll with a painted face. The doll goes to the vault. Lester doesn't tell his family that the deal also says that if he can't supply an Other every two weeks at a minimum, he has to supply a human child. Those three dolls (so far) are at the bottom of the lake, a two hour drive from home. A small price to pay.
      • Ruth is the black sheep of the Eiland family. She was reluctant with the 'family job' and nearly died a few times as a younger teen, getting captured and kept by goblins for a week before her family rescued her. Ever since, she's been wild, promiscuous, neurotic, alcoholic, and addicted. Hard to blame her, when even seven years later, she's finding things beneath her skin, or vomiting and having her stomach lining tear as things come free. She almost spiraled into total self destruction before she went on a job to stop a(nother) alchemist who was trying to unravel immortality, but those rinsed in the elixir would become indestructible statues with consciousnesses trapped inside them. She kept the formula and uses it as a weapon, now. She doesn't get everyone she goes after, but those who have even chance meetings with her end up partially petrified, or with their skin dotted with scars from where droplets touched and turned the flesh to stone. When she does get a victim, however, she turns them into statues, which then gets shown and sold as high art. Her family hates that she's doing this, because of the higher profile, but it drives her forward when she feels she has pretty much nothing else. Whatever doesn't sell (or solidifies into a shape that won't sell) goes to the vault.

        The vault gets stronger as stuff gets added to it. Trapped others, items, devices. Their father and uncle mostly deal with the 'soft' stuff, like cursed items, which also get added. They aren't really building a conventional 'collection', though. Rather, the more that gets added to it, the easier it is to subdue Others and practitioners to get them to the point where they can be added to the collection (getting stunned by the electricity, grabbed by the Other, brought low by the petrifaction) - Witch Hunter Examples
  23. “Each of the Witch Hunter groups have a different philosophy,” Mr. Samaniego said.
    [...]
    “The Reith Library, they play the system. They’ll go to powers in charge, Lords, Judges, Gods over realms, whatever it takes, and they’ll bring obscure precedent from old records, and they’ll get permission. They walk the line of almost being practitioners, and then cultivate doubters in their rank and file, the opposite. Soldiers who are similar to your acquaintance Sharon. The skeptic. [...] It’s like conventional law enforcement, getting warrants, except they capture their targets, butcher them to make them even less able to practice. No tongue, eyes, hands, ears. ["] - Excerpt from Crossed With Silver 19.5
  24. It'd require unique rules, yes. I think the big thing is that most serious witch hunters are generally trained to an insane degree. They're exposed to Others and drilled, and they end up pretty quirky and different, if not broken as human beings.

    They'd probably have tools and techniques. If generated using the Pact Dice system, you could extrapolate so the different categories mean different things. Puissance = firepower, Executions = skills, etc. - Regarding Witch-Hunters and Pactdice.
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