This primary path takes Zeal and runs with it. Those who follow it are widely called Avengers, but are also known as punishers, executioners or slayers. In the United States' bible belt, they're sometimes called "soldiers of God." Avengers are obsessed with settling the score. Evil must be punished. Compromise is not an option. Without swift, terrible retribution for the guilty, life consists of little more than fear of evil and an unfounded hope for safety. It doesn't matter if revenge isn't pleasant or convenient or safe: It is essential. Avengers' primary goals are to attack and destroy. The best defence is a strong offense. Sometimes mishaps occur or the wrong people get hurt in the process, but that's the price paid for cleansing the Earth.

 

O      CLEAVE
Any melee weapon your character wields suddenly becomes much more potent. The weapon can already be dangerous - a knife, a baseball bat - or be fairly harmless - a stick, a broken bottle. Even your character's own fist or body becomes deadly. There are also stories of hunters brandishing red-hot, glowing blades, and a rumour of a one-armed hunter growing a phantom limb with which to strike at the enemy. Regardless of the form a weapon takes, it can damage just about anything it touches - werewolves, ghosts, stout doors, intrusive people.
A weapon created spontaneously with this power persists as long as your character wills it to or while she remains conscious. Existing weapons that are empowered can endure only so much punishment before being ruined. An empowered object doesn't necessarily look any different, but it feels warm to the touch to the wielding hunter, and seems to vibrate with energy of its own. In cases of manifested blades and limbs, only hunters and supernatural beings can see the weapons.

System: Your character empowers a single held weapon or manifests a weapon where none was before. Roll Dexterity + Brawl or Melee to attack, as normal. An existing weapon that's empowered inflicts an additional +2 damage. Al damage is also lethal, no matter what is normally appropriate to the item used. A spontaneously manifested weapon does Strength +2 lethal damage. Cleave attacks can harm immaterial beings and normal people. When Conviction is invested in Cleave, the extra dice are added to a single attack dice pool; any subsequent successes are added to the damage dice pool.
The downside to this power is that hand held weapons can't endure the energy that courses through them. A crowbar eventually snaps. A baseball bat shatters. A fire axe splits.
Once this power is activated, a melee weapon is useable in combat for one turn for each point that it adds to Strength for determining damage. Thus, a knife (Strength +1 damage) lasts for one turn of use with Cleave before breaking. A club (Strength +2 damage) lasts for two turns. An axe (Strength +3 damage) lasts for three turns.
The only way to keep a melee weapon from being destroyed and remaining useable beyond its time limit is to make a Zeal roll, difficulty 6, in every subsequent turn (this roll is a reflexive action). If the roll succeeds, the weapon can be used to attack with Cleave again in that turn. If the roll fails, the weapon is ruined. This Zeal roll represents your character's effort to harness and control his passion for the cause.
Cleave applies to melee weapons only, not ranged ones. Spontaneously fabricated weapons are relatively rare among hunters. Individuals who can create red-hot swords out of thin air somehow believe themselves able to twist reality to begin with, whether due to derangements, amazing will or staunch belief in religion or fate. If your character's worldview can't rationalize his defiance of physics - even with the knowledge that monsters are real - then he probably im- proves upon weapons already held.

 

O O      TRAIL
Your character touches a supernatural target and causes that person or thing to leave a smoky streamer behind it. This trail is usually visible only to the hunter who places it, although characters using Discern, Witness or Illuminate may perceive others' trails. The streamer roils in the direction in which the subject travelled. A trail can neither be touched or felt. Likewise, it cannot be dissipated by wind, by being walked through or by anything else that would scatter a physical fog.
A creature or person being followed cannot see the trail unless it specifically possesses preternatural perceptions (Storyteller's discretion).
System: All your character has to do is touch (or in some cases pass through) a supernatural target to activate this power. Roll Perception + Zeal, difficulty 6. The trail lasts six hours for each success achieved. Duration can be measured in days, instead, if a point of Conviction is spent. All of your character's trails are identical. Some supernatural creatures can pass into spaces different from humanity's physical world. If a creature does so, the trail ends abruptly where the creature phased out or disappeared. The trail resumes when the beast returns to the physical world.
Spotting a trail is difficulty 7 for the Discern, Illuminate and Witness edges. This is also the difficulty for creatures with supernatural perceptions. This power does not affect mundane people or objects.

 

O O O      SMOULDER
This edge produces a cloud of thick black smoke. Some smoulder clouds appear sourceless. Others must be exhaled by the creator. A cloud shields the hunter from all mortal perception and from most supernatural awareness. Sight, smell, all heat perception and most hearing is baffled. If your character fires a shotgun from concealment within a smoulder cloud, the sound of the shot is about as loud as a finger snap.

System: It takes one action to use this edge. Roll Manipulation + Zeal, difficulty 7. The cloud fills a roughly 10-cubic-foot area. For each Conviction point spent, this area increases by another 10 cubic feet (multiple uses of Smoulder achieve the same effect, if time permits). Your character can also choose to create a smaller cloud, if she desires, at no Conviction expense. The cloud lasts for one turn for each success achieved in the creation roll, but can be dissipated prematurely if your character desires.
The difficulties of all attack rolls within and into the cloud increase by three. The creator and any other hunters can see through the cloud normally if second sight is active.
The Storyteller decides if any supernaturals' particularly applicable senses can pierce the cloud (difficulty 7 if any roll is allowed); most cannot, not even those of many spirits.

 

O O O O      SURGE
A character who uses Surge feels a tingling sensation course through his limbs. With but a thought, this sensation can be directed to different body parts. It can be poured into muscles and used for extraordinary bursts of strength, channelled through the nerves for remarkable speed, or shunted into the bones and skin to absorb damage.

System: Spend a point of Conviction. You now have a pool of points equal to your character's Zeal to allocate on a one-for-one basis to his Strength, Dexterity and/ or Stamina. No Attribute may be raised higher than 6, and any excess points are wasted. Attributes remain inflated for the remainder of the scene. Because there are no rolls involved directly with this edge, Conviction points cannot be risked on its use.

 

O O O O O      SMITE
The faithful like to call this effect "the Wrath of God." Your character gestures, and something that's not quite lightning and not quite fire erupts from her body and (usually) incinerates whatever she's pissed at. Smite is not subtle: It produces a blazing light, a deafening crash and an acrid ammonia stench. Electronic equipment within 20 feet is usually scrambled, glass breaks, metal surfaces are discoloured and people nearby often suffer nose bleeds.

System: Spend a point of Conviction. Roll Dexterity + Zeal, difficulty 6. Any successes achieved after the first are added to Strength and rolled in a lethal damage pool.
Maximum range equals your character's Zeal score in yards. Supernatural and human targets can be damaged.