Chang Jesus Anfei, “First Thunder” or the the Searcher is a Kuei-jin.
Overview[]
>>>Dr. Jose Lee; transcribed to hunter-net<<<
I'd hoped to escape this torment, to ignore how the world had changed and take my family somewhere safe. Instead, here I am among you again, with a new danger that I cannot resist. Perhaps I could, but this danger comes from an old friend.
Some of you may remember my fellow anthropologist, the late Change Jesus Anfei. He was killed, I believe intentionally, in a gun fight between Sendero Luminoso bank robbers and military police three months ago. He was a hostage.
I saw him again yesterday, while taking my parents for a walk in Salazar Park.
On some levels, it didn't come entirely as a surprise. We have, I believe, all dealt with enough revenants and revived corpses to know that unresolved passions seem to drive many souls to emulate life. Change was nothing if not passionate in his dedication to improving present-day Peru, as well as to trying to understand its past. His death was horribly unjust. Were I inclined to spiritualism, he's one soul I would certainly expect to hear from again.
Yet it's one thing to guess at the _real_ way of things, and another to see them demonstrated in the form of someone you knew and cared for. My parents remarked how the man in the rumpled suit bore a remarkable resemblance to poor Chang. In a moment of surprise and bewilderment, I performed the trick of concentration that dispels protective illusions. I saw him for what he was: a corpse. I pardoned myself with a story about my pager. Thank goodness it remains half-magical to them, suitable for all sorts of excuses.
I maneuvered through the crowd to escape their line of sight and approached Chang. His dead flesh bore a number of tattoos: the Chinese characters for "seeker," "wisdom," "heir" and others I couldn't make out. Warily, I slipped in front of him and spoke his name. He looked up, completely without recognition in his flat eyes. He scanned me from head to toe and spoke in precise Chinese, "You are not of the pure line."
"I do not understand," I said, more confused than ever.
"You have diluted your heritage. You cannot possess the Mandate. You are of no concern to me. Remove yourself, so that I may continue with the search."
I started to reach out to touch him. He picked me up with one hand and threw me a full ten feet. Even with my extraordinary healing, it took me several moments to catch my breath. When I recovered, he was gone. There was a lingering smell unlike anything else in the park. I gambled and followed it, out of the fashionable district and into old Chinatown slums. After two hours, I found Chang again, peering through the windows of ground floor apartments. His eyes occasionally flashed a vivid jade green.
I tried to speak with him again. I agreed with him that I was not what he was looking for, but argued that I might be able to help him. I know that sometimes the waling dead voluntarily release the world if their obsessions find resolution, and I hoped very much not to have to kill my friend...again. In fits and starts, he claimed to be "First Thunder," returned to Earth to complete the mission chronicled in _Romance of the Three Kingdoms_. Now, I am not deeply steeped in Chinese literature, but that was one of my favorite tales as a child, and there is no character named "First Thunder" in it. I began to remark on this, when he angrily interrupted.
"It is a plot! The wicked unrighteous heirs suppressed the truth to end the triumph of virtue. The emendators will pay along with the usurpers!" He ranted in this vein for some while. From what I can gather, he seemed to search for the virtuous heir of the Han Dynasty - so as to rebuild Chinese glory?
I asked him why he was here rather than in China. He explained that this was where the "Dao" had sent him to begin his work. He would, he claimed, make his way throughout the world. If the righteous heir were to be found in China, he'd already be on the throne. Therefore, the Dao must have hidden the heir away from threatening eyes. I merely pretended to understand. The whole event had the quality of a nightmare. I was tempted to disassociate myself from it all, disengage my emotions, but I suspected that if I made one wrong maneuver, I'd have to fight my old friend.
As it happened, I did not make the mistake. As i questioned him, he continued his baffling search. We turned a corner by the Ch'ing Dynasty restaurant. His face contorted with a roar of anger, something like, "The invade cannot prosper! The purity of the Han must triumph!" As he ran, his body appeared to change almost into jade. He seemed heavier, too. (You can see his footprints sunk into the asphalt, if you can get past the police lines today.) His hands burst into flame, and when he smashed in the restaurant window, the _glass_ burned along with the wood.
I made several futile strikes at him with powers of my own. He slapped me away and I must have fallen unconscious. By the time I recovered, he was gone. The restaurant was in flames. Fire fighters had removed seven people, myself included. Several died inside. The bodies showed signs of powerful blows - one had actually been folded in half. The police were already at work on a story involving drug-crazed terrorists. I left them to it.
That's my story. I have here pictures of Chang taken just before his death; he looks much the same to our sight. Please help me find and stop him.
Stats[]
Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 3, Stamina 5, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 2 (to normal sight), Perception 4, Intelligence 2, Wits 4
Abilities: Alertness 5, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 3, Firearms 4, Intimidation (in jade form) 4, Investigation 2, Occult 3, Stealth 2, Streetwise 2, Survival 3
Willpower: 8
Pathos: 7
Health Levels: 10. Chang suffers no wound penalties. He regenerates, but does so more slowly than many walking dead; it takes a full day for him to heal a lost health level, no matter what kind of damage to which it's lost.
Armor Form: Chang is able to transform his body into solid jade. Spend two Pathos. The transformation takes one action to perform and persists until Chang chooses to revert. Once changed, he receives two automatic successes on all Strength-related rolls, including damage, and also gains two extra soak dice. He loses one point of Dexterity, but gains 4 Intimidation. He weighs about 700 pounds in jade form.
Pure Fire: Chang's ability to set his hands on fire combines the spirit tricks Poltergeist's Rage and Firebug. When he strikes a target, roll Strength + Brawl, difficulty equal to the target's Stamina +3. Each success inflicts one level of bashing damage, which can be soaked.
When he clutches something, spend one Pathos and roll Stamina + occult, difficulty 7. One success lights a candle or makes a piece of paper burn, whereas five successes destroy a car engine or large piece of furniture. He can choose to make this an extended action, spending Pathos each turn and accumulating more successes, destroying objects according to the range, above. Grabbing, holding and burning a living target inflicts one level of lethal damage per success rolled each turn.
References[]
- HTR: Hunter Survival Guide, p. 132-133