Electricity and the Hunter

Amongst the greatest achievements man has ever done is controlling directed electrons. It has provided us a limitless source of light to keep the night at bay through the use of light bulbs. However beyond powering flashlights, radios, and night vision devices electricity can be used as a weapon in the fight against monsters.

Undead:

While Vampires (Genus Nosferatu) are little more than corpses animated with a dark energy and lust for blood, they still retain a biology very similar to that of a human being. This holds true for zombies, ghouls, and many other “undead” creatures.

As a result these perversions of natural law still have nervous systems capable of transmitting electric signals through the body.

The way a normal human body works is that the our living essence, beating heart, and functioning brain run off of very small amounts of electricity generated by all the cells within our body. To twitch your finger the brain fires off a series of electrical charges to the exact nerve cells which in turn release another electrical neurotransmitter that moves the muscle and sends feedback to the brain.

Depending on the variety of the undead these same nerve cells are either still functioning through the transmission of small amounts of electricity; this is most true for those undead which still mostly resemble humanity, or dark magic is forcing these same actions without the chemical and electric stimuli.

What matters to the hunter however is that the nerve cells that send and receive the neurotransmitters still function. Using the same devices that work on humans, stun guns & tasers, a hunter is capable of triggering the remaining nerves within a corpse and prevents the natural electricity/magic from functioning.

This is a great equalizer, it doesn’t matter if the creature is ten times stronger and twice the speed of a hunter, if a monster can’t even control a finger then they lose many of their unnatural advantages. With this in mind tazers and stun guns make up an essential part of a monster hunter’s arsenal. While these tools won’t usually destroy a beast it will provide the hunter with time and opportunity.

In some cases electricity can be a weapon itself. While not undead, Leechmen (********), have a flammable venom that runs through their body. The spark caused by a stun will set this fluid alight and consume it; against electricity the Leechman’s crystallized skin is no defense.

Non-Corporeal Creatures:

There are many ethereal and non-corporeal creatures in existence within the Order Necromunidae, they are almost exclusively within the family (*********). These creatures do not have a normal substance and can be made out of ectoplasm, aether, or many other magical elements.

One thing that most of these being have in common is that their presence disturbs the fabric of reality and generates an electromagnetic field. Electricity can disrupt the makeup of these creatures and unravel the very fabric which allows them to form. In this regards stun guns can be an extremely potent weapon against attacks from ethereal attackers.

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately efforts to create electrified armor have been suspended after the tragic and spectacular accident that consumed our last volunteer. However the State of Texas Penal system has shown great interest in these vests.

The Living:

It goes without saying that thanks to the quirks of biology what is effective against humans is also effective against many species of monsters. While not all creatures share the common biology of humans, enough do that stun guns and tazers should be part of every monster hunter’s kit. The use of electricity on different species will be explored in later posts and used to update outdated taxonomy reports in the hunter’s guide.

Good luck and safe hunting.

Taxonomy: Nosferatu

Amongst the most famous and feared of all the dark creatures are the Vampires. These ageless monsters prey on humanity seeing us little more than cattle. They are a parasitic species and flourish as we flourish.

This entry’s purpose is to establish the proper nomenclature of the Vampire.

Kingdom: Animalia

Even at the highest level their taxonomy has raised many questions before on whether to classify the victims as part of the disease. However only a portion of vampires are created through a disease, others are created by Magic and unknown means.

Phylum: Chordata

All known vampires fit the requirements for a Chordate creature.

Class: Paradoxa

Being creatures that do not fit within the normal biological constraints Vampires fall under the Class Paradoxa.

Order: Nocturnae

As with all Nocturnal creatures, vampires solely operate at night. While with protection they can survive and function during the day their abilities are greatly reduced.

Family: Nosophoridae

The Nosphos or disease bearing creatures are those monsters that can infect and turn others into their own kind. The decision to put vampires into the Nosophoridae Family and not the Necromunidae is still a heated debate by Crypto-zoologists. However while generally considered undead, vampires often still have heartbeats, pulse, and other differences from normal undead. In this regards they are closer to werewolves (Order Nosophoridae) than to Ghouls (Order Necromunidae).

Genus: Nosferatu

All vampires fall within the Nosferatu Genus. From here vampires are separated into species based on their origin, first known sire, notable feature, or historic act.

Examples of this include the vampires descended from the first murderer Kain, (Nosferatu Traditor), Dracula (Nosferatu Imperator), and many others. To date there are over a hundred separate species of Nosferatu recorded. Although through the ceaseless work of the hunters which protect us many of these species are now considered extinct.

Common Weaknesses:

All Nosferatu suffer from a severe allergy to Fire, Silver, Sunlight, and Blessed Elements. They will find wounds inflicted with any of these items to be extremely damaging and difficult to repair. Each species and even individual vampires display varying levels of allergy to these elements, much as a normal human would to allergies.

Certain other items such as garlic will affect some Nosferatu, but not others. Examples of this would be that while garlic will repel a N. Traditor it would have no effect on the N. Salire (Jianshi or Hopping Vampire). On the other hand glutinous rice is a valid weapon on a N. Salire and has no effect on the N. Traditor. It is suspected that this has something to do with the primogenitor of each line, but this is pure speculation.

Proper Staking Technique

While removing the heart, severing the head, and burning the remains is by far the safest and only true way of getting rid of a vampire. The easiest way to prevent them from causing problems is to drive a wooden stake through their heart.

The most popular method of this is to position the stake over the heart and hammer it in. Thanks to movies and popular culture this is by far the most tried method by hunters. While it is an effective technique it is not an ideal one for all circumstances.

There are two problems with this method, the first is the rib cage.

The Rib cage is a strong shield of bone that protects the vital organs. This makes the direct method much more difficult as any stake has to be pushed through the ribs. The strength of the rib cage is why a mallet or hammer is used by most hunters. There are very few humans who have the physical strength to shove a proper sized stake through the chest with only their bare hands. This poses problems for combat situations as it requires a hunter to have an object in both hands and be able to use them in coordination.

The other problem is that while ideal for any bloodsucker still in their coffin or one which is properly restrained, it is hard to accomplish when these monsters are moving. While we at Holy Ammunition encourage all hunters not to engage in hand to hand combat with creatures that are faster and stronger than humans, we do recognize that in some situations it is unavoidable.

If a mallet or hammer are unavailable then the following technique will give a hunter the best chance of surviving the encounter and ending the unlife of the vampire.

Plunging the stake in just below the sternum and angling it upwards means that the hunter only has to push through the abdominal muscles, organs, and soft tissue. This technique is very messy, depending on when the creature last fed as it causes a lot of tearing through organs, most notably the gallbladder, bowels, and liver.

It should be noted that the stake needed for this technique should be longer than that used for a standard staking, approximately eighteen inches in length instead of the standard twelve. This allows the hunter to not need to put their hand inside the monster's chest itself, although in case of emergency any hunter squeamish enough to be put off by digging through some undead intestines should call it a day while they still can. By using this technique it allows a hunter to use a single hand and only have to carry a solitary slender implement.

Whichever technique a hunter uses always be sure to follow standard protocol and ensure that the stake is firmly embedded in the heart. Please remember that staking will merely incapacitate and not kill some vampires.