Every hunter bears a Mark: a lasting sign of their first encounter with darkness. For some their Mark is a physical sign; a wound, a scar, or some other lasting legacy of that fateful experience that opened their eyes to the terrible truth. Some Marks are less obvious, but no less traumatic and significant.
A hunter’s Mark grants them a boon; an ability that will help them in their battles against the dark, but it also confers a horrible curse. As a hunter repeatedly pits themselves against the horrors of Harrowmire, their curse will grow stronger, until it finally consumes them and turns them into one of the very monsters that they hunt!
The Four Marks
There are four marks which characters can bear.
Scarred
The character was gravely injured during their encounter with the dark, leaving them with a ragged, barely healed scar. This wound aches in the presence of anything touched by the dark, granting the character a form of supernatural awareness. However, the scar will never completely heal, and the pain it causes will slowly twist the character, turning them cruel and savage.
Haunted
The character died for the briefest of moments during their encounter with the dark, and they never fully returned to the land of the living. Now they can perceive the silent ghosts of the restless dead which can sometimes lend them aid. However, their ab-dead state can often make them seem more like a walking corpse and less like a vital, living human.
Tainted
The character’s encounter with the dark left them spiritually tainted by it. Something dark resides within them now; a bestial presence that threatens to overwhelm them in times of stress. However this presence also grants the character strange, animalistic abilities. Should they succumb to their curse, they will transform into something no longer human.
Obsessed
Some hunters are not repulsed by their encounter with the darkness; they are enamoured by it. These individuals are drawn to places they might encounter the dark once again, that they might learn more. While this dark obsession makes them less prone to fear than others, it also threatens to completely overwhelm them and turn them into a willing acolyte.