These stories first appeared in Hunt's Book of Weapons, an in-game collection of found documents curated by an unknown researcher. They are replicated here in their original format. This means that many of the stories are not presented chronologically, or in one grouping, and it is left to the reader to put together the puzzle pieces and determine to what extent they contain fact, fiction, or fable.

Prior to the launch of Hunt: Showdown 1896, this weapon was named the Berthier Mle 1892. Our Variant terminology has since been simplified. We have updated the names where relevant, but you may still see the more period accurate names within the lore texts.

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Berthier 1892

Berthier Mle 1892. (See also, CARBINES, BOLT-ACTION) The Berthier Mle 1892 is a bolt-action rifle that was the French's alternative to the Lebel 1886. Known as a mousqueton, this smokeless powder gun was a lightweight option designed for easy handling for both rear infantry and cavalry troops that used an en-bloc clip. This allowed both the cartridge and the three-bullet clip to be loaded into the carbine for quick reloads and convenient ammo storage ready for a firefight. The Berthier, interestingly, was designed by a French engineer for the French Algerian Railways.

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Journal of Jed Owenthal
Lightly worn, red leather 4.25" x 8.25"

May 2nd, 1895

God truly blessed me with one fantastic woman. The day Annalise hauled off and punched me for making a ruckus in her bar was the day I fell in love, and no arrow from cupid could be as effective.

For my birthday today, my wife gave me two wonderful gifts. The first was a new rifle. Light little thing that'll get the job done and brand new from the factory. But it confused me; I'm a shotgun man through and through and will use my brass knuckles if I'm in a real scrape. I asked my Annalise why she gave me this gun and she presented me with her second gift: She went to the doctor today and confirmed that she's with child. Said that she wanted me to keep my distance when I'm out hunting to make sure I'd be around to be a father. Boy, when I tell you I wrapped her in the biggest hug and spun her in the air, I ain't joking. My Anna keeps making me the happiest man alive.

June 13th, 1895

My Anna and the babe are doing well. Anna's belly is as big as a melon now and she's had to let her little siblings take over the bar. She hates being stuck at home, my Anna was always a woman of action, but I told her if I needed to be safe out hunting, she needed to be safe at home. She relented and is keeping herself busy with making clothes for the baby.
There is one concerning thing: She's been eating everything in sight since the end of May. Anna keeps saying she craves something, but no matter what she eats it doesn't satisfy either of them. At this point she may even eat us out of house and home to find it, but whatever my Anna and the baby want I'll get.

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Journal of Jed Owenthal
Lightly worn, red leather 4.25" x 8.25"

June 30th, 1895

Came back from hunting pretty beaten up today. Was trying my best to make this a clean run but a pack of damn hounds got in close and caught me off guard. Felt like an eternity just keeping them at bay long enough to shoot them and by the end of it me and my rifle were so covered in entrails I still came home covered in the stuff.

I tried to sneak into the house and run to the bath before Anna could see me. Her nose has been sensitive with the pregnancy, and I didn't want to upset her. But she cornered me immediately and asked me what the smell was. Not to brag, but my Anna looks at me with eyes of desire all the time. But today was different, she was gnawing at her bottom lip like I was a three-course meal. I told her about the run in with the dogs and I saw the cogs turn in her head.

She asked me to bring a dog back when I went to hunt.

July 10th, 1895

I've never seen my Anna so happy.

The first time I brought back a hound for her it was only a hind leg, couldn't fit much else in my satchel. I had to stop her from eating the thing raw right then and there. She made quick work of cooking it and the look on her face when she took a bite was nothing short of ecstasy. Damn near swallowed the thing whole in seconds before asking for more. I've made sure to always get a hound while I'm out there, a whole one can last her a few days before another is ready.

I can't help but worry, damn things are always filled with maggots and smell like hell, but she loves the stuff. Every time she finishes a plate, she gives me a sweet kiss that smells like death and tells me that her and the baby are happy. I think it's true, whenever I touch her stomach the baby kicks and bites at my hand in response and she says it's a great sign. But sometimes I see her slowly chew on the maggots when she thinks I'm not looking, and I worry. I don't think she tells the doctor what she's eating, but they both seem fine and I'm not going to take her joy away from her. Whatever my Anna and the baby want I'll get.

Berthier 1892 Incendiary Ammo

RN: The sculptor's influence molded and distorted the old, the frail, and the weak - those without vitality, or capacity for change. What was then truly disturbing was its effect on the young, the virulent, the growing. Worse, the unborn, those still developing.

Berthier 1892 Riposte

BERTHIER MLE 1892 RIPOSTE. (See also, CARBINES, BOLT ACTION) The Berthier Mle 1892 RIPOSTE is a bolt-action rifle with attached bayonet. While not primarily designed for front line service, this lightened mousqueton rifle is effective with an affixed bayonet, making it a reliable and effective weapon at medium and close ranges, while still being light and maneuverable.

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Journal of Jed Owenthal
Lightly worn, red leather 4.25" x 8.25"

August 17th, 1895

I am reunited at last with my Anna and her babe. They've got their shine again, they're healthy as I have ever seen them, really. Whatever they did, wherever they went, it did wonders for their health.

It was last night I came home, hung up my hat and my coat, set my gun on the table, and saw them there in the cot, smiling and laughing with each other. I was overjoyed to see them again, such joy, and rushed to fetch them their favorite cuts. Everyday I'd been gathering still, curing and salting the meat for their return, and the outhouse was hung heavy with glistening hinds, rumps, joints, ribs, and steaks.

As I was selecting from the meats, there was a low rumble from the outhouse, a gurgle, deep and ominous. I was ready with my knife. The hung meat rustled, then out stepped a slight and frail man, who made the sound again, then collapsed.

I carried him onto the table, careful of his head round the door frame. Anna said that this was the man that had found them, brought them back after all this time. She wondered where he'd gone. He looked ghostly, like no one I'd seen, his skin pulled so tight like a skeleton. It could've been the stalker, the preacher, the sheriff, but I'd never know.

This morning, I awoke to a content Anna and babe fast asleep. They'd gorged last night, eaten their fill, and the room was scattered with bones and knuckles with the marrow sucked out, hard bits of gristle, and discarded lumps of milky fat. I set to sweeping it out, till I noticed the man was gone.

He was stood in the yard, my rifle in his hands a bayonet fixed. It was pointed at me, his hands shaking. There was lamp kerosene spilled on the house, he'd set it alight, and the first flames were licking up the side.

He got me twice in the chest before I closed the gap. We grappled over the gun, scrambling on the dirt, till with one hand on the barrel I pressed it back and back. The bayonet licked at his neck, and then went in, like his skin was just paper. I pressed and pressed, the blood spurting out, till he went limp.

Berthier 1892 Deadeye

BERTHIER MLE 1892 DEADEYE. (See also, CARBINES, BOLT ACTION) The Berthier Mle 1892 Deadeye is a bolt-action rifle with an affixed Deadeye scope. The Berthier itself is a lightened 'mousqueton,' being easier to handle and ideal for those in mobile positions. The Deadeye scope enhances its potential as a lightweight and maneuverable sniper's rifle, making an ideal compromise between range, handling, and power.

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Journal of Jed Owenthal
Lightly worn, red leather 4.25" x 8.25"

July 25th, 1895

Whatever my Anna and the babe want, I'll get. Where ever my Anna and the babe are, I'll find.

Two weeks now they've been gone and I've searched high and low to no luck. They was looking frail, the last times, even though they ate and ate and ate. No healthy plumpness, no rosy cheeks no more, just gaunt and sickly and whatever just seemed to drop right off them.

My Anna blamed me at first. I blamed me. The babe was perfect as ever and never complained or whined or cried but just ate everything in front of it and never wanted for more, but never put on more weight, then thinned and thinned.

I looked all over, tried tracking them. Tried to hire a skilled tracker to search for me, but no luck. He took one look at the personal affects I provided for his dogs to scent and he ran. Tried to consult a priest, to see if God in his wisdom had a plan for all this. The priest said that if there was, we were surely forsaken. Went to the sheriff for help, he locked me in the jail for the night.

All said that whatever they was now I didn't want to find it. But I need my Anna and I need my babe.

I thought I tracked them down last night. A woman with babe in arms running cross a field. I hollered for them to stop. I sighted them with my rifle, lining up her pretty white ankle in the crosshair, and fired.

The wound in her leg was awful, and I felt terrible too, because it was for nothing. Was not my Anna and babe. I begged her forgiveness before I was on my way, but it did not forthcome.

Berthier 1892 Spitzer Ammo

RN: Pregnancy results in unusual cravings. Normally the body's way of getting depleted nutrients and vitamins, a sort of instinctual craving. It's clear to us, perhaps, what the cravings for these hounds were. Perhaps within that craving lies the secret to how the sculptor works—what it feeds on, what it needs.

Berthier 1892 Marksman

BERTHIER MLE 1892 MARKSMAN. (See also, CARBINES, BOLT ACTION) The Berthier Mle 1892 Marksman is a bolt-action rifle with an affixed Marksman telescopic scope. The long range of the Marksman scope pairs with the mobility of the Berthier to form an adaptable sniper's rifle.

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The Journal of Harold Black
Undated
Black leather bound, handwritten, 6" x 8.25"

I do not recall any premonition upon seeing the house, but casting my mind back inserts a memory of deep foreboding.

It was not quiet. A dull, rhythmic thump echoed every few seconds, followed instantly by a metallic rattle. The ground was scorched with fire and, on closer inspection, blackened by copious amounts of blood. Its trail wove through the ash like a snake, beckoning me through the charred front door.

As I approached the rear entrance, I was overpowered by a rancid smell, a cavalcade of rot and infection and death. I readied my weapon as the thumps grew louder, but what I beheld made me lower the rifle. A newborn babe in a cot, dead for what must have been weeks.

Its umbilical cord spilled out of the cot and trailed under the dining table—where two husks that were once human lay—and then to what was once a mother. Stuck into the wall with a bayonet, it was banging its head backwards, shaking the pots and pans strewn on the floor.

Here it was, gifted to me by an impossible, incomprehensible happenstance. The perfect sample for study.

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