Old Mose

Old Mose
Origin	Nature/J. W. Anthony
Type	Taxidermy Bear
Effects	Can return to life
Downsides	Highly intelligent and bent on murder
Activation	Being in the presence of prey
Collected by	Agents Baker and Fishings
Section	Dark Vault
Aisle	Podium FS-4
Date of Collection	Classified
[Source]

Origin

For over 20 years until he was killed in 1904, a giant grizzly bear terrorized the residents of eleven counties in southern and central Colorado. He was called Old Mose for his habit of approaching in a casual amble that westerners called a "mosey," although it was said that he could run down a horse or cow with no trouble at all. This big bear was credited with killing at least three men and more than 800 head of cattle during his career. Amateur and professional hunters who went after the old bear either came back empty-handed, or did not come back at all. And Old Mose seemed to know when men were unarmed because he loved to casually amble toward them just to watch them scatter in terror, but was always able to avoid men carrying weapons. It is likely that he had learned to identify the smell of gun oil.

Eventually, Old Mose's rein or terror was brought to an end when hunters Wharton Pigg and J.W.Anthony fatally shot him three times in the head after waking from his hibernation. The bear measured eight and a half feet long from snout to tail, and weighed an estimated 1,000 pounds. Since he had only recently come out of hibernation, it has been estimated that he probably weighed 1200 pounds or more at his full weight. He had six-inch long claws and his teeth were three inches long. It was estimated that he was about 45 years old. There were numerous scars from bullets, and some accounts put the number of bullets in his body as high as one hundred. It has also been said that his skull was more than an inch thick, supporting claims that even a hunter's head shot had failed to bring him down.

The hide was taken and donated to the University of California

Effects

Now stuffed and mounted, things continued very uneventfully for several months. It was only when reports of killings in the University carrying the hallmarks of a bear attack did the Warehouse become interested. Traveling to the Uni, Agents Fishings and Baker quickly realized the Bear had become an artifact after in came to life and attacked them. Agent Fishings lost his life bringing the bear down, but his sacrifice allowed Agent Baker to neutralize and recover the beast.

When activated, the bear will re-animate and hunt down any living thing. It appears highly intelligent and often forms ambushes and other rudimentary traps. It cannot activate in Winter, however, presumably being dead did not eliminate the need to hibernate. It can be de-activated by either soaking it completely in neutralizer or depriving it of a kill for up to three hours after activation.

Agents have reported that this artifact growls lightly when it is neared.

Storage and Handling

Stored in a five-foot neutralizer field and chained to a wall with neutralizer infused chains to prevent movement.

A full-body neutralizer hazmat suit is mandatory when handling this artifact. This artifact must be frozen in a block of neutralizer before moving from the neutralizer field. If this artifact must remain outside of the neutralizer field for more than a few hours, move to the Neutralizer Processing Facility and kept in a special tank until ready to be moved back.

WARNING: SHOULD THE NEUTRALIZER BACKUP GENERATORS GO OFFLINE WITHIN THE VAULT, DO NOT APPROACH THIS ARTIFACT. THE BEAR WILL ACTIVATE IF IT IS NOT WINTER AND WILL BE ABLE TO BREAK THE CHAINS.

Trivia

• This artifact was responsible for one agent's death during the Dark Vault Incident of 1943. This accident resulted in the extra safety precautions being added to this artifact's storage.