Hey there fellow GMs,

I've run into a bit of a roadblock when it comes to designing a secretive cult for my current campaign. What I have so far is that they have infiltrated a whole town, as well as groups of Severan Dominate soldiers, and are unidentifiable except for their blue eyes and friendly demeanor. They currently have no name, and use a blue hourglass as their symbol. As for their goal (besides spreading misinformation) is attempting to summon the Lord of Change they worship as an aspect of Tzeentch.

Where I am having difficulty is figuring out what sort of stuff cults typically do. How would one such as this operate? In what ways would they interact with the PCs? What sort of short term goals would they have?

I am trying to set it up so they lead the PCs to a certain location, trapping them in an illusory labyrinth before starting the demonic summoning. The cult currently has a "double agent" in an Imperial spy who has been feeding the group false information, slowly leading them to the location of the labyrinth.

What else should I be looking at to flesh out this group?

The short term goals of such a cult would depend massivly on what they need for the ritual to summon their daemon master. They would include:

Securing the ritual place (if there is need for a special one)

Aquiring the needed materials

Preparing a diversion (to start while the ritual takes place)

Then there are more universal short term goals:

Undermining the local security forces (to better get them of their trails)

Aquiring money/influence/power

Do they need the PCs for the ritual? Otherwise it wouldn't it be better to set them on a wild goose chase to somewhere completely else? Although it might be appropriate for a Tzeentch cult to stage needlessly complicated and self sabotaging actions. After all: Tzeentch works in misterious ways.

I'd look into real world cults.

They have a leader, they have to recruit and brainwash new members.

As well as what madMEAXX said about the in universe activities as well.

What materials are typically required for the summoning of demons? I want the PCs to be there so they can experience it (as well as making the whole exercise not pointless). The moons they are operating on are fairly sparsely inhabited, most of the people in contact with the cult are already part of it, and they are virtually invisible.

I'm thinking now that this next mission involves the PCs assaulting a SD installation, with the "spy" on the inside to help them get in the facility. There they find "evidence" that their archrival SD commander is actually on a different moon, hunting for an artifact. More "evidence" points to four whole SD regiments have been recruited and are in hiding, waiting for the IG to attack the current moon.

The nearby IG regiment prepares for a lightning fast invasion and peacekeeping operation, while the PCs are sent to the other moon to assassinate the archrival commander - only the unassuming old chapel is actually filled with impossible geometry and a warp infused labyrinth...

The whole idea being the PCs are going to be sacrificed to summon the demon, while their regiment pointlessly prepares for a foe that isn't there. All the evidence pointing towards the SD being present and the commander in the area has been a plant by the turncoat spy, who is also at the temple (and very helpfully reveals all of this) ready to become the vessel for his deity. PCs have to escape and warn the IG regiment of the truth.

Which I think will work out well, but I am not sure what sort of other, small details should be added in to make the cult more believable or add flavor.

What makes the PCs so important that they need to be sacrificed for it?

That's where I am running into difficulty. They are all guardsmen, (I felt the DH board would have more advice for a Chaos cult, which is why I am here) and while specialists, aren't anything to write home about. They did take some pictures with a pict recorder of the cult's symbol painted on a few walls, so maybe they are being sacrificed to silence them, as well as help bring the demon into realspace.

If there's no reason to make them special don't make them special.

Just let them be guardsmen investigating an issue.

That said it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out something that makes them all important in the grand plans of the God of Misrule.

What are their backgrounds? Quirks? Superstitions? What seperates them from the rest of the galaxy? Is it because they have fate points possibly? If you have Black Crusade and the Tome of Fate then I'd read up on the nature of Tzeetch.

It's Tzeentch... one of the guardsman's decendants will one day slightly inconvinience The Lord of change's plans in some minute way so they gotta die now. That's how Tzeentch rolls.

Also them not being special makes the cult thing creepier.

You feel better about yourself if a chaos cult thinks you must die because you're the chosen ones.

While if there is no motive...

What did we do to get a crazy cult after us? No reason .

Why us? why us? Because you are here, that is all.

The guardsmen bodies could act as vessels for the daemons. It's always nice to defile something pure.

I wrote something like this in some other thread. Maybe the cult needs sacrifices that actually need to know whats going on and not be willing (so other cultists are out). So they get some inquisitorial agents, give them informations about themselfs and then, when they fulfill the requirements, sacrifice them.

It's pretty convoluted, but imho that is pretty much what Tzeentch is.

I like the idea of having them be sacrificed because a great-great-great-great-great-great grandchild does something to bother Tzeentch but yes they are just guardsmen who were recently elevated to a specialist unit in their regiment. I want to try and make the plot as convoluted as possible, perhaps spanning several of the moons in the system (which are all quite different battlegrounds between IG, Orks, and SD) but I don't know how best to stretch it out. It may work better just as I have it, with them assaulting base > finding planted evidence > regiment attacks moon > squad goes to other moon > fights way out of cult trap

Use the old Aztec thing of only sacrificing somebody willing. They used to hold a carrot out for a Goat/Lamb/I forget and it would extend its neck, an invitation to slice it.

The PCs know that busting this Cult in their den could well be their deaths, but they'll go anyway. Just as planned!

Off the top of my head - go to RPGNOW - type in Cthulhu + Cult...

That should give you a number of books dealing with the specifics of how to apply cults from varying degrees (of vulgarity; i.e. how blatant they are).

On that note - I would focus in on both Yog Sothoth & Nyarlathotep specifically to see how their cults have operated, why and what they do, etc...

Methodology will help define your cult - giving it the distinction / flavor you seek.

Usually from tropes - only the top of the cult actually knows what is going on while those below are fooled and coerced into action.

Why people join - they seek better gods - gods that'll give em things in return for their worship (last time I checked the emperor manifested nothing when you prayed to him, on that note chaos gods bestow tangle gifts - thus its recruiters will show you lol)

Stay GAMING

Morbid

Cults in Cthulhu are scary. You tend to overlook them because dark young and deep ones are so much scarier. But even a standard guy with a butcherknife and a shotgun will end you. Now one guy isn't to much of a problem, but an entire cult at once...

I remember an CoC game from years back. Our group of investigators had made the local motel their base of operations while conducting their investigations. We figured out there was a cult trying to summon some mythos diety, and we even learned the location of their hidden temple. So around dusk, we start to gear up at the base: checking weapons, studying tomes to learn a bind/banishing spell, making sure the cars are ready. It's almost night and we're almost ready when we suddenly hear the chant of the cultists. We look outside and there is a ring of hooded figures standing outside. Then one of us get's shot trough the window. Half of us take cover, the rest shoot back. A few cultists drop, but the rest throw molotov cocktails at the house. I run toward the back exit to make sure it's still locked, but just as i enter the room 3 cultists break trough the door and before he can get away my character gets stabbed to death. The rest of the party dies minutes later. Our archeologist took a lot of them with him by hurling his stach of dynamite in the fire.

TPK without a single mythos creature.

That's what I'm taking about Robin! (loves it)

I've got some of the specifics down, in that they are trying to summon a Herald of Tzeentch but the sacrifice requires a person who is unwilling and has unwittingly traveled to a certain five moons, after which the Herald can be manifested. Whichever player survives all five moons will be the one they will try to use, as well as his great-great-great-great-great grandchild pissing off the Herald later down the line so he has to go now.

One thing I am trying to do is tie this cult into a modified Apostasy Gambit that the guardsmen will go through, defending the Acolytes during the combat portions of the trilogy and doing other stuff in the background when it is more skills/lore based. Their regiment comes from a Drusus Cult planet, so being in and out of the story will provide the chance to sow some seeds of doubt into whether or not the Saint is actually daemonically possessed...

So then I have the conundrum: Setting up the choice of who to believe (Their radical inquisitor, or members of their own regiment) the third part of the Gambit trilogy will be vastly different. What is the best way to handle it? I am tempted to set it up so that either way they decide, they are right. If they choose the Inquisitor, the Saint is possessed. If they choose the Saint and their regiment, he is real but the Inquisitors are secretly part of the aforementioned cult, and are rooted out in a campaign led by the Living Saint.

While that would make everyone happy, it doesn't quite mesh with the way the Gambit is set up or is supposed to go. That's not even getting into the fact that a Living Saint would be leading another Crusade. So safe to say, I am at a loss.

The thing I like to make sure - no matter the adventure type or tropes used is this; that ole' Black Library twist (aka the gallows humor)...

I find in 40k the twist is at the end of the tale and serves to support the whole of the matter + give a conclusion to things, albeit not in any favorable manner to the Protagonists LOL...

Third part - maybe introduce a "faction or group or individual" who comes in from left field (rock, paper, scissor - should be the concept herein) where one of the three doesn't outdo all sides (radical inquisitor, saint, and X)...

Because this is Tzeentch - no matter the side - no matter the effort win or lose - his plan comes into fruition - thus let it have either a short term campaign effect (PCs win) or a permanent campaign change (PCs lose) - with the ramifications being evident before that final fight (if you will).

I'm not versed enough to give you any specifics - rather I'm better at giving a frame work in which you can plug and play the NPCs into...

Just a suggestion / perspective - hope this helps

Stay GAMING

Morbid

I am not sure I quite follow what you have said, beyond there should be a twist and a third party.

The twist is something I could use a lot of help on, as the only thing I can think of now is to make the twist their error in judgement. If they chose the Inquisitor (following the original AG storyline) maybe they make the wrong choice, and have unintentionally allied themselves with a cabal of rebellious Inquisitors. Or, if they chose the saint and their regiment, they discover that they were wrong and the Saint is daemonically possessed - defeated by their former inquisitorial allies.

Regardless of what side they choose, the entire sector will be thrown into chaos by this civil war. While that is going on, there is still the Severan Dominate (who in my game are on the verge of a breakthrough that could swing the war in their favor), there is still the Git-Slaver's WAAAGH!, and the Tyrant Star still floats about. So after this Gambit arc there are a couple different ways it could go poorly in the long-term for the Imperials.

I see what you mean about making sure that Tzeentch's plans always come to fruition - I just struggle to find a way to implement that. This whole episode will destabilize the sector, making it easy prey for the SD or Orks to sweep in and start their conquest. While that is great and all, I don't see how that would benefit the Changer of Ways.

Ive read once how the alien mind of sometime immortal doesn't even have to conform to our standards or rational - in that say a Vampire for example - could make far ranging plans than span generations- now up the ante back to something like Tzeentch - its plans don't have to be known or perceptible to mortals - just the "change" alone cause by the upheaval you've described may be what it was planning all along...

What if their is someone (chaos chosen of Tzeetch) chosen out there that the players will never realize, meet, or otherwise even know exists - now said agent can get "x" during that turmoil you've described (on a very localized level) from "y" (person, place, or thing) and thusly fulfill the god-power's plan...

(The Messed Up Part)

The PCs never knew about "so and so" the agent who was freed from bondage during the war / battle of so and so - allowing him/she to gain the fabulous prize - fast forward years later - you start a new RT campaign or DH or whatever (i.e. a whole party of new characters), later down the road the PCs new characters learned how their former characters inadvertently helped this agent (he/she) become their new threat on the horizon...

Now I know that's really out there and involves you gaming on a scope that's long ranging and doesn't give you GM's gratification until you run that "new" group.

Again all an example - the gist is perhaps you (the players) win by losing (sacrificing) something of themselves - where the sacrifice is insidious because its unknown until after the fact it occurs

Let me stop here - anymore - will result in my rambling LOL

Hope this helps some

Stay GAMING

Morbid

I am toying with the idea that this will somehow bring in Sektoth the False Whisper, so I like the suggestion you've made. One thing I am working on story-wise is after the Gambit, with the Calixis Sector destabilized, an invasion from the Koronus Expanse hits and starts cleaving up everything the PCs have fought for previously. Maybe the Stryxis come in force, or the Yu'vath return, or some new foe.

One of the themes of the campaign I want to build up is the impermanence of victory. So everything they have fought to achieve, every victory they've had, every world their regiment has saved, is all for naught as they are forced to fight a losing, retreating war against this superior enemy.

I can respect a tooth and claw challenge - in which you've won the preverbal prize but now keeping said prize is the real challenge...

Well I do implore you to consider if you do bring in something new xenos / chaos wise - at least it doesn't bear the confirmation of man.

What that means? Simply put - Humans, Eldar, Orcs, Tau, etc all are bipedal entities with the same forms of locomotion and tool bearing (i.e. via hands connected to arms and what not).

On that note - it need not be animalistic either; a good example are the enslavers which look like "grell" from D&D or jellyfish. I did read about a race I think in " Creatures Anathema " - DH Supplement - in which their is a race composed of congealed worm like things, though at the end of the day these worm-things do form into "man-form" so it sort of straddles inbetween the two. The best example I can think of (most non-man like) is the Invid - from Robotech, granted the Cthuhlu Tech game introduced Migo with their own Mecha - which sort of reminds me of the Invid too (I didn't like my Migo married to Mecha, I prefer something stranger); but the Invid are kinda like crabs when you get them out of their Mecha.

Anyhow sounds like you have an exciting game with much more to come - there's always the oldest GM trick in the book when at a loss, wing it freestyle and feel your way through the course of the PC's ambitions and actions, enjoy the ride!

Stay GAMING

Morbid