Dungeon Fantasy Cultists needed

[valerio.crini]

My dungeon fantasy party messed things with ancient beings that should not have been disturbed in their sleep under the city: they killed serpent people that worshiped them.
So I need to punish them and the question is: where I could steal some inspiration (from GURPS bibliography) to build both elders and senior cultists that could create some difficulties to my expert party?

Just to give you some hints my party is quite strong - a vampire mage, a 20 point in broadsword armored knight, a polymorphing priest and so on.
I want to scare them so their enemy should be quite intimidating...

[Phantasm]

Pretty sure some of the classic Conan stuff could give you inspiration, same with Lovecraft's stuff.

[Anthony]

The details of what makes an interesting challenge (and what makes a walkover or a TPK) depend a lot on the specific abilities of the characters (GURPS fights also have fairly high randomness; any legitimately dangerous fight has a chance of being a blowout or a TPK).

[Varyon]

DF 15 has some templates for various henchmen that can work well as opposition; higher-grade cultists might even use the templates from DF1. For the knight you'll want to overwhelm his defenses and bypass his armor - a large number of Initiates or Apprentices with armor-bypassing spells could do the trick. Your vampire mage is undead, so it may be possible for a sufficiently strong Evil Cleric to Turn/Rebuke him. The polymorphing priest can be problematic... unless the inner sanctum is of sufficiently low Sanctity that his powers aren't reliable (and honestly, the inner sanctum of some sort of evil entities doesn't strike me as being very high on the Sanctity scale). Depending on the nature of the cult and the creatures being worshiped, there are plenty of templates in Horror that may be of use.

[Maz]

I had a Cult of murder (Cyric) in my DF game. It was mostly in the start of the game and my PCs weren't that powerful yet. But you can beef them up if you like.

I have stole from all sorts of sources so a lot of it probable seems familiar.

Basically the cult had 3 branches:

The Hand
These were the physical warriors. Ninjas and assassins. They could be recognised by markings on their hands.

There were four levels of the hand:
Initiate. (Never seen actual combat, but trained since very young. Marked by a black ring) [ST:9/DX:12. Attack: staff 1d cr (12). Stealth:13/Per:11. Dodge:9/Parry:11. No special abilities]

Brother. (Have killed. Marked by black sun). [ST:12/DX:13. Attack: 2x katar 1d imp (14). Stealth:14/Per:12. Dodge:10/Parry:10. Combat Reflexes. Light armour]

Hand. (Veterans. Marked by a black sun with purple middle). [ST:13/DX:14. Attack: 2x late katana 2d cut (14 {neck(12)}. Stealth:14/Per:12. Dodge:10/Parry:10. CR. TBAM. Light armour. Blowpipe w. poison. Acrobatics, Invisibility Art, Power blow, Pressure points (14)]

Master. (Only one in each conclave, is ussualy the leader. Marked by a black sun w. purple middle and skull). [ST:14/DX:15. Attack: V.F. Katana 3d+5 cut (20). Stealth:18/Per:15. Dodge:12/Parry:14. CR. WM. TBAM. HPT. May use Extra Effort in Combat. Magical light armour. All of the above and Blind Fighting and Lethal strike vs. vitals, all at (18)]


The Eye
Wizards. Illusion and body control magic. They are marked by markings around the eyes.
Apart from Spells, they also have good Perception and Stealth. But not good defenses.

There are three ranks of the eye:
Apprentice. (Have already received training in magic. Marked by black sun around one eye). [Stealth:13/Per:14. Dodge:8/Parry:10. Magery 1. Spells:(13). FP:13. Complex illusion, Illusion Shell, Illusion Disguise, Itch, Spasm, Clumsiness, Foolishness]

Eye (Are allowed to journey between the conclaves, to exchange info and report what they see. Black suns around both eyes). [Stealth:14/Per:15. Dodge:9/Parry:11. Magery 2. Spells:(15). FP:14. As above but also Independence, Perfect Illusion, Haste, Hinder, Pain, Apportation, Faze, Forgetfulness]

Master. (Only one in each conclave. Usually "The Hand Master" is the leader of the conclave, and "The Eye Master" acts as an advisor. Tattoos all over the head). [Stealth:16/Per:17. Dodge:11/Parry:13. Magery 4. Spells:(17). FP:16+10. As above but also Phantom, Stun, Mental Stun, Emotion control, Suggestion, Madness, Hallucination]

The Tongue
These are the special secret branch of the secret cult. They have no markings and no ranking system. They report only to their own master who is not in any individual conclave. They are also sometimes called The Faces, as they walk among the normal people, spreading lies and deceit. They are expert charmers, talkers and most often also have magic to support them as well as physical skills.

A typical tongue [ST:12/DX:13. Attack: Something to deliver a nasty poison (14). Stealth:15/Per:15. Dodge:10/Parry:11. CR. Acrobatics (15). Various social skills (15). Magery 1. Spells:(14). FP:14. Sense foe, Sense emotions, Foolishness, Bravery, Loyalty, Hide thoughts, Thruthsayer, Fear, Forgetfulness, Daze, Mental stun]

A Master. [ST:13/DX:14. Attack: Something to deliver a nasty poison (16 or chink in armour {12}). Stealth:17/Per:17. Dodge:11/Parry:12. CR. HPT. WM. Acrobatics (17). Various social skills (18). Magery 2. Spells:(16). FP:16+10. As above and Emotion control, Compel Lie, Compel Truth, Suggestion, Madness, Hallucination, Glip tongue, False Memory, Mind reading.]


feel free to use.

[valerio.crini]

Thanks you so much!
I'll unleash them thanks to your suggestion (and your npc Maz!).

And the next time, if my player dares again, that will be Ancient turn to show up!

[GodBeastX]

Use the environment.

A lot of challenges become interesting when you use environmental hazards and situations.

Fighting goblins can be boring, but fighting them on rickety bridges, in burning buildings, in icy storms, and other things can suddenly make the fight seem refreshing!

[Tinman]

Originally Posted by valerio.crini

Thanks you so much!
I'll unleash them thanks to your suggestion (and your npc Maz!).

And the next time, if my player dares again, that will be Ancient turn to show up!

A good weapon against the knight is a flail/morningstar.
Flail's are -4 to parry & -2 to block.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by valerio.crini

Just to give you some hints my party is quite strong - a vampire mage, a 20 point in broadsword armored knight, a polymorphing priest and so on.

Just out of curiosity, where can I find the DF rules for player characters becoming vampires?

[Adversary]

Anyone can be a cultist and they can attack at any time. The Thuggee used to join groups of travelers, sometimes joining the caravan in several seemingly separate groups, travel with them for hundreds of miles if necessary to gain their trust, only to attack suddenly and all at once.

So for instance, the party stops at an inn, kept by a stout innkeeper, his matron wife, and several other family members including children. It's a big place and several other groups of travelers are staying there or arrive after the party--some herdsmen, merchants, etc. But in fact all of these people are cultists. The actual innkeeper and his family have been murdered and replaced, other travelers have been waylaid or diverted. Of course you'll have to engineer it so that this is possible--there must be some way for the cultists to have known where the party would stop for the night sufficiently ahead to set this up. You could also have some fun buildup where the players notice some odd behavior and start playing "who's the cultist," not realizing the answer is "everyone."

This could be a very fun, intense encounter where the party must survive without many of their usual advantages: the knight has to fight without his armor and perhaps without his preferred weapon, the mage is forced into close combat before he has a chance to cast spells, the priest is surrounded and attacked with no opportunity to use polymorph to outmanuever or surprise his foes. On the other hand the cultists will be restricted to concealed weapons or everyday objects--scarves used as garrotes, knives, etc. But they are well-practiced with them....