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| Mystic in meditation. |
CABALS
Radiant Mystics form communities called cabals with one another. These cabals are loose; they don't often gather, and to join one is to swear only to aid one another when desperation comes knocking.
The purpose of these cabals is to form a society in the Heaven Burned. "Dragons will never leave," reckon the Mystics. Likewise, the Heaven Bless'd is no home for those who have given in to the power of Radiance. These cabals, built inside the many different environs of the Heaven Burned, will be the spots civilization blossoms from in this new era.
Discovering a cabal is never a boon or bane. The mystics will defend themselves and they will help those they stumble upon when obsidian is sheathed. Secretly, the Gatherer's Lodge has mapped out where many of these cabals are so that they can make use of them for supplies and shelters. While the propaganda machine inside the Heaven Bless'd paints them as dragon-cursed monsters, Heaven Burned veterans know them as a splintered, strange people, neither to be befriended or made enemies of--just used.
There are three well-known cabals taught to expeditioners during their final lessons. These cabals are large, carrying more than a hundred mystics each, and have established their own power-niches across the Heaven Burned.
Each cabal is led by a guru, who is treated as the creator of the cabal or its current most capable leader.
VIVID CHILDREN
LEADER: Sees Stars in Empty Skies (Empty for short). An old guru, forever meditating underneath the boughs of a petrified tree. Has mysticism 9. Eats little, drinks less, speaks almost none unless Radiance is out of control.
AESTHETIC: Vivid Children wear no cloth clothing, and instead wear gems, glass, and metal, all which hangs from their limbs, over their sex, and from their noses and hair.
DETAILS: The Vivid Children name themselves so because of their herding of Irradiated Souls. Making their home in a strikingly large Murdered Forest, the Children use their abilities to bring in the Irradiated and to give them what the Freedom From Flesh. Through strange rituals invoking the name of the Half-Sun and of Tiamat, they have learned how to give the Irradiated the gift of reincarnation. This process fills the sky above the Murdered Forest with iridescent stars of fading radiance--a vivid sky that births vivid children.
RELATIONSHIPS: Vivid Children assist Gatherers and Dragon Wives both. If an expedition proves to be too violent, or if some other Burned power comes sweeping through, the radiant stars can be called down through ritual, overdosing anything that enters the forest and providing a swift, painful, mutated death. Because of this, the Cuanatoil and the Opal Heart cabals avoid open conflict with the Children. Expeditions are taught to avoid them unless Radiance becomes a rampant problem.
WHAT THEY WANT:
- To reincarnate Irradiated Souls.
- To control Radiance levels in the Heaven Burned.
- To create a society where Radiance elevates, not burns, it.
WHAT THEY DON'T WANT:
- For more Tzitzimitl to appear.
- For Radiance to destroy more lives than it already has.
- For the other two cabals to interfere with their Radiance studies.
SAMPLE NPCS:
- Eats Left Handed is a young girl with mysticism 6. She is the liaison between the guru and the expedition.
- Glistens Gold is an adult man with mysticism 2. He is the premiere Irradiated Soul hunter of the cabal.
- Nauiah is a genderless child around age 9. Like the guru, they have mysticism 9, and thus are believed to one day become the next guru. The adult cabal members protects and cherishes this child more than any other.
WHAT THEY MAY ASK THE PARTY FOR:
- Assistance in finding Irradiated Souls to the east for Freeing their Flesh.
- Assistance in destroying Tzitzimitl spotted to the north.
- Investigating what happened to a lone Mystic who has disappeared after venturing West, close to Cuanatoil territory.
THE CUANATOIL
LEADER: Xertlan. As a guru, he is known for his warlike methods. Has mysticism 3 and uses it to convince his people that he is omnipotent, and that dead gods have bequeathed on him Divine Authority.
AESTHETIC: Direwolf and hyena tanned leathers worn as skirts. Bones for gauntlets, shoes, weapons. Feathers to protect themselves from radiation, looted from Gatherers that they hunt and kill or trade with Dragon Wives for. Painted hieroglyphs and images on body with blue paint made from Bless'd Blood Worms.
DETAILS: Cuanatoil is the name the cabal's first guru. They are warlike, and wish to steal back the knowledge of man first stolen by hyenas. They hunt great cackles and use their brains in strange rituals, mixing it with Bless'd Blood Worms to create their enlightening body paint. All Cuanatoil believe that knowledge can be worn. They are not wrong. Direwolves hate them for taking their food source, and Cuanatoil in turn treat direwolves as their main diet. Wearing hyena-worm-brain paint increases one's intelligence to 20 and increases 1 skill to a 6-in-6 chance of success for 24 hours.
RELATIONSHIPS: Gatherers have valuables that aid the Cuanatoil on their hunts, and thus are killed and their goods taken by force. They fear Dragon Wives for they have seen their rages and will aid them when called upon. All Cuanatoil worship Ereshteteo and follow her from place to place. To sacrifice one's self to the Goddess of Annihilation is to be granted the forbidden knowledge that can only be understood by the obliterated.
WHAT THEY WANT:
- To gain all lost knowledge.
- To achieve enlightenment and to free themselves from the cycle of reincarnation through violence.
- To earn the love of Ereshteteo.
WHAT THEY DON'T WANT:
- For knowledge to disappear for good.
- For Gatherers to steal knowledge before they can take it.
- For them to die and be reincarnated before they attain tree renunciation.
SAMPLE NPCS:
- Gluttony the Seer is a withered man who consumes the eyes of the Bless'd. He has mysticism 7, and through their eyes he helps inform the hunts where they must go.
- Xoco is a middle-aged woman with mysticism 20. She believes herself to be a Goddess of Knowledge and her primary symbol is the Bless'd Blood Worm. She guides the current guru.
- Manazashah stalks after expeditions and sleeps when they are setting up camp. He has mysticism 14, and through his dreams he learns their secrets.
WHAT THEY MAY ASK THE PARTY FOR:
- To serve as bait to draw out a Fang War.
- Assistance in finding the painted, flayed skin of one of their missing mystics.
- To tell them everything they know about Ereshteteo's latest movements.
THE OPAL HEARTS OF LAMENTING DJINN
LEADER: Eleuiah, Smoker of Wishes. She has a harem of efreeti and old opal kings and old opal wraiths. She has mysticism 19, and thus is the natural enemy of all wing'd creatures.
AESTHETIC: Long strips of cloth dyed yellow and black and embroidered like tapestries wrap around their bodies, their limbs, their mouths, and their heads in great turbans. Forever are they chewing hashish leaves traded with gatherers. Their skin is either the color of milk or the color of a starless night--both a result of their union with efreeti.
DETAILS: The Opal Hearts of Lamenting Djinn (Opal Hearts for short) are mystics who have freed efreeti from their servitude to old opal kings, and likewise serve the old opal kings as councilors and seers. They attend ghosts and wraiths and organize the pilgrimages from their home Pyre City to other parts of the Heaven Burned. They can speak with the dead and reawaken the memories of past lives in the reincarnated or reborn. All Opal Hearts spend hours staring into smoke stacks so that they can see the many pasts of the Heaven Burned.
RELATIONSHIPS: Pyre Cities are not to be invaded by any souls, and expeditions are thus their natural enemies. Dragon Wives bring expeditions with them and thus are to be rebuffed or killed. They will trade peacefully, exchanging cultural artefacts in their Pyre City home in exchange for hashish, so long as those they trade with swear to avoid any Pyre City they find. Old Dragonslayer fraternities are given refuge in exchange for them protecting pilgrimages. Efreeti are their lovers. Their children, called djinn, are believed to be scions of great mystical power.
WHAT THEY WANT:
- To usher in a new world order of djinn mysticism.
- To see all opal wraiths and kings laid to rest.
- To learn from the mistakes of the dead so that they are not ever repeated.
WHAT THEY DON'T WANT:
- For others to take secrets they have yet unearthed.
- For efreeti to remain enslaved to the folly of old opal kings.
- For the dead to keep hoarding the tools needed to create the future.
SAMPLE NPCS:
- Sharizad, who keeps a consort of Old Opal Princesses and Princes. She has mysticism 18, and uses her power to open up the way to pyre tombs and forgotten ruins.
- That Which Grieves is forever set aflame. They have mysticism 15 and use it to recover from their traumas. The immolations they go through soothe the rages of the old opal wraiths and efreeti.
- Lonely Pershatl, an old man who is in love with the dead, and who will kill others so that they can join his harem. Has mysticism 11.
WHAT THEY MAY ASK THE PARTY TO DO:
- Assist them in protecting a pilgrimage to a distant Pyre City.
- Assist them in calming the riotous souls of an Old Opal King.
- Assist them in driving out a dragon from a Pyre City.
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| JeuJeuBee |
CREATING YOUR OWN CABAL
Roll on the following tables and connect the dots for creating your own cabal of Radiant Mystics.
NAME
- Those Whose Eyes Bleed Lies
- Seers of Haunted Moons
- The Coatlkander
- Order of the Quiets
- Choirs That Sing Memories
- Wanderers of Mictkalla
ENVIRON WHERE THEIR CABAL'S BASE IS
- The Abyss
- The Ashpits
- Blood Bogs
- A Murdered Forest
- A Pyre City
- The Shattered Crowns
IDENTIFYING AESTHETIC
- Ritual scarification forming intricate patterns across the skin.
- Strange masks forged from opal and soot.
- Lower jaw and five random fingers are replaced with irradiated clay.
- Eyes, mouth, ears, and nose all stitched shut.
- Right arm held up and kept there until it atrophies and freezes in place.
- Bundled head to toe in strange skins to hide their identities.
CURRENT GURU
- Someone possessed by a legion of Old Opal Wraiths.
- The caretaker of a dying Burned Widow.
- A great hunter who has eaten the hearts of one of every type of creature.
- An old sage who has survived since the hatching of dragons.
- A dead god whose symbols bleed orders into the thoughts of the cabal.
- Four children who share the same mind and identity.
CULTURAL BELIEF
- The Heaven Burned needs Bless'd blood to restore it self. This cabal captures and sacrifices human victims.
- That the Heaven Burned is actually a paradise, and that one must simply be high off narcotics and radiance to see it.
- That stuffing wounds with direwolf saliva and soot that they can become immortal and invulnerable.
- That deep underground there is a seed waiting to blossom into a new forest. They are forever searching for an Abyss that leads to the center of the world.
- That by replacing an eye with opal they can see through it all other Heavens and thus travel to them.
- That by meditating in their chosen environ and ignoring all other things, they will exit the cycle of reincarnation and become something greater.
After rolling for these 5 options, decide their connections, if any, to the following factions:
- The Gatherers.
- Dragon Wives.
- Hyenas or Direwolves.
- Other cabals.
- Ereshteteo or Tiamat.
Then name 3 things they want and three things they don't want. Your cabal is now complete and ready to make things weird.
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