Cult of Misarde In the Great Darkness, Tylenea, Goddess of Illusion, was wounded by Chaos. When this happened, her illusions and beautiful dreams were twisted into nightmares. The greatest of these nightmares was Misarde, which attained such power that it broke free of it's own unreality to stalk the world. Misarde is god of Nightmares, a living wound in the fabric of dreams. While he was created by Chaos, he has no great affiliation with the rune. He is much like Vivamort in this regard. His greatest power is his own unreality, which makes him very difficult to fight. His runes are Illusion, Death, and Darkness. Misarde's cultists make their living as assassins. The cult is small, secretive, and magically weak (though it is much more powerful than many small time assassin cults, such as Black Fang). Except for cult special Runespells, max Runespell power is 2 points; this includes Spell Teaching, so the cult cannot teach any Spirit Magic spell above 2 points. Cult members are allowed to purchase all but forbidden spells from whatever source they can get them; they often do, since cultists are typically wealthy. Temples are orgainzed into small successful assassin groups, headed by a Fear Master (rune priest). There is no Runelord status, but Fear Masters have "Runelord type" D.I. for the limited D.I. Misarde provides. Fearer (Laymember) Enrollent: Requires an oath of secrecy; CHAx5 * 1/10L donated Tithe: 10% of all income Spells: 1/2 Price: Mindspeech, Demoralize Normal: Coordination, Dark Wall, Mobility, Det. Blank(2) Forbidden: Fanatacize, Solace Special: Image Creation Skills: Hide in Shadows, Move Silently, Climbing, Jumping, Shortsword Leaving: Depends on Fear Master. Assassins wounded in combat are usually left alone; betrayers, are stalked and killed. Fear Maker (Initiate) Enrollent: CHAx3 + 1/100L donated; 1 try/year (1 POW on acceptance) Tithe: 20% of all income Spells: Free: Mindspeech, Demoralize 1/2 Price: Coordination, Dark Wall, Mobility, Det. Blank(2) Normal: Silence, Befuddle, Dispel Magic(2), Spirit Binding Forbidden: Fanatacize, Solace Special: Image Creation Skills: Disguise, Lock Picking, Brew Poison, Brew Acid Special: Intimidate, Mutilate Retribution: Nightmare, plus hunted by cult Intimidate - This skill is a fear-based "Oratory". The skill has no effect unless the victim believes the user has a credible threat (to a Demoralized victim, any threat is credible). Unlike Oratory, Intimidate can be used against enemies. However, also unlike Oratory, if the victim doubts the credibility of the threat, the victim will betray the skill user at the worst possible moment. Communication (05%) Mutilate - This skill allows the user to quickly prevent a corpse from being Resurrected, by removing organs and/or adding special poisons. Each attempt requires 12 seconds of total concentration (i.e. not in combat). Successful Healing Cult D.I. can still restore the corpse to ressurectability, unless the Mutilate roll is a critical. Fumbling gives the user the impression he has succeeded, even though he has not. Humakti attack known users of this skill on sight. Manipulation (00%) Fear Master (Rune Priest) Enrollent: Initial 18 POW/ (INT+CHA) as % + 1/100L; 1 try/year Tithe: 90% of all income Restricts: As Initiate Runespells: Extension(2), Fearshock, Shield(2), Summon Small Shade, Mind Link(2), Spell Teaching(2), Spirit Block(2) Special: Divine Fear, Cloak of Illusion, Freeze Scene Retribution: Nightmare, plus hunted by cult Divine Fear Cost -- 1 POW Point Range - Glorantha Duration - Permanent Nonstackable Reusable This is the only Divination that Misarde provides. It allows the priest to learn the greatest fear/phobia that the named target has. The target must be mortal, and living in Glorantha. This knowledge may be used for later Intimidate rolls, or to give advantage to a Nightmare. With a roll of 80%+, the target has no usable fears. Cloak of Illusion Cost -- 2 POW Points Range - Personal Duration - 15 Minutes Nonstackable Reusable This spell alters the caster's appearence to anything he desires; it covers all senses. To successfully duplicate a specific individual's features, a caster must use a Disguise skill for each sense; this always succeeds if the caster is sensing the target as the being spell is cast. It can never succeed if the caster never sensed the individual with them. Touch also fools Darksense. Anyone familiar with a mimiced individual gets a Sense roll against any Sense that did not automatically succeed. Cloak of Illusion may also be cast by a Fear Master's Allied Spirit. This also makes an illusion, but it has no substence. This be used to distract guards, and also as a target for a Misarde DI. Example: A priest wishes to imitate an arrogant nobleman he just saw walk into a bar. Even now, he hears him yell at the bartender. When he casts his Cloak of Illusion, he must use his Disguise to duplicate the nobleman's appearance; the GM gives him a +20% since he just saw the man. As he still hears the nobleman, the spell perfectly imitates the man's nasal drone, but the priest can't duplicate the man's smell, taste, or touch (darksense) since the priest never was close enough to sense any of these. Freeze Scene Cost -- 3 POW Points Range - 180 Meters Duration - 15 Minutes Nonstackable Reusable This spell freezes a 3mx3mx3m scene. Anyone looking at the scene senses it as it was when the spell was first cast. For instance, if cast on a closed door, it will seem closed even if later opened; images of anyone in the area when the spell was first cast will remain until the spell ends. Any who enter a frozen scene cannot be detected except by magic. Freeze Scene is a full illusion affecting all senses, and lack only substance (images are still walk-through). Nightmares The Misarde cult allied spirit is called a Nightmare, and always remains unbound. These spirits normally obey the same restrictions as all unbound allied spirits; they may only cast spells that directly affect their priest, and may not initiate any embodied spirit (living creature, familiar, or spirit bound into an object) in spirit combat. Nightmares also have the special ability of inducing terror in a victim's dreams, depriving them of sleep, occasionally even scaring them to death. The Nightmare dissolves itself into unreality, becoming a part of the victim's subconscious. It engages in a form of "spirit combat", pitting its POW vs the victim's WILL (for games without WILL, use INT + 1/3 POW as a subsititute). Once committed, it must fight until it is destroyed, it possesses the victim, or the victim awakes (in which case the attack ceases). When the Victim awakes, his or her WILL is restored to full. If the Nightmare succeeds in "possession", the victim suffers as if attacked by Fearshock. There is no range limitation for this ability, and normal magical defenses cannot stop, or even detect, the attack. A victim may attempt to "withdraw" from this combat, by rolling INT/2 on percentile each round. Nightmares which know their victim's worst fears get a +4 on their effective POW. (An almost unknown, but very effective remedy is a Xiola Umbar Solace spell, which if cast on a target suffering a Nightmare attack, prevents the Fearshock on Nightmare possession -- the combat will continue, in case the victim overcomes and destroys the Nightmare). Misarde DI Misarde is a god who lives on the boundary between reality and unreality; his Divine Intervention reflects this. When asking for aid, a cultist may only ask that a currently running full Illusion spell (covering all senses except substance) be made real. For this, however, the cultist himself becomes unreal -- an illusion which disappears after 15 minutes time. If any "illusion made real" ever meets what they were modeled after, they disappear in 15 minutes, unless they manage to kill the original -- in which case they were the original all along, and the former "original" was the illusion, and its body disappears in 15 minutes. Items acquired by an illusion do not disappear along with the illusion. Fear Masters usually use the DI by having their Nightmare cast a Cloak of Illusion of themselves elsewhere. If they are caught, they ask that they become the Illusion, and the Illusion become them. Fear Masters who wish to protect an entire group, may do the same with a prepared Freeze Scene spell (the Fear Master casts the spell showing the entire group as it was before an attack was made). The latter is dangerous, because it causes multiple illusionary duplicates, and the resulting fights can be very disruptive to the operation. Spirit of Retribution Any cultist who betrays Misarde, gets his own Nightmare which has a POW of 2d6+12. It remains until the cultist dies of fear (and remains dead), or he fights it off. The cult also hunts ex-cultists. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ By: Steve Maurer (steve@tfs.com)