a small town cult

[Gilladian]

I'm designing a small cult in a town for my PCs to assault, and I'd love some help making sure I don't miss anything obvious, or to throw some twists in.

The party are L7, mostly human, low on magic, and there are 5 of them plus a lower level NPC. They have a fighter, sorcerer, druid, priest and rogue, and the npc rogue.

The deal is that they are investigating a missing girl's disappearance. They think she has joined this cult (actually, she's run off with her boyfriend, but they don't know that...). The PCs are not from around here, and their questioning alerts the cult to their presence.

The cult worships the sun god, who is lawful neutral. This cult, however, is basically evil. The leader, who is not in this town, is recruiting runaway slaves, peasants and malcontents to join his army on the edge of the kingdom. He intends to lead a revolt come next summer, or whenever he's ready (it is autumn now), and is recruiting heavily. So this branch of the cult is a recruiting agency.

When they hear about the PCs they're not certain if the PCs are trying to find them to join, or to cause trouble. The town this adventure takes place in is a small seaport (about 4,000 people) with a lackluster economy. The town's not far from the wild border, so there's a largish military presence in town, and the occasional pirate or privateer comes in, so there's a seedy, nasty undertone to the whole place.

Any advice, suggestions, etc... to liven up this adventure? How would the cult react? Who might be in it? They're very much "unwelcome" in town, in direct opposition to the (also Evil) state religion.

My long-term goal is to have the PCs seek out a ruined ancient city in the wilderness, which they are investigating for their own reasons, and discover to their amazement that the cult's leader is using it as a home-base for his army of invasion/revolt. If they already have this background with the cult, it will be much more memorable, I hope.

Gilladian

 

[Hand of Evil]

Farmers, they could be brought into the cult after a drought, someone comes in and says hey you need to worship the sun, soon the rains comeand they start following the instructions and have better than normal harvest. Sure it was blood given but it started as a bull, then it was criminals, now strangers but then someone has to take the blame for the missing.

Town miller or grainger could be a key figure, powerful and has money to control other people, also respectable.

 

[MarauderX]

You could have the PCs accidently miscommunicate with the people in town that are part of the cult, such as giving a password or having an item that cultists recognize somehow. That night they are approached by the innkeeper or whomever and asked some cryptic question or word puzzle related to the cult(such as what blinds man but helps him see? ~ the sun). If they say or solve the puzzle, the guide tells them he needs them to follow him. He wordlessly leads them to an initiation ceremony somewhere set up for the party and once they realize this they could either fight it out or become members and search the members for the girl they are seeking.

Either way, they are onto the cult and learn the signs to look for (tatooes, certain clothing color, jewelry, whatever) to track the members down to try to get them to reveal where the other bases are hidden. Then you could lead them through each base, either undercover or by force, until they get to whereever it is you want them to go.