The motives of evil cultists

[Mesh Hong]

I might be able to create a situation where the Cult is using a publicly popular front organization to do things that they might not be able to do directly. But given that we are talking about a god of Disease, Death and Suffering, I am not convinced I can have the cult ever act openly and be accepted by a functioning society.

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A way a front for the cult might gain some popularity or standing is as experts on the thing they ultimately wish to spread, namely disease and infection.

A small group could work with clerics researching the very disease others in their organisation is spreading. Once this team has had a small initial success (to gain their credantials) they could then actually work to subtley hinder or divert other clerical attempts to cure the disease.

They could request specialised ingrediants and reagents that are only found in dangerous places then try and get important clerics assigned to teams that are tasked to gather them. The cult could make sure that these adventuring teams meet heavy resistance. This could be a way for the PCs to get involved by forming the backbone of one such team on an important mission.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Here is what I have in mind so far. And thanks for all of the ideas that have been posted.

The families that are being abducted are being abducted for raw material. The raw material that the cultists require is the "Suffering of good people". People with families are generally more likely to be decent and caring folk then random criminals.

Those who are abducted are subjected to a disease called "Screaming Madness". This disease does not physically harm people, but it does subject them to intense and chronic pain and eventually drives those suffering from it to kill themselves, with the typical end result being a pain maddened lunatic that usually has to be killed in order to prevent it from harming those around them.

This suffering in turn is collected and used to fuel <something>.

The <Something> might be one or more of the following.
- Summoning one of Morgions more powerful angelic servants who in turn will spread death and disease on an epic scale.
- Creation or reconstitution of an Artifact of some sort.
- Some form of zombie apocalypse.
- The creation of an effectively incurable disease.

That is about where I am with this at the moment.

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