Dark Cults of Doskvol

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Campaign Overview

Doskvol has many rogues, sharpers, cutpurses, chicaners... but there are some who serve a higher purpose. Some have been touched by the Divine. Some follow a calling, out of blind faith or the actual revelation of a God. Their hands may be stained, their methods devious, their minds unbalanced, but their hearts are pure... in the service of a Higher One.

The Forgotten Gods of Doskvol may have been forgotten by most of its citizens, but they have not forgotten the world. They move dark and enigmatic, with plans and intentions far beyond the scope of puny human minds. Is their touch a blessing or a curse? Perhaps only time will tell... when some great revelation or catastrophe shakes the heavens in their spheres once more.

The Cult of the Eightfold Moon

The moon is another ancient deity lost in the Cataclysm - in fact, that disaster has shattered her into eight pieces.

Phases of the Moon:

1. new Moon - serene and sinister / enigmatic and incomprehensible, the most withdrawn and cryptic phase

2. waxing crescent Moon - alluring (who doesn't love a perfect crescent?) and monstrous / cruel child, the id-driven capricious infant

3. first quarter Moon - ferocious and radiant (she's waking up to new) / yup, the belle dame sans merci, stunning young heartbreaker

4. waxing gibbous Moon - transcendent (about to shift phase) and cruel / aspirant schemer, selfish plotter

5. full Moon - radiant and ferocious

6. waning gibbous Moon - sinister and alluring (gibbous moons are kind of creepy) / jealous, spiteful and melancholy fading beauty

7. last quarter Moon - cruel and serene / dark old crone

8. waning crescent Moon - monstrous and transcendent (she's about to go quiet and she's pissed about it) / seline, disintegrating


Lair

An antiques shop exclusively selling all sorts of standing, wall-mounted, and hand-held mirrors, at the Abyss on the outer fringe of Six Towers. There's all manner of old castoffs from the abandoned manses and estate sales of the delapidated district of Duskvol's first noble families.

Helpful Resources

Characters

Hands of the Shattered Moon - Crew sheet

Player Character Playbook Stress Trauma Coin Stash Notes
Atlictoatl Koss "Tapper" Keel Lurk 0/9 None
EnigmaticOne Adric Clelland Spider
MrPrim Tower Hollow 4 5
Random Task TBC Whisper 12 53/60 36
strange behaviour Kelyr "Blue" Innerwick Slide 10 40/50 30

Important Places and Groupings

Please note: Your Doskvol may differ.

Doskvol

Doskvol.jpg

Detailed map of Six Towers

Six Towers

This formerly prestigious district has faded over the centuries into a pale shadow of what it once was. The eponymous six towers were originally the grand residences of Doskvol’s first noble families. All but two (Bowmore House and Rowan House) have been sold off and converted into cheap apartments or fallen into ruin and abandoned. The district has an empty, haunted feel, with many sprawling old buildings dark without power, broad stone streets cracked and buckled, and the fires of squatters crackling from overgrown lots. A more detailed map is here.

  • Scene: Bits of trash, blown by a cold wind, skitter across empty streets, illuminated only by a few still-working street lamps and the campfires of squatters. The shutters and doors of abandoned buildings moan, creak, and bang in a haunted chorus. Residents hustle by, heads down, clutching spiritbane charms close to their breasts.
  • Streets: Broad stone avenues, cracked and broken, dark without power; overgrown and neglected. Comber Way, Bowmore Way, Rowan Way, Coleburn Avenue.
  • Buildings: Palatial estates, tumbled into disrepair. Grand manors, remodeled into cramped and cheap apartments.

Nightmarket

Nightmarket is a district dominated by commerce. Situated near Gaddoc Rail Station, Nightmarket receives the bulk of salable goods from the cargo trains that travel across the Imperium, bringing the exotic and rare to Duskwall. The citizens that call Nightmarket home constitute a new class of “elites” — wealthy people who are not of noble descent but nevertheless claim land, status, and power without titles. The district has been taken over by new construction, introducing lavish private townhouses with all of the modern advances for the elites that can afford them.

Charterhall

Charterhall is the site of the first major construction in the city, in the days before the cataclysm. The old wall upon which was built the first lightning barrier in the Empire still stands in partial ruin around the district. The area is now home to the civic offices of the government including the courts, licensing and taxation offices, banks, and records archives. City officials and students at Charterhall University live here, along with the captains of Imperial industry who prefer to reside within sight of their fortunes.

Important People

  • Mother Narya. Runs the Arms of the Weeping Lady charity house. (Kind, Patient)
  • Chef Roselle. One of the best cooks in the city, still operating the legendary Golden Plum restaurant—worth the trip into the haunted streets of Six Towers. (Creative, Insightful, Friendly)
  • Flint. A spirit trafficker who trades out of a condemned manor house. (Weird, Calculating, Suspicious)
  • Bennet the Astronomer. A crabbed, squinting academic at Charterhall University, and the source of some interesting opportunities for the cult. (Weird, Insightful, Friendly)
  • The Masked Lady. A high-class patroness who may or may not be one of the Seven who lead the Circle of Flame. (Weird, Calculating, Mysterious)

House Rules and Quirks

Places of Power vs Hunting Grounds

Places of Power don't have to be close together like Hunting Grounds, but they do have to be immediately relevant to the cult and its goals. For instance, an abandoned shrine to the goddess is of course a Place of Power; a well or a spring that could be consecrated to her also might be; a chapel of the Spirit of Deepest Blackness Eternal and Unillumined might also be if you're going to desecrate it or repurpose it for lunar worship. For such targets, you get the mechanical advantages for Hunting Grounds listed on p.95 of the Core Rules - +1d to any gather information rolls and a free additional downtime activity to contribute to the operation. You can acquire Places of Power as your Turf, as well as acquiring the more specific Cult targets listed on the Cult writeup. Naturally, the more Places of Power you claim, the more powerful and influential the cult grows.