Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Malleo in Draconis (Patreon)

This week I'm showing off part of a regional conspiracy that has lived in my head for many years. It was originally a secondary conspiracy introduced late in my COVID-era Deviant chronicle (which we recorded as an actual play here). The art on page 10 of The Devoted Chronicle was a direct reference to it. And they get name-checked in the fiction of Black Vans. So, I figured it was fun and appropriate that I should write them up for Deep Dive.

The usual caveat applies: This is a first draft, so there will be changes.

Malleo in Draconis

Malleo in Draconis is a cult dedicated to Saint Margaret of Antioch that hunts monsters, especially dragons and demons. Although Margaret’s official legend is a saccharine affair about a virgin martyr and an evil Roman governor, the conspiracy claims that the bizarre twist about her being devoured by a dragon only to kill it with a hammer is one of the only parts of the story that is actually true. She was, in fact, the scion of a family of dragonslayers, and she had no fewer than twelve kills to her name by the age of 18, when a Roman governor pressed her to marry him and had her executed when she refused him.

Margaret’s family died out in the 6th century, but Malleo in Draconis emerged half a millennium later as the legend behind her legend was rediscovered after the First Crusade. Her story caught the imaginations of European dragon hunters. The conspiracy claims to have singlehandedly exterminated nearly all of Europe’s dragons, but their success was also their undoing. Malleo in Draconis had always depended on the support of an entire community of craftspeople, laborers, financiers, and political patrons – support freely given when a population had real dragons to contend with. In the absence of dragons, the cult was reduced to begging for alms or, in rare cases, banditry.

Their numbers dwindled as members left to join more successful organizations or else were imprisoned or hanged. By the beginning of the 16th century, only a few dozen members remained. Two things kept the cult from vanishing entirely. First were dragons in far-off continents, which were giving would-be explorers and missionaries no end of headaches. Second was the appearance of an angel to the dragonslayers’ leader, Salomé de Garmeaux. Gabrihel guided Salomé and her followers far from their homeland and helped them locate and destroy a foreign dragon in a visible way, earning Malleo in Draconis the respect and patronage of the missionaries there.

The dragonslayers settled and expanded their influence in the region over the course of the next century. They also found new recruits, as well as the support network their operations demanded. Gabrihel allowed the cultists to manage the day-to-day operation of the organization while he put long-term plans into motion. The angel encouraged the group to diversify its choice of targets, shifting its emphasis from dragons (which were flashy but rare) to demons (which were considerably more numerous). He also helped the group escape its obsession with remaining unmarried, instead encouraging cultists to marry and have children. Finally, and most importantly, the angel taught them secrets to unlocking divine power within themselves and their children, producing Devoted (mostly Genotypal or Auturgic Coactives) dedicated to rooting out and destroying demons and dragons.

Conspiracy Traits

Standing: 4

Principles: Serve God and his angels; destroy demons and evildoers; Judgment Day is coming

Virtue: Selfless

Vice: Overzealous

Attributes: Power 6, Finesse 6, Resistance 2

Conspiracy Actions: 2

Association: 5

Hierarchical Node: Angelic Ally, Knights of Antioch

Temporal Node: Demon Hunters, Dragonslayers, St. Margaret of Antioch Preparatory Academy

Exploitative Node: The Family, Police Union

Structural Node: Artisans, Church Connections

Icon: Field Trip, Occult Dye

Nodes

Angelic Ally (Hierarchical): Gabrihel is an angel of the God-Machine (Clades Companion, p. 43) who sets the overall strategy of the conspiracy and visits visions of St. Margaret of Antioch upon members to guide the flock. He’s nearly unstoppable on those occasions when he takes physical form, and he’s nearly undetectable (and literally untouchable) when lurking in angelic Twilight. However, twelve altars in churches in the region anchor him, and their desecration or destruction would weaken the angel – or banish him entirely, if at least half are put out of commission.

Privileges: +2 to actions enhanced by Focused Action

Knights of Antioch (Hierarchical): The core members of the conspiracy who direct its activities are the Knights of Antioch. They’re nominally a volunteer organization associated with a local church, where they hold meetings and recruit potential members.

Privileges: +2 to Manufacture Complication

Demon Hunters (Temporal): The conspiracy has a close alliance with local hunters who are particularly concerned with rooting out and destroying demons. All of them are Baselines, although the conspiracy occasionally loans them specialized equipment. The conspiracy often uses them to perform preliminary research or to deal with minor threats. If they face stronger resistance, however, they call in the Dragonslayers.

Dragonslayers (Temporal): Historically, this term has referred to all members of Malleo in Draconis, but it has come to describe only its Devoted. The agents of this Node are the most zealous members of the conspiracy and serve as its primary shock troops and commandos.

St. Margaret of Antioch Preparatory Academy (Temporal): Outwardly, this is K-12 boarding school associated with the religion the cult has parasitized. Most members of the conspiracy send their children here, although some devout parents throughout the country have students here. The school’s curriculum includes extensive indoctrination and religious devotions so intense that some students Diverge (typically as Coactives or Cephalists, although Mutants are not unknown). Those whose souls crack under the pressure are placed in a special program to be raised as Devoted who will dedicate their lives to hunting demons and serving Malleo in Draconis. Those who are not Broken typically go to college and achieve positions of prominence in the church, often retaining ties to the conspiracy.

Field Trip: Malleo in Draconis sometimes calls upon Devoted teenagers at St. Margaret of Antioch Preparatory Academy to use their gifts to further the conspiracy’s goals, but the bishop limits such field trips to one per student. The conspiracy enjoys a +4 bonus on any Shock Troops effect originating from this Node. If these young Devoted survive their mission they do not die or become Renegade/Feral. Instead, they return to school and cannot be called upon for future missions (at least not until they graduate high school).

The Family (Exploitative): A small organized crime ring operating in the area, this arm of the conspiracy regards Deviants as a means to their criminal ends, which largely involve identity theft and auto theft (enhanced by Variations like Face Thief and Electrokinesis). They provide muscle to the conspiracy.

Police Union (Exploitative): Malleo in Draconis subverted Denver’s police to help cover up their activities. Many police are secretly members of the cult, including the police chief and the president of the police officers’ union. Agents believe that their role as law enforcement officers is to punish evildoers, thwart the plots of supernatural creatures (especially demons), and kill demons.

Artisans (Structural): The conspiracy employs craftspeople who design their specialized monster-fighting equipment. Although these have a veneer of religious devotion to them, many are rooted in advanced scientific principles, if ones the artisans themselves don’t fully understand, as their designs were revealed to them by visions of St. Margaret visited upon them by Gabrihel.

Privilege: +2 to the Experimental Equipment effect of Send Agents

Occult Dye: An agent’s blood can be sprinkled on a source of occult energy to taint it until the end of the story (or until ritually cleansed) as long as the blood was shed within the last hour. Any supernatural creature that drinks from the source — or who draws sustenance from another creature into whom the energy has soaked by more esoteric means — becomes marked by an occult “dye.” Conspiracy members instantly recognize anyone marked with the dye when they are within 100/meters yards of them. Similarly, any sense that detects a target’s occult properties also detects the dye — even if it normally would not be relevant (a Specialized Sense that detects wizardry will still identify the dye if it was transmitted via Aether). The dye foils all attempts to conceal it and taints all of a demon’s covers. This Icon remains undetectable in agents, energy sources, and bystanders until a supernatural creature drinks from the tainted source.

Church Connections (Structural): Churches throughout the region provide funding to the conspiracy, as well as giving it access to a pool of potential new recruits. The bishop is fully aware of the cult’s demon-hunting exploits, although he isn’t a member.

Privilege: +2 to the Armory effect of Send Agents

Optional Nodes

For each additional player connected to this conspiracy, add one of the following Nodes:

Mithrihel (Temporal): Gabrihel’s mission becomes important enough that another angel is assigned to ensure its success. Mithrihel is lacking in subtlety but bristling with destructive and chaotic power. As with Gabrihel, attempting to defeat him with physical force is largely futile, but the angel’s presence in the world is linked to the lives of three brothers, and if any two are killed or supernaturally severed from Mithrihel, the angel will be banished. The elder brothers are closely guarded by the dragonslayers, but the youngest runs away soon after Mithrihel’s summoning.

Trai Increases: +2 Power

Purified Demons (Temporal): With great effort, Malleo in Draconis captures a handful of demons and, after great effort, forces them to relinquish their wickedness and enter the service of the dragonslayers.

Trait Increases: +2 Power

Interfaith Outreach (Exploitative): The dragonslayers forge alliances with monster hunters connected to another religious sects, which they occasionally manipulate into doing their dirty work.

Trait Increases: +2 Finesse

New Territory (Structural): The conspiracy establishes a new chapter in a distant place, expanding its reach and insulating itself against enemy attacks.

Privilege: +1 to Manufacture Complication

Trait Increases: +2 Resistance; +2 Association

Old Country Expedition (Structural): The conspiracy sets up an archaeological dig in the place it was born to delve into its ancient roots, uncovering secrets its current members have forgotten.

Privilege: +2 to Experimental Equipment effect of Send Agents

Trait Increases: +2 Power