ASMODEUS (Patreon)

ASMODEUS RISING

We all love a good cult.

A good EVIL cult, that is.

Full of dark secrets and dastardly, murderous deeds.

Ripe for being smashed by heroic adventurers!

So if you know about the fair city of Waterdeep in the Realms right now, you’ll have heard that somewhere in the city lurks a cult that worships none other than the Head Devil himself, the Lord Of The Nine: Asmodeus.

Want to know more? BEFORE they come creeping to your door?

Well, then…

In the early 1490s DR, the Cassalanter noble family founded a new cult of Asmodeus in Waterdeep. It was secretive, worshipping behind closed doors (mainly within Cassalanter-owned Waterdhavian tallhouses and mansions) rather than openly.

Membership

Cult members included a handful of nobles from other Waterdhavian noble families, almost all of them wastrel “black sheep” uncles and aunts, the disaffected and usually unwed and debauched elder brothers and sisters not in line to head their house. They were approached individually to join, to try to keep word of the cult spreading as dark rumors and not open knowledge among city nobility, to slow and blunt any response from the Masked Lords of Waterdeep.

This sort of cult member includes Gastorn Brokengulf (NE hm Rogue3); Szelruena Agundar (CE hf Sor6); Ilmur Artemel (CE hm F4), and  (CE hf Rogue7), and as many as eight to ten more, some of them elderly and essentially passive spies.

Most of the cult membership, some three dozen “Believers” of lower rank and initiation (that is, most secrets of the cult, including who’s a member beyond a handful they habitually deal with, are habitually kept from them), aren’t highborn. Rather, they’re ambitious wannabe-noble rising wealthy merchant families, like the Dzunborns and Ilindravvars of Sea Ward and the Jarandurs, Maendreths, and Sourntrils of North Ward.

At least two adventurers (the fighter Daerath Tulwynter from Athkatla and the sorcerer-thief Orbraun Marael of Zazesspur) joined the cult, but died violently while on missions; Elminster believes both were attempts by the Xanathar to infiltrate cult ranks, that the Watcher (of whom more, soon) found out about—and that’s why the two men were murdered.

Cult Doings

The cult venerated the Lord of the Ninth in secret rituals that involved intoxication, drug inhalation (“tainted smokes” emanating from braziers flanking altars), and sacrifices (mainly of doves). Chanted prayers, feasts, and “caressings of those corrupted” were involved in many cult gatherings.

When not actively venerating Asmodeus, cultists were given missions that were almost exclusively devoted to corrupting known or suspected Masked Lords, senior officers of the Watch, guildmasters and senior guild members, and Palace officials. Those who resisted corruption were to be spied upon and thoroughly investigated in hopes of learning their dark personal secrets so they could be blackmailed. This is slow work that doggedly continues in the year 1500 DR.

The Watcher

Lurking behind the Cassalanters, whom Elminster and Laeral both believe sponsored and hosted the cult unwillingly (coerced by their indebtedness and fear of public exposure) was the Watcher, a Disciple of Asmodeus by the name of Lahalassra Iltuerem (“LAH-hal-ass-rah Ill-TOO-err-im”), a Calishite human who (rarely) met with the Cassalanters masked (and literally surrounded by a bodyguard of invisible hellcats), but the rest of the time mingled with cult members magically disguised as a “man of few words” (a tall, balding Illuskan male) by the name of, a fanatical but nigh-silent cultist.

Lahalassra’s meetings were to issue orders or chastize Cassalanters; most of the time she simply spied on the cultists in her male form to make sure they followed orders and didn’t try to deceive cult leaders or operate for their own advancement (stealing money doesn’t count as disloyalty in her eyes; she expected humans to do so whenever they could—and as a devout follower of the Lord of Lies, she expected all cultists of Asmodeus to deal in falsehoods often, so long as they told no lies that harmed cult operations or successes). Luckily for Waterdeep and the cultists, Lahalassra is a “slow and softly,” patient sort, not someone who wants to seize power openly or quickly. “Leach the golden goose, and slay it not” is one of her sayings the Cassalanters ruefully remember.

Soul Selling

Cult members are strongly encouraged to sell their souls to Asmodeus via formal contracts. They could in lieu of this sell the souls of their children (a sale the Lords of Waterdeep regard as illegal, as in their eyes it’s slavery, divine connection notwithstanding). One of the laws enacted by Asmodeus since becoming ruler of the Hells enables parents to sell the souls of their children, infants and the yet unborn, to “Princes of the Nine Hells” (in practise, to the ruler of one of the Nine Hells, or their immediate family such as consorts and children).

Anyone who has murdered another sentient being, or who has had “sex capable of producing offspring” (intercourse, with or without impregnation) with another being is no longer a child whose soul can be sold by parents (or slavers deemed guardians, such as an orphan enslaved by a ruler of the Nine Hells); such “mature” individuals can only sell their own souls. This applies to children too young to actually bear or father children, so long as they have performed the sexual act, willingly or otherwise.

Trickery in obtaining a signed contract (and it must be signed in the blood, tears, or spittle of the soul-seller; twisting a verbal promise is not obtaining a contract) usually makes the contract invalid; the intent of the soul-seller at the time of signing (not later, when regret is usual) is paramount.

“Sending” souls (beings) to the Hells through sacrifice isn’t a matter of contracts but rather is a matter of infernal powers being enacted on the victims thanks to magical preparations (i.e. the ritual of sacrifice being performed on an infernal talisman or “dark consecrated”/profaned altar or spot, or the enchantment on the infernal weapon). In such cases, there’s no binding and no contract, just a plane shift that can go awry (to the wrong planar destination, or an unintended locale in the Hells), or be disrupted by the right magical pre-preparations on the sacrifice, or protective items borne by the sacrifice, or third-party magic.

Cult Regalia

The cultists refer to themselves and each other as “the Rising,” and bear talismans (dark metal pendants fashioned of twisted and bent clusters of rusting spindles of natural iron deposits from Nessus, usually worn on neck-chains under clothing) that have two powers: when grasped by a bearer, they can send whatever words the bearer speaks in the next minute to a chosen being on the same plane, no matter how distant. The recipient will hear if alive, whether awake or asleep, but can’t reply.

And once a day, for five minutes, beginning whenever a bearer wills them to, such talismans can protect the bearer as an ironguard spell does: immunity to metal, including normal metal weapons, which pass harmlessly through the bearer as if they aren’t present. The bearer’s body (but not necessarily anything worn or carried) can pass through iron bars, gates, and other metallic objects. Nonmetallic objects still affect and can harm the bearer, and so can poison, cold, heat, and other attacks delivered by metal weapons passing through the bearer. Metal magical weapons pass through the bearer but deal damage equal to their bonus (a dagger +1 wounds for 1 hit point).

Cult watchwords (recognition phrases) include “For The Ninth!” and “Ruby In Darkness,” and pass-phrases include “Horn” (the answer is “Hoof”) and “Serpent” (the answer is “Rising”).

And lastly, the cult doesn’t use the three triangles holy symbol of Asmodeus, but does use a long-point-down isoceles triangle with a row of three dots forming a vertical “center line” within it (to mark routes, including “this is the right door” or “a secret way is near”) and two curving-inward matched horns with a points-down cloven hoof between them (to mark locales, items, or spots important to a mission, the precise meaning varying with the mission at hand).