The
Brotherhood of the Viridian Scorpion
This is fairly close to a standard, everyday, fairly
pedestrian secret society of scorpion-cultists.
They think that they’ve been around since the ancient Egyptians
(needless to say, it’s more like the mid-Victorian period, as any serious look
at the rituals and phraseology would indicate), and they plan to stay around
for quite a while longer. As usual,
there’s a plan to take over society, bring about the mortal reign of the
Scorpion Master, etc, etc, etc, all through the use of esoteric martial arts
and good old conspiratorial techniques - if it weren’t for their patron, they’d
have little different to recommend them than any other unpopular animal
cult. As it is, they’ve got a genuine
shot at the big time.
Who’s their patron?
Well, for the last hundred years, it’s been... David,
Look, it’s kind of complicated, all right?
Purpose and
Goals
To wrest control of society away from the
demon-worshippers currently holding power.
Needless to say, the Brotherhood will be happy to take their place.
Organization
and Membership
The Brotherhood (which includes females, by the way)
is organized in a classic cell system.
The lowest level is Initiate, which is simply anyone with formal
membership still learning the basics of The Scorpion’s Sting martial art. Those who have are referred to as Claws; from
them are picked the Stings, or leaders of individual cells (total cultists per
cell equals anywhere from 5 to 30, but usually 15). The Stings between them choose every four
years the Priests of the
Recruitment by now is quite often by birthright:
suitable sons and daughters of existing cultists (the Brotherhood strongly
encourages family life) are discreetly tested and brought into the group, if
found suitable. Individual cells also
keep a look out for suitable recruits among society’s flotsam and jetsam.
It should be noted that the vast majority of
cultists are not Soldiers, or even
Symphonically Aware. They are instead
regular 5-Force humans who have undergone a moderately rigorous martial arts
training regimen. Those with a capacity
for more are brought into David's service as regular Soldiers; but this is
essentially independent of their rank in the Brotherhood. There are cells where Claws are more aware of
the true nature of the War than their Priests are.
Abilities and
Resources
The Brotherhood enjoys both mundane and supernatural
resources. Mundanely, they have been
very busy insinuating themselves in business, government, the military, the
entertainment industry... any sphere of organized activity that offers power,
influence or money. As a result, they
can ensure that even their Initiates receive tangible benefits from
membership. This is rarely overt - a new
member can expect the pulled string over the cash payout - and invariably takes
the form of opportunities, rather
than boons.
Supernatural resources are also impressive, and stem
mostly from the fact that the Brotherhood is fully plugged into David’s
organization. Servitors of Stone, in
fact, are the hidden framework for the entire cult, from vetting the
suitability of new members to keeping track of both individual situations and
the progress of the cult as a whole.
While it is of course anathema for any angel serving David to coddle a person, there’s a difference
between denying a service to someone who is capable of doing it on their own
and denying it to someone who is not - making the occasional miracle
available. Also, there are many
full-fledged Soldiers of Stone in the Brotherhood; their esoteric abilities are
also used for the benefit of the cult, which includes their fellow cultists.
In terms of esoterica, the Brotherhood is possessed
of rather less than one might expect.
Quite a lot of the information that would normally become available
doesn't really fit the Brotherhood's core assumptions about the universe, and
so they tend to shrug it off as superstitious claptrap. They have a good working approximation of the
nature of the more common Bands and Infernal Words that they come into conflict
with, generally know how to disrupt Tethers (which they call 'Apertures') and
understand how Songs and Disturbance at least work. Beyond that, their only real hidden knowledge
is in dealing with Undead - a legacy of the constant harassment that Saminga
attempts to unleash upon them - and their particular martial art:
The Scorpion’s
Sting
Like any self-respecting cult, the Brotherhood has
its own martial art. The main skill is
Fighting (Scorpion’s Sting): a practitioner may not have it at a level greater
than his regular Fighting skill.
Maneuver Power Accuracy
Claw of the Scorpion -1 +0
Sting of the Scorpion +0 -1
Double Claw Strike +2 -2
Lightning Slash -2 -1
Power Sweep -1 -2
Scorpion’s Strength n/a -3
Scorpion’s Crush 0 -3
Scorpion’s Might +4 -5
Claws of the
Scorpion
and Stings of the Scorpion are more
or less equivalent to punches and kicks, respectively, with a bonus to reflect
more scientific training. A Double Claw Strike is a coordinated
attack with both hands: the user is at -1 to Dodge rolls for that turn. A Lightning
Slash is a quick attack that sacrifices power and accuracy for speed: the
practitioner can make a number of attacks equal to (Corporeal Forces). A Power
Sweep does damage and forces the defender to roll successfully against
Agility (minus the CD) or fall down. Scorpion’s Strength does no damage, but
a successful attack requires the target to succeed at a Strength roll, minus
the CD of The Scorpion’s Sting roll, or be flung back 1d6 yards. Scorpion’s Crush is a ‘sit on the target
and suffocate him’ roll. The target must
win a Quick Contest of Strength roll to break free. Scorpion’s
Might is essentially a pile driver; the user is at -4 to Dodge for that
turn.
There is one other, generic maneuver: all
practitioners of Scorpion’s Sting may add their base skill level to any Dodge
rolls made to avoid an unarmed or hand weapon attack.
A Scorpion’s Sting practitioner may buy off the
above accuracy penalties. Each Accuracy
penalty must be bought off separately at a rate of 1 point per CP, and cannot go
above 0. Also, the level of penalty
bought off cannot be higher than the base Scorpion’s Sting skill: for example,
a cultist with Scorpion’s Sting/3 must spend 3 points to reduce his Scorpion’s
Might penalty to -2, and cannot further reduce that penalty until he raises his
base fighting skill.
Relations
Heaven
The major obstacle in integrating this group with
the rest of the Host is that, regardless of alignment, patronage and operating
methodology, the Brotherhood of the Viridian Scorpion is a secret society
actively engaged in a conspiracy to take over the world. This, in itself, does not trouble many angels
- in marked contrast to most of Heaven's Soldiers - but the circumlocutions and
evasions necessary to accommodate the Brotherhood's unique point of view can
grow wearisome.
As for the Brotherhood, they grasp the essential
nature of the War - good supernatural entities and evil supernatural entities fight
over humanity; the Brotherhood works for the former - but the details are a bit
skewed. They refer to their patron David
as Scorpion Adamantine, and are under the impression that he enjoys some sort
of primacy of place when it comes to the Earth itself. Other Superiors are understood to be either
Archetypes or Tulpas, depending on whether they're on the Scorpion Adamantine's
side or not (i.e., Archangels or Demon Princes; Laurence 'suggestion' that
David not describe Marc as a Tulpa was probably redundant). Angels are referred
to as Evocations; the founders of the
cult had a decided reluctance to use any sort of Abrahamic religious
terminology when describing their patrons, which is really quite ironic. As for Soldiers... obviously they are
servants of their own Archetype in the same way that the Brotherhood serves the
Scorpion Adamantine; they will no doubt have their own rewards after the slaves
of the Tulpas are cast down from the thrones of the world. In the meantime, show them every courtesy due
fellow fighters and try not to confuse them with explanations about the true
way of things.
Those Soldiers aware of this cult appreciate the
material support that the Brotherhood freely offers, but could do without the
smugness. For that matter, many of the
Host - both mortal and celestial - would like to know precisely what David's
long term plans for this group are...
Hell
It has been suggested that David sponsors this cult
solely to show up and infuriate Saminga.
While this is not actually True, it cannot be denied that the Archangel
of Stone takes some delight in demonstrating that his cult of conspiratorial martial artists is much, much cooler
than Saminga's could ever hope to be.
This invariably encourages Samingans to wildly attack, which gives the
Brotherhood valuable Undead-fighting experience and a healthy appreciation for
commercial-strength deodorants.
Petty amusement aside, this cult is a serious thorn
in the side of demons and Hellsworn in power, and not particularly a problem
for those who aren't. The Brotherhood can be wound up and sent off in the
direction of an Infernal rival; it's risky as Hell, but it can be done. The fact that more attempts are failures than
successes is, of course, meaningless.
Failures fail: it's a law of the universe, or something.
History
The origin of the Brotherhood, as mentioned earlier,
comes from the European-American revival in occultism during the last decades
of the 19th Century (oddly enough, the word in both Angelic and Helltongue for
this movement can be reasonably translated into mortal languages as "The
Golden Yawn"). The founders were rather
unimaginative amateur Egyptologists with copious amounts of money, free time
and boredom. Couple that with a drearily nasty dispute over an obscure Masonic text -
which, for the record, nobody involved got right - and lo! The Brotherhood was born.
What kept it from falling apart in short order was
the interest of Stone. David found the
idea of secret cultists - honest to God, honestly not-influenced by celestials,
completely naturally-developed secret cultists - curiously compelling. Infiltrating and taking the cult over proved
to be fairly easy; modifications of doctrine even more so. The founders never even realized that they
had been superceded - or, if they did, they enjoyed their sinecures too much to
really care.
And that's pretty much it - until the modern day, at
least. The Archangel of Stone has been
nurturing this group for almost a century, and they're just now getting to the
point where he can experiment in order to see what task they could be
profitably put. Which, mind, might include the task of 'ruling the
world'. After all, it'd be nice if somebody
did.