Folding Masks of the Living God into CoT (SPOILERS)

[sozin]

Hey all,

I'm thinking of folding MOTLG into my CoT campaign, to be nestled in between the party taking out the Bastards and prior to the Sixfold Trial, and was looking for some creative ideas on how to adopt it in.

1) First question: How open is Westcrown to allowing cultists into their city? In MOTLG the Razmir cultists have been in Tamran for about a year, where they've been progressively taking over the local crime scene. Would the government of Westcrown/Cheliax even -allow- these religious nuts into the city, or would they have to operate more stealthily?

2) Make Iramine be an agent of the Council of Thieves.

3) I was thinking of having one of the "honorable" durotas (Arik Tuornos, or Saria Roccin) be the person that contacts the party (rather than Reginar, as in the MOTLG storyline). Kind of a "loved the work you guys did in busting up those bastards, my hands are tied because of corruption in the government, I'd really love it if you could infiltrate these cultists and bust them up, and the people would love you for it as well.")

What do you guys think? My biggest concern is that Westcrown would never let a group like this operate in public (do they even let Iomedian worshippers practice their faith in public)?

Cheers!

[James Jacobs]

My gut feeling: Westcrown would let the cultists operate in public, but the cultists wouldn't WANT to operate in public there. Might be better to reskin the Razmir element into some sort of weird Asmodeus cult or something.

[sozin]

James Jacobs wrote:

My gut feeling: Westcrown would let the cultists operate in public, but the cultists wouldn't WANT to operate in public there. Might be better to reskin the Razmir element into some sort of weird Asmodeus cult or something.

Thanks James. Man, I love how I can get a reply directly from the Big Cheese on this sort of thing in less than an hour :-)

[sozin]

The Mammon chapter in last CoT AP gave me excellent material for making the cult a Mammon cult.

"Typically the cult of Mammon operates in cities, where wealth flows most freely and dense populations might disguise its schemes and worship."

Perfect!

[sozin]

ledger hand image out for DMS.

my players keep out!

Spoiler:

image hand out

The cultists are Mammonites (not Razmirians), which explains the usury charges. I've made up high class house of ill-repute ("The Exquisite Torture") that the cultists have purchased a monthly VIP ticket to for Scasi Bolvini, the duxotar of the condotarri. The boat and water fee is the formal pay off to the condottari, the local tithe is the pay off to the Council of Thieves, and the remote tithe is a quarterly cash-out to the Egorian branch of the Church of Mammon.

Thanks paizo chat denizens for helping cook this up.

[Daehsquinn]

I like the idea of an encounter with Mammon cultists. A good possibility to foreshadow Ecarrdian. "Hail to the Future King, the Son of Mammon is coming!" Of course they don't know that much about what is really happening, they just have some obscure prophesy.