The Cult of Pain

This group is directed by a sadistic sect of the priests of the God of Sorrow. Their goals include spreading their excruciating worship and indulging their cruel appetites. Necromancers, particularly evil Anatomists and Archetypes, favor the cult.

To escape persecution, the cult locates its temples deep underground or in the most secluded reaches of a city’s slum. Their flagellation ceremonies, while quite painful (especially when they pass around the brine-soaked sponges after the first chorus), are only to gradually accustom the worshiper to the delight of receiving pain and inflicting it on others. These services are a front and a brainwashing device. Only after an initiate has demonstrated, time and again, his or her willingness to expose him- or herself and others to pain and suffering will that person be introduced to the hidden mysteries of the cult.

Beneath each temple, secured against intrusion by powerful magical wardings, the evil priests maintain an extensive torture chamber where they devise and perform the most horrific experiments. The cult hierarchy maintains extensive contacts with slavers, rogues, and kidnappers (usually fanatical cult members) who help keep a constant supply of helpless victims in the temple dungeons. The cult does not torture its own followers (except in the flagellation ceremonies). It needs them to help spread the faith and serve the temple.

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