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Cult of Holy Fire
by Guy Patching
The Cult of Holy Fire as it is known is a cult devoted to the ancient God of Fire. No records remain of this God as they were all rather predictably burnt along with all the followers who went to their fiery heavens. The Lord of Hell Fire as he has dubbed himself decided to raise another cult of fire using both the gifts granted by his God and the powers of magic he held. When he decided to raise this cult as a sign of loyalty to his God he didn't sell his extensive collection of extensive artworks, he burnt them, along with his hair, all of his expensive clothes, his house and his ancient historic tomes. He decided to move to Fellaren-Krae because when he set fire to five pieces of wood the one pointing in its direction was the last one burning so he headed off to there. He believes that fire needs to be accepted in all of its forms as it represents all creatures and species. A fair dose of it is nice, it keeps people warm and safe and keeps away the bugs and even helps maintain the balance of nature. However when it grows out of control it is a terrible force that cannot be stopped until it has taken all that it desires. It is the strongest force in the world, according the self styled Lord of Hell Fire. Naturally his basic enemy is anyone of the worship of Auril the Ice Goddess, but strangely enough this was the source of one of his most important followers…
Spark has renamed herself since the times of old. When she was younger she was daughter to the Lord of a Manor. She doesn't talk about it. The manor was burnt to the ground and she had to watch her family, her servants and all her security go up in flames. She hated the fir e and she could not stand the sight of it. So she found her way into the followers of Auril, they did not need another Cleric and as such she became a rogue, doing jobs for them that needed to be done. When the Temple of Auril was burnt to the ground, this time by a Fire worshipper she decided that enough was enough, if she couldn't beat it, join it. She spoke to the man who had burnt her second life to the ground and started a new one. Throwing away the name of Icy just as she had thrown away the name of Catherine Salla, daughter of the rich noble. She and the Lord of Hell Fire then met a strange new friend.
Trositoth was a Troll. He came to them asking to serve the God of Fire, he believed that Trolls are almighty being that can only be defeated byAcid and Fire. He believes that Fire is the greater of these 2 and that Trolls should be enemies with it , they should embrace it as the only power above them and worship it as a God. Trositoth feels that by embracing fire he will gain favour of the God of Fire and he will not suffer at its hands. The only thing he fears now is Acid. Acid is his nemesis and he will destroy or preferably burn it. Trositoth brought with him a Human pet, Burn.
Burn is now loyal to Spark who made sure he had good food to eat after the horrible stuff that Trositoth had given him. Spark has defended Burn from Trositoth several times and the Lord of Hell Fire has had to split the two of them up Burn is a grunter, but he makes himself understood. He fights with his clubs that burn as he fights with them. He loves fire.
The Cult operates from a small building near the edge of the slums. It is a small building made of stone with no roof. The stones on the outside are hot to touch and to walk inside is like walking into a sauna, it is soon clear why. In the middle of the round room is a huge blaze which co0ntinues constantly but gives off no smoke. That is where the Lord of Hell Fire sleeps with the rest of them sleeping around him, as close to the intense heat as they can get. When entering the room it is hard to concentrate and weaker people will often faint with the heat if they are forced to remain there.
When the Cult decide to do something (which they do perhaps once per week) they get a stone plan of the city out (lets face it a paper one would not last 5 minutes) and they light a small piece of paper and drop it onto the stone map, where it lands, is where they pick a random building to try and burn. Whether it is a shack in the slums, a huge mansion of the rich, a tavern, a weapon store or whatever. They burn it. When they go on night missions everybody comes, Trositoth has to sneak down the alleys, if they do a small action during the daytime then Trositoth remains behind to guard the holy place. Trositoth always remains there whilst the Lord of Hell Fire gathers spells, learns speels, buys stuff that burns or finds cool places to burn. Spark will earn a but of money doing mercenary jobs and assignations and Burn will follow whoever he feels like following.
The Cult previously lost a comrade who was an Ex-Pirate whose name was Strike. They do not know why he was killed or who did it but they are willing to hire people to find out who did it, Spark is actively searching and the Lord of Hell Fire is doing a tavern crawl to find people suitable. He does not think that walking to the guard when he one of the most wanted is a very good idea. The Cult has a few allies in the underground such as thieves guilds and individual mercenaries who have given them a target to burn to the ground and they willingly oblige, helps get the tedious bit of choosing a target out of the way. They give a blackened stone from the inside of their building to anyone who owes them a favour or that they owe a favour. They can tell which is which. One is blacker than the other, and slightly warmer. They are the supreme enemies of any worshipper of Auril and will kill and destroy them in any situation. Neither Auril nor they are popular within the city as Auril tries to reduce the warmth and the Lord of Hell Fire burns things down.
They will pretty much recruit anyone, they have to vow to follow the ways of the fire and then walk through the fire in the middle of their very small base. If they burn to death, they were lying, if they survive they are welcomed into the Cult of the Lord of Hell Fire. They are true Fiery people.