Crux Mortus

D&D 3e (3.0/3.5) Rules

by Heretic

Entry in the 2006 Nexus Organizations Contest.

History

The history of the Crux Mortus is a grim one. It all started with the powerful Silvanesti cleric Iarhen Deathsbane. At the height of the Age of Might, Iarhen was a true and noble cleric of Paladine who was greatly respected around Ansalon for his power, compassion, and unshakable faith in the light. He was selfless, willing to sacrifice his life for that of a complete stranger. He was brave, fighting goblins, undead, and all manner of horrors to protect the innocent from harm. And he was wise, able to solve any problem with a fair and honest answer and developing cures and antidotes for the most deadly and contagious plagues. He was everything a cleric of light wanted to be, yet deep inside; there was another Iarhen that the people did not see. Because of his fame and power, Iarhen grew proud and haughty. He started to believe that he was a symbol of perfection and his word was law. He began accumulating more and more power and rallied support around him. For his final goal was to assume the mantle of the Kingpriest himself.

Iarhen originally wanted a peaceful inauguration where he would just march up to the Kingpriest's chambers and demand the position, with not one drop of blood spilled. He believed that the people of Istar would be so dazzled by his power and perfection that they would force the Kingpriest's hand. His hopes were foiled, the Kingpriest openly laughed in his face, saying that since he was such a "people's cleric", that his powers and efforts would be best spent helping the unfortunate rather than governing an empire. The Kingpriest said that Iarhen, while quite popular, was nothing more than a simple and naive healer who knew nothing of politics and the proper mechanics of governing a mighty empire such as Istar. Lastly, the Kingpriest also reminded him that if he ever had a thought of taking Istar by force, that it was he, the Kingpriest, who controlled the mighty legions of holy warriors, crusaders and praetors that made Istar's military force so renowned. At the end of that unsuccessful discourse, an enraged Iarhen stormed out of the temple with his followers, vowing revenge for his humiliation.

At that moment, his dark side emerged and he began sowing the seeds of a bloody coup, one that he vowed would leave its mark on Istar and place the crown of the Kingpriest on his head. In the battle that followed, Iarhen's followers struck at the city at night, catching the elite guard of Istar completely by surprise and shocking the entire city. The battle lasted through the entire night and much of the morning until finally, with the combined efforts of the holy warriors of the city and the clerics of Paladine, Iarhen's forces were driven back. Humiliated, hated, and wanted by the Empire, Iarhen and his family fled to a remote region of Solamnia to begin their life anew. Iarhen, although angry and despairing, thought that he could start his life anew as a farmer and atone for his sins. In his hubris, he thought that Paladine still favored him and would lead him to glory once more. He was sadly mistaken.

In a series of events known only as the Six Great Damnations of Iarhen, his faith in Paladine and the gods in whole was shattered. In those six months one curse after another fell upon the former cleric, ending finally with the murder of his entire family. On that day, Iarhen lifted his head to the sky in despair and cursed the gods with every swear word and degradation he knew and vowed that one day, he would have revenge. Iarhen fled to the shadows and gathered to him a group of people who hated the gods almost as much as he did, people whose lives were as broken and hopeless as his, and wanted to take vengeance on the gods that brought them their fate. This was the beginning of the brotherhood of deity-haters known as the Crux Mortus, better known as the Brotherhood of the Broken Crux. How they got this name is unknown to all but the wisest of sages. It is said that in the early days of the order they had captured a powerful holy relic of light known only as the Silver Crux. It was an artifact of great divine power blessed by almost all of the Gods of Light. In a foul ritual, the fallen priests of Crux Mortus spewed 13 curses in the language of necromancy at the crux, each one fouler than the one before it. Then, suddenly, the Silver Crux shattered vertically in half, corrupted with black energy. From that day forward, Crux Mortus has used a broken crux a symbol reminding people of the inevitable destruction of the gods, and the final triumph of Crux Mortus.

Goals of Crux Mortus

Crux Mortus is a cabal of assassins, fallen priests, and necromancers dedicated to one goal, the utter downfall of the gods and their servants. They believe that the gods are harmful to society and that mortals should rule the world. Crux Mortus hates and fears anything related to the gods and therefore does not practice conventional forms of magic such as High Sorcery. Instead, they practice the black art of necromancy to corrupt divine magic and defile holy artifacts. The order likes to steal powerful holy relics and objects sacred to deities and their clergies and corrupt them with necromancy. They also enjoy experimenting with corrupted divine energies to create new spells that are particularly harmful to the servants of the divine.

From their experiments, Crux Mortus developed an extremely dangerous and corrupt form of energy called Corpus. This power is created when divine magic is tainted with the power of necromancy. This vampiric energy is extremely harmful to anything with divine powers, whether it be artifact or living being, because on contact with the substance the object or person's divine powers are immediately drained from them and are cut off from their gods. The assasins of Crux Mortus make great use of Corpus when they slay clerics by first draining a cleric of his power to fuel himself and then slaying the helpless priest. What is even more terrifying is the possibility to channel Corpus to cast vile twisted versions of many divine spells. The use of Corpus is an extremely addictive fetish and many members of the order became divine vampires that became dependant on the energy for life.

Crux Mortus was greatly feared and hated during the Age of Might and the brotherhood was always being hunted by the clerics of Istar. After the cataclysm, the order was disbanded because they thought the gods were gone for good, and many Corpus addicts had to resort to grave robbery and ruin hunting to find artifacts that would satiate their hunger. Many ended up attaining lichdom in order to end their pain, while the less fortunate committed suicide because of their inability to control their addiction. The brotherhood regrouped during the War of the Lance under the leadership of a powerful lich named Kyvar, one of the survivors of the original Crux Mortus. This new generation was composed of angry, unfortunate men and women whose lives were ruined by the War of The Lance and were lured by the prospect of harming the gods that had destroyed their dreams. For decades and even through the Second Cataclysm (they believed that the gods would eventually return like they did after the first cataclysm), the Crux Mortus rebuilt its strength and waited for the day it could finally put an end to the gods, once and for all.

Areas of Influence

The Crux Mortus, like all highly covert organizations, is generally strongest in filthy, lawless urban areas and abandoned ghettos. They are also often found in old ruins and abandoned temples conducting their foul experiments and rituals. The headquarters of the brotherhood prior to the War of Souls was in an abandoned warehouse in Flotsam. But post-WoS they relocated to the abandoned temple of Duerghast, now considered forbidden by the people of Sanction because the blood of the late Takhisis still stains the ground, a perfect headquarters for an order that wants to destroy the gods. The people of Sanction have no idea that the Crux Mortus is based there, despite the disappearances of many clerics of the city and the recent razing of the new temple of Mishakal, thought to be an "unfortunate accident." They are very strong in Neraka, where many high-ranking members have secret ties with the Dark Knights. They are also quite influential in the Goodlund peninsula where large, lawless cities such as Flotsam and Port Balifor house many secret hideouts of the brotherhood. They have never gained much of a foothold on Solamnia, a land of great faith, or peaceful Abanasinia. The Crux Mortus, despite its surprising power and influence, is nearly unheard of on Ansalon. That is because of the degree of covertness the brotherhood undertakes to keep its secrecy. Nobody knows of their existence without them knowing it and those who find out without their "permission" are generally found dead on the streets.

Hierarchy/ Leadership

The hierarchy of the Crux Mortus, ironically, is modeled after that of their most hated enemies, the clerics. A brother (or sister) is promoted based on the amount of lay services he performs for the order, the most valued being the seizure of powerful divine relics and the assassinations of powerful clerics. The organization is split into three separate branches based on their profession and skills. The Maculo, the Neco, and the Annullo. The Maculo is the clerical branch of the order; they are the spellcasters and priests of the order, channeling Corpus to cast their spells rather than ordinary divine energy. The Neco is the assassin branch. The Neco specialize in the murder of clerics and other enemies of the Crux Mortus and channel Corpus in subtle way that enhances their stealth and death-dealing abilities. The last and perhaps most feared branch of the Crux Mortus are The Annullo, the undead. The Annullo are members of the brotherhood that have delved so deep into the dark arts of necromancy and Corpus magic that their very aspects and bodies are twisted into terrible, undead forms. Liches, vampires, death knights, and other undead members of the Crux Mortus all belong to this branch. The members of this horrific group do whatever they want, as long as their actions forward the main cause of the brotherhood and harm their enemies. No one branch has true authority over another and the leader of a branch cannot dictate the leader of another. The entire order is lead by a Patriarch, who does not belong in any one branch, but commands all of them. As in many evil organizations, promotion and the selection of new patriarchs and leaders is usually carried out with the "blade of a knife." Currently the Patriarch of Crux Mortus is the Warlord Jakar, but already there are many assassination plots and conspiracies in the air and a new leader may emerge in no time at all. The following is the hierarchy for the Crux Mortus. Note that each branch has its own hierarchy that uses the same system shown below. The exception is the rank of Patriarch, of which there is only one, which controls all of the branches.

• Patriarch/Matriarch
• Cardinal
• Grand Vindicator
• Vindicator
• Hierophant
• Elite Slayer
• Slayer
• Zealot
• Saboteur
• Brother/Sister
• Acolyte
• Disciple
• Lay Worker

Allies

There are few groups in the world deprived and wicked enough to ally themselves with the likes of Crux Mortus. Crux Mortus's clandestine nature does not help either. Still, Crux Mortus does have a few "business associates" in the underworld of society. The Thieves Guild of Palanthas is known to have secret trade alliances with the brotherhood. The guild smuggles magic items and holy relics it finds to Crux Mortus. In exchange, Crux Mortus does many assassination favors for the guild and recently many officials that have been bothering the Thieves Guild have simply just "disappeared." Even more nebulous though, are the highly covert relations between Crux Mortus and the Knights of Neraka. Many high-ranking members of the Dark Knights have been forging a secret alliance between the two sinister groups. The bond comes from the mutual hatred of the gods that the two orders share. The top of the Nerakan echelon has always felt a certain sense of power with the absence of the gods. But after the return of the pantheon, their fortunes have only plummeted, especially with the death of their patron, Takhisis. Now the Knights of Neraka seek revenge on the gods that have "wronged" them and hope that an alliance with Crux Mortus would help them deal blows to the gods and their followers. This alliance is highly clandestine and only the highest-ranking members of both orders know of it, for fear that word will spread and blow their cover.

Enemies

Crux Mortus in a sense has many enemies. Although not many people really know much about them, the entire publics has heard whispered rumors about sinister cults operating in the dark places of the world and are advised to keep their eyes open for any danger. But very few actually know the Crux Mortus for who they are, those that do fear and hate them greatly. All clerics of any god, good, neutral, or evil, are enemies of Crux Mortus, whose goal is to destroy the gods' power and possibly the gods themselves.

Membership

Being a member of Crux Mortus is not easy. Members are expected to keep an extremely low profile and not indulge in the trivialities of society unless it is part of an assignment. All members have a false name or alias they use when not with the brotherhood. When one joins the Crux Mortus, he must make sure that people suspect his true identity to be dead or missing. Indeed many members even go as far as to purposely "get caught" in an accident and fake their own funerals, only to get out of their coffins later and replace it with another corpse. They then reemerge back into society with a new name and identity. Only other members of Crux Mortus know who the individual truly is. Members act and dress like average people during the daytime, even running their own businesses as a cover. During the night however, members conduct gruesome rituals in meeting places usually located under their daytime businesses, accessible by secret trap doors. During nighttime, members typically wear scarlet ceremonial robes inscribed with broken black cruxes on the front, the symbol of the Crux Mortus.

How to Join

In the days before the First Cataclysm, when the Kingpriest ruled supreme, membership to the Crux Mortus was quite difficult. To make sure that no religious fanatics or supporters of Istar infiltrated the ranks of the brotherhood, the Crux Mortus used an extremely difficult and excruciating recruitment process that resulted in very few new members. First, the would-be member was put through hours of "questioning" (torture) that allowed the brotherhood to scan every inch of their consciences for any sign of deception or betrayal. Even if the slightest hint of perfidy was detected, the applicant was immediately put to death. If the applicant survived the inquisition, then he was given a series of tests and challenges that he must pass, with the last being the murder of a cleric. Usually if an applicant failed one of these dangerous tests did they die. If they somehow managed to survive but still failed, they were put to death anyway. If the applicant had shown acceptable loyalty, demonstrates great-enough skill, and pass all of the tests, they were accepted into the Crux Mortus. The inauguration involves a pledge of allegiance, the reading of the new member's past life and experiences and how the gods "wronged" him or her, and finally, the baptizing of the new member in the blood of the cleric that they had to kill during their last test. In the old days, this process was necessary in order to keep the brotherhood secret and hidden. After the War of the Lance and the rebirth of the order however, this process was abolished so that the organization can gain more members and power. The brotherhood still puts the applicant through mind-sweeps to make sure he/she was not a spy or traitor, but all of the old tests and ceremonies were mostly thrown aside.

Costs and Benefits of Membership

Most of the costs and tests of joining the Crux Mortus are detailed in the section above. The members must sacrifice their past lives, identities, and names to all but their fellow members. They must abandon their position in society and walk around in public with a false identity. The life of a member of Crux Mortus is like a masquerade; they must abandon themselves and put on a "mask" that best suits the greater goal of the Crux Mortus. The only true benefit of joining this dark and covert cabal is that the individual will finally feel like they are taking their full revenged on the gods that wronged them so.

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