Bagog
Mother of the Scorpion Races
History
Before Time
Upon Satanus' shattering intrusion into the World during the Great Darkness, many Demon Spirits of Chaos broke through with him. Among these was a spirit allied to insects, spiders and scorpions. It possessed a wandering creature and warped it to become the Scorpion Queen. Unfortunately the creature was the goddess Nakala, a daughter of Stygia. The monster therefore had the powers and inclinations of a deity. She passed through the World in the darkness, eating many luckless creatures of all races and all cults and laying eggs that hatched into new scorpion beings warped by her prey and the Chaos rune. Soon there were scorpion-broo, -baboons, -ducks, -elves, -humans, and -trolls. Some could live, others could not, but those who survived gathered themselves into tribes behind their Great Mother. Thus when the Chaos Wars began, one of the many armies the forces of Law and Light had to fight was the scorpion-kindreds. Bagog was exiled with Satanus, but part of her lives on in her daughter-queens.
Since Time
The scorpion-men live a tribal existence on the fringes of civilisation and deep in the chaos zone. They have proved impossible to integrate into any civilised society as they insist upon cannibalism as a way of life. Always in search of more food and knowledge, they perpetually raid and set ambushes in civilised areas. The scorpion-men are usually hunted down wherever they are found for they breed quickly and are large and powerful.
Life After Death
Cultists believe that all scorpion-kindred upon death got to become part of Bagog. Sometimes a cultist upon death prefers to use divine intervention to send their corpse to the person of their Queen who will then consume their body. There is then a POW×5% chance that the scorpion-being will be reborn in a new body. This method is often thought to be safer than merely coming back to life in the midst of a battle where they might be killed again. Resurrection spells will not function on scorpion-men.
Runic Associations
The cult arises in Darkness and Chaos and is expressed in the form of Insect and Man.
Nature of the Cult
The cult is the foundation of existence for the scorpion-kin. Without it, they are nothing. Bagog gave them their birth, and to her they dedicate their miserable lives and eventually their deaths.
Socio-Political Positions and Power
Scorpion politics are totally tribal. There is believed by some to be a Great Queen somewhere that controls all the others and in some places the cult has power, in areas where chaos abounds in the wilderness. But generally the scorpion races are too fragmented to have power outside of their tribal domains.
Particular Likes and Dislikes
Bagog hates the Lightbringers and the anti-chaos cults, and gets on well with most other chaos cults. Selene is disliked for her moonlight powers. Christos Farlae and Thanatar are feared.
Organisation
The scorpion-kin have a purely tribal matriarchy with the Queen at the top, beneath her all the other priests and priestesses, then the Runelords and then the initiates and immature lay members. Hierarchy is decided mainly by who is the biggest, strongest and most powerful, and life in a scorpion tribe is short and brutal. One of the main reasons why scorpion-kin never amount to anything is that they spend most of their time at each other's throats.
Centres of Power and Holy Places
Places of power occur wherever there is a tribe, and nowhere else. Holy Places include the Rent, and the place where Bagog ate Nakala, wherever that is.
Holy Days and High Holy Days
Freezeday of Movement week is the cult's Holy Day. In Seaseason, they celebrate the return of plentiful food. Raids are very frequent at this time of the year between winter and summer.
Lay Membership
All scorpion-kin are born lay members. Others may join provided that they undergo the Ritual of Rebirth. Lay members may retain one tenth part of any loot they capture and will be required to perform mundane services for the tribe, including defending the Queen and her eggs. Healing, food, and a sleeping place are all available from the lay member's own tribe. For normal prices, the lay member may buy training in set trap, spot trap, spot hidden, set ambush, tracking and camouflage. He will receive free training in the weapons of 1-handed spear, medium shield, 1-handed club, thrown rock, and sling, plus tail attack. Battlemagics may be bought at full cost, the spells available being Binding, Ironhand, Mobility and Protection.
Initiate Membership
Any Lay Member can initiate once he has killed an initiate of another cult. He must eat the victim's brain on a Holy Day, c.f. Ceremonial Devouring. The initiates feed the tribe by hunting - sentients are preferred but cattle and deer will do. The initiate should provide his own size in food per week to stay in favour. Failure to do so results in a POW×5% chance, −1% per for each percentage he is under his quota, of avoiding being slain and eaten.
Initiates will be trained in skills as are lay members, save that set trap, set ambush, tracking and camouflage are at half price. The making of cult weapons and listen can be bought at full cost.
If he does not already know it, he will be taught Binding, Ironhand II, Mobility, and Protection II for free. All lay members spells can be bought at half price. All other battlemagics can be bought at full cost save for Fire/Light spells. These last cannot be obtained through ceremonial devouring either - they are banned by Bagog.
Frequently scorpion-kin are seen with other than cult weapons. These are taken, along with the knowledge of how to use them, from the people whom the scorpion-men eat.
Initiates are allowed to retain the third part of any loot they may take.
Runelord Membership
The Scorpion Lords are the warrior leaders of the tribe and also the mates of the Queen. It is from her Runelords that she selects her personal consorts and guards. This requires that all Runelords are male, and therefore any female must undergo the Ritual of Rebirth, and will hatch as a male Runelord, provided it meets the requirements.
These requirements are: 90% in sting attack, and one other melee attack and parry, plus any three of the cult skills listed as half-price to initiates. He must have 15+ POW.
The Scorpion Lord has all the normal benefits of his status including an allied spirit, which he will place in a scorpion. He may attune armour, but will gain none from the cult and he has a right to a third of the food procured by his underlings, from which he may take his pick. He will grow, adding 6 to both his STR and SIZ.
If required, he is expected to serve his queen as mate and bodyguard and lay down his life for her and her eggs.
Runepriesthood
All Runepriests of Bagog are infertile females. The only requirements are that they have 18+ POW and have been an initiate, or better, for 4 or more years, each year as a Runelord counting as two, and be female. If the candidate is not female then they will need to undergo a Ritual of Rebirth to change sex. If previously a Runelord, the scorpion-priest will have her DEX-based skills maintained, though the cultist will lose her Runelord status. Otherwise DEX based skills are reduced to DEX×5%. DEX may not be trained, therefore a scorpion-lord may become a scorpion-priestess but not vice versa. Priestesses may retain a third of the food procured by their initiates and lay members. They are expected to obey the wishes of the Queen in all things.
Upon the demise of the Queen, the next most senior priestess will step forward to replace her and be immediately challenged by at least one other priestess. She will fight all challengers sequentially and eat their brains when she defeats them. Finally she will consume the body of the old Queen to become the new Queen. Itinerant Queens are always ex-scorpion-lords, as no mere priestess has the combat skills to hold down the position. All Queens have the knowledge of the tribal Queens back through their predecessors to Bagog herself, and may tap this knowledge via a Divination spell denied to ordinary priestesses. She also gains the runespell Ritual of Rebirth. Upon eating the old Queen, the new Queen gains 1d6 INT, and STR and SIZ will double, growing at the rate of 1 point each per week.
All Runepriestesses place their allied spirits in scorpions and receive all the normal benefits.
Runespell Compatibility
The Runemagic available to the scorpion-priestesses is limited to the following: Dismiss Elemental, Divine Intervention, Extension I, Multispell I, and II, Shield, and Warding. Scorpion-priestesses may summon small shades for their elementals. They have access to the following cult special Runemagics.
One Point Spells
Claw: Range: self; Duration: 15 minutes; Stackable to 2 points; Reusable
Turns a scorpion-kin's arm into a large scorpion claw which can be used as a weapon of base SR 3, attack and parry are at 25% plus bonuses, damage is
2d6 plus damage bonus. It has a 6 point carapace, and hit points as the chest. In combat it is used as a slashing weapon. Combat skill may improve by
experience but no training can be given. The spell may be stacked non-reusably with Sloughskin, but the effects are then permanent. Runelords
who guard the Queen often take two claws permanently as they are effective combat weapons and bring the scorpion-lord closer to the image of Bagog.
Queens always have two claws.
Fiend I: Range: 60m; Duration: 15 minutes; Non-Stackable; Reusable
Converts a small shade into a fiend of SIZ 2d6 and STR 2d6+12, which is in all respects like a gargoyle, save that it cannot fly. Anyone in combat
with a fiend must make a POW×5% or be unable to attack, only parry and defend. Anyone taking damage from a fiend is attacked as if by a shade,
damage taken in the blows vs. total hits remaining. Fiends never use weapons other than their claws. Small fiends radiate a Chill II aura.
Bagog gained knowledge of this spell when she consumed Nakala, Stygia's daughter.
Speak to Insects: Range: 160m; Duration: 15 minutes; Non-Stackable; Reusable
Allows the recipient to converse with all non-sentient insects, one per round. Oratory can be used to influence such creatures. (All arthropods can be
conversed with this spell, not merely insects.)
Virulence: Range: self; Duration: 15 minutes; Stackable to 4 points; Reusable
Adds a d6 to the dose level of the poison per point stacked for one hit only, e.g. if a hit with Virulence II does 6 points of damage, the victim's
CON is attacked by 2d6+6 dose levels vs. total hits. If a victim is overcome by the effects of this spell, then provided he is not killed by it, he
will make a very rapid recovery, as the spell poison will cease to have any effect after 15 minutes. Scorpion venom is a non-lethal paralytic poison.
Two Point Spells
Carapace: Range: self; Duration: 15 minutes; Non-Stackable; Reusable
Increases the toughness of the caster's scorpion parts by 12 armour points. Only the locations of thorax, tail and legs are so protected. It is
incompatible with Absorption, Reflection, Shield and Spirit Block, but compatible with Protection, natural armour
including barding. It affects the arms if these are subject to a Claw spell.
Sloughskin: Range: self; Duration: 15 minutes; Non-Stackable; Reusable
Reusable only on a Holy Day. The caster, over the duration of the spell, will split his skin down his back and crawl out leaving the old skin behind.
He will at first pink and soft but his skin will harden at the rate of one point per hour. Upon emerging, he will have regained any limbs lost or
damaged permanently plus each emergence will restore a d3 points of any lost physical characteristic. It is therefore the cult's main curative power.
Three Point Spells
Ritual of Rebirth: Range: self; Duration: 1 day; Non-Stackable; Reusable
A Queen gains knowledge of this spell by eating the body of the previous Queen of the tribe. It is only cast on Holy Days. It allows the Queen to eat
any being and place its spirit within an egg that she lays afterwards. She may place the spirit of any being she has eaten within the previous season,
but each week after the first causes loss of skills and spells as for Resurrection. There is a POW×5% chance (Queen's POW), that she
will lose the spirit in eating and instead consume all the spells and knowledge herself. The creatures eaten will be reborn as scorpion-men with the
spells, knowledge and skills they had formerly. It takes one full season for the eggs to incubate. They hatch on the holy day after they were laid.
Laying eggs requires enormous amounts of food and the Queen will consume at least half of the food her tribe gathers. This spell can be sacrificed for
non-reusably in order to eat non-cultists and gain knowledge from them, one battlemagic may be transferred, in a similar but inferior manner to
Consume Mind.
Subservient Cults
There is no true cult spirit of reprisal but any scorpion-being that leaves the cult or is orphaned by the Queen being permanently destroyed, will lose all his INT at the rate of 1 point per day unless he can join another tribe, or join another cult and divint to save himself. An INT-less scorpion-being is just like a large insect, merely a creature of instinct. There are rumoured to be herds of such creatures to the north, remnants of tribes that suffered the catastrophic loss of their Queen.
Associate Cults
Engariel
The cult of Bagog has to remain on good terms with the plague spreaders or disease would wipe them out. The Man Rune causes them to be vulnerable to all human diseases. But the two cults have a long association anyway and it is not uncommon for an Engariel plague party to enter villages in the Chaos Wildlands with a squad of scorpion guards. The Goddess of Sickness offers…
Infestation: Range: 160m; Duration: instant; Non-Stackable; Reusable; 2pt
A successful POW vs. POW roll causes the victim to become an attractor to all forms of parasite - fleas, lice, mites, etc. He will lose 2d4 CHA until
cured and 1d6 CON from the debilitating effects of the infestation. These will be lost at the rate of 1 point per day, and will recover at the same
rate when cured. Whilst suffering from an infestation, the victim will defend against diseases at ½ his current CON. Delousing requires that
all the victim's clothes be burned, his dwelling fumigated, and he receive a Cure Disease spell. This spell can affect all races with the
Man rune.
Klute
The broos and scorpion-beings have often foraged together and many broos have joined Bagog and many scorpion-beings have become brooish through the application of Chaos. The Mother of Broos offers…
Deathtrance: Range: 160m; Duration: 15 minutes; Non-Stackable; Reusable; 2pt
On a successful POW vs. POW roll, the victim will fall over as if dead. No physical examination will reveal any sign of life, although he will
register on a Detect Life spell. Nothing will wake him for the duration of the spell, save a Dispel Magic IV. If a critical is rolled for targetting,
then the effects are permanent and the victim will die in a number of days equal to his CON. A fumble affects the caster permanently. Permanent comas
require Cure Disease.
Primal Chaos
Bagog is extremely chaotic. Almost all scorpion-men have at least one chaos feature. If they desire more, then from Primal Chaos comes…
Chaos Feature: Range: touch; Duration: instant; Non-Stackable; Non-Reusable; 3pt
Causes the willing recipient to gain a random chaos feature. There is a chance that he will collapse into a gorp (fail a CON×5%). There is also
a chance equal to the number of chaos features possessed ×10% that he will become a Broo. Bagog cultists become scorpion-broo, the most
successful and prolific of the non-human scorpion races.
Uriah
There is a definite Uriah element in all Bagog tribes, probably due to non-scorpion Runepriests taking Bagog cultists bodies. The Queens like to have a small number of chaos shamen around, but due to the nature of the Queen's power, they can never get a firm power base. Uriah non-the-less is grateful for any home and offers in return…
Summon Chaotic Ancestor: Range: 160m; Duration: 15 minutes; Non-Stackable; Reusable; 1pt
As the Azrael spell Summon Ancestor but the summoned spirit has a chance of chaos features: POW×1%: 3 chaos features;
POW×3%: 2 chaos features; POW×5%: 1 chaos feature.
Zadok and Banuril
The Chaos Druids recognized a creature of the wilderness and provided it remains in the Chaos Wildlands, the scorpions are ok. The scorpions, of course, look to the zadoki and banurili for healing. Zadok and Banuril offer, in return for help in combatting marauding elves and for raiding in Elfwoods far from home…
Sapsuck: Range: 15m; Duration: instant; Non-Stackable; Reusable; 1pt
A successful POW vs. POW roll will cause all the sap in any one plant to be drained over the next round. Elfkin can be affected. No POW vs. POW
roll is needed if the caster physically touches the victim's skin. This will infallibly kill the plant.
Miscellaneous Notes
Ceremonial Devouring
All battlemagics are gained. All knowledge skills are ticked until a raise is failed or within 15% of the donor's skill. For each point of Divine Intervention that is stacked with the spell, one knowledge skill may be transferred intact, replacing the Queen's entirely.
The Queen lays one egg per day. The egg hatches into a grub that eats voraciously for seven weeks, then pupates for one week. This then hatches into an adult scorpion-man.