(Un)Holy
Men
By this stage the party has travelled
far, settled in and seen the results of a leopard attack. Things are pretty
straightforward so far, and the players may well be wondering what a team of
ghostbusters like themselves are doing here. Well, now it gets interesting.
For this tale to work, the team has to
get out into the villages and talk to the locals. As discussed previously,
depending upon when the party arrives, the populace will be either in a state
of excitement, or of panic, so the team may have difficulties in finding anyone to talk to. Still, they have
servants at their dwelling-place who will act as an interface with the
villagers and information will start to trickle in.
One of the first pieces of local
knowledge that they will receive is that there is a holy man – a fakir – in the jungle nearby who seems
to have no fear of the leopard and who is proffering blessings – protection from
the big cat - to all comers who bring offerings. Terrified women and men are
sometimes seen braving the wilderness to visit this fellow, carrying bowls of
rice and other foodstuffs to obtain these mystical wardings. If the party
decides to pay this person a visit, they will see that he is living very well
indeed off the fear of the locals and that any blessings which he dispenses are
cursory and – most likely - bogus. He slouches by a local spring, beneath a
shading tree and lying comfortably upon village-provided cushions,
self-satisfied and distended of belly. His hair is matted, he is mostly naked
(apart from a loincloth) and he has three white horizontal lines drawn across
his forehead in some type of pigment: this is a caste mark showing his
adherence to Shiva.
If the players confront the fakir and accuse him of extortion, he
will become hugely indignant and threatening. Referring to himself as an agent
of Shiva, he declares that it is within his ambit to bring down punishment upon
the foreigners’ heads, calling the leopard spirits to dispatch them. Depending
upon the level of anger this confrontation causes, the fakir may summarily kick
over any offerings nearby and stomp off into the jungle abandoning the village.
If this happens, the villagers will be dismayed and bear the Investigators more than a
modicum of ill-will.
Regardless of the outcome, the party has
now gained a bitter enemy and has drawn danger upon their heads. This fellow is
in fact one of the Leopard Cultists, hell-bent on taking over the region for
their own twisted ends. His proximity to the village means that he knows which
of the villagers has been helping the party and he also knows (possibly, if
this is an option for the story) about the party member who was targeted by the
butterflies. These scraps of information will be the foundation upon which he
builds his vengeance...
Scheming Fakir
char.
|
value
|
char.
|
value
|
char.
|
value
|
STR
|
15
|
POW
|
15
|
Age
|
38
|
CON
|
14
|
DEX
|
16
|
HP
|
12
|
SIZ
|
10
|
APP
|
8
|
Magic Points
|
15
|
INT
|
13
|
EDU
|
7
|
SAN
|
0
|
Damage
Bonus: +1D4
Weapon: Knife
65%;
Armour: None
Skills: Cthulhu
Mythos 80%; Hide 75%; Make Bhang 70%; Sneak 65%; Wilderness Survival 75%
Spells Brew
Borfima
SAN Loss It
costs no SAN to see the fakir, untransformed
At some other point, the party will meet
another holy man and hopefully this fellow will leave them with a distinctly
different impression. Pandit Chandra is a small man of advanced years with
spectacles and an air of constant mild amusement. He is a Brahmin scholar and
his brow is marked by the single red dot which denotes his caste status;
otherwise, he is dressed in a plain white dhoti
and sandals (think of Ghandi and you’ll have a pretty fair idea of what he
looks like).
It is up to the Keeper to decide when the
party first encounters the pandit.
They may meet with him in Rudraprayag, or even prior to heading out from Delhi.
It’s likely, at some point, that the party might return to Delhi to perform
research at the libraries there: If they do they can encounter Pandit Chandra
and he will ask, since they are going back to Rudraprayag, if he might
accompany them.
The pandit
carries his possessions in a battered brown suitcase and it’s obvious that most
of the space inside it is taken up by books. He is amiable and wise but also
very scatterbrained and completely out of his depth outside of a city
environment; nevertheless he is determined to make his way to Rudraprayag and
the jungles beyond. If any party members ask him why this is so, he shows them
a large conch shell, worked with silver and hanging at his hip by a leather
thong running across his chest; he says that he must make a pilgrimage to Udar
Kund (which is near the village of Guptkashi, however he won’t mention this fact), along the
pilgrim trail to Kedarnath, and take, from the holy spring there, water to
cleanse the countryside of evil. The conch shell is about the size of a coconut
with a silver-mounted stopper and holds about a pint (600ml) of liquid.
If asked about the leopard problem,
Pandit Chandra is dismissive. He says that a leopard is a natural creature and
incapable of the harm that is afflicting the district; he mentions cryptically
that the deaths are most likely the work of demons, or foolish men working for
demons, rather than a single feline. He says, without any trace of pride, that
it is his job to rid the region of the evil that afflicts it – here, he smiles
and warmly pats his conch shell.
Once the party arrives at Rudraprayag,
the pandit is met by several other
Brahmin members of the community; he bows his farewell to the party and leaves
with these others. Later, the team may encounter him again – or possibly for the
first time, depending upon how the Keeper is using this NPC – sitting by the
road to Ratura on his suitcase, waiting to join a group of travellers who are
going his way.
Pandit Chandra
char.
|
value
|
char.
|
value
|
char.
|
value
|
STR
|
11
|
POW
|
17
|
Age
|
63
|
CON
|
13
|
DEX
|
10
|
HP
|
12
|
SIZ
|
11
|
APP
|
14
|
Magic Points
|
17
|
INT
|
16
|
EDU
|
20
|
SAN
|
85
|
Damage
Bonus: +/-0
Weapon: None
Armour: None
Skills: Cthulhu
Mythos 15%; Hindu Theology 95%; Library Use 80%
Spells Enchant Waters of Udar Kund
SAN Loss It
costs no SAN to see Pandit Chandra
With the introduction of these two major
players, things will start to heat up tremendously!
To Be Continued...
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