Fire of Baphomet

Item · 500 gp · Weight 0.25

The followers of the demon lord Baphomet commit countless crimes to earn his favor. Kearius was a servant of Desna who was in charge of the temple shelter, but secretly worshiped the Lord of Beasts. He took advantage of his position to build a cunning maze in the temple's secret basement and filled it with fierce and bloodthirsty monsters. Each night, Kearius cast an overly trusting vagabond or a homeless person into the maze, where they met their grisly end. The cultist spread heresy and depravity, corrupting the other priests. Baphomet took note of his servant's guile and bestowed an incredible gift upon him — a spark of the flame gracing the brow of the Lord of Monsters himself. The lantern containing this spark could summon fiery denizens of the Abyss, and its swaying could hypnotize or conjure terrifying illusions. Kearius enshrined the flame of his lord and master at the very heart of his maze. But soon enough, an incredible thing happened. A lonely beggar boy — a frail and timid creature — fell into Kearius' clutches and was cast down into the maze. Somehow, he managed to survive and reach the very center of the trap. He reached out for the flame with his scraggly hands and was gone. Frightened and furious, Kearius found the empty shrine and set out to pursue the pilferer. He feared that Baphomet might learn about this failure and punish his negligent servant. After a while, he learned of entire villages reduced to ash by fiery creatures, with the survivors driven insane by the eerie glow of a sinister flame. They raved and rambled about a frail beggar boy with hellish fire in the palm of his hands. Kearius tracked the young man down. Fear tugged at his heart and nudged him toward madness. When he finally reached the boy, the beggar laughed and turned into a cocky young man, decked in the garb of a Baphomet cultist. The grinning rogue said it was the Lord of Monsters himself who had inspired him to steal the unholy flame, and even devised the guise of the feeble child. Kearius's failure would be his downfall, and the sneaky thief would take his place as Baphomet's most loyal servant. A fight broke out where both demon worshipers sought to destroy one another, but neither could gain the upper hand. When they became tired, the Lord of Beasts' flame slipped from the thief's sweaty hands and fell onto a pile of dead branches. Fiery creatures emerged from the fire and surrounded the weakened priests, the monsters' eyes glowing like embers. The cultists pleaded with their master for protection, but their appeals fell on deaf ears. The spawn of Baphomet's flame feasted on the sinners' flesh all night, and when the fire burned out, only a tiny spark of the unholy flame was left smoldering among the remains.

Location

Road junction near Sacred Lands · 8Worldwound→