IHN76: The Saints of the Chained Gods

Location: Scattered groups operate from compounds in Eastern Europe and Siberia.

Status: Active.

Description and Behavior: The Saints of the Chained Gods is a breakaway cult from the now-defunct Chained Gods Temple led by entities known as the Founder Saints or Founders, who have taken on the forms of large floating heads with a multitude of tendrils emerging from the neck. These Founders separated due to the perceived weakness of the Vapors Priest (HHH7), which had been the entity to grant the Founders their anomalous abilities. Each Founder Saint leads their own group of followers and largely operates autonomously while each claiming to represent the interests of a specific Chained God, though they do cooperate for larger tasks. There are currently known to be at least twenty-seven Founder Saints, each with anywhere from a dozen to hundreds of followers. These individual groups attempt to acquire the Bust of the Goddess (OLC1) and other anomalous objects through various means, oftentimes sending small groups of followers to suspected locations.

The members of the Saints of the Chained Gods are expected to pay tribute to their local Founder Saint by means of acts of ‘self-sacrifice’. This entails approaching the Founder and requesting a ceremonial blade. Once the blade is acquired the follower uses it to either cut off one of their own limbs or extract an organ from their body to present to the Founder. If the Founder for whatever reason rejects the offering, the follower will perish from their fresh wound rotting and spreading with anomalous rapidity. If the Founder accepts the offering, it will eat the offering and one of its tendrils will split open to reveal an anomalous replacement that is given to and heals the follower. Over time the ‘faithful’ followers are almost entirely replaced with these often misshapen and poor proportioned body parts and organs, producing grotesque but powerful and brutal beings entirely subservient to the Founders.

When the followers of the Saints of the Chained Gods are sent out, usually with at least one of the more veteran members part of the group, they attempt to first learn about the probable location of the object as well as any other groups that may be present. This is typically accomplished by kidnapping and interrogating locals until enough information is learned. These are typically either recruited or killed after questioning. Once actually locating the object, they will attempt to obtain it as stealthily as possible at first. If another group gets in their way, anomalous or otherwise, they will react violently and attempt to utilize any of their own anomalous abilities in the struggle. Provided that the object is successfully obtained and brought to their compound, the leading and usually most veteran member of the group will be rewarded with the status of Saint and the local Founder Saint will fuse the object to them as their ‘Saintly Artifact’. This seems to give this ‘Saint’ the same abilities as the obtained object. It is presumed that a different procedure would occur upon the acquisition of the Bust of the Goddess.

Recommended Actions: The best way to avoid the Saints of the Chained Gods is to avoid areas where rumors of anomalous happenings are present. Once this cult is made aware of these rumors it is only a matter of time before a group of them show up and start kidnapping people. If you are kidnapped, give what information you can and pretend to be willing to join them. Eventually you may be presented with an opportunity to escape. Very few have succeeded at this, but it is your best chance for survival. If you somehow encounter one of the compounds of this cult, leave immediately and hope that your presence was not noticed. Assuming your survival in either circumstance, please report the incident to your local authorities so that appropriate action may be taken. Please also report these incidents to us at PRAE so that we may learn more about these groups.