The end is near!
This chapter details the Heralds of the Comet, an apocalyptic sect that plans to use the original Deck of Many Things to bring about the end of all things. It describes key leaders, members, and roles in the group and presents a map of the group's headquarters. A section at the end of the chapter describes celestial signs, omens, and prophecies related to the end of the world and explores how these can enliven your campaign. This chapter is intended for the Dungeon Master, though characters might have a connection to the cult as ex-members, or as friends or relatives of members.
Heralds of the Comet
The Heralds of the Comet is a secret organization with a sinister agenda. Believing the multiverse is a flawed creation, members of this cult look forward to the end of all worlds and planes of existence. Low-ranking members anticipate a new creation, a multiverse made right in the wake of the old cosmos's destruction, but the leaders secretly believe the end really is the end; after the multiverse's destruction, only a formless void will remain.
The Heralds of the Comet is best suited for use as an antagonist in an adventure or a campaign. However, individual members aren't necessarily villains and might share short-term goals or friendly relationships with heroic characters. The "11" section in this chapter explores possibilities for how characters might interact with the cult.
Tenets
The teachings of the Heralds of the Comet are revealed only in part to aspirants and in more detail to initiates. Only the group's leaders know the full doctrine.
Fundamental Tenets
The cult's basic tenets are shared with anyone who expresses an interest in learning about the group's beliefs. Such folk, known as aspirants, are taught the following:
Arcana
Those who undergo a rite of initiation, which includes a solemn oath of secrecy, learn deeper truths that build upon the basic tenets of the group:
Esoterica
The leaders of the Heralds of the Comet, the hierophants, reserve a few secret doctrines for themselves, believing only the most enlightened souls are prepared to hear these harsh truths:
Membership
The Heralds of the Comet is a small, close-knit community. Through the process of severing their ties to the doomed world, members become entirely dependent on the group and its leaders for social interaction, material support, and the fulfillment of spiritual needs. The core tenet held by initiates—that they alone are destined to survive the apocalyptic end of all things and populate the new creation—creates a worldview where all that matters is the Heralds of the Comet.
Recruitment
The Heralds of the Comet seeks recruits to swell the group's ranks. Initiates believe they have a moral imperative to rescue as many people as possible from the coming destruction of the multiverse, so they see recruitment as an act of mercy. However, they quickly learn that most people dismiss their concerns and ridicule their beliefs, so they expect a low success rate in their recruitment efforts.
The group's carefully crafted recruitment message has its appeal: all your suffering and all the bad things in the world are proof that the world is unraveling—and most importantly, none of it is your fault.
Those drawn to this message are called aspirants. Each aspirant meets regularly with an initiate mentor, who teaches the aspirant the fundamental tenets of the Heralds of the Comet and performs divinatory card readings for them. These readings purport to help the aspirant work through personal issues, but the readings all point to the same conclusion: the world is dying, and the Heralds of the Comet offers the only way to endure its destruction. Aspirants are sometimes called Jesters, in reference to the card of that name, while outsiders are called Fools.
Aspirants are encouraged to give generously to the Heralds of the Comet to support its work. They're also encouraged to cut from their lives any people who might hold back their progress toward enlightenment. Aspirants thus gradually come to see the Heralds of the Comet as their sole source of truth and friendship.
Initiation
The Heralds of the Comet performs its rite of initiation once or twice per year, depending on the availability of would-be initiates and the appearance of a suitable omen of doom. When an omen appears (see the "11" section at the end of this chapter), the hierophants bring the aspirants deemed ready to a sanctum for initiation (see the "11" section).
The rite takes place overnight. The aspirants, who are sleep deprived, hungry, and thirsty, are led through a series of experiences that narrate the group's version of the history of the multiverse, featuring imagery drawn from the cards of a Deck of Many Things. Through the course of this narrative, the initiates learn more of the group's secret teachings and the symbolism used in divinatory card readings. At the rite's conclusion, the initiates receive a vision of the All-Consuming Star.
As part of this initiation, new members of the Heralds of the Comet shed their old identities and take on new names. Initiates also donate all their possessions to the group, which uses its accumulated wealth to provide for the basic needs of its initiates, and they take solemn vows of secrecy that prohibit them from discussing their initiation rite or disclosing the arcana of the group to outsiders. In the symbolism of the Deck of Many Things, initiates are sometimes called Knights.
Initiates who participate in the rites together speak of themselves as a single "brood" and remain especially close-knit. This brood is the only family that remains to initiates. Broods are numbered in the group's annals, and in the formal context of rituals, an initiate might be identified by their new name and brood number: for example, "Aphellis, Initiate of the Twenty-Sixth Brood."
Leadership
The leaders of the Heralds of the Comet are called hierophants—literally "revealers of the sacred"—because of their role in revealing the All-Consuming Star to initiates.
The archierophant of the Heralds of the Comet is Basil, the Sage of Sages, founder of the group and the architect of its belief system. While serving a forgotten king in an insignificant realm, Basil became fascinated with the original Deck of Many Things. He convinced his king to send a hero in search of it, then invited himself to the hero's expedition and betrayed her to acquire the deck. He rashly drew a card, and his soul was imprisoned in the Void. To Basil, it was a revelatory experience. He wasn't merely in the Void; he learned the truth of the Void's relationship to the fabric of creation. To this day, he remains obsessed with the Deck of Many Things, but now his obsession has a larger goal: unleashing the power of the All-Consuming Star so all creation can return to the Void.
Example Members
The stat blocks in this chapter represent members from each level of membership.
Aspirant of the Comet
Aspirants aren't yet initiated into the mysteries of the Heralds of the Comet, but they are firmly in the group's clutches, both socially and metaphysically. If an aspirant is killed, the hapless individual is drawn into the Void and devoured, body and soul.
Hierophant of the Comet
The number of hierophants is fixed at twenty-two on any one world, one for each card in a Deck of Many Things. As a group, hierophants are sometimes called Sages, but each hierophant is also identified with a particular card. When a hierophant dies, the remaining leaders choose an initiate to fill the position, preferring initiates from the oldest broods.
A new hierophant undergoes a rite similar to the rite of initiation, but only the other hierophants are present. As the cosmic narrative unfolds, the new hierophant is inducted into the esoteric secrets of the group's leadership. The rite concludes with a mind-shattering vision of the Void, which hierophants understand to be the formless nothingness that preceded the creation of the cosmos and will endure past its destruction.
The leaders of the Heralds of the Comet, hierophants are powerful warlocks with mighty spells at their disposal. They can commune with the alien mind of the All-Consuming Star, blast enemies with beams of eldritch energy, and conjure manifestations of this entity to devour their foes.
Initiate of the Comet
Once initiated into the Heralds of the Comet, members learn magical divination practices that give them glimpses into the future.
Associated Creatures
In addition to the stat blocks for members of the Heralds of the Comet, consider using any of the following creatures as associates of the group:
Sanctums of the Heralds
Most meetings of the Heralds of the Comet involve broods of initiates gathering in private homes to read divinatory cards and look for signs of impending cataclysm. Rites of initiation, though, take place in sanctums: remote headquarters like the one shown in map 12.1. A sanctum is a temple, meeting place, and residence for one or more of the group's hierophants, as well as for initiates who serve as caretakers. A sanctum is typically located a few miles outside a major city, allowing the group to meet in private while still enabling the residents to get to and from the city in an hour or two.
Sanctum Locations
The building shown in map 12.1 is a large house built in front of a natural cave opening, donated to the Heralds of the Comet by a wealthy aspirant. The first floor of the house includes a luxurious living room, a kitchen and spacious dining room, and a large bedroom suite on the first floor. The second floor (not shown on the map) has more bedrooms and a study.
Antechamber
At the end of the hallway leading north to the bedroom suite, an ornate stained-glass window depicts the All-Consuming Star as it is shown on the Comet card in a Deck of Many Things. In the northwest corner of the house, an antechamber serves as a place where aspirants gather before the rite of initiation begins. Arcane imagery decorates the room's walls and pillars, and each card from a Deck of Many Things is represented in images that surround the cave entrance in the west wall.
Cave
The winding cave is mostly natural, but the cult members have widened the narrow passages and shored up the crumbling cave walls with masonry. Stalactites hang from the ceilings, but most of the stalagmites have been cleared to allow easy passage. A few natural columns remain. Two natural pools are incorporated into the initiation rite: new initiates bathe in the larger pool and then drink from the smaller pool, whose cold and bitter waters are said to make them more receptive to the vision that awaits them in the final chamber.
The path through the cave descends steadily as it winds away from the entrance; the final chamber's floor is about 25 feet lower than the floor of the house. Metal disks are embedded in the wall approximately every 8 feet along the path. These disks are illustrated with icons of the cards of a Deck of Many Things, which serve as symbolic reminders of the group's teachings as initiates move toward the final revelation of the All-Consuming Star.
Manifestation Chamber
The final chamber is off-limits to all. In the climactic moments of the initiation rite, a hierophant uses the All-Consuming Star action (see the hierophant of the comet stat block) to fill most of the chamber with a manifestation of the ravenous entity. Those who dare enter the chamber risk being devoured when the manifestation appears.
Adventure Hooks
The Heralds of the Comet offers opportunities for adventures in any campaign. As an apocalyptic sect pursuing the destruction of the multiverse, it's best suited for an antagonistic role. Under certain circumstances, however, the cult could act as a short-term patron or an ally for an adventuring party. This section offers suggestions for adventures involving the cult, followed by ideas for how you might use the Heralds of the Comet to drive the action of an entire campaign.
Heralds as an Adversary
Use these ideas to inspire adventures that feature the Heralds of the Comet as an antagonist:
Heralds as a Patron or an Ally
Characters who work with the Heralds of the Comet might befriend helpful members. But eventually the characters learn the cult's true agenda and realize they're partially responsible for the group's success. Use these ideas to inspire adventures that feature the Heralds of the Comet as a patron or ally:
Omens of Apocalypse
Modern science can explain astronomical events like comets, meteor showers, and eclipses, but these explanations don't necessarily hold true in D&D. Instead, these phenomena might be supernatural events loaded with portents of divine wrath or impending doom.
Whether or not you introduce the Heralds of the Comet to your campaign, an apocalyptic event can set the stage for a campaign. An apocalyptic event is preceded by an ominous warning of the event, followed by a calamity, the prophesied disaster.
Warnings
Warnings are the first stage of an apocalypse. A warning can involve a divine voice or a messenger telling people that the end is near, that punishment is coming unless they change their ways, or that they are heading down a path with disastrous consequences.
The Apocalyptic Warnings table provides ideas for warnings that foretell disaster.
| d12 | Warning |
|---|---|
| 1 | A large star or comet appears in the night sky, shedding as much light as the full moon. |
| 2 | A constant stream of meteors is visible in the sky, even during the day, always moving in the same direction. |
| 3 | The sky turns sickly green or bruised purple. |
| 4 | The water of a river or a lake or along a coastline turns to blood, acid, or blue sand. |
| 5 | All creatures born on a particular day (including livestock and wild animals) have a common feature, such as incandescent eyes, a fiery halo, or brightly glowing blood that is visible through the skin. |
| 6 | Locusts, cicadas, wasps, spiders, or snakes swarm in unimaginable numbers. |
| 7 | Earthquakes shake the ground with increasing frequency and strength. |
| 8 | A warning message in countless languages appears all over a city's walls. |
| 9 | A hermit who is a local legend comes to town and delivers a warning. |
| 10 | A dead angel falls from the sky in a fireball that strikes the earth, leaving a charred skeleton with burnt wings and a scorched trumpet. |
| 11 | Everyone has the exact same dream, in which a disembodied presence delivers a warning. |
| 12 | All children simultaneously stop what they're doing and convey the same warning in unison. |
Warnings could also be natural (or supernatural) indicators of what is coming, just as a red sunrise is often an indicator of coming storms. Subtler warnings might need special understanding to be interpreted properly; they are often meant to encourage people to seek out the wisdom of the gods from prophets or seers.
Warnings leave fear and uncertainty in their wake. An individual might take desperate measures to persuade others to take such a warning seriously, or seize property and goods from others to prepare for the disaster to come. The resulting chaos creates an opening for opportunistic evil organizations to increase their activities at a time when law enforcement and governments are stretched thin. A whole campaign could take place in the shadow of an apocalyptic comet, before the disaster it foretells even comes to pass.
Once the warning has been delivered, can the calamity it foreshadows be averted? Typically, the answer is yes—that's the point of giving a warning. If the people who receive the warning appease the gods, repent of their evil ways, turn aside from their self-destructive course, or send heroes to destroy the source of the disaster, the apocalypse is averted, and life can return to normal.
Sometimes the coming disaster can't be averted; the warning is the prelude to an inevitable cataclysm. This can be a good way to radically transform your campaign. For example, if the characters survive disaster only to see their world destroyed, they might seek refuge in the stars of a Spelljammer campaign or among the many planes.
Calamities
If warnings are the introduction, calamities are the main event. The calamity could be a freak disaster or a natural consequence of actions people have taken. Perhaps the world goes through cycles of prosperous times and calamities that span centuries. In any event, when the calamity arrives, it's no longer a question of averting the catastrophe, but of surviving it. The Apocalyptic Calamities table offers ideas for ways a great calamity could unfold in your campaign.
A calamity could also be a sort of cosmic test, intended to weed out the unworthy or select great heroes for some future purpose, or it could be an unfortunate side effect of some cosmic catastrophe, such as a war between gods or the collision of two planes of existence.
A cataclysmic event (with or without a warning) can serve different functions in your campaign.
| d12 | Calamity |
|---|---|
| 1 | The tarrasque awakens. (A kraken, an empyrean, or another titan might also serve as an agent of apocalyptic wrath.) |
| 2 | A deadly plague that's resistant to curative magic sweeps the land. |
| 3 | A prolonged drought leads to terrible famine. |
| 4 | A volcano (or chain of volcanoes) erupts. |
| 5 | A large asteroid crashes into the world. |
| 6 | A vast sinkhole opens, swallowing a city into the Underdark or one of the Lower Planes, or releasing hordes of Fiends. |
| 7 | The gods are stripped of their power and are forced to occupy mortal forms. |
| 8 | The world is drawn into another plane of existence. |
| 9 | The gods war among themselves or against incredibly powerful alien beings. |
| 10 | Magic goes awry, creating random zones of wild magic (where casting any spell of 1st level or higher causes a roll on the Wild Magic Surge table in the Player's Handbook) and dead magic (like an Antimagic Field spell on a larger scale). |
| 11 | The corpse of a slain god falls to the earth. |
| 12 | Every Dragon is consumed with unthinking rage and unleashes devastation on those living nearby. |
It might set the stage for a campaign focused on people struggling to survive in the wake of this catastrophe. Alternatively, your campaign could be about rebuilding society after the disaster, prompting survivors to question beliefs and actions that led to such overwhelming destruction.
In the middle of a campaign, a disaster like this signals a major shift. If the apocalypse is preceded by warnings, the campaign might first focus on the characters' efforts to avert the catastrophe; then on mitigating the disaster; and finally on surviving, rebuilding, or escaping to another world.
A similar shift can happen with a catastrophe at the end of a campaign. In this case, the apocalypse should feel like the logical outgrowth of events leading up to it—perhaps even the result of actions taken by the characters!
I may disagree with the gods occasionally, but hopefully never enough to warrant the apocalypse.