Campaign ArcAdventures Page
(Before reading any further, let me make one point clear: THIS IS SICK STUFF. It deals with child pornography and sexual exploitation. I can not stress enough that I do NOT support or approve of these things, and find them VERY repulsive. However, I al so find this to be an interesting topic to explore within Kult, a game where the darkest aspects of humanity are explored.)
The Epiphany is somewhat of an urban legend among the people of Seattle. Some say it's a huge dance-club built inside the bottom of a private yacht that's always moving from country to country. Others say it's a drug-den hidden within a cemetery crypt, run by Jamaicans. The most recent rumors describe it as actually being a sex-parlor hidden inside the offices of nearby Microsoft. However, of all the rumors, only the last comes truly close, and even it is grossly wrong.
The Epiphany IS a sex-club, founded in 1979 by a dark skinned man (believed to be from Iran) named Hareesh. Hareesh started the Epiphany as a "counter-culture" scene, who's location was spread by word of mouth. The rich and trendy would gossip and whisper among their friends, spreading tales of a bar unlike any other.
Women, drugs, and even darker things were all available at the Epiphany. Those who found it became addicted to its nature, plunging ever deeper into the darkness it had to offer. Those who couldn't find the club branded it a place of pornography and child-molestation and a drug den; their lust for what they couldn't have made them retaliate by attacking the club.
Hareesh knew that the arrogance and outrage of those he scorned would drive them to destroy the Epiphany, so Hareesh set the club up as a roving place. It never stayed in any one location for very long, and would move from building to building. Some times, especially when the police were actively hunting for the Epiphany, Hareesh would stop the club and it would disappear. Once things calmed down, the club would re-open. All this changed in 1984, as Hareesh began recruiting the children (from ages 8 to 19) into his club.
He gave the young children marijuana and harder drugs while allowing the older children to sleep with his "entertainers". In many cases the children (young and old) were encouraged to entertain the guests. The young ones were encouraged to hide underneath tables and give oral sex to those who sat down, the children's hands and heads creeping out from under the tablecloth to perform for Hareesh's guests. The older children were kept as prostitutes and encouraged to perform in sexual shows; dozens of teens encouraging the patrons to form "daisy-chains", where long lines of people screwing one another were formed. Some children did even worse things for Hareesh's pleasure.
As the children grew older, they began to become devoted to the Epiphany, and saw it as their only family. All as Hareesh planned. The son of the police commissioner warned Hareesh of the police's knowledge, the mayor's daughter located "safe" areas to open the Epiphany, the children of leading businessmen stole money from their parents to keep the Epiphany going.
Occasionally someone would catch on, and then Hareesh would have the children frame the person with child molestation. A child, occasionally the person's own, would seduce the person threatening Hareesh. As the individual was having intercourse with the child, a second child would record the entire incident on video tape. The tape would then be used to blackmail the person involved. And when blackmail would not work, the children gladly murdered their own parents to preserve the Epiphany.
Currently Hareesh has become some slack in moving the Epiphany from place to place, confident that his circle of loyal followers will keep him informed if anything should be amiss. Instead, Hareesh spends his time focused on the true purpose of the Epiphany, letting the Inner cabal run the club. Description: The Epiphany is always changing. Both in its location, but also in its appearance and what it has to offer. Perhaps it meets in a school gym late one night, holding a drunken orgy. The next it may meet in a mausoleum, the corpses of the dead pulled out to "join in the fun" of a night of necrophilia. The "acts" change from night to night, always following a certain theme. But despite the constant changes the Epiphany undergoes, there are always a few common threads.
An observer will quickly notice the children everywhere. Naked and wiggling on a man's lap, heads bobbing up and down between a woman's legs from underneath a table cloth, and so on. Most people leave at that point, never to return. But some stay. As they grow more and more aroused, as their acceptance of the place begins to increase, they begin to notice who the children perform for. Off in the corner, sodomizing a small boy, the bank president grins as if his face would explode. The Police Commissioner of Seattle stands, peeing in a beautiful girl's mouth. The head editor of the local newspaper cartel laughs as a pair of twelve year olds take turns licking her anus. And as the observer becomes ever more drawn into the Epiphany, he notices more and more the noted people who visit. Group Organization: The power structure of the Epiphany is very simple. Hareesh rules the club and the children with an iron fist, and his followers would do anything for him. Anything.
Immediately beneath Hareesh is the Inner Cabal, 6 boys and 6 girls between the ages of 16 and 19. Chosen for their power in the mundane world (all have ties to high ranking politicians and individuals in the Seattle area), the Inner Cabal are also quite impressive in their mystical potential. Hareesh has trained them in simple magic to be able to aid him in his rites. Besides Hareesh, only the Inner Cabal know of the Epiphany's true purpose.
The majority of the Epiphany's followers comprise the Outer Cabal. Over 60 children (from ages 8 to 19) serve the Epiphany in a manner of ways. Performing sexual services for Hareesh's customers, dealing with those who threaten the club, and so on. Al l are thoroughly devoted to the Epiphany, Hareesh, and the Inner Cabal and would willingly give their lives (or anything else) for the pleasure of any of them.
The "guests" of Hareesh form another group. The wealthy and the trendy gravitate to the hidden, moving nature of the club, seeking to vent their pent-up urges. While many leave in horror at what they see, a large number become almost hypnotized at the displays of perversion and degradation they see. They come back, rapidly coming to embrace the Epiphany and all it has to offer. Some even send their own children to join the Outer Cabal, while others work to discredit the (accurate) claims of child molestation and sexual abuse from others.
Finally, the Epiphany has the Sea of Joy, the Children of Joy.
Hareesh is an incarnate of Gamaliel, conducting a unique experiment revolving around spreading the darkest of carnal desires. Hareesh and his Inner Cabal take those too useless to the Epiphany and those who threaten it, and give them to the Sea. The Se a is a giant swirling pit of flesh, sweat, and sexual fluids, forever swirling with hungered lust. As people are given to the Sea (usually after being drugged and covered in a mixture of semen, vaginal ejaculation, and bodily wastes), their very bodies a re dissolved. Quickly the sensation becomes too much for them, and their minds are dissolved into an oblivion of orgasmic ecstasy as their body and soul merges with the Sea.
Usually people are allowed to completely dissolve into the Sea, but occasionally Hareesh will reward his most devoted followers with a taste. As the Sea conforms to Gamaliel's will, and thus Hareesh's, people can taste the raptures of being dissolved in to the Sea and later reformed intact. Such an experience creates an eternal devotion to Hareesh, in hopes of returning to the bliss of dissolution.
Also, as the Sea grows, it begins to exert its influence over others. Its mere existence corrupts the souls of those nearby, opening their minds to perversions and pleasure beyond human comprehension. But this is done subtly, a person isn't even aware that she suddenly finds the idea of watching a child fuck a dog to be arousing. A person notices only that when she sees the most extreme perversion that she is aroused by it.
As if this wasn't enough, the influence of the Sea is both addictive and expanding. People who visit the Epiphany keep wanting to come back for more, ever lusting for deeper and darker deeds. And, after they leave the Epiphany their desire remains. They go to their wives, their children, to anyone, and relieve themselves. As they do so, the hunger begins spreading to others. Wives begin to enjoy being raped by their husbands, children begin exploring S&M; with their parents, and so on. In addition, the very brains of those who come to the Epiphany become altered due to the corruptive influence of the Sea; as they degrade themselves and others, their brains become subtly restructured to allow the Sea to focus its urgings through others. As more people visit the Epiphany and become seduced by it, they allow the Sea to spread its influence over a larger area. Finally, people come to Hareesh, desperate for fulfillment of their ever growing and darkening lusts. And, once they've devolved as far as their souls can devolve, he allows them to join the Sea.
Hareesh is actually only a part of a single incarnate of Gamaliel. Hareesh and the Sea of Joy are both aspects of the same incarnate. As such, Hareesh is composed of the very essence of the Sea of Joy. In fact, when the Sea was small, people would have to melt with Hareesh in order to be dissolved into the Sea. But now that the Sea has grown so greatly Hareesh may act with more freedom. While the Sea represents seductiveness of perversion, Hareesh embodies the perverted desires themselves.
While Gamaliel gifted Hareesh with some power, the vast amount has been invested into the Sea of Joy. As such, Hareesh's presence has no effect on those with a negative mental balance or others, however, he can command those who have negative mental balances as stated below.
Personality: You give people anything they lust for, always pulling them into the depths of darkness so you can take it all from them in the end.
Game Mastering Hints: Wave your hands open wide. Act as if you were part salesman and part entertainer. Talk with a kind and energetic voice, with tones of happiness and concern for others.
The Sea of Joy: The Sea of Joy appears as a giant swirling mass of flesh, sweat, and sexual fluids, endlessly churning and swirling. The sound of a hundred moaning voices raises forth, with sounds of indescribable ecstasy. When Hareesh throws a person into the Sea, it seems to dissolve them, adding their flesh and body to its own mass. As they are expelled (or Children of Joy are formed), the Sea shrinks in size.
Personality: The Sea has no personality to speak of, but fills those who come near it with images of darkest desire.
Game Mastering Hints: You are the embodiment of all that is sexually perverse.
Powers: Corrupt (everyone within a 20 mile radius of the Sea slowly becomes more "open" to sexual perversions, and will become rapists and sex criminals within a matter of years), Release Child of Joy (Hareesh or an Inner Cultist can cause the Sea to release up to a total of 3 Children of Joy), Seduce (can seduce any person who comes within 10 meters. All present must make EGO rolls or else enter the Sea and be absorbed. Hareesh and the Inner Cabal are immune)
The Children are created from the very stuff of the Sea of Joy, and granted sentience by Hareesh/Gamaliel. For each Child in existence, the Sea can take one less Fatal Wound, and the range of all of its Powers are reduced by a 1/6. Should the Child reform with the Sea, the Sea regains its strength, but if the Child is destroyed the Sea must gain new additions of flesh from others. As such, Hareesh only allows three to be in existence at any one time, and demands that all requests for a Child be brought before him.
Personality: You seek to further the demands of Hareesh, as such you do anything and everything he requests with the utmost of glee.
Game Mastering Hints: Always seem as if you're filled with a calm happiness in everything you do. In fact, this is the only emotion you are capable of expressing.
Powers: Seduce (can seduce any person who comes within 10 meters. All present must make EGO rolls or else come within contact with the Child and be absorbed. Hareesh and the Inner Cabal are immune)
The house is covered in chipped white paint, covering wooden boards. In a few places it seems as if parts of the building were once set on fire but quickly put-out. The windows of the house are all broken and covered from the inside by metal sheets painted black. On some nights the sounds of music and laughter can be heard from inside, but usually Hareesh and the Inner Cabal uses magic to mask the sounds and appearances of any activity.
The inside of the house is stained with mildew and mold, as well as covered in numerous burn marks and debris. The first floor is where the majority of dances and music is played, and the entire ceiling is covered with a variety of speakers and light systems. Enigma and Deep Forest are regularly played, allowing patrons to relax to the music as the children perform for (and on) them. Most of the inner walls have been taken out of this floor, and only those around the bathroom and the basic supports re main. Scattered across the area are numerous chairs and covered tables, as well as a few couches and a hammock.
Up a single flight of stairs is the second floor. It is here that the Inner Cabal and Hareesh perform their occult rituals and initiate new children and members into the Epiphany. Unlike the first floor, the second still has almost all of its walls, al lowing greater privacy and secrecy. Of the six rooms on this floor, four are empty save for a single stained mattress and a bare light bulb in the ceiling. The remaining two rooms are adjacent, and have the wall between them removed (the only wall on this floor to have been taken out). It is in this double room that the Sea of Joy is kept, moved here by Hareesh's power. The Sea resides in a large, disconnected hot tub. Even the outside of the tub is stained from the overflow of the Sea.
Both the basement and the attic contain little of interest but storage items. Rows and rows of boxes, filled with old newspapers and dishes, clutter the room. Also present are a few pieces of furniture. Strangely, no insects or larger animals are present in either area (they have long ago succumbed to the call of the Sea, and been absorbed into it). Hidden in the basement is a small collection of drugs and alcohol, given to those patrons in search of such things.
2: Hareesh approaches the Nepharites of Chagidiel, striking an agreement. Chagidiel will provide orphans from orphanages across the country, allowing Hareesh to expand the Epiphany nationwide. In return, Hareesh will increase the physical abuse and violence to children that the Sea spreads, in combination with the Sea's carnal urgings. PCs may be tipped off to this with an anonymous tip (given by a servant of Geburah) about child slave rings and illegal moving and disappearing of children in orphanages. Or perhaps the PCs investigate a series of brutal child rapings, and track the Epiphany down that way.
3: As a twist, instead of having the Epiphany expanding nation-wide, it's growing world-wide. Chagidiel's strength lies in the former Soviet Union, allowing the Death Angel countless children to use. Combine this with recent growths in prostitution and pornography in the region and the stage is set for Chagidiel and Gamaliel to establish quite a power-base.