The Starbright Cult
A mystery religion founded by an alien mastermind
Throughout recent history, stories have surfaced of mysterious cultists wearing wooden masks and committing crimes. More recently, the name of their organization came to light: Starbright.
The Starbright Cult is built around granting wishes in exchange for service. Some members wish for love. Others want money, or professional success. Some pray for revenge. The message of the cult’s goddess figure, Starbright, is simple: “your labor will be rewarded”.
Raiding bases and capturing cultists uncovered more facts about the cult. The “wooden” masks were in reality sophisticated augmented-reality displays built with extraterrestrial science. A wearer of the mask can experience completely realistic illusions, or be given instructions from afar. The masks could administer sensations of pleasure or pain. Indeed, many masked cultists were found within their secret lairs, living out virtual lives as their bodies were kept alive with IV drips and muscle stimulation.
Some cultists’ wishes could only be granted in the real world - harming a specific person, for example. The cult as a whole would be ordered to commit the crimes necessary to grant these wishes.
Heroes have apprehended cult leaders calling themselves “Starbright” several times, only to find out that they too were just human beings, operated like puppets through their masks. The psychic influence the masks can exert puts prosecution of individual cultists in a legal gray area. Nevertheless, the cult as a whole is shown as harmful. Whoever or whatever “Starbright” really is, they must be found and stopped for good.
Using the Starbright Cult
The Starbright Cult is for…
- Stories about messy and complex problems, where the day can’t just be saved by punching a villain in the face
- Stories about ordinary human desires and the moral hazards of wishing for something, regardless of the cost to get it
- Offering a temptation to heroes: if you could have anything you wanted, what would you do with that? What if your family or loved ones turn to the cult for what they want?
Plots
- Stop the cult from committing a major crime
- Rescue an important person from the cult’s clutches
- Protect a cult defector from retribution
Variations
Variation: Access to Alien Tech
- As written, the most significant alien tech involved is the masks themselves. This itself is powerful - the cultists can be coordinated in large groups in ways that supers might find hard to counter.
- If the cultists don’t feel threatening enough as an organized group, they can be given extra gimmicks. Alien nanotechnology, energy weapons, or invisibility fields could all make the cult far more dangerous.
Variation: Scope
- The Starbright Cult defaults to a relatively recent phenomenon, operating for years or decades at most. It could be a much more recent problem, with heroes knowing next to nothing about it at first, and having to learn more.
- Alternatively, the cult could be much older - a mystery religion perhaps going back for centuries! In this case, the cult might have had a hand in history. It’s an alien invasion that succeeded, on its own terms, and has to be stopped.