Flood of Lies

Heretics of Geryon

Each layer of Hell has its own ruler that represents the purpose of that particular area. We’ve looked at a number of these archdevils, including Barbatos, Dispater, Mammon, and Belial. This week we take to the fifth layer of Hell known as Stygia and try to come up with followers of Geryon, the archdevil of forbidden lore, heresies, and snakes. Presented are three sects you might use in your game.

As always, let us imagine we are sitting at our theoretical gaming table. Our imaginary GM sets out the rules for the game that we will play. In this game, we are to make a follower of Geryon. The character does not need to be a divine caster, just a devotee of The Serpent. What character do you make?

For more information on Geryon

Geryon’s Pathfinder Wiki Page

Geryon’s Archives of Nethys Page

The Oath Bearers

This sect of followers of Geyron seeks to emulate his diabolic followers that man the Library of Oaths in Stygia. Masters of the deal, they seek out the desperate and the lost with honey words of vows to help better their situation; if only they make a promise. These oaths are kept secure in special books that each acolyte binds themselves and are stored in a central library, presumed to be in Abasalom, for safekeeping when full.

Becoming an Oath Bearer is a promise in and of itself. The first oath recorded by each supplicant is their own before becoming a full member. Because each pledge is also recorded in the infernal library in Stygia, divine power is unnecessary when coercing one, but many of this sect’s followers are still clerics. Bards also make up a number of the small group’s membership, but really anyone who can talk a good game has a chance at becoming and Oath Bearer.

The Fetid Water

Every lie told on the material plane becomes a drop of poison that fills the swamps of Stygia. The Fetid Water is a group of assassins who have dedicated themselves to Lord of Filth. Unlike most assassins guilds that have an image to uphold, the members of the Fetid Water more closely resemble homeless urchins living in a sewer than a proper guild. They specifically take jobs where one person betrayed another by breaking a promise and have an odd habit of showing up just when someone wishes a liar dead.

The leader of the cult is a Chelish oracle named AverniusKreuger. Although he has lost his ability to see, he says he has visions of where his assassins need to be. They operate out of the sewers in Egorian but their influence spreads as far as Riddleport in Varisia to the North and Augustana in Andoran to the East. Those few who know about The Fetid Water call them the liar’s death.

The Lost Prophets

Geryon was one of the Asura Rana before becoming an archdevil. Mixing his former life’s love for taking over ruined holy sites and abandoned deific domains with his no positions as the master of all lies, he has become known as the source of all great heresies. The Lost Prophets look to spread heresy on Golarion in the name of their master. They do so by creating completely new deities that fit the needs of those they wish to convert, or by claiming to be a small sect of an existing deity; twisting the chosen god’s dogma until the unwitting congregation is too far gone to do anything about it.

These false clerics are consummate liars with the ability to contort the emotions of their small groups of worshipers. Although a few true clerics of Geryon join the sect’s ranks, sorcerers, bards, and mesmerists make up a large portion of their numbers. Many of the downtrodden folk they claim as a “flock” don’t know the difference between divine intervention and arcane magic.

Like their master, these serpents revel in what is unknown and what is untrue. Who is your disciple of Geryon? What lie has brought them to worship the Source of Lies? Where does their devotion to this Archdevil come from? Let me know in the comments.

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