In my most recent Cult game my crew decided to get their first claim, and they wanted an Offertory (+2 coin for occult scores). Googling the word offertory didn’t give me any useful definitions of that word and how to turn it into a claim that could continually generate money. So I rolled a random Forgotten God and got the Guardian of the Gates who excepts ritual sacrifices of blood upon an alter. So I made a cult that had a 1 ton altar made from a porous black stone that would absorb blood of enemies of their god and miraculously reward them with silver. My cult crew would steal it and use a ritual to exorcise the Guardian of the Gate and bind a piece of their god (Negamu) to the altar. The session got cut a little short, and so when we left the crew had just tracked a known cultist to The Veil in Nightmarket, which is also the cults lair.
The coolest part of the session was when the cultist they were following opened a gate to parts unknown in order to lose the tail. The cutter managed to dive into the gate before it closed, but no one else made it through. Wherever the cutter landed was completely dark, and she decided to not to use any light and just follow by sound so as not to alert the cultist of her presence. The Cutter failed her desperate prowl roll and I decided this was a great time to roll on the summoned horror table (I assume this forgotten god is guarding gates to some very bad places).
I landed on Shambling Rags, and slowly it dawned on the Cutter than she no longer heard footsteps leading away from her. Instead she heard the sound of something being dragged toward her, as if someone were pulling a heavy sack of clothes along the ground. The player of the cutter was visibly disturbed by the idea of being in complete darkness with something being dragged toward her, and the resulting fight was pretty great.
The rest of the crew eventually managed to arrive by reopening the gate, and the cutter was dealt lethal harm when she failed a desperate skirmish with the horror (she was swallowed and smothered by the rags), which of course was resisted. The whisper discovered that the rags were being animated by a small creature hiding in the center, and the cutter, lurk and leech used a group setup action to pull away enough rags so that the whisper could electrocute the creature. All the rags fell away and the Cutter turned what looked like a giant slug into paste.
This was all just reconnaissance for the actual score where they steal the altar, and I have no idea what the plan will be. I didn’t anticipate trailing that cultist would take all night, but there were many failed rolls and some delightfully questionable choices. Next session they hit the Veil (from page 93 in the quickstart), and I expect we’ll find out if its enigmatic Tycherosi proprietor Roland Volaris is really half serpent. Also is he an unwitting pawn, the cult’s charismatic leader, or perhaps even the avatar of the Guardian of the Gates himself? Suggestions welcome.
I’m glad you didn’t simply use the simple definition of Offertory, because what you made is way better.:)