The Joy of Cults!

[BigBadQDaddy]

Just wanted to throw this out there for some advice...
I have some big plans for using a cult of my own making in ravenloft. Essentially, my players are saved by cultists after wandering in the woods and mists for a week and a half with hardly any food or water too ration amonsts themselves.
While in care(captivity) of these cultist, they befriend the cultist who saved there lives.
I am looking for some adventure ideas that could revolve around the cult while the players are staying at there temple.
Now, the cult is most definatley evil, which will not be knowledge to the players for some time, and eventually I am going to kill off the cultist who saved the party(due to his losing faith in the cultist psuedo-god)
The problem is that I don't have any ideas to fill up the middle.
Any suggestion

[BigBadQDaddy]

Oh,
I should also elaborate,
The cult is named "The Order of The Divine Light"
Basically the gyst is they believe that by performing human sacrifices they can keep the darkness(the dark powers)appeased(which in a way it does)so they won't suffer the evils of the world(which in a way is ironic, being as they cause much of it.

[Augustus]

I could see a heucuva, illithid(from under Karkatass), beholder (not very ravenloftian but think how scary they'd be in real life!), mohrg etc masterminding a cult like that. Best bet is a heucuva 'cause of their religous background and insanity... and they're skeletony; so they're cool:)

[BigBadQDaddy]

That could be pretty cool, But I don't think I want to pit up the party againts something of that streingth as of yet.
One idea I have been sort of toying with is creating an entirely new race from some unnamed plane or world, where they have natural powers of influence over humans and demihumans(non psionic/non magical).
In this aspect I could apply actual character classes to them and have them actually blend in with society, completley indistinguishable.
Just something i've had floating in my fishbowl.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

That could be pretty cool, But I don't think I want to pit up the party againts something of that streingth as of yet.
One idea I have been sort of toying with is creating an entirely new race from some unnamed plane or world, where they have natural powers of influence over humans and demihumans(non psionic/non magical).
In this aspect I could apply actual character classes to them and have them actually blend in with society, completley indistinguishable.
Just something i've had floating in my fishbowl.

What about a vampyre? As the PCs level up, it can acquire PC levels to remain a threat?

[Scipion_Emilien]

Dunno where you are going to put your quest, but I always ask myself, what would happen if a culte learn the teaching of Mytteri the arc-nemesis of the lawgiver, would this be a trully wicked cult or freedom fighters opposing the Vaasi social class system?

[Dion of the Fraternity]

The Joy of Sects, you mean?

[Smeazel]

That could be pretty cool, But I don't think I want to pit up the party againts something of that streingth as of yet.

Huecuvas aren't necessarily that all that powerful. It's a template that increases the CR by 2 and that can be added to any base creature with at least one level in the cleric, druid, or monk class. That means you can have a huecuva with a CR as low as 3.

[Malus Black]

It would be best have some more information (PC level, which domains the cult operates in, the theme of the campaign etc.), but I'll try to give you some generic ideas.

As long as the PCs trust the cult, they can probably be easily manipulated. For instance, the cult may show them the way to the nearest city, provided that they deliver a letter (in code, obviously) to a contact of the cult's. As the PCs become more powerful, the cult could use them to destroy rivals ("the priests in the next village are evil") or clean up their nefarious business ("we are here to help these poor people whose hospice burned down, not to take them back to our hideout and sacrifice them, no sir"). Obviously, this could be expanded, and some sort of thematic link could be created even in non-cult adventures, so that observant PCs could slowly discover that they are being used as tools of evil (horror checks, anyone)?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

If you want this adventure to end in a big battle, having a monster behind the scenes and manipulating the cultists works well. OTOH, if you want to maximize the horror of the situation -- to be chilling as well as terrifying -- you may want to dispense with monsters and just let the cultists' evil practices (human sacrifice, murdering the doubting member, etc) be the cultists' own idea: nobody taught or compelled them to do these things; some twisted, yet 100% human individuals just decided to do them, and constructed the cult and its ideology to satiate a warped desire to slaughter people.

Monsters, however frightening, always have an excuse: they're monsters and are expected to do awful things. When ordinary human beings are the ones committing the horrific deeds, purely on their own initiative, the creepiness is far more potent and the role-playing, far more serious.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

The Joy of Sects, you mean?

LOL

You just had to, didn't you?

[BigBadQDaddy]

Ok
I think I got it.
I was at work and of course not listening to the customer badgering in my ear on the phone(usually when I do my best brainstorming)when I came up with this idea.
Basically the cult holds there service/get together once a month, when they perform there rights and sacrifices, but they do it in complete anonyminity(spell check?)complete with cloaks and masks(ala "eyes wide shut"...minus the orgies)
Rank is completley secret during the off time. During the other times of the month the cult act in complete unity and equality, setting the orders the one night each month.
This way, the players believe that they are working for a very close knit organization, and maybe even make thenm look benevoloent and noble.
All the while not letting them see the horrible acts commited by the cult each month.
Plus with the whole anonyminity of each member,each of the NPCs wouldnt even be aware that they were being organized by maybe a vampire or some other charismatic and wholly evil creature. That way they could never divulge any information to the party.
I had this other idea were i would create an npc who seems to be leading everyone(ala lost boys)and have him/her seem like the evil manipulator, only to have the PCs discover they were wrong the entire time(wheels within wheels)

[Manofevil]

(ala "eyes wide shut"...minus the orgies)

AHHHH Yer no fun!