The Starry Wisdom Cult Faction Of Neo England For Your Old School Campaigns

The Cult  of Starry Wisdom sect has risen in power in the world of  2889 throughout Neo England, this cult boasts over twenty thousand members from all strait of society. Their worship of a particularly loathsome aspect of Nyarlathotep, the so called Haunter In Dark who is tied to the occult artifact the  Shining Trapezohedron. According to the ancient scrolls and occult grimoires;
   The Shining Trapezohedron was discovered in Egyptian ruins, in a box of alien construction, by Professor Enoch Bowen before he returned to Providence in 1844. Members of the Church of Starry Wisdom in Providence would awaken the Haunter of the Dark, an avatar of Nyarlathotep, by gazing into the glowing crystal. Summoned from the black gulfs of chaos, this being could show other worlds, other galaxies, and the secrets of arcane and paradoxical knowledge; but he demanded monstrous sacrifices, hinted at by disfigured skeletons that were later found in the church. The Haunter of the Dark was banished by light and could not cross a lighted area.

The Shining Trapezohedron is a window into all of time, space, and dimensions. Those exposed to its weird and dangerous energies as well as those of its master will sport some type of weird mutation after 1d10 days. The newest incarnation of the Starry Wisdom Cult operates out of the ruins of Providence Rhode Island. And has infiltrated Neo England society at all levels. They operate as a fifth column within  the post apocalyptic societies to bring about the conditions for when the stars are right for the return of their master. Villages, lone settlements and the travelers  are slaughtered and disappear in the night. The corpses are found weeks and sometimes months latter with weird acidic burns on the corpse's rotting flesh.
They are often 3rd level fighters of incredible zeal and weird faith who are fanatical in their beliefs of their demonic alien god. They are lead by occultists or black wizards of 4th level or better. These expendable members of the cult are often used in operations of terror and maximum chaos to cause as much carnage as possible. There is a 60% chance of the cult's agents possessing a weird super science device, energy weapons  or artifact for the slaughter of innocents. Another faction of the cult is the 'hooded hexmen' a gang of  8th level insane super scientists who often use 'occult tech' devices to steal or transfer mutations or powers from mutants, adventurers, and others to give their operatives advantages in battle or on missions. The hexmen are particularly hated by mutant communities and their operatives,agents, etc have been found hung from trees as warnings to others. When they've rarely been caught.

Lodges of the Cult of Starry Wisdom operate in small serpentine cell fashion, often under the guise of fraternal organizations or seemingly innocent occult groups, only the inner core members are aware of the group's true missions. These of course are expendable and true lodges keep an eye and maintain their own flocks. The Starry Wisdom Cult also trains its operatives in several ancient esoteric combat roles to be better instruments of terror. These operatives are often used as scouts or as infiltrators within isolated communities which are later attacked. These nick named scary monks have been used for centuries as isolated travelers, lone agents and instruments of terror often ahead of the larger cults.

The cult of Starry Wisdom often dupes adventurers into working for them recovering certain forbidden or lost relics from ruins, military installations, dimensional zones or other wasteland locations. Many times this patronage is through false or third parties. After several jobs are done the cult removes its expendable asset in the form of a party of adventurers. The Cult of Starry Wisdom remains at best mysterious, dangerous, and something only rumored or whispered about and at worst one of the most insidious threats that adventurers can face.