Deus Vult.pdf

VULT

Core Rulebook

D E U S

DEUS

CORE RULEBOOK

Credits

Contents

Author

Gareth Hanrahan

Introduction

Character Creation

Editor

Charlotte Law

Solis Sacerdotis

Layout and Graphic Design

Will Chapman

The Instruments of God

The Mont St-M ichel

Interior Illustrations

Aneke Murillo, Ben Ellebracht, Esther Sanz, Danilo Guida,

Nick Egberts, Gong Studio, Pulpapocalipsis Studio and Rich

Longmore

Brethren of the Order

Gifts and Miracles

The Church

Maps

Gillian Pearce

The Enemy

101

The Occult

122

Proofreading

Nick Robinson

Bestiary

134

Secrets of the Order

158

Special Thanks

Amy Stokes, Matthew Sprange, Kelly George,

Richard Ford and Sandrine Thirache

Running Deus Vult

163

Index

172

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C O R E R U L E B O O K

w w w . m o n g o o s e p u b l i s h i n g . c o m

Introduction

Order Acerbis

— Compiled from the teachings and sermons of Abbot Hugo, Superior

General of the Order, and translated from the Latin.

Devotio

— Compiled from the teachings and sermons of Abbot Hugo, Superior

Know this – every one of you will perish in the service of the

Order. Save for your brothers and sisters within the Order, no-

one will ever know your sacrifice. Those we protect and serve

must never know of our actions, or even of our existence.

We are ordo acerbus devotio, the Order of Bitter Piety, because

we must serve in shadow and silence. Our works must go

unseen.

and give you whatever aid and succour they can; anyone who

does not recognise your ring is not permitted to know your

purpose anyway.

On the Nature of the Order

Ours is a secret and singular Order. We admit male and

females equally and make little distinction between the sexes.

Our initiates are granted exceptional leeway to accomplish

their tasks as they see fit, by any means necessary. Our purpose

is not to teach or to glorify God’s name through prayer, it is to

protect and shepherd His most holy Church.

We are the instruments of God’s plan. The Lord’s plan must

be protected and shielded from those who would undo His

works. It is the duty of our order to defend Christendom

and the Church from all her foes – within and without. It

is the duty of our order, too, to destroy those enemies whose

existence cannot be countenanced. It is the duty of our order

to conceal ourselves from the simple common folk, from the

greedy merchants and grasping nobles; even from our fellow

servants of God. Our work is solely for the initiated.

Most important of all, our members are held to be in a state

of Extraordinary Grace. Whatsoever you do, so long as it is in

the direct service of the Order, is a pure and sinless act. There

is nothing that cannot be forgiven if your intent is utterly pure.

A member of our Order might lie, steal, cheat, murder until

his hands run red with the blood of 100 martyrs, or fornicate

with Beelzebub on the very altar of this church and yet be free

of sin if he did all these things in the service of the Order.

As initiates of the Order, you will go where you are needed, at

the behest of your Masters. You will seek out the enemies of

God and bring them down. You will be the hammer of witches

and the killer of monsters. You will be our instrument, just as

we are God’s. We will make you into holy weapons and fill

you with righteous fury.

This must not be taken as license to sin. You will answer

for any sins you commit of your own free will. Beware the

temptation to claim that you act in accordance with the

Order, when in fact you follow your own sinful desires. Grace

is extended only to those who are deserving of it; among the

worst blights on Christendom are those former brothers and

sisters of ours who have fallen because they believed themselves

incorruptible. Extraordinary Grace must be seen as a terrible

burden, not a gift.

You are mortal. You shall die, unknown and unmourned;

your deeds will be forgotten.

O, but my brothers and sisters, your rewards shall be great

indeed, in heaven.

On The History of the Order

The true history of the Order may not be revealed to you at

your level of initiation. It is a secret only the Masters are privy

to but you may know that our brotherhood is an ancient one,

far older than any of the Benedictine congregations. Our

brothers walked the roads of the Holy Land 10 centuries ago.

I say this not out of pride but out of humility, in the hopes

that you too will realise the enormity of our sacred task and

be likewise humbled before it. The serpent of pride is ever

watchful, hoping to sting those initiates who mistake the

power and authority granted them by the Order for their own

grandeur.

On The Duties of the Order

The sacred purpose of our Order is to shepherd Christendom

along the path of the divine plan. Every soul we save is another

step on that long journey towards the final enlightenment of

all Mankind. The Masters of the Order will instruct you on

certain vital tasks but you will always remember these duties.

You must watch for signs of corruption and sin, especially

those inspired by supernatural evils. Where you find such

evils, you must destroy them. Suffer not the witch to live, nor

the demon to remain on this earthly plane. Where possible,

you must learn all you can about your foe before putting them

to the sword, so that the Order may better fight such dangers

in the future. Books of black magic and forbidden lore should

be brought back to the abbey so that those monks trained in

such matters may catalogue them.

Within these walls, we refer to our Order as the Ordo Acerbus

Devotio but this is but a private joke shared amongst our

cynics. In the wider world, we may wear the habits of others

as suits our needs, becoming Benedictines or Cistercians or

village priests or mad-eyed prophets or brigands or whores and

heretics if our duty commands it of us. Of late, some initiates

call themselves Joachimites, after Joachim of Fiore who is a

friend to our Order but this too is nothing but a by-name.

Others refer to us as the Order of St. Michel, after our home.

Knowledge is dangerous. The Church is the only true light

of wisdom in this world and must be the gatekeeper of all

learning. Certain things are permissible for the common

folk to know but other things must be concealed. The use of

magic, the true nature of certain monsters, the use of various

arts and devices from ancient times or other cultures, all of

these imperil the unwary soul. Better you burn down a village,

sending the souls of everyone within to their judgement, than

In truth, our Order has no name. Names are unnecessary.

The only identity we bear is in our blessed rings. Anyone who

recognises the ring you bear will understand what it means

let perilous knowledge escape that town into the wider world.

A man may be damned by a whisper, if his soul is not fortified

against such blandishments.

for the uninitiated to know. You, most especially, must commit

your hearts to this Order, lest your just punishment fall upon

you threefold.

You must protect Christendom from enemies, within

and without. The Saracen, the corsair, the barbarian, the

bandit, the false prophet, the heretic: all of these are to be

slain without compunction. You must also intercede where

sin has overthrown the appointed order of society to a very

troublesome intent. Should a lord grind his peasants into the

earth and make them toil tenfold while neglecting his own

responsibilities, should a corrupt monk sell indulgences and

keep the money instead of giving the Church its dues, should

madmen plot to overthrow their rightful lord, or should some

foolish scholar delve into teachings forbidden by wiser men

– in these times too may your skills be put to the Lord’s work.

Any deviation from the path must be corrected, for the good

of all the souls in Christendom.

No matter how you came here, you have all been instructed in

the methods of the Order. We have taught you to fight with

weapons and without, to vanish in plain sight and to move like

a shadow, how to live like a beggar and live like a king and how

to discern the truth though it be clouded in deceits. We have

taught you the use of our secret arts, of poison and choking

fogs and secret writings and other alchemical compounds and

the use of our mechanical tools and superior weapons. I tell

you this, there is no better school in the entire world and there

is no mortal foe you cannot defeat in single combat. You are

the perfect instruments of God’s plan.

You have been tested and you will be tested again, but for

now you are worthy enough to continue in our service. From

this point on, your life belongs to the Order. Fail, and all of

Christendom falls with you.

On The Structure of the Order

The General Superior is the head of the Order and is

subordinate only to the Pontiff himself.

On the Abbey of Mont St-M ichel

The LORD said unto his chief disciple, ‘thou art Peter and

upon this rock do I build my church.’ The rock that was

ordained for us by the Archangel Michael himself is this one.

Our island is accessible from the mainland only by a narrow

road and that road floods at high tide; the water races across

the flats swifter than horses can run. Here, on this sheltered

island, we have built our abbey and our chief sanctum.

Outsiders believe Mont St-Michel to be merely a wealthy

monastery following the Rule of St. Benedict.

Under the General Superior are the Claustral Priors,

Obediantiary Priors and Preceptors. The Claustral Priors

reside here, in the Mont St-Michel and each of them oversees a

different aspect of our Order’s duties. The Prior of Medicine is

concerned with the healing of the sick, the diagnosis of disease

and the preparation of poison. The Prior of Arms is responsible

for the training of novices in combat and the use of weapons, as

well as the defence of the monastery. The Prior of the Archives

maintains the library and archival vaults beneath the rock.

They believe what we permit them to believe.

The Obediantiary Priors are in charge of the other monasteries

of our Order across Christendom and of the various satellites

and lesser priories here in Normandy where novices are

trained. The Preceptors command the scattered outposts and

secret fortresses of the Order.

P: Lord, safeguard all that we have taught.

R: The Order must never be revealed, nor its knowledge made

open.

P: Lord, we trust in your guidance.

R: Better 100 innocents die than one of evil escape.

P: Lord, we are but instruments of your Will.

R: I vow to defend Church and Order by any means

necessary.

P: Lord, all will face your judgement.

R: The laws of Man are as nothing in the pursuit of His work.

P: Lord, bless this child so she may serve thee with all her

heart.

R: This Covenant is as marriage to the Lord God.

P: Lord, give her the wisdom to know when to act and when

to remain silent.

R: Knowledge is both salvation and damnation.

P: Lord, we follow the path laid before us.

R: Every soul saved is one step forward to the final

enlightenment of Mankind.

Together with certain respected individuals, these Priors

and Preceptors are collectively referred to as the Masters and

they advise the Superior General on what must be done.

The Masters reside in the Mont St-Michel or their respective

priories and preceptries and are not committed to the field

save for tasks of grave importance.

On the Teaching of Initiates

All of you are Initiates of the Order. Some of you, we took from

your mother’s womb or as a young child and we brought you

up in a sheltered priory where your body and mind could be

honed without interference from the outside worlds. Others,

we recruited because of your natural gifts, or accomplishments,

or because of your position in society.

Still others, we took you in because this is the only place left

to you – you saw or discovered secrets that it is not permissible

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