Cultists of the Pinnacle

The cultists of The Pinnacle believe that the world is in turmoil because it is resisting a rebirth that the melding is trying to accomplish. It's magics and creatures aren't something to be feared, they are to be studied, embraced and celebrated. The Riftspawn are a gift. Dark magic is simply another color of magic. There are beings on the other side of the veil that are actually worthy of reverence and worship. Their goal is to finish what the melding started and merge the two sides of the veil together, causing the world to be reborn anew.

The cult is like mold in the walls. Always present, always spreading, and never quite visible until it’s too late. Their hand may be behind odd market shifts, missing persons, or mysterious benefactors. Even allies of the Riftguard may be unwitting tools, or fully indoctrinated by the cult. They are an old and well integrated cult and they have been working towards this goal for generations.

Should the players seek to pursue the cult, they may do so, at the cost of time and energy they now cannot spend on preparing for the hunt.

Should players ask if they can investigate the cult, have them make an Investigation Skill Roll to start asking questions around town. Make it clear that it will take time and energy, regardless of how successful they are.

Every investigation effort takes time, energy, and attention. Players must expend 1 point from each ARP pool (Might, Finesse, Brainstorm, and Focus) per attempt, and must then advance the Day Phase (Morning > Midday > Afternoon > Evening).

If players accrue 20 Clue Points you may reveal the identity of a single cultist. Use the table below as a quick reference for what you may reveal to investigative players.

Since this is a module that is meant to potentially be run multiple times for the same group of individuals the secret cultists in the town will never be the same.

Use the following system to determine which members of Portaland are the cultists in this instance of the module. First, Roll 1d4+1 for each category. This first roll will determine the number of cultists in that category. Now Roll 1d6 for each of the determined number of cultists in that category. If you roll the same number twice, simply re-roll until you get a different result.

Any Benefactor that was selected is secretly a Cultist and they automatically are assigned to role of Cult Leader. If more than one Benefactor is rolled, flip a coin or roll a die to determine which one is the cult leader. Or simply choose which one you would prefer to be the cult leader.

All characters rolled are secretly cultists of the Pinnacle. Each of them is slowly losing their sanity and is willing to die for their cause, making the dangerous and fanatical. Each cultist is trained in some form of magic and wields a sacrificial blade.

This can be an alternate ending to the game if the PCs are able to determine the identity of all the cult members or the cult leader, confront them, and defeat all of them, without allowing any cult members to escape. 

Should the PCs choose to pursue the cult and confront the cult leader prior to the final day, the rest of the cult members will join forces to attempt to complete the dragon summoning ritual and defeat the PCs.

If the PCs confront the cult on the final day they will find them mid-dragon-summon ritual. At which point the cult till attempt to complete the dragon summoning ritual and defeat the PCs.

This will initiate the Optional Battle with the Cult of the Pinnacle in the City Battle Map.

Place your cultists in strategic locations around the map. They’re here for a ritual or a faceoff, so they’re prepared for a battle. Place an honor guard of at least 4 cultists near the Cult Leader but not so close that they will all be caught in the same AOEs. Place your cultists near cover so they can get to safety if fired upon by the party’s ranged or spellcasting archetypes. Your cult leader should be in a central location, far away from wherever the PCs are permitted to place their characters. You want the cult leader to be far enough that the fastest character in their party would need to move more than twice to reach him with their speed.

Focus on the goals of the Cult leader and cultists as a whole during this encounter. They should be seeking to complete their ritual and summon the dragon. If the cult loses too many members they will abandon the completion of the ritual at this time. You decide when they would choose to fight and when to flee.

Make the cult seem cunning, but not unfair. Telegraph any major behavior changes to the players. If the cult leader is scared for his life and looking for an escape route, relay that to PCs that roll insight or perception. If they think they can defeat the PCs, relay that determination and behavior of aggression to observant PCs.

Remember to use the spells that the Cult Members and leader have access to. Don’t forget that even a cultist with a knife can be a hindrance if they’ve run out of spells.

Try to avoid grouping your cultists together if the PCs party has spellcasters. Take cover if they have ranged attacks and use spells and summons against their melee fighters, rather than getting up close whenever possible.

Read aloud with pauses and space for emotional weight.

“As the last cultist falls, their ritual chant falls silent at last, the air around Portaland shivers—then stills. The spell is broken. The portals are quiet. For the first time in weeks, the sky clears fully. Whatever they were trying to summon will never come.”

“Portaland mourns, but it also breathes a sigh of relief. Bells ring. The King’s men send word to the rest of Portia: The threat is over. The Riftguard succeeded. And though the next Melding may come in decades or centuries, it will find a city ready, remembered in song and stone for the day it did not fall.”

“You stopped the end of the world. The veil holds. For now.”

From the rooftops, smoke clears. From the streets, silence breaks into song, into shouts, into the roaring chorus of survival. You stand amid it all — bloodied, battered, but unbroken. The Riftguard.

That title now carries weight. It echoes in taverns, is etched into parchment, and whispered through alleys like a sacred blessing.

At the General Store, Cranklin Fiddlesticks hangs a painted sign over the door: “The Heroes Shopped Here.” His wife Heliga hands out candied plums to children.

Jenadine Longstride at the tavern hosts a celebration so wild it runs for three nights. Each evening, she toasts your names, adding a new verse to “The Song of the Riftguard,” sung badly, but with love.

Walter Wright releases his latest book: “Portaland Remains.” He dedicates it to the fallen and to “those who refused to fall.”

Portaland is yours, now. Not to rule. Not to own. But to be a part of it. Forever bound to its future and past.

And when the next Melding comes... the next generation of Riftguard will read of you. Not in prophecies... but in history.

Read aloud with pauses and space for emotional weight.

“Portaland burned before the sun even rose. The rituals completed, the Veil shattered. And through the largest portal, the beast came: wings like a torn sky, voice like an earthquake — the dragon from beyond the stars.”

“Portia’s armies fell in hours. The land buckled, twisted, became something else. The world did not end. It was overwritten. Renna became many realms at once, warped and unrecognizable. Magic oozed from every tree. Riftspawn bred like locusts.”

“Portaland was the first to fall. But it would not be the last.”

The dragon tore through the sky like a god unshackled. Its scream shattered the clocktower. Its wings darkened the sun. And the cultists—still chanting from rooftops and cellars—welcomed it with outstretched arms.

Walter Wright was last seen trying to save the training manuals in his shop. Horace and Ginene Whitefeather never made it out of their fletcher. Hush? Vanished, as if they knew this was coming all along.

Princess Aidda’s tea house was burned to the ground. Nexula’s tower vanished in a pulse of magic, leaving only a crater of time-locked stone. Red Rivers fought until she was surrounded—then laughed and took half the cult with her in a last blaze of glory.

The city screamed. Then it went silent.

Portaland, once a jewel of Renna, was erased—merged with a dozen realms not meant to be crossed. Mountains melted into coral spires. Rivers flowed backwards. Monsters walked in daylight.

And the Veil was torn asunder.

Those few who survived speak of the Riftguard… of the ones who tried. They are remembered in this world that was reborn as a nightmare.

Read aloud with pauses and space for emotional weight.

“The Riftguard triumphed… almost. You cut down many of the cultists in streets and made them pay dearly for their crimes against the people. But one escaped. One was enough.”

“Within hours the final portal tore open above the spires of Portaland. From it descended a being of fire and magic: the dragon. Not a beast of this world, but something older, hungrier, and wrapped in the prayers of madmen.”

“The war is not over. Your final test begins: kill whatever they have just unleashed.”

The Dragon is coming. The final battle is all that awaits.