World of Darkness: Sorcerer

The Cult of Isis & The Sons of Darkness

The Cult of Isis and the Sons of Darkness is an exciting mini-chronicle for White Wolf's (old) World of Darkness™ in which the players take the roles of members of an ancient secret order battle the forces of evil in 1937. From Cairo to London to the Heart of Darkness this exciting serial-style adventure is designed to be played with four to seven players.

Included below: full details of all seven cultists, a Cult of Isis Primer introducing the players and the Storyteller to the origins and workings of the Cult of Isis and the episodes themselves!

Download a blank Sorcerer Revised Character Sheet here. Exclusive to Zen Cadet!

Foreword

Back in the summer of 2000 I bought World of Darkness: Sorcerer and World of Darkness: Mummy Second Edition and thought it would be a great idea to put the two together and have the players play the Cult of Isis. My players were still new to the World of Darkness so I hid the existence of Mummies from them so that the exact nature of the Shemsu-Heru would remain a mystery, since they were all playing low level cultists who are not yet privvy to that knowledge. Yep, I expanded them somewhat, making them a little less disparate. To better achieve this I thought that the most exciting time period to play this in would be the 1930ies. I envisaged something akin to Indiana Jones™ and at the time I had not yet seen the new version of the film The Mummy.

It worked well enough, but I never got to complete it before many of my players ended up moving to different parts of the country. Then I read about the planned development, by White Wolf of Adventure! and later when I eventually bought Sorcerer Revised I discovered that they had a write up about the Cult of Isis where I had, previously, had to invent their details.

Since then White Wolf has released Mummy: The Ressurection and a whole bunch of Egypt based sourcebooks. I don't have the sourcebooks and it is worth noting that in the time that these scenarios are set, Horus had not yet departed for the underworld and the new breed of Reborn, the Amenti, were not in existence. I have invented much regarding the Cult of Isis and if I have more time I plan to expand on this somewhat offering a sourcebook of sorts for them. I have, however, upgraded the characters to Sorcerer Revised rules. Unfortunately, White Wolf ommitted a Sorcerer Revised character sheet from their book. I have looked at ones made on-line and I wasn't entirely happy with them, so I made my own one, which you can get here also.

Episode 1: The Eye of Ra was run at Excalibur 2001 and 2002 roleplay convention. Although intending to premiere at Excalibur '02, Episode 2: The Black Skull premiered at Conception 2003. In 2006 I was very kindly flown to Belgium where I ran, for the first time ever, the complete campaign. The complete mini-campaign will be available in the near future.

The Cast

This scenario was designed with these specific characters in mind, however, if you wish to modify them then it should be noted that there are certain features that should remain for the entire mini-chronicle to work. You are free to modify the characters somewhat to suit your needs, but some of them serve particular functions. Most particularly Mandek, who should be played as an NPC if you plan to follow the entire serial (but might make a good guest spot for a visiting friend) even if no-one else plays the provided characters. Everyone else is a character-type that, in the long term, serves differing functions. Two important types are that of Charles (for Episode 2) and Lou (for the visions). These may be modified if you wish. However, I think that the characters work quite nicely as they are and I hope you enjoy playing them.

Below are the characters presented in alphabetical order. For their importance in each episode only the Storyteller should be privvy to such information.

Charles Forthroy III [PDF] 173KB — An English aristocrat born into the Cult, following in his father's footsteps.
Elita Fortier [PDF] 171KB — French Egyptologist living and teaching in the University of Cairo.
Lou MacBride [PDF] 168KB — A New York cop, psychic and natural prophet.
Mandek [PDF] 167KB — An enigmatic street bum of undeterminate origin. Warning: Players, unless your Storyteller is allowing you to play this character then this character sheet is classed as ST Eyes Only.
Adranio Menendez [PDF] 165KB — An old Spanish thief.
Pablo Menendez [PDF] 166KB — Adranio's son and partner in crime.
Sherrilyn Sweet [PDF] 167KB — A quiet American librarian with a few tricks up her prissy sleeves.

Primer & Rituals

You will also need the Cult of Isis Primer [PDF] 149KB for all the players to read to know the setting of their Cult. Additionally, you will need the list of Cult Rituals [PDF] 55KB for the characters to use as they are not provided individually on the sheets. Many of these are simply renamed from the book, but the descriptions of each have been left.

The Episodes

Important: Please ensure that you select "Print Comments" when you print the Character Sheets otherwise the text on the sheets themselves won't appear on your printout.

Episode 1: The Eye of Ra

Web Edition - REVISED

This Web Edition presumes that you have the book Sorderer Revised and does not include the Sorcerer Quick & Dirty Rules provided for Excalibur 2001 and 2002. This Web Edition also contains the finale cutscene that was omitted in 2001, but is intended for the entire mini-chronicle.

Dr. Ardella Burne, a prominent archaeologist, has uncovered an ancient artefact that the Cult of Isis wishes to retrieve on behalf of the Shemsu-Heru. The cultists are drawn together to Cairo where they embark on a deadly ocean journey during which they must attempt to retrieve the artefact and get it to one Isaac Raven in Geneva.

The Sons of Darkness — Episode 1: The Eye of Ra [PDF] 194 KB

Episode 2: The Black Skull

Web Edition

This Web Edition presumes that you have the book Sorderer Revised and does not include the Sorcerer Quick & Dirty Rules provided for Conception 2003.

Prominent archaeologist, Dr. Ardella Burne, has gone missing on the same night that a mysterious black skull was stolen from the British Museum. The cultists fresh from their last adventure are drawn to London where they find themselves embroiled in a diabolical plot.

The Sons of Darkness — Episode 2: The Black Skull [PDF] 223 KB