Cabal of Shadows

The various sects within the Cabal attract different types, but most commonly appeal to those willing to barter for arcane power or use it to manipulate others—including beguilers (PH2), duskblades (PH2), and warlocks (CAr). Still, anyone can potentially hear the Calling and be drawn to the shadows.

The Calling also appears to draw Cabalists to one another and to potential converts. New members in Stormreach are recruited right off the docks. A character who has experienced the Calling is likely to be approached by a small group within hours of arrival and taken directly before the Council of the Obscured.

As long as you can remember, you have felt the Calling. In childhood it was only a whisper, there at the edge of dream or in times of peril. As the Calling grew stronger and clearer, you experienced vivid dreams of a faraway continent and of the buried power that sleeps there.

Eventually the Calling became irresistible, and you made your way to mysterious Xen’drik. You came to believe in the Calling as the true voice of the entity that some call the Traveler. But this power goes by many names, in many places, and its secrets are entwined in the arcane twistings of the draconic Prophecy. The Calling communicates its will to you in dreams, or in the occasional trancelike states that overcome you in waking hours. You know now that the Calling can be heard most clearly, most powerfully, in the special rituals of the Cabal of Shadows.

At times you feel hesitant and wonder if you are following the proper path. But then you remember your enemies, the defeats and humiliations of your past, and you know you have found your home and your master. The power promised by the Calling transcends childish concepts such as good or evil. You have heard the Calling, you have been chosen, and you cannot resist the thrill of its dark power.

Combat

As a member of the Cabal of Shadows, you venerate the powers of concealment and obscuration—both in the pursuit of hidden knowledge and in the resolution of conflict. Your methods vary, but in any conflict you tend toward subterfuge and deception. Effective weapons include spells and items that rob your opponent of his senses, or distort them in some way advantageous to you and your allies. You always use darkness and shadows when possible, along with illusions, invisibility, or simple physical cover.

Advancement and Missions

The quickest route to advancement within the Cabal is to complete missions for the leader of a sect, sometimes at the expense of other Cabal members. Such is the way of the Calling, that the foolish and weak should perish and the most skillful of deceivers should triumph. It is equally important to eliminate rivals—the holy fools of the Covenant, the thuggish sellswords of the Blackwheel Company, and the bookish children of the Crimson Codex. These impediments must be cleared so that the Cabal can achieve its ultimate goal: acquisition of the hidden mysteries of the Caldyn Fragments, and finally the power of the Prophecy itself.

Sects within the Cabal of Shadows can be quite different indeed—a sect of chaotic neutral changelings can work together with a cult of lawful evil tieflings, or even form an uneasy alliance with a pack of mad daelkyr half-bloods. But the Calling unites them all in fear and dread and hope for glory.

For the most part the Cabal is scattered throughout Xen’drik, but as with any organization on the continent, the Cabal has interests in and around Stormreach.

As the name suggests, the Cabal of Shadows prefers to remain concealed in layers of darkness. Of all the societies in the city, the Cabal is the most underground, literally and otherwise. Cabalists move in the deepest catacombs and ruins beneath Stormreach, the darkest places where even the Bilge Rats fear to tread.

Very recently, rumors have swept through the city underworld that the Cabal and the Rats are working together to an unprecedented degree. Many suspect a practical alliance has been forged. Cabalists care little for the material trinkets the Rats covet, and the Rats in turn have little use for the mystical artifacts collected by their smugglers and fences.

Structure

Each Cabal sect—and there are at least a dozen active in Stormreach—has its own take on the Cabal’s mission and how to achieve it. But four sects govern the overall direction of the Cabal through the Council of the Obscured, a ruling body in which the leaders of the four largest sects preside. These sects are the Mourners of Yore, the Defiance, the Instruments of Change, and the Children of Xoriat. The council, it is said, performs certain dark rituals below Stormreach and elsewhere in Xen’drik to channel the true voice of the Calling and direct the actions of the Cabal as a whole. Without these regular rituals, it is likely that the sects would turn to savage infighting, collapsing the Cabal from within.

NPC Reactions

Anyone candidly identifying oneself as a member of the Cabal can expect open hostility in Stormreach. Among the general populace, the Cabal lies at the heart of dark tales told around the tavern hearth at midnight. Although some of these are merely folk tales and legends, a surprising number are accurate accounts of the Cabal’s nefarious activities.

Higher-ups in the Cabal of Shadows and the Covenant of Light are quite aware that the Calling and the Song seem to be virtually identical phenomena. Naturally, this fact disturbs both groups. Their leaders explain away such concerns by saying that their opposite number is a twisted, invalid reflection of the true voice that only they hear clearly. But secretly they wonder why such a parallel exists, and if—unthinkable as it would be—they really are the same in the end. And if that were true, what does the Singer (or the Caller) want from them all?