VII Cults the high-born, undermine important religious in underground caverns or windowless structures As or social leaders, or blackmail the mighty the Haunter of the Dark, he creates cults which are The Black Man Nyarlathotep can choose to take the form of an ordinary human with flesh, eyes, teeth, and nails of blackest pitch In this form, he presides at the meetings of witches and wizards that worship him The Black Man has no true cult in the sense of an organization, but his awakened followers occasionally work together to learn spells and secrets from the god The Bloated Woman In this form, Nyarlathotep eschews cult worship (at least on the surface) respectable religions They may have structures built right in the middle of cities, where all can see them, and present the semblance of legitimate faith whilst hiding their true nature Most of the rituals and services not invoke the Haunter directly but instead focus upon its emblem: a Shining Trapezohedron (page 169) Even the trapezohedron need not be physically exposed to the congregation’s eyes It can be kept inside a container or a statue, and thus even many of the actual cultists are deceived as to the true nature of their faith in favor of a small group of devoted followers They The Haunter likes to prey physically upon his are secretive and operate outside normal society, in a own cultists, to keep them from straying or simply somewhat similar fashion to the more cerebral followers as a terrifying surprise for them This partially sates of the Shadow Pharaoh, but the Bloated Woman’s Nyarlathotep’s need not only for devastation but also followers are emotional, instinctive, and radical for human madness and terror ‘‘ Berserker Frenzy: Cultists are unable to resist the Bloated Woman’s every whim and madly The Haunter offers a significant and ruthless benefit for his cultists seek out her favor They will anything to be ‘‘ The Haunter Strikes: On moonless nights, the once more permitted into her presence, and so priests can send forth the Haunter to destroy are the most loyal of fanatics When prevented those who oppose them When used to find from serving her, they fly into mad rages information about a victim of the Haunter, ‘‘ Contagious Madness: The Bloated divination spells and even direct communion Woman's contagious madness is similar to with one’s god are limited by the Haunter’s power that brought about by the Shadow Pharaoh, Anyone trying to find out what caused a person’s except that the mob tends to be more focused death can only learn that it was the Haunter of on killing people en masse, rather than the Dark, but not who sent forth the Haunter vandalizing structures The Bloated Woman or for what reason it was done Nyarlathotep’s herself presides over the destruction power absorbs any other attempts to uncover The Haunter of the Dark In this form, Nyarlathotep can only exist in the absence of light, so he typically makes his appearance the nature of his cult He can even block wishes and other powerful means of discovery Cultists thus have a useful means of murder at a distance, which cannot readily be traced back to them 177