Doomsday Cult In Cave Stand Off

Summary

November 17, 2007: Members of a Russian doomsday cult called the True Russian Orthodox Church have sealed themselves off in a cave near the Volga river in Nikolskoye in the Penza region of Russia, and have threatened to blow themselves up if authorities intervene.

Source

Bibliography

1. Original article retrieved from Archive.org

Game and Story Use

• Suicidal cults always make for good adventure fodder, and doomsday cults are even better. Especially if it's the responsibility of the PCs to get them to stand down - or rescue a cult member or hostage because their family pays them for it.
  • How about the following scenario: The cult has walled itself off and the authorities are reluctant to storm the place in order to avoid a massacre. But the player characters - possibly members of an organization like Delta Green - knows that the cultists will soon begin a ritual in order to summon an extremely dangerous supernatural entity, such as a Great Old One. They can't tell the authorities laying siege to the place (as they wouldn't have been believed anyway), so they somehow have to sneak past them and stop the ritual at any cost - and hopefully get out alive afterward.
• Such a doomsday cult might not hide out in a cave. Alternatively, the cult might have existed for years in an abbey or similarly fortified building - and at one point it might decide to simply wall themselves in (with large stockpiles of supplies) and wait for the End. Depending on the technological level, forcing one's way in might be very difficult…
• A cave, monastery or similar building in which a cult holed themselves up to wait for the end might excite some kind of curiosity after a couple of decades have passed and the end hasn't come, but no-one has emerged. Obviously there was no way that they had that much food in there… someone, and not necessarily the local government, may feel like taking a look inside.
  • Old bones is most likely, but in other circumstances feral cannibals or undead might appear. Nothing may be far worse … if some or all of the cultists are missing where the hell did they go?