Unknown Armies Artifact: The Panoply of Thug Babur

By "unknown Indian artist"

This suite of items is traditionally attributed to Thug Babur, a legendary cult leader and serial killer from the waning years of the Mughal Empire.

The Thuggee were a secret society or social movement that operated in the Indian subcontinent from the thirteenth to nineteenth centuries. They murdered travelers for personal gain and as a bloodrite to Kali, she who destroys evil to protect the innocent. The exact reach and prevalence of the Thuggee movement is debatable. The earliest textual references to Thug activity far predate European incursions into India, but The East India Company and later British Raj undoubtedly exaggerated the threat posed by the cult as an excuse to institute repressive social policies against the subcontinent’s poor and rural peoples.

Thug Babur himself first appears in 18th century sources, most of which are retellings of earlier stories. He is typically a boogeyman who induces potential recruits to join the Thugs by engineering great misfortune in their lives, appearing to them when they are at their weakest to offer a way out. He had the power to torment people in their dreams, destroying them psychologically before the final confrontation in the waking world.

The panoply of items are signature weapons of the Thuggee, who according to the various sources were required to kill without shedding blood, to kill with a ritual dagger, or to personally bury their victims.

THE SCARF OF BABUR
Description: A cream-yellow scarf, of the kind a man might wear on his head.
Power: Minor
Effect: If the user strangles someone to death with the rag, the killer can “resume” an interrupted dream where they left off next time they sleep.

THE DAGGER OF BABUR
Description: A battered katar type punch-dagger with an all metal handle and a thick iron point. The flat of the blade is embossed with an image of Kali trampling a disinterested Shiva.
Power: Major
Effect: This dagger deals no damage when thrust into a victim’s waking body, but kills their dream self. This prevents them from dreaming, and causes them to lose all stored magick charges any time they sleep.

THE MATTOCK OF BABUR
Description: An antique iron pick head with a new mango wood handle.
Power: Significant
Effect: The pick is big, heavy and sharp, dealing +9 wounds. Killing someone with it resurrects the user’s dream-self.

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