The Shining Man
The Cult of the Sun Lion were led by an individual known as "The Shining Man", who seemed to literally glow with an inner light. A tall, bearded man swathed in white robes, he held himself aloof from the cult except when leading cult ceremonies. He lived inside a ravine behind the cult's encampment, and any who ventured down the ravine never returned.
The Shining Man would demonstrate his power by summoning a sun-lion, a creature resembling a large lion but with its head replaced by the head, torso and arms of a hugely muscled lion-like human, much like a leonine centaur. The sun-lion shone with an inner light, and had great powers related to light, flame and illusion. None of the cult realised that the lamia was itself the Shining Man, using its power of illusion to appear human.
The cult made its headquarters a few miles south of Waset outside a ravine in the Dragon's Tooth Mountains. The headquarters were a huge and sumptuous white silk pavilion, with ornate golden embroidery in patterns across it, including a huge rendition of the cult symbol visible from overhead. The interior was filled with expensive and tasteful furnishings, and was lit with sparkling light as if by a spinning mirror. Outside, enormous subterranean creatures patrolled beneath the sand in front of it. Behind the tent, a pair of pools straddled a pathway into a grove of grapevines.
The entire area was actually an enormous permanent illusion maintained by the Shining Man. The encampment was actually located in the ruins of an ancient temple complex dedicated to the dark god Set, with an altar before a statue of his sacred animal, the winged hooded cobra.
The lamia was using the cult to search for a lost secret. When he discovered that Apsia Fairkettle, a retired halfling adventurer, had a map to its location, he sent his minions to abduct Apsia and her grandchildren so he could forcibly extract the knowledge from her.
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