A side quest based on the Star Trek: TOS episode The Return of the Archons.

A village completely charmed by a Cleric who took control a millenia ago. All the people walk around with beatific smiles on their faces and speak in glowing tones about how wonderful everything is. Only, there’s no art. They barely farm enough to get by. The village is in ragged disrepair, slipping toward ruin. The only building in pristine shape is the Cleric’s meeting hall where he gathers the faithful three times daily to harangue them with whatever his distant, and disapproving patron places on his heart that day. Though the PCs discover that the Cleric running the village hasn’t communed with his patron is over 900 years. At first, he and his patron were in sympatico. They were leading this village toward a new future. But when the Cleric realized that he could have all the power in the village and over these people’s lives for himself, he took it.

The Cleric has noviates who he has elevated and taken deeper control of. Some of the novitiates are his harem and the rest are his police force. They carry a piece of his original holy symbol that was once in the direct possession of his God. Through his noviates, he can directly charm any newcomers. He can also punish anyone who slips his control or who is immune to his control via those same noviates.