Listen closely in any Ash Waste drinking hole and you just might hear a tale of golden sails shimmering in the heat of the wastes. Of the Avaricious and her hedonistic crew of heretic Escher, fallen from the Emperor’s light. They say that the Avaricious sails the skies like the Terran warships of old sailed the sea. That her crew adorn themselves with jewels plucked from the corpses of the dead nobles who once called the Avaricious theirs.

They may even speak in hushed whispers of Lamash, Queen of Gold, their mysterious leader never seen without her golden mask. No mortal knows her face. Some claim that behind the mask is the face of a beautiful maiden. Others whisper that only sharp teeth and a forked tongue lay in wait. And the quietest voice of all, so quiet that only those on the edge of madness might hear it, tells the story of a cursed mask haunted by a demon of the Dark Prince. A story that the creature called Lamash is no mere mortal, but a corpse puppeted by something far darker than a cultist. 

The Cult of the Golden Mask serves Lamash without question. Their loyalty is earned through drugs, wealth, and debauchery. But like the most nefarious of cults, they have learned how to blend with Necromundian society. To the average ganger, a member of the cult may have an aura of wrongness to them, a certain madness in their eyes, but will otherwise appear normal. Those who know to look deeper will notice forked tongues, slit eyes, fangs, and other minor mutations that to the uninformed, could be mistaken for the typical cosmetic surgery the Escher are so fond of. Like all who worship the darker powers, there are some who succumb completely to mutation. These cultists are kept secluded and sedated on a slurry of mind numbing drugs until they are called to battle.

The cult trades, mingles, and allies with the Escher and other gangs, all to seduce new members to the fold. Lately, however, Lamash’s tactics have turned from seduction to savagery as her cult plunders the Ghost Sands, raiding trading convoys for goods and slaves. Those taken by the cult are rarely seen again, sold to the powers that lurk in the darkness of the underhives, or worse, sacrificed to the Dark Prince in a debauched ritual.