General: If you’ve been around the Desert state, particularly Salt Lake City, you cannot go far without hearing hushed warnings of the Danites.  Like urban bogymen, the Danites are said to be the secret army of the Mormons, an army to stand against the darkness of human nature while using that same darkness as their weapon of choice.  However, there is little real evidence of their existence.  Those who may have seen a Danite never speak of the incident or simply disappear before they can ever talk.  The Danite Zealot were conceived to protect the secrets of the Danite's and to be generals of the secert army though many Zealots, drunk with power and paranoia, unwittingly serve the darkness they once swore to fight. Though every Danite swears secrecy, the Zealot swears to "help" others keep it. Zealot not only investigates and eliminates the supernatural, but ensures no one ever knows about it, "what they don't know, we protect them from" is one of mottos Zealots live by.

Classes:   It takes a special person to become a Danite Zealot.  As expected many Zealots are fire and brimstone Blessed. But many Blessed often dislike some of the despicable acts of evil they must perform while in the service of the Danites and shy away from the notion of pushing their belief and morals beyond the breaking point.  Mavericks are well suited to become Zealots; they have all the necessary skills and are drawn to the ability to go about their business unnoticed, while Rowdies often are drawn to the Zealot's role of hired bullies for the chruch.  Hucksters, Braves and Shaman can never become Danite Zealots since they violate nearly every Mormon edict. No known Zealot is a Mad Scientist by trade, the madness that often accompanies them is a bad mix with secert influence of the Zealot. Though the Danites may consider otherwise for a scientist who prove their sanity as well as bring some nice toyes for the group. 

Races: As usual for Deadlands: humans only. In other world setting other races maybe allowed, but the Zealot is always associated with a strong and organized mono-species religion.

Relations: The Danite Zealot, except amongst the Danites themselves, are unknown to the rest of the world at large. When not in disguise people treat you as if you are your original class, a common street person may roam the night as a Zealot and no one would know it.  Otherwise stories about Zealot (and most Danite) encounters are chalked to paranoia, booze or “shadows in the night” as one news report put it.  Within the Mormon Church Danites for the most part are looked upon as a necessary evil, and have been given direct clearance to do any dirty work that needs to done.  The Zealot is regarded with even less tolerance, even Brigham Young thinks that the Zealots have gone to far in many cases.  But like a run away train, the Zealots have too much momentum to be stopped now by mere mortal ideals.
Hellstromme does know of the Danites, and has a mixed relationship with them that fluctuates from allies to enemies on monthly basis, a titter-tatter of power that could become unbalanced at any time.
Outside the state the Danites do not get along very well with their counter parts in the Agency, Texas Rangers, Pinkertons, or Guardian Angels. Conflicts involving violance do occur, but  

Note:  Zealots are not exclusive to the Danites; in fact nearly every organized religion has them, and are often associated with despicable acts that never seem to come to justice.

MARSHAL BE WARND: You may wish to restrict the Danite Zealot as a NPC villain class.

Racial: Human only, and never harrowed...to start

Alignment: Never lawful good or neutral good.

Attack/Save Bonus:  +6 base attack bonus

Traits/Abilities: Wisdom 15+, Cha 15+

Skills: Intimidate 6 ranks, Disguise 4 ranks, Knowledge (Occult, Religion) 4 ranks each.

Feats: Iron Will, The Stare, must NOT have or abandon the Renowned feat.

Initiation rites:  The character must be one of the faithful (at least year) at the chruch serve and serve as a member of the Danites for at least one full level and serve under another Zealot for this time, doing whatever he bids, which is always the dirtiest and most dangerous work. At the end of this period the Dantie under goes a secert ritual of bonding.

Other:   Your are bound for life to your particular religion or sect. In the case of the Danite's a splinter group of Mormons. Once you become a Zealot you may no longer take any other class. Old classes maybe increased normally, but you may not go down a new road in life. Also you must be willing to die for your religion and carry out orders that may require super human or demonic actions. There is also always some one above you in the ranks watching your every move, ready to pull the trigger if necessary.

Bluff, Concentration, Decipher Script, Demolitions, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Intimidate, Innuendo, Hide, Holdout, Knowledge (local, religion, occult), Listen, Move Silently, Ridicule, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot.

Weapons and Armour Proficiency:  Limited to what ever their previous class was able to use.

Zeal, level 1:  You may use the Zeal gift as featured in the Deadlands D20 source book in the magic section for the Blessed.

Strength of character:  Level 2, 5, and 9:  At these levels, you may add your wisdom modifier bonus to your total hit points as a one-time bonus.

Shroud, level 1: This power is associated with the black robe and hood they are given upon being fully indoctrinated.  When wearing the robe and hood the Zealot essentially can take 20 on any action that would normally require a disguise roll.  This includes close examination even by close friends or family.  Those who try to remove the shroud without the Zealot’s permission must make a Will save DC 10 + the Zealot's level.  If they fail the save, a creepy feeling comes over them, and they cannot bring themselves to try again for a full 12 hours.  Even if the Zealot dies with the shroud on it may only be removed by making the Willpower save above, which is exactly why so many Danites are buried in unmarked graves. 

Loosing a shroud is a big problem for the Zealot.  You must wait for at leat one full level from the time you lost the shroud before you can get another one, and when you do go for a new one you must receive atonement from another Zealot/Bless of equal or higher level then yourself.  OF course, unit you get your proper Shroud back you must use more conventional means of staying incognito and suffer the possibility of being found out. If the public finds out your identity as a Danite your “brothers” will come for you long before the lynch mob does.

Testimony, level 3 or 4:  IF you take Testimony at level 3 you must wait to level 4 to take Hold thy tongue, and vice versa

Activation/Saves: The Zealot makes an intimidation roll which is resisted by the target with a willpower save + 1/2 their level (or 1/2 number of hit dice).  If the target makes their saving throw against Testimony the power cannot be used on that subject for the rest of the session (or gaming week).

 Use:  Testimony requires at least 5 minutes to be preformed other wise it is simply a normal intimidation roll.  The Zealot is limited to using Testimony to a number of times per games session (week) equal to their Charisma Modifier bonus.

Duration:  Testimony allows the Zealot to ask ONE question for level of experience they have as a Zealot or about 1 minute per question.

Restrictions: You must be able to speak or write the same language as the victim.

Power:  Now the Real meat an potatoes.  Testimony allows the  Zealot to weed out nearly any information out of victim as well as keep the subject in a psychological stupor, in other words they are stunned and cannot willingly move.

The victim of testimony must answer in full truth the questions the Zealot is asking, if the subject tries to dodge or hesitates the Zealot immediately knows about.  Questions must be straight forward and one part questions  “where’s your boss and where is he hiding?” qualify as two questions not just one.  Details of the victim answer can vary wildly depending on what they know,  but are often based the DC you rolled (after you beat their resistance of course)

Hold thy Tongue, level 3 or 4: 

  Activation/Saves:  The Zealot makes an intimidation roll which is resisted by the target with a willpower save + 1/2 their level (or 1/2 number of hit dice).  If the target makes their saving throw against Hold thy Tongue, the power cannot be used on that subject for the rest of the session (gaming week).

Use:  Hold thy Tongue requires at least 5 minutes to be preformed other wise it is simply a normal intimidation roll.  The Zealot is limited to using Hold Thy Tongue to a number of times per game session (week) equal to their Charisma Modifier bonus.

Restrictions: You must be able to speak to the victim’s language for the power to affect them.

Power:  Hold thy tongue allows the Zealot to prevent the victim from telling anyone about an event they saw, or even remeberingseeing it.  The extent of memory that  is wiped varies depending on how well you rolled:

This memory loss remains until some event or power causes the memory to come to the surface.  The victim must save and automatically gets a bonus to save against any attempt to get him to remember the event.  The victim gets a bonus equal to half the Zealot’s total level (at the time of the mind wipe) to resist any attempt to bring the memory to the foreground.  Victims cannot refuse to make the roll or drop this bonus.  

Tanited Miracles, level 6: The Zealot may at this level pick miracles from the Blessed class available spells table that they may use.  They can choose a total number of spell levels equal their Wisdom modifier bonus + Charisma modifier bonus, and 2 zero-level spells count as single level one spell.  Example, lets say that your charisma and wisdom bonus modifier add up to 5.  You may than choose one level 5 spell, or one level 4 and one level 1 spell, or two level 2 spell and one level 1 spell, or 10 level zero spells, or any other combination as long as the total spell levels do not add up higher than your Wisdom + Charisma modifier bonus (5 in the example). 
 
You may cast one of these spells (up to once per day each) by simply making a Willpower DC 15+ (spell’s level x 2).  You use up the spell for the day regardless if the check fails or succeeds. 

 A critical failure (natural one) when rolling to cast your spells results in the Danite Zealot being unable to use tainted miracles for 12 hours, and temporary loses 1d6 Wisdom points. If your wisdom drops below 10 (including any other cumulative affects) your start to here voices (or just "the voice") beating down on you and criticize every move you make: "you are not worthy", "they are going to get you soon". In this case you are at -5 to any d20 (attacks, skills, saves, etc.) rolls until your Wisdom returns to 10 or above. 

Critical Successes (natural twenty) when rolling to cast your spell are cast as if using the Empower Spell, Extend Spell, or Enlarge Spell feats (pick only one to enhance the approiate spell that is being cast and only works with spells gained from the Danite Zealot class.)

For saving throws against your spells the key ability is Wisdom, and spells have a casting level equal to your character's total level.

The Danite Zealot may not take or use any feats to enhance their spells.

Self Sacrifice, level 7:  The Zealot can sacrifice a portion of their soul and body to enhance their ability to fight the forces of the “damned”.
You can directly take any amount of your own Hit Points and add it any damage you do, be it by melee or range weapon or even spell.  You must state you are going to use the power and how many hit points you are willing to sacrifice BEFORE making any rolls or actions.  Even if your attack fails, the Hit Points are expended.  
The extra damage is applied AFTER any critical damage modifiers. The Damage does stack with bonus damage from feats (including Deadeye), magical weapons or other sources.
You cannot kill yourself or go below one hit point using this power.  Hit points lost because of the sacrifice can be healed back normally. 

Example: Jonas the Zealot decides to sacrifice 10 hit points to try slaying a demon with his trusty pistol.  He shoots and hits, the pistol does 9 points of damage or 19 with Jonas’ sacrifice.  If the gun had rolled a critical hit (x2 damage) the total damage would have been 28.

Free Gift, level 8: You gain an additional free gift of choice from the Deadland's Blessed character class.

Justifiable Sins, level 10: At this level, the character can do no evil. Regardless of their own alignment, the character seems to be able to get away with actions that would normally be against societies or even their own normal moral conduct, as long as it can be justified in the context of your interpretation of your religion.  Often Zealots committing Justifiable Sins claim to hear the order from a much higher source than just their church elders.  
The character is allowed only ONE of these actions per session (or gaming week) without fear of consequences (physical, legal, mental or otherwise).  This special social ability, allows you to kill or torture someone in public without fear of being prosecuted, loosing ones current alignment or even being even known as the killer. 
You must use your fate chip to activate this power.

In affect everyone who saw or heard the action suffer a permanent case of Hold thy tongue. For one complete action (about 5 minutes) or event you are socially untouchable, and any knowledge that may come from it. 

This power CANNOT be used to counter attacks or damage, the Zealot MUST initiate the action for Justifiable Sin to work.  Trying to claim a justifiable sin after performing the action just does not work.  If the marshal has server problems with this power in trying to control it, just treat it as a Limited Wish spell.

 THE COST:  Each time you use Justifiable Sins; the fear level of the area goes up by one point and it costs you 1000 xp.  Just how far the range and the duration of the increase in the fear level depends the Marshal’s interpretation of how much weight the action may carry.
 

The Marshal may want to limit this powerful ability by limiting the actions the organization well allow you to do:

• Murder only of those who are of opposing alignments (good kills evil or vice versa) even without any provocation in the middle of a crowded street, bar or even in church.

• Walkout in the middle of your murder trial, leaving everyone trying to figure out why they are there.

• Cheat or flinch in a showdown or card game without suffering any of the negative modifiers or the stigma of being a coward or cheat

• Abducting, or making a certain person  “drop off the face of the earth", no evidence is ever found of the person disappering, except that they are no longer can be found.

• Destroying an entire town that may have been tainted with evil if it can be shown that they are indeed possessed, taken over, in a state of unholy existence or may soon suffer such a fate.

• Sacrificing the weak for the needs of the many (i.e. turning over an innocent guy to a lynch mob, so the bandits leave the rest of town alone; or organizing the mob yourself to curb public tensions)

• Forgive a justified crime:  You commit a crime normally punishable, such as horse stealing or bank robbery, but can escape justice: Needed it to go do god’s work.
• Literary making a deal with lesser evils to aid in the battle against even greater evils (ie deals with Hellstromme, Grimm or Kang).

• Walking down a cursed path without encounter, or garenteeing the encounter (ie the paths of the Hanging Judges or Headless Horseman, or completely avoiding a confrontation with Los Diablo)