Cultist Brawler

Devoted followers of the Old Gods, drawn to your Estate either by visions or hearing rumors of the thing that sleeps within the deepest pit of the Darkest Dungeon. These heretical fanatics used to practice their dark and unholy religion in secret, hiding far away from the ever watchful eye of the Church of Light, but now that their members have grown in strength they dare walk out in open day light, performing dark rituals and human sacrifice in hope to fully awaken the thing below the manor and join it in glorious ascension.

Cultist Brawlers are the bodyguards of the Cultist Acolytes, protecting their female counterparts with their bladed gauntlet, cutting deep and bloody wounds in their victims and leaving their minds open for the Acolyte’s unholy incantations. Their reach is far, with members in each of the different areas of the Estate in search of new sacrifices, slaying those who dare to oppose them and offering their serves to the many unholy factions plaguing the land. In the Ruins they help the Necromancer reanimate more undead skeletons, in the Warrens they teach the Swine how to make more of themselves, in the Weald they help the Hag and her Coven of Witches to plant more the malevolent spores and in the Cove they bring new sacrifices for the Fishmen’s devilish rituals in exchange for their wealth, and their power.

Cultist Brawler and Cultist Acolyte are a formidable team to any novice adventuring party, but only a seasoned veteran knows how to deal with vile heretics…

Behavior
The Cultist Brawler is a Human type enemy that can be found in any area, usually with Cultist Acolytes and always on the first and second ranks. These mere mortals are not particularly tough nor hard-hitting, but they do have a good chance to inflict Bleed and a debuff that makes heroes more vulnerable to incoming Stress, priming the victim for the Acolytes' Stressful Incantations. They're also more dangerous to marked heroes, and the higher the difficulty, the more likely they are to take advantage of this.

Overall, these enemies are only the helping hand of their Acolyte allies and are not a major threat. Though frail compared to the more eldritch creatures, their health pool can still be quite an irritant as dispatching these foes usually requires the turns of two heroes, save for the killing blow of a critical strike.

If a quick kill isn't possible, there is merit in pushing them to the back ranks, forcing them to waste a turn on a much weaker attack getting back to the front lines, and possibly displacing a more fragile Acolyte to the front where your heroes' blades wait.