Secret Societies (CBN)

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Given the ability to recruit students, henchmen, extraplanar allies, and undead minions, an ambitious necromancer could amass a sizable army of underlings, given enough time and determination. Some wizards, having gone mad with their quest for power or lacking enough ambition to rise beyond the status of a petty tyrant, are content to remain in relative seclusion, basking in the glory of their isolated dictatorship.
Other necromancers are of more modest ambitions. They have absolutely no interest in rulership at all and are merely content to ignore the entire time-consuming business of raising followers and minions. Simply put, they are interested only in tending to their quiet research.
Finally, some wizards join secret societies—and some join as many as they can.
A secret society provides training, support, information, and contact with like-minded allies for not only wizards, but priests as well. The secret society takes the individual wizard or priest, along with his or her entire private army of followers, and makes them part of a larger necromantic community, each of the members of which are dedicated to some mysterious goal greater than any of them could aspire to singly.
Most campaign worlds have at least a few secret societies. In the Spelljammer multiverse, the evil Tenth Pit opposes the honest Pragmatic Order of Thought; in the Realms, the wicked Zhentarim are balanced by the honest Harpers; Dark Sun has its rebellious Veiled Alliance; the Land of Fate has the incendiary Brotherhood of the True Flame. These covert Orders—some established for good, others for evil—help flesh out a campaign world, making it more realistic, exciting, dangerous, and complicated, all at the same time. Before we explore a few secret societies with necromantic interests, it will be helpful to review some of the basic principles on which these orders are founded.
Every secret society shares three common attributes. First, a secret society convinces its members that they are members of a powerful elite. Second, each society contains arcane rites, code words, recognition signals, and hidden chapter houses to maintain an aura of mystique and secrecy. Third, secret societies are founded for a concrete and specific goal. Once the DM understands these three general characteristics, it will be easier to create more realistic and compelling secret societies for the campaign.
Privileges of Membership. Those who join a secret society immediately gain the support of a wide body of colleagues. These friends will provide their new member with arcane training, financial resources, even magical items. Society chapter houses may contain huge reservoirs of knowledge, monetary wealth, and caches of arcane devices for use by members of their Order. A necromancer joining a secret society may gain access to the Order's huge spell books to augment his or her own personal power.
A priest, on the other hand, gains the spiritual support and guidance of other members of his or her own religion. He or she may also gain access to new spells and devices which can only be fabricated or granted by members of the religious Order.
Finally, there are the social intangibles of belonging to such an organization. These sorts of things may not mean much in terms of strictly interpreted game statistics, but they are still fundamental motivators of human behavior. Membership in a secret society is considered a privilege by those who belong to it, and even its evil subscribers truly feel a sense of fellowship and camaraderie with their peers. The most depraved necromancer may still crave to be welcomed and appreciated by a few fellows who understand his or her problems and are interested in helping resolve them. Members of a secret society quickly come to believe that they belong to a privileged community of the elite.
Rites of Passage. As their very name implies, a secret society is a covert organization whose existence, location, purpose, and agenda must all be kept strictly hidden from the mainstream civilization. This is usually done to protect the society and its members from its enemies (either civilization as a whole, a reigning government, or an opposing secret society). Incidentally, this intense aura of secrecy helps reinforce the sense of mystique, privilege, and all the other social intangibles associated with the Order as well.
Every secret society contains a set of codes, recognition signals, and an established rite of passage that ensures its continued secrecy and the loyalty (fanaticism) of its members. Potential new converts are not immediately welcomed into a secret society. There are numerous tests and secret rituals that must be performed in order to become a member. By performing these rites (however abominable), an aspiring member gradually “proves his worthiness” to the Order and is finally allowed admittance as an initiate.
The Goal. Once indoctrinated, an initiate is usually assigned one or more members of the Order to help complete the training (brainwashing). Even good-aligned societies attempt to mold the minds of their members to establish some sense of conformity and provide motivation to work for a common goal of extraordinary importance. This brainwashing can be accelerated, if need be, with mind-influencing magic and medicines, but it can just as easily be performed by a highly charismatic individual with a thorough understanding of human nature.
A society's true goal is almost never revealed to its low-ranking members. As they “prove their worthiness” in a sequence of increasingly difficult tests, small pieces of a much larger puzzle are gradually revealed to them as they rise in the ranks of membership. Finally, only after their unswerving loyalty to the Order has been proven by countless tests, the true hidden purpose of the organization will be revealed to them, like a religious epiphany.
A covert Order maintains a cult of secrecy even within its own hierarchical organization. Only the highest members realize its true agenda. Although a secret society can exist for a good or noble purpose, their methods of indoctrination and brainwashing are easily twisted and can become a powerful tool of evil. They are thus ideal tools for both corrupt necromancers and fanatical death priests.
For the remainder of this chapter, we present a few necromantic secret societies that the DM may care to transplant into a campaign. These organizations can serve as shady employers and questionable contacts for information, but more likely, they will serve as villains or long-term enemies. Feel free to modify or embellish any of the following descriptions to suit the particulars and religious pantheons of the campaign.
* The Cult of Worms
* The Scabrous Society
* The Cult of Pain
* The Anatomical Academy