Help me Build a Necromancer Cult (Enderia Players No Touchies!)

[Remathilis]

Ok, My PCs (Monk, 2 Clerics, Rogue, Ranger, Bard, and a Treant 1HD) are going to go against a necromancer cult. However, I'm looking for some new, fresh ideas besides "lich worshipping death god". I'm kinda envisioning something akin to the Hellfire Club of England (rich leaders and men of influence that happen to meet in dank dungeons and practice satanism).

The groups motives are vague: to rule a nation and make it a haven for evil.

Here is what I ask of you:

* Some great leaders and minions, from the evil mastermind to the lower lackeys. Stats are a bonus!
* Devious Plots and Methods of Spreading Terror.
* Hideouts and meeting places.
* Possible sub-motives or detailed ideas.
* Defenses against pesky heroes.
* Possible Allies, like local orc tribes

(a bit of background: Imagine a pretty normal Core Style World. The nation the PCs are in is ruled by an aging king, but there is unrest among his feudal lords. Anything from Wizard's is fair game (BoVD, Libris Mortis) and when in doubt, use the core rules (planes and deities) and I can convert them as needed.

Looking for ways to freak out my players

Thanks

 

[shilsen]

How about throwing the players/PCs by playing on their knowledge of the cliches? Have the cult/club consist of rich, powerful people with free time on their hands, who think that undead are really, really cool, but are too fearful to actually change themselves into or even interact with undead. They just dress and try to act like powerful undead.

Have the PCs meet a tall, thin, pale nobleman who dresses in Victorian clothing, doesn't eat solid food, keeps drinking a thick red beverage, has a shambling hunchbacked servant called Igor, won't go out before dark, won't go into buildings without being invited, invites people into his own home by saying "Enter freely, and of your own will" (will help if your players catch Stoker references), etc. It'll really freak them out when they meet him one day walking around in broad sunlight, just because he has to be.

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

Shilsen, I think, has a nice idea there. Let there be a few people who use minor magiks and other skills to appear as undead - heck, I say do it purposefully. They might even have access to some necromatic spells and such, but are not undead themselves.

The point: to trick any adventurers into believing they are undead so they are ill prepared. Anti-undead spells and tactics only work effectively against undead. Suddenly, those spells are quite as useful and your baddies become much tougher.

Of course, that might not be what you are looking for. One idea might be for there to actually be two undead forces at play. One might be a more traditional sect or your Hellfire club. The other is a group allied with Orcus whose plans are to overthrow the other group and pick up the pieces of power...there might secretly be an undead street war going on within the graveyard and in the sewers.

Though it might be a bit more powerful then your PC's (since you mention a 1HD Treant), you might consider glancing over the latter pages of PirateCat's Story Hour...there are actually likeable and respectable undead...that was damn sneaky.

 

[TheGemini]

Your request is missing something vital if you're going to use the word CULT. You need RITUALS.

The necromancers in my world follow mercenaries and armies to the battlefield. When the battle is over, they start creating all the undead. There's a powerful ritual that takes place on the battlefield and all the armies know not to go back after a battle. If you don't get your dead out quickly, you don't get them at all. It makes interesting plot hooks, etc.

Anyway, you need rituals that make sense for the cult, inspire fear and awe in others, and yield something necromantically important -- like undead or unholy ground or whatever.

 

[Nightfall]

Personally I like the idea of a rival/splint group of undeath cults.

Let's try it like this:

The Lord of the Dead (insert a True Neutral one please!), has been been a defunct god up until recently. One Gilbert(French pronouncation), Rothbold, finds out his great grandfather was a high priest of this forgotten god. Now he believes, thanks to his grandfather's wise investments, it is time to return the favor. So he and a bunch of his snobbish aristocratic friends start their own "cult." The former rites of the God of the Dead believe that even undead (albeit non-intelligent undead), are just an extension of entropy and decay that exist through the world. That in the end, even the power of negative energy will dissapate and come back into the God of the Dead. So they hire out a local necromancer to practice and do parlor tricks, speak with the dead, animate a few skeletons here and there. On the side, they also have a small band of adventures/loyal servants start taking a few grafts to improve their service. This also requires them to occasionally go on monster hunts. Which is how the PCS might find out about them.

What ISN'T know is the fact Orcus hears about this. Orcus doesn't LIKE people taking over his property. So he decides to cause mischief and also turn the cult into his own.

First he will try to discreit them, having some of their undead, inexplicably go nuts and start to randomly kill people. He will also have a few of his humaniod servants start to ambush local merchants that are financed by these aristcrats and/or adventuring parties.

Internally he will imploy a very powerful vampire lord as a new recruit. (I'd prefer someone akin to Lestat in form and taste...but go as you see fit here)

The Vampire lord starts his own secrective cult, and begins to have his spawn ready themselves to start an uprising.

Howse that?

 

[Remathilis]

Some Excellent ideas here.

BUMP

 

[GlassJaw]

What about a necromantic cult that combines its magic/power with technology? I just Steam & Steel from EN Publishing (awesome by the way) and I love the Necromek concept. Basically it's steamtech fueled by souls and corpses and blood. Nasty stuff.

The players expect to go up against typical undead minions but instead they get these machines fueled by the dead!

There are also rules on undead machines (steamwork lich) and prosthetics. You could have traditional undead with all sorts of weird mechanical parts and arms and stuff. You could even check out Chaositech by Malhavoc (my two favorite books right now, can't you tell?) for an even higher level of nastiness.

 

[Nightfall]

Groo Barnish is a rare breed of orc.

His grandfather was originally the tribe's shaman and warband leader. Unfortunately grandpa was short sighted and dumb. That's why he never saw the knife in his back from his own kid. Groo on the other hand saw that life was too short and dangerous. So he called on the dark nameless forces of multiverse to find a way to give him life.

That's when Orcus answered. Groo was granted the "gift" of undeath, in exchange for the slaughter of all his bloodline. Groo didn't mind since he hated his family anyway.

Now he's both warchief and leader of this growing tribe of orcs and undead. (They capture humans, turn them into zombies for cannon fodder.)

How'se that for a minor Orcus follower?

 

[DaveStebbins]

Looking for ways to freak out my players

OK, this is about as far as possible from what you're looking for, but it really freaked out MY players, so I'll share.

It seemed like a fairly standard under-city sewer crawl, looking for some sort of maguffin. They met rats, were-rats and other standard stuff. They stumbled onto the lair of some sort of cult. They interrupted the ceremony...

I described the scene of the large room with the grotesque paintings of alien beings on the walls that just... weren't... right. I described the raised lip of a well or pit with a struggling woman tied upon it. I described the cult members chanting discordant notes about the room and the cult leader preparing the sacrificial dagger not far from the soon-to-be sacrifice.

The characters sprang into action. They were excited at having someone to save, as they had to decide between immediate destruction or saving the innocent; and they had to be careful not to cast area spells which would harm her. The fighter and the monk sprang to pull the bound woman out of harm's way while the rest of the party dealt with the cult members.

Things were going well and I could tell the players were very proud of how well they were handling things. Then I told them about the cult leader springing onto the lip of the well and shouting that things had gone too far to stop, that there HAD to be a sacrifice. So he plunged the sacrificial dagger into his own chest and toppled into the pit.

That's when the players got a little freaked out. While I paused for a moment, they mentioned the paintings and the un-music to each other. When I described the shlupping, slithering noises beginning to come from the pit as they finished off the last of the cult members, the players began to shift uncomfortably in their seats. When I described the tentacles which emerged from the pit, half of the players had their characters RUN from the room. It wasn't until they realized that others had stayed behind to fight that they came back. Even then, they spent the whole fight with the demon-tentacles ready to run the moment things seemed like they might turn.

To see vetran players that uncomfortable and ready to have their characters scream like little girls and run, well it just warmed the corners of my Evil DM heart.

Don't know if you can make any use of it, but I enjoyed running it. Heck, even just telling the story again has put a big grin on my face.

-Dave

 

[Hand of Evil]

The Sisters of the Moon - They come in the night and provide healing but the price is blood. The sisters are a vampire cults but worship the gods of both life and death, they will do either two things, 1) provide healing at the request of someone, price is blood for the healing 2) lead the dying to death's gate, basicly draining the life from the person and then releasing the spirit to the afterlife. The dark side: The sisters take in orphans that go through a right of passage between the age of 18 and 25, girls are made into vampires IF they pass the test if not they feed the rest. The males become undead guards or assassians for the cult.