I'd like some suggestions on secret societies for The Enemy Within. Each of the major NPCs have a great potential to be involved, and the conspiracy would be great for this sort of thing from Lure of Power.

Anyways, I've got 4 player characters:

Fop (who is associated loosely with Illuminary Mauer)

Gambler (criminal; associated with Marcus)

Pistolier (associated with Clothhilde and the Graf)

Priest of MOrr, associated with Clothhilde. For him I'm thinking the Doorkeepers subcult of Morr

Thoughts?

jh

Hi Jay,

May not link in with your current crop of PCs (though mortality rates may make this more relevent in the future….), but I've been doing some work on Luminary Mauer being part of the cult of Unity (society of wizards that practise casting from outside of their order).

Mauers backround supports the idea that he may be slightly radical in his views on the practise of magick (his relationship with Oppenheimer), and his family history supports a sympathy with the plight of witches. I have put together some work on cult members, initiation and cult communications procedures (eg, all members at meetings wear masks and have assumed aliases to avoid compromising the whole cell should one get captured by those closed minded witch hunters!). I am portraying them as a group of philosophers and scientists with a genuine desire to bring the Empire into a new age of magical enlightenment. I am also going to be running TEW with Katrina Mauer working as part of a society of witches looking to find and protect other witches, with more normal men and women sympathisers (like a schindler kinda thing) supporting the group. Konrad and Katrina meet carefully to act as liaisons between the two, as both feel they can learn from each other. I'm going to run it that they havent seen each other for a couple of years before TEW.

I am likely running for a witch and a wizard of dubious ambition so granted this fits more with this type of character, but I can send you the details when I have finished them if you like?

Agreed that Mauer is a logical "interested in exploring magic beyond the strictures of the Colleges" character. At a minimum, I have made him Conspiracy participant to that extent (also because he finds the rush to judgment style and authority granted Sigmarite order grating - I give the Conspiracy a veneer of "seeking Verenan justice"). The Unity is a good fit, though I don't know if they would trust him in my version - I've made him regarded as being a bit loopy, a known "skaven believer" which makes him sort of the X-Files Mulder type figure in the Colleges ( oh Mauer, seeing whiskers and cheese behind every shadowy presence ) - in Conspiracy terms one of his frustrations with the Empire's status quo is its refusal to see the clear and present danger lurking beneath every city.

I've made the Black Cowl's "criminal empire" also a Bootstrappers Guild organization. Though the Space 2 benefit is the Intimidating Presence (gain fortune die on Intimidation) , because when not terrorizing people into joining the 'man in the black cowl' actually promises advancement, the chance to rise up out of the brass tier and reinvent oneself etc. Apart from fluff, this fits in with the Conspiracy's general attitudes of "letting quality rise and not be constrained by the dead hand of the Imperial social structure, Sigmar's fanaticism and the constraining rules Teclis set down for those he regarded as inferiors".

The Young Blades dueling society of Nuln is also involved, the noble Pistolier in my campaign is part of it (resigned commission to avoid a duel related scandal explaining him being at loose ends). I intend them to have a Slaaneshi spin and link to later appearance of Jade Sceptre

The Sun Society is really the "outer layer" of another group. Interested in "true history" (Erhwig von Dankien "Chariots of the Frogs" stuff, though I don't see the true old ones as Slaanish at all, more Yithian [which is to say body jumpers without true form anymore]). Getting evidence of this (the gold plaque inscription etc.) was actually the real interest in the Southlands Expedition .