Order of the Dry Bones
The Order of the Dry Bones is an order dedicated to the Destruction of Great Evils. They are the hands of a secret cabal dedicated to destroying Great Evils.
Long ago, The assassin's guild was hired to kill of The Evil One of Keldor(Litch or suitably powerful Evil thing). They sent three assassins on this apparent suicide mission. On their way to the Evil One's lair, they encountered a paladin. They had cleverly disguised themselves as normal adventurers, so he suspected nothing. He was questing to destroy 'Evil' so they helped steer him towards The Evil One's lair.
Of course the Paladin, with his forces of light and goodness defeated The Evil One of Keldor.
The three assassins were both amused and impressed. They found out he was very useful in killing certain targets (notably big, powerful, and EVIL). These three became his handlers, feeding him intel on various targets, and passing wealth -minus the guild fees- on to him. Discovering a very effective racket, the three assassins began to pose as 'agents of a secret order'. They began to recruit 'good' paladins and clerics (as well as others of stiff moral bent) to take on contracts that the guild could not handle.
Eventually, they created 'The Order of the Dry Bones'. It was good for recruitment and organization. The assassin's guild passes information to various Order Houses, who then assign the quests to various 'Good Groups'. The Contract Fees pay for the upkeep of The Order Houses and fill all the various member's Assassin Guild Fees.
Sometimes, when the Order wants to go kill a Great Evil, the assassins will shop around and find someone who is willing to pay for the contract upon the Great Evil. That way the Order continues to make money for the Guild.
None of these 'good' people really know who are their 'Aid in their battle against Evil' is.
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? Responses (8)
Little evils who destroy BIG EVILS. I like it.
Only in a game could something like this come up. Nobody could of thought this up, it is too darn strange.
Clever concept. I like it. It would also be a useful tool if the guild of assassins got in a feud with one of their rivals - most paladins would love to kill 'evil assassins', after all.
This is how the real world works. Someone comes up with a pragmatic solution to a problem that works. That idea just keeps rolling on, no matter how odd it really is.
Good idea, really.
And you can imagine that sometimes the EVIL guys may not be that evil... but only made to look so by the Order. What if some of those goody-good types discovers he made a mistake?
There should be no problem. They are assassins after all.
But I am sure there is sufficient offuscation in place to slow down an investigation until someone can plant the proper evidence to clear the order.
I think is a great idea! I'm planning on using it in my campaign (since it is oriented to alignment extremes which help frame this idea)
short sweet and easily implemented with some sadly painful parallels in history