Cities of Greyhawk - Verbobonc Part 11 The Cult of Elemental Evil

Cties of Greyhawk - Verbobonc Part 11 The Cult of Elemental Evil

There is no greater evil, nor more insidious an organization in the Viscounty of Verbobonc than the Cult. It is, of course, centered at the Temple of Elemental Evil, but its tendrels spread wide and have found no greater purchase than the city of Verbobonc. The Temple is the pulsing heart of the Cult, it is that which creates nightmares and like a Black Hole it draws even light into itself and leaves only darkness behind. The Temple is the soul of evil, the brain that directs all its parts, but the City is the strong right hand. 

No matter how man times the Temple is brought down and its forces scattered or destroyed it will grow strong again until its center has been cleansed and all its limbs withered and uprooted. So far the Heart of Evil at the Temple remains and its true infestation of the City has never been eliminated or fully discovered.

The Cult of Elemental Evil has its hands in almost all crime and most business in the City of Verbobonc. Its members are not even aware of each other until it is necessary for them to draw on the strength of one another. Many involved with the Cult are unaware that they are dealing with anything except other criminals, some organized others singular or small gangs.

The Cult has one or two members within every guild, every oranization such as the Verbobonc Guard, the Cavalry, the Militia, the Lancers, even the Viscount's Council. 

Members of the Cult tend to be entire families, and marriage between cultists is encouraged with children raised in the Cult. From villages to towns to cities the Cult has corrupted one or two households and carfully grows in strength encouraging the young to become leaders, to become skilled and influential. The Cult thinks in terms of decades for plans to come to fruition all the while that the Temple draws in the monstrous and the completely corrupted.

The forces at the Temple tend to be impatient and strike too soon, while the Cult is part of plan that may take a century. Members of the Cult come to light when they are called upon to immediately aid the forces of servants of the Temple, but will never all come out the shadows; always some will be hidden and silently work on the long, long plan of evil domintion and corruption that has allowed it to survive for decades.