The Lodge of the Red Dragon

A loosely-organised assortment of mostly clueless English Arthurian enthusiasts. The Dragon Lodge, as it's more commonly called, was founded in Bristol, England, in the early 1600s by a group of prominent gentlemen of the city who all shared an interest in the magick arts. They also shared a very vague belief in an unnatural force that manifest itself in the legends of ancient Britain and at certain mystic sites throughout the South West of England. For want of a better word, they decided to call this nebulous force a dragon. According to some Lodge members, it's called the Lloigor and Arthur's supposed kingdom of Logres is named after it, and others swear that it was the father of Merlin. One or two very clued-in members think it might be one of the greater entities from beyond the veil, but it's just as likely that the dragon doesn't exist at all.

To begin with, the Lodge existed to help its members protect themselves and each other from witch hunts, but it lost its original purpose as the fanaticism of the 17th Century abated over the following centuries. It eventually became little more than an esoteric social club for wealthy afficionadoes of mysticism in all of its different forms and flavours, and in the Romantic Era its members added a bit of secrecy and ritual mumbo-jumbo to its meetings to make them a bit more fun. Quite a bit of exotic debauchery might have gone on as well, but there was little if any real magick involved.

The Lodge changed its tone a bit over the next century or so and assumed a more scholarly character, so by the middle of the 20th Century most of its members were fairly serious intellectual types who looked upon things like the occult and the supernatural as nothing more than subjects for academic discussion and study. By this time, though, the Lodge had become something of a subject for study itself. People in the occult underground who had heard of the Lodge were starting to ask what had enabled it to survive for so long, and its lack of magickal activity only caused the clued-in types to assume that there really was some hard-core magick going on that it had somehow kept secret for more than three hundred years. This is what drew an English School cryptomancer called Sir Byron Powell to the Lodge, and although he was disappointed to discover that it didn't have any big secrets, it has certainly acquired a few since he became associated with it.

Outwardly, the Lodge doesn't appear to be much different from what it's always been. It has about thirty members scattered throughout the South of England, but most of them are wealthy, aging eccentrics with nothing more esoteric in their lives than various theories about the construction of Stonehenge and Merlin's parents. Hidden amongst them, however, is a small core of adepts whom Sir Byron has invited to join the Lodge, including two of his fellow English School Cryptomancers. Sir Byron has succeeded in making the Lodge quite an efficient, influential clued-in cabal, but by putting it on the map of the occult underground and giving it an agenda, he might just have created a big set of problems where there weren't any before. After all, a harmless social club and a bunch of solitary dukes with no connections to each other aren't nearly as likely to attract the same kind of hostile attention as a well organised magick cabal that's fishing for big, dirty secrets.

There are lots of possibilities for PC Lodge members. The Lodge can find uses for adepts and enforcers of every stripe, as long as they're trustworthy, and it doesn't make too many demands of its members. The PCs would be left alone most of the time, although they would be expected to offer help and support to fellow members in times of need, on the understanding that the favour would be fully repaid. The less organised things appear to be, the less reason there is for anyone to get too suspicious. Alternatively, PCs might belong to the clueless outer circle of the Lodge, which may include a few lesser mystics among its number. By and large, though, the PCs would owe their place in the Lodge to their money, social contacts and ability to promote a bit of open-mindedness in the local community.

Agenda. ·	Keep an eye on the local occult underground and try to exert a civilising influence. ·	Gain more members and supporters. Look out for 'mundane' members of the Lodge in case any of them turn out to be potential adepts. ·	Avoid entanglements with the rival Lodge of the Chapel Green. ·	Find out if any of that British mythology stuff has any truth in it after all. ·	Reap as many major charges as possible.

Pick One.

High Road: The Lodge is mainly interested in gathering knowledge, and keeping 'the Art' alive by finding and training apprentices. They might step in to stop disputes among other occultists from getting out of hand, but enlightenment is their main goal.

Middle Road: The Lodge doesn't care much for anyone who isn't useful to it in some way, although it makes a big deal of being the top cabal in town and demands to be deferred to as such.

Low Road: The Lodge wants power and will stop at nothing to get it. With the exception of certain people that it recognises as peers, everyone else is either a pawn to be shoved around or an enemy to be crushed.

Copyright Simon Foston, posted on the official UA website on July 18 2002