Red Bone Monastery

Steel Realms

History

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Common

The monastery was once part of the green church, dedicated to Darupet, founded in CY 8614. Founded by a devotee of the beast-god Darupet named Deymar. He was a warrior-priest who had hunted and and fought abominations in the eyes of his god. So many were his wounds, that his joints literally clicked as he walked, and his skin creaked as it stretched.

Deymar (the founder) was drawn to the area by his god he said, and its lack of monstrous inhabitants. As he reached old age, he sought peace from his pursuit of evil, a place where all things natural flourished. The rising sun lead him up the slope of Tiger Ridge. He climbed above the Postdam Falls into the crags on the south end of the ridge. High up was a rich and fertile valley where he decided to take the sum he had amassed and build his legacy – the Red Bone Monastery.

In CY 8991, a traveler came who was a druid-priest of the beasts within the green Church – an old traveler who was weak and weary and at the end of her days. She was looking for hospice care. She was, in fact, a follower of the rat god Irrigi. For years she had tended to the end of those who died in the ditches and alleys of big cities. In her last days, she sought refuge in the remote places – away from such memories. It was her influence that turned the monastery from a training center into one of both training and hospice. It came to offer hospice to all – no questions asked. Even solitary halflings from Loamwold would be welcome and well cared for in one of its many south facing hospice rooms where the sun would shine on them. The local town, villages and hamlets all left food and offerings of linen, livestock and the like to keep the place running as the orchards were taken over by them and were a great source of local income.

The place is said to offer up the passing of a patient in the manner they prefer – but most who are diseased are burned. Burial is communal, and there are platforms for leaving the dead exposed – to be scoured of their flesh or picked clean by nature.

Uncommon

Deymar (the founder) found peace in the cliffs high above Krellian, a place were no monsters had ever prowled and a fresh breeze from the south cleared his head. The monastery’s mission, as undertaken by Deymar, was to train others like him to fight monstrous beasts that was his calling. He displayed the collection of skeletal souvenirs from his hunting days as a way of generating income (tourists) and attracting others – this is the source of the name Red Bone. He died in CY 8703 without much success in the later and the monastery went to his faith, which instead planted massive orchards and it became a refuge and cloister for the followers of Gaia and the green church in general. It brought business and travelers through Krellian, and became the primary cloistery for the Green Church for 30 miles in all directions.

No one sees the inhabitants – the door only open after the sun sets, and they take any who are left for them, as long as there is no one around to deal with directly. This avoids the temptation to ask questions and risk not taking in even the worst cases.

Rare

Secret

Unfortunately, Carlyn brought with her a wasting disease in CY 8991; She had taken so many diseases upon herself that as her magic waned, she could not stop the myriad sicknesses from multiplying and spreading. Even with the full divine powers of the entire monastery, it gradually succumbed to the pestilence that she had brought. Everyone was soon infected and the monastery closed its doors. It took a long time for all its inhabitants to die, and in that time it became a refuge for the dying. In their haze, all that remained of its inhabitants found solace and purpose in easing the suffering (and in almost all cases thereby prolonging it) of any who would come or be left – no questions asked.

The inhabitants, over 200 years have developed their own rites and are an actual cult of Irrigi (Numinous Rat great spirit), the rat god. This has thrilled The Pestilent One to no end. Not all the victims are burned, they are eaten by rats when they pass. There is only enough wood, coal, and peat to fuel a few fires in the monastery – most go to keeping the place warm. The god of rats itself has manifest at the monastery repeatedly and kept a watchful eye on one of the few places his followers practice openly. This created a thin border with the Feywild, drawing creatures from there sometimes who wish to peer upon the lands beyond their borders.

Realm's Aptitude Powers: Divine, Occult, and Psychic