Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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How is it that Gyronna, a chaotic evil goddess that only has female clerics, has a monastery in the Greenbelt? Is there some backstory here that explains why a lawful order of (presumably) men ended up worshipping a chaotic evil goddess and building a monastery to her? Also, what would those men do to earn the wrath of Gyronna, who seems like a pretty nasty character to begin with, such that she would send zombies to kill them all?
Creative Director
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How is it that Gyronna, a chaotic evil goddess that only has female clerics, has a monastery in the Greenbelt? Is there some backstory here that explains why a lawful order of (presumably) men ended up worshipping a chaotic evil goddess and building a monastery to her? Also, what would those men do to earn the wrath of Gyronna, who seems like a pretty nasty character to begin with, such that she would send zombies to kill them all?
The word "monastery" isn't intended to imply "a building full of male Lawful Monks" in this case, but instead a remote religious site. "Nunnery" would have been a much better word to use, and we shouldn't have used the word "monk" in the description at all, since we forgot for a dreadful moment that "monk" in this game doesn't just mean a religious scholar, but a lawful kung fu fighter.
So replace "monastery" with "nunnery" and "monk" with "nun" and you're good to go. Or just read the words "monastery" and "monk" as not having anything to do with rules but simply synonyms for "religious building" and "religious follower."
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Still, from the description of gyronna, she doesn't sound like the type of diety to have dedicated religious orders, monk, nuns, or otherwise. Her faith seems to be mildly persecuted and her followers attempt to seed conflict in communities. It's hard to reconcile the description of her followers and portfolio with an organized religious institution.
It looks a lot like the adventure was written wih the idea of a monastery, and gynorra was the goddess chosen because she was the local flavor. I was curious if there was actually an explanation that is consistent with other material. I would expect gyronna to have a secret shrine with a handful of witches, not a fortified building on a (formerly) significant trade route.
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Creative Director
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Still, from the description of gyronna, she doesn't sound like the type of diety to have dedicated religious orders, monk, nuns, or otherwise. Her faith seems to be mildly persecuted and her followers attempt to seed conflict in communities. It's hard to reconcile the description of her followers and portfolio with an organized religious institution.
It looks a lot like the adventure was written wih the idea of a monastery, and gynorra was the goddess chosen because she was the local flavor. I was curious if there was actually an explanation that is consistent with other material. I would expect gyronna to have a secret shrine with a handful of witches, not a fortified building on a (formerly) significant trade route.
Gyronna's cult plays a role in a couple of the coming adventures, so making the site an old Gyronnan temple helps to foreshadow that. Changing the backstory so that it's a monastery dedicated to Calistria or Hanspur or ANY other deity that makes more sense to an individual GM won't disrupt anything coming later on in the adventure path, though.
Both Hanspur and Gyronna were kind of tacked on, stealth-style almost, to the campaign setting. As a result, I readily admit that I've had a little bit of trouble in assimilating them into Golarion's pantheon—the majority of the other deities come from my home-brew or Sean Reynolds, with whom I've had PLENTY of talks about the gods. Kingmaker was really the first time I started doing stuff with these two strange "oh yeah" deities... hopefully the way Gyronna works in "Rivers Run Red" and "Blood For Blood" will do her better justice.
All that said, it DOES spur a thought. What if this "monastery" of Gyronna followers were basically heretics? They did their thing, and eventually it got to be too much and Gyronna stepped in to put them down. Hence the zombies and the ruins. A closer reading of the text makes me think this was my original concept from the start, and that it kind of got lost in the shuffle when I realized that I didn't have that much room at all to expand on the site's history because Tim Hitchcock wrote too much awesome bandit personalty stuff! :-P
I believe the most appropriate term for this type of god would be either "convent" or "coven" instead of nunnary.
I believe the most appropriate term for this type of god would be either "convent" or "coven" instead of nunnary.
How about "abbey"?
How about "abbey"?
I could see that too. But I tend to think of a more "lawful" group when I think abbey. But that is my own prejudices.
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Still, from the description of gyronna, she doesn't sound like the type of diety to have dedicated religious orders, monk, nuns, or otherwise. Her faith seems to be mildly persecuted and her followers attempt to seed conflict in communities. It's hard to reconcile the description of her followers and portfolio with an organized religious institution.
It looks a lot like the adventure was written wih the idea of a monastery, and gynorra was the goddess chosen because she was the local flavor. I was curious if there was actually an explanation that is consistent with other material. I would expect gyronna to have a secret shrine with a handful of witches, not a fortified building on a (formerly) significant trade route.
Gyronna's cult plays a role in a couple of the coming adventures, so making the site an old Gyronnan temple helps to foreshadow that. Changing the backstory so that it's a monastery dedicated to Calistria or Hanspur or ANY other deity that makes more sense to an individual GM won't disrupt anything coming later on in the adventure path, though.
Both Hanspur and Gyronna were kind of tacked on, stealth-style almost, to the campaign setting. As a result, I readily admit that I've had a little bit of trouble in assimilating them into Golarion's pantheon—the majority of the other deities come from my home-brew or Sean Reynolds, with whom I've had PLENTY of talks about the gods. Kingmaker was really the first time I started doing stuff with these two strange "oh yeah" deities... hopefully the way Gyronna works in "Rivers Run Red" and "Blood For Blood" will do her better justice.
All that said, it DOES spur a thought. What if this "monastery" of Gyronna followers were basically heretics? They did their thing, and eventually it got to be too much and Gyronna stepped in to put them down. Hence the zombies and the ruins. A closer reading of the text makes me think this was my original concept from the start, and that it kind of got lost in the shuffle when I...
This is what I love about D&D (Pathfinder ;-)! Even when things aren't clear, we, as DMs, can make things work, and the game is so fluid. There's not a better game in the world.
Even the most evil and Chaotic baddies need to get together with their mates to boast, plot and scheme. I tend to think of clerics of Gyrona as the worst 'write up' that medieval / historic witches ever got. For me, Fort Stag was (at one time) a casual shrine-site crossed with a Coven meeting place - a bit like Shakespeare's Witches meeting on the Blasted Heath :)
Well before Gyrona got there - Fort Stag was (in my head) some sort of Motte and Bailey castle, that had grown into a tower on an artificially enhanced hill - and then abandoned along with any surrounding settlements. Which gives you a nice excuse to drop other small ancient dungeons into the setting if you want to. It certainly matches up with the history of the sign by the Kobold's Silver Mine and the back story for Erastil's shrine in the woods.
As part of their ceremonies, the Clerics of Gyrona animated the bodies of the soldiers who were buried in the mound, and probably danced naked and cavorted (at the very least!) with demons. If you get some of that imagery embedded into the PCs' minds now - it will come back nicely when the cultists show up during the Kingdom building phase and make that a more memorable encounter.