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Gray Maidens - an order of cold hearted killers, disciplened to enforce the will of Queen Ileosa. Strong, beatiful women snatched from their life in Korvosa. They are indoctranaited, brainwashed and scarred as they train their swordplay. They become monsters.
Only problem is, they kind of just popped into existance in the AP. It would seem to me that in a city sized like Korvosa, a sudden sharp increase in the number of kidnapped women would not go unnoticed. The watch had to know that something was off. And where do the Grey Maidnes live? How come no one ever asks that question? How about the friends and family of the women who were forced into the Gray Maidens? How come non of them seeks out their enlisted wives and daughters and sisters?
Seems as if the Grey Maiden sort of exist in a vacum paralel to Korvosa, instead of Korvosa itself. I don't think I can ran that by my PCs without them asking some questions I don't have the answears to.
Any ideas on this subject? any obvious way to solve it I am missing? One thing I can think of is having the recruites for the Gray Maidens be slaves bought from Cheliax instead of Korvosan women - perhaps with the aid of the church of Asmodeus, or even the Arkonas. That does nullify some of the tragedy in the story of the Gray Maidens though.
This is a valid question, one I wondered about as well. So I'm planning on modifying that for my campaign:
- The creation of the Gray Maidens will date back to five years prior to the campaign. I'll be playing a prelude adventure in which the PCs are youngsters in Lamm's Lambs, set against the background of Ileosa's arrival in the city. The Korvosan Watch will offer the new queen a personal security force of ten "Gray Maidens" as a wedding gift. One of them is Sabina Merrin.
- After the death of her husband Ileosa will boost the number of Gray Maidens by enlisting over 50 female Korvosan Guards. One of them will actually be a former 'fellow lamb', and the PCs will even recommend her to the queen, so she can join the Maidens.
- Ileosa will also hire about 150 female warriors from Cheliax, so by the end of the first adventure, there will be 200+ Gray Maidens.
- At the start of the fourth adventure, Ileosa will commission all female Korvosans between the ages of 16 and 21 to join the Gray Maidens. These girls will be bled to death and their blood will be used to create bloodclones. This is a complicated procedure in which devil and human blood are mixed to create 'bloodclone' simulacri of the dead girls. These clones are infused with the fighting capacities of a 'model', the captured field marshal Cressida Kroft. This process was engineered by the transmutation specialist from the Acadamae (with devilish assistance) and takes place in the temple of Asmodeus. By the time the PCs return to the city this will boost Maiden ranks by at least 300. The advantage of these Gray Maiden bloodclones is that they are actually higher level fighters, which will give the PCs a bigger challenge when confronting them.
These Gray Maidens will be stationed at different posts, including the Castle, the Longacre building and Citadel Volshyenek.
I hope this helps.
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MrVergee, cool idea with the prelude with the PCs as children - should have thought of that myself. Too late for my campaign, I fear.
About the rest though, I'm not so sure. How could the Gray Maidens exist without Ileosa? It is an evil organization and it is centred around loyalty to her. It is 100% female because she wanted to make sure no woman is as good looking as her. It is Ileosa-centric.
There is a short web-story on here called Shattered Steel. It is about a Grey Maiden after the death of Ileosa. Could be worth reading.
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In my campaign (reasonably heavily modified) :
Where they come from
All of the Grey Maidens are females of "good" blood. All appear to be either Chelaxian or Taldan. All are at least fairly attractive in appearance.
The officers and NCOs come from female fighter sorts either recruited from the Guard, Sable marines, Order of the Nail, personal bodyguards, or Cheliax. All of the NCOs are at least attractive and all officers are at least beautiful.
The rank and file come almost entirely from former concubines of the King, criminals arrested in various sweeps, and beautiful low life women kidnapped.
The next crop is coming from various people being
arrested from things like brothels and the like but these are still being trained/brain washed.
How are they equipped
Almost all of it has been imported from Cheliax. That is where all the funds have been going.
Locations
The Grey Maidens are all located in Castle Korvosa. Various outbuildings have been created at the top (so, the map isn't quite right). They're also packed in rather more realistically than in most D&D worlds (ie, look at real world forts).
AP states Vast majority came from existing military (Sable company, guard and order of the nail) so not so many were abducted so much as they were assumed from other organizations.
Curse of the Lady's Light, the latest book in the Shattered Star AP has an article about the Grey Maidens, including how they were recruited.
In my campaign the Grey Maiden's had three barracks locations. Longacre Prison was were new recruits were indoctrinated, low-level maidens were at the hospice of the blessed maiden, long acre prison, and the castle proper and then take over the Sable Company's old barracks when they are disbanded. As the story unfolded, and the maidens grew and the guard shrank they eventually take over the Guards's quarters displacing the last remanents of the Korvosan guard.