Clerics, priests, and holy officers willing to join adventuring parties are, quite literally, cut from a different cloth than their brethren. In the Grand Duchy, most who heed a calling to a religious vocation take comfort and shelter within a tight-knit community. Even those who do good works in the broader community return each evening to a monastic enclave or an ecclesiastical bureaucracy to which they belong. Not so those who proffer their services to the adventuring set. In truth, they might not be the best exemplars of their particular faith, being prone to nonconformity and wanderlust.
Outlying parishes are staffed with such clerics. With the exception of novices, who are โpaying their dues,โ malcontents and free spirits fill remote offices because they are being punished for committing a series of infractions. So it is from among a pool of such clerics that adventuring parties must dip when they are recruiting healers or purveyors of mystic wisdom for their next expedition. Who else but those barely hanging onto a place in the clerical offices would be willing to risk what little standing they have and venture forth with such fortune-seekers? Here is a sampling of some who might find their calling ministering to such a band.
Penelope Plymouth, female dwarven priestess of Volund
Volund values priests who are โtentmakers,โ those who practice a tradeโusually in metalsmithing, blacksmithing or stoneworkโin addition to their priestly duties. The faith also encourages its clergy to marry and have children, โforging linksโ around strong families within a community.
On both counts, Penelope has lapsed. Once a promising metalworker, her enthusiasm for the craft flagged. Her cold furnace also was reflected in an arranged marriage that was loveless and resolved by an annulment.
Dour and disinclined to practice her trade, Penelope was assigned to minister to an enclave of migrant quarry workers living and working in a hamlet in the Meglinsberg diocese. The workersโ presence is seasonal, however, leaving Penelope with months of idleness.
Yet, Volund has not given up trying to stoke the ember within the heart of the once-promising priest. She still has a good heart and a willingness to help others. She just needs a cause to rekindle her courage.
Tok Ravanika, male human acolyte of Rava
After a multitude of infractions, most falling under the category of โunindustriousness,โ Tok was banished from the Zobeck temple and sent to Hirschberg in hopes the change in locale would reform his behavior.
Tokโs knack for innovation has chafed under the rigid watch of his timekeeper overlords. He has on his record several reprimands for asserting that inspiration cannot, and should not, be put on a timetable. His open criticism, such as questioning the legitimacy of the clockwork oracleโs prophecies, has invited the condemnation of several senior priests.
Yet, he also has refused to slide over to his faithโs more creative side, the sect that venerates Ravaโs mask as Ariadne. The weaver allows a greater allowance for creativity of expression, but no less a requirement of toil.
None of this has lessened Tokโs capacity for mechanical ingenuity and critical thinking. He will continue to question his faithโs central teachings, electing to go on adventuring forays as a means of funding the publication of opposition tracts. It is perhaps ironic, then, that the powers in the church do not acknowledge that Tokโs piercing intellect is exactly the kind of a virtue that is usually venerated.
Sister Angie Sunflower
In Hecateโs covens and secret orders of dark-veiled devotees of the moon goddess, they donโt quite know what to make of their โnighttime flower,โ the brightly clad and cheerful Angie Sunshine. Mostly they just roll their eyes and regard her with mistrust. More than one wonders if she really isnโt a priestess of Lada within their midst.
She loves rainbows, unicorns, bright colors, and flouncy dresses. So bubbly and effervescent her personality, she is kept at armโs length. But despite being giddy and cheerful, her humor is not without its dark streak. Itโs her wicked mood swings and capacity for capricious violence that gives her the personality of a mischievousโeven deadlyโharlequin and makes her a perfect follower of the Lady of Darkness.
This dichotomy, however, usually isnโt apparent to adventurers when they recruit her. Itโs not until she goes underground, into the sphere of darkness, that unpredictableโperhaps even insaneโaspects of her personality surface. Once a battle is over and they find her holding up a bloody wooden truncheon after using it to beat a monster to pulp or a garrote dripping in ichor will they realize that their โhealerโ is less interested in casting cures than exemplifying her mistressโs calling.