Agents of an Icon - Patchwork Friars

Though the Priestess works in mysterious ways, she's smart enough to have a good organization on the ground. It's nice to have clerics and paladins who can touch the powers of the divine, but those are specialized resources can't help everyone. Plenty of people have faith in the Goddess even if they don't have the whiz-bang ability to seal bleeding wounds with glowing hands. Those who have faith if not power join the Patchwork Friars.

The Friars get their name from their hand-sewn robes. Those who enter her service as friars show this by wearing coats of many colors. The tradition is the coat is made from a scrap of fabric from each family in the community, given to the Friar to stitch together during a period of meditation and sanctification. Richer parishes feature lavish coats stitched together by seamstresses. The Friar should be able to tell a story about each patch on the robe and use it to spin some homey wisdom about the Gods of Light.

The Priestess restricts a few colors. Besides the unfortunate associations with the Puritan, white is restricted to those followers of the Goddess who do have the touch of divine power. A Friar may incorporate white into a design if they are gifted with divine power or if they encounter someone who does. A white patch over a rip caused by a spear hit fighting along side a paladin is perfectly acceptable. Gold is frowned upon too, both for its connection to the Great Gold Wyrm and it's financial connotations.

Friar Dar serves as the Friar for the lands of Harker's Keep. He was one of the few to stand up to the excesses of Abbadon Company and only his faith in his Goddess kept him from bleeding out on a chapel's floor. Now he organizes the resistance efforts, while the Dragon Squires rub elbows with the big players in the area.

Agents of An Icon - Abbadon Company

For the next level of our campaign, the heroes face a piece of the Crusader's army. The army protects the area from the gnoll raiders that moved in to terrorize the locals, but the price for that protection is quickly becoming apparent. After they defeat Abbadon Company, the heroes will discover why the Crusader in this Age is known as The Puritan.

After the victory of First Triumph, the Puritan set about organizing the massive army he raised as a more permanent concern. Each company he organized was named about one of the portals he passed through to secure his new base. The companies are rotated throughout the lands of the Dragon Empire. In most cases, the companies away from the hellhole are tasked with securing resources to send back home. The commanders are given leeway in how they provide their resources. Funding the War of White is more important than the details of how it gets done.

Abbadon was the first of these rings, so the troops are new to the cause. The line between "believer in the destiny of human ascension" and "hiding behind a uniform to beat people up" is very thing. Most of these virtues, as the Crusader's soldiers are called, have seen no action against demons. Their cruelty to the non-human subjects of the barony is on display, though truth be told, their treatment of the humans outside the Puritan's company is not much better,

Industus Nazim Rojaspina leads Abbadon Company. The company arrived at the behest of Baron Jonn Harker. When Harker went missing, the troops moved into the keep to maintain order while they searched for the missing lord. Nazim vows that once Harker is found and the gnolls are finally defeated, the company will leave. He appreciates the sacrifices the barony makes in the meantime to keep the company fighting fit.

The Dragon Emperor is unhappy with large, organized military companies roaming the countryside, but the Puritan's actions at First Triumph kept his armies from being overrun by demons. Supplicants to the Throne were sent months ago and have yet to return. Anything that makes the Dragon Emperor uncomfortable, of course, makes the Three hiss with delight. Rumors of a Blue Dragon Sorceress have been enough to keep any organized resistance against Abbadon Company to a minimum.