| Title | Church of the Dragon |
|---|---|
| Age | >250 years |
| Leadership | Mother Scalehearth, Clarinet |
| Location | Canal District, Kalashport |
| Status | Active |
Overview
The Church of the Dragon is a major faction and religious organization in the Faction Campaign. Established well over 250 years ago, its current mission is to uncover the lost history of the Canal District's Elemental Guardian. It worships equally the Elemental Guardian, which it believes to have taken the form of a storm dragon, and the Guardian Tree, the main portal to the Feywild in Kalashport. The Church of the Dragon itentifies itself with red maple leaves (no relation to the real-life country of Canada). It is Yancy's chosen faction allegiance.
Operations and Goals
In ancient history, the Church of the Dragon simply existed to worship the Elemental Guardian. The Church fell victim to Kalashport's greater loss of recorded history, so now the Church focuses much of their efforts on learning as much about the disappeared deity as they can. Shortly before the Faction Campaign, the Church was trying to send adventurers into the Canal District Catacombs to find information, though it was unsuccessful.
After being threatened by the Canal Authority, the Church now supports the community by running a 24/7 cleric service and by taking in children off the street. Furthermore, once the party restored the Maple Tree Network, the Church of the Dragon became the main ambassadors of the Material Realm to Evening City, helping introduce the isolated Fey settlement to Kalashport. Though the organization still intends to uncover the lost history of the Elemental Guardian, most resources are now spend elsewhere.
The Canal District is a very poor region, so the Church of the Dragon works with few funds. They get a monthly pay from the Canal Authority and they sell high level cleric services for gold. They offer basic healing for free, however. Clarinet has considered making the Church a middleman for intraplanar trade to Evening City as a way to raise more money.
Allies and Enemies
The Church of the Dragon's only alliance is with the Evenign City Druids. After the party opened up the Network and defeated the Druids corrupting the Guardian Tree, the Church of the Dragon reached out to the new leadership of Evening City and formed a partnership. Though the clerics aren't aware of it, the Faction Campaign party has made the interests of the Church aligned with the interests of the Curds and the Travelers' Temple.
The Church of the Dragon, or at the very least Clarinet, was enemies with Bubba Bufo. Clarinet had suspicions of Bufo leading a thieves' guild, and Bufo in turn tried to get the Church of the Dragon kicked out of the Canal Authority for using up too many resources. The party helped the Church clean up their reputation and Bubba Bufo and the The Stack disappeared from the Canal District, so the Church currently does not have any major enemies.
History
The Church of the Dragon existed hundreds of years ago, worshipping the Elemental Guardian in the swamps of Guardian Spring. After the war 250 years ago, it is unclear what happened to the Church and the Elemental Guardian, but the Church exists to this day and the Elemental Guardian has disappeared.
In modern times, the Church has tried to figure out what really happened to the Elemental Guardian. They organized exploration parties to search the Catacombs, but it was dangerous and expensive. The Church gained a reputation for wasting Canal District resources while providing nothing to show for it. By the time the Faction Campaign party showed up, the public opinion of the Church was at an all time low. The revered Guardian Tree was dying, the Church lost respected people in the Catacombs, and the organization was hoarding up money from the Canal Authority. Yancy joined the Church to help restore the Guardian Tree and Rycan, while not joining, also pledged to help. The party ventuerd into Evening City and defeated the Druids who were sapping energy from the tree and restored the Network. They then helped fix the Church's reputation among Canal Authority members and helped Clarinet and Cabernet plan ways to help the community.
By the time the Canal Authority vote came around to kick the Church out, they passed with no members voting them out. However, Bubba Bufo and the lead cleric Mother Scalehearth both disappeared, leaving Clarinet and Cabernet to run the Church alone. Since the vote, the Church has once again been short on resources. Clarinet has been running affairs at the Church while Cabernet has been working as an ambassador to Evening City. The Church of the Dragon helped run the Canal Lights Festival right before the party left for Highland Heights.
Known Members
- Mother Scalehearth: lead cleric
- Clarinet: Canal Authority representative; acting lead cleric
- Cabernet: ambassador to Evening City
- Yancy: no official title
- Yin: not formally a member, but helps Yancy with Church goals
- Gartholomew: Yancy's fish familiar
Trivia
- The Church's official colors are light blue and red. The Church of the Dragon holy symbol is a red or gold maple leaf.
- The Church of the Dragon clerics are especially blessed with evocation magic thanks to the raw elemental power of the Elemental Guardian. Some may even mistake them for evocation wizards.
- Clarinet and Cabernet are both Tieflings. They joined the Church in hopes that being religious would absolve them of their demonic heritage.
- The Church has several members who have elemental ancestry, including Mother Scalehearth. Not all those in Kalashport with elemental blood are members of the Church however, especially those not in the Canal District.