(now unlocked)
All is not as it appears in the convent.
While the sisters are certainly pious enough and deeply devoted to their god, they have lost the patronage of Saint Ursula herself. The story of how this happened goes back seventy five years to the infamous The Pirate Crusade.
As this crusado washed the The Northern Reach in war and blood, the Abbey of St Ursula stayed neutral in the conflict. At first this was because it was difficult to pick a righteous side neither combatant exactly occupied the moral high ground. However as the crusade ground on and on the forces of the The Inner Archipelago began adopting more and more scorched earth tactics to root out the pirates, leading to more and more colleterial damage, and concern among the nuns that the Abbey and the Order should become involved and utilize their resources (which at that time were considerable both in gold and manpower) to defend the common folk from these depredations grew.
Two factions among the nuns gradually formed. One faction preached continued isolation and pacifism, that the purpose of the abbey was holy solitude and communion, and that the events outside the nunnery walls were no concern of theirs. While they supported aiding any refugees that found their way to the abbey the did not support active missionary outreach into the warzone, deeming it to dangerous and likely to draw the ire of the The Inner Archipelago. This faction was called the Isolationists.
The second faction was less unified but generally supported active intervention in the conflict, at least to the point of missionary missions to supply food and succor to the war ravaged communities. Some of the more extreme members of this faction preached military intervention to protect vulnerable communities (for at that time the nuns still maintained a martial arm, called the Paladins of Saint Ursula, though the numbers of this force had grown thin over the last hundred years). This faction was called The Interventionists.
Both factions were devout and well meaning, both following their creed as their heart led them, which of course made the conflict even more bitter and difficult to resolve.
Making a decision on which course of action to take was further complicated by the death of the reigning abbess. Eventually after much argument and soul searching the Isolationists won out, an Isolationist was elected the new Abbess, the Abbey shut it's doors and stayed out of the fight.
Most of the nuns went along with the decision but a large portion of the Paladins and a few others left the order entirely, following Mary Margaret of the Flail, who led them into the thick of the The Pirate Crusade. They played a key role in the defense of Hardbottle and those that survived mostly eventually joined the Knight’s Radiant. Mary Margaret of the Flail died in the battle of Puerto Lejos. Her body was brought back to the Abbey of St Ursula where she was buried under a black unmarked tombstone in the Cemetery.
After the defection of the Paladins, the Order of Saint Ursula abandoned most of their martial heritage and training and became increasingly isolationist over time. The Abbey also entered a period of decline, it's numbers, power and wealth gradually decreasing to the present time. Now, the Order has less then half the members it had in it's heyday, many of outer vineyard have been allowed to go back to the wild due to not enough manpower to work them. Most of the outer buildings have been torn down rather rhen allowed to simply decay, but the abandoned foundations are still apparent to an observant eye.
Little do the nuns know that the decline of the Abbey is actually a result of the loss of the favor of their patron saint, Saint Ursula. Disgusted by their refusal to defend the poor and helpless, she turned from them at the same time the Paladins left. While Mithras himself still stands by them, he does so as a grieving parent watching a well meaning child gone astray.
The lack of Ursula's patronage has had some spiritual effects on the nuns as well. Firstly, the Unknown has become a curse. Many of the nuns still maintain the ability to become the Bear of Mithra, but most have very little control over the beast once transformed. In addition, the transformation often comes upon them unwilling, in times of great stress or fear. As a result the nuns go to great lengths to maintain their composure and self control at all times.
Secondly, the holy artifacts of the Order, the Hammer, the Bell and The Books of the River have been taken from them. The Hammer and the Books are both lost in the depths of the The Undercroft, where the sisters now fear to go. During the height of the The Pirate Crusade many of the Abbey's treasures and much of it's wealth were hidden deep inside this huge network of tunnels and high ceilinged rooms, and now that much of that area is lost to them, the artifacts as well are lost.
The Undercroft itself has become increasingly perilous. The shades of the dead Abbesses have grown restless and hostile and sisters find their magics powerless against them. In addition, the veil between the Light and Shadow has grown tenuous and thin, allowing strange creatures from the Shadow to cross over and wreck havoc. The nuns have ceiled off most of the The Undercroft behind doors and spells,
The Bell of Mithras is a still stranger tale. The belfry of the Belltower contains a dozen bells, and it is less that the bell has been lost and more that the sisters have just forgotten which one it is. Somehow, over the years, no one remembers which particular bell is the holy bell of legend.
