The Twilight Monastery is located atop a towering crag called the "Griffon’s Roost," about twenty miles away from Diamond Lake.
The Monastery is an ancient, three-towered monument, dedicated to an obscure philosophy of the Far East. Two-score monks dwell here, dedicating themselves to a litany of exercises meant to perfect both the body and spirit.
The secretive monks hold dusk as the holiest of hours, and sonorous chants emit from the Monastery’s central courtyard every evening, as the night sky first appears.
The leader of the monk sects is Izenfen, a mysterious figure thought to be one of the wisest men in the region. Travelers frequently travel to the monastery to seek out his council, but most of them leave disappointed.
Izenfen only allows an audience with small handful of visitors, based upon one of two methods. He must either have had a prior vision about the visitor during one of his nightly meditations, or observed him during a scrying session, while using the monastery's "Censer of Symmetry."
The "Censor" is an immense, mirrored lens located in the monastery's central courtyard, and is considered a powerful magical artifact. Over the years, many outside parties have requested to use it, but all have been rebuffed. One such "Incident," led to a violent altercation. (see below)
Relations With Diamond Lake
Although the monks of the Twilight Monastery keep mostly to themselves and desire only to lead lives of undisturbed contemplation, they regularly appear on the streets of Diamond Lake to re-provision or to engage in the trade of Khat, an addictive, psychotropic plant grown on the slopes of the Griffon’s Roost.
Proceeds from this trade account for most of the monastery’s revenue, but the Monks of the order are themselves forbidden from partaking, in all but the most controlled ritual circumstances.
The "Incident"
About twenty-five years ago, a group of twenty miners and merchants from Diamond Lake marched on the monastery. They demanded Izenfen allow them to use the Censer of Symmetry to predict the location of the richest, unclaimed ore deposits. They tried to appealing to his compassion with desperate tales of starving children and unpaid debts.
The Master of Monastery rebuffed their pleas, which triggered a fateful decision by the men to try and force their way inside. A violent confrontation ensued, which resulted in the deaths of eight of the men and three monks. The remaining twelve locals fled back to Diamond Lake to nurse their wounds.
Over the next several weeks, all twelve men who had escaped the monastery confrontation were found dead. Even though the bodies showed no signs of violence, rumors persist that they were murdered by assassins sent by Izenfen.
