How do a cleric and monk know each other?

[dreaded_beast]

While making my adventure, I placed a monastery and temple near each other. I was wondering what kind of relationship the two places could have and how the leaders of the monastery would relate to one another.

In my adventure, I am thinking about having 2 monks travel to the temple, but get captured midway by the BBEG. Thing is, I need a reason for the monks to be going to the temple.

I envision the monastery being very small as well as the cleric temple. The area is in the wilderness, with the nearest town/village being 3-6 hours away.

Any suggestions?

 

[Darklone]

IMC (Kalamar campaign), most monks are directly connected to churches. It would sound logical for the two institutions to stay in daily contact concerning trade, food and mail. Give the two monks a letter with the weekly shopping list in the big town for the praelat.

 

[FireLance]

Depending on what the surrounding area is like, the temple may be the only source of water (created by the clerics). Every couple of days, the monks load barrels onto a cart and trundle over to the temple to fill them up.

In such a case, the leaders of the temple and monastery should be at least Indifferent, possibly Friendly to each other.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

As far as I, as a layman, understand it, a monastery basically is a church. The brothers merely go about their worship in a more secluded environment, in order to more fully focus on religious devotions.

That said, if the church and monastery are of the same faith, then they'd certainly have contact. The head priest of the church and the abbot of the monastery would probably stay in relatively constant communication, and there might be trade between the two. Possibly the church would act as a go-between for the monastery, buffering it from the outside world.

 

[hong]

It's the secret handshake. If you have to ask, you don't need to know.

 

[Tonguez]

IMC I have an Order of Euridites dedicated to the god of Knowledge. This group has two sects - one the Clerics who are keepers of knowledge and a teaching order, the other sect is the Monks those who seek mastery of "self" cultivating their minds to master their bodies and thus release their souls into true communion with the divine.

So yeah um two sects of the same faith...

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

It's possible the two places don't interact very often. Perhaps this is an exceptional time?

The chief monk is dangerously ill. Two trusted monks were taking money to hire a cleric to heal him?

It gives the players an (easy!) moral problem: If they save the monks, do they keep the money or give it back?

 

[DragonLancer]

Well just by being a fair few hours from the nearest civilisation both groups would peobably come to an agreement about mutual defence in case of attack by monsters or humanoids. Perhaps they hold regular monthly meetings about events in the lands hereabout that may be a threat or a concern. It could be that they were going to have a discussion about such a threat when they dissapeared?

 

[JoeGKushner]

As several have noted, there are many ways that a clerical order and a monk order could know one another.

One way would be a splinter cell of knowledge. Books are copied by each faction and hidden so that if one should fall, the overall level of knowledge won't drop.

The orders may have been founded by friends, relatives or friendly rivals. Nothing says, "In you face" like a successful venture.

The orders may actually be run by one master who uses each venue to give each student the proper and specialized training they need. This could result in some monk-clerics, individuals who are able to fight unarmed and still have some spellcasting ability. Depending on the god, they might be able to freely multi-class as some in the Forgotten Realms do as opposed to just leaving the monk class once.

 

[tarchon]

Often in a biblical sense, even.