d&d paladin idea

lair-master:

• on trial, the knights templar were accused of worshiping a severed head. by some accounts, the head of medusa.
• imagine, holy knights who secretly kneel before the martyred gorgon. their initiation rites require they meet her lifeless gaze and withstand its petrifying curse.
• those who fail join the statues standing sentry atop their cathedral.
• but those who prevail are fortified by patches of calcified flesh, can extend this protection to others, and restrain enemies where they stand, hardening their skin at a glance.
• the terrible truth is, even those who survive these rites are slowly being turned to stone–though they cease to age–relying on magic salves and ointments to hold petrification at bay.
• they shall all adorn that cathedral in the end, watching over the exiled and afflicted, awaiting the day that their serpent-haired patron restores them to flesh for a heavenly cause.