Mantis' Montage

After the The Cleaving at Cleeved, Mantis followed the dragonborn librarian who hired the crew to save the Grippli back to Candlekeep. The Candlekeep Avowed were quickly enamoured by the charming little halfling. When asked about Baeloknecht, their grand Candlekeep collection came up empty with any mention of the druid. However, one of the Avowed suggested that Baeloknecht bore similarlies to Yomanjang, a powerful druid who appeared in Ashmort and gave council to leaders throughout the Domain of Armad. With no other leads, Mantis followed the Avowed's suggestion to visit Ashmort and continue his research there. The Avowed were able to put Baeloknecht in a safe stasis of sorts while Mantis hopped a merchant ship and made his way to Ashmort.   Along the way and while in Ashmort, Mantis tried a couple of methods to connect to his unknown divine patron. Mantis found himself awkwardly kneeling to pray or making impromtu altars or even finding his way into temples, never really knowing what to do once he was there. However, it was in those moment that Mantis didn't try to connect with his god that he felt them most powerfully. Now that he was looking, he noticed the blissfully comforting glow of the fireplace in the home of the halfling family who took him in and fed him in his first days of Ashmort. He felt the ancient interconnectedness amongst the group of regulars at the tavern and the barmaid who came by to psuedo-scold them while giving them refills. Mantis was slowly beginning to realize that his spirituality could be found in the small things: food, community, family.    Mantis was able to connect with a group of scholars and historians who told him more about Yomanjang. [BEN TELL ME WHAT MANTIS HAS LEARNED]. In exchange for their wisdom and researching prowess, Mantis completed small tasks for the group of wizened scholars: painting a fence, rethatching a roof, delivering a message. On one of these quests, Mantis stumbled into a "temple."    Disguised as a halfling burrow home, the temple housed several followers of the goddess Yondalla. The group of devotees saw Yondalla's blessing on Mantis and immediately took to him. They showed him the ways of Yondalla (or rather Mantis learned that the ways of Yondalla were similar to his halfling values). Mantis wasn't sure that this was the answer he was looking for. But like most things, Mantis allowed himself to be taught about Yondalla and he took up training with a group of amateur fighters (minutemen of sorts) who were devoted to protecting the halfling borough of Ashmort.