Avenger Assembled

St. Maurice's House is located about an hour north of Bedlam on the state roads, not far from Sturgeon Bay. St. Maurice's House was founded by Father Michael Fenstermacher, a German Lutheran who came to the United States to do "ecumenical work" in the years after World War II. An Afrodeutsche man whose mother had emigrated to Germany in 1930 from her native Southwest Africa, Fenstermacher clashed repeatedly with congregations in Bedlam (who had perhaps made some assumptions about a German-born priest eager to leave the town where he'd grown up) before beginning the construction of his monastery (something of a rarity among Lutherans) in 1956. After a fire destroyed his original building (and also his parsonage), Fenstermacher won permission to relocate his project outside the city limits. The main house has five family rooms for guests, a large living/dining room with a balcony that looks out across the lawn towards the towering nearby pine trees. There are bird feeders, and if they're empty, the local bird population will let you know. The buildings are down a long gravel road off the state road and rarely get accidental visitors. The chapel, still visibly the Quonset hut that was its original frame back when Fenstermacher built it himself in 1957, has been a scene of decades of prayer and is decorated somewhat eclectically. Services are held there by the small Lutheran contingent at the site, seven times a day as per the liturgical calendar, from 5:10AM to 8:30PM. Time spent in daily prayer takes about three hours, done slowly. Time between services is spent in reading and meditation, usually physical. St. Maurice's follows a rule of silence from about 9PM to about 9AM, with a shorter span of silence after the noon meal. While there's room for flexibility in emergencies, they value the mechanism for turning inward and achieving the full benefits of prayer. There's a comfortable lounge and porch, meals are taken with the community. As with many religious communities in remote areas, St. Maurice's tends to be a home for various Lutheran priests (St. Maurice's is jointly supported by all the major US Lutheran denominations) who are considered unsuitable by their parent denominations for various reasons, thus creating something of a rogues gallery among residents at the House. The current head of the institution, Father Richard Samuels, was assigned his post after uncovering a major financial scandal in the Lutheran denomination that is still technically his spiritual home, and is thoroughly disgusted by the quality of men working under him. It's time to shake things up around here...

The 76 acres of this remote retreat are on Wisdom Island just off the coast of Washington, at the end of a long dirt road along a mile of undeveloped shorefront. The heavily wooded site has a three-acre meadow and orchard inhabited by families of wild rabbits. Facing the meadow is the community center, a large inviting structure built of unfinished wood whose kitchen/dining area and meeting room with stone fireplace makes it the hub of activity. Painted along one side of the community center is an image of the Freedom League circa 1976, carefully maintained by the now-elderly original artist with the help of her grand-daughter who occasionally drives in from Emerald City, Oregon. Meals are served buffet-style, taken to long tables or outside in good weather, and each person is responsible for cleanup. Hot drinks are available throughout the day. The large windows at the back of the building look out to the woods and water below. Around the meadow, tucked between tall cedars and firs, are rustic cabins. They're furnished with bed, table, and chair, and heated with a woodburning stove (the woodpiles are around the back). Though the cabins have their own plumbing, many of the longtime residents prefer to use one of the two bath-houses. A puckish interior decorator gave each cabin a 'theme' during its reconstruction in the 1970s, and visitors may be amused to find themselves staying in the Centurion (with its faux-marble countertops and books of Latin poetry on the walls), the Lady Liberty (with its slightly faded red white and blue bunting), and the like. The facility has the largest spiritual library in the region and a substantial collection of books on CD, much to the pride of the elderly librarian, who has been here since before the arrival of the Super-Freaks, and indeed since he left his fellow Lor to seek Terran spiritual enlightenment. Built by Theosophists in the late 1920s, the encampment was acquired by the Super-Freaks in the mid-1970s when the regional chapter was at the height of its influence. Even today much of the Theosophical influence remains in the Super Freak community; in particular they practice lacto-vegetarianism, pacifism, and respect for all living creatures. The head of the community, Doris Kahn, teaches meditation during the summer camp and also offers a therapeutic touch program. There is a summer camp in July and August aimed at families, with both morning lectures and warm evening campfires. There are work weekends in other parts of the year where visitors can help with groundskeeping and building maintenance. There are other weekends for seminars and workshops on topics relating to the metaphysical interests of the Super Freaks. Private visitors who share the values of the Super-Freaks are welcome to stay provided they are willing to work. A trail winds above and along the shoreline leading to benches and grassy slopes that afford secluded outlooks across the bay. Attracted by the isolation and quiet of the island, bald eagles nest in the tall trees and otters have been frequently spotted along the shoreline. Though there have been many reported sightings of cryptids in the area since the 1920s, no reliable signs of cryptid settlement of any of the region's communities have ever been found on the island.

This retreat community is perched on a forested hilltop about forty miles west of Freedom City, overlooking the nearby Maurice River. Visitors stay in single hermitages that cling to the sides of the hill, cozy and small with a toilet, heater, and air conditioning. The only way to reach the hermitage is by holding onto ropes which are slung between the trees. Each cabin as its own special place a short distance from the next. The ground slopes down like a barn roof, rendering the hill often impassable in muddy or icy weather. A community of Franciscan Catholic sisters, primarily from Nigeria, lives on the hilltop, each in her own hermitage in a cloistered area of the grounds. They convene in the chapel for community prayer four times a day, followed by mass. Visitors are welcome at all services. Meals may be collected in baskets from the dining room and taken to one's hermitage. The nuns make very good bread, but their jollof rice isn't bad either. Visitors never mingle with the community, but spiritual advisers are available upon request. Individuals generally plan their own programs of solitude and silence. The head of the community is Sister Mary Veronica, an even-tempered administrator who speaks with a definitive accent, and who at 47 is relatively young for a nun in the United States. There is a library with books and tapes for use while here. There are three separate shrines to Mary on the property. Visitors should bring sturdy walking shoes to hike the 100 acres of monastery land, seasonal clothing, alarm clock, immersion heater for hot drinks, and flashlight. Sheets are provided. Visitors are advised that St. Perpetua is at the heart of the largest digital dead zone in southwestern New Jersey, and indeed their most common visitors in the 21st century are those in search of a digital detox. "We do not look upon the hermitage as a place simply for privacy or space to breathe, but a place which exemplifies and nourishes the starkness of the desert: not its harshness, but its uncompromising refusal to provide distractions." Visitors are expected to donate as their means allow. Lacking means, they can work on the Retreat's property if they like.