Helm’s Hold is a fortified city and cathedral dedicated to the god Helm, located around twenty miles (less than a day’s travel) south east of the city of Neverwinter, not far from the western edge of Neverwinter Wood. In fact, a section of the Wood, known as the Watcher’s Forest, was cared for by the Hold’s residents, historically because of a wild magic area within.
History
Founded around 1338 DR by Dumal Erard, a priest of Helm and former member of the Company of Crazed Venturers, as a farm that was originally known as Helm’s Stead. Other followers of Helm arrived, electing to stay, and by 1353 DR the site had grown to become a fortified town of seven hundred surrounding an abbey. The town lost prominence following the Time of Troubles when the people of Neverwinter proscribed the residents for the actions of their god.
After recovering from its losses, Helm’s Hold gained a reputation for safety over the next several decades and began to quickly grow again. The abbey became a grand cathedral and the town itself grew to become a small city. Though only a few actual Helmites remained in the cathedral after their god’s death in 1384 DR.
After the Spellplague, the Netherese briefly conquered the place, until they fled the city following Mount Hotenow’s eruption. Helm’s Hold then became a prime site for refugees fleeing Neverwinter’s destruction, many infected with Spellplague energies. Though few of the residents held any preconceived notions against such people, many of the uninfected refugees brought theirs with them and persecuted any who showed signs of spellscars. Those who were persecuted against fought back, forming the Heirs of Azure to retaliate against their oppressors.
When Dagult Neverember began reconstruction efforts in Neverwinter, he put a call out to all skilled carpenters and masons to come to Neverwinter to help. This left a dreadful lack of such tradesmen in the Hold and caused many of the Hold’s buildings to fall into disrepair. Because of the already high population of spellscarred within the Hold’s walls, and the success that some of the priests had shown in suppressing symptoms, Lord Neverember also issued the Protector’s Law: an edict that required all those showing symptoms be sent to the Hold for treatment.
A human female acolyte by the name of Rohini earned the trust of the Helmites with her divinations of the return of Helm, and capitalized on this turn of events by sending the spellscarred into the arms of an evil presence located beneath the Cathedral. She was able to corrupt many of the Helmite priests, gaining great influence in the area and taking the name of “The Prophet.” In 1489 DR, Rohini’s machinations were discovered, and a group of adventurers from Neverwinter went to Helm’s Hold and killed her, alongside her devil and aberrant allies, and the Hold was declared cleansed of evil influence.
An adventuring member of the Order of the Gauntlet by the name of Javen Tarmikos began experiencing signs of the god Helm’s return, followed shortly afterward by several others. Javen was a veteran of the siege of the Hold and started a splinter-group he named the Order of the Gilded Eye, which refused to follow the Order of the Gauntlet’s ethos of avoiding pre-emptive strikes, instead actively searching for hidden evil and destroying it before it threatened anybody. The Order has come to control Helm’s Hold and has sponsored sometimes brutal tactics to achieve their goals.
A democratically elected City Council governs, composed of ‘Speakers’ who are frequently loud, individualistic and sometimes obnoxious during their debates, and often use intimidation against each other to try and pass legislation. The Chief Speaker leads this forum and has final say on policy-making decisions. The current Chief Speaker is Amarandine Wanderfoot, an older halfling matron who was an adventurer in her day.
Locations
The Crypts of the Vigilant Eye are a veritable city beneath the city, a secret burial place located beneath Helm’s Hold. Their existence was made public when they were discovered by those constructing the Cathedral. The crypts were occupied by the Abolethic Sovereignty, who posted undead guards created from the interred. These former faithful of Helm hesitated to attack those prominently wearing the holy symbol of their former god, but their numbers were supplemented by foulspawn who had no such compunctions.
The Dragon’s Gauntlet is a former inn that has come to serve as a centre of local government, after the City Council chose it to hold their meetings.
The Grand Cathedral of Helm is the expansion to Dumal Erard’s original abbey to the god Helm. Only the foundation had been laid when Helm appeared to have been killed in 1384 DR, but the building was completed in the fallen deity’s honour regardless. Furnished with grand statues depicting the god and heroes of the church, Helm’s holy symbol was displayed prominently in the stonework, on wall-mounted pennants and on suits of armor that line the halls. The walls were built for acoustics that block all but the most raucous sounds, creating an impressive, but peaceful place of worship.
The site also has an orphanage and, after Helm regained his divinity, a building was constructed to house those spellchanged mutants who had survived their time in the Sanatorium.
Heartward is a marketplace in the middle of the city with a hangman’s scaffold. Rumored to be haunted, manifestations are said to occur on nights when a waning moon is covered by clouds: apparitions appear at these times, going about their business and occasionally performing a hanging. On the edge of the marketplace was a shrine to Sune, from which the place got its name. The shrine has been converted to a proper temple, called Heartward Hall, after the fall of The Prophet.
The Hungry Flame is a run-down old tavern that holds a reputation for unfriendliness toward those without spellscars. This is because the place was the headquarters of the Heirs of Azure.
The Old Dirty Dwarf is an inn and tavern that weathered the Netherese invasion and the Cataclysm, staying open and welcoming through it all and continuing to serve high quality provender. It isn’t the cleanest place and some of the staff is said to discriminate against spellscarred, but the Old Dirty Dwarf is justifiably popular with everyone.
The Sanatorium was located beneath the Cathedral, a confusing collection of corridors and rooms that were adopted as a place to securely hold the spellscarred patients sent here by the Protector’s Law. It has since been closed, the patients moved to a new building above ground.
Scar Alley could be called the poor district. When Helm’s Hold started growing again towards the end of the 14th century, a project to expand the Hold’s basic sewer system was begun. Work stalled when the Spellplague magically weakened the ground that the Hold was built on and the original sewer system collapsed. The poorest refugees moving to the city found refuge in the submerged tunnels, building a shanty town, though it quickly became a place of violence. Those sewers became heavily patrolled by guards under orders from Helm’s priesthood after the fall of The Prophet.
The Warrens exist beneath Scar Alley. The original crypts of Helm’s Abbey, they are long abandoned and forgotten by the people of the Hold. These crypts were infested with stealthy spellscarred monsters.
Rumours and Legends
Rumours persisted that passages formed when Scar Alley was created led up and inside the Sanatorium. Nobody who ever explored that way was seen again but it didn’t stop the brave and the desperate from trying.