Thing is, Helm feels very bland to me. He's the god of Guardians, Protectors, and the Protected. Watchmen, bodyguards, and people too weak to defend themselves worship him. There's nothing here that really... grabs me, creatively. Aside from the essential "Protect this", I'm drawing a blank. The same goes for any sort of hooks that would play this angle up.
What I am looking for
Ways to flesh out Helm's clergy/church/lay followers so that it's interesting.
Adventure Hooks/Quests. I want quests that will play to Helm/the paladin in general, but aren't repetitive and cut'n'dry. To give you an example, I started the PC with a quest to find and retrieve the ashes of a Helmite Saint - a warrior who held a bridge by himself against a batallion of soldiers bent on sacking a nearby town.
What I am Not looking for
Suggestions/ways to challenge the PC on his code. I don't want to do this for multiple reasons. 1) These are kids who are kind of new to gaming and they're not looking for deep roleplaying, the player didn't pick a paladin because of the Code, so I don't want to push it. 2) I am less interested in that type of play. 3) Another player's PC is an evil rogue. Let me explain; this happened last session - the paladin player is playing a fighter here.
Early in the fight, one of the mercenaries surrendered when he was reduced to 2 HP. At the end of the fight, the half-elf was at 4 HP. The Fighter PC asked to just break the half-elf's leg, and with some off-the-cuff rolling, I said sure. Then the Rogue decides to just knock the half-elf unconscious.
Rogue: I just leave the half-elf alive, and walk over to the surrendered mercenary guy and kill him.
Fighter: What! Why would you do that? You're killing the guy who surrendered, but sparing the guy who hired these guys to come after us?
Rogue: Sure! He'll wake up and tell everyone we kicked his ass. Our legend will grow!
Fighter: And hire more guys to come after us!
Rogue: And we'll kill them too!
Fighter: I... I just kill the half-elf, so he doesn't come after us again.
Adventure idea: The Priesthood and followers of Helm do not just guard objects, places and people; they go absolutely out of their way to recover anything or anyone—as well as rebuild anything— under their protection that was lost, stolen or destroyed.
When this sort of action is necessary, the Priesthood calls on their holy champions: Paladins of Helm dedicated to righting wrongs and renewing the character and reputation of the faith when it has failed in its sworn duties.
To this end, the PC Paladin in your game is called upon to investigate the disappearance of the warrior priest Ambrivar Haeldroon, Vigilant Eye of Helm. Famous amongst the priesthood for his brash manner, warrior-like ways and his need to always be out on foot in the world, Ambrivar was often called upon by senior clergy to perform the duty of an Altar Sworn priest.
Thus would Ambrivar take up packages, scroll tubes, small boxes and all manner of items belonging not just to the faith of Helm, but to merchants, nobles and others in great need of assurance that these objects of theirs be safely delivered to their intended recipients.
Ambrivar would then kneel at the altar of Helm and swear by his faith that those things entrusted to him would be safely delivered to their destination.
Because Ambrivar did not arrive at the destination temple as promised, the Vigilants of Helm at that temple have enjoined the PC Paladin of Helm and his choice of trusted companions to make all haste in riding out to find Ambrivar’s trail, ascertain Ambrivar’s fate and discover the whereabouts of the lost items he was carrying.
Already one deep pocketed merchant has been seen at the temple, demanding of the priesthood to know the whereabouts of a small chest containing, in his words, “something more valuable than this temple and all the holy googaws in it!”
The Fate of Ambrivar:
Ambrivar is quite dead, having been slain within sight of his destination. His body was carried off and burned; his armor, weapons and items all removed and carted off, but his helm was lost in the nighttime fight that claimed his life and that of two of his would-be killers.
His slayers left a trio of men behind who are still frantically looking for that helm so as to erase all trace of Ambrivar from the world.
A gentle rise of land, no bigger than a small hill, is not far from the town where the PCs will start their journey. The road into town goes over that hill and Ambrivar’s Helm lies just off that road, in a small thicket of trees and shrubs.
Ambrivar’s spirit is still tied to this world. He may not rest until his last Sworn task is completed. Though he cannot manifest or speak, he can cause his helm to look shadowy/insubstantial, just as he can cause it to levitate up (no more than 15 feet or so) and down, and cause it to glow with a holy nimbus of light from within.
Ambrivar will sense when the PCs approach and rise up, glowing. The killers will immediately move to the helm to try to grab it.
DM: I suggest you run this encounter at night so as to play up the glow, have killers stalking in the shadows and to give your Rogue PC plenty of chances to hide and backstab.
Ambrivar’s spirit is weak and can’t really be called upon for much. He knows the direction his body was taken but can’t sense where it’s at. He can do little more than make his helm glow with the light of a torch when the PCs are moving in the right general direction and dim it when they move away from that direction.
He does not know who his slayers are or why they attacked him, but his helm will emit a dim red light (unless the PCs plead with it/him not to) when the helm is within 10’ of one of his killers.
Enterprising PCs might try asking the Helm yes/no questions keyed to Yes=glow please, no= stop glowing, but Ambrivar’s spirit cares only for finding the lost items and seeing them delivered. He won’t help the PCs beyond guiding them in the direction his corpse was taken, glowing reflexively when near his killers and (possibly, at DM’s discression since the PCs don’t actually know what Ambrivar was supposed to deliver) giving off a blue light when the helm is touched to an item Ambrivar was supposed to have deliverd.
Thinking about it. I wonder how very Mercenary one could take Helm. In the sense that, while Watchmen and police et al are in his portfolio, what about something like a Safehouse/sanctuary? A criminal, seeking protection from other criminals.
From what I've read, NPCs in the Realms will often pray to or otherwise ask the favor of any number of deities each day.
So if a merchant has an especially valuable cargo, he’ll pray to Tymora to bestow good luck and fortune on his wagons and men shepherding the cargo (so that no wagons break down and that the caravan be missed by outlaws and not seen by hungry dragons), to Red Knight that the merchant’s hired mercenaries conduct swift, effective attacks on bandits or orcs looking to loot the caravan, and so on.
The way I interpret it, whatever portfolio a deity has sort of makes it beholden to any who would make prayers to the deity regarding that portfolio.
Likewise the gods don’t always choose only followers of their alignment. If there was a very committed criminal (say to the concept of creating a safehouse that nobody could breach or enter or something like that) who regularly prayed to Helm, I think Helm would answer that criminal’s prayers in some way.
The Perils of Sagekeep
Though Candlekeep has long held a reputation as the greatest repository of knowledge in all the Realms, there are a plethora of noteworthy libraries and storehouses throughout the wider Realms that stand in Candlekeep’s long shadow, each filled to overflowing with scrolls, parchments, chapbooks, tomes…and mystery.
One of these libraries is defended by ever vigilant guardians of Helm, who stand with the priests of Oghma in an uneasy alliance, both faiths keeping watch without and within while sages who care only for their areas of expertise walk the long, cramped halls.
The name of this library? Sagekeep.
It is said that the tallest tower of Sagekeep existed before the keep proper; that a wizard of terrible power occupied that tower and that he built his tower over a small outpost built by dwarves who’d tunneled up out of the earth to build a lookout that oversaw the fertile, rolling lands to the south—and the likeliest route of an invasion.
Tales sung by bards say the wizard slew the dwarves, chasing them down into their tunnels until he grew tired of the sport.
Darker tales claim that before the wizard conjured impenetrable walls to seal away the dwarves, he set a magical plague upon them so that none might come seeking revenge in a generation or two.
The fate of the wizard and that of the dwarves is unknown. Most only remember the tall tower occupied always by the Vigilant Eyes of Helm, led down the centuries by successive generations of retired Helmwardens, come to Sagekeep to keep one last watch before they die.
Word of Sagekeep has not spread far, though the claims made by those who’ve paid the exceedingly steep entrance fee (no less than ten thousand golden lions per person per visit—and that visit never to exceed a tenday) tell of a rich storehouse of knowledge.
None, tis said, have left Sagekeep disappointed.
The Oghrans are a recent addition, having come to Sagekeep claiming a vision sent by Oghma demanded their presence. The Oghrans further claim the schism of faith within the order shall be settled at Sagekeep and have already called for a great convocation to be held there, much to the consternation of the Helmites.
The assembled sages of Sagekeep were mollified by a promise of gifts of new books and lore, but cloak their enthusiasm behind a unified mask of sagely patience. They’ll believe the Oghrans only when they have these new books in their old, wrinkled hands.
Of late murder has come to Sagekeep, followed swiftly by the High Helmwarden finding himself bedridden with a creeping sickness that neither sage nor priest has yet to cure.
With his immediate replacement dead by some unknown hand, the High Helmwarden despairs privately that no worthy successor can be found in time to shoulder the burden every High Helmwarden has carried to his grave since the walls of the keep were built up around the foul wizard’s tower.
If no worthy successor is found, the black evil beneath the keep will rise up and consume its occupants, before turning its ravenous sights on the world.