to organize the ogres, I don't know if any in Hartsvale
could. stand against them.HELM'S HOLD
Helm's Hold has stood as a place of watchfulness and
protection for generations. Ever since its foundation by
the Company of Crazed Venturers, travelers have used it
as a safe place to rest and recuperate on their journeys.
Even during the dark times when Helm ceased showing
signs to his faithful, the priests and people at Helm's
Hold kept their doors open and their eyes on the road,
providing refuge to any who came in peace. This outlook
was recently sorely tested, and I'm uncertain if Helm's
Hold passed or failed the test.
Even though the Watcher was destroyed just prior to
the Spellplague, the faithful toiled on through terrible
times to complete a grand central temple for the good
of the community and the glory of their god. The kindly
clergy of this temple, dubbed the Cathedral of Helm
took in those who had been touched by the plague o~
rendered insane by the destruction of Mystra's Weave.
Sadly, as all too often occurs, corruption crept into the
settlement, in the form of predatory creatures and male-
factors who sought to experiment on the unfortunates in
the care of the temple
In time the leadership of Helm's Hold was itself
corrupted, falling into the hands of a shapeshifting suc-
cubus, who turned many monks into willing servitors.
When her machinations were at last revealed and the
battle for Helm's Hold began, other otherworldly forces
came to the fore: summoned devils, undead raised
from the very crypts of the temple, and tentacled, jel-
ly-skinned things whose origin I dare not consider. With
the aid of adventurers from nearby Neverwinter, all
were defeated and Helm's Hold at last cleansed.ORDER OF THE GILDED EYE
Among those stalwarts who saved Helm's Hold was a
member of the Order of the Gauntlet. This man was
Javen Tarmikos, and seeing the horrors unleashed on
the world in Helm's Hold, he found his own order at
fault. The Order of the Gauntlet doesn't punish the crim-
inal before the crime is committed. When evil arises,
members of the order strike and strike hard, but they
leave the ores alone in their mountains and don't disturb
dragons in their slumber. After Helm's Hold, Javen found
this philosophy flawed. Evils unlooked for can breed in
the shadows, growing stronger until they attack. This
seemed particularly true of otherworldly threats, such
as portals to fiendish realms, evil spirits that seek to
possess the living, and the corrupting influences of
alien planes.
Javen says he was ruminating on this when he
received a sign of Helm's return. In the main chapel,
the faithful had erected a new symbol of Helm after the
last had been desecrated. Javen says he was gazing at
this symbol and meditating on his order's failure when
Helm's unblinking eye wept tears of gold. Soon after,
uncorrupted priests of Helm's Hold, men and women
who had remained ever watchful for Helm's return,
experienced their own divine signs. In response to
prayers, some were even rewarded with spells. Javen
took those priests and followers from the Order of
the Gauntlet loyal to him and formed a new order,
swearing them in under the watchful gaze of Helm's
still-weeping eye.
The Order of the Gilded Eye is dedicated to protecting
the world and good people by rooting out hidden evils
and severing connections with other planes. According
to their members, it's not enough to fight threats that
arise. Many lives can be saved if the signs of evil and
those who dabble in darkness are actively sought out
and destroyed before they open the gateways to larger
threats. Since its founding, the Order of the Gilded
Eye has grown in number and its capacity to deal with
threats, welcoming exorcists, abjurers, and spies, as
well as paladins and clerics of Helm. I've even heard
that assassins bear the order's symbol- Helm's eye
upon a golden gauntlet curled into a fist-and it is a
claim I can't disregard. The Order of the Gilded Eye can
be brutal in their pursuit of evil.
Did Helm's symbol weep asJaven Tarmikos and
others have said? If it did, wasJaven's creation of this
order Helm's intention? Is the Helm that has returned
from death different from the god whose worship was
familiar to me in my youth? How can we mortals know?
Helm was ever a god of watchfulness and protection, but
that didn't make him a just god, nor a kindly one.
Whatever the truth may be, know this: The Order of
the Gilded Eye controls Helm's Hold now. If you hide
evil in your heart, or if there is the whiff of something
otherworldly about you, ride on. You'll find no sanc-
tuary there.PLACES AND PEOPLE OF THE HOLD
Helm's Hold is still a relatively small settlement: a
handful of streets that encircle a central marketplace,
with sturdy stone-and-timber embankment walls all
the way around. In the center of town sits the Heart-
ward, a large marketplace with several rows of stalls
radiating out from its central feature, an old gallows
that doesn't see much use these days. The market is
so named for the shrine to Sune that once stood along
its edge. That shrine has since been replaced by a
recently constructed temple to Lady Firehair, called
the Heartward Hall.
Not far from Heartward lies the town hall, a former
inn that has been turned into the council building where
the Speakers of Helm's Hold meet. The Speakers are
the duly elected representatives of the hold, numbering
eight in all, plus the Chief Speaker. The current Chief
Speaker is Amarandine Wanderfoot, an older halfling
matron who was an adventurer in her day. The Speak-
ers work closely with the Holy Watcher to see to the
proper governance of the hold.
A short distance from the town hall lies the Ventur-
er's Rest, a favorite stopping-off point of adventurers
in the area, and of the locals who like to sit at the bar
and listen to the tales such folk bring with them. The
Rest was until recently called the Old Dirty Dwarf, but
was rechristened by its new owner, a winsome Chaunt-
ean paladin by the name of Kharissa Anuvien. Dame
Kharissa claims that one of her ancestors was in the
Company of Crazed Venturers, associated with the