Helm and Cloak

The Helm and Cloak draws an unusual mixture of well-heeled but unpretentious patriars, traveling nobles, famed bards, and socially ambitious Lower City residents hoping to rub shoulders with the elite. The inn is unfussy, but conducts its service with flawless technique and the finest ingredients: it serves roast chicken rather than peacocks or partridges, and the fish never have that distinctive Gray Harbor film.

The establishment consists of two buildings joined as a single enterprise. The Helm is a rooming house with an entryway shadowed by an immense iron helm that supposedly belonged to a fire giant. The Cloak, slightly smaller, is signaled by the bright flutter of a Sunite cloak draped over its porch. Both buildings are decorated with adventuring trophies both exotic and mundane, including a bronze-horned marble unicorn bust in the Helm's common room. Its horn, which patrons often rub for good luck, is as shiny as the day it was made.
The Helm and Cloak has long attracted idealistic sons and daughters from patriar families. For generations, these young romantics, taking the god Lurue as their inspiration, have called themselves the Knights of the Unicorn. Over time, what began as a light-hearted lark became a real force for good in the world, and several of the early knights achieved renown for their heroics. Today, the Knights of the Unicorn continue to call the Helm and Cloak their informal headquarters. The establishment is even run by two retired members, Vedren and Halesta (neutral good human knights). The couple's presence shapes the inn's clientele significantly, and the unicorn bust in the Helm's common room honors their origins in this place. (Baldur's Gate, Descent into Avernus, 2019)

Purpose / Function

Located at the heart of the Upper City, just steps from the High House of Wonders and the High Hall, the Helm and Cloak serves the upper crust and has prices to match. Its food is excellent, and its accommodations are sumptuous. The Helm is a fashionable place to dine and chat. Patriars and Lower City residents who have lofty social ambitions favor it.
Unlike other high-priced establishments, the Helm and Cloak doesn’t follow the latest fashions. Its proprietors devote themselves to providing patrons with a warm and comfortable environment in which to stay, conduct business, or have a quiet meal or drink. Traditional good taste, plush furnishings, a quiet atmosphere, and attentive service keep the Helm and Cloak busy.
The upscale inn and tavern consists of two connected buildings. The Helm is an old rooming house that faces Gond’s High House of Wonders. A massive iron helmet once worn by a titan (according to the wait staff) shadows its entry. The smaller Cloak, an old house that fronts a courtyard off Windspell Street, faces the High Hall. A cloak hangs over its porch. As the story goes, a priestess of Sune once owned the house and had lurid pictures painted on its ceilings. The original cloak was hers, but many mantles of different colors and fabrics have been displayed above the Cloak’s door since then.
The Helm’s common room holds a marble unicorn bust whose bronze horn is touched for luck. The statuary is a symbol of the Knights of the Unicorn, a group of chic-younglings-turned-adventurers who used the Helm and Cloak as an informal headquarters.
A Cormyrean husband-and-wife team runs the inn and its large staff with smooth efficiency. Unknown to most. Vedren and Halesta are retired members of the Knights of the Unicorn. The organization has grown far beyond its humble beginnings and now boasts members across Faerûn. After Vedren and Halesta’s adventuring party fractured, the two humans came to Baldur’s Gate to share a less dangerous life together. The unicorn bust is a reminder of what brought them together. Still, old habits die hard, and the innkeepers keep their ears to the street and their swords sharp. (Murder in Baldur's Gate, 2013)

History

The following lore is from 1368DR, use only if there's not enough in the more recent lore.

The Prospect

The Kegs is a cozy place, furnished with old furniture from a dozen keeps and many simpler homes. The dusty heads of trophy elk and creatures of the deep hang on the walls, crowding for space amid old and faded paintings of elven hunts and human knights battling dragons and each other, or courting various maidens. Where there aren't paintings, there are bookshelves crammed with old diaries, travel books, collections of ballads and legends, and grand and overblown histories of heroes.
Regular patrons snooze and read the days away, rousing themselves from time to time for a glass of wine, mug of broth, or a game of dice, cards, or shove-skittles. Both the wine and the broth are excellent, but they, along with ice water and dark and nutty malt bread, are the only fare to be had in the place.
The thick beastskin rugs, paneling, books, and tapestries absorb sound. The Kegs is a quiet place. Come here for a reasonable and comfortable rest, a haven against the bustle of business or adventure.
Patrons are asked to keep their weapons in their rooms, and not to bring drinkables in with them inside or outside their bodies. Drunks often awaken in the morning to find themselves sleeping out back in the hay pile by the kitchen door.
The innkeeper is a tall, quiet man with a mane of long, curly black hair  and a sword scar that runs from his nose diagonally across one cheek. His  name is Nantrin Bellowglyn, and he's a Tethyrian noble's retired guard who fled that land when its civil strife erupted and his lord was slain. He has a staff of four daughters and hired help: a bags boy, a hostler, and three serving wenches. These wenches were huntresses in Tethyr, and at least one of them, Ithtyl Calantryn, is a sorceress expert in levitation and shielding spells. On more than one occasion, I'm told, she's calmly hurled would-be thieves and troublesome brawling patrons bodily out of the inn sometimes by way of a third floor window.

The Provender

As I have said, the Kegs serves simple fare. Most folk go elsewhere for main meals.

The Prices

A stay at the Kegs costs you 5 sp per night per person, stabling included. Rooms for up to four folk are available, but there's no discount for sharing a room. A plate of bread and as much ice water as one wants are included. More food and drink costs an extra 1 cp per plate, and all extra wine is 6 cp per tallglass. The only other extra charge is for hot baths (3 cp per person). Cold baths and laundry service are included in room rates.

Traveler's Lore

The Kegs is said to contain a secret passage linking it with a dockside warehouse and a sewer shaft that comes to the surface near the Black Dragon Gate. Somewhere along this passage is a lime pit where folk can quietly dispose of bodies (100 gp per corpse) by arrangement with someone who can be contacted through Nantrin. Adventurers and pokers about-after-secrets had best not get on the bad side of Nantrin, it is rumored, or they may find themselves searching the pit while asleep, as it were. (Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast, 1994)

Type

Inn

Parent Location

Temples