Helm's Hold
Once a bastion of safety on the edge of Neverwinter Wood, the fortified monastery and community called Helm’s Hold has endured through the last decades, diminished but unyielding. It has lived through the death of the god who gave the place its name, the ravages of the Spellplague, and the ruination of Neverwinter. Through all this, Helm’s Hold has taken a serious beating but stubbornly clings to its original purpose: to provide sanctuary for those who have none. Neverember issued a standing order a year ago that anyone in the city showing symptoms of Spellplague infection should be sent to Helm’s Hold as soon as possible. The influx of the needy since that time has swelled the town’s numbers, but tolerance is in the air here, so the spellscarred feel more at home in the Hold than anywhere else in the Realms.
The Hold was initially led by its founder, First Guardian Dumal Erard. His title was a position that could only be passed on to another by means of martial combat. Eventually, a democratically elected City Council was chosen among the city's populace. This council was composed of 'Speakers' who often resorted to ostentatious and self-serving behavior and sometimes even intimidation against their fellow members to pass legislation. The Chief Speaker led this forum and had the final say on policy-making decisions. With the disaster of spellplague the council's power is minimal with the city looking to the Prophet Rohini for leadership. Prophet Rohini accepts the spellplague within the city and commands their treatment and is said to have been able to reverse many effects of the conditions that haunt the poor afflicted souls.
Demographics
Humans, half-elves, and a minority of dwarves, tieflings, elves, and halflings.
Government
Democratic City Council. Currently overruled by Prophet Rohini, the Healer.
Districts
Helm's Cathedral
The Helm's Hold Cathedral (Citadel) is a grand Helmite cathedral around which the city was formed. It was fortified into a fortified temple-city by a priest of Helm and a former member of the Company of Crazed Venturers named Dumal Erard in the Year of the Arch, 1353 DR. In the subsequent year other followers of Helm arrived, many of whom chose to remain amongst their fellow devotees. The Hold had grown to a fortified town with many refugees who lived around the Helmite abbey. Originally a small monastery and its surrounding village, Helm’s Hold has grown over the decades. The cathedral’s foundation had hardly been laid when Helm died, but the people finished it as a monument in his honor. Helm has become a cultural icon here—a patron saint of the community—and all followers of all gods are welcome under his watchful gaze. Today, the monastery proper serves as an asylum for those cursed with the Spellplague. People from all over Faerûn make the pilgrimage here for treatment, as do people from Neverwinter.
Heartward
Life and death are both on stage in the plaza called Heartward at the center of Helm’s Hold, where a marketplace is arrayed around a hangman’s scaffold. Food and gold are both scarce in the marketplace, and brawls break out between customers who feel cheated. Soldiers keep watch from the perimeter of the plaza. Town criers declaim the words of the Prophet, particularly when she has foretold something seen as especially wonderful or dire. The pronouncements are entertainment as well as news, since people love debating exactly what her portents mean. The Heartward’s chief notoriety is a haunting that fills the plaza on certain nights, when clouds obscure the waning moon. Luminous shapes appear—a gathering of ghosts that go about the business of the living. Phantom vendors sell ephemeral apples at empty stands, ghost children run happily through the streets, and spirits hang one another at the scaffold. Some of the scenes appear to be reenactments of past events, whereas others have not occurred—at least, not yet. The ghosts speak mostly nonsense, but some of what they say might offer clues to past or future happenings. The plaza’s name comes from a small shrine on the edge of the marketplace devoted to Sune, goddess of beauty and romance, which is a favored meeting place for lovers in the city. On haunted nights, couples gather at the shrine, hoping for a thrill.
Sanatorium
The Sanatorium was an underground institution in Helm's Hold that catered to the care of spellscarred individuals who suffered the more severe ailments brought on by their condition. The dark and cold feeling of the Sanatorium lent to an atmosphere that more resembled a dungeon or prison, rather than a place of care and convalescence. For many years, the Sanatorium offered healing and housing for those spellscarred who suffered from any form of insanity or physical ailments brought upon by the lingering effects of the Spellplague. It was staffed by Helmite priests that dedicated themselves to the care of these unfortunate souls. When the Prophet Rohini emerged as a leader in Helm's Hold, she championed the cause of offering care for the city's spellscarred. She was aided in her efforts by a trusted goliath named Torlgar, who served as the Sanatorim's warden. Some patients that were considered relatively healthy aided in the upkeep and maintenance of Helm's cathedral. Ever patient was allowed to leave their underground domain once each day and walk the undergrounds under close scrutiny by the priests.
Scar Ally / Warrens
As Helm's Hold grew in population, local engineers were forced to expand city infrastructure. They began excavation beneath Scar Alley in order to accommodate new tunnels for drainage. Unfortunately, they inadvertently broke through into the subterranean Crypts of the Vigilant Eye and were overrun by monstrous creatures. By the time the Spellplague wreaked destruction upon the region, in the Year of Blue Fire, 1385 DR, The entire undertaking was left unfinished and the tunnels were abandoned by city officials. The Warrens, also known as the Underscar, was a series of underground tunnels that snaked beneath an area of Helm's Hold. Numerous setbacks have taken their toll on the structures and the people of Helm’s Hold. Nowhere in town is this fact more evident than in the oldest district—Scar Alley, a small collection of weathered streets where the least fortunate residents live. The district is home to the worst spellscarred in town, those shunned because of their extreme physical deformities. During the Spellplague, the ground upon which the Hold is built softened, causing some buildings to bow or lean precariously out over the streets. Much of the original stone construction of Scar Alley is approaching ruin, and the residents do what they can to bolster the failing structures with planks, mortar, and fresh stone. The district is poorly patrolled, full of hovels that are frequented by shady characters or infested by monsters.
Maps
-
Helm's Hold
When Dagult Neverember began reconstruction efforts in Neverwinter, he put a call out to all skilled carpenters and masons to travel to his city. This left a dreadful lack of such tradesmen in the Hold and caused many of its 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. Helm's Hold became a prime site for refugees fleeing Neverwinter's destruction, many infected with Spellplague energies. Though none 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.
Key Statistics
Type
City
Population
4731
Comments