Helm ' s Hold Helm ' s Hold was a fortified city and cathedral located near Neverwinter . Location . Helm ' s Hold was located around twenty miles ( less than a day ' s travel ) south east of the the city of Neverwinter , not far from the 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 . Government . Originally , the Hold ' s founder , Dumal Erard , led the Hold as First Guardian - a position that could only be passed on through martial combat . Eventually though , a democratically elected City Council was chosen from among the populace . This council was composed of ' Speakers ' who were frequently loud , individualistic and sometimes obnoxious during their debates , often using intimidation against each other to try and pass legislation . The Chief Speaker led this forum and had final say on policy - making decisions . Eventually , when the Ashmadai revealed themselves , The Prophet , as their leader , temporarily became de facto ruler of the Hold until she showed her true colours and fled to the Crypts . After Neverwinter retook the city , the Council of Speakers was re - established with the Chief Speaker being Amarandine Wanderfoot . Defenses . Priests and Paladins of Helm based out of Helm ' s Hold would , for the Hold ' s first four decades at least , patrol the Watcher ' s Forest and the Neverwinter Wood perimeter . One hundred men and women served as Helm ' s Hundred , a fighting force consisting of magic - users , warriors and even thieves . Before Hellgate Keep was sealed however , this troop would leave the Hold for Sundabar every Spring to battle the tanar ' ri . When the Hold expanded to become a city , a high wall was erected around it . After Dagult Neverember became Lord of nearby Neverwinter , he sent a detachment of Mintarn Mercenaries , led by Dunfield , an associate who ' d fallen out of Lord Neverember ' s favour . These mercenaries had the power to impose martial law on the Hold if they were ordered to . History . Founded at the beginning of 1340 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 . Cultists responsible for infecting Neverwinter with the Wailing Death used Helm ' s Hold as a base in 1372 DR , posing as Helmites while desecrating the abbey until the Hero of Neverwinter entered a " portal " that led there to arrest Desther Indelayne 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 apparent death in 1384 DR . This fortune changed once the Netherese briefly conquered the place but then it was allowed to be retaken when Mount Hotenow erupted . 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 spellscar s . Those who were persecuted against fought back , forming the Heirs of Azure to retaliate against their oppressors . When Dagult Neverember of Waterdeep 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 . An agent of the Abolethic Sovereignty named Rohini ( known in the Hold as The Prophet ) capitalized on this turn of events , acting as a double agent working on behalf of the Ashmadai to convert the spellscarred to their service . With this local increase in membership , the Ashmadai seized Helm ' s Hold . This in turn drew the attention of the Neverwinter Guard , who laid siege to the city - Rohini ' s plan all along having been to expose the Ashmadai and have the forces of Neverwinter engage the cult so that the two were preoccupied with each other . After the siege was ended , 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 came to control Helm ' s Hold and sponsored sometimes brutal tactics to achieve their goals . 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 . Notable Locations . Crypts of the Vigilant Eye . A veritable city beneath a city , the Crypts were 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 Sovereignty and its servants were not the only residents of the Crypts , as a team of Gray Wolf Uthgardt infiltrators once made a camp after foolishly digging their way into one of the catacombs . The werewolves went mad with hunger after their entry tunnel collapsed behind them , attacking anything they could conceivably eat . A beam of of focused Spellplague energy generated by the Hex Locus traveled through the Crypts , warping reality as it went . The Crypts were connected to Neverwinter ' s Chasm by a long tunnel . The easternmost crypt , known as the Crypt of Vigilance , was found under the boughs of the Watcher ' s Forest , the section of the Neverwinter Wood traditionally cared for by the Hold ' s inhabitants . This crypt was made for the rest of paladin s of Helm , fallen protecting the innocent , but was abandoned after Helm ' s apparent death . The Ashmadai eventually found and secured it , hoping to turn it into a sanctum for devil - summoning while the spirits of long - dead paladins watched in horror . Dragon ' s Gauntlet . A former inn that came to serve as a centre of local government when the City Council chose it to hold their meetings . Heartward . The centre of this marketplace in the middle of the city is a hangman ' s scaffold . Heartward was haunted , manifesting 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 was converted to a proper temple called Heartward Hall after the fall of The Prophet . Helm ' s Cathedral . Dumal Erard ' s abbey to Helm was expanded into a grand cathedral . 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 lined the halls . The walls were built for acoustics that block all but the most raucous sounds , creating an impressive , but peaceful place of worship . Very few devout of Helm remained here and eventually , The Prophet took the cathedral as her seat , dispensing her prophecies to congregations of loyal acolytes , fawning supplicants , and awed spellscarred patients , though she laid no claim to the actual structure . The site also had an orphanage and , after after Helm regained his divinity , a building was constructed to house those spellchanged mutants who had survived their time in the Sanatorium . Hungry Flame . A run - down old tavern that held a reputation for unfriendliness toward those without spellscars . This was because the place was the headquarters of the Heirs of Azure . Sanatorium . Located beneath the Cathedral , a confusing collection of corridors and rooms were eventually adopted as a place to securely hold the spellscarred patients sent here by the Protector ' s Law . Scar Alley . 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 . When the Ashmadai took over the hold , they raided Scar Alley for human sacrifices to fuel their devil summoning rituals . They became heavily patrolled by guards under orders from Helm ' s priesthood after the fall of The Prophet . Venturer ' s Rest . Formerly Known as the Old Dirty Dwarf , this inn and tavern weathered the Netherese invasion and the Cataclysm , staying open and welcoming through it all and continuing to serve high quality provender . It wasn ' t the cleanest place and some of the staff discriminated against spellscarred , but the Old Dirty Dwarf was justifiably popular with everyone . Unknown to most however , The Prophet had spies keeping the establishment under constant surveillance for ' interesting ' looking newcomers . After the removal of The Prophet , a Chauntea n Paladin named Kharissa Anuvien , took ownership , and changed the name of the establishment . The Warrens . Beneath Scar Alley , are the original crypts of Helm ' s Abbey , long abandoned and forgotten by the people of the Hold . These crypts are infested with stealthy spellscarred monsters .