quest for cleric of Helm

[Aurich]

hi,

I'm DM'ing and i like to make a challenge for the cleric in our group. He is a war cleric under the lineage of Helm. And thus I'd like for him to experience a test for faith.

I would like some help with designing the test. What can i put in the test to see if he truly knows what his faith encompasses.


Helm is known as the Vigilant One, the Great Guard, and The Watcher. God of guardians, protection and protectors, and worshiped by guards and paladins.

the test will be in a sort of dream realm. a sort of virtual reality he has to play to be judged, though no task is given. depending on how he reacts/solves it, i plan to reward him.
but as said, i'm in need of some ideas/guidelines for it.

Any ideas?

A.

[Biggstick]

Well Helm is a deity looked to by guards and those who protect something or someone. Building your challenges or tests of faith around that basic idea is something to think about. Here are a couple of examples that could take place with a dream sequence.

The PC in question wakes in the middle of wherever it is that the Helmite clergy gather. It could be a church, it could be a fortress, it could be a barracks, really any set-up works, just as long as there is a gathering of Helmite clergy. There are Orcs (or some other terrible race) attacking the building, attempting to bring it to the ground. These Orcs are here for the holy relic that happens to be under Helm's protection, and it is the charge of these priests to protect it. The priest in charge has tasked the PC with guarding this holy relic while the rest of the priests/warriors are to defend the building. Impart the importance of protecting this holy relic, as everything these priests are doing is to keep the relic from falling into the wrong hands.

Whether the PC accepts or denies the privilege of protecting this relic is up to the PC. If the PC elects to guard the relic, they've made the right choice in doing what their superior tells them. Have the rest of the priests leave the room to defend the building from the invading Orcs.

Time goes by and the PC can hear the rage of battle from the outside. Give them a chance to leave the relic to help their comrades outside. Present places that the relic might be placed to hide from a regular passerby, to tempt the PC into hiding the relic to join the battle with his fellow clergy members. Should the PC decide to stay back with and guard the relic as they were ordered, proceed with the building being breached by the enemy.

The PC can now clearly hear the enemy slaying fellow Helmite priests. There is an overwhelming number of Orcs streaming into the building (you could provide a window in the room that allows for the PC to see the battle going on outside). Will the PC attempt to help his fellow Helmites and leave the relic unguarded? Will the PC attempt to flee? Regardless of what they actually decide to do, the Orcs will catch and kill the PC. The only thing Helm is looking for is how the PC follows orders and protects that which s/he has been ordered to protect.

The PC has been hired as a body guard. They would realize this as they come into the dream, and the person they're working for is a religious zealot of some deity other then Helm. This deity has "tasked" the npc who hired the PC with completing some difficult task in a hard to reach area of the world. The npc offered a decent sum of money, as well as called in a favor with a senior member of the Helmite clergy, who has thus passed the task down to the PC. The journey will be long, and will be dangerous.

The location for this difficult task should be relevant in your world. Maybe it somewhere you're going to have the PC's go to at some point. For the sake of this example, lets use a mountain. The NPC needs a body guard for the trip up the mountain, as it has been known to have all sorts of strange creatures on it. You can use whatever you like to represent wild life, but the creatures we want to use are ones that promise respite from the cold terrible-ness of this mountain. This is a mountain that is terrible to climb; think of Everest in difficulty and supply challenges. The creatures (I'm thinking fey of sorts, but it could be anything that would tempt a PC into giving up on this escort mission) poke and prod at the PC for the duration of his/her climb up the mountain. The npc would have warned the PC about not trusting voices heard from the mountain, and when the npc is asked about the voices/visions from the tempting creatures, they just mumble incoherently to themselves about these spirits leading people to their demise.

As the PC and the npc near the mountain top, the offers of respite from the cold have gotten more and more tempting. These offers need to be for things that are initially anything a regular PC would want, and the closer they get to the top, the more personal the offers get. Find the Bond or Ideal of the PC and threaten/offer for either to be fulfilled. Really try and offer that which the PC wants before they finally make it to the top.

When they finally make it to the top, the npc tells the PC that they will need at least an hour atop this mountain to commune with their deity. During this time, that which the PC desires most should appear before him/her within reach. Before the npc began the ritual, they warned the PC to trust nothing that they saw on top of the mountain, and that the ritual would be finished within the hour. The only thing they should trust up here is that they will begin their descent after an hour's time.

All in all, this trip up the mountain is a test to see how dedicated to the protection of this npc the PC is. Are they truly dedicated to the job that's been given to them by their senior clergy member? If they at any point give in to the temptations, the two should still reach the mountain top, but the ritual will have been corrupted in some way.

I personally really like seeing the no win scenarios, as it shows the true colors of the PC. This is something the Helm would very much so test for in his Clergy.

[lordarkness]

I think a series of challenges would be ideal.

1) His choice to protect something rather than seek some alternative such as revenge, personal gain, etc.

2) His willingness to make a sacrifice (himself, an item of value, a companion?)

3) His capacity to protect something. All the best intentions in the world don't matter if a guard can't do his job.

Then whatever he loses in the process he should never regain but he should be rewarded for his adherence to his faith. It may make sense with Helm that he only gets "credit" if he succeeds at all three. You just need to figure out what is important and valuable to the cleric in order to a) put those at risk, and b) to reward him after.

[edited to fix spelling error]