Ardent Fervour.
I've been invited to play Decent Into Avernus, and decided to go with the Aasimar Oath of Conquest (?) Paladin. Maybe, hopefully, in the future, mommy Zariel would notice me and take my soul, and I'll romance her. For now, I'm just going to make this character's existence a problem for everyone on Tumblr.
I like characters to have strong narrative ties to the campaign, so. His name is Ardent Fervour (it's not a "virtue name", it's, like, the only name he knew), he's Aasimar with pre-fall Zariel's legacy lingering through his bloodline, he was a child urchin working as an info gatherer for the cult of Ashmadai in Helm's Hold, and after the cult's collapse and the trials that followed, Ardent's crimes were found insufficient, his soul not guaranteed to go to Asmodeus' clutches, and Ardent himself suitable for re-education and re-indoctrination. Thus, Ardent joined The Order of the Gilded Eye under the tutelage of the human knight Gilbert Thane of the Watcher's Oath, a man of swift and decisive action, for better or worse. Gilbert Thane was a knight, shrouded in controversy, even moreso than the already controversial Order Of The Gilded Eye, for he would, without hesitation, order the purge of a village if it meant stopping the contagion without risking the outbreak. And yet, for as many would condemn him, just as many would say "thank Gods Gilbert Thane was there and acted when everyone else debated what's right".
After serving as the musician, the standard bearer and later Gilbert Thane's personal aspirant in the squad "The Gilded Tears", saving many lives and participating in just as many war crimes, Ardent was recommended by his master to strike out on his own as the soldier of Helm's Hold and introduced to the Lord's Alliance as an agent (and the Order of the Gilded Eye's informant). Ardent's first assignment, given by both his master and the contacts in Lord's Alliance was to investigate the so-called Companion, for The Order never trusted the miracle of it appearing over Elturel to be of divine nature. Ardent's mission is to arrive in Elturel, evaluate the Companion, get an audience with the High Overseer and report whatever he finds to the Alliance and The Order of the Gilded Eye. In Ardent's mind, The Order and Helm's Hold are, of course, the priority, for the Alliance would only get dry facts, and the Order will get the fullest picture. His mission is simple, his purpose is clear. But if so, then why is the Weeping Eye of Helm, his Holy Symbol, heating up against Ardent's skin, once Ardent stops in Baldur's Gate for the night before moving on? And moving on was never meant to be, for the Flaming Fist, incompetent as they are, are drafting the adventurers to some sort of an investigation, and the holy symbol is heating up again as they're doing it... Perhaps the true nature of Ardent's mission is here, in the den of scum and villainy, the city of strife, murder and death, Baldur's Gate.
Ardent is of, I think, 29-30 y.o. He is, like, really tall (around 190 cm), has no hair on his head (but does have his eyebrows and eyelashes), eyes gleaming with yellow and red, and copper freckles around his nose. Helm's holy symbol of the eye is melted into his skin on the forehead, devotion manifested in the flesh, a symbol of vigilance and watch, unblinking. This is, however, unseen most of the time, for Ardent is almost always wearing a helmet with the visor down. The helmet itself has a holy symbol of Helm above the visor, in the "forehead" area of the helmet. His armour is very simple and humble, just a simple chain mail, decorated only with the golden weeping eye on the middle of the breastplate and the inscription of "REACH HEAVEN" on one gauntlet and "THROUGH VIOLENCE" on another, written in celestial. Ardent knows only the basics of paladin magic and his Aasimar healing is only just developing, but it already has a strong visual indicator: when Ardent casts, heals or smites, a cold, unwelcoming red light shines and engulfs either Ardent or the target of the spell.
Ardent's weapon of choice is a warhammer, accompanied by a heater shield, emblazoned with the Order of the Gilded Eye's heraldry. The warhammer has the eye engraved on the striking part of its head, so when the hit connects, and the Divine Smite is active, the hammer brands the smitten on connect. He is training to develop a particular fighting style, to retain a fighting capability in close quarters even with vision denied. Mechanically, it's Blind Fighting, which is gonna be available only at level 2. The holy symbol heating up is a narrative flavouring of the Divine Sense ability.
The only colourful parts of Ardent's attire are his clothes. As humble is his armour, the clothes he wears are striking - the landsknecht - like attire, puff and slash of yellow and black colour. If the red is a colour of Helm and Helm's Hold, then the combination of yellow and black are the colours of The Gilded Tears.
That is all for now, and we'll see how it goes...
So I've learnt that there's a temple of Sune in Helm's Hold, and I think because of that Ardent would have an appreciation of beauty and have a sort of aesthetics side to him, he already had some time as a squad musician with a war drum during his service in Gilded Tears, and I think that in the moments that he has to himself, he quietly makes art for himself, he practices on his own helmet and suit of armour, using it as a reference, drawing it again and again in different environments, perfecting the reflections, highlights and shadings. He would also practice with a musical instrument that is easy to transfer and hard to break, again, when he has moments to himself mostly. It's a breathing room and a way to maintain routine and discipline through doing something extra outside the usuals.
The last session we were told by the Flaming Fist that the Laughing Boar tavern is dangerous—murders have been happening in that area—and that it’s better to rest at Stars & Blade or the Elfsong. The party decides to check out the Elfsong. Where does Ardent go? Yep… straight to the Laughing Boar. Because murders. Gotta figure that out because the Flaming Fist won't. Also I've recently learnt that Helmites often build their fortress - monasteries in the most dangerous areas out there and eradicate threats from that position, so that tracks even better. So Ardent goes there, asks the keeper a few questions, rents a room dirt cheap (because there are no clients because of the murders), pays her for 3 days upfront more than he should (because the keeper is in an unfair position where the system is also failing her, so a restoration is due) and decides to tell the rest of the party (this gig is dangerous, so he doesn't wanna do it alone if it can be helped, the party's budget would handle the Laughing Boar better, and the keeper would finally get some more clients)
So he goes to the Elfsong and there's a... Situation: Playing music is not allowed in the Elfsong. What does our Tiefling sorceress do? She PULLS OUT HER LUTE AND STARTS PLAYING. TO LURE OUT THE GHOST IN THE TAVERN. FOR A CHAT. BECAUSE THAT'S TOTALLY REASONABLE AND SANE.
Admittedly, the sorc is not local, and nobody told her she's not allowed to play music there… but of course, she gets kicked out.
But even minutes before that. The second Ardent is absent from the crew. The party immediately goes full shenanigans mode: suspecting the tavern keeper is holding a ghost captive, trying to find it even though they were told to leave the ghost alone, poking around, guessing THAT THE GHOST LIVES INSIDE THE FURNITURE.
Meanwhile, the party fighter is just like, I WANNA SLEEP (and he’s a total gigachad for that).
So Ardent arrives. There are those three bozos standing at the entrance because the Tiefling Sorceress got booted for playing her lute, and the Cleric and the other Paladin didn't want to leave the Sorceress alone (which Ardent honestly finds admirable and respectable, sticking to your comrades, I mean). Ardent just asks for the sitrep, lets a sigh under his helmet and goes to negotiate with the tavern keeper so that, potentially, we could still come back here if our business ever drags us this way again. Alan Alith, the tavern keeper, doesn't *really* mind, he just wanted the Sorceress to be taught a lesson, which Ardent quietly agrees with. Like, he felt so bad for going upstairs and having to wake up the fighter and debrief him, because come on, the guy just wants some sleep, he wasn't being a bozo like the the rest of the bunch. And then there's the fact that the other paladin of the party is the one of Lathander's faith. Ardent's opinion about Lathander is already below the floor, so he's like "Gloria, girl, you sure you should be wearing this holy symbol instead of a clown's nose? Ah, forgot, they're the same in your church" in his head, but he's at the same time aware enough that followers doesn't necessarily equate to a god fully and immediately, and Ardent's issue is with Lathander as a god.
Pics related: party's trying to find a ghost in the Elfsong//Party's fighter just trying to get some sleep
Ardent managed to break a Fist of Bane out of worshipping Bane. The DM commented my success on Insight as "He never thought he'd meet a person who is more of a zealot than himself". Granted, Fist of Bane is the lowest rank, but it's hilarious to me that I've managed to out-fanaticism a Banite. I do find it extremely funny that I intend to pick Oath of Conquest on Ardent, but I do knock out people instead of murdering them and advocate to put them on trial, or force them to reconsider their faith, while good aligned people are, like, "yeah, let's carve them up and be done". Like, don't get me wrong, Ardent didn't do it out of compassion, for him it was just "is the tyrant warlord who sent you fight in the sewers covered in shit worth being hanged and opened up like a pinata" sort of deal, but it does bring things into perspective a bit.
