Hellknights of the Order of the Godclaw often quest far from their citadel, seeking to set the world right.
Hellknights from the Order of the Pyre seeks out the fanatical faiths of distant lands and realms in order to purge them.
Those two statements are near cut-and-paste from the article on Hellknights in Pathfinder 27: What Lies in Dust.
Members of most of the other orders could also find reason to travel for one reason or another.
You could also invent an obscure order dedicated to destroying the undead.
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Don't forget the Order of the Nail which is based outside of Korvosa, which I think makes it the closest order to Ustalav.
While they focus on beating back savage Orcs and "less civilized" people, as Are said, you could have a special division designed to investigate Ustalav and the numerous undead in the area.
I'll second Order of the Godclaw and the Nail. Godclaw knights often travel abroad as kinda knights errant who bring their view of an ordered world to the lands. The knights of the Nail, while based out of Korvosa, do some of their recruiting out of Lastwall from those who battle against the teeming hordes.
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Wow! What a fantastically "you-got-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter" idea! I love it! Do it!
Why would it work? For a bunch of reasons. It would not be uncommon for individual Hellknights to be granted leave to fulfill a task related to maintaining their honor or fulfill some lawful duty. You'll see in the Carrion Crown Player's Guide (which we JUST put up!) that all the classes are presented options and ideas for how they might know one Professor Lorrimor and why they might be in attendance at his home in Ravengro. It would not be a stretch of the imagination to think a world-traveling scholar like him might have once had dealings with the Hellknights, had Hellknight guards, or lent his expertise to a Hellknight's mission.
Remember, Hellknights have two huge opportunities for adventure. One is that individuals seeking to prove themselves as armigers and Hellknight officers of significant rank are both regularly sent out alone to enforce law upon the land as per their order's ideals. The other is that Hellknights are - to a degree - mercenaries, and while the groups have their own goals and objectives that primarily see them focus their interest around Cheliax and its subject states, they can be hired to bring law to other lands as it fits within the order's philosophies. We see this happen en masse with the Order of the Nail, but it more typically happens in lesser, one or two knight groups tasked with completing a single goal.
I also agree that the Order of the Nail and Godclaw would be fine fits. The Order of the Chain or Pyre or Rack too once some of the specifics about Lorrimor situation and the greater villains of the AP are revealed. I'm also a big fan of the little-known Order of the Pike as perhaps the most "heroic" Hellknights (p 63, PF#27).
So yeah! Very cool. I think you have a lot of options here. And remember, the descriptions of groups and settings in Golarion are never meant to prevent you from having cool characters going on awesome adventures. Always be on the lookout for reasons why something can work, and feel free to sideline any quibbling factors that seem like reasons a great idea like this couldn't work.
There could be a number of reasons for it, considering the nature of the campaign trait selection, if the character was oathbound to do it (for example the owing Professor Lorrimor a favor) their own code pretty much required that they do it. Order of the Scourge might also be a good fit, especially with their ideals of justice, to investigate the suspicious nature of a good friends death.
Hellknights regularly have Paladins (LG) in the order as that is what they started with, and they make good places to put Mages, Inquisitors, Fighters, and Cavaliers :) so you could almost do a whole party based on them :)
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For what its worth, I could totally see the Hellknights making a 1st, or any low level character, kind of squire of sorts.
Have him prove himself worthy of the title and membership. I see the Hellknights as not really worried if he or she survives it, and if they do.. well bonus. A tried and true hardcore bad butt now ready to join the ranks.
Also, what better land to weed out the unworthy and define the gold in the copper then Ustalav? Not many I would venture.
More so, since a player does not have to take the Hellknight PRC per say to be a Hellknight, you can give him different ranks until you and the player decide that the character is officially a full fledged Hellknight.
In one of my games, an order of Hellknights have a small number of affiliates in their fold. One is a set of chapters that are like morally ambiguous boy scout troops(girls are in it too :)) primarily designed to aid the community while training to be Hellknights. Think helping an old lady across the street while heading to the study lodge to work on getting a badge in demon recognition and in interrogation techniques.
Another is the Instruments Victorious, an adventurer society to put the "less worthy" to more worthy tasks. It also ensures a set of adventure specialists are in the reach of the Order. The name deliberately implies that they are second to the order as instruments and not weapons.
Finally, there is the Exalted Society of Infernal Righteousness. It is more of high society club for Hellknight hero worship and fundraising/sponsorship of small crusades and such.
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one concept Ive used before is a little homebrew idea:
Some Hellknight orders (specifically the Scourge and Nail) have lone operators that are free agent adventurers that further the order's goals, and these guys are pretty much what every PC hellknight is. The Nail in particular as Bounty Hunters going around the frontier/wilderness like old west marshals, tagging and bagging outlaws. These guys usually dont fit perfectly into the command structure for one reason or another; their superiors have them tagged as odd but damnably skilled.
Hellknights regularly have Paladins (LG) in the order as that is what they started with, and they make good places to put Mages, Inquisitors, Fighters, and Cavaliers :) so you could almost do a whole party based on them :)
I've more or less decided to do just that.
I'm just about to start running this path, and I too have a player who is intent on becoming a Hellknight. My biggest question isn't about rationale, but feasibility. To be a Hellknight, the candidate must slay a devil of a CR equal or greater than his level in the prescence of another Hellknight. How would I go about justifying this? I had thought about just having another Hellknight show up as he neared seventh level because 'he was ready', but this seems a bit contrived. Any other ideas?
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I'm just about to start running this path, and I too have a player who is intent on becoming a Hellknight. My biggest question isn't about rationale, but feasibility. To be a Hellknight, the candidate must slay a devil of a CR equal or greater than his level in the prescence of another Hellknight. How would I go about justifying this? I had thought about just having another Hellknight show up as he neared seventh level because 'he was ready', but this seems a bit contrived. Any other ideas?
I was going to bypass this a bit, using the idea that the character was an armiger in the hellknights when he makes his way to Ustalav. The idea is to have him be of the Order of the Nail and when he is called for the funeral they allow him to venture forth with the expectation that he reports on the happenings in Ustalav.
If I remember correctly, the battle with the devil doesn't have to happen at the time of the promotion, simply some time over his career. With that in mind, he was just going battle a lemure at the citadel to prove himself as a field agent worth being seen as one of their representatives in Ustalav.
As we get closer to starting the campaign(probably another couple months) I will sort out exactly how I am going to want to handle the promotion based on where they are going to be in the campaign. I may have him briefly recalled if I can see a point that will make sense, I may have a hellknight NPC show up to offer the promotion, or he may simply be given permission to place insignia on his armor as a full knight in a response to one of his missives.
I'm just about to start running this path, and I too have a player who is intent on becoming a Hellknight. My biggest question isn't about rationale, but feasibility. To be a Hellknight, the candidate must slay a devil of a CR equal or greater than his level in the prescence of another Hellknight. How would I go about justifying this? I had thought about just having another Hellknight show up as he neared seventh level because 'he was ready', but this seems a bit contrived. Any other ideas?
In my Golarion, the hellknights do not have a big presence in Ustalav. The PCs (all hellknights) were given leave to attend the funeral and instructed to make a good impression on the locals so that they might be more inclined to trust the orders in the future.
At least one of my PCs is absolutely determined to get into the prestige class and he can do so for sixth level. My current plan is to insert a very small group of hellknights in Lepistadt. They'll report to the leader of said group and be offered the test based on their successes to date.
I'm just about to start running this path, and I too have a player who is intent on becoming a Hellknight. My biggest question isn't about rationale, but feasibility. To be a Hellknight, the candidate must slay a devil of a CR equal or greater than his level in the prescence of another Hellknight. How would I go about justifying this? I had thought about just having another Hellknight show up as he neared seventh level because 'he was ready', but this seems a bit contrived. Any other ideas?
You can have him make gather information checks to find a hellknight. The hellknight does not have to be in the immediate vicinity. He may have to go to another town to find him.
You could have another hellknight in trouble and the party helps him. The player could express his desire to become a hellknight, and the hellknight could say when you are ready(to kill the devil) come find me here(where ever that is).