Hellknight PCs?


Curse of the Crimson Throne


Okay, gang. help me out. I'm sure I've seen this addressed, either in the forums or in one of the actual AP books... but Asmodeus take me if I can find it at the moment.

I'm looking at running Curse soon, and one of my players is enamored with the Hellknights. I'm sure I can -make- it work, but I'm curious if there's a specific Hellknight Order that I should suggest to my player.

Sovereign Court

Order of the Nail is the order based out of the nearby Citadel Vraid.


Order of the Nail is the most sensible one given their proximity to Korvosa. Be aware, however, that virtually nothing about the order is presented in the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP - they are mentioned briefly in Book One and then they pull out of Korvosa and are never seen again in the AP as-written. So, if your PC is a Hellknight and wants to be particularly involved with the Order, you will need to make things up as you go along.

One potential resource if you have the cash to burn is the Pathfinder Society Module 4-13 "Fortress of the Nail". That one involves the Order of the Nail and Citadel Vraith, so you might find some useful information there. The Guide to Korvosa, although old, also has *some* information on the Order and its history. But be careful - some of that information is outdated (such as Maidrayne Vox, the Order of the Nail's second-in-command, being a LG centaur instead of the LE human she is presented as in the Guide to Korvosa).

Sovereign Court

Inspectre wrote:

Order of the Nail is the most sensible one given their proximity to Korvosa. Be aware, however, that virtually nothing about the order is presented in the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP - they are mentioned briefly in Book One and then they pull out of Korvosa and are never seen again in the AP as-written. So, if your PC is a Hellknight and wants to be particularly involved with the Order, you will need to make things up as you go along.

One potential resource if you have the cash to burn is the Pathfinder Society Module 4-13 "Fortress of the Nail". That one involves the Order of the Nail and Citadel Vraith, so you might find some useful information there. The Guide to Korvosa, although old, also has *some* information on the Order and its history. But be careful - some of that information is outdated (such as Maidrayne Vox, the Order of the Nail's second-in-command, being a LG centaur instead of the LE human she is presented as in the Guide to Korvosa).

Also, Castles of the Inner Sea has details on Citadel Vraid.

Scarab Sages

Nightdrifter wrote:
Also, Castles of the Inner Sea has details on Citadel Vraid.

Additionally the backmatter in book 4 of the Council of Thieves adventure path includes an article on the Hellknights. While slightly dated, it also includes information on Citadel Vraid and the Order of the Nail.


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Incidentally, if you don't mind doing the work and want to be a huge jerk to your poor future Hellknight, you could bring in the Academy of Secrets module as well.

Spoilers for Academy of Secrets:

The module deals with some unwise alliances that the Academae of Korvosa made some time ago with the outcast archdevil Lorthract. It wouldn't take much effort to either include the Order of the Nail in that deal somehow as well, or perhaps even replace the Academae's role in the module entirely with that of the Order of the Nail.

Only do this, of course, if you want your poor Hellknight PC to have the angst of potentially being damned for helping further the interests of the very creatures he is ostensibly trained to find, fight, and kill. Or if you want the Order of the Nail to play a larger role in the AP, potentially as antagonists due to this infernal pact.

If you want them to remain in the background or act as a bastion of sanity amidst the rest of the AP's madness though, that works too!


I actually enjoy Hellknights myself, so I've done some reading. Just wasn't sure whether Nail would be the best, considering the theme of Curse.

Also, I totally missed that they retconned Maidrayne... wonder which it's supposed to be, then..though in my games, I'm keeping her a centaur because centaur hellknight is just kinda awesome.

Thanks for all the feedback!


What's up with Maidrayne getting retconned?

Spoilers for Academy of Secrets:
Inspectre wrote:

{. . .}

The module deals with some unwise alliances that the Academae of Korvosa made some time ago with the outcast archdevil Lorthract. It wouldn't take much effort to either include the Order of the Nail in that deal somehow as well, or perhaps even replace the Academae's role in the module entirely with that of the Order of the Nail.
Only do this, of course, if you want your poor Hellknight PC to have the angst of potentially being damned for helping further the interests of the very creatures he is ostensibly trained to find, fight, and kill. Or if you want the Order of the Nail to play a larger role in the AP, potentially as antagonists due to this infernal pact.

If you want them to remain in the background or act as a bastion of sanity amidst the rest of the AP's madness though, that works too!

Who says you can't go full Cheliax-style and have the Order of the Nail be both a Nexus of Sanity and a Bastion of Damnation? Muahahahahahah . . . .


Wait what? Why did they retcon LG Centaur!? ;(

Shadow Lodge

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As the Hellknight Inspectre is currently being a huge jerk to I will say that it has worked out pretty well. He started as an Armiger and even played out him becoming a full blown Hellknight fighting a Devil one on one in a pit beneath the Hellknight tower.

I am a big fan of Hellknights in general. However I had my doubts about playing one in Curse of the Crimson throne as the AP seems to want you to some pretty un-Hellknighty things such as turning on the rightful ruler of the city. Working with convicted criminals etc. And everyone at the table had it written into there backstory about how much they hate Hellknights. But I couldn't resist hehehe. Now they say "I hate all Hellknight except my Character. Hehehe

I made him a bit flawed and kind of on the s+@$ side of his commanders. He's made friends.

So It's pretty hard to stay with the theme of being a HellKnight (Currently my Character is running towards the hills into the arms of Serenrae begging for redemption). But if you've got a player that can role with the punches it shouldn't too bad.

Silver Crusade

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Hellknight #685,340 wrote:
Wait what? Why did they retcon LG Centaur!? ;(

They didn't, other way around :3

James Jacobs wrote:
Gamer Girrl wrote:
Robert Hawkshaw wrote:
Gamer Girrl wrote:
Lord Gadigan wrote:
<snip> Maidrayne Vox, the Mistress of Blades was formerly a Fighter 12. She is now a Fighter 3 / Ranger 3 / Hellknight 2. She lost 4 levels in this process. She is also now a centaur, having formerly been a human. Her alignment shifted from Lawful Evil to Lawful Good. <snip>
I don't remember the specific locations, but I know it was stated on the board that the reference of her being a human was incorrect, and that she is supposed to be a centaur.
I must have missed the reference to her being a human, as far back as the Hellknight sidebar in the Magnimar write up she's a centaur.

From the Guide to Korvosa Appendix: Mistress of Blades Maidrayne Vox (LE female human fighter 12), field commander of Order of the Nail.

This is where the confusion started.

Mistress of Blades Maidrayne Vox is a centaur. Korvosa is in error.


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Or you do what I did, and start her out as a LE human. Wacky hijinks ensue, Vox gets dead, and then some druid reincarnates her and she comes back via DM fiat as a centaur. The LG part comes later. Why retcon when you can make a fun story out of it? ^^

Silver Crusade

That's certainly an interesting way to go about it, but to my knowledge it wasn't a retcon. She was always a centaur, then GtK put her as a human, which was error. That's my understanding of the situation anyway.


Oh thank god.


Inspectre wrote:
Or you do what I did, and start her out as a LE human. Wacky hijinks ensue, Vox gets dead, and then some druid reincarnates her and she comes back via DM fiat as a centaur. The LG part comes later. Why retcon when you can make a fun story out of it? ^^

High five!

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