Heliod

As powerful as he is arrogant, Heliod believes in his vision of a bright, orderly future and demands that his champions help bring it into being.

Heliod’s Champions

Heliod’s champions are a means to accomplish his goals. In the world, Heliod is concerned with law and order, justice and fidelity. On a larger scale, he seeks to establish his superiority over the other gods, and his mortal champions might get caught up in those schemes in ways both large and small.

The Heliod’s Quests table suggests a few adventures the god’s champions might involve themselves in.

ROLL TABLE TO VTT

d6	Adventure Goal
1	Bring a shard of sunlight to a place of unending darkness.
2	Establish law and order in a place of anarchy and lawlessness.
3	Keep people safe from a natural disaster caused by the anger of another god (such as a volcano spawned by Purphoros or a tidal wave caused by Thassa).
4	Hunt down a notorious lawbreaker who has fled from a polis into the wilderness.
5	Triumph in a contest of strength or charisma to prove Heliod’s superiority over the other gods.
6	Defeat a champion of another god (most likely Erebos, Purphoros, Phenax, or Mogis).

A Heliod Campaign

A campaign structured around champions of Heliod might cast adventurers as valiant protectors of civilization. Rampaging monsters, lawless agitators, hardened criminals, oath breakers, and the champions of Heliod’s divine enemies pose constant threats, and the characters are charged with combating them all.

At the beginning of the campaign, the characters might stand alongside other defenders of a polis against attacking monsters and receive Heliod’s blessing at a crucial moment to turn the tide of battle. Hailed as heroes by the polis, they continue to enjoy Heliod’s favor as they vanquish one threat after another.

Losing their patron’s favor is the greatest danger to champions of Heliod. If the god views them as disobedient or comes to see them as a threat, he might turn against them. At that point, characters might either try to regain his favor or seek protection with another god.

Heliod’s Villains

It’s easy for servants of Heliod—and even the god himself—to take on a villainous role in the world. Heliod’s followers easily become obsessed with upholding justice at the price of mercy, or with advancing order at the price of freedom, turning them into vicious tyrants or overzealous enforcers. On a smaller scale, someone who has suffered a grievous wrong might swear an oath of vengeance in Heliod’s name and become a deadly vigilante. When a follower of Heliod’s righteous zeal for justice turns to oppressive tyranny, Heliod himself might send champions to stop the would-be tyrant.

The Heliod’s Villains table suggests a variety of foes that might arise from among the god’s followers.

ROLL TABLE TO VTT

d6	Villain
1	A local noble imposes overwhelming punishments for even minor infractions of law.
2	A leader persecutes an entire population of people because of a crime committed by a single member.
3	An assassin starts killing everyone connected to a trial after which the perpetrator was exonerated.
4	A fanatical priest tries to undermine the priests of other gods by outlawing their holidays.
5	A tyrant suppresses free expression, punishes protesters, and quashes any form of dissent.
6	A nervous oracle (see chapter 6) identifies the characters as a threat to the stability of the polis.

Heliod’s Monsters

Heliod is rarely associated with deadly monsters, more often with celestial messengers and noble creatures. Even so, adventures that bring characters into conflict with Heliod’s agents might pit them against creatures such as those on the Heliod’s Monsters table.

Challenge	Creature	Source
1/8	Noble	MM
2	Centaur	MM
2	Griffon	MM
2	Pegasus	MM
3	Fleecemane lion	MOoT
9	Cloud giant	MM
11	Roc	MM
23	Empyrean	MM

HELIOD’S SPEAR DOLES OUT HIS BLESSINGS AS WELL AS HIS WRATH
(TERESE NIELSEN)

Heliod as Campaign Villain

Whether Heliod is a villain from the beginning of the campaign or takes a villainous turn against his former champions, a campaign centered on Heliod’s arrogance and peevishness brings the worst of the sun god’s qualities into focus.

As a campaign villain, Heliod is most likely driven by his desire to assert his rulership over the other gods of the pantheon and his kingship over everything: Nyx, the mortal world, and the Underworld. He might begin, through his agents, by enacting laws that make participation in Heliod’s rites mandatory for the citizens of a polis. From there, it’s a small step to suppressing the open worship of other gods, then trying to spread both policies to other cities. If the characters are champions of other gods, they might find themselves the targets of Heliod’s agents, marked as a threat to order and stability in the poleis.

Such a campaign might end with the characters appeasing Heliod in some way, convincing the other gods (especially Kruphix or Klothys) to intervene and rein in Heliod’s hubris, or even confronting Heliod with the support of other gods.

Heliod’s Divine Schemes

Heliod’s activities among the other gods can have a wide-ranging impact on the pantheon and the mortal world. The Heliod’s Divine Schemes table offers examples of how the god might have a mythic impact on the mortal world, embroiling the characters in the middle of divine squabbles.

ROLL TABLE TO VTT

d4	Scheme
1	Heliod decides to confront Erebos in the Underworld. He gathers fallen heroes around him as he marches on Erebos’s palace in Tizerus. Meanwhile, the sun has vanished from the sky in the mortal world, and the dead can’t enter the Underworld.
2	Heliod grows tired of the battles between Iroas and Mogis, and he decides to end their conflict by banishing Mogis. To his surprise, both gods turn against him. The resulting conflict causes the sun to rain divine blood, producing bizarre effects.
3	Angry at the hubris of nobles who boast of having the best hounds, Heliod turns all dogs into wolves and monsters that kill and run wild.
4	Heliod arms a champion with his weapon, Khrusor, but the hero goes wild with power and tries to slay Purphoros. The repercussions border on the cataclysmic, with the champion slain, Mount Velus erupting, and the spear shattered. Only Purphoros can repair the spear, and he’s hardly in the mood to do so.

Sun Temple

These multistory towers of worship rise atop mountains, hills, and the highest ground in a settlement, bringing congregants as close as possible to the sun. Huge windows, light-reflecting stone, and art depicting legendary heroes make every sun temple a bright, inspiring space.

The rites conducted in sun temples include marriages, ceremonies to honor heroes, dawn worship services, breakfast banquets, and occasionally funerals, which typically involve a pyre for the deceased. These events are held on the temple’s roof, where worshipers are closest to the sun and can feel its warmth.

Sun Temple Adventures

Sun temples honor heroes and record their deeds. An adventure in which the characters need to meet, research, protect, or confront a legendary figure might happen in one of these houses of worship. Additionally, large groups gather in these temples, potentially leading to adventures involving crowds that need to be protected, quelled, or investigated. The Sun Temple Adventures table offers plots that could occur in such a place.

ROLL TABLE TO VTT

d12	Adventure Goal
1	Acquire an artifact used by a legendary hero.
2	Defend a hero being honored in a ceremony from an assassination attempt.
3	Acquire the remains of a legendary hero from the temple’s crypts so the person can be resurrected.
4	Prevent a wedding from taking place, so the couple’s union doesn’t fulfill an ominous prophecy.
5	Expose a celebrated hero as a fraud.
6	Learn the sins of a person seeking religious counsel.
7	Find out who among a crowd of people gathered at the temple murdered a priest.
8	Disperse a mob of people who blame Heliod and his clergy for a long drought.
9	Defend the temple’s worshipers from followers of Mogis assaulting the building.
10	Offer Heliod a burnt sacrifice to gain his blessing.
11	Offer Heliod a mass sacrifice to prevent him from smiting a nearby settlement.
12	Find a hero’s firsthand account of a battle with a unique monster among the temple’s records before a rival group of adventurers does.

Sun Temple Map

The sun temple shown in map 4.4 presents a common design for Heliod’s holy sites. Most ceremonies take place on the rooftop, which is surrounded by statues of heroic figures and magnificent gardens that bloom in the dawn light. Worshipers reach the top by climbing stairs on the outside of the tower.

Floor-to-ceiling windows on the temple’s fourth level reveal a crypt with hundreds of funeral urns placed in niches on the wall and in decorative columns. Lower levels hold the personal chambers of priests, as well as quiet chambers where people can worship at small altars or seek counsel from clergy who specialize in matters of morality. The temple’s ground floor contains a museum displaying heroic artifacts and accounts of epic deeds, all of which are guarded by the ghosts of heroes interred in the crypt.

Sun Temple Villains

Although sun temples are places that glorify heroic deeds, they do attract villains eager to please Heliod, defy him, or twist his tenets. Examples of such villains appear on the Sun Temple Villains table.

ROLL TABLE TO VTT

d6	Villain
1	A once-heroic veteran seeking to regain his youthful strength tries to burn attendees at a dawn banquet as a sacrifice to Heliod.
2	A secret cabal of Phenax cult fanatics infiltrates the temple and uses details learned in private counseling sessions to blackmail worshipers.
3	An adult blue dragon, scarred by a champion of Heliod, seeks to destroy all sun temples in the hopes of bringing about everlasting night.
4	A corrupt oracle (see chapter 6) of Heliod sells counterfeit heroic artifacts to those he can’t see as being destined for greatness.
5	A lazy priest of Heliod risks bringing the god’s wrath down upon the entire temple.
6	An archmage devoted to Heliod has created a second sun, one which endlessly illuminates the land and burns those she considers wicked.

Heliod

Heliod