Dauntshield

Dauntshield was a small and sleepy village in Turmish with a rich industrial past.

Description
Dauntshield was a small, stark village that stood on the top of a barren rock ridge. Most structures in the town appeared plain and were constructed out of stone. Once a busy industrial settlement, the town was reduced to a humble shepherd and farmer community by the mid-14 century DR, with a few ambitious and optimistic prospectors. The town had one old keep, located on the south end of the ridge Dauntshield sat on.

Trade
In the past, Dauntshield was a busy center of blacksmithing, hot smoking forges, and smelting. The village produced iron and silver ingots and tradebars that were quite widespread. Even by the 14 century, some of the tradebars stamped with Dauntshield's mark - two stacked blank shields encircled by an oval border, could still be found in Turmish. Eventually, rich veins were exhausted, and the town became known as a sleepy farming community that created a type of sharp-flavored white cheese. The dairy product was gaining popularity and attracted the attention of merchants in the mid-to-late-14 century DR.

Even after Dauntshield became a shepherd town, prospectors regularly sought new rich veins, yerning for the past riches.

Defenses
The town was built on a very defensible position - atop a rock ridge.

History
In the, Turmish was under an assault by the orcs of the Candlekairn clan of the Orsraun Mountains. The horde leveled the cities of Shaus, Marikor, and Dauntshield. Candlekairn clan attempted to build fortifications on the site of destroyed Dauntshield, but they were, in turn, wiped out by Turmish in the late summer of the same year. Out of the three raized towns, only Dauntshield was rebuilt.

Sometime in the mid-14 century DR, Dauntshield was besieged by a band of bandits who came to seize stores of rubies and emeralds from the coffers of the town's most successful mining families - the dwarven family of Fastspur and human families of Kaskar and Maerittar. Dauntshield did not withstand the attack - something memorialized by the shattered battlements of the town's keep. All members of the three families that brigands could find were killed, and the bandits claimed the loot. Historical records stated that the brigands were able to "strip off their rags and dive into the gems, swimming through a vast pile of them as if through a bathing-pool." Dauntshield's masters in the city of Alaghôn retaliated swiftly. The Turmite army marched on Dauntshield and disposed of the brigands. However, the gems were gone, and no survivor of the conflict knew where they disappeared to. The witnesses claimed to see no mages or clerics among the bandits, so the sorcerous means of transportation were unlikely. And even though half a dozen bandits fled Dauntshield, the sheer amount of gems made it implausible for the surviving brigands to have taken the booty.

As of late-14 century DR, the gems' whereabouts were still a mystery even though most sages agreed that the loot was likely hidden somewhere within Dauntshield. Many adventurers and farmers sought the missing treasure by mundane and magical means but achieved nothing but disturbed and upturned earth in the village's many basements.

Notable Locations
The 14 centiry DR Dauntshield had a minor shrine to Silvanus.