Ghaurin's Hold

Ghaurin's Hold was the ruins of a mansion, located in the Old Delzoun region of the Silver Marches.

Geography
Ghaurin's Hold was found not far from the Fork, the place where the Fork Road branched to become the Adbar Road and a nameless path leading to Ascore.

Description
The Hold was once a great stone manor, but by 1358 DR, all that remained of the mansion was its moss-covered foundation. By 1373 DR, all that remained of even the foundation were a few stones.

History
The mansion was once owned by the dwarven hero Ghaurin, the greatest hero of the Stoneheart clan. For 4,000 years, the manor had been a storehouse for the collected treasures of the clan, gathered primarily through adventuring. These were displayed within the Hold like a sort of museum. Visitors would come to see armor, axes, and swords from both the dwarves and their enemies, wielded over time.

In 820 DR, the arcanist Wulgreth summoned devils to Ascalhorn. Sixty years later, fey'ri-influenced human wizards summoned demons. Within two years, by the Year of the Curse, 882 DR, Ascalhorn, which would later be called Hellgate Keep, was a war zone of battling fiends. The demons were victorious, and poured from Ascalhorn into the surrounding lands. The Stoneheart clan were some of those brave souls who stood against the forces of darkness. The clan repelled the first assault of the demons, but the second wave of attackers decimated them. His entire family and clan dead, and demons closing in, from the center of his ancestral home, Ghaurin prayed to Moradin for a miracle. In answer, a great earthquake shook the ground, and the manor collapsed upon the demons destroying them.

Rumors & Legends
By the 1370s DR, the cellars of the Hold were still thought to contain Ghaurin's treasures. However, legends said that the ghost of Ghaurin still haunted the rooms, and there were a number of such stories about him told by the folk of the Marches. One legend stated that when the stars were right, the mansion would reappear, with a shimmer of air, in its former state, and that Ghaurin would be given a chance to correct his mistake.

Inhabitants
In reality, Ghaurin still roamed the cellars of the Hold, yet not as a ghost. When the mansion collapsed, Ghaurin himself was preserved, being transformed by magic into the form of a stone golem yet maintaining his mind. For hundreds of years, Ghaurin patrolled the cellars and tunnels of his former home, protecting it from intruders and ensuring that it could no longer be reached from the Fardrimm.