Godsfrown Shield

A Godsfrown Shield was a form of financial transaction that required payment in exchange for a future payment were some other condition to come to pass.

Use
The purchase of a Godsfrown Shield required the purchaser to make recurring payments to the seller. The shield was for a given physical thing, such as a house, ship, or cargo. Were it to be stolen, destroyed, or otherwise come to misfortune within the agreed terms, then the seller would instead pay out a drastically larger sum than the recurring payments, thus becoming the "Godsfrown Shield". Sellers of Godsfrown Shields were expected to make arrangements to prevent misfortune from coming to happen on the matters on which the Godsfrown Shield was purchased.

In short, according to sages of the Realms, it was insurance.

History
Andemel Graeven purchased a Godsfrown Shield from Baerusin at some point prior to Ches 14 of the, securing his shop. Given Raurild Sarpath's comments on him having survived the fire, and his own later comments about there being a fire in his shop one hour from then, it was strongly implied he was going to commit insurance fraud.

Mystra later counterfeited Andemel's own memories of the event and diverted them to Elminster's mind, until in the, they were misappropriated by the archdevil Nergal.

Background
The Godsfrown Shield figures in a section of Elminster in Hell told as a flashback. The memory is titled "Only a Small Sort of Dragon" in the Realmslore section of the book.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Elminster in Hell