Refuge

A refuge was an enchantment which the Magister Maldiglas Turntower laid upon a number of areas in Faerûn. They responded to magic by thoroughly healing those within.

"All of us need a hidden, private place, a little refuge all our own where we can shut out the cares of the world for a while. It's why we build play-huts when we're young and love-nests when we're old- but those can be lost forever if the love fails. Those of us wise enough or lucky enough to have such a place as we grow older will keep our wits longer and laugh more than others."

- Excerpt from Words to an Apprentice quoting Lady Mage Laeral Silverhand.

Use
Each refuge was most likely a spherical dome across. They had no power to block entry, but any spell cast within, or enchanted object broken, or even breaking an object that was under the effects of a spell, triggered an effect upon the user. This effect could heal any hurts, purged feeblemind, geas, charm, fear, curses, and most other spell-borne alterations. They also provided warmth and coolness to the being inside, provided no other beings inside sought a different temperature. Being completely inside the refuge was not necessary to trigger its beneficial effects; simply intersecting its edge sufficed.

History
Maldiglas Turntower's project as the Magister was the creation of those refuges, which he began almost immediately upon gaining the mantle. He continued to create such refuges until his lifeforce drained completely.

After his death, a clay ball was broken at every magefair since, with a message inside each ball revealing the location of each such refuge. There was also a promise of retribution from Mystra if someone were to attempt to entrap, enclose, alter, or destroy such a refuge. Sources indicated the wrath of Mystra would also extend to those hurling dangerous spells into a refuge.

Locations

 * Easting: There was a refuge in a little hollow flanked by duskwood trees at the north end of a knoll covered in shrubs, south of town, off a caravan road between two marshes that turned into shallow ponds in the wet season.
 * Elmwood: Just west of the settled area, in the deep woods west of a pool known as Deepstar, there was a refuge between a felsul that split in three at ground level and the stump of a long-falled shadowtop.
 * Eshpurta: A refuge lay west of a cluster of brambleberry bushes, itself west off the westernmost gate at the eastern end of the southernmost east-west ridges south of the settled area.
 * Nashkel: South of the settled area there was a refuge between the Staring Ranger rock and the three black boulders known as the Eggs of the Dragon.
 * Neverwinter: In Eldath's Patch.
 * Saerb: Half a mile northwest by way of the Drunkard's Walk.
 * Silverymoon: On the roof of the aviary due east of Mielikki's Glade.
 * Soubar: East of Drunster's Well.
 * Starmantle: In a triangular depression northwest of the settled area, in a little cleft on the shore leading to a drop.
 * Suzail: In the cleared center of a planting of juniper bushes parallel to Lake Azoun, northwest of Vangerdahast's Tower.
 * Tilverton: Between two blue boulders, west of the Dragonbones.
 * Trailstone: The southwestern end of a haunted burial mound southwest of the settled area held a refuge in its downslope.
 * Waterdeep: In a cave within Mount Waterdeep, accessible through fourteen different gates spread across the city.