Thornhold
Thornhold is the cliffside fortress of House Margaster. Currently the winter residence of Olga Margaster, her wife Apryl Wands-Margaster, and the Margaster Brood, Thornhold is the southern lynchpin of the Mere of Dead Men's trade road. Sworn to defend the road and all its travelers, Olga has further sworn House Margaster to taming and civilizing the Mere of Dead Men itself.
History
The earliest records said that Thornhold was the fortress of Brunyundar Margaster, a local warlord of the Waterdhavian Margaster family. They held the keep until Brunyundar was overthrown by Samular Caradoon shortly after the end of the Second Trollwar in the mid−10th century DR. While Thornhold remained under the ownership of the Margaster family, it actually functioned as a chapterhouse for the Tyrran Knights of Samular until the mid–14th century DR.
In the Year of the Banner, 1368 DR, Hronrulf Caradoon died and the family keep was briefly seized by the Zhentarim. The malevolent agents traveled through the Underdark, enslaved many dwarves of Clan Stoneshaft, and made their way in through the underground passage beneath Thornhold.
The clan's leader Ebenezer Stoneshaft rallied his kin and allied himself with Hronrulf's daughter and agent of the Harpers, Bronwyn Caradoon. The allies banded together and reclaimed the ancestral Margaster home from the Zhentarim. In an act of benevolence and generosity, Bronwyn gifted the fortress to the Stoneshaft dwarves. The dwarves renamed the keep Stoneshaft Hold and transformed it into a caravan stop for traders about to brave the stretch of the High Road bordering the Mere of Dead Men.
When the Spellplague brought on geological changes to all of Faerûn circa the 1380s DR, the Mere of Dead Men expanded and trade to and from the keep was largely cut off. During that time the Stoneshaft dwarves became increasingly isolated from the surrounding lands. There were rumors that said that the caves beneath Thornhold held a passageway that led down to the depths of the Underdark. The existence of these caves, while true, were largely kept secret by the dwarves of Clan Stoneshaft, as it led down to their ancestral Clanhold.
As of the late 15th century, both the Margaster family and the Knights of Samular both felt they were owed the rights to claim Thornhold for their respective interests. However, Olga Margaster claimed the fortress by right of battle and successfully ousted the Stoneshaft Clan and their allies in 1493. Unlike the knights and dwarves, she also filed the appropriate paperwork and paid due taxes, which helped legitimize her claim when the aforementioned parties took their gripes to the Open Lord of Waterdeep. The case was ruled in favor of House Margaster, and Thornhold is now theirs once more.
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