Targos
argos was the second-largest city of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale. The scene inside the gates of Targos, the only other walled community in Ten-Towns, invites immediate comparison with Bryn Shander. Both towns are busy and crowded, but where Bryn Shander buzzes with the vibrant energy of its market, Targos hums with the steady industry of its docks. In Bryn Shander during the day, locals constantly look to see who has come in the gates, while travelers wander about taking in the town; at night, the taverns are full of people getting to know each other over a few pints of mead. In Targos during the day, people walk through the street quickly with their noses down, intent on getting their work done. When night falls and the last boats are in, the town goes quiet as the fishers head for their beds, to get what rest they can before the dawn finds them back out on the lake.
Geography
The city sits on the southernmost shore of the Maer Dualdon along a series of high cliff walls that shelter its port from the savage winter winds. The harbor's deep water allow the construction of vessels which were large for the area, and the sheltering cliffs permit construction to continue through much of the year. As a result the town is amongst the top towns of the region for dominance of the knucklehead trout industry.
Like Bryn Shander, Targos is encircled by a wooden wall, which in the past has protected the town against orc and barbarian raids. Lately, though, the wall has gotten in the way of the town’s growth, and new residents have started erecting shanties outside the wall. The wall extends out over the lake, creating a safe harbor for the town’s boats and giving Targos another advantage over its rival, Termalaine, whose fleet is occasionally damaged by the storms that blow in from the Sea of Moving Ice.
History
Ca. 1351 DR, the councilman of Targos was Kemp, who protected the town from a barbarian invasion in 1351 DR and the magical light beam sent by Akar Kessell in 1356 DR. Kemp was distrustful of outsiders and guarded his town's interests greedily.
Trade
Almost all the towns in Icewind Dale make their living off the lakes, but nowhere is that fact more on display than in Targos. The town has always had the biggest fishing fleet, the best ships, the most knowledgeable sailors, and, as a result, the biggest hauls. Even though Easthaven has threatened to overtake it, Targos has retained its dominant position in the fishing industry by concentrating on what it does best. Nearly every resident is involved in some facet of the fishing business, and everything that goes on in town revolves around the work of hauling the knucklehead out of Maer Dualdon’s waters.
Notable Locations
Inns & Taverns- Wolf's Pelt Inn.
- Salty Dog Tavern - A tavern located in the cove at the base of the cliffs.
- Weeping Widow Inn.
- Wind Gate.
- The Trip and Shuffle - A rough tavern located near the gate and run by Russell, a former Purple Dragon knight fleeing from a death sentence in Cormyr.
- Three Flags Sailing - The tavern where fishers coming in off the lake grab a bowl of stew and a quick pint before heading to bed. The atmosphere at the Three Flags is subdued—the fishers are usually weary from their long day’s work, more interested in eating than socializing. The mood occasionally turns boisterous when the town celebrates a good haul or when one of the crews recounts the tale of a fight with fishers from Termalaine. Three Flags Sailing is run by a plump, gray-haired widow named Ethen, whom the local fishers call “Ma.” She bustles around the tavern making sure everyone has a hot beer—“to take the chill off,” she says—and fusses over the men as if they were her own sons (which a few of them are).
- The Luskan Arms - The oldest public house in Ten-Towns, established back when Bryn Shander was still just “the cabin on the hill” and Luskan was a thriving city. Many of the traders who came to Targos in those days hailed from Luskan, so the Luskan Arms was built to look like an inn that might be found in the City of Sails. As a result, much of the decor is nearly two hundred years old, providing a snapshot of Luskan as it was in the years before its decline and ruin. Pennants bearing the arms of the five ships of Luskan’s High Captains hang from the inn’s walls, and a vellum map of the city is mounted over the hearth. The innkeeper, a quiet, balding man named Owenn, knows bits and pieces of the city’s lore, some of which were passed on to him by his father, with the rest picked up from travelers who come to stay at the Arms.
Shops
- Triglio - The town’s general store, named for one of the chanteys that the fishers often sing when hard at work upon the lake: “Trigl-ee-oh, lads, an’ ’oist upon the line/Trigl-ee-oh, lads, an’ bring yon fishers in.” The proprietor is a thin, middle-aged man named Jestin, who fished the lake until his left hand was crushed in a collision with a rival boat from Termalaine. Now he sells foodstuffs, sackcloth, candles, lamp oil, snowshoes, wagon wheels, and various other necessities. The one thing he doesn’t sell is fishing or sailing supplies—in Targos, all such goods are supplied by specialty crafters and merchants. Adventurers can find most of their basic supplies at Triglio, and if they can’t, Jestin can tell them where else to look.
- Market Square - Located in the center of town.
- Graendel’s Fine Dwarven Craft - A smithy run by the aging Graendel Granitefist, one of the original dwarves who fled Mithral Hall with Clan Battlehammer and resettled in Icewind Dale. He has plied his trade in Targos since before most of the fishers’ grandsires were alive, and he is the only person left in Targos who remembers Akar Kessell’s invasion and the destruction that his Cryshal-Tirith wrought on the town, incinerating whole blocks of buildings with a focused beam of sunlight. The town has long since built over the devastation, but Graendel still tells the tale of that terrible day to anyone who’ll listen—usually captive-audience guards from Bryn Shander who have come to have their armor adjusted. Graendel has a fine eye for his craft and makes all of his pieces to order, fitting them perfectly to their intended recipients, whether an adventurer looking for a new blade or a boat in need of a new anchor. Because of Graendel’s exacting standards, his work often takes some time, and those in need of a quick armor patch or a simple fish-gutter usually make do with one of the other resident smiths.
The Dockworkers' Guild
Targos is the only community in Ten-Towns that has a guild—namely, the dockworkers’ guild, representing the town’s shipwrights, warehouse workers, and loaders. The guild was formed to ensure standards of quality and construction for the town’s fishing vessels and to prevent wildcat strikes by laborers who come to Targos during the busiest part of the fishing season.
Town speaker Giandro Holfast is one of the guild’s leaders, and he is attempting to expand the guild to the rest of Ten-Towns. Workers who join the guild would benefit from its wage and trade protections, and their towns would gain the expertise of Targos’s master shipwrights. Such expansion might cost Targos some of its competitive advantage with the other fishing towns, but Giandro believes that the increased influence such an arrangement would bring to his town would finally put Targos on an even footing with Bryn Shander.
“The folks in Targos are as hard-headed as the trout in their lake. They’d rather stay shut up behind their walls than admit they need help from anyone. Stubborn an’ proud, the lot of ’em. Makes a dwarf feel right at home.”
Fish, Knucklehead Trout Scrimshaw
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