Goldenfields
Goldenfields is a walled farming complex dedicated to Chauntea, the goddess of agriculture. It also serves as a base for the Emerald Enclave. Its harvests are crucial to cities throughout the North, Waterdeep in particular.
Goldenfields is a huge, walled temple-farm dedicated to Chauntea, the goddess of agriculture. Called “the Granary of the North,” it’s the only reason many Northerners ever taste soft-fleshed fruit larger than bush berries. Waterdeep and its neighbors consume the temple’s reliable output: carefully husbanded grains and dried, oil-packed, or salted foodstuffs preserved in vast storage cellars, vats, and squat stone grain-towers.
Run by Abbot Ellardin Darovik, Goldenfields is a stronghold of the Emerald Enclave. Members of that faction are as welcome here as clergy of Chauntea; many of them stay for months at a time to help with the work and the vigilant defense of the farm against insects and blights, as well as would-be vandals and plunderers. Hired guards and adventurers patrol the walls and the land immediately around them. Inside the farm, young treants allied with the Emerald Enclave hide within stands of trees, ready to animate trees to repel invaders. More than five thousand people live and work in Goldenfields year round, farming more than twenty square miles of tillage in gangs of hard-working gardeners.
The sprawling temple-farm is built on higher ground than the surrounding fields, and it’s enclosed on all sides by a wall of mortared stone. The outer wall is 60 feet high (20 feet high inside the compound) and 30 feet wide. The wall is built out at several points, spaced at least a mile apart, with stone pagodas and barracks at those locations. These watch posts have unobstructed views of the surrounding countryside. The outer wall is in need of repair in many places. Time and weather have eroded some of the mortar, creating ruts between the stones that can serve as handholds and footholds. The entrance to Goldenfields is a large stone gatehouse set into the middle of the south wall. Beyond its gates, dirt roads crisscross the interior of the compound, providing passage between and through its fields and orchards. Roads also run along the inside of the wall, connecting the various watch posts. During the harvest season, wagons make their way between the fields, gathering food and grain and transporting it to cellars beneath the watch posts, where the food is kept under lock and key until caravans from Waterdeep and other settlements arrive to pick it up. In addition to the large grain fields, fruit orchards, and vegetable gardens, smaller gardens hug the outer walls. These gardens grow berries, rhubarb plants, and other such fare. Most of Goldenfields’ workers live in a small town situated near the abbey, where the abbot hosts morning, noon, and evening prayer. North of town is an enormous inn called Northfurrow’s End. Visitors planning to spend the night in Goldenfields are directed here.
The sprawling temple-farm is built on higher ground than the surrounding fields, and it’s enclosed on all sides by a wall of mortared stone. The outer wall is 60 feet high (20 feet high inside the compound) and 30 feet wide. The wall is built out at several points, spaced at least a mile apart, with stone pagodas and barracks at those locations. These watch posts have unobstructed views of the surrounding countryside. The outer wall is in need of repair in many places. Time and weather have eroded some of the mortar, creating ruts between the stones that can serve as handholds and footholds. The entrance to Goldenfields is a large stone gatehouse set into the middle of the south wall. Beyond its gates, dirt roads crisscross the interior of the compound, providing passage between and through its fields and orchards. Roads also run along the inside of the wall, connecting the various watch posts. During the harvest season, wagons make their way between the fields, gathering food and grain and transporting it to cellars beneath the watch posts, where the food is kept under lock and key until caravans from Waterdeep and other settlements arrive to pick it up. In addition to the large grain fields, fruit orchards, and vegetable gardens, smaller gardens hug the outer walls. These gardens grow berries, rhubarb plants, and other such fare. Most of Goldenfields’ workers live in a small town situated near the abbey, where the abbot hosts morning, noon, and evening prayer. North of town is an enormous inn called Northfurrow’s End. Visitors planning to spend the night in Goldenfields are directed here.
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