Targos The Time of Troubles & Era of Upheaval We would like to welcome you to our homebrewed Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Inspired By Ed Greenwood

Targos was a fishing settlement in Icewind Dale and a leading member of the Ten Towns in the 14th century DR. It was the biggest of the Ten Towns after Bryn Shander, sitting alongside Easthaven in size.

The settlement sat on the southernmost shore of the Maer Dualdon, near a series of high cliff walls that sheltered its port from the savage winter winds. It lay at the end of Ten Trail ran up the Sword Coast North from Luskan. Paths linked Targos to Bremen (3 hours on foot), Bryn Shander (2 hours), and Termalaine (4 hours), the latter running around Maer Dualdon.

Targos was a sprawling town with uncluttered streets. The buildings had breathing space, being separated by wide avenues. While the inhabitants were used to the sense of privacy provided by these spacious accommodations, they gave off a feeling of solitude for those not used to the town's life.

This, however, changed by the mid-1480s DR, when Targos became abuzz with commerce and industry that brought the city's expansion. The newer inhabitants started to construct shacks beyond the city's wooden walls and the town threatened to grow beyond them before long.

Unlike Bryn Shander, Targos's nights were quiet as the fishers went to bed early, in order to be ready for the next day's early rise. During the day, the Targosans focused on getting the job down and minding their own business, rather than that of everyone else.

The travel time for a merchant caravan between Luskan and Targos was approximately twenty-one days via the Ten Trail. Though Targos and the rest of the Ten Towns were resolutely independent and competitive with one another, they did maintain a council with a spokesperson from each town to manage affairs affecting them all. Typically, in the mid-to-late 1300s DR, the smaller towns would follow the lead of Targos and Bryn Shander. The heraldic symbol of Targos in the late 15th century DR was a black ship with a single sail and heading right, on a field of light blue. This was emblematic of how proud Targosans were of their fishing fleet.

The town and much of the harbor was surrounded by a wooden defensive wall, called the palisade. Together with Bryn Shander, Targos was the only other of the Ten Towns to be walled. It had historically protected Targos from both barbarian and orc raids and other dangers from the wilds. The wall was extended over Maer Dualdon, to form a safe harbor. The timbers used were firs from Lonelywood.

The town was patrolled and defended by the Targos Guard, a militia comprising 100 to 500 people circa 1358 DR. They were outfitted with light armor but dwarf-crafted weapons. Circa 1489 DR, it comprised 200 militiamen and 16 veteran soldiers, led by Skath. Circa 1312 it was led by Shawford Crale and circa 1489 DR by Captain Skath.

Notable Locations
• The Luskan Arms
• Graendel's Fine Dwarven Craft
• Salty Dog Tavern
• Gallaway Trade Depot
• Three Flags Sailing
• The Trip and Shuffle
• Graendel Granitefist
• Weeping Willow Inn
• Wolf's Pelt Inn
• Merket Square
• Pendro's Pawnshop
• Temple Pavilion
• Triglio

Eccentric gnomish tinkerer Oswald Fiddlebender was briefly an aerial scout for the guard in the early 14th century DR. The harbor's deep water allowed the construction of vessels that were large for the area. As a result, Targos always enjoyed the largest fishing fleet, the best boats, a safe harbor, the most skilled sailors and fishers, and consequently the greatest catches. It thrived off and dominated the local fishing industry more than any of the Ten Towns. Like most of the Ten Towns, Targos specialized in trading knucklehead trout.

In the early 1300s DR, it already dominated the local fishing industry and took more knucklehead than any other town. In the mid-to-late 1300s DR, its hundred-boat fleet took in a larger catch than the other three towns on Maer Dualdon combined. Some of the town's biggest vessels were two-masted schooners and Targos's fleet was twice the size of Termalaine's. In the late 1400s DR, it faced off competition from Easthaven (whose growth had stolen trade from Targos and Termaline) by focusing on its strengths in fishing and it still maintained a fleet of over a hundred boats.

Almost everyone in Targos was connected in some way to the fishing industry and the core work of bringing in the knucklehead catches. Specialty craftsmen and traders provided supplies and equipment for fishing and sailing. The Dockworker's Guild of Targos was active circa 1485 DR. This was the only guild in the Ten Towns and spoke for the loaders, shipwrights, and warehouse workers. It sought expansion to the other towns to grow Targos's influence.

Built on the same lake, Targos and Termalaine were traditional rivals for fishing, oftentimes bitter, with fishers exchanging rude remarks and nasty glares when passing each other in the water and even getting into brawls, on rare occasions even leading to deaths. Disputes over fishing waters, crossed lines, blocked courses, bumped boats, scared fish, and poached catches were all causes for conflict. Their antagonism and suspicion of one another prevented them from cooperating long enough in any effort to improve the Ten Trail south to Bryn Shander.

In the mid–14th century DR, the councilman of Targos was Councilman Kemp, who led the town through an assault by the Tribe of the Elk barbarians in the Year of the Crown, 1351 DR and the Battle of Icewind Dale triggered by Akar Kessell and Crenshinibon in the Year of the Worm, 1356 DR. During that battle, Kessell fired a magical beam of focused sunlight from his tower, Cryshal-Tirith, that blasted Targos, burning both major buildings and townsfolk where they had watched the walls. Next, Akar Kessell's forces surrounded and occupied Targos. Many inhabitants of the town escaped on the ships that had escaped the fires while others hid and barricaded themselves within their homes, preferring time and the elements to take the lives of the savage invaders. However, a few took up arms and actively fought Kessell's minions. One of these defenders was the "Old Scout", the father of Pilot Demitrick.

He, along with three trusted comrades, carried out guerrilla strikes on Kessell's forces, targeting patrols and supply caravans. After three days of this, to find out who was responsible, Akar Kessell tortured several citizens of Targos, and then captured Pilot's mother to force the Old Scout to surrender himself. Once he had them, Kessell killed them both as an example of his tyrannical will. Eventually, the siege was broken by the Companions of the Hall, who slew the evil wizard and destroyed the Crystal Tower. The Battle of Icewind Dale left Targos with an entire district of the city incinerated and blackened by the killing beam from Kessell's crystal tower. The area was later known as the "Ash Quarter". The scorching ray had destroyed most major structures and left several hundred people dead, though fortunately missed the ships where they lay in the harbor.

The first winter that followed the war was a hard one. But Targos was rebuilt with the collective effort of the Ten Towns and the newfound alliance with Reghedman barbarians. During his term as the Speaker, Kemp was distrustful of outsiders "but he allowed the entry to the settlement keeping a close watch on them" and guarded his town's interests greedily.