Castle Enneth. A small walled city with a small castle or manor house, Enneth supposedly still is in good condition. Economic plight caused the city to dwindle during the Zhent reign. The last regular residents are believed to have left Enneth in the Year of the Prince (1357 DR). However, the Freedom Fighters used it after that time as a base of operations. Much of Enneth still is in good condition. The city could be revived, if new residents can be found. Sufficient Freedom Fighters remain in Enneth to keep it free of monsters.

Castle Enneth

Castle Enneth was completed in the Year of the Laughing Gull (799 DR), when Merrydale still was suffering under the vampire plague. The complex was built by a paladin of Torm known as Sir Delhorn Enneth, who is said to have been one of those who marched to Bloodstone and helped to destroy the vampire lords and their followers in the Year of the Patchworked Peace (802 DR). Castle Enneth is not really a castle as such, but rather a fortified village that has Sir Delhorn's castle as its focal point.

Sages claim that no foe succeeded in conquering Castle Enneth from the day it was completed until it was abandoned by its remaining residents shortly before the Time of Troubles in the Year of the Prince (1357 DR). In the years since that time, it had been used as a remote holdout of the Freedom Fighters in their war against the Zhentarim, who never made a serious attempt to take Castle Enneth, although flying Zhentarim mages did wage aerial attacks on a few occasions when Randal Morn was known or believed to be within the complex.

While these mages had done some respectable damage to the village on a few occasions, none of them reckoned with the stolen triple ballista the Freedom Fighters had mounted atop the castle, which succeeded in bringing the mages down for all time.

The visitor to Castle Enneth already can see from some distance the four-tiered hill with its fortress at the very top. An enemy must pass through five walls to reach the castle at the top. The first wall surrounds the hill on the valley floor, and the four subsequent walls skirt each tier of the hill.

However, the castle fortress and the high wall surrounding it are the only parts of Castle Enneth that are in really top condition. The Freedom Fighters have done their best to keep both in good shape. The remaining walls stand unbreached, but the weather and attacks from small, roaming bands of orcs or flying Zhentarim mages have taken their toll on the other levels. In most cases, the wall is merely weakened, however, because of mortar falling out from between the stones that make up the wall. There still is time to strengthen the wall, but if nothing is done, it will begin to collapse within a few more years.

In general, the condition of the walls gets poorer with each lower level. The same is true for the buildings. Flaming orc arrows from outside the walls set many farms on the valley level and the first two tiers of the hill in flames in years gone by, and the burnt frames and hulks of these structures stand in places, beyond repair.

The Freedom Fighters maintained not only the castle and its defensive tower on the hill's crown but also attempted to maintain those buildings on the Village Tier immediately below the castle as well as they could. None of these buildings is fit to use as they stand today. For more than a dozen winters, they all have gone unheated, taking a toll on each and every one of them. Nonetheless, they are salvageable, and their restoration will cost substantially less than it would to tear them down and build anew.

Lord Morn has strong hopes that people will resettle Castle Enneth and bring the village back to life again. There are several reasons for this. Castle Enneth and the surrounding area enjoys rich fertile black soils dating back to a time when more of the area was under water and Enneth Creek perhaps was a large river.

In the time of the Zhentarim, Castle Enneth's economic base gradually deteriorated, as ever more people left the rural regions of Daggerdale, including those surrounding the walled village. The only remaining markets were the Zhentish garrisons in Kellet and Dagger Falls to the north, but after both Kellet and Liethen's Falls were destroyed by dragons in the Year of the Worm (1356 DR), passage to Dagger Falls had become all but impossible, and the farmers had no place left to sell their produce.

The remaining folk in Castle Enneth were forced to rely on only that which they could produce themselves, and that was too little. They fled and abandoned their historical village to the bands of Freedom Fighters who at least succeeded in keeping it out of orc hands. The Zhentarim were only mildly interested in the castle; it had little strategic value and no economic value for them, although the Freedom Fighters' use of the castle as a hideout was an irritation.

Castle Enneth's fate was similar in the end to that of many settlements in Daggerdale. The Zhentarim never were interested in Daggerdale or its folk as resources in their own right. By taking control of the dale, the Black Network was able to maintain a buffer between "its" territory in the north and on the Moonsea in the east and "enemy" territory in Shadowdale, Mistledale and Cormyr, and it was able to protect a key trade route it had developed through the Tesh Valley to Anauroch.

Randal Morn, of course, has a much different view of Daggerdale. He wishes to bring the dale back to life again. To do that, he needs to revitalize military strongholds like Castle Enneth to protect the heart of the dale from the orcs and renegade Zhentish troops taking refuge in the foothills of the Desertsmouth Mountains, and he needs the fertile fields surrounding Castle Enneth to be sowed again, to feed the new population he hopes to build in Daggerdale.

Late in the Year of the Gauntlet (1369 DR), Lord Morn issued an edict that all former residents of Castle Enneth must return to their old holdings before the end of Kythorn in the Year of the Tankard (1370 DR) or risk losing claim to their property forever. As of the 1^st of Flamerule in that year, Lord Morn said his government would honor the claim of others who wished to restore abandoned farms and other buildings and would issue title to them.

If your campaign is running after this deadline and your PCs are adventuring in eastern or central Daggerdale, this could give them a chance to set up a secure base of operations in Castle Enneth. Lord Morn would welcome a claim from such adventurers in Castle Enneth, because their presence would increase the settlement's defensive strength, making it easier to convince others to resettle Castle Enneth.

Whatever course your PCs may take, Lord Morn is aware that much of Castle Enneth still can be restored. It is his hope and goal to do so. If he succeeds, Castle Enneth not only will join Dagger Falls and Anathar's Dell as one of Daggerdale's largest settlements, but it also will provide him and his Freedom Fighters with a strong defensive fortress that faces off against the Zhentish renegades, the orcs and other vile creatures holed up in the Desertsmouth Mountains to the west.

The Map of Castle Enneth

NOTE: The map is, in some respects, deceptive. It shows the walled village of Castle Enneth and all that is in it, but everything appears to be in good condition or to be a ruin. As mentioned above, this is not the case. Only the castle complex itself has been fully maintained. All other buildings that are not ruins are in need of repairs, in most cases substantial repairs. And for some that appear to be perfect buildings on the map, repairs already have gone out of the question financially. Similarly, the farmlands shown on the map or not in production. They have not been tilled for a dozen or more years. These are merely the fertile fields that once were farmed successfully and, with work, that could be successfully farmed again.

The Walls:

Like the rest of the village, the stability of the walls decreases the lower one goes. The two lowest walls are in need of very extensive repairs. If they are not made, many parts of these walls will collapse in less than five years. Only the wall around the castle itself is well maintained or manned regularly. In times of danger, if enough Freedom Fighters are present, the towers of the Village Tier also will be manned, at least in part.

The towers on the three lower tiers never are manned, but the Freedom Fighters keep all of the gatehouses in reasonably good condition. Each gatehouse contains a portcullis that can be raised or lowered, and these function on all levels, although the portcullis in all but the Castle Tier Gate are kept up and open except in times of danger.

1 - Signal Fire Tower. Maintained by the Freedom Fighters and used by them in times of danger. Weather permitting, such fires can be seen in Black Switch, Green Orb, Dagger Springs and on parts of the Tethyamar Trail.

2 - Sir Delhorn's Castle. Used by the Freedom Fighters. There always is a permanent party of 12 Freedom Fighters in the castle, and when regional units are staying in Castle Enneth, 5d12 Freedom Fighters more will be there. The castle is circled by a bricked dry moat 20 feet/6m deep and 30 feet/9 m wide. Some water usually stands in the middle of the moat.

3 - Eye of Torm. This tower stands 100 feet/30 m high and gives the Freedom Fighters a view over parts of Daggerdale up to 50 miles/80 km distant on a clear day.

4 - Stables. These buildings need minor repairs, but they are in the best condition after the castle complex above. The Freedom Fighters stable their horses here.

5 - Siege Warehouses. In earlier times, grain and other non-perishable foods were stored here to sustain the village in times of attack or siege. The walls have become structurally weak, and some roof tiles are missing, causing leaks at rainy times, but repairs still would be feasible. The warehouses are empty.

6 - Weaponsmith's Shop. The building is in relatively good condition, but with the stone furnace built as a part of the structure itself, expensive modifications would be necessary to put the building to a different use. Otherwise, the building could be restored at relatively moderate cost. There are neither anvil nor smith's tools in the building.

7 - Desert's Mouth Tavern. The building is for the most part structurally sound, but it did have a leaky roof for a few years that the Freedom Fighters fixed one summer. During the time the roof leaked, the wooden furnishings inside began to rot slightly, and the wooden stairway to the quarters above collapsed.

8 - Blacksmith's shop. The description is basically the same as for the weaponsmith's shop, except that the outer walls are in bad need of new mortar.

9 - General Store. Most of the store's interior is of wood that has been exposed to the elements, and much of it has to be replaced, but the building is structurally sound.

10 - Wainwright's Wagon Works. Wood rot is a serious problem, but the shop is not beyond restoration.

11 - Enneth Castle Inn. The outer building itself is structurally sound, but wooden stairways, walkways and floors on the upper story all are in poor condition, and is some places, they are liable to collapse.

12 - House of the Steadfast Gauntlet - Shrines. In Sir Delhorn's time, this structure was a temple to Torm. The altar with his symbol of a gauntlet still is the focal point of the building, but Freedom Fighters who worship Tempus and Tymora also have set up small shrines to these deities in other areas of the building. Some maintenance and minor repairs are necessary, but the building is in generally good condition, nearly as good as the stables.

13 - Armor Maker's Shop. The description of the weapon maker's shop (No. 6) fits here too, except that one of the wooden beams supporting the upper story and the roof is infested by termites. It's only a matter of time until there is a collapse, if the beam is not replaced.

This tier gets its name from the spring on the eastern face, which is the source of Enneth Creek, near the ruin of the Chauntea Temple. Enneth Creek flows from its source through Black Switch, beneath a small stone bridge spanning the Tethyamar Trail and into the Cold Rush east of the trail. Only one house and two barns on this level are in ruin, but most of the other buildings require fairly extensive repairs.

14 - Ruin of the Chauntea Temple. The abandoned temple was struck by lightning during a thunderstorm in the Year of the Helm (1362 DR). Most of the roof was destroyed and the interior was gutted. The stone walls still stand in most places, but they are unstable and always in danger of collapse. The temple is beyond restoration and will be dangerous until it is torn down.

All of the buildings on these levels were farms, most with barns. The buildings on this level are in need of extensive repairs. Most roofs leak as well. About half of the structures that are not in ruin still would be feasible to repair, although at substantial cost. The rest need to be torn down and replaced, along with the ruins.