Padan's Hold

Padan’s Hold is a solitary tower perched on the desolate eastern edge of the Wailing Hills, a forsaken stronghold built during a more hopeful era. Situated in one of the most remote and unwelcoming parts of Teros Minor, the tower’s bleak silhouette rises above a barren landscape of jagged rocks and dry scrubland. It was erected over twenty-five years ago when Padan’s father, Arman Padan, launched an ambitious but ill-fated attempt to mine silver from the unforgiving hills. The project began in earnest but was soon abandoned with the outbreak of the War of Salvation, and the mines have since been left to rot.

Now, Padan’s Hold is a crumbling relic, with only Lord Vessir Padan himself and a handful of beleaguered retainers remaining. The tower’s cold, empty halls echo with the wind that sweeps across the hills, and its lower levels, once bustling with miners and workers, now lie empty and desolate. The few rooms still in use are poorly furnished and sparsely lit, a stark contrast to the once-grand ambitions that drove its construction.
Despite the abandonment of his father’s mining efforts, Padan remains obsessed with the belief that a rich vein of silver lies hidden somewhere deep in the hills. Day after day, he scours old maps and geological notes, convinced that wealth and fortune are only a few feet of earth and stone away. His obsession has driven away almost all who once served the family, leaving the lord with only a skeleton staff of three loyal retainers, too old or broken to leave.
Padan’s stubborn hope keeps him tethered to this inhospitable place, even as his resources dwindle and his health deteriorates. The few miners he can coax into returning to the hills have failed to find anything of value, and each failed attempt drives Padan deeper into frustration and bitterness. With the mines long-abandoned and no viable trade routes in this harsh region, Padan’s Hold stands as a crumbling monument to dreams of prosperity that never came to pass.
Though there is no longer any realistic prospect of restoring the mines, Padan refuses to abandon his post. Alone in his lonely tower, he stubbornly clings to his family’s failed legacy, unable to leave behind the promise of riches buried beneath the stony soil of the Wailing Hills.

Type

Castle