Valkur's Berth

Valkur's Berth was a cellar temple dedicated to the deity Valkur, the Captain of the Waves, located in the capital of Cormyr – Suzail.
==Location==
Valkur's Berth stood on the western edge of the arch that formed the street of Tholone Lane that cut trough a city block between Nerester's Run and Silverscales Street. The buildings on Tholone Lane consisted of businesses and other establishments on the ground floors and cellars, while the top floors were used as apartments. Valkur's Berth took the second cellar underneath Murrock's Fine Glass, a blackened building commonly referred to as the "Black Rock" (previously the offices of the defunct Tireless Eyes trading coster. Ildul Murrock of Murrock's Fine Glass was a Valkuryte. He did not charge the temple rent and even provided the clergy with meals. The well-hidden side-entrance led into Valkur's Berth right in the middle of the block, accessible via a long steep ramps.
==Interior==
The temple was a cellar always wet from the harbor waters seeping through the walls all year round. When the water reached , it was pumped out by the temple's clergy. The clerics did not mind some water on the Berth's floors as it kept vermin, such as roaches and rats, at bay.
The temple's main chamber had a collection of hanging wooden benches that were chained to the room's ceiling-rafters and elevated stone walkways that radiated from the central altar to the temple's god. The altar itself was a stone block carved with Valkur's holy symbols and decorated with a gilded mosaic, which, in turn, was placed atop a tall floating raft made of logs that also served as a hiding place for smuggled goods and storage for temple supplies and offerings.
The main hall had several hidden side doors that led into the temple's facilities and the clergy quarters, as well as some crawl passages connected to other buildings on the block.
==Services==
Apart from the standard priestly services, the temple also aided smugglers as part of the church's dogma to aid sailors in avoiding taxes and oppression of laws. This smuggling aid was performed without asking for payments, but if offered, the Berth accepted monetary reward.
The clergy also actively waged war against slavers and pirates of the Inner Sea and sought to destroy ghost ships and other seafaring undead. The clergy also covertly worked to control shipping and goods prices by fabricating artificial shortages and other similarly chaotic schemes. Despite such clandestine goals, Valkur's Berth never tried to aid those seeking to overthrow the Crown of Cormyr or other powers in the region.
==History==
By the late 14 century DR, Valkur's Berth's clergy regularly embarked on sailing journeys across the Sea of Fallen Stars as a way to venerate their deity and, as a result, exchanged staff across the coastal temples of the Captain of the Waves. At one time, Valkur's Berth in Suzail house between three to five priests. In the late 14 century DR, the temple's de facto leader was the elderly cleric named Amagar Warland, who by the third year at Valkur's Berth gained reputation and renown in Suzail for defusing explosive situations among drunken sailors, offering them temporary comfort of the temple and coinlassess hired by Amagar for them, instead of alcohol. Another notable cleric at the time was Jalatharra "Storm Bird" Storn, who spent several seasons at the Berth before departing, only to eventually return to socialize with Suzail's young nobles.
==Appendix==
===See Also===
*Interactive map of Suzail
===References===
Category:Temples
Category:Temples to Valkur
Category:Valkuryte locations
Category:Locations on the Tholone Lane
Category:Locations in Suzail
Category:Locations in Cormyr
Category:Locations in Interior Faerûn
Category:Locations in the Eastern Heartlands
Category:Locations in Faerûn
Category:Locations on Toril
Category:Year of Metropolises
Category:Underground locations