Driftwood Asylum for Boys

Driftwood Asylum for Boys, most often simply Driftwood Asylum, is an orphanage in Port Damali. It has criminal ties, and the headmaster uses the children as free labor to produce wooden goods for sale. Fjord and Sabian grew up in this orphanage.

Description
Driftwood Asylum for Boys is an orphanage located in Port Damali in the Menagerie Coast. It is located on a cliff along a beach, overlooking the sea. The main building has three floors, a basement, and an interior courtyard. The exterior and interior facades are crumbling. Trees on the grounds and in the courtyard were barren, apparently dead. The boys slept in multiple crowded sleeping quarters.

Driftwood also included kistchens and a small wood shop where the boys all worked together. The grounds also included a stable housing one horse and a covered well. A low stone wall separated the grounds from the edge of the cliff. A wooden cart was kept in service of Driftwood, and it was marked on the back with a plate bearing the orphanages' name.

Daily life
Most chores and other labor around the orphanage were performed by the boys. It is unknown how many adult staff worked at the orphanage, but it was run by its headmaster Master Grankton for all of its known history and had at least one cook.

Grankton saw the children merely as tools for profit and was willing to risk their lives in that pursuit. He put the children to work creating wooden goods for sale with enforced daily quotas, and he sent the children on dangerous dives to salvage ships that were capsized or wrecked around Port Damali. These dives were among the few opportunities the children had to leave the workshop. Grankton also gave the children surnames to remind the children why they were at the orphanage. He told the boys that he had "salvaged" them and gave them purpose where he claimed they otherwise would forever have none.

History
Fjord arrived at the orphanage circa 805 PD. He was one of about twenty-four children living there, including Sabian. The children were primarily raised by one other. Fjord was the only half-orc child, and the others were mostly human and half-elf. Fjord faced prejudice from Grankton and the other children over his orcish heritage, and he was ostracized and relentlessly bullied by the others, led by Sabian.

The salvage dives became increasingly dangerous over the years as Grankton took more risks with the boys' lives in search of profit. Fjord also noted that "shady people" began coming through the building and heard rumors that Grankton was striking deals with various criminal organizations, including members of The Myriad. Travis Willingham, Fjord's player, additionally suggested that criminal elements in the Clovis Concord were also involved. Boys were sent on what Fjord suspected to be smuggling runs; some never returned. Otherwise, life at Driftwood Asylum remained unchanged.

When Fjord and Sabian were about seventeen, around 822 PD, Captain Vandran paid Grankton for the ability to visit the orphanage and solicit deckhands for the Tide's Breath. Vandran warned that the work would be difficult but they would be trained and paid a small but regular wage. Fjord wished to take the offer, but he reconsidered when Sabian quickly volunteered. Vandran had Fjord come as well. No others accepted the offer.

At some point after Sydenstar 836 PD, the end of Campaign 2, Fjord and Jester returned to Port Damali to rid the orphanage of its criminal ties, unseat Grankton and his associates, and clean up conditions there. The wood shop remained at the location.

Trivia

 * Although the term "asylum" is commonly associated with historical mental institutions, it was also a common term for orphanages in the 18th and 19th centuries and is found in many of their names during that period, notably in the United States and the United Kingdom.