Port
Rowdy
Poor prices
Ledger and Lash
the port-side den where favours are paid in muscle
The door slams open into a press of bodies and steam. Oil lamps gutter against the harbor damp; the air smells of fish, tar, and stale ale that has been spilled and trampled more than once. A low roar of conversation rises and falls like tide—men arguing over debts, sailors swapping port gossip, and a cordoned corner where shadowy figures list names into a cramped ledger while a thickset man taps a baton against the table. The floorboards slope toward the water and the bar is scarred by knives and rope burn. Nobody moves quickly without someone else making sure they have a reason to.
A battered iron-frame sign: a stylised ledger with a coiled whip across its pages. Rust flakes at the edges; a new nail barely holds it up. No words, only the image, smeared with salt and old grease.
Maris Dred
human
Manner
Quirk
Stats
The Recruiter's Nod
2 spA strong, black spiced rum with a bitter dash of seawort; it warms the chest and loosens the tongue enough that most people answer direct questions more readily for an hour.
Poor (5e lifestyle: about 2 sp a day)
Nessa 'Knives' Brill · barmaid
Fast with a tray and faster with a blade tucked into her sash; she eyes strangers for marks and remembers faces.
Oren Halrow · bouncer
A hulking ex-shipwright who stands by the door with a chain-wrapped cudgel and a bluff laugh that quiets trouble.
Sik the Stove · cook
A scarred half-giant who feeds the room on gruel, salted fish and stories—if you trade him a secret, he will spice your stew.
Idon Varr
A pale clerk from the Harbour Office who hides a copy of the ship logs in his boot and wants someone to retrieve Tolen's ledger without alarming the captain.
One-Eye Hal
Retired bosun who lost an eye to press-gang violence and is looking for men willing to sneak aboard the recruitment pinnace and break a crate of manifests.
Marta 'Coin' Fen
A fence and occasional fence-sitter who wants Maris to produce proof that a certain merchant is paying extra to skip the draft.
1
Harbormaster Tolen disappeared three nights ago; his apprentice claims a sealed ledger with lists of favored merchants vanished—Idon Varr insists the ledger was smuggled into Ledger and Lash.
2
A naval lieutenant named Gellin offers premium pay for a list of able-bodied men; One-Eye Hal says the lieutenant keeps a black chest on the pinnace with the manifests and wants a crew to break in the night of the storm.
3
Marta 'Coin' Fen whispers that merchant Rannik Tov pays Maris extra to mark men with a green stitch so they can be taken first; she will trade the merchant's ledger page to anyone who can steal the stitchbox from under Maris's counter.
Made with the free LoreKeeper Tavern Generator · Free to use at your table · Licence
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