Taverns · Setting
Roadside inns
Roadside inns are the waystations between towns: a stable, a hot meal and a bed for travellers who will be gone by morning. They are where a journey pauses, so they suit chance meetings, ambushes in the night and strangers who know more about the road ahead than they should.
Three-Hoof Relay
the drovers' inn a day's drive from the river ford
The inn sits back from the road, its low porch piled with peat sacks, lariat coils, and the occasional bleeding straw where a driver napped. Inside, the common room smells of smoked meat, sweating…
The Brindle Spur
the drovers' rest where pigs race for coin
You push through a swinging plank door into a low-ceilinged hall alive with shouts, clinking tankards, and the sour-sweet reek of tack, smoke, and frying fat. Long trestle tables are scarred by…
The Split Coin Keep
the toll-house that takes more than road fees
A lean, smoke-stained building squats at the side of the road where travelers must slow for the toll post. Inside the air is rank with boiled stew and damp wool; a single guttering lantern fights…
Last Coin Toll
the roadside post where the price is whatever they say
The Last Coin Toll squats where the road narrows between a ruined milepost and a copse of black pines. Lanterns gutter in oil-smeared glass; the light is low and chews shadows into the corners. On…
The Candle and Cloak
the pilgrim inn on the road to Saint Marn's shrine
Lanterns and bunting crowd the low beams, and the air tastes of spiced wine, roasting chestnuts and beeswax. The common room is a jumble of benches and rushes, pilgrims in mismatched cloaks trading…
The Brass Bell Pilgrim
the inn at the bend before Saint Halan's wayside
Lanterns and pennants ripple from rafters and pegged posts, the air thick with roasted spice, baking apples and the sweet smoke of mulled wine. Pilgrims in patched but carefully mended habits…
The Wandering Lantern Post
the inn that appears where three roads disagree
You push through a wind-scraped curtain into a warm, oddly arranged common room. The floor is an assembly of mismatched planks and flagstones that never quite meet the walls the same way twice; a…
The Lantern at the Turning
an inn that wakes at a different crossroad by dawn
You find the Lantern at the Turning at a patch of road that was not there when you walked the last mile: a single low building of rough timber and blackened stone, its windows glowing amber behind…
The Ash-Watching Lantern
the half-burned inn where the same storm always returns
The inn stands collapsed on one side: blackened beams jut from the roof like broken ribs, the south wall a mosaic of soot and pale plaster. Each night a low, rhythmic thunder rolls from the same…
Three-Hour Lantern
the half-burned inn where the same storm comes back each night
You arrive to find a low, blackened building leaning against the moor; one wall is charred away to splintered beams and a sagging roof patched with tarred canvas. Inside, the hearth is perpetually…
The Gilded Post
the royal road's exchange for horses and secrets
You step through lacquered double doors into a long, high-ceilinged hall where polished beams glint with brass fittings. Warm oil lamps splash light on rugs imported from the south, and a low murmur…
The Golden Pillion
the gilded post-house on the royal road
Sunlight spills off brass lanterns and polished oak when you step through the carved double doors. The air smells of oiled leather, lemonwax, and a faint citrus perfume favored by the court; an…
Three-Stone Kennel
the windshelter for weary travelers and wagging paws
Warm smoke curls from a low stone chimney into the hillside breeze. Inside, sun through shuttered windows falls on braided rugs and racks of leashes; the air holds roasted root vegetables, rosemary…
Hearth and Howl
the waypost where every traveler leaves as company
You climb the last rise and the scent of baking and woodsmoke drifts down to meet you before the building appears: a squat stone house with smoke curling from two chimneys and a scatter of dogs…
Three Bent Ways
the coaching inn where roads trade whispers
Night settles on a puddled yard ringed by straw-strewn stables. Inside, lamplight smells of grease and wet wool; the common room hums with low talk and the scrape of boots. Travelers rub mud from…
The Three-Crow Hitch
the coaching inn at the fork of the Blackford Road
The inn squats against the crossroads like a stub of a building: low beams blackened with smoke, a lean-to for wagons, and a half-dozen hobbled horses stamping in the yard. Inside, the common room…
By setting and mood
Every kind of tavern
Each setting and each mood has its own page, with a short guide to running that kind of tavern at the table.
