Frontier
Rowdy
Modest prices
The Broken Ledger
the inn where claims are kept and debts are drunk
You push through a warped hatch and are hit by smoke, stale ale, and the clack of dice against wood. Rough-hewn benches pack the common room; cartography scraps and half-burned claim stubs are thumbtacked to a beam behind the bar. Lanterns hang low, throwing hard shadows that make every laugh and shout sound twice as loud. The room smells of cured meat, soot, and something iron — old ledgers, bent coins and the metallic tang of greed. The crowd is mostly prospectors, wagon drivers and mercenaries nursing cold injuries and newer grudges. A fiddler thrums a relentless tune from the corner while a pair of dice-games spill onto the floor in front of a battered hearth. Behind the bar, the keeper moves with the practiced patience of someone who knows when to let a brawl burn out and when to drain the casks early; a battered ledger sits chained to a post beneath the counter and people glance at it like it’s both a promise and a threat.
A heavy wooden board carved to look like an open ledger, its iron binding split and one corner scorched; a salt-stained feather quill is nailed across the pages. The paint is flaking, leaving a smear where the tavern's name once was.
Garruk Fen
human
Manner
Quirk
Stats
Claim Jumper
5 spA potent mix of frontier whiskey, cider reduction and a pinch of smoked salt; it warms the chest and loosens tongues — drink two and you’ll boast about a claim you don’t own.
Modest (5e lifestyle: about 1 gp a day)
Merris Ock · barmaid
Sharp-tongued and faster with mugs than most men are with their fists, she remembers every face that stiffed a tab.
Brenn 'Knuckles' Hagg · bouncer
A scarred ex-rail rider who breaks up fights by lifting tables rather than talking — clients respect that.
Tess of the Spit · cook
She runs a small iron spit and serves thick stew that tastes like the road and keeps you warm long after the night's out.
Halla Crow
A stubborn prospector with a burn across her knuckle who claims she lost Red Ridge to a forged title and wants it back.
Jorren Pike
An embittered ex-marshal who keeps his badge in his pocket and half a list of men he still wants to arrest.
Sib the Mapper
A cartographer-for-hire who trades old maps for new names and will pay well for a fresh lead to a forgotten vein.
1
Red Ridge Claim: Halla Crow says her forefather found a vein of blue ore on Red Ridge; Garruk's ledger contains the deed that would prove or disprove her claim.
2
Marblewisp Mine: Sib the Mapper swears there's a collapsed adit near Marblewisp where flickering stones make the miners go mad — he wants a party to clear and chart it.
3
The Ledger Company Courier: A courier named Venn Kiln was seen asking about the Broken Ledger and offering gold for a specific, sealed page; he keeps to the north road out of town.
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