Roadside
Seedy
Poor prices
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 cloaks on a rough bench while a long table hosts map rolls, a stubby clay pipe or two, and the occasional quiet argument over which road to take. The hearth spits orange light on a crooked staircase, and the air carries the sour tang of stale ale and horses; eyes flick to the back where a narrow corridor leads to the stables and the ostler’s lantern-bespattered board.
A weathered iron ring nailed to a warped plank; three small nailed arrows point in different directions beneath a scorched horseshoe. The paint is flaking and someone has scratched a tally of nights into the lower corner.
Merrick Halven
Human
Manner
Quirk
Stats
Turnpike Tonic
4 cpA shot of clear spirit with burnt sugar and a pinch of salt; it sharpens the tongue and loosens prudent secrets for an hour (advantage on Persuasion checks to recall route details, but -1 to Stealth for the same hour).
Poor (5e lifestyle: about 2 sp a day)
Hobburn 'Hob' Kettle · ostler
Broad-shouldered and soft-spoken, Hob helps with tack by day and slips sealed route notes into sleeves by night — for the right coin.
Sifa Grend · barmaid
Quick with a tankard and quicker with gossip; Sifa knows which coachman paid extra and who suddenly needs to leave at dawn.
Gerrin Post
A retired coachman who claims he once outraced bandits and now drinks to remember the road maps he hid years ago.
Old Marrek
A dour staplemender whose daughter was robbed at Miller's Hollow and who watches every passerby for a familiar scar.
1
Red Sickle, a bandit who leaves a crimson-painted sickle at ambush sites, held up a noble’s courier three nights ago on the Mill Road and took a sealed ironbox.
2
A stalled carriage loaded with trade silk was found stripped at Miller's Hollow; Gerrin Post whispers that someone at Three Bent Ways sold the route to the ambushers.
3
Torin West, a stable boy who vanished two weeks back, might be hiding with a band of road-cutters near the Willowford bridge after refusing to ride with Hob.
Made with the free LoreKeeper Tavern Generator · Free to use at your table · Licence
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