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Hospitality

Houses that lodge and feed travelers: taverns, inns, great inns, pilgrim hostels. Run by families or paid staff; central to any settlement that sees traffic. For general staff see Traders (Professional, Commoner).

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Tavern. The village and small-town public house. The innkeeper's family lives above the taproom and lets a corner to travelers when there's space. A tavern has:

  • Taproom: the main public room. Tables and chairs near a hearth, a plank bar with kegs behind and a shelf of liquors above.
  • Kitchen: off the taproom. A hearth, a bread oven, a spit. The innkeeper's wife or a hired cook runs it.
  • Cellar: below the taproom. Casks of ale, tuns of wine, salted provisions.
  • Sleeping loft: above the taproom, where the innkeeper's family sleeps.
  • Traveler's corner: a cot in the loft or a spot by the hearth, rented by the night to whoever asks.
  • Yard and stables: a small stable for a handful of horses. The innkeeper's own team or a traveler's mount.
  • Innkeeper: Commoner or Professional with proficiencies in Insight, Persuasion, and cook's utensils.
  • Loot: the innkeeper's cashbox (3d10 to 5d10 gp); kegs and stores (20-50 gp); guests' modest belongings.

Inn. A proper lodging house for travelers. Private rooms upstairs and a staffed kitchen. Common on trade roads, at crossings, and as the working inn of a town. An inn has:

  • Common room: taproom plus dining space. Long tables, benches, a hearth at one end, a plank bar with kegs and liquors along one wall.
  • Kitchen: staffed by cooks. A hearth, a bread oven, a spit for roasting, dough tables.
  • Cellar: casks and tuns, salted meat, cheese and salted fish, the innkeeper's private stock.
  • Lodging rooms: private rooms upstairs, four to a dozen. Bed, chest for baggage, small hearth or a shared stove in the corridor.
  • Private dining hall: a walled-off room where a party can eat without the common room. Rented for the evening.
  • Innkeeper's quarters: the family's rooms, off the kitchen or above.
  • Staff quarters: cots for the cook and the stable boys.
  • Yard and stables: stables for a dozen or more horses; a farrier passes through weekly. Wagons unload in the yard.
  • Innkeeper: Professional with proficiencies in Insight, Persuasion, and cook's utensils.
  • Loot: the innkeeper's cashbox (5d10 gp at a village inn, 5d100 gp at a town inn); kegs and stores (30-100 gp); guests' baggage in the rooms; the innkeeper's personal safe behind a strong lock at a town inn.

Great Inn. A grand lodging house that hosts nobility, foreign envoys, and wealthy merchants. Multi-story with dozens of rooms, staffed by dozens. A great inn has:

  • Grand common room: a two-story hall with hearths at each end. Guests dine, take news, do deals. Musicians play on some nights.
  • Lobby and reception: the entryway. The head porter assigns rooms and takes deposits; a ledger of guests kept behind the counter.
  • Lodging rooms: dozens of private rooms across multiple floors. Simple singles at the top; suites for wealthy patrons on the lower floors. Fine beds, wardrobes, private hearths in the suites.
  • Banqueting hall: a formal hall for feasts, weddings, treaty signings, and merchant deals. Long tables, high seats at the head, tapestries on the walls.
  • Private dining halls: a half-dozen walled-off rooms for parties who prefer discretion. Rented by the evening.
  • Kitchens: a wing off the common room. Multiple hearths, a bread bakery, spit racks. Cooks, apprentices, kitchen boys.
  • Wine cellar: below stairs. Racks of aged wines, casks of imported spirits, the innkeeper's private stock.
  • Head innkeeper's office: the accounts, the strongroom key, the ledger of guests and tabs, correspondence with regular patrons.
  • Staff quarters: dormitories for cooks, porters, chambermaids, stableboys, kitchen staff. A separate common room for the staff.
  • Extensive stables and courtyard: large stables for coach teams and private mounts. Coach houses for carriages. A farrier and grooms on staff.
  • Innkeeper: Noble for a great inn owned by a wealthy family; Professional with proficiencies in Insight, Persuasion, and cook's utensils for a hired manager.
  • Loot: the innkeeper's treasury (5d100 gp) behind a strong lock; cellared wines and imported spirits (500 gp); guests' baggage in the rooms; the innkeeper's records (blackmail material for regular patrons).

Pilgrim Hostels. Cheap lodging for pilgrims on the road to a Temple or Great Temple. Not one building but a cluster along the pilgrim road from the settlement's gate to the temple square. Run by the temple as charity, by a monastic order, or by innkeepers who work the pilgrim trade. Each pilgrim hostel has:

  • Long dormitory: rows of straw pallets or plain cots along the walls. On holy days, pilgrims sleep in shifts when the crowd is heaviest.
  • Kitchen and mess: plain fare of bread, pottage, and ale. Long tables and benches. A pilgrim's meal is included in the night's stay.
  • Wayside shrine: a small shrine where pilgrims pray before rest.
  • Alms box: at the entrance. Voluntary contributions from wealthier pilgrims for the hostel's upkeep.
  • Keeper: a Priest for a temple-run hostel, an Acolyte for a monastic-order hostel, or a Professional or Commoner for a private-trade hostel.
  • Loot: the alms box (2d10 gp); pilgrims' modest baggage; for a temple hostel, the day's offerings for the temple (5d10 gp) locked in a strongbox until the Priest collects.