Gazeteer - The Three Mallets (Gunderbridge)

 

Let’s do another tavern for Aquerria!  This one is set in the town of Gunderbridge, one of the oldest towns that dates back to the time of the Argent Kingdom.

The Three Mallets (Gunderbridge): A narrow, tall building squeezed between a cobbler’s shop and a smithy on the west side of town, the building is a bit weathered and beaten down, but inside is well kept.  A long, polished dark wood bar engraved with imagery of oak leaves and vines, stretching down the length of the main hall, with upholstered stools and a tight space to squeeze by patrons sitting there.  Steep stairs lead up to an open common room where a few tables are set up for card and dice games, and some rickety bookshelves hold books on leatherworking, smithing, cobbling, and other such crafts that any may read. 

     In fact, the tavernkeeper Schaun Awlgantry will accept a new book on crafting or smithing as payment for meals and drinks for a week … he is an avid woodworker, and his handywork can be seen throughout the tavern.  He’s a terse fellow, given to excess drink, but after a few tankards becomes all smiles and handshakes.  He’s obsessed with woodcarving, and is constantly behind the bar, scraping out handmade bowls or shaping wooden tankards, and if the ales is flowing he will talk for hours on the fine points of woodworking.

     Schaun works with his gregarious and talkative brother Rantanner and his shy 12-year old daughter Merwis.  Sadly, Schaun’s wife left him two years ago, now residing in Anzagort.

     The fare at the Three Mallets is simple – three kinds of ale brewed by Rantanner, and salted pork ribs and pottage pies prepared by Schaun.

     Unbeknownst to the proprietor, one of the books in his collection, “Crafting Fine Wooden Fares and Figures” by Melcimmer Silverhand, contains within it’s rambling pages a short treatise on how to make animated brooms (treat as a spellbook with a variant of the Breathe Life spell, called Boon of the Broom, but each casting creates 5 brooms, and requires half the normal material costs) … but the book is cursed, requiring the reader to make a DC 12 Will save or suffer a minor curse that has already afflicted Schaun (-1 Luck, victim is required to spend at least four hours a day attempting to carve smoking pipes, garden trowels, bird houses, or other domestic objects to the best of their ability, and the curse can only be lifted when the victim spends the night dancing under an oak tree during a storm).

     Menu: Plate of salted pork ribs (5 sp), pottage pie (1 sp), Tankard of Rantanner Brown Ale (1 sp), tankard of Gantrybeer (8 cp), tankard of Black Acriminy (6 cp).

     Schaun Awlgantry: Init +1; Atk cudgel +1 melee (1d4+1); AC 11; HD 1d4 (3 hp); MV 30’; Act 1d20; SP Melcimmer’s Curse (+4 skill with woodcarving, given years of obsession); SV Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +0; AL L.