01 The Happy Purse
Of course your purse'll be happy. This place is a dump. For 3c a night you get a cot with a straw pallet in a big communal dormitory. There's no bar and no food, but you can find those close by. The place is clean and doesn't have fleas, but they throw everybody out in the morning so they can scrub the whole place down. Then they don't start renting cots out again until sunset. The staff, what there is, is just kind of there, but the manager doesn't take crap from anybody. Anyone causes problems, he screams for the watch. But, if you're looking for a cheap place to sleep for a night in town, mostly free of 'drama' and free of fleas, then this place might be for you. 2/5 Stars.
02 The Three Coins
The Three Coins is a nice establishment on a quiet little sidestreet in one of the town's nicer neighborhoods. It's two stories tall, with only four rooms to let, but those rooms are nice. The prices are high: 3g per room, per night. There's a good restaurant downstairs, and meals are included for guests. The staff is polite, efficient and discreet. That said, their clientelle tends to be a bit sleezy; the children of lesser nobility, social-climbing merchants, wealthy individuals looking for somewhere to have discreet assignations. 4/5 Stars.
03 The White Lady
A comfortable hostel in a recently gentrified neighborhood of the city. It's a two-story building made of gray stone with eight rooms on the second floor. The rooms are comfortable, if unremarkable. The prices are reasonable, 8s per room per night. There is a common room, that serves beer and spirits, but the food is average. That said, the lunch special is very popular with locals during the day. The service is competant, if unremarkable, and the rooms are clean. The biggest complaint I've heard concerns noise from the next street over, the site of several taverns and festival halls. 3/5 Stars.
04 The Inn-by-the-City-Gates
You could walk by this place and never notice it. Prior to becoming an inn, it was a watchman's barracks and a temporary jail. That probably explains the miniscule, airless rooms and why there always seems to be a watchman in the common room. There are six rooms above the common room, which is open late. The atmosphere of the place can be boisterous and sound penetrates the rooms, so sometimes a good night's sleep is difficult to get. That said, the inn has loyal customers and the common room's crowd is large and varied; in addition to the aforementioned watchmen, you can observe merchants talking with craftsmen and artisans, local shopkeepers hobnobbing with street musicians and even some rather shady types holding court in the darker corners of the room. Prices are 1s per room per night. The staff here is very friendly and attentive, willing to go that extra mile to make your stay pleasant. Unfortunately, the place could use more frequent cleaning; dust seems to cover everything and get everywhere, but I couldn't tell you where it comes from. 2/5 Stars.
05 The Reindeer's Head.
A rustic lodge on the Northern Road, outside the city, this inn's name comes from the reindeer's head that's stuffed and mounted in the common room. The place is bigger than it looks, with twelve rooms to let, ranging in price from 5s for a standard double to 8s for something bigger and nicer. There's even a suite that can be rented, in advance, for 1g per night. The place gets a lot of traffic and fills up quickly, so if you plan on staying here stop early. The staff is average and the place is fairly clean. The common room is large, serves big portions of average food, and offers a limited range of spirits. The bar closes at ten each night, no exceptions, and loud drunks aren't tolerated.
Then there's the reindeer's head itself. It's mounted above the bar in the common room and there are stories about it. People say that on Midwinter's Eve, the head comes to life and starts to sing odd songs about a strange fellow who lives far to the north. At midnight, it stops singing and will utter a prediction for the new year that always comes true.
Of course, the owners deny these stories, but they always close the place during the week of Midwinter and never say why. 3/5 Stars.
06 The Heart & Hands
A three-story establishment on the border between the good part of town and the bad, the industrial area and the commercial district. The outside is painted bright yellow and there's an impressive, albeit faded, mural of the inn's namesakes on one side. They have twelve small rooms to let for 5s per night, and rent pallets on the first floor for 1s. There isn't a common room or a restaurant, but there are eateries close by. The staff is small and overworked and sometimes the condition of the rooms is less than stellar. Beware the bedbugs and fleas. 1/5 Stars.
07 The Quiet House
This establishment can be found tucked away at the end of a dead-end lane, surrounded by townhomes and guildhalls. The Quiet House is a two-story clapboard building with a small front porch, a nice rear garden and a newly-replaced roof. There are only four rooms to let, but they're comfortable and clean. There's no common room, but the owners do provide home-cooked meals. Intoxicants of any type are not allowed. Nor is the practice of magic, although magic-users are tolerated. The front doors are locked at 9:00 p.m. every night. If you get locked out, you can sleep on the porch.
There is a supernatural quietness permeating the house, the result of a magic ritual that went awry and blew the roof off the place over a decade ago. It's impossible to communicate above a whisper within the house. 3/5 Stars.
08 The Bed & Bar
The Bed & Bar is a large, four story establishment containing eighteen rooms to let, as well as a full-service bar housed in another building. Both businesses are connected by a covered walkway, and both are open 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Room prices range from 5s to 2g, and they're worth the money. The staff is professional and courteous and the rooms are immaculate. The bar offers a complete range of drinks, and a rotating selection of tasty snacks. However, if you want a proper meal you'll have to go elsewhere. The owners of The Bed & Bar are a young couple and their clients tend to be younger as well, and socially egalitarian. It's not uncommon to take a seat at the bar and find yourself talking with a young, socially consciouse arisocrat on one side, and a working-class craftsman on the other. 4/5 Stars.
09 The Numbered House
The Numbered House is easily found in its village; it's the only building with an official street number, meaning it's the only building the postal guilds can deliver mail to reliably. The house itself is an ugly two-story building made of fitted, gray blocks. It has six rooms to let at 5s per night. It has two additional rooms to let over the stables, out back, for 1s per night. The Numbered House does not have a common room, but it does serve supper. The food is adequate, if bland. The staff is unfriendly, but competant. Complaints and requests are ignored. More than one guest has stormed out after arguing with the owner over some addendum to the bill. Honestly, if it's summer and it's not raining, you would do better to sleep outdoors. 1/5 Stars.
10 The Rare Beauty
Built in the style of a miniature palace, The Rare Beauty is a pink and peach confection that stands out like a sore thumb. It is tasteless and tacky, ridiculously overpriced and badly staffed. There are velvet paintings everywhere. The place reeks of scented candles and potpourri. They lose staff like a leper loses fingers. Despite all of this, the place is a huge success, booked solid well in advance by rich holiday-takers who seem to think the place is some kind of deliberate joke. I weep for the future. 3/5 Stars.
11 The Blue Anchor
It would be easy to describe this seaside motel as cheap and clean with a friendly staff, but that would be a disservice. With fourteen rooms to let, at 5s per night, the Blue Anchor is an affordable favorite for many travelers heading to the shore. It doesn't have a restaurant, but it does have a bar, manned by an actual bartending wizard. The bartender can magically create the perfect drink for an individual thanks to a unique spell that only he knows. Of course, if the bar's customers get out of hand, the bartending wizard isn't shy about casting Findel's Firebolt or Sinhaven's Mass Sleep. Customers tend to be jolly, but very well-behaved. 4/5 Stars.
12 The Magic Tankard
The Magic Tankard is a tavern/inn about twelve miles north of the city gates. The place is a single-story establishment, with fourteen rooms to let. Most of the rooms are a bit small, but the prices are good, ranging from 3c for a common room to 3g for a fine suite. The staff is well known for their friendliness and professionalism, and the place is kept in an immaculate condition. It is very popular with merchants, mercenaries and adventurers. Occasionally, a brawl breaks out in the common room, but it is quickly put down by the place's bouncer, a green-haired she-brute named Monika Panbera. 3/5 Stars.
13 The Goat & Shepherd
The Goat & Shepherd is an idyllic country inn with ten rooms to let for 5s per night. The place is quiet and clean, with a reasonably efficient staff. Most of the common room trade comes from the locals, and the barmaids can be a font of useful local information. Outsiders are generally viewed with suspicioun by the locals. 3/5 Stars.
14 The Traveler's Dream
The Traveler's Dream is anything but. A sprawling one-story building with fourteen rooms to let, the place has changed hands about five times in the last decade. The current owner is a cheerful idiot named Hawthorne. The rooms are let for 6s per night, and the acomodations are average. However, the staff is ancient, comprised of septugenerains who should have retired long, LONG ago. There's a common room which offers buffet style eating, but the beer and spirits are definitely sub-par. Room service is available, but we don't recommend using it. 2/5 Stars.
15 The Priest's Head
The Priest's Head is a one-story brick building that offers nine rooms to let for the evening. The cost of a room is only 5c, and you can get a space in the common room for free for as long as they're available. The inn is run by the Church and the service is less than stellar. The entire place could use a good cleaning. They offer cheap beer and watered down wine in the small common room, and simple foodstuffs like bread, cheese and boiled mutton. The name of the place derives from an unpleasant incident in the distant past. Frequent guests claim that they've seen a headless priest wandering the hallways late at night. The Church doesn't deny these claims, but they don't confirm them either. Stay here at your own risk. 2/5 Stars.
16 The Fine Dish
The Fine Dish is a single-story hostel with thirteen rooms to let for about 6s per night. However, what really sets this place apart from others is its restaurant. The Fine Dish has a large restaurant, overseen by Valerius Cain, one of the finest chefs in the whole wide world. He could be employed in any one of a dozen royal courts, so what Cain is doing working in The Fine Dish is something of a mystery. He refuses to discuss his reasons and can become quite violent if pushed, and he is an expert with knives. Irregardless, Chef Cain has put The Fine Dish on the map. The place is booked well in advance and serves the cream of society. The staff is professional and friendly, in a detached way, and the rooms are airy and clean. 5/5 Stars.
17 The Red Eagle
The Red Eagle is a pleasant three-story country inn midway between the trading towns of Highmarket and Turner's Shank. As such, the Red Eagle is always busy. The common room never closes, and neither does its kitchen, although after midnight the menu offered is heavily restricted. The Red Eagle has eleven rooms to rent for 5s a night, but if booked solid the owner will happily let travelers sleep above the stables for 5c. The rooms are clean and the staff is fairly friendly. The Red Eagle's owner, Adara Rexford, is a veteran of the Necromancer's War and she doesn't tolerate troublemakers of any kind. 4/5 Stars.
18 The Archer's Tree
The Archer's Tree is a pleasant little inn that has seven rooms to let for 5s per night. The inn itself is a three-story clapboard home with dark red shingles. In the front of the inn is a mighty oak and the inn's namesake. It's founder, Nestor Raburn, was an adventurer. When he retired, he and his old cronies would gather beneath the oak, to talk and drink. Eventually, Raburn built the inn. He died before it opened, but his heirs named it the Archer's Tree in honor of the oak that had provided Raburn and his friends with a comfortable meeting-place for over a decade.
The Archer's Tree is very nice. The Raburn family is very friendly, willing to go the extra mile to make their guest's stay as enjoyable as possible. The rooms are large, well-aired and very clean. The common room, although small, offers some nice local beers and complimentary tobacco to smokers. There are picnic tables set up beneath the oak tree in front of the inn, and at night patrons will gather there by lamplight to talk and drink and have a good time. 4/5 Stars.
19 The Three Bells
The Three Bells is an inn run by the Hospitable Order of St. Zeno in a neighborhood on the edge of the Commercial District. The Three Bells is a one story stone building that was once owned by the Weavers Guild. It's common room is still frequented by many members of that guild to this day. The inn is clean and the brothers are nice but the Three Bells is definitely a no frills kind of establishment. They offer an evening meal with room rental, and a variety of watered-down beers and wines in the common room. The brothers do perform communal prayers but attendance is completely volluntary. 3/5 Stars.
20 The Fortunate Arms
The Fortunate Arms is a rather ramshackle building, six-stories tall, in a once-fashionable district of the city. It provides lodging to both permanent residents and nightly renters. The property is owned and managed by Mrs. Sephrena Quincy, a woman rumored to have ties to both the Spider Guild and the Scorpion Brotherhood. Rooms at the Fortunate Arms rent for 3g per night. The price includes use of the bath house next door, as well as two meals in the inn's restaurant. The Fortunate Arms has a rooftop bar open during the warmer months of the year. It is quite popular with residents, guests and locals. Known troublemakers are barred and repeat offenders are dealt with harshly by Mrs. Quincy and her bouncer, Fainol. 3/5 Stars.
21 The Bear's Den
The Bear's Den can be found about a day's travel south of the city. It's a two-story log and brick structure that has seen better days. The atmosphere of the place is a bit dark. Its ten rooms, rented for 6c per night, are small and poorly ventilated. The staff is reasonably competant but not, in our experience, the friendliest. The common room is large, smells of woodsmoke and everything seems covered by a fine layer of soot. We don't recommend the food, but the house beer is strong and cheap. Order is kept by the bartender and two bouncers, but trouble is rare. The Bear's Den caters mostly to cheap merchants, groups of religious pilgrims, students and migrant workers. It has a bad reputation with the locals, who usually refer folk looking for accomodation to other establishments. 2/5 Stars.
22 The White Fleece
The White Fleece is a squalid establishment on Eagle Street run by a wicked old crone named Esther Merrybones and her two daughters, known simply as Cinders and Rags. The flop has ten rooms that can be rented hourly, for 6c, or nightly, for 1s. The best thing to be said about this place is that it's fairly clean. There are no ammenities unless you count the streetwalkers who use this place for their business as such. We don't recommend this place unless you are truly desperate. 0/5 Stars.
23 The Angel Inn
A nondescript two-story building on a quiet, country lane near the market town of Gildstone, the Angel Inn is a fairly new hostel. Opened just seven months ago, the ten-room inn is run by Mrs. Edwina Spread. She claims the idea to open the inn came to her in a dream. Perhaps she should have kept dreaming. For 5s per night, you get an ordinary room and a meal. However, the service in the common room, and the rest of the hotel, leaves a lot to be desired. It is haphazard, at best, and, given the price, there are other establishments nearby that provide similar accomodations with better service. 2/5 Stars.
24 The Golden Antelope
The Golden Antelope occupies a three-story brick building, on Bell Street, in the Market District. It has ten spacious rooms to rent for 6s per night. The staff is excellent, attentive and professional. The common room is cozy, offering a wide range of spirits. There is a seperate restaurant for meals, and a light breakfast is included in the cost of the room. Both the common room and the restaurant are popular with the locals.
The inn's name derives from the small golden statue of an antelope that can be seen in the lobby. A thief tried to steal it once; his severed and preserved hands are on display in a glass case below the statue as a curiosity and a warning. 3/5 Stars.
25 The Two Bales
The Two Bales is the only inn in the farming town of Hen's Foot. The nine room establishment, occupying a repurposed barn, charges 6c per night. The rooms are comfortable and clean, but the staff could be more professional. There is a common room, which has live music most nights. The food is unremarkable, and not included in the room cost, but the local beer is quite good. Most of The Two Bales clients are grain merchants and the like, folk who have business dealings with the farms surrounding Hen's Foot. Occasionally a trade caravan stops for a night, but this mostly happens during the summer. 3/5 Stars.
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