TABERNA PORTUS

The Harbour Inn  ·  Working Inn and Tavern  ·  Grain Quarter, Lacusum

"The barge crews who work the Fluminis Magnus have their own accommodation and their own drinking establishments and their own intelligence network about what is moving on the river. The Taberna Portus is the one establishment in the Grain Quarter where a stranger can sit among them without being conspicuous as a stranger. The key is to arrive before the evening rush, take a position at the long bar, and order the house’s second-cheapest option rather than its cheapest, which signals commerce rather than poverty. I have used this method four times. It works."

— G.C.P.S.A., Descriptio Aethermarchae, 1197 A.P.

The Taberna Portus is the working establishment of the Grain Quarter’s barge community: the inn that has accommodated river crews since the second century, the tavern where the harvest season’s daily intelligence about what is moving on the Fluminis Magnus is most freely discussed, and the place where a skilled listener can assemble, in a single evening, a more complete picture of the river’s current commercial state than the Annona’s weekly reports contain. The current proprietor, Felix Portitor, fifty-nine, in his thirty-second year, manages the establishment with the absolute neutrality of a man whose business depends on all sides of the river trade’s commercial relationships finding his establishment comfortable.

During the harvest season peak, the inn is full every night with barge crews whose vessel is docked at the terminals waiting for weighing hall clearance. The conversation in the main room on those evenings is the Grain Quarter’s primary unofficial intelligence flow. Pistor sends a staff member here three evenings a week during the harvest peak. Vara’s information brokers maintain two regular bar positions. Neither is aware the other does the same thing.

Design

Thirty rooms across three upper floors, ranging from single-bunk crew accommodation to the larger river captain’s rooms on the second floor. The main room holds forty tables and a long bar where standing orders from regular crews are filled without asking. The food is the working version of what the Taberna Aurea serves at the premium end: the same Inland Sea fish, the same agricultural province produce, prepared for people who need fuel rather than theatre and who have developed, across decades of eating here, specific preferences that Felix accommodates without being asked.

Founding Date

2nd century A.P.; current building largely 5th century with modifications

Type

Inn

Parent Location

OFFICIUM ANNONAE LACUSINI

Owner

Felix Portitor

Rooms Available
30 rooms: single crew bunks (20, third floor), double rooms (7, second floor), river captain’s rooms (3, second floor).
Consistently occupied during harvest season peak; available outside peak season