The Mudpuppy Bath-Houses
The Mudpuppy Bath-Houses are a common attraction in the urban cities of Lorthal and within the civilised centres of Aetha'Shar, particularly within the Bronzimm Concord and Ankh'hera - providing some of the best hygienic and health centres, with varied services and provisions for their clientele and open out into the public. Partners and families would make the journey to share a time with family, or friends gather together to gossip about the recent news or scandals of town, businessmen and merchants share drinks and talk about rising prices and good prospects, politicians and even nobles speak highly in private within the more refined sanctums and saunas, letting themselves loose. However, these bath-houses are also the gathering place and central hubs of many thieves, criminals and even assassins - hidden beneath the bath-houses rest the Drain Dives. One thing that most criminal groups of the Commision agree upon, is that no criminal actions nor illicit business is brought in the front of their legitimate business - they must pass the statue of the Naked Lady of the Moon, dress appropriately before any word or whisper can be uttered about business.
Purpose / Function
The main purpose and intention of the Bath-House are simply that, a public bathing facility, with no restrictions for those of gender, religious affiliation, personal membership or other criteria. In addition to their hygienic function, public baths serve mainly as social meeting places.
The public bath-house also provides other services, having saunas, massage parlours and other therapeutic services held within. A game has even arose within the path-houses between clients and patrons, with chess-board pedestals, dice games and dominoes available to be taken into the public baths and pools.
Alterations
The building itself once had developed from a singular great domed building leading underground into enclosed heated spaces. Now the building has been altered to have a larger ground-floor level with an antechamber entry hall that leads into unisex changing rooms, or into massage parlours. Below ground, it leads into the box-style sauna rooms, surrounding the octagonal shaped dome room with many pillars and columns, a central octagonal bath shared between others, and smaller individual or paired baths surrounding the central bath. Private memberships have access to smaller rooms with statues that spray out water in a shower, but are also heated for social gatherings and private screened rooms filled with perfumed rooms. Deeper within the sanctuary of the baths, behind the statues of a naked woman, it grants access to the thieves guild and hidden training ground of thieves, smugglers and assassins to conduct business.
Architecture
The main bath-house building is made primarily of clean white stone & fresh red-brown tinted wood. The floors are decorated with red-white tiles, with lines of black-blue brick separated mosaic artwork on the floor. Doorways are carved and decorated with naked bathing men on the right and women on the left. The massage parlours host singular or pairs of beds with coloured cloths, tables of soothing oils, wax and therapeutic materials - furthermore, they are decorated with paintings, painted paper screens held together in wooden lattices surround them on the walls, with low-lit candles set across tables and mirrored glass ceilings. Underground, the atmosphere is darker with mosaic tiles depicting different scenes of contrasting colour and the natural world - the baths are painted in brighter blues and greens.
Alternative Names
Ganger Baths, Thugwaters, Bastard Pools, Pirahna Dens
Owning Organization
