The Tumbling Tankard
Sitting in the center of a lively demiplane is an octagonal-shaped building with A sign hanging above the doorway showing a tankard as if rolling, above it, are the words ‘The Tumbling Tankard’ in gold-colored letters.
Purpose / Function
The Tumbling Tankard is a place to rest and relax after a long day, the difference being is the clientele are far from the ordinary. The Tumbling Tankard is located on a demiplane where anyone who has a special medallion can access the demiplane. No one has ever been able to force their way into the demiplane without one of the medallions. Should they have the medallion anything from angels to fiends and anything inbetween can show up.
Design
A rather humble-looking stone foundation with wood walls, the inside of the inn is quite large in an octagon shape, the floor is dark hardwood leading into lighter colored wood walls likely from oak trees, matching the walls are the tables and the large center bar that is in the shape of a square with rounded edges. Various liquors are piled up on shelves in various bottles. Most of the faces of the building have a couple of windows and booths while others have a hallway that leads to another section of the building that can’t be seen on the outside. Each hallway is clearly labeled in different languages to say where they lead. The halls are lined with doors to rooms that are for rent each having different levels of quality to them.
Entries
The main door, and two hallways. Each of the other five sides has large bay windows with illusory vistas projected beyond them. Each window has a private alcove built around it.
To enter the demi-plane itself the medallion is pressed up against a flat surface and while pressing in you twist it one direction or the other and it acts like a door handle of sorts, opening a door to the demi-plane. There are rarer versions that can create an actual portal but Ivgren'athor keeps a tight check on those.
Sensory & Appearance
The smell of food, the din of talking, laughter, and other ruckus, music can be playing from a raised stage in the center of the room. The room is always the right temperature and the roaring fire in the center of the raised stage and the smaller ones in the center of each table provide light and warmth, yet oddly never too much.
Denizens
Marcus: is usually at the bar cleaning a glass with a rag the human bartender that manages the section for the material plane. He is likely in his early to mid-thirties with his dark hair still present and large muttonchops leading into a mustache. Generally in good spirits, he comes off as carefree and goofy but has a wisdom that goes past his age. He often likes to heckle Stevalen but does genuinely like his coworker.
Stevalen: A small humanoid figure that has the looks like a mannequin of a human with sticks for hair and fingers, leaves, and moss making up pseudo hair. Standing roughly four feet tall and usually wearing some kind of simple robe this sentient construct goes by the name Stevalen. He will choose to use the pronoun he but doesn't give it much thought. Instead, he focuses his efforts on what he was created to do, maintain and inscribe the runes for magical items. His creator lost him in a game of chance with Ivgren’athor who immediately freed him, not knowing what to do with his freedom yet he decided to stay in the Tankard and maintain the magic there, only this time he gets paid for his work. He tends to stay to himself but has been seen observing how others act trying to learn from them as he learns about who he is.
Igrathur: The fire giant bouncer of the Tumbling Tankard says very little to anyone coming in, usually only warnings to make sure their weapons stay peace bound. While he is the bouncer he also has a forge area to the side of the Tankard and can ply his expertise at forging to repair most forms of metal. He tries his best to remain stoic but offering him a chance to work with rare metals can make him get giddy with excitement, whereas with standard steel he will usually seem bored. Marcus likes to call him 'Iggy' causing the giant to curse at him in his native tongue for several moments loud enough to shake the tankard itself.
Other Staff: There are many other servers and staff for the Tankard but there is always something off about them, never enough to really make one stop and call them out on it but there are some that look very similar to each other, or ones that always seem to be there regardless of the time often saying they wanted to take another shift.
Contents & Furnishings
There is a mix of 'real' stuff brought in from the various planes for coin or whatever currency they value. There is also the use of 'Everfull' enchantments on some of the kegs. The 'real' exotic stuff costs extra and most seem happy to have the cheaper stuff that is always on tap. Marcus is always encouraging those from the material plane to try some of the more exotic drinks from other planes, at least the less lethal ones.
Special Properties
Time flows like normal for the people in the Tankard. What that normal is depends on what and where the creature is from. If you are from the material plane and spend 8 hours there, you will come back to your world 8 hours from when you left it.
Alterations
The Tumbling Tankard is under a constant state of alteration and at the same time always the same. When you open the door and cross into the threshold you are presented with a climate ideal to those of your plane of origin. The temperature is always comfortable, the decoration while varied to include hints from many cultures is familiar. There are halls that lead to other sections of the Tumbling Tankard that are designed for the denizens of other planes but wandering to those is your own undertaking the owner is not responsible.
Architecture
The architecture varies heavily upon just what section of the tankard you end up in, using fine but not exorbitant materials taken from that plane to construct and decorate with. What most never see is the true architecture of the Tumbling Tankard, there are many sections to the tavern each in the shape of an octagon, which there are eight of these form a larger octagon held together by gothic style buttresses and supports. Then another layer of eight octagons and another and so on, the supports help hold the structure together and hold hallways to allow passage to other sections but they are all flat, no stairs in these passages yet you can travel from the bottom to the top layer through one hall as if the two levels were just right next to each other. Each section of the tavern also has rooms to rent, a kitchen, staffed bathing facilities, and some merchants have set up in one section as a sort of interplanar bazaar.
Defenses
Aside from being in a demiplane with only one method of entry, the Tumbling Tankard is defended by a fire giant bouncer at the door. Then there are dozens of magical defenses that can eject aggressors from the demiplane and then bar their return. Not to mention the people at the tavern who would defend their home away from home.
History
One of the many stories about the Tumbling Tankard is that a kobold named Ivgren'athor arrived at the demiplane which was a gathering point for unique individuals from across the planes. In this particular gathering, a game of chance was being held, between a genie, a Baron of Hell, and a Planetar of Theradin. The story is that Ivgren'athor was able to beat the three and won their bet on each, whether or not he cheated he earned the moniker 'The Trickster' after this. The demiplane itself was from the Genie, as for what the Baron of Hell and the Planetar of Theradin lost? Whose to say, certainly not Ivgren'athor.
Tourism
Anyone who either finds or is given one of the Tumbling Tankard medallions can come and go as they desire so long as their coin is as good as their manners.
How does one use the medallion to get to the tavern? Is it pressed to a mundane door, or perhaps an incantation is spoken to open a planar portal? It being a demi-plane does it exist outside of time, so that when people leave little to no time has passed on their home plane, or does time pass normally there, or does that depend on the room one stays in? How long has it existed, and is Ivgren'athor still the owner? Are there any other staff that help him, magical or mundane?
The medallion is pressed up against a flat surface and while pressing in you twist it one direction or the other and it acts like a door handle of sorts, opening a door to the demi-plane. Time does flows like normal for the people in the Tankard. What that normal is depends on the creature. So if you go there and spend an 8 hour night sleeping there then you will return 8 hours later when you leave the Tankard. Ivgren'athor is still the owner, the Tankard as it is now has existed for roughly three hundred years in the material plane time. It has existed in one form or another since the plane's creation 2,618 years ago in the current time of the setting. While Ivgren'athor is long-lived he isn't that old he is just the current owner and chances are it will change hands again at some point. There are other staff and each section has staff that are drawn from the plane to which it serves. For the material plane, there is a human bartender by the name of Marcus. While he usually remains hidden the one in charge of patience is Stevalen a construct originally designed to repair magical items. He is in charge of keeping the enchanted tables of the tavern functional.