Dead Drop Inn

Information sourced from 'The Fleshmarket, A History' and 'Tavern Tales'

Written by David_Ulph

Introduction

The Dead Drop Inn is a tavern located in the Fleshmarket District of the city of Doldrei, the capital of the Kingdom of Buerach and old imperial capital of the Empire of Midland. It is located at the edge of the cliff wall and looks out over the plains of Buerach, with a cobbled courtyard on the other side. A Chocolatería sits to the right of the Dead Drop Inn, with an Eyeglass Parlour to the left.

The Dead Drop Inn is famous for its varied and unique history in relation to other taverns throughout the Mortal Realm. Originally, the pub was built as a Sindleion and was an execution site of Merciful Ones. The name of the pub is in relation to the method of execution this once-Sindleion took, where a large circular pit is found in the middle of the building where the condemned would be thrown down. This pit would drop so far the bottom could not be seen, and therefore held a great aura of mystery of what lived at the bottom of the pit.

Layout

While the building is not the same design or shape of the original Sindleion, the pub one can visit today was rebuilt using the old temple's early Third Era stone with the morbid architecture of its original purpose in mind. The most striking outcome of this is the portico with columns and a triangular pediment above which displays a myth of Sindla falling into grief as her lover Gelida has his heart turned to ice. Above the doorway inside the pronaos is an inscription in Celestial as all Sindleions have, with this inscription in the stone reading "Everything is Mortal".

Stepping inside the Dead Drop Inn opens up to a fairly large open room with a cosy low ceiling not too low that is claustrophobic, with the stone bar at the opposite end where the Swan Aarakokra publican serves drinks from. Collections of loose and set tables and chairs dot the wide room to either side, with the walls having decorative plants such as creeping ivy running up them. In the centre of the hall is the famous pit, now filled with water and is home to a small collection of Hi Utsuri Butterfly Koi. This non-metallic black and red wraparound patterned Koi fish came directly from Yosha and while the butterfly sub-species was popularised in Imperial Doldrei, the name is still in the native Yoshan language.

Behind the bar is an open kitchen area, where a Tiefling head chef directs Halfling cooks in servicing classic Buerechan pub food to the drinkers in the "Koi Hall". To the left is an alcove which leads to an ancient shrine dedicated to Sindla which was kept safe and secure over the centuries until the modern day of 4E 297. To the right is a corridor which turns into the building again and opens into various simple rooms used for accommodation, and resemble the rooms the old Priests of Sindla lived in.

Usual Clientele

The Dead Drop Inn usually services the guild-workers from bordering districts of the city, as well as many halflings who dominate the residential buildings of the Fleshmarket District. However, the pub often also sees many customers who come for tourism reasons. Pilgrims who come to pray at the shrine of the ancient Sindleion and stay for a drink or two, as well as those who wish to risk catching the superstitious curse of Merciful Ones by staying within the walls of an old Sindleion.

There is an accommodation service, which makes the Dead Drop Inn an inn and not just a pub, where the old priests' rooms are provided to those who spend larger amounts or coin or come on the recommendation of the nearby guilds. It is a common place to stay for travellers in Doldrei who are less well-off nobility and merchants, as well as the superstitious and pilgrims wishing to bask in the holy presence of Sindla where they are usually not allowed.

History

The Fleshmarket District is named due to it originally being where the fleshmarket of the Imperial Capital was in the pre-Renaissance Midlandian Empire. The fleshmarket was where animals were butchered and hung up, and so the stench of death from the butchering would mask the presence of a Sindleion built in the courtyard to service some of Doldrey's dead. It was also the execution place for the Imperial Capital, before the Merciful One method of execution was standardised by the Holy See and their Canon Law.

During the reign of Emperor Sarrus V von Apollyon (r. 3E 397 - 452), much of the Imperial Capital was gentrified, and the fleshmarket was moved to another end of Doldrei near the northern gatehouse which generally only peasantry passed through. It was during this time the profession of the Merciful One was changing in the cultural view of Midland, and the people of Doldrei did not want an executioner within their walls. The Priesthood of Sindla were asked to vacate the Imperial Capital and were moved to Drackenberg, a town just outside Doldrei established by Draconic veterans of the Great Hunt.

The Fleshmarket District became one focussed on leisure, with an Arcane Council-funded Spectacle Specialist Shop, chocolatier workshop and other quaint cafés and luxuries being built from the repurposed warehouses and butcheries. The old Sindleion was rebuilt in some areas, and repurposed to become a decorative indoor garden that would be a communal space for relaxation and contemplation. The pit was filled with water and became a decorative koi pond with the Emperor's favourite butterfly koi being placed inside.

However, as the centuries have passed and it now being the Fourth Era, the Fleshmarket District became a run-down residential area where halfling migrants from the Shamutanti Clearances have passed through the Gold Road into Doldrei to find work and a roof to stay under. Due to the recent rises of the guilds in bordering districts of Doldrey, the Fleshmarket District became the pocket of the guilds with cafés being bought over to be turned back into warehouses. As such, the Fleshmarket Koi Garden was repurposed again, now becoming a pub to suit the needs of the guild workers after their long days of work.

Becoming the Dead Drop Inn, the pub was bought over ten years prior in 4E 267 by a Swan Aarakokra called Maybe Swanson, who contemplated changing the name of the pub to the "Black Swan" though decided against it when the guilds threatened the new publican with the fact they don't appreciate change they don't bring forward themselves.

Prompts Advent Calendar #31

WorldEmber Article #31

Historic Name(s)

Doldrey Sindleion, Fleshmarket Koi Garden

Parent Location

Fleshmarket District, Doldrei, Kingdom of Buerach

Type

Pub / Tavern / Restaurant

Menu

The menu at the Dead Drop Inn is not anything special, being completely standard Buerechan pub food at average prices as the appeal of the pub is to service the workers who just want a cheap warm meal inside of them. As such, the food is chiefly made with woks, and depends on what the head chef wants to cook on that night from stir-fries to Heldenic rice soups.

The pub offers a decent range of beers and ales, with two unique spirits made in collaboration with the chocolate café-salon next door. The "Black Swan" is a chocolate martini made with vodka and a creamy chocolate liqueur, while the "White Swan" is the same but with a white chocolate liqueur and a vanilla-infused vodka.

Orite the Skeleton

Hanging in the pronaos of the pub is a skeleton which has been magically grafted together to prevent it coming apart. This skeleton is only known as Orite by the regulars due to his usual introduction when spoken to being "oooorite".

If Maybe Swanson is asked about the skeleton, the curious individual would be told a tale of Doldrei during the Dark Period in the early Fourth Era, when a Wild Hunt ravaged the Buerach area.

The Sluagh came unannounced, as the Northern Lights only appeared as soon as the malevolent Spirits made it to the city. Those who were drinking in the Dead Drop Inn were forced to barricade the doors and windows against the storm, but the necromantic energies passed in before magic could ward it off.

As the patrons braced the Wild Hunt, a single skeleton from the ancient executed bodies at the bottom of the pit climbed out of the koi pond and started attacking anything it saw. The patrons quickly took down the undead creature and decided once the Wild Hunt was over, they would hang their trophy outside the pub for all to see.

Many travellers and patrons of the tavern over the decades have attempted to learn more about the skeleton, using the spell "Speak With Dead". Though in answer to every question, the skeleton has a single answer to give every time. "oooorite".