Trollskull Manor
Four stories tall and boasting balconies, a turret, and five chimneys, the once abandoned building is one of the grandest in Trollskull Alley.
Tavern Keeping Expenses
This sidebar summarizes the one-time payments and continuing expenses associated with running the tavern in Trollskull Alley, as well as providing rules for determining how much coin the business makes or loses.
One-Time Expenses
- 1,000 gp to renovate the tavern over 12 days
- 250 gp for guild licenses and contracts (paid up front)
Regular Expenses
- 50 gp per tenday for maintenance and wages of hirelings
- 10 gp per tenday for all other guild expenses
Profit or Loss
At the end of every tenday, roll a d100 + 10 and consult the table to determine whether the tavern lost money or earned profit. If the characters spent coin on promoting their business during that tenday, add 1 to the roll for each 1 gp they spent. If the characters have unpaid expenses, subtract 1 from the roll for each 1 gp they owe.Once it becomes known around the city that the tavern in Trollskull Alley is planning to reopen its doors to the public, the adventurers receive visits from guild representatives interested in the tavern's welfare. This section describes a handful of these representatives.
Broxley Fairkettle
Fellowship of Innkeepers
Broxley (LG male strongheart halfling commoner) is a laid-back, law-abiding halfling with mutton chops and bushy eyebrows. Inns and taverns are few and far between in the North Ward, so he makes frequent visits to the characters' place to see how it's doing and to offer his well-wishes. If none of the characters are members of the guild, he strongly urges them to join “to avoid further harassment.” The cost of membership in the Fellowship of Innkeepers is included in the regular expenses outlined in the “Tavern Keeping Expenses” sidebar.
Broxley has long believed the tavern to be haunted and is glad to see living souls in it once more. While lamenting the burdens of being a father of nine, he is quick to point out that the characters' continued compliance with guild rules and regulations makes his rather difficult life “just a bitty bit easier.”
Hammond Kraddoc
Vintners', Distillers', and Brewers' Guild
Hammond (N male Illuskan human commoner) doesn't like adventurers, but he likes their coin. This effete, well-dressed man is always seen in the company of a young scribe, Jinny (NG female tiefling commoner), who wears spectacles and silently records notes and conversations in a small book as Hammond speaks.
Hammond likes to stop by in the middle of the month to inform the characters of new spirits that the guild has to offer, and to give them a list of which ones to push hard. To test the extent of their willingness to cooperate, he chastises them for their current selection of beverages, even if he previously sold them those goods.
Justyn Rassk
Guild of Butchers
Dead-eyed, slack-jawed Justyn (NE male Illuskan human thug) grew up in the toughest neighborhood in the Field Ward and has the scars to prove it. The guild doesn't pay him enough for him to afford a residence in the North Ward, and going to that part of the city fills his heart with resentment. He darkens the characters' doorstep once a month to deliver a cartload of chopped meat for the tavern's larder. Although delivery fees are covered by the guild's monthly dues, Justyn always demands some extra coin for his service. If the characters don't give him a gratuity of at least 3 gp, he says, “Maybe next time the meat will be someone you know.” He lets the threat hang in the air, then departs.
Ulkoria Stonemarrow
Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors
Ulkoria (NG female shield dwarf archmage) has defended Waterdeep with her magic more times than she can recall. She's known as “the Gargoyle” because her face is frozen in a scowl that frightens adults and children alike. No one knows where she lives, but it's believed to be underground, possibly a cellar or dungeon under one of the city's oldest estates. She uses teleport spells to enter and leave her home, and she's never seen without her shield guardian close by.
A little known fact is that Ulkoria once owned the tavern in Trollskull Alley. She sold it to a family of shield dwarves, who fell on hard times and sold it to a woman who made it into an orphanage. “Turned out to be a hag who was cooking and eating the children,” Ulkoria recalls. The estate passed through several more hands in the years that followed. Ulkoria hopes the new owners make something good of it.
Anytime she passes through the North Ward, Ulkoria stops by the tavern for a drink and to check out the place while her shield guardian waits outside. If she doesn't like what the characters have done with the establishment, she keeps her criticisms to herself. The characters can hire her to cast glyphs of warding on the place, for which she charges 300 gp apiece.
Business Rival: Emmek Frewn
Emmek Frewn, a salty northerner (NE male Illuskan commoner), recently tried to buy the tavern in Trollskull Alley but was outbid by Volothamp Geddarm. Stung by the loss, he bought a smaller, less impressive building in the same alley and turned it into a pub, which he calls Frewn's Brews. If you decide to introduce Emmek as a business rival, choose an unmarked building on map 2.1 to serve as the pub.
Emmek's family migrated to Waterdeep after its holdings in Neverwinter were destroyed by the eruption of Mount Hotenow in 1451 DR. The family struggled to make ends meet by tanning leather in the Trades Ward. After Emmek's parents died, his sisters took over the business and bought him out. He never liked the work anyway, and he particularly hated dealing with the League of Skinners and Tanners.
Emmek is on shaky financial footing because he has sunk most of his wealth into this latest endeavor. He's also in trouble with two of the guilds. First, he tried to save coin by fixing the roof himself, in defiance of the Carpenters', Roofers', and Plaisterers' Guild. Then he offended a member of the Cellarers' and Plumbers' Guild by comparing the dwarf's beard to barnacles on a ship.
Goals
Emmek wants his pub to be the most successful tavern in the North Ward, and he wants the characters' business to fail spectacularly.
Assets
Emmek is stingy when it comes to certain kinds of expenses and foolish with his coin in other ways. He tends to spend a lot on big, showy items and cut corners on the little amenities. Because he doesn't have much coin to throw around right now, his plan to ruin the characters' establishment begins with borrowing some money.
Plans
Emmek secures a 150 gp loan from Istrid Horn (see appendix B). He spends 50 gp for the services of the Shard Shunners, a gang of halfling wererats with which he has had nefarious dealings in the past. He pays the halflings to hinder the characters' efforts while he works feverishly to manage his own business.
Four gang members have been assigned to work with Emmek: two males named Kelso Fiddlewick and Dasher Snobeedle, and two females named Danika Fiddlewick (Kelso's younger sister) and Brynn Hilltopple. These halflings are wererats, with these changes:
Each wererat is Small and has 27 (6d6 + 6) hit points.
It has these racial traits: It can move through the space of a Medium or larger creature. It has advantage on saving throws against being frightened. It speaks Common and Halfling, and it knows thieves' cant.
Emmek's strategy for ruining the competition and the consequences for putting it into action are summarized in the table below.
Emmek's Plans
Element Description
Event The wererats scope out the characters’ tavern in halfling forms and might try to get jobs there.
Event The wererats plant morsels of food inside the characters’ place and bore tiny holes in the outside walls to attract rats, creating an infestation.
Action Emmek spreads rumors that the characters’ tavern is rat-infested, which is why he didn’t buy it. Apply a −10 penalty on the next three rolls characters make on the Running a Business table (see “Tavern Keeping Expenses” above).
Event The Shard Shunners claim they’ve done enough for their coin and demand more.
Action Emmek pays the wererats another 50 gp to creep around the characters’ tavern at night in hybrid and rat form, carve rat faces into the doors of neighbors, and otherwise draw attention to themselves.
Action Emmek convinces several local residents to sign a letter he has drafted, then dispatches it to the City Watch. The letter accuses the characters of running a front for a guild of wererat thieves and urges the Watch to close their establishment.
Level Advancement
In this section of the adventure, the characters should advance to 3rd level by engaging in faction missions, dealing with Emmek Frewn, or partaking in self-directed activities. This period of time represents an opportunity for the characters to make friends and gain a reputation (for good or ill) in Trollskull Alley—and in Waterdeep itself—before the events of chapter 3 embroil them in a greater plot.
Maps
-
Trollskull Manor
Comments