A Pair of Black Antlers
This tavern stands on the west side of Maidensbridge Street, just south of where it swings westward to cross the bridge it is named for and run around the northern end of the central heights of the city to link up with Westerly. Outside the city, A Pair of Black Antlers is the best known of Elturel's taverns because its the gathering place for those who seek adventure. Old, retired warriors, young and bright-eyed would-bes, and weary adventurers alike all come here. The walls of A Pair of Black Antlers are decorated over the bar with a truly gigantic rack of antlers. They're fully 20 feet across! The walls are also dotted with the relics and trophies of many adventurers: old, notched and scarred weapons; split shields; the heads, tails, and claws of sundry shocked-looking, dusty, long dead monsters; and fading maps, bloodstained and covered with angry error-correcting scribbles, of old castle dungeons, dwarven holds, tombs, and other subterranean complexes that presumably once held rich treasures. (Some of these maps may well be palpable forgeries.)
The Place
Wood-paneled, dimly lit, and apt to be smoky (the fireplace doesn't draw properly), this cozy place is a maze of stone support pillars, low, massive overhead beams, and dark, massive furniture salvaged from old villas and castles. If things are too dark to see an interesting-looking map or missive, one of three blue-hued drift globes can be called for but this will draw the attentive eyes of many patrons in the labyrinthine, many-leveled taproom.
The Prospect
No adventurers visit to Elturel is complete without a stop at the Antlers. Many adventures have begun in its tap room and many more likely will. The Antlers is the place to hear gossip about adventuring, join a band, hire sword swingers for a plan of your own, or get hired to carry out another dreamers plan. Need a curse lifted or some other spell cast? The patrons here will know who to call on and where they can be found, for the price of a tankard. Want to hear tales that chill the blood or splendid songs of daring deeds? This is the place. Want to impress a likely looking young blade of the other sex? Beware some of them may be doppelgangers or shape shifting mages but then, you wanted adventure. . . .
Traveler's Lore
The Antlers has about as many hidden treasure legends as any drinking house associated with adventurers. Some of them may even be true. The staff mentioned that the one about the sacks of gold being hidden under the boards of the taproom is false. They're tired of patrons trying to pry up boards when they think no ones looking, and every single boards been up several times by now. The patrons have adopted one bardic ballad (given following) as their favorite drinking song. This song is a nightly favorite at the Antlers. Woe befall any minstrel who shows up to play without a sensitive mastery of it, the ability to sing and play it with mournful, macabre skill. Its a bardic standard, but here it has the revered status of an anthem to fallen comrades, proud adventurers still living and the dark humors of gods, who must be appeased.
The Knights of Dragon Down
Riding, riding across the plain,
See them riding home again.
Bright their shields, bright their chain—
The Knights of Dragon Down.
They have gone where shadows creep.
Their blades a bloody harvest reap.
Another dragon put fore’er asleep
By the Knights of Dragon Down.
On their fingers gem rings gleam.
Of such baubles, the very cream
Falls into the hands, in a steady stream,
Of the Knights of Dragon Down.
In a dark hall a lady sits alone,
Her bright eyes gleam as white as bone.
Her dark spells a-hunting roam
For the Knights of Dragon Down.
With cruel smile, a web she weaves.
From each might, his soul she cleaves.
Armored bones are all she leaves
Of the Knights of Dragon Down.
Riding, riding, their skulls a-grin—
Past the gates, the Knights ride in.
Sorcery now their souls doth spin
Of the Knights of Dragon Down.
Ladies scream at the touch of bone,
As skeletal Knights come riding home.
Undead now, fore’er to roam,
Are the Knights of Dragon Down.
Minstrels used to add a verse to the end of this, late at night:
Hear them riding, nearer outside.
Never sleeping, doomed to ride.
There’s no place where you can hide
From the Knights of Dragon Down.
This verse has been outlawed in Elturel, because some fiendishly evil arch mage of the city wove a summoning spell into the words that swiftly brought undead to whoever sang them. They're still whispered across many a dying campfire in the Realms by those brave (or foolish) enough to risk the coming of seven skeletal warriors riding as many skeletal horses or whatever lesser undead show up instead.
The Menu
- Ale: 3cp/tankard or 7cp/hand keg
- Stout: 5cp/tankard
- Wine: 6cp/common or 9cp/quality
- Zzar: 1sp/tall glass
- Brandy: 1sp/tall glass
- Sherry: 1sp/tall glass
- Everquisst: 4gp/tall glass
- Provender: 6cp/plate
The Provender
The heartily cheerful staff of the Antlers are all ex-adventurers of a great variety of ages, races, and appearances. They pour out drinks with generous hands so no one need feel slighted here. One can also purchase salted biscuits, slabs of sharp-tasting onion cheese, river clams, and gurdats (pan-fried, pepper-spiced mushrooms in a melted cheese batter).
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