Bryn's Depot
Bryn's Depot is a large depot that stands between Ship's Right and the Assembly Hall of Oltumur. Its facade is covered with wooden carvings of fish, octopuses and other seafood and it can be entered via a large wooden double door. Bryn's Depot is currently maintained by Ust Gwythun, the proprietor of the inn, tavern and brewery Ship's Right.
Purpose / Function
While originally a center for cleaning and storing fish, Bryn's Depot now stands mostly empty. For the rest, it is used to store wares and sometime possessions of travelers who visit Oltumur.
Architecture
The building as a whole is made from stone, although its facade is covered with wooden panels that are embossed with pictorial displays. The building does not have windows and instead the inside is lined with oil lamps that hang from the ceiling, which is kept up by stone pillars and an arrangement of wooden beams.
Inside, the area of the building is a large hall of about 100 by 100 feet, with a high ceiling. In the northwestern part of this hall stands a separate room that is a bit lower and that was used as an office by Bryn. The hall itself is lined with two columns of benches, oriented north to south. On the eastern side of the hall are holes in the ground, closed off by containers with lids that can be opened using a foot pedal. These holes were used to deposit fish entrails and other trash.
Defenses
The building is not defended, but the wooden doors can be barricaded with a beam and can be locked.
History
This large stone building with massive wooden doors was once used by Bryn Gwythun, a succesful fisherman from Oltumur. He coordinated a large group of fishermen and in this depot he had the catch cleansed, brined and stored. Gwythun was fully embedded in the gift economy -- he shared his bounty with others, but refrained from gifting to those who might trade. During the ninth century, Bryn's Depot was bursting with activity that fed Oltumur and nearby communes.
Yet as trade in Oltumur grew, it became more difficult for Gwythun to offer a good environment for workers, who flocked towards the merchants. Bryn's enterprise became less important to the commune and Bryn focused instead on providing his brother Ust Gwythun with fish and other seafood, as Ust was running the local inn and tavern Ship's Right which trades with outsiders but gifted to wood elves.
In 902 LC, this changed as Bryn went missing. Despite the best efforts of the commune and Ust, Bryn was not found and the depot fell into disarray. Ust started using it for his brewery and as storage for his inn. In some cases, visitors to his tavern stored their goods in the depot, too.
In Jandar 904 LC, a diplomatic mission from Prydisyrr passed through Oltumur and stayed in Ship's Right. They stored their sizable collection of goods in the depot and placed guards in the building to protect the good. The next morning, one of these guards was missing while the other was found brutally murdered.
Members of the diplomatic mission traced the killer to the depths of the deposit containers, which were connected to an underground cavern system. There, a few of the members (Bor Durlyne, Aron Staal and Ballelds Landidith, who was magically transformed to appear as Gaf Bhytear), together with a group of mercenary orcs and members of the voluntary guard of Oltumur, discovered that the underground fish waste deposits were haunted by ghouls and ghasts, who had taken one of their party members into their lair.
The group that went into the caverns did not only rescue their lost friend, but also stumbled upon the body of Bryn Gwythun and found he had been carrying a key labeled with dwarven runes and the sigil of Clan Kandarin. They brought the body back to Oltumur and sent in voluntary guard members to cleanse the cavern system below the depot.
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