The Blushing Mermaid
Tavern, Inn, & Festhall
Rankings: 4C • 3A • 3 P •
Building: C, 2s&3s
The Mermaid is one of the most luxurious establishments in Dock Ward. Everything is unhur-ried, luxurious, and sensual, with no detail overlooked. The staff wear facemasks of black armor plate with attached black gauze veils to conceal their faces.
The Place
Fronting on Net Street within easy reach of the harbor stench¬es, the Blushing Mermaid spans three buildings. Scents stream from amber hanging lamps. Gauzy curtains, cushions, and sound-eating carpets are every¬where. Special, extremely expen¬sive enchantments prevent any sort of open flame from igniting them. Even fire magic is foiled. Every guest has a plush, decadent private bedroom, a private bathroom, and an office/recep- tion room in which to entertain.
It is widely known that the Mermaid is honeycombed with secret passages, reached by sliding wall panels in every room—but few guests manage to get those panels to work.
The Prospect
The original light pleasure palace of Waterdeep, combining a place to stay with places to drink and have fun, the Mermaid has always catered to the wealthy by maintaining an atmosphere of quiet decadence. The Mermaid bends most of its attention to creating a cozy atmosphere for festhall activities — and so its food and tavern facilities suffer. True to its name, the Mermaid does offer one special drinking and dining experience: a heated, scented communal bath in which patrons soak as they eat and drink, served by mermaids, who swim in from the harbor via well-guarded secret tunnels. Messy foods can simply be washed away in the lavender- tinted waters.
These tunnels were no doubt used for smuggling in bygone days, but they are now blocked by locked gratings with alarms, and are used by mermen and mermaids to report for shifts at the Mermaid and to dine: a special section of the Blushing Mermaid's kitchens cater to the merfolk.
The Provender
Seafood—and, surprisingly, whole roast pig—are the specialties of the Mermaid's kitchens. Every¬thing is good, if a little undersea¬soned, but runs expensive: 1 gp to 3 gp/person per meal. Drinks are extra, with a full wine cellar (1 gp to 22 gp/bottle, depending on your choice), plentiful zzar (the almond-flavored sherry favored by many in Waterdeep) at 1 sp/ glass, and very ordinary beer at 2 cp/tankard.
The People
The Mermaid has a busy staff of over 20 very efficient, hard¬working maids who frequently give personal attentions to the needs of guests. They get to keep any tips tossed their way, and also get a percentage of all the Mer-maid's earnings. A seven-foot-tall, muscular blonde of northern barbarian stock named Reetha is widely known around the city as is an agile lass from the jungles of Chult, Leilatha Subraira, who is covered from head to toes in tattoos and likes to oil her skin to keep them colorful and herself hard to grab.
The pleasant atmosphere of the Mermaid is an enforced serenity. Patrons and staff are guarded against rowdiness and violence by the watchful eye and ready spells of the proprietress, Lady Alathene Moonstar. The secret panels can only be opened by her hand—or by four magical hands fashioned of silver, en¬chanted by her and carried by staff members on security duty.
If one goes missing, she alters the pass spells within a few hours.
Lady Alathene is old and very beautiful, her beauty kept up by magic. She glides silently around the Mermaid dressed in full formal gowns with ornate, upthrust bodices and head veils, often wearing the same sort of facemask as her staff.
She is quick to use her magic, and fearless when facing down even drunken mages — I saw her employ disabling spells I've seen nowhere else, harmlessly confin¬ing a belligerent drunkard without injury to him or to the surroundings.
The Prices
Rooms are 3 gp to 9 gp per night (larger rooms and lower floors are dearer), or 10 gp to 50 gp per tenday. Most are 5 gp per night or 20 gp per tenday. Scents of your choice, fresh linen as needed, and unlimited, sparkling clear, scent¬ed bath water (obviously pro¬cured from elsewhere or magically cleaned) are all in¬cluded in these prices.
Tipping is common. Some regular visitors give a standard 1 gp/ day extra and ask that it be shared among the staff, as well as giving extras to those escorts who see to them personally.
Travelers' Lore
There are several pleasant stories, probably pure legend, about men and mermaids falling in love with each other in the pool and leaving either land or water with the help of the young man's magic, or the help of a friendly wizard, to be together.
The custom of the Hour of
Darkness provides many amus¬ing tales and naughty pranks. In the early hours of each morning, all lights in public areas of the Mermaid are extinguished, and aside from the silver hands carried by the staff, which give off a blue-silver glow like moon¬light gleaming on a sword, everyone has to find their way about by feeling. This custom causes much laughter.
In addition, there are darker whispers —of guests sometimes vanishing in the Mermaid, never to be heard of again. These tales seem to be linked to a circular staircase rising from the central mermaid pool hall to a glass- covered rooftop garden or cupola, where herbs and flowers are grown. It is adorned with bones bound to its rails and risers with fine wire.
Elminster tells us the tales of disappearing guests are true-and are due to the Lady Alathene Moonstar, an archlich whose unlife is maintained by faulty, failing enchantments. She keeps to the Mermaid because she likes to see young lively folk having fun around her (and by magic, keeps a close watch on their activities).
Although she is seen by the Lords of the city as a force for good (sometimes sending word to Piergeiron about illicit deals and doings that she overhears in the Mermaid), she is forced to main¬tain her unlife by draining the life forces of liv¬ing, intelligent beings (two to three a year). She must do this by direct bodily contact, and usually chooses to so use guests she dislikes or sees as evil. Their bones end up on the staircase.
Her family, the noble Moonstars of Waterdeep, knows all about her, but keeps quiet about it. In public, she ignores them and they ignore her, but privately she helps in the training of young Moonstars with magical talent and also provides safekeeping for certain treasures and incrimi¬nating items for the family. (For more details of Lady Moonstar, see the "Folk of Waterdeep" ap¬pendix at the end of this book.)
Если вы хотите что то добавить или присоединится к команде редакторов - пишите комментарии
Внимание! Имеется скрытый контент, доступный только подписчикам. Подписка - бесплатна. Детальнее - читай здесь.
Вы можете присвоить себе следующие роли, чтобы расширить видимый контент: Daggerford Deadsnows Waterdeep Neverwinter Baldur's Gate
RSS канал данного сайта
Тип
Pub / Tavern / Restaurant
Является частью
Комментарии