The Brown Puddle

If you need a break from all the shit

Everyone living in Aurora's Outer District, know about The Gutter, a man made canal going through The Outer District, carrying sewage from The Inner District. A slightly lesser known gem of the Outer District, is 'The Brown Puddle', a small inn nestled over The Gutter, in the south-western part of The Outer District.

Everything is brown

Having an inn literally built on top of shit can be a hard sell for customers, thus rather than try to hide the fact, Marc Paddleton, the owner and builder of The Brown Puddle, decided to lean into it. As a result, everything inside the inn is either made from dark wood or painted in various shades of brown. For instance, the inn only serves various kinds of brown ale, and all the food is either natural brown or covered with brown gravy.
Even his sense of humor has a shade of brown and prides himself on various sayings. Over the entrance to the building is a sign saying 'If you need a break from all the shit'.

Accommodations

The inn is a one-story building. The main room is rectangular, with the entrance in the middle of the western wall. The bar is opposite the entrance, at the eastern wall. The fireplace is centered on the northern wall, the only part of the building that is made from stone. Behind the bar, on the southern wall, there's a door leading into the kitchen and the private area.
The inn is not meant for lodging, but occasionally visitors pay to sleep near the fireplace.
There's seating for around twenty people, including the three seats at the bar, and Marc Paddleton claims that he can keep a full house fed for several days if needed. Marc Paddleton grew up in Aurora's Outer District, back before the Inner District was largely offlimits for poor people. Marc always wanted to have his own business in the Inner District, but failed on several occasions, as the citizens of the Inner District found him too crude. Eventually the new restrictions imposed by The City Council made it impossible for him to do business in the Inner District. Rather than give up, he decided to lean into his weaknesses, and make them his strength, and what could be more crude than to build an inn directly on top of The Gutter?

A Slow beginning

The decision to built the inn on top of The Gutter, wasn't Marc Paddleton's first choice, but finding a good spot wasn't easy, and definitely not cheap, even in The Outer District. With his money dwindling for each passing day, he had to think out of the box and act fast.
He knew that it had to be cheap, but also viable for business, otherwise he would fail yet again. He spent several weeks trying to find a suitable spot, but the few good options he found, were far too expensive for him. He then set his eyes on the south-western part of The Outer District, one of the poorest parts of the city. It was while walking along the The Gutter that the idea to build an inn on top of The Gutter popped into his head. Initially, he dismissed the idea as it was admittedly a crazy idea, but over the next few days, it kept coming back to him, and the more he thought of it, the more he liked it. The first stretch of The Gutter was only around one meter wide, but further down in the flatter parts of the district, it widened, to almost three meters wide in some places; this was where we wanted to build his inn. Although most people either laughed at him or dismissed his idea outright, he bought a plot just a few days later. The only restriction he was imposed was that he was not allowed to build inside The Gutter, as to not block the flow of sewage.

Planning

The main problems with building an inn over The Gutter was the smell, and the foundation. Thus he planned out the entire project before even beginning.
Since he did not have the money to build with stones he decided to settle with wood, and wattle, and daub.
The foundation he decided to build like a wooden bridge, reinforcing it with diagonal beams, to handle the extra load.
It turned out that solving the problem of smell would be one of the easiest things to do. By planting Troll Moss on the underside of the foundation, the smell would be negligible inside the building, as Troll Moss absorbs smell, and being a dry kind of moss, it even reduced moisture, preventing rot in the foundation.

Construction

Normally a small inn, takes around half a year to build, with around ten people to help out, but once again, money was an issue. Instead, he hired the locals to help out, most of whom were either in poor health or had little to no skill in construction. The construction took over a year and was put completely on hold during the The Sukilzvi, due to the darkness. It was important for Marc Paddleton that no one got badly hurt, during construction, as this could negatively impact both his, and the inns reputation.

A Safe place

The Brown Puddle is often frequented by locals, but rarely by outsiders. Locals seem to like it and many see the establishment as a mockery of the rich, proving that someone can in fact thrive on top of their shit.
Over the years it has even turned into a neutral place. There's a common understanding among the locals that you 'leave your shit at the door', making The Brown Puddle a friendly place where bar brawls are quite rare, and when they happen, the culprits are usually dealt with severely by the locals.

Founding Date

1219 TA

Alternative Names

The Puddle, The Shit Puddle, The Shit House, The Crapper

Owner

Marc Paddleton

Characters in Location

• Marc Paddleton

Common Sayings at
The Puddle

"The food may look like shit, but it tastes great!"

"The place where you don't have to take shit from the rich!"

"Please leave your shit at the door."

"Inhere, shit is beneath us!"

"Here we actually give a crap!"