Halfway There Inn

Going to Lenthir, eh? Then you'll have to stop at the Halfway There Inn! You won't find better food before arriving in Lenthir itself, and the beds are clean, soft and warm. Oh, and if you're lucky, I've heard that the greatest bards of the world occasionally stop by the inn - and if there are more than two bards there at the same time, you might experience a bard-off!

— Sezlik Javir, traveler

Situated in the Crossroads, the Halfway There Inn is, as its name suggests, halfway between Lenthir and Vobranas. It's also on the way to Enarion from both these cities.

The Halfway There Inn is one of the most visited inns in all the Five Nations, mostly because the roads going through the tiny hamlet are the main roads in the area, and everyone travels through here if they travel along the road.

This is the inn of choice for the Kuprian royals when they travel either to Lenthir or to Enarion. This makes it important for the staff of the Halfway There Inn to offer astonishing food and service at all times, so they are ready for the occasional royal visit.

No matter who is currently visiting the inn, there's almost always a lot of life inside the inn itself, with people eating, drinking and chatting, and maybe even live music or storytelling if any bards or the like are visiting. Several bards will actually plan to spend some days at the Halfway There Inn, just to entertain while they are visiting.

Architecture

The inn itself is constructed around a large common room, where food is served and eaten by most of the visitors who come to this inn. Along the long walls there are several doors into rooms that are for rent, as well as hallways into the newer parts of the building. One of these hallways goes to a large sections containing mostly bedrooms for rent, as well as a shared bath room where a tub can be filled on order, to wash off the travel dust. The other hallway goes to the noble quarters, where the rooms are larger and more luxurious, and come with private dining tables and baths.

On the short wall opposite from the entrance to the inn, there is a counter where food and drink can be ordered, as well as doors into the kitchen and staff rooms. This is where the staff works, and there are rooms where staff living outside the Crossroads can sleep when they're working.

The main hall is large enough to seat about a hundred guests at a time, and even has a small stage if traveling bards want to play music or tell tales as they travel through the area.

Most of the building is made of wood from the vast Kael Thalori forest, which has its southern edge in this area. The kitchen and around all the fireplaces the material used is bricks, so the inn won't catch fire.

History

In the beginning, the town of the Crossroads were just a T-shaped junction in Kupria, where the road lead to Lenthir in the east, Thalor Alari in the north-west and Vobranas in the south. There was a farm close by this junction originally, where travelers could pay a small fee to be allowed to sleep under a roof in their barn.

Years later, the current owner of the farm saw a potential. More people were traveling than before, and there weren't enough room for everyone to sleep in the barn. Also, there might be a pretty penny in it to sell food as well. He started planning the construction of an inn, where there were room for more people, with more comfort than sleeping in the barn, as well as food serving for hungry travelers.

After opening the inn, it soon gained popularity. Everyone traveling through the road junction would stop at the Halfway There Inn for food, and a lot of travelers would plan their trip around sleeping at the inn as well. The rising popularity was the reason for the following two expansions of the inn, where one of them made a set of rooms for richer travelers, which is wildly popular for the more noble people who travels these roads.

The third generation of the same family is now owning and running the inn, the family farm sold to someone else. There's no doubt that it's the inn that started the small assimilation of houses that would later become the tiny hamlet called the Crossroads.

Type

Inn

Parent Location

The Crossroads