Tavern Thursday (On Friday!): The Griffon Sergeant Inn (Patreon)

Each Thursday I do a quick sketch of a new fantasy tavern as a paying-members-exclusive post. Each post includes an illustration and just enough tavern details for a GM to drop it in their game wherever they need a place for adventures to gather and quest to start.

(And, yeah, this one was on a Friday. It's been a weird week. :) )

The Griffon Sergeant Inn

Appearance: This three-story stone building with wooden interior supports is in an old section of the city, it's front facing a cobblestone road lined with stone structures and archways which have plenty of room for horses, but is not designed for carts or bigger animals such as elephants.

The building is well-maintained, with the stone regularly scrubbed and the wood preserved and repaired as needed. The front has a very stout door with no window, then a few feet away three glass-and-iron windows and a more common wooden door located between two stone columns. An awning keeps rain from the typical door and the windows, and serves as a small balcony access from a door in the second floor.

The only worn part of the inn is it's sign, and ancient-looking and partially faded shield-shaped wooden placard hung from a wood post by steel chains. The sign has a single image on it, a white griffon heraldic symbol facing left.

(All art by IG Digital)

Origin: The name of the Griffon Sergeant comes from it's sign, which in heraldry is an "argent griffon segreant," due to its position (or "attitude" in heraldic terms). The inn was originally a chapterhouse for a small group of elite mercenaries who had a license from the city's rulers to operate from the building. As freemen fighters, the mercenaries were referred to as "fighters sergeant," which over time got blended with the "griffon segreant" to cause the building to be known as the Griffon Sergeant.

During a long period of war, the mercenaries' numbers decreased and they began leasing out space in their chapterhouse to other mercenaries and merchants as a secure place to stay. Over time that proved more profitable (and less deadly) than combat, and the organization shifted from a fighting company to an inn for those with the means to pay for security, and the reputation to suggest they won't cause trouble.

Owner: The Griffon Sergeant is owned by Ethealgard Windbringer, an elderly half-elf who is the last surviving member of the original Griffons mercenary company. Ethealgard lives in the private quarters of the Inn, accessible only from the armored door on the street and a door up on the third floor of the building. He rarely gets involved in the Inn's day-to-day business, trusting his Innkeeper, a young man named Gerant (who is the grandson of one of the original Griffons) to handle the majority of issues. Instead Ethealgard spends his time writing histories of his life and the events he saw, writing to friends in far-off lands, and secretly hiring young adventurers to look into rumors and strange events he finds interesting. The most reliable and successful of those adventurers are eventually introduced to the Windbringer, and given free use of this Inn, and other similar businesses he owns in other cities.

Food: The Griffon Sergeant has three classes of food. Simple but well-prepared local fair is offered in the common room, which consists of booths by the front windows, a bar with stools, and a side room with tables. Such food is normally a bean porridge, dark hearty breads, roasted small game, hard cheeses, and fruits and vegetables as they are in season.

The second class of food is road rations. These are hardtack, pressed bean and grain bars, and a version of pemmican (which was encountered by the Griffons on a campaign, and because their favored food). Not only can these items be bought cheaply in bulk here, but the Griffon Sergeant has a basement with months worth of such food, in case of siege.

The third class of food is high-end banquet food. This isn't mentioned by the staff, but can be bought by those in the know. It's normally only served on the balcony above the bar (limited to friends of the Inn and customers paying for one of the suites located there), and isn't cooked at the Inn but brought in from various cookeries throughout the city. It's more expensive here than wherever it's cooked, but porters for the inn can bring food from a dozen locations to a customer willing to pay for the convenience.

Drink: The common drink of the Griffon Sergeant is rum cut with water or, for roughly double the price, cut with juice (when in season). Ale and bear are also available when market prices make them Also popular is "Spring Water," and spring tea (which is just herbal tea made with the aforementioned water) which is clearer and sweeter water than most people have access to. It's not spring water at all, but comes from a well and cistern system beneath the Griffon Sergeant, and is filtered through fine cloth then stored in ceramic jugs before being moved to water barrels to bring up. The staff maintain the fiction they are serving water shipped in from a secret spring, to hide the fact the inn has it's own water source.

Lodging: The Griffon Sergeant has four suites for rent, but only rent to people known to the staff, or who have letters of recommendation from people known to the staff, or people who can convince the Innkeeper they can afford such rooms and won't cause trouble. Not that the inn doesn't deny lodging to those who have trouble come for them--indeed the staff are all taught how to fight and there are cudgels and long knives (short swords, really) stashed throughout the premises, and a locked armory if needed. The inn is only looking to exclude patrons who will start trouble where it wasn't necessary.

In addition to multiple rooms with beds, tables, strongboxes, brass tubs for bathing (one per suite, and having staff bring hot water is a separate charge) and very heavy doors, patrons of the suits gain access to the balcony that overlooks the common room (though you cannot see the bar or its stools, which are directly below the balcony). This allows for private meals, and patrons can have guests up as long as they vouch for their guest's behavior.

Stabling: The Griffon Sergeant has no public stables of its own, but is associated with two nearby stables, and can arrange for a considerable number and size of creatures to be housed and cared for. However, the building does actually have stabling for griffons on its roof, though only a single griffon (Deathtalon, Erhealgard Windbringer's own largely-retired steed) has used it in the past many years.

Clientele: The common room of the inn is extremely popular with local working-class citizens of the city, who know they will get a fair deal on good food, and that bullies and brutes are not welcome within.

The suites aren't always rented out, and when they are it's typically by small groups of adventurers, units from mercenary companies, and rich merchants of valuable goods (often alchemical materials, gems, or spices) who value a secure lodging with it's own strongbox.

Rumor: Businesses that have gotten on the bad side of the Griffon Sergeant often claim it's a hotbed for rebellion against the local government, and/or that the government has set it up as as a single place for criminals to gather and be easily watched.

Adventure Seed: PCs encounter a merchant on the road who has been ambushed, and a single chest he was transporting to the Griffon Sergeant was taken, while his other goods were ignored. The merchant asks the PCs to help him reach the inn, where he must report the theft to the owner. The PCs are asked if they are willing to try to recover the stolen chest, and if they agree are shown in to see Ethealgard Windbringer. He explains the chest had the askes of old friends of his (former Griffons), which they wished to have interred here. The Windbringer is concerned someone might be trying to use the askes for some form of necromancy, and wants PCs to learn what they can about the theft, and to return the ashes if possible.