Tavern Thursday: Teapot Garden (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.

Teapot Garden 

Appearance: Teapot Garden can appear in any natural field, and the appearance of the gardens varies depending on the native flora and fauna of the area it arrives in. It always includes beds of soft moss, pergolas of shrubs and vines, and a tiny red teapot-shaped building a little less than a yard tall, with a handle and spout, surrounded by flowers (regardless of the reason or appearance of any other vegetation in the field) and a shepherd's crook stuck in the ground with a light in it, illuminated by a wil-o-wisp.

(Art by Obsidian Fantasy)

Origin: The Teapot Garden was created by it's current owner, the ancient and retired fey Rhiann Tünde. It's walls are built on the circumferences of a fairy ring, and acts as a portal between the mortal world and the Fey Realm. It never actually travels, sitting in the Dell of Spring Tidings in the Fey Realm, but because its fairy ring makes passage between fey-touched fields and the Dell possible, it appears to move about from the mortal world side of things.

Because the walls sit in the mortal world and the interior is in the fey realm, the kitchen and storage space within the teapot building is much more significant than it appears, though only an elder fey can pass through the teapot gate in either direction.

Owner: Rhiann Tünde was a major player in the politics and wars f the fey, earning the respects, and fear, or both his enemies and allies. One winter solstice, he decided he was done. With the concerns of the seasonal courts, of the wars, of the endless and eternal turnings of fey and mortal alike, all of it. In recognition for his service, he was granted the Dell of Spring Tidings in the fey realm, and permission to build the Teapot Garden as his retirement plan... at least in part because retired Rhiann Tünde as a busy tavernkeeper was seen as much less dangerous than a retired Rhiann Tünde with time to think about the ways the fairy courts could be reorganized.

Rhiann Tünde enjoys getting to talk into a different mortal field every few weeks or months, and constantly sating the needs of visiting mortals. He absolutely never gets directly involved in the affairs of fey or mortal, but is happy to spin a yarn or given advise over a jug of honeysuckle wine. He also demands the Teapot Garden is neutral territory, and is not afraid to enforce that among mortals, fey, dragons, or demigods if necessary.

Food: The Teapot Garden serves an amazing variety of vegan food, and is particularly well-known for it's fey travel bread, sweet and spicy cakes made with nectar from the bee balm flower, broad bean and herbal dumpling soup, and "pea squares," which are a surprisingly tasty green tofulike material made from peas.

Drink: The Teapot Garden offers more than 500 different tea drinks, and Rhiann Tünde can list them all from memory... though most people stop him before he hits 100 and either just pick something that sounds good, or accepts his offer to bring a pot that matches whatever the customers are eating. Many teas are medicinal, and can aid the drinker in overcoming diseases, poisons, fatigue, depression, pain, and even curses.

The other most popular drinks are honeysuckle wine, and hibiscus mead, though a variety of common beers, ales, and liquors are also generally available.

Lodging: Whenever the Teapot Garden sets up in a field, the field grows a number of moss and/or grass beds, springs, and hedge walls for privacy. As Rhiann Tünde is a powerful force able to defend his establishment, anyone sleeping in the field is generally safe. Most people are charged a token payment, but those who annoy Rhiann may find themselves told they can only stay overnight if they pay with one color from a rainbow, or the sound of dusk. However, those who stop being annoying and make good-faith efforts to acquire such payment are accepted and often given free drinks.

Stabling: Any creature than can survive on plant fodder is welcome to stay in and eat freely in the Teaport garden's field. Mounts that require meat must be fed by their riders, though they are still free to sleep in the field, and can be moved to a hedge corral if necessary.

Clientele: Very few people manage to stay at the Teapot Garden more than once, as it des not often visit the same place twice. When it does, it's because Rhiann Tünde is curious to see how some person, location, or event connected to one region is progressing. This could include watchin a farm girl grow up, or keeping track of the progress of a war, or wanting to see if an old oak struck by lighting manages to recover or not.

Because he enjoys company, Rhiann Tünde normally has the Teapot Garden appear someplace along trade or migration routes, where there isn't already sufficient waypoints. This often means places that are common campsites, fords, or passes often have the Teapot Garden show up one day, stay a few weeks, then leave.

Rumor: Rhiann Tünde is thinking of retiring, even from running the Teapot Garden, and is going to spend a few years seeking out potential successor and putting them through tests to determine which one to leave the magical fey tavern to.

Adventure Seed: A young, headstrong knight tried to insist Rhiann Tünde give the knight free room and board as a noble, and now can only stay in the garden if he produces for the tavernkeeper 'five seed that do not wish to be planted.' The knight has realized Rhiann Tünde is a powerful and respected creature, and wishes tp make amends by bringing back the aforementioned seeds... but has no idea that they are, or where to get them (or that as long as the knight is now polite, Rhiann Tünde will accept anything as the needed seeds as long as they comw with a good song, pun, joke, or story).