Way Inn

The Way Inn stands on the western side of the Trade Way two days’ hard ride (about a hundred miles) south of Daggerford. It is a walled compound atop a flat, grassy plateau about three acres in extent that overlooks a loop of road that leaves and rejoins the main trade road, giving caravans plenty of room to camp.

From the loop of road, steep cartways lead up to three gates. All of these cross wooden bridges. The bridges slope on central pivots when support timbers are retracted from inside the compound to dump attackers into large spike-filled pits.

The gatehouses are small stone keeps. Each is topped with a catapult. All firewood for the inn is under cover in these gatehouses, so fiery missiles can be hurled at attackers or an overrun gatehouse can be torched to prevent attackers from pouring in until the flames die down.

The inn itself is of stone, with a tile roof. Its windows look out over the road, and it is topped by a lookout tower equipped with several multiple-crossbow guns called airhurlers. Each of these is equipped with firing cords and shields for a person firing the gun, so that the airhurlers can be fired directly or aimed and fired from the room below.

The stables for the inn are in one corner of the plateau. Three fenced paddocks open out of them, and more airhurlers are located on the stable roof. The village that once straggled around the slopes of the inn’s height is gone. The inn staff and attendant businesses (a wagon repair shop, a smith, a trading post, an apothecary, and a trailwares shop selling rope, skillets, tarpaulins, tents, sledges, harness, and the like) are housed in a row of stout stone cottages along the west wall of the plateau. A small orchard and hedged gardens are the only features that spoil the impression of being inside an army castle ready for war.

However, this elaborate fortress is still the same good, clean, friendly refuge it used to be, and it remains under the capable hands of Dauravyn Redbeard, once an adventurer of note. He'’s seen evil rise in Dragonspear Castle and be shattered —only to rise again, several times over. He is taking no chances. He lives today only by the magic of a priest of Tempus who restored him to life after the last confrontation. He has a hired standing guard of 21 warriors at the inn, 10 of whom are always on patrol along the edges of the High Moor, looking for trouble. As Dauravyn often says, looking east, “"If it isn'’t orcs, it’'s trolls, and if it isn't trolls, it’s baatezu. If it isn'’t baatezu, it'’s dragons— - and if it isn’'t dragons, it’'s something worse."”

The Way Inn

The stone rooms of this new and solidly built stone inn are lined with tapestries and have fur rugs underfoot. Heavy draperies are provided to cut the chill and breezes from the eastward-facing windows, each of which opens onto a private balcony, when desired. The dimly lit halls are also carpeted with furs.

Beds are canopied for warmth, but remain simple. Each has a pull cord to summon service, which is efficient and attentive. Lighting is provided by brass-and-glass full-shuttered candle lamps. These can be unhooked easily and taken elsewhere in the event of battle.

The Way Inn does steady trade. Rooms are 2 gp per night, with meal and bath included. Drinks are extra. Stabling is an extra 1 sp per night, and wagon or cart storage an additional 1 gp per night. Wagon guards (sons and daughters of the inn’s staff) can be hired to watch over goods by night for 1 sp more.

Folk who camp below the inn compound do so for free. They can enter for meals (1 sp per serving, drinks extra) or buy firewood (1 cp per armload) and water (1 cp per night to use the pump located in each gatehouse).

Wagon wheels and axles are kept in stock for quick repairs. They usually cost 25 gp each. The inn does a steady trade buying and selling horses, oxen, mules, and cattle. Animals are typically bought at 10 gp under the usual price and sold at 10 gp over, though a hard bargainer can reduce this spread to 6 gp either way. Goats provide the inn with milk and cheese, and wheels of a sharp, crumbly white cheese are made on the premises. Remounts too injured to nurse back to health find their way into the inn stew-pots.

The inn serves good, hearty fare, notably braised bustard on buns. This dish has a spreading reputation. It utilizes the stale leftovers of the large, oval loaves of hard-bread baked at the inn, toasted and spread with a gravy based on onions, chicken livers, and offal from slaughtered livestock. Onto this are laid the cooked fragments of meat from bustard (plentiful on the moorlands, with a taste similar to grouse) brought back by the patrols. It’s simple but good— - and is usually served hot enough to burn the mouth of an incautious diner badly.

Meals are often enlivened by a minstrel. Redbeard hires traveling singers for a tenday at 5 sp per day. If other minstrels Redbeard likes arrives in the midst of another performer'’s stint, they’'ll be given free room and board to stay on until they can begin their own tenday stretch.

Although no priests are on staff at the inn, the Duke of Daggerford and his barons take turns sending a priest of Helm or Tempus to watch over the needs (and dedication) of the ducal militia and the hired defenders of the inn. Such clerics are always available to heal and pray for travelers.

In short, this place may lack charm and any gentle beauty, but it offers impressive services, is well run, and provides a roadside refuge where one is sorely needed. Its reputation and the benefits it provides continue to attract clientele even in the face of the overshadowing, but slumbering, threat of Dragonspear Castle.