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WELCOME TO THE DRAGONSLAYER INN
The DragonSlayer Inn is an inn unlike any other in all of the known Realms. It has been built in the very center of the Miramar and fills an entire city block. The walls were made of huge blocks of white marble, polished so smoothly that they shimmer in the sunlight and fitted so perfectly that the seams are practically invisible. The walls are topped with merlins shaped like the bony plates of a dragons spine. It took a clan of dwarven smiths more than a year to complete the building and was, by far, the best work they had ever done outside of their homeland. The entrance is shaped like the mouth of a huge red dragon, with timbers as thick as trees, and the walls are painted with fiery red scales by the city’s most accomplished artists to complete the look. Every effort has been taken to make the DragonSlayer Inn as large and majestic as it’s name implied. It serves as a place of rest and entertainment but if need be could also serve as an easily defended fort. It is large enough to accommodate most of Miramar’s residents in a crisis.
Inside, the inn is even more impressive. The common room is octagonal and contains the usual tables and bar. A stage is set against one wall for performers to entertain the guests. Tapestries made by elven weavers decorate the hallways and many walls. However, the one thing that sets this room apart from all other common rooms is its permanent resident – the remains of the inn’s namesake – an ancient red dragon. It's enormous scaly head is so large that few men in the room could spread their arms wide enough to touch both the bony cheek plates, except at the narrowest part by the nose. Those bony appendages flared out as they went back, to protect the beast's neck while still allowing room for it to turn its head. These are so wide they covered the entire wall. The open mouth is tall enough for a dwarf to stand upright with room to spare. Each black eye is the size of a dinner plate. The scales on the nose and forehead range in size from a man's palm to a small shield, and are as thick as a gloved finger. Where other hunters mount their trophy heads above the fireplace, this tropy is so large that the beasts' mouth IS the fireplace. The flames from the wood stacked behind the tongue rise up in the throat as though the beast were about to breathe its magical flame once again, searing everyone in the room, just as it is doing to the pig slowly turning on the spit mounted across the massive teeth.
Below the head, on either side of the fireplace, is a front leg larger than the logs in the fire. Both legs are tipped with four claws – each the length of a short sword and just as sharp - reaching out into the room. The huge, leather wings stretched along the walls angling away from the fireplace. Each wing was so large that it reached from floor to ceiling and ran the length of two walls. Since the walls are angled around the common room, the overall effect creates the illusion that the dragon is swooping down into the common room rather than decorating it. Rarely does a patron enter the common room of the DragonSlayer Inn for the first time and not take a couple of steps back towards the door.
The DragonSlayer Inn is specifically designed for adventurers. Besides the extremely unusual “common” room, there are many other features that set the DragonSlayer apart. A large, open-air courtyard in the center of the inn is large enough for fighters to use for sparring. There are wooden and straw targets in various locations to practice one’s archery. An inner wall has been built to isolate one area of the courtyard from the rest. Here, mages and clerics can practice their less-explosive spells. The walls of the courtyard itself are made of various materials, for those who care to hone their climbing skills and, at the top of the walls, two ropes stretch across the courtyard.
On the inside, guards patrol the three floors containing guestrooms constantly. All exits on these floors have an Alarm ward placed on them and, for a fee, guests can have the door to their room protected by a minor glyph that will be dispelled at dawn. The reputation of the Dragonslayer Inn and Octagon has quickly spread, bringing adventurers from all parts of the land.
OOC>> This thread is primarily designated for the players that have a character competing in the Octagon thread. This thread is designed to give them an opportunity to roleplay and expand their characters a bit more. They will also be going on a series of adventures outside of the battles in the Octagon.
But, this IS an Inn, and other adventurers ARE welcome to visit. I can't promise you will find any adventures for your characters within the fair city of Miramar, but it IS growing in prosperity and reputation.
One other note - the Octagon and DragonSlayer Inn are located in the gameworld of Arkon....one conceived and designed by VulcanRider and myself. It is an island continent (very much like Australia). On the Eastern coast stand the Apex Mountains. These mountains contain a series of caverns called the Crossroad Caverns, because they connect to all other "official" AD&D gameworlds (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Kara-Tur, and even Krynn (but not Planescape)). The gameworld is run based on 1st Edition rules.
[ 09-15-2002, 11:35 PM: Message edited by: Cerek the Barbaric ]
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