Sunday 6 September 2009

blooms of the rose tower

I had a request from Tim over at Gothridge Manor for some of the denizens of the Rose Tower.  You know how much a tavern is made by the people you meet in it as well as the place itself?   All employees wear Rose Tower livery, fine linen shirts in black and surcoats of black and red quarters with a rose argent in full bloom with low, soft boots.  Men wear breeches, women wear ankle-length skirts of the same fine black linen.

Angus Angusson, 
"Name your pleasure, sirs." (reaching for a tankard)
A short, stocky man with a sheaf of unruly red-gold hair, neat beard and gold nose-ring and finger-rings.  Angus loves work, laughs loudly as appropriate and keeps a fine selection of ales and wines.  A keen haggler, he tolerates no nonsense and calms things down with a free drink which Tallis Broom or one of his peers will take to the offended party.  At ease with merchant or king, Angus fears only the owners who rescued him and obviously powerful magic.

Gildehart Locke, locksmith and customer
"Angus! More wine for my friends!!"  (gesturing expansively)
A balding, florid-faced tradesman wearing green linen and brocade, Locke is a talented locksmith with a squinting eye for detail, a patron to artists and a regular guest.  He drinks wine and hungers for gossip.  New faces in the Tower are often plied for news.  Locke has invested in the Tower and quietly takes a small share of the profit, enough to let him retire if he didn't love his trade so much and the thieves guild didn't have him on retainer.   

Kornelie Valeden, serving maid.
"How may I serve you sir?" (curtseying while balancing a tray full of ales).
Kornelie is almost a cipher, a blonde serving maid whose beauty and demure manner capture the heart and whose grace keep her from grabbing hands.  She plays dumb but regulars know behind the cornflower blue eyes lies a keen mind and memory for detail.  It's this capacity the owners use to prise secrets out of their guests without their realising it or without compromising her eligibility as a wife.

Pepin Ruber (Pip), body servant.
"Scents for my lady?" (said while presenting a single white rose).
An endearing dark-haired lad in his mid-teens without adolescent traumas, he is competent, well-groomed and only a little lazy.  A natural salesman and youthful darling of many a lady guest of the Rose Tower, his charm perfectly masks a virulent hate of strong men who he sees as rivals.  Those who see beyond appearances find his eyes are windows into Hell.  He has potential to be a dark lord and has already achieved the rank of inglorious bastard.

Tallis Broom, enigmatic security.
"..." (said while 'helping' a troublesome, suddenly sleepy patron out.)
Tallis is a nondescript older man of average height with sad brown eyes, with a talent for disappearing if you look away.  He may have been an assassin but it never comes up in conversation.  Tallis has two concealed daggers and five magical rose thorns that put a victim to sleep and a plethora of powders he knows precisely how to use to eliminate 'evidence'.  Very little perturbs him, be it the human condition, magic or slaughter he is perfectly stoic.

2 comments:

  1. Great stuff. I must have missed it when you originally posted it. This is for a 4e campaign?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Actually it's an old 2E location which I'm revisiting for 3.x and 4E.

    The original owners were vampyres (living vampires who drained blood, not levels) who quietly seduced and fed off nobles and wealthy travellers - bits of bloodied clothing would show up in the river or on the road out of town.

    The party suspected something was amiss (doppelgangers? weretigers?) and just as they were getting in over their heads signed up for an army fighting in the next kingdom rather than finish the job!

    The new owners? Now that would be telling...

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