Sacrath
2006-02-15, 12:47 AM
Sacrath’s Snowbirds
The snow and biting cold is getting ridiculous. You can’t even say if you can see your hand in front of your face as you lost the ability to move your arms about an hour ago. You can’t feel your legs, and you only hope that they have kept moving, not that it matters much. If this storm keeps up much longer, you’ll be dead, moving or not. Suddenly the wind stops. You manage to blink your eyes open to find yourself in a clean clearing. A variable tornado of snow whips around this small clearing of inch high snow and dead bushes, but the noise of the storm is non-existent here. In front of you is a massive wooden pillar, intricately carved with flowering plants and other nature images. The pillar reaches 500 feet in the sky, easy. Off to the side of the pillar is a simple, but large, wooden building that bears a painted sign. The sign reads, “Sacrath’s Snowbirds.” Under the sign a small stone plaque is set which reads, “If you have made it this far, you could use a hot meal and a place by the fire.” Thanking every god you can think off, you trudge your frozen form towards the inviting glow of the door.
Sacrath’s Snowbirds is a small eating and drinking establishment set in more or less the center of the Forest of Eternal Winter. The owner is Sacrath ja’Fernim (“Sacrath the Everlasting” in ancient form of Common) a half elf who is by all accounts including his, immortal. Because of its location, the tavern doesn’t get much business, but the owner doesn’t mind. In fact, he just set up the place because adventurers kept showing up at his tower home half-frozen anyways, so it was just a matter of putting up a sign.
Inside the décor is sparse but inviting and boasts a total of eight tables of varying heights and a bar. The chairs hardly match, each one being made from different material or style. All of them are padded with leather cushions stuffed with a coarse down. In the middle of the roughly 1800 square foot, one room area is a giant pillar of flame that reaches the ceiling. The pillar has no visible fuel and produces no smoke, but heats the room quite nicely. A smell not unlike roast quail hits your rapidly defrosting nostrils coming from a ring of freestanding iron stoves surrounding the flame pillar. Behind the bar a middle-aged half-elf lays on a cot, napping. On the bar in front of the half-elf sits a paper sign, “If I’m sleeping, wake me. Don’t mind the fire elemental, he is fine if you keep your distance.”
The inside has eight tables including 2 for small sized creatures and 1 for large. The room is heated by a huge fire elemental, held in place with a variant of the Dimensional Anchor spell. It is not charmed or dominated in any way, but is unable to attack anything outside it's own square or move. It will ocasionally turn into a vortex, but this doesn't affect anyone who isn't already in the fire elemental's square, so it only serves for a temporary change of lighting. Twelve pot-bellied stoves surround the fire elemental close enough to heat them to cooking temperature (about 275 degrees). Normally the stoves are employed for cooking the namesake of the tavern, seared snowbird. Snowbirds are a local cold subtype bird that eats tree bark. Its flavor is remenicent of quail, but the flesh is much tougher and it has a nutty aftertaste. Since snowvird is the only thing, besides tree bark, that is edible in the Forest of Eternal Winter, it is the only thing offered. Sacrath, who has eaten it just about every day for the last 3000 years, happily trades interesting foods (namely anything but poultry) or spices for room, board, and directions. Sacrath doesn't trust summoned food, so the PCs will have had to bring the food with them. Sacrath does have an extensive collection of wine and liquor, but due to the difficulty of aquireing it, Sacrath seldom drinks, and even more seldom shares. Drinks can be purchased, but they are pricey, and Sacrath doesn't deal in coin. Rare spices like saffron, or hard to get items like iron cookware can buy a cup or two. So can a good story, as Sacrath is very interested at hearing what happens to the world outside his forest.
The snow and biting cold is getting ridiculous. You can’t even say if you can see your hand in front of your face as you lost the ability to move your arms about an hour ago. You can’t feel your legs, and you only hope that they have kept moving, not that it matters much. If this storm keeps up much longer, you’ll be dead, moving or not. Suddenly the wind stops. You manage to blink your eyes open to find yourself in a clean clearing. A variable tornado of snow whips around this small clearing of inch high snow and dead bushes, but the noise of the storm is non-existent here. In front of you is a massive wooden pillar, intricately carved with flowering plants and other nature images. The pillar reaches 500 feet in the sky, easy. Off to the side of the pillar is a simple, but large, wooden building that bears a painted sign. The sign reads, “Sacrath’s Snowbirds.” Under the sign a small stone plaque is set which reads, “If you have made it this far, you could use a hot meal and a place by the fire.” Thanking every god you can think off, you trudge your frozen form towards the inviting glow of the door.
Sacrath’s Snowbirds is a small eating and drinking establishment set in more or less the center of the Forest of Eternal Winter. The owner is Sacrath ja’Fernim (“Sacrath the Everlasting” in ancient form of Common) a half elf who is by all accounts including his, immortal. Because of its location, the tavern doesn’t get much business, but the owner doesn’t mind. In fact, he just set up the place because adventurers kept showing up at his tower home half-frozen anyways, so it was just a matter of putting up a sign.
Inside the décor is sparse but inviting and boasts a total of eight tables of varying heights and a bar. The chairs hardly match, each one being made from different material or style. All of them are padded with leather cushions stuffed with a coarse down. In the middle of the roughly 1800 square foot, one room area is a giant pillar of flame that reaches the ceiling. The pillar has no visible fuel and produces no smoke, but heats the room quite nicely. A smell not unlike roast quail hits your rapidly defrosting nostrils coming from a ring of freestanding iron stoves surrounding the flame pillar. Behind the bar a middle-aged half-elf lays on a cot, napping. On the bar in front of the half-elf sits a paper sign, “If I’m sleeping, wake me. Don’t mind the fire elemental, he is fine if you keep your distance.”
The inside has eight tables including 2 for small sized creatures and 1 for large. The room is heated by a huge fire elemental, held in place with a variant of the Dimensional Anchor spell. It is not charmed or dominated in any way, but is unable to attack anything outside it's own square or move. It will ocasionally turn into a vortex, but this doesn't affect anyone who isn't already in the fire elemental's square, so it only serves for a temporary change of lighting. Twelve pot-bellied stoves surround the fire elemental close enough to heat them to cooking temperature (about 275 degrees). Normally the stoves are employed for cooking the namesake of the tavern, seared snowbird. Snowbirds are a local cold subtype bird that eats tree bark. Its flavor is remenicent of quail, but the flesh is much tougher and it has a nutty aftertaste. Since snowvird is the only thing, besides tree bark, that is edible in the Forest of Eternal Winter, it is the only thing offered. Sacrath, who has eaten it just about every day for the last 3000 years, happily trades interesting foods (namely anything but poultry) or spices for room, board, and directions. Sacrath doesn't trust summoned food, so the PCs will have had to bring the food with them. Sacrath does have an extensive collection of wine and liquor, but due to the difficulty of aquireing it, Sacrath seldom drinks, and even more seldom shares. Drinks can be purchased, but they are pricey, and Sacrath doesn't deal in coin. Rare spices like saffron, or hard to get items like iron cookware can buy a cup or two. So can a good story, as Sacrath is very interested at hearing what happens to the world outside his forest.