Roadside
Cosy
Modest prices
Hearth and Howl
the waypost where every traveler leaves as company
You climb the last rise and the scent of baking and woodsmoke drifts down to meet you before the building appears: a squat stone house with smoke curling from two chimneys and a scatter of dogs stretched on the sun-warm flagstones. Inside, low beams hold lanterns that hum rather than glare; rugs and patchwork quilts muffle every footstep. The common room is intimate—benches and a heavy table ringed with steaming earthenware, a hearth so wide a retired adventurer could sleep in it. Dogs of every size wind between legs and rest on laps; they accept tips of meat and belly rubs with equal professionalism. Conversation is easy here: maps and road rumours mingled with the occasional bark and the laugh of people who look like they could tell you directions to three different kingdoms.
A weathered iron ring through which a brass hound's head faces outward; the paint is flaked, the ring polished by hands and paws, no words—just a small bone-shaped notch at the bottom
Bram Hawke
human
Manner
Quirk
Stats
Wayfarer's Warmth
5 spA fortified spiced rum served hot with a sliver of orange and a pinch of smoked clove; it steadies the hands and eases a night's chill—drinkers gain advantage on saving throws against cold for the next hour and feel noticeably braver.
Modest (5e lifestyle: about 1 gp a day)
Meret Hawke · cook
Bram's partner and chief cook, Meret turns foraged roots, preserved cheeses, and the day's meat into bowls that mend bruised pride and tired legs.
Pip · stablehand
A lanky teenager who tends the kennels, brushes horses, and knows the fastest backroads from three counties over.
Mira Tolen
A traveling courier who drinks here each week and is desperate to find the satchel she lost coming down from Greycliff Pass.
Constable Joren Hale
The local constable who nursed a wound here years ago and now stops by to trade news—he's been asking after strange feathers seen near Hollowridge Ruins.
Old Pasc
A retired shepherd who knows every trail and is convinced a lost beaconstone from Greycliff marks a secret smugglers' cache.
1
Hollowridge Ruins: travelers report a strange set of fledgling gryphon feathers caught in the thorn fence below the ruins; a man named Calder Lane claims a map to a hidden nesting ledge.
2
Greclyff Pass Satchel: Mira Tolen lost a leather satchel containing letters for Constable Joren Hale and a sealed note from a merchant in Greycliff—whoever returns it gets the merchant's reward.
3
Greycliff Beaconstone: Old Pasc swears the carved beaconstone that once lit Greycliff has been pried from its plinth and now lies hidden in a smugglers' cave beneath the cliffside.
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