Inns & Taverns: The Zaros Road Crawl

Satyre over at Fame & Fortune has released a fantastic little PDF called Inns & Taverns: The Zaros Road Crawl. If you know his blog Satyre has been posting great establishment of froth and foam for some time. And I've been pestering him to put them into a PDF. Here is it. It's an 8-page PDF that details 3 establishments. It has a clean two column layout with some bits of art that accent the content. On the first page he lists his acknowledgements, including me for being patient. I told you I was pestering him. Also there is an overview of the Zaros Road and the three establishments; Zaros Road Tarvena, Minatour's Horn and the Standing Sphinx.  

Zaros Road Taverna 
Satyre starts off by giving an in-depth description of the physical structure of the surrounding area, building, and interior. Then he moves on to give details about some of the personalities you will find with and a fantastically detailed menu "They enjoy roasted goat and mutton, a rich lamb stew packed with garlic and olives, freshwater mussels boiled in butter, thick blood sausages and occasional boar meat at fair price." Most of the time I want pictures of the personalities or the building, but after reading the menu I want pictures of the food. The food is great, but that is not what this is all about. It's about making a stay over place interesting. Adventures are waiting. Satyre includes a Roadside Encounter Table to give the GM some cool situations/scene to place the players into. Then there are four adventure hooks connected with the Taverna. The players may just need a bed for the night, but may find themselves in the middle of an adventure

The Minotaur's Horn
I really like this one. It's got a 'feel' that things are gonna happen here. The menu may be small, but the wine is good. You'll find a table of traders waiting to sell you their wares. A very cool touch of atmosphere, a little bit of market to go with the drinks. Then you have the four adventure hooks you can dangle in front of those gullible adventurers. This one has a lot of room for adventure and getting your group going or a place to stop and get information. I plan on working the Minotaur's Horn into one of my villages.

The Standing Sphinx
 A very interesting place indeed. Set in an ancient ruin near the tar pit sprawls the Stand Sphinx offers a strange delight of wine and harlots to go with that wine and the possibility of a mountain witch ready to tempt you with her poppy wine, information about the tombs or some much needed healing. And this one has one of the more interesting tables, grave good for the taking. Like the others this one also has four adventure seeds to get your party rolling.

All these inns can easily be adapted into your game. There are no stats so you'll have to do a little prep and there are no maps. Satyre describes them so well those maps aren't needed, but if you need on for your game just get out that handy dandy graph or hex paper. Oh and did I mention the Zaros Road Crawl was a free download? No. So there is no excuse not to go get. So go get it now. And make sure you send Satyre a thanks, he did good. Thanks for the hard work Satyre.