The Dancing Orca

The smells of metal, fire, smoke, and the chill tundra air are left behind as you enter through this establishment's double doors. The common area that greets you is low lit, with many a table and simple chairs. Patrons of all sorts, but of the rough and working class, are here, and the noise is a constant dull thunder. Laughter, jokes, vigorous games of dice and cards create a welcoming cacophony, a disarming environment. Two fire places keep this common area well lit, and a pair of armed dwarves stand vigil at each stairwell that would lead up to the rooms that one can rent. The bar and dining area might house as many as two hundred if needed, but the pub is always busy and even now, a Lunai night, the first day of the work week, this night the Orca is busy, with easily some hundred customers in house. The walls depict ocean scenes and scenes of the harbor and bay, murals decorating the room, and various bits of whaling gear, sailing gear, and old relics, knick-knacks and bits of history also decorate the walls. The namesake paintings of the Wolves of the Sea, famous across all of Suranth, stand massive and dominating above both fireplace mantles, depicting the military orcas at play in the bay and harbor with sailors from Suranth's navy.

The common area smells of woodsmoke, pipesmoke, and roast fish and caribou, making your stomach grumble. You find yourself greeted as you weave to an open corner table near the bar, a young elf maiden, a rare sight in Suranth, greeting you and your friends with a smile. "Welcome to the Dancing Orca. What can I get started for you."

You reply with a turn of phrase that you were advised to say, and the young lady's smile grows wider. "Of course, and that will be for all of you, all five? A group I take it, even better. I'll tell you what. Sit, relax, enjoy the music. I'll send her over with drinks, and I'll get you all an order of our caribou flank roast and fire roasted potato and veggie mix. You all look like you will need a meal, and the caribou is fresh, only brought in today."

A few minutes later, a bear of a dwarven woman, squat but powerful of build, with greying gold-bronze hair in a tight crown weave braid brings over six mugs of a dark and frothy liquid. "Ach, a wee bit of dwarven black stout, be best fer chattin' business. I be Nazril Azulron, welcome ta me humble abode an' business. Alith'iean tells me ye all be lookin' fer accomodations, but also employment. Contract work, specifically. Judgin' by yer garb, armor, an' the look o' ye, I presume yer adventurin' types, aye? Nary against a wee bit o' ruckus, trouble, an' danger. Wanna be exemplari, t'at sort o' thing?" She chuckles, seeing how some of you react, and holds up her hands. "Peace, peace, that nae be an accusination. I nary know where ye come from, likely down south, some of ye maybe even across the seas from ot'er lands. 'Owever 'ere in Suranth, even 'ere in the capital, such folks nae be seen as vagabonds or scoundrels, though we knows some of ye bloody well are! This be a nation o' frontiers, monsters, an' dangerous country in every direction. Ye'll fit in well 'ere. Also ye've come to t'e right place. Me brother, the High King, given me particular rights and priviledges, and entrusted me wit' certain powers ye see. So welcome ta t'e Dancin' Orca, a place where ye lot will soon come ta call 'ome. Yer lucky I gots an openin', since the Shields retired two years ago. I'll get ye yer keys ta yer accomodations presently. Otherwise, relax, enjoy yerselves, eat, drink. We can talk business on the morrow." As she rose, she paused. "Oh an' one other thing. Ye can go armed through the city. I'll get ye the documentation ye need, but ye can carry arms openly, so 'owever ye lot be hidin' 'em, nae worry 'bout it anymore."

Purpose / Function

Located in the South Narrows, the Dancing Orca is a building and establishment with many purposes. The first and foremost is as a community gathering place, a pub and eatery where many gather, and with many regulars amongst the working class of the district. Its dining area can comfortably house up to two hundred people, and they could do perhaps another fifty on top of that before it would become unteniable. The second floor houses an entire inn with accomdations and sleeping areas for up to fifty people, as well as, through a seperate stairwell hidden in the office behind the kitchen, the accomdations of the proprietor of the business, Nazril Azulron. The third floor however holds what was once further inn space, that has been repurposed and refurbished for a specific purpose. Offering accomodation for up to a dozen individuals, but in two apartment like setups. These are solely meant for wandering bands of mercenary and adventurer types, the sorts sometimes known as Exemplari.

Nazril has special permission from her brother the High King, modeling her setup with this similarly to the legendary Wanderer's Watchpost in Kelethan, but generally offering more semi-permanent facilties and accomodations for established bands, less welcoming any and all wandering troublemakers and scoundrels. She is well connected, with many friends in all walks of life, and as such, she has turned that into a profitable business, acting as a go between contract broker for such matters, and providing groups such as the famous Shields of Suranth long term stable accomodation and more stable access to income, resources and connections, as well as feeding them free of charge whenever they are staying with her. This generosity is only good for a week without taking a contract or departing on a contract however, elsewise she will write you a bill. For this service, and as a finder's fee, she takes 15% off the top of any contract you garner off of her.

Architecture

The Dancing Orca ia three floored structure that by comparison of many structures around, is noticeably massive. It is built of stone and brick, with iron framing and support beams. Built in a typical dwarven style, it has little exterior flair, simple windows, a few small balconies on some of the rooms, all very simple and utilitarian in many ways. However the faded ocean blue wash of the stonework, with soft orange-copper finish to the corners and edges of each wall do stand out, and above the solid double doors, oak with iron reinforcements, is the tell-tale sign, a large painted effigy of an orca in playing a fiddle, as if its dancing a jig of sorts, with the name 'The Dancing Orca' painted above and below it in bold grey and white letters, above in Valarian, the common tongue, and below in Dwarven.

History

The Dancing Orca has some very interesting recent history. Home to the Shields of Suranth during their exploits, amongst all the lesser bits of potential story-telling, the establishment itself was actually destroyed four years ago when a night elf shaman lost control of a spell-form catastrophically whilst in the midst of an attempted assassination of the aforementioned group, the Shields of Suranth. The manna swelled and the shaman simply couldn't handle the power, nor stop themselves from drawing in to much. The resulting elemental explosion of raw manna and chaos saw the Dancing Orca entirely brought down, as well as three other buildings around it. Windows and roofs were cracked or shattered or partially caved in as far as a city block in every direction. No less than twenty people died, another thirty or more were injured to varying degrees of severity, some losing limbs, others suffering mutative changes, others mere lacerations, blunt force injuries, burns or even frostbite.

Tourism

Show spoiler

Nazril also has a sand circle, and though her gambling she runs down in the basements of the Orca is all legal, she generally doesn't mention it and one would need to know such bouts and betting are available and confront her directly to gain access.

Was ruined once in Jundar 1592 SuD. Hence the 'Reconstructed' notation.

Founding Date

Reconstructed and reopened by the 18th of Frigik, 1592 SuD.
Originally constructed in 1421 SuD

Type

Inn

Parent Location

Geata-Iarainn

Owner

Nazril Azulron