H2: Lord Henway's Menagerie

Lord Henway is one of the more eccentric nobles of the city - a trait he inherits from a line of eccentric ancestors. His mansion is unique not only in its bizarre mixture of architectures, but in the fact that it houses a menagerie of some 100 varieties of birds and perhaps 20 different types of other, larger animals. He opens the menagene to the public on Freeday afternoons, charging a nominal fee from nobles, merchants, and craftsmen. He admits the people of the low quarter for free, though not many of them make the Journey across town to see the menagerie.

The apartments of the lord, and the six or eight relatives and hangers-on that share his abode, occupy half of the area. These apartments are a chaotic amalgamation of stvles. One set of rooms resembles a desert palace, the next a mountain villa, the third a spacious tropical bungalow.

Lord Henway keeps a dozen servants, mostly to tend the menagerie. Consequently his table is less sumptuous than many, and he has no stables of his own. Nor does he keep much treasure here, preferring to invest the proceeds from his family lot in the city mines in new animaJs for his zoo.

The great, conical building that dominates the estate is home to a vanety of tropical birds. The air is moist and warm, heated by a coal brazier and steamer that operates on all eccept the hottest days. A variety of vines and ferns cover the floor and hang across the walls, even crisscrossing overhead like giant beams. In deed, the highest part of the ceiling is invisible from the floor because of the profusion of greenery.

But the birds are the true attraction of this huge structure. Screeching and squawking their annoyance at any intrusion, they flutter about and strut back and forth on the heavy branches. Their feathers cover all the spectrum of known colors. It is truly a resplendent display, and the observer always feels moved.

Walking into the hall beyond the aviary, the visitor passes on a catwalk, protected on each side by a thin chain railing, among deep pits, each housing one or more unique and fearsome creatures. The roof here can be opened, and this is an airy, pleasant yard on a sunny day. At night, by torchlight, with the growls and snarls of hungry carnivores rumbling up from the depths, the experience is quite different.

Exhibited here are three Lions, two tigers, four brown bears, an owlbear, two manticores (with clipped wings), a leucrotta (with a silence spell always cast over its cage), three hell hounds (in an extra deep pit), a griffon (also with clipped wings), two elephants. a displacer beast, two sea Lions and four giant sea horses (each type of animal is in its own salty aquarium), and the pride of the menagerie: a four-headed hydra.

Lord Henway often purchases new animals, if an adventurer can actually return a new creature to the Free City and offer it for sale. Henway authorizes payment ranging from 400 gp for the great carnivores, to 1,000 gp for monsters such as hell hounds and sea lions, to up to 4,000 gp for an amazing find like the hydra. (He paid 3,200 gp for the leucrotta).

H2: Lord Henway's Menagerie. Wealthy from his family’s partial ownership of several Cairn Hills mines, Lord Henway [CG hm F1; hp 4; Int 16, Wis 5] is also eccentric, but in a generally harmless way. He collects specimens of different live animals, keeping the only private zoo in the city, and hires adventurers to bring back more for his studies when he doesn’t buy specimens outright from those arriving mn the city. Greyhawk’s schools and universities often contribute funding for these expeditions. A great conical building on his estate houses tropical birds. An adjacent building has almost two dozen deep pits and cages inside, containing a variety of unusual large animals and monsters; a crude aquarium is also present. This much-abused building was once Lord Henway’s lovely manor, but he had it entirely converted to an indoor zoo.

DM's Notes: Animal and monster escapes from the menagerie have thankfully been few, but it’s only a matter of time until something big gets loose. An exhibit in his zoo might turn out to be a polymorphed creature of a completely different sort that wants to escape and regain its old form. Anyone going out to capture or recover a specimen for him is in for an adventure.