T19: Nyrondal House

Zorbo's House of Fun

This building is organized as a long maze. It is popular among parents of young children. and for a silver piece an entire family can enjoy a few minutes of harmless excitement and terror.

The House of Fun involves imaginary encounters with a fire-breathing dragon, a mummy emerging Crom its crypt, a pit that seems to fall away forever, and other very real-seeming challenges. Most of the stunts are performed mechanically or with the use of actors and makeup, but in a few places, repeating illusion spells are employed.

A side activity or the House of Fun involves its service as an alternative entrance into the Thieves' Guild Headquarters. It is customarily used by thieves returning from a successful foray, and if they deposit a gold or platinum piece instead of the silver as they enter Zorbo's, the guildmasters know it was a very successful mission.

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T19: Nyrondal House. Many Nyrondese refugees arrived in Greyhawk after the Greyhawk Wars, fleeing the economic ruin of their battered kingdom or seeking jobs after having been driven from their lands and towns by war. A coalition of the wealthier refugees who gained Greyhawk citizenship managed to purchase this old, decrepit house and turn it into a sort of inn, meeting hall, and cultural center for their fellows in the city. The block around Nyrondal House is mostly made up of ex-Nyrondese, and one hears the Nyrondese dialect spoken often here. Nyrond’s coat of arms is painted prominently over the double doors on the east side.

Nyrondal House now serves the residents in many capacities. Several small chapels are present to gods popular in Nyrond (Heironeous, Rao, Pelor, Zilchus, Beory, and others), where minor clerics take donations and cast basic spells for pay. Meeting rooms are available for use, and some food and fresh water are distributed to those too poor to afford it. Nyrondal House has some contact with the Nyrondese Traders’ Hall (F15), which will hire poor Nyrondese to run errands, perform maid service, and (secretly) make clothing that the traders sell as originating in Nyrond. The traders look down on the poor Nyrondese, but both sides would rather work with each other than with the (as they see it) mercenary, godless, common rabble Greyhawk has to offer.

DM's Notes: Nyrondal House is heavily infiltrated by the Guild of Thieves, which secretly supports the clothing-making operation as a semi-legal way of making additional money. Some poor Nyrondese are also working at minor jobs for the guild, acting as street spies and reporting on the conditions in various homes in which they are hired as housekeepers or laborers. The guild’s protection rackets have also taken their toll of the Nyrondese, but the worst thing to befall them are certain wealthy Nyrondese who have been acting as loan sharks, creating small criminal gangs around their businesses. These parasitic Nyrondese are hated in the community more than the locals hate the old Overking, Ivid V, which is saying something. Anyone who could break their power would be lionized by the people here.