T22: Phoenix Boarding House

Black Orchid Boarding House

This small house is almost invisible from the street, being set well back between neighboring buildings. No sign states the nature of its business, for the Black Orchid accepts boarders by referral only.

The proprietor of the house, Derken Gale, is a very light-skinned, white haired elf. She is taciturn to the point of rudeness with strangers, and jealously guards the privacy of her boarders. She is actually a drow elf, but has succeeded in bleaching her skin and hair to conceal this fact. She retains all other characteristics of her true race.

Derken Gale: AC 2 (bracers of de fense, AC 2 MV 12; F6/M7; hp 42: THAC0 15: #AT 1; Dmg 1d6+1 (short sword + 1)

She has collected a dozen or so boarders here, all of extremely evil disposition. They do not work together. Derken does not allow her house to become headquarters for anyone else's activities-but find a very secure sanctuary here. The house has two secret entrances, one on the roof and the other in the cellar through a 200-foot-long tunnel.

Among Derken's current residents are Imogen Gellet, a shapechanger; Hawar Leek, apparently a traveling ascetic who is actually a 9th-level priest of Incabulos; Dooth Wyrmsill, a crude and stupid half- orc assassin; and other assorted thieves, smugglers, and low-life types.

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T22: Phoenix Boarding House. During the fire of Harvester 584 cy, the Black Orchid Boarding House burned to the ground with many of its unsavory inhabitants. In its place arose the Phoenix Boarding House, operated by a less dangerous staff catering to more normal boarders, The three-story stone-and-timber building has a bright yellow roof of painted wooden shingles that is startling, to say the least. The boarding house, on Black Lane, attracts immigrants with a bit of money who cannot find other lodging even if they gain work and citizenship. An odd assortment of other itinerants is usually present, often people stopping over for a time in Greyhawk on their way to somewhere else.

DM’s Notes: Some of these itinerants here are part-time or full-time spies from other powers. Some are interested in gathering news on the Union of Merchants and Traders, some are checking up on local centers of worship for distant religious headquarters, and some are actually plotting how to attack and destroy the city, should the need for that arise. (Most of the latter are from Iuz, the Orcish Empire of the Pomarj, Rary the Traitor, or the Scarlet Brotherhood.)