Raan's Roost

Many of the finer details - such as the menu - were created with the aid of Mark Q. Sutton's An Introduction to Native North America Chapter 12, Native Peoples of the Southeast, as the Raan Dynasty and, to a much greater extent, surrounding cultures are partially inspired by the Mississippian culture, a precursor civilization to Southeast Native American societies.

Situated on a barrier island and seastack off the coast of the Raan Dynasty, Raan's Roost is an appropriately dragon-themed tavern sporting lightning rods and magical defenses against the annual monsoons. It also doubles as a lighthouse to warn incoming ships of the barrier islands.

The tavern has such a unique position because the whole city of Port Ountzos was built around Raan's lair, covering the surrounding islands and river delta. Serving and protecting the sailors at the nearby docks along with the warriors of the Followers of Raan, Raan's Roost is a renowned pub with legendary ale and great rooms.

Purpose / Function

Raan's Roost was created as a way to protect the harbor with anti-storm wards and a sacred eternal flame in the Sun God's name. Needing funds, the bar and rooms were added as a watering hole and place to stay for sailors and travelers. Over time, the establishment has grown into a fixture of the community. People now gather from all across the western side of town to buy a hot meal and a drink, trade stories, and find work in the evening after their shifts.

Services avaliable include:

Food

Drink

Lodging

Job Postings

Entertainment

Lighthouse

Storm Wards

Design

The inn contains a bar and dining room on the first floor, with a kitchen and adjoining storage room hidden behind the bar. Restrooms are on the north-western side, while a staircase to the second floor is on the opposing southern wall. The second floor contains several rooms for guests to rent, arranged around a looping hallway.

From the storage room on the first floor, the bridge can be accessed. There is also a staircase to a basement level, which contains a wine cellar and more storage room.

A help wanted board can be found in the dining room near the eastern entrance, where odd jobs, crew postings, and occassionaly quests and bounties are posted for a small fee.

Crossing the bridge to the seastack takes you to the multi-story lighthouse. The first story is a living space for the proprietor, with a private living room, bathroom, and kitchenette present. Up a staircase lies the bedroom on the second floor and a maintence room on the third floor, with the sacred flame on the open level above the third floor. A trapdoor covers the staircase to protect the lower levels from wind and rain.

Entries

The main entrance and exit is a pair of doors on the eastern side of the inn's first floor, as well as the western and eastern doors on the inn and lighthouse, respectively, leading to the connecting bridge.

Sensory & Appearance

Situated above the raging sea of Procan's Depths and surrounded by the orange-y grass of regions that do not experience Ringshadow, Raan's Roost sits at a scenic if loud location. The scent of salt and burnt ozone from the sea and storms is all-encompassing here, and the planetary rings often sit low on the horizon to the north or south. The sounds of the nearby harbor and town are almost drowned out by the crashing waves of the ocean below, but ships' bells pierce the seaside sounds with their ringings on irregular - but common - intervals.

Entering the inn, the crash of the sea is supplanted by the talk of drunken patrons and hired music, while the sea's salt mixes with the strong scents of fish and alcohol. The wooden furniture is worn and well-used under the hands of customers, while the shell-pottery cups and plates are cold to the touch. When storms brew, the worst of the winds are kept at bay by the lighthouse - but the rains are not, and their incessant pitter-pattering provides white noise for the mess hall and an end to any silence those staying in the upstairs rooms may otherwise experience in the early hours of the morning when all the patrons have gone to bed.

If one is to venture into the kitchens the scent of food being prepared is overpowering, and the sounds of slicing, stirring, and the cooking-fire's crackle mix with those at the bar in the adjacent room. The kitchen is hot with the fires of the oven, while the storage area is somewhat cooler. Beneath the inn lies the cellar, a cold and somewhat damp stone expanse, packed wall to wall with casks and bottles of ale and wine. If the storage room door is open, the sounds of the upper floors carry to the cellar below - but if closed, then the cellars are eerily silent save for the occasional skittering and stirring of some unseen vermin or insect; the stone walls prove as excellent sonic insulators.

Traversing the bridge connecting the inn and lighthouse can be delightful on calm days; the sea below you, the salty wind tousling one's hair, and the view of the arch and horizon present from two sides. But on rough days and wet nights, the bridge is hazardous. Puddles of water collect on it's walkway, and strong winds from the south can threaten to knock a person over the side into the violent ocean below. The lighthouse itself is colder than the inn, what with a lack of a fireplace, but it is comfortable. As a lived in space, chairs and couches are well-used and well-padded, the kitchenette smells of rare spices, and on higher floors, the sea's crash is slightly diminished with altitude. At the top of the tower lies the sacred flame. Originally a burning orange glow in honor of the sun, the Order of Raan turned it green to honor the oxidization of their draconic mentor. This eldritch light guides sailors to the nearby harbor and wards off storms with it's enchantments. The soft green glow bathes the lighthouse and inn's whitewashed walls at night, giving Raan's Roost a somewhat arcane appearance.

Denizens

The barkeep and lighthouse keeper is Tsiyu Gansini, an elderly Raanite Human man. He has on his parole a dragonborn bouncer for night shifts and weekends, a handful of full-time cooks, and a revolving door of servers and daytime staff hired from the young adult population of the city.

Patrons consist of regulars & newcomers. Regulars are made up of dock workers, fishermen, local laborers, prominent local merchants, followers of Raan, and nobles looking to slum among the lower classes. Newcomers are largely those traveling on a ship that has docked in the harbor, occasional tourists, merchants from distant lands, and the rare monster or supernatural entity looking for a drink. Some of the more zealous followers of Raan come by now and again seeking to buy the tavern and lighthouse from Tsiyu Gansini and reclaim the eternal sacred flame.

A small stage to the southern side of the dining room often is host to bards, stage magicians, and other etertainers who may be hired by Tsiyu or have merely wandered in and offered their serivces. These patrons often recieve discounted food, drink, and lodging.

Contents & Furnishings

The tavern's cups and plates are made with beautiful shell tempered pottery, while brass and copper are used for much of the cookware. Furthermore, glass bottles contain much of the wine in the cellar.

Furniture is mostly wooden with some hide patterning, and the beds in the upstairs rooms are made of wooden frames and straw mattresses.

Valuables

The storage rooms are well-stocked with a myriad of foods and goods, stored according to binary divisions (i.e. fruit and vegetables are stored opposite one another, as are game and fowl. Seafood is seperated into fish and shellfish, etc.) This stock seansonally varies but widely contains the following.

Perishables:

Game Meats (Deer, Rabbit, etc.)

Fowl (Heath Hen, Turhey, etc.)

Fish

Shellfish

Vegetables (Beans, Squash, Swamp Potatoes)

Fruits (Blackberries, mulberries, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, grapes)

Grains (Corn)

Eggs (Heath Hen and Turkey)

Nonperishables:

Flour

Herbs and Spices

Salt (cooking and preserve food/kill pests)

Sugar (Other sweeteners include Honey, Sap Syrup)

Nuts (Chestnuts, Walnuts, Hickory, Acorns)

Basic Supplies:

Lighting (candles, torches, etc)

Dishes and Utensils

Firewood

Soap and Lye

Alterations

First built overlooking Procan's Depths centuries ago on a barrier island's peninsula, the bar was an addition constructed centuries after the tower.

Over time, the peninsula became a sea arch and a few decades ago the arch collapsed - leaving the lighthouse on a seastack and the bar on a barrier island. Repairs included expanding the bar to include rooms on the second story and a bridge to connect the two buildings.

Architecture

Boxy with gabled roofs, Raan's Roost follows in traditional Mazite and Raanite architectural styles. The walls are a river cane and cypress wood frame supporting wattle-and-daub walls. The lighthouse is three stories tall, with a flame covered by a stilted roof. The old bar followed in this style, but after the sea-arch fell and the inn was reconstructed the wattle-and-daub was replaced with colonial stucco manufactured from local shells. The roofs of both the lighthouse and inn are produced from cypress shingles, and the buildings have few windows in order to provide greater insulation from the cold sea winds. This gives the inn a distinctly newer and cleaner appearance than the old lighthouse

While most lighthouses in the area are built atop earthen mounds, the position of Raan's Roost atop a slim barrier island made such a technique both unnecessary and difficult. As such, the buildings foundations are the rocks they stand upon themselves. Completing the melting pot of the empire, the bridge connecting them is a stone bridge of dwarven engineering, coated in white stucco to better match it's surroundings.

Both the lighthouse, inn, and bridge are adorned with carvings and reliefs of the great dragon Raan, waves, shells, and other aquatic and draconic imagery. The lighthouse's decorations, especially the seaward ones, are far more eroded and worn than those on the relatively newer bridge and inn.

Defenses

The lighthouse's eternal flame not only lights the way for sailors, but channels divine magic through a series of wards and glyphs built into it's construction by the Order of Raan. These wards help protect the building and surrounding harbor from the annual monsoons, allowing Port Ountzos to flourish without rebuilding itself year after year.

History

Built more than half a millenia ago, Raan's Roost was originally a lighthouse and ward tower to protect the harbor of the emerging city surroudning Raan's seaside lair. Within a century of operation, the bar was added to raise funds to both pay the lighthouse keeper and fund occassional repairs.

After Raan's disapperance, the structure was briefly taken over as a sort of holy site of defense by the Followers of Raan, and the braizer of fire elemental command used to light the way for incoming ships was replaced with a sacred eternal flame in honor of The Sun. After a prolonged legal battle, the former owner of the lighthouse was able to reclaim her establishment, keeping the eternal flame.

After centuries of being bought and sold by various businessmen, pirates, a few adventurers, and a family of dragonborn, the structure passed to a human man named Tsiyu Gansini, a prominent merchant in Port Ountzos named for a historic general of the Order of Raan. He oversaw the collapse of the sea arch, rebuilding of the inn, and construction of the bridge. Now an old man, Tsiyustill oversees the operation of the inn and lighthouse, and is looking for a protege to train so he can finally retire.

Menus

Raan's Roost Drink Menu by DM Tzaritsa

Raan's Roost Dinner Menu by DM Tzaritsa

Example menus created using Canva

Founding Date

457 PIA

Type

Pub / Tavern / Restaurant

Parent Location

Port Ountzos

Owner

Tsiyugunsini

Maps

Raan's Roost Floor 1 by DM Tzaritsa

Raan's Roost Floor 2 by DM Tzaritsa

Raan's Roost Floor 3 by DM Tzaritsa

Raan's Roost Floor 4 by DM Tzaritsa

Raan's Roost Basement by DM Tzaritsa