The Inn-Between

Located in the shady streets of Druvenia, the Inn-Between is both an inn and a funeral home owned by an aged entrepreneur named Joakhim Lonklay. The idea for this bizarre joint-venture came to him when his wife passed away, who became the first customer of the funeral home side of the business.

The establishment has a bit of a reputation that reaches far beyond the walls of Druvenia, owing to an incident involving dinner soup and embalming fluid. Hired help can vary in proficiency in the best of circumstances and this is doubly true in Druvenia, where there are no labor laws to regulate working conditions. It was due to this technicality that the kitchen staff consisted, and probably still consists to this day, of mainly untrained and inexperienced lay-abouts. It also does not help that there is a popular spirit local to Druvenia called Embalmers Delight.

The Incident

The story goes that one of these unprofessional hirelings was told by the head chef to retrieve him a bottle of the aforementioned beverage so he could use it to add some tang to the soup they were preparing for the day's dinner service. Being that the hired help was not particularly interested in the job nor was he aware that the kitchen connects directly into the morgue, the silly sod walked right into the morbid chamber. There, he spied a bottle which had a crude label stuck to it, with only "EMBAL" visible towards the clueless nincompoop, who grabbed the bottle without confirming that it was, indeed, the alcoholic beverage he was told to fetch.

When he returned to the kitchen, the head chef reprimanded him for taking so long, claiming that the dinner service would begin shortly. And so, in a blunder that would forever mar the Inn-Between in the eyes of prospective customers, the head chef poured a generous helping of embalming fluid into the bubbling pot of soup and closed the lid. The soup was served to the customers, who invariably fell ill and experienced extreme nausea mere moments after imbibing the soiled concoction. These people had to be carried outside of the establishment lest their plentiful vomit stain the floorboards, and each and every one of them vowed consequences for Joakhim as they hobbled down the streets, emptying their stomachs and bowels onto the cobblestones.

Only Corius Sprocket, a S'aue entrepreneur who happened to be staying at the inn on that fateful day, seemed unaffected by the vile stew, and he actually sent his regards to the chef, wanting to thank him for a delicious meal. Whether this was mere politeness or related to the fact that S'aue do not really have tastebuds nor a digestive tract is a detail that the tale does not reveal.

I suppose it is handy that they can arrange for your funeral after they poison you.

–A Druvenian stoneworker when asked if he had anything positive to say about the Inn-Between

by AI-generated

_{The infamous Inn-Between}