Cities of Greyhawk - Verbobonc Part Six - The Wayward Inn

The Wayward Inn - Verbobonc

One of the largests public taverns in Verbobonc the Wayward in is older than the city and its foundation stones are older than the castle. In the distant past the first building of stone on the spot was a storage house where grain was kept for a small settlement of Flannish farmers. A wooden pallisade surrounded the town and stone buildings were easily constructed from the rise where the castle would eventualy be constructed. When the Suel drove the Flan from the area a fortified waystation was built on the spot and when the castle was built the waystation became an Inn.

Original called the Waystation Inn the name changed over the years and its original name and use is long forgotten. Today the Inn and several nearby buildings are owned by the Shirewood family. The family also  owns a small manor near ther castle and the eastern riverwall where the elder Shirewoods retire when their working days are past and the eldest son or daughter takes over the running on the Inn.

Adelaide Shirewood runs the Inn from her apartment on the 2nd floor. Her husband is a fair smith and runs the stables and the yard. Their three daughters help to run the Inn with the help of the extended family.

The Shirewoods employ a small group of a dozen toughs to keep order in the Inn. The leader is a experienced warrior who sometimes acts as a local guide and sometimes takes on adventures of his own. He is registered with the local Mercenaries Guild and will be recommended by them as a guide or henchman. These toughs live in the house immediately across the street from the Inn.

Unbeknowest to any but the Shirewood family there is a secret tunnel beneath the Inn that leads beyond the city walls to the north and another east that opens up near the river. The Shirewoods are heavily involved with Cult of Elemental Evil and run a counterfitting operation. False gold and debased coinage flows from the Inn and out to ships on the river or to couriers operating north of the city. They have no link to other members of the Elemental Evil cult and their contacts are from beyond Verbobonc.