World Serpent Inn

The World Serpent Inn was a renowned, multidimensional establishment that could be on nearly every plane. It was also a transitive plane.

Etymology
This Inn was named for the ancient deity of the same name.

Location
On the Prime Material world of Toril, the Inn was most commonly present in the nation of Cormyr, within the fortified city of Arabel. It would appear either near its eastern wall, or against its northern wall.

It also appeared in the nation of Shou Lung, along the main road leading south from the small port city of Cham Fau, on cloudy or moonless nights. There it was known as the "Inn of the Unseen Way" or the "Impossible Tavern".

Structure
The building's exterior appeared to be shabby, grimy with age, and in need of repair. The structure's exterior in Arabel sported a sign labeling it the The Wild Goose,  that hung crookedly.

Interior
The common room of this building was large and rectangular. It had a very ancient look to it, with plank floors and aged wooden beams overhead. The space was dominated by a pair of flagstone fireplaces, one at each end. The heavy chairs that accompanied its great tables were made of oak.

Also in the common room was a balcony, a sort of partial second floor, that sported more table. This was accessed by a spiral staircase within the corner. Throughout both floors of the common room there were no windows. Situated in the middle of the common room was a large bar, which had a light shining directly above it. Stools surrounded this bar that were variously described as being round, square, or octagonal in shape. The common room also had a brawling pit, in which disputes were settled.

Leading off from both floors of the common room, the Inn became a maze of twisting hallways and passages, occasionally broken up by a number of doors or staircases to other levels. Rooms that could be found behind doors included living quarters, storage rooms, as well as libraries and study rooms. The latter two often had rare or fantastical volumes within their selection of books.

Atmosphere
The Inn was described by some as being a neutral ground where creatures of all types could mingle safely.

Adventurers often populated the inn, making it a good place to hire sellswords and other mercenaries. Sometimes even powers came to the Inn in disguise to relax.

Planar Traits
The interior of this Inn had a mild affinity for positive energy, making it seem more vibrant and causing people to heal at a faster rate. And it was more difficult to do harm to people within the Inn. Spells and spell-like abilities, whether of an arcane or divine nature, were impeded from being cast. And it was more difficult to do harm to people within the Inn.

While within the interior of the Inn peoples' eyesight were affected in a manner similar to the spell see invisibility, making it so that they could see any creature that was ethereal or invisible. Together these greatly reduced incidences of death within the Inn. In addition, potions and magical items that induced invisibility would not function.

The Inn also had its own ethereal plane, but it did not connect with the Ethereal Plane proper. It coexisted primarily with the Inn's back rooms and corridors.

Planar Connections
The primary portal to the Inn, known as the "main entrance," was a two-way portal that connected to its common room. It always took on an appearance appropriate to its surroundings. But no matter what appearance it took, the portal was always marked with the symbol of a serpent curling into a horizontal figure eight, eating its own tail.

The maze of passages leading out from the common room were host to hundreds of exit portals, most of them one-way, that were clearly marked. Some of those portals were consistent with the plane they lead to, while others were not. Within some of the hallways and rooms were windows that looked out over other planes and acted as one-way portals. Some of the doors within the hallways also acted a portals to other planes.


 * Some of the planes that portals could be found for inside of the Inn included the following:
 * One of the portal's within the Inn opened to the Torilian region of Zakhara, roughly away from the Great Oasis.
 * The Abyss.
 * Acheron.
 * A portal to Arvandor, the first layer of Arborea, near the slopes of Mount Olympus. Incoming travel to the plane via the Inn was unrestricted, but a traveler arriving at the plane from the realm of Olympus could only see or enter the Inn after receiving verbal authorization from the Greek pantheon.
 * Arcadia.
 * Baator.
 * The Beastlands.
 * Bytopia.
 * Carceri.
 * There existed a single two-way portal within the Inn that could one to a number of demiplanes.
 * A variety of portals opened to Eberron, with one of the few known portals exiting to a flower shop.
 * The Elemental planes.
 * Gehenna.
 * The Grey Waste of Hades.
 * Mechanus.
 * A portal to the gate-town of Ecstasy in the Outlands. The connection was not always present, but when it was, a little cottage would appear, with a minor rearrangement of the local area. The cottage was recognizable by an iron doorknocker depicting a serpent eating its own tail.
 * Ysgard.
 * In the backrooms one could find portals to the Plane of Shadow.
 * Each night at sundown, a portal to Ravenloft would open, filling the ever-changing back halls of the Inn with mist. This portal always opened to a different Domain of Dread and would vanish with the sunrise. The Dark Powers of Ravenloft prevented darklords from entering the inn and would try to coax people away from its entrance.

Services
This inn had a well-stocked cellar of a variety of strange and exotic libations, including dwarf-brewed ale, elven zzar, Elysium elixir, Sigma flytrapper, and Sterozium.

The Inn's barkeep occasionally took requests for planar destinations, in regards to the common room's main entrance, though requests were only fulfilled sometimes and there was no set pattern as to when they were fulfilled.

Inhabitants
The only permanent resident of the Inn was its barkeep, Mitchifer, who would provide newcomers with basic information. The cooks and waitstaff were ever-changing, with some being former travelers who had decided to stay. Those who entered the Inn were always greeted by Mitchifer and informed of the Inn's rules, but whenever he was absent one of the other employees or even a traveler would do so in his place.

The Inn's own ethereal plane was also home to a number of ethereal filchers and ghosts.

History
The World Serpent Inn was centuries old. The tale of its builders and their motivations for its construction varied between cultures, but most descriptions featured two of these three as the ones responsible for building it &mdash; the archmage Alaurum of Toril, an Arcane named Ilyndele, and a illithid named Sharth.

In approximately 1357 DR, the goddess Hecate sent her jester out to the World Serpent Inn to acquire some suitable adventurers to obtain her a hound from the Wild Hunt, wanting to crossbreed it with her hell hounds.

At some point in the later 14 century DR, an unknown planar prankster herded a dozen dretch through the Inn's Shou Lung portal and they proceeded to wreak havoc throughout nearby Fu Te. After that incident, the Inn within that region acquired the nicknamed "House of Sudden Fiends."

At some point monks from the White Tiger Monastery stormed into the building in search of their chrysanthemum blade, which had been stolen two weeks prior by an ogre mage that had fled into the Inn.

Reputation
World Serpent Inn was considered to be one of the most popular inns in all of Arabel. It also had a great reputation in Faerûn for strange occurrences, which drew many visitors from beyond the city itself. In Cham Fau it had a reputation for bringing bizarre and unusual visitors.

There were some in the Nine Hells who were displeased that the World Serpent Inn gave its customers readily accessible portals to that plane.

Rumors & Legends
Some believed that when the World Serpent first fragmentated, one of those fragments manifested into the plane that the Inn occupies. Those who claimed this would go on to say that the fragment's dreams manifested the portals within the Inn, with its consciousness drifting into the other worlds of those portals.

Those who tell of the World Serpent Inn's creation often include a third creator. The details of this alleged third creator varied with each person who told the tale, but they always were referred to by the teller as being from their own home world.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Tales of the Outer Planes