The World Serpent Inn was a renowned, multidimensional establishment[1][3] and transitive demiplane,[1][7] irregularly linked to every plane and world within the multiverse.[8]
Etymology[]
This inn was named for the ancient deity of the same name.[9]
Structure[]
Interior[]
Descriptions of the Inn varied from world to world, though there was a set of commonalities between them.[8]
- Common Room
The common room of this building was large and rectangular.[10] It had a very ancient look to it, with plank floors and aged wooden beams overhead.[10][8] The space was dominated by a pair of flagstone fireplaces, one at each end,[10] and the space was lit by illumination given off by scattered, glowing fluted pillars.[8] Heavy oak chairs accompanied its tables,[10] which surrounded the bar in sizes both large and small, while long tables and booths lined the walls of the room.[8]
An eerie blue mist filled the air of the common room. It was sweet-smelling and impeded all forms of vision, making its far sides always hazy and indistinct.[8][9] As a result, one could never see the entirety of the common room at any one time[9] and precise mapping of it was impossible.[8]
Situated in the middle of the common room was a large bar, which had a wide shaft of light shining directly above it.[3][8] In the center of the bar was a massive pillar, lined with shelves holding the establishment's many libations. Stools surrounded this bar that were variously described as being round, square, or octagonal in shape. Behind the bar was a concealed door to the beer and wine cellar, which some believed was another plane entirely—namely the wine cellar of some deity of alcohol.[8]
Within one of the corners of the common room was a spiral staircase that led up to a balcony, a sort of partial second floor that looked over the first. There were no windows anywhere on both floors of the common room.[10] Other spaces inside the common room included a pair of coatrooms in front of the main entrance and a massive brawling pit. The latter dominated one side of the common room and was where disputes were settled. Its dimensions were 10 ft (3 m) wide by 30 ft (9.1 m) long, with a depth of 20 ft (6.1 m), and it was ringed by a low wall that patrons could rest their drinks on.[8]
- The Backrooms
Leading off from both floors of the common room[10] were about a half-dozen passages. From there the World Serpent Inn became a maze of twisting hallways, occasionally broken up by a number of doors or staircases to other levels. This area of the Inn was known as the "backrooms".[11][8] The backrooms were uniformly dark and gloomy, with construction varying. Some were made of wood, while others were constructed of plaster or stone blocks. They also differed in appearance, representing the tastes and sensibilities of many different cultures and races.[8] Even long-time residents had trouble navigating them,[12] though one could never truly become lost within them.[11]
Whenever the main entrance of the Inn changed what plane it was coterminous with, the backrooms' configuration would change,[11] though this seemed random to unknowing creatures.[12] Sometimes these shifts caused passages or rooms to be entirely cut off from the rest of the Inn and if uninhabited it tended to disappear. Those inside a room during a shift could break through their room's wall and be returned to the common room.[11] This shifting of layout reliably undermined any efforts by visitors to establish long-standing dominion over a section of corridor or a handful of rooms.[12]
Many of the passages and doors in the backrooms ultimately returned one back to the common room.[8] Other rooms that could be found behind doors included living quarters, storage rooms, libraries, and study rooms. The latter two often had rare or fantastical volumes within their selection of books.[11] These rooms varied in size from a few feet square to dozens of feet per side. Those who sought to return to a particular room were, by magical means, always likely to spot its associated door.[12]
Planar Traits[]
This demiplane had a mild affinity for positive energy, making it seem more vibrant and causing people to heal at a faster rate to such an extent that limbs could potentially regrow over time. It thus was more difficult to do harm to people within the Inn. Creatures did not age while inside the Inn. And spells as well as spell-like abilities, whether of an arcane or divine nature, were impeded from being cast.[1][8]
While within this demiplane, peoples' eyesight was affected in a manner similar to the spell see invisibility, making it so that they could see any creature that was ethereal or invisible.[1][8] Together these greatly reduced incidences of death within the Inn.[13] In addition, potions and magical items that induced invisibility would not function.[1]
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.[13] And unlike some transitive planes, like the astral, it was not accessible at any point on other planes. Rather, it was coterminous with planes only at particular points in time.[7]
Planar Connections[]
Where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came…
The primary portal to the Inn, known as the "main entrance",[1] was a two-way portal that connected to its common room.[13] Inside of the Inn it appeared to be a massive set of double doors.[8] Outside of the Inn, this portal 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.[1]
The maze of passages leading out from the common room was 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 led to, while others were not.[13] 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.[11]
- Portals to Toril
- In Faerûn, the Inn was commonly accessed through a run-down tavern known as the Wild Goose in Arabel, Cormyr. To access it, one had to stand in front of the Wild Goose's door and knock on an imaginary door as they invoked the proper name of any deity. This invocation always had to include the words "I" and "enter" in whatever language was being spoken, for example, "In the name of Set, I enter." After doing so, the Inn's signboard would change to read "The World Serpent Inn" across the Inn's signature serpent symbol.[9]
- In Kara-Tur, the Inn appeared on moonless or cloudy nights on the main road south of Cham Fau in Shou Lung. Here it was called the Inn of the Unseen Way or the Impossible Tavern.[2]
- In Zakhara, rather than a proper main entrance, there was a portal in the High Desert, roughly 90 miles (140 kilometers) away from the Great Oasis.[14]
- Portals to Other Worlds
- Deep in the backroom of the Inn was a door that opened to the world of Athas. This door was kept under lock and key and had sand seeping in around its edges.[15]
- A variety of portals opened to Eberron, with one of the few known relatively permanent portals being the Queen's Kiss, a flower shop in the city of Fairhaven. The door to the Inn would appear to anyone who attempted to enter whilst standing on flower petals at night. Other portals to this material plane opened to Sarlona, Sharn, and Stormreach. One door within the Inn that looked to be rotting opened to a ruined city on this plane known as Metrol.[16]
- One door within the backroom of the Inn opened to a city on the world of Krynn, known as Istar, that opened and closed at specific times due to a curse. Adjacent to the door was a kiosk run by a kender who was responsible for the curse and hoped to one day convince a group of adventurers to help him break it.[17]
- Portals to Other Planes
- There existed a single two-way portal within the Inn that could open to a number of demiplanes.[11]
- The Abyss.[13][18]
- Acheron.[13]
- 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.[19]
- Arcadia.[13]
- Baator.[13]
- The Beastlands.[13]
- Bytopia.[13]
- Carceri.[13]
- The Elemental planes.[13]
- Gehenna.[13]
- The Grey Waste of Hades.[13]
- Mechanus.[13]
- 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.[20]
- Ysgard.[13]
- In the backrooms one could find portals to the Plane of Shadow.[13]
- 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.[21]
Atmosphere[]
The Inn was described by some as being a neutral ground where creatures of all types could mingle safely.[9] Regulars of the Inn scorned any fighting that occurred outside of its brawling pit.[8]
Adventurers often populated the inn, making it a good place to hire sellswords and other mercenaries.[4] Sometimes even deities came to the Inn in disguise to relax.[3]
Services[]
| Rule One | Food is on the house, drinks are not. |
| Rule Two | Leave whenever you are ready. |
| Rule Three | Do not attack the waitstaff. |
| Rule Four | No attacking other patrons outside of the brawling pit. |
| Rule Five | Management is not responsible for the loss of property or life in the backrooms. |
This inn served a variety of strange and exotic libations, including dwarf-brewed ale, elven zzar,[9] orc-brewed oxblood ale, Elysium elixir, Sigma flytrapper, Sterozium, Styx Sorrows, and Venetian Mountain brew.[3][9]
The Inn's barkeep occasionally took requests for planar destinations,[11] in regards to the common room's main entrance,[13] though requests were only fulfilled sometimes and there was no set pattern as to when they were fulfilled.[11]
Inhabitants[]
Staff[]
One of the so-called serpent wenches, holding a tray of libations.
"The Owner" of the World Serpent, known only by that title, was a mysterious figure whose nature and identity were a common topic in the Inn. He was believed to most likely be a deity, potentially even one of overgod status. Most travelers assumed that this enigmatic figure could determine where the main entrance opened up to.[13]
The barkeep of the World Serpent was a tall, portly human man known as 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.[13] 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.[13]
The female servers of the Inn were known as the "serpent wenches". The majority of them were half-fey gnomes, said to originate from the realm of Faerie, and were the only regular waitstaff besides Mitchifer. Beyond these gnomish women,[22] the number of serpent wenches varied greatly, with women of other races being among the waitstaff that was ever-changing.[16]
All were around 3 feet (0.91 meters) in height and had curvaceous bodies. They wore revealing, deep indigo frocks that were made from the skin of some planar serpent and arrayed in twinkling points of white light. Each of them was capable of lifting huge platters and could navigate the crowded common room with ease.[22]
Other[]
Besides the staff of the Inn, there were a number of people who were regularly seen within it. Some of them were trapped, unable to find their way home, while others had fled from their native world. A handful simply lived elsewhere and returned frequently.[8] In addition, the Inn's own ethereal plane was home to a number of ethereal filchers and ghosts.[13]
Two regulars from the world of Toril were Mellomir of Arabel and Akim al-Kalaas formerly of Zakhara.[23]
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:[16] the archmage Alaurum of Toril, an Arcane named Ilyndele, and an illithid named Sharth.[6][16] The identity of the third creator varied with each person who told the tale, though they were always referred to by the teller as being from their own home world.[16]
In approximately 1357 DR,[note 1] the goddess Hecate sent her jester out to the World Serpent Inn to acquire some suitable adventurers to obtain for her a hound from the Wild Hunt, wanting to crossbreed it with her hell hounds.[24]
At some point in the mid–14th century DR, an unknown planar prankster herded a dozen dretch through the Inn's Shou Lung portal and they proceeded to wreak havoc throughout the wealthy Fu Te part of Cham Fau. After that incident, the Inn acquired the nickname "House of Sudden Fiends" in that region.[2]
At some point, circa 1374 DR, 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.[25]
Reputation[]
In Cham Fau, it had a reputation for bringing bizarre and unusual visitors.[2]
There were some in the Nine Hells who were displeased that the World Serpent Inn gave its customers readily accessible portals to that plane.[18]
Rumors & Legends[]
Some believed that when the World Serpent first fragmented, one of those fragments manifested into the plane that the Inn later occupied. 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.[16]
Some stories claimed that there was a gang of vampires that lurked within the backrooms.[11]
Appendix[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Because Tales of the Outer Planes (1988) was published after the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (1987), but evidently before the Time of Troubles in 1358 DR, when Lliira was free, this could have been set early the following year. It's not entirely clear how long Lliira was imprisoned.
Appearances[]
- Adventures
- Tales of the Outer Planes
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Jeff Grubb (2001-09-21). Brave New Planes: The World Serpent Inn. (PDF). Web Enhancement for Manual of the Planes 3rd edition. Wizards of the Coast. p. 2. Archived from the original on 2016-11-01. Retrieved on 2018-09-09.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Edward Bonny, Brian Cortijo (January 2007). “Kara-Tur: Cham Fau and the White Tiger Monastery”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), pp. 46–47.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Gary L. Thomas ed. (May 1988). Tales of the Outer Planes. (TSR, Inc.), p. 5. ISBN 978-0880385442.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Jeff Grubb and Ed Greenwood (1990). Forgotten Realms Adventures. (TSR, Inc), pp. 74–75. ISBN 0-8803-8828-5.
- ↑ Eric Haddock (1994). Cormyr. (TSR, Inc), p. 17. ISBN 1-56076-818-5.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ed Greenwood (July 1995). Volo's Guide to Cormyr. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 68–71. ISBN 0-7869-0151-9.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Eric L. Boyd (January 2007). “The World Serpent Inn”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 20.
- ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 8.12 8.13 8.14 8.15 8.16 8.17 8.18 Eric L. Boyd (January 2007). “The World Serpent Inn”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 21.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 Eric L. Boyd (January 2007). “The World Serpent Inn”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 22.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Jeff Grubb (2001-09-21). Brave New Planes: The World Serpent Inn. (PDF). Web Enhancement for Manual of the Planes 3rd edition. Wizards of the Coast. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2016-11-01. Retrieved on 2018-09-09.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 11.9 Jeff Grubb (2001-09-21). Brave New Planes: The World Serpent Inn. (PDF). Web Enhancement for Manual of the Planes 3rd edition. Wizards of the Coast. pp. 4–5. Archived from the original on 2016-11-01. Retrieved on 2018-09-09.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Eric L. Boyd (January 2007). “The World Serpent Inn”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 27.
- ↑ 13.00 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 13.05 13.06 13.07 13.08 13.09 13.10 13.11 13.12 13.13 13.14 13.15 13.16 13.17 13.18 13.19 13.20 13.21 Jeff Grubb (2001-09-21). Brave New Planes: The World Serpent Inn. (PDF). Web Enhancement for Manual of the Planes 3rd edition. Wizards of the Coast. p. 3. Archived from the original on 2016-11-01. Retrieved on 2018-09-09.
- ↑ Wolfgang Baur (January 2007). “Al-Qadim: Magic and Intrigue in the High Desert Tribes”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 28.
- ↑ Chris Flipse (January 2007). “Athas and the World Serpent Inn”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 32.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 Eric L. Boyd (January 2007). “The World Serpent Inn”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 23.
- ↑ Cam Banks (January 2007). “Scavengers of Istar”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 37.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Gary L. Thomas ed. (May 1988). Tales of the Outer Planes. (TSR, Inc.), p. 66. ISBN 978-0880385442.
- ↑ Gary L. Thomas ed. (May 1988). Tales of the Outer Planes. (TSR, Inc.), p. 56. ISBN 978-0880385442.
- ↑ Amber Stewart (January 2007). “The Gatetown of Ecstasy”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 50.
- ↑ James Lowder (January 2007). “The Shadows of Sithicus”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 54.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Eric L. Boyd (January 2007). “The World Serpent Inn”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 24.
- ↑ Eric L. Boyd (January 2007). “The World Serpent Inn”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 26.
- ↑ Gary L. Thomas ed. (May 1988). Tales of the Outer Planes. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 4, 11. ISBN 978-0880385442.
- ↑ Edward Bonny, Brian Cortijo (January 2007). “Kara-Tur: Cham Fau and the White Tiger Monastery”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #351 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 49.