Crawpaw Tavern

*This is a semi-collaborative page. Please feel free to make good neighbor edits to "Notable Events"! Tavern brawls, smuggling stories, subterfuge, and merc misadventures are especially welcome.*

## Crawpaw Tavern

One of several barely-visible entrances to the Crawpaw Tavern.

### Notable Areas

Tavern proper, smuggling cove, merc guild, bazaar, backchannel, chapel-garden

### Purpose

Espionage, smuggling, merc work, getting absolutely plastered

The **Crawpaw Tavern**, more formally **Crawpaw Tavern the Second**, is a tavern/embassy/smuggling operation constructed on the southern border between the Everbloom Gardens and Gladeveins. While not officially a "Flight secret", its existence is rarely advertised to outsiders, and unfamiliar dragons may be turned away at the door. Many Flight allies (and a fair few enemies) have, willingly or unwillingly, paid the Crawpaw a visit.

## History

The Crawpaw Tavern was an above-ground, all-flights structure located between the Viridian Labyrinth and the Sunbeam Ruins and named after "crawdad" and "pawpaw" to indicate its culinary roots. It was highly regarded for its atmosphere, drink menu, and selection of Gladeveins and Everbloom cuisine appealing to most palates. The tavern was unintentionally destroyed in a war between Light and Nature; Nature clans took this as a cue to strengthen their presence along the border and rebuilt the tavern in a series of root tunnels. Its convenient location, not to mention the restored menu and accommodations, cemented its popularity and led to its becoming an important local hub. While neither the most secret nor secure of the Flight's holdings, the restored Crawpaw Tavern continues to play a part in its skirmishes and operations.

## Location and Access

While the existence of Crawpaw is reasonably common knowledge among locals, its exact location is not discussed. The tavern exists primarily underground, with a few unmarked, sealable entrances scattered around the area and scaled to serve a variety of breeds. While it's not impossible to discover the tavern by accident, it's known to have been built in a dense, tangled area enhanced by defensive druidry; furthermore, anyone approaching without a trusted guide will be questioned and almost certainly turned away.

## Services and Layout

Crawpaw is a full-service tavern with an expansive menu and accommodations. It abuts one of the Gladevein's many underground channels to form a natural cove primarily used for Flight-approved smuggling (though leniency is afforded to trusted allies, assuming they're not discovered moving anything *unacceptable*). The central cavern is used as a hybrid of mess hall and bazaar, with tables across several tiers ringing an open space suitable for both flight and hawking of wares. Market stalls are claimable on a first-come, first-serve basis. An alcove in this area houses a semi-official mercenary "guild" that tracks jobs and team availability. Its services are available to all regardless of Flight status, though there is a small tithe levied. The central chamber melds into the open-concept tavern, which itself flows backwards into root-walled rooms available for rent. While the Crawpaw Tavern rarely sees "top secret" activity, there is an area available through a single closely-guarded tunnel that emerges into a garden/meeting chamber nicknamed the "backchannel" due to its propensity for both waterlogging and sensitive discussion. Its isolation makes it suitable for interrogation, and it's equipped for this should the need arise. A final chamber opposite the smuggling cove serves as a chapel-garden in which Nature dragons (and others, should the mood strike) pay homage to the Gladekeeper.

## Descriptions

These descriptions are provided in place of images.

### Smuggling Cove

The roots give way to a crescent-shaped shore of rock and mud scattered with stacks of crates and monitored by sharp-eyed familiars. The air is cool and humid, and occasionally carries a whiff of something strange: dream-scented incense smuggled from the Sea of a Thousand Currents, maybe, or the unsettling, earthen musk of a Dragonhome callingbone shivering with necromantic energy. New rafts come in every few minutes. Many are crewed by wildclaw, but other breeds are present as well, and even the occasional trusted beastclan comes to trade and barter services. The cove's thoroughfares are lit by lanterns and bioluminescent plants, but side-areas are left mostly to shadow and privacy. Familiars and motes of plantlight rule the air, as all but the smallest dragons remain grounded to avoid knocking over the towers of goods.

## Notable Events

### Founding of Clan Castoff

Clan Castoff was first conceived of in a drunken, dissatisfied stupor shared by two mercenaries: "What if we never, *ever* went somewhere cold ever again?" After a few more rounds of drinks to melt the Southern Icefields from their bones, as well as quite a bit of explanation to the dragon who'd followed them all the way back (kidnapped as an egg; she was already getting the feel for Nature magic), they agreed that it was an idea worth developing. How hard could it be?