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Blithes Spirits
City Guide I Blithe Spirits
Blithe Spirits
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So, lad, what’ll it be? Oh, we’ve got a fine selection to choose from – we’ve elven dawn-wines, and dwarven beetle-honey mead. We’ve frost brandy from the tops of icy mountains and desert khour’iss, made from cacti by the nomadic peoples of those hot lands. River-beer, oaken wine, walnut ale and even orcish blood mead. What’ll it be, then? All courtesy of Blithe Spirits, of course, lad – me tavern’d be quite bare without it.
Taverns, inns, restaurants and noble homes all know that the best purveyor of alcoholic spirits from far and wide is Blithe Spirits. Originally a small ale brewery owned by a family of halflings, the Blithingsfords, Blithe Spirits has become very stable and profitable since Faranith took over. But it was the contributions of Corinn, Faranith’s younger brother an irresponsible wanderer and hedonist that has made Blithe Spirits the traders to find the best spirits from.
Shop Exterior
Blithe Spirits maintains a large set of warehouse offices near the city’s main marketplace. The street-facing part of the building houses the business offices of the brewery and trading house. Above the main entrance is the plaque bearing the company’s symbol a laughing theater mask surrounded by a wreath of lashed tree limbs heavy with walnuts.
The building itself is built of a stone foundation. The walls themselves are stone along the bottom three feet; the rest of the wall is crafted of sturdy walnut, stained a deep red-brown hue. The roof of the building is made up of blue-grey shingles that match some of the stones that make up the foundation. A massive awning of colorful patchwork hue that stands out for quite a distance covers the front of the shop.
The Blithingsfords encourage bards and other entertainers to take up spots beneath this awning, in order to attract people’s attention to the establishment and its shop. Several times a day, employees circulate among the people gathered there, allowing all and sundry to sample the latest wares from Blithe Spirits. One favored ploy is to have the bards recite the songs and stories they know about a given locale and then allow those gathered to sample the fine wares from that locale.
There are several entrances into the offices and warehouses of Blithe Spirits. The first of these is the elegantly carved walnut and brass double doors that serve as the entrance into the winery shop proper. The brewery entrance is a stout walnut door accessible from the alley which leads to the back of the warehouse, where two more sets of large wooden doors are used to load and unload the casks of spirits that are stored at the warehouse and used as trading goods along the Blithe Spirits caravan routes.
1) Shop
This shop is certainly the heart and soul Blithe Spirits. The floors here are well swept and covered with deep wine-toned rugs which almost match the reddish wood of the shelves. Upon the shelves are flasks, decanters, small hand-kegs and bottles, all filled with a vast profusion of alcohols not to be found locally. The majority of the spirits available are Blithe Spirits’ own ale. However, the biggest draw is invariably the exotic brews brought from far-off places that most folk of the city have only heard tales about.
There is always an employee in here, ready to tend to the needs of their customers, whether those customers are here to purchase a single bottle for a special evening, several tuns for a large party or a season’s worth of spirits for an inn or tavern. The sales staff often arranges to have orders delivered. Such orders are usually a carts-load or more of goods, though recently, they have taken to hiring entertainers and bards to make special deliveries, complete with songs and sonnets of well-wishing or love.
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City Guide I Blithe Spirits
2) Offices
Plushly furnished and finished with red-stained walnut and brass, these offices are noted for their splendid liquor cabinets from which a glass is usually poured to toast successful business dealings. Those making the deals are careful to not offer a drink until after the deal has been made, so as not to be accused of trying to get customers drunk in order to secure better terms.
When deals must be made for large orders, whether that order is for space in one of the Blithe Spirit caravans or for a winter’s worth of mead, the sales staff guide the customer to one of these finely appointed offices to hammer out the details. The doors to these rooms aren’t quite as impressive as those in the shop itself, but are sturdy enough to provide privacy.
Door: Hardness: 5, Hit Points: 15, Break DC: 18, Open Lock DC 20; Liquor Cabinet: Hardness: 5, Hit Points: 8; Break DC: 13; Open Lock DC 20. Walnut & Brass Double Doors: Hardness 5, Hit Points: 22, Break DC 24, Open Lock DC 30.
3) Tasting Theatre
The tasting theatre is a grand room, richly decorated with gilt woodwork and fine tapestries. A crystalline chandelier hangs from the ceiling, its central crystal enchanted with a continual flame spell which is refracted and split by the crystals that surround it, bathing the room in spangles and shimmers of light. The seats scattered throughout the room are very comfortable and situated to allow private discussion as well as a view of the exquisitely crafted walnut stage. Originally conceived as an extension of inviting bards to perform under the awning in front of the shop, Blithe Spirits offers its “tasting theatres” twice a month or so. Attendance is by invitation only, with the local nobility, rich merchants and best customers receiving most of the invitations. A renowned bard or other performer is invited to perform, while the staff expensively liveried for this night circulate with goblets and snifters of the finest and most exotic drinks Blithe Spirits has to offer.
These events have come to be known in the city as an excellent place to make business contacts, as well as be seen, though the gathering is hardly a formal affair. Though the eventgoers certainly do imbibe quite a bit of Blithe Spirits’ best stock, the business deals made here aren’t just between guests it is generally agreed that Blithe Spirits makes more here in one night than it does during an entire week of normal commerce in the shop. The Blithingsfords are always in attendance at these affairs; indeed, when Corinn is in town, he insists on providing the entertainment himself, much to the delight of attendees.
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City Guide I Blithe Spirits
4) Warehouse
The warehouse is a large area with a stone floor. Though the ceiling isn’t very high, the cargo crates of bottles packed in straw, hundred-gallon tun-kegs and other containers isn’t mainly stored here. This floor of the warehouse is for those shipments that have been brought in that day or for those that are going out that day. A ramp leads down to the massive cellars of Blithe Spirits, where goods are stored and aged as appropriate. During the day, there are usually about six workers or so, doing heavy moving and sorting. Faranith, who keeps careful track of everything in and out of his warehouse, oversees them, often moving between supervising the warehouses and the brewery.
There are two sets of large cargo doors that lead to the alley outside, where caravan carts and wagons unload and load goods. These cargo doors are barred from the inside at the end of the day, making them impossible to pick. There is another similar set of doors that leads to the warehouses from the brewery.
5) Brewery
The goods from Blithe Spirits come in several purchasing sizes. The difference in price is noted in the description of the item. These sizes are:
Bottle: A glass bottle that holds approximately one gallon. These bottles usually have wicker wrapping along the bottom half of the bottle to help cushion it from breakage.
Hand Keg: A very small barrel that is about a foot in length and ten pounds in weight, the hand keg holds 2 gallons of liquid.
Cask: A small barrel approximately two feet long, containing 12 gallons of liquid.
Barrel: Between three and five feet in length, barrels hold 30 gallons of liquid. This is the standard size for a season purchase made by a normal household.
Butt: A large barrel some six to seven feet long, a butt holds 100 gallons. This is the standard size for a season purchase made by a large household, such as those of nobility.
There is a strong walnut door that leads off of the alley outside; this is the brewery entrance, set away from the shop’s entrance. There is also a simple door that leads between the brewery and the shop this door usually remains closed and locked during normal business hours. Finally, there is a set of large cargo doors into the warehouse, which allows the tun-kegs of Blithe Spirits’
signature ale to be decanted in the brewery and easily transported into the aging cellars in the warehouse. Unlike the warehouse cargo doors, this set of doors locks with a very advanced lock. This brewery is where Blithe Spirits truly began. It is here that the Blithingsfords family of halfings brewed the first Blithe Spirits, a fine pale ale that earned them renown for leagues. Their family made a modest fortune and founded a brewer legacy that lasts to the present day.
The brewery has the strong smell of fermentation, though it isn’t an unpleasant one. All the workers here are halflings, either members of the Blithingsford family or others whose families have worked for the brewer clan for two generations now. Faranith prefers to spend his time supervising the brewing in here, though most of the time he can be found in the warehouses, dealing with the inventory and accounting.
Walnut Door: Hardness 5, Hit Points: 20, Break DC 23, Open Lock DC 40; Simple Door: Hardness: 5, Hit Points: 15, Break DC: 18, Open Lock DC 20; Large Cargo Doors: Hardness 5, Hit Points: 25, Break DC 25; Open Lock DC: 40.
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City Guide I Blithe Spirits
Tun: Massive barrels mounted into the walls of taverns and inns and tapped directly, tuns are about as long as butts, but are much larger around, holding 250 gallons of liquid.
Though Blithe Spirits offers a selection of standard ales, wines, meads and ciders, they also have a fine selection of specialty brews:
Item: Blithe Spirits
Blithe Spirits: A fine pale spirit, Blithe Spirits is an ale flavored with walnuts and brewed to a fine light hue. Possessed of a slightly nutty flavor and a head of creamy ivory froth, Blithe Spirits is still highly sought after and favored far and wide.
Item: Dawn-wine
Dawn-wine: A fine pinkish, bubbly wine, elven dawn-wine is a favored among the young nobility of the city for its sweet taste and buoyant dizziness that the wine produces. Dawn-wine is so named because of its strange properties when held in direct sunlight it refracts and softens the light, creating a swirl of pale pinks, purples, blues and golds only normally seen during a spectacular sun rise. This wine is very rare and expensive and only sold in its
distinctive light golden-hued bottles decorated with deep azure velvet trim woven around the neck of the bottle.
(20 gp/bottle) Item: Undergold
Undergold: A rich, thick dwarven mead that seems to glitter with spangles of gold in firelight, undergold is made from the sweet honey produced by the small subterranean hiving beetles that are often found near veins of gold. Though the spangles in the rich golden mead aren’t actually flakes of gold, that is a favored story among those who serve this mead, which has become a city-wide favorite served warm during the holidays near winter solstice.
(1 gp/hand keg, 5 gp/cask, 12 gp/cask; these prices go up by as much as 50% during the winter months near the solstice.)
Item: Frost Brandy
Frost Brandy: An incredibly sweet, pale bluish drink, frost brandy is reputedly made in a mountain-top monastery from berries that grow during the few warm summer months and then remain frozen all winter. They are plucked just as spring nears, giving the berries a chance to distill their sweet frigidness into a fine brandy. Frost brandy has the curious property of remaining fairly cool all the time, regardless of the room temperature and as such is a popular drink during the hot summer months.
(7 sp/bottle, 15 sp/hand keg, 8 gp/cask, 20 gp/barrel; this price may increase by as much as 25% during summer.)
Item: Khour’iss
Khour’iss: Not quite a wine, but certainly not an ale, khour’iss is the strange, dark green foamy sour drink brewed by the nomadic tribes of the deserts. Khour’iss has mildly hallucinogenic properties, referred to as khour’ann, or “mirage lights” lights in the view of someone who is intoxicated on khour’iss seem to dance and shimmer like the sun at noon in the desert, creating spherical flares and beams of many colors. Khour’iss is sold in the ubiquitous glazed clay jars used by the desert nomads; each stoppered jar holds 2 gallons of khour’iss.
(25 gp/jug)
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City Guide I Blithe Spirits
Item: River Beer
River Beer: River beer is a beer brewed from the cat-tail-like plants that grow along some rivers in the south. It holds a rich tang that is considered to be bitter to some palates, but many folk enjoy the ink-black beer and its greenish head, especially with a platter of sharp cheese.
Item: Thousandleaf
Thousandleaf: A strangely dark wine made from the black berries and oak sap of a mighty oak forest, thousandleaf was originally enjoyed by foresters and those who lived near the druids who first pressed this wine as an offering to the fey folk of their wood. Now, thousandleaf is highly enjoyed all through the Blithe Spirit caravan-routes for its sweet taste with a slightly woody aftertaste. Thousandleaf comes in barrels made of oak.
Item: Redtongue
Redtongue: Considered a daring drink, redtongue is an orcish mead. Though it gets it thick, cloying taste from the rich honey found in the wilds that the orcish tribes inhabit, it gets its deep red color from the blood used as a fermenting agent. Though those at Blithe Spirits are quick
to reassure customers that the blood merely comes from animals, some knowledgeable in the ways of orcs say that it comes from the enemies of the tribe struck down during war.
Personalities
Faranith Blithingsford, Male halfling Exp3: CR 2; Small-sized humanoid (3 ft., 0 in. tall); HD 3d6+9; hp 24; Init +4 (+4 Dex); Spd 20 ft.; AC 15 (+4 Dex, +1 Size); Attack +5 dagger (1d4 +2), or +7 thrown dagger (1d4 +2); SV Fort +5, Ref +8, Will +5; AL N; Str 14, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 14.
Skills: Appraise +7, Bluff +5, Craft (barrels) +4, Diplomacy +8, Gather Information +4, Knowledge (nature) +3, Perform +4, Profession (brewer) +7, Read Lips +4, Wilderness Lore +3; Languages: Common, Gnome, Halfling.
Feats: Dodge, Lightning Reflexes
Possessions: worker’s clothing, small accounts book, slate pencil, dagger
Faranith is very serious about his work. He is fully aware of the fact that he is carrying on a legacy that his younger brother doesn’t want to be burdened with. This is fine with Faranith he is fully confident in his capabilities to build Blithe Spirits ever higher, though perhaps without the flamboyance that Corinn lends to the operation. This isn’t to say that he’s ungrateful to his younger sibling, however he realizes and acknowledges that he owes Corinn much.
Faranith has just begun looking for a bride; his business has been built to the point where he can concentrate on settling down to run things. He is anxious about providing for the continued legacy of Blithe Spirits; unfortunately, this may show a bit too often in his dealings with prospective young women.
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City Guide I Blithe Spirits
Corinn Blithingsford, Male halfling Brd7: CR 7; smlla-sized humanoid (3 ft., 2 in. tall); HD 7d6+21; hp 46; Init +3 (+3 Dex); Spd 20 ft.; AC 14 (+3 Dex, +1 Size); Attack +6 melee, or +9 ranged; SV Fort +6, Ref +9, Will +6; AL CG; Str 10, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 18.
Special Attacks: halfling traits, spells; Special Qualities: bardic knowledge, bardic music, halfing traits.
Skills: Appraise +4, Bluff +7, Climb +2, Concentration +6, Diplomacy +10, Gather Information +10, Hide +5, Intuit Direction +3, Move Silently +5, Perform +12, Sense Motive +2, Spellcraft +3, Swim +2, Tumble +8;
Languages: Common, Dwarven, Elven, Halfling, Orc.
Feats: Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack
Spells (3/4/3/1 per day): 0-lvl dancing lights, detect magic, light, mending, prestidigitation, read magic; 1st alarm, cure light wounds, expeditious retreat, feather fall; 2nd cat’s grace, cure moderate wounds, mirror image, tongues; 3rd dispel magic, haste.
Possessions: leather armor +1, shortbow +1, cloak of elvenkind, masterwork short sword, various gems (totaling 200 gp).
Corinn is the younger brother of Faranith. Fortunately, it wasn’t to Corinn that the family business was left; he has always been a wanderer and rogue who loved seeing new sights and hated tedium. So, shortly after their parents died, Corinn left the comfort of the city and began to wander, taking his knowledge of music and its magics to the places he’d always heard stories about.
Though he didn’t enjoy the life in a brewery, Corinn was nonetheless the son of a brewer he knew good spirits when he found them. He began collecting samples to take back to his brother, who thoroughly enjoyed the gifts and the stories that came with them. Then, one night, as the two were deep in their cups celebrating Corinn’s return, they hit upon an idea as much as Faranith enjoyed the fine brews from far off, others might as well. They would be willing to pay fine amounts of money to purchase these rarities.
So, Corinn became a partner in the new enterprise: his job was to find new spirits wherever he went and determine if they were worth including in the caravan routes. If so, he was to negotiate a price for the right to buy them in large amounts, something that the charismatic Corinn found himself remarkably well suited to doing. Blithe Spirits has prospered ever since.
