The Still Current Inn

Start-class article · First seen: s4 · Last seen: s4
The Still Current Inn
Still Current · Still Current Inn · Stilcurrant · Stilcurnt · Stillcurrent
The Still Current Inn — portrait.
Location
StatusActive
First seens4
Last seens4
FactionVelkris

The Still Current Inn is the anonymous-meeting establishment at the centre of Mirestrand, where every guest must wear a plain reed mask and conversation is held in murmurs. It is the regular meeting-place of Umbrafall–Velkris liaisons, smugglers, spies, and at least one devil. The Black Mask held court here in session 4 disguised as a dwarf with a special helmet, where he transported Hugo, Caelumn, and Terry into a pocket realm and revealed the existence of Project Veilbreak [2].

Overview

The Still Current Inn is the recorded centre of social life at Mirestrand. The inn’s core conceit is anonymity: a basket of plain reed masks at the door, a sign requiring all guests to wear them, and a strict whisper-protocol enforced by scornful glances from the staff toward anyone who raises their voice. It is the kind of place that is busy but never crowded, and where the staff remember a returning visitor through the mask without ever asking a name.

Geography and appearance

Stilted on blackened algae-covered pilings over the marsh-mouth. The main room sits directly over the water, the floorboards old and uneven. Lanterns hang in the fog. Five private rooms upstairs, plus a common area with a long bar. Hugo paid 5gp for five rooms and ordered five red whispers (a clear filtered spirit) and five marsh wines [4].

Government / control

The proprietor is unnamed in transcript. The inn is locally Velkris-friendly (Velkris tax-agents pass through without trouble) but it caters to all sides of the river trade. House rules: masks on, voice down, no Velkris business inside (presumably mirroring the Glomangol Inn’s “no Nightwatch business inside” sign in Umbrafall; the Still Current’s exact wording is not preserved).

Notable features

  • The mask basket at the door.
  • The “Umbrafall–Velkris liaisons stay here” reputation.
  • A booth that, on session 4, served The Black Mask in dwarf form.

History in the campaign

  • Session 4: The party arrives, takes five rooms, and is interrupted by The Black Mask in dwarf-with-special-helmet form. The Mask offers a 25gp coin-flip wager for a 1st-level spell scroll; declined. He then snaps his fingers, transports Hugo, Caelumn, and Terry to a black void, removes his helmet to reveal the horned humanoid devil beneath, and proposes a wager that the party will succeed at The Egg Quest: if they fail, one of them returns to him. He produces an onyx ring with internal barbed hooks that he holds out as the prize and plays the Project Veilbreak recording from “Dr Flem Josenge” through an altered sending stone [3]. Hugo’s history check produces a flashed memory of his erased family. Snap. Back at the inn. The Black Mask is gone.

Inhabitants

  • An unnamed barmaid who gave Hugo a knowing nod through the mask, suggesting recognition from prior visits.
  • The Black Mask (transient).
  • A crow at Caelumn’s window after the audience [5], possibly a familiar.

Status as of session 16

Active. Not revisited.

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 4, line 870-882 — Mask custom; whisper protocol; 1gp/room.
  2. ^ Session 4, line 1066-1230 — Black Mask sits down at the party's table, offers the wager.
  3. ^ Session 4, line 1312-1334 — The Project Veilbreak recording is played.
  4. ^ Session 4, line 880 — Inline citation.
  5. ^ Session 4, line 1352 — Inline citation.