Today's morning map is an exterior illustration of The Giant's Crown Inn. I plan to pair this up with an interior map.

If you came to visit looking for the map just be patient.  I should have that up and attached to this same blog post over the weekend.  I plan to include a full write up of the Inn, the NPC's who own and operate it and a couple of interesting guests.

The Giant's Crown is a small roadside Inn located along the Eastern end of the Sodden Ride within the borders of Ostvick Warhold.

In this part of the North, few Inns or shops hang an actual sign. In many cases the owner will paint an illustration representing the name of the place onto a round shield and have this next to the door. I did a sort of tribal image of a giant holding out a crown for this.

Growing on the left side of the entrance is an herb garden with a common plant called Weedle. Weedle in the South is literally an invasive weed which is usually burned. Here in the North they realized that if you dry certain parts of the plant and grind them into a powder like tea leaves you can put this into large jars and ferment the stuff in the sun. Exactly like making sun tea. The drink is a weak but easy to produce alcohol and has a pleasant taste which can be mixed with berries.

To the right of the entrance is a large clay pot containing fresh water. This is part of a custom whereby guests are expected to rinse off their hands and (if they are feeling especially polite) dampen and comb out their hair and beards before entering a house. Most homes have such a pot somewhere close to the door and any Inn or Tavern of quality makes it a point to have one.

In the upper floor a guest has slung his round shield so it is displayed out of the window. This is a tradition used by warriors currently available for work to let others know that they are present and willing to negotiate their services in exchange for coin.