### 17

At the end of the street you discover a tavern which adjoins the town’s east gatehouse. It has a stables and a small blacksmithy, and the first floor has been given over to a rooming hostel. It is a popular place and you see several people entering and leaving by its main door.

Beyond this door you discover a warm taproom with great padded chairs and tables of yellow Siyenese elm. You approach the tavern-keeper’s wife who is serving ale to customers in tankards made of hardened leather. You enquire if she has a room for the night and she nods and smiles. ‘Three Gold Crowns,’ she says, ‘and for that you can have as much ale as you can stomach!’

You pay her 3 Gold Crowns (erase these from your Action Chart. If you have fewer than 3 Gold Crowns, you give all of your remaining Crowns to the tavern-keeper’s wife) but you decline a tankard of her ale. It has a peculiar smell that makes you think of greasy animal hides.

Turn to 38.