The Mellow Spider

The Mellow Spider offers a more diverse menu of goods and services than other, more upright establishments frequented by those outside of the village. The proprietors of the Mellow Spider give their patrons what they want or try their hardest to do so; however, only the locals know all of the things ‘on the menu’ so to speak. Therefore the purpose of the public house and their services depend on what you know and what you want.  

Tavern: The primary purpose of the Mellow Spider is as a place to drink and to blow off steam before going back to their homes to rest then return to work the next day. They provide popular drinks like date wine, palm wine, rum, mead and barley beer. They also have wine, beer and spirits from the southeastern corner of the Dominion and some from the Vranic Empire. However, they don’t have the more expansive selection of beverages from outside of the region that the taverns of the central Market District (who cater to and trade with clientele from beyond the region) provide for their patrons.

Restaurant: The Mellow Spider has a chef who cooks food for the clientele. There is generally an afternoon meal, an evening meal and snack-y bar food in between. The lunch meal is typically lighter, like a brunch, for patrons who are just waking up in the late morning and for workers of the Market District who prefer lighter, fancier fare. The evening meal is typically for local workers who have come back to the area around the Mellow Spider from a long day’s work; as such the evening meal is heartier and more rustic. In-between meals the chef cooks snack food that goes well with copious amounts of beer (things like flat bread with sardines, cured ham, slices of sausages, hard cheeses with crackers, croquetes and the like.)

Informal meeting place: Members of the surrounding community will often gather at the Mellow Spider. When people neet go gather to express grievances, to celebrate a retirement, a birthday, coming of age or to mourn the loss of a public figure where the gathering is too big for one house. The Mellow Spider is very welcoming of all community events even when no one buys drinks or food although most gatherings involve some form of food and drink.

Brothel (informal): The Mellow Spider is not a brother per-say as its primary purpose is not a house of pleasure nor is there a brothel keeper (madam/mister/non-gender-conforming overseer.) There are, however, people who subtly wait in the Mellow Spider for someone to become interested in them. They generally identify themselves as a sex-worker and ask if the patron is interested in a good time. If so, they rent one of the upstairs rooms for as long as they would like to spend time together. The proprietors of the Mellow Spider know it is going on and tacitly support the activity as a way for people to relax and destress in a healthy way. They will often direct patrons to the known prostitutes if the patrons ask about or seem interested in a good time. The house does not take any extra cut from the profits and they often rent out frequent or upstanding prostitutes at better rates.

Inn: On the upper level of the building are a dozen rooms which patrons may rent hourly or for the day. They generally go to people from outside of the area who are in town for some reason but don’t want to stay in the more expensive establishments of the Market District. The rooms are comfortable but not lavish. The rates are very reasonable as the proprietors see more to be gained from eating and drinking at the Mellow Spider than renting out rooms. As such, travelers in the know will stay there instead of other nearby inns.

The building that is the Mellow Spider is quite old. It has served as several different inns, taverns, brothels and even a bording house over the years. Much of the building remains in the same configuration as its past iterations. The two main reasons for this were first that the adobe and stucco building is very difficult to modify and secondly that much of the building functioned just fine as it was.   The largest amount of alterations were made to the main floor of the building. During its time as a brothel and inn, the main floor contained a honeycomb of rooms connected by narrow hallways to the courtyard where the inn keeper would collect the daily rent. The previous owner of the Mellow Spider opened up some of the rooms off of the courtyard to serve as a tavern space and bar. The current owner of the Mellow Spider opened up the main area further, created a kitchen space to prepare food and further expanded the bar area.   The basement of the building is exactly the same as it was over the past four centuries. The labyrinth of rooms, narrow hallways and oddities are off limits to all but the staff of the Mellow Spider as getting lost is easy for even experienced staff. The current public house does not use most of the rooms but instead most rooms are empty while others are blocked off to prevent entry. About a dozen of the former prostitutes’ rooms are currently in use as staff rooms with only cosmetic alterations.   The upper floors of the Mellow Spider are also mostly the same as the previous centuries. The guest rooms and connecting hallways have been fixed up, freshened up and some windows carved into the exterior walls to add light to the previously very dark halls. Small service hallways previously used by the brothel to add ‘surprise’ experiences or to allow discreet entry have been blocked up with boards or other semi-permanent means.

The Mellow Spider is a clay, stucco and wooden building that exhibits a strongly style. The building features graceful towers, a courtyard, salon, simple arched windows and an exterior arcade.