Laddy's Hotel and Casino
Boasting some of the finest food and entertainment in the city of Stilton Head, Laddy's is quickly becoming a real competitor in the city's bustling casino industry. Having poached, cajoled, and threatened some of the best of the best in the industry into coming to work for them, it is no surprise that the hotel has begun garnering positive critical attention, being voted the "best off-campus casino" by The Chart; the college newspaper at the world famous Bardic College Campus.
Nine foot ceilings in the hallways and guest rooms on the first floor soar to eleven feet in the casinos themselves. The entire building is clad in locally sourced hardwood, and lath-and-horsehair plaster. The plaster is painted a nuetral taupe color, but the lighting is designed to throw exciting colors and patterns against the walls at any time of day. Windows are not present in the casinos; neither are clocks. The artwork all tastefully depicts various attractive people having fun drinking and gambling, and the attractive people serving the complementary drinks are all friendly and courteous. Many of them are sex workers, which is yet another draw for the burgeoning gambling den.
The first floor casino is bursting with slot machines, as well as Poker and Roulette tables, and an ancient game that has been seeing a resurgence in popularity recently, called "Blackjack". Horse betting, rat fights, bare knuckle bouts, trout tournaments; all and sundry can be bet upon at Laddy's Money Cages. Servers wander the casino floor with trays of complimentary drinks, and imaginative hors'd'ouvers are served by alluringly clad waitstaff. Jaunty music is played at all hours of the night and day.
The First Floor
The walkway and entrance to this opulent casino is flanked by colorful hydrangea and sculpted topiaries. Even the stones of the entryway seem hand picked to entice one into entering the establishment. The closer one gets to the door, the louder the music gets, until the entrance opens wide and spills out light, music and mirth to the outside world. To the left, as one enters, a well kemt vegetable garden fills the air with the aroma of bruised basil and sage. Sunflowers march down the row, heads bowed toward the passage of the sun. Two large men flank the door to get in to the casino, both of them wearing tailored suits. They are the casino's first and last line of defense, because they check out the clientelle as they are both entering and leaving. They famously stopped a robbery as the thieves were leaving with their spoils, but more frequently they turn away people they think might be trouble, before trouble ever even gets started.
The Entryway
The bouncers at the door are both Kate's Lads thugs. They are tough, rough, and tumble, and look as such despite the tailored suits and manicured nails. They will be polite and professional, but are easily provoked and are not afraid to hurt somebody.
Thug: medium humanoid, 50HP, 14AC, +5 to hit, 1d6 non-lethal damage from unarmed strikes. If the bouncer hits, the opponent is grappled, and restrained, requiring a DC16 Strength Saving Throw on its turn to break free.
Laddy's tavern and bar serves all the best and most popular in beer, wine, and mead...but they are making quite a name for themselves brewing their own. The Laddy's label has recently been seen on the same shelves as the fabled Thornleaf-do and Tulara labels.
This room is filled with tables, babbling voices, and cheerful music. A bouncer roams the otherwise friendly room, which has hardwood wainscoting and a bar built of locally sourced timber on the far side of the room. People are eating, drinking, and singing bawdy songs as you enter the chaos. The aroma of a well-stocked Lobscouse fills the air along with the music, and the sawdust protecting the hardwood floor is fresh and unsoiled. The bartender's white apron and striped shirt are immaculately pressed, and he is wearing cufflinks that look like ale barrels. He is wearing a bolo tie, and he has a skeleton key hanging on a thick chain of braided white gold around his neck, denoting him as the master brewer of the establishment. His laugh is loud, and he has a voice and demeanor to match it. He is proud of his establishment, and it shows in everything from the smiles on people's faces to the shine on the beer glasses.
The Tavern
The Kitchen
The kitchens are state-of-the-art affairs, featuring all the latest in gadgetry and gastronomical innovation. The sinks have hot and cold running water, there are wood-fired ovens and stove tops, and a fireplace so large they have been able to cook an entire hog on a spit. The restaurant here is staffed with talent poached from the nearby establishments, and to good effect; the food is some of the best you have ever tasted, or smelled. The servers are all polite and professional, and well dressed, with the poise and confidence only an expert in their craft can summon. There is a larder attached to the kitchen that is well stocked, and kept very cool in order to properly store food and wine.
The Latrine
The latrines are communal affairs, as per tradition in Pax, plumbed into the main drainage and water system for the building. These particular latrines have warmed seats and splash guards.
Each guest room is a masterpiece of rustic hospitality, featuring clean feather mattresses, freshly laundered linens, and as many blankets and pillows as one could wish for. They can be configured for anywhere from one to eight people to sleep in comfortably.
Laddy's housekeeping tends to the rooms thoroughly, so it is best to keep valuables secreted away in the provided lockboxes for safe keeping, lest there be an unfortunate incident. The lavatories are down the hall a short ways, where the clean and fresh smelling facilities are also fastidiously kempt.
Guest Rooms
This room is set aside for the "master of the house", or the boss of the establishment. Kate's Lads has assigned an ambitious, mid level mobster named Frankie the Bull to be the outward face of the casino. He spends most of his time in the tavern, or main casino, busily running a legitimate business.
The bedroom is furnished luxuriously, with a thick mattress and turned-wood furniture of the highest quality. The floor is polished hardwood parquet, and the bed is flanked by twin statues of a devilish figure grinning and writinig in a ledger. The closets are filled with fine suits from all the finest tailors; a dog-eared book sitting on the side table reveals the occupant's love of romance novels.
Master's Bedroom
There is a large safe hidden under the floorboards beneath the master's bed. Scratches on the floor, from moving the bed out of the way, will reveal the lockbox with a DC15 Investigation check. It contains several money belts, pre-packed and ready for travel, with a hundred platinum in each of them. There is a go-bag with a few changes of clothes, a healing potion, and a disguise kit.
The Brewery
This stone-floored room contains three wood-fired distillation rigs, brewing up ale, mead and spirits day and night. The demand for their particular sloe gin recipe has skyrocketed recently, and the casino's management has been taking full advantage of the spirit's popularity.
These rooms, while not so well appointed as the Guest Rooms, are still quite comfortable and dry. They have been set aside for the use of the over one hundred staff working at the casino, a number of whom are members of Kate's Lads, and quite used to living in barracks situations. This situation, to them, is the lap of luxury.
Staff Quarters
This stately and purposeful office is filled chock full of gravitas and decked out with finely crafted furniture, including a dresser, two bureaus and an antique desk. It is meant for the express purpose of the Pit Boss, although he is hardly ever in it, what with his duties on the floor of the casino. The pit boss has to deal with the drunks and addicts that often populate places such as Laddy's, as well as any other little problems that pop up over the course of an evening spent drinking and gambling.
Pit Boss' Office
The Pit Boss' Office is flanked by a pair of lavish restrooms that are an oddity in Pax in that they are private, solitary affairs. They are lit by diffused candlelight, warmed by radiant heat embedded in the flooring, and plumbed into the main water drainage and supply lines outside of the rooms, in order to save space. The outdoor plumbing is hidden by a screen of ivy and other greenery. All of the outdoor drainage plumbing comes together in a manifold at ground level, where it is easy to work on, and hidden by a well tended, head-high, hedge. The checkered floors of the lavatories hide well disguised drains to make them easier to clean after a night of drunken debauchery. The staff can simply come in with a hose and clean off the walls, ceiling and floor.
The Lavatories
The Stairways
As per usual in Pax, the establishment uses spiral staircases; in this case, to traverse the building's three floors. They are made of locally sourced wood and hardware, and are rock solid examples of masterful wood joinery, made to withstand the infrequent earthquakes that can strike the area out of the blue. Locals are confused by this, as they fear the inevitable wave of tsunamis that would follow.
The main casino at the hotel, the ground floor room is designed to keep people in, and entice them with flashing lights, ringing bells, and the cha-ching of coins falling against one another. It is an exciting room, with musicians wandering around playing lively tunes that have all been hand picked to entice one to gamble, to take risks. Enough people win that the crowds keep coming back to spend their money night after night, and the free-flowing booze, served by attractive young waiters and waitresses, is poured at no additional cost of one is gambling.
Slot machines prevail on this floor of the casino. Poker and roulette are represented, of course, as well as a newfangled game, called blackjack, that is supposedly older than the hills.
One can place a bet on nearly anything at Laddy's hotel and casino. One can also find sex workers of any persuasion hanging out in the casino; they are allowed by the hotel, for a cut of the profits each night. It is safer for the sex workers, and is yet another draw for the casino, so it is win-win for all around.
The Casino
The Second Floor
The High Rollers Room
The entirety of the second floor is dedicated to those people who casually gamble away as much money as most people make in an entire month. The money cages in this room are not quite a busy, per se, but they handle a lot more money than the ones on the first floor.
The bars up here are made of teak and ebony, and railed with shiny brass cylinders. All of the fittings and fasters, too, are brass, creating a beautiful and exciting visual pattern when viewed from any angle...a pattern that encourages one to let their inhibitions go, and let loose their inner chance-taker.
These tables have no upper limits, and are often as much as an honest man's mortgage payment to buy-in to the game.
These private rooms cost an arm and a leg to reserve, but they are completely private and have no limit on the the upper end of betting. They are mostly reserved for royalty, or nobility, although out here on the frontier in Stilton-Head, anyone with the exorbitant money necessary is welcome to use the private rooms.
The tables and furniture in these rooms are hand built artisanal wonders, featuring comfy overstuffed leather chairs and cushioned arm rests. Drinks and appetizers are "free" while gambling in these rooms
The Private Rooms
Pit Boss Office
The pit boss on the second floor is not the busiest person in the casino by any means, but the amount of money that passes through their hands is absolutely astounding. This office is mainly used for counting money, and off-hours disciplinary meetings with staff.
This room is immaculately clean, featuring fine art and a small library of interesting, yet thoroughly unread, volumes of popular lore and legend throughout the lands.
Whoever designed this office had impeccable taste in literature.
The Lavatories
The lavatories on the second floor are much the same as those on the ground floor. Cleverly tiled with hidden drainage, they are just as easy to clean as the ones on the lower floor. They are plumbed into the same outside water and drainage systems as well, with the piping and hardware hidden by a screen of ivy and other greenery.
The Stairways
The stairways are well guarded on this floor. Only very specific people are allowed to continue upwards, to the third floor, and those people are known to the bouncers and staff. The third floor is said to be a debauched paradise of strippers and gambling.
The stairs are rock solid, hardwood constructs that spiral both up and down with a pleasing aesthetic. They are stained a dark red hue, and polished to a mirror sheen. The railing twists gracefully in a long curve from above, down to the ground floor below.
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