1. Waterside Hostel of Nulb

A Den of Thieves and Travelers

Perched beside the crumbling bridge where the High Road crosses the Emyrd's Run, the Waterside Hostel is the first building travelers encounter upon entering Nulb. Its sagging timber roof, lopsided walls, and a crooked sign creaking in the breeze disguise a hive of scum and villainy. This is no ordinary inn: it is the primary base for Nulb's mercenaries, bandits, and assassins who feed the growing power of the Temple of Elemental Evil.

• Key Location: Central hub for travelers and local miscreants alike.
• Reputation: Known for shady dealings and occasional disappearances of the unwary or wealthy.

Dick Rentsch sizes up the adventurers as they step into the dimly lit tavern room of the Waterside Hostel, his eyes narrowing slightly as he leans back against the worn bar. The clink of mugs and low murmurs fill the background, but Dick's voice cuts through, gruff and unwelcoming.

"Ah, fresh faces in Nulb," he begins, his tone dripping with a mix of curiosity and suspicion.

"Don't see many new folks 'round these parts without a reason. So, what brings you to our little slice of paradise, eh? Don't suppose you're here for the scenic views."

He chuckles darkly, a sound that doesn't quite reach his eyes. Dick straightens up, crossing his arms over his broad chest, his gaze still fixed sharply on the adventurers. "Listen, I run a tight ship here, and while you're welcome to fill your bellies and wet your whistles, understand this—" his voice drops, a stern edge creeping in, "I don't tolerate trouble. You start any, and you'll find yourselves out on your arses quicker than you can draw a blade. Got it?"

He pauses, letting his warning sink in, then continues with a slightly lighter tone, though the undercurrent of threat remains. "Now, tell me, what's your business in Nulb? Looking for work, trouble, or something else? Be straight with me—it'll save us all some time."

Hostel Structure

The hostel is a sturdily built structure, showcasing a blend of field stone and sawn timber, making it one of the more substantial buildings in Nulb despite its disreputable aura.

• Construction Materials: Field stone foundation with timber walls.
• Architectural Style: Rustic with practical design to withstand local swamp conditions.

Notable Characters

Innkeeper - Dick Rentsch

The outwardly gruff and oafish innkeeper of the Waterside Hostel is far from simple-minded. He plays the fool to deflect suspicion, but he is a trusted agent of the Temple. Dick secretly coordinates with Lucius Graeme and Smigmal Redhand to shelter Temple agents, smuggle contraband, and launder coin through the inn's rooms and food services.

Barkeeper - Wat

The tavern's barkeeper, Wat oversees the comings and goings of patrons with a sharp eye and even sharper wit. Though he rarely raises his voice, his word is law in the common room. Wat quietly monitors deals, gossip, and troublemakers, passing what he learns along Temple channels when necessary.

Background and Transformation

Originally founded as a modest inn to shelter wayfarers entering Nulb from the north, the Waterside Hostel has since rotted into something far darker. The collapse of morality in the village after the rise of the Temple allowed the hostel to fester into a den of predators.

• Establishment History: Once a refuge, now a trap. Its notoriety stems from its transformation into a sanctuary for cutthroats.
• Whispers and Vanishings: Travelers of means often disappear from the rooms upstairs, their screams muffled by swamp fog and silence bought with coin.

Motivation and Operations

Dick and Wat don’t just run an inn—they operate a laundering and staging house for the Temple’s land-based criminal operations.

• Profit and Power: All revenue flows back to Temple hands through backdoor deals, false ledgers, and shakedowns.
• Moral Flexibility: Payment ensures silence. The only law enforced here is loyalty to the strongest buyer.

Accommodations and Atmosphere

The hostel's rooms are filthy, drafty, and reek of damp straw and unwashed bandits. Despite this, its affordability and anonymity make it the most common lodging in Nulb for newcomers.

• Rooms: A few semi-private rooms are available behind warped doors with rusted latches. Most travelers sleep in communal bunks alongside bandits, spies, and killers.
• Vanishing Guests: Those who question too much or fail to pay often disappear, fed to the Emyrd’s Run or quietly sacrificed to the Earth Temple.
• Security: Valuables vanish. There are no locks. There is no recourse.

Political and Criminal Entanglements

The Waterside Hostel is deeply embedded in Nulb's tangled web of cultic influence and Temple hierarchy. Dick Rentsch walks a careful line, serving the broader objectives of the Temple of Elemental Evil while remaining outwardly independent.

• Power Broker Status: The hostel's neutrality is a front. In reality, it is a hub for Temple field agents, bandit lieutenants, and Temple-aligned mercenaries. It serves as a screening ground for new recruits and a resting place for Temple enforcers.
• Temple Oversight: The Waterside Hostel falls under the logistical command of Commander Feldrin, Hedrack’s master of supplies and Temple security. Lucius Graeme routinely visits the hostel as a courier between the Greater Temple and surface agents. Romag of the Earth Temple uses the hostel to coordinate ground operations and occasionally accepts prisoners here for interrogation or indoctrination.
• Alrrem’s Agent: Wat, the barkeep, is the only known agent of Alrrem (Fire Temple) in Nulb, acting as an informant and watcher on rival factions. His loyalty is quiet but firm.
• Belsornig’s Absence: The Water Temple, led by Canon Belsornig, has no direct influence in the hostel and conducts all its activities through the Boatman’s Tavern instead.
• Madame Selentis' Oversight: Though based at the old Mayor’s Manor, Madame Selentis (Nysera Krivaltis) watches the Waterside Hostel closely. Her bandits frequently collect supplies and captives from the inn, escorting them to Gefreid Patris at the Hunting Cottage, where the secret tunnel to the Temple lies.
• Crimson Reaper Tension: Though Zelt the Bat and the Reapers operate freely here under Smigmal Redhand’s sanction, their true allegiance to the Cult of Orcus makes them unpredictable. Selentis, Romag, and Feldrin all keep tabs on their ambitions.

Bandit, Brigand, and Cult Relationships

The Waterside Hostel is the terrestrial command point for the Temple’s surface operations in Nulb, especially those connected to land-based recruitment, slave trafficking, and logistical control.

• Criminal Safehouse: Bandits, bounty hunters, and Temple converts use the hostel to regroup, rest, and rendezvous with Temple operatives. It’s a preferred meeting point due to its distance from the river-dominated Boatman’s Tavern.
• Earth Temple Crossroads: Romag’s loyalists operate here more openly than in other parts of Nulb. Some mercenary bands are fully under Earth Temple control, and secret rituals or meetings occasionally take place in upstairs rooms.
• Selentis' Transfer Network: Bandits under Madame Selentis’ command collect captives and stolen goods from the hostel and ferry them to Gefreid Patris at the 55. Hunting Cottage, a key node in the Temple’s underground tunnel system.
• Zelt’s Network: The Crimson Reapers have made the hostel their temporary stronghold. Zelt’s lieutenants use the second floor for planning raids, fencing loot, and negotiating mercenary contracts. While aligned with the Temple, their ties to the Cult of Orcus cast a long shadow over their loyalty.

Conclusion

The Waterside Hostel remains a crucial but notorious part of Nulb, offering both sanctuary and peril to those who dare to lodge within its walls. Its continued operation reflects the adaptability and cunning required to thrive in such a tumultuous environment.

• Cultural Staple: A reflection of Nulb's darker side.
• Survival Tactics: Continues to thrive through a combination of resilience and strategic ambiguity in its operations.

The Waterside Hostel Tavern

Daytime Atmosphere in the Tavern Room

The Waterside Hostel's tavern serves as a quiet daytime retreat for a close-knit group of regulars who enjoy their drinks in a calm, conversational setting. Activity is typically low, with a relaxed pace that picks up slightly in the late afternoon.

• Patron Composition: Consists mostly of local regulars who visit daily.
• Key Figure: Wat, the bartender, manages the day-to-day operations, providing drinks and company.
• Environment: The atmosphere is laid-back, with patrons engaging in casual conversation and light-hearted banter.

Nighttime Transformation of the Tavern Room

At night, the tavern becomes a bustling hub of activity, attracting a more diverse and often dangerous crowd. The change in clientele brings a palpable tension to the atmosphere, making evenings both lively and potentially hazardous.

• Staff Changeover: Wat continues his duties at the tavern as he practically lives there, with added support from Dala, Pearl, and two manservants who act as bouncers.
• Clientele Shift: The crowd is larger and more varied, including a mix of locals and newcomers, some of whom may have questionable intentions.
• Safety Concerns: The risk of violence escalates at night, with conflicts more likely and more severe.

Five Types of Nighttime Patrons

Villagers

Local residents make up a significant portion of the nighttime crowd, seeking leisure and social interaction in the relative safety of the tavern.

• Demographics: Mostly comprised of farmers and fishermen from Nulb.
• Behavior Patterns: Generally peaceful, though they can be drawn into disputes or altercations with more volatile patrons.
• Community Role: Serve as a bridge between the daytime regulars and the more transient nighttime crowd.

Rhennee Bargefolk

The Rhennee Rhenn-folk, known for their secretive and nomadic lifestyle, frequent the tavern, often surrounded by an aura of mystery and suspicion due to their reputed involvement in smuggling and thievery. These bargefolk are outsiders and will not get along with PCs easily. However, if some manner of friendship can be formed, the NPCs will potentially prove to be valuable allies.

• Cultural Identity: Marked by their distinctive customs and often subject to local superstitions and rumors.
• Admittance: Dick will only let them come in if they can show that they have coins first. Most of the Rhennee who frequent the tavern are 1 to 3rd level with some being as high as 5th.
• Potential for Interaction: While wary of outsiders, building trust with the Rhennee could open up unique trading opportunities and insights into river travel.
• Risk and Reward: Engaging with the Rhennee may lead to access to rare items or valuable information but also brings a risk of entanglement in their less savory activities.

Bandits, Pirates & Mercenaries

This group includes individuals and small bands drawn to Nulb by the promise of employment and profit, often associated with the recent activities surrounding the Temple. As such, there is no shortage of folk willing to take advantage of the potential profit to be made. Also, with the presence of the bandits and the pirates, there are often excellent opportunities for merchants of questionable demeanor to pick up illicit goods at cut-rate prices.

• Composition: Diverse, with individuals ranging from opportunistic criminals to organized mercenary groups.
• Motivations: Primarily financial, seeking employment in security, enforcement, or less legitimate enterprises.
• Impact on Nulb: Their presence contributes to the unstable and sometimes lawless environment of the tavern and town.
• River Pirates: navigating the dangerous waters of Imeryds Run, these hardy souls use the tavern as a place to conduct business, gather information, and unwind.

Temple Agents

Covert agents of the Temple of Elemental Evil regularly use the Waterside Hostel as a forward operating site for observation, recruitment, and clandestine communication.

• Low Profile, High Stakes: Temple personnel frequently pose as mercenaries, laborers, or wandering priests. Some drink and gamble like common thugs, while others keep to the shadows, always listening.
• Troop Rest and Recruitment: Temple guards and junior cultists often visit the hostel while on leave from the Temple, where they mingle with Nulb’s cutthroats. These informal visits can be a rare chance for observant PCs to glean details of Temple structure or identify disguised operatives.
• Watchers and Messengers: Wat, with his sharp memory and bar-top view of every deal and dispute, subtly relays key information to Temple couriers like Lucius Graeme. Madame Selentis may also deploy spies here, as may Belsornig and Romag.
• Powerful Intrigue: The hostel has become a volatile neutral ground. Temple agents quietly compete for dominance and influence through lies, bribes, and carefully chosen violence. PCs who interact regularly wi

Guests at the Waterside Hostel

Room:1 Common (10 cots)

This is the common room for all travelers looking for a cheap cot to sleep for the night.

The Pack in the Common Room

The common room is a squalid, overcrowded pit where the dregs of Nulb bed down for the night, but six of the twenty bunks belong to the Crimson Reavers, and they make damn sure everyone knows it. This is no rowdy, drunken gang—this is a pack of wolves, dirty, dangerous, and spoiling for a fight.

The middle of the common room belongs to The Crimson Reapers, and no one dares encroach on their space. Anyone foolish enough to move too close is met with hard stares, sneers, or the cold steel of a dagger held just loosely enough to be a threat.

• Dirty, greasy, and unwashed, they smell of sweat, leather, and stale ale, carrying the stink of blood and campfire smoke on their clothes.
• Weapons never leave their side—daggers tucked into belts, crossbows propped against bunks, and hatchets kept within easy reach.
• Conversations are hushed and filled with gallows humor, private jokes about past killings and “accidents” on the road.
• They dare others to challenge them, playing cruel games where outsiders are “tested” with intimidation, threats, and sudden outbursts of violence.
• They claim the best food first, leaving scraps for the rest.
• They call for drinks without paying immediately, knowing no one will argue.
• They mock travelers openly, goading them into fights just for fun.
• Any sign of defiance is met with swift retribution—a knife to the table, a kick to the ribs, or worse.

A Powder Keg Waiting to Blow

The rest of the common room’s occupants know their place—outsiders hug the walls, avoiding eye contact. The serving girl doesn’t look them in the eyes, and even the more seasoned travelers in Nulb know better than to start trouble. The only ones who might dare stand up to them are fools, drunkards, or adventurers too green to know better. If the Crimson Reavers are left unchecked, the common room is a ticking time bomb of violence. They size up adventurers as potential threats, watching how they carry themselves. If a party shows strength but doesn’t provoke, the Reavers might let them be—for now. If a party displays weakness, hesitates, or tries to avoid conflict, the Reavers will press, push, and prod until something snaps.

Room 2: Private (4 cots)

This ragtag group consists of hardened warriors, all seasoned in battles across the Wild Coast, Dyvers, and the Viscounty of Verbobonc. Led by the brutal yet charismatic Captain, the group operates with a loose hierarchy, though internal strife is common due to their volatile personalities.

Room 3: Private (2 cots)

Empty and available for guests.

Room 4: Serving Girls room (2 cots)

Private room for Dala and Pearl

Room 5: Private (2 cots)

Empty and available for guests.

Room 6: Private (4 cots)

Occupied by Rom Khavernus, leader of the The Crimson Reapers base of operations

Hailing from Dyvers the Crimson Reavers have a room on the second floor of the Waterside Hostel, permanently reserved for Captain Zelt the Bat and his men. The room, granted by Dick Rentsch, the hostel's cunning owner, serves as their base of operations. Thick, heavy wooden planks fortify the door, secured with multiple locks to ensure privacy. Inside, the dimly lit chamber is adorned with mismatched furniture, stolen tapestries, and a large, rough-hewn table marked with maps of the Gnarley Forest, Viscounty of Verbobonc, and the surrounding rivers. The air is thick with the scent of damp wood, pipe smoke, and the lingering aroma of spilled ale.

A sturdy weapons rack lines one wall, holding an array of short swords, crossbows, and daggers, while a locked chest—marked with the sigil of Dyvers—sits beneath the table, containing gold, forged papers, and coded messages detailing smuggling routes and upcoming raids. A single window, small and narrow, offers a limited view of the bridge and the Imerdy's Run below, allowing the Reapers to keep an eye on the river traffic and any suspicious newcomers.

DM-Only Section: Secret Agendas and Relationships

Bandit and Pirate Relations

Dick's covert relationships with bandit and pirate groups are a cornerstone of his strategy to control local dynamics and ensure the hostel's prosperity.

• Secret Alliances: Provides safe haven and information in exchange for a share of loot or protection.
• Balancing Power: Keeps various groups in check to prevent any single faction from dominating Nulb.

Hidden Treasures and Plans

Dick's ambitions extend beyond mere survival, harboring plans that involve significant financial and political gains.

• Secret Treasure: Holds a key to a hidden chest with valuable contents, which skilled thieves may target.
• Strategic Objectives: Aims to leverage his position and Temple connections to eventually seize greater power within or beyond Nulb.

Random Encounter Table: Waterside Hostel (Nighttime)

Roll 1d100 or choose by plot. Use 1d4+1 rolls per night to determine how lively the tavern is.