# Back Rooms

Behind the bar, through a heavy door reinforced with iron bands, lie the working areas of the Nether Inn.

## Kitchen

A surprisingly clean workspace, considering the establishment. Mags runs a tight kitchen. Stone counters, iron pots, a wood-burning stove that heats the wall shared with the main hall.

### Read-Aloud: Entering the Kitchen

> *Kuchyně je překvapivě čistá. Ne sterilní — ale udržovaná s péčí, kterou byste v tomhle podniku nečekali. Na kamenné lince leží nůž, kterým někdo krájel cibuli. Hrnec na plotně tiše bublá. Na zdi visí řada kuchyňských nástrojů uspořádaných s téměř vojenskou přesností — a mezi nimi, nenápadně ale nepřehlédnutelně, krátký meč v koženém pouzdře.*

### Details

- **Mags's short sword** hangs among the kitchen implements. It's well-oiled and recently sharpened despite "retirement." This is a **+1 short sword** — Mags won't give it up willingly but might lend it if she trusts the players and believes they're hunting the real killer.
- **Herb rack** — Among cooking herbs, DC 14 Nature or Herbalism Kit check identifies **dried nightwhisper** (a component in Veil Dust preparation) and **silvervein root** (a mild ward against fiendish influence — chewing it grants advantage on one saving throw against a fiend's ability within the next hour).
- **Mags's apron pocket** — She carries a small iron key (opens the storage room's hidden compartment) and a folded piece of parchment: a letter from Orenn dated three months ago. *"If something happens to me in the bar, it came from between. Check the cellar wards. Don't trust what you see. Trust the bell."* — Mags hasn't read it yet. She will during the session if given time alone, or players can find it if she's incapacitated or if they pickpocket her (DC 19 Sleight of Hand — she's alert).

## Storage Room

A cramped room off the kitchen. Barrels of ale, crates of root vegetables, hanging dried meats. It smells like vinegar and damp wood.

### Details

- **Surface level:** Mundane supplies. Enough food and drink to sustain the lockdown for days.
- **Hidden compartment (DC 15 Investigation):** Behind a false barrel-back, a narrow shelf contains:
  - 4 vials of **Holy Water**
  - 1 vial of **Silversheen** (coat a weapon, treat it as silvered for 1 hour)
  - A leather roll of **fine instruments** — the summoners' old diagnostic kit, kept and well-used by Orenn: something between thieves' tools and a surgeon's set. Grants advantage on Investigation checks related to the arcane or extraplanar if the user is proficient in either thieves' tools or arcana. Old, irreplaceable, and not originally theirs.
  - A **warding chalk** (3 uses) — can draw a 5-foot circle that functions as a Magic Circle against fiends for 10 minutes per use. Faster and cheaper than the spell, but the duration is limited.
- **Floor trapdoor:** Leads to the cellar. Not hidden — just heavy and stiff. DC 12 Athletics to open quietly, or just yank it (noisy, everyone in the kitchen hears).

## Private Room

A small room with a lockable door, a table, two benches, and a single candle sconce. Used for negotiations that require more privacy than the main hall provides. The walls are thick stone — conversations here don't carry.

### Details

- **The table** has knife marks scratched into it — tally marks, initials, crude maps. Layers of history from hundreds of clandestine meetings.
- **One set of marks (DC 14 Investigation):** Recent — within the last week. A diagram of the Nether Inn's layout with X marks at the foundation stones — the old summoner-sigils. Someone was mapping the house's occult bones. The scratches are fresh enough to have wood dust still in the grooves.
  - **DC 16 Arcana:** The diagram also notes the **angles of resonance** between sigils — this is the work of someone who understood how to *break* the wards, not just locate them. This was done by someone working for the cultists (or the fiend itself, through manipulation).
- **Under the left bench (DC 13 Perception):** A dropped cultist pin — a small bronze disc with the Order of Mending's symbol (an open eye wreathed in flame). Haddon will deny knowledge. Essek will look terrified if shown this. The pin belongs to a member not present tonight — evidence that the cult has been using the private room for meetings.

### Read-Aloud: The Private Room

> *Malá místnost. Kamenné zdi, dřevěný stůl, dvě lavice. Svíčka ve výklenku, momentálně zhasnutá. Vzduch tu stojí — vlhký a zatuchlý, jako v místnosti, která dýchá jen tehdy, když ji někdo otevře. Stůl je pokrytý vrstvami vrytých značek — čárky, iniciály, nečitelné symboly. Příběhy, které tady nikdy neměly být vyprávěny a jejichž svědky jsou jen ty studené kameny kolem.*

## Connecting Passages

- Kitchen → Main Hall: Through the reinforced door (normally unlocked, Mags can bar it)
- Kitchen → Storage: Open archway
- Storage → Cellar: Floor trapdoor
- Kitchen → Upper Floor: A narrow staircase, barely wide enough for one person. Locked door at the top. This leads to Orenn and Mags's private quarters (see note below).

### Upper Floor (Orenn & Mags's Quarters)

**Locked.** Mags has the key but won't open it for strangers. If players earn her trust or convince her the investigation requires it (DC 17 Persuasion, DC 14 if they've shown her real evidence of fiendish involvement):

A modest room. A bed, a wardrobe, a desk. Everything is clean and ordered. Two people who learned to live in small spaces together.

- **Desk:** Contains correspondence with a contact in the city watch — Orenn was feeding them information about the cult's activities, slowly and carefully. He suspected the Order of Mending was more than scholars. He didn't know about the fiend.
- **Wardrobe:** Behind a false back (DC 14 Investigation), a small arsenal: 2 silvered daggers, a vial of **Oil of Etherealness** (1 dose — allows the user to enter the Ethereal Plane for 1 hour, as per the spell), and a **leather-bound bestiary** focused on fiends. Bookmarked pages describe entities matching Xarrul's type — Orenn was doing research. He was worried but hadn't figured out what was coming.
- **Under the bed:** A lockbox (DC 16 Thieves' Tools). Contains 150 gp (their savings), a deed to the tavern, and two silver rings — simple, unadorned. Mags will quietly close the box if she sees this. It's not relevant to the investigation. It's just a life.
