Auginford — The Crooked Eel

The Crooked Eel

The Crooked Eel leans toward the river as if listening. Its common room is warm, crowded, and full of damp coats, river stories, and one table that is always left empty for travelers who have not yet arrived.

The inn is the village’s informal information exchange. Prices are fair, beds are clean enough, and the owner remembers every stranger who has passed through since the last flood.

What the party can learn

• The Mansions were not discovered all at once; different travelers found different gates on different nights.
• A missing courier carried a brass key stamped with a three-house mark.
• The empty table is reserved by a financier who pays for news about the old estates but never comes to collect it in person.