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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nute" data-source="post: 1027549" data-attributes="member: 10607">The Half-Full FlagonIn the times of the plagues, food and provisions were very tightly-controlled. So much so, in fact, that in one county the local lord passed an edict declaring that all wayhouses, pubs, public establishments, and inns would serve no traveler more than half a plate of meat, half a loaf of bread, or half a flagon of ale unless they brought their own. The outcry from travelers and innkeepers alike made the lord an unpopular man, but the law was the law. Folks made do with less food at the inns, and as a result began to carry provisions on their own, often bypassing wayhouses entirely. At one inn, the daughter of the innkeeper (herself an accomplished bard and the only reason the inn could keep in coin) feared for her family's future, and traveled over the mountain range to the land of the giants. After a month of trekking with a scout party, she charmed her way in to the Court of the Storm Giant King, and offered him her greatest song in exchange for a place at his table for a night, and her eternal gratitude if she could keep the silverware. Amused, the Giant King agreed, and the innkeeper's daughter returned to the small town, with a wagon full of giant-sized plates, dishes, and mugs.Rumor soon grew that the inn would provide food for any traveler, as much as they could eat. When the lord heard of this, he rode with an armed guard to the inn, intending to punish this innkeeper who would flaunt his laws. Upon entering, he saw the inn packed to the gills, with a group of travelers gorging themselves from a half-full plate the size of a small table, and filling their cups from a half-full flagon the size of a grown cow. Upon being recognized by the townspeople that had lived in near-famine while the lord prospered in his castle, the lord found himself overrun and trampled by the hungry townsfolk, and was drowned in the half-full flagon of ale. Now, decades later, the county has no more famine, and the ale flows freely at inn, wayhouse, and tavern across the countryside. But at one, there sits a table made of a giant's plate, placed atop a sturdy giant's flagon that always remains half-full.Next: The Godsbridge</blockquote>

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