Tavern name riddle help

[Nilbog]

Hello good folks

I was hoping the fine minds here could help me out. As a side quest in the campaign I'm running the group will stumble upon pieces of a treasure map.

When the map pieces come together it will give the group an X marks the spot to a city their characters will know. All straightforward and in the game. However I also want to give them a riddle that will give the name of a tavern in this town where the entrance to the secret vault is. The map pieces will ideally come in three parts with each one containing a clue to the tavern name

I was wondering if any of you could think of a suitable tavern name and riddle to go with it?

Any help gratefully received

 

[billd91]

I suppose it depends on how good your players are at figuring these things out.

As far as including clues on 3 segments of the map, you could approach it from the point of view of the clues reinforcing each other or being distinct and alluding to a compound name. I like the reinforcement idea because it means you can use synonyms in the hope that if your players don't make one vocabulary connection, they'll make another.
For example - if you want to send them to the Red Rook Inn, you could have a map piece with a red rook chess piece drawn on it, another with a text reference to a "crimson castle", and a third referring to a "bloody crow".

 

[Fenris-77]

Or just one riddle broken up into three lines. Like that one from Hobbit - Thirty white horses, on a red hill, champing, stamping, then they stand still. Saves you having to make up multiple riddle with the same answer.

 

[Blue]

Have it be literal - the PCs have no idea where in the city it is until they come across a tavern with a sign of a big X.

 

[Eltab]

There are Tavern Name Generators, usually "The" -Adjective- -Noun- form. Run some demos and see if anything strikes your fancy.

The Rusty Nail (are you thinking finger polish?)
The Unpainted Sign (this one is faded and hard to read)
The One-Eyed Salty Dog (this is a sandwich)
The Flying Griffon - or the flying finger of "friendship"
The Frosty Mug (cleric of elemental cold?)

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Richards]

You could always write the words of the instructions in a solid block and them break them up into different chunks.

As an example of what I mean, if there's a tavern called "The Ravid" (maybe with an image of a ravid painted on the sign), you could have the three map sections each have a different word on them: "GOT" on the first, "OTHER" on the second, and "AVID" on the third. Of course, "GOT OTHER AVID" doesn't make any sense, but if you break the letters up differently you get "GO TO THE RAVID."

That's maybe not a usable solution as written but it gives you an idea of the concept.

Johnathan

 

[Eltab]

You could always write the words of the instructions in a solid block and them break them up into different chunks.

Latin does that. Some of the inscriptions on Roman buildings arewrittenlikethis.

Might work if the text uses a foreign language (players and characters both must have a way to translate) and some of the chunks look like they could be words in the PCs' native language.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I would look up riddles or sea shanties and pull the name from there. Look at the following, you can get locations from it; Cape Horn, Red Roses, Chasing Whales, Bullies and My Old Mother just to point out a few.

My clothes are all in pawn
Go down you blood red roses, go down
And it’s mighty draughty around Cape Horn
Go down you blood red roses, go down
Oh, you pinks and posies
Go down you blood red roses, go down
It’s round Cape Horn we’ve got to go
Chasing whales through ice and snow
Oh my old mother she wrote to me
My darling son come home from sea
Oh it’s one more pull and that will do
For we’re the bullies to kick her through

 

[MarkB]

A tavern name in a city can be an unreliable clue, since such businesses can change ownership, and change their name in the process.

Maybe when the map pieces are assembled, it triggers a Magic Mouth spell that verbally tells them the name of the establishment, and tells them to seek "the building marked with an X". When they get to the tavern, it consists of a main building which is the drinking establishment, plus a connected side building used for meetings and clubs. The side building is clearly labelled "Annexe".