Where the rooms are is a separate, balcony floor, at least to the main room. There is a lower ceiling in the hallways, in the bathroom and in the kitchen. The bathroom is located in the first hallway one comes upon after entering, on the right-hand side. If people really, really want to sit in privacy, there is a table and a pair of chairs in there. It's not reccomended, though, because Joe can only clean a room so well. On the left-hand side of this hallway is an entrance to the kitchen. The second hallway has a door on the right leading to the kitchen, and a door on the left, which leads outside. All of these have knobs; brass ones. The only doors that are anything special are the front doors.
Hanging from the ceiling are fine, golden chandeliers. The candleholders are glass and curved to catch falling wax. They are above the places marked on the map. THE RAFTERS ARE NOT EXPOSED. Every now and again, you might see Joe with a huge ladder, replacing the candles. He usually does that after the tavern itself is closed, though.
The ashtrays on the bar are for pipes (or cigarettes, in the case of someone who realm hops/learned how to make them), and are atrociously heavy. They probably weigh twenty pounds apiece. Joe wouldn't mind if you took one to a table or booth, but it's not very pleasant to do so.
Note: Pretend everything is proportional. Don't piss me.
The second map is the room's bathroom. The matter of running water in an old era place is discussed later.
1. I am too lazy to create a complete menu for this place; it would be too large and, as such, be a huge problem. However, I will say that this tavern does not serve bloodwyne. It also does not serve that beverage by any other name you might call it, or any other blood-containing beverage. Take your bloodwyne and shove it up your ass. Thanks.
2. If it isn't already apparent, this tavern is for paragraph roleplay. It's not because I detest one-lining - Hell, sometimes I line myself - but because the styles clash. I tend to prefer paragraph players. Please don't line in here. I'll probably complain, not because "OMG fuckin newbies!!!11" but because it's really rude to come into a room set aside for paragraph play and start lining. On another note, try not to scroll out of character if people are trying to interact. A chance introduction is one thing, but breaking apart an entire roleplay because you want to talk with your buddies is, again, really rude. I've been guilty of this before, yeah, but I'm trying to stop. Ignoring does not always work, because if people come in and see nothing but
Guy snuggles Girl
Girl purrs
Guy 2: Really though, both the main candidates are douches.
Girl 2: Yeah, I think I'll move to Norway or someplace.
Guy 3: How's Jen doing?
Guy 4: She's alright.
they're probably not going to stay, because it doesn't look like much roleplay is going on. As is already obvious, people on Yahoo aren't always very patient.
3. Try not to destroy anything in the tavern. Since Yahoo rooms aren't permanent, no one will care if you did it within a few hours anyway, so it's pointless, and serves only to annoy. Snotty and childish as this may sound, I'm only going to ignore people who are hell-bent on disrupting others. I roleplay to have fun, and if a particular action isn't fun for me, I'm not going to acknowledge it. Cry about my being a bad roleplayer all you like, I really don't care past this note on it. I want what I want in this game, and I'm going to have it if it's within my power.
4. The era of this room is strictly pre-modern fantasy. STRICTLY. PRE. MODERN. FANTASY. It is also in AYENEE. Ayenee is NOT EARTH. For example, there are no countries called France, Russia or England. This is another world. Can there be places that boast the same "blood lines" (appearances and cultures, for example) and the same languages? Certainly, but what would be considered French (again, an example) in the real world would not be called "French" in Ayenee, because the country of origin is not France.
Also, since Ayenee isn't a real place, it can't be called by a time line invented by historians on Earth. It's therefore not medieval, not renaissance, but its own time period entirely. As such, it's iffy what does and does not exist here. It's been established that this particular room is set in a time prior to proper plumbing (hence the magic use) and prior to electricity (hence the torches and candles for light and hearth for warmth). Pianos, for instance, may have been invented, but the model of the one in this tavern is far beyond those in Ayenee, seeing as it was purchased from Earth and moved here via magic.
My only objections lie in style of dress (materials), weaponry, drinks, lighting and transportation. For example, latex hasn't been invented, so someone from the era isn't going to be wearing it (barring a time/realm travel circumstance). Furthermore, firearms haven't been invented. Whether a really ancient pistol has been is questionable, and I may allow it, but the weapons people use in the modern world generally aren't going to exist here. No one's going to be getting a soda here, because soda hasn't been invented. No one's going to be getting anything in a can, in fact, because things are still restricted to corked bottles and barrels. No one's going to be getting something from a refridgerator, because it doen't exist. No one's going to be getting a drink named after an Earth country or person, because this isn't Earth, it's Ayenee (Hell, no one's going to be calling meat between slices of bread a sandwich, because that term was after a man, too). As for the lighting; the map makes it obvious. There are no lamps, no flourescent lights or anything like that. You don't "turn off" a candle or torch flame, you snuff it out. Finally, transportation. Since this is a fantasy realm, people can ride all sorts of strange carriages and animals. However, automobiles don't exist. No cars, no trucks, no motorcycles, no SUV's, your character didn't come here on a train, a plane or a helicopter, nor anything in that vein. The roads, tracks, landing places and fueling stations for these things do not exist. According to myself and my storyline, Ayenee is not a mixed realm, technologically.
How can people like my Nicky be here, then, and can your modern character somehow be here? Well, Nicky initially died and came to Ayenee as an afterlife; he is supposed to be out of his element. He retains foreign clothing and some gadgets (sometimes he'll be seen with a metronome that uses magnets of specific power to work, for example, and often uses a lighter) because he is capable of realm-hopping. If your character can travel to different planes of existance, or through time by some means, please, please make that apparent somehow. You can just say it out of character after your introduction. I'd think being in a time far prior to his own would affect how a character thinks and acts, though, so you should probably be writing something about that anyhow. Maybe you can try to explain a character's clothing or weapon (or whatever gives him away as modern or futuristic) as someone in the setting might see it.
I'm sorry if this all is so harsh, but when I began roleplaying, Ayenee was pretty much pre-modern. I based my character's entire concept on this, and this tavern plays a big part in his storyline. He lived here for a year and a half and met his wife, in whose house he now lives, here. The tavern was, to him, always like this, as was the world. If the world ceased being pre-modern, much of the fun would be lost. Sorry if you're all hopped up on it being 'mixed,' but as of right now I've seen no plausible reason for it, and it completely defies logic. I want to play in a logical setting. If you don't, this room isn't for you. Plain and simple..
5. If this place is fantasy, how is there running water, you ask? Well, the same patron that bought the piano began to complain about pissing in a hole and bathing in a big tub. (We're talking about Nick here - he's from Australia, and is stuck, more or less, in Ayenee as an afterlife.) The suggestion he made was to find some sort of mage to fix this problem, and with extended talks and searching on the part of all parties, something was figured out. Seeing as it was Nick's idea, he did most of the explination as to how piping systems worked at home, and he and the mage worked out something similar. However, The Bucket Of Blood does not have piping. Rather, it has magical creations by said mage, small creatures with relatively big power. They can cast spells on command. The taps and such that would see the flow of water in the real world act, here, as cues for spell-casting. The water is the product of magic, it's summoned from a nearby place, probably the river. Just as easily as they can cast a spell to get the water, so can they cast another spell to heat it up, allowing hot showers and the like.
As for where the water drains, and where all of that lovely waste goes when 'flushed down the toilet?' Outer space, probably, or a somehow empty realm. Yes - somewhere, there is waste and dirty water floating around, just waiting for someone else to be sent there and run into it. Lovely, huh?
Nick is also the reason why the tavern has double-paned windows that open and shut. He is the owner of one of an undetermined number of 'necklaces' which are, in reality, gatherings of small, magical beings at his command. Anything from home can be brought here via these chains, but he does not go home for fear that he isn't meant to. When he stays for more than a day, he feels ill and wholly foreign--the Old Eras have become his home, then.
6. The piano is protected by magic; its main parts are surrounded in a nearly invisible forcefield. To the touch, it would feel like glass, however, it will not shatter for anything, and is anchored nowhere but the air. In short, don't try to mess with Nick's piano; doing so is likely to break whatever is used to strike it before it breaks the instrument.
7. For those curious; this tavern name is the name of an old speakeasy. The name has not a thing to do with vampires. It's supposed to be sort of ironic, seeing as its name suggests a violent place but it's actually quite serene.
8. The Bucket of Blood is well-maintained and well-lit. As you can see from the map, there are no open corners in the room, let alone dark corners. Neither of the doors will squeak. The bar and tables may be gashed, but the floors are kept clean as is reasonable.
9. Holy crap, if any of you motherfuckers self-serve, I'll kill you. There is a non-player bartender named Joe. He is very blasé, and is usually playing solitaire until someone gets his attention. Here's an example of a post using Joe.
Settling down at the bar, Blixa pulls the wide-brimmed hat from his head and, sighing, sets it on the bar in front of him. Having found a few coins on the ground outside, he opens his somewhat abused better hand to look at them, bouncing them around in consideration. Lord, he could use a beer. Casting an eye down the bar and seeing that the tender was busy shuffling a deck of cards, he called out somewhat hesitantly, "Barkeep!" to which the man paused and looked over. A sigh which seemed more ancient than his assumed age (for while he appeared weathered, he couldn't possibly be over sixty five, not to this foreign man's eyes) was breathed by our bartender, and in a tired voice he asked, "What can I get for you?" "Er," Blixa began, clutching his coins uncertainly, when he was suddenly interrupted by a body flying through the doors and skidding, shoulders first, along the floor behind the stools. The tender's eyes followed the young man's progress until he came crashing to a halt against one of the booths, whereupon he gasped for air. No candles had been knocked down and so, with his bar safe from fire, the barkeep made to look back to his potential customer. He no longer seemed interested in a drink, having gone over to see what in Hell had happened to the young man who'd been thrown in the tavern. "They don't even close the God-forsaken door anymore," muttered Joe, stepping out from behind the barr with placid blue eyes shifting here and there on the lookout for self-servers. He quickly crossed to the open doors and, unflinching in the wind, pushed the both of them shut. Drawing a length of wood from his pocket, Joe tossed it on one of the tables, saying, "I'm sure as Hell not lighting those candles again," his voice reduced to an almost incoherant mutter. Once behind the bar again, he began arranging his cards for another game of solitaire.
Obviously, that's more than would be posted on average, but I attempted to put his personality through. It seems that Joe's been bartending forever, and believe you me, the man has seen everything. It's hard to get him to flinch, let alone cower. He'd probably take a sword-slash to the chest and complain about the blood on the floor sooner than the fact that he's dying. On that note, you can't kill Joe. You just can't. Don't try. His wounds will heal up the moment you inflict them. Don't ask why. If you're killing the bartender, you're probably a douche anyway. Go away.
Drinks
Juices - 2 GP per cup, 3 GP per glass, 7 GP per bottle, 10 GP per jug
Wines (white, red, various sources) - 3 GP per glass, 10 GP per bottle, 15 GP per jug
Elven wines (more expensive due to strength) - 4 GP per glass, 12 GP per bottle (does not come in jugs)
Ales, beers, ciders, so on - 3 GP per mug, 5 GP per bottle (does not come in jugs)
Hard liquors (you know what these are) - 1 GP per shot, 4 GP per cup, 8 GP per bottle (does not come in jugs)
Water is free, provided you drink it there, or have a skin of your own to be filled up. Jugs can be purchased for 4 GP, and bottles for 2 GP, should you wish something of that sort to carry liquids. However, these have no abilities to carry magical things beyond what is regular, as they are simply washed of the drinks they once contained and offered for sale.
Anything that is not previously classified will need its price asked, and Joe will assist you. (Out of character note: Use your common sense. The tender is no crook and will run along these lines in pricing--he may have rare wines, for example, and will charge more for them, but not a ridiculous amount.)
Food
Loaf of bread - 5 GP
Hunk of cheese - 3 GP
Salted meat - 8 GP
(I can't be bothered to list dishes, I'd forget something that I thought should be available. Again, use your good judgement.)
Rooms are 25 GP a night. If you have a horse which is being kept in a stall, add 7 GP to cover the cost of its feed and stall space.
My beliefs on Ayenee money: Notice that the notation is "GP." It stands for "gold pieces." These aren't necessarily gold coins, or large pieces of gold at all. Also, looking at how much gold I see characters carrying, I'd wager gold isn't very scarce in Ayenee anyhow. How it's worth anything, I couldn't say, but, let's assume it's worth a certain amount. What I actually did is establish the cost of a particular wine and put all the prices along the same lines, comparing the value of the drink or food to that price. In the end, the prices are meant to not be dirt cheap, but not be expensive by any means. I'd say that something worth one "GP" is very tiny, and that a piece of gold worth 5 GP would only be the size of a penny and so on. Mess with purities and sizes of particular coins of other materials (copper, silver and platinum are others I've heard) and figure what sort of coin your character should give.
Finally: I'm sorry for the harsh tone of a lot of this page. I get sort of irritated after a while of arguing about these things, though, so I'm just venting some frustration.