The Haakapik

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On this page: Introduction | Description of building | History | Business | Rate of charges | Bar tariff | Menu | Layout of the Inn | Inn | Outbuildings | Jarri: Owner | Helga: Owner's daughter

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Standard information

Name of the Inn:	The Haakapik
Location of the Inn:	North Northeast of Caer Arathel, facing the beach
Settlement:	Arathel, Orbaal
Propieter's name:	Jarri of Kurn
Size:	7
Quality:	***
Price:	average
Number of floors:	1
Construction material:	Turf
Roof material:	Thatch

Introduction

"The Haakapik is named after a spiked club with a hook used in sealing. Several examples of the tool hang on the walls of the inn. Jarri is a former sealing captain from Amavik in Ivinia. He moved to Arathel around 705 to follow the safer and more lucrative trade in sea otter. He retired and purchased this inn three years ago. Given the slightest encouragement, Jarri will bore his guests with long-winded reminiscences of his days at sea." Castles of Orbaal, p. Arathel 3

Out here on the frosty side of nowhere, the rocky shores are as bleak and cold as the hearts of the bitter old men who sit in front of the inn telling tales of might-have-been.

Arathel is not on any significant trade routes, but it is the first "civilized" landfall and shipwright facility for Ivinian longships making the long and dangerous journey back from Golotha. The population, an uneven balance of many Jarin and a handful of Ivinians like that found all over Orbaal, is less tense than their more easterly neighbors as a result of Valhakar Tursi Cyeen's policy of tolerance and opportunity. Cyeen, himself borne of a Jarin mother, believes the energies of Ivinian and Jarin alike are better directed toward survival and commerce. Arathel has a surprising number of children of mixed Jarin-Ivinian parentage, a phenomenon rare in racist Orbaal. Arathel is detailed in the Columbia Games publication Castles of Orbaal, #5022.

Description of Building

The building, a turf longhouse with thick walls and holes for light and ventilation, is typical of many Ivinian structures, unglamorous but warm and secure against the harsh Arathel winters. The Inn has a few small unglazed windows with oxhide shutters. The only entrance is through a heavy fir-panelled door which faces the sea, set in a smallish timber anteroom designed to keep out the swirling snows. Behind the inn is a garden plot. Out here on the frosty side of nowhere, the rocky shores are as bleak and cold as the hearts of the bitter old men who sit in front of the inn telling tales of might-have-been. There is a huge cabbage garden out back. Jarri isn't much of a gardener - cabbage is all he can get to grow. A couple of fat nanny goats chew idly by the fence. Through most of the year there are few patrons at the inn. Every fall, however, the annual Thing, or Arathel justice-moot brings commoners, criminals, lawspeakers, supplicants, and the inevitable vendors to town, and the Haakapik becomes a hive of boisterous Ivinian boasting and drinking for a full tenday. The rest of the year, the most common visitors to Arathel are Ivinian traders, who tell tales of Golotha and points south.

History

Jarri has held this inn for five uneventful years. With any luck, he will live out his remaining years the same way, serving traders and working on his Treasure.

Business

Through most of the year there are few patrons at the inn. Every fall, however, the annual Thing, or Arathel justice-moot brings commoners, criminals, lawspeakers, supplicants, and the inevitable vendors to town, and the Haakapik becomes a hive of boisterous Ivinian boasting and drinking for a full tenday. The rest of the year, the most common visitors to Arathel are Ivinian traders, who tell tales of Golotha and points south.

The Haakapik gets a lot of business from wealthier clansmen at the annual Thing, when tribute is brought in from Pjagel, Vold, and Wethom. The rest of the year tends to be quiet, although Jarri does see a steady stream of fur trappers and traders who put in at Arathel for supplies and rest during the long voyage home from Golotha and Aleath.

Jarri, the innkeeper, is old-fashioned and unabashedly racist, and will not tolerate his only daughter Helga's infatuation with the woodcrafter's Jarin apprentice Matty (see The Drunken Hake for Matty's family).

Jarri knows the story of Movel Island, Arathel 8. Also, among Jarri's "long-winded reminiscences" there is a 1/6 chance he will mention the time when, on a whaling expedition in his younger days, he saw shorebirds where there oughtn't be any, many days travel to the west.

Description of Layout

Inn

The inside of the Haakapik is just a great hall with a packed earth floor strewn with rushes and furs. In the middle of the main hall is a stone fireplace below a smokehole in the peaked thatch roof. The fire always lit with charcoal or hardwoods, although it often is little more than smoldering embers. The same fire is used for cooking and heat, and the whole place has a sense of family or community that may be unnerving to non-Ivinians. Against the short northern wall rests the mead cask on a stout table. Drinking horns hang from knotted straps above it. The walls are decorated with an odd assemblage of sealing, whaling, and other nautical paraphernalia. Turf benches line the walls, covered with furs.

The walls are at least three feet thick, and would offer no serious resistance but time to one who wanted to hack his way through; they were designed to keep the wind out, not invaders with axes.

Outbuilding

NPCs

Jarri

Helga