The Wheel Inn, Riggin Dale

The Wheel Inn is a prominent and heavily frequented hostelry located at a strategic road fork within Riggin Dale on the continent of Osnines. Serving as a vital transit terminal for the cattle and horse trade, the inn is a primary landmark on the Great North Road (Riggin Road). It provides essential services such as animal enclosures, smithing, and the rental of post horses, facilitating land-based travel through the Kingdom of Cottalem.

The inn is easily identifiable by an enormous, gold-painted wheel mounted high upon the sloping roof line. Standing at least three people tall, this iconic feature is visible to travellers from several miles away. The main structure is an extended three-storey building of wood and plaster construction, dominated by a large roof-space housing guest rooms. The ground floor consists of a maze of linked rooms and dark wood-panelled corridors, featuring several stone chimney breasts that provide warmth during the long southern nights.

The Wheel Inn operates as a complex of buildings rather than a single structure, reflecting its role in regional logistics.

• Stables and Forge: The stables are significantly larger than the inn itself, designed to accommodate the high volume of mounts and pack animals passing through the dale. Adjacent to the stables is a busy forge where a smith, farriers, and grooms work to reshoe horses.
• Fields and Tents: The establishment is surrounded by large fenced fields. During peak trading cycles, these enclosures house herds of cattle and horses, with tents pitched along the edges to accommodate drovers and merchants.
• Privies: A row of seven wooden doors on a raised platform is situated at the downstream end of the complex, providing essential facilities for the high number of patrons.
• Board of Trade Office: A two-storey wooden hut, painted in the distinctive Skyssian blue, is located near the forge and serves as the local intelligence post for the Board of Trade.

The environment at the Wheel is defined by the constant noise of the forge, the lowing of cattle, and the sharp tang of animal waste mingled with the smell of burning charcoal. The common room is a lively space that can accommodate dozens of patrons. The menu is typically limited to beef, cheese, bread, and ale. The local ale is noted for being brewed with fruit, offering a flavour profile that the locals claim is superior to standard northern varieties.

In the year 774 AM, the Wheel Inn became a critical site for the Department of Resolutions. It served as the rendezvous point where the party of Yngvild the Fierce and Noren reunited with their support team, including Olaf Ragnarson and Erik.

The inn was the staging ground for a sophisticated ruse intended to bypass the surveillance of Rojden. While the Heroes Alfauda and Gefjun were seen departing northward towards Caratis to draw away pursuit, the actual targets used shapeshifting abilities to slip out of the inn unnoticed. This allowed them to reach the west coast safely.

• Ormrun: The resident Board of Trade agent who monitors horse swindles and regional traffic from the nearby blue hut.
• Inibrakemi: Used the persona of “Sven” to negotiate with regional agents at the inn.
• Alfauda: Acted as a doppelgänger for Yngvild to confuse Cottalemnese search patterns.
• Gefjun: Assisted in the diversionary operation at the inn.

• Riggin Dale: The expansive agricultural region housing the inn.
• Great North/Riggin Road: The muddy, high-traffic artery for which the inn is a primary rest stop.
• Estreham: The cursed temple valley located twenty miles to the south-west.
• Board of Trade Office, Riggin Dale: The intelligence post adjacent to the inn.