**The Hand** is a tavern in Vinsklar's Junk Quarter used for clandestine meetings. > [!infobox| right wikipedia] > # The Hand > ![[slum town - XavierWard.webp|cover hsmall]] > ##### General > | | | > | ---- | ---- | > | **Location** | [[Vinsklar]] | > | **District** | Junk Quarter | > | **Category** | Nesting | > | **Faction** | — | > | **Owner/Proprietor** | [[Stithbeorht]] | # General The Hand is purposely built for secret meetings. It has a large main room filled with booths of various sizes, all equipped with half-curtains that can be drawn to obscure the occupants. The lighting is dim and smoke from the firepit fills the room, making visual identification tricky. Furs line the walls, dampening the sound from each table. Haphazardly placed partial walls, along with the tall booths, break up sight lines, and each booth has at least two exits, confounding attempts to track patrons in and out. The tavern itself has untold entrances and exits, many of them hidden, unobtrusive, or underground. Every facet of the building's architecture is designed to facilitate privacy and plausible deniability. Originally, the tavern was called The Handshake, though this was shortened over the years to the Hand. The name has also given rise to a subtle signal: the imprint or drawing of a hand, as an indication to meet at the tavern. No one quite remembers when the Hand was built or by whom, but it is undoubtedly one of the oldest establishments in the Junk Quarter and probably all of Vinsklar. Patrons come from all over the city to have conversations they could have nowhere else. The tavern features a circular bar in the centre. Patrons arriving at the tavern will often meet their counterpart at the bar before moving to a booth. At other times, a patron will have the bartender direct their intended contact to the booth where the former will be waiting, so that the two parties are never seen together even briefly. Although the tavern does serve food and drink, there is no table service for obvious reasons. If food is ordered at the bar, it will be delivered to the designated booth, but plates are not collected until the meeting is over. The kitchens are in the tavern's cellar, and several hidden entrances pass through them. The current proprietor, [[Stithbeorht]], is quite careful to preserve the Hand's function and integrity. All employees, especially the bartender, are trained to look for those attempting to spy, eavesdrop, or track the tavern's patrons, and his enforcers will unceremoniously slit the throat of anyone caught doing so, without so much as a word of warning. Stithbeorht himself is rarely seen. # NPCs %% DATAVIEW_PUBLISHER: start ```dataview TABLE WITHOUT ID file.link AS "NPCs", gender AS "Gender", faction AS "Faction", district AS "District" from "4-People/People" where home = this.file.link OR settlement = this.file.link where publish = true sort file.link ASC ``` %% | NPCs | Gender | Faction | District | | ----------------------------------------- | ------ | ------- | ------------ | | [[4-People/People/Ealdraed.md\|Ealdraed]] | Male | — | Junk Quarter | %% DATAVIEW_PUBLISHER: end %% # Selling The following items are available for purchase. | Item | Cost | Weight | | --------------------- | ---- | ---------------- | | Ale (mug) | 4 cp | can't be carried | | Bread (loaf) | 2 cp | ½ lb | | Cheese (wedge) | 3 sp | ½ lb | | Meal (Modest) | 2 sp | can't be carried | | Wine, bottle (common) | 2 sp | 1 ½ lbs | # Services Services offered. | Item | Cost | | ----- | ---- | | Booth | ??? | # Gallery ![[slum town - XavierWard.webp|center|800]] Slum Town – XavierWard \[[link](https://www.deviantart.com/xavierward/art/Slum-Town-486987580)]