The Silver Cup

The Silver Cup is a small tavern in Gold City that is frequented by an eclectic, mostly intellectual clientele including artists, scholars, healers, and the occasional closemouthed and faintly sinister type who might be spies, magicians, or who knows what. It is modestly upscale – patrons like to quip that it’s called the Silver Cup because it will cost you a silver to get a cup filled – though cheap house ale and wine are available to keep the place affordable to the students and artists whose patronage is particularly valued. No more choice in food is available than at an average tavern, but each evening’s selection or two, written on a chalkboard by the front door, is more sophisticated than usual and more likely to involve vegetables, and therefore more expensive. Although the price and quality are similar to typical middle-class establishments, the commercial bourgeoisie seldom frequent the Silver Cup, suspecting correctly that the regulars are sneering at them behind their backs. The Cup is furnished with about a dozen small individual tables and booths where patrons can converse, philosophize, conspire, or play chess with the boards provided. The walls are decorated with painted murals, and there are a few small statues with which local sculptors paid their bar tabs. Quiet music may be heard on many evenings, as musicians and bards perform an impromptu set in exchange for a free meal.

The proprietor, Mariana Jorgens, was a moderately well-known dancer and courtesan who can sing, recite poetry, and play the harp to a high standard. Still a beautiful woman at near fifty, she favors exotic or extremely stylish garments that reflect her artistic tastes and show off her looks to best effect. Her equally charming husband, Tomas, presides over the kitchen. This is not the sort of establishment whose patrons wreck the place when drunk, but an outsider who might think of robbery should be aware that Tomas is rumored to be lethally skilled with the rapier hung behind the bar. Nobody seems to know where Tomas acquired this skill; known to be fluent in at least five languages and to be an excellent chess player when not busy in the kitchen, he says he has spent his whole life as a simple chef.