# General Select Settlement: Select Category: Commerce *Skarholt's only inn · on the edge of [[2-World/Places/The Frostmarket.md|The Frostmarket]]* The Last Hearth is a big two-storey longhouse of dark timber on a fieldstone base, standing on the edge of [[2-World/Places/The Frostmarket.md|The Frostmarket]] near the foot of the bridge. It's the first warm building most travellers reach after the palisade gate, and it's been the first stop for caravan crews, trappers and strangers for as long as Skarholt has had a road. Over the door hangs a wooden sign with a crooked heart painted on it and the words *The Last Heart Inn*. Most locals still call it the Last Hearth, after its hearth: a huge stone fireplace in the middle of the common room that, according to the regulars, hasn't gone out in living memory. Long tables and benches fill the room, furs are hung over the windows against the draughts, and the air smells of wood smoke, roast mutton and mulled wine. Upstairs are a handful of guest rooms; out back there's a stable yard and the inn's livestock pens. Plenty of it isn't what you'd expect from a frontier inn, because it's run by [[2-World/People/Sanguinus Hobb.md|Sanguinus Hobb]]. There are red velvet curtains in the windows, gilt-framed paintings of places nobody in Skarholt has ever seen, polished brass on the bar, a pot behind the bar holding a heart ("my uncle," Hobb says), and a heavy leather-bound guest ledger where Hobb writes down the name of everyone who has ever slept under his roof. Half the deals in Skarholt are struck at his tables, and during the Thaw Festival the Last Hearth runs at capacity and hosts the town's famous drinking contest. # NPCs The following people are associated with this place. # Selling Ale, mead, Hobb's mulled wine (his pride), roast mutton, stew, black bread, smoked fish, and travel rations for the road north. # Buying Furs, game and news from outside the Frostmarch. Hobb pays for a good story with a free drink. # Services | Service | Cost | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | A mug of ale | 4 cp | | | Hobb's mulled wine | 2 sp | "Forty years of practice" | | A hot meal | 3 sp | Stew or roast, with bread | | A bed in the common loft | 5 sp | Warm, near the hearth | | A private room | 8 sp | Hobb offers credit to guests he likes | | Stable for a horse | 5 cp | Out back | # Rumours - "The palisade guard swears he saw a woman walk north into the fog the night it came down, no coat, humming. Nobody believed him." (Hobb will point the party to him.) - "Borgrun's nephew hasn't been at his bench in weeks. The forge has gone quiet." - "Fog never comes down this far. Not in my grandmother's time, not ever." - "Up past the old mining trail, the trappers call it the world's edge. They don't go further." # Image ![[z_Publish/_assets/Template_Place_Placeholder.png|500]]