The Carcass House is really not much of a house, as it doesnt have walls. Instead it has thick cornerposts and a large slatted roof that is adorned with hundreds of metal hooks. When the fishermen bring in their catches, the fish are hung by their tails in the carcass house and fires are built in pits in the floor. The constant heat and smoke dry out the fish, and regular rubs of salt help cure the meat.
After a bit, the other meat packers and butchers caught onto the idea, especially those who couldn't afford their own privatre smoke houses and such. Given access to a communal house, the independent poultry butchers found a place to hang their birds. Some like pheasants were kept in cooler areas to properly ripen before being cooked and eaten. Other more quickly eaten birds were dressed and hung above the smoldering coals to seal their meat and preserve it.
Some pork and beef make their way to the carcass house, but most operations that have enough money to operate in the realm of cattle are generally able to afford their own smokehouses.
Economics
The Carcass House is a good local source of preserved meat. The folk who own and operate it, keeping up with the hooks and providing wood for the pits, take a share of each batch of preserved meat after it is smoked and dried. While some of this is consumed, the rest is sold on the general market. PCs looking to get food to take on a long trip can purchase this dried meat (Jerky!) and have something besides hardtack or iron rations. There can also be a variety of spicings, as well as a Carcass House Tavern that serves cheap beer that goes good with the often salty meat they come by cheap.
Dramatics
A semi-flimsy structure with pits full of coals and a roof dangling with hooks of varying sizes is a great place for a battle. Friend and foe have to dodge the hazards. A villain can be tripped up to step into a pot of hot coals, fall and catch his sword arm (or much much worse) on a used meat hook, desperate characters might even take up a hook and use it as a weapon.
3.png){kind=avatar}
Not Registered Yet? No problem.
Do you want Strolenati super powers? Registering. That's how you get super powers! These are just a couple powers you receive with more to come as you participate.
- Upvote and give XP to encourage useful comments.
- Work on submissions in private or flag them for assistance.
- Earn XP and gain levels that give you more site abilities (super powers).
- You should register. All your friends are doing it!
? Responses (9)
A good 'brush' for helping paint a city.
Yum yum, a good source of meat.
Solid, simple, salty. Good location. :)
Besides the food, and battles, this is the place to go when you slay a large edible monster.
Just the sort of mundane business that every market town runs on
Nice one Scras
3½ / 5
This is the sort of thing that help fill out the background of a city. It is the thing we need more of. Everyone like spending time on the important details. Few of us have the time to spend on all the tiny details, like this. That is why we should all do one or three of these sorts of things... so we will have enough little details to help color out each world ... on tap.
What manfred said.
I'm Gm'ing a solo adventure with a buddy tomorrow night, and this is going in. The "Dramatics" sealed it. Pefect location for final battle with low-level bad guy.
Nice location, short simple and easy to plug in. I particularly like the dramatics addition, but would like to see maybe a little detail of the people who own the place.
Over all a nice piece, and can be pretty easily converted into a more modern setting with very little difficulty. (The place would look right at home in a western setting, or even modern day in a third world country.)
3.5 for the sub +.5 for it's compatibility with other genres outside fantasy. Nicely done.