Locals tell of a 'warmth spirit' that favors the inn — those who hang a coin on the beam are said to find shelter on stormy nights. Older patrons swear the cellar was used by smugglers before Marta's family bought the place, and some nights you can hear muffled footsteps below when the town is still. There's also a whispered tale that a benevolent guardian once saved a baker during a winter famine by leaving a sack of grain outside the door; some attribute that blessing to the inn's founder. Finally, a roughly sketched rune in the backroom matches symbols seen on river stones upriver — scholars say it might tie the inn to forgotten river rituals or simply to the handwriting of a traveling mason who helped raise the hearth.