Local legend says the foundation stone beneath the tavern was laid on a leyline crossing; the mystics who founded it wove small wards into the beams that keep spectral things at bay. On certain nights when the moon is thin, patrons claim that their drunken confessions are heard by something in the floor that responds with a chill breeze and a dropped coin. Old-timers believe the tavern owes its good fortune to a bargain struck with a river-spirit: protection in exchange for an annual secret offered under the stage.