The Leadline House
The Leadline House began as a workshop and ale room for the crews who made and repaired lead-weighted sounding lines, essential tools for finding safe water in the harbor's shifting channels. When steam-powered survey craft displaced most of that work, the workshop became a pub, but its owners kept the name. The old line-drying beams still cross the ceiling.
The Leadline House
Overview
History
The Leadline House began as a workshop and ale room for the crews who made and repaired lead-weighted sounding lines, essential tools for finding safe water in the harbor's shifting channels. When steam-powered survey craft displaced most of that work, the workshop became a pub, but its owners kept the name. The old line-drying beams still cross the ceiling.
Quirks
The floorboards rise and fall with the harbor swell, so patrons claim the whole pub rolls more gently after a second drink. A length of old sounding line hangs above the bar; sailors touch its lead weight before signing on for a voyage. The house cat refuses to cross the threshold when a storm is near.
Rooms and services5
- Sailors' BunksLodgingA long, tar-scented room with six curtained bunks, lockboxes, and hooks for wet coats. The floor tilts slightly toward a drain.
- Tide BerthDockingA stout floating platform is tethered to the quay. Its keeper can arrange short-term mooring, fresh water, and help hauling cargo, for a fee.
- Boiler BathsBathingA screened washroom with two copper tubs, heated by the kitchen boiler. Hot water is plentiful only before the evening rush.
- The Sounding TableGamblingA scarred table with bone dice and a chalkboard tally. Bets are limited to modest stakes unless the keeper approves them.
- Quay StageEntertainmentA narrow platform where visiting sailors trade songs, news, and shanties for supper or a few coins. The boards creak in time with the tide.
People
The keeper and 6 patronsKeeperAveline Leadline Human rogue, level 4
Retired net maker and regularBoro Netmender A retired fisherman, roughly equivalent to a low-level commoner, who is patient with beginners and suspicious of anyone buying new nets in storm season.
Apprentice shipwrightCeth Quaywright A sharp-tongued shipwright's apprentice with the nerve of a capable low-level adventurer. Ceth boasts about daring jobs but quietly sends most of the pay home.
Licensed harbor pilotDanu Sounder A skilled harbor pilot, around the competence of a veteran scout, who speaks softly and remembers every vessel that has missed a tide.
Fishmonger and market runnerEiji Saltcutter A cheerful salt-fish seller who knows dock gossip and exaggerates every story, though his accounts of prices and cargo are usually exact.
Harbor accounts clerkFenn Ledger A careful, well-read clerk with no taste for danger. Fenn is not a fighter, but is adept at spotting forged cargo tallies and inconsistent dates.
Crewman between voyagesGoro Keelhaul A broad-shouldered deckhand with the strength and rough confidence of a seasoned low-level mercenary. He is friendly until someone insults his ship.
Keeper's Species
Human
Intrigue
What locals say
The pub's customs grew from practical dockside habits: no one whistles near a moored boat, and the first drink of a new voyage is poured onto the threshold for luck. Local pilots say the harbor's bottom shifts after every hard storm. The Leadline House keeps a tide board by the door, updated by working crews rather than official harbor clerks. Its marked channel is useful, but never a guarantee of safe passage.
Plot hooks
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