This three-story inn and tavern caters primarily to merchant-lords and wellto- do travelers, setting it at odds with the Inn of the Slumbering Drake. The Manticore was run by Jasper Livex, a swarthy trader who reputably made his fortune dealing with nomads in the Lostlands. The aging trader had more belly than muscle now, but he could still thrill patrons with tales of his swashbuckling youth, reenacting swordfights, sorcerer battles, desperate chases, and daring escapes with the gusto and drama of a born storyteller. Night after night, the Hall of the Manticore is packed with merchants, foreign princes, and the noble sons and daughters of Cillamar, in the hopes that Livex wouldregale the common room with his tales of daring-do.
n
Less well known is precisely how Jasper Livex made his fortune: as a necromancer trading in dead flesh. Wanted in Crieste, the Theocracy, and half a dozen other civilized nations, Livex used the guise of the lively, boisterous innkeeper to hide from bounty hunters and assassins. Livex’s true nature was cold and heartless, without a shred of humanity to hope for redemption.
n
Livex maintained a secret laboratory and safe house in the cellars beneath the Hall of the Manticore. The laboratory connects to the town sewers via an expertly hidden secret door. Livex was careful to use only beggars and desperate foreigners in his obscene experiments, though recently his fiendish agents mistook Countess Sophie Ismae for a bawdy girl. Livex was aware of the girl’s noble birth, and is now biding his time until he can kill her and quietly dispose of the body, or otherwise turn the unfortunate mistake to his advantage. However, his plans were foiled when The Strangers found his lair and killed him and evil, undead creations. The Inn is closed now while
n