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While many merchants choose to travel from town to town with their wares, many are content to set up shop in a promising settlement. Naturally, they require a home, and advertising their financial success to the lowly masses is always considered a bonus.

1: The Townhouse

Ambleside: A wealthy merchant owns this house but is rarely here. They have many business interests and dwell in a range of residences depending on where their business takes them. Servants and a few guards keep the house in order. Local rumour says the interior is opulent in the extreme.
Priest’s Palace: This wood and stone building was once the home to an influential local priest, who grew wealthy through marriage and selling influences. When he died, his children sold the place and moved away. The building still features an ornate private chapel, however.
Sycamore Lodge: Named for the trees growing to the rear of the property, this white-washed building gleams in the sunlight.
Rose Cottage: The heady scent of roses fills the air around this house. The front and back gardens are almost wholly given over to thorny rose bushes. The back garden features an ornate maze whose walls comprise trained rose bushes.

2: Major Locale Features

This three-storey townhouse has a set of steps leading up to the ostentatious front door.
Fecund flower-laden vines grow over the front of the house, crowding out the light from several of the ground-floor windows.
Iron railings ward the house’s approaches. Beyond, a small garden of shrubs provides a modicum of privacy.
The pitch of the townhouse’s roof is particularly steep. That, and three small skylights, hint at attic rooms.

3: Minor Locale Features

The house’s windows all benefit from robust, brightly painted wooden shutters.
A stout chimney stack rises from each of the townhouse’s side walls.
Some of the upper windows in the house feature stained glass and display a series of religious scenes.
Ornate gargoyles crouch atop the house’s walls. Local rumours describe them as animate guardians set there by a powerful wizard in return for some unknown favour.

4: What’s Going On?

An upstairs window is open, and a servant is beating a rug draped over the cill.
A wagon has drawn up outside the house, and a pair of servants are unloading several boxes. They take them around the back to the rear entrance.
A well-dressed woman, attended by an armed bodyguard, waits outside the front door. The door opens, a brief conversation ensues, and the pair enter.
The enticing scent of freshly cooked meat emanates from an open window on the ground floor.

5: Other Folk

Wilmin Bellytwist (NG male gnome) stands at the front door, having a cheerful conversation with the merchant. He is a travelling door-to-door salesman trying to sell his many homemade trinkets and inventions and is very glad to have found someone who hasn’t immediately slammed the door in his face.
Jegor Tuuli (N male human) lies asleep on the ground, snoring heavily and reeking of alcohol and stale sweat. He’s been very down on his luck lately and has taken to heavy drinking, but seems to have quite overdone it on his most recent session.
Johanna Lemmikki (CN female human) thinks the merchant must have some valuable treasures hidden away in his luxurious manor and hopes to find a good opportunity to steal them. She’s currently lingering a short way down the street, trying to get an idea of the merchant’s daily routine.
Lydia Ilmarinen (LN female human) exudes desperation and appears very stressed. As a recent widow charged with looking after three young children, she already has a lot to deal with, but her husband’s death, combined with her own lack of income, has caused her to fall behind on rental payments. She’s here to plead with the merchant to give her some more time, but he doesn’t seem very receptive to the idea.

Credit

This is a short system-neutral extract from Urban Locale #19 Merchant’s Townhouse by Christopher Broadhurst. The book is available from DriveThruRPG and ragingswanpress.com.

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Urban Locale: Merchant's Townhouse