The Helmsman Inn (SB1)
The Helmsan is perhaps the largest Inn in the Suiddock, and is more a hotel than a tavern. It is a huge building, four storeys high, and each of the three upper levels is given over to guest rooms. At full capacity, The Helmsman can accomodate around 150 guests, and it is usually packed throughout the year. The reason for the abundance of custom is simple. The Inn is affiliated with all the major transport companies that travel to Marienburg Castle Rock, Wolf Runner and the Four Seasons coaching Inns all have a depot at the Helsman, and their customers are advised to stay the night there. Starbright Shipping that journeys the Nuln Altdorf Marienburg route up the Reik also sends its customers on. Others who arrive by different means will be pointed in The Helmsman's direction by most locals.
The Inn itself is built in the same style as many traditional Imperial coaching inns but on a far grander scale. The rooms upstairs are spacious, clean and comfortable, as it pays well to give a good impression to newcomers. The bar and restaurant downstairs never close, working twenty four hours as coaches arrive at all times of day and night. The food is hearty, usually stews which can be kept simmering almost indefinately. The prices for both food and rooms are above average, to get the most out of strangers before they determine the standard prices. Because of its links with travel companies, the Helmsman is a convinient place for those entering or leaving Marienburg. Tickets can be booked at the bar for example, and patrons will be woken in time so they don't miss their coaches.
The common room is busy day and night, packed with travellers, nobles, merchants, beggars and dockhands. It is not just the newcomers who take advantage of the constant opening! Most of the people there are friendly towards travellers, eager to find out what gossip and stories they may have from the Empire and beyond. Not all of the crowd are so beneficial for newcomers however. It is inevitable that cutpurses, charlatans, fakers, thieves and footpads are attracted to an area where naïve foreigners are staying. Although the management takes a firm line with such characters, the crowd is so large that they can't possibly catch all of them.
The Network (SS20) makes extensive use of the Helmsman. Several Junior spies circulate amoungst the throng, picking up details of interesting arrivals to the city. A place with an ever changing, large, anonymous clientele is perfect for the exchange of information, hostages, drugs and money, and the Guild (SB34) as well as other illegal factions take full advantage of this.
Sander Dubbelman: Inn Proprietor, Ex Bawd, Ex Coachman (SB1a)
"Please, we don't want any trouble here so I'd appreciate it if ye'd leave."
"An' how are ye finding our fair city, lad? A little bleedin' bigger and brighter than Altdorf wouldn't ye say!"
Sander is a short, stocky man with long black hair and a thick beard. He has frantic eyes and a soft, thick accent that is very unusual. If questionned about this, Sander will reply he is from Albion, "land o' the bleedin' fog lad." He is usually smiling crazilly, and rushing around trying to sort out three problems at once. He wears nondescript cotton and leather clothing in browns and white.
When Sander arrived in Marienburg he fell in love the port city almost immediately. The diversity and cosmopolitan nature of the place enchanted him. For several years he operated as a coachman traveling the Middenhiem Marienburg route. Then he changed careers, offering to guide newcomers to the city around the instant they got off the coaches. He saw the Helmsmen as a huge gap in the market which he was willing to fulfill. With investment from three coaching companies, he converted and extended a warehouse into a large Inn near the Oostenpoort gate.
Sander is friendly and welcoming, stopping to talk to all his customers. He can be slightly patronising, but whatever advice he gives is well intentioned. He has embraced the Marienburg mindset though, and is perfectly happy to overcharge as far as he can. Plans for an Inn similar to the Helmsman but built in Midenhiem or Altdorf have been drawn up, although Sander is sure that neither of them will be as successful as the Helmsman itself.
Seeing as many people from foreign countries as he does, Sander is a good person to aquire news from anywhere outside Marienburg. He occasionally gossips with Granny Hetta (SB26a), whom he respects a great deal.
