The Sordid Rhinoceros

Named for the… anatomically unlikely… signage out front, this basement tavern is in the heart of the roughest part of town and is used by “adventurers” of the worst kind as a sort of base of operations when starting whatever skullduggery is at hand.

The structure proper is a mix of a small apartment building and the tavern & inn. The ground floor is divided into two halves with the front half being horribly run-down and often abandoned apartments with broken skylights, piles of clutter and filth, and rampant vermin (a term also used to describe the people living there). The back half extends up another level and has no ground-level access – the door in the back leads immediately down into the tavern below instead. From the back rooms of the tavern, one can ascend to the inn rooms above – again not in good repair (and in some cases abandoned by the tavern owner to the ravages of past guests).

The main point of interest for most people is of course the Sordid Rhinoceros’ tavern in the basement. The main tavern is divided into two parts, the bar when you enter and more tables to the right. The main entrance is in the front of the building although some slip in through the back alley entrance. By the back alley entrance is a “snug”, a smaller private room for eating and drinking typically reserved for the owner and their friends – but in this case often used for meetings where a bit of privacy is wanted. The snug opens up into the pantries and storage area, but also to the stairs leading up into the inn above. The Inn has 5 rooms on the ground floor (and a linen closet and storage room), and a further 6 on the top floor (two of which are currently abandoned to the elements).

The tavern’s back rooms are the befouled kitchen, a pantry along the back wall, storage room, and Nine-Toes (the owner)’s private office in the middle (with spy holes over two tables where his friends know to set up their meetings). Attached to the office and the stairwell upstairs by secret doors is Nine-Toes private sleeping area which also contains a secret trap door leading to a series of trapped tunnels that he uses to slip in and out of the tavern as needed.

The Sordid Rhinoceros is pretty obviously my attempt to draw a version of the Vulgar Unicorn from the Thieves’ World stories, without referencing the existing floor plans from the various RPG supplements released over the years except for the basic building shape (so you can use this version with the maps of Sanctuary). I’ve tried to include the various bits from the books, including the safe in the owner’s office, the secret tunnel, the back stairs up to the rooms above, back alley entrance, etc.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 8,400 pixels (28 squares) wide. To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for the recommended 5′ squares that work best with this design) or 140 pixels (for 10‘ squares) – so resizing the image to 1,960 pixels or 3,920 pixels wide, respectively.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2023/12/14/the-sordid-rhinoceros/