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Inns of Gor
Topic Started: Apr 8 2017, 06:03 PM (23 Views)
Khaleesa
Administrator
Sample items from the list were as follows:
Bread and paga...2 C. T.
Other food...3 5 C. T.
Lodging...10 C. T.
Blanket(s)...2 C. T.
Bath...1 C. T.
Bathgirl...2 C. T.
Sponge, oil and strigil...1 C. T.
Girl for the night...5 C. T.
Greens and Stable...2 C. T.
Meat and Cot...5 C. T.

A comment, or two, might be inorder on this list of prices. First, it will be noted that they are not typical. In many inns, depending on the season, to be sure, and the readiness of the keeper to negotiate,one can stay for as little as two or three copper tarsks a day,everything included, within reason, of course, subject to some restraint with respect to page, and such.

Also, the bath girl, and the sponge,oil and strigil, in most establishments, come with the price of the bath itself. The prices on the list on the wall seemed excessive,perhaps to a factor of five or more.The prices, of course, were in terms of copper tarsks.

For purposes of comparison, in many paga taverns, one may have paga and food, and a girl for the alcove, if one wants, for a single copper tarsk. Dancers, to be sure, sometimes cost two. I did not know what the “other food” might be. One always inquires. It would vary seasonally, depend on the local suppliers, and, in some cases, even on the luck of local hunters and fishermen. In most inns the fare is simple and hearty. If one is particular about one’s food, one sometimes brings it with one, and instructs the keeper how it is to be prepared. Some rich men bring their own cooks. After all, one cannot always count on a keeper’s man knowing how to prepare Turian vulo or Kassau parsit. The references to “greens” and “meat”, and such, were pertinent to draft tharlarion and tarns, and so, too, the references to stabling and cots, respectively.

Renegades of Gor

In most inns the fare is simple and hearty. If one is particular about one’s food, one sometimes brings it with one, and instructs the keeper how it is to be prepared. Some rich men bring their own cooks. After all, one cannot always count on a keeper’s man knowing how to prepare Turian vulo or Kassau parsit. The references to “greens” and “meat”, and such, were pertinent to draft tharlarion and tarns, and so, too, the references to stabling and cots, respectively.

Renegades of Gor


“Most inn,” he said, “for your lodging, simply assign you to a large common room, to be shared with others. Quite primitive. Here,at the Crooked Tarn, however, we rent out spaces.”
“I see,” I said.
“Furthermore, they are clearly marked.”
“I am glad to hear that,” I said.
“You can accommodate fewer people that way, to be sure,” he said, “but then there are fewer fights, and free women almost always prefer to have their own space. Too, with spaces, you can charge more.”

Renegades of Gor

“Payment is due before, or at,departure,” he said. “To be sure, if the inn grows suspicious, we reserve the right to require payment,to date, upon demand.”

Renegades of Gor


I reached to the wall and took a slave whip from its hook. Such things are common in the alcoves of inns and taverns on Gor. They help a girl be mindful of her duties.

Players of Gor Page 115

She cried out with rage, and stumbled, and fell. Then, rising, she hurried, as she could, angrily toward the door of the kitchen and,in a moment, disappeared through it. I watched it swing behind her, until it hung motionless on its hinges. Such doors, single and double, are common in inns and taverns, as they may be negotiated by someone whose hands are occupied, as in bearing a tray. Most often, however, on Gor, curtains,
often beaded, are used to separate open from restricted areas in taverns, restaurants, and such.

Renegades of Gor


Inns, as such, are not plentiful on Gor, the hostility of cities being what it is, but usually some can be found in each city. There must, after all, be provision made for entertaining merchants, delegations from other cities, authorized
visitors of one sort or another, and to be frank the innkeeper is not always scrupulous about the credentials of his guests, asking few questions if he receives his handful of copper tarn disks.

Outlaw of Gor

In spite of having the respect, even to some degree the adulation, of almost all Goreans, the Players lived poorly. On the Street of Coins they found it difficult even to arrange loans. They were not popular with innkeepers, who would not shelter them unless they paid in advance.

Assassin of Gor


He seemed truly to be arranging for supplies, and his men, in their leisure, gambled and drank in the inns and taverns of the city, spending their time striking up acquaintances with men here and there, other tarnsmen, mostly men like themselves, from other cities, now, too, by coincidence within the walls of Ko-ro-ba.

Captive of Gor

I made it a point, as was proper, not to meet the eyes of the guest, and I made certain I poured his wine no differently than I had the wine of the others. This manner of serving is common. The girl does not know, of course, whether or not she will be made available to the guest. That is at the discretion of the master. If a guest is to stay overnight in a large house, he is almost certain to be offered a slave for the night, of which convenience he is expected to avail himself. At an inn, of course, there is a charge for the slave, as for the food, as for the bed, or mat. In a small house an overnight guest may, as a gesture of courtesy or hospitality, be offered the use of a slave, but he will commonly, while expressing his appreciation of his host's generosity, politely decline to accept the offer. This is less because he might have his own slave, or slaves, in attendance, and more because he is well aware that the master's offer is likely to be little more than an exercise in etiquette, a mere concession to social proprieties. Many Gorean masters, of a single slave, or a small number of slaves, prefer to reserve the pleasures of their properties to themselves. It is my impression that many Gorean masters, despite professions to the contrary, tend to be covetous, possessive, and jealous where their slaves are concerned. They want them all to themselves, even to the sword and knife. Perhaps this is selfish, perhaps it is something else altogether. Few free women comprehend how much a slave may be desired, how much she may be wanted. Strange how a fine, strong man can be so fond of a mere collared animal. How they want to keep their collars on them! How they want to own them! What joy is theirs, having their slave at their feet! But even were Drusus Andronicus staying the night, I suspected my master might not offer me to him, even were this to constitute an obvious infringement of the canons of hospitality. To be sure, if I were offered to a guest, and the guest accepted the offer, or if I were ordered to serve a guest, I would have to obey. I must do so. I was marked and collared. I was a slave.

Plunder of Gor


"You cannot put me out into the street!" had cried the free woman.
"I can," he informed her soberly.
"I am a free woman of Vonda," she said, "a member of the Confederation."
"I am an innkeeper," said he. "My politics are those of the ledger and silver."

Rouge of Gor

"We are free women!" said the third woman. "We expected men to be gentlemen, to be understanding, to take care of us!"
"We counted on the kindness of men!" said the forth woman.
"They will do anything for free women!" said the second woman.
I laughed, and they shuddered in their chains, against the wall. It was still raining, but the force of the storm had muchly subsided. I released my grip under the chin of the first woman.
"Do not laugh!" begged the first woman.
"In short," I said, "you entered the inn, and remained here, in spite of the fact that you had not the wherewithal to meet your obligations, expecting perhaps you might somehow do so with impunity, that your bills would perhaps be simply overlooked, or dismissed by the inn in futile anger, or that eager men could be found to pay them, doubtless vying for the privilege of being of service to lofty free women."
"Would you have had us spend the night on the road, like peasants?" demanded the third woman.
"But these are hard times," I said, "and not all men are fools."
The third woman cried out with anger, shaking her shackles. She was well curved, and diet and exercise could much improve her. I thought she might bring as much as sixty copper tarsks in a market. If that were so, and the inn sold her for that much, they would have made then, as I recalled, some twenty-five copper tarsks on her.
"When you discovered you had not the price of the inn's services," I said, "you might have asked if you might earn your keep for the night."
"We are not inn girls!" cried the second woman.
"It is interesting that you should think immediately in such terms," I said. "I had in mind other sorts of things, such as laundering and cleaning."
"Such tasks are for slaves!" said the fifth woman.
"Many free women do them," I said.
"Those tasks are for low free women," she said, "not for high free women such as we!"
"Yet you are now at the wall, in shackles," I said, "and have upon you not so much as a veil."
"Nonetheless," said the second woman, "we are high free women, and women such as we do not earn our keep."
"Perhaps women such as you," I speculated, "will soon, at last, find yourself doing so."

Renegades of Gor


"Now," I said to the free women, "be away, lest I call for a switch, and have you switched like slaves from the inn."
Weeping, awkwardly, pulling one another's hair as they stumbled forth, the two free women left the inn.
"It is a joke worthy of a Ubar," said one of the fellows about.
"How long do you think they will keep their purses?" asked a fellow.
"Not long," I said.
"Guardsmen will pick them up, supposing them to be slaves," said another, "as they are barefoot and, essentially, slave-garbed."
"It may be an Ahn, or better, before a free woman may be found to discreetly examine their bodies," said another.
"Before then," said another, "they may be whipped and put in cages, for claiming."
"You may be sure that guardsmen will be annoyed, having been inconvenienced," said another.
"They will see it as a merry jest," said another.
It was true that many Gorean males found the pride and pretensions of free women annoying. Certainly it was easier to deal with women in their place, at one's feet, in collars.
I would not have behaved as I did, of course, if my Home Stone had been that of Brundisium.
Had that been the case, it would have been expected that I would endure uncomplainingly, and graciously, the contumely of the women, however prolonged and unpleasant it might be, for they were free, and a Home Stone would have been shared. Anything else would be not only improper, but, I supposed, unconscionable. On the other hand, not all Gorean males are patient with women, even those with whom a Home Stone might be shared. I wondered, sometimes, why free women occasionally so hazarded themselves before men. Were they exploiting their freedom, or testing its limits? Did they not know that they were women, and in the presence of men? Perhaps, as the saying is, they were "courting the collar."

Smugglers of Gor

First, some free women, disconsolate and lonely, unhappy, miserable, deprived of sex, starved for love, distressed with the numerous circumscriptions and constraints which confine them, realizing the boredom, the emptiness, of their lives, "court the collar." Consciously, of course, they will deny this sort of thing. An example might be the former Lady Melanie of Brundisium, now collared. They might, for example, wander the high bridges at night, or frequent low markets and gloomy streets. They may undertake long and dangerous journeys, stay at unsavory inns, and so on. They might be careless with their veiling, or, seemingly inadvertently, reveal a wrist or ankle. Some might even disguise themselves as slaves, convincing themselves that this is merely a sprightly lark, unattended with danger. Perhaps they even dare to enter a paga tavern, just to see what they are like, or perhaps wander in the Street of Brands, to stroll through the open markets or slave yards, to see true slaves, chained, or caged.
Prize of Gor

Occasionally, when the masters stopped at an inn, they resided within, and we were chained in kennels, in the inn yard. Slave biscuits and slave gruel were furnished, as part of our board.

Plunder of Gor


Then, at another word from the leader, the hands of the prisoners were pulled behind their back, and their wrists were laced together. So slender a bond would hold them helpless, as it would me. A man, I was confident, might have torn apart such a feeble restraint. Was this, I wondered, a mere convenience, such lacing being at hand, or was it intended to be informative, as well, reminding the proud Panther Women that they, too, were women.

“No, please, no!” whimpered Tuza, as her skins were cut away. Darla needed not be subjected to this attention, of course, as she had been similarly served, following Tuza’s victorious usurpation of leadership. Then the knife continued its rude work and Emerald and Hiza lay at men’s feet, no different from other free women, perhaps more refined, gentler creatures, who might, say, have been driven from sacked, burning cities, snared on bridges by soaring tarnsmen, netted on outings, lured into taverns, seized from caravans, gagged and abducted in darkness from inns, taken in raids on the baths.

Smugglers of Gor

I listened for a time to the rain, and then fell asleep. I was awakened, from time to time, by bursts of thunder, but, each time, I went back to sleep. In the morning the day’s roster would be posted, and Relia, as was customary, would read it, aloud. I was not the only one in the kennel, incidentally, who was unable to read. It is not that unusual to find individuals, particularly in what are spoken of as the “lower castes,” who cannot, or do not, read. Indeed, some Goreans are too proud to read, even some of the “higher castes.” Many men at arms, for example, pride themselves on their illiteracy, regarding reading as a pursuit more appropriate to merchants and scribes than to those of the “scarlet caste.” Rich men, too, may hire a reader, or one to write letters for them, and such. Some of the lower scribes set up awnings, or set up shop under a trellis, near a market, or in an inn or tavern, or such places, at given times, and make themselves available to read letters, write them, and so on.

Smugglers of Gor


She shuddered. Her Home Stone was not that of Lara, times were troubled, and Strobius was master in his own inn. Too, she had, for a time, owed him money. Would he like to see her stripped, and collared?

Rogue of Gor

There are the slaves of great houses, those ornamenting pleasure gardens, those chained behind palanquins for display, those sold to brothels and taverns, those of the fields, and mines, and laundries and mills, those of the stables and barracks, and inns, those belonging to regiments, to shipping lines, to caravan masters, and so on. Many and various are the countries of bondage.

The master may have many slaves, but the slave may, by law, have but one master, even if it be the state, or some corporate entity.

Most slaves desire a private master, and they hope to be his only slave.

Swordsmen of Gor


Tassa powder is a harmless, tasteless, swift-acting drug. It is commonly used in the taking of women. It might be introduced into the parties of maidens, into the private, candle-lit suppers of high-born beauties, into the beverages of inns or vendors.

Swordsmen of Gor


Edited by Khaleesa, Apr 17 2017, 09:28 AM.
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