Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Cannibalistic Innkeeper

In addition to the venerable classical tradition of serving the loved ones of one's enemies to one's enemies ala Titus Andronicus, and all the way up to the liver and fava beans of Hannibal Lecter, one has the trope of the D&D innkeeper who Shanghais adventurers and other visitors from the rooms of the inn, and serves them for dinner.

I ran across this reference while reading a novel, and looked it up on the net ... it looks like it's totally, thoroughly unsubstantiated, but it's super D&D:

http://history.tomrue.net/feldman/macabre.htm

4 comments:

  1. Very similar to a certain Conan tale as well. ;)

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  2. I've done something similar, but the offending innkeeper wasn't human but rakshasa. One twist on this is you have not said who the innkeeper serves the deceased to. I assume when I first read this post that the cannibalistic innkeeper was the only cannibal, but what if he served the human flesh to unsuspecting party members that the deceased had been travelling with?
    On a slight tangent this also reminds me of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and the cannibalistic pie maker Mrs Lovett.

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  3. I can recommend the film, Dragon Gate Inn. Same kind of story, but even more far out.

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  4. Player Characters are what they eat?

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