The House of Precious Gems The House of the Precious Gems is one of the nicer (and thus more expensive) houses of private entertainment in Ahnatep. This is to say that, men, and occasionally women, who desire a relaxing afternoon, evening, or night, filled with lovely music, dance, storytelling, humor, pleasant conversation, and the even more pleasant attention of a very personal and intimate kind, can spend a few mizas, or many, to share the company of one or more of Madame Nuura’s comely slaves. These young women and men, dubbed ‘Gems’ by their mistress and the patrons alike, are all trained to provide whatever diversions the patron desires, with a commensurate price. The House of the Precious Gems is one of only a very few to provide such entertainment in the city. It has a clientele that seeks much more than the hasty and squalid use of the Larks in the Pillars of Dust, but who are not established enough or inclined to petition the Garden of the Concubines. The House itself is a building like many others in the city, two storied and crafted of mud bricks, though with lovely painted murals and an excess of decorative touches. The entrance in the front wall is gated, and watched over by a guard, to both keep the riff-raff out and to see that troublesome guests do not disturb the pleasure of others inside the four walls. The gate gives onto a lovely inner courtyard, filled with potted plants and hanging exotic blooms. In the center is a decorative fountain, whose light plashing noise can be heard throughout the four corners of the courtyard. To the right, the bottom story of the entire western side of the house is given over to a large area for the preliminary greeting and entertainment of guests. Here music is usually to be heard, and often accompanied by the soft patter of the dancer’s feet. All of the Gems are trained in both arts, and some lend beautiful voices to the mix. In the center of this room runs a tranquil pool, surrounded by various niches and alcoves for a patron to sit with a young woman or man of their choice, to be soothed into a mellow, relaxed mood. Over the course of the evening, a patron might indicate that they would like to continue this public entertainment in a more intimate setting, in one of the private rooms on the second floor, which are actually the personal sleeping rooms of the Gems. The rest of the ground floor of the building is given over to a large kitchen, a communal eating room for the staff, and sleeping quarters for the six or so slaves that do the cooking and cleaning in the establishment. Madame Nuura also has her own private quarters at the front of the east wing. At any given time, there may be a dozen or so Gems available to entertain guests. Each one is a slave, all owned by Madame Nuura. NPCS :
Age: 55 Race: Human Gender: Female Occupation: Owner/Proprietor of The House of Precious Gems Nuura was born into slavery in Ahnatep to a woman who was owned by a wealthy Eypharian family. She was a pretty child who grew into a beautiful young woman, and was eventually sold to a very old Eypharian, who was widowed and wanted a bright, pretty, pleasing thing to dote upon him in his twilight years. He too lavished attention and gifts on Nurra, in lieu of the family he did not have. On his deathbed, he gave the young woman her freedom and a not insubstantial amount of money to provide for her after he was gone. With an extremely shrewd business sense, and a nose for money, Nuura first leased the building where the House of Precious Gems is located, and purchased several pleasure slaves. Having talents herself, she trained these slaves to be real entertainers, in terms of being able to do more than what the prostitutes called the Larks were able to provide a customer. Carefully, she scrimped and saved and reinvested, and was always expanding. She was ultimately able to buy the building, and now she owns the twenty or so slaves who live and work there. Intelligent enough to know how to get the most out of both a patron and a worker, she takes great care of her property and is a fair mistress in all ways. She is a canny business woman, who runs her establishment with a firm but kind hand. The slaves of the House are fortunate, and the customers always go away happy. Skills: Dancing (75); Singing (78); Musical Instrument (Lyre) (55); Accounting (67); Business Management (66); Age: 30 Race: Human/Eypharian Gender: male Occupation: Guard/Security/Bouncer at the House of Precious Gems Meret was purchased about eight years ago by Nuura, owner/proprietor of the House of Precious Gems, to take the place of the slave who had been serving as ‘bouncer’ for the establishment. The previous bouncer had been caught stealing and she sold him away. Meret had worked at hard manual labor his whole life in the fields of his Eypharian master, and was forced to fight bouts in the evening to entertain. Word spread about this surprisingly powerful and tenacious fighter, and Nuura listened with interest. Meret found his new position much to his liking and he has fit in smoothly to the well run house. He is quite personable, but tend to be very protective and won’t tolerate anyone being out-of-line. He’s had to work on his diplomacy skills, though, for the clientele needs to be treated with a good degree of respect and tact, even when they are acting up. Meret also provides security for the house from outside riff-raff and potential trouble makers. Skills: Scimitar (45); Brawling (65); Dagger (51) |
Location created by Azure
