Alter Bar

Just across The Lift from the College on level 10, a light and airy coffeehouse with windows shares a wall with what looks like a dark and cozy bookstore. A single long wooden sign spans both entry doors, reading "Alter Bar" in a faux runic font that glows pale green after dark. A cramped bar dominates the entry room on the bookstore side leaving room for a few coffee tables, couches, and chairs, and a barely-adequate grey wool curtain hangs over an unfinished hole leading to the coffeehouse side. A smaller counter serves coffee at all hours overlooking a scattering of bistro tables in the single open space.

The name means "old money" in Steinrede, so there's a story behind that which many never learn. The sharp-eyed see a sign above the bar that reads "Dein Blut Gehört Dir" in Steinrede, which translates to "Your blood belongs to you." Wild Magic Sorcerer and Alchemist Kornelia Sonnenstein bought these properties and opened Alter Bar two years ago now. It still has the not-quite-finished feel of a new establishment, and the clientele remains eclectic. Bored nobles from Topside come down to slum it with College students looking to blow off some steam, and adventurers revere the novelty of a drink that can alter the drinker's face or body.

The bookstore side consists of several small rooms scattered through the building, outfitted with well-loved easy chairs and low tables. Bookshelves contain an eclectic collection of titles, from academic textbooks like The Basics Of Transmutation and Annihilating Ignorance For Apprentices to current fiction titles like Cochrane Ironcalf and the Succubus Urn and Captain Morgan's Mistaken Mutineers. Pools of soft light work equally well for reading and catnapping, and the small rooms prove ideal for adventuring groups to research, plan, and meet with people.

The bar offers a full line of Alabaster Ale Works flavors on tap for slightly higher prices than other drinking establishments around town. The coffee is decent, but nothing to write home about, though it keeps a body awake enough for an all-night study session on the brightly-lit coffeehouse side. Kornelia wants to offer pastries and baked goods regularly, but right now she only has pop-up food vendors as guests in the bar once or twice a week. She feels close to hiring someone who can consistently provide food for her patrons.

What's the gimmick, you ask? Kornelia makes drinks that alter the drinker's appearance, which draws students, the idle rich, and adventurers looking for novelty through her doors in a steady stream. She calls her concoction "Alter", and she keeps a large supply on hand to serve her clients. Anyone drinking Alter in any form should consult the Alter Drink Results Table below to see how the liquid changes them for about an hour.

Alter Brew consists of a pint of beer or a large coffee with a shot of Alter for 1gp (roll 1d6 for affected area and 1d4 for the effect). An Alter Shot will put you back 2gp, but its concentrated liquid has a more dramatic effect (roll twice: 1d8 for affected area and 1d4 for each effect). An Alter Double costs 5gp, but the highball glass full of swirling multicolored liquid causes multiple effects (roll 2d3 times: 1d8 for affected area and 1d4 for each effect).

Kornelia understands the limitations of her Alter drink, in that the changes are mostly cosmetic and they only last for about an hour. She restricts people from consuming more than one Alter drink per hour, for fear of a much larger reaction (refer to the potion miscibility table of your choice). "There's a non-zero chance you'll explode," she says to anyone who asks, "and your next of kin will pay for any damage you cause."

Alter Drink Results Table

Roll	Affected Area	1	2	3	4
1	Hair	Bald	Changed Color	Longer or Shorter	New Style
2	Eyes	Elven or Chibi	Changed Color	Larger or Smaller	Solid Color
3	Ears	Pointed or Round	Hanging Lobes	Larger or Smaller	Ear Holes
4	Nose	Longer	Broader	Upturned	Two Slits
5	Facial Hair	None	Moustache	Full Beard	Bold Color
6	Skin	Hairless	Changed Color	Furry	Reptilian
7	Height	Half Height	Shorter	Taller	Double Height
8	Build	Rail-Thin	Wide	Muscular	Non-Bipedal

Part of T.W.Wombat's Lore 24 project, detailing the world around Fellport.
For all city posts, see the Fellport Index. For posts about the wider world, see the Beneterra Index.