The Hart & Hare
Location
1 Church Row (two hundred feet west, across Church Row, from Leeds Minster Church)
Hours of Operation
Noon to Midnight - Or thereabouts
Patrons
- [[]]
- [[]]
- [[]]
- [[]]
- [[]]
History
The history of the Hart and Hare begins at the end of the 18th century. It was built in 1797 as the townhouse of the middle class family of Harker. The Harker family met with tragedy, but the building remained in their possession for almost a century before it was sold to Karl Grimes for an undisclosed sum. For the last two decades it has become the preferred public house of the city's underclass and has a decidedly unwholesome reputation among respectable society and law enforcement.
Owner: Karl Grimes
Sobriquet
- Grimes (familiar, one free drink and maybe some advice)
- Karl (friendly, an open tab)
- Odd-Eye (fear or respect, safe to sit down for a spell)
- Deadeye (stupid, possibly a future missing persons)
Appearance
Grimes is a Scandinavian man of middle years and rugged good looks. He dresses like any barkeep: rolled-up sleeves on an old linen shirt, a rumpled tweed vest, tweed work pants and a pair of well cared for boots.
Of course his most notable feature is his right eye which is milky and dead-looking with a patch of dark wrinkled skin surrounding it. Most times this isn't visible because of a leather patch worn over the birth defect.
The next most notable feature are the interconnected fresco of blue-green rune tattoos that mark the man from right-eye to finger-tips.
Behavior
Grimes is a quiet almost morose man with a deep melodious voice. He speaks the working class and Victorian Engliah with equal ease, and his accent is minimal, but occasionally reveals a continental origin. He tends to communicate with body language as much as anything else.
History
Officially Karl Grimes has lived in Leeds for years, in 1886 he purchased the Harker house and opened a public house he called the Hart and Hare. His regulars know he emigrated to England from Scandinavia when he was young and that he spent a fair portion of his life as a seafaring man. He has never married, has no children, and keeps to himself. Despite his establishment's proximity to Leeds Minster the church going crowd avoid the place. And the public house has a reputation as the gathering place for the criminal underclass. Despite this, Grimes has no criminal record, he pays his taxes and operates a clean if shabby establishment.
Recent Events
Grimes recently threw out a young Gypsy man after he started a fight with a regular parron.