When it rings, you put your glass down. You pick it up again when you've thought of a name. – House rule, the Drowned Bell
The bell that hangs over the counter of the Drowned Bell came from the collier Margaret Ann, which tried the Mouth in the winter of 1849 with coal for the new settlement, misjudged the tide by a quarter of an hour and went down in the arch with her crew of six. The settlers dived for her coal for a year. The bell they brought up on the first day, and the first innkeeper, a Mrs Abel, hung it in her doorway and rang it once for each of the six. From that night it has been the custom of the house: whenever a lamp in the Reach goes out for good, the bell is rung once. Leaf added by Obediah Crook, innkeeper, at the Archivist's request. "The Archivist asked me for a page from the bell book. I keep it under the counter. It is not a secret. Nobody ever asked." "The rules of the house. One: the bell is rung by the innkeeper and nobody else, as soon as word comes from the Board that a lamp has been struck. Two: when it rings, everybody in the house puts their glass down and is quiet, and picks...
From the lore of The Gaslit Reach.