"The first night is free." – over the door of the Inn of the Refused
THE GATE BOOK OF SCHARTE Entry of the night officer. Bureau number 3906. Written in the morning, against instruction, at the inn. I am writing this at the long table because I did not go down the valley at first light as I was told, I went down to the inn, because I wanted to see where the twelve went. I will go down the valley at noon. The keeper will not be pleased, and the Bureau will not send me twice, which was already the case. The Lower Town is terraces of stone houses below the gate, and it is full. I had taken it, on the way up, for a village of people who happened to live under a pass. It is not. It is the refused. Everyone here came up the road once to try the gate, and was told no, last night or thirty years ago, and stayed, because there is nowhere else that is nearer to the pass than this, and because the inn's first night is free. The inn has forty rooms and a common room with a stove that is never out. The landlady knows every guest's room and every story they have t...
From the lore of The Last Pass.