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| Orc Cook by notmuchnormal on deviantart |
Bread has been a staple of sedentary life. The rise of communities, towns, and cities is in one way or another because of the cultivation of grains and the making of bread. It is upon this same lengthy and proud tradition that Hoocha runs a bakery at the edge of The Market, in the city of Hork.
Hoocha is not attached to any of the tribes of the city. Instead, she is a member of The Merchants’ Guild. This lack of affiliation has made her bakery a place of common ground between the tribes. The location is open to everyone who buys her goods, and peace is maintained by the protection of The Guild.
The Bakery’s Layout
Inside the front of the bakery there are a number of tables for patrons. Along with baked goods that are taken away, like travelers’ tack and loaves, there are smaller pastries and drinks that can be eaten while there. This area is set to allow around forty orcs to sit easily with 4 to 6 at a table.
Not much is known about the back of the shop. Besides Hoocha the only others who are known to go back there are other female orcs who are in her service. There is also a storage entrance from a back hall where deliveries are made to a room that is locked off from the rest of the bakery.
The middle section is believed to go up a level, where the oven is, and down a level to a living area. Hoocha travels out every few days to place orders with other merchants and seems content to never leave The Market. If the bakery has need of doing business further away, she usually conducts it through a guild emissary.
Hoocha
Hoocha is a middle aged orc who arrived in the city with her mother. They set up the bakery and were accepted in because of what they produce. The mother passed away a couple of years ago and Hoocha took over running the shop.
Although some males have made advances to have a relationship with Hoocha, she has refused all comers. She is without children and the female orcs she has taken in to work with her have all been orphans.
Hoocha doesn’t talk about why she and her mother came to Hork. Nor does she talk about her father. When she is asked questions about either of these topics she just stares at the questioner. If the questioner continues, she will either walk away, ask the other to leave, or call on the help of a Merchant’s Guild Guard.
Asisistants
Four younger orc females currently are in the employ of Hoocha at her bakery. All four are without family and have no association with the tribes of Hork. They have different stories of why they are now here working at the bakery.
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| Kuitha the Cook on The Elder Scrolls |
Goods
Hoocha’s bakery has a wide variety of goods for sale. Most everything are baked goods of the basic kind, but there are always some specialty sweet treats for sale. The breads and other goods are made from a wide range of flours. The flours are both considered mundane and exotic. Consider how flours can be produced from grains, fruits, vegetables, other seeds, fungi, and insects when determining what you would like available at different times from the counter of Hoocha’s. A number of these flours she purchases through the goblins that provide foodstuff (the goblin tribes).
The flours are used to produce in creative ways for making breads, rolls, pies, cakes, and travelers’ tack. Nearly everything is more on the savory side with few sweet items. There is also always a selection of meat pies (again, the selection of meat is widely varied).
Some basic drinks are also available for those who stay and eat. These include hot and cold drinks. Hot drinks are brewed, or steeped on site while the colder (more like room temperature) ones are purchased from other locations in Hork and served here.
When eating at a table, there is no table service. Patrons make their purchase at the counter and find their own table. This also means there is no one wandering around the table who could listen in on a conversation
Patronage
Everyone is allowed in the bakery, but not everyone feels welcome. The orc males of the city usually stay away from the bakery and talk of it as a place for the females to go. Travelers are a little more frequent because of the travelers’ tack that is sold along with other baked goods.
The main portion of patrons for the bakery are female orcs of the city. It is known by the females of Hork as a place where they can get away from the male population. And, they have come to use it as a major place of discussion issues of concern for them and the city.
Many of the females who come to the Bakery use it as a place to exchange information. There are different types of information exchanged for different reasons. A main one is to help keep peace between the tribes by the females who are involved with intertribal politics requiring actions other than drawing a weapon. Regular house servants of several of the tribal matrons come here to talk on behalf of their matron. Other information is also shared about nontribal business the females are involved in.
Conversations are usually kept low to include only the others at the table. When others come in there is a subtle change in the common room. When male orcs are present, there is usually very little conversation taking place, and that which is going on is extremely mundane. This is also the same that happens for known females who work in associated with the males in terms of the regular warfare with the city or a clan.
Strangers who enter the bakery are given much the same treatment as male orcs, females are given a little leniency, especially if they are orc.
The common room of the bakery is a good place to pick up information about a number of activities in and about Hork. However, if the person trying to gather some insights is a male, he is going to have a much harder time than a female.
Rumors
The bakery has a regular delivery of wood. But, there are some who think the order for wood is much less than what would be needed for the amount of baking that Hoocha does. They believe that she either has a piece of magic that helps, or a fire elemental.
Hoocha and her mother ran away from a powerful orc of another tribe.
One of the younger female orcs ran away from the betrothal to a powerful orc of another tribe.
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