Z is for Zentrem, Nulb Baker

Zentrem and his wife, Suella, and daughter, Malora run a sweetshop in Nulb, a dirty, “ramshackle," village on the Imredys Run, a small river that is deep enough for trade traffic.

Zentrem is a retired busker and carries himself with a jolly, round, and bearded grin that matches his profession of baking “cookies, pastries, and sweet cakes." This profession has contributed to the family's portly first impressions. Zentrem sells to any customer, but a great deal of his product is sold to the Waterside Hotel.

Zentrem is also an accomplished poisoner. This skill is in demand by the management of the Waterside Hotel. Zentrem's skill has a reputation beyond Nulb with his poisoned sweetcakes rumored to be used in the heart of Greyhawk in Verbobonc and even in Dyvers, many hundreds of leagues away.

His poison of choice is a Sleeping poison made from local berries. The management of the Waterside Hotel often uses his cakes to rob patrons. Zentrem's skill has deadly results as well. He marks his poisoned cakes with specific wild berries to separate them from the “window stock." However, to run afoul of some in Nulb may result in a recommendation to "try Zentrem's Black Currant roll at the bakery." Zentrem knows this customer is a mark, and if not passed out in the bakery, then in the street. Defenseless.

Editor's Notes

This post pulls out of the Old World of Warhammer and enters The World of Greyhawk, Goodman Games “Reincarnated" Edition. Nulb is a frontier river town that, in The Temple of Elemental Evil, is largely undefined. Goodman Games published some licensed reprints of classic campaign modules from Dungeons and Dragons first edition. In the reprint of The Temple of Elemental Evil, the town received a makeover and many of the buildings on the original map were populated. Zentrum's Bakery was one of these buildings and I found that it was the perfect fit for the last day of A to Z.

Sorry to those that thought I was going to go with “Zombies" (did that), or Zuggtmoy. Zentrem was obscure and new.



Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 30, 2025 at 7:48 PM

    Made me hungry.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM

    I hope he wasn’t in marienburg a few weeks ago.

    ReplyDelete
  3. KristinMay 3, 2025 at 1:29 PM

    He looks so jolly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Timothy StoneMay 4, 2025 at 8:32 AM

      It’s disarming to be sure. Smiling to his wife and daughter busy in the open kitchen behind the sales counter. Happily handing a poisoned sweet bread to a ”mark” sent to his shop by agents of the Waterside Hotel. Evil through and through.

      But I could go on about gaming mechanics and storytelling. Allow me to spare you. 😉

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A to Z 2025 Reflections

As always I enjoy the A to Z Challenge.  My first was in 2011. I won “an award” that year from another blog recognizing fan content to the Warhammer community. I participated annually for almost a decade. Each year building more content on that theme. One year I partnered with Ben Scerri in a cross posting effort. My first international effort. Ben is now a contributing writer for Cubicle 7, the licensee of the Warhammer property and publisher of the current edition of Warhammer FRP.  The A to Z Challenge “forces me” to blog. 😉 I’m a creative and I believe blogging and gaming contributes to my career in unique ways. It contributes to solving and evaluating problems in Software Architecture. Gaming contributes to my social skills and management of people. Try wrangling four to five players at a table and, as referee, watch a story arc meet the player’s goals for their characters. Challenges all around. After a two or three year break I’m glad to be back blogging and I’m gratef...
Read more ☕️ »

E is for Evil Eye

Image
One's bad luck can often be tied directly to the curse of the Evil Eye. Any unfortunate occurrence can be directly tied to the sinister glare, whether the accursed is aware of the individual that bestowed the Evil Eye or not. A bad card game in the tavern. Tripping on the curb and spoiling a mark as you pick his belt pocket. Spilling your ale. Each may be the Evil Eye at work. Evil Eyes are thought to be commonly the act of the bitter old crone slighted in the street as she lifts her arthritic finger in your direction. But the curse can be scratched into door thresholds or the dirt of the path to the privy. The act of observing the curse transfers its effects. Once cursed, only the most fraught undertakings can lift an Evil Eye. Old Worlders will undertake the most outrageous efforts to remove an Evil Eye. The Naked Mud-Wallowing Goat Dance or The Bare-Bottomed Chicken Smack are two cited methods in the works of the heretic cunning woman Ingrun Frolich. Both so popular as to b...
Read more ☕️ »

Q is for Quickening

Image
The Old World is full of tradition and ritual. Whether in a cosmopolitan city or a frigid village in the northern reaches of the Empire The Quickening remains practiced and is observed by all the sanctioned cults (and some not sanctioned, but tolerated). The Quickening is the tradition that occurs on the 11th birthday of a boy or girl. On the day of The Quickening it is common law that the child is officially an adult. Many of the rights granted on this day include: inheritance, apprenticeship, liability, and marriage.  Common ceremonies include “The Dooming." This practice is more superstition than certainty and  involves a wise woman of the family, a grandmother or older matriarch, observing some tick or behavior of the child and declaring the thing to be the child's fateful end. Doomings have been recorded for centuries and include: Thy last meal shall be at an inn or tavern Terrible things will happen to thy fingers if thou dippest them into too many pies Thou shalt know a...
Read more ☕️ »