Tavern

Taverns (also known as pubs and public houses) are public drinking houses, which also provide food.

Description
These are establishments where patrons gather to socialize and to partake of alcoholic beverages, and in some cases prepared foods, while bards provide a good musical entertainment. These activities often take place in the evening and can be an integral part of the social life in a town or city - sometimes even the center of it. Such establishments have been a presence in the lands of Lord British since the earliest days of Sosaria, and have long served as avenues for storytelling, gossip and good company. Of course things can also go rowdy when too much alcohol has been consumed and arguments are cleared with fists instead of words.

Note that many taverns also offer rooms for the night, combining them with inns.

Age of Darkness
The earliest taverns during the Age of Darkness, featuring from Ultima I through Ultima III were commonly called pubs, and catered only to those in search of strong drink. These older establishments often proved a font of information for those with loose purse-strings, and numerous barkeeps would let slip important and interesting pieces of information if tipped handsomely enough. Such clues could prove invaluable in the wild world of early Sosaria, as danger then was omnipresent and knowledge a particularly precious tool for survival.

Age of Enlightenment
After the establishment of Britannia some time before Ultima IV in the Age of Enlightenment, some pubs and alehouse came to also serve food to their guests, becoming bustling urban hotspots where many citizens took their meals. Such centers of daily life were often rife with travelers, adventurers, and minstrels wishing to catch up on or contribute to local gossip. While barkeepers during the early age of enlightenment would still provide a canny tipper with relevant information, the taverns of the civilized age came to serve numerous functions outside of rumor-mongering, and were often central to the social life of the city they served.

Coming with Ultima V, taverns became the only provider for food and some offered inn services, although these services were removed by the time of Ultima VI.

Age of Armageddon
With the Age of Armageddon in Ultima VII, many taverns and inns had merged together, offering both services under one roof, with only few pure taverns - such as the Blue Boar Tavern - remaining. Taverns still were the center of public life and enjoyed much life, especially in the evening hours.

However, the destruction caused by the Great Cataclysm destroyed tavern culture almost completely and by Ultima IX, only few taverns remained and no longer held the place in society they once had.

Other Worlds
Taverns were also known on the Serpent Isle, where each town had one, while on Pagan, the city of Tenebrae featured one as well, although the latter offered no rooms.

Notable Examples

 * Blue Boar Inn: a tavern run by Rocco and his automaton companion, Petra. This is the only tavern in Moonshade on Serpent Isle, doubling as an inn with several rooms for guests. It shares its name with the original The Blue Boar in Sosaria and Britannia.
 *  The Blue Boar: an alehouse in Britain which holds the distinction as being the oldest tavern in Britannia.
 * Jean Paul's Meady Ale Tavern: a tavern run by Jean-Paul and Lucy in Yew, during Ultima IX.
 * Pub de Varg: a pub and a popular haunt of the famous Ithilian The Wench.
 * The Shattered Skull Tavern is a tavern run by Orlok in Tenebrae during Ultima VIII.
 * The Cat's Lair: a drinking establishment run by the esteemed Dr. Cat; a popular hotspot for gamesters and gypsies in later years.
 * The Fallen Virgin: a tavern which operated for several centuries in Buccaneer's Den.
 * The Keg Tap: while not of great importance in its in-game appearance in Ultima IV, the Keg Tap is the site of some markedly humorous misadventures in Ultima novelizations and comics.
 * The Sword and Keg: a pub in Jhelom in which the Rune of Honor was once lost to a marauding rat during a bar room brawl.
 * Trinsic Inn and Tavern: a tavern and inn run by Synnovea of Trinsic in Ultima IX.