Here's an overview of another part of the town of Leri, located out on the west side of town. It consists of two rather wildly painted buildings right next to each other, collectively known as...

The Monkeyhouse

The building on the right, the smaller one, is often referred to as the "jam room". It is filled with all kinds of musical instruments, from clarinets to zithers. (The virtual guitar gets the neatest feedback!) Most prevalent are the hand drums, though; all sizes, shapes, styles. There's also a stock of magic seashells that can trap the sounds the musicians make; hold one up to an ear, and you can hear the tune it caught...

The Jam Room is a public building, open to anyone anytime. Often you may hear the strangest noises emanating from the place at odd hours of the night; some- times it's quiet enough to here one of the musicians say something that sounds suspiciously like the mystical chant "Zoooommm.... Zooooommmmm..."

The most common resident of this place is the vagabond known only as "Sinc". He came wandering in from the east some time back, claiming to come from a far distant place called Red Mountain. No one knows where this is. No one knows much about him either, unless it's ol' Wonko. Sinc's often trying to get people together into jams, and generally manages to get someone (yippi- Brian stops in frequently) to join him. It's been joked that he lives there; and, since he doesn't have a home of his own, there's a lot of truth to this.

Wonko the Sane owns the building on the left, Wonko's Tavern. It's a comfortable sort of place to hang out. There's writing all over the walls, and patrons often add pictures or words of wisdom if the mood hits them. Wonko's tavern is known for the best beer for hundreds of miles, all brewed by Wonko himself. His faithful mascot, Reggae the pit-bull, entertains the patrons with witty conversation, when he's not busy looking for someone to scratch his neck. Reggae's a very friendly pit-bull; he has this tendency to try and crawl in people's laps, even if they're standing up. There seems to be some link in the distant past between Wonko and Sinc, but no one's really sure what it is...

The group of musicians seems to spend about half its time in the Jam Room, and half its time in the Tavern. Therefore, Wonko set up a stage at one end of the tavern, where bands and random groups perform periodically. Wonko himself is an avid drummer, so about three nights a week he actually goes over to the Jam Room to join in. In these instances, he leaves the bar in the capable hands of Reggae. Anyone who thinks of trying to pull a fast one on the friendly dog is quickly discouraged by a glare from Ziggy. Ziggy is a 20-foot long boa that likes to wrap herself around the bar. Wonko met up with Ziggy on his long journey to the far distant land of Dabney. No one's really sure why Ziggy decided to look after Wonko, but she did, and no one argues with her. (It's rumored that Wonko's journey to Dabney has something to do with the broken clock on the wall. For whatever reason, it's always 8:09 in Wonko's Tavern. Wonko actually tells many tales of this journey, but most of them are obviously made up.) After a while, someone thought it would be a good idea to install a wet tap in the Jam Room so people didn't have to keep going back to the Tavern for a beer. This mish-mash relationship is why everyone calls the place the Monkeyhouse; the two places are one in spirit.

Continue onward... Yippi

Return to: The Leri Mythos