Mother’s Plate occupies a peculiar and very Aranthaen space between restaurant, devotional exercise and social performance. Its menu is drawn from dishes described in the Holy Book of Bune, prepared as faithfully as possible from surviving recipes, temple traditions and scholarly interpretation.

The result is food presented as pious simplicity, though little about the experience is actually simple. Lentils arrive perfectly seasoned, breads are made from carefully sourced heritage grains, river fish are served with herbs grown in temple gardens, and humble stews emerge from the kitchens after hours of meticulous preparation. The ingredients may be traditional; their quality most certainly is not.

The dining rooms reflect the same contradiction. Pale stone, carved devotional panels and bowls of floating candles give Mother’s Plate the restrained atmosphere of a wealthy private chapel, while attentive servers pour wines costing 50 gp a bottle beneath quotations concerning humility, charity and gratitude.

For prosperous City Tier families, the restaurant offers the comforting sensation of participating in something ancient and virtuous without enduring any corresponding hardship. Meals are popular after important temple observances, during religious festivals and whenever fashionable society develops a sudden interest in spiritual reflection.

The clergy have never entirely agreed what to make of it. Some regard Mother’s Plate as a sincere celebration of Bune’s teachings and welcome the renewed interest in old culinary traditions. Others have observed, rather pointedly, that the Holy Mother probably did not intend a bowl of bean stew to require a reservation three weeks in advance.

Either way, the tables remain full.

 

Drinks

Temple Table White
A clean, lightly floral wine traditionally served with fish, lentils and herb dishes.
6 gp
Mother’s Red
A soft local red selected for the restaurant’s richer stews and roast dishes.
8 gp
Festival Honey Wine
A fragrant golden wine sweetened with island honey and served in small cups during feast days.
10 gp
Old Pilgrim’s Vintage
A mature wine from one of the estates traditionally associated with temple hospitality. Considerably finer than the name suggests.
18 gp
Book Cellar Selection
A bottle chosen to match one of the historical dishes on the table, often from vineyards mentioned in later temple commentaries.
30 gp+
Temple Herb Infusion
A calming blend of mint, fennel, lemon leaf and honey, served in a plain ceramic pot.
8 sp

From the Book of Bune

Bread of the Open Hand
Warm flatbread brushed with olive oil and herbs, traditionally broken rather than cut and placed at the centre of the table for all to share.
1 gp 5 sp
Lentils of the Sixth Mercy
Green lentils slowly cooked with onion, garlic, herbs and a little wine. A dish associated with a passage concerning feeding strangers before asking their names.
3 gp
Mother’s Garden Bowl
Seasonal greens, beans, herbs, soft cheese and toasted grains dressed with honey vinegar. Traditionally described as “what the garden gives without complaint.”
3 gp 5 sp
Fish of the Quiet Shore
White fish baked with lemon, parsley and olive oil according to a recipe attributed to a coastal temple kitchen.
6 gp
The Widow’s Pot
A thick stew of barley, beans, onions and root vegetables enriched with butter and herbs. The Book describes it as a meal that “should always stretch to one bowl more.”
4 gp
Lamb of the Returning Child
Slow-roasted lamb with garlic, rosemary, dates and wine, traditionally associated with reconciliation and homecoming.
9 gp
Seven-Herb Chicken
Roast chicken prepared with seven herbs named in an old devotional passage, served with bread and honeyed roots.
7 gp
Beans Beneath Ash
White beans, onions and soft cheese baked slowly beneath a sealed bread crust, recreating a traveller’s dish described in one of the Book’s pilgrimage accounts.
5 gp

Shared & Ceremonial Dishes

The Table of Twelve
Twelve small dishes drawn from different passages of the Book: breads, lentils, olives, cheeses, fish, vegetables, fruits and sweet preserves. Designed for four diners to share.
28 gp
Meal of Reconciliation
Bread, roast lamb, bitter greens, honeyed roots and a shared cup of red wine. Traditionally ordered by families, business partners or couples attempting to put an argument behind them.
18 gp for two
Pilgrim’s Supper
A deliberately simple three-course meal of bread and olives, lentil stew and fruit with honey, based on food described along an early pilgrimage route.
8 gp
Feast of the First Harvest
A generous spread of fresh breads, cheeses, roasted vegetables, lamb, fruit and honey prepared according to a temple festival tradition.
15 gp per guest

Sweets & Final Courses

Milk of Kindness
A soft baked milk custard scented with vanilla leaf and honey, based on a dish traditionally given to children and the sick.
3 gp
Honey Cakes of Bune
Small warm cakes made with butter, ground nuts and island honey, served three to a plate.
3 gp 5 sp
Dates of the Long Road
Soft dates stuffed with sweet cheese and walnuts, drizzled with honey and dusted with spice.
2 gp 5 sp
The Last Fig
A single ripe fig baked with honey, wine and soft cheese. Inspired by a short and much-debated passage concerning gratitude for small things.
4 gp

Devotional Dining

Book Supper
Five courses chosen from different sections of the Holy Book, with each dish introduced by a brief explanation of its origin and symbolism.
25 gp per guest
Scholar’s Table
A private meal hosted by one of the restaurant’s culinary historians, combining reconstructed recipes with discussion of the passages from which they derive.
45 gp per guest
Festival Wine Pairing
A sequence of carefully selected wines accompanying a devotional meal. Theologically unnecessary, but extremely popular.
35 gp per guest
Charitable Plate
Any diner may add a meal for someone in need. Mother’s Plate matches every purchased plate and sends the resulting food through local temples and Mother’s Children houses.
1 gp

 
 

Encounters

Mother’s Plate attracts the devout, the fashionable, senior clergy, wealthy families and City Tier diners who enjoy combining excellent food with a reassuring sense of virtue. Most encounters here are social, religious or quietly political, though conversations over lentils and fifty-gold wine can carry surprising weight. Roll d10 for possible encounters…

  1. A wealthy couple are earnestly debating which charitable kitchen should receive their donation while simultaneously sending back a dish because the bread is not warm enough. The server’s expression remains admirably neutral.
  2. A young cleric visiting from a poorer temple is visibly uncomfortable with the prices and grandeur of the restaurant. An older diner overhears them mutter that the Widow’s Pot costs more here than their temple spends feeding twenty people, and an awkward theological discussion begins.
  3. A City Tier family has ordered the Meal of Reconciliation following a bitter inheritance dispute. The bread has been broken, the shared wine poured, and nobody has yet said a single conciliatory word.
  4. A culinary scholar is arguing with one of the restaurant’s cooks over the correct interpretation of a passage in the Holy Book of Bune. The disagreement concerns whether a particular herb should be crushed or torn and has somehow become deeply personal.
  5. A diner quietly purchases twenty Charitable Plates after finishing an extravagant meal, then insists that nobody be told who paid for them. Unfortunately, another guest has already recognised them.
  6. A visiting noble has ordered the Pilgrim’s Supper to demonstrate humility to their companions, then spends the entire meal complaining that the portions are too small and asking whether there is any butter.
  7. A senior priest is approached by an anxious young woman carrying a folded letter. Whatever is written inside causes the priest to abandon dessert immediately and leave through the kitchens rather than the front entrance.
  8. A group of fashionable diners has begun discussing which dishes are the most spiritually authentic with the confidence of people who have never cooked any of them. At the neighbouring table sits an elderly woman from the Wynds who has eaten versions of several since childhood and is becoming increasingly amused.
  9. The restaurant receives an unexpected delivery of bread, vegetables and preserved food from one of the Church’s charitable kitchens. A clerical error has sent several days of supplies to Mother’s Plate instead, and the staff now face the mortifying prospect of explaining why food intended for the poor is sitting beside the wine cellar.
  10. At a large but deliberately plain table sit Ermile Valenor, Mother Overseer and second only to the Holy Mother in the Church’s daily hierarchy, together with the three Mothers Superior: Vyvaen Weller, Warden of the Sanctum; Thaelema Arkannis, Steward of the Basket; and Orlonas Dasir, Prefect of Doctrine. Four of the most powerful women in the Church sharing a meal naturally attracts attention, though anyone staring too openly may discover that Orlonas has been watching them for considerably longer.
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