The House of Good Spirits

The entire complex still looks like a collection of warehouses and factories inside and out. Massive, exposed beams and bare mud brick walls are everywhere, and the lamp lighting is dim. Small passages, cozy nooks, odd doorways, and surprise steps up and down are numerous, and furnishings are bare-bones and workaday, but comfortable and ruggedly serviceable.

The inn, tavern, wine store, winery, and brewery are directly joined inside, but a narrow courtyard separates the stables from the rest.

The House of Good Spirits boasts the best and cheapest selection of liqueurs and strong drink in the entire City of Splendors-—even if, as a noble I overheard snootily put it, “You have to sit in the stinking brewery to drink its wares.” Fiery blackthroat from far Lantan is as plentiful in its spacious cellars as is ruby-red elverquisst, beloved of the elves.

It is a comfortable, if disorganized, inn, most of the rooms sporting two single beds and bare board floors. There are no luxuries, but tired travelers will find it a comfortable place to sleep. The low prices attract a regular clientele of hard drinkers, but the staff keep order. Brawls are frequent, but take place on the street outside, not within. Breaking one of the long, leaded windows of the tavern— or forcing another patron to do so by hurling him through it— costs a brawler 4 sp. During daylight hours, guild representatives are always on hand for those who want to deal in spirits. Private meeting rooms are available for conferences.

The inn provides only a basic menu: roast boar, rabbit-and-smalls stew (fowl, vegetables, squirrels, and the like, always simmering in the kitchen), and cheese-and-mustard saltbread melts (small, circular loaves of very tasty bread).

The guild staff numbers 40 or so, from Elguth the stableboy (an expert guide to the gambling houses and festhalls of Waterdeep) to Simon Thrithyn the innkeeper. The resident chief guild buyer and seller is Dlarna Suone. Her second is Gordrym Zhavall. Dlarna is the only sharp-tempered and sharp-witted person in the place. The others tend to be stolid, calm folk—-even the seven burly bouncers, who are led by Mrorn "“Black Bracers”" Halduth.

A room costs 2 sp/bed per night. If one person wants a private room, he must pay for two beds, but can invite a non-staying guest to eat the second food share. This rate includes stabling for all mounts and all meals desired—-just ask. Draft beasts are each 1 cp per night extra. The dining fare is restricted to the spare menu I listed. Also included is all the ale the guest wants to drink.

Wine and spirits are extra, and are sold by the bottle. Prices range from 2 cp/bottle for sluth made on the premises (a cut rate—-outside the tavern, such a bottle sells for 8 cp) to 60 cp/bottle of house zzar. Prices then rise rapidly to a high of 33 sp/bottle for the finest, and with local unrest, very rare, Tethyrian distilled dragonsblood.

It is widely rumored that a large amount of treasure—-a dragon hoard, brought back to Waterdeep by an adventuring company sponsored by the guild long ago—-is hidden somewhere in or under the House. Would-be prospectors are warned that the staff take a very dim view of people who dig or pry at walls, floors, and ceilings.

The adventuring band, the Guild Adventuring Company (colloquially known as the Flying Flagons) all perished at Yartar, defending it against raiding orcs. This is remembered in the “Fall of the Company” written by the Company'’s bard, Felestin, and sent by spell to a comrade a day’s hard ride distant as the adventurers fought their last fight.

These days, most guild members can recall only a snatch of the song. But visitors beware: If you laugh or offer disrespect when this stanza is sung, all the men singing with tears in their eyes are apt to rise up and separate you from your life.