The Jade Dancer

Built of timber and stone columns, its outer walls sealed by a slather-coat of plaster into which mud bricks have been pressed in slanting courses, the Dancer looks like what it is: a warehouse with a grand front tacked on. Its upper floors open onto a broad, two-tier balcony overlooking the Dancing Court, which boasts intricate ornamental wrought iron railings and potted fruit trees. Inside, minstrels play on a hanging gallery suspended from the ceiling on chains above a raised central stage where dancers and singers perform.

The stage and gallery dominate an open central well that soars up to a roof skylight. Interior balconies or promenades of the upper floors open onto the well and look down on the stage. Three large, wide-curving circular staircases rise around the well to link the floors. They provide good views of shows, and are often lined with standing patrons.

The kitchens, pantries, and staff quarters are hidden below ground level. The main floor is entirely given over to a bar, a ring-shaped dance area around the stage, and sturdily built, round wooden tables linked by floor-chains to quartets of plain, heavy-duty chairs for patrons.

The upper floors are devoted to large, plant-adorned drinking parlors on the Dancing Court side and festhall rooms (opening off the promenade) around the rest of their extent.

This clean, brightly lit, noisy place is beloved of young Waterdhavians wanting to be in the rush of new fashion and “in” behavior —- and to be seen to be part of it. As most nights pass, the visitor can see and smell the steadily rising excitement. If half the too-loud, excited young boys swaggering around knew how to use the huge weapons they wave about, the nightly slaughter would make Dancing Court run red with gore.

The Dancer has a staff of expert, good-looking escorts who mingle with the patrons. Mis-guessing who is a patron and who is an escort has left many a visitor to the city with a face red and ringing from a hard slap. A hint: You can recognize an escort by the room keys worn around their necks on fine chains.

The rooms are not all for the use of escorts. Couples who find each other among the drinks can rent rooms. Those thinking of taking liberties with escorts or guests are hereby warned that the Jade Dancer also has as a bouncer a watchful wizard, Selcharoon Nrim.

The establishment is named for its star dancing attraction: Jade, a magically animated, incredibly beautiful, life-sized jade statue, fashioned like a human female. Usually found dancing on the stage in acrobatic poses no human dancer with any dignity or nerve endings could endure for long, it begins an evening with no hair but grows illusory flowing hair as it moves—until a floor-length train of tresses flows behind and around it. The hair then vanishes, to begin growing again. The cycle takes about an hour.

A wild variety of drinkables can be had here, from glowing amber dwarven thorl beldarakul (Old Trickster) to cool, minty green shondath icewine, favored by some elves and halflings. Among humans, Al & Tal’s Slurp Syrup (well-spiked cherry syrup) is popular, along with Fool’s Thirst-Quencher (a mix of six beers and winter wine), and, of course, zzar, which can be had at double strength. All drinks here are 50 cp for a handglass and 1 sp for a tall flagon.

To go with the drinkables, the Dancer staff serves free bowls of salted nuts, loaves of hot garlic-buttered bread (20 cp/round loaf), and skewered roast fowl two to a skewer for 30 cp/skewer. These are small plucked chickens with head, feet, and organs removed, cooked over an open fire.

The proprietress of the Dancer is the seldom-seen sorceress Cathalishaera, who relies on her bouncer Selcharoon and her staff of about 20 female and 12 male escorts, about half of whom are on shift on a given night, and the house staff of 10 bar and kitchen workers.

The best-known of the house staff is the fat, talkative, wisecracking lady bartender, Khalou Mazestar. She loves to talk to guests at the bar and is a great source of jokes, information on current fads and interests among the swinging young of Waterdeep, and gossip about who’s involved with whom among Waterdeep’s noble and monied families. She'’s especially envious of those people who can afford to festoon themselves with precious jewels, and never tires of hearing or passing on news of Lady Shanderplast’'s navel carbuncle or Lord Lunkoon'’s huge emerald earplugs.

Aside from the bar prices already given, the Dancer charges 2 cp per glass or flagon thrown or broken, and 10 cp per plant eaten or destroyed, and 1 sp per piece of furniture set afire or destroyed. An hour’s use of a room key runs 1 sp, with a maximum of 10 sp for use of the room the whole night.

Escorts charge 6 to 12 sp per visit to a room. No extra room charges apply, but the rate covers half an hour or less of the escort'’s time. Those who want company for longer must pay multiple charges.

Tales connected to the Dancer either have to do with love, legendary drinking bouts, or the Moon Sphere out front. The musicians hired to play here are very good. Come early for a good seat and the least amount of drunken drink-hurling at performers. Bards known up and down the Sword Coast sometimes perform from the hanging gallery. Once, a few winters back, a sylph sang hauntingly mournful love calls and reduced the whole place to tears.

There are persistent whispers about the Jade Dancer being a transformed, trapped human female - —perhaps a princess or noble lady. There are also tales of her occasionally taking a male patron up to one of the rooms— and that the men were never seen again.