Whistling Wizard The Whistling Wizard was an inn in Voonlar that catered to adventurers and had a shady reputation around the Moonsea region . It was also famous for a cistern in its basement , called the Wizard Well , that would talk to people and give advice . Location . The Whistling Wizard sat at the southern tip of Voonlar where the North Ride entered the forest and was somewhat isolated from the rest of the town . It was on the east side of the road and the southern face abutted the forest . Structure . The inn sat back from the North Ride a few horse - lengths across a perpetually muddy front yard . A lantern post at the edge of the road held a sign carved in the shape of a wizard ' s head , its lips puckered as if whistling . Across the front of the inn was a covered porch with a railing for hitching horses . Above the porch was a balcony attached to the owner ' s apartments . The railing of this balcony had been turned into a makeshift herb garden by adding troughs of dirt along its length . The two - story inn extended quite far eastward , forming a long rectangle . The upper - floor rooms each had a window or a balcony . All the rooms on the south side had balconies facing the forest which was only a few strides away . On the north side of the building was a stableyard with several small barns for housing wagons and beasts , some granaries , and a cookhouse . All the outbuildings were constructed of mortared stone with slate roofs . The areas with high traffic were mostly clear , but the rest of the compound was covered in light underbrush haphazardly scoured by the owner ' s small pet pigs . Near the eastern end of the north face was a doorway that opened into the back hallway of the inn . Farthest from the road , just past the cookhouse , was an outbuilding that held marination vats used to tenderize and flavor the meat used in stew . These vats were kept covered and padlocked to prevent people from falling in ( with or without their wrists and ankles bound ) as was known to happen from time to time . Interior . Entering the inn from the road , the common room and bar were to the left , occupying the northwest corner of the building . To the right was the public lavatory in the southwest corner . Straight ahead was the arched entrance to the central hallway that proceeded down the middle of the building almost to its full length before making a left turn and ending at the door to the cookhouse and stable area . Along this back hallway was the entrance to a suite of rooms that occupied the eastern end of the building and had a private door to the outside . At each end of the central hallway were stairs leading up to the second floor . The front stairs climbed north over the bar below . On the second floor , the hallway was offset to the north , making the rooms on the north side a few paces smaller than the south - facing rooms . The upper rooms were long and narrow and used a curtain to separate the bed and jakes from the closet and sitting area . The ground - floor rooms were more squarish . In addition to a closet and private jakes , rooms contained at least one bed , a chair , a table , a cot or couch , and a mirror mounted on the wall . Atmosphere . The Whistling Wizard was generally dark , quiet , and comfortable , but had no sense of style nor pride in cleanliness . There were very few lights in the building because flames were difficult to create or sustain — the entire inn and stables were layered in multiple overlapping " firequench " spells that often prevented so much as a candle or a pipe from being lit . The darkness made the dust , dirt , and stains difficult to detect . For the length of their stay , guests were issued a baton with a permanent " faerie fire " cast on the tip that they could use to illuminate their way around the inn . These lighted wands gave off as much light as a single candle and came in various colors . The furniture throughout the building was old and represented a hodgepodge of styles obviously salvaged from other places . The walls were paneled with a dark wood and more creaks were discovered in the floorboards with each passing year . The main common room had a ceiling the same height as the rest of the first floor and was populated with sturdy round tables of various sizes and many chairs , but no benches . During the years the Wizard was owned by Harauna Beltzund , all drinking vessels were made of either wood or metal because she had a tendency to hurl things when angered . At the opposite corner of the inn ( southeast corner on the second floor ) was the upper parlor , a room with an oversized balcony that faced the forest canopy and a reputation as a rendezvous for shady deals . When slavery was tolerated in this area , the upper parlor was one place this sordid business was conducted . Harauna had nothing against pets because she kept small pigs , but she disliked animals being brought into the inn . She grudgingly tolerated small pets and familiars , but anything that resembled a snake or was monstrously out of the ordinary was required to be locked up in the cellar of the farthest outbuilding , next to the marination vats , for the duration of the guest ' s stay . Services . Room prices for each person per night varied from 1 gp for a typical small room to 2 gp 5 sp for the larger and more finely furnished rooms . This price included all - you - cared - to - eat meals with a bottomless mug of beer . Stable prices were 5 sp per animal per night . The rooms on the south side facing the forest were all at least 2 gp , plus 2 sp if it had a balcony . The upper story rooms were in the higher price range because they were quieter not having creaky floorboards above one ' s head . Checking out of the Whistling Wizard required guests to return their candle - wands and settle the bill . A fee of 90 gp was charged for a missing or broken baton . Guests could not retrieve their beasts and wagons from the stables unless they could show a paid bill sealed in the correct color of wax embossed with the owner ' s signet ring . Standard fare at the Wizard was soup , stew , bread with garlic butter , and fruit pies . On the warmest days of the year , the soup was leek and potato , served cold . Otherwise , it was a hot broth of boiled hoof , tongue , and tripes of oxen with diced vegetables . The stew was a heavy gravy and meat from snares set in the forest plus whatever old mutton , beef , or horse meat that had been marinating in the vats behind the cookhouse . All meats were fried before adding them to the stew . The bread and pies were baked locally . The beer that came with the price of a room was called the Wizard ' s Quaff and was fairly weak with a flavor that would charitably be called an acquired taste . The wine selection was limited and varied from season to season . In a good year , shipments of wine arrived from Sembia in late Uktar with dry , white wines from various locations around the Sea of Fallen Stars being the main selections . In a bad year , leftover dregs from dining establishments in Hillsfar arrived in early spring . Zzar was usually available because it was popular with guests from western lands . Drinks were served in the common room , the upper parlor , or could be delivered to guest rooms . The prices varied from 5 cp to 5 sp for a ( wooden ) tallglass and from 3 gp to 10 gp for a bottle . The kitchen staff did not take kindly to requests for special preparations or alterations in the menu . A guest poking his or her head into the cookhouse was likely to see the cooks and their assistants wearing minimal clothing and sweating over open hearths , smoky fires , baking ovens , and bubbling cauldrons , constantly shouting and sniping at each other . Unfamiliar faces were liable to be greeted with a hurled cleaver . Defenses . The Whistling Wizard had no defenses to speak of except the pervasive and layered " firequench " spells that protected all buildings except the cookhouse . The two dwarven cooks were old but still retained their fighting skill even though they mostly wielded meat cleavers in their later years . At any given time since the inn was taken over by Harauna Beltzund , there were traps and snares set up in the nearby forest . These were installed by foresters hired by the previous owner who forced the chambermaids to go out and check them periodically , hoping for free food to supplement the kitchen ' s fare . Thereafter , the ladies maintained the traps out of spite , hoping to catch a Zhent spy or a thief . History . Voonlarran oral history maintains that the famous wizard Mhzentul once kept bees on the site where the inn was eventually built , and the name came from reports that he whistled while tending his apiaries . The inn was also owned by at least one mage , named Casimur , who retired from wizard work to work at the Wizard , probably in the early 1350s DR . In the mid - 1350s , the owner of the Whistling Wizard was Ansilber Klauthaudra when none other than Dove Silverhand was captured by Orvar " The Unseen " , a Zhentarim operative , and was magically bound to servitude , ignominiously forced to work as a serving wench in the common room of the Wizard . Ansilber was a cruel and lazy taskmaster but Dove bore his scorn and the degradation of her post in order to spy on the machinations of the neogi s and stinger s ( manscorpions or tlincallis ) that visited the inn while she was there . Her disguise was not good enough to fool her former pupil , Florin Falconhand , when he discovered her at the Wizard and released her from captivity , taking her to Shadowdale and eventually to Waterdeep where they were wed . The eight - legged visitors stopped coming to the inn shortly after Dove left , leading a few senior Harpers to speculate that the creatures were there to keep an eye on her rather than the other way around . The Wizard had many owners over the years and the transition was not always peaceful . Late in the Year of the Worm , 1356 DR , Ansilber Klauthaudra was found hacked to pieces in the common room . A Selgaunt an ne ' er - do - well by the name of Ravvas Thurrpurtyn bought the inn from Ansilber ' s estate and , according to Harper reports , was likely assassinated and impersonated by an agent of the Red Wizards of Thay ( who may have been replaced by a Malaugrym ) , possibly even before he set foot in Voonlar . " Ravvas " was later killed in a huge conflict ( later dubbed the Battle at the Bar ) that involved two uncoordinated Harper attacks , three members of the Knights of Myth Drannor , the Simbul , Storm Silverhand , an ogre mage , an illithid , doppleganger s , and three powerful mages from a Sembia n kidnapping / slavery cabal known as the Tarntar . A tenday after the Battle at the Bar , the Bron ( sheriff ) of Voonlar and a contingent of Zhent elite escorted Anthalus Droon into the Whistling Wizard and backed up his claim that he was now the owner of the establishment . Droon proceeded to mismanage the inn and it became evident during the cold season that Droon hated the weather , the town , and the inn but likely stayed because he was commanded to do so . Anthalus connived some investors into giving him money to improve the inn and attract a more reputable clientele , then disappeared with the funds . The largest creditor , Harauna Beltzund of Sembia , then assumed ownership of the Wizard . Inhabitants . As of the Year of Wild Magic , 1372 DR , the owner of the Whistling Wizard was Harauna Beltzund . Her staff included two of the handful of non - humans in Voonlar , dwarven cooks Bezoldur Thornhand and Thaunder Gallowglaive . Both were old battle - scarred warriors still quite handy with a butcher knife . Their three human assistants kept the fires stoked , fetched water , prepared vegetables , and terrorized the four serving wenches . Their names were Thamphrol Sarlar , Rauntil Balarr , and Nivlin Goskull . The only other fixture at the Wizard was the elderly Avlar who tended the bar through many changes in ownership . The only other long - term resident of note was the spirit of the Wizard Well , a spectral harpist named Zarracee Ambroanye that gathered intelligence and passed messages to Harper agents . Her call for assistance was the spark that started the conflagration known as the Battle at the Bar .