The Friendly Arm

This walled hamlet located on the Coast Way several days north of Beregost consists of a stone keep (the inn) with stables, gardens, a horse pond, and caravan wagon sheds. It also features a few houses, a large meeting hall with a grand many-pillared entrance, and a temple to Garl Glittergold, chief god of the gnomes. The Friendly Arm was once the hold of an evil priest of Bhaal who was destroyed in undead form by a band of adventurers led by the gnome thief and illusionist Bentley Mirrorshade.

Bentley set his comrades-atarms to work renovating the keep, and it soon opened as a fortified waystop on the Coast Way in territory often endangered by brigands and raiding bands of orcs, kobolds, bugbears, and even trolls. Though these perils have lessened somewhat since the Arm was founded, the safe, clean inn is still a favorite stop.

Places of Interest in the Friendly Arm

Temples

The Temple of Wisdom

This low building has interior walls studded with gems and gold nuggets. Guarded by many illusions, it is a temple to Garl Glittergold, primary deity of the gnomes. Human worshipers, some of whom have dubbed the place the Shrine of the Short, are welcomed here.

Inns

The Friendly Arm

Inside the walls of the Friendly Arm, peace is maintained by a common agreement among guests that this be one of the rare neutral havens in the Realms, by the magic and adventuring help might Bentley can call on,14 and by a rumor that some of the fetching human barmaids are really iron golems concealed by powerful illusions! I was unable to test this belief beyond learning at least one serving wench at the Arm has a grip like iron.before she threw me back out of the bedroom she was tidying! (Perhaps the inn was named after her. She did help me up out of the ruins of the hall table afterward.)

The energetic, wise, and affable hosts of the Arm are Bentley and his wife Gellana, who presides over the temple. She wears a circlet of gems to signify her devotion to Garl Glittergold. The pair of them are kind, very perceptive, and could probably deal an Amnian merchant out of his last copper piece.

The house they keep has large, airy rooms, and good, simple food. Everything is clean, cheerful, and uncrowded, unless there’s a meeting going on.for the Arm has become a favorite spot for business gatherings and neutral ground negotiations alike.