The Driftwood Tavern was a fine inn and tavern, which also doubled as a museum, located in the Blacklake District of Neverwinter. An inn and tavern that caters mainly to longtime locals, the Driftwood Tavern takes pride in having kept its doors open since before the Spellplague. When the cataclysm struck, innkeeper Madame Rosene, a serious woman now in her early sixties, sheltered refugees within her walls. The Driftwood offered people a makeshift city hall and gathering place during the troubled years.
Madame Rosene and her regulars have filled the inside of the tavern with bric-à-brac, curios, and relics of Neverwinter before its fall. The statue from a favorite fountain stands in a corner. A wineseller’s Planter boxes, filled with flowers, brighten the walls. A knob and a knocker from a noble’s estate are attached to the privy door. Ornate doors pulled from the wreckage make fine tables, and unbroken panes of stained glass hang overhead as chandeliers, lit by hundreds of carefully placed candles. Though the decorations have been salvaged from all over the city, the tavern does not feel junky, and no one thinks Madame Rosene is taking advantage of Neverwinter’s fall. Quite the opposite—the Driftwood is considered a monument to old Unknown, like a dusty painting of a beautiful girl hanging above the deathbed of an aged noblewoman.
Prices for room and board at the tavern are high. The atmosphere is one of quiet reflection, rather than boisterous merriment. The Mintarn mercenaries stay away, preferring to eat and drink at the Moonstone Mask or some other cheaper place. Visitors to the city stop at the Driftwood to marvel at the museum of objects, or to learn about old Neverwinter from Madame Rosene for the (expensive) price of a drink and a meal.
Only longtime customers and old friends come to the Driftwood regularly. That situation suits Madame Rosene, because she secretly leads the Graycloaks faction of the Sons of Alagondar. Here, in the thickly walled rooms, the Graycloaks meet to discuss their plans and the difficulties of working with their counterparts in the Nasher faction.