Ravencourt

Ravencourt was a back alley and courtyard located in the Sea Ward of Waterdeep. It was home to the infamous Hanging Tree of Ravencourt, a haunted tree that occasionally snatched a guilty victim and sentenced them to death by hanging.

Description
This courtyard surrounded four buildings that were all of similar architectural style, bearing stone ravens on all the gables. Just to the west of the western-most building was a lone shadowtop tree known as the Hanging Tree or the Magistree. Ravencourt was often frequented by live ravens, adding credence to its name.

Geography
Ravencourt was accessed by turning west into Prayer Alley from Aureenar Street. The famed explorer Volothamp Geddarm described Prayer Alley as going around the central buildings and ending up parallel to Phastal Street, but earlier maps show it parallel to Aureenar Street. In either case, the one- and two-story tenements and taverns that surrounded Ravencourt formed a closed courtyard with only one exit.

History
Ravencourt was the site of a former noble villa belonging to the Nharrelk family. The patriarch, Lord Pallak Nharrelk, was a magister (judge) loyal to the Lords of Waterdeep and was put to death by hanging from his own tree and then buried under it in the. The family home was looted and the Nharrelkk name was eventually forgotten.

By the, the building on the east side of the Magistree was an abandoned warehouse that, according to Volo, occasionally became a plane-hopping magic shop known as Whistlewink's Revenge.

In the, more than a century after the previous executions, three men were brought before the Magistree and it found them guilty.

Rumors & Legends
After Lord Nharrelk was buried among the roots of the sole tree in Ravencourt, its bark turned color to match a magister's dark robes and it was said that anyone guilty of a capital crime (for which the penalty was death) that walked under the tree, or even crossed its shadow, would be snatched up by the tree and hung by the neck until they perished. The tree never executed anyone for lesser crimes except for grave-robbers who attempted to disinter Lord Nharrelk in search of rumored treasure that once belonged to First Lord Ahghairon, believing that some relic of his was responsible for animating the tree.

People also told tales of seeing terse messages in stilted Common on the ground beneath the tree, written using the fallen leaves and twigs.

The building just to the east of the Magistree eventually became a warehouse and then fell into disuse. Legend had it that on rare occasions this building got replaced with a magic shop owned by an eccentric wizard named Whistlewink, offering magic items great and small, spell components, and object from other worlds.