1) I swear I remember an Elminster's Guide to the Halfway Inn. Does anyone know what issue that was?
2) Waaay back, Dragon published these D&D character sheets that had hand drawn pictures as the border of the CS. What issue was that?
1) Can't help you there. Google wasn't much help either.
2) I think I have the issues in storage but I remembered that the art was done by Arnie Swekel (and, apparently, Glen Gangus.) The character sheets can be found at:
http://www.gangus.net/sheets.htm
A little pricey for my tastes and you can't see the backs but you can't argue with the awesome artwork.
- Chris Shadowens
I just took a gander through the DragonDex Forgotten Realms section and I didn't see anything with a title that would suggest it was about the Inn you're looking for. Perhaps, though, scrolling through the list of articles will trigger something with you if it has a different name.