The Yawning Portal
Structure
Due to fires and other adventurer-related disasters, the Yawning Portal had been rebuilt a number of times, with a fourth floor added in one reconstruction. Typically, however, the building was big and rambling, constructed of wood and stone, and stood three to four stories high. It had a roof of slate. As of the 1490s DR, it was built of mismatched fieldstone, gray and unpainted, with walls 3‑foot-thick (0.91‑meter) and a steep-angled roof of unpainted dark-gray and black slate. There were no windows on the ground floor, but there were series of windows on the south side of the upper floors; these were covered by wooden shutters. Smaller windows appeared on other sides. This building had a number of chimneys that were fed by the kitchen ovens, the common room hearth (and sub-hearths on upper floors), and several others that warmed other rooms and the stables. A weathervane and a few lightning rods topped the peak of the roof. To mark the entrance to the inn, there was a signboard hanging above the front door that simply read "The Yawning Portal" in letters carved deep into wood weathered to a silvery color. It was suspended from a black-painted iron pole by two short loops of chains and this pole was set into the wall at the level of the first floor. This sign was quite old, having been recovered and reused each time the inn was rebuilt. Originally, the front door had a rounded shape and, for a time in 1358 DR, was scrawled with "Come Ye Inn" in chalk.In the late 1300s DR, the door opened directly into the common room but by the late 1400s DR, the inn was entered via two wide, single-swing doors on the opposite sides of the southward-extending section and later a set of double doors in the western edge of that section. Both led into the lobby, through which one reached the taproom. On the north side, a double-width back door led to the kitchen; it could be opened wide enough to permit a cart or wagon to be rolled inside for deliveries of goods or furniture, but this was rarely necessary. The door was secured with bolts into the floor and upper frame and with a bar. The inn was adjoined on the east by a stables, which neighbored Lankathla Dree's Bakery.History
Early History
The inn was built in the Year of Thunder, 1306 DR, by the adventurer and later Lord of Waterdeep Durnan the Wanderer on the ruins of Halaster Blackcloak's old tower. Formerly, the site was simply "the Well", a remnant of Halaster's tower used as a place of execution—early Waterdhavians simply hurled criminals in to die in Undermountain's dungeons. But Durnan and Mirt were among the first to venture, willingly, into Undermountain and return alive to speak of it in the Year of the Broken Helm, 1302 DR. Durnan made six more expeditions, after which he knocked down the ruins of the tower (as well as its fortified warehouses) and constructed his new inn on top of the rubble and foundations. As Durnan and other survivors spread the legend of Undermountain's treasures, perils, and vast extent, more would-be explorers came to the Yawning Portal and ventured down the shaft: some desperate for coin or to escape their enemies or the authorities, others simply bored or acting on a dare or a bet, and few simply mad enough to try. Just enough came back, alive and wealthy, to attract others, both adventurous and avaricious. The inn also allowed Durnan to control passage between the city and the dungeon complex, both limiting access to Undermountain and containing its monstrous denizens. From then on, Durnan would leave regular exploration to younger adventurers. After two decades, this became a fashionable sport for rich and poor alike (though the nobles preferred to find or construct their own private entrances). The Company of the Red Wolf ventured into Undermountain in the Year of the Great Harvests, 1325 DR, and discovered a lost temple to Savras, the All-Seeing One, where they stole the Third Eye of Savras. But then the temple collapsed around them and they had to fight their way back, losing the precious magical crystal and each member of the team. Only the warrior Jardis made it back to the Well of Entry, but had no gold piece to pay for his return. A man cut the rope and he fell to his death in a swarm of rats.[4][42] A priest, their name since forgotten, later questioned Jardis's spirit via speak with dead to learn his story. Thereafter, the Church of Savras would hire adventurers to rediscover both the temple and the Third Eye.[42] A disguised Lord Darien Thal witnessed this contemptuously, thinking exploring Undermountain was a sport best left to the wealthy rather than the poor. He sought to hire someone to recover a certain item from Undermountain, but all recommended the capable thief Artek "the Knife" Ar'talen, now in prison. When he was exposed as a nobleman, he got into a fight with a woman and killed her before he departed. Mirt was due to meet Yelver Toraunt and play a game of lancers and lions with Durnan at the Yawning Portal on the night of the Revel of Storms in the Year of the Weeping Moon, 1339 DR. But Yelvaunt was murdered and killer used magic on the guard, Tharl, to escape. Durnan disposed of the body down the chute and he and Mirt later investigated. Circa 1340 DR, the Undermountain guide and cartographer Aekyl Dafyre led three nobles down the well and, thanks to one of Halaster's gates, into an ambush by two owlbears. Only a maimed Aekyl and one noble escaped back to the Yawning Portal. There, the surviving noble accused Aekyl of murder, so he fled back down the well and ultimately to Skullport.1350s DR
The murderer Amril Zoar used a gate to enter the Yawning Portal one morning fore-dawn in early Flamerule of the Year of the Harp, 1355 DR, doubtless seeking to slay Durnan. He rushed at young Tamsil but, quick-reacting, she threw the ewer of water she'd been carrying at him, before Mhaere snatched up the double-crossbow and gave him both bolts. Amril retreated through his gate, dropping a silver Harper pin in the process. Durnan arrived moments later, vowing to find and end the man who'd threatened his family.1358 DR
Yawning Portal - Avatar comic Kelemvor, Khelben, and Elminster visiting Durnan at the Yawning Portal during the Time of Troubles.
1360s DR
On one notable occasion, the adventurer Trahnt and his companions ventured down the well and he alone returned, transformed into a naked hill giant. While the other patrons were unsure, Durnan trusted him and agreed to hoist him up. Thereafter, he became a fixture of Waterdeep. In the Year of Maidens, 1361 DR, Qilué Veladorn of the Promenade of the Dark Maiden near Skullport had a servant lead Liriel Baenre and Fyodor through the tunnels to a shaft leading up to the secret passage in the Yawning Portal, likely to be the wet well. There, they were met by Sharlarra Vendreth and Durnan, who provided them with disguises and horses respectively with which to discreetly leave Waterdeep. In the late 1360s DR, a band of bored young nobles calling themselves the Deep Delvers based themselves in the Yawning Portal on a near-constant basis as they made regular forays into Undermountain. The Buckleswashers, five halflings and a gnome, ventured down the well on a bet with a young noble in the Year of the Shield, 1367 DR, and returned a tenday later bearing enchanted treasures.1368 DR
In the Year of the Banner, 1368 DR, in the month of Mirtul, Bronwyn Caradoon and Ebenezer Stoneshaft visited the Yawning Portal to negotiate with Durnan for passage to Skullport. Durnan agreed to lower them down the wet well to the side tunnel. The merchant Mather Ukkhemn stayed at the inn during Flamerule, bringing with him two boys, Harel and Tymos. Realizing they were slaves, Durnan liberated the boys and gave them jobs at the inn, while having Mather banished from Waterdeep. That summer, a regular mysterious patron was the mage Ali ibn-Dakimh. In the month of Eleint alone, the Company of the Sundered Orc, Mask's Conscripts, five of the Deep Delvers, the Guild of the Just, and nineteen other individuals who didn't leave their names had all ventured down the well. Of them, only Mask's Conscripts, the Deep Delvers, and one member of the Guild returned before the month was out. In addition, Phaergos, Yulm Matyris, and the drow Dark Maiden Aeril Faenrya escaped fighting at the Promenade of the Dark Maiden and came up through Undermountain and the well to seek aid from Laeral Silverhand; the Tymoran priest Adama resurrected Aeril and Durnan kept the incident secret.1369 DR
In a high-stakes card game held in the Yawning Portal in the Year of the Gauntlet, 1369 DR, one gambler wagered nothing less than the legendary Janyra's ring of the night. But when a fight broke out, the ring and half the coin disappeared during the chaos.
“We filled the well with our own dead so no more horrors could come through.”
— A recollection of a defense of the well.
Later that year, on Halaster's Higharvestide, assorted monsters began climbing and flying out of the well, so Durnan enlisted adventurers to aid him in holding them back, and to slay those that got out. Four giant spiders and a manticore were slain and dumped on the midden outside by highsun. Seven harpies flew out in late afternoon, and two made it out of the inn, but they were defeated by the City Guardsmen on griffons. Just as the defenders were about to be overwhelmed, however, a City Watch patrol—all undead, transformed into curst during the Time of Troubles and guarding Waterdeep from below—arrived to secure the bottom of the shaft.
1370s DR
In the early 1370s DR, a group of adventurers, who'd delivered a rod of resurrection to the Waterdhavian Embassy of Ravens Bluff to restore the murdered ambassador Chalnath Tressoon, stayed at the Yawning Portal before they went to attend the ceremony at the temple of Tymora. They discovered the embassy attacked and the rod stolen. When they returned to the Yawning Portal that evening, they discovered a corpse stuffed in the closet of one of their rooms and the City Watch and Magister Raymond arriving to arrest them—they'd been framed! Eventually, they convinced Raymond they were likely innocent and he left them with a warning.[5] Later, they pursued the culprit, known as Whisper, over the rooftops of Waterdeep, until he dived through the Yawning Portal's skylight and into Undermountain. Durnan was annoyed he broke the glass and didn't pay his entrance fee, so he allowed the adventurers free passage, asking them to bring back Whisper's head and coin to pay for the skylight.[95] They ended their escapade in the Yawning Portal talking to the ambassador's aid Richard Renqueth and Waterdhavian noble Danilo Thann. When drow assassins emerging from Undermountain attacked certain Waterdhavians in the month of Kythorn in the Year of Wild Magic, 1372 DR, Durnan organized adventurers to go down to investigate. Gathered in the inn at the time were the aged paladin Tanarell, the monk Cyphus Ordinae, the druid Parley, the gnome Glim Folkor, and the Sunite cleric White Thesta, as well as some noted heroes from Neverwinter: Daelan Red Tiger, Linu La'neral, Sharwyn, and Tomi Undergallows. Also present was the hero who had been Drogan Droganson's pupil (granted a free room and complimentary dagger by Durnan and awoken by a drow thief in the room) and the kobold bard Deekin Scalesinger, both from Hilltop. However, a band of drow, duergar, and a beholder emerged from the well and attacked the assembled adventurers, who repelled them and the Neverwintans hastily chased them back into Undermountain, followed by the hero of Hilltop.[24] At dawn on Eleint 30 in the Year of Risen Elfkin, 1375 DR, Waterdeep was rocked by both an earthquake and visions sent by the Mad Mage Halaster. Halaster's Call drew adventurers and mages of all kinds to Undermountain The Called, as they were known, soon filled the Yawning Portal Inn and were eager to enter the depths of Undermountain. There were also more thieves, spies, and confidence tricksters preying upon them, with Shadow Thieves, Unseen, Twisted Rune, Halaster's Heirs, and Agents of the Eye all being interested in the treasure seen in Halaster's Call.Undated
Some time around the turn of the 1400s DR, Durnan ventured back into Undermountain, his cause unknown. Although all expected him to return victorious in a matter of days, he was not seen or heard from again. As the months and years passed, he was widely believed to have finally met his doom in the dungeon that had made his name and fortune.1470s DR
An explorer, Miriam Sequora, returned to the Yawning Portal having visited the ruins of Skullport in the 1470s DR, and spoke of veins of mithral and Netherese artifacts, and produced the nuggets and items to prove it. This prompted renewed interest in the Port of Shadow.1479 DR
In the winter of the Year of the Ageless One, 1479 DR, a half-elf named Fayne sought to hire adventurers to explore a newly discovered area of Undermountain. Unfortunately, her first choices led her to the alley outside to mug her; fortunately, the adventurers who came to her rescue did take the job. Also that year, Lady Lestra Urmbrusk tried to recruit a party going into Undermountain to search for her nephew Rutherford Urmbrusk, who'd gone missing there four weeks previously. Unfortunately, his companion Zarr had gone mad, gained control of an army of goblins and kobolds, and begun ambushing adventurers in and around the Entry Well. The loss of life and business alarmed Durnan the Sixth and he would waive the fees for those who'd hurry down to investigate the next attack. One night in late Tarsakh, Araezra Hondyl and Talanna Taenfeather of the City Guard pursued Shadowbane from the Downshadow area of Undermountain and the three of them climbed up the dry well. Tal and Shadowbane briefly fought in the Yawning Portal before the chased moved out into the streets.1480s DR
After being missing and thought deceased for almost a hundred years, a man purporting to be the original Durnan was hoisted up from the well one night in the usual manner. While most folk were understandably skeptical, those who'd been alive back then recognized him and vouched for him. In any case, he'd come back with enough wealth for them to retire on. Then this Durnan went to his usual spot behind the bar, toasted his safe return, and took up where he'd left off a century past.1490s DR
Some time in the early 1490s DR, Artor Morlin, a Masked Lord of Waterdeep and also a vampire, enlisted the aid of adventurers to evict a band of rival vampires known as the Undertakers from their lair in the Dungeon Level of Undermountain. He arranged with Durnan to help them find it.[102] He later met adventurers in person at the Yawning Portal to send them against the Sharran vampires at Vankrakdoom. At one point, Durnan abruptly called time on orders and closed the Yawning Portal, and ventured back into Undermountain, again for unknown purpose. Mirt enlisted adventurers to find him. In fact, Durnan had been compelled by the ancient black dragon Skallindrax, an old enemy who'd been trapped inside a bottle of Maztican mescal, which Durnan had drunk. The reclusive author Captain Tenebrux Morrow lived out of rooms in the Yawning Portal, coming out only for food and writing supplies and to deliver manuscripts of The True and Impossible Adventures of Tenebrux Morrow.1491 DR
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