Yawning Portal

Near the docks in Waterdeep, at the southern edge of the Castle Ward where it meets the Docks Ward, there sits the Yawning Portal. Once the site of the long-vanished tower of Halaster Blackcloak, the Yawning Portal's singular feature is the massive, forty-foot across well that descends some one hundred and forty feet into the Dungeon Level of Undermountain.

Other than this, the Yawning Portal is a dingy wooden tavern/inn frequented by adventurers and those who're interested in such. The rooms are usually let to adventurers, and similar folk.

The Well

It costs 1gp to head down the well, and another to get hauled back up (which folk can signal for with the bell-rope that hangs down the side of the bell). Block and tackle is used to lower and raise folk - this doing is invariably cause for great commotion in the tavern, as the locals cheer on those who're descending with wagers to their neighbors and by a rousing tavern-wide rendition of "Down the Well", a bit of pub song that the locals love. Torches line the top of the well, providing light for the first fifty feet or so down the well before a plunge into the darkness of Undermountain. The faint light can be seen at the top of the well from the room at the bottom of it.

While a lowering into the depths is cause for celebration, there is a heart-stopping moment when the bell rings from below, signaling that someone - or something - wishes to be let up. Because there's no way of knowing exactly who or what is down there, everyone waits with bated breath, peering over the edge to see exactly what rises up out of the darkness. It's almost never a monster of some sort, of course, and even when it is, Durnan simply kicks the stops off the block-and-tackle to let it plunge back into the depths. More than one monster has scrambled up the rope faster than anticipated before, however, or particularly capable creatures might come crawling up the sides of the well. And everyone still talks about the time the beholder come floating up out of the well!