The Yawning Portal

The Yawning Portal was an inn and tavern in the city of Waterdeep that was renowned for being the primary open route into Undermountain. A well within its walls led down into the first level of the vast dungeon complex. It was owned and run by the famous adventurer Durnan the Wanderer. The name "Yawning Portal" referred to the deep well and also alluded to the habit of its patrons to tell wild stories. Naturally, the inn was a popular attraction among visitors to Waterdeep and a common point of departure as well as a refuge for expeditions into the extensive dungeons.

The Yawning Portal was located on Rainrun Street in the upper part of Waterdeep's Castle Ward between Waterdeep Castle and Snail Street and close to Mount Waterdeep's eastern slope. Fronting onto the north side of the road, it stood next door to Mother Salinka's House of Pleasure, and beyond that, The Empty Keg tavern, on the west side, and next door Lankathla Dree's Bakery on the east side. Nearby also stood the magician Sobrey's Magic Shoppe and the smithy of Argali Smith. The inn's relative proximity to the city's docks helped it do good business.

Its site was exactly that of the former Halaster's Hold, the demolished tower of the mad mage Halaster Blackcloak, the builder of Undermountain, and the inn was constructed over the well to Undermountain, which had previously been a place of execution, simply known as "the Well".

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 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.