Just south of Piergieron's Palace, two buildings east of Mother Tathlorn's House of Pleasure and Healing, stands an unassuming, two-story tavern.  The outside looks to be in need of some repair, but seems to have been that way for a very long time; the sign hanging above the door is badly faded, it's lettering in the common script reading "Yawning Portal".
   The interior fails to reflect on the façade, however, bearing finely-polished duskwood tables, upholstered benches and stools, and an impressively large (if lacking in variety) array of drinks.  The staff is cheerful, attentive, and seems to have heard it all before.
   The proprietor, Durnan, has owned this business for as long as anyone can remember.  Apparently approaching a hundred years of age, he spend most of his time watching the comings and goings from one of the tables near the bar, letting his sons and daughters handle the business while he shares the occasional tale of the myriad events that have centered around this establishment.
   What draws the most business isn't the fairly-priced rooms or the decent food.  The inn's secret is in the back room: the only publicly-accessible entrance to the Realms' most famous dungeon, Undermountain.  At least once a tenday, a group of treasure-hunters and glory-seekers enters the taproom laden in armor, exploring gear, and all manner of magics.  They are promptly intercepted by one of the staff, escorted to the back, and lowered by elevator into the dungeon.
   Some come out with an assortment of coin, trophies, and rarely-seen magics.  Some come out with tales of lost companions, horrific creatures, and deadly traps.  Quite a few never emerge.

Having made a long trip from the rift...well any trip is long when there is no war happening. Borin sights a tavern that just might be what he was looking for. He has heard rumors of great dangers...and that is for him.  The Yawning Portal, that sounds familiar he smiles as he walks in pushing the doors open. Not caring if the slam or not. He steps and says in a loud voice "Can a real warrior get some dwarven brew here?"

As people look up, they see Borin. He is a very stout, yet strong, looking dwarf. He is wearing a multi-piece full plate armor that has no rivets or seems visible. You’re not sure where you should look first, the very large dwarven waraxe hanging off his belt, with a well warn leather wrapped hilt. The huge shield with a spike in it. Or the dwarfs face...it is all scared up, as is all exposed skin. And he has a gold ring through the right nostril. His hair is cut into a partial Mohawk, with hair from his back split and braided into two braids. He also has a large flowing mustache and beard. And it is obvious by the sound he makes every time he moves.

If a patron indicates no spot, he will move to an open table. Noisily take of his shield and just prop it up against the table. It looks like he paid no attention to the placement, but to the trained eye it can be on his arm within a second. He then takes a seat and yells "Best bring me two dwarven ale to start. Hate to have you walk back again so quickly." he laughs.

The door opens making almost no sound. In steps a human figure in a cloak, he seems to be very protective of his features. After a quick look around, he decides the dwarf would be his best bet "Well meet, may I join you - I have a proposition that might be of interest to you?" he looks nervously around.

A young gnomish woman approaches the table, skillfully balancing a tray in one hand.  She deftly places two tankards topped with foam on the table, following them with a bowl full of salted nuts.  "Here ya go, two Goldminer Bitters, straight from the Rift."  She looks up at the new arrival.  "What'll you be havin', handsome?"

Zorian saw a familiar face slip in. Or should he say saw a familiar figure slip inside. It was a few months ago that he saw his friend last. The day he told him he had to clean his name of the name evil averyone called him. He had left his friend wearing nothing but some filthy ragged clothes. He would be surprized when he saw his friend in his current noble mage robes. Pulling the hood a bit further over his head to hide his face he walked into the inn he saw his friend go.

Closing the door behind him Zorian scans the room with his dark eyes untill he spots his friend talking to someone unknown to him. He takes a wand in his hand and changes his voice a little as he points with his wand at the secretive rogue and speaks with a booming voice although he had a bit oftrouble to keep the laughter out.

"Khidrat Aranarth surrender now or be forced to suffer the consequences."

Khi’drath smiles and winks to the dwarf in front of him, before replying in an unusual soft voice "I don’t want any trouble Mister" he raises his hands and puts them behind his head, in a swift move he tries to grab the wand from his friend, but ends up grabbing the air and almost tipping over on the chair "DAMN, I knew it was you, sadly I couldn’t follow through" he gets up and welcomes his friend with a firm shake and a couple of pads on the back. "Looks like Tymora have been with you? I was just asking this man if I could join him, I have a proposition that might be something you want in on too?"

He turns to the dwarf "By the way, this here is Zorian and I’m Khidrath".

"By the great anvil, Goldminer Bitters...Now that the way to have a brew or six." He says in his loud gruff voice. Borin looks up at the human and was about to reply when another interrupted them human that seemed to try and threaten the human near him with a twig. "If that be how you welcome friends, I not be wanting to see how you great an enemy." Borin replies as he places a large spiked shield back down. How he lifted it so fast is a question for another day.

"You may call me Borin, and if you are buying my drinks ye can join me." He calls out. Of course nothing about this dwarf his quiet. Not even the quaffing of one of the entire tankards of strong dwarven brew in one nosily swallow. "Ah, that'll make your whiskers grow straight." He says with a foamy grin which shows a couple of broken teeth.

Zorian laughs heartly and returns his friends greeting by a pat on his back in a semi hug. Nothing to to comfortable just two friends who havent seen each other for a while.

"Proposition? Anything worthwhile i hope?"

Zorian sits down at the table and turns to the witress.

"Please bring me a Cider and my friends here something to their liking."

Khidrath takes a seat with the others and offers to pay for Zorian’s beer ”You’ve all heard about Undermountain I take it? I’ve been looking for a way to get in for the last two months or so, which is how I came across this place. Now from what I understand this is the only public entrance to Undermountain, and every tenday or so they let someone enter. I’m still uncertain how much we would have to pay to enter, but I’ll bet I can find out. I propose we gather as much information as possible, and as many allies as we can and enter – there is bound to be great treasure for all” you notice a red glow within his eyes growing as he speaks.

The bright-eyed gnome quickly returns with a wooden mug, full of hot cider.  "Here ya go.  Lookin' to go down the well, huh?  You'll want to talk to the old man; he's in the back room, right now, probably nitpicking.  It's only a gold coin to go down -- he really doesn't care where it's from, you could give him Zhentish coin for all he's bothered -- but there's a lot of other stuff, and I think he's the only one who keeps it straight.
   "He's really getting too old for this.  But he's persistent, you gotta give him that!  You want anything else before you go?"

Thinking this was to good an opportunity to pass, Khidrath smiles friendly and continues the conversation in an attempt to get some information "If my friends here are up for the challenge? I’ll bet you seen all sorts of characters come and go – just what can one expect down there? Perhaps you could share a funny story – that is if you have time of course? Or perhaps you can point me in the direction of someone who knows all the stories?”

She rolls her eyes.  "All the stories?  That'd be Durnan.  I don't know how, but it seems he's never forgotten a single tale anyone's told him about Undermountain in, what, seventy years?  Longer than I've been around, at least.
   "Let's see.  What's the funniest tale I've heard?  Well, there's one that didn't happen all at once.  Took these guys a week to figure it all out, and then they laughed about it for a month.  Y'see, they was chasin' a vampire -- we keep 'em out of the city, so when one turns up there's always a ruckus -- and it ran down the well into Undermountain.
   "Anyway, these heroes go chasin' after it, barely stopping to pay Durnan the entry fee.  Didn't even bother with the rope, just jumped right down.  Guess they had magic or somethin' to keep 'em from goin' splat at the bottom.  They get down there, and this here vampire's nowhere to be seen.
   "So, they start lookin' around, and first room they get to, they see this big ol' rat runnin' away.  Everyone knows vampires can turn into rats, so they go tearin' off after it.  They get to the next room, and it ain't there, but an ettin was.
   "They beat up the ettin -- never said how -- and go prowlin' around, and see that rat again in one of the halls.  SO, off they go again, chasin' this thing at top speed.
   "Long story short, they were down in Undermountain for a week, killin' monsters, pickin' up loot, and runnin' pell-mell after this rat every time they saw it.  They finally managed to catch it after a tenday, and sure enough, it was a normal old rat.
   "So, they go pokin' around a little more, and find out that some other group had cornered the vampire.  Found its remains, and enough holy water and stakes to start your own shrine.  So they came up here and told everyone how they led this vampire to its doom, and brought the dead rat as proof."  She giggles.  "They was so busy laughing about the whole thing, they ended up tellin' the whole story to Oghma and everyone."

"They sound preatty dumb all right," Borin says through his foam landen mustache and beard, "If they can make it, I am sure we can."

Khidrath smiles at Borin's remark "I take it that means you are up for the challenge?" he turns to the girl again "now where can I find this Durnan?".

"Tell ya what, I'll go get him.  He's probably dozed off.  But don't tell him I said that."  The gnomish girl goes to the back end of the taproom, entering a heavily-reinforced door.  She comes out a moment later with an elderly human; he looks to be around seventy or eighty, though he must surely be a hundred to have explored Undermountain seventy years ago.

"So," the old man begins in a rough voice.  "Lookin' to explore the depths for the first time, eh?  Well, here's the rules.  Anyone goin' in pays one gold coin, and I lower you down the well; it's about a hundred-fifty feet down, but we've got good strong rope.  When you're ready to come back up, just bang on the shields down there, yell, whatever; once we hear ya, we'll lower the rope and haul ya back up.  Once you get up here, though, you gotta pay another gold piece or go back down.
   "We keep some supplies on hand, so if you think you forgot somethin', we can take care of ya.  We've also got storage lockers, paid up front -- ain't no one gonna mess with 'em here.  We also keep healing potions for sale, straight from the Tymorans, and odds are there's one here at any time.  If there ain't one here, we can send a messenger to 'em for ya free of charge.
   "That's about it.  All ya gotta do is say the word, hand over the coin, and you're in."

You notice that the conversations around the taproom have muted somewhat, and that a majority of the patrons are paying closer attention to your table.

Khidrath nods every now and then, it is clear he is paying attention "I was wondering if you had any useful information or advise that you would like to share as well? I'd be happy to buy you an ale for your time? We will be looking to bolster our number before we go down, but shouldn't take long. he raises the volume in the last sentence to make sure he is heard.

"Bolster our number...hmphh." Borin grumbles. "Well, iffin I gotta wait I'll be needing more brew." Though he doesnot say it, he likes the sound of healing poitions....maybe next time. You can never have too many.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:15, Mon 28 Aug 2006.