The Yawning Portal - Heroes' Feast Flavors of the Multiverse

The Yawning Portal. Our brave heroes gather at the legendary Yawning Portal tavern in the Forgotten Realms, eager to take part in delving and dining! The Yawning Portal. Cursed reader, if you are unfamiliar with this place, let me be the first to admonish and congratulate you. If you have never been, do not go. If you have gone, do not come back.... It is a tavern. A place of merriment for all. It is also a cork-a giant stopper on a jug of poisoned wine, for the Yawning Portal is built on top of a giant stone well that plummets fathoms down into the tunnels of the mad mage Halaster. They call it Undermountain, and it is down there that the soulless corpses of failed adventurers feed carrion crawlers and worse. But up here, all is laughter, and the amber light of candles and sconces glow amid wafting aromas of faraway spices. Up here, the bodies have animated, haughty, mirthful expressions. Up here the bodies still have souls. That's where I come in. I am Deelia, collector of souls. Why am I here? Because Squirladax has proclaimed that we "do our part" in this year's "Great Delving." Apparently, the idea is that one drinks and feasts at the tables poised about the gaping well that falls to the dungeons below. When an adventurer's group has its glut of rothé steak or sornstag, that group boards a sturdy "elevator" platform, dangling from ropes above this pit. It is then that the pulleys squeal, and the group makes its slow descent to Undermountain to "battle evil." It's a party. Group after group go down, and groups minus one or more come back up, often with grievous wounds rebuking the mirth of hours before. It is for this reason that the Yawning Portal's swarthy proprietor Durnan hires clerics and those of magical salves to await the broken adventurers to heal their wounds and hopefully save lives. So, of course, Squirladax-wielding one stone to murder many birds-has invited a pious little dragonborn cleric named By'ron (or something) to join our Bureau. He shall...