Deepwinter Vault

The Deepwinter Vault was a mausoleum in the City of the Dead in Waterdeep that belonged to the defunct noble Deepwinter family. It was also one of the entrances to the former lair of Artor Morlin, the vampire lord of Waterdeep, and was the reason his subterranean structure was called the Dungeon of the Crypt.

Location
The City of the Dead was a sprawling walled cemetery on the eastern edge of Waterdeep. The Deepwinter Vault was located in the northern part of the cemetery near the wall that separated the burial grounds from Zendulth Street, set back from the main path by a short walkway.

Structure
Deepwinter Vault was approximately with two large wooden doors bound in iron in the center of the south wall, atop a wide, shallow staircase of five steps. As of the, the one-story white marble structure showed signs of age with cracked masonry, lichen stains, and ivy-covered walls. The ivy hid carvings of landscapes covered in deep snow and the doors had broken locks and stood slightly ajar.

Interior
The mausoleum was divided into three sections of equal measure: a forechamber, the Deepwinter crypts, and the Hall of the Patriarch.

Forechamber
The double doors led into a grand chamber the full width of the structure and about deep. Its walls were filled with stone frescoes that revealed scenes of Deepwinter triumphs interspersed with symbols of the church of Auril. At any time of the year, the walls were coated with a thin film of ice and minor icicles hung from the ceiling—the remnants of a magical trap placed on the room in the days when the Deepwinters still thrived—that kept the room temperature at. Around the perimeter of the room were at least thirty short pillars once used as pedestals for displaying family heirlooms, but by 1372 DR most of them had been vandalized by treasure hunters looking for hidden caches. In the center of the floor was the crest of the Deepwinter family, a snow-capped mountain with a large, stylized snowflake above and to the left of the peak. The only other exit was a narrow door in the center of the north wall.

Deepwinter Crypts
The middle third of the mausoleum was filled with individual crypts. A passage led from the forechamber to the Hall of the Patriarch and two narrow passages branched off to the left and right containing the resting places of the Deepwaters. The tombs were once sealed with stone plaques marking the name of the noble and their death year in Northreckoning, but by 1372 DR most of the seals were broken and scattered on the floor along with bones from the ransacked tombs.