Fireplace Level

The Fireplace Level was a large underground complex of rooms initially built by the noble Gost family of Waterdeep for storage and movement of goods in secret. It was eventually abandoned and forgotten by most surface dwellers after it became the home of a number of ghosts. The vampire lord of Waterdeep, Artor Morlin, later claimed it as one of his lairs. It was named by the Company of Crazed Venturers when they discovered an entrance to it via a fireplace flue located in the Dungeon of the Crypt.

Location
This complex of rooms was excavated out from beneath the Gost family villa and an adjacent warehouse (that eventually became the Grinning Lion tavern), about below the surface. The Gost villa was located in the North Ward on the northwest corner of the intersection of Golden Serpent Street and Geltoon Street.

Structure
In the, or shortly thereafter, the entire underground structure was warded to prevent the escape of ghosts. The "Ghost Cage" was a rectangular parallelepiped that surrounded the Fireplace Level beyond the outer walls, comprised of walls of force that overlapped with no gaps except at the three exits. These walls existed on both the Ethereal plane and the Material plane and formed a box approximately by   and of sufficient height (at least  ) to encompass the floors and ceilings. The three Material plane exits were warded with ghostbane traps—a combination of alarm and antipathy spells that automatically reset if triggered.

The entire complex was carved out of the granite upon which Waterdeep sat. Interior walls were typically thick and made of masonry, with doors made from solid oak  thick. The doors were reinforced with metal bracing and each had a steel inlay depicting the the coiled snake motif that was the Gost family insignia. Careful examination revealed a small hole that connected the mouths of the snakes on either side of the door. Each doorway was crowned with a semicircular arch.

Entrances & Exits
There were three physical passages through the walls of force, each wide and about  high, warded on the Ethereal plane against ghosts. The northernmost passage was a long stone staircase without handrails that led up to the basement of the Gost villa. It was guarded by the permanent floating permanent image of a stern human male face about tall that bellowed a warning to anyone that approached it. The face was recognizable as that of Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun, although he had no part in its creation. It was placed here by the patriarch of the Gost family in the, to frighten off possible intruders to their villa when they sealed up and abandoned the place. All records of this staircase were expunged and it was eventually forgotten by surface-dwellers. Artor Morlan made certain it stayed forgotten while he was in residence.

Passing through the floating visage tripped one of two traps unless the transgressor was bearing the badge of House Gost. The first was a forcecage that surrounded the victim and then summoned a hamatula into the forcecage with them. The second trap attempted to place feeblemind on the victim and then cast them into a maze.

About to the west (as the xorn flies) was another staircase  that connected an old storeroom to the Stairs of the Lion beneath the Grinning Lion tavern. The stairs were concealed behind a secret door in the west wall of the storeroom, then turned north and ascended at least of vertical distance. At some point the stairs turned east and emerged under the bottom three steps of the Stairs of the Lion, which served as a trapdoor. In the, Unger Farshal, the proprietor of the Grinning Lion, used this passage to get to the Dungeon of the Crypt and then down to Skullport where he procured drugs such as mordayn powder to sell in Waterdeep.

The third entrance to the complex was in the southeast corner where a east-west corridor  led to a portal the Gosts used for smuggling various beasts into Waterdeep from the Wormwrithings northeast of Blingdenstone. This corridor ended in a stone-filled archway that held the portal. The walls and ceiling of the passage bulged outwards and the stone masonry was cracked and crushed where a purple worm came through the portal and was caught in the temporal stasis trap triggered by the large symbol of House Gost engraved in the floor. The Company of Crazed Venturers discovered the frozen beast in the, while pursuing Artor Morlan up the flue of a fireplace in the Dungeon of the Crypt. The sudden appearance of a gargantuan creature in a space too small to accommodate it had opened up a fissure (big enough for a medium-sized creature to squeeze through) that connected the hall of shattered stone to the flue. After exploring this new discovery, they managed to remove the suspended purple worm and then Khelban cast gate seal on the portal "for the security of the city" before the Company returned to the surface.

Unger Farshal's Storeroom
This room connected to the stair under the Stairs of the Lion via a secret door in the west wall. In the north wall was a small door to another storeroom and in the center of the south wall was a steel-reinforced oak door that bore the Gost insignia. In 1372 DR, the room was dominated by a floating stone helmet some in diameter in the southeast corner. This solid piece of greenish-brown stone had its eye sockets covered with shiny mithral and was used as a coffin by Artor's chosen spawn, Medechai. Each eye had a small hole in it that allowed the medusa-turned-vampire to access the hollow space behind the eyes via her gaseous form. Against the west wall, next to the secret entrance, Unger had an old wooden table and chair where he sometimes parceled out the mordayn powder into packets for individual sale.

Through the south door was a passage that ended in another door. Through this door was a by  storage room with exits to the south and east. At the halfway point of the passage was a alcove to the east and another door.

Chamber of the Beast Cages
The alcove door opened into a long, by  hall with a rounded ceiling. Down the center of the room were five cages, each and  apart, with walls that reached from floor to ceiling and a  door facing south. In the far northeast corner was large pile of coal more than high that emitted a soft glow of burning embers. Exits to the room included double doors in the north and south walls. In 1372 DR, the westernmost cage had a broken lock and contained the bones of an owlbear and a gaunt vampiric illithid that wailed pitifully and laid in a fetal position to disguise its nature until approached by a potential victim. The creature was bound to the room by a special binding spell. This is one of a number of vampiric creatures Artor Morlan keeps for defense and study.

The other four cages were the home of the Gundwynd ghosts. When they were not roaming about, they could be seen moaning or rattling the bars in the cage where they died, still dressed in noble-born finery. They wanted nothing but revenge on the descendants of Lord Geldirth Gost II and attempted to barter with any living person that was not immediately hostile. They knew the location of Artor's coffin on the Ethereal plane and offered to temporarily possess the visitor and take them there. However, they did not negotiate in good faith. The only way the ghosts could escape from the Fireplace Level was by possessing a living creature that could pass through one of the ghostbane traps, and they would stop at nothing to get out and finally find peace in retribution on the Gosts. (Alternatively, if a living member of House Gost were brought before them, a ghost could win their eternal rest by slaying them.) If negotiations failed, they attacked in desperation, knowing that even if they were banished they would return in less than a tenday. The pile of coal was fodder for Bloodfire, the cauchemar nightmare steed that served Artor Morlan. The coals burned very slowly on the Ethereal plane. Bloodfire roamed the Fireplace Level when not eating here or carrying Artor someplace.