Deepwater Harbor

Deepwater Harbor

The naturally sheltered, deepwater basin that gives Waterdeep both its name and its wealth is a bustling place. Its chill waters are kept fairly clean by the diligent work of the Guild of Watermen and the merfolk of Tharqualnaar. The mariners of the City Guard control access to the harbor above the waves, using the retractable chain-nets and walls of the defensible harbor to bar entrance or exit by particular ships.
Deepwater Harbor is divided into two smaller harbors, the Great Harbor, through which commerce and transportation flows, and the Naval Harbor, restricted to the use of Waterdeep's navy. Two major islands, Stormhaven and Deepwater, enclose the harbor. Notable landmarks include:

Boatscrape Cove - where ships are beached to be cleaned of barnacles and worse

Deepwater Beach - where mermaids often come to sun and flirt with the guards

The Sea Stacks - sharp rocks that deter the close approach of sailing ships

Umberlee’s Cache - the subsea depression that leads to flooded caverns in the depths

Waterdeep’s sewers empty into the harbor at places covered with extremely large and strong gratings, regularly patrolled by bands of merfolk. The merfolk use catch-nets on poles to scoop and gather the debris into large tow-globes for transport far out to sea. The harbor’s rocky, sloping bottom is thinly covered with mud, especially at the southern end of the harbor. It is kept free of plants and litter by the merfolk.

Underwater Communities

The Great Harbor is home to two underwater communities, the merfolk village of Tharqualnaar and the sea elf hamlet of T’Quession. Both communities suffered horribly during the Deepwater War, but their numbers have rebounded thanks to an influx of refugees from other communities across the Sea of Swords. Locathah sometimes come to the harbor to trade, as do other merfolk, but lizardfolk and sahuagin are slain on sight.

Umberlee’s Cache

Underground caverns completely flooded by sea water. All tithes and donations to Umberlee that are thrown in the bay are sucked into Umberlee’s Cache. Guarded by Sea Wraiths that are trapped in Umberlee’s Cache by Deepwater Beacon, an undersea lighthouse that prevents the Sea Wraiths from pouring into Waterdeep Harbor.

Deepwater Beacon

This underwater lighthouse stands at the edge of Umberlee’s Cache, lit by a magical light which guides the merfolk patrols and keeps the sea wraiths confined within the caverns below. The light is actually the terminus of a one-way portal from a point high above the atmosphere through which sunlight pours twenty-four hours a day. The lighthouse serves the merfolk as a tethering spot for giant seahorse steeds, as an armory, and as a storage facility. It also serves ships above by acting as a subsurface beacon.

Type

Bay