Skullport

Skullport, also known as the Port of Skullport or the Port of Shadows, is a subterranean settlement in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It lies in the Underdark beneath Waterdeep, built on and around the Dark Lake, a vast subterranean body of water connected to a network of cavern canals. The city is renowned as a haven for criminals and rogues, a place where illegal trade, smuggling, and black-market dealings flourish away from the eyes of surface powers.

The city’s infrastructure consists of an irregular maze of stone tunnels, wharves, and vertical shafts. Docks and rafts ferry goods through the underwater or partially flooded caverns. Most inhabitants make their living through illicit commerce, information brokering, or services that prey on fear and desperation. The atmosphere combines damp crypts, market squares, and hideouts in which merchants, thieves, and opportunists mingle under constant threat from patrols and monsters.

Power in Skullport is informal and factions vie for influence. The most recognizable force is the Xanathar Guild, led by the beholder crime lord Xanathar, which controls much of the port’s black market and information network. Other thieves’ guilds, slavers, and crime families operate in the shadows, often aligning, betraying, or contracting with one another to advance their interests. Law enforcement from Waterdeep is sparse in Skullport, and corruption is common.

Skullport features in various Forgotten Realms adventures as a setting for clandestine deals, rescue operations, or grim encounters. It serves as a bridge between the surface world and the wider Underdark, offering opportunities for intrigue, exploration, and conflict.