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Traveller's guide to the Underdark.
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Ways in and out of the Underdark
Before going on an expedition into the Underdark, one must discover a way down, and, more important, back up. Finding routes usually requires deep research; not every cave connects with the Underdark, just as not every upward sloping tunnel breaches the surface. Ruins, dungeons, and tombs are good starts. Many subterranean complexes were originally constructed by dwarves, and they often linked their holds through a network of preexisting tunnels. Even dungeons built by those ignorant of the Underdark sometimes link to it, for denizens of the deeps are as likely to tunnel up in search of treasure as surface dwellers are to delve down.
Magical transport is another way to reach the Underdark, although less effective or reliable than one might wish. For reasons not well understood, faerzress inhibits and distorts movement spells such as dimension door, teleport, and teleport without error. Furthermore, the effects of faerzress on magical transport go beyond the immediate environs of such sources; casters employ such spells only at great personal risk, even if the destination is well nown. Generally, teleport magic does not reliably operate beyond a half mile. To confuse the issue, some Underdark regions allow spells to function more or less as expected. Explorers who seek safer magical transport into the Underdark are advised to find permanent gates that seem to function even near faerzress. Be warned, however, that gates are few and far between. Known gates are usually well defended on both sides.
Escaping the Underdark
is often more challenging than one might think. Even experienced explorers
are easily lost. Maps and trail markers are generally less effective
than above ground, as the very walls can move or disappear, and one
cannot look to the stars for course correction. Magical navigation aids
are highly recommended. Small, almost unnoticed tremors can wreak unexpected
havoc on a planned return route, as can the deliberate or indifferent
actions of burrowing creatures. Explorers are well advised to equip
themselves with magical means of tunneling.
Orientating your senses in the Darkness
The first challenge of the Underdark is the lack of light. For races adapted to life below ground, the ability to sense heat amply compensates for poor illumination. However, many surface dwellers, including humans and some halflings, are essentially blind in the Underdark. Some wizards have access to spell formulae, such as infravision, that create similarly helpful enchantments. Enchanted hotstones, crafted by the svirfneblin, enhance the range of vision by radiating heat that is then reflected off the surrounding stone, providing the infravisual quivalent of a torch. Magical solutions such as these have the obvious benefit of not spoiling an ally’s infravision. Although light sources in the Underdark draw attention, most inhabitants cannot tolerate strong light and keep their distance. Also, mobility and awareness are critical in the subterranean environment; beings primarily reliant on sight to navigate have no chance of survival when blind. However, should your torch or lamp die, be prepared for a sudden attack from the fading shadows.
Torches fashioned on the surface for the night hours are commonly made from dried wood soaked in pitch, but any flammable substance will suffice. If torch supplies run low in an Underdark environment, certain varieties of toadstools identifiable by their deep purple caps, known as torchstalks, provide a good, slow-burning alternative. Be aware that a few varieties of torchstalk are explosive when burned, releasing a cloud of spores that can slowly kill an individual if inhaled. In some cases, dangerous torchstalks can be identified by he bones on the surrounding cavern floor, remnants of the carrier and fertilizer. Unfortunately, in many cases the bones have been arried off by other predators, leaving no hint of the danger. Other sources of fuel are dried rothé dung and bat guano, which burn well but smell awful. Carrying a large supply of torches or oil is impractical for extended expeditions into the Underdark, so many xplorers rely on magical illumination. Be forewarned, however, that such dweomers can easily be dispelled or countered.
Not all the Underdark lives in blackness, of course. The rocks containing faerzress pemit eerie blue and green light. Luminescent lichen, fungi, and mosses light many subterranean rottoes, although most varieties quickly fade if disturbed or removed. One species commonly cultivated by the derro is blue glowfan fungi, which glows for several hours after being disturbed. (The derro also consume blue glowfan fungi. It is poisonous to other races.) Ormu is a fluorescent green moss that grows in damp tunnels and steamy caverns, usually near geothermal steam vents. Drow females often employ this moss in powdered form as eye shadow. When mixed with glowworm juice, it forms a luminescent paint used for heraldic symbols and for scribing magical scrolls and tomes. Baruchies, also known as crimson spitters, are fungi that glow cherry red. If disturbed, they release a cloud of deadly spores that kill almost any creature except for the wormlike grubbers that feed on them.
A related, but more insidious, issue
for surface dwellers in a subterranean environment is the lack of their
accustomed means of noting the passage of time. The sun does not rise
or set, nor can one note moon phases or constellation drift. Tales speak
of explorers who lost their way for just a few days, yet emerge claiming
to have spent weeks or years below. The lack of familiar timepieces
can create problems with identifying times to eat, sleep, or pray. Since
ferrying a Neverwintan water clock into the Underdark is impractical,
most explorers turn to common subterranean measures. For example, Drow
sentinels often measure the length of their duty tours by counting the
number of times a stone basin is filled by a constant trickle of water,
emptying water into their waterskins every time the basin is ready to
overflow. Upper Underdark inhabitants measure days by observing when
bats exit and return. Drow patrols often coordinate ambushes by counting
„handfades“, a unit of time based how long it takes heat
to dissipate from a rock after briefly placing one’s hand on it.
Orinentating yourself through the tunnels.
Above ground, vegetation, rivers, bodies of water, and mountain peaks slow travel. The Underdark has these and more uniquely subterranean impediments. Passages twist and turn, rarely in a constant direction or on a level floor. Tunnels vary in height and width, sometimes shrinking down to a crack or widening into great grottoes. Rivers and lakes can fill entire caverns. Vast patches of deadly plants and fungi block miles of passages. Because of these impediments, sometimes a direct route between here and there simply does not exist. In the Underdark, a traveler must prepare for all sorts of three-dimensional terrain. Climbing on slick, brittle, and sharp rock faces requires reliable aid. Underdark explorers need great skill in rock climbing or, even better, the ability to levitate or fly. Pack animals must navigate such terrain as well. While surface-dwelling dwarves sometimes use mules, most major Underdark races employ riding lizards, steeders, or subterranean lizards in lieu of horses, oxen, and wagons.
Rivers and subterranean lakes are rarer obstacles, but often serve
as the most efficient means of travel. Many deep delvers ferry small
boats into the tunnels below or build them from giant mushrooms. Magical
treasures such as folding boats are ighly prized. The lack of wind usually
makes sailing craft useless, so most vessels are rowed or towed by aquatic
draft animals. Often a cavern ceiling dips below the water’s surface,
requiring the explorer to creatively navigate the cold, dark waters.
The Underdark is like a desert scattered with oases. All the basic necessities of life - food, water, air, and shelter - are in short supply, and the competition to survive is brutal.
Most surface dwellers are accustomed to a diet of meat, cheese, fruits, vegetables, and grains. Subterranean fare is similar, but with important differences. Domesticated deep rothé are common in the Underdark, as almost every part of these cattle is useful, in addition to the meat and milk they provide. Cave pigs are also used for food and clothing, and wild deep rothé herds are occasionally found too. Fungi, lichens, molds, and mosses replace most agricultural produce, and some are used to brew alcohol. For example, the stalk of tnllimac, an edible mushroom hat tastes somewhat like bread, can be eaten after cleaning it, soaking it in water for an hour, and drying it by a fire. When imergan, a giant mushroom species, is sealed in a cask and left to die, a parasitic fungus consumes it and forms a drinkable fermented liquid (also called nimergan).
Nonetheless, surface dwellers are advised to bring their own provisions, for many fungi, ichens, molds, and mosses are poisonous or capable of defending themselves. Priests who can magically create food are a welcome alternative to foraging.
Fresh water is scarce in some regions of the surface world, but it is more precious than gold in the Underdark. Like food, magically created water is an invaluable resource to explorers. Deepearth denizens get no rain, so they rely on rivers, lakes, and seepage through the rocks for water. Every permanent Underdark community has access to a permanent water supply, and disruption of a water supply leads to quick action.
While most subterranean waterways are freshwater, salt water sometimes reaches near or beneath seas. For this reason, few Underdark communities settle beneath seabeds. However, deep-sea creatures sometimes create unique ecosystems, such as in the fabled Seadark, a subterranean sea beneath the eastern Sea of Fallen Stars and the Altumbel peninsula. Linked to the water bove by three great trenches, the Seadark is home to aquatic beholder-kin and the ellike anguiliians.
Another hazard is the scarcity of breathable air. Most populated Underdark caverns are sufficiently ventilated, but not always by surface connection. Denizens of my native environment are well aware of fireweed, a heatabsorbing plant that converts heat into food and foul toxins into breathable air. Fireweed makes volcanic regions survivable, and lifeless tunnels relatively fertile. Surface dwellers who deliberately or unwittingly damage stands of fireweed are quickly dispatched by the plant. A different tactic employed by the svirfneblin involves using puffball salamanders as a means of detecting ad air. These small, harmless creatures swell up like a bullfrog when air starts to go bad. By keeping a close eye on a caged puffball salamander, Underdark explorers can buy a few minutes to escape before being overcome by toxins.
Although the Underdark seemingly
supplies innumerable shelters, explorers are advised to choose carefully.
Shelters here are chosen for defensive reasons, not for protection from
the elements. Multiple escape routes are vital, for many reatures burrow
through solid stone. As Deepearth inhabitants are more accustomed to
battling in tight confines, surface dwellers are recommended to seek
defensible plateaus in large cavems, selecting terrain akin to their
normal environment.
Generally, the civilized inhabitants of Deepearth stick close to their enclaves, venturing forth only in groups to patrol, mine, or trade. In the wilds, heed any signs of recent activity. Predators tend to haunt well-traveled routes. Scavengers tend to lurk in such regions as well, much as jackals shadow the mighty lions of the Shaar. At the same time, tunnels that appear unused usually are unused for good reason; even passive creatures in the Underdark defend themselves and their territory with deadly ability. As in he world above, monsters tend to leave evidence of their presence. Spoors, heat signatures, broken cave formations, and disturbed fungi are all signs to the wary traveler.
The Underdark is disturbingly silent for someone accustomed to the murmur of life above. But echoes travel far, alerting all manner of beings. In the Academy drow learn to decipher echo signatures and locate their source. The drow walk lightly and employ boots of elvenkind to mask their passage. They employ a sophisticated language of hand signals to obviate the need for speech in dangerous environs. Spells that generate magical silence or sound bubbles also suffice. The well-known priest spell that generates magical silence in a 15-foot radius also has the unfortunate drawback of reventing external sounds from reaching the cloaked individuals, so beware.
Subterranean patrols, mining expeditions, and trading casters are always equipped to defend themselves. Scouts lurk in the vanguard and rearguard of any such group, on the alert for attacks from any direction, even above and below. Patrol groups usually separate into smaller bands to prevent foes from trapping them in a narrow tunnel or dead end passageway. Ambushes and counterambushes are common, and hit-and-run tactics are the norm. A favorite drow tactic is to levitate near a cavern ceiling while cloaked in magical darkness. Mining expeditions are particularly dangerous, for they generate a great deal of noise and must be defensible. Dwarves and svirfneblin always establish traps and blinds in the surrounding tunnels before excavating, and they keep numerous escape routes ready.
Although not constrained to a
single location, caravans must ply regular routes navigable by their
draft animals and/or slaves. Most successful caravan masters hire two
or three patrols to accompany their expeditions, leading or trailing
them, and would-be raiders sometimes never even see their target before
being destroyed by the accompanying patrols. Caravans are most vulnerable
when navigating treacherous terrain. Smart caravan masters establish
a range of defensive fortifications similar to those employed by miners
before continuing their journey. All this preparation makes trade an
expensive prospect in the Underdark.
Although conceivably one could pass within a few feet of a teeming Underdark enclave without knowing it, such an ccurrence is rare. Like the cities above, subterranean settlements show signs of nearby population. Patrols, caravans, and mining perations are common and few Deepearth races allow interlopers to approach without challenge. Not every settlement welcomes members of ther races, and those that do generally admit only those who arrive as slaves or merchants.
Underdark merchants ensure their continued freedom and lives by taking many precautions. The most basic defense is to make it more costly to seize wares than to purchase them. A would-be buyer often „tests“ a merchant’s defenses before concluding transaction. Merchants tend to ally into casters, fellowships, and companies to make such attacks more costly. Despite the dangers, trade is the lifeblood of many isolated Underdark enclaves, and merchants increase their security by establishing regular clients.
Visitors must be well versed in the ways of the local culture, for offending a matron mother, for example, is a quick, messy way to end one’s life.
In general, explorers from the surface
world are wise to confine themselves to the upper Underdark, where a
reasonable amount of interaction with the World Above still exists.
The middle Underdark is the domain of the main Underdark races, but
these mostly see beings from the surface as slaves. The lower Underdark
remains largely unknown. Truly alien societies thrive there with cultures
wholly incomprehensible to surface dwellers.
As a concluding note:
Travellers are generally advised against travelling
to the Underdark.
Traveller's guide compiled from info taken from "Drizzt do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark" by Eric L. Boyd (TSR 11509)
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