Underdark Development (Save)

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List of lore for Underdark regions near BG

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- Legend of the Dark Ones -

Netherese from an enclave closely allied with the Shadovar’s realm (having similar made researches) establish themselves and their gnome servants in a cavern system underneath the woods where now the Greenfields are. Their underground habitat – known today as The Netherese Caverns - and their delving too deep – opening or stumbling across a portal to the Plane of Shadow – over time transformed the humans and gnomes to Dark Ones.

Philock is on the – disputable – border between the Upper and Middle Dark, and the Dark Ones have most competition with trolls and goblinoids in the Upper Dark regions and other more dangerous foes from the Middle Dark and denizens from the Plane of Shadow.

The Dark Ones of Philock very rarely venture above ground, and only then in the middle of the night, when Selûne and the stars are hidden by cloud cover.

The Dark Ones of Philock venerate few deities, Shar (in both her own aspect and the aspect of Ibrandul), Baravar Cloakshadow and Jergal are the most common. Leira used to hold a prominent place of worship, until her sudden silence in the Time of Troubles; her clergy’s activities predominantly taken up by Shar and Baravar.

Not very numerous and surrounded by a hostile environment, the Dark Ones rely primarily on stealth and ambushes. The predominant class among the Dark Ones of Philock is rogues, but there are also several Underdark rangers, sorcerers and a few clerics/adepts of the deities aforementioned. Most magic – arcane and divine – centers around the use of shadow magic and illusion.

The Netherese Caverns are not connected by any know Underdark passages, but has seen a few incursions of other races in the past – explorers from Shanatar on their trek North, drow mercenary bands or exiles. At least one clan of Rock-gnomes inhabits an area bordering the Cloak Wood. Cloakers, Hooked-horrors, Umberhulks are commonly encountered creatures.

Philock is in a barren stretch of the Underdark, but in the area of The Netherese Caverns, the only area large enough to hold the initial population of humans and gnomes. The network of tunnels and caverns around Philock only holds sparse amounts of edible food – mostly in the form of fungi and molds. Closer to the surface several ‘wet’ areas exist, and these would make ideal foraging areas weren’t it for the fact that the other denizens of the Upper dark also use these areas for their food and water.

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Oaxaptupa, World Beneath the World

(Upper Old Shanatar)

A great colony of stingers (or tlincallis, as they name themselves) has claimed the ruins of the dwarven kingdom of

Xothaerin, and its threat grows stronger every day. The stingers have rebuilt the realm in their own hideous image, but one city is not enough. The stingers are now using this place as a staging ground for aggressive expeditions that venture into the neighboring portions of Old Shanatar, in search of easy prey and sites for new stinger colonies.

Oaxaptupa (large town): Magical; AL NE; 3,000 gp limit; Assets 703,500 gp; Population 1,690; Isolated (stinger 94%, salamander 3%, azer 2%, duergar 1%).

Authority Figures: Tluipacal (NE male stinger cleric 10), Lord Diviner of the Nest.

Important Characters: Huitzolputl (CE male stinger fighter 4/ranger 5), War Chief of Oaxaptupa; Poaxala (NE female stinger rogue 6), leader of the Black Pearl raiding party; Ahxalli (LE female stinger fighter 3/rogue 4), Nest Keeper.

Tlincalli Diviners: cleric 9, cleric 8 (2), sorcerer 8 (2), cleric 7 (2), sorcerer 7, cleric 6 (3), sorcerer 6 (2), cleric 5 (4), sorcerer 5 (2), cleric 4 (6), sorcerer 4 (5), cleric 3 (9), sorcerer 3 (5), cleric 2 (14), sorcerer 2 (4), cleric 1 (31), sorcerer 1 (8). All stinger spellcasters, arcane or divine, are referred to as diviners. These creatures serve as the leaders of a stinger colony.

A little less than 3 miles beneath the Small Teeth in Amn, the hive-city of Oaxaptupa buzzes with activity. When they took over abandoned Xothaerin, the tlincallis discovered that the dwarven structures were too small for their needs and full of unnecessary fripperies such as stairs, so they immediately began to rebuild the structures.

Ease of use is only a secondary consideration in stinger planning. Of primary importance is that the buildings within a community exist in proper relation to one another. Stingers need perfect architectural geometry for their mystical grid systems to maximize divinatory magic. Therefore, entire blocks of buildings were torn down and either moved or reused as building material in other projects.

To accommodate their height in multistory buildings, the stingers simply removed every other floor. In single-story structures, they raised (or sometimes simply removed) the roof. Other necessary modifications included widening doors, turning large, public-use buildings into private dwellings, and converting private dwellings into storage.

The result is a crude shanty-town filled with piles of rubble that were formerly dwarven homes and workshops. Though architecturally insensitive, the stingers easily divined which structures were load-bearing, so despite its ugly appearance, the hive-city is mostly stable. Stingers routinely examine their work with additional divinations to warn them if a building is about to fall.

The tlincallis are a fatalistic folk who place great importance on omens and portents. Because they believe that the hour of their death is preordained, they fight with savagery rarely seen even in the Underdark. Stingers feel that they need only fulfill each day's destiny, one day at a time. As a result, the city1s leaders spend a great deal of time in divination.

The stingers do not maintain much in the way of a formal defense. The colony Is organized into thirty or so discrete "clans," which outsiders might refer to as gangs or war parties. About half of these clans are raiders and scouts who spend their time scouring the nearby Underdark for foes and prey. The rest are engaged in the ongoing construction of the stinger city, herding and gathering, supervision of prisoners, or support of the city's Diviner caste.

Stingers have little interest in capturing slaves, since they consider teaching and motivating others to do their bidding to be a bothersome step. However, the Diviners make good use of prisoners by sacrificing them on a regular basis.

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Throrgar, the Shrieking Abyss

(Lowerdark of Chionthar)

Beneath the vale of the Chionthar River, between the Northdark and the northern marches of Old Shanatar, lies a tremendous abyss known as Throrgar. This yawning chasm is about 50 miles across, although mighty buttresses rise up out of its fathomless darkness at odd intervals to meet its ceiling. Several foolhardy individuals have descended into Throrgar, and those who have returned report that the small portion of its bottom they explored lies about 15 miles below its ceiling.

Throrgar is a place of fierce, neverending winds so powerful that strong human warriors standing near its edge have been plucked off and hurled screaming into the horrible gloom of the chasm. The air rushing past wind-scoured stone results in terrible high-pitched piping, deep groans, and nerve-shattering wails that seem almost purposeful. The wind in Throrgar is never below strong in intensity, and it often reaches hurricane force.

The depths of Throrgar are riddled with planar connections to Cocytus, the second layer of Pandemonium. In the heart of the abyss, great castles that house slaadi, demons, and strange elder things are carved into the mountain-sized column

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Environs of Sshamath
The environs of Sshamath consist of a maze of tunnels and caverns crudely carved centuries ago when the faerzress first began to fade. Evidence remains of small scale mining activities, unbridled spell experimentation, and old trade routes. The outcast offspring of countless failed breeding experiments and magical transformations haunt the area in small bands, preying on travelers near the city. Most castoffs can be treated as mongrelmen or broken ones, although many exhibit unique powers reflecting their magical ancestry.
Sshamath is relatively isolated, with few immediate rivals. To the west of the city lie the Netherese Caverns, where only the most daring merchants and adventurers tread. To the north lie the expanding tunnels of the thaalud. To the east lie the Gauth Grottoes and the caverns of fallen Oghrann. To the south lie the placid waters of the Giant's Chalice.

Gauth Grottoes
Deep below the western section of the former dwarven kingdom of Oghrann lies a network of caverns known to the drow of Sshamath as the Gauth Grottoes. A small hive of gauth dwell in the played-out delvings of the Stout Folk. The Darkweave Hive consists of less than two hundred beholder-kin led by a gauth version of an elder orb, Xamag the Glamourvore (NE elder orb gauth). Members of the Darkweave Hive prey on merchants traveling to and from Sshamath, feasting on dweomered items and warm-blooded prey.
Despite centuries of repeated assaults by Sshamathan patrols, the gauth have never been dislodged. The gauth give way when the Sshamathan patrols come hunting, and then they return when the patrols leave. As a result, a great deal of eastern traffic to and from the City of Dark Weavings is forced to pass north beneath the Stonelands or south beneath the headwaters of the River Chionthar. Some believe the hive extended their hunting territories in response; their attacks continue unchecked.

Giant's Chalice
In the lower Underdark, miles beneath the Trader's Road, lies a great subterranean oxbow lake. This brackish water stretches from the southernmost tip of the Lake of Dragons near Pros to Asbravn and then back to the Bridge of Fallen Men. The infrequent appearance of sea elves in these waters lead many to suspect that a flooded passage connects the aquatic kingdom of Naramyr with the upper reaches of the Giant's Chalice. The Alu'Quessir are believed to have reestablished trade relations with the blue ring octopi who dwell within these waters; a handful of radiant coral carvings have been offered for sale in Myth Nantar by visiting elven merchants from Naramyr.
The sentient mollusks of Suswynfa (the blue ring octopi name for their aquatic realm) have long suffered from a large colony of vampire squids introduced into these waters by the illithids of Oryndoll seeking to extend their writ. Although the blue ring octopi have been greatly reduced in number, the introduction of elven magic has begun to tip the balance of power in their favor. The reasoning behind the lake's more common name has long been forgotten, but a few sages suspect that it is a Shanataran term referring to the giants that once dwelt above.

The Netherese Caverns
When Netheril fell in -339 DR, refugees streamed east, south, and west in a wave of humanity. They established smaller successor realms known as the Netherese survivor states, the most famous of which were Anauria, Asram, and Hlondath. At least one realm was established in the middle Underdark, beneath the plains east of the Wood of Sharp Teeth. The name and fate of this forgotten realm is unrecorded, but architectural remnants survive throughout the region known as the Netherese Caverns.
The human inhabitants carved cliffside homes into great chasms, fashioning a peaceful tribal culture reminiscent of the Azuposi in the lands to the north of Maztica. While the Netherese Caverns have been looted, rich, hidden tombs still exist. However, something evil haunts these ruins that has grown increasingly powerful in the centuries since its release. It preys upon all who dare to plunder the grottoes of the dead.

Oghrann
Oghrann was the first dwarven realm established in the North by shield dwarf emigrants from Shanatar. At its height, the core caverns of Oghrann encompassed the Tun Plain and the Great Shield, as the mountains encircling it were known. Although folk still find the Sign of the Realm-a curved hunting horn, open to the left, with a six-pointed star above and beneath it-in deep caverns in the Sunset Mountains, few suspect that the bulk of Oghrann lay in the Underdark with surface holdings reserved for livestock. Of the first king Thordbard Firebeard's realm, all that remains in dwarven hands are five ìwellsî in the eastern reaches of the Far Hills, as noted above.
At the heart of the Tunlands lies the Marsh of Tun, a great freshwater bog that envelops the Tun River downstream of where two major tributaries flow together. While bards spin fanciful tales of a city of glass at the heart of the swamp, none recall that the central cavern of Oghrann, the capital city of Araulurrin, lay directly beneath the Marsh of Tun.

[7threalm]

Netherese from an enclave closely allied with the Shadovar’s realm (having similar made researches) establish themselves and their gnome servants in a cavern system underneath the woods where now the Greenfields are. Their underground habitat – known today as The Netherese Caverns - and their delving too deep – opening or stumbling across a portal to the Plane of Shadow – over time transformed the humans and gnomes to Dark Ones.

Philock is on the – disputable – border between the Upper and Middle Dark, and the Dark Ones have most competition with trolls and goblinoids in the Upper Dark regions and other more dangerous foes from the Middle Dark and denizens from the Plane of Shadow.

The Dark Ones of Philock very rarely venture above ground, and only then in the middle of the night, when Selûne and the stars are hidden by cloud cover.

The Dark Ones of Philock venerate few deities, Shar (in both her own aspect and the aspect of Ibrandul), Baravar Cloakshadow and Jergal are the most common. Leira used to hold a prominent place of worship, until her sudden silence in the Time of Troubles; her clergy’s activities predominantly taken up by Shar and Baravar.

Not very numerous and surrounded by a hostile environment, the Dark Ones rely primarily on stealth and ambushes. The predominant class among the Dark Ones of Philock is rogues, but there are also several Underdark rangers, sorcerers and a few clerics/adepts of the deities aforementioned. Most magic – arcane and divine – centers around the use of shadow magic and illusion.

The Netherese Caverns are not connected by any know Underdark passages, but has seen a few incursions of other races in the past – explorers from Shanatar on their trek North, drow mercenary bands or exiles. At least one clan of Rock-gnomes inhabits an area bordering the Cloak Wood. Cloakers, Hooked-horrors, Umberhulks are commonly encountered creatures.

Philock is in a barren stretch of the Underdark, but in the area of The Netherese Caverns, the only area large enough to hold the initial population of humans and gnomes. The network of tunnels and caverns around Philock only holds sparse amounts of edible food – mostly in the form of fungi and molds. Closer to the surface several ‘wet’ areas exist, and these would make ideal foraging areas weren’t it for the fact that the other denizens of the Upper dark also use these areas for their food and water.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_one_% ... Dragons%29

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