Lowerdark
No place on Toril is as strange and dangerous as the Lowerdark.
This level of the Underdark extends from 10 miles below the surface
to unfathomable depths and features a degree of strangeness
that would drive some surface dwellers insane. Few upperworlders
ever descend to the Lowerdark, and few of the Lowerdark’s
denizens want anything to do with the surface world.
Some of the creatures in the Lowerdark—intelligent or otherwise—
aren’t even aware of a surface world; others have heard of
it but consider it a mythical place.
Interspecies and intraspecies strife is the rule in the Underdark.
Resources are minimal, and weakness invites extermination.
Most of the Lowerdark’s denizens are chaotic, evil, or both.
Even the vermin and animals encountered in this area are rarely
ordinary—many have been transfigured by crossbreeding or
magical interference. Nothing here is normal or simple.
Travel in the Lowerdark is arduous at best. The term Lower
Underdark actually refers to many places, since the great domains
of Faerûn’s Underdark possess fewer and fewer interconnections
the deeper one delves. Only about a third of the lowest sections of
the Underdark actually connect to each other. The rest of the
Lowerdark consists of isolated pockets of space reachable only
from the Middledark, by water, or by transportation magic.
Typically only one route exists to any given point, and that
is what must be used unless the traveler plans to dig one. Though
time consuming and cumbersome, many adventurers find it expedient
to do just that, so they keep the necessary magic items and
spells handy to make their own tunnels as needed. Fortunately,
faerzress is rare at this depth, so teleportation can be used totravel the Lowerdark with a reasonable hope of success, assuming
that the traveler has a good sense of the destination.
Surviving in the Lowerdark
The Lowerdark is a strange realm warped by severe environmental
and magical forces. The problems that pervade the rest
of the Underdark intensify here. Resources are scarce, and control
of them is continually contested. Air does filter down this
far, but it is frequently stale and occasionally toxic because of
geothermal fumes. Water is virtually nonexistent, and the little
that is present is well guarded. Food cannot be found in the wild,
unless the hunter has no aversion to cannibalism. (Many creatures
at this depth survive by this means.) The Survival check
DCs for most tasks increase by 10.
Exacerbating these problems still further are numerous areas
of wild magic and dead magic. Though faerzress is rare here, the
Weave in the Lowerdark is a snarled, tangled mess. Yet anothermagic-complicating feature is a high degree of portal seepage.
The darkness at this depth is so deep that it seems to actively
dislike light. Natural light sources fail with unnerving frequency,
and magical light sources draw attackers like flies to rotten fruit.
In some places, the shadows cast in areas of light are unnatural—
too large or too small for the light source, or cast in contradictory
angles. Even beings with darkvision see a flickering of dark
around the edges of their vision, as if the darkness were trying to
drown out any sight at all.
Denizens of the Lowerdark
Why would any creature with intelligence or common sense live in
such a terrible environment? Some races have lived here for generation
upon generation, and the Lowerdark is simply their home.
Other creatures settle here to take advantage of the Lowerdark’s
unique magical properties, rare ores, or shelter from the hated sun.
Still others view a sojourn in the Lowerdark as a temporary solution,
since the dead magic areas and hostile territory may be a
wanted criminal’s most expedient means of avoiding capture.
Of course, not everyone is in the Lowerdark by choice. Some
unfortunates are here because they neglected to research the destinations of the portals through which they ventured. Others
have been exiled here from communities in the Middledark, the
Upperdark, or even the surface world. Some drow matrons getrid of potentially problematic subordinates by sending them on
exploratory or expansionistic raiding parties into the Lowerdark.
A triumphant scout returning from the mission into the depths
might find her unexpected survival fatally inconvenient to the
matron who dispatched her.
Several Middledark races make frequent forays into the Lowerdark.
Some do so because of expansionistic desires, others
because they need the resources, and a scant few because they
have something to prove. Grimlocks and orogs often set a
coming-of-age trial for their young warriors to mark the passage
between adolescence and adulthood. In a typical version of such a
trial, the youth is sent into the Lowerdark, sometimes armed only
with a dagger, and told to return with a trophy demonstrating his
competence and ability to contribute to the community.
Aboleths Avolakia Beholders Cloakers Deepspawn Derro Desmodus Destrachans Elementals Extraplanar Creatures Psurlons Tomb Tappers Undead
