Two New Mystara Underdark Locations
by Chris Seabrook
The Village of Buried Dreams
I created this small berg to give my players a place to rest up, by new stuff, and memorize spells during long spelunking adventures. I had it situated in eastern Darokin, in the foothills. It sits near a tunnel intersection that connects Oenkmar, Rockhome, and the Shadow Elf tunnels.
The Village of buried Dreams is a village composed of refugee surface dwellers, split evenly between gnomes, dwarves, and humans with some several halflings and surface elves present. Recently, several shadow elves have entered the community, along with four goblins, three gnolles, two hobgoblins, two orcs, one troll one stone giant, and an ogre. The people of the underground village are all refugees that have had to flee there home land for one reason or another. Many are believed to be criminals in there native lands, some of them are. Many of them have been dismembered or so badly disfigured by war that they have no place in the nations they defended. Some are escaped slaves, and some where to destitute to survive on the surface, and looking for shelter below the earth, found a new home. Many of them are unattractively altered from magical disasters or magical experimentation; some are twisted, but granted powers (from enchantments), some are stuck with animal characteristics (from failed polymorphs).
The Village lies in a tunnel that is lighted by an unstudied type of phosphorescent quartz; the local priest says that it is a gift of Ka The Preserver, who blesses this town. The Village occupies one of the major trade tunnels that connects different parts of the Underdark with each other, and lies in the path of one of the most popular (useful, convenient and safe) routs to the surface. The local economy is almost is evenly split between trading and providing services. The inhabitants practice limited (sunless) agriculture in the far eastern section, but it not enough to sustain the community. The community provides services to those traveling through the Underdark, and to the surface.
The town is divided in to three sections: the residential section, to the north, the commercial section to the south, and the “fields” (gardens) to the east. The people live, work (making a little of what is sold in the commercial district), and worship in the residential district; the residential district is for those who wish to hide, and visitors are discouraged from going in there. The commercial district is where the town interacts with the rest of the world; it is here that trade takes place, goods are bought and services rendered; most of the merchants also live in there shops. The fields are where food is grown.
There is an inn and tavern to the east and south of the temple of Ka, and west of the fields in a large octagonal building. The temple of Ka is located in medium sized stone building to the north and east of the inn. Next door to the temple and to the west is the large home of the gnome Snivel Glitteredeye (formerly Glittereyes), the founder, mayor, and richest person in the town (Snivel is mage that lost his eye and half his face to a failed fireball spell that killed his entire family (he was attempting to cancel the spell that he cast to defend them form what he thought were intruders). He is quite passionate about making up for his mistakes and sees the town as his new family. To the south and west (it has a flag on it) is the tower of the Town Watch (the group of fighters that are employed defending and policing the town; the watch is composed of two humans, two dwarves, and the humanoids). To the north and west of the tower is the “Tenement of Thieves”, a name given to it by its residence that are mostly believed to be criminals (most are actually innocent) and escaped slaves. There is a small amphitheater to the south of the tenement and just two buildings and two tents away from the western boundary under a medium sized pyramid of hardened leather and canvas; during the day music and dramas are held here to encourage travelers to stay in the town as long as possible, and during times of crisis, the town gathers here to discuss.
Creepy Cave
I wanted to toss something new at my pc's, but I couldn't decide between Brain Collectors, Mind Flayers, Drow, or Araneas, so I smooshed them together.
The cave lies at the back of a long, winding, broad passage that steeply slopes down. The complex balloons at the end with the ceiling rising up to 70 above the ground. The lowest point of the complex is just before the town walls where there is a small lake separating the complex from the tunnel. The ground beneath the town rises steeply, enough so that the tops of the back buildings are visible from the far shore over the twenty-foot high wall. The dock is made of a wood that is in questionable condition. Leading from the dock, a narrow road is flanked by two walls that join with outside wall. Sobs, moans, and screams of prisoners and slaves that are being experimented with, tortured, and executed can be heard over the wall. Up against the curtain wall are row of sewer grates that collect everything that runs out of the city and dumps it into the lake. To either side of the wall are rows of racks, from which the unfortunate hang, facing several tables for trials, judging (during competitions), interrogation, and the storing of instruments. At the end of the road lies the main complex; the complex consists of two ceremonial grounds (mauve diamonds dug into the ground that strongly radiate magic) on either side of the entrance, two large walled in compounds that have a single story entrance and a two story body (for the training of prisoners to turn them into slaves), two smaller two story compounds (for warriors and working slaves), and a small plateau with a small worm and fish infested pond with a small island inside (for keeping unbroken prisoners on). To either side of the main complex are rows of eerily similar high roofed, two story buildings (first floor workshop, and dwelling area above) that alternate roof colours; these are the homes and workshops of the denizens of this place. Behind the residential district lies another row of racks, from which hang suffering beings who appear to be in different stages of undeath, and two the east, a well. Separated from the rest of the town by a same style of wall that connects with the curtain wall are two large three story temples built to look like spiders on both the far east and west side (for the clerics). Before them sits a row of three octagonal buildings, two are two stories with flat black roofs (for any kind of landing) that glow purple (for the mages), and one in the middle that glows red and is three stories with a glowing roof of shifting lines and colours that looks vaguely like a brain (for cleric/mages and those with psionic powers). Behind the towers are three pools: one that bubbles and is full of tiny spider-like things with over-sized brain shaped abdomens, one with something large, that glows, undulates and twists that looks like an oversized brain, and one that holds many small pearly eggs.