P.S. how far down does each Spirit of the land spread?
Originally posted by The People
I have heard passing mention of this place, but never any details. Is there any avalable information? I take it that you would have neither the standard D&D underdark races, but something much more alien and twisted. could anyone tell me about it?
P.S. how far down does each Spirit of the land spread?
There as never been any official accessory book about an Athasian Underdark but there as to be since there are a few underdark races(which are official)
Also in the Blue age, the Rhulisti were *growing* caves and passages under the oceans and if I'm not mistaking, powerfull psion of the green age used those tunnels(and maybe other) for fast transport(I assume for other things like secret temples/hideouts/you name it)
But again, nothing detailed ever came public out of TSR.
.At least some that is talked about in Under Tyr.
Originally posted by Sysane
Aren't there ancient halfling ruins in Under Tyr as well?
I think so, not 100% sure on that though.
Also there is no indication that the races who in the past excavated for a living ever developped vast subteranean civilizations like those found in Tolkien's books. The dwarves had a subteranean city, Kemalok, but it seems quite small and is very near the surface.
UnderTyr is not an intentionnal underground area but an artifact caused by engineering considerations: the city planners needed to elevate the city from the marshes below and built thousands of colums to elevate the new base of the city above the waters. Some of the original buildings were left intact in between, like the Crimson Shrine.
The Blue Age halflings built, or grew, underground chambers and passageways, but their civilization was more akin to our civilization in the real world, that is they built modern and fonctionnal. Remember the Cleft Rock chapter in The Amber Enchantress: the entirety of what they find under the dome (and it seemed to go down several levels more than what Sadira could reach) is an ancient halfling complex with hibernating halflings in it.
Dregoth's new city is underground only because he had to hide his activity from the SKs, and iirc the chambers were formed by lava flow or were halfling-shaped.
All in all, there is no conceptual link between these undergrounds areas and those that compose Faerûn's underdark. You might know all of this already but I'd been wanting to write this down for some time now anyway.
Originally posted by Sysane
Aren't there ancient halfling ruins in Under Tyr as well?
Quote from the Wanderers Chronicle page10
Blue Age
Perhaps(lost in history I guess) the greatest halfling city was Tyr'agi located in the hollow that would someday become the Tyr Valley. The vale was filled with a vast swamp of vine-drape trees and floating island of moss. At the edge of the valley, a strange,
beautifull city........
Now to say that it is right under Tyr city I'm not sure but it would explain the name it kept even to this day.
Concerning the underdark, on the same page it is written(quite similar to what Pennarin wrote)
..... halflings panicked and looked for ways to protect themselves. Some built great subteranean strongholds. (the city dregoth discovered was one of them.)
I was thinking of introducing some Drow action into my world. Like they finally reach the tablelands or something and go, "what do we have here..."
Originally posted by Dragi
and there is a lake or something under Urik. Yes/no?
I was thinking of introducing some Drow action into my world. Like they finally reach the tablelands or something and go, "what do we have here..."
It is a water reservoir, occupied at one point by squatters, swiftly removed and butchered by the authorities.
such a network would probably not be verry extensive, but could be interesting nontheless. Especially if the Rhulisti modified themselvs to better suit the environment. there may be a compleetly isolated ecosystem down there.
But of course, I must also add the standard "Hey, it's your game - go for it!" disclaimer.
Originally posted by Mach2.5
I've never been really fond of having an expansive ecology living undernearth the surface of Athas. Pockets of it, as in the above examples, are fine. Part of the problem is I'm fairly unfamiliar with 'underground' life in the real world, so coming up with appropriatly harsh environmental conditions underground that mirrored the deadly aspects of living on the surface was just a bit difficult. It always seemed that you lose one of Dark Sun's biggest themes when you port the PCs underground for an extended duration.
to true
At the bottom of the mine, they found an Ilithid petrified in the rock (a fossil, like Dinosaur we found here).
So in my campaign world, there Ilithid living in an Underdark but very very deep. The one the player found was taked back to the surface by a lava flow. Of course, the character of my player didnt know what an Ilithid was, but the player did, and were all afraid that the mine was filled with living Ilithid hiding somewhere. Of course, they were none. But they found in complete horror that the mine was packed with the banshee of the dwarven slave that worked there. The mine was set there by Urikite noble thinking he will find a silver vein. He promised to his slave that if they found silver, they will be free. The dwarven slave, all happy to have a way to become free put there focus on finding silver. Of course, they were no silver there. It was a scam made by a Templar to make this noble loose money on this foolish mining attempt (that was the background of this adventure).
I dont know if in my campaign, there still Ilithid that exist deep underground. Maybe they still live there or maybe they are now inxtinct. But that in my campaign, there no official source in DS book about an Underdark.
I've never been really fond of having an expansive ecology living undernearth the surface of Athas. Pockets of it, as in the above examples, are fine. Part of the problem is I'm fairly unfamiliar with 'underground' life in the real world, so coming up with appropriatly harsh environmental conditions underground that mirrored the deadly aspects of living on the surface was just a bit difficult. It always seemed that you lose one of Dark Sun's biggest themes when you port the PCs underground for an extended duration.
Yeah. In my 1 year campaign, the player have been underground only three time.
One time in UnderTyr in the Crimson shrine (half a game session, 2 hour in game term).
One time under the Lake Pit (Dragon bowl) in a Water elemental Temple half a game session, 1 day in gaming time)
Another time in an old mine (one 8 hour game session, 6 day in gaming time (they were stuck there)).
That all.
I plan to make them travel into Kamelok, the Dwarven kingdom, to find the Scourge of Rakaar. But I dont think they will go underground again after that, or before.
Dark Sun is about travelling to point A to point B, hehe :D
BUT, that doesn't stop anyone from creating/imagining a underdark for Athas. It wouldn't be an Undermountain, but could be an ancient buried city (as it appeared on the DarkSun Game: Shattered Lands). In adition, we could have a lot of communities trying to survive away from the cruel sun, spreaded along the entire Tyr Region. (as we already have: hej-kin, drays, rhulisti, verini, and the illithid, if they were to exist on athas).
It's also mentioned (on the City State of Draj, athas.org supplement) something about the Mastyrial Mountains with a lot of caves, some of these caves lead to ancient ruins, cities and perhaps communities (always well guarded by Raigs and alike).
You can connect the different areas of aforementioned underdarks, but I wouldn't recommend this. If you feel the need, it should not nearly be as extensive as the FR underdark, which is really just one big, massive cave stretching across the entire world, practically.
If you have to connect them, make it one or two small, narrow tunnels that wind and stretch for many, many miles - none of this massive, city-sized cave that stretches from Urik to Tyr. It would be much cooler and damper underground and if such an expansive and habitable series of caves existed on Athas, the population would have moved below-ground long ago.
In short, keep it simple and keep it small. If you feel the need (or your players feel the need) to explore further, make them mine it out, or go through rather difficult circumstances (tunnels that are underwater for miles, have wicked currents, and sharp protrusions) to get to the next small, underground location.
Undertyr exists, as it is mentioned in City State of Tyr and in Verdant Passage (PP-I). You can make it as big or small as you would like, but I personally wouldn't make it larger than the city above.
As for the denizens, you should probably stay away from Drow, Duergar, Sverifneblin, Aboleth, etc, unless you plan on explaining them in an Athasian way (Yuan-Ti could easily be a life-shaped critter).
Fun takes precedence, of course, but remember that, in the long-run, the consistency of the brutality of Athas is part of what makes it fun. Introducing the Forgotten Realms intrudes on this.