DM-Nastics #30: Into the Depths

2. The Earth's Teeth

The Earth's Teeth are relatively close to the surface, serving as as sort of a unoffical border between Dwarven mines and the actual Underdark. Traveling through the Teeth is the only non-magical way to go deeper into the Underdark. Miners in search of fortune are often drawn to the Teeth, not because wanting to get to the Underdark, but because of the pure and highly condensed salt which make up the Earth's Teeth

However mining there is extremely dangerous because Bholes use this area as a spawning ground, leaving their children to feed on the salt. Any large operation could disturb and summon these children, which are much smaller then an adult Bhole, but still as dangerous. Other dangers include the Cave Fishers which hid atop the higher salt formations in wait for miners, and Whitemantles who use their bleach white color to hide on the salt formation. There are other creatures that sometimes venture into the Teeth to hunt, but because Bhole's use it as a spawning ground, only creatures that can hide, like Cave Fishers and Whitemantles, stay amongst the Teeth.

While the Teeth hold deadly creatures and is difficult to climb around, its most dangerous feature is the fact that any light source is amplified 3 fold because of the white salt formations that make up the entire place. Thus making sure creatures that want to eat you are well aware of your presence hundreds of feet before you are in sight. Another danger is slipping, as the Earth's Teeth are oriented downward and further into the Underdark, a slip will cause you to go tumbling down further and further as you are literally chewed up by the earth.

The Wintery Absolute

The caves of the underdark are strange and alien to an outsider. The farther down one goes, they stranger they appear. Deep deep down into the depths of the underdark is a cave without light or sound. Without warmth for heat. It is so cold and frozen that it is said Time itself stops there. Made up entirely of ice and darkness, The Absolute is mentally dangerous to explore. Few have returned from its depths with their sanity intact.

Nothing lives here besides the darkness.

There is one large sheet of nearly clear ice that reflects everything in this strange and twisted cavern. Here, there is no telling what is up or down, friend or foe, exit or entrance. It breathes darkness and ensnares the mind as well as the body.

Did a little digging around on google images to find one that inspired a story at a glimpse. This obviously belongs in "or another" when it comes to selecting an image "from this world or another!"



The Houses of Cadyr Tzithes:

More than a thousand years ago, the demon prince Shazramatix gained entry to the mortal plane, and in his wake thousands of fiends followed. Spawned from a portal deep in the underdark where his Duergar priests foolishly summoned him -- and perished with his emergence -- the infernal forces threatened to overrun the surface world. The surface dwellers above were already engaged in widespread warfare with one another when the demons began their rampage, but the various magical institutions across the continent set aside their national interests, and allied to drive the fiends back.

Ultimately, they were successful, but could not completely banish Shazramatix. Instead they imprisoned him in the Godstomb, a powerful artifact of their own construction, devised for this very purpose. Yet it proved insufficient to contain the demon prince by its own power, and required the constant will of some of the world's most powerful mages to maintain. While the alliance still lasted, they formed the floating fortresses which would come to be known as the Houses of Cadyr Tzithes, whose name derived from an ancient tongue and meant "We Too Are Prisoners."

In each of the floating fortresses reside the once-mortal archmagi who defeated Shazramatix. They each assumed a form of undeath similar to lichdom to oversee the eternal burden of containing the demon. The immense magical power required to do so cannot be sustained by any individual, or even a group, in perpetuity. The twin fortresses exist to relieve one another of this great burden, taking shifts and exchanging places over the Godstomb every ten days. This cycle has gone undisturbed for over a thousand years. 

The path through the underdark to the immense cavern where dwells the Godstomb and the Houses of Cadyr Tzithes is relatively easy to find and follow. However, neither surface dweller nor underdark denizen is foolish enough to approach two dozen liches and their demon prince prisoner. Yet a few who have dared to spy it from a distance describe a curious microbiome leading to the floating Houses, where trees, grass and flowers from the surface thrive. Some speculate this too is the work of the liches, who have created a memory of the surface to make their existence bearable.

All of these are awesome! They remind me why I love spelunking so much. The underdark is going to be an amazing (but still fearful) place to travel to... especially with these caves.

I'm currently debating what goes in and what doesn't from things that have happened before, but given that these forums are public and we promote DM piracy (take ideas and make them yours) by all means take them! Especially these as a decent majority are real world photos, haha. I am going to have to make some decisions by Tuesday Night that's for sure! Haha.

I want 5% royalties from all the money you guys make DMing that use my ideas. 

I'll be rich in no time...