Caverealm

According to General Thaugorrn Brawnbeard Battlehammer of the Dwarven Empire, 65 OW. Written for the Adventurer's Guide to the Many Isles. Although both a geologist and a theologist would disagree with me, I dare to say there is a sixth inner plane: the Caverealm, a huge expanse of dark tunnels that spreads beneath Oshmondu, Waterlond, Bolmeranda, and the plains of fire. I say so because, truly, the Caverealm is a different world. What is it? Well, a network of caves and tunnels, going extremely deep and far, connecting every mountain and every forest with one another. It is a world of dangers. Indeed, hitting a Caverealm tunnel is the greatest fear of dwarven miners. Sometimes, we mined too deep and too far, our hunt for ores driving us through the rock into a dark cavern or tunnel. There, many odd creatures, of which most are dangerous, proliferate. There are oozes, fungus and myconids, hordes of undead, and evil duergar or drow. All of these are a serious danger to miners, as they are often numerous enough to pose a threat to the dwarven enclave above. Next to the many beasts and natural dangers, there are also drow. The dark elves, for some odd reason, have decided to leave their ancient kin, become evil, and live in underground caves. The problem is that they have formed a grand empire. They have a huge underground city somewhere, around which many smaller outposts and fortified villages were built. They have dangerous paralyzing hand crossbows, psychic whips, and other deadly paraphernalia. Drow are fierce warriors, and have repeatedly waylaid dwarven caravans making their way through the Caverealm. Duergar are what the drow are to elves, but to us. Somehow, we dwarves, too, have an evil version of ourselves down there. They have built many great enclaves, forging bland but strong weapons. They typically don't go raiding as often as drow, but whenever they hear a dwarf is around, they unleash all their power to make him suffer and die. Even the gnomes have a subterranean counterpart. Through some odd fame of fate, they aren't evil, though. The good-natured, stout and sturdy svirfneblin (the name of deep gnomes) live in heavily fortified settlements, giving their best to fend off drow attacks whilst mining for gems, especially rubies. Us dwarves find it a waste of time to be going for rubies and not metals, but it is their own choice. Many vestiges of ancient days are somehow located in the Caverealm. Maybe so many are there because those on the surface got destroyed, or the ancients buried their achievements so deep no one else would find them. In any case, ruins of old temples, crypts, buildings sometimes lie half-crumbled in a cave. Alien machines run in hidden canions filled with lava. No one knows how big or how deep the Caverealm truly is, but I can tell you, it's bigger than anyone knows.

Alternative Name(s)

Underdark

Type

Cave System

Included Locations