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Cards77
Senior Scribe
USA
755 Posts |
 Posted - 12 Nov 2025 : 19:26:40
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Hello, looking for suggestions of further Underdark DM resources.
Could you please suggest any other sources that can help with preparation?
The players wish to find, clear and map an underground trade route between Silverymoon and Mithral Hall.
I have with me:
3e Underdark
Races of Stone
Caves and Caverns (Raging Swan)
Drizzt's Guide to the Underdark
Drow of the Underdark
City of the Spider Queen - this group already ran it
After a 5 year break I am feeling very very rusty as a DM.
I do not want this to be a boring slog through bland caves, and I am not the most creative DM.
I have not looked at any available 3rd party sources in many years.
Hoping to save time by asking here. Thank you!
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Edited by - Cards77 on 12 Nov 2025 19:28:07
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3767 Posts |
Posted - 12 Nov 2025 : 23:08:39
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-Found this cool map which is semi-interactive and can toggle between overland and underdark. It definitely is not as expansive as information from those aforementioned books regarding what can be found in the area, but it gives a pretty useful scale toggling back and forth between what can be found above and below.
https://forgottenmaps.web.app/map/Faerun |
(A Tri-Partite Arcanist Who Has Forgotten More Than Most Will Ever Know) |
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Cards77
Senior Scribe
USA
755 Posts |
Posted - 13 Nov 2025 : 04:59:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
-Found this cool map which is semi-interactive and can toggle between overland and underdark. It definitely is not as expansive as information from those aforementioned books regarding what can be found in the area, but it gives a pretty useful scale toggling back and forth between what can be found above and below.
https://forgottenmaps.web.app/map/Faerun
i was just thinking about how I was going to do this.
Super useful thank you |
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TBeholder
Great Reader
2514 Posts |
Posted - 13 Nov 2025 : 11:54:35
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quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
-Found this cool map which is semi-interactive and can toggle between overland and underdark.
Cool. Thanks!
quote:
Originally posted by Cards77
i was just thinking about how I was going to do this.
My approach was to combine them in a format with layers (import both maps as layers, scale the larger one down, move to overlay properly, save). I now open it in GIMP and change opacity of the upper layer as needed. Not very convenient, of course, but semi-transparency has its advantages. |
People never wonder How the world goes round -Helloween
And even I make no pretense Of having more than common sense -R.W.Wood
It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo. -Ed Whitchurch |
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TomCosta
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
1025 Posts |
Posted - 13 Nov 2025 : 15:29:54
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| There were some new nuggets in the 4E FRCG. |
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Cards77
Senior Scribe
USA
755 Posts |
Posted - 18 Nov 2025 : 00:51:18
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Tangential question since I'm pretty rusty after several years off:
how much would the "average" PC actually know about the Underdark?
or even just the average surface dweller?
We have a elf loremaster PC and I'm trying not to provide too much to the group so it can feel all new.
However, for practicality sake, SOME things would/should be known.
Mainly the geography? Maps? |
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HighOne
Learned Scribe
245 Posts |
Posted - 18 Nov 2025 : 01:43:25
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The average PC wouldn't know anything about the Underdark. Some wouldn't even know of its existence. Others would only know of it by its reputation -- dark, dank, labyrinthine, and home to unspeakable monsters.
Dwarves would probably know the most, since dwarven history is ripe with tales of those who dug too deep and came to ruin. Urban-dwelling rogues might know something about the trade that goes on between the Underdark and the surface. Mid- and high-level wizards with a specialty in earthly lore might know a little about the Underdark's flora and fauna. But none of this would amount to more than a few scraps of knowledge. |
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Cards77
Senior Scribe
USA
755 Posts |
Posted - 18 Nov 2025 : 03:29:44
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quote:
Originally posted by HighOne
The average PC wouldn't know anything about the Underdark. Some wouldn't even know of its existence. Others would only know of it by its reputation -- dark, dank, labyrinthine, and home to unspeakable monsters.
Dwarves would probably know the most, since dwarven history is ripe with tales of those who dug too deep and came to ruin. Urban-dwelling rogues might know something about the trade that goes on between the Underdark and the surface. Mid- and high-level wizards with a specialty in earthly lore might know a little about the Underdark's flora and fauna. But none of this would amount to more than a few scraps of knowledge.
No existence? What about the tales told to naughty children about mindflayers eating their brains or dark skinned elves coming to kidnap them in the night???
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
12199 Posts |
Posted - 05 Dec 2025 : 13:17:40
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quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
-Found this cool map which is semi-interactive and can toggle between overland and underdark. It definitely is not as expansive as information from those aforementioned books regarding what can be found in the area, but it gives a pretty useful scale toggling back and forth between what can be found above and below.
https://forgottenmaps.web.app/map/Faerun
Neat. I notice there's a calendar that covers the spellplague years with year names. Wonder if they're official. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
12199 Posts |
Posted - 05 Dec 2025 : 13:28:23
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quote:
Originally posted by TBeholder
quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
-Found this cool map which is semi-interactive and can toggle between overland and underdark.
Cool. Thanks!
quote:
Originally posted by Cards77
i was just thinking about how I was going to do this.
My approach was to combine them in a format with layers (import both maps as layers, scale the larger one down, move to overlay properly, save). I now open it in GIMP and change opacity of the upper layer as needed. Not very convenient, of course, but semi-transparency has its advantages.
Oh, this is your work tbeholder? Let me commend you. I wish I didn't have to hold down a day job, because I'd love to play with the other continents. I personally think it would be fun to have underdark maps as overlays, but for each layer of the underdark (i.e. there may be a community in the upperdark that's OVER another city in the middledark that's OVER another city in the Lowerdark... and they may trade via "levitating trade elevators" between the cities, etc.... but bandits may wait along these vertical tunnels, etc...). I wouldn't dare touch Faerun though for that as I couldn't do it justice, but I think people wouldn't be upset if there's scaling errors, etc.... on other continents, islands, or under Kara-Tur, etc... |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 05 Dec 2025 13:31:09 |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
12199 Posts |
Posted - 05 Dec 2025 : 14:00:10
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quote:
Originally posted by Cards77
quote:
Originally posted by HighOne
The average PC wouldn't know anything about the Underdark. Some wouldn't even know of its existence. Others would only know of it by its reputation -- dark, dank, labyrinthine, and home to unspeakable monsters.
Dwarves would probably know the most, since dwarven history is ripe with tales of those who dug too deep and came to ruin. Urban-dwelling rogues might know something about the trade that goes on between the Underdark and the surface. Mid- and high-level wizards with a specialty in earthly lore might know a little about the Underdark's flora and fauna. But none of this would amount to more than a few scraps of knowledge.
No existence? What about the tales told to naughty children about mindflayers eating their brains or dark skinned elves coming to kidnap them in the night???
I agree... the idea of people not knowing that the underdark exists is a little ludicrous. HOWEVER, the best way to police it is that what is KNOWN .... likely is filled with things that aren't TRUE.... half or more should be unverified rumors that have been embellished by bards.
But, just to throw down a gauntlet of SOME things that will be KNOWN.
There's a bunch of races of degenerate dwarves, and they sometimes ware between their groups, though occasionally they work together. Some of these are known as duergar, others derro, others are called darklings (yeah... they aren't dwarves... point being people on the surface don't KNOW that). They're all cannibals, and some of them are allied with illithids (the illithids eat the brains and leave them the fleshy bodies). Some of these dwarves have even interbred with illithids and thus gained illithid mind powers.
There's also ebony skinned elves, some call them dark elves, drow, or dhaerow. They breed like rabbits compared to their surface cousins, but given the lack of resources in the underdark, they value the lives of their kin and cohorts much less than surface elves. Very few of them survive past the first few years of their adulthood. They raid their surrounding communities and the surface world for slaves, which they work to death, and these slaves are then turned into sausage, added into mushroom cheeses, or used to feed their other slaves.
There is a white furred beast folk which call themselves Quaggoths, but are known more commonly to surface worlders as "Deepbears". These "deepbears" were from a group of Urskan bear folk who descended into the underdark tunnels from the far north... some say in the lands above Anchorome.... and travelled via these tunnels southward and then were cut off from their homeland. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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More Underdark sources?
