Underground Levels

3. The Deepest Depths

Roughly somewhere between 1000 and 1500kms below the surface of the earth.

3.1 Subterranean Cities
3.2 Gates
3.3 Subterranean Races

No place on earth is as strange and dangerous as the Deepest Depths. This level of the Underground extends from 750 kilometres below the surface to unfathomable depths and features a degree of strangeness that would drive some surface dwellers insane. Few upper-worlders ever descend to the Deepest Depths, and few of the Deepest Depth's denizens want anything to do with the surface world. Some of the creatures in the Deepest Depths - intelligent or otherwise - aren't even aware of a surface world; others have heard of it but consider it a mythical place. Interspecies and intraspecies strife is the rule in the Underground. Resources are minimal, and weakness invites extermination. Even the vermin and animals encountered in this area are rarely ordinary - many have been transfigured by crossbreeding or magical interference. Nothing here is normal or simple.

Several Middle Depth races make frequent forays into the Deepest Depths. Some do so because of expansionistic desires, others because they need the resources, and a scant few because they have something to prove, such as a coming-of-age trial for their young warriors to mark the passage between adolescence and adulthood. In a typical version of such a trial, the youth is sent into the Deepest Depths, sometimes armed only with a dagger, and told to return with a trophy demonstrating his competence and ability to contribute to the community. Visitors from the surface are rare and tend to be viewed as potential slaves or food.

Travel in the Deepest Depths can be difficult. In many cases, its simply not possible to go from one place to another because no caves or tunnels lead in the right direction. To overcome this drawback, many of the races that dwell at this depth are prolific portal builders and tunnelers. The Deepest Depths is, at its best, worse than the harshest surface deserts. The difficulty for any Survival check made in the Deepest Depths automatically increases by +5, even for natives. Wild resources are hard to find, and most of those that do exist have already been placed under guard by someone else. Glowing fungi and lichens are less common at this depth than they are in the higher levels. They can be easily cultivated, but most concentrations of them appear in cities, not in the wild. Air tends to be stale, but breathable, though poisonous fumes choke out normal air in a few areas. In many places, water is scarce, and any large supply is well guarded. Creatures living at this depth get most or all of their water from the fluids in other creatures they eat. Food is the most plentiful of the necessities at this depth, but even that becomes an issue at the lower end of the depth range. The term Deepest Depths actually refers to many places, since the great domains of possess fewer and fewer interconnections the deeper one delves. Only about a third of the lowest sections actually connect to each other. The rest consist of isolated pockets of space reachable only from the Middle Depths, by water, or by transportation magic. Typically only one route exists to any given point, and that is what must be used unless the traveller plans to dig one. Though time consuming and cumbersome, many adventurers find it expedient to do just that, so they keep the necessary magic items and spells handy to make their own tunnels as needed.

The Deepest Depths are a strange realm warped by severe environmental and magical forces. The problems that pervade the rest of the Underground intensify here. Resources are scarce, and control of them is continually contested. Air does filter down this far, but it is frequently stale and occasionally toxic because of geothermal fumes. Water is virtually nonexistent, and the little that is present is well guarded. Food cannot be found in the wild, unless the hunter has no aversion to cannibalism (many creatures at this depth survive by this means). Exacerbating these problems still further are numerous areas of wild magic and dead magic. In some places, the shadows cast in areas of light are unnatural - too large or too small for the light source, or cast in contradictory angles. Even beings with darkvision see a flickering of dark around the edges of their vision, as if the darkness were trying to drown out any sight at all.

Much of this area was created by volcanism, flowing or dripping water, earth tremors, and mysterious magic that left behind an intense magical radiation. Any of these forces can cause sudden collapses, floods, or falling hazards.
Drinkable water is all too rare, apt to be guarded by predators or already in use by moulds or fungi dangerous to other creatures. Some waters are acidic, corroding metal, flesh, or both. Bad air is another problem. Both the native cities and the ongoing volcanism can generate poisonous vapours that drift or creep for miles in the lightless depths. Purple worms, umber hulks, xorn, and other creatures burrow through solid rock. Mysterious, unexplained appearances of chambers, caverns, and passages that pulse with strong magical radiation are not unknown. Thus maps of this area soon go out of date. Guides can be helpful, but their loyalty is always a matter of concern. Travel or teleport magic is usually useless over long distances because it is warped into deadly failure by magical radiation, though it can still prove useful for short journeys within the same open cavern. Portals work in some areas but not in others, and the establishment of new portals is well nigh impossible, since the magic involved attracts formidable enemies very swiftly it is not to be attempted lightly.

Why would any creature with intelligence or common sense live in such a terrible environment? Some races have lived here for generation upon generation, and the Deepest Depths are simply their home. Other creatures settle here to take advantage of the Deepest Depth's unique magical properties, rare ores, or shelter from the hated sun. Still others view a sojourn in the Deepest Depths as a temporary solution, since the dead magic areas and hostile territory may be a wanted criminal's most expedient means of avoiding capture. Of course, not everyone is there by choice. Some unfortunates are here because they neglected to research the destinations of the portals through which they ventured. Others have been exiled here from communities in the Middle Depths, the Shallow Depths, or even the surface world. Some drow matrons get rid of potentially problematic subordinates by sending them on exploratory or expansionistic raiding parties into the Deepest Depths. A triumphant scout returning from the mission into the depths might find her unexpected survival fatally inconvenient to the matron who dispatched her.