Month #6: The Down Below

The sixth month of #Dungeon23 is upon us and I'm switching from the Found Tombs to another widescreen setting, in this case, the Down Below. This is a gigantic series of caverns, caves, tunnels and so on, deep beneath the surface of Titan, including among other locations elsewhere, the Dark Elven city of Tiranduil Kelthas below Darkwood Forest. However, for this month, we'll focus only on the part of the Down Below in the immediate vicinity of the Found Tombs and the surface world above it, beginning with...

The Down Below - A Vast Subterranean World

The River Scour (#1/30; #152/365)

The River Scour lies at the bottom of the Chasm of Doom, a deep, darkwater stream flowing through the blackness of the underworld. Its banks are lined with weird and obscure subterranean fungi; in its depths lurk all manner of foul monstrosities that have never seen the light of day. Although it twists and turns, the River Scour gradually flows east after draining the roots of the mountainous uplands above, meandering through the Down Below before finally debouching into the Stinking Delta that abuts the shores of the Sunless Sea. 

For inhabitants of the river, roll on the following table:

1 Tentacled Thing

2 Swarm of purple Cave Crabs

3 Shoal of albino Snapperfish

4 Fungoids foraging along the banks

5 Giant Slug

6 Tentallus

For fungi, consult the Random Fungi Table here, in addition to these two added types:

Emerald Net Fungus: Lies dormant underground but when triggered explodes as an emerald mist of spores that solidify into a chitinous net of fungi, as per the Web spell.

Golden Loop Fungus: As per regular Giant Loop Fungus, but pale gold in colour and secrets an acid that dissolves flesh for 1 STAMINA damage per Attack Round, until a victim cuts themselves free.

The City of Grx-Sel-Vik (#2/30; #153/365)

The City of Grx is a turgid nightmare of an underground metropolis, a rank, stagnant urban-scape of weird spires and bulbous mansions, filled with glowing fungi and blinking insects, whose architecture twists and turns before the eyes of surface-dwellers, turning them slowly insane. Practical details are as follows:

Ruler: The Archveult Supreme (see below)

Dominion Grade:6

Type: Small City

Income: 200OT/month (1 Obsidian Token = 1GP)

Army: 50 Soldiers (Brain Slayers), 50 Watchmen (Brain Slayers), 200 Militia (Flayers)

Description: The City of Grx-Sel-Vik ('Tentacles resting lightly upon my perspiring brow') is a Brain Slayer community that lies along the banks of the subterranean River Scour. It is the main settlement of Brain Slayers in this region of central south-western Allansia, and has around 3000 inhabitants, of which around 500 or more are actual Brain Slayers. Of the remainder, 1000 are Flayers or rarer cephalopod/cnidarian client-races of the Brain Slayers, while the rest are a vast miscellany of people-types from both the Down Below and the surface of Titan. Many of these are captives, but some are free citizens, including envoys, traders, mercenaries and so on. All non-Brain Slayers/Flayers must carry an Obsidian Card; this is incised with specific information about them to identify them to the     Watch and other functionaries of the Ministry Urban. The city is a dangerous place for non-Brain Slayers; weird mutant scavengers and strange carnivorous fungi can be found living in the backstreets and alleyways, only too happy to make a snack of some unfortunate who gets stuck in the wrong part of town.

Major locations within Grx include:

The Ministry Above (#3/30; #154/365)

The Ministry Above is one of a triumvirate of powerful bureaucracies that governs life in the city of Grx. Its primary purpose is concerned with how the city interacts with the sunlit world of Titan, and the near-surface level dungeons and cave systems that lie above the great Down Below (such as the Found Tombs of Arvakaten). The Ministry Above is housed in a looming, squat, bronze-coloured ziggurat whose flat top allows for take-off and landing by Ministry agents riding bat-steeds (which are housed in aerial stable-cages). Agents favour CAVE VAMPIRES for fast transport in areas without much light; the larger NYCTERIN are preferred for long hauls and surface level excursions. All agents are Brain Slayers, clad in uniforms of purple robes and led by a Chief Psionicist; the lair of Brain Slayers on level three of the Found Tombs can be considered typical for such an operational cell structure.

The Ministry building itself is full of extensive archives (in octagonal books of compressed metal plates) about various nearby areas above on the surface world, and a central chamber contains a psychically-projected physical map of this area of Titan. Other areas are given over to agents' quarters and training spaces, as well as the office of the First Minister Above, B'Phas the Belligerent (one-legged - floats on an aerial cushion, forceful), a Brain Slayer with very strong psionic powers who reports directly to the Archveult Supreme. There is also a chamber of magical bronze teleportation portals, which require Obsidian Portal Keys to access, leading to various operational cells, that may or may not include:

• level three of the Found Tombs of Arvakaten, 
• the northerly Dungeon of Justice, 
• the catacombs beneath the Caarth citadel of K'rrstal, 
• hidden vaults lying below the Lost City of Vatos, 
• the Black Pyramid and the Tomb of Akharis,
• the mines of Sapphire City,
  
• and underground caverns beneath Pellod and Dust Town, among other diverse destinations.