13 th Age B UB
Once You Enter the Underworld, It Never Truly Leaves You
e Dragon Empire is a thin slice of land above a vast world with its own rules and rulers: welcome to the underworld! Will you fi nd adventure or misery in Underland? Treasure or death in the kingdoms of the Hollow Realms? Truth or fatal illusion in the poisoned caverns of the Deeps? While leaving room for your campaign’s own stories, we’ve uncovered some of the underworld’s secrets for 13th Age: • e Domain of the Silver Folk, and their embodied underworld gods: She Who Spins in Darkness and He Who Weaves with Joy . . . Ryder-HanrahanGareth • e Four Kingdoms of the Mechanical Sun, warring over ever-circling golem artifacts that carry an underworld star . . . • e mighty dwarven city of Forge, rallying point for the inevitable war to reclaim Underhome . . . • Forgotten gods, a gnomish academy of magic, monsters, magic treasure, and more! You’ll also fi nd rules for traveling in the underworld— which include ways to make travel montages more interesting (and hazardous!)—and advice for GMs who want to create adventures and campaigns set in the world below. • PEL13A21 Press Pelgrane e passage downward lies ahead. A chill wind rises from Sample file the depths. Mutter one last prayer to the Gods of Light, set your torches ablaze, and enter the underworld! PEL13A21 $21.95 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD
Designer Artwork Original 13TW Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan Ania Kryczkowska, Rich Longmore, Underkraken Supporter Additional Design Dagmara Matuszak, Matt Greenfelder Roena I. Rosenberger J-M DeFoggi, Rob Heinsoo Symbols in Web City Art Directors Developers We used nine symbols obtained via Rob Heinsoo, J-M DeFoggi Creative Commons at http://game- J-M DeFoggi, Rob Heinsoo Layout icons.net. Full license at https:// Editor creativecommons.org./licenses/ Jen McCleary by/3.0/legalcode Trisha DeFoggi Publishers Icons created by Delapouite: carnival- Cover mask, cornucopia, obelisk Simon Rogers, Cathriona Tobin Lee Moyer, Rich Longmore Icons created by Lorc: angular-spider, hanging-spider, magic-palm, masked- spider, quake-stomp, spider-web
13th age is a fantasy roleplaying game by Rob Heinsoo, Jonathan Tweet, Lee Moyer, & Aaron McConnell
©2020 Pelgrane Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Pelgrane Press Open Content: Except for material designated as Product Identity (see Ltd. under license from Fire Opal Media, Inc. above), the game mechanics of this Fire Opal Media, Inc. game product are Open Game Content, as defined in the Open Gaming License version 1.0a The following items are hereby identified as Product Product Identity: Section 1(d). No portion of this work other than the material designated Identity, as defined in the Open Game License version 1.0a, Section 1(e), as Open Game Content may be reproduced in any form without written and are not Open Content: All trademarks, registered trademarks, proper permission. names (characters, icons, place names, new deities, etc.), dialogue, plots, story elements, locations, characters, artwork, comments and banter Book of the Underworld is published by Pelgrane Press Ltd. under the Open from ASH and Rob, and trade dress. (Elements that have previously been Game License version 1.0a Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. 13th designated as Open Game Content are not included in this declaration.) Age is a trademark of Fire Opal Media, Inc. ©2020 Pelgrane Press Ltd. All Samplerights reserved. file
www.pelgranepress.com Book of the Underworld
Sample file
2 Introduction
TABLE OF CONTENTS Tips For Running The Lost River introduction 5 35 Your Underworld Welcome to the Book Lethian 35 Adventure 17 Moonwreck Tunnels of the Underworld 5 36 Make It Interesting 17 Orc Warrens Chapter Overviews 5 Integrate Player Input 17 37 Appendix 5 Carnivorous Caves 13 Perils of the Orc Warrens 37 On Monsters 5 18 Red Dust Exiles 38 References to Other Books 6 The Monster Also Eats the Bones 18 Hostile Hollow 18 Red Dust Exiles as Adversaries 38 Toothy Cavern 19 Red Dust Marauder 38 Chapter 1: Red Dust Commando 39 Red Dust Seer 39 An Overview Chapter 3: of the The Rootweb 39 Underland 20 Terrain Casters in the Underworld 40 Underworld 7 Quick Guide 20 Salt Mines of the Underland 7 Manticore Entrances to the 40 The Hollow Realm 7 Smuggler’s Tunnels The Deeps 7 Underworld 21 41 Icons & 13 Famous Ways Down 21 13 Encounters in the Smuggler’s 13 Secret Pathways to Tunnels 41 the Underworld 7 the Lands Below 22 Steam Tunnels Icons: Fallen, Vanished, and Refused 9 41 The Calling 10 Abyssal Margins 23 Sunken City of Burrowdeep Warrens 23 Stormbreak 41 Chapter 2: Domain of the Stormbreak Adventure Seed Tables 42 Undermarch Underworld Silver Folk 24 47 Ways Down 24 Whispering Maze 47 Adventuring 11 The Nightmares Below 25 The Underworld’s Usual The Halls of the Silver Folk 25 The Queen’s Refuge 26 Chapter 4: Roles 11 Underwood 27 The Hollow The Underworld’s Role The Bitter Place 27 In Your Campaign 11 Caverns of the Drug Fiends 27 Realm Monster Dispenser 11 Dwarven Mines 28 Quick Guide 48 Quick Visit 11 13 Troubles Down at d’Mine 28 Arcane Veins Longer Adventure 12 48 Tier- or Campaign-Length Plot 12 Fallen Star Caverns 28 13 Magical Substances in Creating Underworld Forge: City of the Hollow Realm 48 Caverns of Lost Time Environments 12 Memorials 29 49 Set the Scene 13 Defenses 29 Chasm of Night’s Ask Questions 13 13 Customs in Forge 30 Breath 50 Traveling Through Districts 31 Night’s Breath Harpy 50 13 Rumors in Forge 33 The Underworld 14 Dark Temples Gorogan’s Innards 51 Montages 15 33 13 Forgotten Dark Gods 51 Hazards 15 Inhabitants of the Innards 34 Demon Cysts 51 Hazard Montage 16 Mawling 34 Drowfort 50 UndergroundSample Hazards 16 Brethren of the Shattered Crown 34 file52 Gorovore Cultist 35 13 Nightmares of Drowfort 52 Drow for the Fort 53 Silver Folk Assassin 53 Drow Sorcerer Captain 53
3 Book of the Underworld
Driders 54 The Queendom of Voth 64 Chapter 5: Drider Secret Taker 54 The Reclamation Guild 65 Venom-wracked Drider 54 The Serpent Catacombs 67 The Deeps 76 Drider Warrior 54 Sea of Claws 68 The Underkrakens 76 Dwarven Ruins 56 Throne Under The Incorporating Underkraken in Your Underworld Adventure 77 13 Lost Wonders of Underhome 56 Mountain 68 Underkraken Minions 78 Exploring Dwarven Ruins 56 Undercourt 69 Soul Flenser 78 Elemental Erratics 57 Tomb of The Ten The Grand Dismal Thousand Flensemaster 78 69 The Flensed 79 Sump 58 13 Reasons to Go to the The Weirding 79 Troglodytes 58 Tomb of the Ten Thousand 69 Catacombs of the Gods 80 Trog Chucker 58 Web City 70 Trog Warrior 59 Embodied Gods? 70 Land Beyond the Ages 80 Fungaloids 59 The Cult of She Who Spins Master of Dungeons 81 Champion-Tier Fungal Attacks 59 In Darkness 70 Mushroom Warrior 59 The Cult of He Who Weaves Appendix 82 Mushroom Farmer 60 With Joy 71 Treasures of the Death Capo 60 Sights in Web City 71 Underworld 13 Locations in the Grand 82 Seven Obvious Truths of Web City 73 New Monster List Dismal Sump 60 Ettercaps 83 The Four Kingdoms of 73 the Mechanical Sun Ettercap Monk 74 61 Ettercap Warrior 74 The Mechanical Sun 62 Ettercap Temple Guard 75 Sunbearer Golems 62 Ettercap Hieromonk 75 Manipulating a Waystone 62 The Magocracy Unfettered 62
Sample file
4 Introduction INTRODUCTION
Let’s go deep—deeper than any dungeon. Scrape away the CHAPTER 3: UNDERLAND introduces the uppermost layer surface world, and you’ll find the underworld: a seething anthill of the underworld, directly below the surface world. Underland of monsters and mysteries, an endless labyrinth of caverns and is closest in tone to the Dragon Empire you’ve come to know lightless citadels, and a realm of adventure and unfathomable on the surface. Along with new riffs on familiar themes and peril. iconic conflicts, you’ll encounter Forge, Gorogan’s Maw, and Descend at your own risk! For if you go below, you will not the Moonwreck Tunnels in new and different ways—from return unchanged. underground.
CHAPTER 4: THE HOLLOW REALM ventures into the strange middle realm of the underworld, where the certainties of WELCOME TO the surface give way to hidden ettercap cities and gods, kingdoms lit by a Mechanical Sun, and the oldest ruins of the Dwarf King’s THE BOOK OF THE empire. Think of the Hollow Realm as a region lost to the ages. UNDERWORLD As the ages roll on, this realm sinks deeper and deeper, until . . . . th This book offers ways to expand your 13 Age adventures into CHAPTER 5: THE DEEPS are the deepest places in the the realms below. Just as the core rulebook sketches out the underworld. Yes! They really are. At this point, you leave the Dragon Empire and invites you to make it your own, this book world of the Dragon Empire and enter a mythic space that suggests a host of subterranean realms and encounters you can represents—well, it could represent a lot of things . . . The tombs incorporate into your campaign. Excavate this book to find of the gods? The drain of ages where forgotten realms fall into hidden connections, or dig your own passageways between our entropy? The birthplace of the greatest dungeons? Sure, why caves and dark places. A descent into the underworld is always not? In this chapter, you’ll find multiple takes on the Deeps and spiritual on some level—drawn from the subconscious and the the challenges the adventurers may encounter when they hit this suppressed. Use fragments from our imaginings as openings to epic-tier area. explore your own . . . . (Of course, we also provide treasures and monsters and Appendix adventure hooks and irreverent asides, as you’ve come to expect from 13th Age sourcebooks.) You’ll find a handful of magic items strongly associated with the underworld’s creatures and features under Treasures of the Chapter Overviews Underworld (see page 82). Additionally, several new monsters pop up in these pages. CHAPTER 1: AN OVERVIEW OF THE UNDERWORLD Instead of a dedicated monster chapter, we added new monsters introduces and explores the underworld’s overall structure, directly to the chapters that did the most to guide their use. The including generic terrain, environmental tables, and travel Monster Index in the Appendix is your level-and-role guide to hazards. It also explains why the icons may be interested in these newcomers. the underworld and what they hope to accomplish by sending Note that several new monsters in this book use concepts adventurers into the deep. introduced after the 13th Age core rulebook—weakling monsters count half as much as a regular monster of their type when CHAPTER 2: UNDERWORLD ADVENTURING provides building battles, and elite monsters count half again as much plenty of inspiration for running adventures and campaigns in (150%). the underworld. Here, you’ll find the basic rules for underground action and survival in the depths, as well as rules for hazardous On Monsters montages, ways to use player input to generate your underground environment, and ideas to get your adventurers into the We’ve published many books that touch on the drow, the underworld. Whether you’re after a short jaunt into the Hollow dwarves, and the history of the Deeps. As this is a sourcebook Realm to highlight your adventurers’ One Unique Things or are rather than a dedicated adventure, we decided not to reprint planning an entire campaign where the sun and moon are nothing most of the monsters and text from earlier books here in Book of more thanSample fables told by strangers, you’ll find lots of useful stuff the Underworld. file here. Let your players tell you why the current cave they’re in is However, since Book of the Underworld deliberately shifts cool and different from the last one . . . and if the cave is cool between tiers—the deeper you go, the higher the tier—and because the monsters in it are trying to eat the adventurers, this several sections mention using leveled-up versions of lower-tier chapter covers that, as well. creatures, we offer this reminder of the simplest technique for leveling-up monsters. 5 Book of the Underworld
Double ‘em: The quickest way to level-up adventurer- and champion-tier monsters is to add three levels. Add +3 to each References to Other defense, double their hit points, and double their attack damage. Then, double the amount of hit points for any abilities that Books involve healing. Ongoing damage may or may not double— When possible, we spell out the names of other books we refer to typically, you’d add 5 points per tier, but if the monster’s attacks in the text. However, that doesn’t work in some tables, so here’s a don’t obey that guideline, bump it up by a 5-point increase per list of common abbreviations you might encounter: tier or by an amount that fits the impact the ongoing damage is 13A: 13th Age core rulebook supposed to have. 13B: 13th Age Bestiary That’s about it! Use this technique in places such as page 13B2: 13th Age Bestiary 2 59 and page 73 where we suggest leveling up several 13TW: 13 True Ways creatures from the 13th Age Bestiary and the 13th Age Bestiary 2. 13G: 13th Age Glorantha Shocked: A couple monsters in this book employ the shocked BoA: Book of Ages condition introduced in the 13th Age Bestiary 2. While a character BoD: Book of Demons is shocked, they roll twice for all d20 rolls (attack rolls, saves, skill CC: The Crown Commands checks, etc.) and take the lower result. EST: Eyes of the Stone Thief F&F: Fire and Faith HM&LC: High Magic & Low Cunning SBS: Shards of the Broken Sky
Sample file
6 Chapter 1: An Overview of the Underworld
CHAPTER 1: AN OVERVIEW OF THE UNDERWORLD
The underworld is a vast network of tunnels and chambers— mostly natural, some excavated over the ages by forces known ICONS & THE and unknown—that extends far below the surface world. The dwarves once ruled parts of this underground land, until they UNDERWORLD were driven out by war, disaster, and machinations of the dark You may have already established iconic interests in the elves. In this age, the dwarves lay claim to underworld treasures underworld in your campaign. If not, here are some possibilities they no longer hold and the webs of the dark elves’ spider allies to get you started. Like many of our world-arranging notions, clog ancient, dwarven tunnels. most of these suggestions are for groups that want to try The underworld gets wilder and weirder the deeper you go. something new in their campaign, not plotlines we support in Caves and tunnels give way to underground seas, deposits of raw this sourcebook! elemental energy, portals to other dimensions, and regions where Archmage: Perhaps the Archmage takes an active interest in time flows differently. Living dungeons swim through the earth, the underworld. Many of the magical wards and arcane machines clawing their way up toward the surface. that protect the Empire are located underground and must be The underworld has—very roughly—three distinct sections, regularly protected and renewed—why not have his agents gather although that’s just a narrative convenience, as the tunnels and some interesting monster tissue samples and collect some weird caves intertwine on multiple levels. The space below is three- glowing rocks for experiments while they’re down there? If your dimensional, full of sloping passages, endless stairs, and caves campaign believes in serious academic research, the University above other caves. of Horizon regularly mounts expeditions into the underworld. Crusader: The Crusader may see the underworld as Phase Underland II. Yes, he is first and foremost the icon who best understands the threat posed by demons. However, the Crusader is also the Dark Underland is the underworld’s uppermost region. Closest to the Gods’ armored fist—forging a path for their return. surface, it regularly interacts with the sunlit lands. There are What happened to the Dark Gods? Perhaps the forces of hundreds of ways in and out of Underland; the barrier between light buried them underground? Maybe the dark temples in the the realms is extremely porous. Any cave mouth, cellar, deep underworld hold the keys to the Crusader’s ultimate triumph? If well, or crack in the ground could connect to a passageway that so, the Crusader would rather not tip his hand until he’s ready; leads to Underland’s maze of tunnels and small caverns. but, to prevent other icons from interfering, small scouting parties Some familiar factions from the Dragon Empire hold parts could blend in with adventurers and underworld denizens while of Underland. The Dwarf Kingdom below Forge extends into they map out the dark temples and obstacles he must conquer. Underland; as does the territory of the dark elves. Various surface On hellholes: As a rule, hellholes open on the surface, not icons also have agents and outposts in Underland. in the underworld. But, that’s our rule. If your campaign allows hellholes to blossom in the underworld, it could change everyone’s The Hollow Realm lives. Maybe something the Crusader already accomplished is The Hollow Realm is deep enough that it has little contact with responsible for bringing hellholes to the surface where he can the surface, yet vast enough to incorporate entire kingdoms. identify and kill them? Gigantic caverns that contain cities, seas, and bizarre biomes Diabolist: The Diabolist isn’t that interested in the where strange life forms thrive are common here. underworld—or so she claims. She has cults and spies down below, of course, but maintains that her concern lies with the The Deeps Dragon Empire, not the lands below. Trust her. Demons never lie. Dwarf King: Hoo boy. The Dwarf King claims ownership The deepest parts of the underworld blur into other planes of of the entire underworld, but especially the old dwarven existence—or perhaps they just have their own strangeness. Sampleterritories like the Throne Underfile The Mountain (page 68) Either way, they are the most perilous areas of the underworld. and the Dwarven Ruins (page 56). He effectively rules Castle Definitely epic-level territory! Homeguard (page 67), the Dwarven Mines (page 28) and (sort of) the Reclaimer’s Guild (page 65), where he maintains order and dispatches justice. Dwarven armies patrol the tunnels 7