The Underworld

## The Realms Beyond The World

The Underworld is a collective term for all the lands (or "layers" as refereed to by some scholars) beyond the dark portals where the evil races live and worship the Dark Gods, connected by The Portal Network. Dungeon Keepers recruit the majority of their minions and buy provisions in the Underworld city states.

While the regions of the Underworld are as diverse and various as the lands of the surface world, they share some common traits. Most of them lack visible skies of any kind and few, if any, are larger then a few dozen kilometers across. Atmosphere, climate and gravity can also vary wildly even within the same layer. Because of this it is widely accepted fact that The Underworld is a different world from Divinal or even several different worlds altogether.

Nevertheless they should not be confused with the Dark Realms. The Underworld for the most part, follows the same laws of nature as Divinal while the Dark Realms are far removed from that and - from what can be gathered from the few individuals who escaped this place - doesn't follow the laws of the material planes of existence that mortals are used to.

## Known regions

### Hot Lake City, The Orc Bastion

On a big crag inside a lake of lava lies a sturdy fortress carved from the rock that appears red from the hot glow. Any traveler must first cross a thin and treacherous stone bridge barely wide enough for a wagon only to be greeted by thick walls and tall towers. Behind every arrow slit archer keep a watchful eye on the traffic below. The current ruler of this city is probably the strongest orcish warlord alive and he has managed to survive every putsch for the last decade.

### Fungarion, The City Beneath The Mushroom

Dark elves have built this city under the hood of an enormous mushroom. Its spores glow in a dim, blueish light, turning this place into eternal dusk. Visitors are only permitted in the merchant's district. Any crime or even slight offense against the laws are immediately and harshly punished - usually by an arrow or crossbow bolt to the eye. For that reason, there are guard towers and erased platforms at every corner. A small number of royal houses fight for the right to rule this place.

### Paradise City

A pleasure city like no other, Paradise is a place where you can get anything so long as you have the coin. For those seeking to spend their fortune or to earn it Paradise provides a plethora of establishments to cater to every vice, desire and kink a mortal creature could feasibly imagine (and several catered for immortals specifically). The Merchant Lords of the city make sure that public order maintained and guarantee a certain amount of freedom for those doing business, provided they pay their dues of course. Behind the scenes however this city is run by one authority and one authority alone, that even the wealthiest and most well connected of the city can not dispute - a mysterious individual known as the Grand Merchant.

### The Goblin Caves

A big ragged vaguely dome-shaped cave is the center of a network of tunnels and smaller chambers mostly populated by goblins. Nobody has ever managed to stay in charge long enough to establish anything even vaguely resembling basic law, much less enforce it.

### The Echo

Fluorescent plants glowing in blueish, greenish or violet colors grow on the barren and black rock, but their light doesn't reach far, as if it was sucked away by the air itself. Seemingly endless plains are broken up by bottomless ravines or oceans of nothingness. Every noise appears muffled but at the same time creates an eerie echo.
On their short trip from one portal to another, the party has found no signs of life but the plants.

### The Nil'Kay Jungles

A place avoided by most sane people (and by a majority of the insane people as well). Not a large place by the standards of the rest of the Underworld, but it is densely populated by all manner of Demonic Beasts and hazardous magically-infused plant life. Some Underworld cities periodically hire people to clean it up from larger threats to make it possible to harvest some of the more useful materials and regents that can be found there.

### Candyland

An undoubtingly unique wildlands discovered by The Band that is home to dangerous magical beasts and lands all made from sugary treats of different kinds. Currently unknown to all others aside from those of The Amniville Council.

## Underworld Creatures

### Pumbloom

Evil in nature, but to lazy and too weak to do anything.

About a foot long, some say there's a giant one lurking in an old well, too fat to climb out, but that's just an urban legend.