Underworld

**The Underworld** is an intermediate location found in *Barony*, being made up of many small patches of land over a large pit that covers the whole map. It can be accessed in several ways across the dungeon, with varying rewards and end-points depending on which way it is accessed from.

## Description

The Underworld is a unique place for a multitude of reasons. Its layout is one of the most open in all the various dungeon layers, while also consisting mainly of bottomless pits which must be levitated over in order to progress.

The player will always spawn in a medium-sized room, with a small ledge opening to the rest of the underworld. A chest will always be found at the left of the ledge, as well as a portal to the right, so that players without the ability to levitate can escape back to the dungeon proper.

Enemies here are also varied and introduce new faces with old ones. Imps make their debut here, while others like Ghouls and Skeletons return in stronger forms. Ghouls are typically enslaved, with increased overall stats, while Skeletons here typically wield magic staffs or crossbows, which they typically could not before in The Mines. Rarely, Shadows also appear here.

Unique to most other dungeon layers, where the player will end up after passing through all the levels of the Underworld depends on where they had entered it. This makes it the only dungeon layer to both be accessible at different parts of a game, as well as the only one which delivers the player to different places depending on how it is accessed.

### Khryselakatos

The first point of access is at the fifth level of the dungeon, inside the midway between the Mines and The Swamp. Here, if the player can dig behind the wall of the Swamp treasure room, a portal leading to the Underworld will be present in a hidden room. Immediately leaving will return the player to the sixth floor of the dungeon.

If the player explores into the underworld, they can find a ladder that will send them to the next floor. Here, there is no extra ladder, with the only exit being the portal near the starting point of the map. However, if the player does explore further on the second level, they can find Khryselakatos, a rare artifact weapon as random loot being held by one of the enemies of this floor. Exiting via the portal now will send the player to the seventh floor, skipping floor six.

### Hell

The second access point is found in the eighteenth level of The Ruins, found behind that layer’s complex puzzle room in order to access the portal.

When entering the portal to the Underworld, the player has the option to exit immediately through the portal near the starting point, sending them to floor nineteen. If they explore and find the ladder, then the portal will change, transporting the player instead to the twenty-first level of the dungeon, that being the first level of Hell.

## Structures

As most structures in the Underworld are surrounded by pits, most structures either consist of a large central structure or utilize several smaller structures in tandem to test the player’s ability to levitate for long periods. Long flats of hallway or small square islands are very common, allowing players with temporary forms of levitation to make smaller jumps between each to get to their destination.

## Trivia

* When entering floor eighteen, the player will see a message in their chat log about hearing "the sounds of screaming in agony".