Getting into the Underdark

[the Jester]

Getting Down

There are already some good ideas here, but I figured I might as well toss one or two more out there...

One relatively easy type of access point could be the tunnels dug by burrowing monsters that reach the surface, or that reach a dungeon area the pcs are exploring. For example, the pcs are cleaning out the hobgoblins infesting Castle Laagos, and as they check the wine cellar, they are attacked by an umber hulk. Upon slaying it, they find a rough tunnel leading out- and further down. Following it for a while, the party finds that it intersects a seemingly-endless series of natural caverns...

Waterways might be a good entry point too. "Where the big river pours out of the lowest mountain, if one can travel against the flow, it is said that he can reach the chambers of the Mushroom Men..."

Another interesting idea might be to have a drilling machine, most likely a vehicle, that the pcs can use to make their own entry into the Underdark- maybe even finding huge stretches of cave that had been cut off from anywhere else for eons, and the strange life forms- and magic- within. In an area like this, you could use weird subraces, degenerate monsters, extinct creatures and more- it's a great environment to use when you want to turn up the bizarrometer.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Through a volcano, a la "Journey to the Centre ofthe Earth" and the mysterious journal can provide the clues that lead to it. It's a classic.

<edited for spelling>

 

[MarkB]

A magical vehicle - a spherical machine of brass and crystal, capable of flight and more - has come into the PCs' possession, and they have need to use it to reach a destination on the far side of the world. Only when they activate it do they realise its true potential, as the entire craft becomes ethereal, and sets out on a direct course to their destination.

It is a thrilling journey, through layers of rock and vast chasms with glimpses of strange vistas and buried ruins - until it comes to an abrupt end, the vehicle shuddering to a sudden halt amidst screams of twisting metal.

Once the dust settles, the PCs work out what happened - the craft ran into an old but functional anti-magic field protecting a now-empty cavern, and instantly returned to the material plane. One edge of the vehicle is still merged into solid rock, and many of its strange mechanisms are twisted and damaged beyond the PCs' ability to repair.

Either they must find their own way out of this strange underground realm, or they will have to find both the expertise and the materials required to extricate and repair their vehicle, and to remove the anti-magic field.

 

[phindar]

Used to be, if you wanted to get into the Hollow World, you had to go through a hole at the north pole.

 

[Stormborn]

I have set them on that path. They learned of a guide in the undercity known as "Dragon Tamer" and set out to find him. They finally did, drinking in the back of a dive known as 'The Bung'. Not the big barbarian half orc they thought, but Meepo! Who, at least in common, speaks 'lolkobold' but in draconic is quite refined. By the end of the session he had only just begun to lead them to an entrance located beyond the refuse pits of the city, where they accidentally distrubed a pair of othyugs. From there he will take them past a supposedly abandoned temple, now inhabited by albino kuo-toa and an exiled Mindflayer sorcerer, and (pending survival) down to what had been a relativelly safe chasm crossing -a bridge now controlled by a one legged Warlock and his gang of Ogre enforcers. Once the bridge is crossed Meepo will likely depart, unless demand is high that he stay, and a freed deep gnome slave will serve as guide into the depths.

Any Underdark must haves before they make their way down to the deep gnome village on the shores of Sunless Sea and then on to the City of Oubliette? Once in the city they can be called upon to make a foray or two outside the city before concluding their buisness. And then of course their is the trip back.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Through a volcano, a la "Journey to the Centre ofthe Earth" and the mysterious journal can provide the clues that lead to it. It's a classic.

QFT. Seconded. Ditto. Yes.