Your Absolute Worst Down Under...

[steeldragons]

There have been countless treatments over the years of the "Underdark" (and/or the various subterranean world of your choice) and the levels of evil to be found within.

We all know (if not played) the classic GDQ series and became enamored with the evil evil badness of the drow....but are they really the end all/be all/best we can do for the most powerful race/creatures to be feared in the underworld?

There's derro, duergar, mindflayers, the aforementioned drow, aboleths, fire giants, ensnared demons, banished devils...myconids?...

Who (or what) is your best/favorite/ultimate "big bad" (individual or species) for the deepest darkest recesses of the world?

--Steel Dragons

 

[Corathon]

Mindflayers or aboleth. I run both as the (mutually hostile) minions of the Great Old Ones.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Galchutt.

Non-Ptolus answer: A ghoul empire. Aboleth are also pretty cool and very alien.

 

[RangerWickett]

I like mind flayers more than aboleth. But in the old defunct Daemonforge setting EN World worked on years ago, our 'Emberyxhest' was a fiery maze of caves filled with infinitely cannibalistic spiders that would spawn a generation of millions of mutants, then devour each other until only two remained to breed the next generation.

We never really came up with anything else to live down there. Apparently they grew by absorbing the hellish heat, and just ate each other because they wanted to.

 

[Summer-Knight925]

A Dragon.

Nothing like slugging your way through caves of bad guys, traps, hazards and other dangers (I think I kinda covered them all with those three...but the mind is a monster within itself) to come to the large half-sunken cave with a very hungry (face it, he's been eating what the local monster tribe sacrifices or whatever wanders in, surface dweler flesh is tastier, and who knows, maybe one of them has a teleportation item to set it free) dragon...the hoard must be massive, after all, he's been there awhile.

 

[Barastrondo]

Published? Kingdom of the Ghouls is tough to beat; lots of Clark Ashton Smith-inspired goodness, which I prefer to the rubbery writhings of most anything aberrant. Though I will say that Zargon from B4 - The Lost City is a pretty good alternative if you like sword & sorcery and also rubbery writhings.

Homebrew? I tend to favor underworlds that become Underworlds, so Nergal and Ereshkigal and Nidhoggr and other massive mythical figures, or figures inspired by them. Massive dragon-wyrms that coil at the heart of the world, dark ferrymen, forgotten kings of the Underworld who cannot overthrow the Gods of Death and therefore plot to strike at the world of the living... yeah. That's what works for me.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

On the sole island in the middle of the vast ocean of acidic ooze at the center of the World, there is a tall pale toadstool, beneath which sits a little girl pretending to serve tea to an assortment of stuffed animals.

 

[Summer-Knight925]

The Rabbit of Caerbannog.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I'm a mind flayer fan, seeing as how I made them the original mortal race in my world. They're one of the few things that D&D players truly fear. They're also one of the few things truly original to D&D. Anything that eats brains has to be good.

We all know (if not played) the classic GDQ series and became enamored with the evil evil badness of the drow....

I don't know it. Details?

 

[fireinthedust]

I'm a mind flayer fan, seeing as how I made them the original mortal race in my world. They're one of the few things that D&D players truly fear. They're also one of the few things truly original to D&D. Anything that eats brains has to be good.

(even though they're based on creatures from various Appendix N books... (bites tongue))


I've considered all the above ideas, and really it depends on the game.

Sometimes the Underdark is just caves.

In my setting it's sort of an in-between place, halfway from the mortal world and the abyss (ie: go down far enough...). Not that we ever get that far.