You know that feeling when you’ve been sitting on an Underdeeps for years and a friend calls and says they’re hungry for gaming so you grab World of Dungeons and…

Starless elves, deep underground, demonic spider-queen, glittering cities, stalactite and stalagmite towers, daggers, feuding Houses, under-panthers…you get the idea.

Hair

NOTE: Why did I start with hair as a way to show social status? I have no idea. NONE.

Bald, as befits a thrall whose House was cast into the pits when you were young

What have you done recently to gain the Matron’s attention?

What do you remember of your dead House?

Equipment: All you have are you clothes and one secret belonging that you have somehow hid since you were a child, something from your doomed House.

• Statue of a shoulder-spider or under-panther that will turn into a pet for a time
• A dagger made of volcanic glass with a white-gold hilt
• A signet ring with your family’s sigil
• A cloak that allows you to walk from one mirror to another as if they are all connected.

NOTE: Wait, is the mirror cloak just WAY cooler than anything else by a longshot?

Affiliations: When you choose a city, choose which Affiliation still owes your dead House a favor, another that despises you as appropriate and a third that has a family spy hidden within it who still holds your family in esteem.

Braided rows or short in the front, long in the back, as befits one of the Matron’s trained knives

The Matron has entrusted you with a dangerous errand. What scares you about it?

Who within your House hopes that you fail?

Equipment: You have the finest weapons and spider-silk armor made in the Underdeeps. Describe what you carry with you and what you have in your spartan quarters.

You have something you stole from someone you assassinated, something you never reported to your superiors. What is it?

Affiliation: When you choose a city, choose which Affiliation helped train you, another that you fear and a third that despises you for what you have done in the name of your Matron.

Veiled with one long braid, as befits a Matron of a minor house to show her bond with the Demonweb Pits

What have you done to prepare for the Mournstar Fête?

What failure within your House do you need to address before it grows like a fungus?

Equipment: You have all of the bodyguards, counselors and body doubles appropriate for a House Minor Matron – also the finest courtly fashion for your social engagements and an heirloom left to you from your Mother. Is it a bound demon, an indentured Githyanki Psion or a captured vampire assassin?

Note: The GM might make a cool checklist to decide details, strengths and weaknesses of your House. If so, cool If not you’ll figure it out in play (possible follow-up post in the spirit of Ithaca Station).

Affiliation: When you choose a city, choose which Affiliation where a trusted sibling holds power, another where a rival holds power and a third whose relationship with your House balances on the edge of a knife.

Unbound, as befits a traveler, delver and guide

Will you look for work as a caravan leader for a scrappy House Minor, find some civic adventurer’s guild to delve with or take a job as one of the rangers in a House Major’s entourage?

What secret did you leave in the tunnels during your last journey?

Equipment: A steed that is either a Spider or a Dinosaur. Choose one – name and describe it.

A well worn crossbow, a pair of named axes (name them!) and a dagger for your boot.

Affiliation: When you choose a city, choose which Affiliation knows of your fine work and respects it, which one is the vocation of an estranged but still loved sibling and a third who want revenge for your actions.

City

What city do you come from? Choose one and we will begin the game there after you choose your affiliations:

Kitji-Naal: Two cities divided by an underground river and ruled by twin matriarchs who rarely meet, but communicate via magical mirrors. The city is the largest and most populated city in the underdark; its politics are a convoluted mess of ancient feuds, assassin’s knives and inter-House warfare.

Exports: Poisons, Assassins-for-hire, spider-silk, books

Affiliations: 

• Congress of Knives and Poison
• Demonweb Nuns
• Spider-Shepherd’s Guild

Eämbar: A newly founded city that is a port, connected to the ocean by a series of complicated crystal locks that link Eämbar to the ocean’s crushing depths. All manner of undersea sentients can been seen on the city streets, sometimes in specially made tanks of water pushed by servants.

The matriarch is the youngest to ever hold the title and the most renowned sword in the underdeeps.

Exports: Fish, undersea crafts, spider-silk crystal

Affiliations: 

• Diplomatic League
• Sea Cult
• Matriarch’s Council

Endë-Osto: The deepest city of the Starless Elves and is considered by many to be the capital, is ruled by the eldest matriarch whose throne is said to float weightless in the center of the earth. Her queensguard is made of the most cunning of the Starless Elf sword-maidens, who ride dinosaur steeds bred for battle. The city is in a hollow-earth with a bruise-purple sun, said to have been created at the height of the Illithid Empire.

Exports: vegetables, dinosaur steeds and ranger-guides

Affiliations: 

• Queensguard
• Psionic Temple
• Rangers’ Sibhood

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