Suggestions for Athas Underdark mobs?

Oh.

Then you’re just doing WHATEVER crazy stuff you want. Got it.

Like using Eberron to run a Shadowrun game.

Ok, keep asking questions then, now that i know what space you’re working in.

That wasn’t a very kind comment, I asked for suggestions for mobs, and you are hitting me with the Darksun lawyer crap I specifically asked people to not throw at me. You have no idea what I am going through right now, Ive been on chemo for rectal cancer for 8 months now… and this is my one artistic outlet that I can have, and my players seem to really enjoy playing what they are playing.

That was NOT me slamming you, but i guess i can imagine why you did.

That cancer thing’s awful, but not my deal, and you don’t need to unload on me - not like that.

You posted a nutz (fun nutz) combo of not-super-DS stuff you’ve going on in your campaign, and that’s fine.

Now i have a bead on where your game’s at, and can talk about it with you, instead of banging into “thats not how I’m running my game” with you ever other post.

If you posted about running Defilers in Geyhawk on Cannonfire or a similar website, I’m sure you’d have gotten a cold shoulder or something.

If you still want talk about your game, I’m in; if you think I’m an a$$, well, that’s your deal (and right).

And if you think I’M judging you, i have to assume you haven’t interacted much with the “Only the 1st boxed set is canon, everything else is BS” folks…

You could reskin your gnome as a mindhome folk. Perhaps he’s is one that separated mentally from the others.

Spiders spiders spiders. Losts of these
Wall walker
Mindhome folk
Hej-Kin
Dray
Kalin
Slimes, oozes, molds

Terrors of Athas has the following listed under under dark

Underdark
Earth Glider
Giant Cockroach
Giant Maggot
Lith
Lurker
Maur
Stone Flyer
Templates (Mineral Warrior)

Good luck!

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Mindhome Folk is a good call.

Oh, or he could be an ativistic Mongrelfolk - a genetic throwback to one of his ancestors.

There’s a Drider template in 3e. You could do “non”-Drider Driders. Like, Tarek/spider folk or something. I guess those are just sorta Dark Spiders though…

I’m sorry to hear you’re having a rough time, mate.

Here’s a suggestion that might help you: Read the “Black Spine” adventure, and the Sundered Regions - East of the Silt Sea. This will give you an idea of how Illithids have been implemented by others into Athas, and how Athas could get connected to bring in these other races. Several of the races you mentioned would make ideal transplants via dimensional or even Spelljammer means. That might give a fun dimension to your game…

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Thanks for the suggestion of Black Spine. I actually have a pdf of it, but never looked it over. It looks like some great inspiration.

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That module mentions Kenku, I didn’t know that was a canon thing! Very interesting!

Hesper the Kenku is a constellation in the Athasian zodiac. See Ivory Triangle.

Also Mentioned in the boxed set as well and in dragon magazine 173.

Break it down like Kenku!

What is left of the water table should be down in the UnderAthas, so water creatures (or former water creatures) may actually be appropriate.

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Athas isn’t (necessarily) Naboo; the water table and the Underdark aren’t completely contiguous/continuous.

Water from one would/could make it to the other, but if the Athasian water was they way (it sounds to me like) you suggest, the wells in the City States would either need to sit directly atop a spring or be miles deep…

Its my (possible misinformed) understanding that the water table sits under a few dozen feet of gravel and clay, which is just under 1-10 ft of soil, and on top of one to several miles of bedrock. The underdark would be in this bedrock.

Granted, its all fantasy anyway, but if what you said were generally true, @nijineko, then in FR the oceans should have flooded the Underdark long ago.

I’m confused, you seem to be going in some random direction.

Athas water has been discussed in other threads here before, I was referencing those. The general consensus seems to be that the water was either blown off into space, or sunk into the crust, or both.

Other campaign settings have no relation to the discussion.

Fantasy planetary geology should generally be the same.

I’ve seen those other threads, and they don’t make a ton of sense, IMO.

Water trapped underground is trapped in either aquifers (pockets in the stone) or within the rock itself (generally trapped as magma).

Its everyone’s own, personal game, but the water on Athas shouldn’t have just drained down a Goblin tunnel, emptied the Shining Sea and flooding the entire Underdark.

What would cause that, and why didn’t it happen at literally any point before that?

Now, if your pitch is at the end of the Blue Age the water table drained from 100 ft above “sea level” to 5 ft below, and the Underdark was always flooded; and the Cleansing Wars caused the water table to drop another 50nft, and the Underdark was STILL largely flooded, then yeah OK. That pitch makes sense.

You know what guys? Maybe we should start a new thread to discuss/argue the toss over Athasian planetary geology.

In all seriousness, there’s an idea for what to do with the backside of the planet which I’ve been kicking around which would be directly affected by this, so I’d like to know myself.

Creating it now.

We have discussed the backside of the planet before, debating whether Athas is just a flat earth disc, tidally locked, or a globe that just hasn’t had the backside fleshed out… I believe I made a post about that a few months ago…

Silt and sand actually trap large amounts of water, it is very likely that below the Silt Sea lie vast amounts of water at the very bottom. As I said in another thread, they make sand dams in Africa that trap water between the silt and sand and the soil layer keeps the water from evaporating.

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Can you paste this to the other thread please? I don’t know how from my side.

just copy and paste and put it in quotes if you want, i don’t know how to either.

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I had a whole chapter of a campaign in the DS “Underdark”, with the players fighting kenkus and yuan-tis. They also stumbled on a ruined underground complex with undead and shadows (mindless shadows of various types and an intelligent shadow boss - think of a shadow meorty).
Hej-kins, ankhegs, spiders, and cave fishers, already mentioned, are also good underground denizens, as mentioned above in this topic.

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I prefer to use psurlon instead of mind flayers
mindhome folk works instead of gnomes

They are also some monsters suggested to be added to Dark Sun from other settings in 2e boxed set:

  • Horgar, a colosal tunneler slug like creature from Greyhawk
  • goblin spiders, a sort of inteligent spiders from oriental adventures