Underdark Primer for 5e D&D

The Underdark is no place for the faint hearted. I should know; I've hunted enough of the dharrow that lurk below to have experienced some of the Underworld's dangers firsthand. What follows is a brief summary of but a few of the wonderful, but dangerous features the caverns of the Underdark hold. For sake of brevity, I'm not going into detail on the many sentient inhabitants and the monsters that live here. The description of the deadly environment should be enough. 
-- Delwa Aunglor

Underdark Navigation and Survival

Navigation

Becoming lost is a serious risk in the twisting tunnels of the Underdark, and travelers can wander in circles without knowing it. Creatures unfamiliar with a given region of the Underdark are automatically lost, wandering in a random direction for every 4 hours of travel until they find an area they are familiar with.
To lessen the chances of getting lost, a party member may be designated as the party mapper, marking tunnels and pathways as they move. They may not aid in any other task, as the task of accurately recording the area is too demanding to allow even aid in Perception.
Travel in the underdark is three times as long as if travel on the surface. That is number of miles to be traveled due to the fact tunnels are not straight lines they go up, down and do not travel in same compass point for long distances.

Survival

Characters can gather food and water if the PC's travel at a normal or slow pace. A foraging character makes a Wisdom (Survival) check. Additionally, spells such as Create Food and Water and Goodberry can help provision the party.
Creatures you kill can be used for food. Umber Hulk isn't too bad for a hungry adventurer. However, the meat goes bad after a single day.

Creature Food Yield:

• Tiny: 1lb of food. 
• Small: 4lb of food. 
• Medium: 16lb of food. 
• Large: 32lb of food.

Travel Pace

• Fast: 8 miles per day, -5 penalty to passive Perception (Wisdom) scores, no foraging allowed.
• Normal: 6 miles per day, No penalties to perception or foraging.
• Slow: 4 miles per day, Improved Foraging, able to use Stealth. 

Features of the Underdark:

Faerzress

An unusual magical energy the drow call Faerzress, is found in much of the cavernous realm. The Drow use its power to fuel their magic, strengthen their magic items, and prevent other beings from scrying on them.
Areas suffused with faerzress range in size from a few dozen feet across to miles. These areas are filled with a dim, arcane glow, and provide creatures within the boundaries of its effect with Advantage on Saves against any Divination Spells. If a Divination spell does not allow a Save, the caster must make a DC 15 Con save to cast the spell.
Any creature attempting to Teleport into, within, or out of one of these areas must make a DC 15 Con Save or take 1d10 force damage and the teleportation attempt fails. Even if the Save succeeds, a mishap may occur as if the destination was known only by description (see Teleport Spell.)
Last, but not least, any spell cast within an area of Faerzress must make a d20 roll. On a roll of 1, a Wild Magic Surge occurs, as on the table in the Player's Handbook.

Light.

If you do not have Darkvision, your ability to see can be impeded in some areas. However, contrary to popular myth, the Underdark is not entirely without its own light sources.
Phosphorescent Moss and Lichens illumine some caverns and tunnels. Others places glow with a type of magical radiation unique to the Underdark called Faerzress. Other places are just what the horror stories say, completely pitch black and without any source of light other than those a character may provide. Caution with torchlight is advisable. Some caverns or tunnels react rather explosively when fire of any kind is brought into them, and even in the best of places, light can draw the attention of many of the horrors that dwell in the deeps.

Flora

Edible Fungi:

• Barrel Fungi: a large, cask-shaped fungus that can be tapped and drained of fresh water. A single plant contains 1d4+4 gallons of water and 1d6 + 4 pounds of food.

• Bluecap: The plant is inedible, but the spores can be made into a bland flour.
• Fire Lichen: nice in stews. Grows in geothermal areas.
• Ripplebark: shelf like fungus that resembles a mass of rotting flesh. 1d4 + 4 pounds of food.
• Trillimac: mushroom about 4 feet in height with a broad gray-green cap and light grey stalk.

Exotic Fungi

• Nilhogg's Nose: A small mushroom that grants any creature that eats it Advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks based on smell for 1d4 hours. However, the same creature has disadvantage on scent based saves for the duration.
• Ormu: Common phosphorescent near steam tunnels and vents, it can can be made into a phosphorescent pigment or powder.
• Timmask: a two foot tall toadstool with orange and beige stripes across its beige cap. Uprooting or destroying it causes a 15 foot cloud of poisonous spores.
• Tongue of Madness: Edible fungus that can cause the consumer to compulsively speak aloud every thought for the next hour. 

The Tragic Exile of a Lady

Her name was Dove, and upon her fifteenth year of life, she was recruited by the Harpers of Waterdeep and she began spying for them in many circles of Waterdhavian society, as well as below in Skullport.

A year later, she was assigned to watch the wife of a Waterdhavian professional witness - Lady Farquad. The noblewoman had begun secretly associating with the City of Shade, and the Harpers needed to know what her involvement was.

It was during this time that Dove became acquainted with Lady Farquad's husband, Devon.

The two fell in love, and after nearly a year Dove and Devon began to make plans to run away together.

Mere weeks before their planned elopement, Dove had a breakthrough in her investigation of her paramour's spouse. Lady Farquad was a Sharran Priestess, working for the city of Shade to undermine the city government and turn the City over to Shade's control. Already, the Lady Nova Farquad had a list of many of the city's hidden lords, and one had succumbed to her dangerous charms. Plans to utilize a doppleganger to replace him were in place, and his assassination was imminent.

Dove dutifully reported the intelligence she'd gathered to the High Harpers and they did not hesitate in ordering Dove to kill Nova.

The enchantress hesitated. Afraid that Nova's death would delay her lover's plans, or even eliminate them altogether, she struggled to fulfill her duty as a Harper, delaying assassinating Lady Farquad.

Then, Lord Devon Farquad, noble of the City of Waterdeep, betrayed the young girl. His noble conscience and Lawful nature overcame his passion for his coy maid, and in one of their secret trysts, he informed her that he could not go through with their elopement.

The mage was destroyed by the news. She fled the presence of her lover, and found herself in a small, secluded tavern in the Docks District. In the midst of her cups, she overheard two men planning the Hidden Lord's assassination. The Lord was to die in a sacrificial ritual that very evening, by Nova's own hands.

Dove had to move quickly. Her grief boarded on vengeful rage at her lover's rejection, though she fought hard to keep such thoughts in check. She was a Harper, an agent of good, and motives like those didn't become her. Nevertheless, her resolve was strengthened, and she sought out the Sharran priestess, Lady Farquad.

Finding Nova was simple enough. Over the past several months, the apprentice had learned the woman's secrets well. She tracked the woman down at her husband's home. Her Lord had not returned home yet. Quietly, the Harper slipped behind a hidden panel that opened a passageway to the city's underbelly, where the hidden temple to Shar, the goddess of loss, was hidden.

Her plan was simple. Nothing would go wrong.

Footsteps approached. The panel slid aside, revealing Nova arrayed in a shimmering black gown trimmed in violet silk. Dove was quick, her keen dagger rose and fell swiftly towards the Sharran's heart, but it glanced off the Obsidian disk Nova wore. Nova stumbled backwards, back into the house. Dove swiftly followed, not giving the Sharran a second to recover. She grabbed the priestess by her holy symbol, and pulled; the medallion's chain cutting into Nova's neck and pulling her towards the would-be-assassin's waiting dagger. This time, the knife struck home. Dove felt its blade slip through flesh and between ribs, piercing the heart of the high priestess. Nova's body went limp, and slumped to the floor as her full weight broke the chain around her neck.

The young girl grasped the amulet and gazed down at her victim's body.  Nova's face displayed sorrow and shock as her last few gasps escaped her bloody lips. Dove was overcome by the myriad of her own emotions as she watched life leave her one-time-lover's wife. A deep sense of sorrow for the grief Devon would surely feel once he knew his wife was murdered, coupled with the shame that her hand had brought this pain to Devon. Was this what it meant to be a Harper? Was this what serving good cost? Could Lady Nova have been redeemed, given the chance? Her scattered thoughts gave way to a familiar voice crying out in anguish.

Her head snapped up. There, in the doorway to his wife's dressing room, stood Lord Devon Farquad, an arm of flowers - Nova's favorite - falling singly from limp hands as the noble starred in horror at the grizzly scene.

Dove's heart stopped. The dagger in her hand felt heavy, and her eyes darted between the crimson stained corpse at her feet and the horror-struck face of her lover.

"Dev, I'm..." she stumbled over her words. How do you explain to a man who just ended your relationship hours ago that his wife was a Sharran? Who would believe her? The incantation for a spell of charming rose to her mind, but her thoughts were interrupted by Devon's accusatory shout.

"Murderess!"  He yelled. The girl despaired. Even if she could charm him, it would only be temporary. She rubbed a ring on her finger, tears streaming down her pale cheeks, and a wave of teleportation magic whisked her away to Blackstaff Tower. Her duty was done, and her love with it.

Days later, she stood on trial before a secret council. A few hidden lords would decide her fate. She was confident the trial was rigged in her favor. Her Harper friends and Lady Arunsun would have seen to that. But that did not make her grief any less as Devon Farquad himself railed against her, citing law after law, transgression after transgression, bringing the full weight of Waterdhavian law down on her.

She heard the guilty verdict. Guilty of a Serious Crime against the Second Plaint was the official wording. The anger in her once darling lord's voice when the sentence was merely exile from the city and not a Severe Crime against the Same, which would have resulted in her death. She heard it all, like echoes in a fog.

How could Lord Farquad do this to her? He'd loved her once. How could he be so blind to his wife's secrets? His devotion to truth had drawn her to him, and it had driven him away. Would that he had shown her such devotion. They could have had a life together.

A hand took her, and arcane waves surged around her. She was suddenly aware that she was standing underground. She looked up, and beheld the silver hair and kindly visage of Lady Arunsun. The Lady Mage of Waterdeep smiled sadly at her and spoke softly.

"Dove is one of my sister's names, you know." Dove nodded. She'd read of the Chosen of Mystra in her arcane studies.

"I saw much of her in you when I first held you in my arms and named you."

Dove blinked, and turned to face her mother. "Do you still see that?" She asked. Lady Laeral reached out and touched her daughter's cheek. "Yes, but there is much more of your own person here than my sister." The Chosen looked out across the cavern that held a good-sized subterranean city below them.

"Skullport can be a dangerous, but intriguing place." The sudden change of subject was not lost on Dove.

"It's a far cry from the dazzling lights and parties of Waterdeep." She glumly replied.

"True, but I think you'll find your place here," her mother replied. She took Dove's hand and pressed a silver harp and crescent pin into it. Dove took it, and pinned it to the inside of her tunic without a word. "I'd pick up an alias, if I were you," Laeral advised.

Dove nodded. "I've already thought of one" she replied. Taking from her leather belt pouch a small, black lace eye mask, she spread the mask across her piercing orbs and smiled coyly back at her mother. She then took out the obsidian disk she'd taken from Nova and fastened the chain around her own neck.

The black stone gleamed against her ivory skin, the tiny amethyst gems that surrounded it bringing out flecks of lavender in her eyes.

"I'm not Dove anymore. I'm Kara. Kara Devona." She smiled triumphantly, gave her mother an earnest hug, and then set out down the winding path that led into the City of Skullport.

Kara Farquaad

Lady Kara lept into Waterdhavian high society a mere few months ago, shortly after Laeral was declared the city's new Open Lord. She is a student mage in Blackstaff Tower, studying The Art under the current Blackstaff, Vajra Safahr, and is said to be a skilled Enchanter. Her spouse, Lord Farquaad, is a magistrate in the city, and his meager holdings don't seem to match up with Lady Kara's extravagant lifestyle. This has caused the other members of Waterdhavian Society to speculate wildly about her, as little is known of Kara's past before her arrival in Waterdeep. Rumors range from the downright sinister, to gossip that she was a mere farm lass that took up adventuring and happened upon an abandoned dragon hoard, then married the first man of any rank she could find. Kara is close friends with the new Open Lord, Laeral, and the two women are often said to be seen with each other at public events for the nobility.

Saelis Aunglor

Elder twin brother to Delwa Aunglor, Saelis is a priest of Shevarash, the elven god of revenge, loss, and hatred of the Drow.
In his early years, Saelis was a Captain of the guard in the city of Tangled Trees, located in what was once the elven kingdom of Cormanthyr.
Saelis proved himself time and again as captain, and eventually began leading raids against the beasts of Cormanthor forest, and against the monsters that plagued the region around the lost City of Song, Myth Drannor.

It was Saelis that discovered his brother's long-thought-dead wife, Lady Shawna still lived, and Saelis who orchestrated her freedom from the grip of a sorcerer and helped reunite her with her husband, Delwa.
At one point, Saelis Aunglor was the heir to the Aunglor Moonblade. His untimely death in 1385 DR passed the family blade along to his sister-in-law, Shawna Aunglor. Lady Shawna claimed the blade after Saelis' passing, and wields it as of 1490 DR.
Saelis was restored to life by unknown forces, and now serves as a Harper agent, as do most of the Aunglor family.

Saelis has a grim demeanor, and though he serves the Harpers loyally, relations between him, Blackstaff Tower, and many other well-known High Harpers, are tense. He serves the cause of the Harpers because he believes in their cause, but has frequently questioned their methods, sometimes quite boldly.

Delwa Aunglor

Who am I? I am Or'Tel'Quessir. To some, I am known as the Adventuring Scribe from Candlekeep. To others, I am simply Delwa of Tangled Trees, an elf from the kingdom of Cormanthyr reborn. Among The People, my name is Delwa Aunglor, Secondborn of my House, and heir to the family name, and that is what I'm called by those who count me friend. To the others of my people, the less amiable, I am the forsaken heir to the once-lost House Aunglor Moonblade, and I am neither worthy of my title or position. To me, it is no matter. My wife, Lady Shawna, Armathor of Myth Drannor, wields the family blade with skill, and it is no shame to me or my House that her father was a Drow. She bears her mother's elven heritage with more dignity and honor than many of purer blood. My history is as shaded as my shadow-infused soul, and my story is not one often lauded by Lathander's priests. Life has made me a creature of Shadow, a Shade, and despite that curse, I use it to make the evil members of my wife's mixed blood fear the shadows all around them. I'm sure Shevarash smiles to see it. I've been a friend to some, a foe to others. To one Dwarf-become-deity I was a faithful companion, and I do homage to Frawd's name often. To Those Who Harp, I am a friend and ally, though those who wear the silver moon and harp are now a shadow of their predecessors. I have survived the death and rebirth of magic. I've traveled the planes and worlds beyond Toril, and even sparred with a goddess as old as this world can remember. I am Delwa, and I am Tel'Quessir.

Delwa is a Wood Elf Shade. He began as a PC in a Campaign a friend of mine ran, and eventually I retired the Character as a NPC for my home game.
Delwa retired from a life of Adventure shortly after the Spellplague in 1385 DR, and made his way to the library fortress of Candlekeep. He studied there for a short time, before undertaking a personal quest to search for tomes of knowledge to turn over to Candlekeep's care.
He also serves the Harpers as an informant, providing intelligence where needed, and occasionally striking a blow in the secret organizations name.
He has a twin brother, Saelis, who serves as a priest of Shevarash, the elven god of revenge.

A Beginning to My World

It's always fun to browse through old campaign notes. I was just organizing my files and came across the sheet of notebook paper I made my first Dungeon on. That dungeon blossomed into a five-year campaign that changed the shape of the Realms for my home games. My current campaign takes place in 1490 DR, but the last one ended in the Year of Blue Fire (1385) and the events of that campaign have shaped the world as follows:

•  Melvaunt became a ghost town after a plague of undeath hit the city. It was alleged that the Zhents had released the plague, but it was never confirmed. 
•  Zhentil Keep was destroyed by the City of Shade, in 1383 as in canon, but with the aid of a Death Knight's army, hailing from the ruins of Melvaunt and carrying Phlan's banner. 
• Cormyr suffered a major coup lasting about a year later in late 1384/early 1385 DR after the same Death Knight leading an undead army ravished the nation, sending the crown into exile. The nation was eventually restored, but the how is to be determined by a future campaign. 
• Myth Drannor was next on that Death Knight's list, and the villain did manage to establish a foothold in the ruins of the City of Song, but thanks to a PC named Shawna Aunglor, who wielded the long lost Aunglor Moonblade, the elven armies rallied and drove the Death Knight back to Cormyr. The City is now rebuilding after the recent events mentioned in Ed Greenwood's Sundering novel, The Herald. Shawna Aunglor holds a position on the Ruling Council of Myth Drannor, and serves as an ambassador for the Coronal.
• The City of Westgate suffered a calamity in mid 1385 DR when an explosion rocked the sewers, causing many parts of the city to collapse. By current date (1490) all is back to normal, but explosives are banned in the city. 
• The City of Elversult was taken over in 1385 DR by an army of Devils led by the Mephistopheles, and then laid siege to by an army of demons led by Orcus, the Demon Prince of Undeath. Both armies were soundly defeated by an army of celestials, but the details of the engagement are only known to Elminster, and a select few High Harpers. 
• Frawd, a mortal dwarven cleric of Talos ascended to Godhood in 1385 DR after defeating Velsharoon on the deities' former home plane. His following was small, but tensions between him and Talos remained strong. Some rumor that Talos tried to consume Frawd after the Dwarf defeated Velsharoon and ascended, causing the two deities to not look fondly upon each other. In any event, Frawd set aside his godhood of his own accord shortly after Spring Equinox in 1490 DR and is rumored to be wandering the Realms.

The purpose of this blog is to serve as a public chronicle of sorts. In it, I will record Current Clack, NPC Profiles, articles on Kingdoms and Realms that pertain to my Realms, and notes on how my world differs from the published world. Due to the nature of my current campaign, notes may be sparse at first.