Underways

From Thirdexalt

The delvings that extend deep underground are black, rounded and faintly slick to the touch. To those who know of the Mountain Folk, the delvings bear the unmistakable stamp of Mountain Folk work. There are no regular light sources in the underways: while occasional troves of jewels down here include such rarities as glowstones (and random patches of luminous moss or burning pockets of gas may offer light to the passing traveler), these cannot be depended upon.

There is no actual law in Gethamane forbidding people to go down into the underways. However, all the inhabitants know that dangerous horrors emerge from the tunnels, and the citizens are not so blatantly and recklessly stupid as to go throwing themselves down a monster’s gullet. Early Masters of Gethamane realized that it was impractical to prevent outsiders from trying to go below, however. It was simpler to warn them of the dangers and then collect a share of any findings if they should actually emerge alive.

At least a dozen tunnels descend from the Garden District and the Outer Ring into deeper layers, called the underways. Rounded tubes and irregular caverns replace Gethamane’s square corridors and circular or rectangular chambers. The rock darkens from gray to black. The highest layers of the underways continue the concentric circular design of the city, but the deeper reaches become twisting, apparently random tunnels and caverns with no limit ever discovered. The underways have no light crystals. People do not live in the underways, but horrible and deadly creatures sometimes emerge from them to attack the people of Gethamane. Every entrance to the underways has a gate of iron bars—but that doesn’t stop every potential intruder.

Despite the danger, people sometimes come long distances to visit the underways. Sometimes they return with treasures: strange artifacts, jewels—such as vibrantly violet diamonds—and rare ores hacked from the walls of distant caverns. Explorers even find small quantities of soulsteel.

Sometimes, of course, explorers do not return at all. Gethamane’s leaders permit these explorations, in return for half of whatever valuables the explorers bring out of the underways.

The underways themselves are quite different in structure from the upper city. The stone from which the underways are carved is black, rounded and faintly slick to the touch. There are several dozen known entrances to the lower tunnels from the city, and the Guard watches them all and keeps records of all activity passing through the entrances in either direction.

[edit] GETHAMANE’S SHARE

Gethamane doesn’t impose an outright tax on anything brought out of the underways as searchers would find new ways to hide their findings or to kill any Guards who saw them carrying treasure. Besides, anyone capable of going into the underways and surviving will certainly be capable of bilking any tax collectors sitting at the entrance.

Instead the Guard is instructed to take careful note of any valuables (or 'mysterious large sacks') being carried by treasure-seekers who come out of the underways alive. A high-ranking Bethanite (with a Guard escort) then visits the treasure-seekers after they’ve had the chance to relax, and politely suggests a contribution toward Gethamane’s upkeep would be 'wise'.

Failure to make a generous donation can lead to the individuals being escorted out of Gethamane, without the chance to collect supplies — whatever the current weather conditions outside may be — with a permanent prohibition against returning. This reasonable approach usually results in Gethamane getting some sort of contribution — especially if the treasure-seekers want to dare the tunnels again in the future.

Gethamane Citizens who bring treasure up from the underways are expected to contribute a 1/3rd (or an equal value in goods or service) to the city’s treasury. Failure to pay results in their Dole being cancelled in forfeit. The valuation on the artifacts brought up from below is as fair and as well judged as possible. Afterall, citizens capable of surviving the underways are a resource the government likes to cultivate.

[edit] CTHRITAE

This Darkbrood are man-sized centipedes apparently chiseled out of onyx and black opal, with grinding mandibles that drip mercury when they salivate. They run in packs of at least 12 and are hermaphroditic, being able to mate with each other and leave their eggs inside suitable food sources to hatch later.

While the cthritae only require rock and water to live on, they physically enjoy ripping living flesh apart, rolling themselves in blood and tearing open human guts. The cthritae exude a natural adhesive from their insectoid legs that allows them to run up vertical surfaces or cling to the ceiling for up to an hour. They lack human intelligence but are successful carnivores and proficient in the art of stalking prey. Normally, they only hunt to kill, but if they wish to breed, they will seek out warm-blooded creatures, sever the tendons in their arms and legs, mate and lay eggs and then force their eggs down their prey’s throat. The eggs hatch within a few hours, and the infant cthritae grow to full size within a day. If entering an area with plentiful breeding stock (human or animal), cthritae automatically enter into a breed-and-hatch cycle that continues until they have used up all available hosts in the vicinity. The resulting packs then split up to hunt in different directions.

Cthritae can actively chew through normal rock at a speed of one foot per hour but would need to know that there was a reason to do so, such as breeding hosts (they would not start suddenly digging up toward Gethamane but might start chewing through a door if they had seen prey vanish behind it and close it in their faces.)

While cthritae are not killed by sunlight, they dislike it and also dislike unroofed spaces such as the open air. They are considered creatures of darkness for the purposes of Solar Charms and anima powers, fleeing from the anima powers of both the Zenith and the Dawn Caste.

is mostly ignored by Vodak, as they were the creations of the Primordial whose blood formed Vodak, and while the hekatonkhire has no such thing as empathy or affection, some deep note in its personality is satisfied by leaving the cthritae alone.