Creatures of the Dark

This text is written in dwarven by a priest of the old dwarven religion Halford of Umberthrane.  The text appears to be quite old, possibly from before or during the War of Ashes.

Below the obsidian godstone of Umberthrane lies the great mine, a vast and deep cavern carved straight down into the earth below. The godstone pointed to many riches to be had in this vast mine, but also evil, mysterious creatures of the dark. This is known to all the dwarves of Umberthrane, as the king's last kendr, the dwarf next in line to rule the kingdom of Umberthrane, perished to one while exploring the mines' vast tunnels. While we cannot know all the creatures that lurk in the shadows, or where they came from, we can document what we have learned, in hopes that new generations will leverage that knowledge to their advantage.

Among the lesser creatures of the deep are ones that many who spend times in caves and tunnels may be familiar with, chokers, gazers, gibbering mouths, intellect devourers, rust beasts, and nothics. Many of these lesser creatures still pose a great threat to the average miner or spelunker, however a trained warrior should be able to deal with them. While at first glance these lesser creatures appear to be primal and unintelligent, some at least appear to understand basic communication. This does not change that the nature of these creatures is evil, but in some circumstances, it has allowed those who encounter them to survive by offering something up, usually one's traveling companion.

It is believed that many of these creatures of the deep feed on flesh, however some, like the intellect devourer feed off the psyche. Some dwarves theorize that what allows some of these creatures to live in such conditions is that they are able to feed off bits and pieces of psyche from great distances. This is why it is believed that the creatures may be more concentrated below areas of large population, and may even be the cause of mortal folk losing their minds or mental disease. These reasons for these populations will become more evident as we explore other creatures found in the deep.

Next we get to the more formidable creatures. Chuul, Grell, Otyugh, Cloakers, Eyedrakes are much stronger creatures, but lack the mental capacity to think complexly. Each of these creatures are dwarf-eaters, if they prefer minds over flesh we may never know, as there have been no survivors among those captured by these creatures. To defeat these fierce creatures a number of skilled fighters, or at least twenty unskilled fighters would be needed to fend them off, however casualties should be expected. Some of these creatures like the Otyugh display limited telepathy, which some believe to be how they choose to communicate in the darkness of the Underworld*.

*There is a written note in the margins that says, “Underworld - an ancient dwarven belief that there is another world under our own.”

Among our next category of creatures are those that are just as powerful as the previous, but also have the cognitive ability or at least an average mortal. These creatures include Mind Flayers, Slaad, Gauth, Beholders, and a terrible creature known as the Elder Brain. There is some discussion on whether or not all of these creatures are different, or just different maturity stages of the same creatures. Almost all of these creatures possess some sort of telepathic magic and many a link to occultic nature magic as well. Some who wished to harness these great and terrible creatures' power have attempted binding spells, however those spells have only shown success with lesser creatures.

While there have been no confirmed sightings of some of these creatures, beholders and slaad have both been confirmed, it is still quite likely that the others are more than myth. There is some uncertainty when it comes to how many slaad species there are. There have been notes of slaad of different shape, color, and size, who exhibit different behavior or ability. More research on this topic is essentially, as out of all the monsters of the Underworld, the slaad are by far the most common.