Traveling the Underdark

Traveling through the Underdark is a dangerous proposition, not undertaken lightly. Trade is rarer than in the lands of light, and usually facilitated by imposing guardians who travel with caravans.

Travel Pace

The pace that a group travels at largely determines what they are capable of doing as they travel. Only smaller, mobile groups are able to travel at Fast. Any more than twenty individuals or groups with wheeled vehicles are limited to Normal and Slow pace.

Pace	Miles/Hour	Effects
Fast	1	Navigation, Perception, and Tracking at disadvantage Foraging, Mapping, and Stealth impossible
Normal	.75	–
Slow	.5	Foraging, Navigation, Perception, and Tracking at advantage may use group Stealth

Traveling Tasks

• Forager: The forager hunts for the signs of food and water while traveling through the Underdark. Foragers are also usually involved in hunting for a good spot to make camp in towards the end of a day's march.
• Mapper: With the right tools, a mapper can produce a map of the route the group travels. While this doesn't aid their current travel, it provides them with a useful resource for retracing the route. Good maps can even be sold in Underdark settlements by enterprising cartographers. This is a daily DC 12 Intelligence check to do successfully, though proficiency in cartographer's tools obviates the need for a check. A failed check renders the map useless.
• Navigator: The navigator handles the route through the Underdark, making sure they stay on course. A navigator generally needs at least one of three things to successfully navigate the Underdark: familiarity with the route, maps or charts, and a set of navigator's tools.
• Tracker: A tracker is used when the party is following a trail or set of tracks. This is generally a daily DC, with an additional check necessary after encounters.
  • A group may also employ a "counter-tracker" while they travel, having someone take the task of covering and concealing their tracks. This person must be in the back ranks of the marching order, and must make a Wisdom (Survival) test. This result becomes the DC for anyone attempting to track them. Performing this task while moving Fast is at disadvantage; moving at Slow pace grants advantage instead.
• Others: Anyone not performing one of the above tasks is assumed to be keeping an eye out for trouble, applying their passive Perception to their surroundings. Some threats may only be spotted by those in specific parts of the marching order, generally the Front or Rear.

Foraging

• For each day of foraging, a character may make a Wisdom (Survival) check, with a DC based on the environs.
• Success on the check uncovers a combination of food and water.
  • On a success, roll 1d6 + Wisdom modifier. This is how many pounds of food or gallons of potable water the forager discovers.
  • The forager may decide what amounts of each, dividing the result of their check up among the two.
  • If a forager's test result is 5+ above the DC, the roll is 1d10 + Wisdom modifier.

Mapping

• During days of travel, the mapper is assumed to be recording the paths the group travels through.
• If the mapper has proficiency with cartographer's tools, this happens automatically, as long as they have the tool kit.
• If the mapper does not, they must make a daily DC 12 Intelligence test. Success provides a normal map; a failure should be recorded. Upon accruing three failures on this test, a map is too flawed to be successfully used for navigation.
• Copying Maps: Copying a map takes one hour per day of the route In question.
  • Someone proficient with cartographer's tools can make an Intelligence (cartographer's tools) test, DC 14 to reduce this time in half.

Selling Maps

• Finding Buyers: Cartographers, merchants, pilgrims, and even folk needing to travel from one place to another may all have cause to purchase a map.
  • It takes a day's effort and a DC 14 Charisma check to find buyers. This DC increases by +3 for every additional day of searching for purchasers.
  • Success results in finding 1d4 + Charisma modifier number of interested buyers.
  • Failure indicates there is no further interest in the map specifically.
• Price: The base price of a map is a number of gold pieces equal to the number of days on the route. This may be multiplied by 2 for routes through wild areas, 5 for routes through particularly dangerous or untraveled areas, and by .5 for maps of routes through well-traveled areas.
  • Haggling for the sale of that map is handled through normal haggling rules.

Navigating

There are three elements that make navigation possible in the Underdark. Having at least one allows the character to make a Navigation check at disadvantage. Two permits a normal check, and three grants checks at advantage.

• Familiarity: A character familiar with an area can be of tremendous benefit towards getting around in it. Moreover, this person doesn't have to be the navigator, although their traveling task does become aiding the navigator.
• Maps: A good set of maps for Underdark travel generally covers routes rather than broad swathes of terrain.
• Navigator's Tools: Though a normal set of navigator's tools is insufficient for delving through the Underdark wildernesses, most settled areas of the Underdark do sell navigator's tools for Underdark travel. Using it is the same proficiency as navigator's tools.

Navigation Checks

• A Navigation check is made when a group starts traveling again after each long rest, short rest, or encounter.
• The check itself is a Wisdom (Survival) test.
• The DC for this test is based on the area in question.

Navigation Results

• Success on this check results in travel through the area without getting lost.
  • Achieving a result 5+ higher than the DC allows passage through a route that "eats up" an additional 1d4 hours from the time to reach the destination.
• Failure on this test results in the party getting lost.
  • Lost characters wander through the tunnels, caverns, and byways of their location for 1d4 hours.
  • At the end of this time, the Navigator of the party may make another Navigation check.
  • Three failed checks in a row results in the party ending up in a location that none of them are familiar with, and that is off of any of their maps.

Finding Camp

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