Welcome to the game. First up, character creation.<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Character Generation</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong>Abilities:</strong> Roll or use standard point buy for abilities.<br/><br/><strong>Level:</strong> 4+1d4 (or 6) levels<br/><br/><strong>Races:</strong> Any PHB races plus orcs per Volo’s. SCAG options are available. If you prefer or the latter is not available, use half-orc for orc stats. Remember that this takes place in the Underdark, so non-dark elves are likely seen as slaves or mercenaries at best. Also, much of this will occur in the dark.<br/>            <strong>Dark elves</strong> generally have pale, grayish skin and pale hair (like moon elves). All manner of body adornments and dyes are somewhat common amongst them, the pigments chosen definitely visible with darkvision (and perhaps even invisible in normal light). <br/>            <strong>Orcs </strong>also suffer under the sunlight sensitivity trait, whether using Volo’s stats or half-orc as a substitute. Also, these orcs are servants and slaves of a dark elf house. They are much more refined that other members of their race, often wearing similar, though lower quality, versions of their masters’ garb and imitating their manners.<br/> <br/><strong>Class: </strong>Clerics When it comes to elven religion, I've never been happy with clerics. In this vein, the elves don't have gods in the sense the other races do. What they do have are mythic heroes that a living great grandparent may have been a spear-bearer for, maybe even a drinking buddy. The elves try to emulate a hero, maybe with the claim that they are the hero reincarnated, rather than <del>beg for ai-</del>, uhh, worship them. Some living elves may even be archfey or the like in their own right. I see the elven priestly class better represented by bards and warlocks than clerics. Do with this as you will as I am not going so far as to say no elven clerics. I just thought I'd put it out there.<br/> <br/><strong>Backgrounds: </strong>The substitute background features from Out of the Abyss are freely available.<br/> <br/><strong>Optional Feature: Deep Delver</strong> (Wanderer variant)<br/>You have a knack for making your way in the deep places of the world. You can recall the twists and turns of passageways and tunnels such that you can always retrace your steps underground. You’re also well acquainted with foraging and survival in the Underdark, and can determine when sources of food and water are safe to consume. You can always find sufficient food and water for yourself and up to five other people in the Underdark, as long as sustenance is available in the area.<br/> <br/><strong>Optional Feature: Underdark Experience</strong> (Researcher variant)<br/>You are no casual visitor to the Underdark, but instead have spent considerable time there learning its ways. You are familiar with the various races, civilizations, and settlements of the Underdark, as well as its major routes for travel. If you fail an Intelligence check to recall some piece of Underdark lore, you know a source you can consult for the answer unless the DM rules that the lore is unknown.<br/> <br/><strong>Equipment:</strong> Special equipment will be determined on a case by case basis. <br/> </div></div><br/>Next item of business is deciding specifics for your house. First off, you are members, retainers, and/or slaves of or scum attached to one of the top 5 houses in the vault. It is the will of the senior house, Del'vedeep, that no house but theirs has an acknowledged ranking. You're all equally subservient scum to the masters of the vault, the first house, the deliverers from the scorching orb!<br/>Ahem<br/><br/>The vault's name, Kra'nde Mehr, translates roughly to "Refuge of Stone" in the common tongue. It is a massive cavern over two miles across at its widest and so tall that an arrow can't reach the peak. Within the vault are the city of the same name, ghettos of various quality outside its inner walls inhabited by those not in direct service to a house, lakes and rivers and other outposts at the vault's multiple entrances.The other major houses you might have to deal with include the Atrophar, Iels'kiv, and Lotaseer. While each of them, and your own house, has excavated shelters in the massive stalagmites and stalactites of the inner city, the Del'vedeep dwell in a massive pyramid of 7 steps (known in the common tongue as The Sunken Keep), the first structure built in the vault. The topmost, or first level, holds the only entrance as well as serving as the court of Kra'nde Mehr. Ascending the keep requires negotiating 14 stair cases consisting of 14 steps, each staircase narrower than the last. What happens within The Sunken Keep is known only through cautionary tales known to all proper children of the moon.<br/>Finally, I'm not sold on the story title. Recommendations are more than welcome.<br/>