TEXT: Lands in Shadow for  
  Shadow of the Demon Lord
  ~Credits~
  Writing and Design:  
  Steve Dee
  Additional Design, Development, and Editing: Robert J. Schwalb
  Art Direction: Kara Hamilton and Robert J. Schwalb
  Proofreading, Graphic Design, and Layout: Kara Hamilton
  Illustrations: Ivan Dixon
  Weight of the Underworld is ©2016 Schwalb Entertainment, LLC.  
  All rights reserved.
  Shadow of the Demon Lord, Lands in Shadow, Weight of the Underworld
  Schwalb Entertainment, and their associated logos  
  are trademarks of Schwalb Entertainment, LLC.
  Schwalb EntErtainmEnt, llc
  PO Box #12548, Murfreesboro, TN 37129
  info@schwalbentertainment.com
   www.schwalbentertainment.com
  Mortals with souls stained with corruption 
  go to Hell. Most other souls sink down to 
  the Underworld, a place of different horrors, 
  of quiet misery, protracted grief. Here the 
  torment is not punishment but erasure, 
  as everything you are is eaten away by the 
  coruscating wind. Should you awaken to see 
  its grey deserts, rejoice, for you are not in Hell. 
  Then despair, for other agonies await. 
   Weight of the Underworld joins the other 
  installments of the Lands in Shadow series, 
  each zooming in on one part of the world 
  and providing you with the lore you need to 
  realize the place in play. While most Lands in 
  Shadow deal with places characters can easily 
  reach, this entry examines a place no one 
  wants to go but one where almost everyone 
  winds up. Read on to discover the cold dread 
  of the Underworld.
  1
  
  Beginning of the End
  Elves live forever unless cut down by violent means, 
  but even so, they only live once. When mortals 
  appeared on Urth, the elves were affronted by their 
  ability to go on living, seemingly forever. They lived 
  tiny cycles of existence and non-existence, becoming 
  wiser and stronger with each new life. To the elves,  
  it was confusing, chaotic, and dangerous. It had to  
  be stopped.
   Thanatos, a Prince of the Fey, stepped forward 
  to offer a solution: He would build a realm to strip 
  mortal souls of all their living memories and then 
  send the emptied souls back to the world to be reborn 
  as if new. His wife would assist at his side, her tears 
  burning those memories into nothingness. And all 
  would be well, and ordered, and final. Thanatos 
  named himself God of the Endings and shaped this 
  realm of souls to his perfect purpose. He fashioned a 
  great well to drain off mortal minds, and above it built 
  his great Hall of Shadow. The souls of the dead are 
  pulled down by savage maelstroms into his shadowed 
  valley and drawn inexorably into the Hall, and have so 
  in an orderly fashion for thousands of years.
   What the Fey did not expect, however, was how 
  mortal belief would affect them, shaping them into 
  forms created by their collective imagination. As 
  centuries passed, humans found new forms for 
  their “gods.” The Prince of Stags became the vicious 
  Horned Lord, timeless Anemoi became Old Man 
  Winter, while Thanatos found himself transformed 
  into a literal skeleton and his staid marbled Hall 
  morphing to resemble the skull-adorned gothic-style 
  Cathedral of Death outside Caercas. Unlike all the 
  other fey lords and ladies, Thanatos resisted these 
  changes, feeling his dominion over endings should 
  mean he remain as he was, but he could not stop the 
  changes to his own flesh. He has since devoted all 
  his power into holding his Hall as it was. In the face 
  of these warring forces, the building and the land 
  around it have begun to collapse. Inside the Hall of 
  Shadow, pillars have fallen into rubble, and fissures 
  cut across the ground outside and giving way to form 
  canyons. The Underworld itself decays and dies, and 
  in those cracks, the taint of the Void rushes in to make 
  things worse. Increasingly, the dead return to walk 
  amongst the living.
  Paths of the Dead
  It is impossible to map the Underworld, but it is also 
  impossible to get lost here. There’s only one way to go. 
  The moment a soul leaves a body, it becomes trapped 
  in a swirling storm that speeds the soul to the bottom 
  of cliffs so sheer as to be impossible to climb. Gravity 
  pulls the new arrivals down from those rocks, slipping 
  and tumbling into loose dusty gravel. The deathly 
  desert extends at this sharp angle ever downwards 
  from all sides toward the enormous vaulted Hall that 
  sits in the very center. Those who try to walk away 
  find the climb excruciating and their way blocked 
  by other inhabitants. Souls who have resigned 
  themselves to their fate cannot bear the insult of 
  others daring to resist, and rush screaming to tear 
  down anyone trying (as manes). They may be aided 
  by the dirges (see below), although they have  
  different goals. 
   At the foot of the great slope, the land levels out 
  into flinty beaches cut by seven spiraling streams that 
  eventually combine into the great river Acheron that 
  flows down into Hell below. The only way forward 
  is to cross, and no boats can be found. The rivers 
  are highly acidic, designed to burn away the skin 
  and flesh that appear on the mortal soul. Any given 
  stream is 2d6 + 10 yards wide, and any path through 
  the Underworld requires crossing 1d6 + 1 of them. 
  The rivers are only waist deep, but deal 1 damage at 
  the end of each round a creature spends in them. 
  Rushing across requires the creature to make an 
  Agility challenge roll with failure indicating the 
  creature falls prone and takes 2d6 damage from being 
  immersed in the liquid. As the Underworld shudders, 
  the riverbanks shift and the ground heaves, so falling 
  is always a risk even while traveling across dry land. 
  Lava bubbles up from cracks in the dry ground 
  at random intervals, while eruptions launch fiery 
  boulders into the air never to fall. Constant shears and 
  subsidence make traveling at speed impossible.
   Beyond the rivers is the Hall of Shadow. The pillars 
  surrounding it are called the Howling Gates. From 
  within comes a terrible wind that scours what flesh 
  remains. Creatures take 1d3 damage at the end of 
  each minute spent in the face of the Gates or inside 
  the Hall. Creatures incapacitated by the damage have 
  all their skin and outer flesh torn off and gain the 
  Horrifying trait (Shadow, page 214). 
   The hall itself is several miles square and 
  impenetrably dark. Grim reapers (see page 6) lurk in 
  the corners and in the very center Father Death sits 
  on his throne. In his Hall, he shuns his dark cloak, his 
  bone wings folded high behind him, his skull-eyes 
  sparking with mad blue lightning, the same dancing 
  along the blade of his enormous scythe. Beside him 
  is a throne reserved for his now-absent Queen. In 
  the old days, the wind and water would leave souls 
  nothing but a skeleton with the last trace of memory 
  a dying blue spark in their eyes, whereupon the Lady 
  would kiss them, taking that last memory for herself. 
  Then Father Death would sweep his scythe, cutting 
  the soul free from his realm, and it would shoot 
  skyward into the light shining through the great hole 
  in the ceiling. The memories, as part of the skin and 
  the flesh, would drain through the grate in the floor, 
  down to the river of Lethe.
  2
  
   Nowadays the process is far less elegant. The 
  crumbling edifice of the Hall and the erupting of 
  gothic buttresses leave souls sometimes unable 
  to reach the center, becoming lost or delayed for 
  centuries. Panicked and confused, the hordes of souls 
  surge forward, and Thanatos takes wild swings with 
  his scythe without pattern or solemnity. The souls 
  stolen by clockwork-builders, necromancers, and 
  demons go unnoticed. For the moment, the process 
  still works. Thanatos’ silent servants drive the crowds 
  forward and catch most souls that go astray with 
  their own scythes. The wait may be interminable, but 
  the count of souls leaving the Hall is equal to those 
  entering. However, Thanatos’ impotent rage and 
  ennui eat at him more with each passing moment. It 
  would not take much to push him to quit his work, 
  choking the Underworld with souls and forcing the 
  dead to rise from every grave.
   Parts of that process have already begun: the area 
  of Rûl known as the Desolation is an outward echo 
  of the Underworld. Powered by the Void-touch of the 
  Demon Lord, the grey desert of the Underworld is 
  mirrored onto that blighted landscape. Souls who trip 
  and fall into the sands of the Underworld sometimes 
  find themselves in rotting bodies tearing free of the 
  toxic soil of the Desolation, each hungry for flesh and 
  thirsty for hot blood.
  Underworld Events
  You can use the following table whenever you need 
  inspiration for encounters in the Underworld.
  Underworld Events
  d20
  Event
  1
  A decrepit soul pulls a hanging piece of skin off its 
  chest and gives it to a character. If the character 
  keeps this item until he or she returns to Urth, it 
  becomes a memory of drowning a red-haired man.
  2
  A geyser of lava shoots up, erasing a dozen 
  manes. Nearby characters are scattered in blood 
  and burning flesh, and gain 1d3 random, terrifying 
  memories. For each, a character must get a success 
  on a Will challenge roll or gain 1 Insanity.
  3
  The ground cracks open revealing fiery magma. 
  Each creature on the ground in the area must get  
  a success on an Agility challenge roll or fall in and 
  take 2d6 damage plus 2d6 damage at the end of 
  each round it remains there. As well, creatures in  
  the magma automatically catch fire.
  4
  The ground tilts, revealing the endless nothingness 
  of the Void and the true horror of the Demon 
  Lord. Each character must get a success on a Will 
  challenge roll with 2 banes or gain 1d6 Insanity.
  5
  A character’s finger cracks and falls off, taking  
  1d3 damage and losing all memories of a loved  
  one. If the character returns to Urth, the person  
  is as a stranger.
  6 
  A character’s facial appendage (nose, ear, eye, 
  lips) dries up and falls off. The character takes 1d3 
  damage and loses a random profession.
  7
  A character swallows something blowing in the 
  wind, and gains a random profession.
  8 
  A nearby mane becomes swallowed up by the earth 
  perhaps to appear as a zombie in the Desolation. 
  Other manes nearby try to follow, choking 
  themselves to death as they throw themselves into 
  the sinkhole.
  9
  An enormously fat mane who was an orc offers to 
  eat passing souls to speed their escape from the 
  endless cycle of death. This doesn’t work—the souls 
  he eats remain alive inside his belly, screaming in 
  agony, but as a side effect, the orc gains every 
  single profession and language of the souls it has 
  swallowed. It is also completely insane.
  10
  The characters find themselves in a different place, 
  with wounds they do not recall gaining (no more 
  than 1d3 damage) and with no memory of how they 
  received them.
  11
  The characters forget everything that happened 
  since they arrived in the Underworld.
  12 
  A mane who has fashioned wings from a corpse 
  attempts to fly up the cliffs, back to life. It explodes 
  on the rocks in a fountain of gore.
  13 
  A mane begs the characters to help him return to 
  life, saying his baby is cold and he’s just a few feet 
  from safety. A few minutes later, his child crawls 
  past him.
  14 
  A mad mob of manes tries to build a bridge across 
  the Acheron, using the bodies of other manes, who 
  scream in agony. The bridge collapses, carrying 
  everyone down to Hell.
  15
  Wind blows a fierce spray from the rivers. Digging 
  into the earth or hiding behind rocks is the only 
  protection, apart from human shields. The rain deals 
  1 damage per round of exposure.
  16 
  A gigantic jotun slays every thing near him, hoping 
  it will gain him access to some divine warrior 
  paradise. He charges the characters if he sees them. 
  Eventually his sword arm tears off. 
  17 
  A living being runs to the characters, claiming  
  to be their friend who has journeyed with them  
  for years, but was separated from them earlier 
  during an earthquake. He knows intimate personal 
  details to confirm his story. He is, however, a devil 
  who plays this game whenever he sees mortals in 
  the Underworld.
  18 
  A witch offers the characters a squirming pink 
  eyeball that she claims will let them choose the form 
  they will have when reborn. In return, she demands 
  they visit her coven and convince them to bring her 
  back from the dead. She’d go herself, but she’s been 
  young and hated it. The eyeball works to a degree—
  the player can choose a mortal ancestry.
  19 
  A great fire in Caecras delivers hundreds of crisped 
  children and elderly onto the desert in a great pile. 
  20 
  A character forgets ever meeting the rest of the 
  group, though he remembers every experience 
  they’ve been through. The character might react 
  violently to the strangers around them.
  3
  
  The Midden of Memory
  For all its pomp and circumstance, the Underworld is 
  but a slaughterhouse. The souls appear in flesh and 
  blood, and all that flesh and blood is flensed away: a 
  transfiguration of the stripping of identity until the 
  soul is nothing but an animus, a chaotic force of life. 
  At the edges of the realm, the dead remember their 
  old life and ache to return, but by the time they reach 
  the cavernous darkness of the Hall, they have nothing 
  left in them but a hollow emptiness for what they 
  have lost. They press forward, eager for Thanatos’ 
  scythe, because it is better to be nothing than to be  
  so empty.
   The removed flesh and viscera is flushed down into 
  the great cloaca beneath Father Death’s throne. Here 
  it is supposed to drain away into the river Lethe, to be 
  dissolved forever, but as above, so below: the cellars 
  are falling apart and the drains are blocked. Eddies 
  and backwashes are everywhere, and the sewers are 
  clogged with centuries of gore, which is, in fact, the 
  physical manifestations of those memories every 
  soul has lost as it passes through this horrific place. 
  Anyone looking for a secret could find it here, if they 
  had the time and stomach to search through the 
  towers of effluent, or magical means to identify the 
  mind in question.
   Some of the waters have bubbled upstream, forming 
  a dark deep pool. Beside it sits the Lady of Sorrows. 
  For reasons she keeps to herself, she abandoned her 
  throne and role and instead sits weeping by its black-
  mirrored surface. Her tears are still the source of 
  the river of Lethe and are said to be so caustic that a 
  single teardrop could burn a hole through the walls of 
  reality. This might be an exaggeration, but servants of 
  the Demon Lord are keen to put it to the test to allow 
  his full entry. 
  Entrances and Exits
  The quickest and easiest way to enter the Underworld 
  is of course to die. Thanatos designed his world to 
  capture every mortal soul not long after it leaves 
  its body, be it human, dwarf, orc, faun, or halfling. 
  Animal souls also journey to the Underworld but 
  have so little memory they are usually dispersed by 
  the maelstroms before they even arrive. The “souls” of 
  fey creatures are bound to their corporeal nature and 
  rot away just as their flesh does. Unnatural monsters, 
  demons, and other such abominations have no souls 
  to speak of.
   At the bottom of the lake Dark Waters, if you could 
  swim down and see through the gloom, lies a cave 
  guarded by ancient and terrible leviathan (as a huge 
  monster with the aquatic trait). The cave exits into 
  the dark pool where the Lady of Sorrows weeps. In 
  the cursed fifth tower of the Freeholds of Nar there is 
  a mist-shrouded, flesh-dissolving pool that leads to 
  a whirlpool in the Acheron. It is said the Dark Lady 
  grows her army of undead through her own private 
  passage to the Hall of Shadow, but if true, she is not 
  keen to share.
   When mortals dream, they are in contact with 
  their soul, which can allow them brief memories of 
  the Underworld. With magical help, dreams can be a 
  gateway for mortals to view or perhaps even enter this 
  realm. Mirrors, too, are doors into the Underworld. 
  The Acheron flows turgidly, and every moment of 
  stillness upon its silvery surface can reflect a mirror in 
  the real world. Glancing at a mirror at the wrong time 
  can drag a mortal body and soul into the Underworld. 
  Likewise souls can escape the Underworld if, at such 
  moments, they leap across. Poltergeists are therefore 
  often associated with mirrors, and wise folk keep such 
  things covered when out of use. Creatures called oculi 
  are souls that tried to cross over these reflections but 
  were tainted by the Demon Lord as they passed, as 
  his influence runs everywhere across the landscape. 
  Indeed, the easiest way to leave the Underworld is to 
  fall into the Void itself. 
  4
  
   The other ways out of the Underworld lead to Hell. 
  If one can withstand the burning waters, the Acheron 
  flows over a cataract a thousand miles high, down into 
  Hell and thence into the Abyss—another gateway to 
  the Void. Despite the low chance of survival, there are 
  always some souls trying it, ready to take Hell over 
  forgetting. Beneath the Hall of Shadow, tunnels run 
  through the rock that also connect down to Hell and 
  are frequented constantly by devils and faeries alike, 
  as souls are always valuable. 
    Souls can escape the Underworld by falling 
  under Father Death’s scythe and being born again. 
  This escape does not work for mortals, but manes 
  and mortals alike can ask for Father Death’s favor. 
  Thanatos is old and bored, so any good challenge 
  or deal might amuse him enough to grant it. Manes 
  returned this way become revenants; mortals as 
  they were when they left the land of the living. 
  Both typically wake in the sands of the Desolation. 
  Powerful magic can also pull souls back from the 
  Underworld, but such travel is usually hijacked by the 
  Demon Lord. 
  Fire and Forget
  The Underworld eats away at sanity—and other 
  parts of the mind. The first time mortal creatures 
  see the Underworld, they must get a success on a 
  Will challenge roll or gain 1d3 Insanity. Moreover, 
  any time a creature gains Insanity  
  or takes damage in the Underworld, it must also 
  get a success on a Will challenge roll or reduce 
  its Intellect score by 1 and lose knowledge of a 
  language or a profession (GM’s choice). These 
  losses are permanent. A creature that loses all 
  known languages gains the Turntongued story 
  complication (Demon Lord’s Companion, page 4).
   
  Turntongued: Whether because of your 
  intellect, savage upbringing, or a severed tongue, 
  you have no power of speech, nor much ability to 
  understand it. You communicate only in grunts 
  and gestures. 
   
  Silent You cannot cast spells. You make attack 
  rolls in social situations with 3 banes.
   
  Unaffected Words have no meaning to you. You 
  are immune to Persuade or Taunt attacks, and 
  make challenge rolls to resist being charmed or 
  compelled with 3 boons. 
  New Creatures
  The following creatures are particular to the 
  Underworld, though they might sometimes slip free 
  to terrorize the mortal world.
  Dirge
  A dirge is the soul of a mortal who tried to resist the 
  natural process of death, particularly those who used 
  dark magic to do so. Unable to face life again or lose 
  the last fragments of their identity, they refuse to 
  leave the Underworld and grasp at others to make 
  them join them. Some say that vampires, when 
  they truly die, become dirges, which explains their 
  infectious touch. Dirges are found everywhere in the 
  Underworld, lying in their own filth and decay, and 
  screaming at the other souls to surrender their march 
  and join them in despair.
   Dirges appear as they did in life, but with dark 
  circles under their eyes and their skin and flesh 
  slowly drying out to have the consistency of old shoe 
  leather. The hair and nails seem to elongate as the 
  skin shrinks; in some places, it pulls apart to reveal 
  leathery muscle. Soft parts like the eyes, tongue, and 
  genitals wither away first. 
  DIRGE 
  DIFFICULTY #
  Size 1/2 or 1 horrifying spirit
  Perception 6 (–4); darksight
  Defense 11; Health 25
  Strength 13 (+3), Agility 12 (+2), Intellect 2 (–8), Will 8 (–2)
  Speed 10
  Immune damage from cold, disease, fire, and poison; 
  gaining Insanity; asleep, diseased, fatigued, immobilized, 
  poisoned, slowed
  Eternal When a Dirge becomes incapacitated it dissolves 
  into a pool of acid. It reforms in the Underworld one  
  hour later.
  ATTACK OPTIONS 
  Claws and Teeth (melee) +3 (Strength) with 1 boon  
  (1d6 + 1 plus Grab on 20+)
  Grab The dirge can attempt to grab the target as part of 
  the same attack.
  SPECIAL ATTACKS 
  Unholy Grasp The dirge makes a Strength attack roll 
  against the Strength of one creature it has grabbed. On 
  a success, the dirge sustains the grab, and the target 
  takes damage equal to half its healing rate and loses 
  all strength in one of its limbs (roll a d6: 1–3, arm; 4–6, 
  leg) for 1 hour. A target that loses strength in its arm 
  becomes impaired, while one that loses strength in its 
  leg becomes slowed. A target that loses strength in all 
  four limbs falls prone and becomes immobilized. A target 
  incapacitated by the damage from this attack dies and 
  rises up as a new dirge one hour later. A creature can 
  restore strength to an affected limb with a successful  
  use of a healer’s kit.
  5
  
  Grim Reaper
  Father Death casts a dark shadow across the 
  Underworld, his gleaming scythe severing old lives 
  to make room for the new. In olden times, Thanatos 
  would venture into the mortal realm astride his pale 
  horse to harvest the souls, but as his madness grows, 
  he relies more and more on the grim reapers who 
  serve him by chasing down those errant scraps of 
  essence that somehow resist being drawn into the 
  Underworld or Hell.
   Once elves, mortal belief has transformed these 
  wretched servants into horrifying specters of death. 
  Each appears as a skeleton wrapped in hooded robes 
  spun from shadow. Like their master, they wield 
  scythes with gleaming blue blades. From under the 
  hood, the light of the scythe is mirrored in pools of 
  blue light that gather in their empty eye sockets.
   Grim reapers carry out their mission with singular 
  focus. No words can sway them, no excuse can stay 
  the sweep of their blades. When mortals die, the grim 
  reapers come to claim their souls.
   When not prowling the shadows of the mortal 
  world, grim reapers attend Father Death, lending aid 
  in the grisly harvest with each precise swing of their 
  wicked weapons. They also protect their master from 
  harm, moving to block any attempt to harm him, even 
  if doing so would mean their own ends. Grim reapers 
  have no desires or ambitions other than to claim 
  mortal souls.
   When grim reapers bother to speak, they do so in 
  High Archaic or, rarely, the Common Tongue.
  GRIM REAPER 
  DIFFICULTY 750
  Size 2 horrifying spirit
  Perception 25 (+15); truesight
  Defense 20; Health 100
  Strength 20 (+10), Agility 20 (+10), Intellect 20 (+10),  
  Will 20 (+10)
  Speed 12; flier
  Immune damage from cold, disease, or poison; gaining 
  Insanity; charmed, diseased, poisoned
  Insubstantial A grim reaper takes half damage from 
  weapons, can move through solid objects and other 
  creatures, and ignores the effects of moving across 
  difficult terrain.
  Spell Defense A grim reaper takes half damage from spells 
  and makes any challenge roll to resist a spell with 1 boon. 
  A creature attacking a grim reaper with a spell makes the 
  attack roll with 1 bane.
  Revealed in Death A grim reaper is invisible to all  
  creatures other than spirits and incapacitated creatures. 
  If the grim reaper uses an action to attack, it loses this 
  trait for 1 round.
  Eternal When a grim reaper becomes incapacitated, it 
  collapses into streams of dissipating shadow. It returns 
  to life 24 hours later in the Underworld with no damage.
  ATTACK OPTIONS
  Scythe (melee) +10 (Strength) with 1 boon (3d6 + 6 plus 
  Wrack Soul)
  Wrack Soul A living target must get a success on a Will 
  challenge roll or become impaired for 1 minute. If already 
  impaired in this way, the creature becomes defenseless 
  for as long as it is impaired.
  SPECIAL ACTIONS 
  Mark for Death The grim reaper can use an action, or a 
  triggered action on its turn, to choose one creature 
  it can see within medium range. Until the grim reaper 
  uses Mark for Death again, it becomes incapacitated, 
  or the target becomes incapacitated, the grim reaper 
  makes attack rolls against the target with 2 banes, and 
  the target automatically begins dying when it becomes 
  incapacitated.
  Swift Casting The grim reaper can use a triggered action at 
  any point during the round to cast a spell it knows.
  Messenger of Death The grim reaper can use an action 
  to move from the Underworld to an open space of its 
  choice within short range of any living creature in the 
  world or use an action to move from the world to any 
  open space in the Underworld.
  MAGIC 
  Power 5
  Death killing touch (6), injure (3), life drain (2), decay (2), 
  feast of souls (2), death fog (1), stop heart (1)
  END OF THE ROUND 
  Shed Afflictions A grim reaper removes all afflictions  
  from itself.
  Death Knell Each living creature within short range must 
  get a success on a Strength challenge roll or take 2d6 + 
  2 damage. A creature that takes this damage heals half 
  damage for 1 round.
  Harvest Soul The grim reaper kills one dying creature 
  within short range. During the next round, the grim 
  reaper can take one additional action and one additional 
  triggered action.
  6
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Shadow of the Demon Lord/Lands in Shadow/SotDL - Lands in Shadow - Weight of the Underworld.pdf