The Underworld is a horrible place. No sane person would ever willingly enter it. But nevertheless there exists an artistic movement popular amongst many nobles called the katabatic. It is based around a romanticized vision of the life of an adventurer and an idealized imagining of the Underworld’s landscapes. This has often manifested in literature, poetry, music, and paintings. But recently, it has made the jump to architecture.
In late summer, the nobles leave the City and return to their country estates. There, a new trend has emerged; a novel style of katabatic “gardening” in which a picturesque representation of the Underworld is constructed on the property. The noble is thus free to safely wander its carefully curated caverns and halls and imagine themselves in the Underworld. Terminology is in flux at the moment but two stand out: “ornamental dungeon”, the more descriptive, and “under-folly”, the more fun.
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| The Williamson Tunnels |
Baron Frivolwim
Baron Caratacus Anaximander Frivolwim has constructed the space for an under-folly on his estate just outside the City. But it is currently empty; he is in need of Adventurers to descend into the Underworld proper and help him populate it.
Baron Frivolwim is a buyer of very unorthodox “treasure”:
- Rubbings of runes and other engravings
- Better yet, grab a chisel and take engraving itself
- Statues, bas reliefs, mosaics, basically any artwork
- Diagrams of traps
- Better yet, disassemble the trap and take the whole thing
- Architectural sketches and measurements
- Sarcophagi
- Occupants actually preferred, as long as they are inanimate
- Thornes, altars, braziers, fountains, any super unique furniture or ornaments really
- Treasure chests
- The chest is the thing he actually wants; treasure is only valuable to him if it fits in one of the other categories
- Harmless Underworld flora
- Harmless Underworld fauna
- Even suitably domesticated monsters
- Recognizably historic treasure (coins with ancient leaders, jewelry clearly from earlier civilizations, etc.)
- Frivolwim doesn’t want for riches - he’s buying them to add a touch of authenticity to his under-folly’s treasure hoards
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| Francesco II d'Este |
I found this in my notes today. Based on the language, this was written for His Majesty the Worm but the ideas are easily adaptable I think. Clearly inspired by Romanticism, Pastoralism, and how Early Modern aristocrats liked to build gardens so that they could imagine themselves in the countryside without any of the actual unpleasantness that entailed. But my main reason for writing this is probably that I just love weird treasure; the idea of watching players work out the logistics of how to disassemble and cart away an entire spike trap amuses me to no end.
