The Undergarden
🏛️ Overview
Type: Underground Tunnel Community
Population: ~800 residents
Status: Semi-autonomous district connected to Sanctuary
Primary Function: Security, reconnaissance, and trade route protection
Governance: Council of Tunnel Elders with elected Night Shift Captain
The Undergarden is a specialized community built within an interconnected network of natural caves and artificially expanded tunnels. Unlike the main caverns of Sanctuary, the Undergarden’s residents have adapted to life in narrow passages, service tunnels, and the boundary zones between underground civilization and the dangerous surface world.
🗺️ Geography & Layout
The Main Warren
The Central Hub: A natural cavern approximately 100 feet across, serving as the community’s heart. Features carved stone amphitheater seating for community meetings and a central fire pit that burns continuously—one of the few safe sources of warmth and light.
Living Tunnels: Residential passages radiating out from the central hub like spokes of a wheel. Each family group maintains their own carved-out alcoves connected by the main passage network. Privacy is maintained through hanging tapestries and careful acoustic design.
The Night Market: A wider tunnel section where essential goods are traded during the community’s active night hours. Merchants from deeper in Sanctuary bring supplies, while Undergarden residents trade surface intel, scouting reports, and specialized tunnel craft.
Security Network
Patrol Tunnels: A labyrinthine network of narrow passages that honeycomb the area around the main residential spaces. These tunnels are just wide enough for a single person and are used for security patrols, quick movement between areas, and emergency escape routes.
Watch Posts: Strategic points where tunnels widen into small chambers, equipped with primitive periscope systems using polished metal mirrors to monitor multiple tunnel entrances simultaneously.
The Listening Chambers: Acoustic monitoring points where experienced guards can detect movement, conversations, or threats from great distances through the tunnel system’s natural sound-carrying properties.
Specialized Areas
The Workshop Warrens: Narrow side tunnels converted into specialized craft areas for tunnel maintenance, equipment repair, and the creation of stealth gear. The close quarters require residents to work in intimate cooperation.
The Deep Storage: Secure chambers connected by particularly narrow passages, used for storing emergency supplies, valuable trade goods, and sensitive intelligence about surface conditions.
The Night Garden: Small hydroponic growing chambers where shade-adapted plants provide supplementary food and basic medicines. Tended by those too old or injured for active tunnel duty.
đź‘Ą Community Structure
The Night Shift
Role: The backbone of Undergarden society, responsible for security patrols, surface reconnaissance, and protecting the tunnel network during the most dangerous hours.
Organization: Works in overlapping crews of 4-6 people, with each crew specializing in different areas (close tunnels, boundary patrol, surface contact, deep reconnaissance).
Leadership: Currently led by an elected Night Shift Captain who coordinates all security operations and serves as the community’s primary representative to Sanctuary’s governing council.
Culture: Highly collaborative, with an emphasis on silent communication, perfect teamwork, and the ability to move as one unit through tight spaces. Known for elaborate but practical pranks that serve as training exercises for stealth and observation skills.
Tunnel Crafters
Role: Specialists in tunnel construction, maintenance, and modification. They’re responsible for expanding living spaces, maintaining structural integrity, and creating the specialized passages needed for security work.
Skills: Master stoneworkers, engineers, and acoustics experts who understand how to carve new spaces without compromising the existing network or alerting surface threats to underground activity.
Status: Highly respected for their essential role in community survival and growth.
Surface Liaisons
Role: The few community members who maintain regular contact with surface communities, traders, and information networks. They’re responsible for intelligence gathering and maintaining trade relationships.
Challenges: Must balance the need for information with the community’s security requirements. Often spend extended periods on the surface, creating strain on family relationships.
Skills: Excellent judges of character, skilled in negotiation, and capable of rapid movement between surface and underground environments.
Tunnel Elders
Role: Governance council consisting of retired Night Shift members, senior crafters, and long-term residents who provide wisdom, settle disputes, and maintain community traditions.
Authority: Handle major decisions affecting the whole community, resource allocation, and relationships with Sanctuary’s main government.
Wisdom Keepers: Maintain oral histories of tunnel construction, security procedures, and the community’s founding principles.
🎠Culture & Daily Life
The Night Rhythm
The Undergarden operates on an inverted schedule compared to most communities. Residents are most active during the traditional “night” hours when surface threats are highest and patrol duties are most critical.
Dawn Quiet: Community winds down as surface activity increases. Most residents sleep during traditional “day” hours.
Dusk Assembly: Community gathering time for sharing information, planning operations, and social connection.
Deep Night: Peak activity period for patrols, craft work, and essential community functions.
Community Values
Silent Solidarity: Communication through gesture, touch, and minimal sound. The ability to coordinate complex activities without speech is highly valued and constantly practiced.
Protective Humor: Pranks and jokes serve multiple purposes—stress relief, training in stealth and observation, community bonding, and maintaining morale during difficult times. However, pranks that compromise security or community harmony are strictly forbidden.
Shared Burden: Resources and responsibilities are distributed based on ability and need. No one goes hungry or unprotected while others have excess.
Earned Trust: New residents must prove their commitment and reliability through gradually increasing responsibilities and community integration.
Traditions & Rituals
The Monthly Howl: On each full moon, the community gathers in the central hub for a celebration that includes the ceremonial “howl”—a practice that started as a joke but became a beloved tradition for stress relief and community unity.
Shadow Dancing: A form of movement exercise and art that emphasizes grace, silence, and the ability to move through tight spaces without disturbing others or making noise.
Story Circles: Evening gatherings where community members share tales, whether real intelligence about surface conditions or fictional stories for entertainment and indirect education.
The Prank Academy: Informal training system where experienced residents teach younger members elaborate but practical jokes that double as training in stealth, observation, and problem-solving.
⚔️ Security & Defense
Threat Assessment
Surface Dangers: Umbral creatures, hostile scavengers, corrupted wildlife, and environmental hazards from the Eclipse’s effects.
Underground Threats: Potential infiltration through unknown passages, collapse risks from poor construction, and resource competition with other underground communities.
Internal Security: Need to balance openness within the community with operational security that protects patrol routes and intelligence gathering.
Defense Systems
Tunnel Network Advantages: The narrow passages naturally limit the number of attackers who can advance simultaneously, creating natural chokepoints for defense.
Early Warning: Acoustic monitoring and strategically placed sentries provide advance notice of approaching threats through both tunnel networks and surface approaches.
Mobile Defense: Rather than fixed fortifications, the community relies on the ability to quickly relocate through alternate passages and regroup in different areas of the tunnel network.
Surface Camouflage: Multiple hidden entrances and exits allow residents to appear and disappear without revealing the community’s location or size.
Emergency Protocols
Silent Evacuation: Well-practiced procedures for moving the entire community through emergency passages to predetermined safe areas within minutes.
Resource Caching: Emergency supplies stored in multiple locations throughout the tunnel network, ensuring survival capabilities even if primary areas are compromised.
Communication Networks: Signal systems using light, sound, and physical markers to coordinate response across the tunnel system without verbal communication.
đź”— Connections & Relationships
Relationship with Sanctuary
Semi-Autonomous Status: The Undergarden is technically part of Sanctuary’s political structure but maintains significant independence in internal affairs and security operations.
Essential Services: Provides crucial intelligence about surface conditions, early warning of threats approaching Sanctuary, and specialized tunnel security that protects access routes.
Trade Partnership: Exchanges surface intelligence, specialized craft goods, and security services for food, manufactured goods, and access to Sanctuary’s larger infrastructure.
Political Tension: Some Sanctuary residents view Undergarden folk as dangerous outsiders, while some Undergarden residents see Sanctuary dwellers as sheltered and soft.
Surface Connections
River Trade Routes: Historical connections to riverboat captains and surface traders who provide information and limited goods in exchange for safe passage guidance and intelligence.
Scattered Settlements: Maintains loose contact with small surface communities, providing early warning of dangers in exchange for surface-gathered resources and information.
Information Networks: Part of informal intelligence sharing between communities, both surface and underground, about threats, opportunities, and changing conditions.
Other Underground Communities
Tunnel Diplomacy: Maintains peaceful relationships with other small underground communities through careful negotiation and mutual assistance agreements.
Passage Rights: Complex agreements about who can use which tunnels and when, preventing conflicts over territory while ensuring everyone has emergency options.
Shared Defense: Informal alliances for mutual protection against threats too large for any single community to handle alone.
🎯 Notable Locations Within the Undergarden
The Captain’s Chamber
A strategic command post located at the intersection of major patrol routes. Contains maps (carved into stone walls), intelligence reports, and coordination equipment for Night Shift operations. Currently serves as Captain Howling Banjo’s base of operations.
The Echo Hall
A naturally resonant chamber used for community meetings and the practice of silent communication techniques. The acoustics allow for whispered conversations that can be heard clearly by the intended audience while remaining inaudible to others.
The Craftsmen’s Maze
A network of workshop tunnels where the community’s most skilled artisans create specialized gear for tunnel work—silent tools, stealth equipment, and the specialized climbing and security gear needed for patrol work.
The Memory Wall
A section of tunnel wall covered in carved records of community history, fallen members, successful operations, and important lessons learned. Serves as both memorial and educational resource.
The Surface Watch
A carefully concealed observation post with access to multiple surface exit points. Staffed continuously to monitor surface conditions and provide early warning of approaching threats.
đź“ť Story Hooks & Adventure Opportunities
Current Challenges
Tunnel Collapse: Recent earth shifts have blocked important passages, requiring dangerous excavation work and potentially exposing new areas to unknown threats.
Supply Shortage: Trade disruptions with Sanctuary have created shortages of essential goods, forcing the community to consider riskier surface operations or new trade partnerships.
Mysterious Signals: Strange sounds and lights have been detected in previously unexplored tunnel sections, requiring investigation while maintaining community security.
Political Pressure: Sanctuary’s government is pushing for greater integration and oversight, potentially threatening the Undergarden’s cherished independence.
Potential Developments
New Discoveries: Exploration could reveal additional tunnel networks, hidden resources, or connections to other underground communities.
Surface Alliances: Opportunities to develop stronger relationships with surface communities, potentially improving trade and information sharing.
Technical Innovation: Community workshops could develop new techniques for tunnel construction, security systems, or stealth equipment.
Leadership Changes: The dynamic between different community factions could shift, requiring new approaches to governance and decision-making.
🌟 Key NPCs
Captain Howling Banjo
Role: Current Night Shift Captain (PC character)
Background: Former surface dweller with riverboat experience who adapted to tunnel life and earned leadership through skilled protection work and community-building pranks.
Reputation: Known for innovative security techniques and the ability to balance serious protective responsibilities with community morale maintenance.
Leadership Style: Leads by example, emphasizing collaboration and creative problem-solving over rigid hierarchy.
Elder Stoneheart
Role: Senior Tunnel Elder and community founder
Background: Original architect of the Undergarden’s tunnel network, now serves as primary advisor on construction and expansion projects.
Wisdom: Deep knowledge of structural engineering, community history, and the delicate balance needed to maintain independence while cooperating with Sanctuary.
Personality: Gruff exterior hiding deep care for community welfare; known for practical advice and occasional surprising humor.
Whisper the Scout
Role: Senior Surface Liaison
Background: Master of surface operations who maintains the community’s most important trade relationships and intelligence networks.
Skills: Exceptional ability to move unseen on the surface, extensive knowledge of surface communities and trade routes.
Challenge: Struggles with divided loyalty between surface opportunities and underground community responsibilities.
Pipwick the Prankmaster
Role: Community morale coordinator and unofficial training supervisor
Background: Retired Night Shift member who now focuses on developing the community’s unique training-through-pranks system.
Philosophy: Believes that humor and play are essential for maintaining mental health and community cohesion under stressful conditions.
Methods: Designs elaborate practical jokes that secretly train participants in stealth, observation, problem-solving, and teamwork.
đź“š Resources & References
Construction Techniques
The Undergarden has developed specialized knowledge for expanding underground spaces while maintaining structural integrity and acoustic properties suitable for their security needs.
Stealth Traditions
Accumulated wisdom about moving silently, communicating without sound, and coordinating complex activities through minimal signals and perfect teamwork.
Surface Intelligence
Detailed knowledge about surface conditions, threat patterns, safe routes, and the changing landscape of post-Eclipse survival communities.
Community Management
Proven systems for maintaining morale, resolving disputes, and balancing individual needs with community security requirements in a high-stress environment.
đź”— Related Files
- major-locations - Context of larger underground city Sanctuary
- character-arc - Captain Howling Banjo’s background
- campaign-overview - Age of Umbra setting information
- npcs - Additional community members and contacts
Last Updated: 2025-07-18
Next Update: As community develops through gameplay
Created for: Captain Howling Banjo’s character background