“Welcome to my realm. You’ll find naught for you here but privation, fear, and death—oh, and my blade.”

—Gaelimor Zyrshaen, drow cavestalker

The Underdark’s most dangerous predators are not its horrific monstrosities, crawling and festering in the darkest of grottoes. Rather, they are the deadly cavestalkers, moving effortlessly through a jungle of living rock—and none are as much at home in these caverns as the drow.

Just as a surface ranger feels at peace in the heart of a virgin forest, so too is a cavestalker is at home in the wilds of the Underdark. Yet even in his most familiar environment, he is aware of the ever-present danger that surrounds him. It is in the task of surviving this endless peril that he finds peace away from so-called “civilized folk.”

BECOMING A CAVESTALKER

Rangers and druids are natural candidates for the cavestalker class. Underdark races that choose the path of the druid or ranger find little use for the abilities of those classes that are attuned to the wilderness of the surface. The cavestalker class augments and hones those abilities, making them more suitable for use in the endless night and providing a true advantage for those that live away from the light.

Rogues occasionally become cavestalkers, since their high skill point allotment allows them to achieve the requirements more easily than other classes. Other classes might enjoy the benefits of becoming a cavestalker, but would likely find meeting the requirements to be prohibitive. Regardless of class, only individuals who have natural darkvision can achieve the affinity with the lightless depths necessary to become a cavestalker.

PLAYING A CAVESTALKER

As a cavestalker, you nurture a close, almost mystical connection to the deadly terrain of the Underdark. To you, the lightless tunnels are not friends, exactly, but perhaps well-respected adversaries. Danger is always present, yet you understand it and even find a certain succor in living alongside it.

Combat

Although you are a formidable warrior, you usually prefer not to stand against the sheer might of the world’s fighters and barbarians. Your greatest ally is your own native environment. None dare face your blades when they are trapped in a cramped tunnel, and your exhaustive knowledge of the Underdark allows you to draw enemies into untenable positions where you have the advantage—and where you might even be able to dispatch them without having to fight at all.

With your excellent mobility, you might consider taking a few levels of rogue, adding a deadly sneak attack to your repertoire. And if things get too hot, it’s easy for you to disappear into a realm of extreme peril where few dare to follow.

Advancement

The call of the wild is a very different thing in the Underdark from what it is on the surface, but its allure is no less enticing. Whereas on the surface a character might enter the remote reaches of nature to find solitude or peace, in the Underdark he typically does it for survival. Perhaps the most dangerous location in the Underdark is on the “civilized” streets of a drow city: an environment rife with political intrigue, betrayal, and assassination. To escape these noxious environs, you sought refuge in the surrounding tunnels where even the foulest elements of drow society fear to tread. By gaining an intimate knowledge of this hazardous realm, you buy some breathing room and security from the knives of your kin without abandoning all the advantages that drow society has to offer.

As your cavestalker abilities increase, you find the Underdark a more and more inviting place (if a place of such constant peril can be called inviting). You use your skills to establish safe havens for yourself or to gain employment opportunities—perhaps guiding the rich and the powerful to distant, dangerous locations. You also find that continuing to advance as a ranger or druid augments your already impressive abilities in the Underdark’s deepest caverns.

CAVESTALKERS IN THE WORLD

“Lolth’s priestesses rule the cities with unquestioned dominance, but the tunnels—the tunnels belong to the cavestalkers.”

—Pharug Lurimil, drow merchant of the Crescent Clan

For the drow who pursues the life of a ranger or druid—normally impractical classes for members of a subterranean race—the existence of the cavestalkers is validation for his unconventional choice. With the abilities of a cavestalker, that drow can exert his mastery of nature in a more accessible environment, one that lies just beyond the far outposts of a drow city.

Organization

There is no special organization for cavestalkers. You are more likely to be a loner—or at best the leader of a group of fringe brigands or renegades—than you are to gather with other cavestalkers.

Sometimes priestesses or noble houses hire cavestalkers as spies, and merchant clans are eager to employ you as a guide along the most perilous trade routes. Cavestalkers can find membership in one of the drow fighting societies or house garrisons, serving as scouts or leaders for the far patrols that guard the fringes of a drow city’s sphere of influence. Additionally, you might be called on to lead an expeditionary force to attack some distant target or settlement.

NPC Reactions

Within a drow city proper, you find that you are either ignored or regarded with some small amount of curiosity. A certain mystique surrounds the reputation of the cavestalkers, but it seems distant and irrelevant to the drow cutthroat or noble who makes his living preying upon the denizens of the streets. It is only when a drow finds himself outside the secure boundaries of his city that he truly appreciates you. Indeed, he holds you almost in awe, knowing that you are all that stands between him and a horrible death in a hostile environment.

CAVESTALKER LORE

Characters who have ranks in Knowledge (Underdark local) or Knowledge (dungeoneering), or who have the bardic knowledge ability, can research cavestalkers to learn more about them. When a character makes a successful skill check or bardic knowledge check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

DC 10: Only those assisted by a cavestalker can hope to survive in the wilds of the Underdark for long.

DC 15: Cavestalkers move with ease through tunnels and terrain that others find dangerous or impassable. They make use of this aptitude to set traps and ambushes for those who dare chase them.

DC 20: As a cavestalker advances in knowledge and skill, he grows more and more connected to tunnels in which he lives. It is said that at death, a cavestalker becomes one with the caverns.

In a drow city, a cavestalker can be found by inquiring with the various garrisons, fighting societies, or at locations frequented by merchant clans (Gather Information DC 10). Having a ranger or druid in the party reduces the check DC by 5.

CAVESTALKERS IN THE GAME

As a player character, you can put your levels in ranger or druid to good use for adventuring in the Underdark, when you would otherwise find the abilities provided by those classes somewhat unproductive. You can serve as a guide for a party, helping it to avoid the Underdark’s hidden dangers and using your talents to outmaneuver or outwit those foes that can’t be avoided.

An NPC cavestalker might be the leader of a drow patrol or the head of a band of outlaws living outside drow society and preying on those foolish enough to venture beyond its boundaries. He could also be a spy sent to observe some other community and report its weaknesses to his masters.

Adaptation

Although cavestalkers are most frequently found among the drow, they are certainly not limited to the race of the dark elves. A svirfneblin hermit might live as a cavestalker, quietly protecting the fringes of his community from the incursion of subterranean beasts. Alternately, a duergar or dwarf cavestalker could be a prospector seeking new veins of ore for his clan. The barbaric quaggoths and grimlocks rarely become cavestalkers, but a truly exceptional individual from one of these races might choose this class—perhaps one born into slavery and later raised to leadership of his tribe.

A character from a surface-dwelling race can also become a cavestalker, though he would need to have extensive exposure to an underground environment. He could dwell near an extensive natural cave system, for example, or in a community with close ties to a gnome or dwarf clanhold. In this case, the character might start out as a ranger or druid and become more and more acclimated to a subterranean environment as his adventures take him deeper into the nearby caverns. Finally, a member of a surface race adopted by some underground-dwelling people might find his way to the cavestalker class, pushed toward solitude by the awkward sense of never quite fitting in.