Darkrunner

See that? The circular patch of ground that’s all muddy and smooth, when all the stone around it is rough and solid? One of them gibbering mouthers jumped someone here, and recently. Hand me that shovel. Sometimes they leave their victims buried in the mud they make, and they don’t take the poor fool’s gear when they’re done. —Jasper Ringlerock of the Darkrunner Guild

Darkrunners devote their lives to traveling the haunted underground depths. Some hire out their services as guides to those who wish to navigate the lightless ways, while others are lone wolves who simply wish to explore the deepest reaches of this wondrous and dangerous realm. They understand the lay of the subterranean world like no other, and use its terrain and features to great advantage in combat.

BECOMING A DARKRUNNER

The ranger class is the easiest path to becoming a darkrunner. Despite having to take cross-class ranks in Knowledge (dungeoneering), barbarians and druids both can qualify fairly quickly (unless they multiclass into a class that has this as a class skill). Intelligence is perhaps the most important ability for a darkrunner, since it grants bonus skill points and enhances several of the darkrunner’s class features. After Intelligence, Charisma and Dexterity are likely the best abilities for a darkrunner, since both contribute to many of the character’s class skills. Due to the darkvision requirement, most darkrunners come from races already adapted to underground life (dwarves, half-orcs, drow, and the like). Creatures with the Aberration Blood and Inhuman Vision feats might also fi nd surprising welcome in the Darkrunner Guild.

Entry Requirements Skills: Knowledge (dungeoneering) 5 ranks, Search 5 ranks, Survival 7 ranks. Feats: Alertness, Track. Special: Darkvision as a racial trait or class feature. Special: You must seek out a chapter house of the Darkrunner Guild and successfully petition to join the guild. Once you are a member, you gain your first level of darkrunner. If at a later time you lose membership in the guild, you become a darkrunner exile. You can still gain levels in this prestige class, but you can no longer rely upon the support of the guild.

CL ASS FEATURES

All of the following are class features of the darkrunner prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Profi ciency: You gain profi ciency with light armor and with martial weapons.

Direction Sense (Ex): You possess an incredible sense of direction. If you study a single underground location for at least 8 hours, that location becomes your directional focus until you choose a new location and study it for 8 hours. You must be within your directional focus to successfully study it. You can use fi nd the path (as the spell) to determine the shortest, most direct physical route to your directional focus, as long as you are within 5 miles of your focus. This ability works only as long as you remain underground.

Spelunking (Ex): You are well trained in moving in and through natural caverns. You gain a competence bonus equal to your class level on Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Survival, and Swim checks as long as you remain underground. In addition, you are treated as one size category smaller than your actual size for the purpose of squeezing into narrow tunnels or confi ned areas.

Darkrunner Emblem: Upon becoming a darkrunner, you are granted a darkrunner emblem by the Darkrunner Guild. This minor magic item is detailed in the accompanying sidebar. If your emblem is lost or destroyed, you can purchase a replacement from any guild chapter house at a 50% discount.

Aberration Lore (Ex): You have picked up a trove of knowledge concerning aberrations. Beginning at 2nd level, you gain a +2 competence bonus on any skill check, attack roll, or saving throw made against an aberration.

Darkvision (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, the extent of your darkvision increases by 10 feet. It increases by an additional 10 feet every other level.

Table 9 –5: The Darkrunner Hit Die: d6 Base Attack Fort Ref Will

Level Bonus Save Save Save Special 1st +0 +2 +0 +0 Direction sense, spelunking, darkrunner emblem 2nd +1 +3 +0 +0 Aberration lore, darkvision +10 ft. 3rd +2 +3 +1 +1 Cavefighting, tunnelport 4th +3 +4 +1 +1 Tremorsense, darkvision +20 ft. 5th +3 +4 +1 +1 Lore of the stones 6th +4 +5 +2 +2 Aberration specialist, darkvision +30 ft. 7th +5 +5 +2 +2 Deepsong 8th +6 +6 +2 +2 Improved cavefighting, darkvision +40 ft. 9th +6 +6 +3 +3 Greater tunnelport 10th +7 +7 +3 +3 Stonewalking, darkvision +50 ft.

Class Skills (6 + Int modif ier per level): Balance, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Heal,

Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (architecture and engineering), Knowledge (dungeoneering), Knowledge (geography),

Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nature), Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, Speak Language, Spot, Survival, Swim, and Tumble.

Cavefi ghting (Ex): Beginning at 3rd level, you are so familiar with the terrain features of the subterranean world that you can use them to enhance your combat ability. While underground, you gain a bonus on initiative checks equal to your Intelligence bonus, and you can move over diffi cult terrain (see page 148 of the Player’s Handbook) at normal speed. Additionally, as long as you stand in a square of diffi cult terrain, such as rubble or thick undergrowth, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to your Armor Class.

Tunnelport (Sp): At 3rd level and higher, you can use an enlarged dimension door effect as a spell-like ability once per day. You cannot pass through solid barriers as you normally could with a dimension door spell. Additionally, the route you take when using tunnelport must follow an opening no more than 10 feet w ide. Your caster level equals twice your darkrunner class level.

Tremorsense (Ex): Beginning at 4th level, you have tremorsense out to 30 feet. You are sensitive to vibrations in the ground and can automatically pinpoint the location of anything that is in contact with the ground.

Lore of the Stones (Sp): At 5th level, you gain an affi nity with unworked stone. You treat unworked stone as very soft ground when making Survival checks to track quarry, and can use stone tell as a spell-like ability (caster level equal to your class level) once per day.

Aberration Specialist (Ex): At 6th level, your knowledge about a particular kind of underground-dwelling aberration increases. You must select a specifi c kind of aberration that has an environment entry of Underground, such as gibbering mouther, mind fl ayer, or umber hulk. Against this kind of aberration, your bonuses from your aberration lore ability increase to +4. Deepsong (Su): All that occurs in the depths of the earth is witnessed by the stone. Over the ages, an infi nite legion of events have occurred, and in their passing they have left their mark upon the stone. Beginning at 7th level, you can attune your mind to experience the de ep s ong. The deepsong can be seen, felt, heard, and tasted, and it even makes itsel f k nown i n m y s t i c a l ways. While underground, the deepsong f i l ls you with a sense of belonging and welcome. This effect grants you a +2 morale bonus on all Will saving throws. In addit ion, your stone tell spell-like ability becomes much more powerful than the normal spell. When you use this ability, the stones Jasper Ringlerock, a darkrunner relate complete descriptions of events when asked. You can gain knowledge of up to three facts from among the following topics with each use: the layout of caverns and tunnels; the presence of plants

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DARKRUNNER EMBLEM

This small brooch is worn by members of the Darkrunner Guild and signifies the wearer as an ally or member of the organization. The emblem grants a +2 competence bonus on all Survival checks made in underground locations, as long as it is worn openly. If the wearer possesses any levels in the darkrunner prestige class, the emblem can be used to produce light (as the spell) at will, and the emblem itself glows softly with pale blue magical fire (as the continual f lame spell). A character who has been exiled from the guild but still has levels in the darkrunner

cannot use the emblem to produce light, and the emblem glows with pale red light instead of blue light. Most darkrunners wear their emblems openly in the city but cover them with a patch of cloth when in the wild. In this way, the light doesn’t draw unwanted attention but can be quickly exposed to aid in smoothing over an unexpected encounter with an intelligent subterranean creature. Faint evocation; CL 3rd; Craft Wondrous Item, creator must be a member of the darkrunner prestige class, light, continual f lame; Price 1,200 gp. pqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqrs

Illus. by E. Cox

and fungi, minerals, bodies of water, or people; local animal population; and the presence of elemental creatures, powerful abominations, or undead.

Improved Cavefi ghting (Ex): At 8th level, your cavefi ghting techniques improve further. You can take 10 at any time with any of the following skills while underground, even if you are threatened or distracted: Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, and Swim. In addition, you master a style of fighting that incorporates the terrain into your attacks. You might cause an opponent to slip with a successful attack and twist an ankle on loose rocks or to stagger into a sharp stalactite. You might brace yoursel f against a cave wall to get a little bit of extra pull on your bow. In any case, this fighting style works only if you are standing in a square of difficult terrain. As long as you do so, you add a circumstance bonus equal to your Intelligence bonus (minimum +1) to damage rolls with all melee weapons and any ranged weapon attacks at a range of 30 feet or less.

Greater Tunnelport (Sp): Beginning at 9th level, your tunnelport ability functions like greater teleport, although you are still bound by the restrictions on the width of passages you can teleport though. Your caster level equals twice your darkrunner class level.

Stonewalking (Su): At 10th level, you no longer need confi ne your underground exploration to caverns and passageways. For a limited number of rounds per day, you can glide through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except metal as easily as a fi sh swims through water. While stonewalking, you have a burrow speed equal to your base land speed; this burrowing leaves behind no tunnel or hole, nor does it create any ripple or other signs of a presence. A move earth spell cast on an area where you are stonewalking fl ings you back 30 feet and stuns you for 1 round if you fail a DC 15 Fortitude save. You can stonewalk for a number of rounds each day equal to 10 + your Intelligence modifi er. These rounds need not be continuous; you can activate this ability for 4 rounds to pass through a collapsed tunnel and still have the remainder of your rounds available for use later in the same day. Activating and deactivating stonewalking is a free action. If you are still burrowing when you run out of time, you are immediately ejected into the nearest open surface large enough to contain you. Distance is not a factor, but the ejection is quite painful and forces you to make a successful Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1 per 5 feet traveled to reach the open area) or be stunned for 1d4 rounds.

PL AYING A DARKRUNNER

You are fi rst and foremost an explorer. You express a nearconstant curiosity about what might lie beyond the next bend in the tunnel. At the same time, you serve as a diplomat, since your wanderings put you in contact with strange and secluded societies. You should probably try to be friendly and easygoing, someone who can be trusted as a guide and even a friend. Yet beneath the surface, you are a resourceful, solid realist. The deep earth is no place for the naive, and its travelers should constantly suspect danger even when they feel safest.

Combat

You should focus your combat skills on fast, quick strikes.

Your strength lies in your mobility in confi ned spaces. Ranged weapons aren’t as useful to you for two reasons: The lightless environs make long-range fi ghting spotty at best, and the winding tunnels and ample cover mean that you can never count on being able to get a good shot at something more than a few dozen feet away. As you gain levels, you should focus on feats that allow you increased mobility on the battlefi eld. Dodge, Mobility, and

Spring Attack are all excellent choices, since you can move through diffi cult terrain with ease to reach a creature, make your attack, then skitter away before it can retaliate effectively.

Since other creatures can’t move as quickly in such cramped conditions, you can easily maintain the advantage in combat.

Feats that enhance charges can also be useful, since the cavefi ghting ability lets you charge over diffi cult terrain with ease. Although you are most at home underground, many of your abilities work just as well in dungeons closer to the surface or in aboveground structures. Always be on the lookout for diffi cult terrain from which to establish your combat dominance.

Advancement

As you gain levels as a darkrunner, don’t forget to keep up your ranks in various Charisma-based skills such as Bluff,

Diplomacy, and Intimidate. Your wanderings underground put you in contact with suspicious or outright hostile settlements, and unless you intend to fi ght everything (a poor choice for anyone below the earth), you will be called upon to present yourself and your companions as friendly visitors.

Any feats that aid these skills are likewise good choices as you gain levels. Remember that Speak Language is a class skill for you.

Picking up one or two obscure languages per level is a good idea, for the sake of being able to communicate with some of the creatures you might encounter. Since you will be wandering through unexplored areas, it’s a good idea to be able to carry a lot with you, either supplies from your last visit to town or magic items and other objects you discover on your travels. Some sort of extradimensional container, such as a bag of holding or a portable hole, is a wise investment. You should also collect magic to augment your various movement modes. A helm of underwater action, a ring of swimming, slippers of spider climbing, and wings of fl ying are all quite useful when navigating unexplored tunnels.

Resources

See the presentation of the Darkrunner Guild, page 218.