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Underground Features

There are lots of things you can find underground. Some are good, some are dangerous, and on occasion some might be just plain Odd. But they’re all interesting parts of the KeeperRL world.

Resources

Most Keepers are interested in getting more iron, gold, adamantine, and on occasion stone or wood.

Giant Treeshrooms (whose fungal structure is very much “wood” for dungeon purposes) are very common in the first two underground levels, and there’s usually some structural stone as well.
Iron and stone are usually available in the first two levels up the mountain, and otherwise fairly common from about 3 levels down to about 14-24 levels down.
Gold is not as common as iron or stone, but can occur from 3 levels on down.
Adamantine can occur “naturally” starting about 14 levels down, but if it does, it crowds out iron and stone. (Most Keepers prefer the adamantine. But it’s important to take into consideration.)
Exotic metals like Adoxium and Infernite might be found starting 24 levels down…

Surprises/Major Features

Not every underground level has something interesting. But if one of these is present, it’s marked on your map, so you don’t miss it!

Small dwarven settlements are commonplace underground. If left unchecked, they’re capable of tunneling into your dungeon and making a rather Unpleasant Surprise of themselves, but generally they aren’t a match for a trained and prepared security patrol.
Rat-people have been reported to exist. They’re not as capable diggers as are the dwarves, but they’re quite capable of surprising an unexpecting mining crew or complacent Keeper.
Underground vampire covens exist. While not the sort of thing a Lawful Knight would tolerate, it’s possible that more Evil Keepers might prefer to let them stay, since it’s good to have a ready supply of friends.
Yours is not the first significant underground facility. Others exist, but sometimes things don’t always work out. Be careful and see to it that you do better than they did.
Other times necromancers succeed a little too well. Be careful opening cans that you might not be able to re-can…
And if you dig deep enough, well, you might find someone who thinks “nah, I’ll pass.”

Minor Features

These typically only happen on levels with a Major Feature. For better or worse, they’re not marked on your map. Some don’t ever find them, and some don’t realize what they do. And some definitely want to.

Gnomish offshoot workshops sometimes hide out deep underground. While it’s not really a good idea to hide out in a sealed cavern, if you’re a gnomish colony yourself you may be able to benefit from their work.
Sometimes prisons get forgotten deep underground. And sometimes, the prisoners are still alive…rest assured, they’re grateful to you for saving them.
On occasion some grand underground realm’s throne remains. Though their realm has long since collapsed, thrones are meaningful and it may have some power left?
There have been reports of strange underground fogbanks. However, they always seem to come from expeditions with high casualty rates and whose raving survivors make little to no sense at all. They’re probably not worth your time.
Enchanted pools have also been found, and quite credibly described. There’s no real rhyme or reason to whether they turn up instead of other such minor features, but they’re generally a rounded 4x4 pool in a larger cavern, sometimes findable by listening out for the sound of water. On occasion they’re part of existing tunnel networks too. One should be careful with such enchanted pools, though. While their water is powerful, it is limited to the space of the pool (efforts to canal the water to other areas only ever produce ordinary water), actively resists being filled in via conventional means, and spawns dangerous Krakens. On the whole, it’s best to post guards and actively keep an eye on such pools to prevent unpleasant (if not fatal) accidents.