An Underdark Expedition With Wizkids’ D&D ‘Icons Of The Realms: Underdark Expeditions’

Welcome to the table,

The Underdark is such an iconic part of Dungeons & Dragons. It plays home to lore-laced creatures, harrowing horrors, and terrifying titans that have toppled the most powerful of heroes and laid low the most skilled of foes.

For those unfamiliar with the Underdark, it is a vast collection of underground chambers and tunnels that weave through the bones of the world. These tunnels and chambers can be so vast that they can house miles of fungus forests, subterranean seas teaming with life, and massive kingdoms of deep earth dwelling societies who live and die without ever feeling the touch of the sun on their skin.

I previewed WizKids’ Underdark Expeditions back in July and this weekend I had the opportunity to crack open a few of the boxes that my pals at WizKids sent over to me. I found some really rad minis that are going to make epic additions to my table. Let’s get into it.

The nabassus from this set is phenomenal in both its sculpt and paint. Nabassus are thought to be former gargoyles that served Orcus and were corrupted by necromantic magics. What I love about this from the sculpt side is that the wings, face, and limbs really feel detailed, even though the Nabassus is generally shadowy and black in appearance. The eyes on this thing really pop with a touch of otherworldly orange and the fangs and teeth sell the ferocity of these abyssal entities.

I do find it cool that an icon of Orcus was in the newest Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual alongside the stats for cultists. Now we have even more loyal followers of Orcus to unleash at the table.

With Orcus being one of my favorites of the demon lords and having a really cool mini that WizKids makes, I could not move forward without mentioning the Orcus, Demon Lord of Undeath Premium Figure WizKids put out a few years ago. It so perfectly fits with this offering from the Underdark Expeditions set.

Another standout mini from the Underdark Expeditions set is the Hook Horror. Hook Horrors are subterranean monstrosities that kind of look like a scarab-vulture hybrid with massive arms that have spine covered hooks on the ends of them. The Underdark Expeditions set has two colorway variants and while I only pulled one of them, I am still really happy with this mini.

Keeping with the classic monsters theme, the Umber Hulk has been around since the games conception. While we have seen them sculpted in many ways, I have to go on record saying the WizKids team really delivered a blockbuster sculpt in this set. This mini also has two colorways, the tan-yellow eyed variation you see in the image above, and a shadowy blue with electric blue eyes variant with the same figure form. Both are really weighted well and deliver an impact when you drop them on the table.

One of the most impressive paint and sculpt combos from this set comes in the form of the Flame Snake. Even the viper-like elemental eye of this creature is painted really nicely. The scales having multiple colors the way they do gives this common rarity miniature a ton of personality.

There is an uncommon mini in this set that depicts a swarm of bats. I can honestly say it is one of the coolest things I unboxed from the set. Each of the miniature bats forms a web of nocturnal flyers that logically is a creative combination of plastic pieces but is sculpted with the one heck of a deft hand. They appear, for all intents and purposes, as a menacing swarm of bats that will fit perfectly in all manner of settings at the table.

I missed out on the Strahd Free RPG Day 2024 exclusive in store mini because we don’t have a ton of wheelchair friendly shops in our area. One of the biggest disappointments for me was that I did not have something with a swarm of bats on it, so pulling this on the weekend of the Free RPG Day 2025 felt a little magical to me.

While we are talking about bats, this Giant Bat from the Underdark Expeditions set is super detailed and also comes in two colorways, the tan form above and a shadowy black version.

One of the first encounters I ever had at the D&D table was fighting Grell with lighting lances. This Grell Psychic mini does not have a lighting lance. It does sport some semitransparent tentacles of mental magic that are drifting out of its beak-brained head structure.

This set features WizKids DungeonGlo effect and minis like the Grell Psychic put it to great use. Much like the rad light-charging or sun-charging action figures of the late ’80s and early ’90s, the DungeonGlo minis charge under light. Then when placed in a darkened space, they display a cool glowing feature that speaks the nature of the natural darkness present in the Underdark setting. From a meta perspective it is a rad little add-on to this set. I think they use it to spectacular effect.

This Venom Troll, an absolutely awful thing to encounter when you are adventuring, makes an appearance in this set. These bloated and poison filled, challenge rating 7 creatures are really difficult combatants even to a medium level party. The way this one is sculpted and given some sick green glow effects makes it one unnerving entity to encounter during a game.

There is, of course, a devastatingly cool Gelatinous Cube in this set that has this really rad textured effect that gives it such a dynamic feel at the table. Inside there are some skeletal figures, floating bones, and broken weapons and armor to enhance the feeling that this slowly slinking square of slime has successfully slurped up unsuspecting adventurers. The cube has reduced them to little more than suspended bits of detritus that will be absorbed or discarded as it slides along the lightless pathways of the Underdark.

It would not be an Underdark set without the addition of at least a few Drow. These deep dwelling elves are iconic in the lore and stories set in the Underdark. This set contains the Drow Inquisitor pictured above with their rad semitransparent magic wrapping around their staff.

I will leave you with a look at the Xorn. These burrowing horrors are a classic creature to encounter in the Underdark. The perfectly awful form of these toothsome terrors has been captured by the WizKids team making this little elemental one of the best in the set.

This whole set has 44 minis in it and is still in stock over on the WizKids shop site. You can find them at this link: D&D Icons of the Realms: Underdark Expeditions – 8 ct. Booster Brick.

Until next time, all of the minis I pulled from this set look really solid. I am confident that this is going to be one of the smash hit sets WizKids puts out.