Sony Online Entertainment announced this week that the non-disclosure agreement for the Underfoot beta has been lifted. Beta participants now have the opportunity to share information about the 16th EverQuest expansion, which is scheduled to launch on Dec. 15. You can discuss the topic in this thread in our EQ forum.

Remember, players who complete all three Road to Underfoot events and pre-order the expansion by Dec. 1 will gain early access to Underfoot on Dec. 8. Will you be one of the players who jumps into the expansion early?

A reminder from EQLive about gaining early access to the Underfoot expansion:

If you have participated in all three Road to Underfoot events, Pre-order and Purchase the expansion by December 1, 2009, you'll be one of the first to experience EverQuest® Underfoot™ on December 8, 2009, a full week before the release date of December 15, 2009!

The Road to Underfoot events are listed below:

Giants, Giants, Giants

Ancient Heroes

Breaking the Seal

If you aren't sure whether or not you have completed each of the events, you can check under the My Account management tool on the Station banner.

For more information about these events and checking out your status, see this post on EQLive.

The latest installment of Underfoot's Unfolding the Lore series is out and fills us in on Kernagir, The Shining City:

Kernagir, The Shining City

Kernagir is also known as the Shining City, where the chosen of Brell Serilis go to live out eternity in Underfoot. It was constructed by the finest craftspeople of Norrath to serve and glorify Brell.

While other races have occasionally been granted access, Kernagir is mainly inhabited by dwarves, Coldain, gnomes, goblins, gnolls and other craftsmen of several trades. The highest tier of denizens in the city are the designers and architects, those whose inspirations and ideas fill the worlds of Brell's creatures with incredible innovations. With unlimited natural resources at their disposal and unlimited time to work with them, these crafters are free for their creative pursuits.

The latest part in Underfoot's Unfolding the Lore series is out and centers in on Lichen Creep:

Lichen Creep

Lichen Creep is a lava-veined cavern that has been slowly mined out over eons for the valuable levitating stone ore that is used to power various creations in the Underfoot. Narrow veins of lava wend their way through the cavern floor and walls, occasionally forming small lava pools and giving the entire area a molten orange glow.

The journey into the depth of Underfoot continues at ZAM this week. We've seen some frightening screenshots from the Pellucid Grotto and couldn't help but be a bit horrified by the insectoid Cliknar. This week, we search the cavernous maw known as the Lichen Creep, and come away with a new respect for the plant-like substance. We have exclusive images from the zone, so if you want a sneak peek, click below.

With their latest expansion the EverQuest team is looking to drive adventurers into the very depths of Norrath to see what horrors and monstrosities lie beneath the bedrock of this fantastic world. Luckily, any potential heroes and heroines can get a nice sneak peek of their future hunting grounds here at ZAM, as the staffers have posted eleven exclusive new screenshots to showcase the variety of creatures lurking in the gloomy depths.

We've already seen quite a selection of the Underfoot realms these past few months, so make sure you check out all of the exclusive images here at ZAM.

Click here to see the new exclusive screenshots!

The latest part in Underfoot's Unfolding the Lore series is out and centers in on Arthicrex, the hive of those troublesome cliknars we've been battling over the past few weeks.

Arthicrex

Built by a race of ant-like creatures known as the Cliknar, Arthicrex is the great anthill of the Underfoot. The interior of Arthicrex itself is composed of winding circular tunnels and circular rooms, built from mud and trimmed with stone and chitin. Cliknar live crowded in spaces that most species would find confining.

The sixth part of Underfoot's "Unfolding the Lore" series is out and centers around the Cooling Chambers:

The Cooling Chambers

Water, boiling from the lava that is the life's blood of the Underfoot, pours into the Cooling Chambers from a sinkhole in Brell's Rest. The water is cooled by Brell's servants as it flows through the chambers and eventually grows cold enough to turn to ice. This water can be sent to other realms during its cooling stages, as needed.

The main population of the Cooling Chambers is a group of Coldain (Ice Dwarves) that are perpetually cooling the water that flows away from the central core, by means of a series of endothermic reactions. The ice is used to keep a massive necromantic beast frozen in a jagged glacial iceberg floating in the lower lake.

Sony Online Entertainment has revealed the third and final Road to Underfoot event, which is called "Breaking the Seal." Watch the video on the event page to see what it will take to protect Norrath from the threat of invading Cliknar soldiers, or keep reading after the jump for the full description.

Players have until Dec. 1 to participate in all three Road to Underfoot events and pre-order the game to gain early access to EverQuest's 16th expansion on Dec. 8. Underfoot is scheduled to launch on Dec. 15 after being pushed back from Nov. 24.

The EverQuest team just gave us a bunch of exclusive Underfoot screenshots, so check them out to see the horrors of the darkness below the surface.

The depths of Norrath are dangerous, and the ZAM crew has been given eleven exclusive EverQuest screenshots depicting the horrors of the darkness below the surface. Giant insects, man-sized fungi, and more await you in the dark places of Underfoot. But along with those monsters rests untold treasures and forgotten temples to mysterious deities and epic encounters.

So strap on your armor, grab your battle axe, and check out these exclusive EverQuest images!