Menzobara

Book One: The City

by Ed Greenwood

Table of Contents

Drow Cities of the Underdark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Menzoberranzan the Mighty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
A Walking Tour of the Dark Dominion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Daily Life in Menzoberranzan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Drow “High Life”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Now: Current News and Rumors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Then: The Spider Mage’s History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
Menzoberranzan’s Merchants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
The Neighborhoods of the City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
The Bazaar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Special Occasions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
What the Future May Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
The Mage Lords of Menzoberranzan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
Magic of Menzoberranzan: Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Magic of Menzoberranzan: Mage Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
Priestesses of Evil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
Magic of Menzoberranzan: Priest Spells. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
Magic of Menzoberranzan: Special Spells. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82
Monsters of Menzoberranzan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84

Alhoon (Illithilich) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88
Cloaker Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Foulwing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Lizard, Subterranean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Riding Lizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Wingless Wonder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93
Some Known Traps of Menzoberranzan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Credits:

Design: Ed Greenwood Cartography: Diesel
Editing: Karen S. Boomgarden Typography: Gaye O’Keefe
Interior Art: Jaime Lombardo and Ron Hill Production: Paul Hanchette and Dee Barnett
Cover Art: Jeff Easley Graphic Design: Paul Hanchette and Dee Barnett

Special thanks to Anne Brown and Julia Martin for their timely help.

ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD& D, SPELLJAMMER, RAVENLOFT and FORGOTTEN REALMS are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. The TSR
logo is a trademark owned by TSR, Inc.

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1083XXX1503
ISBN 1-56076-460-0
1083

Drow Cities of the Underdark

There is a world beneath the world hu- We’ve explored Menzoberranzan, of the
forty or so known drow cities, because it
mans know—a vast, lawless land under is the birthplace of the famous Drizzt
The Realms That See The Sun. It is a peril- Do’Urden (himself detailed in Book II of
ous wilderland of dark caverns, crevices, this boxed set, his statistics updated from
and labyrinthine passages: The Realms Be-
low, the vast and mysterious Underdark. Hall of Heroes). A look at the strange,
No surface adventurer has seen all its harsh, and at times splendid cesspool of
depths and corners. Beasts that no evil from which he sprang shows how
surface-dweller yet knows of lurk in its drow became a power in the Realms—and
lightless depths—and surviving explorers unlocks the door to vivid adventures in
say the known dangers are bad enough! the drow-ruled Underdark.

To the unwary (or merely desperate) This set can be used to create any sub-
traveler in the Underdark, a city may terranean drow city by changing the lay-
out, the names and detailed NPCs of the
seem a refuge from creeping doom in the
darkness. It holds, after all, bustling life— noble Houses, and the trade interests and
with food, tools, and perhaps aid. overall aims of the inhabitants.

Perhaps not. Even the good beings of Change the all-pervasive worship of

the depths, dwarves, gnomes, thaalud, Lolth (“Lloth” to Menzoberranyr) to a
and svirfneblin, tend to be (rightfully) sus- tense rivalry between worshippers of
picious of intruders. Other city-dwellers Lolth, Ghaunadaur, and Vhaeraun, and
include (among merely nasty folk, such as you have Eryndlyn, a city that trades with
jermlaine) the most evil and dangerous the Sword Coast from hidden caves some-
races of the Realms: kuo-toa, duergar, il- where in The High Moor. Change it to the
lithids, cloakers, and most far-reaching of worship of Ghaunadaur only (with rever-
all, drow, the dark elves. ence and breeding of slimes, jellies, and
oozes) and you have Llurth Dreier, a city
The essential guide to this deadly race is of 400,000 drow ruling vast fungi-farm ca-
verns under The Shaar, northwest of The
the sourcebook Drow of the Underdark. A Deep Realm of the dwarves (detailed in
DM familiar with it and the “Elf, Drow” en- Dwarves Deep). Let mages rule, reducing
try in Volume 2 of the Monstrous Compen- priestesses to minor power, and you have
the magical item-trading city of Sshamath,
dium knows drow “basics.” To understand somewhere beneath The Far Hills. Read
the unusual power and influence of drow, on, and find adventure!

however, one must see a drow city.
Something of what life is like amid the

cruel, ever-warring drow can be gleaned
from the FORGOTTEN REALMS® novels
Homeland and Exile by R.A. Salvatore, but
bringing a drow city to life needs more:
this boxed set.

Of the set’s three books, this tome is a
guide to Menzoberranzan, a drow city of
middling size and importance that is

(thankfully to most surface folk!) a week’s
travel from the nearest surface connec-
tion. Companion books detail its nobles

and suggest adventures.

3

Menzoberranzan the Mighty

Slightly more than 20,000 drow call Men- nance. Males of the city tend to excel in
zoberranzan home. This is fewer than the few things they are allowed to excel
most drow cities; most hold 35,000 or in: fighting, wizardry, and dirty jobs re-
more. The bitter, violent rivalries of the lated to trade, building, and food.
city’s noble Houses (perpetuated and fos-
Males who enjoy home or the worship
tered by the Spider Queen and those who of Lloth turn their efforts to mastering the
worship her) keeps the population from arts of sculpture and design (and, if magi-
growing much—but also ensures that the cally talented, glyphs and House defensive
drow of Menzoberranzan are among the traps), and to excelling at songs in praise
hardiest and most cunning survivors, and of the Spider Queen.
deadliest fighters, of the Underdark. Most
surface realms of forty times the city’s Restless or independent males tend to
population would be hard put to assemble gravitate to study in Sorcere (which can
twenty warriors who could hold their involve being cloistered away from most
House politics for their entire lives), or to-
own for long against twenty Menzober-
ranyr fighters. wards life as a merchant traveling
through the perilous Underdark to and
Menzoberranzan’s low population from other cities and trademoots, some-
makes its ruling Council smaller than
those of most drow cities—eight Houses times on the surface. (Skullport, under the
rule, rather than the more usual nine, city of Waterdeep, is one such trademoot.
twelve, fourteen or sixteen. At least one
drow city, Guallidurth (deep under Calim- On rare occasions, it is worth the long
shan), has twenty-one Houses in Council. trip, and the destination’s great dangers,
for the scarce and wonderful wares—
On the other hand, Menzoberranyr are such as spell components—that can be
a more tightly-knit populace than most,
because they all dwell in one vast natural bought there.)
cavern. Most drow cities have inherent Except for individuals of great beauty,
prejudices and rivalries, as citizens grow
or who show great aptitude in the arts of
up in various caverns and linking pas- war, sorcery, or artisanship in a valued
sages, and citizens are judged or ranked field, the preceding notes on choices in life
by where they came from. apply almost exclusively to drow nobles:

The worship of Lolth (called “Lloth” in commoners do as they are told, forming
Menzoberranzan, as in some other drow the bulk of the drudge labor, House-
cities, and as she will be referred to in the servant, and common soldiering tasks as
rest of this set) dominates Menzoberranyr servants of the noble Houses.
life. There seems no higher purpose in the
lives of most citizens than to rise in the No drow citizen of Menzoberranzan is
service of the Spider Queen—until she ever officially the “slave” of another Men-
zoberranyr, but a great many drow are
claims each life, in turn. Most drow de- slaves in all but name. (Drow battle-
velop a hobby or interest to call their own captives won from outside the city can be
(from mastery of a particular weapon to held openly as slaves.)
collecting certain gems or fine boots), but
these can be weaknesses if a rival can find The commoners’ only avenues to free-
a way to exploit them. dom lie in escape from the city, or in devel-
oping skill and reputation (and thereby,
With Lloth-worship comes female domi- work) as hunters, mercenary warriors, or
traveling merchants. As all of these routes
to a better life lead into the dangerous

4

wild Underdark, few survive long to enjoy el Spider Queen pits drow against drow
any successes. solely to improve and strengthen her peo-

Commoners with exceptional skills are ple, making the survivors ever stronger,
usually adopted by the noble House they wiser, and better able to serve her. Lloth
also helps her people from time to time
serve, or (more rarely) by the first noble (though seldom directly, especially in
House-versus-House internal conflicts).
House to notice their skill and seize them. Matrons can ask information and aid of
They receive the House name, sponsor- her dreaded handmaidens, the yochlol
(detailed in FOR2), but any faithful Menzo-
ship, and a position—a precarious one, berranyr drow who calls on Lloth in need
based on performance and the whim of may receive a one-time cure light wounds,
the ruling Matron of the House. In the neutralize poison, or any spell-power pos-
case of male drow of great beauty award- sessed by drow even if the supplicant can-
ed the position of “patron” (consort to the not yet, or never will be able to, wield
Matron), this is all too literally true. Some such powers or has exhausted his or her
sadistic Matrons take new patrons every
daily ration of them. (There is a 10 percent
night, having the twisted, disfigured rem- chance per level of this happening, minus
nant of the last consort fed to House ani- 10 percent for each time in the last 33
mals, slain out of hand, or put to menial days aid has been called for.) Such aid is
always temporary, and accompanied by
labor to be slowly worked to death. the arrival of some sort of spider. Lloth al-
Perhaps the best road to independence ways exacts her price later: often a diffi-
cult, dangerous mission or service.
for drow lies in sorcery. House wizards Alternatively, Lloth may send spiders to
(and even more so, House members study- attack foes of beleaguered drow; this form
ing in Sorcere, shielded from daily contact of aid does not “cost” anything.
with non-wizards) are treated with some
respect by even the most aggressive fe-
males. One can never be sure of the
power of a drow mage—until it is too late.
As shown in Drow of the Underdark, un-
der “House Insignia,” drow wizards always
look to their own defense first, and are of-
ten able to hide powers and magical prep-
arations even from watchful high
priestesses of Lloth.

Female drow usually throw themselves
with energy and zeal into the endless, vi-
cious intrigue and politics of the city. The

bodies of many mark every twist and turn
in the fortunes of the Houses, and the
everchanging favor of fickle Lloth—but
for every drow female who falls, fifteen to
twenty males meet doom.

If life is so dangerous, and drow forced
into endless strife against drow, how is
Menzoberranzan “the mighty?” Why does
it survive at all? The answer lies with

Lloth. If one believes her faithful, the cru-

5

Menzoberranzan the Mighty is a seething Narbondel

power-house of Lloth-worshipping, tire- Known as Narbondel, this pillar has been
lessly evil drow, striving for supremacy in left unworked by the drow. It serves
the eyes of the fell Spider Queen. “An ant- them, and all visitors with infravision, as a
hill of arrogant evil,” the archsorceress gigantic clock. At the end of each day, the
city’s ranking Archmage (or a master of
Laeral once described it. To map every Sorcere, in the rare instances when the
room and passage of a city so busy, and so Archmage is dead, otherwise occupied, or
worked into the stone (with many rising absent from the city) casts a fire spell into
and falling levels, secret ways, and miles its base.
upon miles of passages) is an impossibility
and a hindrance to the creativity of The heat created by the spell is conduct-
ed slowly upward through the stone, until
Dungeon Masters. Even a dedicated, un- to infravision Narbondel glows red from
opposed drow citizen would need most of top to bottom. Then it fades rapidly to
a lifetime to walk every stone of the city— darkness, “the black death of Narbondel.”
so here is a brief tour of its highlights. The time when the wizard casts his fire
spell anew corresponds to midnight in the
Menzoberranzan is not a large city by surface Realms, just as the cycle of Nar-
bondel’s rising fire equals a surface-world
drow standards; only 20,000 drow dwell day.
there. It fills a large cavern, formerly a gi-
ant spider lair known by its dwarven

name, Araurilcaurak (literally, “Great Pil-
lar Cavern”), for a great natural rock pillar
at its center, that joins floor and ceiling in
a massive shaft.

6

A Walking Tour of the Dark Dominion

The Cavern spans, and by spiraling stairs and pas-
sages in the cavern walls.
Menzoberranzan’s cavern is roughly
arrowhead-shaped, with the pool of Doni- Donigarten
garten at its tip, and two miles across at its
widest point. The ceiling rises a thousand At the smoothest, lowest end of the city’s
feet high, and its floor is studded with cavern is a natural lake or pond, Donigar-
many stalagmites and lesser pillars (stalac- ten. Its chill waters serve vital food needs
tites and stalagmites that have grown to- for the drow, nourishing fish and eels
gether, to fuse into an unbroken shaft of (taken from the waters by fisher-goblin
rock). The cavern floor is broken by three slaves), flowing into carefully irrigated
major rifts and many smaller ones, and dungfields (where orcs tend mushrooms
two areas rise above the rest of the city: and other edible fungi, renewing and ex-
Tier Breche, the side-cavern occupied by panding the fields with excrement
the Academy that trains all drow citizens brought in wagonloads from the city
for adulthood; and larger Qu’ellarz’orl proper), and supporting two moss beds.
(House-Loft), a plateau separated from the
lower city by a grove of giant mushrooms, The large bed on the shore holds moss
home to many of the city’s mightiest noble eaten by drow as delicacies; the second
Houses. bed covers an island, and feeds a herd of
deep rothe (ox-like cattle detailed fully in
From either of these heights, a drow citi- Drow of the Underdark, FOR2) confined
zen can look out across the city. The view there by the waters of the pond and by
is row upon row of carved, spired stone the diligence of orc slave-shepherds. On
castles, their salient points and sculpted the Isle of Rothe, rothe are reared for the
highlights lit by the soft, tinted flows of tables of Menzoberranzan. Small pens on
permanent faerie fires. Except for Nar- the shore nearby allow the orcs to tend
bondel, not a stone of the city has been left other animals (notably captured or pur-
in its natural shape—everything has been chased surface-world delicacies such as
worked into a smooth, unbroken, unjoint- mountain sheep, or edible monsters
ed expanse. Adventurers bent on vandal- brought back by drow hunting bands),
ism take note: unless one brings it along, and to breed rothe away from the crowd-
there is no such thing in the better parts ed isle.
of Menzoberranzan as a loose stone, lying
around to be snatched up as a weapon! The slaves pole rafts about the pond.
They are allowed to swim, and even to
Many of the city’s largest dwellings, es- dive with spears or to tow nets if fish are
pecially the compounds occupied by noble needed in a hurry, but are forbidden to ex-
Houses, were created by fencing stalag- plore the pond’s murky, muddy bottom.
mites together with magically raised and Legends of lurking, water-dwelling ropers
melded stone. The grandest drow feats and worse make the rounds regularly, but
are the carved, worked, hollowed-out sta- most wise orcs suspect that any pond
lactites that hang over much of the central monsters are deliberately-placed guard-
cavern and above Qu’ellarz’orl: “Over- ians, and the real reason for the prohibi-
caverns” linked to the main city below by tion is to keep slaves from finding magical
a hundred leaping, railless, stone bridge- items and valuables lost to the drow in

7

A Walking Tour of the Dark Dominion

long-ago days, when two customs filled Tier Breche
the pond waters with treasures.
The highest part of the city “floor,” this
It was the custom in those times to con- side cavern is home to the Academy that
sign the bodies of Matron Mothers of the trains drow for adulthood and full status
eight ruling Houses, and drow heroes fa- as citizens of Menzoberranzan. From the
main part of the city, Tier Breche is
vored by Lloth, such as warriors who per- reached by a stone stairway. Its upper
ished in achieving victories, to the waters end is flanked by two giant stone pillars.
In the shadow of each, at all times, stands
of Donigarten. The corpses were dressed a male drow warrior on guard: last-year
and adorned in finery (gems, magic, and students of Melee-Magthere, the school
all), then lashed to a stone spar of strong for fighters.
adamantite content and dweomer radia-
tions. This made the bodies sink, and con- Here twenty-five-year-old drow come
cealed the precise whereabouts of the for training, and are not allowed to pass
magic from would-be thieves, masking the back down the stairs into the city until
area with many flickering magical they have been graduated by a Master or
dweomers. Mistress of the Academy.

The second custom was unofficially but A male whose aptitude for magic has
much more enthusiastically pursued; am- not been demonstrated during his youth
bitious drow who murdered friends, ri- as outstanding (or greater than his battle
vals, or kin would often sink them in prowess) goes first to Melee-Magthere, the
Donigarten, in haste and with all valuables largest and most easterly of the three
that could be identified as theirs, so that structures of Tier Breche. This is the fight-
they disappeared tracelessly into the tan- ers’ school, and here the famous Drizzt
gle of other corpses below. Something be- Do’Urden, like countless drow before and
low Donigarten’s inky black surface after him, spent nine years training to
devours drow corpses, and orc and goblin fight—a schooling that involved many pa-
slaves do disappear from time to time, but trols out into the Dominion and beyond,
the slaves who swim and dive do not fear into the lawless Underdark, but no visits
attack; it never comes (at least, not in front to the city proper. The first half of Drizzt’s
of witnesses). tenth year took him to the sculpted
stalagmite-tower of Sorcere, the many-
Even drow children have heard persist- chambered tower of wizardry, closest to
ent, age-old rumors of flooded tunnels the west wall of Tier Breche. Here, many
that link Donigarten to an underwater of the most powerful drow males of the
kingdom, or a lost temple of a god older city dwell, hidden from much daily
than Lloth, or a warren of watery caves intrigue—or as fugitives from the deadly
ways of House rivalries and politics, await-
inhabited by creatures more powerful ing a chance for revenge.
than kuo-toa. No sane drow tries to inves-
tigate such tales; the magical chaos at The northernmost and most impressive
Donigarten’s bottom hopelessly confuses building of the Academy is spider-shaped
all scrying attempts, and explorations Arach-Tinilith, where the priestesses of
must be made directly. Lloth are trained. Males are housed here

8

only for the last six months of their ten- and Donigarten’s precious water lies.
year training. Their mouths are all guarded by scorpion-
shaped, poison-shooting jade spider
Drow leave the Academy molded into statues.
the treacherous, vicious ways of Menzo-
berranzan, “The Spite of the Spider The smallest of these tunnels leads to a
Queen” as other drow have called it.
Those who fail their training die, or are chasm at the eastern edge of the Domin-
transformed into driders or worse. More
is said of the Academy’s dark work in oth- ion inhabited by driders outcast from the
er chapters of this book. city. They slay and devour all who stray
into their clutches, especially hating and
The Dark Dominion prizing the flesh of unaltered drow.

Over a hundred tunnels link the city ca-
vern with the surrounding Underdark—
notably with almost two dozen faerzress
(magic power) spots, where adamantite-
laden rock gives off the dark radiations
drow value in the making of their best ar-
mor, weaponry, and tools. The area
around the city patrolled by the drow is
known as Bauthwaf (around-cloak), or
more grandly as the Dark Dominion. (The
word “patrolled” is carefully chosen; only
a fool ever refers to an area as “con-
trolled,” or “safe.”)

Monsters roam the Dominion despite
regular drow patrols, and even venture
into the city, following the ready food and
guidance of merchant traffic. Most are
quickly dispatched; such is the drow that
strong guards are kept only over the sin-
gle entrance to Tier Breche. Its sentinels
are a pair of magical jade spiders (detailed
in Drow of the Underdark, FOR2), over
the several tunnels that open out of Qu’el-
larz’orl (the guards there are drow with
magical items such as wands of viscid
globs, alarm horns to summon swift rein-
forcements, and servant giants) and on
the Eastways.

The Eastways are three tunnels that
open into the eastern end of the cavern of
Menzoberranzan, where no drow dwell

9

Daily Life in Menzoberranzan

As well as being a battleground for war- spell that protects the entire wall. These
ring drow of rival Houses and a cauldron spells typically unleash a 6d4-hit-point
of willing and unwilling followers of the
cruel Spider Queen, Menzoberranzan is a damage lightning discharge the first time
place where people live, laugh, love, and around, and if attacks persist, manifest in
die—arrogant, cruel drow, but people
nonetheless. the attacked area(s) as an equivalent to
Evard’s black tentacles (duration and pre-
What, then, is daily life like in Menzo- cise damage left to the DM, as they vary
berranzan? This chapter and the one on from House to House with the wizards
“Drow High Life” attempt to impart the who applied them).
general “feel” of the place; DMs who plan
to use Menzoberranzan as a setting for These comments on wall defenses, lack
campaign play are warned that it is on the of rocks, and tidy gardening of fungi are
“bare bones” furnished here that most of less and less true as one travels toward
their development work must be built, to Donigarten, into the hovels and alleyways
make the city come alive—and to be truly of the commoners, and the lodgings of
their own, with secrets that players who non-drow. There, in the worst areas,
read these pages cannot steal before play shadows a-plenty lurk between the soft
begins. radiances, rubble-piles can even be found
here and there, and the fungi grow wild.
The Streets Drow nobles take care never to go drunk
or lightly armed into such areas—more
A typical street scene in Menzoberranzan
is dimly and weirdly lit, by the vivid phos- than one grand drow has been torn limb
phorescent hues of fungi, magical fields of from limb by inhabitants who saw a
various sorts, and deliberately-placed fa- chance to overwhelm a lone target and
erie fires. Except for a few ambulatory,
slowly-oozing fungi, plant growths tend to take out their anger, resentment, and frus-
be pruned and trained by slaves, to grow tration over the cruelties of House rule.
in pillars, arches, or shaped clusters, rath-
er than spreading wildly. Underfoot, In Menzoberranzan, edible mushrooms
rocks are similarly scarce (to deprive
thieves, rebellious slaves, or angry visitors for internal House use are grown within
of ready weapons); adventurers expecting compounds (for safety, to avoid poisoning
to “just pick up a handy rock” are likely to and theft), and the fungi for general con-
be disappointed. sumption in the farm fields near Donigar-
ten. The fungi that remain in clumps along
Spells have also been applied to the out- the edges of streets and between houses
er walls of House compounds, to prevent tend to be guardian shriekers if they flank
their being readily chipped, breached, or gates or doors in compound walls, or
defaced. An adventurer who determined- otherwise inedible (at least to drow) mush-
ly attacks such a protected area will either rooms.
discharge a House defense glyph directly
(see Drow of the Underdark, FOR2), or Typical sights in the streets include
will eventually trigger a roving “backlash” slaves, commoner servants, and visiting
merchants struggling with many-wheeled
carts. The conveyances of those too poor
to afford levitate- related magic tend to

have many independently-sprung axles, to
cope with the always uneven rock, mud,
and scree floors of the Underdark’s pas-

sages. In Menzoberranzan, the streets are

10

Daily life in Menzoberranzan

of solid, smooth rock—never paving ards, and females either to use lizards
stones. Almost all such carts are drawn by with couches instead of saddles, or en-
subterranean lizards, although the occa- closed litters carried by slaves, depending
sional slug-drawn cart can be seen. The gi- on their rank and age (litters carry a

ant spider-carts (and belly-pack carrying grander status, can be furnished more
luxuriously, and, unless one’s slaves are at-
spiders) used in the southern Underdark tacked, provide a much smoother ride).
are never seen in Menzoberranzan; to so
treat an arachnid is to earn a painful and The rarer out-of-doors trips made by
House Matrons tend to be by stately and
immediate death, under the fanged- silently drifting drift-discs (detailed in
headed whips of the nearest high- Drow of the Underdark, FOR2), flanked
by heavy escorts of House troops and high
priestesses. priestesses on foot, if the Matron wishes
Around these knots of carts and their to make a show—and by heavily-guarded,

tenders stream many drow on foot, as closed litter (borne by House troops, not
well as small bands of bugbears, orcs, slaves) if she doesn’t.

gnolls, and other hirelings. Non-drow are very seldom seen in Qu’el-
In the poorer areas of town near Doni- larz’orl, where they are not wanted, and
are more likely to run afoul of some arro-
garten, non-drow bands tend to be armed
and unsupervised, and the drow move gant drow noble or other, and be pun-
about in families (commoners going shop- ished or slain out of hand. Near the small,
unobtrusive entrance to the Cavern of the
ping or to work) or in armed groups (no- Ruling Council, and in the entire Tier
bles and House servants with business in
the area, such as visiting one of the heavily Breche area, slaves, commoners, and non-
guarded House warehouses). drow are not permitted except by the spe-
cial invitation of a Master, Mistress, or
In the city’s better areas (Qu’ellarz’orl
and the streets nearest to the mushroom- Matron, and under escort in any case.
clad slope that marks its boundary), non- These restricted areas have their own
guards, typically drow warriors who can
drow are fewer, and tend to be call on a backup wizard, who in turn can
accompanied by a drow overseer or alert a high priestess by means of a send-
guide, and the drow on foot tend to go sin- ing, and/or jade spiders (detailed in Drow
gly, in pairs, or in small, unconcerned of the Underdark, FOR2) to keep unau-
groups—lingering to talk, shop, or look thorized folk out.
about with little fear for their personal
The streets of Menzoberranzan tend to
safety. Street patrols (detailed in the Ba- be rather hushed—and yet always noisy.
zaar chapter) are common, and open at- This is not the contradiction it seems at
tacks in the streets, as well as the firing of first. The echoing of all sounds made in
the cavern could form an endless cacoph-
darts and the hurling of spells, except in ony, so many, many long-term silence
self-defense, are crimes that demand resti- spells have been placed on various stalac-
tution in the form of very stiff fines, a per- tites, spurs, and hollows on the ceiling
iod of (dangerous, of course) servitude, or (drow who know where these are some-
worse (see Drow Justice, below).
times use them for sleep or study). These
Through this street traffic, parting it in have the effect of reducing the noise in

the same way large ships cleave through
many small, moving barges and boats in

the crowded harbors of the Sword Coast,
are nobles. Male nobles tend to ride liz-

11

the city to an endless murmur, formed by around the cavern, and the main trade-
the impact noises of movement on stone, passages impinging on the main cavern al-
the drip of water, and the hissing and
chatter of speech, highlighted here and low large-scale air transfer.
there by the soft pipings of drow music— Visitors tend to find Menzoberranzan

and the occasional high scream of pain. pleasantly damp (“alive,” as opposed to the
The great cavern that houses Menzober- many drier, “dead” stretches of the Under-
dark), cool but not chillingly so, and its air
ranzan tends to be damp at the Donigar- scented with the spicy, strong but not un-
pleasant musk of fungi spores.
ten end, and dry elsewhere. The decay of
rotting plants and fertilizer tends to cre- Spells prevent violet fungi or other
ate pockets of warmth in the moss bed, harmful spore discharges from remaining
“active” longer than 1d4 rounds after their
rothe-isle, and fungi-farm areas—and the release into the air of any part of the city’s
gatherings of warm, living drow bodies, great cavern. Any spores that attack,
augmented by magically generated transform, or enter into symbiosis with
warmth and the heat created by various drow lungs are automatically
work activities, create a larger pool of neutralized—and the lungs of elves,
warmth at the other end of the cavern. As dwarves, gnomes, orcs, humans, and al-
most all intelligent air-breathing mammals
a result of these warm and cold im-
balances, gentle breezes usually waft

12

Daily life in Menzoberranzan

are sufficiently protected by the magic. Vi- through alliances, agreements, blackmail,
olet fungi are not permitted in Menzober- loans, and financial guarantees, that it
ranzan, and have been eradicated from controls life in the city. (The exception is
the city’s great cavern and from the sur- when one House attacks another; and
rounding Dominion, although the wild even then, such attacks are often caused
Underdark around the patrolled Domin- by Baenren manipulation, and their out-
ion contains a lot of it. comes are decided by Baenren aid or be-
trayal.) Bregan D’Aerthe exists only at the
Drow Justice favor of House Baenre; both Jarlaxle and
Matron Baenre know that House Baenre,
Menzoberranzan is governed by The Way of all the noble Houses in the city, has the
of Lloth, a code of behavior known in de- might to hunt down and destroy this mer-
tail to every high priestess. It is adminis- cenary band.
trated by the ruling Council of the
Matrons of the eight most powerful noble This tension and subterfuge underlie
Houses, who meet in a natural cavern the harsh code of Lloth. It is too long and
heavily guarded by a ceremonial guard of complex to quote here, but its general ten-
priestesses and wizards from the Acad- ets are as follows:
emy, bolstered by jade spiders, and the
bodyguards of the attending Matrons. • There is no true god or goddess other
than Lloth. Any who follow or bow to
When the Council is in session, the cave the dictates of any other power or
is lit by hundreds of sweet-smelling can- faith (or its representatives) are to be
dles placed around its edges—and only utterly destroyed, preferably in sacri-
two guards per Matron are permitted in- fice to Lloth: their names forgotten,
side (non-magic-using warriors, who do their works cast down and broken in-
not bear any magical items). The rest of to rubble, and their spawn eradicated
the bodyguards must remain outside the (unless such descendants have al-
closed ironbound doors of the cavern. ready served Lloth well, or joined her
formal service).
The Matrons meet around a spider-
shaped table, sitting in grand chairs. Four • Ritual worship of any power other
plain, smaller chairs can be drawn up than Lloth is forbidden within the
from the cavern walls, to seat guests of city’s great cavern. Non-drow who vi-
the Council. olate this—once —are merely fined
heavily, and expelled from the city.
Any member of the Council can call a They may return on another occa-
meeting of this governing body. Typically, sion. Second offenders, those who
Matron Baenre calls the Council together scorn Lloth, or drow worshippers are
to deal with important business and over- slain. Merely uttering another
all emergencies, and to disseminate the power’s name is frowned upon, but
public directives of Lloth, and the other no cause for punishment.
Matrons call meetings only to settle dis-
putes. • In practice, any drow suspected of
following Vhaeraun will be interro-
The Council is a grand sham; House gated magically, and if such worship
Baenre has so much power, and controls
so many of the other Houses in the city

13

Daily life in Menzoberranzan

is proven to occur, they are executed appear as a rank different from his or
(even if they’ve never performed any her own (except by the express per-
act of worship to the power in Menzo- mission of the owning Matron), must
berranzan). die.

• Anyone who mistreats an arachnid, • The penalty of death also awaits any
or any creature (from slave to beast non-drow who uses any means to
of burden) of a House, is fined and adopt the disguise of a particular
whipped by priestesses of the Spider drow, or a drow of noble rank or of a
Queen. Those who kill spiders must House other than their own.
die.
• If one House attacks another House
• For a slave to refuse any order of a and fails to utterly exterminate its no-
drow of the owning House is a fatal ble line, the House that perpetrated
offense. The treatment of slaves is to- the attack is itself obliterated, by the
tally the affair of their owners. Slaves gathered might of the city including
have no rights, and there are no stric- the Academy.
tures on punishments or duties that
can be set for them. • If two or more Houses combine to at-
tack another House, all of the Houses
A commoner citizen who refuses to who participated in the attack are to
follow the order of a high priestess be destroyed themselves. House
can be punished as the offended Baenre holds itself exempt from this
priestess sees fit, up to and including rule, apparently with Lloth’s support.
instant death. The exception to this
requires the commoner to be the • Any House attacking another that has
property of another House, and a no- just survived an earlier attack (within
ble of that House must be present and the same year) loses the favor of
object to the punishment. In this case Lloth. This means their priestesses
the priestess and the House Matron lose the use of their spells during the
must agree on a punishment: usually attack and thereafter, until a great
a flogging delivered by the offended deed or service has been performed
priestess. to regain Lloth’s favor; the House is
unable to defend itself except by dip-
A student of the Academy who lomatic and purely physical means,
refuses a Matron or Mistress any- and is surely doomed. Other Houses
thing can be punished as the offend- may attack it with impunity.
ed officer sees fit, up to and including
instant death.

• Any drow who falsely wears the col-
ors or insignia of another House (ex-
cept by the express permission from
that House), or who deliberately al-
ters his or her hairstyle or attire to

14

Drow law, as Drizzt Do’Urden so clearly surprise attack on the city is highest and
predators are most likely to follow the
saw, is but a cruel facade to cover the cha- trail of a caravan into a cavern crammed
os of ruthlessly-striving, ambitious drow with ready food.
fighting each other: a mockingly ironic set
of rules in which the only ones to be pun-
ished are those who get caught.

Drow law enforcers can imprison drow
and non-drow alike in cells, the “pit-
warrens,” roamed at times by carrion
crawlers and cave fishers, near Donigar-
ten’s moss beds.

The patrol strength of such police is de-
tailed in the chapter on the city’s Bazaar.

Duty guards are posted at major intersec-
tions and trouble areas, such as slave pens
and the entrances to tunnels used by mer-
chant caravans, where the possibility of a

15

Drow “High Life”

The daily life of most drow may be domi- seen, in which drow of both sexes dress
nated by hard drudgery and the wanton up in their finest garb. They are very dan-
cruelty of superiors—but there is fun in gerous situations for non-drow who are
the city of Menzoberranzan, for those not conversant in the subtle intricacies of
who know how to find it. Among visitors drow manners, House rivalries, and re-
from the surface world, the decadent cent happenings among noble Houses in
things noble and wealthy non-noble drow the city.
do have become legendary.
In sharp contrast to illiyitrii are the ne-
Among Menzoberranyr inhabitants, deirra of the younger and wilder drow.
drow and non-drow (slaves, hireling Seldom attended by high priestesses,
troops, and trading agents) tend to keep these wild, acrobatic ‘sweat dances’ usu-
separate in their leisure activities. Visitors ally leave young drow drenched in sweat,
with money to lose are generally welcome dancing to the syncopated, driving
in drow recreational activities, but less so rhythms of drumming and piping music.
in non-drow gatherings (as they might be A wizard or two is often hired to create
spies hired by the drow Houses). fun: illusions, tickling and slapping can-
trips, and so on.
Parties
Massage
Drow love parties—affairs of wild music
and dancing, much drinking of exotic and For drow who live hard, always tense and
powerful beverages, and the inhaling of alert for attack, the ultimate sensuous
scented smoke (sometimes primed with pleasure in life is a warm bath (or a per-
magical illusions) from braziers. Houses fumed oil soak), followed by a “deep-
rent sumptuous open mansions as neutral stroke” thorough body massage, typically
ground in which to entertain, rather than on a contoured couch (often in a room
risking the security of their own property. where others are receiving the same min-
istrations, so that all present can argue,
Drow love to score witty points in chat, or do business). A talented body-
barbed conversation (while dancing or stroker (masseuse) is a highly-valued (and
dining); a wise host hires wizards to enter- highly-paid) artisan of drow society.
tain with magic, heading off any drunken
(and destructive!) magical competitions The most popular leisure spots in Men-
among the revelers. zoberranzan are the massage houses.
Massage is a common outlet for the pas-
Parties tend to last most of a day. Most sions of drow of different Houses, for
end in wild fighting, vandalism, fires, and whom courtship is too dangerous.
wanton debauchery, with party-goers be-
ing dumped unceremoniously into the
street. Wise Matrons send escorts to carry
helplessly drunken scions of Houses
home.

Drow of different Houses can also get to
meet each other at more formal dances,
or illiyitrii (‘promenade’). Both stately and
political, these affairs are places to be

16

Drow “High Life”

Hunts tening for treachery, plans for attacks on
Houses, or other business being discussed.
Noble drow, alone of the inhabitants of
Menzoberranzan, like to mount hunts out The entertainment in such places is
into the Underdark—either of monsters, slave-versus-slave and slave-versus-beast
or of slaves released into the tunnels with fights, in pit-arenas. Establishment pa-
some sort of head-start. trons wager heavily on these bloody con-
tests.
Although drow hunters may restrict
themselves sharply in terms of weapons, Plays
equipments, and steeds used, to give the
quarry a chance, it is rare to find a hunt- Drow theatrical productions always in-
ing party without a wizard and at least volve slapstick comedy, singing, the use of
two (usually five or six) priestesses along. masks and exaggerated costumes, the
The hunters will almost all be well- passing on (or invention) of sly gossip
equipped with magical items useful in about city affairs, and imparting the latest
combat—just in case the hunters become news (bought from newly-arrived mer-
the hunted, or a rival House is unable to chants, who have learned to charge for
resist a chance to strike at relatively un- such news, and not offer it freely to any
protected enemies. who ask) of the Underdark—or, especially,
the wonders and events of the fabled
For the same reason, it is rare to find a Lands of Light (the surface world). They
hunt (except those sent out to find and ex- are typically the centerpiece entertain-
terminate or capture intelligent prey, such ments at parties, but are also staged in
as adventurers or scouts from other drow rented warehouses near the Bazaar from
cities) composed of members of more than time to time.
one House—except the rare “Dark Hunts”
run by the Academy. At a party, a stage is often defined with a
faerie fire- glowing rope laid in an oval;
Most of these are training affairs, in larger productions typically take place on
which the monstrous quarry is equipped a raised stage. Drow audiences always
with spells it can cast or magical items it stand and move about during a perform-
can use against its pursuers. More than ance, not sitting down. To discourage
one captured adventurer has ended up as thieves, some playhouses hire an expert
the doomed quarry of a “Dark Hunt.” Very thief and a wizard. The wizard’s magic
rarely, one escapes, to die a lonely death, gives the thief extraordinary means of
lost deep in the wild Underdark. sight, and also animates a dozen or more
glowing skeletal hands (used by drow di-
The Pits rectors to point out things during per-
formances) above the crowd. If thievery is
Drow of all ranks are welcome in the city’s detected, the thief directs the wizard to
“drinking pits,” where they must surren- bring a glowing, pointing hand down to in-
der all weapons as they enter, and can get dicate the guilty party. The crowd around
as drunk as they want, shout, argue, talk, tends to exact justice on the spot.
and have a good fight. Priestesses often
use magic to eavesdrop in such places, lis-

17

Wizards At Play Wizards in search of more violent and
powerful play sometimes fly out into the
Drow mages like to play pranks (in mas- wild Underdark, to the rifts inhabited by
sage houses and other places of recrea- driders, and get in some good “drider-
tion, where such things are expected, and blasting” with whatever offensive spells
most likely to escape retaliation or punish-
ment) by creating small, harmless ‘oops’ they can muster. This pastime always car-
spell effects. ries the spice of danger—one never knows
when a drider will elude or break through
A favorite cantrip creates a “second barrier-spells, during a magical attack that
pair” of hands, so a drow being massaged disrupts these defenses, and be able to
suddenly feels another pair of hands—or, reach its tormentor.
the embracing hands of an amorous danc-
ing couple are suddenly multiplied many-
fold.

18

Now: Current News and Rumors

It’s always hard for even citizens of Men- route), and have kept secret just what
zoberranzan to separate ‘real’ news and plane it leads to.
rumors from the false whispers and tales
spread (or simply distorted from a core of The Council is upset that a city so
truth, and promoted in slanted form) by far away was scouting Menzoberran-
high priestesses who delight in this sort of zan’s Dominion—perhaps planning an
thing. Most Houses have one or more dab- invasion, or a good site for establish-
blers in misinformation, and the ruling ing a fortified outpost, from which
Council, Arach-Tinilith, and (to a lesser ex- the city could ultimately be raided—
tent) Sorcere indulge in spreading what a and has met several times to argue
high priestess long ago dubbed archly over what should be done. An at-
“false truths.” tempt to seize the gate may be made
soon.
Behind the city’s institutions lies House
Baenre, expert in controlling the spread of • The drow city of Maeralyn, far, far to
information and falsehoods, and by those the south, has invaded the drow city
means—augmented by arranged “happen- of Jhachalkhyn, a much nearer com-
ings” such as assassinations, brawls, and munity where kin (and investments)
patrol clashes—steering the deeds and loy- of House Fey-Branche are—or were;
alties of rival Houses and drow common- as far as is known, Jhachalkhyn is all
ers alike, year after year. but destroyed, and its folk fled or
fought in retreat, scattered all over
Residents of Menzoberranzan know the Underdark. Refugees may come
this, with varying degrees of perception of here soon.
its scope and deliberate nature—but visi-
tors must learn this the hard way. The • Driders have raided one of the most
amounts of truth in the current tidings precious dark caverns, where the ra-
that follow are left to the DM, who should diations that empower the finest
feel free to twist them to suit planned ad- weapons and armor are strongest.
ventures in a campaign. They were slaughtered by a rescue-
band of priestesses and wizards
The News armed with much magic—but not be-
fore some escaped with nearly-
Here are the tidings a visitor would hear, finished long swords and maces of
of what’s going on in Menzoberranzan at the finest make, and left the cavern-
present: guard of almost twenty dark elves
dead. Most of them were torn apart
• Drow from the distant city of Sschin- bodily, and the innards taken—to be
dylryn have discovered a gate to an- eaten later, it is feared.
other plane, apparently of ancient
make, in the Underdark not far—nine • New routes to the World Above have
days of travel, not more—from Men- been discovered, in the northern Cold
zoberranzan. They have mounted a Reaches of the Underdark. Long
guard on it, fighting off several cara- blocked by ice, and bounded by areas
vans that were merely trying to pass roamed by purple worms and infest-
the site (which is on a well-used trade- ed with orc-holds, the ways have re-

19

Now: Current News and Rumors

cently been opened up by drow ex- • The rich ore-lodes discovered in the
ploring bands led by the famous Dark Dominion by prospectors of
Uuedurnn Valsharn, of the drow city House Xorlarrin recently, and dubbed
of Dusklyngh. “The Lustrum,” have proven to in-
clude much silver, and an astonishing
He has reported trade possibilities variety of gemstones (though not a
with surface beings, but has not said hint of gold or adamantite). House
what trade, and with whom. Some Xorlarrin has formally protested in
priestesses of Lloth have condemned Council against the aggressions of
this reach to the World Above as un- other Houses—since the announce-
sanctioned by the Spider Queen, and ment of their discovery, House guards
something that could bring disaster protecting The Lustrum have fought
on all her People. off no less than nineteen raids-in-
force, and slain over forty attackers.
• The great shudders that shook the Some of the bodies have been identi-
Underdark not long ago were fied as commoners attached to many
thought to have been caused by some of the major Houses in the city—but
not-yet-agreed-upon force, or forces, all of these Houses have so far denied
employing magic in a region of many any knowledge of the attacks, saying
small caverns and drainage-passages. that these traitors must have been
Duergar and drow merchants have acting independently, out of personal
found large new caverns, still a-swirl greed.
with dust, where none existed before. House Baenre suggested in Council
No sign of volcanic activity, water- that House Xorlarrin hire Bregan
courses that might carve away rock, D’aerthe, and there are indications
life—or recent death—has been found that they have done so. Xorlarrin wiz-
in these areas yet, but it is never wise ards have also announced that they
to go boldly into new ways in the will be using new and powerful spells
Underdark; explorations continue. in defense of The Lustrum.

• Mistresses of Arach-Tinilith report The Whispers
that Revered Queen Lloth has reacted
with favor to newly developed pray- Rumors currently making quiet rounds of
ers offered up in her honor— the city, under the openly-discussed news,
devotions involving new songs of include:
praise to the Spider Queen, sung by
males while they render up a sacri- • Lloth is planning a conquest of the
fice to Lloth, into bowls held by World Above—and has already cho-
priestesses. sen certain drow of Menzoberranzan
New spells will undoubtedly be to lead an assault on certain fortress-
granted to those who devised the es in the Lands of Light, striking up
prayers—and thence to all Lloth’s from below! This will happen soon;
priestesses in the city, in return for el- already the favored drow war-leaders
evated ranks for the favored priest- are secretly recruiting those they
esses.

20

want to wage war in the World first step in weakening the city,
Above. launched by some outside power. If
the deaths spread to Arach-Tinilith,
• A male drow corpse has been found few other conclusions are reasonably
in the Underdark, very close to an en- possible.
trance to the city. It had tentacles in-
stead of arms—three from each • House Baenre is controlling the Acad-
shoulder—and wore special armor of emy’s training directly—not just by
rich make! It also bore strange and holding most of the teaching posi-
powerful weapons. They have been tions, as has always been the case, but
whisked away to Sorcere—or, some by deliberately arranging the mur-
say, House Baenre—for examination. ders of promising drow of other
Houses in training “accidents.” There
• The dangerous alhoon (illithiliches, or have been angry words in Council,
outcast mind flayer liches) are plan- threats of reprisals—and calm denials
ning to attack Menzoberranzan! from Matron Baenre. The deaths—
Their spies—mind flayers of normal from all Houses but Baenre—
nature, but very rich and well- continue . . .
dressed—have been peering and pry-
ing about the city for over a year
now, and are growing more numer-
ous. The Council are worried, and the
masters of Sorcere have been put to
work developing new spells to foil at-
tacks on the mind.

• Someone—or something—in Sorcere
is killing wizards. Masters of the
Academy, as well as mages in train-
ing, have been found dead, reduced
to dry, empty husks, as if eaten or
burned away from within so that only
their outer parts remain. So far, inves-
tigations by the Archmage and other
senior Masters have failed to discover
the cause: a rogue spell, a summoned
menace, or even a monster that has
wandered in from the wild Under-
dark, and evaded detection. The
worst fear, of course, is that a Master
has fallen prey to insanity or outside
influence—from beholders, vam-
pires, alhoon, or rival drow—and is
doing the killing with a hitherto-
unknown spell. This may be just a

21

Then: The Spider Mage's History

Deep in the shadowed inner chambers of PCs wanting to rescue captured com-
Sorcere are many things best left hidden— rades, on the other hand, will find The
and more than one drow glad to be left Spider Mage sympathetic—he knows
what imprisonment feels like, and has lit-
alone. One of these (detailed in the Mage tle time for the petty tyranny and cruel-
Lords of Menzoberranzan chapter of this ties of most drow priestesses.

book) is the mysterious wizard known on- The Spider Mage’s tale of the great city
ly as The Spider Mage. He, perhaps best of of Menzoberranzan, “The Flower of
any living drow, can recount the history Lloth,” can be summarized as follows:

of Menzoberranzan. The Founding
This is his tale; PCs who question other
Five thousand years ago, the city was
sources or try to piece things together founded here by a great high priestess of
from writings will learn various lesser or Lloth, Menzoberra the Kinless (so-named
distorted versions of this narrative. Re- because she had no surviving family), who
cent events are not spoken of, as The Spi- had fled from the great drow city of Golo-
thaer.
der Mage takes little interest in the trifling
everyday doings of young and foolish Golothaer was busily destroying itself in
drow, and because such details are prop- civil war, between drow faithful to the Spi-
der Queen, Lloth, and those who wor-
erly left to individual Dungeon Masters, to shipped Ghaunadaur. As warring
let them bring the city to life, and build in priestesses turned foes to spiders or en-
secrets for PCs to uncover. tombed them beneath tons of shifting
rock, drow mages hurled spells to sum-
PCs asking around Menzoberranzan mon gigantic purple worms to devour
about the city’s history will hear colorful their opponents, made huge, many-
roomed inhabited stalactites break loose
exploits of the ancestors of whoever they- from cavern ceilings to crash down on
‘re speaking to, usually glorifying the dwellings below, and caused great cracks
House of the speaker. If they press for his- to open up in the solid rock, to swallow
drow armies and the fortresses they is-
torical details, most drow will direct them sued from. All over Golothaer there was
great death and destruction, no safety or
to the tower of Sorcere. peace or happiness—and in the end, no
It will take a lot of gold (or somewhat hope of survival.

less in the way of magical items or scrolls) The proud and powerful priestess of
in payment for a master of Sorcere to dis- Lloth, Menzoberra, alone of her sister
turb his studies long enough to answer high priestesses, turned away from the
the foolish and prying queries of outsid- fray. She gathered seven families of
ers. None of the masters will dare to an- wealth and power, telling them she was
swer questions about current doings in following the will of Lloth, and bade them
Sorcere; if pressed, they’ll irritably direct accompany her to found a new city loyal
PCs to The Spider Mage, in the shadowed to Lloth.
heart of Sorcere.

The Spider Mage has Art enough to spy
on things in the city more or less at will.
He says little of such matters unless paid
well, and will omit or distort answers to
protect the city as a whole (but not indi-

vidual Houses) from external attack, or
the plots of others, especially if he senses
that the theft of magic may be involved.

22

Then: The Spider Mage's History

Leaving the chaos of war-torn Golo- ple except bravery and axes—but almost
thaer, Menzoberra’s band set forth into half the drow led by Menzoberra perished
the unknown, trusting to Lloth’s guidance. at their hands, as those dwarven heroes
They traveled a long, long time through fell one by one, fighting to the last breath;
the Underdark, fighting off many fear- “The Brave Beards,” the drow afterwards
some monsters, and braving the perils of called them.
waterfalls, cave-ins, and rockslides in the
everpresent darkness. The last dwarf of all to go down, bloody
but unbending, his body wracked by
Whenever the band seemed lost, or spasms brought on by the poison borne by
about to perish from hunger or at the a score of drow bolts that had pierced
hands of a foe, Lloth sent aid—many him, wished on the invaders “the doom of
easily-slain giant cave bats for easily- many eyes” before he coughed blood
gotten food; or a spider leading them on through his beard, and died. Some sort of
by a hidden route out of an apparent wa- dweomer must have set upon this hero be-
terless dead-end; or a timely cave-in, forehand, for his body sank slowly into
bringing down a cave-ceiling atop illithids the solid stone of the cavern floor, and was
on the verge of overwhelming the weary gone.
drow band.
The Doom of Many Eyes
For all of Lloth’s aid, the road was long
and hard, and none of Menzoberra’s band Exploring on through dark and deserted
could have found the way back to ruined caverns where stalactites and stalagmites
Golothaer if they had wanted to. hung and stood like forests of ever-gaping
fangs, Menzoberra’s band came at last to a
The Axes of the Dwarves huge cavern, all a-glow with the soft radi-
ances of giant, edible mushrooms and
Several times, the wandering drow (who lichens—and choked with the bones of
took the way Menzoberra thought right, those who had fallen prey to the cavern’s
as she followed dream-visions sent by the owner, a gigantic beholder as big around
Spider Queen) met and defeated small as the base of the largest tower in far Go-
bands of svirfneblin and dwarves. lothaer.

At length they came to the caverns of The beholder (called Many Eyes by local
the Black Axe Clan, mines rich in iron but dwarves, the drow later learned) had
mercifully free of monsters, due to the twenty or more eyestalks, and ruled the
vigilance of the dwarves. The clan guards cavern with the aid of various charmed
fell back before the advancing drow, de- monsters (including younglings of its own
eming them too many to defeat, and sent kind). The frightened drow hastened to
word to their elders. escape the place.

A handful of clan heroes took a stand in They were fighting their way free of the
a small cave known as The Cavern of Clov- monsters who served Many Eyes when
en Heads, seeking to hold off the drow in- Lloth appeared to them, floating above the
vaders while, behind their shieldwall, the beleaguered band in the form of a beauti-
Black Axe Clan fled en masse. ful, gigantic female drow head whose
tresses trailed away into long, dark arach-
The dwarves had little to withstand the
spells and numbers of Menzoberra’s peo-

23

Then: The Spider Mage's History

nid legs. The Curse of All Dark
The Spider Queen told the drow they
Elves
were her chosen people, and this was the
place she had chosen for them—if they All too soon, the curse that plagues all
were worthy of her, they would find some dark elves—the same feuding, born of
way to remain, and make it their home. pride, cruelty, and battle-lust, that de-
stroyed Golothaer—returned to the drow
And so Menzoberra’s band turned and of Menzoberranzan.
fought with all the blades and magic at
their command. Many were the beasts The Thaeyalla were a House of proud
they battled, before the great beholder and accomplished wizards, and almost all
was left alone, and finally came against the surviving Nasadra were priestesses of
them, eye-magic against spell. Lloth. The Nasadra ordered the Thaeyal-
lan wizards about, questioned their loyal-
The Founding of The City ty to Lloth, reserved the right to tell them
what to do, and punished those who
Many drow perished fighting Many strayed from such commands “in the
Eyes—hurled down from on high or turn- name of the goddess.” At length, while
ed to stone, as they hacked at eyestalks, or about such proud games, they put to tor-
sunk poisoned darts and bolts into staring ture the oldest and wisest mage of Thaey-
eyes as big as their own heads. More than alla, and he died of it.
one House perished utterly in that fray.
In rage, House Thaeyalla appealed to
In the end, Menzoberra herself called Menzoberra to curb the self-assumed au-
upon Lloth and hurled spells into the eye thority of the Nasadra. She took counsel
tyrant’s gaping mouth that blew it apart with Lloth, and sided wholly with the Na-
from within. As the smoking, writhing ru- sadra, giving them whips whose strands
in drifted towards the cavern floor, Men- were living snake-heads, to enforce the
zoberra the Kinless proclaimed the cavern will of the Spider Queen. The triumphant
their new home, in the name of Lloth, Nasadra gleefully began to flay the Thaey-
Queen Of All Drow. allan wizards—who fled in despair to
gather at a certain spot in the cave.
Left to stand with her at the end of that
day of death were the families S’sril, There they spent their own lives in a
Thaeyalla, Baenre, Masq’il’yr, Nasadra, Tu- great spell that rent the side-cavern asun-
cheth, and Uusralla. They made a home der, burying most of the drow of Menzo-
together in the beholder’s treasure- berranzan in a single cataclysmic
strewn lair, a large side-cave in the south- explosion and roof-collapse that obliterat-
ern wall of the huge cavern, and raised an ed the Houses of Thaeyalla, Masq’il’yr, Tu-
altar to Lloth. A yochlol appeared as their cheth, and Uusralla at a single stroke, slew
first prayers were made, and told them to Menzoberra herself, and reduced House
call their cavern “Menzoberranzan” (= S’sril and House Nasadra to a few dazed
‘Menzoberra’s home’) in recognition of her survivors. The explosion transformed the
efforts and success in the service of the former side-cavern into the great plateau
Spider Queen. that came to be known as Qu’ellarz’orl,
but by some miracle the central pillar of
the main cavern, Narbondel, survived.

24

The Way of Lloth drow newcomers in the Menzoberranyr
way of Lloth-worship. Under their guid-
The bitter Nasadran survivors sought to ance, and amid the stability enforced by
proclaim their rule over the surviving House Baenre, mastery of sorcery leaped
drow—but the tattered priestesses of ahead rapidly, and the city of Menzober-
S’sril, the eldest and proudest of the sur- ranzan soon became a place of pride and
viving families, defied them. House power, of wealth and of soaring castles.
Baenre, who retained enough might to de-
cide the issue either way, sided with All too soon, rivalries turned violent
House S’sril—but to prevent further again—but the city’s ruling Council had
bloodshed that would inevitably leave all been proclaimed, and House Baenre held
the drow too weak to hold the cavern iron-hard to The Way of Lloth. Now there
against the perils of the Underdark, the were rules to the feuding of drow Houses,
priestesses of House Baenre proposed a boundaries on the strife that let warring
compromise: those who accepted the rule drow grow ever-stronger. As they grew in
of Nasadra would travel on, to found an- power, so too did the planar power (and
other city to the glory of the goddess, and favor) of Lloth the Spider Queen, Dark
those who sided with S’sril would remain Mother Of All Drow.
here.

Lloth appeared in person, and firmly
blessed the wisdom and forbearance of
House Baenre. The Spider Queen then laid
down The Way of Lloth, the basic laws un-
der which both cities would live. She also
decreed that the two cities must remain
friendly to each other without fail or both
face her whole-hearted wrath, and led the
Nasadran band into the Underdark, to
found Ched Nasad.

The Rebuilding

The rebuilding of Menzoberranzan began
slowly, but quickened as homeless drow
and refugees arrived from fallen Golo-
thaer and from Cloibbra, a drow city far
to the south that had been sacked by
dwarves, svirfneblin, and thaalud work-
ing together.

House S’sril died out (the only noble
House of Menzoberranzan ever to become
extinct through non-violent causes), its
last elders founding the Academy to train

25

Menzoberranzan's Merchants

The lifeblood of Menzoberranzan is its cause trouble tend to be left alone, by un-
merchants—House agents and traders, written agreement.
and the more numerous independent
commoners. These entrepreneurs (partic- House Alliances
ularly those who travel the Underdark to
other cities and trademoots) keep Menzo- Many merchants survive by alliances with
berranzan vital, important, and rich. noble Houses—but the dangers of anger-
Some are loners and eccentrics; others ing nobles lead them to keep such rela-
band together to form “companies” (such tionships secret, except in the face of
as Xalyth’s Company, or The Company of possibly-fatal threats. (“You should know,
Three Black Rings), or cooperate in the as Lloth is my witness, great noble, that to
use of facilities and in trade agreements as attack me is to attack—House Baenre.
“fellowships” (such as The High Handed, Think on this, I ask you, before you act. If
The Black Claw, and The Brown Mush- I fall, I shall be avenged.”) Hints of such alli-
room). ances can be found in this book, on a case-
by-case basis—but only one is noted here:
A Merchant Career the relationship between House Baenre
and the fellowship of The Black Claw.
Menzoberranzan’s merchants are chiefly
drow males (trade being one of the few When merchant alliances and no-blades-
outlets for aggressive and creative males), bared pacts began to be formalized as fel-
but a current star trader is “Nal” Xalyth lowships and companies, most
(her nickname is an acronym for Not A La- commoners saw this as good—a counter-
dy, a scornful boast she once made at a balance to the overwhelming power of
party, spurning a noble male flatterer). haughty noble Houses.
Non-drow traders are becoming more nu-
merous, but tend to be relegated to “cor- Most Houses didn’t agree. House
ner shop” or “lift and load laborer” roles. Baenre, however, was crafty enough to se-
cretly found and sponsor the most power-
Merchant careers in Menzoberranzan ful and independent (openly defiant of
are dangerous, and often short. To anger a Houses) fellowship of all, The Black Claw.
Matron or even a proud young House no- It gained popular support as a rival to the
ble is to court death or disaster to one’s nobles, but House Baenre controlled its
trade through “accidental” destruction of policies and actions, and grew rich from
one’s goods (or one’s home and family), by it. Over time, Baenren control of the Claw
spell or “misdirected” House troops on became an open secret, and then common
arms practice. knowledge—until several other powerful
houses, led by Fey-Branche, founded The
This, plus the restlessness of many mer- Brown Mushroom as a deliberate counter
chants (who, at heart, are happiest when to House Baenre (to get their own share of
traveling), makes the city’s mercantile ros- riches earned through successful trade).
ter ever-changing. To the other dangers of
merchant life must be added rivalries
among traders. These tend to be fiercest
among drow native to the city; visiting
drow, duergar, and other races who don’t

26

Goods In And Out weapons, and obsidian carvings mined
from nearby veins—notably “black glass
Menzoberranzan is largely self-sufficient, daggers” favored for sacrificial uses in Ca-
if need be (most drow communities must limshan, Mulhorand, and certain cults and
be, or they soon fall under the control of brotherhoods of the North; the Zhen-
another city, or are destroyed), but trades tarim, for example, enspell such weapons
with others to gain rare goods (especially to create magical death daggers, which
highly prized surface-world delicacies they leave as their calling card at the
such as fruit and shellfish varieties), slaves scenes of assassinations. These weapons
(labor is always in short supply, in a place smoke when striking, burning a distinc-
dominated by sadistic, whip-wielding
priestesses), textiles, and anything that is tive hole around the wound, for triple
offered at a lower price than it costs to normal damage— and in the process,
buy or make oneself in Menzoberranzan. cause such wracking pains that the victim
cannot concentrate to cast spells, and is
In return, Menzoberranzan exports -3 on all attack rolls.
skilled stone-sculptors, edible mushrooms
of very high quality (grown in the rich Menzoberranzan also sells water to
farms near Donigarten), finely-made long-distance travelers, and breeds and
trains lizard-mounts in nearby caverns.

Menzoberranyr hunting bands gain

27

Menzoberranzan's Merchants

food for city tables, keep nearby training, spells.
radiation-strong, and lizard-raising ca- Xalyth is known as a fair gem appraiser
verns relatively safe, and keep the trade-
passages to and from the city open (the but a hard bargainer, who buys low and
city’s own exiled driders and natural pred- sells high (with no discounts for volume or
ators of the Underdark would overrun all repeated patronage). She doesn’t have to
if unchecked for long). Wide patrols also compete overmuch; she is the only steady
raid svirfneblin, cloaker, and duergar (as opposed to caravan empty-the-cart
holds occasionally, but the days of all-out
war are past (unless Menzoberranyr want windfall sale visits) source of spell compo-
to harm their own success as a presently- nents in the city (except for ‘stiff services’
important trading center).
providing corpses to those interested in
At present, they don’t; the city is enjoy- animating undead).
ing a wave of prosperity brought about by
a time of relative peace among its ruling Xalyth’s success in that trade depends
Houses (there have been few recent noble on firm relationships with nine far-
family extinctions, with attendant losses traveled suppliers, from the Vhaeraun-
of all wealth, servants, talents, and con- worshipping drow male Amryyr of
tacts), and by the success of the city’s ba- Skullport to the duergar Ubelein “Fatreek”
zaar (The Bazaar has a chapter all its own,
in this book). Shubelith, of Underspires.
Xalyth never tries to cheat anyone, hold-
A “DM’s handy selection” of currently
prominent city merchants can be gleaned ing to even casual promises and agree-
from the “Neighborhoods” chapter. Here ments (unless forced from her at
one of the most interesting traders is de- weapon-point). This trustworthiness is the
tailed, as a guide for DMs developing mer- cornerstone of her success, and she ce-
chant NPCs. ments it with occasional aid (doctoring,
Xalyth: drow female F7; AC 4 (drow hiding, and giving shelter) to her suppli-
chainmail +1); MV 12; 44 hp; #AT 3/2 ers, if they arrive wounded or in trouble
rounds; Dmg by weapon (1d8: long sword
or sword of dancing; 1d4: dagger; 1-3: with the authorities or rivals.
hand crossbow bolts, 60-yard range, save On one memorable occasion, Xalyth
vs. poison at -4 or sleep for 2d4 hours, 2
bows and 33 bolts carried); THAC0 14; S went out into the Underdark alone, when
15, D 14, C 16,I 18, W 17, CH 16; spell use a magical sending told her Amryyr was
(innate drow powers); CE. endangered by zealous priestesses of
Lloth. She attacked their patrol from be-
“Not A Lady” Xalyth rose from humble hind, using special bolts (tipped with a poi-
origins (as a child, she emptied son that puts to sleep even priestesses
chamberpots—by hand—onto her father’s
dung-cart, to be taken to the fungus-farm immune to the usual crossbow-bolt spider
fields) to dominate gem-dealing (and venom). Leaving them slumped asleep as a
under-the-table fencing of stolen goods) in warning to their Houses, she brought
Menzoberranzan. Her unadvertised side- Amryyr in safety to the city. Such deeds
line is providing material components for have made her famous in Menzoberran-
zan.

Xalyth always puts on a calm front;
shrieking rages are for priestesses who
think society revolves around them, and
have soldiers at their call. At times, her
calm is rather icy, and her sharp tongue is

famous, but she is always interested in

28

making a deal first, and fighting later. Houses. In answer to suspicious queries
In fights, Xalyth is known for keeping al- from the ruling Council, Courdh was able
to justify working with a commoner mer-
ert track of foes who work around to at- chant (and not reveal precisely what he
tack her from behind, while she confronts did for her) on the grounds of “dangerous,
those in front of her. but necessary” experimentation if Menzo-
berranzan was to keep pace with other
In her shop, Xalyth has several glass vi- drow cities in defensive sorcerous arts—
als full of potent sleep-gas; if attacked, she too risky to yet perform on any priestess
can break one, forcing all within 90’ to of Lloth.
save versus breath weapon at -4, or fall
asleep for 4d4 rounds. Xalyth’s ultimate aims are to break the
power of the ruling high priestesses, so
If cornered and fearing death, Xalyth that all drow have a greater say over their
will reluctantly use her secret weapon, lives in the city—or if she can’t do that, to
bought from a drow wizard for many rare leave Menzoberranzan for a more free
and expensive spell components. If she and equal community near the surface,
speaks or whispers a certain word, part of where she can carry on trade. One day, if
her prominent bust (a magical construct, drow wizards develop the necessary
not her own flesh) vanishes, releasing spells and protective items, she’d like to be
chain lightning that inflicts 12d6 (save for able to travel freely between the Under-
half damage) harm on the first being dark and the surface world, to see the
struck, 11d6 to the second, and so on; wonders of The Lands of Light and to do
Xalyth can control where the first two trade there.
jumps go, and is herself immune from all
burst damage.

This body-weapon is a magical form of
last-ditch defense becoming popular
among drow able to afford it. Typically
the loss of a body part is involved, and the
procedure is long, risky, and expensive.
Some drow who want such protections
(such as Matrons or ambitious high priest-
esses) can’t trust a drow wizard enough to
have it done.

Xalyth’s chest lightning burst is the sim-
plest, most common sort of body-weapon
(for another, see The Spider Mage in the
chapter on Mage Lords). It was done for
her by the aged Past Master Courdh
Mizzrym, Archmage Emeritus of Menzo-
berranzan, who oversees all teaching at
the Academy, and is in charge of experi-
menting with and guarding most power-
ful magical items held by Sorcere. He is
secretly Sorcere’s overseer of security—
which, unbeknownst to the Matrons,
means he is their chief spy on the noble

29

The Neighborhoods of the City

The maps in this set show a proud, cloim, or Manyfolk, home to wealthy
sprawling subterranean city. This chapter non-drow, and well-to-do non-noble drow.
affords an overview of “what’s where” in It contains The Bazaar, detailed in its
its streets. The city can readily be divided own chapter.
up into neighborhoods. To the north of the
main cavern is its most sacred area, nor- East of Manyfolk—that is, roughly east
mally off-limits to visitors and most citi-
zens alike: the upper cavern of Tier of a line formed by the Clawrift, and the
Breche. flight of a quarrel fired straight from the
tip of its easternmost ‘finger’ to the east-
To the south of the main cavern is a larg- ernmost walls of House Fey-Branche —lies
er raised area, a plateau that is itself domi-
nated by a higher plateau occupied by the Eastmyr, or as young drow tauntingly
vast complex of House Baenre. This is rename it, “mere East.” In these narrower,
Qu’ellarz’orl, the Place of the Nobles. shabbier streets dwell commoners, drow
Except by invitation or on important busi- not attached to any noble House, or not
ness, unescorted visitors and drow not of trusted enough to dwell in a House com-
(or servants of) the noble families that
dwell in “the House loft” are not welcome pound. Here live drow mercenaries and
there. not-so-successful merchants.

Between these restricted places of dan- East of Eastmyr, in a band stretching
ger and power lies bustling Menzoberran- north to south from the western end of
zan. If one surveys its areas in order of the Spiderfangs (the east-west line of
decreasing power and influence, the next stalagmites north of House Barrison De-
district is an arc-shaped belt curving along l’Armgo), are the dark alleys and hovels of
the base of Qu’ellarz’orl’s slopes, from the the Braeryn, or “the Stenchstreets.”
west wall of the main cavern to the east, Here dwell the nameless and diseased
touching the central pillar of Narbondel, drow, the lawless, and goblins, orcs, bug-
and roughly as wide as the distance be-
tween Narbondel and the House-loft, all bears, and other non-drow hangers-on
along its length. This is Narbondellyn,
also known as “Broad Streets” for its and occasional hirelings. Drow nobles oc-
wealth and pretensions; most ambitious, casionally go on hunts here for sport,
up-and-coming noble Houses live here. slaughtering all who cannot hide or de-
fend themselves.
Older, more established noble Houses
traditionally inhabit the West Wall area. East of the Braeryn is a patrolled area, to
It runs north along the main cavern’s keep its inhabitants from freely stealing
western wall from where Narbondellyn from the farms beyond—for to the east lie
ends (the wide meeting of streets known the rich fungi farms that feed the city.
as Lloth’s Web, or just “the Web”), curving They stretch to the easternmost end of the
east with the cavern wall, to end at the
steps of Tier Breche. cavern, where the small lake of Donigar-
ten lies, with its moss beds and rothe
The West Wall curves around the herds. The whole area is referred to as
middle-class and mercantile heart of Men- Donigarten.
zoberranzan, which lies on all sides of
Narbondel except the south. This is Duth- The only other city “neighborhood”
comprises the passages and side-caverns
within immediate reach of the main
cavern—the closest areas of the Dark Do-

minion. This fringe of the Bauthwaf
(“around-cloak”) is known as the Mantle,
and has always been part of city life.

30

The Neighborhoods of the City

As we tour these areas (shown on the ac- constructed rows of shops along the
companying City Districts map), some walls of their compounds, which they
general notes apply. rent out. These shops are constructed
of stone, to look a part of the central
• It is impossible to show all of the fortress. Anyone trying to tunnel
many hollowed-out, inhabited, and from a shop into the wall of the castle
sometimes bridge-linked stalactites beyond typically finds a grim warn-
hanging over the city—or the many ing once they pierce the shop’s back
passages that enter its cavern walls wall, furnished by the priestesses of
high up, to form balconies or beckon- the House: a drow skeleton hung on
ing cave-mouths (no stairs down from the revealed castle wall. If touched, it
these are allowed, to prevent ready animates and attacks. Diggers who
invasion by rival drow, duergar, persist in work on such a castle wall
goblinkin, or others who could fire will encounter killing defense glyphs
missile weapons out over the city to (described in Drow of the
provide covering fire for descending Underdark), typically of the sort that
troops). An inventive DM can add unleash chain lightning.
many of these, to enliven a campaign
set in, or extensively exploring, Men- • The visitor will notice several ruins
zoberranzan. around the city—notably those of the
complexes that were once Houses
• All neighborhoods are patrolled—the DeVir, Do’Urden, Freth, Hun’ett, and
more important or wealthy the area, Teken’duis. It is considered defiance
the heavier the patrols. Drow rarely of Lloth to rebuild a House (or on the
dare to assault or insult other drow site of a House) eradicated due to
(one never knows when one is facing drow justice, or that fell because it
a master of Sorcere out for some fun, lost the favor of Lloth. In some cases,
or a magically-disguised priestess of a generation or so after a ruin, a
Lloth or Matron Mother on important House may with the open blessing of
business bent, and armed with a Lloth or her priestesses take over a
short temper), but obvious non-drow vacant spot and build, but time must
may be challenged almost continu- pass between the old and the new.
ously in the first three areas listed It is lawful to take over the prem-
above. Patrol strengths appear in the ises of a House that was defeated by
chapter on “The Bazaar,” but adven- another House, but this is rarely
turers are warned that when the city done; it is considered unlucky. For the
is aroused by recent lawlessness, in- House who conquered, it is danger-
ternal strife, or open violence, patrols ously close to arrogance before Lloth,
in the three wealthiest districts and in to do so—and any other House mov-
the trouble spots of Eastmyr and the ing in faces the rightful wrath of the
Braeryn may be doubled or trebled in conquering House. Moreover, who
both numbers and frequency. wants a fortress that has fallen, and is
known to be pregnable?
• Partly to get some measure of control
over merchants, many noble Houses

31

• Though all buildings in Menzoberran- together to develop a mighty contingency
zan have cellars, the Underways field spell, similar to the mightiest magics
aren’t extensive. All digging in the city of Evermeet and lost Netheril: the stone
must be done by hand, and tunneling curse. (Contingency field spells are very
beyond the surface boundaries of a rare because their casting usually involves
holding is punishable by death (if a the sacrifice of the caster’s life.)
building’s outside walls were extend-
ed straight down through the The stone curse governs all of Menzo-
ground, they would mark the limits berranzan, including the Overways, the
of allowable digging).
Underways, and the Mantle. It cannot be
These laws are due to widespread dig- dispelled by normal means (short of a
ging in the city’s early days—mining so wish spell), but can be briefly suspended
prevalent it caused many disasters. Drow by a limited wish. Anyone caught trying to
dug to cause a wall or tower of a rival
House to collapse, or to gain access to the destroy, alter, or suspend the stone curse
cellars of someone else’s building for a is slain on the spot.
theft or raid-in-force. Things became so
bad that the wizards of Sorcere worked The stone curse triggers an immediate
reverse gravity spell, accompanied by a
thunderclap-like sound, wherever casting

is performed for a dig, move earth,
passwall, or vanish spell (or at the location

32

The Neighborhoods of the City

of the wielder of any magical item or psi- Breche from the city below is not likely to
onic power activated to duplicate any of be a successful act.
these effects).
Drow who try to fly or climb past the
The by-hand and boundary limitations guards, avoiding the stair, discover—the
on excavation in Menzoberranzan keep
most digging small-scale. Drow have come hard way—that other guardians exist:
to recognize two other dangers linked to many hungry, web-shooting spiders lurk
underground expansion: the increasing on the walls and ceiling where Tier
likelihood of triggering a collapse of the Breche joins the larger main cavern.
structure above, or of breaking into exist-
ing passages and caverns (lessening the se- The guards challenge all who ascend to
curity of the dwelling). Tier Breche, except known masters of the
Academy and priestesses of the city. No
Please keep in mind that information on one leaving Tier Breche is customarily
noble houses given here mirrors what challenged (though the guards may be al-
“most citizens think” rather than being
completely accurate. For true details of erted to prevent a certain departure), and
the noble Houses, consult the book in this challenges issued to any drow who looks
set devoted to them.
like a powerful wizard or priestess are po-
Tier Breche lite indeed.

The largest single piece of architecture The most famous and distinctive build-
found in Menzoberranzan is the broad
stairway that leads up to Tier Breche. Ru- ings in Menzoberranzan (House Baenre is
mor says these stone steps are enspelled more hollowed-out, bridge-liked over-
with chain lightning and other killing mag- hanging stalactites than buildings) are the
ics, under the control of wizards of Sor- three large buildings found in Tier
cere. If such defenses exist, they are Breche: the spider-shaped temple of Lloth,
rarely used. where all priestesses receive their initial

The top of the stair is always guarded by training, known as “Arach-Tinilith;” the
two male drow warriors in the final year many-spired wizards’ stronghold of “Sor-
of their battle training. They wear rings of cere;” and the starkly-simple, huge
spell turning, and have sleep-venomed pyramid-fortress where Menzoberran-
longswords, hand crossbows, daggers, zan’s fighters are trained, “Melee-
and guardhorns. Magthere.”

A note from a guardhorn summons a There’s no point in mapping any of these
mid-level “duty” wizard from Sorcere in 1- in detail. Visitors rarely see anything more
2 rounds. The wizard can in turn summon
a pair of jade spider guardians (detailed in of Arach-Tinilith than a few small
Drow of the Underdark) and a “duty” audience-chambers near the entrance,
priestess of mid-level. In addition to their
spells and items (both typically carry and the large upper chamber dedicated to
wands), these two can call on wizard and summoning rituals of homage and wor-
priestess reinforcements; storming Tier ship to Lloth (where young drow trainees
graduate). The rest of the temple is largely
shrouded in habitual darkness—and if one
is not a Menzoberranyr priestess of Lloth,

one is decidedly unwelcome here.
The rooms and passages of Sorcere are

so often veiled, distorted, hidden, or al-

tered by the wizards (partly out of para-
noia, partly for amusement or

33

experimentation, and partly due to a de- Qu’ellarz’orl
liberate plan to foil intruders) that any
map is useless before it is finished. Screened from the lower city by its forest
of giant mushrooms, the plateau occupied
Melee-Magthere is vast, with many cel- by some of the proudest noble Houses is
lars and lower levels as well as the vast bare and spacious; there is none of the
bulk that can be seen from outside. Yet crowding associated with most other
there is little of interest here; after one neighborhoods. House Baenre ruthlessly
has seen one armory, spartan sleeping- keeps the rabble out. One sees only giant
cell, or sparring-chamber, one has seen mushrooms—a small forest of them—and
them all—and, beyond a few dark noble Houses (as well as the ruined com-
dungeon cells and torture chambers, and pounds of some extinct Houses); no one
a handful of trophy-adorned, larger war- else lives here, and no businesses are lo-
council and assembly halls, that is all cated here.
Melee-Magthere contains (in great num-
bers). Soldiers of all the powerful noble
Houses promenade here from time to
time, on real or assumed business, just to
be seen—and to challenge beings they

34

The Neighborhoods of the City

don’t think belong here, or just don’t like himself. It occupies a recently-finished
the look of. fortress of nine towers, surrounded by a
narrow dry moat of sharpened stone
The eldest of the city’s current noble spikes. The House hastily moved to Qu’el-
families, House Baenre, was one of the larz’orl from the lower city when their
wizardly rivals House Xorlarrin arrived in
founding Houses of Menzoberranzan, five the House loft, to preserve their assumed
thousand years ago. It has not only sur- supremacy in matters magical.
vived the city’s cruel intrigues, but flour-
ished, growing to fill an awesome fortress House Mizzrym has become known for
the depth and intricacy of its intrigues and
of thirty linked stalactites and twenty tall interlocking alliances. The treachery and
and majestic stalagmites, atop a plateau at double-dealing of Mizzrym have even led
the eastern end of Qu’ellarz’orl. This com- to a Menzoberranyr saying: “Even one
plex is girt about with a huge weblike side of a Mizzrym’s tongue doesn’t know
fence—whose most powerful spells, citi- what the other is saying—and once it finds
zens whisper, were spun by Lloth herself. out, won’t admit to it!” (Mizzrymyr have

The House is so strong that it can spare a been known to attack drow who say such
thousand warriors (all it has openly admit- words, but secretly take great satisfaction
in such a reputation.) Persistent whispers
ted to having, for years) to guard its walls say House Mizzrym is building its own ar-
my, somewhere in the labyrinthine pas-
at all times. At the heart of the great for- sages southwest of Menzoberranzan.
tress is a huge circular, domed temple to
Lloth—an amphitheater dominated by an House Mizzrym occupies an old, large
image of the Spider Queen that shifts end- cavern network above Qu’ellarz’orl,
lessly from one of her forms to another. reached by a heavily-guarded stair spiral-

Lloth seems well pleased with the “First ling up from a single massive stalagmite-
House” of Menzoberranzan.
tower. Among the guardians of the
Below the watching bulk of House stairway are monstrous foulwings (see
“Monsters of Menzoberranzan”).
Baenre, three other Houses currently
dwell on Qu’ellarz’orl: Xorlarrin, Agrach In the southwestern corner of Qu’ellar-
Dyrr, and Mizzrym. All are among the rul- z’orl is the entrance to The Chamber of
the Ruling Council. Its arched, ironbound
ing Houses of the present Council. double entrance doors are closed and
House Xorlarrin is reclusive and secre- guarded by soldiers of House Baenre and
an honor guard from Melee-Magthere at
tive; its members go veiled or masked in
public. It is known for its magical might, all times, opening only to allow Matron
boasting at least seven wizards among the Mothers and their bodyguards into and
masters of Sorcere, some of them very old out of the not-so-secret meetings where
and powerful. the ruling Houses decide what befalls in
the city.
House Xorlarrin occupies a small,
recently-raised stone tower, the Spellto- The Chamber is a small, natural side-
wer Xorlarrin, in the center of Qu’ellar- cavern dominated by a spider-shaped ta-
z’orl. They moved here from a cluster of ble. The ruling Mothers sit there in tall,
unfenced houses in the lower city after jewelled thrones when Council is in ses-
their utter destruction of House Hrost Ul-
u’ar. sion, the chamber lit by a hundred sweet-

House Agrach Dyrr is an old, haughty
House dominated by a handful of power-

ful male wizards led by the lichdrow Dyrr

35

The Neighborhoods of the City

smelling candles. A single, unadorned Narbondellyn
chair is provided for guests (only one
guest is customarily allowed into the ca- This wealthy district is dominated by the
vern at a time). It is rare indeed for any ruling noble Houses of Fey-Branche, Faen
guest to be non-drow, or male. Body- Tlabbar, and Barrison Del’Armgo, and by
the lesser Houses of Tuin'Tarl, Srune’lett,
guards in attendance on the matron moth- Horlbar, and Shobalar. It is also home to
ers are allowed in, and by custom remain many wealthy up-and-coming drow fami-
silent, standing around the walls, when lies (the noble Houses of the future), and
the most luxurious and profitable of
Council is in session, speaking and moving trades: gems, perfumes, moneylending,
only when bidden to. Each matron admits and the like.
the same number of bodyguards, no more
Fey-Branche, a relatively young and ag-
than two except by extraordinary agree- gressive House, has a triangular
ment, and never more than six (six each stalagmite-compound in the center of the
makes the Chamber crowded indeed). city, just south of where drow flying in
Guards are usually clerks or others called straight lines from Tier Breche, House
to make demonstrations or give evidence; Baenre, and Narbondel would meet. From
they are rarely needed (or effective) as de- there, neighbors say cattily, they can “spy
fenders of a matron’s person. on everything, with a minimum of real ef-
fort.”
The most striking natural feature of the
House loft is its mushroom forest. The House Faen Tlabbar is known for its tall,
maps in this set only show mushrooms the beautiful, and ardent females, who often
size of an ogre or larger, but among those seek the company of male visitors, and are
giants shown are many smaller ‘shrooms always developing new spells. Its Matron
and fungi, growing in a fantastic labyrinth Mothers created an unusual tradition:
of soft phosphorescence. This area is used open, candid speech among House mem-
by many nobles for meetings, picnics, and bers, regardless of sex or rank. The House
games—but no prudent drow considers it occupies the stalagmite-and-stalactite
an area to go into unarmed, or a place for compound just north and west of the
words and dealings that must remain se- western end of Qu’ellarz’orl.
cret: House Baenre and others use magic
to spy or eavesdrop on drow in the mush- The dangerous Second House of Barri-
room forest as a matter of course. It is a son Del’Armgo occupies the large, triangu-
crime punishable by a heavy fine to will- lar fenced-stalagmite compound lying
fully damage (or cut, for eating) any grow- northeast of Qu’ellarz’orl, between House
ing thing in this forest. Anyone Baenre and Donigarten.
destroying, felling, or harvesting an entire
mushroom faces the death penalty. With- House Tuin’Tarl is relatively young, risen
out these rules (known to all Menzober- from common stock through shrewd trad-
ranyr), the forest would long ago have ing with other drow communities. It occu-
vanished—as most of the mushrooms pies the triangular fenced-stalagmite
growing in the main chamber did. Hungry compound due south of Narbondel (east of
drow harvested them for food, and sam- a larger triangular compound occupied by
pled them for use in the making of medi- House Horlbar).
cines, potions, and spellcasting, until few
House Srune’lett is known for the short,
were left.

36

The Neighborhoods of the City

stout drow its bloodlines produce (its gets into trouble of any sort.
House Shobalar inhabits the diamond-
priestesses have long been referred to
throughout the city as “the fat sisters,” shaped stalagmite-and-stalactite fortress
much to their annoyance). It inhabits a directly north of House Faen Tlabbar.
recently-constructed, many-pinnacled for-
Many other drow families of wealth and
tress on the north side of the Darkspires importance (or self-assumed importance)
(the stalagmite cluster that runs east to inhabit Narbondellyn. These include
Urundlet, Balartyr, Tuek’tharm, Hael’lrin,
west, between Houses Horlbar and Shoba- Shunn T’ahaladar, and Klor’lbar.
lar).
Important merchants dwelling and op-
House Horlbar has been ruled by sister erating in Narbondellyn include the most
high priestesses for two thousand years. haughty gem-merchants of the city.
Their cruel depravity is infamous; if they (Though a wealthy merchant may rent or
were ever to fight each other, the House own a second home to escape business
would split apart, making it easy prey for pressures or to use for secret meetings,
rivals—which is all that keeps these two
mistresses, and the like, almost all mer-
cold, contemptuous females from tearing chants live in the same fortified building
each other’s hearts out. Horlbarryn, it is
said, make dangerous enemies: they never that houses their shop, to better guard
forget, and their patience for revenge can their stock and wealth.)
span a thousand years or more. The
House occupies the westernmost of the Mritt Shadalun and Hondel Belek’tyr
two triangular fenced-stalagmite com- carry on a bitter rivalry for bragging
pounds south of Narbondel (the smaller, rights to being “the best” gem merchant in
more easterly compound is House Tuin- the city. Both are known for the variety
‘Tarl).
and high quality of their stock. They may
House Shobalar is almost exclusively fe- coldly outbid each other for a particularly
male; among its women are wizards of large or unusual gemstone of a type Men-
power as well as high priestesses. It keeps zoberranyr deem valuable (rubies, sap-
to itself, its nobles rarely appearing in
public—and there are persistent rumors phires, and emeralds are most favored),
of strange Shobalarran experiments in- but on a daily basis tend to specialize.
volving spiders. One possibly exaggerated Surface-world oddities and treasures
(such as amaratha, king’s tears, and rogue
tale whispers of powerful, living spider- stones, all prized by drow and detailed in
bodies whose legs are equipped with
dagger-like blades of bone, that drow don the FORGOTTEN REALMS® Adventures
hardcover sourcebook) are the stock-in-
like clothing, and animate by thought. trade of Belek’tyr, while Shadalun sneers
This is unconfirmed, but it is true that
Shobalarran prefer to ride about the city at such “foreign” stones, and tends to deal
on strange, mutated or specially-bred gi- in black opals, fire opals, and other trea-
ant spider steeds (regular giant spiders sures of the known and familiar.
that can “fire” sticky strands at prey, as
cave fishers do), rather than using drift- A cluster of lesser gem merchants spe-
discs or riding-lizards. The House also has cialize in one particular stone (amethysts
a history of entering alliances and then are the field of the Ouol family, and dia-
simply abandoning them whenever an ally monds are dealt in by the rival families of
Thadalix and Ryrrl), or deal in stolen,
seized, or enspelled materials. The most
famous of these “dealers in the shadows”

37

The Neighborhoods of the City

is a magically-well-armed, sardonic one- ciently powerful, fawning) merchants of
eyed drow male warrior known as Farsee- Narbondellyn are the not-so-silently-hated
ing Phurn, who can be met with by moneylenders.
leaving messages for him at most of the
drinking-spots in Menzoberranzan; his Moneylending

competitors include the drow priestess Most ambitious drow run short of coin at
Thaelara Oblare, a skilled gem re-cutter, one time or another. Some are in no posi-
tion to successfully steal or extort funds,
and the mercenary female drow warrior murder and rob, or gain a loan from a pa-
Infinyl Mestpar. tron or House superior. They turn to the
moneylenders, who also act as money-
Narbondellyn is also home to the weal- changers for outsiders.
thiest (and most expensive) perfumers in
the city. In the crowded, damp under- Menzoberranyr accept all surface coin-
ground, perfuming is an art born of neces- ages, but prefer metal or gems of intrinsic
sity. The best drow scents mingle with less value. A drow is happier with silver or
desirable smells to mute everything into a gold coins than copper pieces, because the
pleasurable background—rather than metal can be melted and reshaped for use
where the coinage is not honored. The
masking stinks with a thick, choking stink moneylenders of Menzoberranzan also
of their own. The precise makings of deal in trade bars, rare shells, the jarred
scents are well-guarded secrets, although and jellied eyeballs used by some mind
flayers, all known types of gems, per-
most drow know (and, if time and needs fumes, and even rare foods and plants.
permit, practice) the basics of making a The more exotic the currency or collat-
pleasant, usually spicy masking scent. eral, the higher their rates.

The artists of Menzoberranzan perfum- A standard loan to a drow of the city is
typically in coinage, at an interest rate of
ery sell scents that purport to capture the 10%, compounded every 20 days. Collat-
fragrance of certain surface-world eral of written title to items worth 25 gp
flowers, or that sway drow into certain or 75% of the loan, whichever is higher, is
emotional states (such as ardent love), as usually required.
well as personal body-scents and
recognition-smell dyes and paints. These To a visiting drow, the standard is 12%,
preeminent merchants include Mhaersha- compounded every 40 days, but collateral
la of the Flowers, famous far across the equal in value to 100% or more of the loan
Underdark; the halfling Myrip Minstrel- in portable property (or a deed to land or
a building in the city) must be left with the
wish, reputed to be half-crazed (or worse), lender.
and given to acrobatic dancing and sing-
ing while he works; the discreet brothers To a non-drow citizen or long-term resi-
dent of Menzoberranzan, the terms are the
Dhellorn and Diriziir Jaszarr, “Perfumers same as for visiting drow, but the rate is
to Nobles,” who deal in love-drugs and per- 14% or more, compounded every 20 days.
sonal scents for fashion and party use; and Visiting non-drow are also lent money on
the old, lame she-drow Halaera, who these terms, but at 16% or more.
walks with a stick, carries powerful magi-
cal items on her person, and has a hand in
half the kidnappings and slave-deals in the
city.

More openly sinister than most of the

proud (or, if a customer is noble and suffi-

38

The Neighborhoods of the City

High-risk loans (to merchants who must function as both guards and spies; Yuim-
travel the Underdark before they can see mith sells information as well as lending
profit enough to repay, a fugitive from money. Any secret of the city that can be
drow justice, or someone widely known learnt, Menzoberranyr say, Yuimmith has
for sale.
around the city to be in trouble with a
powerful drow House) typically are at West Wall
20% to 25% or more, and require collat-
Aside from the ruins of House Do’Urden,
eral left in the lender’s possession, to the the fortresses along the western wall of
the great cavern of Menzoberranzan are
value of 150% of the loan. wealthy, solid, and long-established—and
Most moneylenders have magic and look it. Among them are the noble Houses
of Duskryn, Druu’giir, Symryvvin, and
hired swords and spies to back up their Vandree. Their neighbors include proud
demands and defend their wealth. They old non-noble families, given to gaming,
are wily, ruthless, and often adopt a pow- various esoteric hobbies (such as collect-
erful House as patron (giving its members ing animals of the surface world, or stag-
cut rates and ready credit), to gain its pro- ing gladiatorial combats between
captured beings, for private amusement),
tection when a noble debtor of another and dreaming of grander days.
House decides, as some of the younger
and more reckless inevitably do, that hav- House Duskryn is known for well-
ing a bit of sport and wiping out fast- equipped, mercilessly-trained troops, led
building debts with a quick swordthrust is by nobles known for cruel pranks and leg-
easier than paying up. endary drinking-bouts. It inhabits the
large, long and narrow fenced-stalagmite
Moneylenders prominent in the city at compound due north of the Westrift.
present include Nantlel of the Three Fin-
gers (all his others have been lost in House Druu’giir is strong in mercantile
swordfights, down the years), a retired affairs and moneylending—so strong, folk
say, that its influence over actions in the
warrior (F11) known to be guarded by city is often secondary only to House
several servant monsters, including a Baenre. House Druu’giir is dominated by
greater peltast (detailed fully in module elderly male wizards, with coins enough
FA1, Halls of the High King, and described to hire any needed warriors. Rumor holds
in the Adventures book of the Ruins of that Druu’giir maintains a camp of ready
warriors somewhere near the city, at its
UnderMountain boxed set). Nantel’s com- direct call: hirelings that can, some whis-
petitors include the sinister drow wizard per, appear directly in House Druu’giir by
Sheeress of the Many Eyes, a bitter and means of magical gates opened by the
House wizards. It occupies a small rectan-
paranoid female archmage outcast from gular fenced-stalagmite compound south-
Sorcere by male wizards who feared her east of the tip of Westrift.
soaring power; the fat, gluttonous drow
male warrior Ologh “Gathergold” Ilyri, House Symryvvin is known for its pur-
last of his family (ridiculed by his slimmer, suit of magical might—devising prayers to
less lazy kin, he poisoned them all to gain
their wealth and start his business); and
Yuimmith Shulcloak, an elderly drow of

quick and cold wits, iron nerves, soft
speech, and long patience. Yuimmith em-
ploys more than a dozen halflings, and
half that number of orphaned drow. They

39

The Neighborhoods of the City

Lloth (and receiving new priest spells in There are few shops or massage houses
return) and creating new wizard spells. Its in this neighborhood; the drow who dwell
elderly and numerous mages and high here actively discourage such common es-
priestesses don’t appear in public often, tablishments, and the traffic they bring,
but are accorded great respect when they preferring to go into adjacent Manyfolk
do—they are apt to fell one, or one dozen, for such services.
drow who displease them (regardless of
who their targets are; in the recent past, One of the few businesses that does
victims have included masters of the flourish in this neighborhood is Elstearn’s
Academy and priestesses of House Escorts. This “escort service” can provide
Baenre), hurling spells as if they held good-looking drow of either sex to accom-
endless reserves of memorized magic! pany clients, but its principal business lies
House Symryvvin inhabits the five-sided in providing intelligent, good-looking,
stalagmite-and-stalactite fortress north- well-spoken and connected Menzober-
east of the tip of the Westrift (and of ranyr citizens as guides and interpreters
House Duskryn). to outlanders visiting the city and trying to
carry on trade—and as bodyguards to cul-
House Vandree has a reputation for get- tured West Wall citizens when they want
ting into trouble and surviving somehow. It to visit more dangerous parts of the city,
is a family that seems to delight in involved, or go on hunts or other excursions out in-
ongoing internal feuds. Poisonings and to the surrounding Underdark.
stabbings are common, and the nobles see
whipping their commoners as enjoyable Manyfolk
and frequently necessary recreation. Most
House members are very interested in This large area of the city is home to the
surface-world affairs, and in acquiring tro- common folk, and is where most of the
phies from The Lands of Light, from leaves shops and businesses of the city can be
and flower-seeds to human skulls, fine fur- found, from the Bluirren family (who
niture and magical items. From time to make spiced sausages from Underdark
time, these collecting propensities extend creatures whose precise identities and ori-
as far as living humans and other surface- gins are better not investigated too
world monsters, which usually end their closely) to the Ulaver (whose luminous,
days (after providing amorous drow fe- sweet green wine is a growing taste
males and whip-wielding drow males with among Menzoberranyr).
sufficient amusement) facing the blades of
House Vandree warriors in need of a little It also home to the noble House of Oblo-
practice. dra, who have always had a treacherous,
unpredictable, even insane reputation.
House Vandree inhabits the large walled Oblodren are known for fanaticism, reck-
compound south of ruined House Do’Ur- less battle-rages, and for dabbling in the
den, whose walls point eastwards into the wildest magic and the most dangerous of
city in a great prow-shape. the arts of the mind, continually pushing
the boundaries of the dictates of Lloth.
The homes of many cultured, wealthy Such drive brings the House again and
non-noble drow families can also be found again to the brink of extinction—but no
here—among them Ilueph, Llarabbar, Mi- one wants to have House Oblodra for an
liskeera, Neereath, Ol’il’isk, Tirin, Vaha-
darr, Waeth del’tar, and Yulaun’tlar.

40

The Neighborhoods of the City

enemy; Oblodren attack like mad dogs, customer’s eyes, a hot meal seasoned and
throwing their own lives away unhesitat- done to order.
ingly to get revenge.
The most wealthy and influential mer-
The House’s high priestesses command chants of this area currently include:
strange, unusual powers of the mind (psi-
onic wild talents, some tutored), and many • Du’arthe Klendara (drow male F5): tex-
tiles
Menzoberranyr drow whisper that this
House sends its daughters to train and • Uluruela Drael Tuabbar (drow female
even breed with illithid in nearby mind F3/P3 of Lloth): clothing and travel
flayer cities! House Oblodra occupies the goods of leather, lizardskin, and carved
small compound in the center of the city, bone
between two fingers of the Clawrift.
• Bhaern del’Hluanter (drow male F7):
Around The Bazaar stand too many crates, chests, casks, and carts
shops and family homes to list; almost all
commoner or “normal drow citizens” • Sh’aun Darnruel (drow female F4/P4 of
dwell in Manyfolk, and even most noble Lloth): personal fashions, clothing,
Houses maintain secondary or secretive body dyes and augmentations (crests,
glued-on manes of hair or wigs, artifi-
“safe” residences here. It is the place most cial limbs, body padding, etc.)
Menzoberranyr come from, and (although
the ambitious always try to move out of it, • Baelaskros Do’Ilisharr (drow male F6,
to a ‘better’ area) is the most colorful, in- grossly fat): bulk grain, dates, and other
teresting, and tolerant neighborhood of foodstuffs
the city.
• Tlar Quel’tlarn (drow male F2): fine
DMs locating businesses, inns, and mi- metal smithing, gemsetting, and lock-
nor noble Houses of their own invention smithing
(or would-be nobles) should place them
somewhere in Manyfolk, where most of • Rhauvais del'Ygana (drow female F6):
the buildings have been left unassigned weapons, exotic and high-quality (speci-
for them to do so. ality: concealed and venomed body-
weaponry for nobles)
Visitors seeking the sights of Manyfolk
(after The Bazaar, of course) are directed Eastmyr
to the many fine massage houses, and to
shops such as Faeera’s Floating Plants Those not successful enough to dwell in
(which deals in exotic plants from “All Manyfolk live in the poorer, less esteemed
over the Realms, Above and Below,” dis- neighborhood of Eastmyr. Struggling mer-
played and sold in levitating pots); Vil- chants, outlaws and the penniless, merce-
teern’s Fine Chains (where chain can be naries, and non-drow of no particular
purchased in lengths up to a thousand wealth or power dwell here. The noble
feet, ranging in size from wire-thin orna- Houses Hunzrin and Kenafin maintain
mental links to fortress-gate chain whose their fortresses here.
links are as long as a full-grown drow
stands tall); and The Cathlyre, where
surface-world birds of all sorts (including
the peacock-like cathlyre) are sold as pets,
live targets, or roasted alive before the

41

House Hunzrin is known for stupid ar- Few individuals of prominence dwell in
rogance; its folk are quick to wet blades in Eastmyr, but one good massage house can
be found here: Dylchanta’s Furfeathers,
those who offend them, regardless of the which regularly hosts massage-parties for
cost. It has survived extinction because of large groups.
its large numbers; Hunzrin currently
dominates farming in Menzoberranzan, Eastmyr also has at least four rooming-
and its food supply can support huge houses useful to non-drow visitors to the
numbers of children. House Hunzrin oc- city wishing to avoid attention, cold treat-
cupies the triangular fenced-stalagmite ment, and high prices. Two of these, Nar-
compound due north of House Barrison bondel’s Shadow and Symeera’s, are
Del’Armgo, the closest noble House to the recommended (both are run by careful,
city’s farms. fair human ex-adventurers, who know
contacts for the discreet hire or purchase
House Kenafin occupies the walled com- of needed magic, healing, weapons, and
pound that lies between House Hunzrin other gear within the city). Typical rates
and House Fey-Branche. Nearby are the are 1 gp/person/day (includes all meals,
houses of several families who pretend to basic drink, stabling for a mount, and a
nobility: Asbodela, Dlaen Del’Amatar, and private room with a glowglobe light
Yune’duis. It remains to be seen whether source).
their pretensions will ever become reality.

42

The Braeryn Donigarten

Extending north from the western end of The granary of Menzoberranzan, this area
the Spiderfangs are the dark alleys and hov- is dominated by the lake of Donigarten. It is
els of “the Stenchstreets.” This is Menzober- surrounded by a rich moss bed, a stand of
ranzan’s slum, home to sick and outlaw giant mushrooms, and rich fungi farms. On
drow, goblins, orcs, bugbears, and other an islet in the lake, orcs and goblins tend a
non-drow who are sometimes hired for odd herd of rothe (deep rothe, detailed in Drow
jobs (such as heavy loading or digging) by of the Underdark), watched over by drow
Menzoberranyr, or for guard or mercenary patrols sent out from Tier Breche through
pillage-raid duty. Some are even stupid or the Mantle. As well as the patrols, drow
desperate enough to try their luck in the with guardhorns and eyes of the eagle
city as thieves or kidnappers. cusps keep watch from cavern-wall fis-
sures overlooking Donigarten, to prevent
Drow hunt here for sport from time to food thefts by the orcs and goblins, as well
time (often after drinking too much), slay- as raids by others. There are 2-5 spies on
ing all who can‘t hide, escape, or fight off duty at once, drawn from all three schools
their attackers. Outlaws and others hide in Tier Breche (to teach them patience and
here: raiding drow occasionally come to vigilance).
grief when the helpless old orc they at-
tacked turns into a powerful, enraged hu-
man wizard or drow priestess on a spy
mission or indulging personal tastes for
adventure.

No drow of importance or reputation
dwell here, but the mercenary band Bre-
gan D’Aerthe maintains contacts here,
through which they can be hired. Certain
aged drow dwelling here concoct and sell
poisons, drugs, and love philtres. Some al-
so sell information, but seldom live long,
once they become widely known.

One such crone, city cradle-lore swears,
was once revealed as the Spider Queen in
disguise—when the Goddess shed her rags
to blast a priestess who treated her cru-
elly. Rumors persist that Lloth keeps
watch over (or even, in disguised form,
dwells in) the Stenchstreets. Such beliefs
gain support from the numerous spiders
of all sorts and sizes who scuttle and lurk
all about the area, despite many attempts
to slay them or drive them off.

43

The Mantle berranyr have learned that these menaces
are so numerous (attracted by the smells,
The passages and caverns directly around warmth, and vibrations of so many beings
the main city cavern have always played a gathered in one place) that establishing
daily part in the life of the city. Teenagers permanent, immobile guardposts merely
prove their defiant daring by venturing
into the Mantle; bold children play in its offers ready food to the passing
entrances; lovers use its dark ways for monsters—drow food.
trysts (particularly forbidden liaisons be-
tween drow of rival Houses); and plotters Instead, the Menzoberranyr use mobile
find it handy for dark meetings.
patrols. In strategically important areas,
There is no such thing as a safe area of drow work-parties excavate defendable
the Underdark, and this is as true of the firing-hollows. A patrol uses a four-to-six
Mantle as it is of the wild depths of the
subterranean realms far from drow rule. drow star formation to move in and se-
Monsters occasionally reach the main cure the known hollow, as the rest of the
cavern—through the Mantle. The Menzo- patrol provides covering fire. Once the ar-
ea is secured, the star provides covering
fire for the others to join them.

44

The Bazaar

There is an ever-changing, always busy ar- visit revenge on an enemy, or recover
ea of Menzoberranzan; a crowded, untidy from a revenge someone has worked on
labyrinth of stalls and hagglers whose them. There are also stalls selling wines,
fame has spread across the Underdark. In cheeses, and exotics (jellied eels, venison
the city, it is known simply as “The Bazaar.” tarts, even wyvern pie) from the Lands of
Light.
A Calishite with rings gleaming on every
finger and puffing slaves bringing pur- Prices vary with supply (scarcity) and
chases along behind would feel right at demand—when mind flayer or Calishite
home here—and indeed, Calishite satraps visitors arrive in larger numbers, and
seeking bargains are often to be seen in seem to want to buy everything in the Ba-
the Bazaar. zaar, down to the bare boards of the stalls,
prices quickly go up.
Menzoberranzan’s ongoing trade fair at-
tracts merchants and goods from all The businesses that preceded The Ba-
Faerun, and even a few items from Kara- zaar here are still going strong, too: the
Tur and fabled Maztica. Merchants and massage dens. Many drow visit their fa-
shoppers of all races and lands are vorite den at least once a day (for more on
welcome—and it is even whispered that the drow taste for massage, see the “Drow
some of the more mysterious traders (who High Life” chapter). These places are sel-
go about masked and cowled, gesturing si- dom settings for hired romance. Drow of
lently) come from “places beyond the both sexes and all ages delight in simply
stars, Above the World Above,“ or other relaxing, and often hold business discus-
planes of existence! sions, or simply chat sessions or casual
get-togethers, on adjacent massage-
Goods And Services couches.

The less lawful and tolerated vices among Moving, Always
drow are addressed in the Bazaar—and as
long as rebellion is not talked of, and the Moving
peace is kept (folk bow, scrape, and get
out of the way of House Matrons doing a The Bazaar, by decree of the ruling Coun-
little shopping), shoppers can get cil, contains no permanent structures—
their every desire satisfied in the cur- even long-established and favored booths
tained booths and stalls of the Bazaar must be moved around. The longest a stall
without being (so they think) under the or booth can remain in one spot is 66 days.
watchful eye of a Matron. This law prevents any proprietor from
owning ‘floor-space’ in the Bazaar, and
Slaves are bought and sold here, sur- buying more (so as to make the Bazaar
gery (rare in the Underdark), potions and ever-smaller, as the desirable space is
herbal medicines are available, and there locked up, until it dwindles away to noth-
are even certain booths where one can ar- ing, and the city loses its riches). It also
range to send or receive messages to and forces visiting buyers to tour the Bazaar,
from locales and folk in the World Above searching for favored stalls or merchants
(surface world). they’re looking for—so they see every-
thing, and opportunities for impulse-
Other drow flock to the Bazaar to hire
outlander mages to work spells, often to

45

buying are as numerous as possible. space—it’s not theirs to sell—but if money
changes hands in the sealing of a deal over
Proud merchants boast that one can “buy who moves where, that’s purely the pri-
anything at the Bazaar, for coins enough,” vate affair of the traders involved.
and they’re not far wrong—not since wiz-
ards took to teleporting in fresh surface- Patrols
world produce and items, for those who
The Archmage of Menzoberranzan ar-
can pay enough. ranges to have the Bazaar patrolled, by
Wise established merchants arrange to warriors-in-training from the Academy
(led by an instructor), augmented by train-
trade spots with other established ven- ee priestesses and wizards (these duties
dors, rotating around the Bazaar-space. are rotating, and paid). The firm intent of
Still, fights and covert sabotage are com- such policing is simply to keep the lid on
mon, as booths of different sizes jostle for violence, not to muscle in on haggling, ar-
space that isn’t really there, or fight to guments, or the fun of shoppers; unobtru-
avoid being relegated to a bad location sive firmness is the order of the day.
(low-traffic, or sandwiched between larg-
er competitors in the same goods, or
someone selling something that clashes

with or diminishes one’s own wares). Mer-
chants are not allowed to openly sell their

46

The Bazaar

Menzoberranzan mounts constant ers reports on the performance of all
street patrols, consisting of a ‘hand’ (see patrol members—particularly the
below), accompanied by a wizard, and mage and the priestess, who are not
led by a priestess. currently her students. Drow students
under the eye of an instructor do not
In the Bazaar, where things can quick- generally indulge themselves in reck-
ly get very wild indeed, patrols are larg- less, disorganized, or goaded-to-rage
er. A typical Bazaar patrol, on duty at behavior; they are trying to impress,
any given time (the Bazaar is always and are practicing fighting as an orga-
open), consists of three ‘open hands,’ or nized unit.
smaller, open-formation groups.
This is not to say the ruling Council al-
Each group has 8-12 male fighters of ways adopts a ‘hands-off’ or neutral posi-
2nd level, armed with +1 long daggers tion towards the Bazaar. Someone who
and short swords, and long, black breaks their rules, or sells things they
wooden staves with one end equipped don’t approve of (such as access to wor-
with a metal ball, that can do 1d6 + 1 ship services of deities other than Lloth,
damage, and the other fitted with a spells that purport to neutralize House de-
snag-hook, for catching fleeing thieves. fense glyphs, or female drow slaves guar-
anteed to be former priestesses of Lloth)
They are led by an instructor from will soon meet with an “accident” that de-
the Academy, typically a female F6/P6, stroys their stall, typically with them in it.
armed with a +4 or better adamantine Then whispers will begin, started by
(the most durable adamantite alloy is priestesses, that the displeasure of Lloth
called “adamantine”) mace and a hand was involved, and others should take
crossbow (60-yard range, 22 darts car- heed.
ried, each doing 1-3 hp damage, plus
save vs. poison at -4, or sleep for 2d4 Meddling occasionally takes a more
hours; the poison is a mixture that af- heavy-handed form (yet always cloaked in
fects even drow immune to the usual the thin disguise of something accidental
spider venom darts are tipped with). or unintended, to avoid harming the Ba-
zaar’s popularity among visitors). At least
The warrior leader instructs at least one recent and very public spell-battle be-
one, and usually two, fighters to serve tween rival House wizards, which de-
as flanking guards to the priestess and stroyed many houses and shops adjacent
the mage on patrol: a female F7/P8, to The Bazaar area, is widely suspected to
armed with her spells, a mace, and a have been deliberately arranged by the
wand of viscid globs (detailed in Drow Matrons of the two Houses involved, to
of the Underdark), who also carries 1d4 clear more space for The Bazaar.
healing potions; and a male F3/W3,
armed with his spells, a sleep-poisoned Merchants always grumble about the
dagger, and a spider wand (also found meddling of the Council, but all of them
in FOR2). accept it as necessary—for one thing, if
the patrols did not exist, there would be
The priestess commands the patrol, more destructive behavior by Houses or
but wise priestesses follow the orders
of the Academy instructor (the warrior
leader), who among other things deliv-

47

individual nobles, just “throwing their Vhurn Bhaelyndryn’s Bestiary: This estab-
pride around”—and for another thing, the lishment is heavily-guarded (by a dozen
patrols (bolstered by occasional under- drow and gnoll overseers at a time, armed
cover surveillance by powerful Academy
wizards, who usually want to do a little with snatch-hooks, clubs, weighted
shopping themselves) were instituted to throwing-nets, and quarter staves). It pro-
curtail rampant thievery. vides pack lizards and riding lizard

Moreover, whenever Bazaar patrols be- mounts (see the Monsters chapter), and
come smaller or fewer, thievery and harnesses, goads, lead-lines, and carrying-
drunken brawling (with attendant vandal- frames for them.
ism) rise sharply, and merchants
complain—or resort to a tactic frowned on At least one of each sort of lizard are al-
by the Council: hiring ever-larger num- ways harnessed and ready. These cost
bers of guards (which the Council fears four times more than the rest of the ex-
could grow into private armies). pensive stock (three times if the buyer
throws trade-in mounts into the deal), but
Certain beings (such as beholders,
neogi, and githyanki) are not welcome in this fee includes immediate help from the
the Bazaar, and others are tolerated only overseers, in delaying pursuit, patrols,
when they keep a low profile, or appear in and other forces (short of angry high
small numbers (such as Zhentarim and priestesses) seeking to detain the pur-
mind flayers). Some beings are considered
just too powerful, too dangerous to the chaser and any companions from leaving
city if they prove treacherous or grow
enraged—or are mentally manipulated by the city.
the spells of a desperate or mischievous The fat, affable Vhurn (an old, scarred
drow mage.
drow warrior) also sells “Underdark
Two fixture Bazaar establishments of in- packs,” containing torches, ropes, grap-
terest to visitors are: nels, spikes and a mallet, a tinder box,

Daelein Shimmerdark’s Decanter: Named flasks of lamp oil in a metal carry-box, a
for its handsome, charming (smart- hooded signal-eye lamp, a probing pole
mouthed) young proprietor, this stall (10' pole with a reel on one end that re-
stocks rare and fine drinkables from the
Realms over—at prices only drow nobles leases a weight-tipped, marked plumb
(and desperate or homesick surface-world line—for measuring drops and chasms),
merchants) can afford. food, and a spare dagger, rock-hammer

Love- and sleeping-potions, and even liq- and prying-bar.
uid poisons, can also be had here, by those He also knows good places to buy other
who know just how to phrase their whis-
pers, and how much extra to offer. gear and weapons, and to deal in gems.
(Daelein also provides directions to those
wishing to sell stolen goods discreetly.)

48