Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

(Nancy Kaufman) #1

52


as long as they never had to
lay eyes on the d row or view

the results
of thei r efforts.

But
drow society is predicated on a foundation
ofter-

ror
and slavery, and the most desirable slav
es live on the

world's surface: humans
, dwarves, and best of all, other

elves. To the dark elves,
raiding the surface for captives

and treasure isn't
just a cultura l and military tradition,

but also an economic necessity.

Some raids are major operations
that involve hun-

dreds of warrior
s, mages, priestesses, a nd giant spiders,

a large enough
force to overwhelm a community. The

invaders would
sweep through the town in the dark of

night, shackle
the best potential s laves into long trains

of chattel, kill everyone who r
esisted, burn everything to

the ground, and set their sights
on the next town in line.

Most of the dark elves' raids
, however, a re small,

s tealthy,
one-night missions. The drow scout their
tar-

gets
in advance, then s trike on a night when
the moon is

new or its light is obscur
ed by thick clouds. They might

kill indiscriminately to
spread terror, while at other

times they s lip into
a village, knock out their targets with

poison, and spirit
their captives away without even wak-

ing the neighborhood dogs. Sometimes
a raid uses both

tactics; one squad sets fires or sets off
alarms to focus

the defenders'
attention on one area, as another team

strikes at the
real target on the other s ide of town.

Loot is a
secondary goal on almost all raids; taking

prisoners is the primary objective.
Some of the dark

e lves' victims become slaves,
some end up as food for gi-

ant spiders or other monsters
that the drow have trained

CH1\PTER 2 I ELVES

to serve
them, and some are la id out across blood





stained altars and sacrifi
ced to Lolth.

The drow know how
vulnerable they are during day-

light, so they typically
plan raids that can be executed

within the span of a single night. As a rule
, that means

their target must be no more than a few
hours' march-

eight to twelve miles is typical- from
a n entrance to the

Underdark. Ideally,
they'll have more than one return

path mapped out;
if an escape route is blocked, they can

switch to another
and get safely home.

Once the
raiders get inside their escape tunnel, they'
re

usually safe. Opposing forces se
ldom pursue the drow

below ground for good reason


  • beyond the light lies


unmapped enemy territory wher
e everything they meet

is likely
to be hostile. In special circumstances,
such as

if one
of the raiders' captives is a royal heir or
the scion

of a wealthy family, advent
ure rs might be hired to mount

a rescue mission. Otherwis
e, it's rare for any rescuers

to follow the kidnappers'
trail deep into the deadly dark-

ness without becoming victims themselves.

SLAVES AND
STATUS

The drow are
known and feared throughout the world

for their practice
o f slavery, but those who have vis ited

their cities report that slaves ar
e n't as prevalent as the

dark elves' re putation would sugges
t. In general, only

powerful houses hold significant
numbers of slaves, and

the s laves
of a house are never more numerous
than its

population
of drow.

Sla
ves are often kept as signs of status as
much as for

their intrinsic worth as
laborers. When they are put to

work, they a re also put
on display, doing jobs that e nable
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