Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

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