The Tome Of Drow Lore.pdf - RoseRed

Ydrillia that dominates their society. It was because of
Ydrillia that Tathria Gaundroth broke away from House
Narrishtah and they believe it is she who has made them
so very adept in the arcane arts. Indeed, nearly a third of
all Lords and Ladies of the Veil (see page 151) can claim
House Gaundroth as their home House.
House Features:
� +1 bonus to caster level for all conjuration spells. This
does not grant the caster any additional spells; it merely
determines the properties of the spells he can cast.
� +2 bonus on all Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (the
planes) and Spellcraft skill checks.
� Gaundroth drow have focused all their attention on the
arcane arts, to the detriment of their combat abilities.
Unlike other elves, drow of House Gaundroth are not
automatically proficient with the hand crossbow, rapier
and short sword. To learn the use of these weapons, a
Gaundroth drow must either purchase the appropriate
feats or take a level in a class which grants knowledge
of their use.
House Skills: Decipher Script, Knowledge (arcana)
Favoured Class: Wizard
Predominant Alignment: Neutral evil
Predominant Religion: Ydrillia, She of the Veil
House Kolnahos
All but a very few drow practice slavery in some form or
fashion but for the drow of House Kolnahos, it is a way of
life. The dark elves of this House are the principal slavers
in the nations of the drow, buying, selling and trading
sentient beings in a longstanding business which has made
this House one of the richest among all the drow.
Background
House Kolnahos was all but destroyed in the Sundering.
Caught between the hosts of surface elves and the
rampaging legions of the shangu’s ogre servants, the drow
of House Kolnahos had no means of escape. The crush
of the two enemies threatened to overcome the dark elves
completely, shattering their ranks and casting the drow into
confusion and disarray. Their warriors, led by Carryzn
na’Baruss, mounted a desperate counterattack and cut their
way at great price through the enemy hordes, blazing a way
clear of certain death for the other drow of the House to
follow.
House Kolnahos finally won free and fled into the
Underdeep. Most of its rulers and nobles lay dead in the
caverns and catacombs behind them, as did its spellcasters,
craftsmen and the bulk of its warriors. What was left was
for the most part an untrained, unskilled and unequipped
rabble facing the unknown terrors of the Underdeep. The
great warrior Carryzn na’Baruss had been slain in the
Sundering, killed by the shangu, but her children survived,
a fact which would prove troublesome for House Kolnahos
in the future.
With bribes and offers of authority, the few remaining
rulers of House Kolnahos were able to secure the loyalty
of the warriors who were left in the House, fearful that
otherwise they would take advantage of the situation and
attempt to seize power themselves. Free for the moment
of the danger of betrayal from within, the rulers of House
Kolnahos led the rest of the drow through the winding ways
of the Underdeep. Unlike most of their kind scattered in
the Sundering, the rulers of House Kolnahos were not
interested in finding the other groups of their people. They
assumed that in their weakened state, other Houses of the
drow would see and seize the opportunity to eradicate
the rulers and assume control of the remainder of House
Kolnahos.
Therefore, the dark elves ventured ever further into the
Underdeep, seeking some place safe and secluded enough
for the House to begin to recuperate the terrible losses it
had suffered. Wandering lost down winding paths of old
lava tubes, the drow came abruptly to what seemed like a
bottomless pit, a cleft in the earth as though the stone had
been struck by an enormous axe. The cleft itself was some
30 feet across, an opening in the cliff face marking where
the lava tubes they had been following continued. The drow
could see that the cliffs on either side were pockmarked
with deep caves and finally decided they had found their
new home.
Years of privation and desperation followed, as the dark
elves huddled in the rude caves of the cliffside eking out
a scant existence on wild fungus and a few streams of
sulphur-heavy water. The concept of family was all but
forgotten for most of the drow, as the rulers of the House
forced upon their subjects an aggressive breeding campaign
to replenish the numbers lost in the Sundering. Enforced
by the warriors loyal to House Kolnahos, this campaign
involved pairing up the drow believed to be most fertile. If
no child resulted from the efforts, the pair were split apart
and each paired with a new drow in hopes of achieving
better results.
The progress was slow, but eventually the numbers of
House Kolnahos began to climb. The drow had been
fortunate to choose a portion of the Underdeep that was
all but uninhabited to build their city and many years of
comparative peace came and went, as the dark elves
gradually rebuilt their strength. As their strength grew so
too did that of the cliff city, which the drow had named
Klat’huan.
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