The tale of the Decadent Drow As recalled by Kainth Iltazyara to Egon the Balladeer.

Chapter One

As well the citizens of Sanctuary know, the Underdark is a perilous place, full of aberrations, vermin and Drow raiders. Even a simple trouble may lead to great adventure, or great peril. In the case of the Decadent Drow, this simple trouble was a shipment of fruit...

The merchant and brewer, Mord Koyeske, had of late lost a valuable shipment of surface fruit to vicious Droven pirates. This was no simple produce, but a rare and expensive sort of fig with renowned magical properties, and was valuable indeed. To retrieve his costly cargo, Mord put out a call for folk willing to reclaim his wares from the brigands, and four did answer. Three Tymorans; the shaman Atlene Fortescue, the brave Luciano Royle, and the cunning gnome Budoc Knackleclock. With them, the warrior Kainth, man of the wild and master of the axe.

Together this band tracked the raiders to their likely lair, an old surface temple to Auril now fallen to the Underdark, burrowed down through the cracks in the earth and lost below. The heroes found this temple to house an ancient crypt, with all within frozen into solidity, and the floor so chilling as to burn the feet of those who walked upon it. Glad, they were to leave this frozen place, as they passed to the next chamber and saw the crates of stolen fruit stacked within.

Their relief turned to bitter shock as a legion of Drow spirits rose up to repel them from the temple! The heroes fought these abomination with spell and blade, and defeating them, turned to the crates. Their fight was not at an end, however, as no sooner had they seized one crate than they were confronted by two of the drow pirates, and their leader, Juggrah the Tall, a giant of an elf, 7 feet tall with a double sword in in his hands. The three were the last survivors of the rebel Drow House Noctuviir, and in their desperation had sunk lower than even most of that kind, turning to piracy and the dark power of necromancy.

The four adventurers charged the massive Drow, fighting with great skill and fury, but they were repelled by his powerful strikes, and were forced to retreat with the single crate they had managed to seize. They had not given up yet, however, and swore to track down the rest of the cargo and defeat Juggrah should they cross paths again.

Chapter Two

With the first part of his cargo back in his rightful possession, Mord was somewhat relieved, but it irked him that the pirates remained free with the remainder. He performed a scrying to determine the location of the rest of his lost goods, and found them to be in an abandoned Drow fort on an island in the Dark Lake.

The four heroes set out once more, chartering a vessel to take them to the island. The crew, however, were merchants and no fighters, and warned they would leave if the ship was threatened.

Their ship arrived to the sounds of combat, and upon disembarking, the adventurers spied the drow pirates fighting among themselves. They waited til the end of the battle to reveal themselves, after Juggrah slew two of his crew for questioning his orders.

They offered him a simple choice. Surrender the stolen goods, or be cut down. The pirate chose another option. He snatched up his gold and fled, heading for his own ship. Our four pursued, weapons drawn, and trapped him before he could escape. Backed into a corner, surrounded by bones and bodies littering the area, the droven captain fought desperately, but to no avail. He was outnumbered and outmatched, and the brave team brought him down.

With Juggrah slain, the heroes searched his camp for the stolen goods, and discovered the crates stacked near an old shrine. However, the pirate crew were not all dead or flown, and one of their mages attacked from behind as the party was distracted. Summoning dark spirits and great lizards, blasting with lightning and fire, the mage was a deadly storm of arcane power, but for all that, he could not resist the adventurers' own strengths, and died cleaved apart by a mighty sweep of Kainth's axe.

Their goal located, the party could have withdrawn victorious, but as they turned to lift up the crates, the saw a ghostly barbarian shimmer into visibility and beckon to them...

Chapter Three

The ghostly figure claimed that he was an agent of a Drow Lich, and had merely taken the form of a barbarian for the ease of communicating with group. He informed the adventurers that to reach his masters, they would need to pass three challenges of both body and mind.

The spirit led them to a room full of traps, and asked them a riddle, to which the answer was "the stars of the surface". Sadly, Kainth could not recall the riddle, as it was some time after that I interviewed him. As the party spoke the answer, the traps disarmed, allowing them to pass.

The second challenge lay in the next room ahead. The shade locked the door, and spoke once more, with a challenge: "The true inhabitants of this domain will come forth and test your resolve in battle". At these words, five great mummy lords rose from their sarcophagi and lurched to the attack. The heroes' weapons could barely scratch their unnatural hardiness, but when they though to try burning the foul things with enflamed weapons, they bit in to the undead rags, smashing them to dust after a long and near-fatal fight.

With the undead's defeat, the spirit reappeared and spoke of the beauty of the battle, then warned the mummies would rise once more if the warriors gave a wrong answer to his next conundrum.

"Once belonging to a great warrior. My scream symbolizes the beginning of wars. I can bring courage to your men and cowardice to the hearts of enemies." This was the riddle the ghost spoke. The answer is left for you to figure out, reader, and is revealed at the end of this text. One of the adventurers spoke this answer, and the spirit led them out to their final challenge.

This last room housed three giant statues of three Guardians THe spirit ordered them to determine which which one was "The true Guardian of Decadence". If they chose correctly they could pass, if not, all three would animate and attack.

Questioning the motionless forms, the party found only one could be the Guardian. They were correct, but as two statues crumbled to dust, the last one transformed into an undead guardian and attacked with great curses and evocations!

The staue flung mighty and deadly spells, summoned wall of blades from ground and struck at the brave fighters, but they were not deterred or separated, and defeated the rotting construct after a long and wearying battle. As it fell to the ground, dead once more, the ghostly guide opened the door to the necromantic Brothers of Decadence.

Chapter Four

Mindful of what these brothers could be, but determined to see their quest to completion, the party entered the lair of the two droven liches, the Brothers of Decadence.

The disgusting creatures had dressed and prettified three of their undead slaves, and were holding a twisted "beauty" contest between them. The liches invited the four adventurers in, and spoke of the great achievement of reaching them in their bastion. The rotting drow then asked the group to rate the beauty of their undead courtesans. Some of the warriors, afraid, chose one of the undead as victor.

On hearing this choice, one of the liches became at his trumph in winning the contest yet again. His brother disagreed, as the two argued, eventually coming to blows. The heroes looked on, unsure whether to attack as they were tired and worn down from their tribulations in the challenges. After the brawl had gone on for some time, the younger turned away in disgrace and vanished.

The greater lich then turned to the party and announced that he grew bored with their presence and it was time for their death to come. The lich then assaulted the party with curse, words of death, and powerful dark magic.

The lich however failed to slay his opponents, as the four fighters used powerful healing magic to spurn his attacks, finally beating the abomination down, broken and injured, but not dead. To kill such a horror, its phylactery, the item holding its soul, must be annihilated, or it will surely return. The younger, lich, however, did them a favour, wrecking his kin's phylactery in a fit of spite.

The party then pursued the younger, fighting off he hordes of undead swarming them as they chased it. With it at last cornered, they attacked, barely emerging victorious against its deathly gaze and magical strikes.

As the lich lay crippled and nearly banished, it attacked the catacomb's structure to collapse the roof on its attackers. The warriors ran for their lives ahead of a torrent of falling boulders. As they reached the surface, entrance collapse, sealing off the crypt. With a sigh of relief, the adventurers hauled the stolen figs on to their vessel and headed to Sanctuary. They had one last fight to contend with though, as a drow pirate frigate attempted to raid them as they headed back, but a barrage of thrown exposives damaged it enough to allow escape.

Finally, exhausted, beaten, but with a hold of liberated cargo, they pulled up to the gangplank of the Canal ward to the admiration of their employer, Mord.

Thus ends the tale of the Decadent Drow, and the heroes who slew them, and with it, I reveal the answer to the earlier riddle. It is "A horn".