16 Marpenoth, 1371

Dear Master Zorthaster,

After a long and exhausting day, we have left the drow behind us, at least for now, and are enjoying the relative safety and quiet of Daggerfalls. We ran from a host of drow stirred from the depths of the Dordrien Crypts. We have given the hornets' nest a swift kick and they have come swarming out from their lair. I pray that we have not brought terror and death upon more innocent settlers of the dale.

After our last brief respite and the encounter with the terrible shapeshifting ghoul I wrote about earlier, we encountered more drow. Before we discovered the drow sentries that waited for us though, we had to battle a huge wraith spider that the sentries sent after us. Xan downed it quickly, but not before one sentry ran to alert his dark brethren. The other waited a moment longer and died before he could escape. In a frantic, doomed chase we followed after the other drow, only to stumble through a steeply descending tunnel that led to a well guarded outpost with more drow guards. One was a Quth-Maren, a creature who looked like a drow that had been flayed alive and who dripped acid with its every movement. There was another, smaller wraith spider and more drow fighters and spellcasters.

We had a terrible battle with these guards where I was afraid we were going to lose Shane. The halfling held his own against the drow and Quth-Maren however and as I was able to disintegrate the spider, so the battle did not go as badly as it might have. There was a bad spot when a fearsome drow warrior, adorned with spiky armor and razor edged shields appeared to oppose us. He was nearly impossible to hit. He was even able to slice arrows out of the air just at the instant that we were sure our archer was going to put an end to him.

I had summoned a pair of hound archons, hoping they would be able to run down the fast-moving sentry before he alerted additional guard posts along the corridor. They did battle briefly with the Mithril Carapace Master and his razor shields until I sent them in pursuit of the sentry. I feel terrible, but I sent them into a hopeless situation. They were doomed almost immediately. Just out of my range of vision, the darkness concealed a huge chasm. It was lined with an enormous wall of webbing that the celestials attempted to descend this giant web in their pursuit of the sentry. It was, however, too late. The sentry had already alerted dozens of drow warriors. Thay sent a hail of arrows into the archons. Even with the powerful protections they enjoyed, the hound archons were overwhelmed with arrow fire and drow sleep poison. In a matter a a few breaths, they both had plummeted from the webbing to their destruction.

We continued to fight the carapace master and the remaining guards. One was stunned and captured by the halfling. We finished the others with some difficulty and quickly explored the limits of the chamber in which we discovered the guards. The chasm was an imposing obstacle. We retreated from the edge when arrows continued to sail towards our position. A couple of our party bent to recovering gear and treasure from the dead drow.

I fear I earned the displeasure of Oskar when I suggested that we might follow suit and loot the bodies. I still feel the pain from the look of disappointment that the paladin gave me. He turned away without a word and went to guard our retreat. I followed, taking the form of a powerful, winged celestial with the aid of a polymorph self spell. I carried the prisoner but did not loot any of the dead. I couldn't look Oskar in the eye for my shame in disappointing him.

The others, still below in the guard room, discovered that a wave of drow had climbed the webbing and were bent upon smashing the invaders of their realm. The drow reinforcements met a blade barrier summoned by Correllon's power through Primula. This covered the retreat of our comrades. I plugged the tunnel behind us with a wall of force as soon as the others caught up. Briefly we discussed options. I had a rope trick prepared and was ready to use it, but because we had the prisoner and the body of the carapace master, I was certain I would not be able to pull up the rope and close the entrance of the rope trick. There were just too many bodies to squeeze into the small space. That trick would not allow us to hide out and escape notice. Our only viable option, if we wanted to keep the drow prisoner and corpsse, was to leave the crypts and head back for Shadowhold.

We left the crypts without difficulty, but it was not long into our flight that Xan, watching our backtrail, alerted us to the fact that we were being hunted. The drow had made it through the obstacles we had left in their way. They were now on the hunt for the intruders that dared insult them in their own lair. We decided that even Shadowhold would not give us much refuge from them if they were swarming out of the deeps in large numbers. Instead of making a stand there, we decided to continue our flight. Xan left a number of false trails as we made our way back to Shadowhold. There we collected our mounts and lead them into the lower levels of the hold. Again false trails were laid. Kerith passed out little musical instruments, the kind he loves to give away to flocks of children, and we used the gate to Sigil which is activated by a musical instrument.

The other side of the gate brought us to the second floor balcony of a restaurant in the Clerk's Ward. We gave the indignant owner of the place a princely tip and he welcomed us to use the gate anytime we wanted. What we really wanted was to return safely to Daggerfalls so we made a quick trip to the gate that led to the Tooka's shop. Oskar carries a small jar with him so getting through that gate was an easy task. After a payment to the Tooka for his troubles, we were back in Daggerfalls in time for Kerith to keep his appointment with Lord Morn.

We told Lord Morn everything we could about the results of our explorations so far. We tried especially to relay the concerns we had about the fact that there was such a strong force of dark elves so close to the surface. When I sent the hound archons off in pursuit of the missing sentry, I was making the assumption that large numbers of drow would be miles from the surface world. Instead they found something more terrible than I could have imagined. Tomorrow we hope to question both the prisoner and the spirit of the dead carapace master to get answers to our most burning questions. Lord Morn told us to never for a moment forget that the drow from the House Morcane of the City of Maerimydra built the Tower of Ashaba in Shadowdale long ago. We made our case to him to allow us to rebuild Shadowhold as our stronghold and provide it as a place of refuge for dale folk and as a place to garrison troops. He did not give us as clear an answer as I would have wished, but he did not say that we could not claim the site as our base of operations.

We left our audience with the Lord of Daggerdale with his warning to not underestimate the danger posed by the dark elves. The drow may no longer be content to leave what they believe are their rightful lands on the surface world in the possession of the humans and elves that drove them away. Perhaps the raids are not simple raids for slaves and trade goods. Perhaps the drow are planning to come back to stay.

Your faithful student,

Cedar