Produktbeschreibung
The drow are evil. Sundered from their surface brethren for sins against the world, the drow have nurtured their hatred for centuries, developing new and more exotic types of evil. From their horrific ovarisites used in the gestation of their children to the arachnurgical rites used in their brands of despicable magic to the dark secrets of fleshcrafting, the drow have created evil all their own. Lurking below the surface, they brood over the fates of their enemies while formulating new types of magic and developing new martial skills. Ancient, decadent, and thoroughly vile, the drow are the ultimate enemy of any who earn their ire.
This volume in the Quintessential series presents the drow in all their hellish glory, revealing for the first time their practices from birth to death and beyond. Contained within these pages you will find the secrets of the drow, enabling Games Masters to create dark elf villains or players to design the drow characters of their darkest dreams.
Chapter 1: Character Concepts, offers many options for a drow character’s background. From the alchemically born drow created by parents obsessed with a particular type of child to the sac child raised by the demonic ovarisites, you will find many different character types here for use in your game.
Chapter 2: The Prestige Drow details a number of prestige classes available only to drow, each specializing in their own style of evil and gifted with different aspects of drow culture. The spider handler, for example, is a master at raising and training spiders for use in arachnurgy while the tithe taker is skilled at taking prisoners and the use of nonlethal means to subdue foes, capturing them for later use by drow fleshcrafters.
Tricks of the Trade, the third chapter, explores torture, the drow use of slaves in combat situations, and other practices of dark elf society. Herein, you will find the ways in which the drow use their social skills to attack one another, positioning themselves for the Game of Bones, as well as a look at the innovative and dangerous uses the drow find for even mundane skills.
The fourth chapter, Drow Feats, reveals the feats necessary to capture the feel of drow society. From social and resource-related feats designed to simulate the nobility of the drow to arcane feats for practicing drow magic to the feats that mimic drow martial arts, you will find a horde of drow feats for use in your campaign.
Chapters 5 and 6 cover the drow magical arts of fleshcrafting and arachnurgy, two unique arcane arts practiced by the drow. The first is used by the drow to create slaves that perfectly fulfil their required function while the second transforms even a common house spider into an instrument of divine wrath.
The Fatespinner and Grave Bonding chapters (7 and 8, respectively) delve into drow religion. The Fatespinnner is the chief drow goddess, a spiderish deity renowned for her intricate plans and alien cruelty, who is attended by a host of drow deities. Grave bonding is a form of divine magic in which the drow trades his life essence for a greater connection to his gods, blurring the lines between life and death.
Lastly, chapters 9 and 10 cover the Game of Bones and the woven lairs of the drow. The Game of Bones, an ancient and chaotic game of noble scheming, assassination, and outright murder, is played by all drow nobles as they strive for position and favour within their great cities, which are constructed from woven webs and crafted flesh. Using the rules in this chapter, players will be able to take part in the Game of Bones themselves and, if they are skilled and lucky, to build their own woven lairs to defend themselves from their enemies.
With the information provided in this book, Games Masters and players alike will be given the knowledge they need to bring the drow fully into their campaign, as enemies or protagonists. Be warned, however, that these dark elves are indeed dark – you will not find any stoic heroes or hidden saints, but rather dark creatures determined to survive and succeed, no matter the cost to themselves or others. |
