Dragon Fear!

Morning light spilled across the city.

Another peaceful day began in Port Nyanzaru. People set about their work, and children's laughter drifted faintly through the streets.

Rainbird straightened his clothes, picked up his Scimitar, forged with a trace of Mithril, and headed for his post. He was a Half-Drow who had come to Port Nyanzaru some time ago. As a Drow Ranger, he had been among the first to follow the Master of Warriors here. People greeted him along the way, and he answered with a small smile and a nod. He had always hoped to change how people saw Drow. Elsewhere, they might still be hated, but Port Nyanzaru had accepted them.

There were few female Drow in Port Nyanzaru.

Those stubborn women still gathered around the Priest. After so many years of men being treated as inferior, they found it hard to accept the rising status of male Drow.

Thousands of years of tradition could not change overnight.

So those damned female Drow rejected Port Nyanzaru and shunned the male Drow whose standing kept growing.

Rainbird knew all this.

He knew why the High Priest had never been willing to fully side with Port Nyanzaru. When the Dark Maiden had fallen, she had died at her mother's hands, but something of her had remained.

Recently, the female Drow had made contact with the Underdark. They seemed to have gained some kind of support.

At least, the last time he had gone back, he had seen goods that could only have come from the Underdark.

Rainbird was a Half-Drow.

In fact.

Nearly all the Drow who lived in Port Nyanzaru and felt any real loyalty to it were Half-Drow. Many of those who stayed with the original community were purer-blooded Drow, along with the kin the women could influence.