Nastya was fast, incredibly fast. With her white hair and pale skin, she raced through the night like a Duergar's silver bullet. After collecting a horse at the agreed location, she did not stop for a moment, crossing Cormyr's mountains and forests to reach a secret location in the northern Stormhorn Mountains at tremendous speed.
It was a completely abandoned Elven Ruin, once a palace of the ancient Elven Empire, built high in the mountains far from Arabel. The structure was magnificent and ancient, but its outer palace buildings had long since collapsed. All that remained were narrow corridors, passages, and caves within the mountain.
Over Cormyr's long history, tens of thousands of adventurers had visited these Elven Ruins countless times. Centuries ago, everyone had already agreed that every brick, every stone pillar, and every wall had been searched. No adventurer was foolish enough to try their luck here anymore.
Nastya entered the Elven Ruins. She hurried through corridor after corridor and long, narrow tunnels before finally reaching House Baenre's temporary base in Cormyr.
Tapestries more than a thousand years old hung on the walls, woven entirely from magic. They depicted Drow Matron Mothers who had died thousands of years earlier, yet their descendants still passed through the corridors with fear and reverence.
In Drow culture, every matron mother's rise to power was a bloody tale of political intrigue. Spider Queen Lolth encouraged cruelty, fear, and hedonism. Revenge and betrayal were both acts worthy of her praise.
But unlike the Orks, who spent their days in chaotic battle royales and treated slaughter as a game, the Drow usually committed their murders and cruelties in secret. On the surface, they maintained a set of rules and an orderly society. A murder in a private bathroom might earn praise for its ingenious