Nearly 30 years ago, the goddess Lolth set into motion a plan to indirectly control parts of the surface world through the Giants. The plan failed, largely due to a band of brave adventurers who defeated the Giants. Somehow, the adventurers managed to track the source of the plot back to the Drow, and followed them to the Vault of Erelhei-Cinlu.
Eclavdra was the 'somehow'. Lolth was overextending herself, and Eclavdra saw an opportunity to topple her, and put her own darling Graz'zt over the Drow. She led the adventurers right into Erelhei-Cinlu, and gave them just enough information to get them to the Demonweb Pits.
The adventurers came back to the surface once, spent a couple of days recuperating and buying huge amounts of supplies, and disappeared forever. They left behind fantastic stories of Dark Elves and underground cities, and a bar tab that was almost as amazing.
The adventurers nearly slew the spider-queen, but ultimately failed. When Lolth was weakened (but not defeated), Eclavdra struck. She lashed out at the other Noble Houses through assassination, intrigue, and deception. Although outnumbered, Lolth could not grant spells to her clergy, and Eclavdra had been planning this for a long time... War consumed the ancient city of Erelhei-Cinlu for an entire year, initially waged with spell and steel, but finally with disease and hunger as the limited resources were outstripped.
When it looked as if Eclavdra would finally succeed, a minor Noble House struck a deal with the hated Illithids. The cost was dear, but Eclavdra and almost all of her daughters were slain. A few refugees collapsed their rescue tunnels behind them and fled to the northwestern Hellfurnaces, and Liitherazatheron, the self-exiled (and only surviving) daughter of Eclavdra. Liith had no taste for the politics and power plays of the underground city, and set off on her own to live in exile. Eclavdra allowed her to leave only because of a blood oath, and the obvious need for a bolt-hole.
Far from the oppressive and dangerous atmosphere of the Vault, Liith could conduct her experiments in vivisection and biology in relative peace. When the refugees brought her the news, she took it hard. Never would her mother see the value of her work, and never would she have a moment's rest, so long as that blood flowed in her veins. She renamed the house from Eilserv to Morgath ("Vengeance"), and began to put her training to work.
Among her most potent creations were the Dark Goblins, a mixing of Drow blood with Goblinoid. They bred fast and the human-sized ones (hobgoblins) took to iron discipline very well. Her own daughter, Alairianemezon, she put to work in another field. Under the tutelage of an ancient Suel vampire, Alairia studied hard at her Necromancy.
The legions of Dark Goblins, or Dargob as they call themselves, began to grow. Liith's plan is to use them and Alairia's undead to take back Erelhei-Cinlu and destroy those hated brain-suckers. But first they need some more land...
I used this to re-introduce the Drow to my version of GH. They needed more resources to feed their army, and felt that a sudden strike against the Yeomanry, followed by terms dictated from a position of strength, would allow them to take what they needed. Of course, they never counted on the inherent stubbornness or patriotism of the average Yeoman, nor the capabilities of those meddling adventurers...
Well, you had me until the thirty syllable names :P
Seriously, its a pretty good reconciliation of the storyline conflicts between the G-D series and the Q ending tacked on to it. As well as the further problems added by the supermodule.
As far as the new stuff goes, I think she'd need a pretty big army of these goblins to conquer the Yeomanry, which is a pretty militant country with a lot of recent war experience. I'm not overly found of yet more subraces, but there's no reason why they shouldn't work for you.
I think if the idea is to get the PCs to start exploring the mountains and the passages beneath them, its a good basis for that. As a credible threat of conquest, I'd be more leery of thinking such an army could be built up by Liith in the situation described.
Be interesting to see how that converges with the opening of Slerotin's tunnel and the access to the Underdark that provides. Its already drawing the eyes of heroes, fortuneseekers, and the yeoman leadership towards the mountains and the threats therein.
Well, the renegade House Morgath didn't get too big of an army before needing food and other resources, so they headed for flatter areas. Maybe 500 or so living... twice that in undead. A better location description would be in the Hellfurnaces, due south from the geographic center of the Yeomanry.
(BTW, I did get the Eclavdra-instigator thing from MerricB, here on Canonfire. Credit where it's due.)
The plan wasn't so much to take the Yeomanry, but to strike hard and negotiate for a settlement, perhaps for a few dozen square miles... These are, after all, very inexperienced Drow, and they have no idea how the Yeomanry works; they had expected to slaughter some unarmed subjects, and hold the land they took, negotiating from a position of strength. In addition to their ignorance, I ran them as if they were very arrogant and immature. The players had great fun figuring that out.
For what it's worth, the PCs slowly discovered the imminent attack and thwarted it by forcing it to go off prematurely. The goblinoid army wasn't fully gathered, and attacked an armed and prepared enemy in smaller waves than they should have, while the PCs ambushed the leaders. It ended with a climactic battle on a bluff overlooking the battle. One PC bullrushed Alairia off the bluff, and she got KO'd on the way down. The vampire ran to her and picked her up, giving her his blood to keep her from dying (I basically allowed him to give her his Fast Healing). The PCs ran after, but he turned into a Dire Wolf, and she rode him into the night.
So she goes home a Vampire... That's gotta make for some interesting dinner conversation.
Hehe. That sounds pretty amusing. Flawed villians with bizarro plans are always fun. I had some wererats with a master plan to take over various cities along the Javan river (Flen and Cryllor, mainly). The players were rather confused because the plan seemed completely unworkable to them (which it was), so they were in constant dread of some element they were overlooking....
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