Eldritch Creature's Guide

Somewhere on the 3rd Floor, deep within the forests, in one unassuming cave.

The forests of the 3rd Floor were enormous, filled with huge trees, reaching even several tens of meters, filled with various flora and fauna, as many species of the Magical Beasts were roaming around, hunting for the food or the pleasures of it.

From the outside appearance, the entire cave looked rather ordinary, just like tens or hundreds of them were across the entire 3rd Floor. It was even well hidden, to the point, that one would have the problem of noticing it naturally without the help of any magic or ability.

Though, when one entered inside, he would be shocked to see how the vast difference was inside.

Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Monstrous Spiders and their various subspecies, were running here and there through the vast corridors of the cave system, all leading to the small underground area.

The underground space was a small one, but it would be considered the size of the smaller nation in the Lower World. There were spider webs all around the cave, as Monstrous Spiders were preserving their prey in large cocoons created from their webs while they were hanging from the ceiling of the cave system.

Ettercaps were commanding the endless hordes of the Monstrous Spiders here and there on what to do, while some other Ettercaps were focusing on breeding more Monstrous Spiders. Because the Ettercaps were Monsters with the innate ability to control the Monstrous Spiders, they could effortlessly create huge numbers of them.

In the center of the underground space, there was a small castle fortified with huge thick walls and engraved with weird runes. On the top of the walls, there were dark-skinned elves wearing leather armor patrolling and carefully watching every move and everything that happened in the underground space.

The entire place was giving out a really menacing feeling of death, despair, and misery.

Floors, and in truth, they were the followers of the Drider, which was responsible for several Monster Waves of Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps on the Zephystrand Cities.

Naturally, these dark-skinned elves were Drows that somehow appeared on the 3rdIn the middle of the castle, in the throne room, there was an enormous Drider listening to the reports of his frightened Drow subordinates, from some of which were shaking in fear.

While some of them were already Bronze-Tiers, the Drider was already Level 50 Bronze-Tier and on the verge of reaching Silver-Tier, because his mana had already started the sublimation process towards the Silver-Tier.

The Drider itself was more than 5 meters high, with the lower body o spider, which was enormous, standing on its 8 legs menacingly, with his silver hair flowing down to his waist. On his face, his crazed expression was hardly concealed, as it was eating some meat, apparently someone who delivered some bad news to him.

"Drider Lord Ilztrar, I bring you the news about the latest orders from the Underdark."

Said one of the Drows, who was clothed more luxurious and even the Drider looked at the man warily because he was one of the Priests of the Lolth, the Spider Queen Goddes, and a very powerful God in the Drow God Pantheon.

Not to mention, he was already Silver-Tier, and currently, he acted as a messenger from the High Priesthood from the Underdark City, who was basically bringing him the orders on what to do and acted as some kind of brain behind the operation.

Ilztrar was one of the Drows who got turned into a Drider of his own volition because he wished for greater power by turning into this amalgamation of monstrosity between Drow and Monstrous Spider.
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He was rather famous even in the Underdark City because he was currently one of the few Drows who still lived to this day and who became Drider through his own choice. He was mad and insane even before he became a Drider.

Such people were pretty rare, considering the fact that turning into a Drider was a severe punishment, so when someone decided to become one of his own volition was exceedingly rare.

"Lanlaris Daragan has left the Zephystrand City, and by our scouts, the defenses around the city are getting a bit laxer due to not being attacked for the past half a year. The Clergy of the Underdark is, however, disturbed by the news of Cardinal from the Hall of Kadath visiting the Zephystrand."

Reported the messenger from the Underdark, while the Drider Ilztrar frowned hearing this because this could complicate his own plans and mission to capture Silvermoon Princess.

"Are you aware of the reason why?"

He asked carefully while taking a bite from the leg of unfortunate Drow, which angered him this morning. Cannibalism among Drows wasn't something unusual, and to Driders, their former comrades were nothing more than just high-class food.

"Not really, but there are rumors that her visit has something to do with an unknown man, who is constantly spending time with Crown Princess of the Silvermoon."

Stated the messenger indifferently to the Drider Ilztrar.

"But that is not important for now... your orders are still the same, to capture the Silvermoon Crown Princess and bring her to the Underdark City. The sacrifice for the Spider Queen Goddess is coming, and we cannot afford to cause her displeasure."

Frowned the messenger, as he, in the end, decided to proceed with the current course of action.

"I have everything prepared, and with our current power, we should be able to breach the walls of the Zephystrand and, amidst the chaos, capture the Crown Princess and deliver her to the teleportation formation. All to the Glory of the Spider Queen Goddess."

Answered the Drider Ilztrar fanatically.

Usually, Driders were the most loyal and fanatical followers of the Spider Goddess Lolth. This made them extremely dangerous foes because the enemy who has nothing to lose is the most dangerous one.

And Driders often had nothing to lose. Many of them were just tortured and cursed creatures, punished by their Goddess for failing her because Lolth never tolerated any kind of failure.

'I should leave this place as soon as possible before this gets messy... only madman like Ilztrar would undertake a suicide mission like this.'

These were the thoughts of the messenger from the Underdark City, which was one of the stronger 13 Gates, and the main rival and mortal enemy of the Nesser Dynasty. This enmity stemmed from the entity between the Seldarine Pantheon, the so-called Elven Gods, and Dark Seldarine Pantheon, the so-called Drow Gods.

In truth, there was one hidden reason why Spider Goddess Lolth kept creating Driders from her followers and turning Drows into these monstrosities between Spider and Drow.

The reason was... drows or driders like Ilztrar.
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Driders were fanatically loyal to the Spider Goddess because, during their transformation, their whole minds were transformed to be loyal to the Spider Goddess. It was essentially like stripping them of their free will.

And due to this, they would undertake missions like this one.

Even the messenger from the Underdark City thought that this mission was a failure from the start, and even he, who was already at the Silver-Tier, wouldn't dare to carry it out.

There was only a sliver chance for success, and failing would mean death or fate far worse than that. Especially now when he noticed the presence of the Hall of Kadath. Normally the Hall of Kadath had rather a neutral relationship with the Underdark, which was for the best because if they turned out to be their enemies, then the situation would be pretty problematic.

But for the Drider Ilztrar, it didn't matter because the only thing that mattered was the mission from his Goddess.

For the Underdark City as a whole, while it would be a boon if they managed to succeed, it was also inconsequential in the long run because their goal, in truth, was to grasp the development of new magic weapons which were deployed around the Zephystrand and develop counter-measures against them en masse.

While capturing the Crown Princess of the Nesser Dynasty and making her living sacrifice for the Spider Goddess sounded good, not even the High Priests of the Lolth thought one single Drider could achieve it.

The collaboration of the Nesser Dynasty and a few of the Forge Cities was greatly troubling for the Underdark City because, from this collaboration, a whole new generation of Mana Weapons was being born right now.

Weapons that would be sooner or later being deployed against the forces of the Underdark, and right now, Nesser Dynasty was testing a few of such weapons on the 3rd Floor.

Thus the High Priests of the Underdark decided to send a few tens of thousands of Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps to test out the waters, to see how powerful these weapons were and see their limits.

Of course, all of this was left to the command of Drider while the High Priests just fed him with the vision of a grand mission. And, of course, the Drider jumped on it without any hesitation, prepared to carry out this suicide task without any second thoughts.

After that, the Drider Lord Ilztrar dispersed the meeting, and the messenger from the Underdark returned to his own little chapel in the castle as he contacted his superiors in the Underdark City.

"How is the situation there?"

Asked a cold female voice as the call was connected to the Underdark City, which was located on the 89th Floor of the Tower.

"That idiot is still going to attack the Zephystrand and trying to capture the Crown Princess... impossible to achieve, but our mission in gathering the date on all weaponry will be successful. Though..."

He stopped in his tracks as the Drow Matriarch was getting impatient; thus, he quickly continued his report.

"We have noticed someone from the Hall of Kadath near the Crown Princess, and there is also the daughter of the Cardinal Zaldidraax right now in the Zephystrand. From what our scouts noticed about the man, he seems to be her superior, and outside of sparring with Silvermoon Princess and praying on his balcony, he is not leaving the Citadel."

Reported the Drow Messenger nervously, fearing the angry Drow Matriarch. In the Drow Society, women had a much higher social standing than men, and thus it became a Matriarchal-oriented society.

After giving some further instruction to the Drow Messenger, the Drow Matriarch ended the call as she had more important things to attend to, aside from instructing a bunch of mortals on something as meaningless for them as this.

While from the point of view of many Matriarch, obtaining the information about the new generation of the Magetech Weaponry was rather useless, some other leaders in the Underdark thought that this information could be very well sold to some enemies of the Dwarven Coalition.