Editing D1-2-3: Drow Trilogy (section)

===D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa===
''If'' the party pursues the drow directly the encounter-tables shift. Yes kuo-toa and (tertiary only) gnomes; no jermlaine or beholders or wererats or illithids. Reading between the lines, the DM may presume the secondary route from A<sup>2</sup>30 to be gnomish also.

First the party encounters at W27 a kuo-toan rogue monitor (thus introduced to D&D for the first time). He helps the PCs cross a large river "Svartjet" for a fee, assuming they have an interpreter or magical means of understanding his language, otherwise he beats their asses and summons a gigantic gar. A party of [[Svirfneblin]] (or deep gnomes - also new here) approaches the player characters on the other side, and the party has a chance to convince them to help them fight against the drow and kuo-toa in exchange for gems. As the party travels, signs of the drow are all around; the drow are allowed to pass through these subterranean areas, even though they are hated and feared by the other local intelligent races.

The party then moves through kuo-toa territory, or not, to the eponymous shrine ruled by the Priest-Prince Va-Guulgh. Although statted as neutral-chaotic evil, the fishmen behave more like neutrals although, yes, with a sliding scale of chaos. The party learns that the drow and kuo-toa trade with each other openly, but the kuo-toa hate and fear the drow, resulting in frequent skirmishes between the two peoples. If the PCs appease the kuo-toa and respect their customs, they are not openly hostile to the party. They will attack if... they go crazy (there's your chaos) or if the party gives them a reason, which may or may not include accidentally violating their weird customs with no owner's manual.

At least ''this'' map's exits correspond to those marked in the wider map of the Depths.

This whole module is, as noted, technically optional. ''Within'' this module, from W27, the party can get on the barge and head off to B<sup>2</sup>24 - which although a river-junction is ''not'' an encounter area - and to the Sunless Sea beyond. Based on the map, this text probably means to dock you at <u>E</u><sup>2</sup>24. Once there, um. I guess you go through that sixhexer J<sup>2</sup>K<sup>2</sup>-26-28, thence find your way to that aforementioned bypass. It doesn't look like Gygax thought much of this through himself.

Contains major write-ups for both [[svirfneblin]] and [[kuo-toa]], some of if not the first sources of extended information for these races.